Breaking: Komen Foundation stops grants to Planned Parenthood

Komen says the Congressional investigation is the reason. From FOX News:

The nation's leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates — creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.

The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.

Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress — a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups......

Komen, while not publicly announcing its decision to halt the grants, has conveyed the news to its 100-plus U.S. affiliates. Richards said she was informed via a phone call from Komen's president, Elizabeth Thompson, in December.

"It was incredibly surprising," Richards said. "It wasn't even a conversation — it was an announcement."

Richards subsequently sent a letter to Komen's top leaders — CEO Nancy Brinker and board chairman Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. — requesting a meeting with the board and asserting that Komen had misrepresented Planned Parenthood's funding-eligibility status in some states.

According to Planned Parenthood, the Komen leaders replied to Richards with a brief letter ignoring the request for a meeting, defending the new grant criteria, and adding, "We understand the disappointment of any organization that is affected by these policy and strategy updates."

Life Links 1/31/12

Abortionist Steven Brigham's defense for his New Jersey to Maryland abortion caravan and the killing of unborn children past the age of viability? Maryland can't charge me because I killed the fetuses while in New Jersey.

His attorneys argued in a motion filed last week that the arrangement protects him from criminal prosecution in Maryland because Brigham administered drugs that killed the fetuses while the patients were in New Jersey. He then extracted the fetuses at his clinic in Elkton, Md.

In case you thought Canadian abortion advocate Joyce Arthur was anything other than either a liar or an ignoramus, here's evidence that she has trouble getting her facts straight.

In the United States, where fetuses do have legal personhood rights in at least 38 states (mostly through "fetal homicide" laws supposedly aimed at third parties who assault pregnant women), the laws are used primarily to prosecute pregnant women for drug or alcohol abuse, refusing a caesarean, or even experiencing a stillbirth. These unjust and cruel prosecutions tend to scare pregnant women away from prenatal care or even push them to have an abortion. They also turn pregnant women into third-class citizens whose rights are subordinate to those of their fetus.

There's a reason she provides no evidence for this ridiculous assertion, especially considering a number of the laws in question expressly exempt pregnant women.

There's also this great tidbit which highlights why you won't see Arthur agree to debate abortion:

To come back to Woodworth's challenge about whether the fetus is human, he completely misses the point because he's confusing the medical/biological aspects of "what is a human being" with the legal/social aspects of personhood. The biological status of the fetus is irrelevant since women need and have abortions anyway.

You silly thing, who cares if the unborn are human beings? Women need abortions.


The Raw Story has a longer video of the Occupy Pro-Choice protesters who interrupted a prolife event during the March for Life. Who signs up to continuously repeat lame decades-old chants?

Life Links 1/30/12

Jill Filipovic is promoting the meme that won't die.

The United States has one of the highest abortion rates in the developed world — that is in large part because of lack of birth control access

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. There are various reasons the United States' abortion rate is higher than some other nations in the developed world. "Lack of access to birth control" is not one of them.

Noticeably absent from Filipovic's pronouncement is any evidence for it. Typical.


The New York Times publishes an article from the Texas Tribune on the state's new ultrasound law. Here's a boo-hoo part about the poor abortionists and the logistics nightmare it creates for traveling abortionists:

For the clinics, however, it has been a bureaucratic nightmare. Now the physician performing the abortion — not an ultrasound technician, for example, or a secondary doctor — must conduct the sonogram on a separate day, a scheduling struggle when doctors providing elective abortions are in short supply and rotate between clinics.

“They’ve had to set aside a whole other day doing ultrasounds, visits that in most parts of medicine would be dedicated to people with less training than a physician,” Ms. Hagstrom Miller said. “The effect on their travel schedule, on their reimbursement, on patients’ access to them has been tremendous.”

Lawyer Gloria Allred is apparently contacting television stations which are planning on airing Randall Terry's Super Bowl ads and asking them for time to appear on the stations and react to the ad and "express the pro-choice right to safe and legal abortion position." I don't know if the stations should allow someone who can't spell the name of her country properly ("United Sates") the time of day.


Newt Gingrich has announced he would ban all embryonic stem cell research and create a commission to study the ethics of in-vitro fertilization if elected president.

Life Links 1/27/12

The Michigan Daily has an insightful piece by Cassie Balfour, a pro-choice student, who recently took the time to attend a meeting of the university's prolife student group.

