IVF is already riddled with moral conundrums, not the least of which is the “selective reduction” abortions that often follow an overly successful IVF procedure (where a woman aborts one or more of multiple babies she has unwittingly conceived). There is also the problem of fertilized human zygotes (aka little humans) who are not selected for implantation being simply discarded without a second thought as to their intrinsic value as humans.

It comes as little surprise, for a procedure that is wont to constantly and consistently put the desires and preferences of parents before the humanity of their children, that the newest contribution to IVF science involves ravaging the bodies of murdered babies for their spoils.

That’s right, people: dead baby girls who have been the victims of abortion are now being utilized for their eggs….

~ Lauren Enriquez, Live Action News, April 2

This is not a new idea. According to a 1994 New York Times article discussing ovary/egg transplant from aborted children, “A 10-week-old female fetus has already made all its eggs, about six million to seven million.”

[Image of 10 week fetus via ehd.org]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• At National Review, Michael J. New gives his take on why the pro-life movement will continue to struggle against abortion in a sex-saturated culture, and how he believes abortion and same-sex marriage are related.

• Alabama legislators have passed new abortion clinic regulations:
  

  The [Women’s Health and Safety Act] requires abortion clinics to use doctors who have approval to admit patients to hospitals in the same city. Some clinics now use doctors from other cities that don’t have local hospital privileges. A similar law in Mississippi is threatening to close that state’s only abortion clinic, which is challenging the law in court.

  The bill also sets stricter building requirements, including wider halls and doors and better fire suppression systems. The state Department of Public Health, which regulates Alabama’s five abortion clinics, reports that most will not meet the stricter standards.

• Yesterday at the Kermit Gosnell murder trial, Dr. Karen Feisullin (pictured left) testified regarding Gosnell’s abortion practice, noting that his ultrasound machine was ancient:
  

  Feisullin… [testified] that: There was no medical reason for Gosnell’s practice of cutting and storing the feet from aborted fetuses.

  Late-term abortions – those close to the 24-week gestational age after which abortion is illegal in Pennsylvania – are rare in her experience and, in those cases, the fetus is injected with potassium chloride to stop the heart before the procedure begins.

  Babies are almost never born alive in late-term abortions and, when they are, they are provided “comfort care” until they die. Feisullin said she never heard of any other physician snipping with scissors the spinal cords of babies born alive and viable….

  The defense lawyer then walked back to the table and his client, but not before Feisullin asked: “Are we going to talk about how they’re all over 24 weeks?” McMahon told her she was not allowed to ask questions.

  A little background on Karen Feisullin – she’s an OB/GYN in the greater Philadelphia area who does two to four second trimester abortions per week and has written a couple of book chapters on contraception with Carolyn Westhoff, a well-known abortionist who was the recipient of an award given out by Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. Westhoff is also the senior medical adviser for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

• Operation Rescue has many more details from the Gosnell trial, where crime scene investigator John Taggart (pictured right) also spoke:
  

  Taggart testified that last Friday he returned to the clinic and retrieved one final item which was also in court.

  It was a large garbage disposal that was under the sink in the wash room that was between the O’Keefe and Monet abortion rooms where jars containing the severed feet sat on a shelf….

• In the New York Post, Michael Benjamin (a former legislator who was pro-choice) demolishes Governor Andrew Cuomo’s claim that the Reproductive Health Act would only codify Roe v. Wade by simply explaining what the bill would do:
  

  For starters, it would ban the prosecution of criminals who cause the death of an almost-born child. This has absolutely nothing to do with Roe or protecting women; so its inclusion is especially odd — if not wrong….

  Second, the bill removes age restrictions on abortion — removing parents’ ability to decide whether their children under the age of 16 has access to contraceptives and morning-after abortion pills….

  Third, the bill would let non-doctors perform abortions and make medical judgments about when a mother’s life might be in danger….

  Fourth, the bill removes accountability for doctors who perform an illegal procedure that leads to the death of a woman.

