The former director of a leading abortion advocacy group who was caught in a child sex sting pleaded guilty to his crimes.

Scott Richard Swirling, who was the director of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), was arrested for attempting to arrange for a sexual encounter with a twelve-year-old girl. He was charged with traveling across state lines to engage in illicit sexual conduct, a crime which carries a penalty of up to 30 years.

Swirling pleaded guilty to traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and faces a maximum sentence of 30 years as well as a fine of up to $250,000, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Swirling entered the guilty plea in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The Honorable John D Bates is to sentence him on July 11, 2013.

According to the government’s evidence, on January 7, 2013, Swirling contacted a man he believed to be the father of an under-aged girl on a social networking site. That man turned out to be an undercover officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Over the next few days, Swirling engaged in graphic online e-mail and instant message conversations with the undercover officer. During these conversations, Swirling arranged with the undercover officer to meet for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with the child.

Swirling traveled from Silver Spring to a pre-arranged meeting place in Washington, DC ., where he was arrested. This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD.

 

The Washington Examiner newspaper reports how Swirling pursued arranging a meeting with the father of the girl with whom he hoped to have sex. Swirling worried about a police sting but pressed forward with arranging the meeting anyway.

Swirling answered an online advertisement on Monday that had been placed by a task force made up of D.C. police officers and FBI agents.

The detective wrote that he was a “taboo dad” with a “12-year-old girl, very perverted.”

Swirling, using the screen name “squiggles 12353,” responded, “Kindered [sic] spirts.”

Over several hours, the two men traded emails discussing their interests in underage girls and traded photos of young girls, including that of the detective’s purported 12-year-old daughter.

Swirling asked for more pictures of the girl and, once he felt assured he was not trapped in a police investigation, he met at the arranged location and was arrested.

The pro-life group Secular Pro-Life responded to the news with more information about the pro-abortion group Swirling worked for and its relationship with the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

“Sexual predators who impregnate underage girls rely on cooperative abortion clinics to cover up their crimes.  As Live Action, Life Dynamics, and others have documented, Planned Parenthood abortion clinics frequently fail to comply with mandatory reporting laws,” it said.

“The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association strongly supports taxpayer funding for abortion clinics.  Many Planned Parenthood affiliates are NFPRHA members,” it added. “There is no mention of Mr. Swirling on the NFPRHA website.”

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Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics, responded, “Nobody should be surprised that people who advocate the murder of children would be involved in the sexual abuse of children.”

Crutcher exposed the covering of the sexual abuse of children by the abortion industry in his project: Child Predators. Audio and Transcripts of the child predator investigation conducted by Crutcher uncovered and overwhelming body of statistical evidence which show the rate at which the abortion industry failed to comply with mandatory reporting laws is in excess of 90 percent.

Despite opposition from the Planned Parenthood abortion business, the Florida state House passed a bill that would provide medical care and legal protection for babies who are born alive after failed abortions.

This is the same legislation President Barack Obama refused to support during his time in the Illinois legislature and it mirrors a national law President George W. Bush signed after nurse Jill Stanek exposed how her Chicago-area hospital left babies to die in utility closets after botched abortions.

The pro-life measure, HB1129, ultimately cleared the House Criminal justice Subcommittee despite opposition from the abortion giant. The bill would require that medical care be given to newborns, likely to be premature, who survive botched abortions. The care would be given at a hospital and not at the abortion clinic.

On Wednesday, the Florida House unanimously passed the bill, sponsored by Avon Park Republican Rep. Cary Pigman, on a 119-0 vote.

From the story:

Pigman, a soft-spoken freshman legislator and emergency room physician, told legislators his proposal would guarantee “respect and humanity to infants born alive, regardless of how they entered the world.”

After the vote, Gov. Rick Scott said he looks “forward to signing the bill when it reaches my desk.” The bill must still pass the full Senate.

A separate bill considered by lawmakers Wednesday would make the death of an “unborn child” a separate crime from an offense committed against the mother (SB 876). The bill would not target abortions specifically, but crimes against a pregnant mother.

Sponsor Rep. Larry Ahern, R-St. Petersburg, said 36 other states have such measures. President Bush signed federal legislation in 2004 making it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent crime against a pregnant woman.

A person would not have to know a woman is pregnant to be charged with a crime. Democratic lawmakers pressed Ahern with several hypothetical cases where a fetus might be injured — in a crowd, in a soccer game, in a fender-bender. Ahern said it would be up to law enforcement officers to investigate cases to see whether charges should be filed.

In opposing the bill and care of newborns who survive abortions, a Planned Parenthood lobbyist said “any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”

Previously a national pro-life group released footage of an undercover video showing a Planned Parenthood staff member telling a pregnant woman than babies are left to die after induced labor abortions where the baby survives the abortion procedure.

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The video shows the student going to a Title X, federally funded Planned Parenthood facility located in Freehold, New Jersey. A Planned Parenthood staffer describes how an abortion would be performed on a 22 week unborn child.

In the footage, the Planned Parenthood nurse describes to the pregnant woman that the abortion would entail delivering her son alive. After the woman asks if the baby can be born alive, the nurse admits that “it does happen…but it wouldn’t be able to survive on its own, so eventually the baby does die.”

Babies have been left to die before at abortion clinics — such as this one in Florida.

Kermit Gosnell has been accused of “snipping” the spinal cords of babies born alive in his Philadelphia abortion clinic. Is such behavior crazy, or does it simply follow the logic of an industry that believes the mother’s choice overrides any right to protection that the baby has?

Now I’m not saying Gosnell, if found guilty, shouldn’t be held accountable for the eight murders he is charged with. But I am suggesting that a certain set of presumptions has been created by our public policies on abortion and the arguments made to justify these policies. If we are horrified by what happened at Gosnell’s clinic, we have to examine what that connection might be.

Statistics from the Guttmacher Institute show that, in the United States, about 18,000 abortions occur annually – and legally – at 21 weeks of pregnancy and beyond. These are babies the size of a large banana.

One of the most memorable conversations I ever had was with Dr. Martin Haskell of Ohio, who performs abortions in the latest stages of pregnancy. I asked how he justified doing such a thing. “I don’t know when the child receives a soul,” he said.

Dr. James McMahon, a late-term abortionist, said in an interview with American Medical News: “After 20 weeks, where it frankly is a child to me, I really agonize over it. … On the other hand, I have another position, which I think is superior in the hierarchy of questions, and that is: ‘Who owns the child?’ It’s got to be the mother.”

Notice the lack of an argument here denying that these children are living human babies. Instead, we’re hearing that these are babies who do not deserve the protection of the law. This dichotomy starts with Roe v. Wade. On the one hand, the Supreme Court ruling states, “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins.” But it also states, “The word person, as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.”

Thus, some humans don’t have to be considered persons. The difficulty, of course, is drawing a clear line and having a clear rationale for that line. However, we have all kinds of evidence of how dangerously flexible that line can be.

Florida is working to pass a bill that would protect babies born after a failed abortion attempt. We already have this law on the federal level – the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. During a March hearing on the Florida bill, a Planned Parenthood lobbyist named Alisa LaPolt Snow was asked: “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”

She responded, “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”

In February 2012, the Journal of Medical Ethics published an article by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva titled, “After-birth Abortion: Why Should the Baby Live?” The authors state, “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.”

As the authors admit, the assertion is not new. The controversial ethicist Peter Singer said long ago: “The location of the baby inside or outside the womb cannot make such a crucial moral difference” and, to be consistent, there are “only two possibilities,” namely, “oppose abortion, or allow infanticide.”

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In the last decade, federal legislation has attempted to put the brakes on the endorsement of infanticide. The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act was signed into law in 2002, and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban was enacted the next year. The ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007.

But such laws are not sufficient to resolve the dangerous tension created by allowing children to be killed at certain stages of their development for rationales that don’t apply at later stages

LifeNews.com Note: Father Frank Pavone is the national director of Priests for Life.

Some 72 members of Congress have signed on to a letter demanding that the mainstream media provide coverage of the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell.

Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Steve Scalise (R-LA) were joined by 70 of their House colleagues late Wednesday demanding national broadcast news channels ABC, NBC, and CBS stop blacking out coverage on high-profile abortion controversies.

