Praise God! A woman in Texas has quit Planned Parenthood after her views on abortion changed. Not only did she quit, but she even joined forces with the “Coalition for Life” members who regularly pray outside the clinic. According to this story (and the video below) she was told by her former employers, who had been struggling financially, that her job was to “get more abortions in the door”:
more about "Abortion Clinic Worker Sees the Light", posted with vodpod
Here is the third installment of Jim Cole’s analysis of Sen. Max Baucus’ health care bill. The Senators are supposed to be voting on multiple pro-life amendments to the bill today. We will keep you posted.
Making All Americans Pay for Abortion Coverage
In the first two installments of this series, I described how the Baucus plan compels abortion coverage in new health care plans. Now we turn to the money and consider how the Baucus plan will compel everyone to pay for abortions in their new health care coverage.
Everyone realizes that insurance is a mechanism for customers to share risk. (Health care plans are another way of doing the same thing, so I use the terms “health insurance,” “policies,” and “health plans” interchangeably in this paper.) Everyone pays premiums for insurance coverage, but not everyone draws benefits at the same time. If the insurance company has forecast the payout of benefits correctly, then customers are charged a premium that will produce a pot of insurance money that is large enough at all times to pay the benefits of those who actually draw benefits, plus make a profit for the owners of the insurance company. The idea is that everyone may draw benefits, but not all at once, while everyone pays premiums all the time.
Now, if abortion is not the subject of a separate rider, then everyone’s premiums go into the pot of money that pays for health care (including abortions), and thus everyone pays for abortion benefits. However, if abortion is made the subject of a separate rider, and only those who desire abortion coverage are paying for it, then the other customers will not be contributing to abortion coverage. In this situation, those who do not want to subsidize abortions will not have to do so. Some states, such as Missouri, have required a separate rider for abortion coverage in private and employer health insurance plans for just this reason. (See section 376.805 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri.)
The Baucus plan does not appear to allow for a separate rider for specific services. Everything in the Baucus scheme points to having one premium for each of the four plan levels of coverage (bronze, silver, gold, & platinum), without the complications of riders and extra premiums. The exchanges are supposed to supply a standard application form for all health plans, compose a standard format of describing their benefits, enable consumers to sign up for insurance at drivers’ license offices, hospitals, schools, and other offices designated by the state, and operate just one “open enrollment” period every year. CM, pp. 15, 28. It would defeat the simplicity of having just four levels of plans and standardized formats to allow separate riders and separate premiums for particular services. To the extent that no separate rider for abortion is offered, that means that the risk and costs of abortion coverage are going to be shared among all the persons who buy a policy or plan, and everyone’s premiums will help cover abortion services. This is the first way that the Baucus plan makes people pay for abortion, whether they want to or not.
Involuntary enrollment in health coverage
Pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupek says he believes they have the votes to defeat the health care bill in the House if it does not specifically exclude coverage for abortions.
more about "Could Abortion Funding Kill Health Ca…", posted with vodpod
What better way to tell your Congressman what you think about the proposed heathcare bills and their impact on abortion and euthanasia than directly to their faces? The following town hall meetings are currently scheduled in Missouri:
August 10, 9:00 a.m.
Open Forum in Dunklin County
Southeast Missouri State University
1230 First Street
Kennett, Mo.
August 10, 11:45 a.m.
Roundtable with Rural Health Care Providers
Pemiscot Memorial Health Systems
907 E. Reed
Hayti, Mo.
August 10, 2:30 p.m.
Open Forum
Three Rivers Community College
2080 Three Rivers Blvd.
Poplar Bluff, Mo.
August 11, 10:00 a.m.
St. Louis County
University City High School Auditorium
7401 Balson Ave.
University City, Mo.
August 12, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Hannah Cole Primary School
1690 W. Ashley Rd.
Boonville, MO
August 12, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Howard County Electric Coop.
205 Hwy 5
Fayette, MO
August 12, 12:45-1:45 p.m.
Knights of Columbus Hall
124 E. Broadway
Brunswick, MO
August 12, 11:00-12:00 a.m.
Carrollton Public Library
1 N. Folger
Carrollton, MO
August 6, 7:00 p.m.
Telephone meeting
877-229-8493 code 15064
follow the instructions
August 8th, 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Coffee with Cleaver
JP Coffee
3390 SW Fascination Dr
Lees Summit, MO
These are currently the only town hall meetings scheduled for our elected federal officials. To check on further meeting dates or to contact your legislators please click here.
Thine Eyes, a first-ever pro-life documentary on the annual Washington DC March for Life, will make a St. Louis premiere Thursday, May 28 at 7 pm at CBC High School, Ross Hall, at 1850 De La Salle Drive (N. Outer 40 Drive) at the intersection of Highways 270 and 64.
The high-definition film was shot on location by a six-camera crew to share the spirit of the January 22nd event, which marks the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision to override state abortion laws and mourns the more than 50 million unborn Americans who have died as a result.
The public is invited to attend the event which is co-sponsored by Missouri Right to Life and Missouri Life Caravan.
“Life is the great civil rights issue of our day,” said Jack Cashill, producer of Thine Eyes: A Witness to the March for Life. “America’s mainstream media consciously suppresses this cause.”
