Illinois Right to Life Committee
PRO-LIFE BLOG
Monday, June 30, 2008 -- Confirm your local United Way does not fund PP Earlier this year all of the Illinois affiliates of Planned Parenthood merged to form Planned Parenthood of Illinois. Any claims by some Illinois affiliates that they were not supporting abortion are no longer even partially valid. Please check if your local United Way has been supporting Planned Parenthood. If so, please express concerns that it is not appropriate for United Way to support an abortion provider like Planned Parenthood. Get more details and suggestions for approaching United Way on this critical issue.
Friday, June 27, 2008 -- Nurses allowed to commit abortions Would you consider abortions done by nurses to be safe? The Arizona Board of Nursing ruled last month that a nurse practitioner who has advanced training is qualified to perform abortions through the 13th week of pregnancy.That ruling was based on the case of Mary Andrews, a nurse practitioner at Planned Parenthood Arizona, who has been performing "aspiration abortions" through the 16th week of pregnancy at the agency's Tucson clinic since 2001. Does this information convince you that Planned Parenthood is your "trusted health care provider" as they like to claim? The Arizona Senate failed to pass a bill that would have banned nurses from performing abortions, allowing Planned Parenthood to continue using nurses to commit abortions. A Planned Parenthood representative had said it cannot get enough doctors in Tucson to keep up with the demand for abortion, according to a news report. How many other states will accept Planned Parenthood's solution to the shortage of abortionists, by allowing nurses to commit abortions? How many other nurses working for Planned Parenthood are already committing abortions regardless of state laws?
Thursday, June 26, 2008 -- When "brain dead" patients come back to life The most recent case occurred in France this month. A few weeks earlier it happened in West Virginia. Back in November 2007 the same thing happened in Texas. In each of these cases a patient was considered brain dead, and actions were in process to remove their organs for donation to other patients.In all three cases the patients were found to be alive just before the removal of their organs was to take place. How many other patients who might recover, if given the chance, are killed by removal of their vital organs after being inaccurately declared "brain dead"? "All of the specialist medical literature on the subject comes to the conclusion that a person who is a victim of cardiac arrest who is given cardiac massage correctly for thirty minutes, is, in all likelihood, in a state of brain death," professor Alain Tenaillon, who is responsible for transplants with the French Agency of Biomedicine, told Le Monde. "But we must recognize that there are exceptions." Really? How about giving the benefit of the doubt to life and ending the killing of innocent victims with unreliable "brain death" diagnoses? Brain death should be banned as a legitimate criteria to declare human death because it allows doctors to play God with unreliable results. Keep these facts in mind when you are asked to become an organ donor at your driver's license renewal. IRLC considers these cases as more than sufficient evidence to strongly recommend that no one should sign-up as an organ donor.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 -- Media ignores "comprehensive" sex ed failure Jill Stanek digs into the details of the news from Gloucester High School in Massachusetts where a Time Magazine article claims that at least 8 of 17 pregnant students made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. In her article "What media ignore about teen pregnancy pact" Jill notes two key issues that the mainstream media are totally overlooking.First, since the pregnant girls were under legal age to consent to sex, the school principal and nurse were mandated reporters for possible sexual abuse of the girls, but they failed to report these cases to law enforcement. Second, Massachusetts has banned abstinence education for high schools in favor of "comprehensive" sex education. Instead of raising issues about the obvious failure of "comprehensive" sex education, the media actually accepted the logic that this situation has nothing to do with sex education because "This is a story about a failure to take childbirth seriously. These girls could have had condoms distributed in their living rooms, and they still would have gotten pregnant." This "explanation" was offered by Sarah Brown of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Whether eight teenage girls made a pact to care for their babies together or not (now apparently denied), there are nine other teen girls who also got pregnant. As Jill observes, "Of course it's not a story about sex education, because only comprehensive sex ed is taught in Massachusetts public schools. Had this been a school system that taught abstinence, you'd best believe sex ed would be central to the story." Regardless of the media's lack of motivation to investigate the actual source of this explosion of pregnant teens, the result is what can be expected from mandated use of "comprehensive" sex education. A recent article by Ryan T. Anderson (The War on Abstinence) reveals the depth of the agenda-driven, anti-science push to justify "comprehensive" sex education and discredit abstinence education. Anderson's article ends with statistics that reveal similar results in California from mandated "comprehensive" sex education to what just happened in Massachusetts. "The best evidence may be what has happened to James Monroe High School now that Karen Kropf isn’t allowed to present. In previous years, back when she was talking to the students, the school averaged ten to twenty student pregnancies. Over the last school year Monroe has had nearly fifty student pregnancies. These teens are the causalities of Planned Parenthood and the ACLU’s war on abstinence."