Their letters specifically reference two instances where the media has covered up the story of Planned Parenthood lobbying in support of infanticide in the Florida State Legislature and in the ongoing murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia. By many accounts, the Gosnell murder trial has become one of the most notorious cases of patient abuse of mothers and children in our nation’s history, they said.

“The broadcasters’ blackout of the Planned Parenthood infanticide lobbying scandal and the Gosnell ‘House of Horrors’ murder trial are the biggest and most politically-motivated media cover-ups in our nation’s history,” said Blackburn. “Censorship and media bias allows the corrupt abortion industry to profit at the expense of innocent women and children. The mainstream media has a responsibility to report the truth, not turn a blind eye to the biggest civil rights issue of our time.”

“If someone went into a hospital and shot seven babies and a mother with an AK-47, the media coverage surrounding the trial would rival a natural disaster,” Scalise said. “Yet seven babies and a mother are dead at the hands of an abortion doctor using a scalpel, and the mainstream media’s silence on this story is deafening. By failing to cover this story and turning their backs on the culture of abortion in this country, the media has failed in their duty to provide unbiased coverage of this horrific tragedy.”

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Rep. Marsha Blackburn is Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a Founding Member of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee. Congressman Steve Scalise is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and serves as the Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee.

Here are links to the full text of the letters to ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Two witnesses took the stand yesterday in the capital murder case of Kermit Gosnell, providing testimony from the perspectives of a patient and an employee of substandard conditions and illegal practices at Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” clinic at 3801 Lancaster.

Mary Kincade had been a patient at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society clinic for about ten years and was last seen five to six years ago. She said she only saw Eileen O’Neill, who other clinic workers referred to as “Doctor” even though she had no license to practice in Pennsylvania. Kincade was not an abortion patient, but saw O’Neill for yearly well woman exams. Kincade never saw Gosnell at the clinic during any of her visits.

O’Neill is on trial with Gosnell on charges of theft by Deception, Conspiracy to commit theft, Racketeering, Conspiracy related to corruption, Perjury, and False Swearing.

Kincade thought O’Neill was a licensed physician and noted that certificates hung on the wall of her office, which led her to believe they allowed her to practice medicine.

There was a discrepancy in Kincade’s patient file concerning co-payments for office visits. Kincade testified that she remitted a co-pay of $30-40 each time she saw O’Neill. However, in her file, there was only one receipt for $40 to indicate she ever paid any money. The inference of this testimony was that there were irregularities in the billing and record-keeping practices at Gosnell’s clinic, although prosecutors did not fully detail their theory concerning what appeared to be evidence of financial malfeasance during today’s court proceedings.

Near Death Experience

The longest testimony of the day came from Latosha Lewis, 31, a medical assistant who worked for Gosnell for almost ten years. Lewis was not arrested with Gosnell and his eight co-workers in January, 2011. Instead, she was arrested and charged by the Federal Government related to apparent drug activities at Gosnell’s clinic. She entered a guilty plea agreement and faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison and a “hefty” fine. She will be sentenced sometime later and could receive leniency due to her cooperation with prosecutors.

Lewis testified about her training and how her duties at Women’s Medical Society grew until she was assisting with abortion procedures. She stopped doing so in 2007 because she overdosed a woman and was worried about whether she would ever come out of anesthesia. She also said she stopped administering Cytotec, a drug that caused powerful and often unpredictable contractions around the same time.

“I saw women deliver too quickly and didn’t want to deal with that,” she explained.

Lewis testified that Gosnell was well aware of why she refused to continue to drug women. He reassigned her to work at the front desk.

Reused Curettes Cause Spike in STDs

Lewis indicated that Gosnell’s equipment was outdated and never inspected, and that he often reused disposable curettes, which is the sharp-ended tube that enters the womb in abortion procedures and applies suction for the removal of the pre-born baby and other tissues and fluids.

Lewis testified that the curettes were washed, dried and placed in an antiseptic solution, then reused. The curettes are meant to be disposable and for single use only. She indicated that she noticed that women who had abortions using the reused curettes began returning to the clinic suffering from sexually transmitted diseases.

Earlier testimony indicated that plastic curettes are more porous than metal surgical instruments and simply cannot be adequately cleaned for reuse.

Mongar Suffered Illegal Abortion

Lewis was on duty when Karnamaya Mongar came for her abortion, and through the use of a relative as a translator, she helped fill out Mongar’s medical history forms and took her vitals.

Mongar’s original chart seized from Gosnell’s clinic was examined in court. Those who touched it were instructed to don purple latex gloves because the file was stained with blood and other bodily fluids and emitted an unpleasant odor.

There was no notation of Mongar’s weight on the chart, which is usually important information for women undergoing anesthesia. Lewis testified that the scale in the clinic had been broken for a month and she had no way to weigh patients.

Lewis noted that Mongar started the clinic on the first day she arrived at the clinic, which violated a law that requires information be given 24 hours prior to an abortion. Nevertheless, Lewis inserted the form into Mongar’s chart and signed it affirming that the 24-hour waiting period had been observed. Lewis said she had already left work for the day and was not present when Mongar died.

Dangerously Shoddy Drug Records

Lewis testified that notations in the chart and in a narcotics log book kept at the clinic were unreliable because other workers failed to consistently make proper entries, therefore no one really knew exactly what the patients were given or when.

Measuring Fetal Feet

In one of the more dramatic moments of the day, Prosecutor Ed Cameron brought Lewis to a square white rolling table that had been seized from Gosnell’s clinic and brought into the courtroom along with other pieces of outdated and filthy furniture and equipment. The metal legs of the table were rusted and dirty. Lewis agreed that Gosnell would pull out a flat shelf from the table and there he would measure fetal feet that were placed in glass trays, just as Cameron demonstrated for the jury.

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Jars with severed feet in formaldehyde were discovered in Gosnell’s abortion clinic over a wash sink where smaller abortion remains were washed down a drain and ground with a garbage disposal.

Phony Fetal Ages

Cameron then went through a tedious process of reviewing one patient file after the other, confirming the amounts of drugs given as well as the size of the baby’s heads on the multiple ultrasound found in each chart along with the fetal ages recorded in the charts.

In general, ultrasound measurements showing the biparietal diameter, or BPD, which is the measurement across the baby’s head, varied from 53-75.8 mm. This measurement is used to determine fetal age. However, recorded in the charts almost uniformly was the fetal age of 24.5 weeks.

According to a chart found on the Internet, 53 mm BPD equates roughly to 22 weeks gestation. A 75.8 mm BPD would represent 29-30 weeks gestation both ends of the spectrum were noted as representing fetal ages of 24.5 weeks in the charts.

Many charts had notations concerning the cost of the second trimester procedures. Prices ranged from $830-1,665. Many women who did not have the full amount were aided by an abortion fund that raises money to pay for portions of an abortion bill that patients cannot cover. However, more women signed promissory notes and were put on a payment plan for the balance. Lewis testified it was not unusual for women to disappear and never pay their balances.

The Defense Spin

Defense Attorney Jack McMahon also reviewed each of the files with Lewis. He noted that there were signed consent forms in most of that charts that included a 24 Hour Consent for abortion, a consent to be given Cytotec, and a consent form for the use of Digoxin, a heart medication that is injected into the pregnant woman’s abdomen for the purpose of bringing about “fetal demise” prior to the abortion.

Another Digoxin form in some of the charts contained a diagram of a pregnant abdomen with intersecting lines defining four quadrants were a notation was to be made to indicate the location of the Digoxin injection.

McMahon made much of the paperwork before the jury and emphasized how it showed that Gosnell did indeed obtain the necessary consent. Attention to the Digoxin forms was meant to bolster his argument that all the babies aborted at Gosnell’s clinic were already dead before being expelled from the womb.

Cameron Delivers Question of the Day

Cameron powerfully nullified McMahon’s afternoon of work by pointing out that each and every file contained information about abortions done at 24 weeks or later. The last day an abortion can legally be done in Pennsylvania is 23 weeks 6 days.

“He got consent to do illegal abortions?” Cameron forcefully asked.

McMahon erupted, but Cameron had made his point.

The prosecution is expected to call two final witnesses on Thursday then rest its case. The Defense is expected to begin its case on Monday.

