Democrat candidate for Governor of Virginia and failed Greentech businessman Terry McAuliffe wants the public to believe that he is a political moderate.  Yet in reality the former Democratic National Committee Chairman is promoting a radical agenda that would pave the way for abortionists like Kermit Gosnell to operate with impunity in Virginia.

Gosnell stands trial just up the road in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the capital murder of at least four newborn infants born alive as the result of botch abortions.

Truly gruesome testimony has emerged from this trial:  100 illegal late-term abortions were committed in Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” abortion clinic, dangerously unsanitary conditions were rampant, babies’ body parts were stuffed in jars, and blood was found all over medical records.  He and his staff would commit unspeakable atrocities against these helpless infants, born alive, crying.  Gosnell and his unqualified staff conducted their abortion business with such disregard for life, anyone’s life, that a Virginia woman was killed.

He killed a woman and numerous newborn infants, operating with impunity because the state didn’t inspect his clinic.

Virginia, with the support of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, has enacted some of the most stringent health requirements for abortion clinics in the country.  The law allows the Virginia Board of Health to regulate abortion clinics much like hospitals, to ensure that they provide the same operation, staffing, equipping, staff qualifications and training, and conditions as hospitals in Virginia.  These regulations would ensure that no “House of Horrors” operates in Virginia.

Yet, late last week, McAuliffe sent a fundraising email asking supporters to fund his campaign because his opponent, GOP gubernatorial all-but nominee Cuccinelli, “pushed through medically unnecessary regulations on women’s health centers with the aim of his number one goal: ending safe and legal abortion in Virginia.”

Why were these regulations proposed?  Precisely to prevent the horrors of Gosnell’s clinic.  The Washington Post reported at the time this bill was passed, “In recent weeks, abortion foes have cited the case of a Philadelphia area clinic [Gosnell’s] recently shut down after authorities discovered a series of botched and illegal abortions; inspectors discovered containers of fetal parts.”

In other words, McAuliffe is attacking Cuccinelli for supporting regulations put in place to prevent the horrors of a Gosnell-type clinic from ever operating in Virginia.  McAuliffe wants those laws stripped from the books, allowing clinics to return to 1980 style regulations.  In essence, he is fundraising against laws that could be saving women’s lives.

In fact, McAuliffe is joining Planned Parenthood Virginia PAC, who the week before launched the same attack on Cuccinelli (interestingly enough using almost the exact same language), “Cuccinelli has pushed forward medically unnecessary bills and restrictions designed to chip away at women’s access to health care and safe and legal abortion.”

Of course Planned Parenthood has been leading the charge to literally profit off of the atrocities committed in Gosnell’s clinic – using Gosnell’s clinic to demand more taxpayer funding and less safety regulations for their clinics.

Gosnell preyed on women.  Laws like Virginia’s ensure that no abortionist is allowed to peddle its deadly trade free of regulation. McAuliffe and his radical pro-abortion allies are throwing fact and reason to the wind.  It is this wanton and reckless adherence to an abortion agenda that allows for atrocities like Gosnell committed to exist.  As the prosecutor in the Gosnell case told the jury, “When people (who are) supposed to regulate these folks don’t do it right, that’s what happens.”

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Despite McAuliffe’s and other radial Leftists’ claims, less-stringent health standards do not make abortion safer.  It doesn’t make anything safer.  If McAuliffe gets his way, who will be to blame for the unspeakable atrocities that his desired lack of regulation could lead to?

It is McAuliffe who is pushing an agenda that is far to extreme for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

LifeNews Note: Matthew Clark is an attorney for the ACLJ, residing in northern Virginia. He has been actively involved in Virginia politics for over a decade.  You can follow Matthew on Twitter @_MatthewClark. This originally appeared at BearingDrift.com.

Signature gathering for the Oregon 2014 citizen initiative to stop taxpayer funding for abortion has officially begun.

The Corvallis-based petition committee will mail a first batch of 10,000 petition sheets to volunteers and other supporters across the state on Monday. This is the group’s second attempt to place this issue on the ballot using only volunteers.

Data recently obtained from the Oregon Health Authority reveals that 4,191 abortions were covered under the publicly-funded Oregon Health Plan in fiscal year 2011-12, which is a ten-year high. Approximately $16 million in state funds have been spent on 38,455 abortions over the past 10 years. About half of all abortions in the state are now publicly funded.

“Oregonians should not be forced to fund abortions with their tax dollars — especially elective and late-term abortions,” says Jeff Jimerson, one of the initiative’s chief petitioners.

In January, sponsor signatures from more than 1,800 Oregon voters were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office in Salem. No appeal was filed on the petition’s ballot title, and organizers were approved to circulate the new petition on April 16. It’s the only statewide 2014 petition in Oregon currently approved to circulate. 116,284 valid signatures are needed to qualify for next year’s ballot.

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Albany resident Jimerson, along with co-chief petitioners Lee Edward of Corvallis and former State Senator Marylin Shannon of Salem, are heading up the Oregon 2014 Petition Committee. More information about the initiative can be found at www.Oregon2014.org.

During the second weekend in April, the Vatican hosted what the Wall Street Journal called an “unusual conference.”

At this “unusual conference,” scientists, including a Nobel Laureate, theologians, and entrepreneurs came together to discuss one of the most contentious issues of our time: stem cell research.

This, the second annual “International Vatican Adult Stem Cell Conference” along with various related efforts, had as a primary goal to “lay the groundwork for a collaborative network of scientists, educators and patrons who embrace the promise of adult stem cells.”

Another goal was to promote what the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture called the “necessary union between science and faith.” As Robin Smith, the CEO of NeoStem, a biopharmaceutical company, told conferees, “to address global suffering, one does not have to choose between faith and science . . . . These two ideas fit together symbiotically.”

By way of evidence, conferees were told about “how new discoveries are being made for treatments of multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, organ and tissue repair.” These treatments, using adult stem cells, have none of what Smith called the “ethical blemishes” inherent in embryonic stem cell research that requires the killing of human beings when they are embryos.

Tragically, the attention given to embryonic stem cells has obscured the far greater therapeutic potential of adult stem cells.

This potential was given a human face with the story of Elizabeth Lobato, a 14-year-old girl diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as “brittle bone disease,” when she was only ten months old.

In addition to breaking her bones every few months, the condition has caused Elizabeth and others like her to suffer from a variety of ailments including “muscle weakness, hearing loss, loose joints, curved bones, scoliosis, brittle teeth and short stature.”

But an adult stem cell treatment, using “bone marrow-derived stem cells from her father,” has helped Elizabeth grow thirteen inches since beginning the treatment. Making Elizabeth’s story that much more poignant is that her family refused even to consider any treatment involving embryonic stem cells.
This made the headlines about the conference all the more confusing: “The Vatican Announces Support for Stem Cell Research”—as if their position had changed. It hadn’t. Of course, the Vatican and most Christian bioethicists have consistently endorsed stem cell research that did not involve the destruction of human life. And they have consistently rejected any scientific research that does involve the destruction of human life.

This consistent stance has been vindicated now that so many, even proponents of embryonic stem cell research like Michael J. Fox, have acknowledged that embryonic stem cell research hasn’t lived up to the promises made by its supporters.

As conferees learned, real medical breakthroughs are far more likely to come as the result of research done using adult stem cells.

And this leaves an obvious question: Why pursue embryonic stem cell research at all? Given the “ethical blemishes,” and the lack of results, why do people still insist on pursuing this moral and scientific dead end?

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Part of the answer is that the debate over embryonic stem cell research isn’t really about scientific results. It’s about the right of “science” to operate independently of any external moral and ethical considerations. That is, it’s about science rejecting faith.

And the other part of the answer is that people don’t know the incredible success of adult stem cell treatments. Getting that word out was the purpose of the conference. And now it’s up to us to spread the news and correct the public record. Alleviating suffering isn’t a matter of choosing between faith and science. On the contrary, it only happens when the two work hand-in-hand.

LifeNews Note: John Stonestreet writes for BreakPoint.org

Students—from sixth grade to college-age—have been facing opposition on campus for sharing their pro-life beliefs. Evidence shows the support of free speech only applies to those who favor abortion. Here are some of the most recent cases.

In March, the student government at Johns Hopkins University denied recognition to the student pro-life group, Voices for Life (VFL). It was denied on the basis that their involvement in sidewalk counseling was deemed “harassment.” Further, a link on the VFL website was considered too graphic because it posts photos of aborted babies. The students of VFL refused to be silenced and appealed the decision. In spite of enduring personal character attacks and discriminatory opposition, the ruling was overturned in April by the Student Government Judiciary. The university administration agreed that the group was in fact protected under freedom of speech.