It's pretty easy to be pro-choice at the University. I may have been raised in the religious west side of the state, but I grew up in East Quad, where being pro-choice is as ubiquitous as the Bob Marley posters pasted on dorm room walls.

It's easy to get trapped in an echo chamber when you think the Truth belongs to your side. But even if we can't agree, we can occasionally step across the protest line, stop the chanting, and listen.

A district judge has denied a Justice Department attempt to stop Colorado-based sidewalk counselor Kenneth Scott from talking to drivers as they enter Denver's Planned Parenthood.


Katrina Fernandez writes about beauty in the prolife movement.

I will never forget the one woman I met on Monday. She was there wearing an "I had an abortion" t-shirt. She said her abortion was 26 years ago and it was the best thing she'd ever done. Can you image living as long as she has and the only grand achievement she can claim for herself was having an abortion two and half decades ago?

Overheard: Student for Life of America's Kristan Hawkins in an interview at National Review Online.

You know, I saw two bumper stickers on a car the other day, and it still frustrates me when I think of it: One side of the car had a "You Can't Be Catholic and Pro-Choice" bumper sticker, and the other side had an "Obama 2012" bumper sticker. Can you say disconnect?

Life Links 1/26/12

The Peoria Journal Star has an article on National Health Care Services abortion clinic in Peoria, Illinois, which was found in violation of "dozens" of state rules (22 pages worth of deficiencies) after being inspected for the first time in over a decade.

Since the inspection, National Health Services has instituted a number of changes, including rewriting charts to indicate physicians reviewed patient medical histories and physical exams; renewing and updating files on physicians' credentials and hospital privileges; and training or re-training staff on pre- and post-operative emergency procedures. Additionally, licensed practical nurses will no longer administer intravenous medications and no LPNs or registered nurses will perform duties beyond their scope of practice. A maintenance log has been established to document regular equipment sterilization and all medications and narcotics will be locked away at all times.

The clinic spent about $10,000 to meet requirements of a separate architectural inspection. Almost $4,000 of the amount went to replacing wooden doors of two storage rooms with fireproof doors, Van Duyn said.

Abortions will resume at a Planned Parenthood in Columbia, Missouri after the clinic found a new abortionist.


An abortion clinic in Australia will stop performing abortions past 24 weeks. The clinic previously performed post 24-week abortions on women with "psychosocial reasons" including women who were "suffering mental health problems, have had a catastrophic change in their circumstances or have experienced difficulty accessing abortion services earlier."


Peter Heck points out how many pro-choicers insert emotion into the abortion debate in place of logic and notes how pro-choice political candidates rarely have to face emotional questions based on personal scenarios.

Or compare apples to apples and envision Obama being quizzed by Piers Morgan: "So if you believe that partial-birth abortion is a legitimate medical procedure that violates no moral law, would you be willing to inject the saline into your own daughter's womb to burn your grandchild alive?" Such outrageously aggressive and offensively personal questioning would have Morgan looking for work within a week.

The Center for Reproductive Rights has asked for a rehearing of Texas' ultrasound law in front of the entire 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.


The New York Daily News has the story of a woman who was misdiagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy, given one of the drugs used in chemical abortions, discovered her child was actually in her uterus and decided to give birth despite the possibility of birth defects. Despite being born with some rather serious birth defects, her daughter is "surprisingly healthy."

A lack of access to contraceptives is not a major reason why teens get pregnant

A new government study pokes another large hole in the "we need more access to birth control to dramatically reduce unplanned pregnancies" meme. Here's an MSNBC article on the study:

A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant.

In a survey of thousands of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies, about a third said they didn't use birth control because they didn't believe they could get pregnant......

The researchers interviewed nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 19 states who gave birth after unplanned pregnancies in 2004 through 2008. The survey was done through mailed questionnaires with telephone follow-up.

About half of the girls in the survey said they were not using any birth control when they got pregnant. That's higher than surveys of teens in general, which have found that fewer than 20 percent said they didn't use contraception the last time they had sex......

Only 13 percent said they didn't use birth control because they had trouble getting it.

Another finding: Nearly a quarter of the teen moms said they did not use contraception because their partner did not want them to.

Table 1 of the study clearly shows that a number of different reasons led teenagers not to use birth control and not having access isn't in the top 3. Interestingly, the 13% of teens not using contraceptives who say they had trouble getting them mirrors the 12% number found in the Guttmacher Institute's 2001 research of all reproductive-aged women who didn't use contraceptives.