[Taggart photo via philly.com; Feisullin photo via vitals.com]

by Hans Johnson

Soon after Created Equal set up pro-life signs at Ohio State University yesterday, this woman knocked them down while opining about the “worthless” lives pro-lifers might save. She fled the scene before police arrived, but Created Equal has given them the video and will press charges if and when she is caught.

Warning: Profanity

[youtube]http://youtu.be/B7Eap1smsy8[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Kelli]

Click photo to enlarge…

From Parent Society, March 22:

A Greek doctor posted this incredible picture on his Facebook page of a baby he delivered. And as you can see… it was no ordinary delivery.

The baby was delivered via c-section, but was still inside the amniotic sac after being removed from the mother’s body. In fact, according to Dr. Aris Tsigris, the OB/GYN in charge of this delivery, the baby does not even know that it has been born yet.

Most sacs break on their own or are broken by the doctor when a woman is ready to give birth. This is known as a woman’s “water breaking.” It is extremely rare for a baby to be born with the sac still completely intact.

However, although it is rare, it is not dangerous. Dr. Tsigris informs us that the baby will not drown inside the bag because it is feeding off the placenta. The baby will automatically start to breathe on its own once the bag is broken. The doctor admits however that he was left “breathless” by the site of this baby….

The… baby thinks it’s still in the womb and is therefore living as peacefully as when it was in its mother’s uterus.

This baby was still connected to his or her mother by the umbilical cord to the placenta. The baby had not drawn a breath.

Would abortion proponents say it was still ethically/legally acceptable to kill this baby? There are certainly some pro-abortion activists who would argue yes. Had her pregnancy officially terminated? I think they would argue no.

After all, Planned Parenthood lobbyist Alisa LaPolt Snow argued during a Florida legislative hearing last week that born babies who were showing signs of life could still be killed according to the whim of the mother. And the baby in the photo above wasn’t technically yet born.

There is also what is called a hysterotomy abortion, wherein an incision is made into the uterus, such as in a c-section, but either the amniotic fluid is ruptured and the baby is drowned before removal, or the cord is cut and the baby bleeds to death before removal, or the baby is removed alive and discarded or killed outright.

I am sure there are abortion proponents who would argue this baby was still hysterotomy abortion candidate.

[HT: Fran Eaton of Illinois Review]

One of the school’s deans reported to police a teacher’s concern about Loughner responding to a classmate’s poem about abortion.

“… Loughner had made comments in the class about abortion, wars, killing people, and ‘why don’t we just strap bombs to babies,'” the police report says. “[The dean] said that Loughner has a ‘dark personality’ and is kind of ‘creepy’ and they had resolved to just keep an eye on him.”

Still, a later report by Aubrey Conover, an “Advanced Program Manager” at Pima College, described talking with Loughner about his in-class abortion comments.

“He said that the class had been talking about abortion, which made him think of death, which made him think of suicide bombers, which made him think of babies as suicicde (sic) bombers,” that letter states. “We talked about how you need to give context to you (sic) statements, especially when deal (sic) with emotional issues. Jared said he would not say anothing (sic) in class.”

~ Phoenix New Times, March 28, on Jared Loughner, convicted for slaughtering six people and injuring 13 others, including former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, in a shooting rampage on January 8, 2011

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• My Drop in the Ocean follows up on a previous post regarding the differing approaches of pro-life groups in their public prayer/demonstrations in front of abortion clinics. While some groups pray and practice peaceful outreach, others feel this is ineffective and that the response should be more aggressive since a murder is about to take place. These warring tactics have caused some pro-lifers to stay away completely.