Tuesday, June 24, 2008 -- Baby born alive was stabbed to death Nothing but grim news comes out of George Tiller's late term abortion mill in Wichita, with the exception of mothers who are convinced by sidewalk counselors not to enter it. However, the latest news is grimmer than usual.Operation Rescue President Troy Newman revealed that a former Tiller employee, Tina Davis, told him this April about the stabbing to death of a baby born alive. Newman believes that the alleged infanticide took place sometime in the past two years. "Ms. Davis gave us a very specific eye-witness account about the incident," said Troy Newman. "We were told that the baby was 35 weeks gestation at the time of the abortion. The baby came out and was moving. Abortionist Shelley Sella looked up at Ms. Davis, then picked up a utensil and stabbed the baby in the left ribcage, twisting the utensil until the baby quit moving. At 35 weeks, there is no doubt about viability. This is murder in anybody's book."
Monday, June 23, 2008 -- Planned Parenthood Hits Suburbia The headline in the June 23rd Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reads "Planned Parenthood Hits Suburbia." Now we have public admission from Planned Parenthood that they are targeting the "well-to-do" suburbs as they "follow the population" to find customers "who can afford to pay full price." Planned Parenthood leaders "aim to rally support with upbeat marketing" and attract new customers with locations "in shopping centers and malls." Steve Trombley, the top executive in Illinois, observed, "I like to think of it as the LensCrafters of family planning."Planned Parenthood has "opened more than two dozen quick-service 'express centers,' many in suburban shopping malls. Some sell jewelry, candles, books and T-shirts, along with contraception." Leslie Durgin, a senior vice president at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains observed, "It is indeed a new look...a new branding, if you will." Of course, we were already reaching this conclusion as we have seen the expansion of Planned Parenthood into the Chicago suburbs of Schaumburg and Orland Park and the construction under deceptive pretenses of their abortion fortress in Aurora, IL. That construction strategy was also mentioned in the WSJ article, which noted that "executives have designed the new health centers with fortresslike security" ... "so no one can plow a car into the clinic." At least one abortion provider has recognized Planned Parenthood as serious competition. "This is not the Planned Parenthood we all grew up with... they now have more of a business approach, much more aggressive," said Amy Hagstrom Miller, who runs abortion clinics in Texas and Maryland. The WSJ article notes, "Ms. Hagstrom Miller competes with Planned Parenthood for abortion patients -- and finds it deeply frustrating. She does not receive the government grants or tax-deductible donations that bolster Planned Parenthood, and says she can't match the nonprofit's budget for advertising or clinic upgrades." Finally, there is the Planned Parenthood policy to remove any "anti-choice" literature from customers who may have acquired such material from those "agenda-driven, anti-science" sidewalk counselors. No, the WSJ article did not cover that part of Planned Parenthood's anti-choice strategy, but we have the evidence from Aurora. Can this agenda-driven, anti-science behemoth called Planned Parenthood be stopped before they enshrine their anti-choice approach of "comprehensive sex education" and government funded abortions into government policy and law? Call your U.S. Congressman and request that government funding of Planned Parenthood must end. Ask for support of H.R. 4133 as an initial step in this process.
Friday, June 20, 2008 -- Teen abortions up after UK push for more sex ed & birth control In recent years England has increased the scope of contraceptive sex education and access to birth control for students because of concerns about the rates of teen pregnancy and abortion. According to Planned Parenthood, this strategy should reduce teen pregnancy and abortion.The latest statistics are now available, but the predicted results were not achieved. Instead, abortions from 2006 to 2007 rose 21% for girls younger than 14 years of age, 11% for 14-year-olds, 12% for 15-year-olds rose, and 10% for 16-year-olds. Meanwhile, 19-year-old girls once again have the highest rate of abortions for the second year in a row among all age categories.
