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

• Live Action News reports on a perfect example of twisted pro-abortion logic from The Abortion Resource Handbook, in which author K Kaufmann tells teens that keeping their pregnancy and abortion a secret is positive and shows signs of maturity. (That’s interesting – I always thought hiding things from people was more a sign of an immature person with an inability to deal with the consequences of one’s own actions):
  

  However sad or angry you feel right now, keep in mind that not involving a parent is often a sign of maturity – that you are able to make and take responsibility for your own decisions. Keeping the pregnancy and abortion a secret may even turn out to be a positive experience. For many young women, it may be one of the first times they make an important or life-changing decision on their own, and they may feel more confident and better about themselves as a result.One of the first life-changing decisions… secondary, of course, to the decision to have sex in the first place.

• Abstinence Clearinghouse reports on a Danish study which reveals a possible link between hormonal birth control use and brain tumors:
  

  The study examined 316 women with glioma and found that women who used contraceptives containing only progestin for more than five years had a risk that was 2.4 times higher than the control group.

• Wesley J. Smith shares his 2015 bioethics predictions. Check out how he did on his predictions from last year.

• Bound4Life gives an overview of important court cases in the pro-life movement:
  

  Over the past seven weeks, three separate federal appeals courts have heard important cases related to abortion policy in America — all with far-reaching implications for pre-born lives.

• Pro-Life Wisconsin reports that Republicans legislators are conducting an audit on Planned Parenthood who has “publicly stated that if they are audited, they will likely have to close their birth control clinics in the state”:
  

  Pro-Life Wisconsin applauds this bold legislative effort to root out waste, fraud and abuse in Wisconsin’s Medicaid family planning program. It is bad enough that these family planning monies fuel surgical and chemical abortions in our state. It is intolerable that Wisconsin taxpayers are ripped off in the process!

• After Abortion refers to a survey showing 49% believe abortion is immoral, yet 51% want to keep it legal anyway. How about that for compartmentalization? Could this be due to society’s widespread misunderstanding of “judging” the actions of others, or could it be that they want it around in case they decide to do the immoral thing?
• At National Review, Dr. Michael J. New writes that NARAL must be getting desperate, because they’re now conducting their own polls on Americans’ views on abortion:
  

  [T]he poll, which purports to show strong support for legal abortion in four congressional districts, is deceptive. That NARAL increasingly feels the need to conduct its own polls at all is a striking shift in and of itself. But it’s the change in the questions those polls ask that should really raise eyebrows….The alternatives were 1) abortion is morally acceptable and should be legal; 2) personally opposed to abortion, but it should remain legal; and 3) abortion should be illegal.

  A plurality of respondents preferred the second option, and NARAL quickly announced that the first and second options combined commanded majority support. Of course, the three questions did not allow for much nuance. Specifically, the poll did not ask about the 20-week abortion ban or other incremental pro-life laws that tend to poll well.

by Kelli

Amazing how some flashing lights can transform a fussy baby into an awestruck one. Happy Friday! :)

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

The photo above, via Cosmopolitan on January 23, shows progress on building an 8,000 sq. ft Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in New Orleans has obviously stalled.

Compare it to the photo taken by Louisiana Coalition for Life in August 2014 (click all photos to enlarge)….

It appears only the grass has been cut in the past five months.

Before that, Fox8 reported in January 2014 “the lot sits untouched” eight months after Planned Parenthood’s big ceremonial ground-breaking (in a church, no less – photo, right), this apparently because it had trouble finding anyone to build.

This means the facility’s estimated cost in May 2013 of $4.2 million has certainly skyrocketed, which is excellent. And Planned Parenthood’s projected profits from abortion only grow more distant.

If that ever happens.

As I reported on January 17, the Louisiana Health Department has blocked this new clinic from committing abortions, should it ever open.

One goal of throwing roadblocks in the way of new abortion clinics is to make them pay. Make it hurt financially. Make them burn through profits made from killing babies or donations mooched from rich pro-aborts.

Of course, the bigger goal of blocking abortion clinics from opening is to save lives. Which delays certainly do.

Meanwhile, 550 miles due west in San Antonio, Texas, plans for another new Planned Parenthood abortion clinic have also run amok.

Planned Parenthood’s old San Antonio clinic wouldn’t comply with Texas’s new abortion clinic regulations (currently being battled in court), so in 2013 PP secretly purchased an existing 22,000 sq. ft. medical office building and began upgrading it for a projected cost of $6.5 million (up from $5 million just seven months before).

