by Carder

As faith leaders, we all feel literally called — and supported by spirit on a daily basis — to model something different in the face of this overwhelming message to people that they’re not enough, that they’re not loved, and that in fact they’re hated…. Our message is that you are loved, loved, loved.

God loves women who have abortions.

~ President and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, Reverend Harry Knox, explaining the rationale behind why his colleagues became involved with the pro-choice movement, Think Progress, December 16

[Photo via RCRR]

If Planned Parenthood is so popular, why did a news station in the heart of the West Coast’s abortion stronghold - Sacramento, California – spotlight it in an investigation of shady expenditures by city council members?

And why did a complicit council member, when questioned ever so lightly about it, abruptly yank off her mic while still on camera and end the interview?

In an investigation into the large amount of discretionary spending allotted to Sacramento city council members – $400,000 annually – KCRA noted that member Angelique Ashby gave a portion of hers to Planned Parenthood.

Ashby apparently didn’t like being asked about that. According to KCRA, in a December 17 broadcast story:

… she defended the contribution, took off the microphone and walked away.

“I hope that in doing so, that some of those young women grow up, love their city enough to come back, run for City Council and be the next mayor pro tem of the city of Sacramento,” Ashby said.

“Here you go,” she said, before taking off her microphone and walking off.

This came right after Ashby proclaimed transparency, “evidenced by the fact that I’m standing in front of you answering for those funds.”

… for only one second longer, until it came to Planned Parenthood.

You can view Ashby’s strange response here (during the last minute of the video).

KCRA followed up on December 18 with a story specifically on the fact that “[s]ince 2012, every City Council member gave some of their discretionary funds to Planned Parenthood, a total of $11,000.”

There was no vote on giving taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood, no public announcement, no accountability on the part of Planned Parenthood to not use those funds for abortion, only a statement by unnamed Planned Parenthood “officials” that it is “their policy to keep funding for educational programs separate from other services.”

How do we know? What “other services” would those be?

Interesting that a mainstream media news organization saw a story, a controversy. Of all the odd expenditures made by city council members, the one KCRA knew would get a rise were those made to Planned Parenthood. Why?

Also interesting that the station didn’t bypass a story it knew had to be politically incorrect.

KCRA also found a resident who “doesn’t want her tax dollars going to Planned Parenthood programs – period,” who added:

“I think if people were aware of it, you would have an overwhelming amount of people showing up at a City Council meeting complaining.  I think you would have calls to their offices. I think you would have long lines if there was an open forum for people to discuss. I think it would be a big issue.”

So don’t for a minute think Planned Parenthood maintains a sunny reputation, even in California. The work pro-lifers have done to expose the United States’ largest abortion organization to the light of day is slowly but steadily paying off.

Speaking of sunlight, KCRA reported that thanks to its investigation the Sacramento County Grand Jury has launched a “formal inquiry” into the city council’s discretionary spending habits.

I have a feeling Planned Parenthood has been cut off.

by Hans Johnson

Abortion technology is, quite frankly, at a “dead end.” There’s really nowhere else to go for killing efficiency.

But true medicine -  the treatment and sustaining of lives – is moving forward in leaps and bounds. Realview Imaging is an Israeli medical tech company that is developing remarkable 3D holographic projection imaging to assist in the visualization of organs – and babies – the better to diagnose and solve health issues.

Life is “on the right side of history.” It is the future.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

by Kelli

Notice that both abortion stories share this same, perverse theme: abortion is a way to “save” my child. Also notice that both women were using birth control and still wound up pregnant. I mention that as an aside, but it’s worth considering in its own right….

I do not fear the impact that “positive” abortion stories will have. Even the positive stories are laced with tragedy, and the more abortion is talked about in the public square, the more apparent it will become that abortion is one of vilest perversions of justice the world has ever known.

~ Michael Spielman, discussing two of the “I don’t regret my abortion” stories he recently received, Abort73.com, December 16

[Photo via sherights.com]

by Hans Johnson

Patrick Otema is a 15-year-old Ugandan boy who is profoundly deaf and withdrawn from society. There were no schools for the deaf near his rural village. Then Raymond Okkele, a young man who lost his hearing as a child, returned to his boyhood home and began teaching sign language.

If you remember that moment in the play and movie The Helen Keller Story when she learns and comprehends the word “water” – well, be prepared to be moved again.

This is the mini-documentary 15 and Learning to Speak, on UK Channel 4’s Unreported World, as reported by Kiki King:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/CNCPgrm8Gu4[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Life Dynamics)

by Carder

Breeding little humans isn’t for everyone and, while we think everyone should be able to choose to have kids or not without facing judgement, some people just don’t get it.

If the kids-just-aren’t-for-me-ever contingency was really honest, there would probably be a whole lot more people making comments like “No, I don’t want to hold your baby.” And, word to the wise, don’t ever tell a childfree woman: “Well, you’re gonna change your mind when your biological clock starts ticking.”