Thursday, June 19, 2008 -- Business as usual for PP -- endangering women [Don't get confused by misleading terminology -- check today's IRLC press release.]Family Research Council reports the latest information that demonstrates Planned Parenthood endangers their customers health: In this week's issue of The Journal of Immunology, scientists from the University of Michigan blame the fatalities associated with RU-486 on infections that were caused by "off-label use." In other words, some of the clinics that dispensed the drugs ignored the FDA's instructions and advised women to take the pills vaginally--despite the agency's warning that oral use is much safer. At least eight women have died from bacterial infections after taking RU-486. Four of the eight victims had something in common. They had all visited California's Planned Parenthood clinics that didn't follow FDA protocol for dispensing the pills. It took four fatalities in one week before the nation's largest abortion merchant would consider changing its policy. Although Planned Parenthood changed its guidelines for dispensing RU-386 in 2006, its defiance of the FDA continues. Planned Parenthood urges women to take one of the drugs at home, completely disregarding the FDA's warning that the second portion of the pill regime "should be done in a medical office to monitor women for complications." Planned Parenthood, which claims to have "done more than any other organization in the United States to improve women's health and safety," shrugged off its carelessness back in 2006. "We don't really know all the circumstances surrounding these women's deaths," a spokeswoman said. Any institution with such a cavalier attitude toward health and safety shouldn't be trusted with women's lives or federal funding.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 -- Night versus day on preborn life Obstetricians and gynecologists have chosen a profession with "specialized residency training in areas dealing with preconceptional health, pregnancy, labor and childbirth, postpartum care, genetics, genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis." In November 2007, the Committee on Ethics of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published Committee Opinion # 385 entitled, “The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine.”As pointed out on March 14, 2008, by Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt: “The ACOG ethics report would force physicians to violate their conscience by referring patients for abortions or taking other objectionable actions, or risk losing their board certification.” In contrast, Ecuadorian obstetricians and gynecologists recently issued a declaration denouncing abortion as "not only an illegal act, but a criminal one" and stating that "under no circumstances should abortion be decriminalized." The document begins by stating that "we are not in agreement with any form of induced abortion; life is inviolable from the moment of conception. The elimination of an innocent human being is always unacceptable, ethically and medically speaking." A profession that helps pregnant women protect new life in the womb and begin motherhood successfully is much more honorable than one encouraging and committing abortions. How sad it is that U.S. obstetricians and gynecologists have joined the culture of death. They should reconsider and recognize the wisdom found in Ecuador (and in AAPLOG) where their profession is still honorable.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 -- Early cesarean births add to preemies, but ... Reports appeared today that acting Surgeon General Steven Galson opened a two-day conference June 16th for developing a national strategy to prevent premature birth. This action may have been responding to a new study from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the March of Dimes. That study found that near-term babies (those born between 34 and 37 weeks ) make up 70 percent of all premature births and they are fueling the two-decade rise, not very early preemies. Cesarean births also soared in that time frame, and the new study links the two.These findings seem to support one of my conclusions presented last Friday. However, as before, previous abortions are not given any consideration as a contributor to the spike in premature births, but ignoring that part of the problem will not make it go away.
Monday, June 16, 2008 -- Competent Enough to Live? The false compassion of withholding the basic necessities of life from disabled patients has become a serious problem in our nation. However, if statistics presented in a March 18th New York Times article are correct, the threat is far worse than one might imagine.In that article, written by Jane Brody, she quotes Judith Schwarz, a registered nurse and clinical coordinator for “Compassion & Choices” of New York, as saying the following: “1.3 million people die each year in American hospitals as ‘a consequence of someone’s decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.’” We must be cautious in taking this statistic at face value for at least two reasons. First, it is not clear how many of these claimed deaths occurred after denial of food and water versus how many were based on rejection of extraordinary treatments. Both categories are described as "life-sustaining treatment" -- part of a planned strategy by "right-to-die" advocates to confuse the argument. Second, given the agenda of the group “Compassion & Choices,” they could have a motive to overstate such incidents to make hastening death seem commonplace and acceptable. On the other hand, since 1.3 million deaths is such a shocking number, even if it is an overstatement, the problem is very real. Ironically, this death count matches the commonly cited number of babies killed by abortion each year. Is the culture of death overwhelming us? In a tragic replay of the Terri Schiavo case, Raymond Weber of West Palm Beach, Florida, is asking a court to dehydrate to death his disabled wife, Karen, but her family is fighting for her life. An AP report on the case mentions that the decision whether Karen should live or die will depend upon whether or not a committee finds her “competent” to go on living. Yes, that is correct, under the culture of death's quality of life criteria, you must be deemed "competent enough to live" or you do not deserve any food and water! Protect yourself by completing the IRLC Patient Self Protection Document.
