Illinois Right to Life Committee
OCTOBER 2007
October, 2007 Pro-Life News (see articles below): 10/30/07 In a state of denial or not? 10/26/07 Abortion providers expanding in Chicago and nationwide? 10/19/07 Who are the radicals and lawbreakers? 10/16/07 Does Planned Parenthood reduce abortions? 10/12/07 A tradition of deception 10/09/07 Nearly silent media 10/05/07 Some things do not change for the better 10/02/07 Aurora mayor caves to Planned Parenthood
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Planned Parenthood claims that prayer vigils have no impact on their business. They will even go so far as to claim that prayer vigils are good for business because they get people to “pledge a protester” for added income. So why is Planned Parenthood spending money to plant a solid line of pine trees along the sidewalk in Aurora? They already have their building facing the other way. The pine trees will even prevent anyone from seeing the prayer vigils if they look out a back window, assuming they can even reach that high to look through the bulletproof glass. Why is Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, calling 40 Days for Life a “crisis”? Her “crisis” email states, “Throughout this month, the anti-choice fringe is showering our clinics with protesters during its ‘40 Days for Life’ campaign, which our own Emily X is documenting in painfully vivid pictures and videos.” The CEO of one large Planned Parenthood operation in New York wrote, “Planned Parenthood is under attack and we need your help to fight back! Right now, the largest anti-choice protest we've seen in a very long time is taking place. An extremist group and its 40 Days for Life Campaign has launched a relentless attack on Planned Parenthood health centers.” Apparently, Planned Parenthood wants to have their cake and eat it too. They hope to generate donations by citing the crisis they face, but they do not really want to admit that the crisis is actually making any difference for their employees or their customers (alias, victims). On their “I am Emily X” blog, Planned
Parenthood compiles quotes from volunteers and employees.
An entry dated October 24th from a volunteer deathscort in Houston states,
“But I've never seen a Planned Parenthood client turn around because of a protester.
And neither have any of the other volunteers that I work with.” Does that statement seem consistent with planting a row of trees to block the unlikely line of vision between participants in a prayer vigil and anyone entering the other side of the building? Or is it more likely that the crisis is real? David Bereit quotes one report that “An employee of the Planned Parenthood facility [we've] been praying in front of has quit her job! She came out of the building and told the pray-ers that she couldn't work there anymore!!” Many reports have come in from vigil sites around the nation about babies saved from abortion when their mothers were moved by the prayer vigils to choose life. As of October 26th known saves were already over 300. How many more saves occurred without vigil participants learning about these decisions for life? It looks like Emily X is denying reality. Maybe she will eventually see the futility of her efforts and decide to quit as well. Does Cecile Richards really think there is a crisis? Maybe so! Organize or join a prayer vigil at the Planned Parenthood location nearest you so Cecile Richards continues to face a crisis!
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, October 26, 2007 Abortion providers expanding in Chicago and nationwide? Almost exactly one year ago I mentioned learning of the closure of two Chicago southside abortion providers. One of those was called Medical Group and the other appeared to be affiliated with an Aurora abortionist that also closed. Fast forward to yesterday when I made a disturbing discovery. New abortionists have inflicted themselves on the southside of Chicago. Even
though they have not placed a listing in the Chicago yellow pages, Ryan Center, located in
the Center for Advanced Medicine on the University of Chicago Hospital campus at 5758 S.
Maryland Ave, shows up as an abortion provider on a list of Illinois abortionists
available via the Internet. The Ryan Center
web site indicates the availability of “termination services” for women
“who seek elective termination of pregnancy and those who desire termination due to
missed miscarriage.” Services include: ·
Medical termination of pregnancy up to 9 weeks gestation
·
Surgical termination of pregnancy up to 18 weeks
gestation with two sedation alternatives ·
Treatment of missed miscarriage up to 14 weeks gestation
The Ryan Center tries hard to avoid using the term
abortion. Their web site also emphasizes,
“The Ryan Center accepts cash or money orders ONLY.” They only want hard cash for use of their
“termination services” (alias for abortions).
