Planned Parenthood Study Shows One-Fourth of Abortions Involve Dangerous Drug
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new Planned Parenthood study finds one-fourth of all of the abortions done in the United States now involves the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone. That is the drug that has caused the deaths of more than a dozen women worldwide -- including at least six in the United States -- and has injured more than 1,200 nationwide according to figures from 2007. Sales of the abortion drug Mifeprex, the first part of the two-part RU 486 abortion pill process, rose 16.5 percent last year and 184,000 women used the drug. The Planned Parenthood study also finds the abortion drug, which can be used at around seven weeks into pregnancy, now accounts for about one-third of all early-term abortions. The study, which will be reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed 228,000 abortions at Planned Parenthood centers between 2005 and 2008. Chris Gacek, of the pro-life Family Research Council, was not surprised by the increased use of the abortion drug. "I don't think at this point we're going to do anything" to try to limit its use, he said. "It's hard to know whether this increases the (total) number of abortions." Last year, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a former Planned Parenthood research arm, released a report showing the number of abortions has declined to record lows in the United States. But, women having abortions were more frequently using the dangerous abortion drug. According to AGI, about 13 percent of all abortions involve mifepristone. The report also showed that 57 percent of places that do abortions now have the abortion drug, compared with just 33 percent in 2001.

Planned Parenthood Hails Abortion Drug as Safe, Ignores How It Killed Women
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood has released a new study it claims shows the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone is now safe, but the study ignores how Planned Parenthood's own protocol resulted in the deaths of women. The research, done at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country, supposedly shows that the new way of giving women the abortion drug orally, instead of vaginally, boosts its safety. "This is the first really huge documentation of how safe and effective medical abortion is," said Dr. Beverly Winikoff, a professor of family health and population at Columbia University. "The technology is very good and very well used in this country, and probably will be used more and more." The study's lead researcher, nurse practitioner Mary Fjerstad, added, "We decided we needed to make a safe procedure even safer." When used normally, RU 486 involves a two drug combination involves mifepristone, which deprives the developing newborn baby of food and water and essentially starves the child to death. The second drug, misoprostol, causes contractions to force the woman to birth the dead baby. The abortion business had been telling women to use the drug in a different way than the FDA guidelines suggested and the study showed it contributed to the deaths of six women who got the abortion drug at its centers. In fact, a June 2008 University of Michigan study suggests Planned Parenthood is at fault in the deaths of women in the United States from the abortion drug. It wasn't until four California women all died within a week of using the abortion drug they received from Planned Parenthood abortion businesses that it changed its policy to conform to the FDA protocol.

Poll Shows Voters With Strongest Views Give Obama Net Negative Approval Rating
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new Rasmussen poll shows that the voters with the strongest views approving or disapproving of the job pro-abortion President Barack Obama has done give him a net negative approval rating. Obama's score in Rasmussen's Presidential Approval Index is now the lowest of his presidency. It's daily presidential approval tracking poll shows 32% of the nation's voters now strongly approve of the way Obama is performing, but 37 percent strongly disapprove. The number who strongly disapprove inched up another point on Wednesday to the highest level measured to date. Looking at a more traditional approval rating, Rasmussen also found Obama's numbers at a historic low. Overall, 52% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Obama's performance so far -- the first time that the number of voters who approve of his performance has slipped below the 53% share of the vote he won last November. Forty-eight percent of the American people now disapprove of his performance. Obama has advanced a solid agenda against the interests of the pro-life community by forcing taxpayers to fund both groups that perform and promote abortions overseas and the destruction of human life via unproven embryonic stem cell research. Congress has approved of Obama's plan and is currently advancing his agenda to force the funding of abortions in the nation's capital. That has made it so Congress has not endeared itself to the public. Rasmussen found 54 percent say the average Democrat in Congress is more liberal than they are, while just 36% believe the average Republican congressman is more conservative.

Pro-Life Group Calling for Action to Stop Abortion in Congress' Health Care Plans
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A top pro-life group is calling for pro-life advocates to contact their members of the House and Senate and urge that abortion specifically be excluded from any health care plan it approves. The National Right to Life Committee says three bills advancing in Congress pose a threat to cover abortions or force funding of them with taxpayer funds unless Congress adopts language saying abortion coverage is now allowed. So far, two massive health care bills have been unveiled, one in the Senate and one in the House. The full House is expected to vote on its version of the bill at the end of July. Senate floor action could occur shortly thereafter. "These two bills pose one of the greatest threats to pro-life policies since the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion in 1973," Douglas Johnson, legislative director for Right to Life, told LifeNews.com on Wednesday. "These bills contain multiple provisions that would result in federally mandated insurance coverage of abortion on demand, with massive federal subsidies, as well as mandated creation of many new abortion clinics and the nullification of at least some state limitations on abortion." Johnson added, "The pro-abortion movement sees federal 'health care reform' legislation as a golden opportunity to force-feed abortion into every nook and cranny of the health-care delivery system. Their goal, as they sometimes put it, is to 'mainstream' abortion. If Obama and his allies succeed, the result will be a very large increase in the number of abortions performed in America." Take action today by going to http://www.Senate.gov and http://www.House.gov and asking your election officials to specifically exclude abortion from any health care bill. Or call any senator at 202-224-3121 and any House member at 202-225-3121.

