We Make Amazing Medical Advances for Babies, Not for ‘Clumps of Cells’

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There’s some happy news in the medical headlines today, as the Cleveland Clinic has joined other top hospitals in successfully performing prenatal surgery to repair spina bifida in utero.

A press release from the clinic details that a child who received the surgery from a team of specialists was born “near full term” earlier this month and that “mother and daughter are doing well.”

“By successfully repairing the defect before birth, we’re allowing this child to have the best possible outcome and significantly improve her quality of life,” said Dr. Darrell Cass, director of fetal surgery in the Cleveland Clinic’s Fetal Center. “There are different measures of quality in determining success for fetal repairs and in this particular case, all metrics for maximum quality were achieved.”

The procedure is similar to a less invasive one recently performed in the United Kingdom, where doctors only had to make three small holes in the mother’s abdomen and womb to fix the child’s spine.

Here’s a video representation of how the surgery worked:

However, Cass also said, “Although the surgery was a success, spina bifida is never cured,” and “moving forward, the baby will require ongoing supportive care provided by a multidisciplinary team of caregivers in our Spina Bifida Clinic.”

Nevertheless, this is still wonderful news for the baby, her family, and other parents on the receiving end of a similar diagnosis. But this news also is also quite instructive for our ongoing debate about the right to life, especially for those facing life with disabilities.

Under a different set of circumstances, after all, this child could easily have been targeted for abortion because of that diagnosis. Her mother would even have found support for killing her among those who in the past few months have defended the selective abortion of people with disabilities, like the opponents of Indiana’s anti-eugenics abortion law, for example, or perhaps among those who openly wonder why a family wouldn’t want to kill a kid with a challenging diagnosis.

But joyful stories like this one remind us that we aren’t just talking about abstract clumps of cells when we discuss those still living in the womb; we’re talking about human beings with their whole lives ahead of them. We’re talking about lives that matter, lives that are worth pushing the boundaries of medical science for, regardless of their circumstances. (For more from the author of “We Make Amazing Medical Advances for Babies, Not for ‘Clumps of Cells'” please click HERE)

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Ninth Circuit Judges Side with Trump Admin on Planned Parenthood

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Judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that a pro-life Trump administration rule blocking abortion providers from getting federal Title X dollars can go into effect for now.

A panel of three Republican-appointed judges found that there was no reason to continue lower courts’ injunctions against the proposed pro-life rule, since the Supreme Court already held up similar policies as constitutional almost 30 years ago.

“Absent a stay, HHS will be forced to allow taxpayer dollars to be spent in a manner that it has concluded violates the law, as well as the Government’s important policy interest in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not go to fund or subsidize abortions,” the three judges wrote in a unanimous opinion.

The 2019 Title X revision, which was put forward back in February, “prohibits the use of Title X funds to perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning” and also bars funding recipients from performing abortions or referring clients for abortions at the same physical facility that gets the taxpayer money.

The Ninth Circuit judge panel found this rule to be a “reasonable interpretation” of Title X, which was originally passed in 1970 and barred funds from going to “programs where abortion is a method of family planning,” per section 1008.

“We are pleased that the Ninth Circuit has cleared the way for this important executive branch action to take effect while our appeals are pending,” Department of Justice spokeswoman Kelly Laco said in a statement to Blaze Media. “The Department of Justice’s position is supported by long-standing Supreme Court precedent and we are confident we will ultimately prevail on appeal.”

“This ruling is a victory for President Trump and the majority of Americans who do not want to fund the abortion industry with their tax dollars,” pro-life SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a Thursday statement. “The Protect Life Rule simply draws a bright line between abortion and family planning, stopping abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood from treating Title X as their private slush fund without reducing funding by a dime. … We are encouraged by this news and confident the Trump administration will prevail.”

Abortion proponents, however, were steamed at the ruling.

“This decision is wrong,” tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “It will hurt low-income & women of color most of all, making it much harder to find care.”

“The Trump administration’s Title X gag rule will deny access to basic reproductive health care for millions of people,” said 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. “I call that a violation of human rights.”

