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As the Washington Times reports,
Students for Life obtained video of a speech by Dr. Alberto Hodari at Wayne State University in Michigan. His lecture was sponsored by the group
Medical Students for Choice and was titled "Why I Am An Abortion Provider."
In the
video (linked below) Hodari brags “I have great satisfaction of what I do, and
I never feel bad or worried about doing abortions.” Later in the video the abortion doctor
confesses that he rarely washes his hands between abortions and tells the
students they have “a right to lie” when it comes to abortion.
To see
the full video click here. LifeNews reports on this appalling story
as well. Excerpt:
Hodari also spoke about how little he washed between
abortions because it chafed his hands, even though his doing so puts women's
health at risk.
Most upsetting to SFLA director Kristan Hawkins is
Hodari's claim that being an abortion practitioner gives him "license to
lie" to women who seek him out for abortions. HT: Students for Life of America
Proponents
of a state
constitutional amendment protecting marriage in Florida achieved a victory
yesterday. Excerpt from news article:
Floridians will vote in November on a constitutional
amendment to protect traditional marriage after the initiative apparently
surpassed on Dec. 12 the 611,009 requirement for qualified petitions to put the
proposal before voters in 2008.
FRC has posted the video of each major Republican
candidate’s speech at the Values Voter Summit held in DC in October. The Democrat candidates were invited but
declined to attend. The candidates
gathered, in effect, to give their best sales pitches on why values voters
should support them. We hope this
resource will be helpful to values voters who are seeking to determine which
candidate best represents their values.
You can find these videos at http://www.frcaction.org.
 The 2008 primary and caucus season for the
presidency is fast upon us. Be sure that you, your friends, and family
are well-informed. AdvanceUSA has prepared Candidate
Comparisons for both the Democrats and the Republicans to help show you
where each presidential candidate stands on some of the most important issues.
AdvanceUSA
hopes these resources will be helpful as you begin/continue your research for
this critically important election season.
The Iowa caucuses will be held on January 3, followed closely
by the New Hampshire
primary on January 8. All the states conducting primaries, caucuses, or
conventions in January of 2008 are Iowa (1/3),
Wyoming (1/5), New
Hampshire (1/8), Michigan (1/15),
South Carolina (1/19), Nevada
(1/19), and Florida
(1/29).
Stay
informed and spread the word about AdvanceUSA’s 2008 Candidate
Comparisons.
Our
friends Tony Perkins and Tom Minnery have written an insightful op-ed that explains the issues that are most important to values voters. Excerpt:
Which policy issues matter most to values voters? The dual
answer wasn't controversial at all: the sanctity of human life and protection
of the institution of marriage.
Tony and
Tom also offered 4 questions values voters should ask potential
candidates. Continue reading to see these important questions.
CitizenLink reports.
Excerpt:
Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the Family
Research Council, said he questions the argument that gay couples desperately
need such legal benefits.
“This puts the lie to all of that," he said,
"because if it really was such a hardship to live as a partnered couple
without the benefits of marriage, then you would think they would all rush out
to sign up as soon as those legal benefits were available to them.”
How do the presidential candidates of both parties stand on the important issues? AdvanceUSA selected ten issues and compared the candidates. Now, after extensive research and production, AdvanceUSA proudly offers its Candidate Comparisons for the 2008 caucus and primary season.
AdvanceUSA hopes these resources help you make an informed decision in the upcoming presidential caucuses and primaries. If you find these helpful, please forward our Candidate Comparison page to your friends and family across the nation (especially those in early primary states).
Click on the links below to view or print your own copies.
The Democrats
View document
The Republicans
View document
COMING SOON: AdvanceUSA will introduce an online, interactive version of each Candidate Comparison so readers can view the sources for the candidates’ stances. Be sure to bookmark this page so you can take advantage of this feature in the future.