Pro-Life Women Oppose Pro-Abortion Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court Spot
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Several pro-life women leaders are speaking out today in opposition to the nomination of pro-abortion appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor for a spot on the Supreme Court. If confirmed by the Senate, she would replace retiring pro-abortion Justice David Souter. "Sonia Sotomayor’s record of support for judicial activism and her work for the pro-abortion Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund offer little comfort that she will be a friend to the unborn on the Supreme Court," Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser told LifeNews.com Thursday morning. Connie Mackey, a vice-president at the Family Research council, agreed. "Women think independently and most women will see that Sonia Sotomayor is a judicial activist who will use the courts to make policy reflective of her own personal judgments as opposed to ruling based upon the tenets put forth by the Constitution," she said. "Her career as an activist is well-documented and disqualifies her from taking the 9th seat on the United States Supreme Court." Charmaine Yoest, the president of Americans United for Life added that "Her record of activism in support of a radical pro-abortion agenda is clear and documented." She continued, "We are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to seriously consider the consequences of confirming a Supreme Court justice whose radical record shows she would rule against all common-sense legal protections for the unborn, including parental notification, informed consent and bans on partial-birth abortion." And Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America concluded, "She worked with organizations that aggressively fought against common-sense regulations on abortion. Sonia Sotomayor has disqualified herself from the U.S. Supreme Court."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Backs Racist Pro-Roe Abortion View in New Interview
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In an astonishing new interview, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gives a racist answer as to why she supports Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions. Ginsburg spoke with New York Times Magazine and is set to be released in print on Sunday, but the interview has already been published online. Ginsburg says she backs Roe to eliminate "populations that we don't want to have too many of." Ginsburg first advocates forcing taxpayers to fund abortions. "Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious," she says. Reporter Emily Bazelon then asks Ginsburg a question about what she means and Ginsburg responds that the 1980 Harris v. McRae ruling upholding the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer funding of abortions, surprised her. "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn't really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong," Ginsburg says.

Biotech Company Creates iPS Stem Cells From Samples of Human Blood
Madison, WI (LifeNews.com) -- In a breakthrough that is yet another advance for an alternative to embryonic stem cell research, a Wisconsin company has created iPS stem cells from a sample of human blood. The iPS cells are cells that operate just like embryonic stem cells but without having to destroy human life to obtain them. Cellular Dynamics International Inc., a firm founded by James Thomson, who discovered embryonic stem cells, said Wednesday that its researchers have generated pluripotent stem cells from small volumes of human blood samples. The stem cells, which have the ability to generate all tissue types in the body, pose the potential of establishing new cellular therapies for disease. Generating pluripotent stem cells from human blood samples, either freshly collected or stored in repositories, provides a convenient source of patient-specific stem cells that can be used for personalized treatments. "The ability to use common tissue repositories to create iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells from donors with known medical history enables us to provide the pharmaceutical industry with a cell portfolio representing individual biology, disease models, retrospective analysis and ethnic diversity," says Emile Nuwaysir, chief operations officer of CDI. This is the first step in paving the way for large-scale processing and industrialization of iPS cells." The findings will be presented during a poster session beginning July 10 at the International Society for Stem Cell Research annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain.

South Korea Faces Underpopulation Problem Thanks to Abortion, Population Control
Seoul, South Korea (LifeNews.com) -- South Korea is facing an underpopulation problem thanks to decades of its government promoting one child per family and the legalization of abortion. In 2008, the average number of children a Korean woman would bear in her lifetime was estimated at 1.19, the second-lowest rate in the world after Hong Kong. That’s nothing new. The fertility rate in Korea has been one of the lowest in the world during the 2000s, and as the country goes through an economic crisis, the rate is expected to get even lower. Dr. Paul Hewitt, who had served as the director of the Global Aging Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned early this year that Korea was faced with a serious decline in population that is hard to recover. As of July 1, 2007, South Korea had the fourth lowest total fertility rate in Asia with a total of 0.96 children per woman. South Korea was also part of the largest drop in total fertility rates during the time period 1965-2007 at -83 percent. A fertility rate of 2.1 is needed to demographically sustain a society. The problem is so bad that the president of Planned Population Federation of Korea is calling for pro-life groups to do more. "Religious groups need to advocate respect for life, abortion prevention and positive values on marriage and parenthood, encouraging the younger generation to form families and have children," Choi Seon-jeong wrote in the JoongAng Daily newspaper. A reporter from MercatorNet.com was incredulous that a Planned Parenthood official would make such a comment. “These are unusual suggestions from Planned Parenthood. Does this indicate a shift in policy, or special circumstances faced by Korea?” he queried.

Alabama Judge Dismisses Two Charges Against Pro-Life Abortion Center Protester
Birmingham, AL (LifeNews.com) -- A Jefferson County judge dismissed two misdemeanor charges against a Birmingham abortion protester today who was twice arrested on a sidewalk in front of the New Woman All Women abortion business. Andrew Frank Spear III said after the trial that he was testing the boundaries of a 25-foot buffer zone for protesters, which limits the free speech rights of pro-life people. A federal judge put the zone around the abortion center in a 1999 court order. Diane Derzis, owner of New Woman All Women Healthcare Clinic, said she now expecting more pro-life people who want to provide women with positive abortion alternatives. District Judge David Lichtenstein granted verdicts of acquittal on both charges of criminal trespass this afternoon, after a Birmingham prosecutor completed her case. A Municipal Court judge found Spear guilty on both charges in 2007, but state law treats his appeal to District Court as a new trial. Lichtenstein ruled the 2007 charge should be dismissed because Spears was not protesting at the time, which the injunction requires. Spears may have been within the buffer zone, but he was just walking down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets, the judge said. The judge warned Spear to stay outside the 25-foot buffer if he plans to resume protests at the abortion center. Defense lawyer Eric Guster said the case was about free speech. "This case is about them trying to silence a man who has a difference of opinion with them," he told jurors in his opening statement.

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com