Answer: “I’m gonna press snooze on that little clock.”

~ Alanna Vagianos introducing a recent BuzzFeed video titled, “If People Who Dislike Children Said What’s On Their Mind”, Huffington Post, December 16

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

• ProLife NZ laments the story of a woman choosing abortion at 28 weeks gestation when she found out her child had a deformed left hand. She stated her decision to abort rested upon not wanting her child to be discriminated against due to this disability (oh, the irony). The media felt it unfortunate that the deformity was not identified earlier in pregnancy, as if that would have made the abortion more acceptable. (I wonder what would happen if children had the right to terminate less than perfect parents….)

• Saynsumthn’s Blog shows that as always, Planned Parenthood brings a lack of tact to the holidays with PP of Maryland’s Sex Trivia: Holiday Edition “beauty” of a “grand prize” – a glitter-covered penis to (as PP puts it) “accompany your tree or menorah.” Yes, nothing says Christmas like a glittery phallus and some condom stocking stuffers.
• Wesley J. Smith writes again about Jahi McMath, the young girl who was declared brain dead a year ago. Originally, Smith accepted McMath’s brain death diagnosis from three physicians, but a year has passed on a ventilator, and her body has not deteriorated. He now believes there is cause for concern and thinks that the scientific community should be open to investigating the case again given the possibility that they were wrong:
  

  The unprecedented nature of a brain dead person recovering function – which may have happened with Jahi – makes this a very important case. If she has come back, that opens a whole new area of scientific inquiry. From that perspective alone, why fight taking a thorough new look to see if it happened?

  I strongly believe this case needs to be reopened – for Jahi, for her family, for the integrity of the system, and for the good of science.
  The harder the “establishment” resists, the more I think their objections are ideological, reflecting deep concerns about how a finding that she is alive would rock their world.

  They are right: It would. But that’s no reason to force her to remain among the dead if that is not where she belongs.

• At The Vine, Breeanne Howe offers some suggestions for pro-life gift-giving this holiday season.
• Pro-Life in TN comments on a recent traffic stop involving two Muslim men who were transporting the remains of a miscarried baby at 15 weeks for proper burial. Media reports used changing verbiage to describe the child – son, child, baby – with one outlet finally changing the term to “fetus” once the circumstances of the child’s death were clarified.

• Women’s Rights Without Frontiers gives us good news this Christmas season:
  

  On International Human Rights Day… Anni and Ruli Zhang have been granted political asylum in the United States. Detained overnight as a 10-year-old, Anni is known as “China’s youngest prisoner of conscience.” She and her older sister, Ruli, are the daughters of veteran activist Zhang Lin, who is currently serving a three-and-a-half year jail sentence for standing up for Anni’s right to go to school. With the help of brave activists in China and the U.S., WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn was able to secure safe passage to the U.S. for the girls. She and her husband Robert have taken the girls into their home and are raising them as their own daughters.

• Secular Pro-Life is calling on students to help with Students for Life’s Pregnant On Campus Initiative. College students are at the highest risk for abortions:
  

  Students for Life of America (SFLA)… launched PregnantOnCampus.org. The aim of the site is to provide local, campus-specific information for students at hundreds of schools across the nation. It will also allow for a greater degree of continuity, so that students don’t have to worry about website maintenance after they graduate.

  SFLA is counting on pro-life students to crowdsource the information. Right now, because the site is brand new, most of the campus pages contain only generic information about nationwide resources (e.g., the WIC program). To really make PregnantOnCampus shine, SFLA needs you to step up and submit information about local resources that can help mothers at your school.

[Photos via Saynsumthn’s Blog and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers]

by Hans Johnson

Dr. Scott Adzick (pictured right), chief of surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, helped pioneer the field of fetal surgery in the early 1980s. He says:

The idea arose from the frustration of caring for babies after birth and realizing it was too late: the damage was already done. We had to get to the baby earlier, while still inside mom.

A Wisconsin couple, April and Jason Leffingwell, learned after a 20-week sonogram that their son Elijah had a tumor in his right lung. While in most cases the tumor could be removed post-birth, this one kept growing. To April the decision was certain: “There wasn’t a choice in our head. We weren’t going to abort, and we weren’t going to let a tumor kill our child. We were going to do everything we could to save our child.”

At 25 weeks, Elijah was removed from his mother’s womb and operated upon. At one point his heart had to be revived. Returned to his mother, he was officialy born prematurely at 33 weeks, and is growing stronger every day. See Elijah’s story here:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/C_MSQ2qs9dU[/youtube]

Read the inspiring story of the development of fetal surgery in The Daily Signal.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Susie Allen; photo of Dr. Adzick via chop.edu]