Another case took place at the State University of New York – Buffalo campus. Students were presenting a pro-life photograph display on campus when they were approached by a pro-abortion professor, Laura Curry. Curry erupted into a profanity-laced tirade calling the images profane. When approached by officers who requested that she refrain from using profanity, she acted out even further yelling, “Where does it say I can’t use the f-word in public?” In a Christian News Network article, it’s reported that she claimed the First Amendment protected her right to yell curse words in front of everyone in the vicinity. It’s ironic she considered her foul speech protected, but the peaceful pro-life display was not. “I can swear in public because [this display] is profane,” she continued, “That image is swearing to me.” As she continued to openly defy campus police, this campus professor was eventually placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct.

Another example is Students for Life, a pro-life group that does the Planned Parenthood Project Tour. It consists of visiting various college campuses with a display of 915 pink crosses, representing the lives extinguished every day by Planned Parenthood. They experienced the most antagonistic opposition at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. First, a box of postcards was stolen. Later pro-abortion advocates coincidentally tweeted about tearing up the group’s materials. A photo of someone making an obscene gesture in front of the display also made the rounds on Twitter. A post on Facebook portrayed the ugly intolerance by stating, “Anyone know if the anti-Planned Parenthood crosses are still on the ground in the quad? Because I’d love to go rip them out right now.” It was disturbing enough as a stand-alone comment, but it generated an alarming 200 “likes.”

Perhaps, at the college level, you anticipate there to be some level of dissenting opinions, even some immature or vile. However, a sixth grade student in Minnesota was recently handing out simple fliers that read, “Save the baby humans. Stop abortion.” She passed them out at lunchtime to friends and classmates interested in the topic. The school considered this political activism and regarded it as offensive. She was banned from passing them out during or after school hours, even if students requested them. The school administration essentially denied this young girl of her constitutionally protected right to free speech. And to make matters worse, they said sixth graders don’t have this right to free speech until they reach high school. Alliance Defending Freedom has since filed a federal lawsuit on the grounds of censorship and “hostility toward religious expression.”

For all ages, the resistance we face from pro-abortion activists is very real. It can be depraved and even threatening. Because pro-abortion activists can’t defend their position, their only response is to attack ours. It’s important that we don’t allow ourselves to be intimidated. We must also remember that there are those currently on the other side who may be open to our message and have a change of heart. Therefore, we must continue to keep calm, rational education at the forefront and not stoop to their level l of baseless attacks.

LifeNews.com Note: Bradley Mattes is the executive director of Life Issues Institute, a national pro-life educational group.

A hearing for the radical, explicit K-12 statewide abortion promoting sexual education bill is this Monday May 6th.

After passing the Nevada Assembly on a straight party line vote in which all Democrats voted for and all Republicans voted against it, a Senate Education Committee hearing for AB230-the radical, explicit, statewide K-12 abortion promoting sexual education bill is this Monday May 6 at 3:30. Pro-life groups do not normally involve themselves in sexual education issues except when abortion is involved. Unless abortion is excluded from this bill, it will allow those teaching sex education in NV schools to provide identification of abortion counseling and how and where to get an abortion.

The text of the bill says that ”

the course of instruction must include comprehensive, and as applicable, medically accurate, information regarding:

“(h) The identification and explanation of available counseling and legal and medical information concerning health services, including, without limitation…” (Section 1.1 (h)).

Previously we were concerned about the term “reproductive health services.” The word “reproductive” has been dropped, but the remaining words “concerning health services, including, without limitation…” still leave the door wide open for abortion. Unless the bill is amended to exclude abortion, this bill will allow those teaching sex education to provide identification of abortion counseling and how and where to get an abortion.

Here is further commentary and contact and action information on this bill from our colleague Nevada Families for Freedom founder Janine Hansen. Please let our legislators know that you oppose AB230. Email addresses are below.

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From Janine Hansen, Nevada Families for Freedom-State affiliate of Eagle Forum.

AB230: Planned Parenthood Sex Ed Advocacy Program

Takes Away Rights of Parents and Local Communities

We desperately need people to attend the hearing and oppose this bill. Please arrive early so you can get a seat.

HEARING: Monday, May 6, 3:30pm,Senate Education Committee Rm 2149 Videoconferenced to Room 4412 of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, NV.

MESSAGE:Vote NO on AB230 Planned Parenthood’s Sex Education Advocacy Program. This bill takes away the authority of the local committees and parents and places Planned Parenthood’s Agenda in the State Law. It creates a bonanza for Planned Parenthood placing them into the classroom to mine our schools for new clients. Nevada’s schools already have sex education programs that have been designed by local parents and communities to meet the needs of their county. Planned Parenthood’s so called “comprehensive” explicit sex education includes the promotion of abortion, contraception and homosexuality. It relegates abstinence to an afterthought. It takes away the presumption of parental rights by making it an “opt out” instead of “opt in” program. It makes available counseling for health services including abortion and contraception, without parental knowledge or consent. (You may want to write your own message.)

CONTACT:

Most important (He is not on the committee, but he will determine whether it passes the Legislature or not).

Senate Majority Leader: Senator Mo Denis: 775-684-1431, Moises.Denis@sen.state.nv.us

Senate Education Committee: Chair: Senator Joyce Woodhouse: 775-684-1457 Joyce.Woodhouse@sen.state.nv.us, Aaron.Ford@sen.state.nv.us, 775-684-6502, Ruben.Kihuen@sen.state.nv.us, 775-684-1427 (It would be helpful if there are Hispanics who would identify themselves as such and contact Senator Kihuen).

We can expect these two Republicans to oppose AB230: Barbara.Cegavske@sen.state.nv.us, Don.Gustavson@sen.state.nv.us

By Phone: Toll Free: 800-978-2878, 800-995-9080, 800-992-0973, Northern Nevada 775-684-6800, 775-684-6789 Southern Nevada 702-486-2626, Toll Free Fax: 866-543-9941

You may also share your opinion with Legislators at: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/77th2013/A/

LifeNews Note: Don Nelson is the head of Nevada Life.

Washington, DC (LiveActionNews) — In anticipation of Mother’s Day last year, Publix supermarkets released a commercial that acknowledges the role of a mother both before and after her child is born. 

The ad (below) features a young girl helping her mother, who is pregnant with another child, in the kitchen.

The little girl asks, “Can the baby hear me?” to which the mother responds, “I think so!” (It’s true: according to the Mayo Clinic, babies begin to hear and respond to sound around week 18 of pregnancy.)

When prompted by her mother to tell the baby a secret, the little girl embraces her pregnant belly and says, “You’re really going to love mom,” and the advertisement closes with Mother’s Day wishes from Publix.

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TV features a lot of advertisements targeted at moms: household products, family-friendly cars, and grocery stores like Publix. However, advertisements with pregnant women — and those that go out of their way to acknowledge the humanity and dignity of the other person living inside of them — are few and far between. Kudos to Publix, Huggies, and Tide for taking the road less traveled.

LifeNews Note: Lauren is a Legislative Associate for Texas Right to Life and a graduate of Ave Maria University. This post originally appeared at Live Action News and is reprinted with permission.

Washington, DC (LiveActionNews) — In 1977, abortion was legal throughout the country during all nine months of pregnancy. When an obstetrician gynecologist told teenager “Mary W” that she was 28 weeks pregnant, he suggested that she give the baby up for adoption, as few doctors in the area were willing to perform abortions that late.

But Mary was determined, and she managed to find an abortionist – Dr. William Baxter Waddill. On March 2, 1977, Mary arrived at Westminster Community Hospital for a saline abortion.

Saline abortions are seldom performed today because of the danger to the mother and the possibility of live births, but in the 1970′s and 80′s they were very common. They were generally used to end pregnancies towards the end of the second trimester.

In a saline abortion, a caustic saline solution is injected into the woman’s uterus. It slowly burns and poisons the baby, and then the woman goes through labor, “giving birth” to a usually dead child.

The abortionist injected the saline and then left, leaving the nurses to tend to Mary. It was common for abortion doctors to inject their patients with saline and then leave, forcing the nurses to bear the emotional brunt of the abortion procedures and to dispose of the dead babies. In this case, however, Mary gave birth to a living 2 lbs. 8 oz. baby girl.

At first the nurse did not realize the baby was still alive. She clamped the cord as normal and placed her in a bucket to be taken to the pathology lab. Then the baby began moving and crying. The nurses gathered around the baby. Unsure what to do, they summoned their supervisor, who called Dr. Waddill at home. Mary was not told that her baby had been born alive – the infant was whisked away from her before she realized what had happened.

All of this came out in testimony at the trial.

While waiting for Waddill to arrive, the nurses cleaned the baby, suctioned her throat to help her breathe, brought her to the nursery, and placed her in isolette. A neonatal ICU nurse began taking care of the child, and charted a heart rate of 88 beats per minute. According to the American Heart Association, an ideal heart rate for newborns is 140 bpm. However, premature babies often have lower heart rates, and many of them survive.

