Huge Win for Life: Appeals Court Upholds South Dakota’s Strict Informed Consent Law

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A federal appeals court has upheld a provision of a South Dakota law requiring the states lone abortion business, operated by Planned Parenthood, that it has to inform women of the validity of the link between abortion and suicide. With women facing a host of mental health issues following an abortion, Planned Parenthood can no longer keep women in the dark about them.

An en banc panel of the court declared that South Dakota’s statute that requires abortion doctors to disclose to pregnant mothers that an abortion places the mother at increased risk for suicide ideation and suicide constitutional because the disclosure is truthful, non-misleading, and relevant to the pregnant mother’s decision of whether or not to consent to an abortion.

Harold J. Cassidy, a pro-life attorney who represented Leslee Unruh, president of the Alpha Center of Sioux Falls, and Stacy Wollman, president of Care Net of Rapid City — two pregnancy centers that provide abortion alternatives — sent LifeNews details about the decision.

He called the decision “a fabulous victory for the women of the State of South Dakota.”

“The Court ruled that the women will now be given additional important information before they consent to an abortion: that the abortion places a woman at increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide,” he said. “This victory represents the fourth separate decision of the Eighth Circuit reversing the District Court in this one case, two decisions issued by en banc Courts four years apart – a rare occurrence that underscores the importance of the issues presented by the case.”

Read more from this story HERE, detailing the requirements of the upheld South Dakota law including informing mothers:

(1) that “an abortion terminates the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being;”
(2) that the mother’s “relationship with that second human being enjoys protection under the Constitution of the United States and the Laws of South Dakota;”
(3) that relationship and all rights attached to it will be terminated; and
(4) the abortion places the mother “at increased risk for suicide ideation and suicide.”

Photo credit: BrianSwant

Mother who escaped deadly Aurora shooting gives birth; her husband remains in critical condition

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The Colorado theater shooter may have taken a dozen lives and injured dozens more in his rampage but he wasn’t able to claim the life of one person — an unborn child just days away from birth. However, the father is in serious medical condition and needs support.

According to an AP report, a pregnant woman who escaped the deadly shooting uninjured delivered her baby today as her wounded husband remains in critical condition in the hospital. Today, 21-year-old Katie Medley gave birth but her husband, 23-year-old Caleb Medley, was shot in the head and remains hospitalized.

The father, David Sanchez, attended the court hearing today — the first of many as the case against the shooter unfolds.

“While his daughter was in labor, the angry Sanchez waited outside the courthouse where shooting suspect James Holmes made his first court appearance. He said his daughter escaped death by mere seconds,” AP reported. “Sanchez said his daughter and son-in-law have been waiting for a year to watch the premiere of the Batman movie.”

The Denver Post has more on the story:

Sanchez, 53, traveled to the Arapahoe County Justice Center outside of Centennial in hopes of getting a glimpse of the man who authorities say put his 23-year-old son-in-law, Caleb Medley, in a coma with a gunshot wound to the right side of his head.

“He is in stable but critical condition and they are monitoring his condition,” Sanchez said outside the courthouse to a large scrum of reporters who were seizing on anything to report after the 12-minute court hearing.

Sanchez said he had come to the courthouse as a representative for Caleb and Katie.

“It is important to support my daughter and her husband and their newborn baby,” he said.

His daughter has been avoiding any media after the shooting, concentrating on her pending birth of their son that they have already named “Hugo,” and her husband’s state.

Read more from this story HERE.

Some Good News: US Youth Increasingly Pro-Life

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This June, Students for Life of America released the results of a nationwide study, in which we surveyed 805 18-24 year-olds about the upcoming 2012 election, unconstitutional HHS Mandate, and abortion. We knew that a lot of folks tend to try to put young people in a neat little box when it comes to the issue of abortion, but, with this rising generation, we knew we had to shed some light into how they are really thinking and the changing of this debate.

