Born at just 23 weeks, the baby who defied our abortion laws

When Lexie Slater-Folksman was born at 23 weeks - an age at which babies can still be aborted - she weighed just 1lb 8oz.

She was put on a life support machine and her parents were warned their daughter might not pull through.

She was so premature her eyes hadn't even developed properly. At a month old she underwent laser surgery on her eyes and then spent week after week on ventilator machines after she suffered collapsed lungs.

But Lexie defied the odds and gradually gained strength.

Now, six months after her birth, she weighs a healthy 8lb and has finally been allowed home, to the joy and relief of her parents, 20-year-old Sarah Slater and her fiance Richard Folksman, 25.

They say Lexie's case proves that the abortion laws are outdated and should be changed. At 23 weeks, Lexie was born a week before the time limit for termination.

In May MPs voted for the upper time limit for abortions to remain at 24 weeks after rejecting proposals to reduce the limit to as little as 12 weeks.

Anti-abortion campaigners had argued the time limit for termination was too long, saying a baby's rights should be considered at the point it had the 'chance of life'.

It is a stance Miss Slater shares. Speaking at the family home in Wigan, she said: 'We're so glad to have Lexie home with us at last and it just shows how outmoded our laws on abortion are.

'Some mothers-to-be would be able to legally terminate their pregnancy at 23 weeks - yet my Lexie is living proof babies can survive being born so prematurely.

'I never realised a baby would be so well developed at 23 weeks and they do have a chance of life.'

She added: 'I'm so grateful to everyone at the hospital who helped to keep our daughter alive. She's a little fighter and I can't imagine life without her.'

She and her fiance, a roofer, have a two-year-old daughter, Teegan, and they were delighted to discover that Miss Slater was pregnant with their second child in February.

But a week later, she was taken to hospital with severe stomach pains and doctors feared she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy.

The baby was so small it didn't show on a scan. However, hormone tests confirmed she was pregnant.

At 22 weeks, she was taken to hospital again after her waters broke. Doctors attempted to halt the labour amid fears the baby wouldn't survive.

Less than a week later, Miss Slater gave birth to her daughter.

She said: 'Richard was there with me through the whole thing. He's not really one for showing his emotions - but when I went into labour with Lexie, he just cried.

'When she came out they showed me a quick glance of her. She was absolutely tiny.

'They had an incubator all ready for her and took her to the neonatal unit.

'It was scary to see her looking like that, so tiny and surrounded by wires. I couldn't stop crying. Her skin was all red, like she was burnt. Only Richard and I were allowed to touch her. We could put our hands through the side of the incubator at first, then we were allowed to hold her.'

Over the next five months the couple spent countless hours at their daughter's bedside.

'Lexie was obviously very, very ill,' her mother said. 'Her lungs hadn't developed properly and they kept collapsing.'

'She also had surgery early on at five weeks because the back of her eyes hadn't developed. They were glued shut when she was born. When she opened them for the first time, I was so excited and relieved.

'She will probably have to wear glasses when she is older but if that is the only side effect then I'm really not bothered.

'She was in Hope Hospital in Manchester for 15 weeks, and then was in hospital in Wigan. It was such a relief when she got to Wigan - she was closer to all of us.'

Lexie - who was back in time to spend her first Christmas at home - still has an oxygen machine to help her breathe, and will suffer from lung problems for the rest of her life, but she is gaining strength each day.

Mother has healthy baby boy despite abortion warning by doctor

A mother who was twice advised to have an abortion by doctors has gone on to have a 'perfectly' healthy son.

Gaynor Purdy was warned her first child could have a fatal chromosome defect and a life threatening heart condition.

But she rejected two suggestions to terminate the pregnancy and she and her husband Lee are celebrating life with their "perfect" ten-month-old son.

Mrs Purdy, 28, a quality control inspector, said: "We refused to give up on him, and decided throughout the pregnancy that as long as he was fighting, we would continue fighting with him."

The couple from Scunthorpe, Lincs, were delighted when they discovered they had conceived shortly before their first wedding anniversary.

Four months into the pregnancy doctors told them that part of their unborn child's heart was narrow and underdeveloped and would mean open heart surgery if the baby was born.

They were warned the condition could worsen and around Christmas last year, an immediate termination should be considered.

Further tests conducted a few days later on New Year's Eve suggested the baby could also have Edwards Syndrome - the presence of an 18th chromosome - with a life expectancy of only up to four months if birth is survived.

Consultants again recommended the couple consider aborting the baby, fearing he would little to no quality of life once he was born.

For the second time, Mrs Purdy and her husband, a 29 year old forklift driver, declined the suggestion.

Kai was born six weeks premature on March 5 at Scunthorpe General Hospital weighing just 2lb 6oz and immediately admitted to intensive care, but was discharged within six weeks.

One side of his heart was slightly bigger than the other which may need an operation to correct in the future, but regular tests have been showing the condition is constantly improving.

The chromosome disorder, which affects growth, is also being closely monitored and he is due to undergo some corrective cosmetic surgery in the New Year.

Mrs Purdy added: "Doctors told us he was a little miracle baby. They said his heart must have been mending itself.

"Last year we were still on a knife edge thinking things would go wrong. But now he's out of the woods we are delighted that 2009 will be Kai's year."

A spokesman from Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust said they cannot comment on individual cases.

But he added: "Where abnormalities are spotted in the scans, our multi-disciplinary team will always offer prospective families the full facts and options as presented at the time.

"The team will then try to accommodate the prospective parents' wishes in the interests of mother and baby. We wish the family well."

Missouri group refiles initiative to ban using taxes for abortion, human cloning

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/12/22/daily18.html

A Missouri group has submitted an updated application for a ballot initiative that would ban the use of tax dollars for abortion, human cloning or other similar procedures.

Missouri Roundtable for Life seeks a November 2010 vote on a proposed state constitutional amendment saying “it shall be unlawful to expend, pay, or grant any public funds for abortion services, human cloning or prohibited human research.”

The Missouri Secretary of State’s office on Monday rejected the group’s initial filing due to “technicalities in the way it was worded,” Laura Egerdal, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, said Wednesday.

Missouri Roundtable for Life filed new paperwork on Monday.

It could take anywhere from less than two weeks to a month for the state to act on the latest filing, Egerdal said. The timeline depends on another legal review by the Missouri Attorney General’s office.

The ban proposed by Missouri Roundtable for Life would not directly affect research at the Kansas City-based Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which doesn’t rely on tax support.

However, consistent efforts to limit embryonic stem cell research in Missouri have prompted the institute to hold off on local expansion plans.

With strong backing from the institute, Missouri voters two years ago passed a measure — known as Amendment 2 — to protect all forms of stem cell research authorized by federal law. Before the Amendment 2 vote, Stowers Institute officials pledged that if the amendment passed, they would proceed with plans to add 600,000 square feet of local research space every decade in perpetuity.

Planned Parenthood's own bailout... and what you can do to stop it.

What you can do
The old adage attributed to Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing" was never more applicable than it is right now. The only thing you can do wrong is to be quiet.

Here are specific ways in which you can make your voice heard:

1. Sign American Life League's petition to stop Planned Parenthood's agenda at www.stopp.org/agenda.

2. Call your elected officials in Washington, D.C. and tell them what you think of PP's agenda. If you do not know your representative or senator's name or need their phone number, call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121.

3. Visit the local offices of your members of Congress and tell them personally that you do not want them to support any part of PP's agenda.

4. Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers and call in to local, regional and national talk shows to discuss this outrage.

5. Schedule a speaker at your church, civic group or school to inform your community of the threat that PP poses to your community. You can schedule a speaker from American Life League by calling 540-659-4171 and asking for Mike Sedlak.

6. Pray that God will bless the effort to defeat PP.


Obama transition team makes PP's wish list public
In a move that reportedly caught Planned Parenthood by surprise, the Obama transition team is making public all of the input it receives from third-party sources – including a 55-page document put together by PP and two dozen other "reproductive health" organizations.