When Dr. Waddill arrived at the clinic, he was angry. He reportedly chased all the nurses out of the room and made a call to another physician, Dr. Ronald Cornelson. The law at that time stated that two doctors needed to be present to pronounce a premature baby dead. The conversation between the two doctors was recorded and entered into evidence in the trial. According to the tape, Waddill said:

If we all tell the same story, there will be no trouble. … So long as we stand together, no one anywhere can make any accusations anywhere. … Do not get squirrely. Just tell them exactly as we’ve discussed. Just say you went in, there was no heartbeat and you left.

Dr. Cornelson later testified that he believed the baby was closer to 31 weeks than 28 weeks. He heard Waddill say, “Sorry to get you into this mess, we had a baby that came out alive from a saline abortion, and it can’t live!”

Dr. Waddill requested potassium chloride to inject into the baby’s heart and stop it. Dr. Cornelson prevented the nurse from getting it. Waddill then discussed throwing the baby into a bucket of water. Dr. Cornelsen said in testimony:

I said, ‘Why not just leave the baby alone?’ Waddill said, ‘This baby can’t live or it will be a big mess.’

Finally, Waddill began strangling the child in full view of Cornelson and other nurses. No one stopped him. He was quoted saying, “This baby won’t stop breathing!”

When the baby was autopsied later, an examination of the lungs indicated that the baby had been breathing for at least 30 min. There were bruises on her throat, consistent with strangulation.

Dr. Waddill went to trial. However, despite the fact that the autopsy proved that the baby had been strangled and a number of witnesses watched the strangulation, charges against Waddill were dismissed after two mistrials. He was never punished for strangling the baby. He was not reprimanded in any way.

He did not lose his medical license. In fact, he continued to perform abortions and as of the year 2000, he was working for the Family Planning Associates’ chain of abortion clinics. He and the clinic he worked at were even endorsed by the National Abortion Federation, an organization that supposedly only gives endorsements to the best facilities and providers.

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(Incidentally, despite the fact that Family Planning Associates has been endorsed by the NAF, at least 12 women have died at their clinics, and there have been numerous lawsuits.)

Could the little girl have survived if she had not been strangled? In the 1970′s, neonatology was not as advanced as it is today. In the 1990′s, over 90% of babies born at 27 weeks were able to survive. The number is even higher now.

Statistics from the 1970′s are harder to come by, but an article in The Sydney Morning Herald claims that these babies had about a 71% survival rate if given medical attention promptly.  So it is possible – if not very likely – that the baby would have survived if she had continued to be treated in the ICU.

Much of the information contained in this article was brought to light by Christina Dunigan. Her blog can be found here:
See “History: William Waddill and the killing of baby W” and “Can Gosnell Walk?” 

LifeNews.com Note: Sarah Terzo is a pro-life liberal who runs ClinicQuotes.com, a web site devoted to exposing the abortion industry. She is a member of the pro-life groups PLAGAL and Secular Pro-Life. Reprinted with permission from Live Action Blog.

Parents are meant to be the fundamental guiding influence of a child’s life. They are responsible for nurturing, educating, protecting, and providing for their children. This system, established at creation by God, is the foundation of every stable, prosperous society.

However, our government has attempted to undermine parental rights and distance parents as much as possible from important decisions affecting their children. This is happening despite the fact that the Supreme Court has long upheld the highest standards of protection for the rights of parents to educate and bring up their children without interference. The latest blow to the traditional family structure has been leveled by “reproductive rights” groups, a federal judge, and the FDA – all of which support the availability of a high dose hormonal contraceptive over the counter to young girls without a prescription.

In 2011, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, denied a recommendation by the FDA that would have allowed over the counter access to Plan B, a high dose “emergency contraceptive,” for young girls. Both she and President Obama stated that the FDA did not present enough evidence to show that this hormone would be safe for girls.

In fact, there have been no studies on the effects of Plan B on teens. All safety studies have been done on adults and assume proper use. There is no reason to believe that young girls understand that this contraceptive should only be used once a month and that it is not meant to replace oral contraceptives.

Yet a federal judge, Edward Korman of the Eastern District of New York, unilaterally disposed of those concerns when he handed down a ruling last month requiring the FDA to provide over-the-counter access of Plan B to all girls of reproductive age without a prescription. Family Research Council authored a letter to Sebelius asking her to appeal this decision, and thankfully, the Department of Justice has decided to appeal the judge’s decision. In the midst of this controversy, however, the FDA issued an approval of over the counter access to Plan B to teens as young as 15 (the previous age limit was 17).

This decision is particularly disturbing because it allows Plan B to be sold on store shelves, not behind a pharmacy counter. Thus, the only thing standing in the way of a girl purchasing this product is the local drug store cashier, who supposedly is required to check the purchaser’s ID before selling the product. There is no indication that Sec. Sebelius will overturn this new FDA decision. In fact, President Obama, in an about face from his previous support of keeping Plan B off retail store shelves, came out in support of the FDA’s new decision.

This decision is troubling, to say the least. It will only serve to distance young girls most at risk for sexual abuse and sexually transmitted infections from medical care and parental guidance. The decision to exclude parents and doctors from dealing with the sexual behavior of underage girls and the administration of a serious drug is irresponsible and dangerous.

Parents have every right to be informed and to consent to any decision affecting their child’s health, education, or upbringing. It is important to encourage parent-teen communication regarding the moral and medical issues associated with pre-marital sexual activity, as the consequences of such activity are weighty.

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Teenagers under the age of 17 cannot even be admitted to an R–rated movie and schools are required to obtain a parent’s permission to administer any type of medication to a child or teen, for good reason. The new Plan B decisions, made without regard to parental or medical concern, will only serve to endanger the health and safety of children. Parents should remain vigilant as this debate continues.

LifeNews Note: Anna Higgins writes for the Family Research Council blog and she is director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council.

The passerby tried to justify Dr. Gosnell’s brutal abortions. “It’s not murder.”

Refering to pregnant mothers, she said: “There’s nothing there until there’s love.”
TFP volunteer: “If it’s not murder, then what is it?”
Pro-abortion woman: “It’s like you’re weeding your garden.”
TFP: “Really? Do you kill the weeds?”
“You have to love. There’s not life until there’s love.”

On Monday, April 28, 2013, six TFP Student Action members traveled to downtown Philadelphia to campaign against abortion. The atmosphere was highly charged as the young men formed outside the Center for Criminal Justice, where final arguments in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell were taking place.  He is being charged with eights counts of murder.

VIDEO highlights: Prayer vigil to stop abortion

Shortly after arriving and forming beside the main entrance of the court building, TFP members began praying the rosary in reparation for the sin of abortion.  Many passersby frequented the busy streets around the courthouse, amid a light rain that persisted through the morning. Volunteers distributed the flyer St. Michael the Archangel and the Pro-Life Victory, showing the need for invoking the prince of the heavenly armies for victory in the fight against abortion. It wasn’t long before this firm condemnation of the sin of abortion was met with some vocal opposition.

Soon after beginning the rosary, two elderly women approached and began shouting insults. “It’s not murder! You men don’t ever have to have one!” This elicited the quick reply “Abortion is a sin, shame on you!”

As another woman passed reading the signs opposing abortion, she said in disgust, “It isn’t murder… it’s just like weeding your garden.” Following her questionable logic, a volunteer replied, “When you uproot the weeds from your garden, what do you do with them? You’re not transplanting them, you’re killing them.”

The negative reactions were counteracted by many supportive comments. A group of young women gave thumbs up as they crossed the intersection, one of whom shouted back, “That’s right, abortion is murder. I’m keeping my baby!”

Ending a Media Blackout

The controversial case of Kermit Gosnell received very little media coverage since beginning two months ago. On Friday, April 12, advocates of the unborn sought to end the media blackout by using the social networking site Twitter to openly challenge journalists and media outlets, alleging bias in not reporting one of the most horrific murder trials in living memory.

According to LifeSiteNews.com, 166,800 tweets using the #Gosnell hashtag were sent in a matter of 12 hours. This put overwhelming pressure on members of the media, which resulted in admissions of bias and oversight, and new attempts to bring the story to the public. The website whoisgosnell.com was set up to track the coverage of the story,  while also showcasing a 20-minute documentary exposing what was dubbed Gosnell’s ‘house of horrors’.

An Offense Against God

As the morning changed to afternoon, TFP Student Action was joined by other abortion opponents for a prayer vigil outside the courthouse. Leaders in the fight for the unborn led the crowd in prayer, and gave prepared statements to the media. Many large signs and banners showed outrage over the crimes Gosnell perpetrated.

