Life Links 8/5/09

An Associated Press article's title notes that government "insurance would allow coverage for abortion."


The latest statistics on abortion are out in Michigan. Abortions increased by 5.2%. The percentage of abortions on black women rose to 45.4%. The number of abortions performed after 12 weeks also jumped up. One woman died in Michigan as a result of abortion.

Also of note, 98.1% of women paid for abortion by themselves. Only 1.8% of abortions were paid for by insurance. Makes you wonder where the Alan Guttmacher and the Kaiser Family Foundation got their statistics (87% and 46% respectively) used in the AP article above regarding abortion coverage in employer insurance health care plans.


Esquire has a long piece on abortionist Warren Hern which inaccurately describes him as the "only (abortionist) left" to specialize "in late abortions."


A federal judge has upheld the city of Oakland’s abortion bubble ordinance which prohibits abortion protestors from coming within 8 feet of women going into and out of abortion clinics. The judge also noted that efforts by clinic escorts to stand in front of Rev. Walter Hoye and block his sign “violate the law.”


Ramesh Ponnuru takes down another one of William Saletan increasingly lazy columns, this one on Tim Ryan, National Right to Life and how Saletan thinks NRLC doesn’t like Ryan because he favors contraception.

I think the best part is when Saletan accuses National Right to Life of changing its priorities in 2007 because their scorecards didn’t have a lot of abortion-specific legislation on them.

Hmmmm.... I wonder why? Maybe it’s because there weren’t any votes on abortion specific legislation. And why’s that? Oh yeah, it’s because the Democrats took control of the House in 2007 and prevented votes on this type of legislation. So no, National Right to Life didn’t change, Congressional leadership did. This could also be a reason why Ryan’s preference for prolife policies also began to change.