The document, Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration, spells out PP's wish list for the Obama administration.
The main part of the document will be no surprise to our readers, as we covered most of it in earlier WSRs. PP wants Obama to sign the Freedom of Choice Act and the Prevention First Act. But, just in case these acts don't pass, PP has built many of the items covered by them into this new document and has added a great deal more.

In addition, the document has several sections, which need to be cited so that you can have a fuller understanding of PP's political agenda. We will present those sections in the next few items.


PP wants Obama to "improve access to abortion care"
Planned Parenthood always maintains that it is not "pro-abortion"; it is just "pro-choice." Yet, this document clearly spells out that PP wants the unfettered ability to commit whatever abortions it wants and at taxpayer expense, as far as possible.

Over the last three decades, Congress has passed a number of bills that include restrictions on using taxpayer money to fund abortions. PP, of course, is not happy with this and wants to use as much taxpayer money as possible to kill babies in the womb. In this document, PP specifically wants Obama to strike down all restrictions on abortion funding for the following groups:

• Medicaid-eligible women
• Medicare beneficiaries
• Federal employees and their dependents
• Residents of the District of Columbia
• Peace Corps volunteers
• Native-American women
• Women in federal prisons

In addition, it calls for the elimination of the Weldon Amendment. Eliminating Weldon would allow both federal and state government agencies to refuse to give funds to a doctor or organization if that organization refused to commit or refer for abortions – thus ensuring more money for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.


PP wants Obama to include abortion in normal health care
In addition to removing all restrictions on taxpayer funding of abortions, the document submitted by Planned Parenthood and its friends calls on Obama to seek passage of a comprehensive healthcare reform act.

PP specifically states, "Comprehensive benefits must include access to the full range of reproductive health services, including contraception, maternity care, and abortion care."

This document makes it very clear that PP views abortion as just another medical procedure of no particular significance. It believes providing abortion is providing "care" for the woman and child.

We must remember that PP already runs the nation's largest abortion chain and commits 24 percent of all abortions in the country. Thus, any increase of abortion coverage in health plans would benefit PP more than any other entity in the abortion business.

It is clear that PP's demand that healthcare plans provide "abortion care" would result in the deaths of many more babies and would provide additional millions of dollars of income to Planned Parenthood.


Taxpayers' cost for Planned Parenthood's plan
When reading Planned Parenthood's plan for the Obama administration, we were struck by the massive amounts of money it would take to implement it. Especially in this time of economic hardship, it is particularly galling that PP would seek to further fatten its coffers at the expense of the American public. Using the requested dollar amounts in the document, plus a couple of reasonable estimates by American Life League, it is clear that funding the entire package put together by PP would cost the American taxpayer $4.6 billion – most of it in annual expenditures!

These costs break down as follows:

PP's wish list for the Obama administration:

• Increase funding for the Title X Family Planning Program from $300 million to $700 million.
• Expand coverage of Medicaid-funded family planning services (PP estimates three million more people would be covered). ALL cost estimate – $540 million.
• Increase funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's STD Prevention Program from $157 million to $267 million.
• Increase funding for the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health from $40.2 million to $66.6 million.
• Invest in comprehensive sex education – $50 million.
o Authorize annual funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs. Cost – $20 million.
• Strike budgetary restrictions that block women's access to abortion care. ALL estimates that government would pay for as much as 25 percent of all abortions, at a cost of $120 million.
• Increase funding for the Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant from $666 million to $850 million.
• Restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund – $65 million.
o Give back payments to UNFPA of approximately $50 million.
• Increase spending for international family planning programs from $461 million to $935 million.
• Increase funding for international maternal and child health (MCH) programs from $450 million to $900 million.
• Review policies that restrict access to emergency contraception and eliminate restrictions that, according to PP, lack scientific support.
o Authorize important public education programs to inform women and doctors about EC. Cost - $10 million.
• Increase Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Drug Treatment Programs for Pregnant and Parenting Mothers from $12 million to $70 million.

TOTAL OF ABOVE-NAMED PROGRAMS: $4,644,000,000, THAT IS, $4.6 BILLION


Additional elements in PP's plan
There are many additional elements in this plan, most notably, the following:

• Defund all abstinence-only education programs
• Rescind the global gag rule.
• Restore incentives to provide affordable birth control at college health centers and certain safety net providers.
• Select judicial nominees with a demonstrated commitment to fundamental legal protections and civil liberties, including reproductive rights.
• Give money to groups that do not oppose prostitution

Here is the actual wording from the document on the last item in the above list:

The global AIDS law, as a condition of eligibility for funding, requires recipient organizations to have a policy opposing prostitution. This policy has impeded PEPFAR's ability to work with some of the organizations most trusted by the women who are among the most vulnerable to HIV. Moreover, in August 2008, a federal court found the requirement unconstitutional as applied to U.S.-based organizations. The U.S. Agency for International Development and HHS should revise their guidelines as applied to domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations to comply with the court ruling as well as to allow for the most effective foreign groups to partner with the United States in the fight against AIDS.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the sixteenth century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.

A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.

He was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within it a young Native American maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared.

Eventually the bishop told Juan Diego to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Diego to try to avoid the lady. The lady found Diego, nevertheless, assured him that his uncle would recover and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma.
When Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground and the bishop sank to his knees. On Juan Diego’s tilma appeared an image of Mary as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. It was December 12, 1531.

Mary's appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for Native Americans. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God's preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God's love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.

Mary to Juan Diego: “My dearest son, I am the eternal Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, Author of Life, Creator of all and Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth...and it is my desire that a church be built here in this place for me, where, as your most merciful Mother and that of all your people, I may show my loving clemency and the compassion that I bear to the Indians, and to those who love and seek me...” (from an ancient chronicle).

Saint Juan Diego

December 9, 2008
(1474-1548)

Thousands of people gathered in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe July 31, 2002, for the canonization of Juan Diego, to whom the Blessed Mother appeared in the 16th century. Pope John Paul II celebrated the ceremony at which the poor Indian peasant became the Church’s first saint indigenous to the Americas.

The Holy Father called the new saint “a simple, humble Indian” who accepted Christianity without giving up his identity as an Indian. “In praising the Indian Juan Diego, I want to express to all of you the closeness of the church and the pope, embracing you with love and encouraging you to overcome with hope the difficult times you are going through,” John Paul said. Among the thousands present for the event were members of Mexico’s 64 indigenous groups.

First called Cuauhtlatohuac (“The eagle who speaks”), Juan Diego’s name is forever linked with Our Lady of Guadalupe because it was to him that she first appeared at Tepeyac hill on December 9, 1531. The most famous part of his story is told in connection with the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12). After the roses gathered in his tilma were transformed into the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, however, little more is said about Juan Diego.

In time he lived near the shrine constructed at Tepeyac, revered as a holy, unselfish and compassionate catechist who taught by word and especially by example.
During his 1990 pastoral visit to Mexico, Pope John Paul II confirmed the long-standing liturgical cult in honor of Juan Diego, beatifying him. Twelve years later he was proclaimed a saint.

God counted on Juan Diego to play a humble yet huge role in bringing the Good News to the peoples of Mexico. Overcoming his own fear and the doubts of Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, Juan Diego cooperated with God’s grace in showing his people that the Good News of Jesus is for everyone. Pope John Paul II used the occasion of this beatification to urge Mexican lay men and women to assume their responsibilities for passing on the Good News and witnessing to it.

“Similar to ancient biblical personages who were collective representations of all the people, we could say that Juan Diego represents all the indigenous peoples who accepted the Gospel of Jesus, thanks to the maternal aid of Mary, who is always inseparable from the manifestation of her Son and the spread of the Church, as was her presence among the Apostles on the day of Pentecost” (Pope John Paul II, beatification homily).

Pennies add up to abortion message: Church fills glass house with symbolic protest

JACKSON -- There's a half million dollars sitting on the corner of Mississippi and President streets in Jackson, but no one could possibly steal it.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/dec/07/pennies-add-up-to-abortion-message/
That's because the cash is in the form of pennies -- 50 million of them -- that collectively weigh 156 tons.

The coins, which fill a glass house outside of the Mississippi Baptist Convention building, provide a visual reminder of the number of abortions performed in the United States since the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973.

