Recently in respect life Category

UPDATE: Four days later Komen caves to the pressure. But all hope is not lost. For details read:

Komen May Continue to Fund Some Planned Parenthood Grants

This article has been circulating since yesterday. I'm happy to repost it.

Lifesite News: Komen to Stop Grants to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

After years of protests and criticism from pro-life advocates, the biggest breast cancer organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has announced it is halting further grants and donations to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Figures from August directly from the Komen for the Cure foundation show 18 affiliates of the breast cancer charity gave a total of more than $569,000 to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in 2010. That was down from the $731,303 Komen officials publicly confirmed in October 2010, when they acknowledged that 20 of the 122 Komen affiliates gave to Planned Parenthood during the 2009 fiscal year.

Now, Komen says it is halting all grants due to the impending investigation in Congress of the Planned Parenthood abortion business. Its new guidelines prevent it from funding any group under congressional investigation.

The policy makes it so no further Planned Parenthood grants will be given unless the investigation results in Planned Parenthood's favor.

According to Fox News, Komen spokeswoman Leslie Aun said "the cutoff results from the charity's newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. According to Komen, this applies to Planned Parenthood because it's the focus of an inquiry launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., seeking to determine whether public money was improperly spent on abortions."

Aun said pro-life pressure was less of a factor than the Congressional investigation.

"We want to maintain a positive relationship with them," she said of Planned Parenthood. "We're not making any judgment."

Planned Parenthood officials are upset by the decision and have already publicly responded, saying they will quickly try to raise the funds Komen had generated.

"It's hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women's lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying," Richards told The Associated Press. "It's really hurtful."

Richard indicated Komen officials informed Planned Parenthood in December of the decision and that it came via a phone call from top Komen officials. Planned Parenthood responded by requesting a meeting with the Komen board, including CEO Nancy Brinker and board chairman Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. Komen, according to Fox News, replied with a letter ignoring the request for a meeting and adding, "We understand the disappointment of any organization that is affected by these policy and strategy updates."

"We're kind of reeling," said Patrick Hurd, who is CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia, told Fox News. "It sounds almost trite, going through this with Betsi, but cancer doesn't care if you're pro-choice, anti-choice, progressive, conservative. Victims of cancer could care less about people's politics."

Komen affiliates in Austin, Texas; Central New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; Greater Amarillo, Texas; Los Angeles County, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Salt Lake City, Utah stopped giving to the abortion business while affiliates in Dallas County, Texas; Denver, Colorado; North Carolina Triad; North Carolina Triangle; and Puget Sound, Washington all began new relationships with Planned Parenthood in 2011.

A Komen affiliate in Orange County, California is the last to have given a grant to the abortion business, doing so in December. The grant was approved prior to Komen announcing its changes.

"Stephanie Kight, a vice president with Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, said her affiliate in Southern California received a Komen grant for 2011 and was able to obtain an additional grant of $120,000 for 2012 by signing the deal with its local Komen counterpart just before Komen's new criteria took effect," according to Fox.

The official Komen statement follows:

At Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the women we serve are our highest priority in everything we do. Last year, we invested $98 million in community health programs, which included 700,000 mammograms. Additionally, we began an initiative to further strengthen our grants program to be even more outcomes-driven and to allow for even greater investments in programs that directly serve women. We also implemented more stringent eligibility and performance criteria to support these strategies. While it is regrettable when changes in priorities and policies affect any of our grantees, such as a longstanding partner like Planned Parenthood, we must continue to evolve to best meet the needs of the women we serve and most fully advance our mission.
It is critical to underscore that the women we serve in communities remain our priority. We are working directly with Komen Affiliates to ensure there is no interruption or gaps in services for women who need breast health screening and services.

ACTION: Contact Komen for the Cure to thank it for stopping grants to Planned Parenthood at http://ww5.komen.org/Contact.aspx

It is particularly important that we let Komen for the Cure know that we are grateful to them for stopping their funding to Planned Parenthood (especially since abortion has been linked to breast cancer) and that we will once again give them our financial support. They received 200 emails yesterday denouncing their decision. They must hear from pro-lifers supporting their decision. Use this link http://ww5.komen.org/Contact.aspx to send them an email. I just did and it only takes a couple minutes.

Love him or hate him, the man was a genius. Here is an interesting article from LifeSiteNews.com that was posted a week before his death. Some great lessons in there.

Flashback: Steve Jobs Is a Genius Alright, But Even Geniuses Need to Be Born

I saw this on Twitter from @StevenErtelt of Lifenews.com.

As a followup on the previous post Planned Parenthood to Pro-Life, here is another video in which Abby Johnson describes watching the abortion ultrasound.

In related news, Judge prevents Planned Parenthood from keeping Abby Johnson quiet.

