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A man who had appeared to have been in a vegetative state for 12 years knew his name and knew where he was, Canadian researchers report in a study showing it’s possible to use MRI brain scans to establish communication with people who seem completely unconscious. Three people tested using a special form of MRI called functional magnetic resonance imaging were able to answer simple “yes” or “no” questions, the team at Western University in London, Ontario report. They say their findings don’t mean everyone in a coma or a persistent vegetative state is conscious, but it should help doctors...

TYLER, TX (KLTV) - One prominent women's health care provider is shutting the doors to three southeast Texas clinics because of what they call "persistent attacks on women's health." The Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Chapter, which serves Houston, southeast Texas, and Louisiana, announced two weeks ago that because of state budget cuts to women's health care services, Planned Parenthood chapters in Lufkin, Huntsville, and Bryan will have to close. After nearly 40 years of serving East Texans, their last day to see patients is Thursday, Aug. 1. The Lufkin clinic offers general health care, family planning, and pregnancy and STD...

The Texas Senate gave final passage on Friday to one of the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country, legislation championed by Gov. Rick Perry, who rallied the Republican-controlled Legislature late last month after a Democratic filibuster blocked the bill and intensified already passionate resistance by abortion-rights supporters. The bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and hold abortion clinics to the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers, among other requirements. Its supporters say that the strengthened requirements for the structures and doctors will protect women’s health; opponents argue that the restrictions are actually intended to put financial pressure...

The House Pro-Choice Caucus has penned a letter to Texas State Senator Wendy Davis to thank her for her “powerful” and “courageous” 11-hour filibuster of the pro life bill SB5. The bill, which would prevent abortions after 20 weeks in the state, is significant because, as Dan reported, pre-born babies can feel pain as early as 20 weeks gestation. Yet, Davis spoke for 11 hours trying to save the morally questionable late term abortion procedure. Planned Parenthood thinks that’s pretty cool. So much awesome: the House Pro-Choice Caucus' thank you letter to @WendyDavisTexas: http://t.co/zItPMTlS1p#standwithTXwomen — Planned Parenthood (@PPact) July 3,...

Via the Examiner and NRO, a few more credible, confidence-inspiring breadcrumbs from this morning’s Ways and Means hearing. It’s starting to make sense now why protesting Planned Parenthood might present a risk to your tax-exempt status, isn’t it?The second clip is of Miller saying that he did indeed ask his underlings who was targeting conservative groups, and they told him, but now he can’t remember the answer. Really. The disdain this guy harbors for the proceedings is palpable, but that’s probably in his best interest: The more antagonistic he is, the more liberal support he’ll have when the administration inevitably...

April 26, 2013 Obama to Largest Abortion Provider: 'God Bless You' BY DANIEL HALPER President Obama ended his address to the largest abortion provider in the U.S., Planned Parenthood, by saying, "God bless you." VIDEO "As long as we've got to fight to make sure women have access to quality, affordable health care, and as long as we've got to fight to protect a woman's right to make her own choices about her own health, I want you to know that you've also got a president who's going to be right there with you, fighting every step of the way,"...

The Student Government Association at Johns Hopkins University has denied official recognition to a group of pro-life students, and one SGA leader privately equated them with white supremacists. Voice for Life, a JHU student group that engages in pro-life activism, including counseling women outside of the front doors of abortion clinics, was twice denied official recognition last month. The SGA voted 10-8 to reject the group — cutting it off from student activities funding and building access for meetings — due to concerns that its activism constituted harassment. Some members of SGA also thought that a link on the Voices...

You will be shocked when you view American Life League’s latest video report. Directed toward adults only, the report Hooking Kids on Sex contains jolting, unedited pictures from Planned Parenthood’s community efforts to indoctrinate children and teens into a sick culture of sex. This report is not for the faint of heart. It is, however, a long-overdue wake up call. It provides the ammunition that concerned citizens need to get Planned Parenthood out of local schools and community organizations, and is an indispensable aid in defunding the predatory organization. The report drives home the fact that the abortion giant is...

A medical examiner testified in the Kermit Gosnell murder trial Tuesday and testified that an autopsy confirmed that abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell killed a woman in a failed abortion. Assistant Medical Examiner Gary Collins confirmed that the woman, 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar (below right), died from the abortion due to Gosnell and his staff’s medical incompetence in terms of administering a proper amount of anesthesia rather than her dying of some other cause. Gosnell has been charged with eight counts of murder and several of his staff at the abortion center, including his wife and sister-in-law, have been charged as well...

An abortion clinic escort, whose blog can be found here, wrote the following in a post on March 18: There are times a client and/or companion is so empowered they instantly gain my admiration. What is she so impressed by? She goes on to explain: The companion [of the woman who was having an abortion] got out of the car first. E [the pro-lifer] was hovering right behind me ready to start shaming. I was able to explain the vests and offer to escort them before he began his spiel. E handed the companion some literature. When I explained he...