Will these findings finally lead Planned Parenthood, AGI, etc. to stop blathering on endlessly about the desperate need for more access to contraceptives?

I wouldn't bet on it.

Life Links 1/24/12

Here's the Washington Post's coverage of the March for Life 2012.


The Salt Lake Tribune has a long two-part profile article on embattled abortionist Nicola Riley, who has been charged with murder for her role in late-term abortions in Maryland. The story shows how Riley's financial troubles led her to inquire about aborting children on the east coast and led to her association with infamous abortionist Steven Brigham. The second part details the botched abortion which led to charges against Riley and Brigham and how Riley's numerous lies about her past prison term caught up with her.


At the LTI blog, Jay Watts dismantles Debra Haffner's assertion-filled, argument-free piece attempting to make a religious case for legalized abortion.

What always gets me about pieces like Haffner's is when they equate "respecting women's moral agency" with believing that every decision a woman makes is morally right.


A utility worker in Fort Wayne found the remains of an unborn child while cleaning a pump station screen. The age of the child has yet to be determined. The article states between 10 and 25 weeks.

Embryonic stem cell success? Well, we're not really sure.....

The scientists at ACT have gotten the Lancet to publish a paper noting that after 4 months, two patients with eye conditions who received injections of cells derived from human embryonic stem cells have not had an adverse effects and have shown limited improvement. However, the paper notes that the scientists don't know what led to the improvement.

Similarly, we are uncertain at this point whether any of the visual gains we have recorded were due to the transplanted cells, the use of immunosuppressive drugs, or a placebo effect.

Amazingly, the New York Times has a (dare I say it?) somewhat evenhanded piece in their business section (maybe that's why) regarding the study. The article notes ACT's history of using overstatements in press releases to raise funds, the unusualness of publishing results on so few patients so quickly, the lack of a control group and the reality that the implanted cells might not have actually done anything.

More on Illinois' abortion clinic inspections

The Daily Herald has more from the Associated Press' research into Illinois' attempt to start inspecting abortion clinics again after years of neglect. Most notable is the results of their inspection of the Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood, its closure and the insane reaction of Larissa Rowansky, the abortion clinic's co-owner.

One of those facilities — the Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood — closed when the owner decided to surrender its license rather than pay a $36,000 fine or endure an expensive legal fight with the state. The fine was for violations including the clinic's failure to perform CPR on a patient who died after a procedure. Its owner told the AP her clinic was safe and she felt victimized by the surprise inspection after 15 years....

Larissa Rowansky, a co-owner of the Women's Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood, said her clinic helped women and provided the best care that a professional clinic could provide.

But Illinois inspection reports detail citations for practices such as frozen TV dinners stored in a biohazard lab refrigerator that also held placental or fetal tissue. The clinic's dusty equipment, lack of a supervising registered nurse and failure to perform CPR on a patient who later died also drew citations.

Rowansky said that patient didn't need CPR because she was speaking to emergency workers when she was taken to a hospital after her abortion. The patient "lied about her condition," Rowansky added, saying the woman had bronchial pneumonia and was too ill to have an abortion.

The other violations uncovered by the state inspectors were technicalities, Rowansky said.

"It was unfair," she said of the state's inspection last year, the first in 15 years.

A separate inspection of the building resulted in more citations for fire hazards. Fixing the problems and paying the fine would have cost more than a year's revenue, Rowansky said.

"I tried to help women to get legal abortions," she said. "If someone wants to work against that, there's nothing I can do."

Life Links 1/23/12

The smallest surviving child born in California is going home. Melinda Guido weigh a little more than ½ a pound at birth.

She was born four months premature on Aug. 30 and weighed just more than 9 ounces, making her the second smallest in the United States and one of the world's smallest surviving babies.

Melinda was so tiny she could fit into the palm of her doctor's hand.

Doctors say the baby now weighs 4.5 pounds and has progressed enough to be discharged.

Overhead - Mark Judge on Washington Post writer Dana Milbank's observations about the March for Life:

What makes this so awful is not that Milbank is a liberal. It's the rote belching up of cliches in place of thought, research, or contemplation. It's the making of an idiotic assertion about financial motivation, followed the inability to follow a more interesting assertion he stumbles over to an interesting place. It's the childish impulse, not to mention the moral sclerosis, of the sarcastic quotes around "conscience clause."