Gosnell faces seven counts of first degree murder to severing the spinal cords on babies born alive during abortions. Hes also faces one count of third degree murder in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, who died of a drug overdose during an abortion by Gosnell. In addition, Gosnell is charged with Abuse of Corpse, Tampering with Evidence, Corruption, Conspiracy, Obstruction, Racketeering, and Solicitation for Murder. If convicted, Gosnell faces the death penalty.

It’s one of the oldest stories known to man – the wealthy who will pay anything, or do anything, to prolong youth. Nine defendants face criminal charges before a Hungarian Court for collaborating in a venture to provide “treatments” promising to help them regain lost vigor, mental acuity, even youthful appearance. The grisly enterprise came to an abrupt end with a raid by a Hungarian government agency in July 2007.

According to the charges on file, the defendants’ wealthy customers paid five million Hungarian forints, about $25,000 US, for a single shot of an as-yet-undetermined concoction of tissue and stem cells taken from aborted children.

Initially an alliance between Ukrainian abortionists and “aesthetic physicians” in Barbados, the operation moved to Hungary after it was shut down following an expose on the BBC in 2006. The famous story that led to the clinic in Barbados being shuttered appalled many, but resulted in no criminal charges being brought, despite harrowing tales of newborn children being stolen from young mothers in Ukraine and dissected for organs believed to contain the most valuable stem cells for “therapeutic” use. Once exposed, several of the perpetrators simply moved to Hungary and restarted their high-price service for those who have enough money to roll the dice and subject themselves to medically-unproven treatments of unknown origin.

In July 2007, three of the defendants currently under trial were arrested at a Budapest hospital that had contracted with the clinic. István Seffer, the owner of Seffer and Renner clinic in Kaposvár, Hungary was also arrested while consulting with plastic surgery clients at a nearby facility. At the front end, the Seffer and Renner clinic provided plastic surgery and OB-GYN services, while offering the expensive and untested “treatments” out of the back end. In a brazen misstep, however, the clinic kept the same name of the defunct project in Barbados, the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM).

According to the allegations, the bloody scam involved several characters. István Seffer owned and operated the clinic which housed IRM. Performing the “treatments” was proctologist Yuliy V. Baltaytis, a Ukrainian professor who self-published two massive “studies” on the subject that are neither peer-reviewed nor considered accepted among the European or international medical communities. Baltaytis injected the embryonic cocktail into wealthy patients solicited by art collector Imre Pákh and gastronomy expert Ádám Fásy, both of whom apparently have dual Hungarian and U.S. citizenship. The material for the treatments was prepared by Ukranian biologist Natalia Karnikova, who also worked out of IRM.

The Seffer and Renner clinic is still in operation. The owner’s brother, Tibor Seffer, apparently still performs abortions and other procedures at the clinic. The IRM obtained official approval for collecting and storing stemcells and entered into contracts with four Hungarian hospitals where abortions were performed. It is unclear how many of the aborted children’s remains used by Baltaytis came from Seffer-Renner’s own clinic, or other hospitals, and how many were obtained and used by Baltaytis.

The charges faced by the defendants have nothing to do with abortions legally or illegally performed, or with the destruction and manipulation of human embryos, since IRM apparently had all permits necessary to perform this work. What Baltayis and his colleagues stand accused of is using human cells for treatments in a for-profit venture. If found guilty, they face between three and eight years imprisonment.

Among the clients of this ethically-bankrupt enterprise was 2007 Miss Hungary and Catholic University of Budapest student Krisztina Bodri, who is described in the media as Baltaytis’ „partner”. The IRM also enjoyed high-level political support – present at the opening of the clinic in 2007 was the then-Hungarian Minister of Labor and current Socialist Party MP, Mónika Lamperth.

All of this unfolds as the European Union considers a massive investment in biomedical research, seeking to keep its research institutions at the forefront of developments in biotechnology. Entitled “Horizon 2020,” the proposal as it is currently written does not exclude obtaining research material from aborted human beings, and would create an EU fund of 90 billion Euros to fund the research.

Standing opposed to stem cell research that would destroy and utilize unborn human beings is a European Citizens’ initiative entitled “One of Us.” This movement has proposed a change to Article 16 of Horizon 2020, which deals with “ethics and principles,” that would completely preclude the use of embryonic stem cells for research, or fund any research that presupposes the destruction of human embryos.

The good news is that the One of Us campaign stands on solid – and recent – legal precedent in opposing the destruction of human beings for research purposes. As argued by the European Center for Law and Justice:

The initiative may avail of reasoning adopted by the European Court of Justice in the case of Brüstle v. Greenpeace(C-34/10) on the 18th of October, 2011. In this case, the judges of Luxembourg defined the human embryo as an organism “capable of commencing the process of development of a human”, whatever the mode of procurement of this organism (IVF, cloning, etc). The Court of Justice also aligned law with science, in recognizing that human life begins at conception, and that it deserves legal protection from the moment of conception, in particular with regard to the principles of respect for bodily integrity and human dignity. It is in light of this protection that patenting must be excluded from all processes that ring about the destruction of a human embryo through the use of a sample of stem cells obtained from the embryo.

The One of Us campaign, launched by European MP Carlo Casini in 2012, must obtain at least one million signatures from at least seven EU member states before November 1stof this year. Any citizen of a Member State of the EU which is of voting age can support the initiative online on www.oneofus.eu.

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Absent the changes proposed by the One of Us campaign, it is hard to see how the abuses perpetrated by those now on trial could be stopped throughout Europe. Although the EU has limited authority to intrude into domestic legislation concerning bioethical issues, a 90 billion Euro infusion of funding can result in massive loss of life, all under the guise of “progress” and “science.” Given the stakes, there is little willingness to compromise on the part of those behind the 90 billion Euro Horizon 2020 project. As lofty as their goals may sound, the motive is hardly distinguishable from the one behind the abuses of that other officially sanctioned entity – the Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

LifeNews Note: Imre Teglasy, Ph.D., is the director of Human Life International Hungary. This article originally appeared on Zenit.org and is reprinted with permission.

LifeNews Note: Abby Johnson brings the following story from a former abortion worker named Angie, who has since gotten out of the abortion industry.
Up until a few years ago, I did not have a clear image of what the sanctity of life issue was all about.  But God, as a part of His purpose for my life, began to reveal it to me.  What I thought was an unraveling of everything I had ever hoped or dreamed of, was soon to become a character lesson of a lifetime.

I was a Woman’s Heath Nurse Practitioner, a wife and mother of two kids in college.  Heavily involved in ministry at church, I knew my husband had become distant.  That led to a separation and ultimate end of our 23 year marriage.  During my separation, I was led to a job at Planned Parenthood in Denton.  I guess itw as naive on my part, but I figured if I wasn’t working in the actual clinic that did the abortions, maybe it was an acceptable place to work.

It was there that my eyes were opened to the atrocities and the realities of abortion for the first time.  It happened one day when a young woman came in 20 weeks pregnant and bleeding.  I examined her, listened with the monitor for the baby’s heartbeat, and realized it wasn’t beating.  I sent her to the ER where they found that the baby had died.

A few days later, Planned Parenthood’s supervising Nurse Practitioner came to my office inquiring why I had used a fetal heart Doppler to allow my patient to hear her baby’s heartbeat.  When I said it was part of the routine prenatal exam, she said, “not at Planned Parenthood, it isn’t! We do not allow the patients to hear the heartbeats of their baby because it may sway their decision.”  When I commented that it was probably good in this instance because the patient got to the ER where she needed to be, she questioned why I did not send her to Dallas for an abortion.

I said, “You would have done a sonogram and told her that her baby was dead.”  She said, “No we wouldn’t have.  By the time we do the sonogram, she has already signed consent for the abortion.  We don’t tell them if it is dead or alive, twins or triplets.”  It was at that point that I knew I could not longer be a party to this type of travesty.

I was so shaken, I went across the street to a pregnancy resource center and told them who I was and what had happened.  It was as if they already knew me.  They said they thought there was a “plant” next door at Planned Parenthood because of all the girls that had been referred there over the last few months.  It was then, as they prayed and cried with me, that I began to see how, in spite of myself, God was using me for His purposes.

