Wednesday, January 22, 2020

BEN VOTH - AMERICA'S MOST SUCCESSFUL HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN: THE PRO LIFE MOVEMENT - In fact, the American pro-life movement may be one of the greatest successes for human rights and general well-being occurring in the 21st century.

America’s Most Successful Human Rights Campaign: The Pro Life Movement

Abortion is among the most controversial and debated topics in the United States.  As a college professor and debate coach of 25 years, I can easily observe that the most restricted civil right on campuses is the right to speak on behalf of unborn children.  Campus displays and signs by pro-life student groups are regularly vandalized, defaced, torn down, or counterprotested.  It would be easy for these movements to perhaps feel defeated or doomed.  But on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade it is important to observe that they are not failing.  In fact, the American pro-life movement may be one of the greatest successes for human rights and general well-being occurring in the 21st century.
In observing these campus displays for decades, I noted that initially activists often erect displays of thousands of crosses to represent the numbers of abortions performed each day in America against an unborn child.  In the 1990s, these displays featured 4,000 crosses.  Today, these displays feature 3,000 crosses.  Of course, every one is a tragic result.  Nonetheless, this simple statistical change is an empirical measure of profound success.  The abortion rate in the United States has declined by 25% since a peak in the 1980s.  Pro-life activists do not need to feel defensive or antagonized about this because their opponents continually explain: ‘we are not pro-abortion.’  So everyone is happy that abortion is declining dramatically in the United States.  The nation’s largest provider of abortions, Planned Parenthood, may not be making as much profit as a result but the larger question of justice is more secure. 
Attending to the details of this statistic is important.  According to the Guttmacher institute -- an organization that agrees with the legality of abortion -- the rate of abortion among women age 15-44 has declined from roughly 27 per 1,000 women to around 15 per 1,000 women.  The number of abortions per 100 pregnancies has declined from about 27 to about 20.  This means that women are choosing not to have abortions.  This means the arguments of pro-life groups are succeeding.  This means that for the past 25 years roughly 1,000 more children have been born every day because their mothers chose life for them.  By contrast, in 2015 in India 33 out of 100 pregnancies ended in abortion.
These profound results are more significant with regard to the cause of human justice.  As an institutional practice, abortion is a racist and sexist endeavor.  One of the most important original advocates of abortion, Margaret Sanger, envisioned this weapon within a larger set of birth control policies aimed at removing “human weeds” from the “garden of humanity.”  In her book Pivot of Civilization, Sanger wrote her convictions that humanity was a beautiful garden of plants besieged by those who were unfit -- the other races.  Sanger believed that removing black people and non-white ethnic groups would keep the garden strong and effective at producing those desirable fruits.  These repugnant convictions are losing in the court of public opinion and among those people most able to affect this profound moral choice:  women.
Abortion is sexist because in dehumanizing the unborn child, it frees all forms of human prejudice to take aim at an allegedly non-human object:  the unborn child.  This is why nothing is presently making the world more masculine and non-woman than abortion. Every year, roughly 40 million abortions take place.  The strong majority of abortions in the world are directed at female children because females are viewed globally as inferior to males.  The choice to kill women before they are born is making the world more male -- especially across Asia from India to China.  Though it is illegal to do this in India and China, both nations struggle to prevent social bigotry against women from killing them before they are born. It is important to note that it is perfectly legal to abort a child in the United States because she is female.  Abortion is anti-woman and reductions in abortion have saved women’s lives. Academics are eagerly awaiting the 2021 census in India because it will give us an important guide to this important global question of whether we can convince the world that women are as worthy in their humanity as men.  The 2011 census showed that more educated and affluent communities of India were choosing more frequently to abort female children.
As we observe another anniversary of Roe v. Wade, those who argue and advocate for the dignity of unborn children should be encouraged that this violence is subsiding.  Moreover, all persons who profess to oppose abortion, whether through a legal system or a more welcoming social structure regarding pregnancies, can be glad that more children are surviving pregnancy.  It is entirely possible that in the next few decades this violence will come to a complete end. 
Dr. Ben Voth is an associate professor of communication and director of debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.  He is the author of three academic books one the importance of debate in global and American public affairs.   