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist now on trial in Philadelphia charged with seven counts of first-degree murder--he allegedly cut the spinal cords of late-term aborted babies who were born alive--apparently used to joke about the large size of some the infants he aborted and in one case, according to what a co-worker told the grand jury, said, “This baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.” Gosnell, 72, who ran a multi-million dollar abortion business in West Philadelphia, was arrested on Jan. 19, 2011, and his trial started Monday, Mar. 18, 2013....

Animal rights charity PETA killed almost 90 per cent of dogs and cats placed in the care of the shelter at its Virginia headquarters last year, it has been revealed today. The charity, well-known for attention grabbing publicity campaigns such as the 'I'd rather go naked' anti-fur campaign, euthanized 1,647 cats and dogs last year and only placed 19 in new homes according to the data submitted to the Virginia Department for Agriculture and Consumer Services. PETA told Mail Online that the animals they take in at the center are 'unadoptable', however 89.4 per cent of pets is much higher...

PHILADELPHIA - (AP) -- A lawyer defending a Philadelphia abortion provider on murder charges accused officials of "an elitist, racist prosecution," as the death-penalty trial opened Monday. Lawyer Jack McMahon also accused city officials of "a prosecutorial lynching" of his client, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who is black. Gosnell, 72, is accused of running a rogue clinic that ignored the state ban on third-term abortions and 24-hour waiting periods. Prosecutors say he also maimed desperate, often poor women and teens by letting his untrained staff perform abortions and give anesthesia. And they say he got rich doing it, by performing a...

Two deaf twin brothers in Belgium were euthanized by their doctor after realizing they were going blind and would be unable to see each other ever again, their physician says. The 45-year-old men, whose names have not been made public, were legally put to death by lethal injection at the Brussels University Hospital in Jette, on Dec. 14. The men, who were born deaf, had a cup of coffee and said goodbye to other family members before walking into hospital room together to die, their doctor told Belgian television station RTL.

A federal judge has sided with the ACLU against the state of North Carolina and blocked the state from offering residents “choose life” license plates without providing plates with the opposing view. In his decision on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge James Fox, who last year issued an order temporarily blocking the state from producing the “choose life” plates, found the plates to be unconstitutional in the absence of other license plates that promoted a pro-choice position. …

This year has seen a rash of medical studies reporting on developments in cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) prenatal testing. Not too long ago, one commentator cautioned that as prenatal genetic testing becomes more pervasive, our society risks developing a “eugenics common sense.” The reporting on the new cffDNA testing suggests that some have already developed this sensibility. In October 2011, Sequenom, a publicly traded company, introduced its version of cffDNA prenatal testing. As the name suggests, floating in each expectant mother’s blood stream are bits of DNA from the child she is carrying. The new testing procedure tests this fetal...

The negligence of Planned Parenthood appears to be a contributing factor in the tragic death of 24 year old Tonya Reaves. Ms. Reaves passed away last Friday after complications from a failed abortion at an Illinois Planned Parenthood clinic. Documents released by CBS detail just how disastrously the clinic responded to her medical emergency. At 11:00 a.m. on Friday, Reaves received a second-trimester dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion at Planned Parenthood, located at 18 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. Following the abortion, Reaves began bleeding heavily and it continued at Planned Parenthood for five and a half hours before a...

Influence is neutral. By itself it means having a profound effect on something, but that something can be good or bad. Therefore, I can’t argue with Time Magazine’s list of The 20 Most Influential Americans of All Time that happens to include the person who has most influenced the destruction of humanity, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. I have to agree with Time’s assessment that she is one of the most influential Americans of all time because her negative influence has been responsible for the deaths of millions, far exceeding that of Hitler’s influence in World War II, whom we...

In Canada, a judge in British Columbia has just struck down the law banning assisted suicide. Gloria Taylor, along with several other plaintiffs, filed suit claiming that the seriously ill should have the right to take their lives with the assistance of a doctor in Carter v. Canada. And it’s easy to sympathize with them. It’s easy to look at people suffering through a terminal illness and think that it’s cruel to deprive them of a quick, painless death as opposed to a long, drawn-out, painful one. But if you need to understand why both assisted suicide and euthanasia need...

For decades, supporters of abortion on demand have insisted on two completely unproven assertions concerning what would happen if abortion were made generally illegal in this country. First, they have asserted, somewhat counter-intuitively and again without any proof, that such a law would not work, and women would continue to get abortions. Second, based on the first unfounded assertion, they insist that therefore women would be forced into “back alley abortions” which would presumably always be performed with a dirty coat-hanger, thus leading to massive maternal mortality. These two pronouncements have been peddled uncritically with all the fervor (and factual...