"We just needed something to memorialize and help people see the magnitude of abortion over the last several decades," said Rev. Jimmy Porter, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention's Christian Action Commission.

Called the "Memorial to the Missing," the penny-filled structure is a project of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, which set out more than two years ago to collect one penny for each child who would have been born were it not for legal abortion.

Now that the convention reached its goal of collecting 50 million pennies, it plans to invest the money in a fund dedicated to anti-abortion causes.

"I think it's been real effective," said Rev. Clarence Cooper, who was president of the convention when the memorial was erected on Mother's Day weekend in 2006, "especially to those who have taken the time to read the large plaque that is there."

The plaque says the coins not only represent aborted babies but "the difficult process of decision-making, fear and loneliness" involved with abortion. It asks passersby to "stop, pray, consider what we are doing as a nation, ask God to forgive us, seek ways to help those who are struggling with the decision and look to the Lord to restore each of us."

Convention spokesman William Perkins said people often stop at the container to pray and insert their own coins into the structure's penny slot.

"There are a number of stories we've heard about grandparents who walk by and saw it and read the plaque and dug in their pockets and put pennies in the memorial for grandchildren who have been aborted," he said. "It's been an interesting couple of years."

Meanwhile, continued contributions can be made to the Mississippi Baptist Christian Action Commission.

Removing the pennies from the container will be no easy feat.

"It will be interesting to see how that's done," Perkins said. "There's no clear-cut way to do that."

The coins are piled 6 feet deep in the 13-by-7 glass house. The structure weighs more than 300,000 pounds, or the equivalent of 100 sedans stacked on top of each other.

The container is made of steel and bulletproof glass and is reinforced by five concrete pilings buried 14 feet into the ground. The first batch of 20 million pennies were poured into the container when the memorial was dedicated in 2006.

Members of the state's 2,100 Mississippi Baptist Convention-affiliated churches contributed most of the coins that fill the glass house.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century. It came to the West in the eighth century. In the eleventh century it received its present name, the Immaculate Conception. In the eighteenth century it became a feast of the universal Church.

In 1854 Pius IX gave the infallible statement: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

It took a long time for this doctrine to develop. While many Fathers and Doctors of the Church considered Mary the greatest and holiest of the saints, they often had difficulty in seeing Mary as sinless—either at her conception or throughout her life. This is one of the Church teachings that arose more from the piety of the faithful than from the insights of brilliant theologians. Even such champions of Mary as Bernard and Thomas Aquinas could not see theological justification for this teaching.

Two Franciscans, William of Ware and Blessed John Duns Scotus, helped develop the theology. They point out that Mary’s Immaculate Conception enhances Jesus’ redemptive work. Other members of the human race are cleansed from original sin after birth. In Mary, Jesus’ work was so powerful as to prevent original sin at the outset.

In Luke 1:28 the angel Gabriel, speaking on God’s behalf, addresses Mary as “full of grace” (or “highly favored”). In that context this phrase means that Mary is receiving all the special divine help necessary for the task ahead. However, the Church grows in understanding with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit led the Church, especially non-theologians, to the insight that Mary had to be the most perfect work of God next to the Incarnation. Or rather, Mary’s intimate association with the Incarnation called for the special involvement of God in Mary’s whole life. The logic of piety helped God’s people to believe that Mary was full of grace and free of sin from the first moment of her existence. Moreover, this great privilege of Mary is the highlight of all that God has done in Jesus. Rightly understood, the incomparable holiness of Mary shows forth the incomparable goodness of God.

“[Mary] gave to the world the Life that renews all things, and she was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.
“It is no wonder, then, that the usage prevailed among the holy Fathers whereby they called the mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, fashioned by the Holy Spirit into a kind of new substance and new creature. Adorned from the first instant of her conception with the splendors of an entirely unique holiness, the Virgin of Nazareth is, on God’s command, greeted by an angel messenger as ‘full of grace’ (cf. Luke 1:28). To the heavenly messenger she replies: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38)” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 56).

Happy Saint Nichoas Day!

December 6, 2008
St. Nicholas
(d. 350?)

The absence of the “hard facts” of history is not necessarily an obstacle to the popularity of saints, as the devotion to St. Nicholas shows. Both the Eastern and Western Churches honor him, and it is claimed that, after the Blessed Virgin, he is the saint most pictured by Christian artists. And yet, historically, we can pinpoint only the fact that Nicholas was the fourth-century bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor.
As with many of the saints, however, we are able to capture the relationship which Nicholas had with God through the admiration which Christians have had for him—an admiration expressed in the colorful stories which have been told and retold through the centuries.
Perhaps the best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters of marriageable age. Rather than see them forced into prostitution, Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man’s window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on the saint’s feast. In the English-speaking countries, St. Nicholas became, by a twist of the tongue, Santa Claus—further expanding the example of generosity portrayed by this holy bishop.

Comment:
The critical eye of modern history makes us take a deeper look at the legends surrounding St. Nicholas. But perhaps we can utilize the lesson taught by his legendary charity, look deeper at our approach to material goods in the Christmas season and seek ways to extend our sharing to those in real need.

Quote:
“In order to be able to consult more suitably the welfare of the faithful according to the condition of each one, a bishop should strive to become duly acquainted with their needs in the social circumstances in which they live.... He should manifest his concern for all, no matter what their age, condition, or nationality, be they natives, strangers, or foreigners” (Decree on the Bishops' Pastoral Office, 16).

Komen Affiliate in California Gives Grant to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 30, 2008

Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A Susan G. Komen Foundation affiliate in California is the latest to send hundreds of thousands of dollars to the nation's largest abortion business. The money is going to Planned Parenthood even though research confirms abortion increases a woman's risk of contracting breast cancer.

The Orange County affiliate of Komen for the Cure is giving more than $1.3 million to several groups, including Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties.

In a statement LifeNews.com obtained, Lisa Wolter, the director of the local Komen affiliate, said community organizations like Planned Parenthood "are essential in helping us address the health needs of women in our community."

Although Planned Parenthood has received a grant, no pregnancy centers, which provide women with abortion alternatives, are listed in Wolter's statement as receiving funds from the grants.

The Orange County Komen group has planned an awards breakfast for Friday morning to announce the grant, which is one of many that has gone from Komen affiliates nationwide to the abortion business.

A Planned Parenthood watchdog group released information in August showing chapters of the Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer group gave affiliates of the national abortion business over $700,000 last fiscal year.

Figures from STOPP International show Komen chapters giving $711,485 from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 to Planned Parenthood affiliates.

The Orange County grant could easily increase that number as only six groups are listed on its statement as splitting the $1.3 million.

The amount of the grants from Komen affiliates to Planned Parenthood appears to be on the rise and 25 Komen affiliates now have a partnership with the abortion business.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure spokeswoman Rebecca Gibson previously confirmed that 19 of the 122 Komen affiliates made grants totaling $374,253 to Planned Parenthood during the 2005-2006 fiscal year.

Komen officials have dismissed the grants saying they are for breast cancer screenings, but pro-life advocates say the money is fungible and that it frees up funds Planned Parenthood could use for breast screenings but instead uses on abortions.

The Komen grants to Planned Parenthood prompted medical research analyst and Hispanic outreach director Eve Sanchez Silver to resign from her leadership position within Komen.

Silver eventually had a meeting with Komen officials about their grants and abortion's link with breast cancer.

"SGK officials did not appear to have knowledge of simple breast facts," Silver said in a statement LifeNews.com received.

Silver explained that the breast is an organ that is not mature at birth and SGK officials appeared to be surprised to learn that the breast does not become fully mature until after 32 weeks of pregnancy.

As a result of that state of development, interruption of pregnancy via an abortion before 32 weeks leaves breast cells exposed to estrogen, which is highly carcinogenic.

She indicated the Komen representatives also appeared to be "more concerned about assisting women after they had contracted breast cancer, than informing them to avoid breast cancer risk by avoiding abortions and having [an] early, full term pregnancy."

"This is an appalling lack of concern for the women the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is supposed to be helping," Silver added.

There are 17 statistically significant studies that show a link between abortion and breast cancer, 8 of which were conducted in the United States.

