Free Republic

Preliminary autopsy results say 20-day-old Justice Rees, whose tiny body was found Wednesday at a remote slough near Knights Landing, may have drowned or died of hypothermia. In an interview Thursday, Yolo County Sheriff Ed Prieto said authorities have no evidence the infant was a victim of homicide.

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.” The first...

Quietly on Christmas Eve, the Obama administration changed the rules on handling refugee children who enter the country without their parents and report being victims of sexual assault. All refugee aid groups, including Catholic and other Christian groups, will now be required to refer those girls to facilities that provide abortions. Religious groups that work with refugees are concerned that the new rules may require them to give up federal funding. Dr. Susan Yoshihara of the New York and Washington DC-based Center for Family & Human Rights (C-Fam) first reported the change last week: “Faith-based groups say this is a...

I saw it depicted on a screen in my 8th grade Catholic school classroom before I had ever even heard the word abortion.After my teacher played the video The Silent Scream, which showed a live abortion, I sat there shocked and angry. I went home and asked my mother, “How can abortion be allowed in this free country of America? Don’t those babies deserve their lives?’ Even in my innocence, I understood the simplicity.My mother saw my angry passion and made a suggestion that would allow me to put my passion into action. She said, “Let’s go to a clinic...

Emergency Contraception at Catholic Institutions: Bishops Can No Longer Claim Ignorance by Dr. Brian KoppFebruary 24, 2015Photo courtesy of Mike Mozart. The February 2015 Linacre Quarterly (the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association) features a groundbreaking study by Chris Kahlenborn, MD of The Polycarp Research Institute titled Mechanism of action of levonorgestrel emergency contraception. The study, contrasting the theoretical basis on which emergency contraception (otherwise known as “Plan B”) is claimed to function with the facts and statistics of the most recent research outlining the mechanism by which they cause early abortions, is sure to cause heartburn among...

February 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- On Friday, February 20, 2015, I went to the New Mexico Roundhouse to speak out in support of HB 390 Late-term Abortion Ban -- without the rape exception.  My family and I got there early, and I was excited, but nervous! This was a big step for me on so many levels.  While I have shared my story with more people than I can count, I had never spoken in front of a legislative committee with opposition around me.  Why would I go before the committee and share how I was conceived in incest/rape? Because the lives of the rape/incest-conceived...

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is advancing federal regulations that require federally funded organizations caring for illegal alien minors who are in the United States without their parents (Unaccompanied Children or UC) and who may have been sexually abused access to “emergency contraception” services. “Emergency contraception” includes abortion-inducing drugs. These care providers currently include Catholic and other faith-based organizations that oppose abortion, according to the Center for Family and Human Rights or C-FAM, a Catholic advocacy group. The Interim Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 24,...

* In October the Wisconsin governor pledged to support legislation focused on 'safety' during abortions * 'The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor,' he said in a campaign ad * This month he's telling potential donors that he supports a 'personhood' amendment, which insists that life begins at conception * He boasted in January that he had 'defunded Planned Parenthood,' America's wealthiest and most politically savvy chain of abortion clinics * Walker is busy beefing up his conservative bona fides in advance of a brusiing GOP presidential primary that may not favor blue-state moderates Wisconsin...

Can we just be honest? The reason our society accepts killing unborn babies with Down syndrome is because we don’t want so-called “imperfect” children. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing supporters of this awful practice claim they’re aborting for the benefit of the child. That’s just ridiculous.In a recent article in Yahoo Parenting, another mother explains her rationale for choosing abortion after finding out she was carrying a baby with Down syndrome.Sophie Horan was 42-years-old when she conceived naturally after two failed rounds of IVF and a failed IUI. She writes, “Eight weeks on, we were...

