Life Links 5/2/11

Democratic state legislators in Florida got into a heated argument after one of them (Daphne Campbell) backed a prolife bill.

Deeply religious and opposed to abortion, Campbell clashed with her colleagues over the abortion bill. Randolph had had enough. And the two exchanged words — possibly more.

At that point, the stories diverge. And they're being revised.

Campbell said Randolph called her a "traitor," threatened to run an opponent against her and threw papers at her. Randolph denies it. He acknowledged he threw some of her papers and a pen in the trash.

The New York Times is covering Indiana's push to stop providing tax-dollars to abortion providers.

Abortion rights supporters condemned the decision, saying it would leave 22,000 poor residents of Indiana, who use Planned Parenthood's 28 health facilities in the state, with nowhere to go for a range of women's services, from breast cancer screening to birth control. Planned Parenthood of Indiana said it would file an injunction to block the measure from taking effect. But abortion opponents said the move merely guarded against sending tax dollars to facilities that perform abortions, and said women on Medicaid still had plenty of health facilities available to them all over Indiana.

Here's the text of the bill in question. It also includes a 20 week/fetal pain abortion ban, tweaks their informed consent law with ultrasound viewing option, tries to prevent cross-county judge shopping for parental consent waivers, requires abortionists to have admitting priveleges

Below is a video of a news report on the story. At the end, the female anchor notes that Gov. Daniels' office says organizations can get their funding back - all they need to do is stop performing abortions. When Planned Parenthood is forced to choose between state funding and providing abortions, they're going to pick abortion every time. They won't even acknowledge that ceasing abortions is an option.



Huntington News isn't too impressed with West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant's decision to get funding from EMILY's List in her attempt to become governor.

Reasonable people can disagree on the pro-life/pro-choice issue. But until this year, we have yet to see a West Virginia statewide candidate for office so brash as to tell her future constituents that they must kowtow to the out-of-state special interest group that says that abortion on demand is fine and dandy. Natalie Tennant may have gotten a few TV spots paid for by Emily's List money this year.

But in exchange, she's sold her political career here for a very cheap price.