ACTION: Send your complaints to the Orange County Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure by going to this web site. You can also contact Erin Touslee at etouslee@komenoc.org or 714.957.9157 ext. 25.

Related web site:
Eve Sanchez Silver - http://stopabortionbreastcancer.org
National Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer - http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com

Planned Parenthood once again covers up rape of 13 year old

Planned Parenthood of Indiana has caused quite a bit of controversy recently with the release of its “Death Certificates,” but it hasn’t stopped there. Just as we were getting ready to send this week’s Wednesday STOPP report, ALL received news of this horrific video of a PPIN worker convincing a 13-year-old girl to cover up the fact that she had become pregnant after having intercourse with a 31-year-old man. “The video is simply disgusting,” commented STOPP researcher Patrick Daub. “In it you see an older woman, the PP nurse, instructing a 13-year-old girl to break the law. And this is supposed to be an organization that cares?”

This video is just further proof of the fact that PP is willing to go to whatever lengths it takes, including breaking the law, to ensure that it continues to bring in more money and push its “reproductive health” agenda on everyone it can.

Obama selects ex-PP board member for key political position

President-elect Obama has been a longtime supporter of Planned Parenthood and its policies. This became even more evident when Obama selected an ex PP board member to join his staff in D.C. Obama chose Melody Barnes, a staunch PP supporter who has lobbied for the American Civil Liberties Union and served on the boards of EMILY’s List, a pro-abortion organization that is dedicated to funding pro-abortion candidates, and PP’s political arm, Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Ms. Barnes has made it clear that she is a proponent of Obama’s comprehensive sexual education plan, “More condoms are needed to fight AIDS, and the Bush administration is to blame for the fact that more blacks have AIDS than whites.” However, what Ms. Barnes fails to recognize is that the very same organization she has devoted so much time to is murdering African Americans by the thousands every year. Its founder, Margaret Sanger, was a well-known eugenics supporter and openly racist advocate for genocide of the African American community. Please pray for the conversion of Mr. Obama and Ms. Barnes, that they see what is going on around them and wake up to the fact that Planned Parenthood is working so hard to kill off their race.

Gift certificates for PLANNED PARENTHOOD

First time ever for the promotion
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/strange/offbeat_wish_Gift_certificates_for_Planned_Parenthood2107729

Leslie Olsen
Edited by Hyacinth Williams
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Gift certificates have become a popular holiday gift option, but a controversial new one, already has people talking.

For the first time, Planned Parenthood in Indiana is offering gift certificates. The organization said a big increase in calls and visits from newly unemployed and uninsured Hoosiers prompted what it calls the unusual, yet practical gift option.

"People are making really tough decisions about putting gas in their car and food on their table, so we know that many women especially put healthcare at the bottom of their list to do," said Chrystal Struben-Hall, Vice President of Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

The certificates come in $25 increments. They can be used for everything from birth control to $58 examinations that include breast exams and pap tests. Men who receive healthcare at Planned Parenthood can use them too.

"They can be seen for sexually transmitted disease screenings, HIV tests and general prostate exams and those kinds of things," said Struben-Hall.

Some Hoosiers 24-Hour News 8 talked to asked if the gift certificates could be used towards abortions. The answer is yes. But, Planned Parenthood said that's not the purpose of the gift certificates.

Struben-Hall said, "They really are intended for preventative healthcare. We decided not to put restrictions on the gift certificates so it's for whatever people feel they need the services for most."

Indiana Family Institute President Curt Smith said he is appalled by the certificates.

"I think the way to help family planning is to give the money where there's no agenda. So if somebody wants to help a woman at a time of crisis, they can support the life centers throughout Indiana," said Smith.

Planned Parenthood hopes philanthropists look at it differently. The organization hopes people might purchase the certificates, and then turn them back in for their patients who need reproductive healthcare, but can't pay for it.

Look out MTV, Here Come Pro-Life Ads which Have Been Shown to Decrease Abortion Numbers

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112405.html
By John-Henry Westen

ROSWELL, GA, November 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life television commercials with a proven track record of substantially lowering abortion rates are set to air on MTV beginning the day after Christmas.

With more than 98% of US homes having televisions, and the average American spending over 5 hours every day consuming media, it is easy to see how VirtueMedia can reach millions of people each day using powerful broadcast commercials to positively affect culture.

Four U.S. regions with significant abortion-vulnerable populations recently reported a decrease in abortions in response to the airing of VirtueMedia's educational pro-life ads, partnered with other effective pro-life efforts.

- Abortion rates have dropped nearly 20% in Arizona (2004 vs. 2007). Since 2005, VirtueMedia began to air pro-life television ads year-round, in collaboration with the Diocese of Phoenix.
- Abortion rates decreased 12% in Montgomery County, OH (Dayton) since 2006, when VirtueMedia ads began airing in partnership with Dayton Right to Life.
- Since opening a second office in Georgia and beginning to air crisis pregnancy ads in Atlanta in 2005, abortion rates have declined nearly 10% in metro Atlanta. In just one month, VirtueMedia ads in Atlanta generated 2,646 calls for help from abortion vulnerable women. In contrast, abortion rates have increased in other areas of Georgia, where pro-life TV ads did not air.
- In Charlotte, abortions have declined 15% in the past year, since VirtueMedia commercials began airing in collaboration with North Carolina Right to Life and local churches. Abortions increased in other counties in North Carolina, where VirtueMedia ads did not air.

VirtueMedia, Inc., a 501C3 national non profit media organization founded in 1998 by Tom Peterson, is endorsed by the Vatican, Priests for Life, Focus on the Family, Silent No More, and many other organizations. The organization's TV and radio ads are licensed to pro-life groups and are available in both English and Spanish.

VirtueMedia's TV portfolio contains a number of messages utilized for sanctity of life education, crisis pregnancy outreach, post abortion-healing, as well as legislative issues such as embryonic stem cell experimentation and informed consent. Crisis pregnancy ads will air nationwide on MTV and BET beginning December 26th.

View the ads online here:
http://www.virtuemedia.org/television.htm

Amazing Video Exposing Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood

American Life League has put together a great video exposing Margaret Sanger and her eugenic teachings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEja-1emRic

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Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro

November 23, 2008
Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro
(1891-1927)

¡Viva Cristo Rey! (Long live Christ the King) were the last words Father Pro uttered before he was executed for being a Catholic priest and serving his flock.
Born into a prosperous, devout family in Guadalupe de Zacatecas, he entered the Jesuits in 1911 but three years later fled to Granada, Spain, because of religious persecution in Mexico. He was ordained in Belgium in 1925.

He immediately returned to Mexico, where he served a Church forced to go “underground.” He celebrated the Eucharist clandestinely and ministered the other sacraments to small groups of Catholics.

He and his brother Roberto were arrested on trumped-up charges of attempting to assassinate Mexico’s president. Roberto was spared but Miguel was sentenced to face a firing squad on November 23, 1927. His funeral became a public demonstration of faith. He was beatified in 1988.

In 1927 when Father Miguel Pro was executed, no one could have predicted that 52 years later the bishop of Rome would visit Mexico, be welcomed by its president and celebrate open-air Masses before thousands of people. Pope John Paul II made additional trips to Mexico in 1990, 1993 and 1999. Those who outlawed the Catholic Church in Mexico did not count on the deeply rooted faith of its people and the willingness of many of them, like Miguel Pro, to die as martyrs.

During his homily at the beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II said that Father Pro “is a new glory for the beloved Mexican nation, as well as for the Society of Jesus. His life of sacrificing and intrepid apostolate was always inspired by a tireless evangelizing effort. Neither suffering nor serious illness, neither the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away (see John 16:22). Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.”

CATHOLICISM VS. 'OBAMAISM'

CATHOLICISM VS. 'OBAMAISM'
By Judie Brown
When the Catholic University of America's Tower reported that during a recent address at the university, His Eminence James Francis Cardinal Stafford criticized President-elect Barack Obama as "aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic" and said he campaigned on an "extremist anti-life platform," I can only imagine the cheers that must have risen from the hall. The Tower continued,
"Because man is a sacred element of secular life," Stafford remarked, "man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person's life cannot ultimately be controlled by government."