I’ve been on campus at the University of Central Florida this week with a team of volunteers, debating university students on the issue of abortion. One mark of our generation seems to come up in many of my conversations: An ignorance of history. “He who does not know the past,� John G. Diefenbaker once noted, “can never understand the present, and he certainly can do nothing for the future.� A prescient statement—in regards to abortion, we are destroying the future, child by butchered child.Time and time again, students bring up the same tired arguments to support abortion. Once you’ve established...

February 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Pro-life advocates are urging Catholic hospitals to reconsider their use of the Plan B “morning-after pill� in light of a new meta-review of past studies claiming that despite its being marketed as “emergency contraception,� it is statistically more likely to cause early abortion than prevent pregnancy.According to the drug’s manufacturers, Plan B’s primary method of action is to suppress ovulation, thereby making conception impossible.Some Catholic hospitals authorize the use of the pills by rape victims if it can be proven that the woman has not yet ovulated.But according to Dr. Christopher Kahlenborn, who co-authored the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has called state laws protecting the unborn in the U.S. a “crying shame.�Ginsburg argued in an MSNBC interview Monday that abortion helps women, specifically poor women, and said that the prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade is “the worst case� scenario.Granting her status as “a champion of reproductive freedom,� the NBC network asked Ginsburg how “it feels� for her to look across the country, seeing “states passing restrictions that make it inaccessible if not technically illegal.�“Inaccessible to poor women,� Ginsburg responded with a clarification. “It’s not true...

PIERRE, SD, February 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood beheads more Americans in a month than ISIS has in its entire existence, and that should end, a South Dakota lawmaker has said.State Representative Isaac Latterell, R-Sioux Falls, has taken a step toward outlawing the beheading of the unborn in his state.Earlier this year, he introduced the Preborn Infant Beheading Ban of 2015 (H.B. 1230), which states, “No licensed physician may knowingly behead a living unborn child with the intent of endangering the life or health of the child.�The state House Health and Human Services Committee passed the bill yesterday by...

What God can do through YOU Tomorrow it begins ... the next 40 Days for Life campaign, which kicks off in 252 cities across 19 countries around the world. If you haven’t done so already ... it’s time to find the location nearest you and sign up for the vigil!   God has provided many blessings through past 40 Days for Life campaigns: 9,699 babies saved from abortion 107 workers who have quit the abortion industry 60 closed abortion centers What results could be achieved during this campaign? That will be determined primarily by two things: 1.     God, who can do...

Abortion has consequences.The Italian health minister gave a recent interview in which she said Italy is a “dying country.� Why? Because abortion has depleted the European nation of its next generations and caused a massive baby shortage.While some abortion advocates decry overpopulation, Italy’s birth rate has fallen to its lowest level – 8.4 per 1,000 people — since 1861.Beatrice Lorenzin, the minister of health, said: “We are at the threshold where people who die are not being replaced by newborns. That means we are a dying country. This situation has enormous implications for every sector: the economy, society, health, pensions,...

February 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- In 2010 my unborn daughter was diagnosed with a lethal birth anomaly. We continued our pregnancy, much to the consternation of our physicians, and she lived for almost two hours after birth. As the mother of a child who was diagnosed in the womb with a life limiting condition, I take a keen interest in abortion legislation that seeks to destroy protections for the most vulnerable members of our society like my daughter Beatrix. This includes international legislation like that which was roundly defeated in The Republic of Ireland earlier this week. Socialist politician Clare Daly...

New York City, N.Y., Feb 13, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA).- Questions are being raised over two U.S. foundations that have poured more than three million dollars into abortion rights, LGBT activist, and legal groups to push the message that exemptions based on religious beliefs are “un-American” and an abuse of liberty. The Arcus Foundation and the Ford Foundation have spent over $3 million in combined spending against religious liberty exemptions since 2013, according to a CNA review of tax forms and grant listings. John Lomperis of the Institute for Religion and Democracy – a D.C.-based ecumenical Christian think tank...