Friday, June 13, 2008 -- Online donations to IRLC now possible As with other Pro-Life organizations, IRLC depends on the generosity of our donors to continue the mission to defend life and share the truth on life issues. While we have accepted credit cards for a number of years now, IRLC was not able to process online donations on the IRLC web site. Effective today, online donation capability is functional. [PayPal has been selected to provide secure access, but you do not need to be a PayPal member. You can simply use your credit card.]So if you take your computer with you on summer vacation, you can still make a donation to IRLC from anywhere, as long as you have Internet access. Thanks so much for your support, especially during the slow summer months, because our work to defend life must continue. The proponents of various anti-life agendas are continuing to threaten human life on a non-stop basis.
Thursday, June 12, 2008 -- They call this science? Anti-life proponents have another "study" to proclaim their propaganda that there is no proven connection between abortion and breast cancer. Katherine DeLellis Henderson at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in California led the study, publishing its findings in the June issue of the journal Contraception. Based on immediate criticism of this study, it appears to be agenda-driven "science" at its best.The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer provided a commentary
discussing the study's serious flaws which caused an underestimation of cancer risk.
This commentary led to an article in Medical News Today.
That article listed the following inaccuracies found in the study: Pro-Life advocates are regularly accused of being agenda-driven and unscientific, probably because we refuse to accept the agenda-driven and unscientific studies issued by the politically correct, anti-life crowd, such as this one.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 -- Ultrasound proves a picture is worth 1000 words Today I had the honor of presenting evidence about the impact of ultrasound to pregnancy help center counselors. As with other pregnancy care centers that have moved to the "medical model", initial use of ultrasound has already produced dramatic results after just the first few days.Women intent on abortion changed their minds. One mother discovered she had twins. Another saw her baby at 11 weeks and called her boyfriend to say, "The baby really is fully formed like they say." Babies are immediately seen as real persons by most mothers who view ultrasound. The statistics I presented showed a similar result, comparing 18 months prior to having ultrasound with the first 18 months using ultrasound. Over twice as many mothers decided in favor of life after seeing ultrasound images of their baby. Ultrasound also provides important medical information about the viability of the pregnancy. Almost 10% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. With ultrasound, these miscarriages were predicted and unnecessary abortions were avoided. Some women with positive pregnancy tests were even found not to be pregnant. How many women suffer unnecessary abortions without the medical benefit of ultrasound to evaluate their pregnancy? No wonder there are reports of abortionists performing abortions on women who are not pregnant.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 -- More contraception failure reported Does wider use of contraceptives reduce abortion? A study just completed in Australia (to be published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health) found 70% of the women seeking abortions used birth control. An obvious conclusion would be that women still become pregnant and rely on abortions when contraception fails.This report was apparently not performed by defenders of life because the report tries to turn this failure into a positive result. The authors conclude the results prove abortion isn't used as a method of birth control. "It is often reported in the media that women are irresponsible with contraception usage and that pregnancy terminations are used as a form of contraception," they said. "The majority of women in this study used some form of contraception at the time of conception." I thought that contraception was supposed to prevent conception. Maybe this is another case of liberal thinking where intent is enough, regardless of bad results. In other words, they are suggesting abortion is just fine as long as it is not used as a primary means of contraception. The correct conclusion remains that contraception will not reduce abortion because contraception is unreliable.