"For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden," Stafford said, comparing America's future with Obama as president to Jesus' agony in the garden. "On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake."

Cardinal Stafford said Catholics must deal with the "hot, angry tears of betrayal' by beginning a new sentiment where one is 'with Jesus, sick because of love.'"
These inspired sentiments from such a beloved prelate should have been received with echoes of agreement, not only by the USCCB but the entire Church and pro-life movement. After all, this American cardinal is currently the major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary for the Tribunal of the Holy See and has staunchly defended Catholic teaching for years.

Well, I haven't heard much from my fellow pro-lifers, but I have seen the vitriol that has spewed forth from CNN.
On Tuesday's Situation Room, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer referred to a Catholic cardinal's criticism of Barack Obama's abortion position as a "scathing rant" and a "diatribe." A CNN graphic also used the "scathing rant" term, and Blitzer later referred to the cardinal's words as a "blistering rant."
As the Media Resource Center's Matthew Balan reported,
At the end of the segment, Blitzer misrepresented the Catholic Church's stances on various issues. He stated that the Church and Obama "do agree on some hot button issues, including opposition to the war in Iraq, greater access to health care, and more equitable tax codes," as a CNN graphic referred to the health care issues as "universal health care." On the last two issues, this is an oversimplification. Paragraph 2211 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the "political community's" duty to "honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure," among other things, "the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate" and "in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits." The same Catechism, which lists the official teachings of the Catholic Church, says nothing of "more equitable tax codes." It only states how it is "morally obligatory to pay taxes" (paragraph 2240) and that tax evasion is "morally illicit" (paragraph 2409).

On the other hand, Blitzer did correctly state that Obama and the Church "strongly disagree on embryonic stem cell research; abortion rights...and civil unions for gay couples, all of which Obama supports -- the Catholic Church opposes."
One can surmise from the above that there is more to this bashing of Cardinal Stafford than meets the eye. After all, the cardinal was not screaming, and he did make every effort to make sure his comments were understood in the proper context. But as we might have guessed, CNN is not going to attempt, even for the sake of appearances, to be objective about the president-elect.

Further, they can rely on many Catholic dissidents and alleged pro-lifers to shore up their inference that saying anything negative about Obama is always a very bad thing indeed. As the Catholic News Agency reports,
The pro-lifers reaching out to abortion rights supporters argue that legal challenges to permissive abortion laws will not be successful, especially following Barack Obama's election to the presidency, the Washington Post reports…

The coalition of pro-lifers seeking policy change rather than legal change includes Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals; Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good; Catholics United, described as a progressive Catholic lay group; Sojourners, a progressive evangelical organization; and RealAbortionSolutions.org, a coalition of Catholics and evangelical leaders.

Rev. Thomas Reese, S.J., from Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, has also allied himself with the effort, even though he has resigned himself to only commenting on politics in the past.

So too has Nicholas Cafardi, a former dean of the Duquesne University School of Law and a Catholic canon lawyer. He resigned from the board of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio after writing a column supporting Obama and declaring the abortion battle lost, the Washington Post says.
My, what a tragic web is being woven – a labyrinth of half-truths designed to further entangle the American public into believing the media myth that when a Catholic prelate speaks out in defense of truth, it is always a bad thing for America. I can actually see a time when the hierarchy might, by law perhaps, be silenced similarly to the way the administrator of the Charleston, South Carolina diocese has silenced Father Jay Scott Newman.

The fullness of truth could even come to be regarded as the enemy of the common good. Who is to say where all this might lead, with the media in charge of preaching and teaching Catholic dogma to the not so faithful?

Now is the time for courageous leadership, unapologetic declarations of truth and much more honesty, such as that courageously displayed by Cardinal Stafford at the Catholic University of America.

We need to hear from the bishops, now more than ever. We should expect them to provide us with clarifications on anti-life measures such as the Freedom of Choice Act and the Prevention First Act. These bills would lead to more social chaos than anyone can imagine. It is tragic enough that abortion is ever committed, but to become a signed, sealed and delivered government program would be anathema to the future of this once-great nation.

Father Frank Pavone has written, "It is the role of bishops to herald the Gospel of Life by their preaching, teaching, and stirring into flame the gifts of God in the hearts of the laity."

Let us hope that the flame ignited by Cardinal Stafford, with his stirring comments, will be carried forth and burn intensely from every pulpit in the United States, Catholic and otherwise. The time is now!

Judie Brown is president of American Life League and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Wife: I'm "a Catholic in Good Standing" But Also Pro-abortion and Pro-Homosexual

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112007.html
By Kathleen Gilbert

LONG BEACH, California, November 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – California’s first lady, Maria Shriver, recently told Sally Quinn of the Washington Post that she considers herself "a Catholic in good standing" despite the fact that she openly advocates abortion.

"I find I don't spend a lot of time trying to square my own daily life with the institutional Church," said Shriver. "I pick and choose."

Shriver called herself a "cafeteria Catholic," a term that is most often used in a derogatory manner, referring to individuals who only selectively submit to Church teaching and authority while still calling themselves Catholic.

On the disparity between Church teaching and her belief on abortion, Shriver told Quinn, "I often talk to my daughters at the dinner table about the difference between being pro-abortion and being pro-choice." She explained that she believes supporting the right to choose an abortion is different from supporting abortion.

Shriver also pointed out her disagreement with the Church on the issue of homosexuality. She said she does not believe that "people who are gay shouldn't be accepted into the church." However, while the Catholic Church teaches that all sexual activity outside of marriage, including homosexual activity, is sinful, there is no prohibition against people with homosexual inclinations being welcomed into the Church. The Church strongly recommends loving acceptance of such persons and spiritual direction and other assistance to help them live celebate, faithful Catholic lives.


The office of Cardinal Mahoney, Shriver's bishop, did not respond to repeated calls from LifeSiteNews.com yestereday and today up to press time.

Both Shriver and her husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, claim a Catholic identity despite public disavowal of Church teaching on the sanctity of life.

"I always said that you should not have your religion interfere with government policies or with the policies of the people," Schwarzenegger said at a Toronto press conference last year, as he advocated research on human embryos.

"I am a Catholic and a very dedicated Catholic, but that does not interfere with my decision-making because I know that stem-cell research, the way we are doing it in California ... is the right way to go," he said as quoted by the Toronto Star.

More recently, Gov. Schwarzenegger put aside his professed faith when he publicly joined homosexualists in the fight against Proposition 8, California's amendment protecting legal marriage as between a man and a woman.

Obama Selecting the Most Anti-Life, Anti-Family Radicals He Can Find for Administration

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112009.html

President-elect unveils plans to dismantle federal legal protection for marriage

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In light of further actual and rumored appointments, Obama's future presidential administration is steadily emerging as a regime ominously packed with Obama insiders who promise to help roll out the carpet for the President-elect's radical anti-life and anti-family agenda.

Media outlets recently named Arizona governor Janet Napolitano as Obama's probable choice for secretary of Homeland Security.

An early Obama supporter and campaigner, Napolitano firmly established herself as an extreme abortion supporter by vetoing the partial birth abortion ban, and in one month she vetoed four anti-abortion bills. In 2005 NARAL warmly praised the governor for vetoing a bill that would have allowed Arizona pharmacies not to distribute the abortifacient morning-after pill due to a moral or religious objection.

Tom Dashcle has recently been named as the likely candidate for the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), an appointment Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council said gives pro-lifers a "frightening glimpse" into the new Cabinet.

The former Democratic Senate majority leader gained notoriety for his liberal views on abortion when he opposed the partial-birth abortion ban, endorsed taxpayer-funded military abortions, and supported taxpayer funding to provide morning-after pills to young public school girls. Perkins also lamented that Daschle, a man with no experience in public health, is on track to become the ultimate authority on federal health issues.

One of the national co-chairs for Obama's presidential campaign, Daschle warmed early on to Obama and in 2007 gushed that the Illinois senator "personifies the future of Democratic leadership in our country."