Scott Klusendorf and Jay Watts defend incremental prolife legislation.


Casey Martinson, the Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes (PPSFL), writes that the sky is falling on Roe v. Wade.

I'm sorry to say that the sky is falling on Roe v Wade. It's been falling incrementally for the past four decades, and it fell further, faster, in 2011 than in any year before. According to the Guttmacher Institute, state legislatures passed 94 new laws restricting abortion in 2012. Not only is that a new record, but it shatters the previous record of 34 new laws passed in 2005 by a lot.

Interestingly, the director of public affairs doesn't know how old Roe v. Wade is.

So the alarm that defenders of reproductive rights have been sounding at a higher and higher volume is serious business. As we approach the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we have an opportune moment to bring these concerns into focus against the never-ending blur of our modern news cycle. Anti-choice extremists – a fair word for people who equate not just abortion but birth control pills with murder – are gearing up to make their own hay on this issue, and after 38 years of losing ground, pro-choice advocates need maximum effort to turn things around.

Unsurprisingly, avid pro-choicers who spurn debate have no problem interrupting a prolife event at the March for Life to mindlessly spout chants. Jennie Stone has the video and summary.

ProLifeCon live streaming

Don't miss the live stream of ProLifeCon at the Family Research Council's website.

Illinois inspecting abortion clinics again

Two separate Associated Press articles on local Illinois television stations inform readers that in 2011 the state of Illinois started to inspect abortion clinics after years of neglect.

An analysis of state documents by The Associated Press finds the state is catching up with a backlog of neglected inspections, but a few clinics still haven't been checked in more than a decade.

The renewed oversight last year led to the permanent closure of a clinic in Rockford earlier this month, following the closing of a second clinic in suburban Chicago last October.

State officials say gruesome revelations about a Philadelphia facility spurred the renewed inspections.

Another article lists the number of years since various clinics had been investigated.

Even the unborn are Tebowing

You know a trend is popular if unborn children are taking part in it.

Life Links 1/19/12

Russell Moore writes about sharing the gospel in an abortion culture.

In your congregation this Sunday, and in the neighborhoods around you right now, there are women vulnerable to abortionist propaganda, not because they reject the church but because they're afraid they ‘ll lose the church. Pregnant young women are scared they will scandalize church people when they start to show, so they keep it secret. Parents are fearful their pregnant daughter, or their son's pregnant girlfriend, will prompt the rest of the congregation to see them as bad families.

As they keep all of this secret from the Body of Christ, many of them fall prey to the false gospel of the abortion clinic. "We can take care of this for you," these people say. "And it will all go away."

Scott Klusendorf recently had a piece entitled, "The 2012 Elections: Five Questions for Pro-Life Advocates" published in the Christian Research Journal.


It's hard to keep straight face reading this from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards:

In fact, the Tebow story exemplifies the health care environment that Planned Parenthood promotes....

The Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization have apparently put together another one of those worldwide abortion studies guesstimates based on guesstimates which the Lancet decided to publish. Unsurprisingly, they claim abortions are more frequent in countries where abortion is illegal and to push for more funding of contraceptives.

Life Links 1/18/12

Massachusetts' state appeals court has struck down a probate judge's ruling ordering a woman with schizophrenia have an abortion and be sterilized.

Earlier this month, a Norfolk probate judge declared a pregnant woman with schizophrenia incompetent and ordered her to undergo an abortion, stating she could be "coaxed, bribed, or even enticed'' into the hospital for the procedure.

Unbidden, the judge further directed that the 32-year-old woman be sterilized "to avoid this painful situation from recurring in the future.''

Yesterday, the state's appeals court struck down the decision in unusually harsh terms, saying the woman had clearly expressed her opposition to abortion as a Catholic.

"The personal decision whether to bear or beget a child is a right so fundamental that it must be extended to all persons, including those who are incompetent,'' the opinion stated, citing a 1982 ruling by the state's Supreme Judicial Court......

The woman, identified in court records by the pseudonym Mary Moe, described herself to court officials as "very Catholic,'' and said she would never have an abortion. When asked about an abortion at a December hearing, she replied that she "wouldn't do that.......''

The woman, who also has bipolar disorder, has been pregnant twice before. In the first pregnancy, she had an abortion. In the second she gave birth to the boy.

