Boise Elites Finance Planned Parenthood Expansion

Ever heard of the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation? Or something called “Planned Parenthood Without Walls”? You soon will.

Planned Parenthood of Idaho has set its course on expanding into other communities, after establishing an office in Twin Falls, and financing a major expansion of its home offices in Boise.

Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood submitted a grant request to the Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation, asking for $21,850 to expand its operations into Canyon County and McCall. They call this initiative, “Planned Parenthood Without Walls”. Apparently their plan is to piggy-back in the offices of some doctor in those communities, so they can expand their reach with minimal overhead.

In its grant proposal, Planned Parenthood says it intends to go after low-income women and girls with cheap contraceptives and counseling – including abortion referrals. These “mini-clinics” will provide sex education materials and a variety of contraceptive devices, including no doubt, the “Morning After Pill”.

They claim they will be able to lure about 1000 new women and girls into each of the new clinics.

The women involved with this charitable foundation have, according to the Idaho Statesman, decided to give Planned Parenthood $10,000 – which will allow Planned Parenthood to open one of the clinics. I’m guessing that Canyon County will be the priority, largely because of its sizable minority community.

So what is the “Idaho Women’s Charitable Foundation”? It is an ad hoc group of 128 wealthy women, mainly from Boise, who donate $1000 each year to the Foundation. Half of the money is distributed each year in the form of grants. You’ll recognize the name of former Supreme Court justice Cathy Silak and Velma Morrison.

Planned Parenthood was one of four grant recipients this year.

We’ll follow this story for you in the weeks ahead.

Bill Introduced to Restore Parental Rights Over Birth Control

Concerned Women of America issued a news release last week, commending two Republican congressmen for sponsoring legislation that would require a parental notification when their teenagers get contraceptives. The Parents Right to Know Act would obligate clinics that receive federal funding under Title X to notify parents five days before dispensing condoms or drugs.

This legislation “recognizes that minor girls deserve their parents’ protection and support – especially when facing the constant and overwhelming pressure to be sexually active,” said Wendy Wright of the CWA.

And, I would add, this legislation would protect the health and welfare of teenagers, as well as recovering some ground for parental authority. Passing out condoms, birth control pills and even the “Morning After Pill” is like handing kids a green card to engage in premature sexual activity.

The legislation is sponsored in the Senate by Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, and in the House by Republican Todd Akin of Missouri. Senator Rick Santorum is a co-sponsor and said at a news conference that the purpose of the bill is to “allow parents to be parents”.

The “Sex Lobby” on Capitol Hill was, predictably, upset at the proposal. NARAL Pro-Choice America decried the trio as “anti-birth control zealots” determined to impose their values on America. NARAL, by contrast, believes in a “culture of personal freedom and personal responsibility”.

What such advocates won’t admit, of course, is the devastation their philosophy wrecks in the lives of our children.

We would encourage our listeners to contact Idaho’s congressional delegation to urge their support for the Parents Right to Know Act. In fact, there is no good reason why Senators Crapo and Craig could not co-sponsor this very important legislation.

Chinese Also Involved in Killing Babies for Vanity Treatments

We talked last week about the Russian trafficking in human babies, where cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies there are marketing miracle anti-aging treatments to the rich and vain. Apparently this is also an exploding problem in Asia – where the Chinese are selling 10-day stem cell treatment programs for a mere $30,000.. Twice a day, patients are injected with stem cells harvested from human embryos to treat things like wrinkles, expanding waste lines and other symptoms of maturity.

The President of the Australian Medical Association issued a public warning on Friday, warning people that these treatments were highly experimental; history contained numerous examples of the dangers such treatments posed.

But frankly, I am less concerned for the patients who seek such magical power over death than I am the powerless innocent who are being sacrificed for vanity and greed. And the trend toward a kind of “medical cannibalism” is, to say the least, disturbing.