PLANNED PARENTHOOD ENDORSES SUSAN COLLINS RIVAL: In the Senate, Susan Collins is one of very few Republicans to support abortion rights, but on Tuesday Planned Parenthood announced that this election it would be supporting her Democratic rival, Sara Gideon, speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. Collins lost the support of Planned Parenthood over her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This week she is once again a highly watched centrist amid the impeachment trial.




Texas Towns Vote to Be ‘Sanctuary Cities’ for Unborn

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 20: Pro-Life protestors demonstrating on August 20, 2019 in Martin Place, Sydney, Australia. The protesters oppose the NSW abortion bill which will decriminalise Abortion. The rally organisers say it will allow abortion for any reason until birth and won’t prevent sex selection terminations. A vote on …
James Gourley/Getty
4:54



Four Texas towns voted over the last two weeks to become “sanctuary cities” for the unborn, seeking to outlaw abortion within their boundaries should the U.S. Supreme Court make it possible for them to do so.
The city councils of Gary, Big Spring, Colorado City, and Rusk, have all voted to approve the “sanctuary city” ordinance that has grown increasingly popular in East Texas.
In June 2019, the city of Waskom, Texas became the first in the nation to declare itself a “sanctuary city for the unborn.”
In Gary, the ordinance stated, in part, that the city “finds that the United States Constitution has established the right of self-governance for local municipalities.”
“[A] surgical or chemical abortion is the purposeful and intentional ending of a human life,” the ordinance continued, “and is murder ‘with malice aforethought’ since the baby in the womb has its own DNA, and at certain points in pregnancy has its own heartbeat and its own brainwaves.”
The Gary City Council asserted the U.S. Supreme Court “erred in Roe v. Wade …  when it said that pregnant women have a constitutional right to abort their unborn children, as there is no language anywhere in the Constitution that even remotely suggests that abortion is a constitutional right.”
“We declare Gary, Texas to be a Sanctuary City for the Unborn,” the document stated. “It shall be unlawful for any person to procure or perform an abortion of any type and at any stage of pregnancy in the City of Gary, Texas.”
The Gary City Council also banned the sale of emergency contraception, such as Plan B, within the city’s limits.
According to the Panola Watchman, Right to Life East Texas Executive Director Mark Lee Dickson urged the Gary City Council to adopt the ordinance, especially given the possibility of increased abortion restrictions in nearby Louisiana.
“We know that if the abortion industry shuts down in Louisiana, there has been talk in the past of them just crossing the border,” Dickson said. “There are two border cities that we know for sure were a target at one time, and two cities have already along the border passed this ordinance, and other cities throughout Texas because we want to make sure all of Texas is safe.”
Dickson said even though abortion is legal in the United States, cities have a right to ban the procedure within their boundaries:
Throughout cities and our country, there’s a lot of things that are outlawed that are legal, quote unquote. Engine breaks in certain cities, no engine break in this city. Well, that’s a legal action, but it’s prohibited in some areas. California … look at what they’re doing, they’re banning straws in certain cities, plastic straws. They’re banning cigarettes; in some areas we have cities that have said no selling cigarettes at all. And, so, outlawed smoking, etc. And, so, all these things prohibiting something, it’s what cities do, and they do it, why? To protect the health, welfare and often the sanity of their residents.
Dickson continued that neither Roe v. Wade nor Planned Parenthood v. Casey – the Supreme Court case that upheld Roe, stating laws cannot make obtaining an abortion an “undue burden” on women – assert that every city in the United States must offer abortions.
The ordinance, Dickson said, according to the Watchman, “does not violate Roe v. Wade.”
“It says that Roe v. Wade is an unjust court opinion, but it does not violate anything regarding that,” he explained. “But what it does say is if an abortion happens within the city limits of Gary, then the abortionist can be fined $2,000. Anyone who aids and abets the abortionist can also be fined $2,000. It does not penalize the mother at all.”
The city councils of Big Spring – population 28,000 – and Colorado City – population 4,000 – also voted in favor of similar ordinances, declaring themselves “sanctuaries of the unborn,” reported the Texas Tribune.
While the city council of Big Spring will need to vote again to finalize the ordinance, that of Colorado City is settled on it.
As the Tribune noted, after the town of Rusk also declared itself a sanctuary of the unborn two weeks ago, Colorado City is now the eighth local government to approve the ordinance.
According to the news report, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is exploring a possible legal challenge to the ordinances. In response to the threat, the towns of Mineral Wells, Omaha, and Jacksboro have reportedly backed away from approving similar measures.
Still, Dickson said his pro-life organization has “every intention of targeting every part of the state.”
“Every city, no matter what size, is valuable,” he said.