Matt over at Fallible Blogma.com (love the name!) has a great project in the works called Support A Catholic Speaker Month. Bloggers participate by being assigned a speaker then making a post about them. My speaker is Mr. Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League.

Jim Sedlak is a Catholic, Pro-Life, inspirational speaker who has given hundreds of talks on three continents. A leader in the pro-life movement, he currently serves as vice president of American Life League and concentrates his efforts on fighting Planned Parenthood - the nation's largest abortion chain. A former Senior Engineer with the IBM Corporation, Jim has spent over 15 years working full time in the pro-life movement. His expertise comes from being in the streets in front of Planned Parenthood; addressing school boards, city councils, state legislators and members of Congress. He serves as an advisor to many local efforts against Planned Parenthood and belongs to Knights of Columbus Council 4034.

He will bring to your event a mixture of fact and wit, with a captivating speaking style that leaves audiences informed and motivated. His talks can best be summed up by the remark of a woman who heard Jim talk in Belfast, Northern Ireland: "This was the most inspirational talk I have heard in my life ."

Jim's talks include:

Planned Parenthood - the Problem, Not the Solution
Planned Parenthood's Health Care Hoax
The Dangers of Sex Education
Planned Parenthood Steals Souls
Parent Power - How parents can regain control of school systems
Taxpayer Funding of Planned Parenthood and How to Stop It
Planned Parenthood vs. John Paul II - a collision of cultures
Planned Parenthood vs. Pregnancy Care Centers
Matthew 10 - the Secret Weapon Against Planned Parenthood
Pro-Life and Personhood

Click here for Jim's contact info.

I know this story has been all over the Catholic blogs but in case you haven't heard, here's a great pro-life story about former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson.

(Note: It isn't mentioned in this news segment but Abby's turning point came when she saw an ultrasound of an abortion. There was no denying what was happening to the baby.)

Catholicvote.org's pro-life commercial was approved and will be playing during the American Idol finale. Good for them! Check it out.

Here is a powerful witness from a feisty young woman who pulls no punches.

PART 1

PART 2

Our prayers have gone out to the families that were killed in the plane crash in Montana. Sadly, it was the family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, who is owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in the nation. The 17 California Family Planning clinics perform more abortions in the state of California than any other abortion provider - Planned Parenthood included. The ironic part is that the plane crashed in a Catholic cemetery near the "Tomb of the Unborn," a memorial dedicated to all babies who have died because of abortion. Maybe in some way good will come out of this horrible situation if it touches Feldkamp's heart to see that the tragedy of lost life includes the loss of the unborn.

Family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, Owner of the Nation's Largest Privately Owned Abortion Chain, Dies in Montana Plane Crash - Christian Newswire

Okay, I was supposed to sign off after the last post but I quickly checked out Trisha's blog and I had to comment on her post The Gift of a Child about parents choosing to keep or abort their unborn babies with medical problems. As I mentioned to her, when I was pregnant with Bella, Brian and I were sitting in the doc office (not our regular obgyn) waiting for the same check-the baby-for-deformities ultrasound. There was a little TV playing and on it there were other couples talking about when they took the test. One mom talked about how she found out her baby had medical problems so she chose "termination." Brian and I were shocked to see it "advertised" in the waiting room.

This time, when I was pregnant with Andrew, I told my obgyn Dr. V that I wanted to skip all that testing. Being a Christian, pro-life doc, he understood that we'd never abort if there was something wrong but he encouraged me to take the non invasive tests so if there was a problem he'd be able to prepare for it before delivery. (I thought about babies that went through surgery before they were even delivered!) So we went for the ultrasound and minimal genetic testing.

When we arrived at the ultrasound office we explained to them that we were only doing this so if there is something wrong, we could prepare to do whatever was medically necessary to help our baby. Termination was a word never to be uttered before us. The genetics testing lady clucked her tongue a bit but she complied. It's crazy that we had to be so adamant and fight for our baby's life before he was even born!

Ugh, that fired me up! Hand me the vacuum. I've got some serious cleaning to do...

Friends of ours are involved the local chapter of 40 Days for Life and they are doing great work. There will be a documentary on 40 Days on EWTN this Fri (7/24) at 3:30 PM Pacific Time. Here's an article with more info: New documentary to highlight 40 Days for Life pro-life campaign.

When I first heard that they found Laci Peterson's body and the body of her child Conner, I was literally sick to my stomach. Later I remarked to Brian that it's ironic that everyone sees the horror of Scott Peterson killing his 8 month old (in the womb) son but had Laci chosen to have an abortion at 8 months there would be plenty of people willing to escort her to the clinic. So does that mean Baby Conner's life is only worth saving if his mother wants him? The logic is so screwed up I can only pray that people start to get it. Perhaps since NOW is upset, more people will catch on. Daily Record News - Laci Peterson case tied to Roe debate