“The Trump-Pence administration’s gag rule is unethical, illegal, and harmful to public health—and Planned Parenthood will not stand for this attack on millions of people across the country,” said Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen. “We will immediately seek emergency relief from the Court of Appeals.” (For more from the author of “Ninth Circuit Judges Side with Trump Admin on Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

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Vatican Whistleblower Claims Rector of Washington, D.C. Basilica Is a Member of the ‘Gay Mafia’

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Vatican whistleblower Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò claimed over the weekend that while he was the papal nuncio to the United States, he saw “documentation” alleging that the rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., sexually molested male students at the Catholic University of America.

“Monsignor [Walter] Rossi is, without a doubt, a member of the ‘gay mafia,'” Viganò told Italian journalist Marco Tosatti on Saturday, bolstering George Neumayr’s hair-raising reportage on the “Gay Mafioso” in the American Spectator. The former nuncio said the fact that Rossi’s name was once proposed for a promotion to bishop “shows how the ‘gay mafia’ operates. ”

Viganò went into hiding last August, in fear for his life, after accusing Pope Francis of covering up sexual misconduct in an eleven-page bombshell letter. Almost a year later, much of his powerful testimony has been vindicated. . .

In a series of emails with the Post, he accused Pope Francis of lying in denying knowledge of the sexual abuse allegations against now-defrocked cardinal Theodore McCarrick and said Francis, as well as his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, must come clean about what they knew about the alleged abuse.

Viganò said it was “immensely sad” that Francis was “blatantly lying to the whole world to cover up his wicked deeds.” He also reiterated his claim that a “corrupt gay mafia” is running the Church. (Read more from “Vatican Whistleblower Claims Rector of Washington, D.C. Basilica Is a Member of the ‘Gay Mafia'” HERE)

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Driver Gets Third Murder Charge in Deaths of 2-Year-Old, Pregnant Woman, Unborn Baby

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By Breitbart. William David Phillips will face three charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sierra Wilson Cahoon, her son Nolan, and her unborn baby.

According to the arrest warrants, Phillips told authorities that he was compelled by a voice which “told him that he needed to go kill meth addicts, so he began driving very fast.”

At the wheel of his Chevy Impala in downtown Jefferson City, Phillips swerved onto the East Main Street sidewalk, striking 61-year-old Tillman Gunter. Police say Gunter is recovering from non-life threatening injuries.

Expectant mother Sierra Wilson Cahoon was not so fortunate. The voice “told [Phillips] that the baby stroller had meth in it, so he intentionally drove into (the mother and child) … killing them both,” the warrants continued, concluding that “this act was done with premeditation.” (Read more from “Driver Gets Third Murder Charge in Deaths of 2-Year-Old, Pregnant Woman, Unborn Baby” HERE)

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Third Murder Charge Filed Against Driver Accused of Killing Pregnant Woman, son

By Knox News. A Jefferson City, Tennessee, driver accused of intentionally running down and killing a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old son near Carson-Newman University now faces a third murder charge in connection to the death of the unborn child, police said. . .

Phillips finally crashed into a building housing a fish hatchery, where an employee inside suffered minor injuries.

Police said the suspect did not know any of the victims.

Cahoon and Nolan were the wife and son of Matt Cahoon, an assistant athletic trainer at Carson-Newman, a Christian school located on a campus less than a quarter mile from the attacks.

The university has established a fund to benefit the Cahoon family. Donations may be made online to the “Randall and Kay O’Brien Benevolent Fund.” Donations also may be given by calling the university at 865-471-3233. (Read more from “Third Murder Charge Filed Against Driver Accused of Killing Pregnant Woman, son” HERE)

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Singer Taylor Swift’s Pro-Pride Video Gets Ripped to Shreds by Left and Right

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Taylor Swift dropped a new pro-LGBT video this week for Pride month — and it’s earned her blistering criticism from both the Left and Right.

In a review for The Federalist, Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky provides a scathing run-down of the video’s “breathtakingly elitist” aesthetic:

To illustrate her LGBT pride anthem, Swift assembled the glitterati, casting them as the heroes of a utopian trailer park where her feud with Katy Perry ends, and ugly gay marriage protesters meet their match in a fabulous show of celebrity force. The set, of course, almost certainly cost more than what many people who make such places their home earn in a year. “Love letters only,” reads the side of one lily white mailbox in Swift World. (Where do the bills go?)