Another likely future HHS member is Dr. Robin Alta Charo, a highly liberal professor of law and bioethics and former member of Clinton's Bioethics Advisory Commission, who was appointed to Obama's transition team Friday. Charo had been a member of Obama's pre-election team, where she managed science and health policy matters.

Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith took Charo's appointment as a further sign that the Obama administration "is going to push full speed ahead" with destructive embryonic stem-cell research. Charo once called Smith, who is a prominent pro-life advocate in the world of bioethics, a leader of "the endarkenment."

"We are entering very dark days," said Smith on the appointment.

Pro-abortion juggernaut Sen. Hillary Clinton, whose liberal views on just about every possible social issue are no secret, has also emerged as Obama's favored choice for Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama is quickly establishing his public solidarity with the homosexual movement.

Obama recently laid out on his website a "civil rights agenda" that includes, to the satisfaction of homosexual lobbyists, the dismantling of legal protections for marriage. He intends to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the act that protects natural marriage that is currently enshrined in federal law, and accordingly opposes a federal Constitutional amendment to protect marriage.

Obama has also promised to expand "hate crime" enforcement and legislation by enacting the Matthew Shepard Act, which would allow a perceived bias against homosexuality to be prosecuted. Obama will also enforce non-discrimination in businesses regarding homosexuality, which could force business owners to hire a certain quota of homosexuals.

Finally, Obama's website confirms that the president-elect will push to open adoption to homosexual couples, and make military service more available to homosexuals.

According to gay news outlets, officials in the president-elect's transition team have so far assigned 7 openly homosexual individuals to transition review panels, 3 of which were high-ranking Clinton administration officials. Reports also say Obama is considering deputy campaign strategist and open homosexual Steve Hildebrand as the next Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, replacing Howard Dean.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Obama Solidifies Pro-Abortion Agenda with "Attack Dog" Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08110605.html

ABC 20/20 Report Says Matthew Shepard Killed During Robbery Not Anti-Gay Hate Crime
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04111208.html

CWA Claims Fake “Hate Crimes” Being Used to Force Legislation through Congress
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07041107.html

10-year-old's abortion is center of Tiller hearing

http://www.kansas.com/news/story/603723.html

BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

A 10-year-old girl who received an abortion became the center of a Kansas attorney general's argument to obtain patient records from a Wichita clinic.

Here was a possible child-rape victim, officers for then-Attorney General Phill Kline told a Topeka judge in 2006 -- and a crime that abortion provider George Tiller didn't report, as required by law.

They wanted to find out whether Tiller hadn't reported other crimes, and they needed his records to do that.

But their claims about Tiller weren't true, his attorneys argued Wednesday in Wichita.

Tiller's lawyers are in Sedgwick County District Court this week arguing that 19 misdemeanor charges he faces should be dismissed. They contend the charges are based on evidence obtained by Kline and his officers through false pretenses and abuses of power.

The hearing is also making public for the first time details of a secret investigation conducted for three years by the state's top prosecutor against Kansas abortion providers.

The case of the 10-year-old girl who received a late-term abortion has become the center of Tiller's defense team's argument.

Documents produced by lawyer Dan Monnat showed:

The girl came with her mother from another state, carrying a letter from their local prosecutor's office. The letter said the girl needed "an immediate medical procedure that (could) only be done" at Tiller's Women's Health Care Services clinic.

The relative who raped her had already been charged.

Prosecutor Steve Maxwell and investigator Tom Williams would repeat the story of the girl's abortion, and Tiller's supposed failure to report it, to Shawnee County Judge Richard Anderson, court transcripts showed. But that was more than a year after they learned of the prosecution in the girl's home state.

Another document indicated Tiller had reported the girl's abortion to Kansas Child Protective Services. But Williams said that wasn't clear to him at the time.

"There was never any intentional misrepresentations made in this case," Williams testified. "It was very straightforward."

Williams also said that in more than two decades of work in law enforcement, he'd never been involved in an investigation that faced such legal scrutiny -- until he started asking for abortion records.

"Not even federal wiretaps," Williams told Assistant Attorney General Barry Disney on cross-examination. Williams had formerly worked for the U.S. Treasury Department.

Battle over records

The records request started a court battle that lasted a year and went all the way to the Kansas Supreme Court.

As the Supreme Court contemplated whether Kline should receive patient records, his top administrator appealed to other states.

Eric Rucker, Kline's chief of staff, testified that he wrote an e-mail to Ed Zielinski, general counsel for Texas-based anti-abortion group Life Dynamics, seeking help to get other attorneys general to request Kansas abortion records.

Rucker reasoned that if other states asked for the records, it would help influence Kansas' highest court.

Kline's office did get the records, weeks before he lost a re-election bid to Paul Morrison in 2006.

That December, before leaving office, Kline tried to file charges against Tiller in Sedgwick County. But a judge here dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds.

Johnson County Republicans appointed Kline to fill the district attorney's post vacated by Morrison.

Rucker testified that Kline then instructed him to have Williams and investigator Jared Reed move the abortion records out of the attorney general's office to his new office in Johnson County.

The way the investigation had been going made Reed nervous, however.

He testified Wednesday that rumors in Kline's new office indicated Morrison would investigate the abortion case for possible wrongdoing. Reed went to the new attorney general and offered to talk if he was offered immunity from prosecution.

"My personal opinion was they were willing to do whatever it takes to get a conviction against an abortion provider," Reed testified of his former colleagues, "up to and including breaking the law."

Maxwell is expected to testify today before Judge Clark Owens. Morrison, who filed the present charges before resigning amid a sex scandal, is also expected to take the stand.

Kline will get a chance to answer accusations over how he handled the investigations when he returns to court next week.

“Scheme to cover up a fraud”

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=e9f8ba3c-2f62-48ff-bb21-073f9774e149


At 5:38 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 26, 2004, Mark Salo, then chief executive of Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, sent a panicked email to his colleagues at Planned Parenthood’s eight other California affiliates. The email contained a dire warning – and hinted at the need for a possible cover-up. The state Department of Health Services had begun an audit in San Diego, with similar audits planned at every other affiliate. The results, said Salo, “could kill many of us.”

The problem? For years, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and other affiliates elsewhere in the state had been over-billing the government by millions of dollars for contraceptives purchased at deep discounts – a policy specifically prohibited by state and federal regulations governing the program, called FPACT – “Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment.” Rules for the program, jointly funded with state and federal funds, specifically required that providers of services under the program be reimbursed only for the cost of acquiring the contraceptives, but Planned Parenthood had been billing far in excess of cost, in some instances more than 20 times what they paid.

In an email the same day to executives of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, PPLA vice president Martha Swiller had just three words in response: “This is bad.”

On Oct. 30, ruling in a federal whistleblower’s suit brought in the overbilling case, U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz took note of what was implied in Salo’s email: “Although the Planned Parenthood affiliates are incorporated as independent entities, each affiliate had interests identical to those of the San Diego-Riverside affiliate that were threatened by the DHS audit. The very purpose of the e-mail was to alert other Planned Parenthood affiliates to the common threat that they all faced and to initiate a coordinated response. The e-mail even alluded to the protection of internal information concerning the alleged fraud, ‘invoices for our oral contraceptives purchases,’ pending consultation with legal counsel.”

The whistleblower’s suit was filed by Victor Gonzalez, who served as chief financial officer at Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles from December 2002 to March 2004, when he says he was fired for warning his superiors of the illegal overbilling. Named in the suit, filed under the federal False Claims Act, were all nine Planned Parenthood affiliates in California, along with the organization’s political lobbying arm in Sacramento known as Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California (PPAC), its president, Kathy Kneer, and Mary Jane Wagle, chief executive officer of PPLA, and Swiller.

Although Judge Matz ruled against Gonzalez, finding that he did not qualify as a whistleblower under federal law because he was not the “original source” of bringing the alleged wrongdoing to light, his ruling contained references to emails by various players in the alleged fraudulent overbilling, PPAC’s Kneer in particular. The emails reveal how Kneer plotted a strategy, with the help of state Secretary of Health and Human Services Kim Belshé, to keep the billing controversy out of the public eye, halt the audits in their tracks and change the law to allow Planned Parenthood to legally bill over cost – even though it was the federal government paying the lion’s share of the excess charges. Belshé, a longtime bureaucrat in state health agencies dating back to the administration of Gov. Pete Wilson, was named to her current post by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in November 2003, just months before Salo sent out his email alarm over the DHS audits.

