Court decisions and abortion-related politics
Complete text
of Roe v. Wade, 410
U.S. 113 (1973).
What We Did Not Know: The Aftermath of Thirty
Years of Legal Abortion. Who could have predicted the bitter fruit and tragedy that would come
from legalized abortion? After thirty years, the aftermath demands examination.
The Unborn Child as a Person:
In Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court held that human children not yet born are not
"persons" under the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling is plainly erroneous as a matter of law, logic,
history, and science. Nevertheless, the Court has thus far shown no inclination to revisit this particular
ruling. On the other hand, it seems undisputed that "a newborn infant, whether the product of a normal
birth or an abortion," is a person under the fifth and fourteenth amendments. Furthermore, "[a]ll persons
born… in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they reside." U.S. Const. amend. XIV (emphasis added). Thus,
born children are both persons and citizens as a matter of federal constitutional law.
The Roe
Revolution: The Supreme Court's 1973 abortion decision imposed a new
moral order in which life is no longer a God-given right but a conditional privilege.
Roe
after 33 years. Come Sunday — Jan. 22 — the most inflammatory
decision in judicial history turns 33 years old.
If Babies Had Feathers We Would Not
Kill Them. Since 1973 ... nearly 50 million unborn and nearly born babies have been
killed. That is nearly 16% of the current population of the United States. Fifty million
babies who had no choice were sacrificed on the Altar of Choice — proving that when activist attorneys
with no moral grounding argue cases before activist judges with no moral grounding, bad things happen.
"Privacy"
by decree: Even some liberal supporters of abortion rights were appalled by
the [Roe v Wade] decision's flaccid reasoning. In a withering critique, the legal
scholar John Hart Ely wrote in the Yale Law Review that Roe "is not constitutional law
and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be."
Why
Roe v. Wade must go. [Cass] Sunstein seems to be saying that we should keep abortion legal
simply because it has been with us a long time. Would he say that we should have kept slavery because
it was with us 200 years (and was ensconced in our culture)? Should we keep racism now because
it's "part of our culture"? Stare decisis is a useful but not infallible principle. With
Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court created abortion virtually on demand, for any reason or no reason.
McCorvey to High
Court: Overturn Roe vs Wade. The woman whose case became the basis for
the controversial 1973 Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion is petitioning the court
to have the ruling overturned.
The Big Picture Behind Abortion. Legal
abortions didn't start with Roe or even with the five states that liberalized abortion laws in 1969 and 1970. Prior to
Roe, women could have had abortions when their lives or health were endangered. Doctors in some surprising states,
such as Kansas, had very liberal interpretations of what constituted danger to health; nevertheless, Roe did substantially
increase abortions, more than doubling the rate per live birth in the five years from 1972 to 1977.
Define unborn as 'persons,' overturn Roe.
The "Life at Conception Act" declares the unborn to be persons under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, addressing
the question that Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) says the Supreme Court left unresolved in 1973 — and that
only Congress can use to meet the conditions under which the high court said its conclusions supporting legal abortion can
be reversed. "Roe versus Wade itself said that if personhood is established, then Ms. Roe's position collapsed,"
Wicker points out. "In other words, if the fetus is a human life, then that is guaranteed specifically by the
14th Amendment."
Democrats
Move Left On Abortion. It seems as if the Democrats have accomplished the impossible:
They have moved to the left on abortion. On the party's platform, the Democrats dropped the
words "safe, legal and rare," the phrase used most famously by both Bill and Hillary Clinton to signal
moderation on the issue. The Democrats also added the modifier "unequivocally" to strengthen their
support for abortion rights.
Supreme
Court opinions are not private enough. The first killing of an abortion doctor by
an anti-abortion activist happened in 1993. Since then, six more people have been
killed in attacks on abortion clinics…. Most of the abortionists were shot or,
depending upon your point of view, had a procedure performed on them with a rifle. This
brings the total to: seven abortion providers to 30 million fetuses dead, which is
also a pretty good estimate of how the political battle is going.
Ruling Gives
South Dakota Doctors a Script to Read. The doctors' script that officially took effect Friday
[7/18/2008] has been tied up in court since 2005, when Planned Parenthood challenged a law that instructed
physicians what to tell abortion patients. Under the law, doctors must say that the woman has "an
existing relationship" with the fetus that is protected by the U.S. Constitution and that "her existing
constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated." Also, the doctor is
required to say that "abortion increases the risk of suicide ideation and suicide."
The Editor says...
Judging by the wording of this article, the Washington Post writer seems a bit miffed by the ruling. But
as we all know, the Miranda ruling gave
America's cops "a script to read", and the liberals loved it.
Planned Parenthood fails to open doors.
A state law that requires abortionists to inform women — before an abortion — that the
procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being" apparently has done what
no other pro-life protest has been able to accomplish — the closure of Planned Parenthood's
abortion facility.
Where's
that religious fanatic we elected? On the 32nd anniversary of Roe v.
Wade … President Bush told a pro-life rally in Washington that a "culture of
life cannot be sustained solely by changing laws. We need, most of all, to change
hearts." … We've been talking about abortion for 32 years. All the
hearts that can be changed have been changed.
Brazile:
Forget Obama's Abortion Radicalism — Gas is $4!. Who cares if Barack Obama won't protect a child who
is born alive after an abortion? Gas is over $4 a gallon! So argued Donna Brazile when Bill Bennett
pressed her on the matter today.