I want to take a moment today to let our listeners know that we’ll be taking a break for the next couple months. We’ve been on the air each week day since the summer of 2001 and feel its time to take a little break.

The battle for preborn children will continue, you may be sure. We are preparing for work in federal court and will be distributing the Informed Consent pamphlet to schools and churches.

If you’d like to stay in touch over the summer – sign up for our weekly updates via email. Send me a note: director@IdahoChoosesLife.org and we’ll add you to the list, free of charge.

New Informed Consent Booklet Available

We have reported in previous editions of this news service that Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union has waged a nationwide, systematic effort to stop informed consent laws from being enforced. They seek to maintain a curtain around the reality of abortion – so that many women will feel comfortable thinking of abortion as a simple solution to a complex problem.

Take their efforts in Indiana. They have been waging war against women there since 1995 – claiming that the state statute would violate a woman’s “right to privacy”. Yep. Somehow, if a woman learns that she has options, that an abortion involves the destruction of a tiny human being, that an abortion may complicate her own health – her “rights” have been violated. It seems that elites running the modern “woman’s movement” have come to equate “privacy” with “enforced ignorance”.

The Indiana Supreme Court held a hearing on their latest drive this past week. We’ll let you know whether there is a righteous court left in the land.

And that reminds me: Idaho is quite a mess in this area as well. That’s why we produced our own “Informed Consent” booklet last year. We have distributed over 1000 of them. And we have just updated the information and received a new order.

They are available to you, local schools or churches – free of charge. If you know someone who is pregnant, who may be thinking of an abortion – order a copy of this booklet. Pastors, Sunday school teachers, youth group leaders – anyone who regularly comes into contact with teenagers should have a copy on hand.

Call us, toll-free, 1-877-341-LIFE.

New Studies Prove Value of Abstinence Education

With Planned Parenthood’s national drive for increased government funding of emergency contraception, it is important for us to consider a new study by the Heritage Foundation. It found that those teenagers who take virginity pledges have lower rates of sexually transmitted diseases than those who don’t take the pledge.

Now, for normal people out here in “red state America” – this finding is pretty much so obvious and common sensical that it would not warrant front page coverage in our county weeklies. But it is huge deal for the cultural elites who have been helping Planned Parenthood sell America on the notion that teenagers should be encouraged to experiment with sex. The New York Times, for instance, is just plain mad about the publication of the Heritage Foundation study. They have called the data in to question, citing numerous “experts”.

The Heritage study comes along after a national study in England which found an explosion of STDs among teens following the expansion of condom distribution and “Morning After Pills”.

And just last week, the U.S. Department of Health & Human publicized a study showing that abstinence education among the country’s youth works. Really works – for the long term health of our children. In releasing the study, Assistant Secretary Michael O’Grady said, “Abstinence education programs that help our young people address issues of healthy relationships, self-esteem, decision-making and effective communications are important to keeping them healthy and safe.”

And this is a central part of our never-ending struggle against the philosophies and corrupting influence of Planned Parenthood. Not only are there the terrible by-products of premature sexual activity, like STDs and pregnancies and abortions – there is the brokenness of our children’s lives.

Babies Killed to Treat Wrinkles

Be warned – this story outrageous and offensive.

WorldNetDaily is reporting that the cosmetic industry has hit upon a new and outrageous method for making money off the vanity of mankind. There’s heavy demand in Russia for aborted babies. Pseudo doctors are harvesting stem cells from the babies to prepare anti-aging therapies for the rich.

The article says that the stem cell injections are “the hottest thing among the Russian elite since Botox”.

Russian pharmaceutical billionaire Vladimir Bryntsalov is not only profiting from the demonic practice – priced at some $9,000 per treatment -- but uses the treatments himself.

“I had lots of wrinkles on my face, but now the skin is as smooth as a baby’s,” he is reported to have said. “I also had terrible scars on my body that were there since childhood, but they too have disappeared.”

Stem cells from human babies are not only being used to improve complexions – but as a treatment for excess flab and cellulite.

