40 Days for Life campaign saves babies
This fall’s 40 Days for Life campaign, from September 25 through November 2, resulted in the lives of 454 unborn babies being saved from abortion. It was the largest 40 Days for Life campaign in history, with 505 cities in 30 countries participating. 40 Days for Life is the largest internationally coordinated pro-life mobilization in history, helping people in local communities end abortion through prayer and fasting, community outreach, and peaceful vigils outside abortion facilities.
The first 40 Days for Life campaign was held in 2007. Since that first campaign, 1,000,000 people have participated and 16,742 lives have been saved. A total of 196 abortion workers have quit their jobs and 104 abortion facilities have been closed. For more information about campaigns and how you may participate, visit www.40daysforlife.com.
Free abortions at California colleges and universities
In early October, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a radical law forcing 34 public colleges and universities to provide free abortions up to ten weeks of pregnancy. The legislation caused widespread concerns. Former Governor Jerry Brown, a pro-abortion Democrat, vetoed a similar bill in 2018, maintaining the measure was “not necessary” because abortions already are easily accessible to college students. Brown also said that the average distance of an abortion facility from campus was about 1.5 miles. Under Senate Bill 24, which passed the state Assembly 55-19, an estimated 6,000 abortions could occur yearly at California public universities.
California Family Council President Jonathan Keller argued that Newsom chose accolades of abortion activists over the safety of students saying, “Newsom ignored his own financial experts. He ignored the wisdom of a two-term governor from his own party. He ignored university officials who didn’t want to bear the liability and cost of on-campus abortions. Sadly, it appears Governor Newsom’s commitment to discredited groups like Planned Parenthood overruled legitimate concerns about turning America’s largest higher education system into a chemical abortion network.” [Lifenews.com, 10/15/19]
World Medical Association opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide
In an October meeting, the World Medical Association met in Tbilisi, Georgia, to address euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The 70th WMA General Assembly adopted a strong declaration saying, “The WMA reiterates its strong commitment to the principles of medical ethics and that utmost respect has to be maintained for human life. Therefore, the WMA is firmly opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.” The organization also took a strong stand against coercion of medical workers saying, “No physician should be forced to participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide, nor should any physician be obliged to make referral decisions to this end.” [Lifenews.com, 10/28/19]
33 states pass 479 pro-life laws in last decade
Since 2011, a record 479 pro-life laws have been passed in 33 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s former research arm. Since 1973, states have passed 1,217 pro-life laws. This means that more than one-third of all pro-life laws in the U.S. have passed in the last decade. As the abortion industry has strongly pushed an increasingly radical pro-abortion agenda, pro-lifers have stepped up efforts to elect leaders who are committed to passing legislation to protect unborn babies in the womb.
Those laws have included banning abortions at a gestational age, protecting babies from discrimination based on gender or disability, and laws that ban abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, along with other protections. These laws are aggressively challenged by the abortion industry in court. However, a May Hill-HarrisX poll show that a majority of Americans do not think laws banning abortions after six weeks — when an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable — are too restrictive. A poll by Morning Consult research firm found that 61 percent of all Americans want all or almost all abortions made illegal. A Harvard University poll found that a majority would want the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade. [Lifenews.com, 6/18/19, 6/20/19]
Jury rules against journalist Daleiden
In 2015, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), led by David Daleiden, conducted a 30-month undercover investigation that exposed Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of body parts from aborted babies. Videos showed Planned Parenthood executives haggling over the prices of livers, lungs, hearts and other organs. Videos can be viewed at CMP’s website at www.centerformedicalprogress.org.
Planned Parenthood sued CMP, Daleiden, and some fellow activists for fraud, illegal recording, and breaking confidentiality agreements. However, the abortion giant did not dispute the content of the videos. During six weeks of proceedings, U.S. District Judge William Orrick, an Obama appointee who has known ties to Planned Parenthood, prevented the jury from seeing nearly all of CMP’s videos. He also repeatedly cut off the defense’s questioning. Judge Orrick directly influenced the way the jury considered the issues and blocked them from viewing the recorded conversations on the undercover videos. Orrick also told members of the jury that they couldn’t look at this as a First Amendment case. He also said the case is not about Planned Parenthood’s illegal or unethical conduct. The judge determined that the jury could not consider the content of the videos themselves to help determine whether the defendants had reasonable belief that Planned Parenthood was committing crimes. No other citizen journalist or journalism organization has ever been charged with a crime for undercover recordings made in the public interest.
The verdict against CMP was announced on November 15. The jury awarded approximately $2 million in alleged damages. Daleiden responded, “This is a dangerous precedent for citizen journalism and First Amendment civil rights across the country, sending a message that speaking truth and facts criticizing the powerful is no longer protected by our institutions.” The ruling will be appealed. [Lifenews.com, 11/19/19, 11/18/19; www.wng.org, 11/18/19, 11/19/19]
Planned Parenthood facility injures three women in five days
In October, the Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood abortion facility on Bleeker Street in New York City injured three women in five days in botched abortions. The emergencies occurred on October 3, October 5, and October 7 at Planned Parenthood’s flagship abortion facility. All three women were transported in ambulances to local hospitals. Several weeks later, on November 14, an ambulance responded to another medical emergency. Operation Rescue has documented 32 medical emergencies at the facility, 13 of them this year.
New York’s passage of the Reproductive Health Act in January, 2019 removed all protections for unborn babies, allowing abortion up to birth. Operation Rescue President Troy Newman explained, “Abortion facilities now know they will never be held accountable for shoddy practices, so that is exactly what women are getting in New York. This is an object lesson in the benefits of strong pro-life laws.” [Lifenews.com, 10/8/19, 11/18/19]
Protecting unborn Down syndrome babies
Republicans in both the U.S. House and Senate recently introduced bills to protect unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome. The Down Syndrome Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act imposes a fine and imprisonment of up to five years for abortionists who kill an unborn baby simply because she has the chromosomal abnormality. Privacy protections for pregnant mothers are included in the bills that forbid coercion and safeguard them from prosecution. Similar laws have taken effect in Kentucky, Louisiana, and North Dakota. Measures passed in Ohio and Indiana are currently tied up in courts. The most recent statistics available to the public estimated that 67 percent of unborn babies with Down syndrome are aborted in the United States, 77 percent in France, 98 percent in Denmark and 100 percent in Iceland. [www.wng.org, 11/19/19; Lifenews.com, 9/22/19]
