Pro-Lifer Challenging Oakland Law

Walter B. Hoye is challenging a recent ruling by the Oakland City Council that prevents a person from standing within 100 feet of an abortion clinic, on public property, if they try to pass out pro-life literature or persuade women to choose alternatives to abortion. His challenge comes in the form of taking said actions within 100 feet of the clinic. He’s been arrested already. He might be arrested again.
Here’s his story…

I am praying with two African-American women (a ninety (90) year old and an eighty-four (84) year old) and a dear Catholic sister who is a very good friend of mine. We are asking God to use us to reach the men and women going into the abortion clinic, right across the street, with the love of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

We agree that the women will stand across the street with literature sharing alternatives to abortion while I stand on the same side of the street near the door of the abortion clinic with the same literature and a sign that says “God loves you and your baby. Let us help you.”

As we take our positions, I am fully aware that this may be my last opportunity to do all I can to save my people.

This morning may be the last morning I will have a chance to stop the shedding of innocent blood in the African-American community.

This hour may be the last hour available to me to reach out to the men and women with child considering pre-natal murder.

Arizona To Entertain New Pro-Life Law

AZCentral.com is reporting that a new bill is making its way through the Arizona legislature that would provide a big win for pro-lifers after years of vetoes by Arizona’s former pro-abortion governor.

The legislation would require a pre-abortion waiting period and mandatory disclosures to women seeking abortions. It also would allow pharmacists and health care providers to refuse to participate in abortion or emergency contraception on moral grounds. Other provisions toughen the existing law on parental rights.

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democratic abortion rights supporter, vetoed every anti-abortion bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature during six years in office.

Dr. Candace Lew, a Planned Parenthood Arizona leader and an obstetrician-gynecologist who practices in Tempe, said the so-called “informed consent” provisions are insulting to women.

“It is not government’s place to make a woman’s decision for her and this bill certainly attempts to do that,” Lew said.

Huh? Dr. Lew, the government is NOT trying to make the woman’s decision for her. It is trying to ensure that the woman is more informed before making a life-changing (and life-taking) decision. Why do pro-abortion activists always get riled up when it comes to making the public better informed about abortion?

North Dakota Introduces Personhood Legislation

CNSNews.com is reporting that a state legislator in North Dakota has introduced a bill that could be just the tool that states need in order to fight the Freedom Of Choice Act, which President Obama has promised to sign.

The act reads, in part, “The state shall afford the equality and inherent rights guaranteed to individuals in section 1 of article 1 of the Constitution of North Dakota to all human beings from the beginning of their biological development, including the pre-born, partially born….”

Read the entire bill here.

House Resolution 1572 was crafted with the help of Personhood USA, a grassroots Christian group that is working to enact “personhood” legislation across the country as a way to combat proposed pro-abortion laws supported by Obama, including the Freedom of Choice Act, which would legalize abortion on demand in all 50 states.

“We want to focus on [personhood legislation] now, as we see the battle shaping up in the years to come,” Keith Mason, co-founder with Cal Zastrow of Personhood USA, told CNSNews.com.

Powerful Pro-Life Ad to Air during Inauguration

CatholicVote.com is going to air a powerful new ad during the Inauguration today on BET which reminds everyone of the difficult life that Obama was born into. It also reminds everyone of how pro-abortion Obama is.

Brian Burch, Executive Director of CatholicVote.org, explained the motivations for the advertisement in a Monday press release.

“Our message is simple: Abortion is the enemy of hope. The purpose of our new ad is to spread a message of hope about the potential of every human life, including the life of President-elect Obama,” Burch said.

“Many Catholics and pro-life Americans recognize that Barack Obama steadfastly supports abortion. And while we’ll pray for his conversion, that doesn’t diminish an essential truth: that each human life has dignity and worth,” he continued.

“Given the political climate, we acknowledge that the fight to protect human life faces an uphill climb. For this reason, we developed an ad that we hope can transcend the political obstacles ahead, and provoke the consciences of our leaders and fellow Americans.”

A healthy baby despite abortion recommendations

UPDATE:Bob Ellis has a great post on this at Dakota Voice.

This is a great story from the UK’s Telegraph about a couple who twice didn’t give in to the “expert” advice of their doctors to abort their baby because he might have some abnormalities if he was born.

Gaynor Purdy was warned her first child could have a fatal chromosome defect and a life threatening heart condition.

But she rejected two suggestions to terminate the pregnancy and she and her husband Lee are celebrating life with their “perfect” ten-month-old son.