The Good News… Their whole lives this generation has been told that identifying themselves as “pro-life” is judgmental, extremist, and wrong. Yet, when asked questions about their beliefs on the legality of abortion: 44% were pro-life and 45% pro-choice, and they were more likely to view abortion as a “bad thing” (31%) rather than a “good thing” (17%). In the addition, the plurality, 27%, selected “abortion should only be legal in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother” as the position most similar to own position on abortion. This generation is not radical in their support of abortion and takes much more of a common sense approach to the issue than President Obama and Planned Parenthood with an overwhelming majority favoring common sense abortion regulations:

  • 89% favored requiring abortionists to follow the same medical and safety protocols as other surgical clinics
  • 84% favored requiring abortion facilities to warn women of seeking abortions of potential health risks
  • 76% favored allowing pregnant women to view sonograms before undergoing an abortion
  • 74% support making sex-selection abortions illegal in United States
  • 70% agreed with offering a woman the opportunity to anesthetize her child before the abortion procedure

We are winning the HHS Mandate issue. When young Americans were asked whether the federal government should force institutions to pay for procedures that offend their religious beliefs, the plurality (44%) disagreed with the Obama’s administration’s move.

The Bad News… We need to educate this generation more on what conscience protections are and who is permitted to have them. The youth surveyed were split on whether medical students should be permitted to object to procedures or drugs for conscience reasons, although this age group was 8 points more likely to agree (44%) than disagree (36%). What they don’t know is literally killing this generation as 58% admitted that they didn’t know where resources were in their community or campus to support a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy who didn’t want to undergo an abortion.

Planned Parenthood still has the upper-hand when it comes to targeting and deceiving this generation. Our study found that young people supported Planned Parenthood by a ratio of six to one (66% “favorable” vs. 11% “unfavorable”), with two in five (40%) calling themselves “strongly favorable.” The plurality of even those who identify as Conservative (44%) and Pro-Life (46%) were even “favorable” towards Planned Parenthood. Even more shocking for those of in the pro-life movement is that fact that 48% said they did not know whether or not Planned Parenthood offered abortions.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo Credit:  TFP Student Action

Another botched abortion death prompts calls for Congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood

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Leading pro-life advocates are calling on Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood following another death of a woman from a legal abortion at one of its clinics — this time in Chicago, Illinois.

In response to news that a young woman, Tonya Reaves, died after a botched [second-trimester] abortion at Planned Parenthood, the Susan B. Anthony List renewed the call for a congressional investigation into the abortion provider.

“Congress has an obligation to exercise clear and regular oversight of businesses like Planned Parenthood that receive hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding and have such dramatic impact on the lives of women and unborn children. This tragic incident reminds us once again that an industry that relies on practitioners like Kermit Gosnell, that has shown willingness to aid alleged human traffickers, and that turns a blind eye to sex-selective abortion must be thoroughly and immediately investigated by Congress,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.

Dannenfelser added, “We must not allow Tonya Reaves to have died in vain, but rather heed this warning and call on Congress to exercise its full capacity to investigate Planned Parenthood. As the nation’s largest abortion provider, in 2010 alone Planned Parenthood ended the lives of 324,008 unborn children and ill-served their mothers.”

“Left unregulated, the abortion industry clearly cannot be trusted to look out for the true interests of women,” continued Dannenfelser. “Earlier this year, Congressman Cliff Stearns launched an investigation of Planned Parenthood which raised a list of questions and issues concerning safety and oversight of Planned Parenthood. The American people need to know the answers to those questions about internal operations so that Americans can be assured women’s interests are protected.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Christian Bale on Colorado shooting: ‘Words cannot express the horror I feel’

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Christian Bale, who stars in “The Dark Knight Rises” as Bruce Wayne / Batman, released a statement on Saturday, July 21, about the shooting at a midnight screening of the film in Aurora, Colorado, where a gunman killed at least 12 people and left 59 people injured.

The 38-year-old actor said in his statement obtained by OnTheRedCarpet.com, “Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.”

Christopher Nolan, the director of “The Dark Knight Rises,” released a statement on July 20 and called the shooting “devastating.”

“The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me,” part of Nolan’s statement said. “Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.”