At some point between her abortion and the birth of her son, she had a "psychotic break'' and has since been hospitalized numerous times for mental illness, court records say.

Dr. Rajendra Kale, interim editor-in-chief at the Canadian Medical Association Journal, defends his call for withholding information on fetal sex until the 30th week to prevent sex-selection abortions in Canada.

Kale said the overall numbers might be small, but if the phenomenon is showing up in census data, it's not as small as people here want to believe.

"Anyone saying it doesn't happen in Canada or happens in ridiculously low numbers is just wrong," Kale said. "I'm convinced we need to do something."

A South African court is hearing from an abortionist about the death of a 35-year-old woman who died during a botched 18-week abortion at a Marie Stopes abortion clinic.

e said soon after the procedure started, 'something went wrong' and Mathebula's condition deteriorated. She died after losing more than two litres of blood. 'I did not force the forceps . . . to cause the tear, I simply grabbed the foetus. I do not know what caused the tear which eventually led to the rupture,' he is reported to have said.

Overheard - Dana Milbank on abortion provider Merle Hoffman's claims of an abortion expulsion since the recession:

Abortion rates have exploded since the economic collapse, she warned, as nearly three-quarters of women ending their pregnancies say they simply can't afford to have a baby. Hoffman expanded on that trend to forecast a "dim future" for women if a Republican wins the White House: a world of abortion "slave states" and "underground railroads" and "pre-Roe reality."

There was just one problem with this hysteria: The data in the study she presented were from 2008 — before the impact of the recession was felt. The sweeping conclusions came, rather, from "journalistic reports," as well as "seminal studies" (no pun intended, apparently) at Hoffman's own clinic in New York — where, as she eventually admitted, abortion rates were "relatively stable" the last two years.

Life Links 1/16/12

The Northern Illinois Women's Center abortion clinic in Rockford will be closed permanently. This is after the clinic had done a variety of tasks required to meet health regulations including plans to hire an abortionist with surgical privileges at an in-state hospital.

According to an email sent to the Rockford Register Star, the clinic's owners have decided to voluntarily shut their doors for good.

Clinic officials state their decision is based on lack of support from the community, the political climate surrounding the abortion issue and the challenge the clinic would face in rebuilding staff.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the immediate enforcement of Texas' ultrasound law.

Then on Thursday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked the appeals court to make its decision effective immediately, shortening the 22-day waiting period typically required under the court's rules. The appeals court granted the request in a one-sentence order less than a day later......

The Texas Department of State Health Services expected to implement its enforcement plan in the coming weeks, spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. The department was finalizing its notification letters that it will send to abortion facilities and inspectors, Williams said.

Overheard: George Berkin in NJ Voices on the Texas ultrasound law and it's detractors.

First, Planned Parenthood's response shows just how empty the "pro-choice" rhetoric really is. In our everyday experience, more information makes for greater freedom of choice. Should I attend Rutgers or Montclair State? As I consider my options, I want as much information as possible about academic offerings, costs, social life, etc.

Deciding what to do when faced with an unwanted pregnancy, unlike choosing which school to attend, is fraught with moral consequences as I consider each option. But that moral dimension should make it more important to be fully informed about each possible choice, not less important.

Amanda Marcotte is really off her rocker. She think that if Griswold v. Connecticut is overturned, she could see "conservative states passing laws requiring you to be married (to get contraceptives) or some such nonsense." No states are mentioned nor any legislators in such a state who would support such a law. She really is the mayor of Crazytown, U.S.A.

Later, she shows why she continuously struggles to form anything resembling a reasonable argument.

Santorum is trying to argue basically the contraception somehow causes out-of-wedlock births---man, I hate that term---because it lets people think they can have sex and then they get pregnant. Luckily for us, we actually have data to disprove this argument, and not just common sense. The record high for teen pregnancy was not 1966, the year after Griswold was decided. Nor was it after condoms became ubiquitous in the 80s and 90s. It was actually in 1958, when it was twice as high as it is now. True, there were a lot of shotgun marriages back then, but so what? The difference is not in contraception use, but in mores regarding marriage and pregnancy.

First, she's comparing apples and oranges. Teen pregnancy doesn't equal out-of-wedlock births, especially in 1958. My mother was the first woman in her immediate family not to be married and have a kid before she was 20. This is why teen pregnancy numbers were high in the late-fifties. It wasn't because a bunch of unmarried teens were having unplanned pregnancies nor was it because of "shotgun marriages." It was because a bunch of married women who were teenagers were having planned pregnancies.

