IFRL NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY

IFRL NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY

Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information.

American Jewish Rabbis Show Solidarity with Vatican against Obama's Anti-Life Measures

Rabbis say: "We stand shoulder to shoulder" with the Vatican in Defending Life and Family

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for Rabbinical Alliance of America, will be in Rome Thursday meeting with high ranking Vatican officials. While there he will express solidarity regarding the recent Vatican criticisms of US President Barack Obama and his executive order which has permitted US taxpayer funds to be given to organizations performing and lobbying for abortion internationally.

Levin will be representing over 800 Orthodox Jewish Rabbis who form the Rabbinical Alliance of America. His visit is being coordinated by the Rome office of Human Life International.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012706.html


Washington Times: Obama's Abortion War

No sooner had President Obama taken the oath of office than he betrayed two of his campaign promises. In pledging to unite us, not divide us, he promised to find common ground on cultural issues, especially to search for ways to reduce the number of abortions. He thus won the vote of many pro-life voters who believed they could find compromise measures to America's most contentious domestic policy issue. In fact, Mr. Obama secured 54 percent of the Catholic vote, many of whom are staunchly pro-life. Yet, on late Friday afternoon, in as quiet a manner as possible, the president repealed the ban on U.S. funding for foreign family planning aid groups that offer abortion services. This means that American tax dollars can now be used to provide abortions around the world; America is back in business as Doctor Death to millions of the world's babies. Democrats and Republicans have fought for more than twenty years over this. Ronald Reagan first introduced the ban in 1984; Bill Clinton overturned it in 1993; George Bush re-instated it in 2001. Now, Mr. Obama has declared a culture war right from the outset of his presidency - an act of pure political folly as he will immediately squander much goodwill.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/28/obamas-abortion-war/


Fight Over MASSIVE Planned Parenthood Building

Activists tried Tuesday to put pressure on Houston city council members over the growth of a Planned Parenthood center southeast of downtown. The Planned Parenthood organization has outgrown its current headquarters in Houston's Midtown neighborhood, so it's building a much larger facility along the Gulf Freeway near the University of Houston and TSU. Its construction brought out anti-abortion activists to city hall. "When open, it will be the largest abortion center in the western hemisphere," said anti-abortion activist Christine Melchor. "It will include an ambulatory surgical center where Planned Parenthood will have the capability of performing abortions on unborn children through six months of pregnancy."
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6626560&rss=rss-ktrk-article-6626560


Groups Deliver Petitions Against Proposed UW Abortion Clinic

Anti-abortion and Christian groups gathered at the Wisconsin state Capitol Tuesday and delivered more than 20,000 signatures on a petition opposing a proposed late-term abortion clinic in Madison. The proposed clinic at the Madison Surgery Center would be a joint venture between the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Meriter Hospital. Some physicians at Meriter Hospital are speaking out against the clinic. Dr. Bill Evans, a surgeon at Meriter Hospital, was at the gathering Tuesday and shared a letter signed by a dozen of his colleagues who believe abortion is wrong. Meriter and UW hospitals haven't finalized plans to locate the abortion clinic in Madison, but they have been considering it recently because the services are currently not offered in the area.
http://www.channel3000.com/news/18579095/detail.html


Pelosi on Kids: They're an Economic Drain

Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that it was necessary to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on family planning services in order to stimulate the economy. Pelosi maintained that "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."
http://www.standardnewswire.com/news/920233830.html


Killing for Organs?

Wesley Smith writes an important post concerning organ donation after cardiac death, a protocol driven practice that begins with removing ICU-type life support and ends with Organ procurement:

    ... the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine calls into question the entire concept of DCD. For example, withdrawing life support often doesn't lead to immediate cardiac arrest, and some patients don't die at all.

Some patients are managed as potential donors rather than as dying patients and some suggest that organ procurement should be more aggressive...
http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2009/01/killing_for_org.php