In that email, Salo said he had contacted Lily Spitz, Planned Parenthood’s lawyer in Sacramento, who then contacted Kneer. The judge makes mention of a Feb. 5, 2004 email from Kneer to the executives of all Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state in which Kneer wrote, “I want to reiterate that Kim (Belshé) is willing to discuss the policy implications of requiring clinics to bill the acquisition cost -- however, she did state that DHS legal office has advised her that the law requires us to bill at acquisition cost… We have asked each affiliate to provide our office with information about your affiliate's billing practice for nominal and 340B priced contraceptive methods. I will assure you that this information will not be used publicly except in a state aggregate and to assure we are accurately reflecting the depth of the impact and to insure we are fully covering ourselves with any statute change... At this time we are asking that no further public action be taken -- quietly resolving this as a policy issue within the administration is the best strategy at this time.”

Said Judge Matz of the Kneer email, “…the Planned Parenthood CEOs who received the e-mail had ‘a strong economic incentive to protect the information from outsiders, [so] revelation of information to [them] does not trigger the potential for corrective action presented by other forms of disclosure…’ Indeed, instead of triggering corrective action, the e-mail alert set off a coordinated defense against the audit under the leadership of PPAC, the affiliates’ political action committee in Sacramento.”

In the meantime, on Feb. 16, 2004, Gonzalez, then chief financial officer at Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, sent an email to Wagle and Swiller, his bosses. He expressed concern about the over-billing and recommended that other attorneys review the matter. Gonzalez had been asked to assess the impact of over-billing at PPLA, and concluded that the Los Angeles affiliate alone was overcharging by $2 million per year. “The issue that has the largest impact for the Agency is the DHS audit started mid-January 2004,” wrote Gonzalez. “The audit focused on the markup for the Medications being sold and dispensed. Our supply contracts enable us deep discounts, and therefore the markups constitute not only a significant Revenue item, but virtually the only reason PPLA has been able to stay in business. This applies to all affiliates conducting business the same way PPLA does… I would also add that PPAC obviously did not handle this issue well and as a result left the entire system exposed.” On March 9, 2004, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles fired Gonzalez -- and continued with the strategy set in motion by Kneer.

As Kneer had noted in her email to Planned Parenthood CEOs, Belshé was sympathetic, despite legal advice that billing over cost was not permitted, and apparently put up no fight for what was about to happen next. Kneer turned to powerful allies in the state legislature, specifically then-Sen. Deborah Ortiz, a liberal pro-abortion Democrat from Sacramento who had received political campaign support from Planned Parenthood and, in the summer of 2004 was chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. According to a history of the bill, AB 2151, the measure’s “source” was Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, and its supporters included, among others, NARAL Pro-Choice California, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, Planned Parenthood of San Diego & Riverside Counties, Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo Counties, and Planned Parenthood of Shasta-Diablo.

In effect, the bill undid the regulations requiring Planned Parenthood to bill the state and federal governments at cost. Nowhere in the bill’s legislative analysis, however, was any mention made of the over-billing discovered by DHS auditors – only the financial harm that would befall Planned Parenthood should the measure not pass. In a rushed summer session, the last-minute bill cleared the legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Ortiz, who has since left the legislature, is now vice president for public affairs of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, working out of their regional office in Sacramento. According to Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s 2008 annual report, $39,458,481 of the organization’s annual budget of more than $70.4 million comes from FPACT.

On Nov. 19, 2004, Belshé subordinate Stan Rosenstein, deputy director of medical care services for DHS, wrote to Bob Coles, chief financial officer for Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, with some good news and some bad news. The bad news: state auditors had determined that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties had over-billed the government more than $5.2 million between July 1, 2002 and June 30, 2003. The good news: Planned Parenthood would not have to pay back a penny of the overcharges. Rosenstein said in his letter that the regulations were not clear about the meaning of “at cost.” As a consequence, said Rosenstein, “no demand will issue pursuant to the audit…”

At the same time, DHS ordered a halt to audits at all other Planned Parenthood affiliates in California.

Despite the judge’s ruling, which was opposed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a friend of the court brief, Gonzalez’s federal whistleblower suit is not over. Attorney Jack Schuler, who represents Gonzalez, said he has already begun preparing an appeal based on errors in Judge Matz’s ruling. “The federal government was the one defrauded and the federal government was not noticed until Mr. Gonzalez blew the whistle,” he said. “This was a scheme by Planned Parenthood and its allies to cover up a fraud and Mr. Gonzalez blew the whistle.” Gonzalez also filed a wrongful termination civil suit against Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles in state court that was settled before trial by Planned Parenthood. Schuler said a non-disclosure agreement that was part of the settlement prevented him from providing details, but did say, “It was very favorable to Mr. Gonzalez.”

Former Yugoslav abortionist embraces life

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=29347

BELGRADE, Serbia (BP)--A physician once considered a champion of abortion in the former Yugoslavia now defends the lives of unborn children.

Sotjan Adasevic said he performed a total of 48,000 abortions, sometimes as many as 35 a day in Yugoslav hospitals under the former communist regime, until a dream caused him to have second thoughts about what he was doing.

Adasevic told the Spanish newspaper La Razon that he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence." The man identified himself to Adasevic as Thomas Aquinas, the great 13th-century Roman Catholic theologian. The man in his dream told Adasevic the young people were individuals Adasevic had killed in abortions.

The dream repeated each night, awakening Adasevic in a cold sweat, and he began to think he should stop performing abortions, according to a report in the Catholic News Agency Nov. 12. It took a dramatic experience during an abortion, however, to finally end his 26 years as an abortionist.

A cousin brought his girlfriend, who was four months pregnant, into Adasevic's clinic to get an abortion -- her ninth. Adasevic agreed to conduct the procedure but when he removed the fetus, the baby's heart was still beating. Adasevic was stunned to realize he had killed a human being. When he told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions, his salary was cut in half, his daughter was fired from her job and his son was barred from entering the university.

Adasevic found himself under a great deal of pressure to resume conducting abortions and was on the verge of giving in when he had yet another dream about Aquinas, according to the Catholic News Agency article. "You are my good friend, keep going,' the man in his dream told him. Adasevic returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and actively joined the pro-life movement in his country. He persuaded Yugoslav television to twice air the classic anti-abortion film "The Silent Scream" featuring Bernard Nathanson.

Today, the article noted, Adasevic is "the most important pro-life leader in Serbia."
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Compiled by Baptist Press assistant editor Mark Kelly.

Glenn Beck: Drinking the Kool-Aid

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/18391/

GLENN: Yesterday was a big anniversary. Most people didn't celebrate it. I didn't have my Jim Jones tree up. You remember Jim Jones, right? When I say Jim Jones and drink the Kool-Aid, when I say drink the Kool-Aid, what kind of movement comes to mind? If you've drank the Kool-Aid, most -- you know what? I bet we have some younger listeners that are thinking, "I've heard that before" but they don't even know who Jim Jones is. They don't know where "Drink the Kool-Aid" came from. I'm going to turn your world upside down unless you happen to really know the truth behind Jim Jones, and most people don't.

Yesterday was the anniversary. November 17th, 1978, Jim Jones was a hero to some. November 18th, 1978, Jones had orchestrated the killings of 918 people. He was a leftist. Did you know that? Did you know what he really stood for, or are you just thinking that Jim Jones is a Christian cult leader? The parallels on Jim Jones and today are staggering.