People got married and started having children at a much earlier age in the 1950's. In 1950 and 1960, the median age of first marriage for women was 20.3 years. That means a little less than half of the women getting married were doing so in their teens. Unsurprisingly, a higher number of women being teens when married leads to a higher number of teen pregnancies. Interestingly, Marcotte never seem to think that easier access to contraceptives may have played a role in changing society's mores on sex, marriage and pregnancy.

Life Links 1/12/12

A Maryland woman is facing 5 years in jail after buying abortion pills online and giving them to a teenager who was 20 weeks pregnant. Sandra Craine pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment after the teen she gave the pills to wound up in a hospital delivering a child hours after taking the pills.

"The pills arrive in the mail and (Craine) gives the packet to (the victim). She takes her first pill on the morning of June 30 and two hours later, the pregnant (victim) is in Union Hospital with pain. Her baby was born alive a short time later, but died shortly thereafter," Urick said.

Doctors who treated the victim contacted police and Det. Angel Valle of the Cecil County Sheriff's Office, in turn, conducted the investigation that led to the indictment.

Rai Rojas, the Director of Hispanic Outreach for the National Right to Life Committee, discusses prolife people who claim they wouldn't vote for their non-favored Republican against President Obama.

I promise you, I am going to scream the next time I hear a conservative pundit or "family issues" blogger state that they wouldn't vote for this guy or that guy if this guy or that guy wins the GOP nomination. And if one more holier-than-thou pro-lifer quips that so-and-so would be just as bad as Obama – I'm also going to scream, but not before I whack them straight up the side of their numb-skull head.

This president is the single most pro-abortion one we have ever had, worse, this is a president who has said that banning infanticide would impede a "woman's right to chose." Seriously. Are you still going to insist that Gingrich, Romney, Paul et al are just as bad? If so, you've lost all grip on reality.

UK abortionists are getting ready for an increased number of abortion procedures after the holiday season.

Mr Bradshaw, 57, said: "There is a significant increase in post-coital contraception in the week after the festive season. There are also more requests for terminations within the next few months.

Life Links 1/11/12

A panel of three judges on the Fifth District Court of Appeals has overturned a restraining order which prevented Texas' sonogram law from fully taking effect. The law required an abortionist to show women considering an abortion their ultrasound and describe it. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks had originally ruled that parts of the law infringed on the free speech of abortionists.

Chief Judge Edith H. Jones used her opinion to systematically dismantle the argument that the Texas law infringes on the free speech rights of doctors and patients, the key argument against the law.

"The required disclosures of a sonogram, the fetal heartbeat, and their medical descriptions are the epitome of truthful, non-misleading information," Jones wrote. "The appellees failed to demonstrate constitutional flaws" with the law.

Sparks had ruled in August that several provisions of the state law violated the free-speech rights of doctors who perform abortions by requiring that they show and describe the sonogram images and describe the fetal heartbeat, all of which doctors have said is not necessary for good treatment.

In response to this opinion, Nancy Northup of the Center for Reproductive Rights hilariously goes all libertarian. Just don't let them know you favor tax funds being directly inserted into that private decision!

"This law, and this decision, inserts government directly into a private decision that must be protected from the intrusion of political ideologues," Northrup said. "Anyone concerned with the erosion of the constitutional protection of our individual rights as Americans should be profoundly concerned and disappointed by today's events."

A Michigan judge has ruled Planned Parenthood can open a clinic at a property with a disputed deed restriction. Planned Parenthood deceived the property owners of a nearby hotel which held the deed restriction and have repeatedly lied about their intentions for the clinic. Prolifers have promised to appeal.

At the hearing, Circuit Judge James Alexander said lawyers representing those opposed to Planned Parenthood failed to show how the clinic, set for a business-zoned area of Opdyke Road, would violate restrictions set forth when the land was split for sale more than a decade ago.

He scolded lawyers representing the opponents for arguing on the assumption that the clinic would provide abortion services, when local Planned Parenthood officials have said repeatedly that they may not.

"Let me stop this right now," said Alexander, as attorney James Carey referred to the clinic as "an abortion clinic" in the beginning of his arguments. "This is not an abortion case. This is a property case."