Some doctors and researchers are expressing outrage over the dark process, and the government is apparently conducting an investigation into an illegal baby market in which women are paid $200 for their aborted babies. According to the London Observer, women are paid even more if their abortions are late term.

The investigation began when border guards stopped a train coming out of the Ukraine in which they found 25 frozen babies being shipped to a “research” company in Moscow. Once there, the remains are thawed so that stem cells can be harvested.

How long will it be before the elites of our own culture begin pushing for legalization of this disgusting practice to satisfy their vainglorious pursuit of self? Ah – but perhaps this helps explain why Hollywood is so committed to embryonic stem cell research.

The Truth About Terri’s Autopsy

There has been a lot of spin coming from the Michael Schiavo camp in the days following the release of the official autopsy report on Terri Schiavo. For the most part, the national media has been happy to report that Terri’s condition was beyond hope. This is intended, of course, to put the final nail in Terri’s coffin – to rationalize her death as an act of the Good Samaritan.

But I have just received a press release from an internationally-renowned expert in treating brain-damaged patients. Dr William Hammesfahr is leading authority on the subject and has been nominated for a Nobel Prize. He is issuing the public statement in order to help correct the public misinformation – so that future “Terri Schiavos” can be protected from her fate.

The good doctor conducted a 10-hour examination of Terri prior to her death and has now carefully reviewed the findings of her autopsy. Here are come of his critical observations:

Terri’s brain was not reduced to mere fluid, as the advocates of her destruction claimed. In fact, the autopsy found that the frontal areas of her brain – the areas that deal with awareness and cognition were relatively intact. He compares Terri’s condition to that of a woman trapped in her body, similar to a child with cerebral palsy. The autopsy confirmed injury to the motor centers of the brain.

Dr. Hammesfahr challenges the finding that there was no neck trauma – because he saw evidence of neck injuries himself. The cause of her condition remains unexplained.

And then he concludes with this chilling statement: “Ultimately, based on the clinical evidence, an aware woman was killed.”

We can only ponder, with heavy hearts, the pain and horror that Terri endured in her final days.

A Genuine Love Story

Today, I’d like to share with you a story of love and hope in the midst of great tragedy; a story that ought to inspire us to greater, if less heroic, efforts to save those babies still threatened by needless slaughter.

Susan Torres is just 26 years old. She is pregnant – and is in a coma, following a stroke last month caused by an undiagnosed brain tumor. She and her family live in Virginia – her husband and their 2-year old boy, Peter.

Susan’s husband, Jason, has asked doctors to keep Susan on life support. He is fighting, with her, to keep their baby alive. Against long odds, the baby appears to be thriving – after some 21 weeks of gestation. Doctors tell him that if his wife can hang on for another month, and if the cancer stays away from her uterus – the baby could be delivered and have a chance. According to a report from USA Today, just 9 comatose women have been able to give birth in the United States since 1977.

Doctors at the hospital invited Jason to disconnect the machines keeping his wife and baby alive – but he refused, believing that Susan would have wanted to save their baby’s life. The first obstacle he faced was the grief; the second was financial. The couple has health insurance, but it may cover only a fraction of the $7500 daily price tag.

Jason Torres knows that he is doing the right thing. His wife refused a test for Down’s Syndrome during their first pregnancy because it implied that abortion might be an option if the baby were less than perfect.

He now spends most days with his wife, speaking to her of small things and big things.

I ask for your prayers on behalf of this heroic couple. Obviously they need an outpouring of love from God and God’s people.

Italian Voters Abstain From Attack on Human Embryos

Italy was among the first so-called “civilized” nations to adopt legalized abortion, despite its largely Catholic population. For many years, the Vatican has waged efforts to call Italians to repentance – including an unsuccessful public campaign waged by John Paul II in 1981.

But last week’s referendum on embryonic stem cell research and questionable fertility treatments has given rise to hopes that Italian public opinion may be moving back toward traditional Christian teaching on the sanctity of Life.