Our
friends on the Hill informed us yesterday that the House and Senate conferees
working on the Department of Defense authorization bill have removed the
dangerous and unrelated hate (thought) crimes extension language. The
Associated Press reports
here. As The
Hill reports (subscription required):
House and Senate votes on the 2008 defense authorization
bill could be held as early as next week after conferees agreed Thursday to
strip from the bill a controversial provision extending hate-crimes protections
to gays.
This is an important victory for religious freedom, and
AdvanceUSA thanks all those who contacted their elected officials and voiced their
views.
 Unlike many of their counterparts in the Main Stream Media (MSM), the people at the Chicago Tribune apparently paid attention in high school biology class (free subscription required). The paper reports on a campaign across the country, and specifically in Colorado, to recognize the personhood of human embryos. Many MSM sources often misrepresent these campaigns as seeking to “give rights to fertilized eggs” (as AdvanceUSA previously reported). As all good biology teachers will tell you, once an egg is fertilized it ceases to be just an egg and becomes a singled celled human being (a zygote which subsequently develops into an embryo). Recognizing that human life begins at the moment of fertilization would be a huge victory for the pro-life movement, and AdvanceUSA applauds the efforts of Coloradans and others who are attempting to protect the smallest and most vulnerable among us.
The Washington Times reports on the latest Planned Parenthood scandal in Kansas. A grand jury will investigate allegations that Planned Parenthood broke state law regarding the age of girls receiving abortions as well as alleged cover-ups of sexual abuse. Excerpts:
An unprecedented investigation into abortion-clinic practices will commence soon in Kansas now that the state Supreme Court has cleared the way for a grand jury with subpoena powers to be convened.
And…
Planned Parenthood receives millions of dollars in government funding each year. "They should have to answer these criminal charges before they get another dime of our tax dollars," she [Jennifer Giroux, director of Women Influencing the Nation, a Cincinnati group that is active in pro-life issues] said.
This story provides more evidence for Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-IN) proposed amendment to prohibit tax-payer dollars from going to support organizations that promote or perform abortions, like Planned Parenthood.
Senate
Republican Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor recently
and mentioned judges (among other things). Excerpt from his statements:
“The Judiciary Committee needs to do a much better job
processing circuit court nominations. Christmas will be here before we know it,
and we’ve only had one hearing on one circuit court nomination since the summer
recess, and we’ve had only five hearings for five circuit court nominees all
year.
“During a comparable period in President Clinton’s last
Congress, the Republican-controlled Senate held hearings on 10 of President
Clinton’s circuit court nominees, including five after the August recess.
“We’ve had qualified circuit court nominees up here for
months who satisfy the supposed criteria of the Democratic Majority. There is
no good reason for the Judiciary Committee to bring progress on circuit court
nominations to a standstill.”
HT:
Committee for Justice
A new
report from the eminent Heritage Foundation shows that the proposed expansion of
SCHIP would threaten
parental control of their children’s’ health and sexuality. As if
refusing to protect unborn children, expanding government spending, and
incrementally socializing health care weren’t bad enough, the SCHIP expansion
would also further radical concepts of sex education. Excerpt:
In their effort to override the President's veto of
legislation to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP),
Members of Congress have added to the "compromise" legislation (H.R.
3963) two little noticed provisions that would undermine parents' right to
consent to--or even know about--medical care given to their children through
school-based health clinics. Such "medical care" could involve as
intimate and delicate a matter as giving contraceptives to children. If the
proposed legislation goes into effect, federal laws and regulations would make
contraception available to millions of children, for free, while prohibiting
doctors and schools from informing the children's parents.
For more
information on SCHIP check the SCHIP
category here at AdvanceUSA blog.
The
Alliance Defense Fund is helping in the legal fight to make sure legitimate signatures
that were collected in support of traditional marriage are lawfully counted.
Two laws approved by the legislature would provide domestic partnership to
same-sex couples, directly threatening the substance and spirit of Oregon’s voter-approved
marriage protection amendment, so signatures were gathered to allow Oregonian
voters to overturn the laws on the 2008 ballot. If the signatures are
declared valid, Oregonians would again be able to stand up for marriage in the
next election.