• At Stand True, Bryan Kemper shares a graphic that uses the popular same-sex marriage support symbol, turning it into a pro-life message (pictured left; click to enlarge).
• At Reproductive Research Audit, Dr. Jacqueline Harvey analyzes the recent report from the Centers for Disease Control which shows that emergency contraceptive use has doubled and is now the likely contraceptive of choice for many women, instead of a mere “back-up” birth control. One unfortunate result of this EC dependency has been the rise in STDs among young women using it – a fact glossed over by the mainstream media.
• According to the Seattle Times, an attempt to force insurance coverage of abortion in Washington state (as previously discussed here) has failed.:
  

  The bill, which supporters call the Reproductive Parity Act… would make Washington the first state to require insurers that cover maternity care — which they all must do — to also pay for abortions. Similar legislation has been introduced each session in the New York State Assembly for more than a decade but has never received a public hearing.

… [T]hose supporting the measure said it would ensure continued abortion coverage in the state once federal health-care changes taking effect next year trigger bureaucratic hurdles for insurers paying for the procedure….

Opponents countered that abortion-insurance coverage is already widespread in the state. They also said the measure threatens the religious freedoms of businesses and individuals who oppose abortion rights and do not want to subsidize the cost of the procedure for others.

• ProLifeBlogs shares Operation Rescue’s information on the identity of a young Illinois doctor who plans to fly to Kansas to perform abortions at George Tiller’s former clinic:
  

  [Cheryl] Chastine, 31, …was first licensed to practice medicine in Illinois in August, 2011 and obtained licensure in Kansas on January 17, 2013. Chastine currently works at Total Wellness, Inc. in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago….

Ms. Chastine apparently thinks she can come to Wichita, kill babies surreptitiously then return home to her non-abortion patients in Chicago with no one the wiser. Now, we’ve uncovered her shadow business that will operate under a secret name at a facility that is not properly sanctioned…. These duplicitous business transactions coupled with her shocking inexperience as a licensed physician raise questions about whether her shady business dealings will be a reflection of what we can expect from her abortion practices.

Looks like Chastine may be the “family practice physician who will fly in as needed,” as stated by The Wichita Eagle. The recording here is extremely revealing.

• Women’s Rights without Frontiers reports on the alleged suicide of Yang Yuzhi, a Chinese mother of four who suffered from chronic pain as a result of two forced sterilizations by the government. Yang routinely visited the Office of Family Planning to petition for compensation for the cost of pain medication. She was found dead there, hanged and covered with suspicious bruises.
• Pro-Life Action League comments on a New York Times parenting blog written by Alison Piepmeier, a professor of gender studies and a mother to a child with Down syndrome, who finds nothing wrong with the high abortion rate of children who have Ds. Piepmeier supports parents who choose abortion after a “wanted and named” baby is prenatally diagnosed, and even calls one mother’s choice to abort – for fear her daughter might one day be sexually abused – a “protective choice.”

[HT on Seattle Times: Human Life of WA; Chastine photo via Operation Rescue]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• In Israel, a woman has been arrested after a home birth resulted in a dead child. An autopsy is being done to determine whether the child was stillborn, as the mother claims.
• In an interview with Sarah Kliff, Tammi Kromenaker, the operator of the only abortion clinic in North Dakota, notes that there is room for only one abortion clinic in the state:
  

  SK: How long have you been the only abortion clinic in North Dakota?

  TK: Since February 2001. Just to be clear, we’re not like Mississippi where other clinics have been legislated out of existence. This population is small, and it can only support one clinic. There was one that opened in 1991 and closed in 2001. There were two clinics for about two and a half years, but Fargo can’t support more than one clinic.

• Some Pennsylvania Democrats are wary of nominating Allyson Schwartz (pictured left), a Congresswoman who founded and ran an abortion clinic, as a candidate for governor:
  

  But as the five-term U.S. representative from Montgomery County prepares her campaign for the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, many in her party, including backers of possible rivals, fret that Schwartz’s political profile could make her vulnerable to Republican attacks in a general election.

  The concern mentioned most often: Not only does Schwartz strongly support abortion rights, but before entering politics, she ran a Philadelphia women’s health clinic where abortions were performed.

  “A dream candidate for Republicans,” one Democratic strategist warned.

[Photo via Wikipedia]

by Hans Johnson

Why are there so few pro-life celebrities? The panelists of The Five discuss:

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.