Not too long after that, I was working in the iinner city of Dallas, with primarily Hispanic women.  I was doing their exams and giving birth control as I had always done.  Until one day, a patient asked me if her IUD was causing abortions. As I explained the way it worked, my eyes were opened to the fact that conception was taking place, but the device was causing the baby to abort before it could implant on the uterus.  At about the same time, God convicted me of the fact that the “morning after pill” also caused abortion.  I prayed and decided to stand for what I felt was right, and was fired from my job.

Several weeks later, I was in a state of despair.  I had no job, no insurance and I felt like God had abandoned me.  What was my purpose?  Just as I was at my lowest, I was awakened early in the morning.  It was as if God was speaking audibly to me.  All I could think was “save the babies.”  I called a local pregnancy center that day and spoke to the director.  It just so happened their nurse manager was ill and was not sure if she would return.  I started volunteering the next week, was trained to do sonograms and hired as the nurse manager three months later.

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We don’t always have the full picture.  We see just a little portion of the plan God has for our lives, and it is easy to be discouraged when you’re the one walking throught the fire. But, I’m alive and well today and here to testify of the provision, grace and mercy that I was shown at a time when I was hopeless.  God sent His ministering angels to keep me safe from myself.  I had become my own worst enemy.

Now, every day I can’t wait to go to work and see who God will place in my path this day.  As I watch the women and see the look on their faces as they witness the miracle of a little living, breathing, human being squirming on the sonogram, it makes me see a little bit more of His purpose for my life.  They hear the heartbeat, see the fingers, the toes and the humanity of their baby.  They begin to bond and most decide to choose life.  It makes me ever so grateful that God gave me a second chance…a second chance to “choose life.”

Holocaust survivor Miriam Greenstein to speak at University of Portland at 4 p.m., Friday, April 19
By University of Portland

University of Portland will host Holocaust survivor Miriam Greenstein at 4 p.m. Friday, April 19 in Buckley Center Room 163 on campus, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd. Greenstein’s talk is in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, recognized internationally. The event is co-sponsored by the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture and the Multicultural Programs in Student Activities.Greenstein—born Miriam Kominkowska—was a 9-year-old in Lubraniec, Poland, in 1939 when the Nazis invaded. From then until her liberation in 1945, she endured a succession of mounting horrors that took everything from her, including her entire immediate family in Europe.

After her liberation by British troops and her recuperation in hospitals, displaced person camps and welcoming homes, Greenstein succeeded in making contact with her only known relatives. Her parents had drilled into her memory the Northeast Glisan Street address of her Uncle Moniek and Aunt Hanita in Portland. Greenstein is the author of “In the Shadow of Death, A Young Girl’s Survival in the Holocaust” (2010) and a regular speaker for the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center.

For more information, please contact Bethany Sills, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Multicultural Programs Coordinator, at (503) 943-7470 or sills@up.edu .

I have a new hero: Eden Foods founder and CEO Michael Potter.

Eden Foods is an organic company popular among the “crunchy, liberal crowd” which has filed suit against the Obama administration over the HHS mandate.

Potter is getting slammed over it, thanks in part to a hit piece last week in Salon magazine which publicized the suit and framed Potter as a man with an anti-birth control agenda.

Don’t waste your time on the original article. Instead, enjoy the refreshing quotes from the no nonsense, plain-speaking Mr. Potter in Salon’s follow-up piece from Monday relating a telephone conversation between Potter and Salon writer Irin Carmen.

“I’ve got more interest in good quality long underwear than I have in birth control pills,” Potter told Carmen. Then he elaborated:

I don’t care if the federal government is telling me to buy my employees Jack Daniel’s or birth control. What gives them the right to tell me that I have to do that? That’s my issue, that’s what I object to, and that’s the beginning and end of the story….I’m not trying to get birth control out of Rite Aid or Wal-Mart, but don’t tell me I gotta pay for it.

Rock on, M.P.!

When Carmen pressed Potter using the fallacy that “the mandate doesn’t cover abortion” but “only contraception,” Potter responded this way:

It’s a morass…I’m not an expert in anything. I’m not the pope. I’m in the food business. I’m qualified to have opinions about that and not issues that are purely women’s issues. I am qualified to have an opinion about what health insurance I pay for.

When Carmen said contraceptive coverage is cheaper to pay for than maternity coverage, Potter replied: “One’s got a little more warmth and fuzziness to it than the other, for crying out loud.”

Potter is not backing down:  “I worked my ass off at figuring out what to do on it. I worked hard on it and I made a decision,” he said. “The federal government has no right to do what they’ve done. No constitutional right, no standing.”

Carmen writes that Potter sounded annoyed that he’s receiving emails telling him to stay out of people’s bedrooms. “I’m not in your bedroom,” he said. “Obama’s in your bedroom.”

Michael Potter is doing the right thing, for the right reasons, and he’s getting slammed by left-wing activists who have lots of time on their hands. He needs to hear from the rest of us.

Here’s where to write: websales@edenfoods.com and info@edenfoods.com

I just did, and here’s what I said:

Dear Mr. Potter:

I know you’re getting heat for your lawsuit from people who like the idea of free birth control and abortion drugs, courtesy of a heavy-handed federal government mandate on employers.

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

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But you should know there are many people who agree with you that it is not the federal government’s place to dictate to employers that they must buy these things for their employees in their health plans. And yes, the mandate does include drugs that can cause an early abortion, not just contraception.

As a woman and a lawyer, my message is this: contraceptives and abortion pills are widely available, they’re legally unrestricted, and they’re cheap. Anyone who wants them can get them. There is no reason for the federal government to force every employer in America to provide them “for free.”

Thanks for standing firm. I can’t wait to buy lots of Eden Foods!

LifeNews.com Note: Cathy Ruse is senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council, a national pro-family group that focuses on pro-life issues and opposes abortion.

No sooner did the New York Times send a reporter to cover the murder trial of embattled abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell did the Gray Lady pull the reporter from daily coverage. Instead, the venerable newspaper will cover only “highlights” of the trail, which has weeks left to go.

Local reporter JD Mullane of the Bucks County Courier Times, sent a tweet late Wednesday afternoon indicating the Times was pulling its reporter.

“New York Times bails on daily coverage #Gosnell trial. Will cover “highlights” only,” he wrote.

New York Times bails on daily coverage #Gosnell trial. Will cover “highlights” only.

— jdmullane (@jdmullane) April 17, 2013

Mullane indicated other mainstream media outlets would continue covering the abortion doctor’s trial: “Phila Inquirer, CNN, Reuters, WaPo, AP, NBC10, Phila Mag, other scribes still attending #Gosnell trial.”

Phila Inquirer, CNN, Reuters, WaPo, AP, NBC10, Phila Mag, other scribes still attending #Gosnell trial. — jdmullane (@jdmullane) April 17, 2013

This reporter asked Mullane why the Times was yanking its man on the scene and LifeNews received a reply from Jim McCarthy indicating he talked to the NYT reporter who will be pulled.

I asked their reporter: @tripgabriel NYT will cover highlights MT @stevenertelt source for the NYT abandoning daily coverage? @jdmullane — Jim McCarthy (@JMacNYC) April 17, 2013

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“I asked their reporter: @tripgabriel NYT will cover highlights,” he said. Gabriel, on his Twitter profile, indicates he is a “New York Times national correspondent covering DC & mid-Atlantic states.”

LifeNews asked Gabriel why the Times pulled him and received confirmation that he will not cover the Gosnell trial on a daily basis. After all, the Time has “other stories to cover.”

@stevenerteltI wasn’t ‘pulled’ from Gosnell. NYT will be there for highlights as we have since 2011.Lots of stories to cover.

— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) April 17, 2013

 

Just days ago, the public editor of the New York Times talked about the newspaper’s lack of coverage and indicated a reporter would be assigned.

The Planned Parenthood abortion business held a sold-out fundraiser Tuesday night near the city where the Kermit Gosnell murder trial is located.

As Brietbart reports, a radio talk show host highlighted the fundraiser today:

WPHT radio host Chris Stigall told listeners this morning about the “Spring Gathering” of the Planned Parenthood in southern Pennsylvania. Gloria Steinem was the keynote speaker and the official twitter feed of the Planned Parenthood location bragged about the sold out event and the warm welcome Steinem and other abortion activists received at the event. “If the NRA hosted a gun chat in Newtown do you think we would have heard about that,” Stigall noted.