Planned Parenthood Did a Record 345,672 Abortions in FY18; Then Received a Record $616.8 Million in Government Money

By Michael W. Chapman | January 9, 2020 | 10:30am EST

(CNSNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood's latest annual report, for 2018-2019, shows that the abortion giant performed a record 345,672 abortions in fiscal 2018 and received a record $616.8 million in government reimbursements and grants in the year that ended on June 30, 2019.. 
For the time period of Oct. 1, 2017 through Sept. 30, 2018, Planned Parenthood offices performed 345,672 abortions, according to the annual report.
Also, Planned Parenthood offices received $616.8 million in government health services reimbursements and grants for the year ending June 30, 2019. 
(Getty Images)
"Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) and is not a private foundation (Tax ID #13-1644147)," states the annual report. "Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent available under the law. Planned Parenthood affiliates have the same tax status."
“We learned two tragic facts from Planned Parenthood’s newly released annual report: that the number of children Planned Parenthood killed in the womb is at a record high and, shockingly, so is the amount of money it received from taxpayers," said Alison Centofante, director of External Affairs for Live Action.

"This abortion machine, which is responsible for the taking of more than 345,000 preborn lives this year– a number consistently on the rise -- should be defunded immediately and shut down," she said.
In a September 2016 letter urging people to join his Pro-Life coalition, Donald Trump stated that he was committed to "defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions, and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women."
(Getty Images)
"Together we can form this vital coalition so that Mike Pence and I can be advocates for the unborn and their mothers every day we are in the White House," stated Trump. 
In 2017-18, Planned Parenthood performed 332,757 abortions (10/1/16--9/30/17) and received $563.8 million in government reimbursements and grants (for the year ending June 30, 2018). Adjusted for inflation from June 2018 to June 2019 = $573.09 million. 
In 2016-17, Planned Parenthood performed 321,384 abortions and received $543.7 million in reimbursements and grants. Adjusted for inflation from June 2017 to June 2019 = $568.53 million.
A human baby murdered by saline-injection abortion. (Priests for Life)
In 2015-16, Planned Parenthood did 328,348 abortions and took in $554.6 million in government reimbursements and grants. Adjusted for inflation from June 2016 to June 2019 = $589.40 million.
In 2014-15: 323,999 abortions; $553.7 million in reimbursements and grants. Adjusted for inflation from June 2015 to June 2019 = $594.31 million.
In 2013-14: 327,653 abortions and $528.4 million in government reimbursements and grants. Adjusted for inflation from June 2014 to June 2019 = $567.86 million.
In 2012-13: 327,166 abortions and $540.6 million in reimbursements and grants. Adjusted for inflation from June 2013 to June 2019 = $593.01 million.
In 2011-12: 333,964 abortions and $542.4 million in government reimbursements and grants (for year ended June 2012). Adjusted for inflation from June 2012 to June 2019 = $605.42 million.
2010-2011: 329,445 abortions and  $538.5 million in government health services grants and reimbursements. Adjusted for inflation from June 2011 to June 2019 = $611.07 million.
(Getty Images)
2009-2010: 331,796 abortions and $487.4 million in government grants and reimbursements. Adjusted for inflation from June 2010 to June 2019 = $572.77 million.
2008-2009: 324,008 abortions and $363.2 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2009). Adjusted for inflation from June 2009 to June 2019 = $431.31 million.
2007-2008: 305,310 abortions and $349.6 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2008). Adjusted for inflation from June 2008 to June 2019 = $409.28 million. 
2006-2007: 289,750 abortions and $336.7 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2007).  Adjusted for inflation from June 2007 to June 2019 = $413.93 million.
(Getty Images)
2005-2006: 264,943 abortions and $305.3 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2006). Adjusted for inflation from June 2006 to June 2019 = $385.41 million. 
2004-2005: 255,015 abortions and $272.7 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2005). Adjusted for inflation from June 2005 to June 2019 = $366.28 million.
2003-2004: 244,628 abortions and $265.2 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2004). Adjusted for inflation from June 2004 to June 2019 = $366.78 million.
2002-2003: 227,375 abortions and $254.4 million in government grants and contracts. Adjusted for inflation from June 2003 to June 2019 = $385.62 million.
2001-2002: 213,026 abortions and $240.9 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2002). Adjusted for inflation from June 2002 to June 2019 = $348.41 million.
2000-2001:  197,070 abortions and $202.7 million in government grants and contracts (for year ended June 30, 2001). Adjusted for inflation from June 2001 to June 2019 = $296.51 million.