The problem is zoning for the current building is C1 for medical offices, while ambulatory surgical centers should be built in C3 zones. Planned Parenthood South Texas CEO Jeffrey Hons has bragged the new facility will commit 2,800 abortions a year, certainly surgical procedures on a grand scale.

Photos authorized by Planned Parenthood itself in October 2014 show it had to completely gut the interior of the office building to repurpose it for surgeries….

… as does undercover video filmed by Created Equal’s Mark Harrington that same month.

When the resident of a neighborhood abutting the new Planned Parenthood could get no satisfaction from the city, she filed a lawsuit, and Texas Right to Life reported on January 24 she has received a “court order preventing the city from issuing a certificate of occupancy and from approving a special use permit for now.”

Hons originally said the new abortion facility would open in “December or January,” which is not going to happen.

A permanent block is the goal, but even a delay will hurt Planned Parenthood financially and save babies.

Live Action News reports a total of five other Planned Parenthood abortion clinics will close by the end of February, rendering the previous total of 666 remaining PP clinics already outdated.

by Carder

Well, since my earlier days, that’s a long time ago, and, my God, people barely talked about it. I mean, enlightened people might, I won’t even lay that on them.

I would say the people who were more conscious or more aware might discuss it or make that choice or whatever, but, most people, it was a secret… and the subject was taboo.

I’m talking about back in the 60s and 70s, in general society, although, that’s not really the absolute thrust of this movie. It’s more about our relationships.

So, yes, I think it’s much more open, as everything is.

~ Actress Lily Tomlin comparing the public discussion of abortion back in her day versus now and as it relates to the pro-abortion film “Grandma,”, as quoted by Slate, January 29

The abortion lobby has taken note of Pro-Life Action League’s mailer project and doesn’t like it.

On January 22, the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision, the League sent a mailer to every abortion clinic in the U.S.

Inside was a pair of plastic handcuffs, a photo of Oklahoma City abortionist Naresh Patel being arrested last month, and a note asking, “Could you be next?”

The note encouraged abortion workers to get out of the business for their own good and included PLAL’s Eric Scheidler’s personal cell phone number.

The list of abortionists and workers who have been arrested in the past four decades since abortion was been legal and supposedly moved off the back alley is as long as the reasons: extortion, tax evasion, sex abuse, drug abuse, illegally prescribing and selling drugs, murder, negligence, on and on. criminality.

And it makes sense. Those in the business of killing babies for a living have already demonstrated rather gaping character flaws. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude they’ll commit other crimes.

But abortion proponents are up in arms. Quoting Planned Parenthood executive VP Dawn Laguens from a Cosmopolitan article devoted to the mailer:

“I think it reads like what it is: intimidation and harassment and a very implied threat,” she said. Abortion opponents “want to outlaw abortion and put women and doctors in jail. I think they’re sending about as clear a message as they can that that’s exactly what they want to do.”

How PLAL’s mailer could be construed as a threat to lock up women is a stretch, but Cosmo wasn’t alone. Kudos to BreitbartUnmasked.com for adding an illustration for flourish….

leftinalabama.com saw menace in the mailer as well, also accusing PLAL of supporting China’s one-child policy by buying Chinese-manufactured handcuffs – really.

I asked Scheidler, why all the attention? It’s not as if pro-life activists haven’t done similar mailings before.

“One reason is they think it makes us look like we’re trying to intimidate someone,” said Scheidler. “But if you think about it for more than a second – toy handcuffs and a signed letter including a personal cell number – a threat of what? If you’re committing crimes and I know about it, then I am going to turn you into the police; that’s not a threat.”

Eric noted the League gets pro-abortion counterparts – mailers with red coat hangers on them.

“We just laugh,” said Scheidler.

But PLAL’s mailer also hit close to home.

“I think they have a guilty conscience,” noted Scheidler. “Arrests like that of Naresh Patel put them in such a bad light. It exposes them for who they are. It has been really surprising to have two abortion providers actually call me as a result of the mailer – a pro-life activist – to try to justify what they’re doing.”

One, Anise Burrell from Summit Medical Center in Detroit, argued with Scheidler on the phone for 10 minutes.

“She kept repeating, ‘This is an ugly cruel world’ she was sparing children from being born into,” said Scheidler.