From the web site announcing the fundraiser:

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Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania’s
17th Annual Spring Gathering
With Keynote Speaker Gloria Steinem

Tuesday, April 16, 2013
6:00-8:00 p.m.
National Constitution Center
Philadelphia, PA

Thank you for your interest in attending our Spring Gathering. Due to an extraordinary response for this event we are sold out. Online ticketing is closed.

Twice in the last 24 hours, abortion industry advocates in the State Senate have tried to force a vote on the Abortion Insurance Mandate bill (EHB 1044) which  would require every health insurance policy sold in Washington to cover abortion and deny consumers choice in insurance products. Both times, the attempts have narrowly failed.

The Senate Majority Caucus in the state senate formed when two Democrats joined with the Republicans to take control of the Senate agenda. The coalition, which formed around budget issues, differs on social issues and had agreed not to let them come up for a vote in order to be able to work together on other issues.

As a result, the Abortion Insurance Mandate was not even passed out of committee, a typical prerequisite for consideration by the full body.

However, abortion industry advocates have been trying desperately to force a vote on the bill.

The first attempt was late yesterday afternoon, when Sen. Ed Murray attempted a procedural motion that would allow the minority to take control of the Senate agenda and bring this bill to the floor despite the fact that it was never passed out of committee.

That motion was defeated 25-23.

The second attempt to revive this bill took place this morning when Sen. Karen Keiser attempted to attach the abortion insurance mandate bill as an amendment to EHB 1638, a bill dealing with insurance, generally.

That amendment was also defeated 25-23.

The priority placed on this bill, from the beginning of the session until now, is somewhat puzzling. During his inaugural speech, Gov. Inslee stated that the virtually unheard of “Reproductive Parity Act”, as abortion industry advocates refer to it, was one of his top legislative priorities along with education and jobs.

Their efforts in the last 24 hours continue to show that it is a high priority. But why?

Polling shows that the public does not share their enthusiasm for this idea as 50% of the state opposes the mandate while 42% support it. In addition, during lengthy public hearings, not a single woman has testified that she has ever been unable to get a health insurance policy that covers abortion. On the other hand, literally hundreds of women have told the legislature that they want the choice not to purchase insurance products that cover abortion.

While this bill would not make abortion more available to anyone (assuming you think that’s a good thing), the freedoms of millions of Washingtonians who would rather not subsidize abortions through insurance premiums would be lost.

The two failed attempts to pass this bill in the last 24 hours does not mean the bill is dead, however.

In the legislature, anything can happen and often does. The maneuvers by abortion industry advocates clearly evidence that they are willing to do whatever they can to eliminate consumer options in the health insurance market.

But so far, individual liberty and rights of conscience appears to be winning.

Please continue to contact your legislators through the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 to share your thoughts on the Abortion Insurance Mandate (EHB 1044) or click here to email them. Contact your friends and neighbors and ask them to do the same. Forward this email so they know what’s happening. The cumulative effect of each person doing their part is significant.

Even if the bill is defeated this year, it will certainly return next year. As citizens, it is our job to have an on-going dialogue with those who represent us and remember important issues like conscience rights and religious freedom when deciding who we vote for.

Be courteous, but make sure you are heard.

LifeNews.com Note: Joseph Backholm is the Executive Director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, a pro-family, pro-life organization that opposes a bill in the Washington legislature that attacks pregnancy centers helping women.

The inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar has uncovered a series of errors and ‘systems failures’ in University Hospital Galway in the preceding days. A crucial blood test that should have triggered alarm bells was not followed up on, and the consultant obstetrician was unaware of “significant” information written by another doctor in the patient’s notes.

Coroner Dr. Ciarán MacLoughlin believes he has identified a number of systems failures that occurred in Mrs. Halappanavar’s treatment, including a failure to monitor her condition regularly and a failure to pass on the result of key medical tests and observations.

Consultant Obstetrician Dr. Katherine Astbury said she would have begun to terminate the pregnancy sooner, regardless of a foetal heartbeat, if she had been aware of a junior doctor’s note that the patient was suffering from severe sepsis. She admitted at the inquest that on the day Mrs. Halappanavar miscarried, October 24, she did not know a junior colleague had put on her chart at 6.30am that he suspected Mrs. Halappanavar was suffering from sepsis caused by chorioamnionitis, an infection of the foetal membrane.

She said that when she examined Mrs. Halappanavar at 8.30am, her vitals had dropped and she believed she had sepsis, not severe sepsis, and admitted that her registrar did not read the earlier entry reporting a foul-smelling discharge, a sign of chorioamnionitis. Dr. Astbury insisted had she known this, she would have started the steps for a termination then regardless of a heartbeat, instead of ordering tests to check for a urine infection and deciding to terminate at 1pm when severe sepsis was diagnosed.

Mrs. Halappanavar, 31, delivered a dead baby daughter on that Wednesday and died the following Sunday of a heart attack caused by septicaemia due to E.coli.

Dr. Astbury also admitted she was unaware of an abnormal white blood cell count as test results had not been passed on to her team from the weekend staff on-call and that Mrs. Halappanavar’s clinical signs were not checked every four hours, in breach of hospital policy, after her membranes ruptured in the early hours of Monday morning.

Dr. Astbury said she refused to terminate the pregnancy two days after Mrs. Halappanavar was admitted as there was not at that stage a risk to her life. She explained that when she reviewed Mrs. Halappanavar on October 23, the patient was very upset. When she had enquired about medication for a termination, she had explained that the legal position in Ireland did not permit her to terminate the pregnancy at that time. Mrs. Halappanavar was well and there was no suggestion of a risk to her life, so she could not offer her a termination then. Asked if she had used the phrase “… because this is a Catholic country”, Dr. Astbury said it was not something she would say.

Dr. Anne Helps, Dr. Astbury’s registrar in October, said it was “possible” she did not tell her consultant of a significant indicator she had sepsis. Dr. Helps also did “not recall” whether she looked at Mrs. Halappanavar’s medical notes on the morning a colleague had told her about his concerns about her deteriorating condition.

Dr. Helps said she had had Mrs. Halappanavar’s chart in her hands during the ward round with Dr. Astbury at 8.20am on Wednesday October 24. She said she had had an oral report “in the corridor” from Dr. Ikechuckwu Uzockwu, the senior house officer on duty the night before, who had been concerned at 6.30am about Mrs. Halappanavar’s temperature of 39.6 degrees, elevated heart rate of 160bpm and a foul-smelling vaginal discharge.

“It was a conversation in the corridor without the records. [Dr. Uzockwu] just said to me, ‘Your patient spiked a temperature and is feeling unwell.’ There was no mention of a foul-smelling discharge.” She said he had documented his concerns in the notes.

Midwife manager Ann Maria Burke was questioned by the coroner on Dr. Uzockwu’s evidence. He had said that on October 23, Mrs. Halappanavar was complaining of weakness, but her blood pressure and temperature were within normal range. He had not received any communication about an elevated pulse, he told the inquest on Tuesday. Mrs. Burke, however, insisted that she had “definitely” told him about the pulse rate. Cross-examined later she said: “I’m absolutely certain I told him about the elevated pulse rate”.

Both witnesses are to be recalled in an effort to resolve the conflict of evidence.

Mrs. Burke also apologised for telling Mrs. Halappanavar she could not have a termination in Ireland because it was a “Catholic thing”. She admitted she made the remark but insisted she meant it in kindness.

“It was not said in the context to offend her,” she said. “I’m sorry how it came across. It does sound very bad now but at the time I didn’t mean it that way.”

She said it was more to give information and to throw light on Irish culture.

“I did mention ‘a Catholic country’, I didn’t mention it in a hurtful context, it was in context of a conversation we had . . . She talked about India, she mentioned there was no problem taking a baby in India, and the Hindu faith was mentioned in conversation. I did explain to her because I knew it wasn’t possible to induce her because, I had been informed by the consultant, the foetal heartbeat was there. It was not in the context of offending her and sorry if it came across that way. I don’t think I came across as insensitive at the time but I have to say it does sound very like that now.”

“I shouldn’t have said it but it came out the wrong way.” It was a chat and had nothing to do with the provision of care, she told the inquest.

Consultant Microbiologist Dr. Susan Knowles, an expert witness, told the inquest that there was poor documentation of the patient’s worsening condition. She said most medical notes from a crucial period of the onset of sepsis were made retrospectively. Some were made shortly after the events of the afternoon of Wednesday, October 24, but others were added on November 7, 8 and 12.

