Starting next week, Democratic leaders are looking to ram health reform through the Senate using a parliamentary tactic called reconciliation. And despite what some are saying, the bill's language - already approved by the Senate - does include funding for abortion.
In yesterday's Health Care Summit, pretty much everyone avoided the 800 pound gorilla in the room–ABORTION. Towards the end House Minority Leader John Boehner did bring up the issue of abortion which President Obama quickly dismissed as talking points and untrue. In her closing statements, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also took the opportunity to go after Boehner's abortion statement claiming that the White House's health care bill does not fund abortion.
Nebraska legislators are proposing a bill on abortion that, if passed, would be the strictest in the nation and would ban most abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy...
I wanted to give you just a few thoughts from today's Siege of the Health Care Summit. We saw between 60 - 70 people show up for the Silent Siege and because of the limitations of the location the police allowed us to stand in we looked like a much bigger number. We were around 200 feet away from the Blair House which is where the Summit was going on.
We were asked to move several times because of the need for security but were always allowed to come back to our "spot". The moving was a bit distracting but we took it in stride as we simply stood on the adjacent street corner and continued to pray. But enough about logistics -- let's get down to the nitty-gritty...
Today is the Health Care Summit. It is scheduled to be broadcast live on C-SPAN beginning at 10:00 AM ET. Bound4LIFE teams from all over the region have travelled in to DC to take a prayerful stand outside the Blair House where the debate will take place. And it's supposed to snow!
This morning the controversial billboard campaign created by our good friends at the Radiance Foundation was featured on CNN's American Morning. Right now there are 80 of these billboards up in the city of Atlanta, and it's creating a lot of debate. What's interesting is that much of the debate is taking place within the Black community itself.
Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon plans to offer medication-induced abortions at its clinics in Ashland and Eugene beginning sometime in March.
Cynthia Pappas, Planned Parenthood's executive director, said the organization's board of directors decided to offer the service to provide women with an option for terminating a pregnancy in the comfort and privacy of home. Medication-induced abortions use drugs to expel a fetus.
The comfort and privacy of home? Forgive me but I had to do a google search for that phrase just to see what it pulled up. Here are my favorites:
C'mon! This is just sick and wrong! Really, what kind of person does stuff like this:
PHILADELPHIA - Federal agents have twice raided an abortion clinic in Philadelphia, prompting state authorities to close the facility and suspend the license of the doctor in charge over health and safety risks.
The Pennsylvania Department of State's Board of Medicine said Tuesday that a search of Dr. Kermit Gosnell's abortion and pain management clinic found "deplorable and unsanitary" conditions, blood on the floor, and parts of aborted fetuses in jars.
Hawaii - The House of Representatives yesterday paved the way for Hawaii to become the first state in the nation to repeal its abortion law.
The current law says a woman may get an abortion only when her life is in danger...
***This is a special blog post from, Leah Ramirez. Leah is the Director of Resound Missions Base. She and her husband, Larry, also lead a Bound4LIFE chapter in Orlando, FL.***
Stand4LIFE
A few months ago I was watching the movie Amazing Grace about the life of William Wilberforce, and suddenly, faith burst into my heart that public opinion could indeed be changed! We have faithfully run a Bound4LIFE chapter in Orlando for the last 3 years, but I have to admit, although I have given much of my time to this issue, I never had faith that things could actually change…until one night when God broke into my own heart.
That night, the Lord gave me a strategy…
Rep. Bart Stupak has released a statement concerning the President's Health Care plan:
”I was pleased to see that President Obama’s health care proposal did not include several of the sweetheart deals provided to select states in the Senate bill. Unfortunately, the President's proposal encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion...
It’s not okay to be silent and claim peace in the name of tolerance and love. Increasingly, I’m struck by the passivity of believers on the issue of abortion.
As I read John 17 the other day, a familiar verse took on deeper meaning for me. Scarcely a Christian alive doesn’t recognize that this is Jesus’ prayer for the unity of the believers when He says:
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. (John 17:9)
When I read Jesus specifically saying His request was only for believers, I began meditating on this. I know many Christians who think that we should be peaceful at all times, including being silent about abortion. They tell me we have no right to judge what another person does as long as we don’t do it since we know it is wrong.
As was rumored, President Obama has released his own Heath Care plan ahead of the Health Care Summit this Thursday. The plan went live on the White House website at 10 am and can read here.
President Obama is pressing onward with his top domestic priority–Health Care Reform. The question remains: Is funding abortion also one of his top domestic priorities?