November 18, 1978, after he killed 918 people, somehow or another he went from what he was known as especially in his home area of San Francisco, he moved in the eyes of Americans from an American leftist to an evangelical Christian fanatic. It was the Christian in him that did it. We've seen this happen over and over and over again, socialist dreams ending in ghoulish nightmares and then conveniently shifted. They shift everything into a commentary on organized religion and how evil organized religion is. It's important for those who have eyes and those who have ears to hear and eyes to see that they see history beginning to repeat itself. Even the Nation magazine represented at the time, the Temple -- Jim Jones' Temple -- was as much of a left wing political crusade as a church. Let me say that again. "The Temple was as much a left wing political crusade as a church." I want you to see if you can put any of the people that you are currently seeing out in today's political landscape into any of these characters from 1978. In the course of the 1970s the Jim Jones church social program grew steadily more disaffiliated from what Jim Jones came to regard as fascist America. Jim Jones was against fascist America and their social programs drifted rapidly towards outspoken communist sympathies, so much that the last will and testament of the people's temple, the people's temple and its individual members left notes. They bequeathed millions of dollars in assets to... do you know? The people, 918 of them that were killed by that crazy religious Christian preacher, after they drank the Kool-Aid, who did they leave their millions to? The Soviet Union. As Jones expressed to a Soviet diplomat upon his visit to Jonestown months before the suicides took place, quote: For many years we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known that the United States government is not our mother but the Soviet Union was our spiritual mother land.

I'm trying to get my arms around the spirituality of the former Soviet Union. "Jim Jones was an evangelical communist who became a minister only to infiltrate the church with the gospel according to Marx and Lenin. He was an atheist missionary. He knew he could bring the message of socialist redemption to Christians. Quote: I decided how can I demonstrate my Marxism. This is Jim Jones speaking. "The thought was infiltrate the church."

Try to think back. Is there anybody that you have heard that is preaching Marxist philosophies in church? Is there anyone who is bringing the Marxist philosophies and doing it with anger and bitterness against the United States? Have you seen anyone like that on the horizon? Have you seen anyone who is influencing others, whoever those others may be? Unless one counts his drug induced bouts with claiming that he was the Messiah, Jones didn't believe in God. A people's temple. At one point the people in the people's temple were a little shocked because, you know, a lot of them believed in God. But he dramatically threw the people down on the ground at one point and he said, no one's going to come out of the sky; no one is in heaven; there is no heaven up there; we'll have to make heaven down here ourselves.

Now here's the real tragedy of all of this. It could have been avoided. Thousands of miles north outside of the jungles, for years leading up to Jonestown, the good people and the officials of San Francisco, California looked the other way. Journalists looked the other way. Jones acted as a law unto himself in San Francisco. "So what if he abused children. So what if he sodomized a follower. So what if he tortured and held temple members at gunpoint, defrauded the government and the people of welfare and Social Security checks. He believes in socialism. Ends justify the means." The mayor of San Francisco at the time who was assassinated just days after the Jonestown tragedy actually appointed Jones to the city housing authority in 1975. Jim Jones, that crazy preacher in San Francisco, was appointed by the mayor of San Francisco to be a part of the housing authority. You see, his Marxist message really, he wasn't an extremist. He wasn't dangerous. He believed in many of the things that others believed in. He certainly wasn't dangerous. He could help us. He could help our community.

Does this sound like anyone else? Does this sound at all like -- does the name William Ayers come into it at this point? I think I've already seen the same kind of teachings from a preacher. Now is there a William Ayers character here that has been involved? In fact, they gave him all kinds of awards. He was a very popular guy. But the press was useless because the press agreed with a lot of what he said. Those members of the press that did -- well, there was one guy, Les Kinsolving, he did an eight part investigative report on the temple for the People's Examiner, 1972. His editors were pressured by Jones and the political leaders and they killed the report halfway through. The reporter said the temple was the best armed house of God in the land. He detailed the kidnapping and possible murder of disgruntled members, he exposed Jones' phony faith healing, he highlighted Jones' vile school sanctioned sex talk with children, he directed attention to the people's temple, massive welfare fraud that funded its operations. He showed how they were bilking the taxpayer and the United States government through fraud, more than six years before the tragedy in the jungle, but the press buckled and killed the story. A few years later after Jones had moved operations out of San Francisco and into the jungles of Guyana, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle penned an expose on the people's temple. Chronicle editor sympathetic to Jones spiked that piece as well. Ultimately made its way to New West magazine which, of course, everybody reads and so alarmed Jones that he departed San Francisco for his agricultural experiment because he knew how he could make a better world through Marxism. Oh, by the way, he was also not alone. I mean, it wasn't just the media. It was also -- let me see if I can name some names here. He had rent-free rent-a-rallies for liberal politicians. Jim Jones, because a lot of people could actually, he could just make people turn out, he could bring a lot of people to their alleys. So San Francisco political people like Harvey Milk never seemed to care how Jones could snap his fingers and direct hundreds of people to stack a public meeting or volunteer for a campaign. He was a community leader. He was a community activist. He was a community -- oh, yeah -- organizer. And it wasn't just hacks from San Francisco. He met with first lady Rosalyn Carter, vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale. He was with California governor Jerry Brown. Here's a man who killed more African-Americans than the KKK and he was awarded a local Martin Luther King, Jr. humanitarian award. He also won the praise of California lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally, a state assemblyman Willie Brown. You heard that name? Angela Davis. Jesse Jackson. The Black Panthers were also with him.

You know, it's worth remembering today that long before anybody was in the jungle drinking that Kool-Aid, long before anybody was sucking that back, there's a lot of people in Washington and the political circles and the media that drank that Kool-Aid. And by the way, just in case you think I've made all of this up and just in case you think, "Oh, well, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Marxism, he doesn't know what a Marx -- he was a Christian zealot!" Let's let the words of some of those who didn't die but were there in the jungle, there were with him in San Francisco, let's let their words speak.

GLENN: By the way, this information just beautifully laid out by Dan Flynn and we're going to include this in our newsletter today. You must read it, absolutely amazing in the parallels. To me at least, to me the Marxist preacher, the Marxist hero of the city, the guy who's going to help turn everything around, William Ayers, just completely dismissed. The media, not paying attention at all. Dismissing, "Oh, it's no danger, it's no danger." And then, of course, the turning on Christians. That's the only piece that's still remaining. That's the only piece that's out there. I mean, it's coming. And this is why I've been saying you've got to know who you are. This is why I've been saying for a while please, please, Catholics, Jews, Muslims that actually are, you know, not trying to kill people, Mormons, Baptists, Lutherans, all of, everybody, Hindus, we must come together as a people of faith. There is an attack coming on religion. There is an attack on traditional values. There is an attack that is coming on people who believe in the Constitution. You don't have to believe what I believe. That's okay. But every time these socialist nightmares go bad, it ends in millions of deaths. Every time one of these socialist nightmares go down, all, you know, anybody who's following from 10 to 918 to 50 million in Stalin's case, dead. And it's always blamed. Always, always blamed on people of faith. I put my faith in people, at least leaders.

GLENN: I don't want anybody left with the wrong impression that I think there isn't anybody preaching about drinking poison Kool-Aid right now and cyanide. What I think that they are preaching right now is just as deadly and that is dependence, and dependence on others and dependence on the government and Marxism. Listen to this audio again and put it into that context.

VOICE: We turned our paychecks over every time we got paid and then we got an allowance, $5 a week.

VOICE: If I had to go to the doctor, it was taken care of. If I had to go to the dentist, it was taken care of. If I needed clothes, that was taken care of.

VOICE: You tend to not really think for yourself, and I did allow Jones to think for me because I figured if he had the better plan. I gave my rights up to him, as many others did.

GLENN: You hear that, we had healthcare, we had a dentist. They thought for us. How many people do you know that aren't thinking for themselves? Think for yourself. Believe in yourself. Where are we as a nation? Where are we as a people? We've come so far. And in the last 100 years we have just, just started to just say, "Okay, well, whatever, they can take that; I don't have to think about." Why are there homeless on the streets in New York? Why are things so bad in New York? Because we let the government of New York take care of everything. When you're living in a small town, you see a problem, you pick it up. You fix it yourself. You do something. Here the government is going to take. We just think they've got the better answer. How many times have you heard about the bailout? I don't know what to do. They know better than I do. And they're robbing us, in the middle of the night. It is just as deadly as anything you could drink out of a bucket of Kool-Aid. It is the dangers of Marxism. It's poison.