According to a media report out of New Jersey, a third doctor–the others are Shewmon and Calixto–has signed a declaration stating Jahi McMath is not brain dead. The family attorney Chris Dolan says he will petition the California Secretary of State to rescind the death certificate. From the N.J.com story: Dolan provided NJ Advance Media with signed declarations from four doctors, including Charles J. Prestigiacomo, director of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery at University Hospital in Newark and chair of the neurological surgery department at Rutgers, stating that McMath isn’t brain dead.“The brain structure evidenced in the MRI is not consistent...

In recent days a controversy has arisen over whether parents should be required to vaccinate their children. Some politicians with presidential aspirations were criticized for defending the rights of parents to make that decision. As an internal medicine doctor, I believe strongly in the efficacy of vaccines. I also believe strongly that our vaccines (and all of our medical advances) should be safe and derived in a morally principled fashion.There is an ethical concern about the measles vaccine issue that I do not believe the American public is aware: a component of the current MMR vaccine is derived from an...

“We stand with CEC for Life, Life Legal Defense Foundation, Operation Rescue and the National Black Prolife Coalition in demanding that the Alabama Department of Public Health investigate the Central Alabama Women’s Clinic in Selma for suspected violations of abortion regulations. “The ongoing efforts to address the civil rights of babies in the womb, while ensuring the health and safety of their mothers, the dignity of their fathers, families and their communities are all in keeping with the civil rights struggle of the 20th century which once escalated on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in demonstrations led by Dr. Martin Luther...

“Obamacare’s shoddy implementation doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of its great evil,” reported Breitbart late last year, referring to the healthcare rationing that is insidiously hidden within the pages of the evasive law. Perhaps the most alarming criterion of healthcare rationing found in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the plan’s death panel language.Democrats vehemently denied that death panels would play a role in the ACA, but the law itself states that doctors will be paid to have discussions with patients about living wills, advance directives, and end-of-life options.Killing patients whose perceived utility is declining is not exclusively...

Newsweek has a long article–in which I briefly appear–exploring how and why the euthanasia monster broke its fetters to turn the Netherlands into ground zero for the culture of death (now seriously challenged by the even more death-enthusiastic Belgians).Reporter Winston Ross interviewed experts and the impacted on both sides of the issue, so you should read the whole thing. What I wanted to share here, are the theories about why Netherlanders have permitted euthanasia with virtually no meaningful limits.First, media propaganda. From, “Dying Dutch: Once a supporter of euthanasia, he’s now one of its most vocal critics. Among the reasons...

In December 2014, Planned Parenthood Federation of America released their annual report for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. In the report, they list their twelve top moments of the year, from helping reduce teen pregnancy to “fighting” breast cancer. They even included their work in influencing pop culture by fighting abortion stigma in the movie Obvious Child.Planned Parenthood seems especially proud that they influenced 126,494 youth through a new chat and text program online. According to their report, this program helps teens reach dedicated “specialists” at urgent moments to provide advice.They go on to brag that our generation will be the...

PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey urged the "faith-based community" and abortion foes to step up to help the state deal with the thousands of children born who now in state care. "I am proudly pro-life" the governor told a rally of members of the anti-abortion Center for Arizona Policy. "And I look forward to working with you on those issues." But Ducey said there are things that need to happen. "We have 16,900 children that are now outside of the womb and are wards of the state," he continued. "And I'm asking for your help as an organization, the faith-based...

Abortion clinics operate every day in the United States, suctioning and tearing preborn babies out of their mother’s wombs. What happens to the bodies of aborted babies after they are killed? Ideally, the remains of aborted babies are sent to a lab. They are then examined to make sure there are no serious medical problems that the woman should be made aware of. In very early abortions, the tiny embryo’s remains can be difficult to identify. Often, it takes careful examination by a pathologist to make sure all parts of the baby and placenta have been removed. A thorough examination...

