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You are currently browsing the Pro-Life Hotline blog archives for the year 2011.
Despite the current war on Christmas, with futile efforts like trying to substitute “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas” and the rampant commercialization even in an economic downturn, what it all comes down to is that a baby was born 2,000 years ago, that that baby is mankind’s Savior and only hope for happiness. Period.
Some of us recognize with no shade of doubt that this birth in the central event in history — that Christmas celebrates the birth of mankind’s one and only hope, while for others it is just another day off.
Those who don’t know the purpose of this feast will discover it some day, that everyone from Adam on eventually comes to realize that this birthday determines each person’s eternity — those who celebrate it, those who ignore it, those who hate it, those who mock it — everyone will come to know its meaning.
The coming of Christ to earth is what it is all about, what our lives are all about. How we accept or reject Him is all that really matters in life. There is nothing else that counts. [Continue reading ...]
It’s been said that if someone commits murder, it could very well lead to theft, breaking and entering, cheating at cards, and even fibbing.
So it should come as no surprise when we see stories like this one about Atlanta abortionist Tyrone Malloy:
A metro Atlanta physician and his former office manager have been charged with Medicaid fraud after they billed the government nearly $400,000 for abortion services – which are barred from federal funding – and for ultrasounds not performed, authorities said. …
According to the indictment, between Dec. 9, 2007 and Aug. 9, 2010, the defendants billed the Georgia Medicaid program approximately $131,615 for new patient visits when, in reality, the visits were for elective abortions.
The Georgia Medicaid program is funded jointly by the state and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Under federal law known as the Hyde Amendment, federal funds cannot be used for elective abortion services; nor are abortions covered by Georgia Medicaid, the indictment states.
Malloy and Warner also are charged in the indictment with billing Georgia Medicaid about $255,024 for detailed ultrasounds that actually were never performed during the same period from 2007 through 2010.
When abortion became the law of the land in 1973 with a fiat from the U.S. Supreme Court, the first thing I did was go to the library and look through the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature.
I checked out most of the magazines and secular journals to find what they had been saying about abortion during the past decade or so, and I found that the stories were almost always slanted toward the legalization of abortion.
Coverage of events such as Sherry Finkbine’s highly publicized abortion in 1962 was mostly pro-abortion. Finkbine, hostess of the then popular Romper Room, had taken thalidomide—which could cause fetal defects—and Finkbine feared that she would have a deformed baby.
When her story went public and she was denied an abortion in Phoenix, she went to Sweden for an abortion. The media took her side, and abortion for fetal defect became “reasonable.”
More stories followed and the secular media had set its course.
We could cite hundreds of such stories, always with a pro-abortion slant or outright support. The secular media cheered Roe v. Wade in 1973 and has never steered away from this course.
There were occasional articles pointing out this bias, even by writers in the secular press, but while they were noted, they were mostly ignored. The abortion bias continues to this day.
A recent example appears in a Newsweek article by Nancy Hass. [Continue reading ...]
Carolers outside Albany Medical/Surgical Center abortuary in Chicago [Photo by John Jansen]
The Pro-Life Action League’s 9th annual “Empty Manger” caroling day took place Saturday, December 17 at nine Illinois abortion facilities, four in DuPage County and five in Chicago.
In DuPage, the day began at ACU Health Center in Hinsdale, then proceeded to Aanchor in Glen Ellyn and Access in Downers Grove, and finished at Planned Parenthood in Aurora.
Over 80 pro-lifers took part in at least one of the DuPage caroling sites, with Planned Parenthood drawing the largest crowd of 55.
The Chicago caroling tour began at Family Planning Associates in downtown Chicago, then went on to Near North Planned Parenthood, All Women’s Health, American Women’s Medical Center, and concluded at Albany Medical/Surgical Center.
Over 50 pro-lifers sang carols at one or more of the Chicago sites, with particularly large crowds at both Planned Parenthood and Albany. Among the highlights of the Chicago caroling tour was a banner with the words, “All I want for Christmas…is an end to abortion,” which has been a part of all nine caroling tours dating back to 2003. [Continue reading ...]
The decision earlier this month by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius not to allow girls under 17 to purchase the Plan B contraceptive without a prescription is still a hot topic in the news media.