Court to Hear
Arguments on Whether an Abortion Ends Human Life. A federal appeals court will hear arguments
Wednesday in a potentially groundbreaking case that — for the first time, according to
attorneys — addresses the question of whether an abortion terminates a human being's life.
Many old truths about
abortion deserve to be heard again. Abortion is supposedly "the premier women's issue." Yet,
a national survey of women published by the Center for Gender Equality in 2003 said, "Only 30 percent
think abortion should be generally available." In fact, 17 percent of women said abortion should
never be permitted and 34 percent said abortion should be permitted only in cases of rape, incest, and
to save the mother's life. When asked to rank 12 issues in order of importance for the women's
movement, women ranked "keeping abortion legal" next to last.
Questions of
Life and Death: Among the Democrats, all the announced candidates refer to abortion "rights,"
and Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and Dodd have all promised to appoint judges who believe in a woman's "right to
privacy" — the code word for unlimited access to abortion. Among the Republicans there is
genuine debate, ranging from Giuliani, who says that he is "pro-life" but that he would decline to press for
a reversal of Roe v. Wade, to Huckabee, who wants not only to reverse that decision but to enact a
Human Life Amendment.
SCHIP off the Old Block.
The new House bill's "pregnant woman" rule seeks to deny the existence of the child in utero while still covering
the adolescent mother. This is a calculated move to open the door to federal taxpayer-funded abortions.
In the 17 states that now fund elective abortions (14 of them are forced to do so by court order) this coverage
could be used as a license to kill.
Louisiana Becomes First State to Ban Late-Term
Abortions. Louisiana became the first American state to outlaw a late-term abortion procedure on
Friday [7/13/2007], when the governor approved legislation allowing doctors to be prosecuted for performing
the surgery.
The
United Nations abortion dilemma: Let's briefly review two contradictory United Nations (U.N.)
talking points. (1) Abortion is a matter of "women's rights;" (2) Killing a "girl child"
in the womb is "the most extreme form of violence against women." To hold both of these beliefs at the
same time means to live with constant cognitive dissonance. It doesn't take a genius to realize that
the U.N. is on the horns of a dilemma; that is, the two alternatives are mutually exclusive.
Abortion's
'So-What' Factor: [In California] the electorate so strongly supports abortion rights that no
right-to-life candidate for governor, U.S. senator or president has won in California since 1988.
South Dakota's monkey
wrench: There is furtive glee in the eyes of such as Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL
Pro-Choice America. The reason for it is that she calculates that the effrontery of South Dakota's
legislature will bring on massive retaliation by the Supreme Court.
Hawaiian Republican Governor Signs
Pro-Abortion Law Overnight. Republican Governor Linda Lingle signed into law House
Bill 1242 HD 1, that will make Hawaii the abortion tourism capital of the United States. The
bill removes residency requirements for women seeking to abort their unborn children and allows abortions
to be performed in clinics or in a physician's office.
Appeals court says imprisoned women have
abortion rights. A pregnant woman doesn't lose her constitutional right to have an abortion
solely because she is behind bars, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday [1/23/2007]. In a unanimous
decision, the judges refused to allow Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to reinstate his policy which refuses
to take inmates to medical offices where they can terminate their pregnancies.
[I'm not a lawyer, but there is no mention of abortion in the Constitution, therefore there is no "constitutional
right to have an abortion". In the Declaration of Independence, which predates the Constitution, you will
note that our country was founded upon the belief that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."]
Court Backs Ban on Abortion Procedure.
The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion
opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench. The 5-4 ruling said the
Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate
a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.
[Bias alert: There is no such "constitutional right" inasmuch as the Constitution does not reserve rights
exclusively for women, nor does anything in the Constitution authorize the killing of innocent people.]
Abortion
and the U.S. Constitution: When a man is enslaved, his inalienable right to freedom and the
pursuit of happiness has been violated. Yet, the slave can be set free, his rights restored, and he
will be once again made whole. This does not hold true for the human child that has been aborted.
Once the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has been interrupted, there can be no righting
of the wrong.
Death
Certificates on Abortions Proposed. Legislation introduced in Tennessee would require
death certificates for aborted fetuses, which likely would create public records identifying women
who have abortions.
South Dakota starts
up the debate. Republicans around the country treated [South Dakota Gov. Mike] Rounds to
an old-fashioned shunning. President Bush brushed off South Dakota, repeating his oft-stated belief
in exceptions for pregnancies initiated through rape and incest. Not a single Republican of
stature uttered so much as an "attaboy."
How to Fight for Life:
Whether we fight to pass the Human Life Amendment or localize the battle for the hearts and minds of the
American people, one of the most important steps is to elect a president dedicated to the protection of
innocent human life.
Tribal Leader Ousted
Over Abortion Clinic. A Sioux tribe ousted its president for proposing an abortion clinic on the
reservation, which would be beyond the reach of South Dakota's strict new abortion ban.
Senate passes
interstate abortion bill. A bill that would make it a crime to take a pregnant girl across
state lines for an abortion without her parents' knowledge passed the Senate Tuesday [7/25/2006], but vast
differences with the House version stood between the measure and President Bush's desk.
Christian Attorneys Hopeful of Favorable
PBA Ruling from SCOTUS. The legal arm of the American Family Association says it will be
filing a friend-of-the-court brief in a major case before the U.S. Supreme Court when it considers the
issue of partial-birth abortion. In late February the high court agreed to hear the case of
Gonzales v. Carhart, which will deal with the constitutionality of the federal partial-birth
abortion ban.