Italy has a fairly complicated election system. As I understand it – the Parliament there enacted tough restrictions on the medical community’s ability to use human embryos as a natural resource, including a ban on cloning and embryonic stem cell research. The law, enacted in 2004, also recognized human embryos as “fully human”.

Socialists in that nation were unhappy with the restrictions and waged a referendum to ease restrictions. Italians essentially turned them back last week by refusing to participate in the referendum process – which requires the participation of at least one-half of eligible voters. The new pontiff, Benedict XVI, issued urgent appeals to Catholic voters to stay away and abstain.

Apparently, large numbers heeded his call. Only 26% participated. The victory for preborn children has raised hopes that Italian culture may be ready to reinstate protections for all preborn children.

One socialist doctor, Dr. Giovanni Monni, is quoted by the Christian Science Monitor as saying the vote is a “disgrace. Italy must be the only country where you cannot destroy an embryo inside a test tube, but you can destroy it once it’s inside a woman.”

It appears this country has some more soul-searching to undergo.

Still, the electoral event seems to portend hope for God’s little ones. LifeNews.Com quotes Regional Affairs Minister Enrico La Loggia as observing, “Today’s Italy has proven to be different from that of yesterday, more attentive to the values of the Catholic tradition. These principles for the protection of life that are being affirmed today must be taken into account.”

Connecticut Republicans Seek to Embarrass the President on Abortion

In a couple weeks, the Connecticut GOP will hold its big annual gala – designed to build the party and raise big bucks. This dinner is also an opportunity to recognize some faithful Republican with the “Prescott Bush Award”, named for the grandfather of G.W.

Prescott Bush served in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1963, representing Connecticut.

This year’s award will go to abortion rights advocate Jennifer Blei Stockman. Ms. Stockman is the national co-chair of “Republican Majority for Choice”. She is also part of a national coalition, which includes the gay-rights group, “Log Cabin Republicans”, fighting alongside Democrats to block the President’s judicial nominees.

In various news stories, Ms. Stockman has chastised the Republican Party leadership under G.W. for courting the “extreme religious right” and allowing them to act as a “bullyboy” within the party’s ranks.

In announcing that Ms. Stockman would get the Bush Award, Republican Governor Jodi Rell claims that there is no message for the President, nor does she see the award as particularly embarrassing to the President.

On the other hand – the liberal governor made it clear that she, too, opposes the President on numerous domestic policies, including abortion. Ms. Stockman is being recognized for her dedicated efforts to recruit new people into the Republican Party and to help create a more “moderate blend” of politics at the state and national level.

Say what she will, Governor Rell knows full well that she is using this opportunity to stick a fork in the President’s eye. It is a pretty aggressive power play, aimed at remaking the Republican Party into a photocopy of the Democratic original. We are “blessed” with many of these same change agents here in Idaho.

Federal Court Ruling May Drive Backlash

Last week the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Virginia’s law which bans Partial Birth Abortions. This three-judge panel, with a reputation for being fairly conservative, split 2-1 on whether the PBA Ban had to have a “health” exception to be constitutional.

Two judges found that the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, absolutely requires that this abortion law – indeed, any abortion regulation – have an exception for “health” large enough to undermine the law in question. One might say the exception that eats the rule.

I bring this matter to your attention for a couple reasons.

First, there was a courageous dissenting judge, one Paul V. Niemeyer. He writes passionately about his personal disgust with a medical procedure that results in the killing of a partially-born infant. He accused his fellow judges of stretching the Constitution to the point of sanctioning infanticide.

Another reason for bringing this to your attention is that it demonstrates a profound challenge to our form of government.

Long-time listeners know that I have some real ambivalence about this whole drive to outlaw a single abortion procedure – while leaving more painful, macabre methods in place. Better to go after all late-term abortions than to focus so much resource on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.

