Over 56 Million Abortions in America Since Roe vs. Wade in 1973

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Photo Credit: Life News

Photo Credit: Life News

Given the trends seen in recent national reports, National Right to Life now believes that there have been over 56 million abortions since 1973.

One critical piece of evidence in that calculation arrived in November of 2013, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported its latest national figures. It was important to find out whether the drop in abortions for 2009 seen by the CDC–4.6%–would continue in 2010. If it dropped again, we’d have some confidence that the 2009 figure wasn’t just some odd statistical aberration, that there really was some real and significant decline. It did.

As reported in NRL News Today, abortions for 2010 declined another 3.1%, according to the CDC. (See “CDC Report Shows Decline in Abortions for 2010; abortion rates and ratios both down”)

We typically like to compare and confirm those trends with data from the Guttmacher Institute, the former special research affiliate of Planned Parenthood which publishes its own private study.

Guttmacher, which surveys abortion clinics, hospitals, and private practice physicians directly, has higher and what are widely thought to be more reliable abortion numbers. Unlike the CDC, however, they do not survey every year, and have not, as of this date, published anything more recent than 2008 data when Guttmacher reported there were 1,212,400 abortions.

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Texas Judge Orders Home Schooled Children Removed from Christian Parents Home

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

A controversy has erupted in Texas after a judge ordered children removed from the home of their Christian homeschooling parents – over the homeschooling itself – even though the Texas Home School Coalition notes the state doesn’t allow that.

A 2005 memo from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services notes that,”Whether parents choose to homeschool their children or send their child to another private or public school is not relevant to the CPS investigation. When CPS staff investigates a family for abuse/neglect, the investigation must focus on the occurrence, or risk, of abuse/neglect and not on the child’s educational setting,” according to the Texas Home School Coalition.

However, of the allegations brought against Trevor and Christina Tutt, who had four biological children and three foster children removed by Child Protective Services several weeks ago, all have been about the educational setting.

According to a report this week at Christian News, social workers were brought in when a child temporarily in the Tutts’ care, a four-year-old with autism, and an eight-year-old, wandered a short distance from the home in September.

A police officer found the children before Tutt, who was searching nearby, and the subsequent report attracted the attention of CPS.

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Watch: What if Beethoven’s Mother Aborted?

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

A short, award-winning film, produced by Hollywood legend Jason Jones along with executive producer Pattie Mallette, the mother of Justin Bieber, is changing hearts and minds on the issue of life.

“Crescendo” recounts the struggles of Maria Magdalena Beethoven, the mother of 19th-century composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

When producer Jones was 17 years old, his pregnant girlfriend’s father, who discovered her secret when the girl sought to obtain prescription vitamins, forced her to have an abortion. After the procedure, the abortionist announced that the baby was a girl. “Crescendo” is dedicated to “Jessica Jones,” their aborted baby, who would have been 23 years old at the time of the film’s release. Jason Jones believes that, if a pregnancy center was available to his girlfriend to serve her prenatal needs, their daughter would be alive today.

Mallette, the executive producer, became pregnant as a teenager and gave birth to Justin at 18. Her friends urged her to get an abortion.

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Abortion Data: 40% of Girls Who Have Sex by 14 Have Abortions

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay

New demographic analysis of abortion data finds that the bulk of the procedures are on women who had sex in their teens, some as early as 12, drawing new attention to how sex impacts America’s youth.

The Family Research Council on Friday revealed some of the details in a release to Secrets to promote an upcoming family policy lecture that will include longtime abortion foe Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.

Among the details:

– Rather than the one-third of women commonly cited by abortion supporters as having obtained an abortion, the number is one-sixth.

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Children Who Watch Too Much TV May Have ‘Damaged Brain Structures’

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Photo Credit: A. Chedorros Onoky/Corbis

Photo Credit: A. Chedorros Onoky/Corbis

Watching too much television can change the structure of a child’s brain in a damaging way, according to a new study.

Researchers found that the more time a child spent viewing TV, the more profound the brain alterations appeared to be.

The Japanese study looked at 276 children aged between five and 18, who watched between zero and four hours TV per day, with the average being about two hours.

MRI brain scans showed children who spent the most hours in front of the box had greater amounts of grey matter in regions around the frontopolar cortex – the area at the front of the frontal lobe.

But this increased volume was a negative thing as it was linked with lower verbal intelligence, said the authors, from Tohoku University in the city of Sendai.

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Report: Postal Service Ordered to Reinstate Purple Heart Recipient Fired for ‘Excessive Military Leave’

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Photo Credit: LA Times

Photo Credit: LA Times

Sgt. Maj. Richard Erickson was serving overseas with U.S. special forces when he received a letter from his civilian employer, the U.S. Postal Service.

In the 2000 notice, the agency informed him that he was being fired from his job as a postal clerk in Florida for taking too much time off to serve with the National Guard.

“I thought it was a joke,” Erickson said this week from Ft. Bragg, N.C., where he serves with the Army’s Special Operations Command.