Consistent in opposing abortion, one TFP sign read: “Every abortion facility is a house of horrors that offends God!” Anyone who read it immediately reacted, some giving approval, others showing contempt, but the vast majority averting their eyes and choosing to ignore reality.

The campaign came to a close in mid-afternoon, all mindful that the outcome of the trial was still hanging in the balance. The six young men headed home, more determined than ever to continue legal and peaceful battle to end abortion. May St. Michael lead the way in this spiritual combat to bring about a pro-life victory in America and throughout the world.

 

LifeNews Note: Ben Broussard writes for TFP Student Action, where this post originally appeared.

Oh good grief. It appears that the Chinese tyranny is allowing the nephew of anti-forced abortion human rights activist Chen Guangcheng to die of appendicitis. And Secretary of State John Kerry calls, but just can’t get through? From the official State Department transcript of a press briefing:

QUESTION: You suggested during the briefing yesterday–or you said that you believed that the Secretary was going to call the Chinese leadership to raise the case of Chen Guangcheng’s nephew.

MR. VENTRELL: Chen Kegui.

QUESTION: Chen Kegui. Thank you again. Did he make such a call? And if so, to whom and when, and what did he say?

MR. VENTRELL: The Secretary did reach out to his counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang, yesterday. He was unable to reach him and the Secretary will follow up. So he has placed a call and has not yet been able to connect with the Foreign Minister, who we understand is on travel.

QUESTION: Do you know if he attempted to reach him after you announced from the podium that he was going to call?

MR. VENTRELL: No, we discussed in the morning that he was going to make the call during the day.

QUESTION: Well–right, I know. But was it–did he try to do it after you had said that he was going to?

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MR. VENTRELL: Matt, I don’t know at exactly what hour the –

QUESTION: I’m just curious if you think that the Chinese Foreign Minister might have been ducking the phone call because he knew that he was going to get yelled at about this.

MR. VENTRELL: I don’t know at what time the Operations Center was putting forward the call, but the Secretary did reach out to the Chinese and will follow up.

So let me get this straight: Wang forwarded his calls to voice mail and Secretary Kerry left a message? Talk about no respect, as in the Chinese apparently have none for, the Chens, the USA, or this administration. If the nephew’s appendix bursts and he dies, what then?

LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith, J.D., is a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture and a bioethics attorney who blogs at Secondhand Smoke.

Forty six days after the grisly trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell began, ABC still has not uttered one word about the case.

Gosnell is charged with the murder of four infants and one patient, yet the network has conducted a total blackout. During the same period, ABC’s Good Morning America has aired 53 segments and 148 minutes– almost two and a half hours– of coverage for other sensational criminal trials.

Although GMA hasn’t found time to discuss the shocking details of the Gosnell case, the morning program on Thursday did tout the story of two rival Sno-Kone truck operators in upstate New York, the deeply irrelevant criminal complaints of “Sno Kone Joe vs. Mr. Ding-A-Ling.” [See a picture below.] The other networks have given the Gosnell story minimal coverage, but ABC is alone in completely ignoring it.

The Media Research Center released a comprehensive look at ABC’s lack of coverage on Monday. Since then, the NBC Nightly News, which previously skipped the trial, finally did a story on Gosnell.

Since Monday, Good Morning America has devoted an additional six segments to the Jodi Arias case, the so-called “break-up” murder. From March 18 to May 3, GMA has highlighted the Arias case an astonishing 28 times.

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The details of the Arias case are shocking. They involve the defendant allegedly slitting the throat of her ex-boyfriend. If ABC can spend so much time on that, surely GMA can allow at least one segment for the babies that allegedly had their necks “snipped” by Mr. Gosnell.

The jury is currently deliberating over Gosnell’s fate. Will ABC cover the verdict?

LifeNews.com Note: Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center and a contributing writer to NewsBusters, its blog where this item first appeared. Scott’s blogs have been featured in the “Inside Politics” section of the Washington Times and linked to on the Drudge Report. He is a graduate of George Mason University.

In this year’s Virginia governor’s race, both party nominees are airing warm ads about family right now. GOP Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has been accused of lacking warmth. But that’s nothing next to what Buzzfeed dug up in former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe’s 2007 memoir “What A Party!”

Andrew Kaczynski offered a story where McAuliffe went to a Washington Post party while his wife was in the hospital preparing to have a baby. Somehow, this slipped past the Post itself when it reviewed the book in 2007:

I made the rounds at the party and ran into Marjorie Williams, who was writing a story on me for Vanity Fair, magazine. She was shocked to see me at the party. ‘Isn’t Dorothy having a baby today?’ she asked. ‘That’s right,’ I said, ‘but she threw me out the room.’ Marjorie just couldn’t understand how I left Dorothy alone.

In the book, McAuliffe also confessed to going briefly into a fundraiser on the way home from the birth of his son Peter, with his wife starting to cry in the car.  But here’s how the Washington Post book review by Peter Baker went in 2007:

At the very least, there is one totally true statement in Terence R. McAuliffe’s new memoir: “This is my book,” he writes, “and obviously I’ve done my best to make myself look good.”

Maybe not! The Post book review found time to end on with a McAuliffe anecdote where Barbra Streisand hates dogs and wanted no dogs to sniff for explosives or trouble on her estate before Bill Clinton arrived. She was told no dogs, no Bill. She relented, but then screamed at McAuliffe when she stepped in doggy poo. This anecdote made the paper, but not the WashPost party story.

It drew some notice now — at least on a Washington Post blog. At “She the People,” the headline was “Terry McAuliffe partied (and argued about health care) while his wife gave birth.” Diana Reese argued, “Maybe Virginia’s voters will find Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s dedication to work admirable, but I’m glad he’s not my husband.”

She added a third story that when his son Jack was being born, he got thrown out of the room after having a political argument:

“[W]hile poor Dorothy was in labor with their son Jack, McAuliffe got into “a heated argument” with the anesthesiologist and the obstetrician.

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The anesthesiologist asked McAuliffe if he wanted socialized medicine. (I guess we can blame the doctor for starting this discussion.)  In his book, McAuliffe writes, “‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘However, there are thirty-seven million uninsured people in this country with no access to health care. Is that fair?’” He admits that he was “almost shouting” at this point.

Then the nurse kicked him out.

LifeNews.com Note: Tim Graham is the director of media analysis for the Media Research Center, a media watchdog group. He was a White House correspondent for World magazine in 2001 and 2002. This originally appeared on the NewsBusters web site.

Dr. David A. Grimes once stated that reporting an aborted baby born alive was like turning yourself in to the IRS. Grimes was chief of Abortion Surveillance at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, GA., and two nights a week and on Saturdays he would perform late-term abortions, his specialty, at Atlanta Hospital for Women, also known as “Midtown Hospital.” Dr. Willard Cates, his colleague at the CDC, also performed abortions, and had “privileges” at several Atlanta hospitals.

The year was 1983, and we were beginning to learn the Language of Choice – “salting out,” “products of conception,” “parts,” etc. Georgia State Senator Joe Burton had asked me if I would help him with a Parental Notification bill he wanted to introduce to the Georgia Legislature. I was honored, and I knew the direction I wanted to go. First, we had to learn who the “enemy” was if he was going to be successful. Know your enemy. He got me credentialed (I still have the name tag) so that I could have free access to the State files. I made an appointment with the director of Vital Records. She seemed very relieved that someone was interested in her department.

I learned how many abortion clinics were in the State, as well as where they were located and who owned them. Most of the owners seemed to be clustered in New Jersey. This was dirty business. Could they be Mafia? As I was writing down the names of clinics, the Vital Records director looked at me and said:

“They are having live births at Midtown Hospital.”

Midtown, I learned, specialized in late-term abortions, and advertised in newspapers up and down the East Coast. I asked her how she knew this, and she said she got the death certificates. She explained that birth records were confidential, but death records were public information. We put in a request for a computer search to be done of all births at Midtown. Since Midtown was an all-abortion hospital specializing in late-term, we knew that there should not be any live births reported. However, since birth records were confidential, the Vital Records specialist had to do a computer search of all of the death certificates and compare them with the birth records – a computer match. These guys were anxious to get this information out. I was the perfect vehicle.

They photocopied the death certificates and greatly enlarged them, put them in an envelope and gave them to me.

I took them home, spread them out on my bedroom floor, and cried.

Then I called Ted Turner’s CNN. I knew that this was a hugh scandal, and that CNN would give it national coverage. The reporter for CNN was young, and this story was hot. She met with me and I gave her all of my documents – the death certificates – everything. In those days I was very naive, just beginning my long career in investigative journalism. She had the camera team reserved for the day and they were scheduled to start filming at Midtown. Later she informed me that the story had been cancelled. It took many, many phone calls to CNN to get my documents returned to me. Someone at CNN wanted the story buried, just like today with the abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell story of the massacre of babies at his clinic. I never met her again, and my stuff was left at the guard shack at CNN.