Friday, June 6, 2008 -- Planned Parenthoood proves they are anti-choice Did you know that if a customer enters Planned Parenthood with Pro-Life literature in her possession, Planned Parenthood employees take the literature away from that customer, even if she wants it? This blatant act is certainly a violation of choice, actually an act of theft!This denial of choice actually happened recently at the Planned Parenthood abortion fortress in Aurora, IL. As reported by Matt Yonke at Families Against Planned Parenthood: Sidewalk counselor Karen Koller reports she was speaking with a young lady who was going to Planned Parenthood for birth control, but was very interested in the literature Karen gave her. On her way out of Planned Parenthood, she stopped to ask Karen for some more literature. She needed more because Planned Parenthood employees had taken it away from her! They forced her to give them the literature she had received from our sidewalk counselors. Karen said employees told the girl, "We need to take these" and when she said she wanted to keep them, she was told the pamphlets were "not allowed in here." The young lady was livid and, after getting more literature from Karen, told her she was never coming back to Planned Parenthood after their rudeness and, let's call a spade a spade, theft of her materials. Looks like Planned Parenthood has a customer relations problem! There must be an opportunity here to conceive a strategy to help them get more of their customer upset with their anti-choice attitude and policies.
Thursday, June 5, 2008 -- Restricting both freedom and choice Abortion supporters have been trying to pass the so-called Freedom of Choice Act since Bill Clinton entered the White House in 1993. If this radical bill was enacted into law, it would force on our nation public funding of abortion for any reason for all nine months of pregnancy in all 50 states, by rescinding all Federal and state laws that regulate abortion in any way. Even laws requiring only doctors to perform abortions would be rescinded, and also any laws placing even the slightest medical regulations on abortion clinics.Here is some evidence of just how radical this law would be. Both houses of Congress had a Democrat majority in 1993-1994 with a Democrat President who was ready to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. The bill was never even brought to a vote during those two years after many citizens expressed their concerns about the bill. The Freedom of Choice Act has never been voted on after that time either, but now efforts to pass the Freedom of Choice Act are getting more attention again. Democrats again control both houses of Congress and Barack Obama has stated, "The first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act" (during his 2007 talk before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund). This bill is more radical than the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. It would eliminate both freedom and choice for anyone who opposes abortion on demand by establishing the right to abortion as a “fundamental right.” No wonder Planned Parenthood, as the nation's largest abortion provider, really wants such a law passed.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 -- Describing how abortions are committed (part 2) Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, has created another video showing the visual truth about the gruesome nature of abortion, now covering Prostaglandin Abortion. This is his third video on abortion procedures placed on YouTube.In the first two videos Fr. Pavone demonstrates how abortions are committed in both first trimester abortion and second trimester abortion. More information is available at “Is This What You Mean?” Fr. Pavone also raises issues for consideration at the Outset of the General Election Season. “The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed” (US Bishops, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, n.28).
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 -- Behind Auburn Avenue Parking lurks Planned Parenthood In Cincinnati, Planned Parenthood is playing the deceptive name game again. Auburn Avenue Parking purchased a building near Western Hills High School, but local defenders of life recently discovered the purchase was actually made on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Ohio to establish an additional clinic. Not only is Planned Parenthood covering up the fact that they're building an abortion clinic, but the proposed clinic will be near a predominantly African-American high school. Who claimed Planned Parenthood was not targeting minorities? Just as it did in Aurora, Illinois under the name Gemini Office Development and Denver, Colorado as Fuller38, Planned Parenthood bought the property under a name that would not be recognized by concerned citizens.
Monday, June 2, 2008 -- American people are pro-choice? NOT Abortion advocates still claim that the American public supports their position, but polling data reveals a different story. Recall that abortion advocates insist that abortion should have no limits. Even partial birth abortion is considered vital, given their unrelenting fight to defend a procedure that amounts to infanticide. The latest Gallup Poll shows just 28% of Americans take the position that abortion should always be allowed. In contrast, 71% of Americans either want all abortions to be illegal (17%) or want them legal under some circumstances (54%). These results are almost identical to the polling data from 2006 and 2007. Unfortunately, the Gallup Poll does not ask additional questions to clarify specifics about the limited circumstances envisioned by 54% of those polled who want limits. Other surveys suggest the typical exceptions are rape, incest, and life of the mother. Since these exceptions account for less than 3% of the abortions committed annually, 71% of the public opposes 97% of the abortions taking place each year in our nation. Does that sound like support for abortion to you?
|