But when he called the Postal Service, he was told that he had been terminated for taking “excessive military leave.”

Last week, after a seven-year legal battle, Erickson was awarded reinstatement and back pay. A federal board denied a Postal Service appeal and ordered the agency to restore his job and give him 14 years of back pay and other benefits that could total about $2 million.

Read more from this story HERE.

DOJ Wants to Know ‘Race, Sex, Disability, Age and English-Learner Status’ of Misbehaving Students

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Obama administration, concerned that “zero tolerance” policies are sending too many students to court instead of the principal’s office, on Wednesday urged schools to back off — particularly in the case of minority students and other federally protected groups.

“Racial discrimination in school discipline is a real problem today,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who joined Attorney General Eric Holder in speaking about the new guidance. Holder said “students of color and those with disabilities” often receive “different and more severe punishment than their peers.”

While the nation’s schools are under local control, they must follow federal civil rights and disability laws. And the new guidance for the nation’s schools could subject more of those schools to federal discrimination lawsuits. In fact, the crackdown already is happening, as CNSNews.com previously reported.

While the guidance is “voluntary,” it encourages schools to set up a “recordkeeping system” that tracks demographic information on misbehaving students, including their “race, sex, disability, age and English-learner status” along with the infraction, the discipline imposed, who imposed it, etc.

“Schools should establish procedures for regular and frequent review and analysis of the data to detect patterns that bear further investigation,” the guidance says.

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Michelle Obama Reportedly Vacationing With Oprah Winfrey at Maui Estate (+video)

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Island horses, guava cocktails, magnificent sunsets – and Oprah Winfrey!

Michelle Obama is reportedly enjoying it all at the media mogul’s swanky estate in Hawaii where the first lady is squeezing out a few more days of vacation.

President Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia returned to the White House Sunday after a two-week vacation in Hawaii, but Michelle Obama stayed behind in the Aloha State as a bit of an early birthday gift from the president.

“This was her decision to remain at, actually, the president’s suggestion in Hawaii, to spend time with friends ahead of her upcoming very big birthday,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. “If you have kids, you know that telling your spouse that they can go spend a week away from home is actually a big present.”

She’ll be 50 Jan. 17.

Read more from this story HERE.

63-Year-Old Great-Grandmother Shoots Attempted Robber Holding Her at Gunpoint

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Photo Credit: Shreveport Times

Photo Credit: Shreveport Times

Killing anyone — let alone a teenager — was the last thing Elzie Pipkins wanted to do when she bought a handgun at a local pawn shop days after a December burglary. But a few weeks later, on Sunday evening, Pipkins found herself using that weapon to defend herself and her family — ultimately taking the life of a 16-year-old holding her at gunpoint.

“I looked him dead in his eyes, like I’m looking at you, and I said, ‘Please, please, please don’t hurt us,”’ said a tearful Elzie Pipkins as she recounted shooting Devon Antonio Young as he attempted to rob Pipkins in her home.

“I was defending myself, my grandbaby and my great-grandson. We’re innocent people and he came up on us in the house with a loaded shotgun,” she said.

The 63-year-old great-grandmother lives alone, but serves as the matriarch of a large family and often cares for the youngest members.

“I did what any parent or loved one would do and that’s try to protect her own,” said Pipkins, surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren on Monday afternoon in the living room of her home in the 3000 block of Morningside Drive.

Read more from this story HERE.

CDC: U.S. Fertility Rate Hits Record Low for 2nd Straight Year; 40.7% of Babies Born to Unmarried Women

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The fertility rate of women in the United States fell to a record low for the second year in a row in 2012, according to data released last week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also for the second year in a row, 40.7 percent of the babies born in the United States were born to unmarried mothers.

The fertility rate is the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15-44. In 2012–according to the Dec. 30, 2013 CDC report “Births: Final Data for 2012″–the U.S. fertility rate was 63.0. That was down from 63.2 in 2011, the previous all-time low.

“The 2012 general fertility rate (GFR) for the U.S. was 63.0 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44, down slightly (less than 1%) from the record low rate reported for the nation in 2011 (63.2),” said the CDC report.

The U.S. fertility rate has dropped from year-to-year for each of the last five years. In 2007, it was 69.3. In 2008, it was 68.1. In 2009, it was 66.2. In 2010, it was 64.1. In 2011, it was 63.2. And, in 2012, it was 63.0.

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Escape Poverty: Graduate, Work, Get Married, Have Kids

Fifty years ago today, in his State of the Union Address, President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”

Over the next two years, he massively expanded the federal government, creating Medicaid, Medicare and the food stamp program, and increasing federal involvement in public education.

What impact did this have on poverty?

In the mid-1960s, as measured by the Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living in poverty was on its way down, dropping from 22.4 percent in 1959 to 14.7 percent by 1966.

MARRIED WITH CHILDREN-CHART

Yet, since Johnson declared his war on poverty in 1964, the poverty rate has never dropped below 11.1 percent (the level it hit in 1973) and there has been only one three-year period when it persisted above 15 percent.

Read more from this story HERE.