California ProLife Council News 

Pro-Life News Briefs
Week of December 21, 2007
 

REPUBLICAN VOTERS IN IOWA SAY ABORTION A TOP ISSUE; TRUST HUCKABEE, ROMNEY
Des Moines, IA -- As the Iowa caucus approaches, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Republican voters there say abortion is one of the top issues they will use to determine their vote. The poll also showed that Republican voters trust Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney the most to handle abortion issues as president. Asked to name the "single most important issue in your choice for the Republican candidate for president," 9 percent of Republican voters cited abortion.
That placed abortion fourth among nineteen issues cited by GOP voters as their most important concern. Asked to name the second-most important issue in determining the vote, another 6 percent of GOP voters cited abortion. Combining the answers to the top two key issues, abortion again came in fourth, cited by 15 percent of all Republicans as the most or second-most important. Source: LifeNews, December 21, 2007

HILLARY CLINTON AVOIDS QUESTION ON ABORTION AND SOCIAL SECURITY PROBLEMS
Des Moines, IA -- Campaigning in Iowa with just two weeks to go before the first presidential battles begin, pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton largely avoided a question of how abortion is hurting social security. A woman in the audience said abortion is going to make it harder to keep the system afloat. Joanne Duncalf, a 61-year-old from Clarion, Iowa, asked the kind of question that normally doesn't come up at a Clinton campaign stop. Duncalf asked Clinton her thoughts on how to fix Social Security so the program for seniors will be around when her children are ready to retire. According to a Des Moines Register report, she followed up with a second question and explained that, if abortion hadn't been responsible for killing 50 million Americans, the system may be more solvent than it is now with more people in the workforce contributing to it. "I'm very disappointed," Duncalf said, that "we're not doing more to save those babies." Clinton initially avoided the question by making a comment on the large red hat Duncalf wore. She eventually got to the abortion aspect of the question but simply said she has worked to keep abortion "safe, legal, rare."
The New York senator said there is time to fix Social Security and blamed Republican presidential candidates for scaring voters by saying it has problems. The question of abortion and its adverse impact on the Social Security system is one that doesn't get much attention. Former U.S. Senator Zell Miller spoke about the impact and in March at a fundraiser for a Georgia pregnancy center. "If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country, they would be filling our jobs, they would be paying into Social Security," he asserted. Source: LifeNews, December 21, 2007

BARACK OBAMA, JOHN EDWARDS TOUT PRO-ABORTION POSITIONS IN NEW SURVEY
Washington, DC -- Democratic candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards touted their pro-abortion positions in a candidate questionnaire presented to them by RH Reality Check, a web site for hard-core pro-abortion activists. They and second-tier candidate Chris Dodd were the only Democrats seeking the presidency to respond. Obama's campaign staff answered the questionnaire for the Illinois senator and said "Throughout his career, Senator Obama has consistently championed [abortion.]" His staff pointed out that Obama has consistently earned 100 percent marks from pro-abortion groups during both his Senate tenure and his time in the Illinois legislature. His campaign also points out that, in 2005, he was the honorary chair of Planned Parenthood of Chicago Area's Roe v. Wade celebration. Obama's campaign stressed how he has been involved in trying to shape the pro-abortion movement for the future.
"This year at a Planned Parenthood conference, Obama emphasized the need for pro-choice groups to align themselves with religious and community groups," the campaign said. Regarding the legality of abortion, the campaign said Obama "supports those restrictions that are consistent with the legal framework outlined by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade" and "does not support the Hyde amendment" protecting taxpayers from funding abortions with their tax dollars. Source: LifeNews, December 21, 2007

SOUTH DAKOTA REPORT SHOWS ABORTIONS DOWN 7%, NEW BAN COVERS 98%
Pierre, SD -- A new report from the South Dakota health department shows that abortions decreased seven percent in 2006 from their 2005 figures. The decrease could possible be attributed to the statewide debate on an abortion ban as pro-life advocates talked about how abortion kills unborn children and hurts women.
There were 748 abortions performed in South Dakota in 2006, down from the 805 abortions performed in 2005, the state reported. Pro-life advocates in South Dakota have put forward a second effort to ban abortions there and added rape and incest exceptions to the ban after the first one, with just a life of the mother exception, failed at the ballot box. The South Dakota Department of Health reported that just 1.9 percent of all abortions there in 2006 involved threats to the mother's life or rape or incest as a reason for the abortion. That means the new ban would prohibit about 98 percent of all abortions in the state if it becomes law. Women were given multiple choices for the reason for the abortion and 85 percent involved the mother not wanting a baby at the time and another 21 percent involved the mother not having the financial means to have a child. Source: LifeNews, December 21, 2007

FRED THOMPSON DEFENDS OVERTURNING ABORTION CASE, CALLS IT PRO-LIFE VICTORY
Washington, DC -- In what has become a weekly ritual, Fred Thompson appeared on a Sunday political talk show and asked again to discuss his position on abortion. Thompson said he takes a pro-life position and favors overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states the opportunity to ban abortions as they did before the 1973 case. The former Tennessee senator appeared on the Fox News Sunday program and Chris Wallace asked him if he believed that "life begins at conception" and that "abortion is the taking of life." Thompson answered yes to both questions. Wallace showed Thompson a video of pro-life Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee criticizing Thompson for supporting the reversal of Roe but not backing a human life amendment. Thompson said Huckabee had the same position until recently and then went on to define his position. "Because of Roe vs. Wade, all states are restricted from passing rules that they otherwise would maybe like to pass with regard to this area. If you abolish Roe vs. Wade, you're going to allow every state to pass reasonable rules that they might see fit to pass," Thompson said. Source: LifeNews, November 26, 2007.