Her creativity mysteriously lapsed when it came time to cast the protesters, who look like they should be playing banjos in “Deliverance”: toothless, badly dressed, holding misspelled signs. “Control your urges to scream about all the people you hate,” Swift demands. “Cause shade never made anybody less gay.”

It’s all grotesquely elitist when you consider that she’s mocking people with less money while appropriating a trailer park lifestyle for three minutes of breezy, colorful fun. (Support for same-sex marriage declinesalong with income and education level.) Are there a lot of crazy people who yell at Swift on the Internet? Some, sure. But she went with a very specific type. The message is basically, “We’re beautiful and right; You’re poor and dumb.” If that sounds reductive or based on caricatures that would never be tolerated if used against the left’s pet identity groups, watch the video again.

(Read more from “Singer Taylor Swift’s Pro-Pride Video Gets Ripped to Shreds by Left and Right” HERE)

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Jury Deliberations to Begin in NXIVM Sex-Trafficking Case

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By Fox News. A jury is about to begin deliberating at the trial of the former leader of an upstate New York self-help group that prosecutors say branded women.

The deliberations in the case against Keith Raniere are set for Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors have told jurors that said the 58-year-old Raniere’s organization, called NXIVM, operated like a cult. (Read more from “Jury Deliberations to Begin in NXIVM Sex-Trafficking Case” HERE)

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Nxivm Trial: Sex Cult Was Like ‘Horror Movie’ Prosecutor Says

By The New York Times. A housing development in a small upstate New York town where members of the cultlike group Nxivm had homes functioned as the set of a “horror movie,” and the group’s leader, Keith Raniere, played the role of the central villain, a federal prosecutor told jurors on Monday.

During closing arguments in Mr. Raniere’s racketeering and sex trafficking trial, the prosecutor, Moira Penza, pointed to a map of a Clifton Park neighborhood where many Nxivm members lived, then described what witnesses said had happened inside several homes. . .

Mr. Raniere, 58, co-founded Nxivm (pronounced NEX-ee-um) in the 1990s as a self-help organization based near Albany. He is now on trial on charges of racketeering conspiracy, identity theft, extortion, forced labor, money laundering, wire fraud and sex trafficking. (Read more from “Nxivm Trial: Sex Cult Was Like ‘Horror Movie’ Prosecutor Says” HERE)

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SCOTUS Throws out $135,000 Fine Against Christian Bakers in Gay Wedding Cake Case

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The Supreme Court refused to take up a high-profile religious liberty case involving a family of Christian bakers on Monday and instead sent it back to the lower courts for further consideration in light of the high court’s ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.

The case of Aaron and Melissa Klein, whose Oregon bakery became a major focal point of the national debate about religious liberty and the LGBT movement, has been remanded to the Oregon Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court also tossed out the Court of Appeals’ previous decision to uphold a $135,000 fine against the couple because of their refusal to participate in a same-sex wedding ceremony in 2013 by making a cake for it.

Those standing behind the Kleins are chalking up Monday’s Supreme Court order as a big win.

“This is a victory for Aaron and Melissa Klein and for religious liberty for all Americans,” said First Liberty president, CEO and chief counsel Kelly Shackelford, whose organization is representing the Kleins along with Boyden Gray & Associates, in an emailed statement. “The Constitution protects speech, popular or not, from condemnation by the government. The message from the Court is clear, government hostility toward religious Americans will not be tolerated.”

The case is to be re-evaluated in light of the Supreme Court’s June 2018 narrow decision in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which reversed a decision by the Colorado Court of appeals in a similar religious liberty case.

However, since and despite the 2018 ruling, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips has been sued multiple times for alleged discrimination. Earlier this year, the state of Colorado dropped a lawsuit it brought against Phillips for refusing to bake a cake for a gender transition just weeks after last year’s ruling. Last week, the same transgender individual behind the previous lawsuit sued Phillips for allegedly refusing to sell a birthday cake; an attorney representing Phillips dismissed the claim as “yet another desperate attempt to harass” the baker. (For more from the author of “SCOTUS Throws out $135,000 Fine Against Christian Bakers in Gay Wedding Cake Case” please click HERE)

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101-Year-Old World War II Veteran Receives More Than 5,000 Birthday Cards

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The Associated Press reports that 101-year-old World War II veteran John Frey was humbled and astonished after he received more than 5,000 cards from appreciative strangers for his recent birthday.