<p>COLUMBIA - The House has again approved a bill banning abortion in South Carolina beyond 19 weeks of pregnancy.</p> <p>The 80-27 vote Wednesday occurred 11 months after the chamber last approved the proposal. It died in the Senate as the session ended last June.</p>

Why? Because 23 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state don't even have mammogram equipment. Yet they collect taxpayers' money just for the referrals. "So our solution obviously for this specific program is pretty easy," says the pro-lifer. "When we get Planned Parenthood out of the program, more money will go to those clinics that actually do a proper scan to make sure that any woman who does have breast cancer can get the answers soon, and can go and be treated by an actual healthcare provider."

<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Planned Parenthood is appealing a state health department rejection of its application seeking to perform abortion services in New Orleans.</p> <p>The organization said Wednesday it filed a notice of appeal with the state Division of Administrative Law, rather than file a lawsuit challenging the rejection.</p>

CONCORD, New Hampshire — Penalties for indecent exposure and the legality of abortions are on tap for the New Hampshire House. Lawmakers are scheduled to debate these and several other issues during Wednesday's legislative session, beginning at 10 a.m. A committee recommends passing a bill that would make indecent exposure or lewdness in front of a minor a felony rather than a misdemeanor. By a vote of 10-4, the House Judiciary Committee recommends killing a bill "providing life begins at conception," which would outlaw abortion. Several bills aimed at limiting access to abortions are before the House this session.

After days of debates lasting hours on the House of Delegates floor, West Virginia lawmakers passed a bill that would limit abortions in the state. On Wednesday House Bill 2368 passed by an overwhelming majority, 87-12, with both republicans and democrats voting in favor of it. The bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks, granting exemptions if a mother's life was in danger or the fetus was not medically viable. Doctors who would perform an abortion after this time would be at risk of losing their medical licenses. “Truly what we are talking about is just ensuring that a child,...

Alveda King is the niece of late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and she is also actively pro-life. The younger King was at the March for Life in Washington D.C. in January for pro-life events and, there, members of the radical pro-abortion group Stop Patriarchy hurled racist and sexist insults at her as she led a one-woman, non-violent protest against their antics. Wearing white pants splattered with fake blood, a few dozen members of the group gathered in front of the Supreme Court, harassing marchers and trying to tear down the signs that were set up for the...

In November 2010, a baby girl was born “pregnant” with twins growing inside her in Hong Kong. The deceased unborn babies were between eight and ten weeks gestation, had legs, arms, a spine, rib cage, primitive brain tissue and intestines. According to the Mirror Online, both were covered in skin; and one weighed half an ounce and the other a third of an ounce – and each had an umbilical cord. The doctors first discovered the rare phenomenon in the baby girl during an ultrasound of the mother. Then, after the girl was born, tests determined the infant had the...

Being born pregnant is so rare it has only been documented 200 times, but it does happen. Now researchers are reporting this week in the Hong Kong Medical Journal on the November 2010 case of a newborn girl thought to have two tumors in her abdomen that were found to be 8- to 10-week-old fetuses instead. Weighing half an ounce and a third of an ounce, they were far enough along to each have four limbs, a spine, a rib cage, intestines, and an anus, and to be connected through an umbilical cord to a single placenta-like mass. "Since it...

A West Virginia Republican delegate previously scrutinized for his comments on a child that could come from rape has been called on to resign. The West Virginia Federation of Democratic Women created a petition on change.org calling on the lawmakers resignation. The petition explains that Delegate Brian Kurcaba, R-Monongalia, does “not represent West Virginia women and does not understand the mental anguish a woman goes through when sexually assaulted.” Kurcaba made the comments during a hearing in the House of Delegates Feb. 5 on a bill that would attempt to ban a woman from having an abortion performed after 20...