Mrs Purdy, 28, a quality control inspector, said: “We refused to give up on him, and decided throughout the pregnancy that as long as he was fighting, we would continue fighting with him.”

Four months into the pregnancy doctors told them that part of their unborn child’s heart was narrow and underdeveloped and would mean open heart surgery if the baby was born.

They were warned the condition could worsen and around Christmas last year, an immediate termination should be considered.

Further tests conducted a few days later on New Year’s Eve suggested the baby could also have Edwards Syndrome – the presence of an 18th chromosome – with a life expectancy of only up to four months if birth is survived.

Consultants again recommended the couple consider aborting the baby, fearing he would little to no quality of life once he was born.

One side of his heart was slightly bigger than the other which may need an operation to correct in the future, but regular tests have been showing the condition is constantly improving.

Mrs Purdy added: “Doctors told us he was a little miracle baby. They said his heart must have been mending itself.

“Last year we were still on a knife edge thinking things would go wrong. But now he’s out of the woods we are delighted that 2009 will be Kai’s year.”

So when doctors detect something like they did in this case, why don’t they err on the side of life and say, “Hey, the odds might not be the greatest, but there’s a chance he will be okay”? By recommending to end the baby’s life, the doctors are not even giving him a chance. I hate to sound cynical here, but could it be that the hospital’s policy is to err on the side of saving money? To simply abort the baby, the hospital would be avoiding potentially many costly procedures.

If you read the entire article, you get the impression that the doctors in this case really pointed out the “incoveniences” of trying to keep the baby. At the end of the article, the hospital says they try to “offer prospective families the full facts and options”, but if they’re making a recommendation to kill the baby, how much impartiality are they really showing?

Chuck Colson: From Rhetoric to Deed

Chuck Colson has an excellent piece about how, when faced with the truth of what being pro-choice actually means, those who perform abortions often lose their enthusiasm for being “pro-choice”.

The Nov. 23 issue of the Washington Post magazine told the story of a medical student named Lesley Wojick. She plans to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology and is unapologetically “pro-choice.” She even helped organize a “day-long abortion seminar” at her medical school.
At the seminar, a medical director for Planned Parenthood of Maryland asked the attendees, “How pro-choice are you?” She asked them what their families and neighbors would think of their performing abortions.

Ms. Wojick was determined to “walk the talk,” to make her “actions to be consistent with [her] words.” She thought that if “pro-choice” doctors like her didn’t do this, “the right to abortion might be rendered meaningless.”

Ms. Wojick then attempted to “walk the walk.” But not for long. During her obstetrics rotation, she realized that “vacuuming out a uterus and counting the parts of the fetus” wasn’t for her. “Somebody else … would become an abortion provider. But it wouldn’t be her.”

It’s not surprising. Once you get past the rhetoric of choice, what’s left is a bloody and, for most people, disreputable business. As Ms. Wojick discovered, even people who insist that it’s a right want little to do with the actual practice or the practitioners.

Continue reading Mr. Colson’s article to learn more about the effect of performing abortions. This is a perfect example of why the pro-abortion crowd is so violently opposed to pro-lifers trying to present the images of abortions to the public.

Pro-Abortion Vandals Attack Church Display

Life News is reporting that pro-abortion vandals have attacked a pro-life display in Sioux Falls, SD, which featured 748 crosses to memorialize the number of babies that were killed in abortions in South Dakota in 2006.

The display in this incident, sponsored by Lutherans for Life of South Dakota, was set up at Blessed Redeemer Lutheran Church on 705 Sioux Blvd. Reports indicated the pro-life display was vandalized sometime on Wednesday evening.

Then, vandals spray-painted the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Newman Center building along with a pro-life sign out front. Vandals sprayed a “female symbol” on the traveling pro-life sign and painted “No Iraq War” on the church exterior.

Father Rutten, director of the SDSU Newman Center, said crosses set up to memorialize the deaths of babies who had died from abortions, were vandalized earlier.

Before that, Leslee Unruh, the head of the group promoting the abortion ban [on the November ballot], said her house has been plastered with eggs and she’s been mailed coat hangers by those who claim women will die from illegal abortions.

Unruh has had threatening calls in the middle of the night, hate mail and her favorite coffee shop told her to stop coming in because of the problems.

It never ceases to amaze (and sadden) me at the lengths that these people go to in their hatred for anyone who threatens their precious choice to kill innocent babies. It’s kind of amusing that they mixed a little anti-war flavor into their “protest”.