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Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Most of Texas’ Abortion Restrictions

Photo Credit: AP/Eric GayA federal appeals court issued a ruling Thursday reinstating most of Texas’ controversial new abortions restrictions, just three days after a federal judge ruled they were unconstitutional.

A panel of judges at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said the law requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital can take effect while a lawsuit challenging the restrictions moves forward. The panel issued the ruling after District Judge Lee Yeakel said the provision serves no medical purpose.

The panel’s decision means as least 12 clinics won’t be able to perform the procedure starting as soon as Friday. In its 20-page ruling, it acknowledged that the provision “may increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions.”

However, the panel said that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that having “the incidental effect of making it more difficult or more expensive to procure an abortion cannot be enough to invalidate” a law that serves a valid purpose, “one not designed to strike at the right itself.”

The panel left in place a portion of Yeakel’s order that prevents the state from enforcing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol for abortion-inducing drugs in cases where the woman is between 50 and 63 days into her pregnancy. Doctors testifying before the court had said such women would be harmed if the protocol were enforced.

Read more from this story HERE.

What Happens to Unborn Babies After Abortion? Pathologists Share the Horrors

Photo Credit: LifeNews One of the most convenient things about abortion is that it takes care of the perceived “problem” in a permanent way—people walk into the abortion clinic with a child growing inside them, and leave after the child’s forcible eviction. The pro-life movement tries to prevent people from entering the abortion clinic in the first place, and urges people to seek healing if they decide to go through with the abortion after all. So what happens to the babies after they are killed?

Some, we know, are cremated. Others are tossed in the trash, and discovered by pro-lifers like Dr. Monica Miller, who dutifully record their fate and give them the funeral and respect their humanity demands. But what about the other babies—the ones shipped off in containers and sealed buckets to pathology labs? When searching for the answer to that question, I found a series of horrifying testimonies on a Student Doctor Network Forum hosted by St. George’s University. On the discussion board, those who worked with the bodies of aborted babies shared their horror at what they saw.

“Anyone get tripped on these?” one wrote (spelling and grammar errors his), “I’m talking especially the big ones, where you can actually make out facial expressions like they knew they were being hacked the hell up (im serious). I almost went bonkers once over one, that is some scary crap. Am I the only pathologist who freaks when a 0.5 cm eye ball comes rolling out of bag and stares right at you…I know we are thinking this, just no one in pathology is talking about it.”

Another pathologist, identifying himself as “Andy Milonakis,” responded by saying, “Totally trippy man. We get a fair number of fragmented fetuses from abortion procedures and they come in a container with formalin. The fact that they’re all hacked up is disturbing to begin with. Of course, there is the whole eyeball issue which freaks me out as well. Echoing in my mind is the sound effects from the movie Psycho…Reee Reee Reee Reee Reee Reee Reee!”

The original poster continued, describing an absolutely nightmarish scene:

“One incident really freaked me, it was a boy fetus, at least 3+ pounds, around 24+ weeks. It sat decomposing because the rest of the staff was AFRAID of it, Im not joking. Then the chief of staff told me to deal with it because I was the FNG (f-kcin new guy) so I went to work. Pulled out 2 well formed arms and then the torso, headless. The head was at the bottom of the container, when I pulled it, he had this expression of such utter horror it flipped me wayyyy out, my PA saw it and ran, literally left work and went on disability (Im serious here). It was like a headless screaming baby, like it had been born at least for a split second to realize it was screwed and let out one agonal yelp. The story of this reverberated around the department, someone actually accused me of doing what should have been a ME case and threatened to call the medical board! Im not joking, I woke up once shortly after that in a cold sweat with piss running down my leg….not pretty.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Miss World: ‘I’m Against Abortion,’ ‘Against Divorce’ and ‘Sex is For Marriage’ (+video)

Photo Credit: APTwenty-three-year-old Megan Lynn Young, who was recently crowned Miss World 2013 at the Miss World Pageant, said she is pro-life, does not use contraceptives, opposes divorce, and thinks the way to avoid unwanted sex is to “just say no.”