ABORTION KI LLS…. the innocent!
PLANNED PARENTHOOD:
America’s baby murdering factories…. Your tax dollars at work

“I Cut the Vocal Cord So The Baby Can't Scream.”



Dr. Leah Torres, an OB/GYN in Salt Lake City, Utah, said that when she performs certain abortions she cuts the vocal cord of the baby so "there's really no opportunity" for the child to scream. She also described herself as a "uterus ripper outer" because she performs hysterectomies.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: ‘Our Lives Depend On’ Protecting Abortion Rights



By Craig Bannister | May 24, 2019 | 12:57 PM EDT
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) (Getty/Steve Pope)
“Our lives depend on” protecting abortion rights, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) claimed Friday in response to breaking news that restrictions on the termination of unborn babies in Missouri had been signed into law.
Reacting to an Associated Press (AP) story that Missouri’s new law bans abortion at the eighth week of pregnancy, Sen. Gillibrand tweeted that women’s lives depend on forcefully fighting back:
“Women can't afford for us to take half-measures in response to an all-out onslaught on their rights. We have to fight back like our lives depend on it. They do.”
According to the AP story, Missouri’s abortion ban includes exceptions when the life or physical health of the mother is endangered by pregnancy:
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday signed a bill that bans abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy without exceptions for cases of rape or incest, making it among the most restrictive abortion policies in the nation.
The measure includes exceptions for medical emergencies, such as when there is a risk of death or permanent physical injuries to “a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.”
What Is It With Democrats And Death?

https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2019/05/26/what-is-it-with-democrats-and-death-n2546898

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They oppose legislation to prevent them from being killed. They pass legislation that seeks ways to ensure their death. They make outlandish and ridiculously stupid claims as justification to do so. And when presented with evidence to the contrary they flinch.
Recently I found myself in a conversation with perhaps the single most influential person not currently in elective office in New York City.
We were discussing the impact of the six or seven states that have adopted “heartbeat bills” and Alabama’s recently passed nearly 100% abortion ban.
This person’s observation specifically: “If Republicans don’t stop with the pro-life issue, they will push women to vote for... (dramatic pause inserted) ...Democrats.”
So Democrats are supported by those who want the right to see their children dead.
In New York it was the Democrat elected Assembly and governor who passed, signed into law, and then gave themselves a standing ovation on the dead-of-night passage of that state’s new legalization of killing children after they had been born.
In Virginia it was a Democrat governor who eerily described on morning radio step by step what happens when they decide whether a born child has the right to live or be killed.
On Friday, at a gathering of nearly 1300 New York City/Tri-State area pastors, those gathered learned that Democrats have opposed the expansion of crisis pregnancy centers, while actively pushing for the expansion of abortion facility licenses. This happening while three NYC Democrat-controlled zip codes are the only ones where abortions outnumber live births.
Democrats often claim that to be in favor of killing of children is to be “pro-woman.” Yet they refuse to acknowledge that their policies have ushered in the death of more than 30 million women in recent years.
Democrats claim that no child should be forced to live a life unwanted—that every child—they argue should know a life of love. Yet they fail to recognize that at any single point in time there are somewhere around 2 million couplesseeking adoption while last year Americans killed a touch more than 800 thousand innocent babies in 2018. 
Democrats have argued for mandatory tax-payer funding for low income women to have their children killed without having to pay for it. They have also turned around and resisted efforts by then President George W. Bush to incentivize and encourage marriage  which statistically speaking provides greater financial and emotional security for the woman and the child.
Democrats argue in favor of government administrated gun control laws—which leave children in high crime areas far more vulnerable. Democrats argue against common gun ownership by law abiding citizens which again would by law leave children at the mercy of criminals. Democrats almost unilaterally ignore the gunman’s choices in school shootings. They also never fail to condemn gun makers. The very gun makers that produced the tools used to stop most school shooters.
Democrats refuse to assist the children separated from real families (not the coyote rapists) in the current immigration crisis. Democrats also looked the other way when President Clinton signed the family separation law, and President Obama began to enforce it.
And this week Nancy Pelosi led the charge of Democrats and for the fiftieth consecutive time were able to kill legislation that prevented post birth killing of children already born. Akin to the dead of night New York State Assembly vote—Democrats on the national stage voted to keep the killing of born children—legal.
They claim it’s all about compassion.  They cite statistics that are in themselves so small that they—statistically speaking—almost never come into play. Or do they?
Bottom line Democrats argue in favor and tirelessly work for the death of children—born and unborn.
I just don’t get why. 
It seems to me to be very cruel and completely lacking in the compassion they too often invoke.
Kevin McCullough's Latest Books including The Kind of Man Every Man Should Be: Taking a Stand for True Masculinity are available on Amazon 
Anti-abortion activists participate in the "March for Life," an annual event to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the US, outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, January 18, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