A bill has been introduced into the U.S. House by a Wisconsin Congressman which would stop abortion providers from “unbundling” abortion services so they can submit separate claims to Medicaid. U.S. Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) said that he introduced the ‘‘Medicaid Abortion Funding Prohibition Accountability Act“ to target Medicaid providers who improperly submit reimbursement claims to pay for abortions, and related services. “These companies submit separate claims for abortion related procedures in order to receive increased Medicaid reimbursements. It is a process known as “unbundling” and is in violation of federal law,” Rep. Duffy said in his press release. “All...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Planned Parenthood is suggesting New Hampshire lawmakers replace the state law creating “buffer zones” around facilities that provide abortions rather than repeal it. New Hampshire’s 25-foot buffer zone law has not been enforced since its passage last summer because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar Massachusetts law. The House Judiciary Committee took testimony Tuesday on a bill to repeal the buffer zone law outright. Its sponsors say the state will face a costly lawsuit if the law remains in place.

Since the passage of the Pro-Life Omnibus Bill (HB 2) in 2013, anti-Life advocates have sought to make abortion more accessible in Texas. Cicada Collective is one such group, describing itself as “a queer and trans* people of color centered organization” with the mission of “providing practical abortion support.” This “support” encompasses acting as an “abortion doula.” Doulas transport pregnant mothers and their unborn children to abortion appointments, give the mothers lodging during the ordeal, and remain with them before, during, and after the abortion. The initiative began shortly before the historic passage of HB 2, and hosted a full...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Amid strong Republican legislative majorities, abortion foes in Ohio set their sights Tuesday on an aggressive agenda for the new session. Ohio Right to Life said it will pursue six key bills, including legislation to ban all abortions of "pain-capable" fetuses or on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis, and to prevent women's health care and abortion provider Planned Parenthood from receiving one of its last public funding streams, for infant mortality prevention grants. "It's not just ironic that America's largest abortion provider is receiving funding to prevent infant mortality, it's actually very disturbing," Right...

Contact the League Make a Donation Activism Store Pro-Life Links Pressroom Pregnant? Hurting? Get help here. Home About the League Questions & Answers Sidewalk Counseling Face the Truth Tours Generations for Life Former Abortionists Pro-Life Hotline Blog News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League Become a fan of the Pro-Life Action League on Facebook! Check out the Pro-Life Action League channel on YouTube! Follow the Pro-Life Action League on Twitter! View Pro-Life Action League photo albums on Flickr! Pro-Life Hotline Blog Hotline Bloggers Ann Scheidler Annie Casselman Corrina Gura Eric Scheidler Grant Wilson Jean Crocco Joe Scheidler John Jansen...

Abortion activists and the liberal media have ganged up on yet another pro-life legislator for saying babies conceived in rape are human beings worthy of respect and who should not be aborted. The dustup comes in the state of West Virginia, where state Delegate Brian Kurcaba took the side of unborn children, even int he tragic and heartbreaking circumstances of rape: A US lawmaker reportedly stunned crowds by saying a child born as a result of a rape being committed was ‘beautiful’. Delegate Brian Kurcaba made the alleged controversial remarks while discussing a law to prevent abortions in the state...

Woman speaking about the father of her aborted baby. they aborted a previously wanted baby because amniocentesis showed that the child was handicapped: “Even though he wasn’t talking, I think he may have taken it a little bit harder than even I did, because he seemed to be more afraid to try again… I was more optimistic, and I guess he was still grieving, and I was already on to, “okay, let’s try this again.” But he wasn’t ready, he was more afraid. Even when he’s not talking, I know what he’s feeling.” Rayna Rapp Testing Women, Testing the Fetus:...

A clinic worker identified as “Sarina” said: And, in the beginning, yes, I remember standing behind this woman’s shoulder [as an abortionist performed a second trimester abortion] and thinking, I can’t do this …Features are discernible, you can count five fingers on a hand, and five toes on a foot. You know, all the organ systems are formed. You know, you can see ears as structures, and the nose and eyes as structures…I think the destruction is hard. Wendy Simonds Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic (New Brunswich, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996) 96-97 From Clinicquotes

Author Sue Hertz interviewed clinic workers and observed antiabortion activity at a busy abortion clinic. Her book was written during the height of the Operation Rescue clinic blockades, and the book focuses mainly on the drama outside the clinic rather than inside. However, Hertz did find the time to observe several abortions and describe how clinic workers reacted to seeing the bodies of aborted babies. Hertz describes how a clinic worker named Doris coped with being in the operating room while the abortionist did a dismemberment abortion. Doris looked away as the doctor extracted a woman’s preborn child piece by...