The Bound4LIFE team based in Washington, DC is organizing a special 7-day Silent Siege in preparation for the Health Care Summit scheduled for Thursday, February 25. Currently the plans are for President Obama to preside over a gathering with a select bi-partisan representation of Congress at the Blair House which is directly across the street from the White House.
The more I learn about World War II, Hitler, eugenics and extermination of people groups, the more stunned I am at the double talk which emits from the mouths of those who would dub themselves pro-choice but who would, with another breath, condemn Hitler.
The fact is, supporting the alleged right to an abortion is tantamount to making a pact with Hitler to destroy people deemed less valuable. Hitler called them Jews. Pro-abortion folks call them “unplanned pregnancies.” There exists no difference in the outcome. Semantics never change reality.
I had an ingenious idea this morning. You know those red lights? The ones that stop you in your tracks when your least expecting it. You’re soaring down the road, blasting your favorite tunes, hoping to get to work before the boss sees your cubicles empty. You're right about to pass through the promised land, when the beautiful yellow turns a darker shade. “Noooo!!! you cry..not red..ahh!”. Next thing you know that 20 second pause turns into an eternity of waiting...
This morning I was in that predicament when a thought came to my mind. "What if I prayed the LIFE band prayer”? It was a new and quite wonderful thought. I saw the light (no pun intended...ha), glanced down at my LIFE band and before you know it I was praying for the ending of abortion.
I realized something today when I was staring at a box of life bands. On the package plain and clear it proclaims "Bound 4 Life Covenant“….
Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander." - Holocaust Museum, D.C.
This ordained Baptist minister is now an abortion provider who admits to killing children:
Watch Video.
On Valentine's Day, Planned Parenthood opened another of its abortion supercenters in Portland, Oregon. It is Oregon’s largest abortion center, as well as one of the largest in the nation.
Oregon Right To Life released a statement about the opening of this facility:
Despite Planned Parenthood’s attempts to downplay its focus on abortion, the organization’s 2007‐2008 national annual report reveals its commitment to its abortion business. Abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics around the nation increased 5.3% over the previous year, totaling 305,310 abortions, approximately 25% of all abortions done in the United States. Abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics have nearly doubled in the past 10 years, while at the same time total abortions have dropped nearly every year.
More reports are confirming the Obama administration is preparing for a potential Supreme Court vacancy in the next few months. Reports surfaced weeks ago that pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens was considering retiring and today, CNN said more recent reports indicate that as well.
CNN indicates the White house has begun "quiet preparations" for a high court vacant but cautions that top Obama officials have not named any names of potential Supreme Court retirements.
Lately, I have been a bit baffled by the extent of anger creeping up against those of us who are pro-life. It seems to have shifted from a political debate on the pro-abortion side to a war cry. Previously, I wrote about the protesters at our Houston Siege, but it’s not stopped there. While in Washington, DC at the March for Life, Bound4LIFE director Matt Lockett noted that suddenly there was a smattering of protesters there who had not been there in years past. Carrying signs such as “Keep Abortion Legal” and “Save Roe,” Matt pointed out that it seems even they know this will be overturned. In Houston, one protester repeated over and over “We’re not going back. We’re not going back.” His calculated declaration spoken almost in monotone remained in me. It was the tenor of their cry.
Recently I had a personal experience of this sort. A group of anti-Christian pro abortion folks found our Bound4LIFE site and started leaving comments that were twisted, at best. Turns out most of them are associated with some pretty fringe anti-Christian ideas, even Satanic in some cases, that use mockery and out of context Scripture as a form of getting their message across. They all joined our site, for what reason, I can’t imagine, and seem to be intent upon watching us online.
Let's discuss media bias and fraudulent reporting as it pertains to the pro-life issue.
(Watch Video)
I read a somewhat ridiculous article from The Huffington Post that I felt compelled to share with you. In all honesty, I do not disagree with everything the author wrote. But what he had to say about the Tebow ad was a bit over the top:
The Focus on the Family's Super Bowl commercial featuring Tim Tebow tackling his mother is typical of the anti-abortion movement's twisted thinking: Using violence to support their position against using violence to kill nascent life.
It's the same type of twisted thinking that causes right-to-life fanatics to murder doctors who perform abortions to stop them from what these self-appointed moral policemen consider to be the murder of a fetus.