Maybe if the yellow pages adds a section for “termination services”, the
Ryan Center will buy an ad. So far, the
yellow pages has not adopted that terminology. To make matters worse, the location formerly used by Medical Group (7845 S. Cottage Grove) has been taken over by Family Planning Associates (FPA), a notorious abortion provider based in California, who already has two other Chicago locations. I found a link to this FPA site on none other than an adoption information web site. Somehow, providing such a link seems like offering an option that literally kills the underlying mission of promoting adoption. When I checked the FPA ad in the most recent Chicago yellow pages, I found a large ad spread over three quarters of two pages. Sure enough, they have now listed the Cottage Grove location. Of course, with Planned Parenthood opening their abortion fortress in Aurora, all locations that benefited from last year's closures have been re-infected, and this last condition is certainly worse than the first, given the increased size of the culprit organizations. Another hint of more to come is buried deep in the document filed to bring a lawsuit against Steve Trombley and Planned Parenthood Chicago Area. Their former medical director (Dr. Murray Pelta, O.B. Gyn) filed this lawsuit after he was fired. Among disputed items listed is "the corporate procedures related to establishment of a clinic in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago." Coincidentally, I just received a newsletter from Indiana Right to Life. The lead article discusses the efforts of Planned Parenthood to open additional abortion facilities in various Indiana locations. Less than a week ago I got an email explaining how Planned Parenthood is adding abortion facilities in Texas. They have also received publicity regarding projects to open new large abortion facilities in Denver, Colorado and Portland, Oregon. So while Planned Parenthood makes outlandish claims about how they do more in a day to reduce abortions than Pro-Lifers do in a lifetime, they are spending large sums to build new and larger abortion facilities around the nation. Apparently, they must expect more abortions, not less, proving once again that they know their approach to so-called reproductive health care (that is, brainwashing children to have casual sex) leads to more abortions, and they are preparing to reap the profits.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, October 19, 2007 Who are the radicals and lawbreakers? The most recent CBS News poll on abortion was taken from October 12-16, 2007. The poll shows that 54% of registered voters would prohibit over 98% of the nearly 1.3 million abortions committed in our nation annually. This 54% is composed of 4% who would prohibit all abortions, 16% who would make an exception for life of the mother, and 34% who would also include exceptions for rape and incest. An additional 16% want to have more restrictions placed on abortion than currently exist. Given that Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and NOW want even existing restrictions eliminated, at least 70% of the electorate strongly disagrees with them. Results of this CBS poll have given the majority to the Pro-Life position five of the last six times the poll was taken over the last 27 months. It should also be noted that the wording of this poll is clearly positioned in favor of the pro-abortion choices. The poll lists the pro-abortion choices first and does not even include the choice of “never allowed.” People give that answer on their own. No wonder even pro-abortion editorial writers say things like “abortion is a sad and desperate act” to give the impression that they are not encouraging abortion. Does such a comment make their advocacy of abortion seem more reasonable? On the contrary, doesn’t this admission make their support for abortion seem that much more outrageous? On October 17th 107 criminal charges were filed in Johnson County, Kansas against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The charges filed by District Attorney Phill Kline include 23 felony counts of making a false information reports and 84 misdemeanor counts in three categories. Planned Parenthood is already in legal trouble in Connecticut, Ohio, Nebraska and California, but currently those are all civil cases. Since a number of those cases involve failure to comply with mandatory reporting laws of suspected sexual abuse, criminal cases might eventually be developed. This information does not reflect well for this self-proclaimed “trusted reproductive health care provider.” But that is par for the course for Planned Parenthood. Praise the Lord that 40 of the 89 locations of 40 Days for Life vigils are being held at Planned Parenthood locations. May God help us save young people from the ill-advised solutions (to anything) advocated by Planned Parenthood
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, October 16, 2007 Does Planned Parenthood reduce abortions? A headline in the October 15th Chicago Sun-Times reads, “Planned Parenthood is not the enemy in abortion fight.” Such a statement could have come straight out of Planned Parenthood’s own marketing plan. Unfortunately, the facts do not support the perception Planned Parenthood wants to create with this marketing message. In 2006,
the Guttmacher Institute (research arm of Planned Parenthood) rated the states on the
effectiveness of their state-funded birth control distribution programs. States such
as New York and California were rated excellent while Nebraska was rated poor. Which
of these states do you think have high abortion rates? Remember, Planned Parenthood
claims that better access to birth control will reduce abortions. Well, New York and
California are among the states with the highest abortion rates while Nebraska has low
abortion rates. Thus, Planned Parenthood's own statistics demonstrate the failure to
achieve their claimed results. In 2005,
the Guttmacher Institute, in a study on unplanned pregnancies, noted that 53 percent of
women who have unintended pregnancies used a contraceptive method during the month they
got pregnant. Of those unplanned pregnancies, 47 percent end in abortion, 40 percent
are carried to full term, and 13 percent end in miscarriage. Whether this is
due to usage failure or method failure, it shows that artificial contraception is largely