James Eagan Holmes, a 24-year-old University of Colorado medical school student, was arrested for the shootings.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Thorsten Becker

Teenager rescues single mom and children after boyfriend runs out of theater in Aurora shooting

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A 19-year-old man stepped up when he saw a young mother and her children in danger the night of the Batman premier theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. Jarell Brooks is by all accounts a hero, but he doesn’t want you to think of him that way. However, he very possibly saved three lives early Friday morning, and for that, he deserves the highest praise one can get.

Brooks and Patricia Legarreta, the woman whose life he saved, reunited on Good Morning America yesterday to talk about their experiences. Legarreta said she doesn’t remember everything that happened but is aware that without Brooks, she and her children would not be alive today.

Brooks said that he didn’t know that James Eagan Holmes had entered the theater until he saw and heard the gunshots because he was just six rows from back of the theater. He obviously didn’t realize that Legarreta’s boyfriend (now fiancé), Jamie Rohrs, had run out after leaving four-month-old Ethan on the floor after panicking. All he saw during the chaos and the smoke was a woman struggling to get her scared children out of harm’s way.

Legarreta’s four-year-old daughter, Azeria, was asleep when the shooting began, so when she woke up, she was disoriented. She fell in the process of trying to escape because of that, and Legarreta described tearfully how she did what she could to get her out. “Just blocking her, shoving her, just making sure she’s not getting hurt,” she said, obviously distraught and shaken at the thought of how close she came to losing her children that night.

Brooks was on his way out the door and was at the end of the aisle when he saw her. “My kids!” she yelled, and the teenager knew what he had to do. “My goal was to get this family out, without getting hit myself. I managed to do one.” Both he and Legarreta were hit by the gunman’s bullets.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dr. Tiller’s fellow late-term abortionist finally stripped of medical license

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Last week the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts posted the final revocation order for the medical license of abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus. While Neuhaus is not a household name, her revocation has national repercussions in the abortion battle.

Neuhaus was a former associate of George Tiller, who once operated the largest late-term abortion clinic outside Communist China. His business, which specialized in doing the latest of late-term abortions and drew clients from all over the globe, earned Wichita the dubious distinction as the Abortion Capital of the World.

After Neuhaus closed her own abortion business in Lawrence, she began working with Tiller to provide referrals for abortions on viable babies past 22-weeks gestation. Kansas law required that a second physician had to determine that post-viability abortions were medically necessary in that continuation of the pregnancy would result in maternal death or a “substantial and irreversible impairment to a major bodily function” of the pregnant woman. A former State Attorney General, Carla Stoval, issued an opinion that “major bodily function” must include mental health considerations.

Testimony at a Board disciplinary hearing showed that Neuhaus was regularly contacted by Tiller’s office and told to report to his Wichita abortion clinic where she conducted screenings on potential late-term abortion patients for the purpose of determining if they met the legal standard that would allow an abortion to continue. However, the Board found that Neuhaus negligently conducted those screenings. Her inadequate and poorly documented interviews led her to determine that normal life issues, such as frustration at not being able to buy a new computer, play sports, or participate in rock concerts due to pregnancies that had already advanced into the third trimester, were indications of mental illnesses that justified abortions. Many times, Neuhaus phoned in her exams. In some cases, there was no evidence that she even interviewed the patients at all.

Her mental health diagnoses were reached via a computer training program called “PsychManager Lite” wherein she would input answers to often vague yes-or-no questions and the program would calculate a diagnosis. Her phony diagnoses were rubber-stamps meant to ensure lucrative late-term abortions took place.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit:  CNS News

‘Catholic’ Pelosi calls GOP bill to cut off Planned Parenthood funding ‘an immorality’

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Leave it to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to get it backwards. The “Catholic” Democrat is upset House Republicans this week approved a bill that includes language cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood unless it stops doing abortions.

Instead of lamenting the immorality of abortion, she calls the bill an “immorality,” according to a CNS News report. The bill also withdraws funding for the Obamacare law that includes abortion funding and potential rationing.