The threatening
six: The real impact O'Connor's absence will have on abortion jurisprudence is a
potential loss of the key 5th vote for partial-birth abortion. In 2000 five Justices, including
Justice O'Connor, deemed this dangerous and inhumane practice a constitutional right. Should
the Court have an opportunity to hear another such case in the future, it could uphold a ban on
killing partially-born children and earn the gratitude of 80 percent of the American people who
want just that.
Bill criminalizing
minor (sic) abortions OK'd. Accompanying a minor across a state line to obtain an abortion and
avoid parental notification in the girl's home state would become a federal crime under a bill the House
passed Tuesday [9/26/2006]. Republican supporters said the 264-153 vote confirmed public sentiment that
parental involvement superceded (sic) a minor's right to have an abortion. Democratic opponents foresaw
the arrests of grandmothers and religious counselors trying to shield girls from abusive parents.
[Huh? Are we to believe that "religious counselors" try to facilitate abortions? And that
a young mother who is trying to kill her offspring is not an abusive parent herself?]
A Narrowed
Rift: Roe lies at the center of the bitter polarization of much of
American society. In countries where the issue is decided democratically, no such
intense animus exists. … Overruling Roe would not, as some Democrats will
claim, make abortion illegal, but merely the subject of democratic regulation. We
have paid a high price for a ruling that rests upon nothing in the Constitution and was
arrived at in an opinion of just over 51 pages that contains not a line of legal
reasoning.
High court hears key
abortion case. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments tomorrow [11/30/2005] in
a case that will determine whether a state can require parental notification before an abortion is
performed on a minor, without providing a health exception.
The
politics of pregnant girls: Imagine someone you may not know or like taking your daughter without
your knowledge to another state to have her appendix removed. Or to have a hysterectomy. Or even
to have her wisdom teeth removed. You'd be outraged, right?
Pro-Family
Activist Questions GOP's Choice of Pro-Abortion RNC Co-Chair. An
Ohio-based Christian organization is calling the Republican National Committee to
task for naming an abortion advocate as its new co-chairman. Last Wednesday [1/19/2005] the
RNC unanimously elected "pro-choice" National Committeewoman Jo Anne Davidson of Ohio to the
post. Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, … questions whether a
person with Davidson's pro-abortion beliefs should even belong to a party with a pro-life platform.
Hypocrisy
and the Ordeal of Terri Schiavo. Clearly no one wins in the legal and
political battles over the death of Terri Schiavo. Although it has been terribly
politicized, a valuable debate has emerged. This debate is not about abortion or
euthanasia in general, nor about death in the abstract. It's about an individual's
right to life and the value of life itself. Without concern for the
life of each individual, liberty is meaningless and indefensible.
The ACLU: Anti-Life Legal Shock
Troops. The American Civil Liberties Union has cloaked itself in the red,
white, and blue trappings of the First Amendment for decades. The general public
impression fostered by the group is that its first and foremost mission is the defense of
free speech. However … The ACLU (often called the "American Child Liquidation
Union" by pro-lifers) was one of the leading forces that enshrined abortion in our
culture. It demands that everyone pay for abortions with their tax dollars and is
even trying to obstruct the wishes of the people by attempting to disable the processes of
the state legislatures in trying to curtail abortion in any manner whatever!
One Small Step for
Babykind: It is better to ban one abortion procedure — i.e.,
partial-birth abortion — than to ban none at all. But the magnitude of this
pro-life victory should be kept in perspective.
The child who "crosses the goal line" — by hand, foot, or head — into the realm
of legally recognized "personhood" must receive the full protection of the law if
we are not to abandon, inexorably, the sanctity of postnatal life as
well.
New York sued over "Choose Life"
plates. The state of New York is the target of a federal lawsuit for rejecting a speciality
license plate with the message "Choose Life." The Department of Motor Vehicles dismissed an application
for a design by the non-partisan Children First Foundation because it found the words "Choose Life" to be
"patently offensive."
Anti-Abortion Group Wins Fight for 'Choose
Life' Arizona License Plates. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place a January ruling
by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the Arizona Life Coalition. The
Arizona Department of Transportation said it would "quickly and fully comply" with the courts' direction.
Court
rejects 'Choose Life' license plates. A federal appeals court ruled Friday [11/7/2008] that the
Illinois secretary of state's office does not have to issue specialty license plates bearing the slogan "Choose
Life" favored by anti-abortion forces. State officials are within their rights in trying to keep either
viewpoint on the emotional issue of abortion off of Illinois license plates, the court said, reversing a
January 2007 order from a lower court.
Trooper
kicks pro-lifer out of state. Two pro-life advocates have filed a federal
lawsuit claiming one was berated as a "Jesus freak" and "extremist" and the other kicked
out of Connecticut by state troopers because of their provocative anti-abortion signs.
Refusing
to Fund Forced Abortions is Controversial? On July 16, 2004, President Bush for
the third straight year steadfastly declined to make Americans complicit in China's coercive
abortive practices. Despite opposition from abortion organizations and media, the Bush
administration withheld taxpayer funds from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) because
it is connected to China's population control programs.
Connecticut
Supreme Court Rules Fetus is Part of a Woman's Body. Would the court agree that
women don't have a male sex organ? This is not a trick question. If her fetus has
one, then the fetus can't be part of her body or else the woman has a male sex organ.