ineffective in preventing unplanned pregnancy and abortion. Planned Parenthood is pushing hard for access to the morning-after pill at every pharmacy in the nation. They consider it a national problem if even one pharmacy does not have Plan B readily available. They claim that over-the-counter access to Plan B will reduce unwanted pregnancy and abortion by 50%. However, after the FDA allowed over-the-counter sales to anyone at least 18 years old, one of the most active promoters of Plan B, James Trussell from Princeton University, co-authored a study that evaluated the results of over-the-counter sales from 10 nations. The authors reported, “no study has shown
that increased access to this method reduces unintended pregnancy or abortion rates on a
population level” and “the consistency of their primary findings is hard to
ignore." They concluded that the
morning-after pill “is unlikely to produce a major reduction in unintended pregnancy
rates no matter how often women use it” and that “previous expectations that
improved access could produce a direct, substantial impact on a population level may have
been overly optimistic.” They also
stated the drug's effectiveness may be "substantially ... overstated." Again, reality is far different from the
marketing hype. The above evidence demonstrates that Planned Parenthood’s claims of reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions are not supported by the facts. Consider also the business perspective. Would any business really be serious about reducing use of their products? If their claims were true, why did the number of abortions provided by Planned Parenthood climb from 5% to 20% of the national total over the last 20 years, reaching 264,943 when last reported for 2005? With estimated abortion revenue over $110 million, abortion is much more than 3% of Planned Parenthood’s business. In fact, abortion revenues produce about 32% of the income its clinic facilities generate annually. Planned Parenthood claims
that abstinence education does not work. Their
solution is called “comprehensive sex education.”
Ironically, they claim “comprehensive sex education” provides
“a strong abstinence message.” Abstinence
educators have reviewed the programs advocated by Planned Parenthood. None of them emphasize abstinence so again the
marketing hype does not square with reality. Why would Planned Parenthood have any interest in promoting abstinence? Teenagers who practice abstinence will never become customers of Planned Parenthood. They do not need birth control, STD testing and treatment, pregnancy tests, and abortions. These are the services that Planned Parenthood sells. Dr. Laura Berman (author of the Sun-Times article) can believe Planned Parenthood’s marketing hype if she wants, but the facts do not support their claims. As the largest abortion provider in the nation, Planned Parenthood certainly is the enemy in the effort to end abortion.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, October 12, 2007 Many
blessings are being experienced because of the 40
Days for Life prayer vigils taking place across the nation in 89 cities. About 40 of the selected sites are Planned
Parenthood locations where abortions are performed. David
Bereit shares some of the news he receives. He
passed on this powerful testimonial shared by Lisa, a brand new 40 Days for Life
volunteer, that shows how God can touch the heart of anyone... even a former Planned
Parenthood volunteer: As a former insider, Lisa’s testimony confirms how Planned Parenthood regularly deceives women who come to them. No wonder they have no problem deceiving Aurora about the abortion fortress they were building. As a final example, I can point to a Guttmacher Institute report (research arm of Planned Parenthood) about abortions worldwide that claims as many women get abortions in nations where they are illegal as in nations where they are legal. Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute presents a strong case revealing the approaches used to overstate the number of abortions done in nations where they are illegal as a means to build a case for making abortion legal. By claiming so many abortions take place, they then falsely claim how many women are dying from unsafe abortions. In fact, both of these statistics are based on faulty extrapolations. The good news is that there are not as many abortions worldwide as reported.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, October 9, 2007 I checked the Internet for coverage of the Life Chains that formed throughout our nation on October 7th. Based on information gathered by the national coordinators, over 1300 Life Chains were expected across the nation. Of these, over 30 Life Chains were scheduled for the Chicago area with another 50 Life Chains planned for other locations throughout the state of Illinois. I was only able to locate links to just over 20 news articles nationally regarding all of these Life Chains. Coverage did appear in the Daily Herald regarding a Life Chain in Naperville and the News Sun about a Life Chain in Libertyville. An article in the Herald & Review covered a Life Chain in Decatur, IL. Other articles appeared in one or two news outlets each from the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. As with the March for Life in January each year, most mainstream media outlets just ignore events like Life Chain. They justify this censorship by claiming such events are not newsworthy. Of course, their hypocrisy becomes obvious because they jump on similar events if these are organized by illegal immigrants, anti-war activists, homosexuals, or even abortion supporters. Regardless of the lack of media coverage, many people who drove by Life Chains nationwide received the life-affirming messages conveyed on the signs held by participants. After 20 years this annual event still represents a strong message for life. Just a few years ago less than 900 Life Chains were scheduled, but substantial growth has occurred, proving that support for Life Chain continues to run strong. I was involved in organizing the 18th annual Orland Park Life Chain. With participation from 24 churches, at least 340 people participated, enduring the heat and humidity to share the message of life. We hope and pray that Life Chain helps move our nation back toward real respect for all human life.
Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, October 5, 2007 Some things do not change for the better Health concerns about the HPV vaccine Gardasil are not going away. Judicial Watch recently obtained new documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that reveal a total of as many as eleven deaths related to Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil. Those deaths occurred from June 8, 2006 through August 2007. Adverse reactions to Gardasil continue to mount as well. The US Government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) lists 3,779 adverse effects. 52 of the cases were deemed "life threatening" and 119 required hospitalizations. Given these health risks triggered by Gardasil, vaccination with Gardasil is too much of a risk to obtain marginal protection against only one of many sexually transmitted diseases. UNICEF
(the UN Children's Fund) has previously been criticized for supporting abortion when they
are supposed to be focused on improving children’s health. UNICEF persistently denies they support abortion
in any way, shape, or form. A new global
initiative called "Deliver Now for Women and Children" was announced last week
with UNICEF taking a leading role. In spite
of political correctness covering up the link between abortion and breast cancer, news
reconfirming this link just won’t go away. The
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons published a study October 2nd entitled, "The
Breast Cancer Epidemic." The study
reports that, among seven risk factors, abortion is the "best predictor of breast
cancer." The study by Patrick Carroll of PAPRI in London showed that countries
with higher abortion rates, such as England & Wales, could expect a substantial
increase in breast cancer incidence. Where
abortion rates are low (i.e., Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic) a smaller increase
is expected. Where a decline in abortion has
taken place (i.e., Denmark and Finland), a decline in breast cancer is anticipated. Karen
Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer commented on the latest
findings stating: "It's time for scientists to admit publicly what they already
acknowledge privately among themselves - that abortion raises breast cancer risk - and to
stop conducting flawed research to protect the medical establishment from massive medical
malpractice lawsuits." Since Planned Parenthood was allowed to open their abortion fortress in Aurora on October 2nd, the good news is that apparently no abortions have yet been committed yet. Continued presence in prayer is encouraged for the hours they are open because abortions are expected for next week. After that, there appears to be a good shot at halting operations there through the law. A legal team is hard at work and feeling more confident every day, but it's going to take a week to build a strong legal case. The lives of unborn babies will be exposed for that time, creating the need to concentrate on saving lives during the coming week.
Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, October 2, 2007 Aurora mayor caves to Planned Parenthood October 2nd is a tragic day in Aurora. The killing of unborn children can begin at the Aurora Planned Parenthood abortion fortress. Yesterday, Mayor Tom Weisner betrayed concerned citizens and allowed issuance of an occupancy permit to Planned Parenthood after announcing investigation results that concluded no criminal activity was involved. The violation of zoning statutes was brushed under the rug. This development is very disappointing to Pro-Lifers everywhere, but especially to those faithful activists who have been present at the abortion fortress on a regular basis. Eric Scheidler put the situation in perspective when he wrote: "Don't
lose heart! We have suffered a defeat, but only after the tremendous victory of keeping
Planned Parenthood closed for two weeks -- more than we dared to hope for when we began
two months ago." The daily 24-hour prayer vigil at the Aurora abortion fortress will be adjusted to focus on the hours that Planned Parenthood is open. Eric Scheidler was informed that no abortions were scheduled for Tuesday. In fact, it looked like no clients were being seen. So much for the rush of patients that desperately needed the services of Planned Parenthood! On the legal front, an appeal was filed with the Aurora Zoning Board of Appeals on October 2nd. That appeal should have resulted in an immediate stay, with Planned Parenthood remaining closed. The City of Aurora is not enforcing the law, once again, so the presence of concerned citizens is needed as a witness. The request was made for citizens to be present in prayer outside Aurora City Hall Tuesday evening during their committee of the whole meeting. Legal action was taken on October 1st with the filing of a libel suit against Steve Trombley and Planned Parenthood Chicago Area for their blatantly false accusations of violence and criminal activity made against prayer vigil participants in letters to Aurora’s mayor and city council members. These libelous statements were also used in newspaper ads placed in the Aurora Beacon. Pray that this action will be given fair consideration by the judge assigned to the case.
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