Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:16pm IST



VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pharmacists must be allowed to refuse to supply drugs that cause abortion or euthanasia, Pope Benedict said on Monday, calling on health professionals to be "conscientious objectors" against such practices.

DONNA NICHOLSON



THE Abortion Act (1967) effectively set out that babies in the womb could be disposed of like commodities, regarded as "non-persons" and denied their human rights for even the most trivial of reasons.

National Right to Life applauds
U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act

WASHINGTON (April 18, 2007) -- The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a legal challenge to the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, allowing the law to go into effect for the first time since it was signed by President George W. Bush in 2003.

"Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and their allies blocked this law for 12 years -- but finally, it is illegal in America to mostly deliver a premature infant before puncturing her skull and removing her brain, which is what a partial-birth abortion is," commented Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).

Writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "The Act proscribes a method of abortion in which a fetus is killed just inches before completion of the birth process. . . Congress determined that the abortion methods it proscribed had a 'disturbing similarity to the killing of a newborn infant.' . . ." The majority ruled that a general ban on the method is permissible and does not violate the general "abortion right" enunciated in past decisions such as Roe v. Wade (1973) and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992).

NRLC, the nation's major right-to-life organization, led the coalition that resulted in enactment of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003, after an eight-year fight. President Bill Clinton vetoed the ban twice. When it passed the Senate in 2003, it was over the nay vote of Senator Hillary Clinton.

WHAT THE LAW DOES

The federal law bans "partial-birth abortion," a legal term of art, defined in the law itself as any abortion in which the baby is delivered feet-first "past the [baby's] navel . . . outside the body of the mother," or "in the case of a head-first presentation, the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother," before being killed. The complete official text of the law, in a searchable format, is here.

In recent months, some commentators, including Linda Greenhouse of The New York Times and Kenneth Jost of Congressional Quarterly, have argued that the term "partial-birth" is misleading because the method is usually used months before the end of a full-term pregnancy. (It is most often used in the fifth and sixth months, but sometimes later.) These objections rest on a baffling failure to recognize that legal "live births" commonly occur long before full term -- indeed, "live births" are commonplace even early in the fifth month of pregnancy. Legally, under the laws of virtually every state and under federal law, once a human is entirely outside the mother and draws breath, or shows other signs of life such as heartbeat or movement of voluntary muscles, a live birth has occurred, and all the protections of law attach — whether or not the baby is “viable” (capable of long-term survival). At the stages of development at which most partial-birth abortions are performed, the great majority of babies would be legal “live births” if they were expelled by spontaneous premature labor, and many would be long-term survivors. For further discussion of the relationship between the legal definition of "live birth" and the legal definition of "partial-birth," click here.

In February 1997, Ron Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, told the New York Times that “in the vast majority of cases” the method is used on “a healthy mother with a healthy fetus that is 20 weeks or more along” (New York Times, Feb. 26, 1997). Twenty weeks is halfway through a full-term pregnancy — the middle of the fifth month.

ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION

The NRLC website contains the Internet's most expansive archive of documents pertaining to all facets of the debate over partial-birth abortion, here.

Any journalist or editorialist examining the issue of partial-birth abortion will benefit from reading "Partial-Birth Abortion: Misconceptions and Realities," a memo written by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. This memo addresses common misconceptions and misinformation about partial-birth abortion, with links to primary documents, including interviews with partial-birth abortionists and investigative reports in American Medical News, the New York Times, PBS, and other news media. The memo addresses these topics: the actual language and legal intent of the bill; why "partial-birth abortion" is a necessary and appropriate legal term of art that fits into the framework of existing law regarding what constitutes a "live birth"; how the media's use of the nebulous label "late-term abortion" distorts the debate over the law; whether President Bush's statement (November 5, 2003) that partial-birth abortion is violence directed against those who are "inches from birth" is medically and legally accurate; and polls of doctors, obstetricians, nurses, and the general public regarding the ban.