Frey’s family put out a request for cards in a local newspaper. The ad went viral and the family was expecting 500 cards at the absolute maximum, but instead received 10 times that amount. “The cards came from all 50 states and at least 12 countries. Entire classrooms of children, military veterans and Utah’s elected officials wanted to wish the former mechanic/machinist for the U.S. Army a happy birthday,” the AP reports.

“These have been overfilled with letters and packages and everything for him,” Jeanne Waters, the front desk receptionist at the Mervyn Sharp Bennion Central Utah Veterans Home where Frey lives, said of two tubs she had to request from the Post Office to accommodate all the mail. “It’s been fun. It really has.”

As reported by WTOP, “Frey celebrated with family and friends last week at the at home. His daughter Janice Carlson helped him use a letter opener to open one envelope including a sea shell and a note,” she added. (Read more from “101-Year-Old World War II Veteran Receives More Than 5,000 Birthday Cards” HERE)

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Planned Parenthood Builds Clinic in Alabama Despite Pro-Life Law

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By AP. Planned Parenthood is building the stage for another possible fight over abortion in Alabama: a large women’s clinic that’s under construction despite the state’s passage of a near-total ban on abortions.

Located beside an interstate highway in downtown Birmingham, the 10,000-square-foot structure is now nothing but a steel frame and roof. Workers under the constant watch of security guards appear to be installing electrical wiring, plus heating and cooling units.

The new facility could be complete around November, which is the same time the new state law will take effect unless blocked by courts. Abortion critics vow to oppose the opening, but a spokeswoman for the women’s health organization said neither the new law nor opponents were a factor in the project. (Read more from “Planned Parenthood Builds Clinic in Alabama Despite Pro-Life Law” HERE)

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Liberty Vittert: Why Can’t Planned Parenthood Just Tell Us How Many Abortions It Provides?

By Fox News. Whether you are pro-life, pro-choice, anywhere in between, or extreme, there is a continued and serious issue with the reporting methods of Planned Parenthood (PP) that allows for serious misconceptions to be exploited on both sides of the debate. . .

Let’s take a closer look using only data from Planned Parenthood’s own 2017-2018 Annual Report.

The 94 percent assertion comes from taking the total number of abortions performed in a year by PP (332,757) and dividing it by the total number of services PP provides that Hatch and Johnson deem “pregnancy services” (prenatal services, adoption referrals, and abortions) totaling 344,646 services. Using this terminology, actually 96.6 percent of the pregnancy services provided by PP are abortions.

But in no way is that the real truth: this calculation completely ignores the over 9 million other services PP provides per year and paints a very unfair (or rather, downright wrong) picture of the work of Planned Parenthood. . .

This number comes from taking the total number of abortions performed by PP in a year and dividing that by the total number of services provided by Planned Parenthood in a year (including cancer screenings, pregnancy tests, STI testing/treatment, contraception, and even services to men) which is over 9.6 million. Using this terminology, Planned Parenthood is able to say that only 3.4 percent of the services they perform are abortions. (Read more from “Liberty Vittert: Why Can’t Planned Parenthood Just Tell Us How Many Abortions It Provides?” HERE)

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Thirteen White Police Officers Sue City for Racial Discrimination

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Thirteen white police officers are suing the City of San Francisco for alleged discrimination due to their race and refusing to give them promotions in favor of minority candidates. . .

The lawsuit challenges a “test-scoring method that the city adopted in 1979 in response to a lawsuit from a group representing black and female officers, who alleged discrimination in hiring and promotions,” according to Time Magazine.

Time Magazine also reports that Mullanax argued before the court, “In 2016, the department promoted three black sergeants, even though their scores were lower than those of 11 white candidates who were denied promotions.”

The police department defended its methods. John Coté, a spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the Police Department “uses lawful, merit-based civil service examinations in making promotions. The method is “designed to provide qualified individuals with the chance for advancement while ensuring fair treatment without regard to race, gender, religion, age or other status.” . . .

In 2003, a similar lawsuit was settled on behalf of a group of white police officers for a whopping $1.6 million doled out by the city. (Read more from “Thirteen White Police Officers Sue City for Racial Discrimination” HERE)

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