It shows you something about how abortion clinics don't really care about "choice" when there is supposedly only one abortion clinic in the entire country that is also an adoption agency. No statistics are given comparing the number of adoptions with the number of abortions. The story of this clinic in Ohio also disputes one popular pro-choice assertion.

One of the myths surrounding abortion is that a woman walks into an abortion clinic, says get rid of it, climbs on the table and walks out baby-free. But abortion providers know that the greatest problems with abortions can come in the aftermath, if a woman goes into a deep depression over her decision.....

Nature profiles Robert Lanza and ACT, the only company currently running a clinical trial using cells created from human embryonic stem cells, and there various troubles.

Now, the company's future hinges on the outcome of the trials. Final results won't be out until 2013, and they will show mainly whether the cell transplants are safe. The patients enrolled in the trial are in the late stages of vision loss, so the chances of dramatic improvement are remote, experts say.....

But even if the trial results are positive, ACT will face enormous challenges in commercializing the technology. The company will have to show the FDA that its RPE cells can slow vision loss in bigger and more expensive clinical trials.

And even if the treatment works, storing and distributing the cells, which often have short shelf-lives, is expensive and logistically difficult, says Chris Mason, head of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Bioprocess Group at University College London.

This is why it's tough to take feminist pro-choice bloggers seriously

Jill Filipovic at Feministe provides a perfect example of why thoughtful people have trouble taking feminist pro-choice bloggers seriously. She links to a piece in the Washington Post which takes down the silly idea that Rick Santorum wants to outlaw birth control.

Jill claims she isn't scared Santorum himself would move to ban birth control but Jill is worried about "efforts on the state level to outlaw birth control."

Do I think that if Santorum is elected president he'll try to outlaw birth control? No. Of course not. That's not going to happen, and that's not what anyone is actually worried about. What we are worried about are the efforts on the state level to outlaw birth control, and the kinds of federal judges that President Santorum — a phrase that makes me feel slightly ill — would appoint, to the Supreme Court and other federal courts.

This is crazy. Which states are going to try to outlaw birth control?

Can Jill name any state which has 10, heck 5 legislators in favor of outlawing birth control? If not, then why would she be worried about it?

Jill continues,

We are, however, concerned that he will stack the courts with anti-choice judges, and will back state efforts to limit or outlaw birth control.

Why would Santorum back efforts to outlaw birth control? In the Washington Post article Jill links notes Santorum is opposed to state efforts to outlaw birth control,

To be clear, he does think that laws banning birth control would be dumb "for a number of reasons. Birth control should be legal in the United States. The states should not ban it, and I would oppose any effort to ban it.''

So Santorum opposes state efforts to outlaw birth control, thinks laws to ban birth control would be "dumb," thinks birth control should be legal but Jill still thinks in some way he's going to support non-existent state efforts to ban birth control. Somebody took a crazy pill recently.

Amanda Marcotte is also drunk on delusional fears.

Life Links 1/6/12

Bobby Joe Rodgers, a homeless man with an extensive arrest record, has been arrested for and has admitted to setting fire to Steven Brigham's abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Rodgers told investigators he had an aversion to abortion.


The lawyers for abortionist/accused murder Nicola Riley want police and prosecutors in her case to be charged with contempt.

In the petition for contempt, Riley's attorneys argue that details about the charges against her have appeared in more than 700 news articles, prejudicing her presumption of innocence and likely tainting the jury pool......

In the motion to unseal the indictment and set bail, Riley's attorneys argue that the evidence against her is weak and that Maryland's viable fetus law does not apply to her.

"Because Dr. Riley is a medical professional and because she provided lawful medical care to a patient, in this case, she is exempt from prosecution," the motion says. "The facts of this case ... and the express language of the statute run counter to the state's bald assertion that this case is unique."

The Northern Illinois Women's Center abortion clinic in Rockford, Illinois plans to reopen after being closed since September. Here's a PDF of the final order which includes the complaint, NIWC's plan of correction, etc. The final order shows NIWC had to hire a "new" (he's probably around 75 years old) abortionist as an "Independent Contractor" who has privileges at the Methodist Hospital of Chicago and will work one day a week at NIWC. The other abortionists who work at NIWC don't have surgical privileges at an Illinois hospital.

Life Links 1/5/12

The Rockford abortion clinic which failed two inspections in a row can reopen if they pay a fine of $9,750. If they pay the fine and reopen, they can be shut down if 2012 inspections find any of the deficiencies found in 2011 inspections.