Father Noel Burtenshaw was begging me to let him write my story. He and the staff at the Georgia Bulletin, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, did a brilliant job writing the expose’. Burtenshaw interviewed regulatory affairs officials and health department officials. Within a few days the story was out: Television, newspapers, and national pro-life organizations.

Death certificates revealed that in 1980 10 babies survived abortions at Midtown, in 1981 three survived and as of October 1982 one had survived.

One baby lived for 13 hours and five minutes, the longest time; one died in 20 minutes. In addition to the 13-hour survivor, seven others lived for more than an hour, ranging from one hour and 45 minutes to six hours and 20 minutes. Death certificates gave no indication any of the 14 were transported to the neonatal unit at Grady Hospital or any other facility specializing in the care of premature babies. Midtown Hospital asserted that transporting a surviving baby to a hospital was the attending physician’s decision to make.

Nine of the 14 death certificates listed “hospital disposal” or “Midtown Hospital” under the category of “cemetery or crematory name.”

The administrator of the hospital in 1983 asserted this meant Midtown had taken responsibility for the remains, not that the remains were disposed of on Midtown premises. But the details of what happened during those hours of life remained hidden from the public.

The relevant section of the Georgia Code in 1983 referred to the possibility of a baby surviving an abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy and said if this happened medical aid must be rendered. There was no reference in the Code to a baby surviving a second trimester abortion.

Interviews in 1983 with Department of Human Resources (DHR) officials revealed no clear protocol for treating infants surviving abortions. In response to the publicity, Midtown Hospital was asked by DHR to draft new guidelines for caring for surviving infants and did so, although the guidelines differed little from prior ones and left to the physician at the abortion facility the decision as to what to do. Today, when asked about the Gosnell case, Planned Parenthood states that it’s up to a woman and her doctor.

Nationally “live births” were being referred to as “the dreaded complication” in abortion clinics because they confronted medical staff and women paying for abortions with a surviving baby, often injured by the effects of a saline abortion.

In June 1983, the first outdoor pro-life service and march in Atlanta was held in Woodruff Park in response to the disclosure of these infants’ births and deaths at Midtown.

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Midtown in 1983 advertised abortions from seven to 24 weeks of pregnancy. In 1998 the clinic advertised abortion care from five to 26 weeks of pregnancy.

But the possibility of “live births” at Midtown was being eliminated at the abortion facility a year after the 1983 disclosure.

In August 1984 The Georgia Bulletin reported that an experimental procedure had been developed at Midtown Hospital that injected an adult dose of the medicine digoxin directly into the heart of the five-month-old fetus in the womb, killing the baby. Digoxin is a derivative of digitalis, the heart medicine, and when given the injection the baby has a massive heart attack. The woman would then go through labor and delivery of the dead infant. The mean abortion time with digoxin induction was reported as over 14 hours.

I learned that the abortion doctors at Midtown were going to Kansas and learning about the digoxin procedure from the late “Tiller the Baby Killer,” who was more recently murdered.

The abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has not been given much coverage in the media with the exception of Bill O’Reilly at Fox News. Even O’Reilly doesn’t know about my expose’ in 1983.

LifeNews Note: Nancy Creger may have been the first person to discover babies born alive after abortions. She worked at Midtown Hospital (now torn down) in Atlanta and now resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Where did actions such as those taken by abortionist Kermit Gosnell begin? Is there a logical explanation for practices that reflect such a callous disregard for human life?

According to Bishop James Conley, of the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, the philosophy of “choice” is the culprit. His recent column has exposed a pivotal piece of the puzzle that clarifies the background for the brutality imposed on babies and their mothers by Gosnell and his ilk.

Calling specific attention to the contraceptive mentality, Conley writes:

Kermit Gosnell looked at these “unwanted” lives, and saw burdens placed upon women. He was more ruthless than most, in his efforts to eliminate these living “burdens.”

Most people do not share Gosnell’s ruthlessness. But many in our society seem to share his attitude: that human life is sometimes an inconvenient and unnecessary burden, rather than a sacred gift from God. . . .

The Gosnell case suggests that our society’s view of human life is deeply wrong. It suggests that a culture of contraception cannot avoid becoming a “culture of death”—in which some lives are seen not as gifts, but as burdens.

While most would bristle at the idea that in these few words there resides a kernel of truth, it is time that we honestly evaluate the cultural attitude that laid the groundwork for Gosnell’s miserable behavior. After all, he is not the first abortionist to kill babies born alive as the result of such practices.

What is it about a baby that has so divided our nation? It is the stark difference between those who want to control their sexual urges and those who do not.

The drive toward sexual freedom for one and for all started with the artificial steroid known as the birth control pill. From there all hell broke lose.

Marriages began to dissolve, children began learning all about sex before they knew how to add or read, and teens as young as fifteen can now walk into a drug store and buy a powerful chemical that may end a preborn baby’s life prior to implantation—a drug that might also cause a stroke, a blood clot, or death.

Upon learning of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of over-the-counter status for the abortive morning-after pill, political strategist Gary Bauer opined that Obama had become the “wingman” for fifteen-year-old boys!

Indeed, we have devolved from that first marketing campaign for the pill to the point today where we are, as a society, a group of human beings who for the most part put sex at the forefront of our daily routine.Just think about it. What is “emergency” contraception? What is the emergency if not the possibility of a baby?  These pills are a chemical quick fix ensuring that no baby grows in the womb of the willing female sex partner, pure and simple.

It is into this disturbing scenario that abortion arrives as the ultimate answer should, God forbid, a pregnancy actually occur. None other than the Supreme Court has said that for a woman not to have the ability to acquire abortion is for her to confront an “undue burden.”

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Or, to put it another way, motherhood is an option if the expectant mother chooses it. If not, killing the baby is her prerogative.

Enter Kermit Gosnell, the man who can eradicate the “burden” at the last minute, even if he has to use scissors or crush a skull!

Yes indeed, Gosnell and his coldblooded acts are a result; they are not the cause.

LifeNews Note:  Judie Brown is the president of American Life League.

Now that I have your attention, permit me to explain.

There’s an ongoing debate in Reformed and Evangelical circles regarding the mission of the church. That’s good, because the Body of Christ needs to be clear on what the Head expects the hands and feet to be doing.

But the way one frames the question can greatly affect the answer. So we need to make sure we’re rightly framing the question.

Rightly Framing the Question

More often than not, the question “What is the mission of the church?” is framed so as to give either the exclusive mission, or the comprehensive mission, rather than the primary mission. As important as the first two are, the third is, by definition, the most important.

Exclusive mission means those things that the church and the church alone has responsibility for. There is no serious debate regarding the exclusive mission of the church. All parties are pretty much agreed that the church’s exclusive mission is to minister the Word of God, particularly in fulfillment of the Great Commission. If the church doesn’t do that, no one else will.

Comprehensive mission means all things the church has responsibility for. The comprehensive mission of the Church is what the aforementioned debate centers on. It involves determining what things are “official” church responsibilities and what things are not.

Primary mission means those things that are the church’s most important responsibilities: the things she will be held most accountable for by Christ. Unfortunately, neither side of the debate is giving much consideration to this, and, incredibly, it is falling through the cracks. Christ and His apostles laid it out so plainly it is difficult to understand how we are overlooking it, but we are.

The Church’s Primary Mission

So what is the church’s primary mission, her most important responsibility? Jesus summed it up in what He called “the first and great commandment”: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). He linked it inextricably with “the second [commandment]” which He said is “like unto [the first]: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (v. 39). “On these two commandments,” He asserted, “hang all the law and the prophets” (v. 40).

The apostle Paul was even more concise: “All the law,” he wrote, “is fulfilled in one word . . . love. . . .”

Biblical examples of the primacy of love could be listed almost endlessly. The church’s primary responsibility, collectively and individually, is to love God and people. God is pro-people and expects His body, the church, to be likewise. It is impossible to be an obedient Christian or an obedient church without loving people, for to love people for God’s sake is to love God. It is hard to imagine anything being more clear. And yet.

We’ve Made Our Highest Priority Our Lowest

The church—the evangelical church in particular—is guilty of a spectacular sin of omission when it comes to loving people, especially the people Jesus referred to as “the least of these”: those we deem least important and easiest to neglect.

No people in America better fit the description “the least of these” than pre-born babies whose mothers choose, often under pressure and with subsequent regret, to abort them. Fifty-five million murdered now makes us statistically nearly ten times worse than the Nazis. And by “us” I mean the church, because it is largely our collective silence that has enabled the butchery to continue virtually unopposed.

