From Politico this morning, in an article entitled, “GOP hopes it’s cracked the abortion code: Republicans unite around a push to ban the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy”:

… GOP leaders plan to vote on a federal 20-week abortion ban on Jan. 22. That’s the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade and falls on the same day as the March for Life….

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

• Culture Campaign reports that Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has ruled that Planned Parenthood and other health professionals will no longer be obligated to report statutory rape except when the perpetrator is believed to be the girl’s parent or legal guardian. For those who thought that electing this man along with Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe as VA’s governor was a “pro-woman” idea, you are seeing the fruits of your labor: no one will be expected to help these children. CC quotes the Washington Free Beacon:
  

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

• Life Issues says the deep, dark secret of the health industry is the “hastening of death” through euthanasia thanks to a lucrative market for organ harvesting:
  

  The difficulty of making a pinpoint diagnosis in such complex neurological matters — and the lucrative financial incentives to harvest organs — will ultimately propel this issue into the forefront of public consciousness and discourse.

  Not surprisingly, the current procurement market for human tissues and organs in the United States is booming, driven by insufficient supply and heavy demand. According to The Milliman Report (see page 4), if all 11 tissues and organs could be harvested from a single patient declared brain-dead, however unlikely, the going rate for procurement would exceed half a million dollars. If all costs related to those 11 transplants are counted — preparation, physicians’ services, post-op care and the like — the money involved exceeds $5.5 million.

  Life Issues is asking for help from health professionals in drawing attention to this.

UPDATE 1/27, 11:15a: The deceased Munoz baby’s gender and name have been posted on the public Facebook page of Erick Munoz’s local union, Crowley Professional Firefighters Association L-4182:

Rest in peace, Marlise and little Nicole.

[HT: Leslie and Vanessa]

1/26, 5:15p: It’s Terri Schiavo all over again.

Another pro-death judge has inexplicably ordered the death of an innocent, helpless person due to a family’s wishes.

Despite a Texas law requiring that pregnant mothers be kept on life support until their preborn babies are viable, District Court Judge R. H. Wallace on Friday ordered John Peter Smith Hospital to remove Marlise Munoz’s life support by 5p Monday – and the hospital has already complied.

Guest post by Jacqueline Halbig, principal at Sovereign Global Solutions and former senior policy adviser for the Dept. of Health and Human Services

If Obamacare is supposed to increase health care access and affordability, why does it seem to punish those most in need? Consider minority babies, both unborn and born.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that an administration which redefines abortion as health care continues to expand funding to Planned Parenthood, which operates the nation’s largest abortion chain.

During Thanksgiving week the American Academy of Pediatrics announced its recommendation that “morning after” prescriptions be issued to adolescent girls as a matter of course…. This approach, besides being deeply insulting to the human dignity of adolescents, exposes the reality that when we talk about sex these days, we all too often put good health […]

UPDATE, 5/28, 1:15p: From