Abortion industry types know mailers such as PLAL’s may have the intended impact and prompt abortionists and workers to walk away. Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards tried to mitigate the damage in a tweet…

Who's preventing more unintended pregnancies: healthcare providers or anti-abortion activists mailing them handcuffs? http://t.co/dXMQ5t1nlJ

— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) January 29, 2015

Scheidler has indeed received calls and texts from workers wanting out.

But there is a flip side.

“I’ve received countless crank calls and crank texts,” noted Scheidler, adding someone complained to Facebook about him yesterday, which led to his account being suspended for three hours.

Then there are real the real harassers.

by Hans Johnson

Once again, the mainstream media couldn’t be bothered with doing much or any coverage of the March For Life on January 22. Some 200,000 people (a very conservative estimate, as other sources list the crowds at more than 600,000) from all around the nation took the time and effort to attend, but of the three major tv networks only CBS mentioned it – for fifteen seconds! That’s one second for every 13,000 people.

There is certainly no lack of reporting for much smaller protests. But the influence of the MSM is on a steady decline. There are now many outlets to find the truth, such as from Katie Yoder at the Media Research Center:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/pFXX_yB8oqc[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Kelli]

by Kelli

Ryan identifies as Catholic and previously described himself as pro-life. He has supported several pieces of anti-abortion legislation during his time in Congress — including restrictions on minors seeking abortions, a ban on embryonic stem cell research, and a ban on so-called “partial birth” abortions.

Ryan’s change of heart may signal a potential path forward for reproductive rights supporters eager to shift the political landscape around abortion, which has remained largely unchanged for the past several decades.

~ Tara Culp-Ressler, writing on Rep. Tim Ryan’s (D-OH; pictured) gradual “evolution” from pro-life to pro-choice, Think Progress, January 28

[Photo via nymag.com]

Can you say, “Satan”?

Wow, headlines like that only come along once a year.

In this case there was another headline almost as good: “Planned Parenthood now has fewer abortion clinics than the year Roe was decided.”

And a third headline, not so good: “Planned Parenthood now operates over 45% of all U.S. abortion clinics.”

American Life League has just issued its “2014 report on Planned Parenthood facilities in the United States,” with some interesting finds:

In its annual report, Planned Parenthood said it committed 327,653 abortions in 2013, had a record income of $1.3 billion, and a near-record profit of $127.1 million - giving the impression of a thriving organization.

However, when one digs deeper in the service numbers in the annual report, a different picture of PP’s status emerges…

• Planned Parenthood did fewer abortions last year than it did in three of its last four years. Planned Parenthood’s customer base fell to its lowest level since 2001.
• The number of PP female contraceptive customers is lower than nine of its last 12 years.
• Planned Parenthood breast and cervical cancer screenings have dropped 40-60 percent since 2009.
• During 2014, Planned Parenthood Federation of America continued to close “health centers” at a record rate. This year, it closed 34 centers in a total of 19 different states.
• Planned Parenthood now operates 668* centers in the United States, of which 337 commit surgical and/or medical abortions. Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion chain, operating 45.6% of all the surgical/medical abortion facilities….
• PP Centers closed in 2014 = 34
• PP Centers opened in 2014 = 7
• PP has 337 centers that commit surgical or medical abortions (5 fewer than last year)
• Of the 337 centers, 173 centers do surgical abortions (most also do medical abortions) (1 fewer)
•  Of the 337 centers, 164 centers do medical abortions but not surgical (4 fewer)….
• This year is the first time in 10 years that Planned Parenthood had fewer surgical abortion centers AND fewer medical abortion centers AND fewer total number of surgical/medical abortion centers.

*Planned Parenthood had 668 centers at the end of 2014. Since then, as Jim Sedlak of ALL told me this afternoon, two more centers have closed, in Battle Creek, Michigan, and Issaquah, Washington, bringing the total to the deservedly demonic 666. As Bible readers know, Revelation 13:18 denotes 666 as the satanic mark of the beast. How rich.

Back to highlights from ALL’s report:

One of the important measurements of the influence of Planned Parenthood is the number of facilities it operates across the country. Planned Parenthood has always looked at the number of its facilities as representing the reach of the organization.

In 1993, right after Bill Clinton was elected president of the United States, PP had 922 centers and publicly announced a plan to have 2,000 centers by the year 2000…. PP never reached 2,000 centers. The highest number it had was 938 in 1995.

So Planned Parenthood centers are down by 29% since its hell heyday. Some charts of interest…

UPDATE: ALL has created a great infographic to accompany its report.