Or they can pay a $1,000 fine and close.

RH Reality Check's Robin Marty thinks violations like not having a nurse in the operating room and abortionists not having privileges with licensed hospitals have "very little to do with the actual services that it provides."


For some reason Jill at Feministe seems to think the fact that cells from the unborn child cross over the placenta and stay in the child's mother for years is somehow helpful to proving that the unborn aren't distinct, unique human beings. She presents no argument so I'm struggling to see why she would think cells from Human Being A existing in Human Being B proves that Human Being A isn't a distinct, unique human being. Transferred organs with the DNA of distinct, unique human beings live in other human beings for years. Does that prove organ donors aren't distinct, unique human beings?

The web page she links to also hurts the ole' "fetus is a parasite" argument as it notes the cells from the unborn child inside the mother help the mother.

Pincott adds that some fetal cells can also "migrate to injury sites" and speed up healing, as well as minimize scars after pregnancy and normalize skin structure — meaning that baby is helping to restore mommy!

Planned Parenthood has opened a new office in Johnson City, Tennessee and is relocating an abortion clinic in Waco, Texas.

Life Links 1/4/12

Lawyers for the state of Illinois and a Rockford abortion clinic will meet before a judge today told to talk about the suspension of the clinic's license. The Northern Illinois Women's Center has been closed since the end of September after failing a health and safety inspection.


The cause of the fire at the abortion clinic in Pensacola has yet to be determined. Abortionist Steve Brigham, who was recently charged with multiple counts of murder, is the owner of the clinic. According to a Philadelphia Inquirer timeline detailing Brigham's various run-ins with authorities, Brigham purchased the facility in March of 2011.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Local, state and federal agencies are helping with the investigation.

"We have not determined that it's arson," said Deborah Cox, a spokeswoman for the state fire marshal's office. "The investigation is continuing in that regard."

Planned Parenthood's monster affiliate, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, keeps getting bigger.

Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma has joined Planned Parenthood of the Heartland to create an affiliate that spans four states and includes three centers in Tulsa and one in Broken Arrow.

No decision has been made regarding whether the merger will make abortion services available at the Tulsa and Broken Arrow centers, and there is no timeline to make such a decision, a spokeswoman said.....

The merger, announced in June, brings together 34 centers in Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.

Rich Lowry discusses how the Santorum family lost a child and the recent "controversy" caused by the idiotic comments of Alan Colmes.

How is a family supposed to deal with the death of a child? Among some on the left, there's an instinctive reaction against how the Santorums handled their loss because the logic of abortion rights denies that there is any loss worth troubling over. The Santorums accepted their grief, and when life presented them with another wrenching challenge, accepted it in turn.

Life Links 1/3/12

In case you missed it, abortionists Steven Brigham and Nicola Riley have been charged with multiple counts of murder, presumably for killing viable unborn children. Both have been arrested and Maryland authorities are working on their extraditions.

Maryland criminal law states that people can be charged with murder if they "intend to cause the death of the viable fetus." The law does not define "personhood" and states it is not intended to infringe on a woman's right to have an abortion.

But state law also defines a fetus as "viable" if "there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus' sustained survival outside the womb."

Brigham provided abortions to five patients ranging from 18 to 33 weeks pregnant, according to a report by the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners.

The determination of whether those fetuses were "viable" could occur in court.

On New Year's Day, an abortion clinic in Pensacola was burned.

The Florida Fire Marshal's Office is heading the investigation, but the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have joined in because of the location of the blaze, said Deborah Cox, spokeswoman for the marshal's office.

"Because of the structure that was involved, because it was an abortion clinic," she said.

A preliminary investigation found that the fire began outside the clinic, Cox said.

The address of another one of arrested abortionist Steven Brigham' clinics is listed as the clinic's mailing address.

American Family Planning lists its physical address at 6770 N. Ninth Ave. and its mailing address as 1 Alpha Ave. in Voorhees, N.J., according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

The New Jersey address used by Brigham is the location of American Women's Services, which offers abortion and gynecological services.

The Washington Times has a New Year's piece featuring abortion proponents complaining about President Obama's supposed failures on the abortion front.


MSNBC has the story of a woman who was reunited with her biological daughter 77 years after the child was adopted.


New York prosecutors have dropped self-abortion charges against a woman who used abortion drugs to self-abort and then dumped the child in a dumpster.