KANSAS GRAND JURY IN ABORTION BUSINESS PROBE HIRES SPECIAL COUNSEL
Overland Park, KS  -- The grand jury impaneled for a probe into the Planned Parenthood abortion business near Kansas City has hired a special counsel for assistance. The jury is looking into accusations that the Planned Parenthood did illegal late-term abortions and falsified medical reports. The grand jury came about when pro-life groups used a part of state law allowing citizens to call them. A Johnston County judge selected eight women and nine men, including two alternates, to look into the charges of criminal activity. Now, the members of the grand jury have decided to retain Larry McLain, a retired Johnson County district judge, and Rick Merker, a local attorney, to help them. According to the Kansas City Star, District Judge Kevin Moriarty selected the two after grand jury members requested legal assistance. He picked both in case one attorney is unavailable so the grand jury can have consistent legal counsel. Before it was seated, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri took the panel to court, hoping to dismiss it. However, Judge Moriarty rejected Planned Parenthood's argument that the grand jury is nothing more than pro-life advocates harassing the abortion business. The abortion business eventually dropped its legal case against the grand jury after the Kansas Supreme Court said a grand jury probe into late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller can move forward. Source: LifeNews, December 21, 2007.

FLORIDA TEEN COULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING GIRL'S UNBORN CHILD
Ft. Lauderdale, FL -- A Florida teen may be held responsible for the death of a teenage girl's unborn child after he repeatedly hit the girl's stomach with a football. The end result in the case could determine on the interpretation of a Florida law that protects and provides justice to women and unborn children killed or injured in attacks. In this case, a 15-year-old boy and a girl the same met on repeated occasions at a playground at a local Boys & Girls Club. The unnamed boy learned the young girl was pregnant and she told him she would be having the baby in a few months. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the boy, unprompted, began throwing a football at the girl on the playground. The boy moved closed and attempted to hit the girl in the stomach with a purposeful throw. Police reports the newspaper obtained indicate the boy then immediately ran up to the girl and threw the football twice directly at her stomach. The teen girl went home and called for an ambulance to take her to the hospital after she began experiencing pain. Once at Plantation General Hospital she gave birth to a premature baby who died later in the day.

ROMNEY, THOMPSON LEAD SOUTH CAROLINA; THOMPSON ALMOST TIES CLINTON
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Fred Thompson's campaign got some good news in the polls this week as a new survey shows him tied with Mitt Romney in the early primary battleground of South Carolina. A new survey released Friday also shows him almost in a tie with pro-abortion New York Sen. Hillary Clinton nationally. The Rasmussen poll, conducted on Tuesday, finds both Thompson and Romney at 21 percent in the southern state among likely primary voters. The bad news for Thompson is the poll shows a decline of four percent and Romney increasing his percentage, but it shows his campaign continuing its strategy of a strong showing in Iowa (where he's tied for third) and a win in South Carolina. Also, 68 percent of Romney’s supporters say they might change their mind before voting. For the other candidates, 47% to 57% of their supporters say the same thing. Meanwhile, Rasmussen released a new poll on Friday showing Thompson just two points down to Hillary Clinton at 46-44 percent with 10 percent undecided. The polling firm found pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani leads Clinton 46-42 with 12 percent undecided. Source: LifeNews, November 26, 2007.

PRO-ABORTION GROUP'S EFFORTS FLOP, HILLARY CLINTON DROPS AMONG IOWA WOMEN
Des Moines, IA -- A new poll in Iowa not only shows Hillary Clinton losing support to Barack Oabama but it shows female Democrats prefer the pro-abortion Illinois senator over Clinton. The poll results are surprising given the fact that Emily's List, the wealthiest pro-abortion group in the nation, launched a major election effort on her behalf.
As LifeNews.com twice reported, Emily's List started a campaign last month to rally women voters in Iowa around Clinton. Emily's List unveiled a new web site and promoted it with online via ads on leading search engines and on web sites women view such as those on yoga or health issues. But a new Des Moines Register poll shows the campaign apparently isn't working. Source: LifeNews, December 3, 2007

REPORT: ABORTIONS TARGET BLACKS, REPEAT ABORTIONS HIGH, 10% USE RU 486
Atlanta, GA -- The new report the Centers for Disease Control released this week about annual abortion figures in the United States shows abortions continue to target black women more so than other ethnic groups. The 2004 report also shows about 10 percent of all abortions in the United States are done with the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The CDC shows a majority of women who get abortions are white (53 percent) compared with 35 percent done on African-Americans, 8 percent on women of other ethnic backgrounds and the race of the woman was unknown in four percent of the cases. However, the abortion ratio for black women (472 per 1,000 live births) was 2.9 times higher than the ratio for white women (161 per 1,000). Examined another way, nearly half of all pregnancies among black women end in abortion while just 16 percent of pregnancies among white women end in abortion. The abortion rate for black women (28 per 1,000 women) was 2.8 times the rate for white women (10 per 1,000). Those statistics continue to worry pro-life leaders in the African-American community. Source: LifeNews, November 26, 2007

 

Past News Briefs

Facts of Life