Pelosi said, “The defunding of Planned Parenthood, which is part of what their mark-up was about, was it yesterday that they officially marked up? Yesterday, that was, I know was in the mix, I didn’t know if they were finished with it, that mark up.”

“The bill is — what they marked up is really, in my view, an immorality,” Pelosi said. “An immorality to ignore scientific opportunity to make the American people healthier. Things like that I think are an immorality. However, it doesn’t happen to be a priority for the Republicans.”

The Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee approved their FY13 spending bill. During consideration, pro-life Republicans on the panel turned back two pro-abortion amendments from Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: edalisse

The ABC’s of being Joe Miller’s Wife

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Many people regularly ask how I handle the media, family dynamics, politics, as well as work, travel and being on the Alaska Judicial Council.  So, I decided I would start to pen a few articles on these different areas starting with perhaps the most difficult, yet inspiring . . . drum roll please . . . being Joe Miller’s wife!  Since we do wake up beside each other on more days than not, I will tackle this with some humor and easy to understand points:

 

The ABC’s of being Joe Miller’s Wife

A  Always remember to admire him

B  Be cheerful more days than not

C  Communicate- this is very important!

D  Do remember that I appreciate his reasons for doing what he does even though it may not seem sane at times

E  Enjoy the simple things in life because when he does the thing he does that may be all we have

F  Focus yes, FOCUS, on his good qualities

G  Give and forgive a lot!

H  Hope he remembers to thank everyone for coming, to pay attention to the little things, and HOLD NO GRUDGES!

I    Invite his crazy ideas into the conversation of what I would like to get done around the house and watch that turn into what he would like to get done around the nation

J  Join in his endeavors and enthusiasms

K  Keep my mouth shut about something stupid he did until we are out of earshot of others

L  Love him and try to listen when he’s speaking

M Magnify the good in him because sometimes I may be the only one who did that day

N  Never forget his heart and intentions in everything he does-yes they are not just a benefit to others, but also to myself and our family

O  Oust the negative as often as possible

P  Pray for him

Q  Quickly point out what I think and then let him ponder and bring about a discussion

R  Remember that behind every great man there is an even better woman so I need to encourage him

S  Speak highly of him

T  Treat him as a King because I will be treated as his Queen

U  Unconditionally love him

V  Value his desires, insights and strong demeanor

W  Welcome him with open arms when he’s had a rough day or Welcome his ambition and fight for truth and liberty

X  X-ercise my voice but try my best to keep all of the above because then I can be a happy, productive wife and mother. So,

Y  Y’all now know a few of my secrets and I think they sure help because as you can

Z  Zee for yourself, we make a pretty good team!

 

Until next time – Be Blessed!

Kathleen

 

Photo credit: Joe Miller, All Rights Reserved

Female Chair of the Democratic National Committee: Electing Women isn’t Always a Good Thing

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The nation’s top Democrat made it clear at a left-wing event for women that electing women to public office is only a good thing is they subscribe to the liberal dogma that advances abortion and birth control.

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, spoke at the Women 2020 this week and said the focus shouldn’t be electing women to Congress but only supporting women political candidates who support “ensuring access to birth control.” The comment is a clear reference to the national debate over the Obama HHS mandate that forces religious groups to pay for and refer women for abortion-causing drugs and birth control in violation of their religious beliefs.

CNS News caught video of Wasserman-Schultz’s comments: “I think we have to be cautious about who is, you know, just celebrating that a woman got elected to a particular office and make sure that we have women who are running and winning who are going to champion the causes of women — who are going to make the agenda that is important to women like equal pay for equal work and making sure that when it comes to fighting for middle class families and ensuring access to birth control and making sure that health care is a priority and that it’s affordable, making sure that access to education and higher education is a priority.”

“So, electing just any woman shouldn’t be the goal. Electing a woman who is going to make the issues important to women and families is really should be the focus and I don’t know if we made as much progress on that as we should.”

This isn’t the first time the DNC chair has attacks Republicans as supposedly anti-woman for their pro-life views. She said Republicans are “anti-woman” and are waging “war on women” with an “extremely radical social agenda.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: mdfriendofhillary