In January, Professor Jan Narveson and I debated whether libertarians should support abortion. Narveson claimed abortion only involves a mother’s right not to have a child, while I argued abortion violates the non-aggression principle (NAP) by killing babies. In his response to my argument, Narveson claims embryos, whom science defines as preborn babies during their first eight weeks of development, are not “people.” Narveson suggests the reason is the abilities to think, desire, exercise one’s will, dream, etc. (hereinafter “think, etc.”) are not “within the reach of … embryos.” Narveson concludes that, accordingly, the NAP does not apply to abortion...

Akron, OH – With lights flashing and sirens blaring, an ambulance transported a woman from the Akron Women’s Medical Group abortion facility in Akron, Ohio, to a local hospital on Saturday, February 7, 2015. One pro-life activist was on the scene at the time and had the presence of mind to video the incident with his cell phone as the woman was loaded into an ambulance and rushed away from the clinic. Ambulance 02072015 Akron-featured“Once again, if it had not been for this one faithful man, this incident would have been swept under the rug. This shows how important it...

AUSTIN — The fight over the death of Marlise Muñoz, the pregnant and brain-dead North Texas woman who was left on life support for two months, appears likely to begin again soon at the Capitol. A Fort Worth lawmaker is pushing a new state law that would provide representation for fetuses in court hearings — an idea that Muñoz’s family opposes. A blood clot caused Muñoz, 33, to collapse at her Haltom City home in November 2013. Two scans taken at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth revealed that she was brain-dead. Her family immediately asked the hospital to...

HARRISBURG — The president of Planned Parenthood pointed to the recent election of Gov. Tom Wolf as a good sign for advocates for women’s reproductive choice, calling Mr. Wolf “the first governor in the history of the country who was also a former Planned Parenthood clinic escort.” Speaking Friday evening in Harrisburg, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, was speaking at the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit in Harrisburg, a gathering of left-leaning activists and elected officials. “It’s pretty darn exciting to see a state where you actually bucked the national trend,” she said to the crowd, referring to...

Abortion clinics should be inspected at least as frequently as pizzerias, tanning salons and movie theaters, according to new radio ads decrying the sanitary conditions at some of New York’s facilities. The 30-second and 60-second spots paid for by the pro-life Chiaroscuro Group quote what the organization claims are scathing reviews culled from social-media Web sites and penned by horrified patients who visited some of the clinics. A sample of the reviews: “Avoid at all costs”; “The Waiting Room is dirty and smelled of dried urine”; “DO NOT EVER GO HERE”; “Filthy Medical Equipment looks like it’s from the 1970s”;...

SANTA FE (KRQE) – It doesn’t seem like that long ago that Albuquerque became the center of the national abortion debate. Now, New Mexico itself is set to be front and center. On Friday, lawmakers announced a new bill to ban late term abortions in a state with one of the only known late-term abortion clinics in the nation. The bill would ban abortions after five months and once the fetus is capable of living outside the womb. Unlike the failed November 2013 measure in Albuquerque, the bill provides exceptions for rape, abuse, incest, and when the mother’s life is...

Democratic state Rep. Brandon Dillon represents the 75th House District, which includes part of the city of Grand Rapids. He is in his third and final term in the House. Growing up, I always considered myself "pro-life." As someone who was raised in Grand Rapids, went to Catholic school for 13 years, and has been blessed with beautiful (and active!) twin 12-year-old boys of my own, it was just part of who I was and the community I came from. That's why, as an elected official at both the county and state level, I previously sought the endorsement of Right...