Today an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times titled “A Look at the Plan B Pill Controversy,” for which the Pro-Life Action League’s Eric Scheidler was interviewed:
“It’s just a matter of common sense,” says Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. “The idea that they could go into a pharmacy and buy these very powerful steroids without talking to [a parent] or a doctor is just completely mad.” Scheidler adds that in cases of minor girls having sex with older men, emergency contraceptives helps the abuser, not the girl.
You can read the article here.
We found out recently about a new campaign called My Abortion, My Life.
Based in Cleveland, they’ve recently placed ads on the city’s buses as part of their effort to start the “long process of” — wait for it — “de-stigmatizing abortion in our society.”
Campaigns like this that set out to normalize abortion are doomed to fail.
Why? Because they’ve always failed. And there’s no reason to believe things won’t be different this time.
Remember the “I Had an Abortion” T-shirts released in 2004?
If you don’t, you’re not alone. Even after a big publicity splash when they were introduced, they were — to the surprise of exactly no one — never very popular. (And, what’s more, the online store that once sold them is no longer accessible.)
Then, two years later, Ms. Magazine tried a similar campaign. It, too, was a flop. As League National Director Joe Scheidler wrote at the time: [Continue reading ...]
Madeline Mann, born at only 26 weeks [Photo by Loyola U Health System]
Both Chicago’s major newspapers, the Tribune and the Sun Times, ran feature stories on Monday, December 12, 2011, about the tiniest babies that survive and thrive.
The smallest and fourth smallest premature babies ever delivered were born and treated at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. Madeline, born in 1989 at 9.9 ounces held the record until Ramaisa stole it in 2004, weighing in a 9.2 ounces.
Both girls are doing extremely well. Madeline is an honor student in college and Ramaisa is an active 7-year-old.
The story of their survival is heartwarming. But for a pro-life activist is it also a dramatic reminder of the humanity of the baby before she is born, and the tragedy of late-term abortion. [Continue reading ...]
Breast cancer awareness and research seems to dominate the news each fall. October is designated as the official breast cancer awareness month, but pink everything—ribbons, shoes, hats, gloves, T-shirts—spills over into the subsequent weeks of Autumn.
Now a new study has been issued by the Institute of Medicine on “Breast Cancer and the Environment: a Life Course Approach.” The interesting thing about this study is that it was expected to come down hard on industrial practices opposed by environmental groups. Instead researchers found that women’s life style choices are the more persistent factor in breast cancer risk.
The study found that substances to which women voluntarily expose themselves are much clearer sources of risk than environmental factors over which they have little or no control. Oral contraceptives made the list, along with cigarettes, alcohol and fattening foods. [Continue reading ...]
Editor’s Note: This article was published as an op ed in USA Today on Friday, December 9
The outrage coming from abortion advocates over Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ decision not to allow girls under 17 to purchase the Plan B contraceptive without a prescription shows just how far out of step they are with most Americans.
But the pro-life movement welcomes Sebelius’ decision, and hopes that HHS will revisit the question of whether Plan B should be available over the counter to anyone.
In rejecting a recommendation from the Food and Drug Administration that younger teens be allowed to buy Plan B over the counter, Sebelius said there are significant cognitive and behavioral differences between older adolescent girls and the youngest girls of reproductive age.
Any parent knows this is true. But this wisdom is lost on the pro-abortion lobby, which is demanding Sebelius reverse her decision, sacrificing girls’ health to their radical ideology. [Continue reading ...]
I wouldn’t exactly call it the highlight of Advent, but today marked the return of an annual experience for me since I signed up for Planned Parenthood’s e-mails a few years back: receiving an e-mail from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards wishing me a Merry Christmas “healthy and safe holiday season.” (See the message in its entirety here.)
Of course, the message was really just a fundraising appeal. It contained three links to their donations page within the message itself, not to mention the big pink “GIVE NOW” button that was impossible to miss. Only one sentence of the e-mail was written in boldface — because, of course, this was the one thing they wanted to focus their members’ attention on, so as to gin up donations:
Opponents of women’s health haven’t given up—day in and day out, they’re attacking Planned Parenthood and every woman’s right to make her own medical decisions.
“Opposing women’s health,” “attacking women’s rights” — same old, same old. We’ve heard it all a thousand times before.
Note also that Richards trotted out the tired old “Choice on Earth” slogan for this year’s Christmas holiday message.
What this tells us is that Planned Parenthood has nothing new to offer.
I have to agree with Richards on at least one point, though. Her opening paragraph reads: [Continue reading ...]