As winter approached last month, and health care debates brewed, an article slipped through the New York Times with little notice. In it, late-term abortionist, Dr. LeRoy Carhart, admitted that he has expanded his abortion services to include abortions as late as 24 weeks and, in some cases, will consider them even later, including after 27 weeks.
Despite the fact that most abortion laws forbid performing abortions past the earliest point of viability, as Carhart’s state of Nebraska does, he continues to practice freely. Though he admits to one of the most widely-read newspapers in the nation, that he does these late-term abortions, the state of Nebraska has taken no disciplinary action against him. Carhart continues to legally murder babies who could survive outside the womb.
The Ohio House Speaker has shown his true colors. He is pro-abortion and is apparently threatened by a teenage girl who just happens to be pro-life.
Check it out:
"In what critics are calling an unprecedented act of bias, pro-abortion Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish (D-Beechwood) has denied Shelby County teen Elisabeth Trisler a routine legislative honor, evidently because he objects to Trisler's pro-life values. Budish is refusing to allow Trisler on the House floor to accept a legislative resolution, authored by Rep. John Adams (R-Sidney), which honors Trisler's accomplishment as the National Right to Life Oratory Contest winner."
H.R. 1822, the Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act (PreNDA), could be our Solution to Abortion Industry's Targeting of Minorities.
On January 18, 2010, many pro-life people gathered to pray and stand for life in America. I truly believe and live my life in such a way in which confirms that power of prayer! Yet, I also yearn to see myself and others rise up to be the answers to our prayers. As we see a massive prayer movement arise in America for the ending of abortion and righteousness in this nation, we also want to see “feet” to our prayers.
Congressman Trent Franks has written a fairly new bill that would be an answer to ending the abortion industry's targeting of minorities. Here is part of his speech regarding the bill and its intent:
"Today, we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. for dedicating his life to the fulfillment of a truth outlined in the Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal, regardless of their skin color. While we have come a long way in the 40+ years since his death, another major hurdle in the Civil Rights Movement still looms before us: the disturbing targeting of minority populations by the abortion industry."
The first Holocaust is the one most people talk about still. Hitler. Germany. The attempted extermination of the Jews. It was, inarguably, one of the greatest horrors in this history of the world. That will never change.
What has changed are the enemy’s methods.
In Rees Howell’s Intercessor, the chronicle of Howells’ fight against Hitler and the Nazis through prayer strikes a familiar chord to those of us fighting the current holocaust attempting to exterminate a generation through abortion.
A common accusation against people like me is that we exaggerate when we use terms like genocide or holocaust. First let’s look at those definitions. According to the Random House Dictionary, holocaust meanings include: “any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.” Genocide means “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.”
I'm not a huge fan of today's country music but I just listened to "The Call" from country singer, Matt Kennon, and was really surprised by the message. You need to check it out for yourself. And make sure to pay close attention to the second verse as the song takes a nice pro-life turn.
Watch Video.
I recently had the pleasure of attending a baby shower held on behalf of a beautiful, 15 year old girl. This African-American teenager went through the shock and pain of a “crisis pregnancy”. Her mother and then boyfriend strongly encouraged her to abort her unexpected child. Her believing Grandmother spoke up and refused to let that happen. She stepped in and offered to take the girl into her home and help her raise her baby. As the grandmother later told me “Abortion is murder, and no matter how this child has come into the world, I would not let my granddaughter kill her”.
The US Military is nothing if not consistent. Perhaps our first clue should have been in late 2009 when Army Major Nidal Hasan was charged with killing 13 people at the Killeen Army base, instead of the 14 that should have been counted, since one woman was pregnant. We are used to the double standard in this nation that almost always charges people (correctly) with two murders if they are accused of killing a pregnant woman yet allows abortion as legalized murder.
This is why I was grieved, but not shocked, when I saw this article over the weekend which announced that the US military has decide to make the “morning-after” pill available at all US military health care facilities worldwide.
“The decision to carry the pill, often referred to as the morning-after pill, was based on a recommendation by the Pentagon's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, an advisory panel made up of medical professionals from the military services, Pentagon officials said Friday.”
Well now here is something to think about. One of the major arguments that pro-abortion folk use is: Abortion lowers the maternal fatality rate. Or to say it another way -- abortion is good for women's health.
However, data out of Poland seems to totally undermine that assertion.
Why has Poland made such strides in improving both maternal and infant health? Certainly not by spending a lot of money on “reproductive health services,” to use the preferred euphemism. Poland is a poor country, much poorer than either Canada or its immediate European neighbours. The money simply isn’t there for any lavish program to improve maternal and infant health. The only change that could have produced such a dramatic improvement is the documented decline in the induced abortion rate.