And yet, we must look at this issue as a case study in judicial imperialism. A handful of black-robed elitists feel more than comfortable in thumbing their nose at Congress, legislatures and the American public. They will not make even this small accommodation to public sentiment or basic decency. Abortion must be free and easy – a ruthlessness which may lead to a fierce backlash.

Kansas Abortionist Loses License

An important story comes to us out of Kansas. Last week, more than two months after the Kansas Board of Healing Arts officially sanctioned him, the same board took final action when it stripped abortionist Krishna Rajanna of his medical license.

A board inspector made two surprise visits to Rajanna’s abortion clinic earlier this year, and found a host of health and safety violations. The inspector noted a dead mouse in the hallway. Patient syringes, loaded with various medications, were being stored in an unlocked refrigerator.

His fellow doctors concluded that his operation represented a danger to patients.

In trying to keep his clinic open, Rajanna argued that he provided a valuable service to low-income women at a reasonable price.

In response, the licensing board said that doctors should not operate lesser standards of health and safety merely because a clinic’s patients were poor.

Rajanna had been previously cited for failing to label medicines and syringes – and for failing to test his patients for blood type.

The latest round of failings was the subject of legislative hearings in the Kansas Legislature this year. In fact, the case helped drive passage of legislation requiring that abortion clinics in that state acquire a yearly license from the Kansas Department of Health & Environment.

But pro-abort Governor Kathleen Sebelius, supported with thousands in campaign cash from the likes of George Tiller, vetoed the bill. She argued that “medical professionals” should set standards for abortion clinics – not legislators.

Such lack of standards are the norm in the under-regulated abortion industry. It is yet one more way the Abortion Industry has let down those women who have believed their deceptions.

Women deserve better.

Manufacturing Humans at the Heart of Stem Cell Debate

Chuck Colson recently produced an excellent commentary on the issue of human cloning. It is worth sharing with you – especially since the United States Senate will soon be considering legislation challenging the President’s ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

His comments center on the news from South Korea last month that a team of scientists there has successfully cloned human beings in batches of eleven or more. Most media pundits in this nation expressed great pleasure at this “scientific breakthrough” – including an anchorwoman for the Fox News Channel.

For those of you finding it difficult to sort-out the complexities of this cloning/embryonic stem cell debate – don’t be too discouraged. The elites of our media have clearly taken a course of muddling the issue, using terms designed to confuse rather than illuminate.

Take the issue of cloning. It turns out that most Americans oppose human cloning; but some support using human embryos for research. Obviously, most Americans don’t understand that cloning is an essential part of the drive for human embryo stem cell research.

Some of the fans of this supposed miracle cure say they, too, oppose cloning – at least if it results in a fully developed human baby. They support something called “therapeutic cloning” – as if there was a difference. Chuck Colson cites one scientist who explains that the terminology is meant to deceive: “Attempting to make a distinction between different ends for cloning is like trying to say that eating for nutrition is somehow different from eating for pleasure.”

That analogy helps make clear that the purposes don’t change the fact that human beings are being manufactured for harvest.

Colson also points out that there are effective alternatives to treating human beings as mere means to our ends – adult stem cells and infant stem cells derived from the umbilical cord. According to Investor’s Business Daily, there have been over 250 clinical trials of various medial treatments using adult stem cells. These trials have already produced over 80 effective therapies.

Meanwhile – not a single clinical trial has been tried using cells harvested from human embryos. At the moment, the only thing being accomplished by this dark drive to clone and kill human beings is the moral degradation of the human race.

New Hampshire Case May Hold Big Gains for Idaho Families

I mentioned in passing a couple weeks ago the New Hampshire case dealing with Parental Notification in cases where a teenage girl wants an abortion. At the time, I didn’t know much about the case – but more information has come to light.

This case holds some major potential for Idaho families, and may change the outcome in Planned Parenthood’s new lawsuit against our amended Parental Consent Law.