The memo also discusses how documented medical illustrations of two different abortion methods can allow the public to better evaluate claims and counterclaims on what the law actually covers and does not cover.

A collection of key documents (some of them real eye-openers) pertinent to various medical claims surrounding partial-birth abortion are posted here.

During the summer of 2004, U.S. District Judge Richard Casey presided over a trial in New York in one of the three legal challenges to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (National Abortion Federation v. Gonzales), during which he directly questioned a number of abortionists regarding how partial-birth abortions are performed. Attorney Cathy Cleaver Ruse's distillation of that revealing testimony, published in the Spring 2005 issue of the Human Life Review under the title "Partial-Birth Abortion on Trial," is posted in PDF format here.

We will be doing Cemetery of the Innocents on Tuesday February 20 and Wednesday February 21. We will set up Tuesday morning and take down Wednesday afternoon. Much help is needed because our display will consist of 4,000 wooden crosses, which need to be placed on the North Lawn. Please e-mail Natalia at nataliap@ufl.edu if you'd like to sign up for a shift. We especially need people to watch over the display overnight. Thanks.

Shoes protest abortion

By JORIE SCHOLNIK
Alligator Contributing Writer

Two signs stood on the Reitz Union North Lawn on Friday.

One read, "3,500 Americans are aborted daily." The other, "235 are lost to abortion each day in Florida and will never take their first step."

These signs accompanied the Pro-Life Alliance's display of 235 baby shoes, the number of abortions on an average day in Florida. A note was attached to each pair of shoes, including the date of an abortion, what the baby's name would have been and a personal message from the woman who had the abortion.

"We wanted to have a visual that was personal," said Natalia Pedraza, president of the Pro-Life Alliance.

One participant in the display, Alexa McGrory, 32, aborted an unwanted pregnancy six years ago after she found out that the would-be father was married and had two children of his own. She put a note on a pair of shoes in memoriam.

"If people are so proud of abortions, why do women keep it a secret?" McGrory asked. "I just want people to do their homework and know what they are doing."

Pro Life Week was great. Here is a recap of what we did from October 9 through the 13th:
Monday: Turlington Tabling/CSF Presentation
Tuesday: Baby Supplies Drive
Wednesday: Sidewalk Counseling at Bread and Roses
Thursday: Silent No More Awareness Campaign/Meeting featuring Mark Hall and Howard Groger
Friday: Baby Shoe Display

A big thank you to everyone who helped out throughout the week!

The Pro-Life Alliance at the University of Florida will be holding a car wash fundraiser on Saturday, September 16. But this is no ordinary car wash – it is part of the Wash for Life, a new pro-life youth event taking place all over the country. On September 16, groups across the nation will be holding car washes to raise money for Pregnancy Care Centers in their own areas. Information on how much money they collectively raised will be used to tell our nation that this generation is pro-life.

The Pro-Life Alliance at the University of Florida’s car wash will be held at 912 NW 13th Street from 10:00 a.m to 12:30 p.m 100% of your donation will go to the Women’s Resource Center – Gainesville. On September 16, bring your car to get washed, and help spread the culture of life!

Contact Marshall Kornegay – 850.322.6324 or nole8793@ufl.edu, if you have any questions. You can also visit the Wash for Life website, www.washforlife.org.

"Life Chain" simultaneous event in various cities nationwide
Date: October 1st- Sunday 2-3 pm
Where: Meet in Millennium Bank Parking lot at 1:45 pm (corner of NW 43rd St. & Newberry Rd.)
We will stand along Newberry Rd.

Encourage everyone to participate!

By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
June 14, 2006

Washington (CNSNews.com) - The head of the largest abortion provider in America declared Tuesday that she and her organization -- which accepts taxpayer funds -- intend to use their resources to "swing the vote" and "help progressive voices win" elections across the country.

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 7, 2006

Sarasota, FL (LifeNews.com) -- County commissioners in Manatee County in southwest Florida voted on Tuesday against a $10,000 grant for a local Planned Parenthood abortion business that had been suggested by the commissions children's services advisory board.