Miss Young was born in Virginia to a Filipino mother and an American father. She lives in the Philippines and represented that nation at the Miss World Pageant held in Bali, Indonesia on Sept. 28.

In an interview on the Filipino news show ANC Headstart, as first reported by LifeSite News on Oct. 14, host Karen Davila asked Young about a controversial reproductive health (RH) law currently in limbo in the courts in the Philippines and related topics.

Read more from this story HERE.

Australian March for Babies Turns Violent: U.S. Pro-Life Activists, MPs Assaulted by Pro-Abort Mob

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews American pro-life activist Bryan Kemper says he is bruised and sore, but recovering, after a mob of pro-abortion counter-protesters attacked him and his team of pro-life activists during the March for the Babies in Melbourne, Australia.

Kemper, the founder of Prolife Stand True Ministries, told LifeSiteNews.com today that he was thrown to the ground and repeatedly kicked. Several other members of his team were also roughed up.

Pro-life Victoria Member of Parliament Bernie Finn also told the press that he was “belted in the head” and pelted with eggs, and that fellow pro-life MP Andrew Elsbury was thrown to the ground and stomped on.

“What we saw today was literally a public mugging on the streets of Melbourne and Victoria Police let it happen,” Finn fumed. “We had people being assaulted, being kicked, being stomped on and they sat back and watched.”

Trouble began brewing even before the march began, said Kemper. When the pro-life activists tried to begin the march, they were blocked by the mob of about 200 pro-abortion protesters.

Read more from this story HERE.

Jerry Brown Signs Bill Permitting Non-Physician Abortions in California

Photo Credit: Rose Palmisano, Orange County RegisterCalifornia on Wednesday became the only state in the nation this year to increase access to abortions, as Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing more medical professionals to perform abortions.

AB154 by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would let nurse practitioners, certified nurse-midwives and physician assistants with special training perform abortion by aspiration — in which the uterus’ contents are suctioned out — which is the most common kind of first-trimester abortion. The Assembly passed the bill on a 50-25 vote in May, and the state Senate passed it on a 50-25 vote in August, with most Democrats and no Republicans voting for it.

“California is moving in a different direction than the rest of the country. So far this year we have seen 68 abortion restrictions become law, and California is the only state to make real progress to protect abortion rights,” said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-rights research group.

“This is just a common sense measure,” she said. “The state recognizes that abortion is not always available when needed and that advanced practice clinicians are well-placed to provide those services.”

But Brian Johnston, executive director of the California ProLife Council, said the bill “isn’t about helping women so much as about promoting abortion.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Affordable Care Act Could Fund Over 100,000 Abortions

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Although the Hyde Amendment restricts the use of federal funds for abortion, with the exceptions of pregnancies caused by rape and incest, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List, released a paper on Thursday that showed how Multi-State Plans created through the Affordable Care Act could result in taxpayers subsidizing up to 111,500 abortions each year.

Multi-State Plans (MSPs) are the Affordable Care Act’s version of the “public option” health insurance plan.

“Multi-state” is another word for “national” and the degree of regulation of plan content, control of medical-loss ratios, and other factors ensure that these plans will operate more like regulated utilities than truly private insurance.

MSPs will be gradually introduced through a four-year period. By 2015, 35 states are expected to have MSPs in place, and all 50 states will have MSPs by 2017. The plans are intended to create “competition” in state markets, but will have the advantage that their administrative costs will be taxpayer funded, unlike a private insurance company.

Read more from this story HERE.

Convicted Baby Butcher Gosnell Speaks Out: “I’m Spiritually Innocent, Have No Regrets”

Photo Credit: The Philly Post

Photo Credit: The Philly Post

Talking publicly for the first time since his trial and conviction on three counts of murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter and more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act, Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell insists he is “spiritually innocent.”