Dr. Knowles said a white cell count reading from blood test results should have been checked to alert staff that she had more severe sepsis than initially thought.

When Mrs. Halappanavar complained of feeling cold and shivery at 4.15am on the morning of October 24, all her vital signs should have been recorded. This did not happen.

Dr. Knowles said that when she was diagnosed to be clinically septic at 6.30am that morning, she was examined promptly and that intravenous antibiotic treatment followed. This treatment should have been actively followed up afterward rounds at around 8.20am.

Dr. Knowles agreed that delivery of the baby would be essential where the mother was diagnosed with chorioamnionitis. “Delivery will naturally happen but if you suspect chorioamnionitis you may have to expedite that,” she said. She told the inquest that delivery of the baby was not warranted before chorioamnionitis was suspected on Wednesday, October 24. She added that it was her understanding that there was no substantial risk to Savita’s life before the Wednesday.

Dr. Knowles said the management of Mrs. Halappanavar’s condition from 1pm that day was of a high standard.

She said the team of medics caring for Mrs. Halappanavar should have been aware of an elevated white cell count reading sooner than was the case. This is one of the indicators for the presence of sepsis. Dr. Knowles said the pattern of vital signs in the case of Mrs. Halappanavar were also important. They should have all been monitored and recorded. This did not happen.

She agreed that it was clear that the GUH protocols for dealing with sepsis infection had not been adhered to. Dr. Knowles said the antibiotics recommended as part of those guidelines had not been administered until around 1pm on Wednesday, October 24.

LifeNews Note: This originally appeared at the pro-life publication LifeZine.

Over 40 Catholic lay organizations, led by the influential El Shaddai charismatic leader Brother Mike Velarde, launched a new movement for the protection of life and family this past Saturday in preparation for the May 2013 elections in the Philippines. After legislators finally caved in to pressure from our president and Western NGOs to pass the anti-life Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, the Filipino people are coming together to make sure that candidates promoting and defending life, faith and family will be elected this May.

Media sources estimated that 500,000 people attended the rally in Paranaque City on April 13 to show support for six pro-life candidates who actively fought against the RH Bill (Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sen. Gregorio Honasan, Rep. Mitos Magsaysay, Sen. Koko Pimentel, Sen. Antonio Trillanes and former congressman Cynthia Villar) and pledge to only support candidates against the RH Bill, which was signed into law by President Aquino last December. Four more candidates are expected to be endorsed in the near future. All endorsed candidates have pledged in writing that they will continue to promote legislation that is pro-God, pro-life and pro-family.

As with political movements in other countries, we use colors to show political allegiance in the Philippines. During the RH Bill debates, the color red was used by pro-life supporters, and the color purple was donned by RH Bill advocates. This new political movement in the Philippines will be represented by the color white. The color white was chosen because white symbolizes purity, innocence, unity, solidarity, a new beginning, a clean slate and a fresh start. Also, white was chosen because the group is endorsing candidates crossing party lines and thus of different colors. As we know from the way light refracts through prisms, the color white contains all other colors.

The Movement was initiated by the Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas (LAIKO), formerly Council of the Laity of the Philippines, in response to perceived mounting sentiment among different lay groups in the country regarding the lay faithful’s role in preserving core family values.

I was asked to address the crowd on Saturday along with several other leaders of lay movements in the Philippines. The May 2013 election is very crucial for the Philippines because in the coming congressional session we are sure to grapple with legislation concerning divorce, same-sex “marriage” and even euthanasia – which there is a big push to legalize now.

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

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With a predominantly Catholic population in the Philippines, the Movement plans to reach out to families on the issues of life, faith and family to forge a voting bloc that will elect candidates who best represent the values of the Filipino people. As the movement’s promotional video states, “Let us remember not just the campaign ads, let us remember our faith. Let us vote to protect the family and to protect life.”

Dr. Ligaya A. Acosta resides in the Philippines and is the regional coordinator for Asia and Oceania at Human Life International. Reprinted with permission from Human Life International’s World Watch forum.

A former staff member at the Kermit Gosnell abortion clinic testified today during his murder trial about the horrific conditions she saw at the abortion facility.

Latosha Lewis, who worked a “medical assistant” despite a lack of former medical training, worked for eight years at the Gosnell abortion center and she testified that patients were frequently given too much medication and that record-keeping was substandard. She handled the chart related to Karnamaya Mongar, the woman Gosnell killed in an abortion, and testified that no weight was on her chart because the scale had broken one month prior to her abortion.

Lewis said Gosnell did many abortions on the same day he botched the one that killed Mongar.

She also said she stopped helping with abortions after one patient was overmedicated, though she continued working at the front desk after switching positions.

Lewis said the conditions were so terrible at the abortion clinic she handled patient charts with gloves because of the amount of blood and other bodily fluids on them.

A local news report has more details on Lewis’ testimony, saying she stopped assisting Gosnell in abortions after one procedure in which she was the de facto anesthetist.

“I was the person who had given her too much and I was concerned whether she would come up from anesthesia,” Lewis, 31, told the Philadelphia jury hearing Gosnell’s murder trial.

Lewis said abortion patients were also administered so much Cytotec, which softens the cervix and promotes delivery, that “people were going into labor too fast. I didn’t want to deal with it.”

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Other witnesses have testified that heavy use of Cytotec left abortion patients cramping and in pain before spontaneously aborting on the floor and in toilets.

Lewis said she began to work the reception desk, logging in patients, doing some ultrasound exams and distributing prescription slips to patients.

During the trial Gosnell’s defense lawyer, Jack McMahon, claims none of the babies were born alive who Gosnell killed in abortion-infanticide procedures but were dead before birth due to a lethal drug injection and that Gosnell and his staff “snipped” their necks after “birth.” McMahon claims no babies were ever killed in the gruesome abortion process, which involved “snipping” the spinal cords of the children by jabbing medical scissors into the backs of their necks, because the babies were supposedly already dead.

That’s not what two staffers for Gosnell admitted in court — with one saying she heard a baby scream and another saying the baby “jumped” when the newborn was stabbed in the neck with the scissors.

McMahon is attempting to get the jury to buy a story that Gosnell used a drug called Digoxin to kill the baby in utero and then to deliver a dead child. He claims Gosnell just wanted to “snip” the spinal cords to ensure the baby was dead already. The Gosnell staffer admitted that’s what the abortion practitioner told her he was doing.

Although the defense attorney claimed the babies were dead and that jabbing them in the neck with scissors was needed to make sure that was the case, Gosnell staffers also told the court one at least two occasions that the babies were not dead when their necks were stabbed.

However expert witnesses testified there was no medical reason for Gosnell to cut the spines of aborted fetuses.

Determining if the children were alive or dead at the time their spinal cords were “snipped” is crucial to prosecuting Gosnell and his staff.

Gosnell faces 43 criminal counts, including eight counts of murder in the death of one patient, Karnamaya Monger, and seven newborn infants. Additional charges include conspiracy, drug delivery resulting in death, infanticide, corruption of minors, evidence tampering, theft by deception, abuse of corpse, and corruption. Gosnell could face the death penalty if convicted and he faces a mandatory minimum 20 years.

The trial of the abortion practitioner has been so gruesome and vivid in its accounts of the late-term and live-birth abortions that it has shocked the conscience of the nation, despite a relative lack of media coverage outside of local media and conservative and pro-life news outlets.

Gosnell, whose squalid “house of horrors” abortion clinic has surprised even investigative officials, has had almost flippant attitude toward his macabre abortion practices shocked the nation.

“The Gosnell case is a watershed moment for the issue of abortion,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation. “The discovery of his horrific practices helped shed light on an abortion industry that has run amok without oversight or accountability for decades, and has prompted significant changes in abortion laws and attitudes toward enforcement in several states.”

Previously, Gosnell’s wife Pearl pleaded guilty to assisting her husband at his Philadelphia abortion center where he killed a woman in a botched abortion and has killed hundreds of babies in abortion-infanticides.

Pearl Gosnell was considering a plea deal similar to the one several of Gosnell’s former abortion center employees have made where they have pleaded guilty to receive a lesser sentence in exchange for testifying against Gosnell. Pearl also worked at the abortion center Gosnell ran that had him kill and injure women in failed abortions and kill perhaps hundreds of babies in grisly infanticides by birthing them and “snipping” their spinal cords.