When does a woman become a
woman? It's ironic how women fight for the freedom to kill other little women.
Pelosi: God Bless
the Child that's not at Home. The history-making first Madame of the House marketed her recent
three day victory-dance as a celebration of children. … At a trendy afternoon tea with like-minded ladies,
Pelosi reiterated her campaign promise that the 110th Congress would be "all about children." … But just
how does one of the most outspoken advocates for unrestricted abortion in Congress — with a perfect
100% rating from the radical pro-abortion group NARAL, — maintain a straight face when declaring a
concern for children? … Beneath the surface, the Femocrat's broader scheme genuinely is about the
children, albeit hardly as advertised. Rather, it involves the little tykes' removal as obstacles to
the empowerment of ambitious liberal-minded women.
Boy's Letter Supporting Abortion of
Disabled Babies Wins in Lutheran Contest: An eighth-grade boy who wrote a letter advocating
parents' rights to abort their potentially disabled unborn babies has been singled out for a trip to Washington
by a Christian organization. Along with his mother, James Humphery has been awarded an all-expenses-paid
trip to Washington to lobby members of Congress to pass pro-abortion legislation.
The wording of this article reflects the pro-abortion bias of the writer.
Colorado
Voters Will Be Asked When 'Personhood' Begins. The Human Life Amendment, also known as the personhood amendment,
says the words "person" or "persons" in the state constitution should "include any human being from the moment of fertilization."
If voters agreed, legal experts say, it would give fertilized eggs the same legal rights and protections to which people are entitled.
Top court again rejects
abortion poster case. The Supreme Court has rejected for the third time an appeal by
anti-abortion activists to undo a multimillion-dollar verdict for their use of "wanted" posters to identify
abortion clinic doctors. The justices did not comment Monday in turning down a dozen individuals and
two groups that oppose abortion rights. The court turned down similar appeals in 2003 and 2006.
What's happening in Kansas?
Kansas Legal System Protects Planned Parenthood.
The situation in Kansas is extremely fluid and legal maneuverings are taking place nearly every day on the criminal prosecution of
Planned Parenthood by Johnson County D.A. [Phill] Kline. The Kansas Attorney General and Kansas Supreme Court seem to be
working together to forbid a key judge from testifying on behalf of Kline in his prosecution of Planned Parenthood. The
A.G. was also trying to get abortion records back from Kline's office apparently in order to sabotage his case against Planned
Parenthood.
A Vice President for
Abortion. [Scroll down] Those positions are necessary for Democratic politicians to pass their party's
pro-choice litmus test, but [Kansas Gov. Kathleen] Sebelius' connection with abortion is more intimate. She is allied
with the aggressive Kansas branch of Planned Parenthood in a bitter struggle with anti-abortion activist District Attorney
Phill Kline. There is substantial evidence she has been involved in laundering abortion industry money for distribution
to Kansas Democrats. Kansas is the fiercest state battleground for abortion wars, making Kathleen Sebelius the national
pro-choice poster girl.
Kansas pro-life group outraged
at dropped charges against abortionist. Abortionist George Tiller — referred to as
"Tiller the Killer" by the pro-life group Operation Rescue — has been the subject of investigations
by the state of Kansas for performing late-term abortions that were not medically necessary. But State
Attorney General Paul Morrison has dropped the most serious charges, and charged Tiller with only misdemeanors
for conspiring with another doctor to make all his referrals for abortions.
Court:
Abortion Doc Grand Jury Probe OK. The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that a
Sedgwick County grand jury investigation into a doctor who performs late-term abortions can go
forward. The ruling, issued Thursday [11/29/2007], dismissed a petition filed last month
by Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's few physicians who performs late-term abortions.
He challenged the legality of the grand jury proceedings.
Kansas
probe of abortion clinics to begin. An unprecedented investigation into abortion-clinic practices
will commence soon in Kansas now that the state Supreme Court has cleared the way for a grand jury with subpoena
powers to be convened.
Kansas court blocks abortion grand jury.
The Kansas Supreme Court temporarily blocked a grand jury Tuesday [2/5/2008] from obtaining patient records from
a physician who is one of the nation's few providers of late-term abortions. The grand jury is investigating
whether Dr. George Tiller has broken Kansas laws restricting abortion, as many abortion opponents allege.
Update ...
Grand jury won't indict Planned Parenthood.
A Johnson County grand jury wrapped up its three-month investigation of Planned Parenthood's Overland Park clinic
Monday without issuing any indictments.
Charges Against Kansas Abortion Doc
Dumped. Kansas' attorney general, a vocal abortion opponent, charged a well-known abortion
provider with illegally performing late-term abortions, but a Sedgwick County judge on Friday threw out the
charges after less than a day. Judge Paul W. Clark dismissed the charges against Tiller at the
request of Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston, who said her office had not been consulted by
Kline. Clark signed his one-page order only hours after Attorney General Phill Kline's complaint
against Tiller was unsealed.
Update:
Judge
Won't Reinstate Abortion Charges. A judge Wednesday [12/27/2006] refused to reinstate criminal
charges brought by Kansas' outgoing attorney general against a Wichita abortion doctor who has long been the
target of anti-abortion politicians, protesters and extremists. Last week, Attorney General Phill Kline,
a vocal opponent of abortion who was defeated for re-election in November, filed 30 charges against
Dr. George Tiller, accusing him of performing 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003 on patients
ages 10 to 22 and not properly reporting details to the state. Sedgwick County Judge Paul W. Clark
threw out the charges on jurisdictional grounds less than day later.