Jeff
Mapes reports on Oregon’s
same-sex domestic partnership issue as well.
 The eighth circuit court delivered a mixed ruling yesterday which allows IFI (the InnerChange Freedom Initiative) to continue its ministry in Iowa prisons (without public funds) and does not require the ministry to pay exorbitant fines but said the original version of the program was unconstitutional. As the New York Times reports this should be a concern for advocates of faith-based initiatives and religious freedom.
InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) is a faith-based prison ministry, affiliated with Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries, that has had phenomenal success in changing lives resulting in the vast majority of its participants not returning to prison. Inmates join the program on a voluntary basis and are free to leave the program at any time. On June 2, 2006 a federal judge in Iowa ruled that the program was unconstitutional and that the state had to terminate the program as well as require IFI pay back $1.5 million.
Visit IFI's Ruling website to find the latest news and legal status of the case and find out more about IFI's faith-based prisoner re-entry program.
For more information on similar religious liberty issues check the AdvanceUSA religious freedom page.
An important
pro-life, pro-women piece in the National Review Online. Excerpt:
A nationally recognized
organization may be intentionally distributing false information while protecting
rapists and child predators. And the federal government has given them $3.9 billion since 1987
in taxpayer funds.
Planned Parenthood has been caught in a tangled web. The spotlight is finally
being shed on this organization, which has failed to legally report the
pregnancies of a 16-year-old
who was raped by her father, of an 11-year-old girl
who was impregnated by her stepfather, and of a 15-year-old who was
sexually assaulted and impregnated by her stepfather’s friend.
Believe it or not, it gets worse.
 Alan Sears, President of the Alliance Defense Fund, briefly summarizes the main threats to traditional marriage across the country and what ADF is doing in the legal arena to protect marriage from these assaults. Marriage is not just a religious issue but also an important legal issue that affects the very foundations of civilization.
In more encouraging news, polls in Florida show a vast majority support protecting marriage. And though recent polls in Indiana have shown a decrease in support, a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of “one man and one woman” still garners more support than opposition.
As John
Fund explains in the Wall Street Journal, it appears Senator Barbara Boxer
(D-CA) is holding up the nomination of Judge Jim Rogan to the U.S. District
Court because, as a former Congressman, he was one of the House managers who
led the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton. It would be a shame if this
kind of petty partisanship derails the confirmation of a qualified judge.
The AP reports on this reversal, in substance, of the Oregon state
constitution marriage amendment.
 Early this morning one of the greatest pro-life champions in modern American history Rep. Henry Hyde, former Congressman from Illinois, passed away. The National Right to Life Committee said he was “long considered the premier pro-life champion in the United States Congress.” President Bush recently awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor the president can bestow. His most notable achievement, the “Hyde Amendment,” to this day prevents federal tax dollars from supporting abortion in the United States. As the National Review reported today:
The National Right to Life Committee has estimated, conservatively, that the Hyde Amendment has prevented at least one million abortions. That’s one million Americans who are alive today because of Henry Hyde.
Rep. Hyde also helped institute the Mexico City Policy and served as a House manager during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Even though Hyde was an unapologetic conservative he was respected and well-liked by members of both parties for his friendliness and impressive knowledge of American history and constitutional law. Pray the Lord will raise up strong, principled leaders in our nation like Henry Hyde.
Last week AdvanceUSA posted two articles about the amazing scientific breakthrough that indicates skin cells can be made to assume an embryonic-like state so that pluripotent stem cells can be obtained without harming human embryos or harvesting human eggs. Two recent columns, one by Rich Lowry at National Review and another by Joseph Bottum in the Wall Street Journal, further spotlight the exciting implications of this discovery for science and the pro-life movement.
For more information on this issue check our stem cell and adult stem cell pages.
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