Speaking exclusively to Philadelphia magazine writer Steve Volk for a new magazine article and e-book, Gosnell—who was convicted in May of snipping the necks of babies born alive during abortion procedures in his West Philadelphia clinic—believes he was serving the best interests of his community and the women who came to him. “In an ideal world,” he said, “we’d have no need for abortion. But bringing a child into the world when it cannot be provided for, that there are not sufficient systems to support, is a greater sin. I considered myself to be in a war against poverty, and I feel comfortable with the things I did and the decisions I made.”

Gosnell contends he is “innocent” of the charges against him, laying out complicated—and not particularly credible—reasons he should have been found not guilty. When Volk asked him if he was actually referring to his own sense of “spiritual innocence,” Gosnell responded, “Yes.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Abortion Nation – The United States is an Outlier

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

It’s easy to become inured to the state of abortion in the United States, but every so often someone sends a shock to the system.

In a new book about the history of Roe, Abuse of Discretion, lawyer Clarke Forsythe combs through the historical record of the Supreme Court’s decision, from case files to personal papers, to show exactly how pell-mell the verdict was. And in the course of all this he highlights how out-of-the-norm America’s abortion regime is.

The United States is an outlier when it comes to the scope of the abortion “right.” The United States is one of approximately ten nations (of 195) that allow abortion after fourteen weeks of gestation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Nominee for Judge Says Abortion Frees Women From “Conscription Into Maternity”

Photo Credit: Life News

Photo Credit: Life News

The United States Senate Judiciary Committee will vote this week on President Obama’s nomination of Cornelia Pillard to the court that many consider the second-most powerful and important in the land, the Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit. Of President Obama’s judicial nominees who have exhibited hostility towards unborn children, perhaps none is as flagrant, or as out-of-touch, as Cornelia Pillard.

In a 2007 law review article, Pillard wrote that “[r]eproductive rights, including the rights to contraception and abortion, play a central role in freeing women from historically routine conscription into maternity” (emphasis added). She believes there is an “equal protection” right to abortion—a position never adopted by the United States Supreme Court.

In other words, she believes that women cannot be equal citizens unless they have an unlimited right to abortion, and rather than suggest that the Constitution be amended if her views win favor with the American people, she asserts that the Constitution already protects abortion by forbidding states to deny anyone the equal protection of the laws.

Given Pillard’s views on equal protection and abortion, she would likely find most laws enacted to protect unborn children and their mothers invalid, including such widely-supported measures as late-term abortion restrictions, parental involvement and informed consent requirements, and clinic regulations.

Pillard writes that “[a]ntiabortion laws and other restraints on reproductive freedom not only enforce women’s incubation of unwanted pregnancies, but also prescribe a ‘vision of the woman’s role’ as mother and caretaker of children in a way that is at odds with equal protection” (emphasis added).

Read more from this story HERE.

The Weeping Baby Elephant and the Silent Scream (+video)

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

For a few hours on Thursday, the all-seeing eyes of the world’s media were fixed on the eyes of a pachyderm.

In a story that tugged at heartstrings around the globe, the media reported that a baby elephant named Zhuangzhuang, born in a Chinese zoo on August 30, cried for five hours after being rejected by his mother.

When zoo trainers saw her trying to stomp the newborn to death in her cage, they thought it was an accident. But after the mother tried to kill her child a second time, personnel had to remove the calf for his own safety.

By nature’s design, a child loves his parent, even a murderous one, and the tears began to flow until his eyes turned red. He couldn’t bear to be parted from his mother and it was his mother who was trying to kill him,” a spokesman from the Shendiaoshan Wild Animal Natural Reserve Area said.

On a slow news day, reporters from across the earth focused on the infant elephant. His story of abandonment began filling news outlets…

But none made the obvious connection: How does a human baby whose mother tries to kill him react?

Read more from this story HERE.