Abortionists: Are
You Assisting Child Rapists? Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is to be commended
for his efforts to vigorously prosecute illegal late-term abortions and child molestation in his
state. Abortion clinics in Kansas that are hiding relevant documents subpoenaed by the court
should rightly be seen for how they are acting — as accomplices.
TVC Publishes
Special Report On Statutory Rape And Abortion. The Traditional Values
Coalition has just published a new report, "Abortion Industry Hides Statutory Rape," that
provides an overview of efforts by Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline to find out if
abortion clinics are shielding rapists of underage girls.
Kansas bleeds once more.
Current District Attorney Phill Kline has brought criminal charges against Planned Parenthood — the
first time anywhere — and the abortion industry understands the ramifications if Kline prevails.
The industry and its allies in the state house and the media are prepared to do whatever they must to defeat
Kline in the August Republican primary, if they can, or more likely in November's general election.
Targeting an 'anti-choice extremist'.
Upon taking office as Kansas attorney general in 2003, Phill Kline began to review the KDHE (Kansas Department
of Health and Environment) reports to see just how it was that late-term abortions had actually increased in
Kansas after a tough law had been passed to stop them.
Kansas abortion provider seeks
dismissal of charges. Above the law or victim of a prosecutor's obsession? Dr. George
Tiller, who is among the nation's few late-term abortion providers, filed papers Monday [9/15/2008] seeking to
suppress evidence in a criminal case against him, claiming outrageous conduct by former state Attorney General
Phill Kline. Tiller's attorneys contend Kline targeted the doctor and other abortion providers for
prosecution starting the day he took office in January 2003.
Abortion is a vital component of the Democratic Party platform
Liberals do not value human life unconditionally. To a liberal, some people's lives are more
valuable than others.
Change, but not for
better. [Scroll down] But at this stage we have nothing to go on apart from his record
and [Obama's] rhetoric and what they reveal about his character. On that basis, I think he's likely to be a
disastrous president. ... Obama is on record as saying that a Freedom of Choice Act is "the first thing" he
hoped to sign into law on taking office. A FOCA goes a long way beyond the 1973 Roe v Wade
decision, which mandated a general right to abortion. It would overturn virtually all the existing
limits on abortion, state and federal. These include restrictions on government funding for the
procedure and conscience-protection clauses for healthcare providers. FOCA would override laws
guaranteeing informed consent and, in the case of under-age pregnancies, parental involvement. It would
also require states to sanction late-term procedures, including the contentious "partial-birth" abortion which
is widely seen as tantamount to infanticide.
Pro-Life Democrats Need Not
Apply. The last two weeks have seen the party's top two leaders — Obama and
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — baffled over questions about when they think human life begins.
Combine such cluelessness with poll numbers that reveal an increasingly pro-life electorate and the
durability of abortion as a top concern for the party's most elusive voting bloc, evangelicals and
other regular churchgoers, and it's easy to see why softening its pro-abortion image has soared to
the top of the Democratic Party's to-do list.
Democrats Made No
Room on Abortion. The new platform maintains the party's opposition to even the mildest
restriction on abortion. It commits the party to using tax dollars to fund abortion. It also
includes a call for spending more on things that might help a pregnant woman carry her child to
term — such as prenatal care and adoption programs. Calling for more assistance for pregnant
women, of course, is ironic coming from the same people who have made it their mission to go after crisis
pregnancy centers — which are in the business of trying to get pregnant women to places that can
provide this care.
Obama Justified in Votes Against Born
Alive Infant Protection Bill, Say Democrats. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was justified
in opposing legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would have ensured that a child who survives a failed
abortion was treated as a "person" and received medical attention, two Democratic leaders said.
Obama's Culture of Death
and the Catholic Vote: Not only do Barack Obama's positions on human life issues lie in absolute
contradiction with Pope Benedict XVI, his positions are the most radical of any post-Roe candidate ever to
seek the Presidency. Far more radical than Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Obama has
at least been forthright in proclaiming that the very first thing he will do as President is sign the Freedom of
Choice Act, which codifies Roe in national law and strikes down every single protective restriction to abortion
in all 50 states, including parental notification and partial-birth abortion bans.
10
Concerns about Barack Obama: (#9.) Barack Obama is to the left of Hillary Clinton and NARAL
on the issue of life. As a state senator in Illinois, Barack Obama voted against the Induced Infant
Liability Act, a law that would have protected babies if they survived an attempted abortion and were
delivered alive.
Obama Panders on Abortion.
According to The Case Against Barack Obama by David Freddoso, Obama doesn't believe babies born alive
during a failed abortion should have the same rights of other babies. He's said "whenever we define a
pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or other elements in the
Constitution, what we're really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of
protections that would be provided to a — a child, a nine-month-old — child that
was delivered to term." (p. 197)
Obama Lied About His Abortion Record.
The New York Sun reported that Obama's campaign has admitted that the senator voted against giving medical
care to babies born alive after an abortion attempt — a fact that the campaign originally dismissed
as a "smear." The reality behind Obama's rhetoric is that he worked against efforts to ban the gruesome
practice of leaving babies who survived failed abortions to die.