I’m an evangelical, and I’ve been asking myself for four decades, how on earth does the church justify such egregious sins of omission as silence on abortion? The answers I’ve found center on the same thing: worldview. We rationalize our culpable inaction on the basis of flawed worldview.

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We think we have a biblical worldview, and in many essential ways we do (that’s why I’m still an evangelical). But in many other, equally essential ways, we do not. I described two examples of flawed worldview impinging on the abortion issue in previous BreakPoint articles, here and here. This whole question about the mission of the church is a third. Owing to a defective worldview on the Church’s mission we have effectively made our highest priority our lowest.

The Rationale

There are at least two key aspects to the misguided rationale for our neglect of the church’s primary mission, love.

First, sins of omission are easier to commit and justify than sins of commission. A study published in “Psychological Science” suggests that this is because people know others will think worse of them if they do something bad, than if they merely let something bad happen.

Second, we mistakenly think we are loving people as we ought simply by sharing the gospel with them. The church today is characterized by words without works.

True, the words we share are the words of God. But we forget that talk is cheap, and we assume that because we speak God’s words our sparse actions are excusable, that our merely saying “be warmed and filled” is somehow reckoned an acceptable substitute for actually filling the need.

But even the words of God are cheap if the life dispensing them does not show the love of God it preaches. That is the whole point of James, chapter 2. We say “God is love,” yet demonstrate by our self-absorbed Christianity that this means exactly nothing except “God is willing to overlook the sins of those who speak well of Jesus, act religious, and win souls.”

This is not Christianity. And yet it is; it is what we have made of it. The body of Christ has more resemblance to the insular Pharisee avoiding lepers than to the unselfconscious Good Samaritan showing—not speaking, but showing—compassion for the needy, regardless of cost.

There is no difference between one who says “be warmed and filled” and does nothing, and one who says “I’m pro-life” and does nothing. Faith without works is dead; love without action is not love.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.” The German Evangelical Church ignored him, and innocents within the borders of the Reich were slaughtered by the trainload, without opposition. Ironically, we vilify the German Evangelical Church.

Pro-life activism is not a mission of the Church; it is the mission of the church because the mission of the church is loving people. If we are to be the Body of Christ we must care about “the least of these” as our Master did. That, or quit calling ourselves the church.

LifeNews: Rolley Haggard is a feature writer for BreakPoint.

I looked in the paper and saw a doctor’s office in need of a bilingual receptionist, someone who could schedule appointments for patients – it was perfect for me. I didn’t realize it was an abortion clinic. 

I was a Christian but abortion was not at the top of my list of concerns. I thought it was not a great option but really depended upon the woman’s situation. In my desperation, I put my beliefs aside, only worrying about putting food on the table for my three children and one on the way.

As happens with a lot of abortion clinic employees who are hired to do one thing but are recruited into another, my scheduling position evolved into doing work in the lab.  “Lab” is where we sorted through the parts of the aborted child to make sure they were all accounted for and nothing was left inside the patient.

I also did counseling and somehow stomached the excuses women had to abort – for many it was because the baby was a girl and they wanted a boy while others it was because of a fetal defect and others because they didn’t want another child.

I tried to soothe my soul by comforting these women during their abortions.

My conscience bothered me at times and I would secretly try to change the patient’s mind during counseling.

One woman came in who was pregnant with twins and already had another child. I just couldn’t counsel her to choose abortion and told her that there are other options. She chose to keep the twins and saw me a couple years later and told me how grateful she was for my advice and that her children were her joy.

As time went by I learned every position in the clinic and the doctor trusted me. However, he was always in a bad mood and rude to patients and employees. He referred to the larger women as cows or whales. I hated how he treated everyone and left but went back because I needed the money.

Although one might say I was used to this type of work, my heart now felt heavier as I watched woman after woman have an abortion.

Looking back, I believe God was working through my conscience, trying to get my attention and wake me up to the horror of what I was doing.

I tried to soothe my soul by comforting these women during their abortions or helping them with rides to the airport or bus and even had a few stay at my home because they had no extra money for hotels.

But I saw more things that made me question why I was working there. I saw the doctor increasing prices for no reason, making pregnancies look larger on the ultra sound to charge more. I saw him charge women for being overweight, on medication by a primary doctor, for having had previous C-sections, for having a tilted uterus, and many other reasons he just made up.

But even worse than lying to the women or dealing with a cranky boss was what I saw during the abortions. I was the doctor’s right hand person in the operating room and just like those employees of Dr. Gosnell, I saw the abortionist puncture the soft spot in the baby’s head or snip its neck if it was delivered alive.

What in the world was I doing there? Where was the teenager who used to take a Bible everywhere she went?

One day a flier was sent to the clinic asking for people to contact a certain pro-life group if they suspected illegal activity at the clinic. I secretly took it home with me, not sure if I would need it at a later date. I considered leaving several times but I had my children and their livelihood to think about.

Eventually, I made a decision to leave and called the number on the flier. That group put me in touch with Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who now runs And Then There Were None, a ministry that helps abortion workers leave their jobs.

I do not know where I would be now without Abby’s help. Her organization has kept me financially stable, helped me spiritually and she has personally been a mentor to me.

My days are brighter knowing that I no longer have to witness abortion and the abuse done to the mothers, not to mention all of the illegal activities done in the clinic.

I am now pro-life without exception and have rediscovered my faith since I left. I go to church every week and take my children with me. I have found the grace of forgiveness and healing. I still cannot believe I worked in the abortion industry for so long. I wish I would have left sooner.

It is my hope that abortion workers will see that there are other options besides working in a job that takes lives or helping in a house of horrors, like that of Dr. Gosnell’s. ATTWN and Abby Johnson can help, just like they did for me. My faith was always there, even in the midst of the horrible things I was doing, and I am so glad that God never gave up on me.

LifeNews Note: Deborah Edge worked in the abortion industry for 17 years in the Houston area.

During the Nazi holocaust, Josef Mengele used concentration camp prisoners, including young children, as test subjects for a catalog of demented medical experiments. Documents uncovered by Allied forces revealed that, before they were killed, Mengele’s victims were subjected to pain on a scale that can only be described as unimaginable.

After the war, Mengele became known as the “The Angel of Death” and international prosecutors wanted to put him on trial. But he had fled Germany and could not be found. Then, in 1985, a body was exhumed from a South American grave that DNA evidence confirmed to be his. After eluding capture for 34 years, Josef Mengele had died at the age of 68 having never been tried for his crimes. But in a Philadelphia courtroom, we are being given a glimpse of what Mengele’s trial might have looked like. It is the criminal prosecution of abortionist, Kermit Gosnell.

At this point, the State has presented its case, the defense has rested without calling any witnesses and we await the verdict.

What we heard from testimony given by sworn witnesses is that this pro-choice hero has a long history of performing “safe and legal pregnancy terminations” after which the babies are still alive outside their mothers’ bodies. He then completes the procedure “ex-utero” by making small slits in the back of the babies’ necks and cutting their spinal columns in half. Courtroom testimony was that Gosnell had performed such decapitations hundreds of times over the years with one clinic employee testifying that, she alone, saw him dispatch more than 30 living children in this way.

We also learned that the caseload became more than Gosnell could handle by himself, so he recruited an unlicensed medical school graduate named Steven Massof to lend a hand. At trial, Massof could not say with any certainty just how many baby spines he had snipped, but he estimated that it was somewhere around a hundred. He went on to say that sometimes, “It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”

When investigators searched the abortion clinic, they found bodies of dead babies in paper bags, plastic bottles, milk jugs, orange juice cartons and cat food containers. Some were stored in refrigerators and one freezer contained the corpse of a 28-week-old baby boy frozen in a one-gallon water bottle. It was also apparent that some of these bodies had been there for years.

Most of the prosecution witnesses were former employees and one testified that Gosnell collected the feet of his victims in glass jars and authorities found about 50 such containers scattered around the abortion clinic.

One testified that fetal remains were sometimes left out overnight. She stated that, “You knew about it the next day when you opened the door … because you could smell it as soon as you opened the door.”

In other testimony, a former clinic worker said Gosnell put a baby in a plastic shoebox for disposal and the witness said she noticed that it was still breathing and moving around. She testified that the child jumped while she was snipping its neck.

One witness said that another baby was also put in a shoebox but was too big to fit. The baby pulled his arms and legs into the box and Gosnell snipped his neck.

Another former employee said that she saw multiple babies killed after being born alive and that, in one case, the child was making a screeching noise like “a little alien.”

One witness testified about a baby they killed that was 12-18 inches long and that Gosnell joked about one of them being big enough to walk him home. Another testified that Gosnell also joked about a baby that was writhing as he cut its neck saying, “that’s what you call a chicken with its head cut off.”