25 GOP Senators Urge That Spending Bills Protect Pro-Life Measures


May 24, 2019 Updated: May 26, 2019
Twenty-five Republican members of the Senate urged Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) on May 23 to preserve “all long-standing pro-life and religious freedom protections in all appropriations bills” that advance out of the committee.
The senators also appealed to Shelby “that you do not advance as bill-text any language that weakens pro-life and religious liberty actions taken by the Trump administration.
“The unborn are the most vulnerable members of our society, yet they are under attack. In 2015 alone, 638,169 unborn children lost their lives to abortion,” they said.
“This is a terrible tragedy, and we must continue to prevent federal funding from supporting the unjust practice of elective abortion.”
The 25 signers of the letter to Shelby include:
Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), James Risch (R-Idaho), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
The signers also told Shelby that “the right to live and worship in accordance with one’s religious beliefs is a bedrock principle of the American founding. The First Amendment of the Constitution prohibits Congress from interfering in the free exercise of religion. With this in mind, it is critical to retain the longstanding riders in appropriations legislation that safeguard the ability of citizens to live out their faith.”
The letter to Shelby comes against a backdrop of aggressive moves by pro-life advocates to win passage of new legislation that significantly limits when abortions can be performed.
In Alabama, for example, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a measure that effectively bans all abortions and contains no exceptions for rape or incest, making the new law the nation’s toughest.
Other states considering similarly restrictive measures include Missouri and Texas.
The aggressive pro-life campaigns followed actions in New York in which pro-abortion advocates succeeded in gaining passage of a measure that essentially makes the procedure available right up to the point of a baby’s birth.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the measure amid a celebration with pro-abortion advocates.
The federal measures the 25 senators seek to protect have been in place in one form or another since passage in 1976 of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funding of abortions. The amendment was named after former Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.).
A recent Government Accounting Office report said Planned Parenthood (PP) received more than $1.5 billion from the government between 2013 and 2015. Planned Parenthood says it uses federal dollars for non-abortion-related expenses.
Nationwide, PP clinics performed more than 320,000 abortions during each of those years.
President Donald Trump renewed the Protecting Life in Global Health Policy initiative in 2017 that bars U.S. foreign-aid dollars from being used to pay for abortions.
The policy was first instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 during a United Nations conference in Mexico City and was continued by President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush. Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did not observe the Mexico City policy.
The 25 senators also encouraged Shelby to ensure that “no riders be added that would threaten” Trump’s renewal of the Mexico policy, and they noted that a recent Marist poll “showed that 75 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion abroad.”

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