When
Will We Admit the Truth About Barack Obama? In 2002, President Bush signed into law a bill titled
the "Born Alive Infants Protection Act" (BAIPA). This law was necessary because, believe it or not,
infants were being born alive during attempted abortions and then, ancient Spartan style, left to die.
Jill Stanek wrote about this last year, saying: "As a nurse at an Illinois hospital in 1999, I discovered
babies were being aborted alive and shelved to die in soiled utility rooms. I discovered infanticide."
The act was so vile that even staunch abortion advocates would not oppose BAIPA. [But Obama
did — twice.]
This is an adequate reason to
wonder... Is Obama a Christian?
Who Is The Real Michelle Obama? [Scroll
down] Pro-life columnist Jill Stanek has revealed a chilling fundraising letter that Michelle Obama wrote for her
husband when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2004. The letter claimed that the federal ban on partial-birth
abortion was "clearly unconstitutional" and "a flawed law."
Fork replaces donkey as Democratic Party
symbol. It's good to be reminded that the sole item on the Democrats' agenda is
abortion. According to Dianne Feinstein, Roe v. Wade is critically important because "women
all over America have come to depend on it." At its most majestic, this precious right that
women "have come to depend on" is the right to have sex with men they don't want to have
children with.
9th
Circuit Judge Sets Standard for Liberal Activism. The "right to privacy," which liberals
maintain is implied in the U.S. Constitution and which was used by the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize
abortion in 1973, apparently mattered little to Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals earlier this month when he ruled on a case involving parental rights.
A
Catholic Case Against Barack: Not only is Barack the most pro-abortion member of the Senate, with
his straight A+ report card from the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood. He
supports the late-term procedure known as partial-birth abortion, where the baby's skull is stabbed with
scissors in the birth canal and the brains are sucked out to end its life swiftly and ease passage of the
corpse into the pan. Partial-birth abortion, said the late Sen. Pat Moynihan, "comes as close to
infanticide as anything I have seen in our judiciary."
Obama's Abortion
Distortion. In March 2003, registered nurse Jill Stanek submitted a statement to the Illinois
Senate Health and Human Services committee in which she reported that infants who survived abortions at her
Oak Lawn hospital were sometimes "taken to the Soiled Utility Room and left alone to die." Stanek was
lobbying the committee to approve the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002, which would have recognized
any infant born alive after an abortion as a human being deserving legal protection. Barack Obama, then
the committee chairman, defeated the bill with his fellow Democrats in a 6-4 party-line vote.
Some final notes
on the Terri Schiavo case: While conservative opinion was severely splintered,
liberal opinion seemed monolithic: Let her die. Liberals usually rally to the side of
vulnerable people, but not in this case. Democrats talked abstractly about procedures
and rules, a reversal of familiar roles. I do not understand why liberal friends defined
the issue almost solely in terms of government intruding into family matters. Liberals
are famously willing to enter family affairs to defend individual rights, opposing parental-consent
laws, for example. Why not here?
The Planned Parenthood Primary:
Most political observers learn to take what goes on in presidential primaries in stride, but one thing
I still find immensely depressing. Every four years, like gruesome clockwork, Democratic hopefuls
of course try to nail down liberal votes by promising to keep abortions safe, legal, and
rarely challenged.
Obama
is the Most Pro-Abortion Candidate Ever. He is so pro-abortion he refused as an Illinois state
senator to support legislation to protect babies who survived late-term abortions because he did not want to
concede — as he explained in a cold-blooded speech on the Illinois Senate floor — that
these babies, fully outside their mothers' wombs, with their hearts beating and lungs heaving, were in fact
"persons." "Persons," of course, are guaranteed equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment.
More
on Obama and Babies Born Alive: When Obama was in the Illinois Senate, the Born Alive Infants bill
came up three successive years. In 2001, three bills were proposed to help babies who survived induced
labor abortions. One, like the federal Born Alive Infants bill, simply said a living "homo sapiens"
wholly emerged from his mother should be treated as a "'person,' 'human being,' 'child' and 'individual.'"
On all three bills, Obama voted "present," effectively the same as a "no." Defining "a pre-viable fetus"
that survived an abortion as a "person" or "child," he argued, "would essentially bar abortions, because the
Equal Protection Clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an
anti-abortion statute."
SCHIP off the Old Block.
The new House bill's "pregnant woman" rule seeks to deny the existence of the child in utero while still covering
the adolescent mother. This is a calculated move to open the door to federal taxpayer-funded abortions.
In the 17 states that now fund elective abortions (14 of them are forced to do so by court order) this coverage
could be used as a license to kill.
Feminist Eugenics:
Joseph D'Agostino has dubbed the rise in sex-selective abortions as "Feminism's Triumph: Exterminating
Girls." Experts disagree on the overall toll, but an article
published in the medical journal Lancet pegs the number at 100 million aborted girls, mostly in China and India.
In China alone, UNICEF estimates there are only 832 girls per 1,000 boys. Feminists have a
compulsion to impose radical social change and when things go sour, blaming the subsequent fiasco on the
patriarchy. The problem of sex-selective abortions is no exception to this rule.
Why
Liberal Feminists Support School Shootings. This coming Tuesday, Ms. Magazine will release its
new issue with the cover story, "We Had Abortions (and we're glad we did)." … The story is intended to
gloss over the millions of women who have had negative reactions to the abortion experience in their own life
and choose to instead highlight a petition in which 1000+ very misguided women signed a statement affirming
their belief that their lives were infinitely improved because they snuffed the life out of the most vulnerable
person they personally had ever known — their unborn daughter (or son, or both).