In other sworn testimony, a clinic worker said that one woman’s baby fell out of her while she was on the clinic toilet and that the baby was alive. She said that the child “looked like it was swimming” and that another employee “reached into the toilet, got the baby out and cut its neck.”

Inspectors said that the facility was filthy and foul smelling. They said that the floors and walls were splattered with urine and that some of the furniture was covered in dried blood. They also found dirty surgical instruments as well as plastic disposable speculums and curettes being reused from woman to woman.

One witness testified that, following their abortions, women were left naked from the waist down and that the clinic provided no robes, only blankets that were washed once a week.

Another witness stated that women often sat in bloodstained lounge chairs in the “recovery room” while unlicensed, unsupervised workers gave them large doses of various drugs because Gosnell wanted them to be quiet.

A janitor at the clinic told jurors that he had threatened to quit because he did not like pulling flesh from aborted babies out of the plumbing. He said that the clinic’s toilets backed up one-two times a week and that, whenever he opened the clean-out pipes, fetal parts such as babies’ arms came spilling out.

The catalog of health and safety violations was overwhelming. There can be little doubt that they played a role in the fact that several patients contracted STDs while at the clinic and at least two women died.

Another witness testified that Gosnell would sometimes take sexually suggestive photos of patients using a digital camera or his cellphone.

There were also charges of racism. Despite the fact that Gosnell is black, former employees testified that white women were routinely taken to clean well-kept rooms with televisions where Gosnell treated them personally. Meanwhile, minority women were sent to the clinic’s dirtiest rooms to be seen by medically unqualified staff. One witness said that when she asked Gosnell about this, his response was that this is just the way the world is.

The list goes on and on and is certainly too long for this article. For those who are interested in the complete story, the full grand jury report is available online.

The answer to why these atrocities would occur is not hard to find. First, while the pro-life movement claims that abortion takes the life of a living human being, nobody on earth knows that better than the people who work at abortion clinics. The lofty rhetoric of “choice” may insulate those who work in the political and public relations arena, but the day-to-day reality for those who provide those “choices” is to deal with the corpses and parts of corpses they pull out of their customers’ bodies. It is an environment that inevitably destroys the humanity of those who choose to live in it. In fact, look up the definition of “psychopath” and you will see a textbook description of the kind of person who is mentally capable of performing abortions.

Second, the nature of abortion is no different than the nature of pornography and prostitution. All three are sleazy and corrupt businesses that only attract sleazy and corrupt operators. Moreover, that does not change whether they are legal or illegal. In recent years, even abortion defenders have begun grudgingly admitting that one of their biggest failures has been their inability to “mainstream” abortion within the legitimate medical community. They may not like acknowledging it, but these industry insiders have come to see that, like pornography and prostitution, the stigma of abortion is permanently hard-wired into the act itself.

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In the final analysis, these are the two reasons why we have seen these abortion clinic horror stories in the past and why we will see more of them in the future. Simply put, it is the nature of the beast.

During Gosnell’s trial, it became clear that organizations like Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, and others within the pro-choice community, were fully aware of what he was doing. But they kept quiet because this was a rock they did not want the public looking under. What they knew, and wanted to keep hidden, was that everything being done at this abortion clinic was within the standard operating procedures for every other abortion clinic in the country. So they, and their lapdogs in the media, started whistling past the graveyard.

Now it’s in the hands of the jury and, given the testimony and evidence piled up against Gosnell, it seems incomprehensible that this monster could escape conviction. But, I’m not so sure. After all, the judge has already dismissed some of the charges against him on the basis that the state failed to prove that the babies were born alive. In short, the judge’s opinion was that these tortured and mangled children were simply the product of everyday, run-of-the-mill, late-term abortions. In addition, Gosnell’s defense team has routinely argued that very point when trying to counter the testimony of prosecution witnesses. To paraphrase their position: these babies were taken to this abortion clinic to be killed and they were killed … so what’s the problem?

As a long-time anti-abortion activist, I have to say that the judge and defense team locked-in on the core issue of this trial. What they are saying is that, if Gosnell decapitated these babies while they were still inside their mothers’ abdomens – rather than a few feet away on a stainless steel table – then nothing illegal occurred. To put it another way, the mere fact that these children were butchered is irrelevant as long as they were butchered in the appropriate location. The tragedy is, under existing abortion law that is a viable position. It also defines the abyss of moral bankruptcy that our legal system – and our nation as a whole – fell into on the day that Roe vs. Wade was handed down.

Today, legalized abortion is like a chicken bone that’s stuck in the throat of the American people. The abortion lobby will never be able to make them swallow it, and the pro-life movement will never let them just ignore it. And every once in a while, something comes along to remind them of those two realities.

At this moment in history, that “something” is the Gosnell trial. It is forcing the intellectually honest members of our society to ask themselves why they can be so horrified by what this guy did to these babies outside the womb, but so accepting of the fact that the same things are done to babies inside the womb every day in abortion clinics all over the country. Either the American people are legitimately blind to the hypocrisy and irrationality of that, or they have made a conscious decision to look the other way. If it is the latter, they have no right to be outraged when the Kermit Gosnells of this world come along and rub their noses in it.

In the coming days, we will learn the outcome of this trial. But whether Gosnell is tossed onto death row, set free, or something in between, the far bigger picture is what this trial says about our country. The late Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, once stated that America would be judged on how it treats those at the dawn of life, those in the twilight of life and those in the shadows of life. If he was right, then the ultimate verdict of this trial will not be rendered by the 12 men and women who made up the jury. Instead, it will be revealed in the way the public responds to what they’ve been shown. Make no mistake; regardless of anything that happened or didn’t happen in that courtroom, the real defendant was the American people.

By the way, it is interesting to note how Josef Mengele made his living during the 34 years he was hiding from justice. He was an abortionist.

LifeNews Note: Mark Crutcher is the president of Life Dynamics, a pro-life group.

The Pentagon has hired an adviser known for being outspoken critic of Christian fundamentalist. His name is Mikey Weinstein and he is the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Fox News did a panel debate about the Pentagon seeking Weinstein out.

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

The Common Pleas Court jury of seven women and five men have finished their deliberations for the week in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

They will return on Monday, but not before having apparently moved on from considering charges against Gosnell’s co-defendant (according to multiple news sources including the Philadelphia Inquirer and CNN) and on to the 72-year-old abortionist charged with five counts of murder.

Eileen O’Neill, 56, is charged with six counts of theft by deception (she is accused of posing as a licensed doctor) that form the basis of racketeering and conspiracy counts for her alleged role in a “corrupt organization.” The jury, CNN reported

“asked to be given the written definition of RICO charges, and a property receipt for the medications removed from the clinic and put into evidence. RICO charges extend from the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

“After consulting with attorneys, Judge Jeffrey Minehart answered the jury in the deliberation room. Gosnell and his co-defendant, Eileen O’Neill, 56, were not in the courtroom.”

However the most important request of the day was clearly for records compiled the day Gosnell’s abortion clinic was raided, February 18, 2010. According to the Inquirer’s Joseph A. Slobodzian, they asked for the police property receipt for all medicines and drugs removed from the Women’s Medical Society. Why is that significant?

It is of critical importance in the context of another request—“identifying details to help them differentiate the four babies – known thus far as babies A, C, D and E – allegedly killed by Gosnell or his staff after they were born live during illegal late-term abortions.”

Jack McMahon, Gosnell’s flamboyant defense attorney, has stated flatly that no babies were born alive—that every movement, twitch, even scream witnesses testified to were simply “reflexes.” They weren’t born alive, McMahon argued, because Gosnell administered the drug Digoxin that would have killed the babies in utero.

But (a) police found no evidence of Digoxin when they searched the abortion clinic, and (b) according to prosecutors, “Gosnell had stopped using the drug to save money,” Slobodzian explained. “Instead, prosecutors allege, Gosnell gave patients heavy doses of the labor-inducing drug Cytotec so they would spontaneously abort. If the fetus was alive, Gosnell allegedly would then cut the spine to kill it.”

CNN summarized the bundle of charges lodged against Gosnell who, prosecutors say, made millions off of illegal late-term abortions:

“The [four] babies Gosnell is accused of killing include one that a former employee testified whined after it was expelled from its mother; one that a former employee testified was a large baby boy that breathed before having its neck snipped and was placed into a plastic box the size of a shoebox; one whose neck was snipped after an employee played with the baby; and one that was delivered into a toilet and appeared to be swimming before being scooped up and having its neck snipped.”

In addition, “Gosnell also is charged with conspiracy, abortion at 24 or more weeks of pregnancy, theft, corruption of minors, solicitation and other related offenses. He and O’Neill have pleaded not guilty.”

Gosnell also stands accused of one count of third degree murder in the 2009 death of Karnamaya Mongar, who was 41. Prosecutors say Gosnell’s untrained, unlicensed assistants administered an overdose of Demerol, a powerful painkiller.