She worked at the Women’s Medical Society abortion business her husband ran as a full-time medical assistant from 1982 until she married Kermit Gosnell in 1990, when she switched to only working on Sundays. At that time, the abortion business was officially closed but would do its latest-term abortions possible.

The grand jury report indicates Pearl Gosnell testified that she alone helped Kermit do abortions on Sundays when she would “help do the instruments” in the operating room despite no medical training.

Previously, Judge Lerner ruled two other former employees, Eileen O’Neill and Madeline Joe, are not allowed to have their cases separated from that of Dr. Kermit Gosnell. Neither O’Neill nor Joe are charged with killing babies in infanticides and, although their attorneys argued the horrifying allegations against Gosnell could unfairly taint their cases, they were not allowed to plead guilty in deals as was the case with six other former employees.

The murder charges also came in connection with the botched abortion death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, who died at Gosnell’s abortion clinic after a failed abortion. Mongar died November 20, 2009, after overdosing on anesthetics prescribed by the doctor. Mongar’s family filed a lawsuit against Gosnell’s abortion business seeking damages.

Gosnell and several staffers at his abortion center, including Pearl, were arrested in January after a grand jury indicted them on multiple charges after officials raided his abortion business following a woman’s death and discovered a “shop of horrors” filled with bags of bodies and body parts of deceased unborn children and babies killed in infanticides. Pearl Gosnell, Kermit’s 49-year-old wife who has no medical license, faces a charge of providing an abortion at 24 or more weeks and conspiracy and other charges.

Gosnell has been denied bail while the case against him moves forward. Women have spoken out about their treatment and one woman says she was drugged and tied up and forced to have an abortion.

Authorities searching the facility last year found bags and bottles holding aborted babies scattered around the building, jars containing babies’ severed feet lining a shelf, as well as filthy, unsanitary furniture and equipment.

The grand jury investigation also shows state officials did nothing when reports came in about problems at Gosnell’s abortion center, which has upset incoming pro-life Governor Tom Corbett.

Gosnell’s abortion center was inspected only after a federal drug raid in 2010.  It was the first time the facility had been inspected in 17 years because state officials ignored complaints and failed to visit Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society for years.

The abortion industry has been forced to suspend two abortion businesses that employed embattled abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell, who has been the subject of national controversy over his abortion business in Philadelphia.

Following revelations that Gosnell is associated with two other abortion centers in Louisiana and Delaware, the National Abortion Federation made the decision to suspend the memberships of both. Atlantic Women’s Medical Services, the Delaware abortion business that employed Gosnell one day a week to do abortions, and the Delta Clinic abortion center of Baton Rouge, have both had their memberships suspended. Leroy Brinkley owns both abortion businesses. Atlantic operates abortion centers in Wilmington and Dover.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) today called upon Attorney General Lori Swanson and state Health Commissioner Edward Ehlinger, M.D., to enforce the Woman’s Right to Know law in our state.

“Whole Woman’s Health abortion center in Minneapolis is doing same-day abortions and that is illegal in our state,” stated Scott Fischbach, MCCL Executive Director. “Since 2003 we have had a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before any abortion can be performed, and Whole Woman’s Health is not above our laws.”

The Whole Woman’s Health abortion center website offers “same-day surgical procedures” at its Minneapolis facility. At a minimum, this information is false and misleading to women if indeed they cannot walk in and have their unborn child aborted. If Whole Woman’s Health will perform a same-day abortion, it is clearly illegal.

Whole Woman’s Health is a Texas-based abortion chain that has a history of breaking state laws. Whole Woman’s Health was fined $83,000 in Texas (see p. 116), along with its medical waste vendor, for illegally dumping the remains of aborted babies in open trash receptacles. Eight of its abortionists were disciplined by the Texas Medical Board for numerous allegations, including the illegal dumping of private patient medical records, HIPAA violations, and violations of Texas informed consent laws. Several Whole Woman’s Health abortionists have previous disciplinary histories, including one who was responsible for a patient death.

“Their past record demonstrates that Whole Woman’s Health is willing to violate the law. This only underscores the need to license and inspect abortion facilities in the state,” Fischbach said. “And while abortion centers are not licensed or inspected by the State of Minnesota, the least that the Attorney General and Health Commissioner can do is enforce the laws that we have on the books.”

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MCCL supports S.F. 752 / H.F. 900 to require licensing of abortion facilities. This legislation would empower the state to ensure a degree of safety for women and to hold abortion providers to state standards for outpatient surgical centers.

LifeNews Note: Bill Poehler is the communications director for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

Delaware state officials announced today they have launched an investigation of a Planned Parenthood abortion business in Delaware that was closed over multiple botched abortions at the clinic.

The state Division of Professional Regulation has launched the probe into the conduct of several staff members, the agency confirmed late yesterday.

As LifeNews has reported, the Delaware Planned Parenthood clinic has experienced five botched abortion emergencies in less than five weeks. Since then, one abortionist and two employees have left Planned Parenthood in Wilmington, Delaware, as a result of the scandal.

According to the Planned Parenthood website, surgical abortions will be referred to “another provider” but the abortion drug will still be sold to women while the probe continues.

A local news report indicated the abortion business welcomes the investigation:

“In the last several days several state health agencies have conducted inspections,” Planned Parenthood Delaware CEO Ruth Lytle-Barnaby said in a written statement Tuesday evening. “PPDE is committed to high quality healthcare, we welcome oversight in the interest of ensuring safety and wellness, and we take swift action when any of our operations do not meet the highest standards.”

Surgical abortions have been halted for now at the Wilmington and Dover offices, Lytle-Barnaby said, but outpatient medical abortions continue at both sites. Training for new staff is under way, she said.Investigators were unable to substantiate complaints made against Planned Parenthood last fall, according to James Collins, director of the Division of Professional Regulation, but more recent complaints from several sources triggered the new inquiry.

In addition to the regulatory review, Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the state Division of Public Health, according to Jill Fredel, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Services. That process will include an examination of equipment, medications, cleanliness, whether materials used were past their expiration date and related conditions.Last month, Planned Parenthood paid a $3,060 fine – reduced from $5,100 – in an informal settlement with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for two violations related to blood-borne pathogens. One violation was related to employee training, another – considered serious – was related to employee exposure to contaminated needles.

Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich and Joyce Vasikonis told WPVI-TV of a “meat-market style of assembly-line abortions where the abortionist refused to wear gloves, surgical instruments were reused without being cleaned, and “bloody drainage” remained on abortion tables between procedures, exposing women to blood-borne diseases.”

“It was just unsafe. I can’t tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was,” said Mitchell-Werbrich. “Planned Parenthood needs to close its doors, it needs to be cleaned up, the staff needs to be trained.”

Werbrich alleges conditions inside the facility were unsanitary. “He didn’t wear gloves,” said Werbrich. She also worried that that women could be at risk of contracting hepatitis or AIDS.

She didn’t refer to anyone by name, but records indicate the medical director for Planned Parenthood is Eric Schaff. According to one web site:

Medical Director Eric Schaff took home $100,000 in 2006 ( here)

In 1997, Dr. Schaff was trained by Planned Parenthood of New York City in surgical abortion. “I felt inadequate because I had to rely on other physicians for medication abortion complications. Since I learned these surgical skills, I feel empowered as a clinician because I can provide complete reproductive healthcare.”

The clinic was closed to patients recently as it underwent a “routine cleaning.”

“This is the same behavior of cover-up that Kermit Gosnell engaged in. After Karnamaya Monger was killed during an abortion, he had the clinic cleaned and painted. But it didn’t take long before it was back to its previous squalid condition,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue.

Sullenger said Gosnell’s clinic also subjected women to dirty surgical instruments and made them lay on bloody, abortion tables that were not cleaned between patients, just as the Planned Parenthood clinic has done. In fact, Gosnell spread venereal disease between patients through this dangerous practice, just the thing feared by the two former Planned Parenthood nurses.

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“This is another example of how the conditions described at Gosnell’s House of Horrors exist as a matter of routine in abortion clinics around the country,” said Sullenger.

