Abortion Topics 2


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 RiftRoe 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.
- Walter Weber   


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 ContestAn 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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