Last week, without explanation, Judge Minehart threw out three of the seven first-degree murder counts, one count of infanticide, and all five abuse-of-corpse charges which were about the fetal body parts authorities found when they raided Gosnell’s abortion clinic, ironically not because of abortion but because they believed he was running an illegal “pill mill.”

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In his testimony, Philadelphia Chief Medical Examiner Sam Gulino told the jury about an “unprecedented” task. According to the Slobodzian, that task was “Examining bag after bag of frozen fetuses removed from Kermit Gosnell’s West Philadelphia abortion clinic.” Without guidance what to do, Gulino said

“he finally began opening the red and blue plastic bags that were crammed into Gosnell’s freezer and found the remains of 47 aborted fetuses ranging in age from 12 weeks – the end of the first trimester – to late second trimester and beyond the 24-week ceiling under Pennsylvania’s abortion law.

“Some were stored in makeshift containers such as a cut-down plastic distilled water jug or juice container. Other remains, body parts, were stored in cat and dog food containers.”

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.

Planned Parenthood is much in the news lately. And they can’t be happy about it. The trial of House of Horrors abortionist Kermit Gosnell is putting killing babies in a bad light. And then Lila Rose and Live Action released a number of videos showing there’s no real difference between Planned Parenthood and Gosnell. So I’ve put together a list of people I believe Planned Parenthood hates the most. Here they are:

Lila Rose – You can’t overestimate the intensity of hatred that Planned Parenthood feels for Lila Rose. You see, representatives of Planned Parenthood never talk about abortion or babies in public. It’s weird. Planned Parenthood aborts babies. It’s what they do. It’s their job.

Oddly enough they love to talk extensively about things like mammograms which they don’t actually provide and know nothing about. You’d never know from listening to them that 91% of pregnant woman walking into a Planned Parenthood clinic will have an abortion. But Planned Parenthood doesn’t discuss that in public.

They say abortion is like the teeniest tiny part of their day and they give some ridiculous percentage. I guess they include walking and breathing, sharpening their scalpels, calling 911 to put people back together, mopping blood off the floor, and throwing limbs into biohazard bags as not “abortion time” so yeah, abortion’s just a little part of their day. But Live Action keeps going in there undercover with a camera so the world can hear what abortion clinics are really about. Lila can’t really go in anymore because her face has become so well-known in clinics across the country. They have nightmares about her.

Lila Rose and the Live Action posse allow Planned Parenthood employees to reveal themselves in their own horrible words. They’ve exposed Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics so badly that even the New York Times and the Washington Post were recently forced to cover it. I’m not saying they covered her fairly. According to the media the guy who taped Senator Mitch McConnell joking about Ashley Judd was a hero to democracy while Lila Rose is a “terrorist.”

If hate were an Olympic sport, Planned Parenthood would throw javelins at Lila Rose. Lila Rose is like a pro-life Batman with better hair. They go about their everyday business of murder and all of a sudden Batman’s right behind them and they have no idea how he got there. She just doesn’t have the cape.

Marjorie Dannenfelser – If Lila Rose is kind of ninja-esque, Marjorie Dannenfelser of the pro-life SBA List knocks on the front door with a battering ram. They’re both attempting the same thing but Dannenfelser calls ahead.

And not only does Dannenfelser go after Planned Parenthood she goes after those who support them. Congressman Steve Driehaus…oh wait…I mean former congressman Driehaus was targeted by Dannenfelser and the SBA List and he lost his congressional re-election because they told the world that he voted for public funding of abortion – which he did.

He was so stunned by what happened to him that he actually sued the SBA List for telling the truth about him. Seriously.

The SBA List headed by Dannenfelser launched a grassroots campaign and online action center at ExposePlannedParenthood.com and has led the charge to defund the abortion giant. Dannenfelser knows that Planned Parenthood absolutely depends on taxpayer funding. You wouldn’t think suction machines and scissors were all that expensive but they take in an awful lot of taxpayer money. Wisconsin recently defunded Planned Parenthood and they started closing clinics quicker than bookstores. Sheesh, you’d almost think that Planned Parenthood cared more about their bottom line than about women.

Every time Dannenfelser is on television she’s educating people about abortion. She picks off its legislative supporters one by one and it freaks them out. And she calls her shots. At least the ninja makes it quick.

Sidewalk counselors – Nobody irritates Planned Parenthood on a daily basis like sidewalk counselors. Nobody.

While pro-life legislators may be a major long term threat to Planned Parenthood, sidewalk counselors are costing them money every single day. Planned Parenthood hates sidewalk counselors about the same amount that it loves taxpayer funding. And it really loves taxpayer funding.

Sidewalk counselors are the front line of the culture war. But they fight the war using truth and love. They urge women not to go into the clinic. They pray for women and their abortionists. They offer alternatives. Some clinics have closed on days that they know they get bunches of sidewalk counselors just because they’re so effective. In the end, Planned Parenthood loses money when sidewalk counselors show up.

They hate them so much Planned Parenthood attempted to have the government bend the law and file racketeering charges against sidewalk counselors like they were mobsters. You know, because mobsters kill people, make lots of money, and silence opponents by any means possible. Hey, kinda’ like Planned Parenthood.

Former Planned Parenthood workers who are now pro-life. Abby Johnson is the latest abortion clinic worker to become pro-life. Few people witness better against Planned Parenthood than actual witnesses. When Abby Johnson became pro-life, Planned Parenthood tried to get the courts to silence her.

You see, when they kill babies the babies are silenced. They’re not used to opponents that talk back. In fact, Planned Parenthood was so bad at dealing with an opponent who talks back that they stupidly filed a restraining order against Abby. Uhm. Restraining orders are actually when people keep trying to get close. Abby Johnson was trying to leave. What they really wanted was silence.

So far, Johnson has been writing articles, books, and spoke at hundreds of pro-life events. So yeah, Planned Parenthood really hates her.

Lila Rose – I mention her again because they really really hate Lila Rose.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers – Planned Parenthood hates CPC’s and do everything they can to silence them. You see, many CPC’s show women an ultrasound of their unborn child. And that’s not good for business.

They know that if a woman sees a picture of her baby, she’s a lot less inclined to procure an abortion. In many cities, Planned Parenthood has even wrestled legislators into forcing CPC’s to post signs saying they don’t perform abortions. I always think that would be fair if these same legislators forced Planned Parenthood to post signs saying, “We kill babies here.”

You see, Planned Parenthood says they’re all about “choice” but only if that means abortion. They’re not actually for offering alternatives to women. Planned Parenthood hates CPC’s but they don’t really understand them at all because they don’t charge for their services. And they’re probably jealous too because there’s not as much to clean up at the end of the day at a CPC. And there’s the whole thing about CPC workers being able to sleep at night and look at themselves in the mirror.

The Pope – The pope is the head of an institution that is essentially the anti-Planned Parenthood.

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Whereas the Church takes seriously the words of its founder, God, who told us to “be fruitful and multiply,” Planned Parenthood also takes the words of its founder seriously. Margaret Sanger once reportedly said “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Well, both have stayed pretty true to their founder’s vision, huh?

To the Catholic Church, every life is sacred. Margaret Sanger referred to some people as “human weeds.” Make no mistake, Planned Parenthood sees the Catholic Church as the enemy. They’ve even said that the Church’s teachings “deny the pleasurable and positive aspects of sex.” That, of course, is a lie. I’m always amazed that folks can criticize the Church for being anti-sex and then accuse Catholics of having too many children. Do they not see the connection here? But you see, to them there is no connection. It’s been severed. Sex is a game. And the cost of abortion is the ante you must pay to play. Planned Parenthood hates the Church and the Pope, whoever it is at the time.

But while Planned Parenthood’s ire causes many institutions to crumble, the Church doesn’t Komen to the wishes of Planned Parenthood. The Church doesn’t Komen to anyone. You mess with the Pope and the Church you mess with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t lose. We’ve been told that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. Something tells me those gates look a lot like a Planned Parenthood clinic.

The English language – Planned Parenthood and the entire abortion industry hates clarity of language. You see, Planned Parenthood can’t reveal what they actually do so they torture and twist the language to mask their actions. They talk of procedures, extractions, fetuses, and reproductive rights. But what they really mean is “We kill babies for a price.” Clarity is not a friend of Planned Parenthood. They much prefer murk and obfuscation.

Babies – Planned Parenthood hates babies. Wait, I should be more specific. Planned Parenthood hates living babies. Dead babies look like cash registers to them. And they like cash registers. A lot. Every single giggling baby is a testament against what they do. And while they hate babies in general, their particular hatred of black babies knows no bounds. None. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

LifeNews Note: Reprinted with permission from the National Catholic Register.