When
Liberals Shoot Children. Given the right circumstances, liberal feminists, activist lawyers,
and judges who should be impeached for their lack of judgement — will first allow and then defend
the cold-blooded shooting of an innocent child. They did so this week.
Same story:
Woman Aborts Her Full-Term
Baby With a Gun. Prosecutors say that on the morning she was scheduled to give birth, [Tammy]
Skinner drove to an auto dealer's parking lot, took a gun, and shot herself in the belly, killing the fetus
in an act of self-abortion. Skinner was charged with carrying out an illegal abortion. Is Skinner
a criminal? Today [10/19/2006], a Virginia judge said no. The charges were dropped, her case dismissed.
That
very 'so-called' right to privacy. Whatever else modern America stands
for has nothing like the centrality in our affairs of the right to abort a pregnancy. The
Constitution, it almost seems, exists to make sure no woman has to have a baby she doesn't
want. No sucker game of this magnitude was ever before played on the citizens of a great
democracy. It all comes down to abortion.
The
politics of pregnant girls: Imagine someone you may not know or like taking your daughter without
your knowledge to another state to have her appendix removed. Or to have a hysterectomy. Or even
to have her wisdom teeth removed. You'd be outraged, right?
If every vote counts, why does the Democratic party ignore pro-life Democrats?
A Pro-Choice Party No More.
Pro-life Democrats are not surprised by the outcome of this year's election. In fact, pro-life Democrats
have been pleading with their party to be respectfully included. Unfortunately, the "big-tent" Democratic
party has allowed itself to be controlled by pro-choice forces and suffered as a result. For the past
25 years, pro-life Democrats have been leaving the party over the issue of abortion.
Can Democrats be
pro-life? Candidates such as presidential nominee John Kerry don't share the views of the
majority of Americans on cultural and social issues. Worse, many liberal elites demonstrate
ostentatious contempt for those opinions. As with the issue of abortion. Being pro-life
has been political death for any Democrat with national aspirations. Many on the left are
unable to even contemplate a legitimate argument against legal abortion.
Texas League of Women Voters: Unbiased
Do-Gooders or Liberal Activists? A recent visit to the Texas League of Women Voters website
suggests that [their] non-ideological reputation belies a distinct liberal bias. The League of Women
Voters advocates left-wing positions on issues such as abortion, property rights, and crime. The League
even encourages its members to lobby on some of these issues and features prominent links on their website to
far left organizations without any similar plugs for moderate or conservative groups.
Kerry on Abortion: In 1984, Kerry said he
would vote against "any restrictions on age, consent, funding restrictions, or any law to limit access to
abortion." (John Kerry as quoted in "Mass. Senate candidates quizzed on women's issues," Sojourner:
The Women's Forum, 6/30/84) Kerry received a 0% ranking from the National Right to Life Committee
for the 108th, 107th and 106th Congresses. Kerry has voted at least six times against banning
partial-birth abortion.
Where Do the Candidates Stand on Abortion?
Senator John Kerry voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act every chance he got — six
times. The partial-birth abortion procedure — used from the fifth month on involves pulling a
living baby feet-first out of the womb, except for the head, puncturing the skull and suctioning out the
brain. The great majority of partial-birth abortions are performed on healthy babies of healthy mothers.
John Edwards, in his six years in the Senate, has compiled a 0% pro-life voting record. He voted to
keep partial-birth abortions legal and he supports tax funding of abortion.
Tap Dancing
Around Abortion. By relying on thirty-second commercials, made-for-TV debates and well
orchestrated "town hall meetings," candidates are often able to deliver highly polished packages that are
intended to camouflage what they really believe. An example of this phenomenon is on display when it
comes to Rudy Giuliani's effort to tap dance around the abortion issue.
Abortion's shades of gray:
Among the major candidates, only Giuliani stands in the middle: identifying a position that is, in fact, simultaneously
anti-abortion and pro-choice. He backs policies designed to discourage or even sharply limit abortion, and
he opposes the use of public money for abortions, while leaving final decisions to women and their doctors in
most circumstances.
The Editor says...
That sounds good at first, but think about it. What kind of decision will a doctor make
if he stands to gain at least a thousand dollars to perform an abortion? A woman doesn't
go to an abortion clinic without having made up her mind already... unless the clinic is disguised
as a "crisis counseling" center.
Why
Liberal Feminists Support School Shootings. This coming Tuesday, Ms. Magazine will release its
new issue with the cover story, "We Had Abortions (and we're glad we did)." … The story is intended to
gloss over the millions of women who have had negative reactions to the abortion experience in their own life
and choose to instead highlight a petition in which 1000+ very misguided women signed a statement affirming
their belief that their lives were infinitely improved because they snuffed the life out of the most vulnerable
person they personally had ever known — their unborn daughter (or son, or both).
Speaking as
a Former Fetus... I am not an expert on the abortion issue, but I have learned a great deal
about it, strangely enough, by studying the Lincoln-Douglas debates. These debates were about slavery.
But look at how closely the arguments parallel the abortion debate.
Julia Roberts: A Spider Is 'A Person' — So How
About Human Babies?. I trace the beginning of my evolution from pro-choice to pro-life to a
comment I heard on the radio a decade or so ago. It might have been Rush Limbaugh who made the point that
many of the people moved to tears at the thought of the killing of baby seals are the same ones who "celebrate"
a woman's right to have an abortion. Something clicked. What kind of moral compass is that?
