Life Links 3/25/09

Last night, towards the end of President Obama's press conference, Jon Ward from the Washington Times asked Obama an excellent question on stem cell research which Obama didn't seem prepared for. I was going to comment on Obama's response but both Yuval Levin and Wesley Smith have provided excellent comments. The only thing I would add is this seems to be another case where Obama feels he can make a number of claims about his policy which are wholly untrue because he knows the vast majority of the American public are too lazy to check the facts.


When I read Jill Stanek's piece on IVF in USA Today, I didn't say anything but I felt that something was amiss. It just wasn't the type of piece I expected from her. She explains why in her column today entitled, "How USA Today used me (and I let it)." Here's her original piece which was rejected.


The Associated Press has an article whose thesis is that the downturn in the economy means that more women are having abortions. I found this quote from a Planned Parenthood employee to be odd:

Paula Gianino, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said the recession clearly was a factor behind the rising abortion numbers late last year at the six clinics she oversees.

"Unfortunately we see women who are making decisions about terminating a pregnancy because of the severe economic crisis they're facing," she said. "They simply don't believe they can afford to bring another child into the world."

But hasn't the belief that they can't afford a child been one of top reasons women have been giving for years to explain their abortion decision? Why would Planned Parenthood, which thinks any reason for having an abortion is legitimate, suddenly find this unfortunate?


In Missouri, pro-choice legislators filibustered an informed consent bill with ultrasound viewing which also made it illegal to coerce a woman into having an abortion.


Dr. Gene Davenport, professor of religion and chairman of the religion department at Lambuth University, needs to find an embryology textbook and read it before writing a column ignorantly claiming, "The fact is that neither science, medicine, nor religion gives us a verifiable answer as to when a cell or a collection of cells becomes a human being."