What is interesting about this case, which the Supreme Court has agreed to review later this year, is that a central issue is whether parental involvement laws have to have a “health” exception in order to meet the high court’s strange interpretation of the Constitution. You’ll remember that Idaho’s original Parental Consent Law was struck down by the 9th Circuit on the grounds that our “health” exception was too narrowly drawn. We then amended the law to meet the 9th Circuit’s requirements – and the folks at Planned Parenthood promptly refiled a new lawsuit.

The more I’ve learned about the case, the more hopeful I am.

The New Hampshire law being tested has no exception for a girl’s health. The legislature there adopted it after reviewing an old Supreme Court ruling on Minnesota’s parental consent law – which also has no requirement for a health exception. The Supreme Court upheld the Minnesota law.

Nevertheless, a federal district judge in New Hampshire struck down the New Hampshire law because it had no health exception. That ruling was upheld by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals; in so doing, the appeals court referred to Supreme Court rulings in Casey and the 2000 Partial Birth Abortion case.

The fact that the high court has agreed to take the case suggests they may be on the verge of expanding states’ authority to regulate underage abortions – which would be great news for Idaho’s families.

Great Britain Leads Return to Barbarism

The slippery slope of abortion. Back when the Supreme Court first pronounced its edict of death, many thoughtful observers predicted that the ruling would open the way for numerous other threats to human dignity. All of that and more has come to pass.

Now that three decades have passed in which all preborn life is treated as nothing more than a parasitic growth in a woman’s body – the offensive has now been launched on the newly born.

The London Times reports that Great Britain’s top medical ethics expert, Baroness Warnock, is urging that nation’s medical community to let the youngest preemie babies simply die – rather than engaging the marvels of modern medicine to guard their lives.

Warnock, who helped frame Britain’s laws on embryonic stem cell research, believes that minimum ages should be set. In such cases, the medical community would be ordered by the government not to resuscitate any premature baby.

You might be surprised to learn that Britain’s head of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health agrees that this proposal ought to be seriously considered. You ought to be shocked to learn that the people of Holland – so in love with death – have already adopted a cut-off line for treatment of babies born prematurely.

These are markers of degradation in western civilization. After all, when one determines that certain members of the human family can be arbitrarily excluded – there are no principles left to defend. It becomes a barbaric standard of power – monetary or political.

These babies – wanted babies, I might emphasize – have simply been deemed by some as too “expensive”. No longer is the standard of “invaluable” to be applied to humanity.

Given the prestige and power of the woman presenting this policy option, it is impossible to simply dismiss this new threat to God’s little ones. Now even the born, the wanted, are no longer safe.

Planned Parenthood Protects Predators

A recent column by the National Review’s Rich Lowry is entitled, “Planned Parenthood Perversity – A Cautionary Tale of Abortion-Rights Extremists”. He rightly blasts the organization for fighting tooth-and-nail to protect sexual predators – those adult men who seek out young girls for their pleasure.

Often, Planned Parenthood sees these girls when it is necessary to dispose of the evidence. The organization is, apparently, a willing accomplice.

Witness the organization’s defiance of common morality and legal responsibility in Indiana. There they have fought the state’s Attorney General for months over whether they would release records of teenage girls on whom they performed abortions. Finally they have been ordered to by a district judge – though spokespersons have indicated they will try to block the AG’s investigation while they appeal to higher courts.

All of this is part of a national strategy to normalize premature sexual activity by teenagers. Planned Parenthood has produced materials suggesting that teenagers have a constitutional right to engage in sex; they advocate sexual activity as a normal and healthy part of growing up.

This philosophy is coming to bear in their battle against Idaho’s Parental Consent Law. Just last week, they filed new papers with Federal Judge Lynn Winmill, arguing that the provision of the law which required investigation of alleged sexual abuse of girls is unconstitutional. If a girl is getting an abortion because she is the victim of abuse – according to Planned Parenthood, the State, the community is supposed to turn a blind eye and do nothing.