Abortion Stops a
Bleeding Heart. The Democrats are trying to "reframe" their message to make people think they
believe abortion is wrong. I think this is going to be a hard sell if they plan to continue ferociously
defending abortion-on-demand right up until the moment the baby's head is through the birth canal.
Why I don't take
feminists seriously, part II. Feminists are less concerned with women's rights than they
are with their own right to have an abortion. George Bush has done more for women's rights than any
president in modern history. But feminists hate him because he is opposed to abortion rights. Bill
Clinton sexually harassed more women than any president in American history. But that's okay. He
supports abortion rights so feminists love him. If he were ever convicted of rape, feminists would
still love him because he supports abortion rights.
Eternal vigilance is the price
of liberty … as we all know, but sometimes vigilantes have to invent bad guys to keep their
franchise alive. You could ask some of our Democratic senators, or the ladies at the National Organization
for Women.
Why the
Left supports Roe: Scorn for ordinary Americans. Most Americans do not
understand what Roe actually does. Most Americans believe (wrongly) that if Roe were
overturned, abortion would automatically become illegal across the land. That is exactly
what pro-abortion advocacy groups want Americans to believe.
Not Your
Mother's Tupperware Party. Shame the student who thinks of abortion as anything other than a right; this
class had over 400 young, impressionable minds (including a freshman-heavy enrollment) and the message relayed eerily
echoed that of Capitol Hill Democrats: anyone who thinks of abortion as something other than a "right" is
simply outside the mainstream.
One thing leads to another:
Is there a right
to have a baby? Reproductive freedom is usually a code-word for abortion on demand. But
the right to terminate a pregnancy is only the right to say "no" to having a baby. Full reproductive
freedom would include the right to pregnancy on demand, analogous to abortion on demand. A California
case in which a lesbian couple is suing an infertility clinic suggests we may be closer than we think to
establishing a right to have a baby. And far from being an advance for women's liberty, this
development would be a disaster for everyone's freedom.
Hillary: Can
a liberal change her spots? The pro-choice position has hardened over the
years to the point where any deviation from orthodoxy is considered heresy. Abortion
advocates have fervently resisted every single legislative limit on abortion. They've
stoutly opposed waiting periods, parental notification laws and bans on late-term abortions
and partial birth abortions. They've even opposed a law that would permit a baby who
by accident survives a late-term abortion to be welcomed into life.
Disturbing Questions about
Hillary Clinton and Abortion. Especially when the issue involves protecting innocent life, the
subject of this report, the American people deserve to know the full truth about the Clintons' radical, and
often corrupt, agenda. And Judicial Watch is committed to providing it. As part of Judicial
Watch's Open Records Project, we have examined important government documents about the core public policy
issue of abortion. This special report examines three new documents pertaining to the Clintons
pro-abortion policies, with special emphasis on Hillary Clinton's central role in crafting and promoting
these policies.
Hillary
Clinton: Shill for the pill. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., portrays herself as a scourge of
the pharmaceutical industry, but she has shown that she's willing to help a drugmaker if that's what it takes
to profit Planned Parenthood, her indispensable political ally. Clinton's campaign Web site touts that
she has "battled the big drug companies." Yet she has sponsored many bills that would directly subsidize
Barr Laboratories, maker of the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B, which also functions as an
abortifacient.
From the "Leftspeak Dictionary," here is
Senator Barbara Boxer on partial-birth abortion: "That this Constitution as it currently
is — some want to amend it to say life begins at conception. …I am not willing
to amend the Constitution to say that a fetus is a person…." Sen. Barbara Boxer on
trees: "We are talking about God's creations that we have a responsibility to protect.
This is Mojave National Preserve's Joshua trees. We have to move to protect them."
Bringing up boys: You
may remember that Barbara Boxer, the senator from California, on the floor of the Senate in debating partial-birth
abortion, said that a baby is not a baby until that child is taken home from the hospital. In other words,
you can kill that baby in the hospital. This is where we are headed, a complete disregard for human life.
Pro-Abortion Pelosi Insults the Catholic
Faith. The new speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, is showing what I
consider extreme arrogance, even for a pro-abortion figure in public life who claims to be a faithful
Catholic. Her handlers are making it abundantly clear that anything goes in their effort to showcase
Pelosi and her life story, including the use of a Catholic Mass to cement her public image as a Catholic
mother and grandmother. That, my friend, is a disgrace that I cannot ignore.
The Dark Motive Behind the
Democrat Filibuster: Senate Democrats want to send a clear message that they will not accept a
future U.S. Supreme Court nominee who has deeply held religious beliefs, specifically on abortion. That's
a frightening proposition. In essence, the Democrats are saying that evangelical Christians and
conservative Catholics need not apply for judicial posts.
Bishops Take On Pro-abortion
Legislators. The problem of pro-abortion Catholic politicians is not limited to New Jersey.
In fact, the American Life League has identified more than 500 pro-abortion Catholic politicians throughout
the country and bishops are beginning to address the issue.
Dems Lose Fight To Aid
Abortion Groups. Unable to override a promised veto, Democrats have backed down on their
insistence that the 2008 foreign aid budget reverse President Bush's ban on providing aid to family
planning groups abroad that offer abortions.
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