The 36th annual March for Life in Washington DC boasted of record attendance, some 300,000 people, yet the event made headlines virtually nowhere. Painfully few in the major media paid any real attention to the March for Life this year despite the event’s massive size and obvious relevance. The Obama administration’s promise to expand the abortion franchise has energized the pro-life movement nationwide and prompted the record turnout.
“Cashill, together with Michael Wunsch and actress, Jennifer O’Neill, have created a masterful depiction of the prolife cause’s biggest and most consistent event,” says executive producer, Steve Sanborn. “It’s what the world never gets to see – normal everyday Americans in massive numbers who believe the world can do better than abortion.”
“The history of America is a history of expanding the family of those whose worth we take seriously,” said Cashill. “The Obama inauguration offers us your classic ‘teachable moment.’ Thine Eyes will make the lesson obvious and even entertaining.”
Premiere of Thine Eyes: A Witness to the March For Life – $5 at the door
Co-sponsored by Missouri Right to Life and Missouri Life Caravan
Thursday, May 28th – 7 pm
CBC High School, Ross Hall, at 1850 De La Salle Drive (N. Outer 40 Drive) at the intersection of Highways 270 and 64
Supporters are asked to visit www.thineeyes.org for more information.
Contact Information:
816.733.2028 or 314.434.4900
Last week a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling requiring the Missouri Department of Revenue to issue a license plate with a pro-life message:
A non-profit group, Choose Life of Missouri Inc., applied in 2005 to have specialty plates reading “Choose Life” included among the plates available to Missouri drivers. A legislative committee rejected the application based on the objections of two lawmakers.
The group sued, and in 2008 a federal district court ruled in its favor, finding a portion of the law governing specialty plates to be unconstitutional and requiring the Department of Revenue to issue the “Choose Life” plates.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld both the lower court’s orders.
The appeal turned on whether a specialized license plate issued by the state represented the private speech of the driver or the government speech of the state.
Reflecting the lower court’s view and rulings in other courts across the country, the Eighth Circuit found the plates to be private speech. Thus, it ruled, a legislative committee had no authority to deny issuance of a plate based on the views of its sponsors.
MO Choose-Life license plates are available online at ChooseLifeMissouri.org
A Cole County Circuit Judge rejected a request for a temporary restraining order on state funding for life science research:
St. Louis lawyer Ed Martin – Gov. Matt Blunt’s former chief of staff – filed the 17-page lawsuit Monday on behalf of the “Missouri Roundtable for Life Inc.” and individual taxpayer Fred N. Sauer.
The suit asks the court to prevent state officials from delivering $21 million, as designated in the state budget that went into effect Tuesday, to the Life Sciences Research Board, until the court determines how that expenditure is restricted by state laws and the Constitution.
“Our concern today,” Martin told reporters, “is (whether) public funds and taxpayer dollars getting appropriated in a way that will cause harm.”
Martin reminded Beetem that the 2003 law creating the Life Sciences Research Board includes language prohibiting spending money for abortion services, human cloning and some forms of human research using organs from children.
But, he said, voters’ 2006 approval of Constitutional Amendment 2 may have changed the 2003 law’s restrictions.
Among its main provisions, Amendment 2 requires the state to allow all forms of stem cell research that are accepted as legal by the federal government.
“We’re simply asking for the court to say what the law is,” Martin said after Wednesday’s hearing. “If Amendment 2 trumps everything, we need to know that.
A memo from Missouri Right to Life:
The decision by the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 24th brings back the pro-life issues of HB 818, which allows midwives to perform abortions.
“HB 818, passed during the 2007 legislative session, establishes the Missouri Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Missouri Right to Life has no position on the main topic of this bill. However, HB 818, now upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court, contains a new provision, section 376.1753, that permits midwives to perform services that Missouri law has not previously allowed. Missouri Right to Life has no position on whether, in general, expanding midwives’ role in pregnancy and childbirth is appropriate. Unfortunately, because of the drafter’s choice of language in the amendment, including the use of a term that has been all but forgotten in the English language—“tocological”—the new provision can be exploited to allow abortions to be performed by non-physicians,” said Pam Fichter, President of Missouri Right to Life.
“Whatever the intent of the drafters and proponents of new sec. 376.1753, abortionists have been handed an unexpected gift in HB 818,” according to Fichter.
“Missouri Right to Life urges the Governor’s leadership in calling for a special session in September 2008 to run concurrent with the veto session to pass language to address the pro-life issues raised by HB 818,” said Pam Fichter.
The conservative PAC the Eagle Forum has endorsed Dr. Bob Onder for the 9th congressional district because of his strong pro-life position. Statement from founder Phyllis Schlafly:
“I am happy to endorse Dr. Bob Onder. Bob is a proven leader on all the issues important to Missouri families and Eagle Forum members. He led the fight against the HPV vaccine mandate and authored a bill to crack down on illegal immigration. We know we are getting a fighter with Bob. He isn’t just a reliable vote, he’s an articulate leader, especially on the issue of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and other pro-life issues. Bob Onder isn’t a career politician, but a homeschooling Dad who wants to make a difference. That’s a refreshing change in Washington.”
Sorry for the long pause here. Was on vacation for a little bit. I have a lot of news to sort through and will hopefully begin posting shortly.