I’d like to tell you that there was no way such reasoning would prevail before a distinguished federal judge; but the fact is, most judges agree with Planned Parenthood’s reasoning. Four years ago, Idaho Magistrate Mikel Williams struck down parts of the old Parental Consent Law which sought to protect girls from predators – including family members who may be abusing them. That protection, that simple standard of decency, fell victim to a legal system itself corrupted by the deepest perversity.

As we prepare to rejoin this court battle with the Death Lobby – we ask for your prayers.

Black Voice Rises Against Abortion

Star Parker, President of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (CORE), recently wrote a thoughtful piece on where we sit with respect to public support for “abortion rights”. It is a difficult and complex subject, but her perspective as a black woman makes it a particularly interesting column.

She’s entitled it, “Americans Ready to End Roe v. Wade, Despite Polls”. Ms. Parker looks at several polls and tries to make sense of public opinion.

She cites the Gallup Poll finding that 51% of Americans believe abortion is morally wrong. Then she refers to another poll by Quinnipiac University, claiming that 63% of Americans support Roe v. Wade. How is it possible for both data sets to be accurate?

Part of the answer can be found by looking a little deeper at the Gallup Poll. It found that only 23% of Americans support legalized abortion “under any circumstances”.

Put another way – a good chunk of America has come to view abortion as a readily abused option. The anxiety of most increases as the pregnancy lengthens, with nearly everyone opposed to late-term abortions; many polls show strong opposition to abortion as a birth control method, or abortions for economic or psychological reasons.

Yet the Supreme Court has slammed the gavel down on most of those conversations.

In fact, Ms. Parker believes that most Americans do not support the Supreme Court’s philosophy in the Roe decision, in which abortion is a fundamental constitutional right which must trump every other consideration. She believes that Americans want are hungry for a moral reformation in this country – beginning with wholesale changes in the ways we deal with difficult pregnancies.

And, that, she argues, entails a serious reformation of the nation’s judiciary. She warns those members of Congress who participated in the shameful deal on President Bush’s appointments that they will pay a price for avoiding responsibility and leadership.

Her provocative article concludes with a tremendous paragraph:

Americans know today that Roe v. Wade has pushed that envelope [of morality]. We live daily with [abortion’s] wholesale abuse of human life that devalues America and Americans. This loss of value and perspective has weakened us and made us less free. Far and away the worst toll is taken in the most vulnerable community, the African American community, where black women are three times more likely to have an abortion than their white counterparts.

Ms. Parker’s essay is a sobering message and powerful cry for renewed national leadership on the greatest challenge of our time.

Democrats Continue to Misrepresent Abortion Trend

There was a curious little debate running during the last presidential campaign. At a low noise level, just audible, pro-abort Democrats and their cronies in the media were making the argument that abortions had substantially increased during the president’s first term in office.

And just last week, the socialist leader of the Democrats, Howard Dean, repeated the charge. I guess it is part of the Democratic offensive to win over pro-Life voters. After all, if they can undermine confidence in Bush’s incremental strategy, a lot of folks just might be tempted to quit the fight, or at conclude that Bush is ineffectual and insincere.

I remember thinking at the time that the argument was a curious one for Democrats to make – as if intended to demonstrate that their “safe sex/contraceptives-at-your expense” strategy was more effective at reducing abortion rates.

There is just one problem with the charge: it is false.

A study by the Guttmacher Institute – Planned Parenthood’s own “research” arm – has recently published a study showing that the number of abortions actually declined during the first four years of the Bush Administration.

The analysis has, obviously, not stopped Democrats from celebrating the “failure” of George Bush’s policies.

According to one report, this whole business was started by a newspaper column by Glen Harold Stassen, an ethics professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. He described himself in the column last fall as “pro-Life” and lamented the rise in abortion rates under Bush. His analysis was that Bush’s harsh economic policies were driving poor women to abortion. In his rush to urge higher taxes, Stassen only checked a few states.

The truth is, evidence is overwhelming that restrictions drive down abortion numbers.