Mary Peterson of the Delaware Department of Health and Services indicated that they rarely inspect abortion clinics in that state. “I’m not going to lie to you, we don’t have the manpower to do routine inspections,” she said.

“As long as the authorities neglect their duty to protect the public, these kinds of horrific conditions will continue to endanger women at Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics there,” said Sullenger. “Protecting the public health is the primary duty of the Department of Health. It’s unbelievable that it could claim it is incapable of doing its job. It sounds like there needs to be a housecleaning at the Department of Health as well as the abortion mill.”

A Canadian MP will not appeal a decision preventing members of the Canadian Parliament from voting on a resolution to condemn the practice of sex-selection abortions.

As LifeNews reported, the legislation was twice deemed not worthy of consideration for a vote. Motion 408 calls on Parliament to condemn sex-selective pregnancy termination, a procedure happening in Canada where baby girls are aborted for no other reason than because they are female.

Member of Parliament, Mark Warawa has indicated he will not appeal a decision by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. That Committee last month had ruled, without explanation, that his motion to condemn sex-selective pregnancy termination as non-votable.

WeNeedaLAW.ca campaign director, Mike Schouten emailed LifeNews a statement saying he is disappointed.

“Today is a disappointing day for democracy, but more importantly it is a tragic day for Canadian women and girls. There is no more violent form of discrimination against women and girls than selecting girls for abortion,” he said.

“The completely unfounded fear that somehow an expression of Parliament condemning this practice might in some way send women to the back alleys of Canadian cities with coat hangers speaks to the low level of intellect of most Canadian politicians. By their actions, they are avoiding, and in fact tacitly accepting, the very serious global problem of gendercide,” continued Schouten. “Sex-selective abortion is the biggest women’s rights issue in the world and while many other jurisdictions are taking steps to address it, Canada seems intent on clinging to an extreme pro-abortion philosophy which allows for this human rights injustice to continue unhindered.”

“Unlike every other Western nation, pre-born females and males continue to live without legal protection in Canada. Our elected officials may be unaware, but there is a growing movement in Canada of concerned citizens who find this status quo to be repugnant and a gross violation of human rights,” said Schouten.

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“The demand for change in Canada’s archaic public policy regarding the rights of children in the womb will continue in spite of the democratic roadblocks which led to the demise of Motion 408. From a scientific perspective it has never been clearer that the pre-born are members of the human family. It is time our laws reflected that fact,” concluded Schouten.

Despite Canadians flooding their MPs with thousands of emails complaining, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs issued a ruling to uphold the earlier decision of its sub-committee on the votability of Motion 408.

On Monday, the Pennsylvania House Health Committee voted to advance House Bill 818, a bill to prevent elective abortion coverage in insurance policies sold through an insurance exchange established under the Obama healthcare law. The bill would maintain Pennsylvania’s longstanding policy of not using state funds for abortion, a policy supported by an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvanians.

Rep. Flo Fabrizio, the ranking Democrat on the committee, opposed the measure, likening abortion to a “sacrament.” He said, “A nun told me this one time but I’m going to pass it on because it really registered with me. She said, ‘If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.’”

Are Fabrizio’s shocking statements merely a gaffe or actually an insight into how abortion advocates and the modern Democratic Party view abortion? Do they really believe abortion is something good, holy, and deserving of reverence?

This past summer, the Democratic National Convention was almost indistinguishable from a NARAL conference with speaker after speaker praising President Obama’s radical pro-abortion record. In the party’s platform the mantra of abortion “safe, legal and rare” was changed to just “safe and legal.” If abortion is inherently good, then why should it be rare?

The special reverence for abortion by its advocates and their allies in elected office is currently on full display in the horrific Gosnell murder trial. The Grand Jury report on Gosnell’s abortion facility revealed regular inspections were not conducted by the PA Department of Health, even despite complaints. These failures were due to the political motives of pro-abortion governors, according to the report.

Last year, Pennsylvania passed a law in response to the Gosnell case with the intent of increasing oversight into abortion facilities in the state. Lawmakers like Fabrizio opposed those measures. In order to truly honor the “sacrament” of abortion, it appears one must oppose holding abortion facilities to any sort of basic health standard. Planned Parenthood, which tweeted on Friday that they were “appalled” by Gosnell, provided a great thrust of the lobbying efforts against the regulations.

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Abortion advocates are squirming as the Gosnell story begins to garner national headlines because the trial sheds light on the horrors that are at the heart of the abortion industry. What Gosnell is accused of doing to newborn infants is sickening almost beyond words.

But for abortion advocates, the violent, painful death babies suffer in the womb is not “appalling” but rather equivalent to a “sacrament.”

Pro-abortion professors were out of control this week at University at Buffalo, equating pro-life students to lynch mobs and getting arrested for disorderly conduct at a pro-life display.

On Monday and Tuesday, University at Buffalo Students for Life (UB SFL) hosted the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) on campus, which features graphic images of victims of abortion, as well as Holocaust victims, and victims of lynching.  But, as we’ve seen time and again, pro-abortion supporters couldn’t handle the ugly truth of abortion and lashed out.

Six history professors wrote to the school newspaper to “condemn” the display.  They said, “we feel it is imperative to speak out against this crass, uninformed and dangerous misuse of history,” but then proceeded with their very own crass, uninformed and dangerous misuse of history which they claimed to decry, saying, “Anti-abortion protesters appear to have a lot in common with those who supported lynching.”

UB SFL President Christian Andzel responded, ”It is absolutely shameful for the paid professionals at the University at Buffalo to insinuate that anti-abortionists ‘appear to have a lot in common with those who supported lynching.’ As a student in the history department and President of the Pro-Life club on campus, not only am I ashamed and appalled that my professors twisted our message to suit their point of view, but I am offended due to their false characterization of our argument. We were citing the history of oppression and voicelessness of the victims who deserved human rights and justice.”

Pro-abortion protestors even went after Christian, the pro-life group president, personally with signs showing his picture with the words “Indecency. Ignorance. Intolerance.” at the bottom. He said of the experience, “We knew coming into  this would be rough and I am so proud of the pro-life students who stood up for the voiceless. I think a watershed moment was when one pro-choice advocate told me I should have been the preborn baby on the board, decimated. That had shock value. That is why I fight for the dignity of all Human Life.

“There will be people who want us to fail but we must stay upbeat and positive because what we hold is Truth! We will continue to persevere past the obstructionists and promote Life and Human Value. If we can win at a liberal university, we can win anywhere. We are winning the debate on inclusion and the Right to Life.”

On Monday, another University at Buffalo professor was arrested in front of the display.  Apparently she couldn’t calmly and rationally respond to the UB Students for Life’s pro-life display, she had to resort to yelling and using profane language with police officers. She called the display itself profane and claimed it was “swearing” at her. Other UB students has also publicly accused the pro-life group of engaging in hate speech and terrorism at counter protests.

This is not the kind of example professors from a public university, funded with our tax money, should be setting for our students. We stand with UB Students for Life for courageously fighting to bring the truth of abortion to a liberal campus, despite attempts to shout them down, cover the display, and personally attack group leaders like President Christian Andzel. UB SFL is the pro-life generation and they are already showing they know how to behave like better adults than the ones opposing them.

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This isn’t the first time the UB campus has erupted after the Students for Life group has done a pro-life event. Last year, the group simply put up crosses to remember the daily victims of abortion and were subjected to the same type of treatment from professors and students.  This campus is clearly intolerant of the pro-life position and incapable of having a discussion on the morality of abortion. Sadly, we have seen an increase in this type of behavior nationwide this year where abortion advocates have become desperate, refusing to address any issues of abortion but personally attacking the students forcing the discussion.

Abortion is a horrific subject, no one wants to talk about it. We get that. But as abolitionists, we see our job on campuses as being those who bring up the subject and force every American to think about our compliance with abortion, the world’s greatest human rights violation. If the UB history professors had really been studying the Civil War era they would have found that those who advocated against the abolishment of slavery, the slavery abolitionists, were often attacked the same way pro-life students are, as they forced Americans to confront the ugly reality of the inhumane practice.

Universities across the country need to invest in some dictionaries so their students and faculty can begin to understand what terrorism really is – that forcing you to think about something unpleasant isn’t aggression, hate speech, or terrorism. But attacks like this just further our resolve, strengthen our pro-life groups, and show the utter lack of a defense those in favor of abortion have.”