Sunday is the Super Bowl and by now you know that the celebrated quarterback for the University of Florida, Tim Tebow, will be starring in a pro-life ad during the game. If you haven’t heard Tim’s story yet it goes a little something like this: his mom, Pam, was a missionary in the Philippines when she got pregnant with Tim, she got a severe infection, the doctors used medicine to treat her and in the process they determined that Tim would be a stillbirth and recommended that Pam have an abortion to protect her own life. She, obviously, denied the abortion and went on to give birth to one of the best college football players of all time. Pretty amazing story, huh? You’d think everybody would love to hear it, right? WRONG. As it turns out, not everyone wants to hear this story.
Here's an interesting thought from PBS.org:
To gain their historic control of Congress, Democrats fielded moderate candidates who didn't always follow the party line, especially when it came to abortion. Now that the Democratic Party has the legislative upper hand, are they willing to negotiate away reproductive rights for other political gains?Caution: I am going to share some things in this blog that are tough to write and will be hard to read…but the truth will set you free, and I know that this is part of my journey to being whole.
In my early twenties, I was incredibly stupid…as many in their early twenties are. Looking back, I could blame my addictions, promiscuity and poor choices on so many things. I’ve felt rejection since a very early age. I’ve felt abandonment and a lack of affection since I can remember. I would cling to whoever paid attention to me, and numb myself with whatever was closest.
When I met Matt, he was 20, and I was 23 with a three-year-old daughter. I had just left a tour singing backgrounds for Britney Spears because I was raped. Matt wouldn’t know that until years later and neither would anyone else. Matt and I both carried baggage including addictions to pornography and alcohol into an incredibly tumultuous relationship with each other.
A few months into our relationship, I found out I was pregnant...
86% of abortion-minded women who see an ultrasound of their baby decide to parent their child instead. I’m sure you have heard this stat several times from pro-life organizations, your church, or a maybe even a politician. But when you are actually in an ultrasound room and experience a mother seeing life in her womb for the first time you are never the same.
Check out, Gloria Allred, in all her "glory" (and by glory I mean publicity stunt.) And make sure to stick around for Focus On The Family CEO, Jim Daly, as he talks about "starting the discussion" in a "tasty way".
WATCH VIDEO
According to a major study released this week, we can expect young people not to have sex, and not just the ones with religious beliefs. In the study, appearing in the February edition of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, researchers found,
“Theory-based abstinence-only interventions may have an important role in preventing adolescent sexual involvement.”
This randomized controlled trial was a scientific study, not a religious theory or a moral lesson. And the results show that abstinence works.
Obviously, the phrase itself isn’t the problem; it’s when it’s used for absolution, not action.
God is on the throne. God uses His people to carry out His work. These facts are not mutually exclusive. Throughout the Bible, we see God telling His people to petition Him to move to solve a problem. The oft-quoted corporate prayer verse, II Chronicles 7:14, actually is nestled between two verses we don’t hear so much...
"To each group we explained what contraception was; that abortion was the wrong way—no matter how early it was performed it was taking life; that contraception was the better way, the safer way—it took a little time, a little trouble, but was well worth while in the long run, because life had not yet begun.” (Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography. New York: W. W. Norton. pp. 217.)
The furry that this commercial has sparked is unreal. (Bear in mind that the commercial has not even been shown yet.) Still, pro-abortion women's organizations have gone beyond criticizing the commercial, CBS and the Tebows' and have gone right to name calling.
Check out this story from Americus Times-Recorder:
“This ad is hate masquerading as love,” said Erin Matson, of the National Organization for Women. (I’m going to give Ms. Matson the benefit of the doubt and assume that she accidentally picked up the well-honed talking points for another issue — say, child abuse — and not for an ad about a mom loving her son.)
Sometimes even words fail a blogger. A friend sent me a link to a new web series, Bump. One person Tweeted it this way as “The new reality show. You choose - should they abort their babies, or keep them?”
Abortion Abortion Industry Bound4LIFE Congress Fetus God Health Care Health Care Reform Houston Infanticide Intercession JHOP DC Jesus Justice Life Lou Engle Margaret Sanger Matt Lockett Obama Open Thread Planned Parenthood Prayer President Obama Pro-Abortion Pro-life R2H Shedding Innocent Blood Silent Siege Supreme Court senate
