Mirroring a bill passed last year in Nebraska, the Kansas legislature recently gave final approval to a measure prohibiting abortions after 21 weeks based on an unborn child’s ability to feel pain.  This measure, HB2218, has now been sent to Governor Sam Brownback who is expected to sign it.  Passage of this legislation signals a huge step toward fully protecting and valuing unborn human life.  It also sets a precedent among states, the majority of which currently protect life at fetal “viability,” a stage which can be hard to definitively determine.  Kansas is not alone in their effort to protect unborn children who can feel pain, 12 other states currently have similar legislation (ID, OK, OR, AR, AL, GA, SC, FL, MS, MN, IA, IN).

Another pro-life bill passed by the legislature was HB2035.  It defines the criteria for those required to report cases of suspected child abuse and broadens it to include those who work or volunteer at organizations that provide pregnancy services to minors.  Also included are reporting requirements for abortion providers; a provision allowing a woman to file suit if an abortion was performed upon her illegally; and a parental consent requirement among other things.

On the topic of abortion, other bills in the legislature would prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion (HB2377), specify licensing requirements of abortion clinics (HB2337, SB36, SB45 and SB165), create health exceptions to late-term abortions (HB2007), and address abortion coverage in health insurance (HB2292 and HB2293).

In other areas, the legislature recently passed a bill requiring citizens to present valid ID before voting and in order to register to vote.  Provisions of the law do not start going into effect until January 1^st, 2012.

Currently in committees of origin are bills that establish covenant marriages and enact divorce reform (HB2254), prohibit public funding of human cloning (HB2214), and include “sexual orientation and gender identity” in state law prohibiting discrimination (SB53).  Also of note is a bill which has passed the house and is now in a senate committee that addresses the method of selecting judges (HB2101).

For more on the issue of fetal pain please read “The Science of Fetal Pain” by Jeanne Monahan.

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The ever-inventive animalists at PETA are out with a new beef, er, gripe: The Bible.

It seems in this 400^th anniversary year of the venerable King James Version, PETA wants to jump on the bandwagon for some free publicity. Here’s the news item:

Animal activists say the Bible needs to be more considerate of God’s furry friends. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has asked the Committee on Bible Translation to update the New International Version Bible to include more animal-friendly language, according to CNN. In a letter to translators, the group called the Bible’s current text “speciesist” and requested that pronouns like “he” and “she” be used instead of “it” when referring to animals…“Language matters,” Friedrich told CNN. “Calling an animal ‘it’ denies them something. They are beloved by God. They glorify God.”

Actually, PETA folks get this one wrong, too, as they get most things wrong. The Bible is most considerate of God’s creatures. The Bible tells us that all Creation groans, awaiting its savior. As C.S. Lewis helpfully informs us, Nature is not our mother, she’s our sister. Nature, like us, is in need of redemption. That’s why, when Jesus was born, Heaven and Nature sang.

Continue reading »

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Pro-life groups in Chicago unveiled a new billboard PR campaign last night geared towards raising awareness about the disproportionate number of African-American babies that are aborted. The billboard has a picture of President Obama and reads “Every 21 Minutes Our Next Possible Leader Is Aborted”. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the abortion research group originally started by Planned Parenthood, fully 30 percent of the nation’s aborted babies are black, whereas according to the U.S. Census Bureau African-Americans compose 12.3% of the population in the U.S.

While the billboards are simply stating data –there is nothing erroneous or even subjective about the information presented on the billboard — not unlike a recent billboard campaign in New York City, the billboards are drawing angry protests from abortion proponents.

The truth hurts.

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This is a video that any woman who is considering choosing abortion should view. She won’t regret spending twelve minutes watching this short movie that could change the course of her life.

Should a woman who has chosen abortion view this clip, there is mercy, hope and healing ahead.

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Anyone who has attended the annual March for Life and has witnessed the thousands of teenagers, children and young adults peacefully protesting abortion in the U.S. knows that the pro-life movement will ultimately succeed in the hands of our young people.

The video clip below is an excellent snapshot of what Gallup polls have been telling us lately. The abortion “tide” is turning, in large part because of the powerful voice of youth in America.

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“Who has the primary responsibility for making critical decisions about the education of school-aged children? Their parents? Or government and the school system it operates? That is a fundamental question about education policy that faces the United States as it attempts to build educational institutions for the twenty-first century.” – Jack Klenk

For more information on this topic, click here.

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Marcia Walden, a licensed counselor in Georgia, explains why she was fired after referring a homosexual client to a colleague. Marcia referred the client to another colleague because offering counseling services would conflict with her Christian beliefs on homosexuality. Under ENDA legislation currently before Congress, Christian employers and employees across the nation would experience similar attacks on their Constitutional right to freedom of religion, speech and association.

For more on how you can protect the religious liberties of employers and employees, visit FightEnda.org.

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With the recent passage of the Continuing Resolution here in DC there has been much debate about whether taxpayer money should be used to fund abortion.  Currently, due to provisions in various federal appropriations bills, federal tax dollars are not supposed to be used to fund the procedure of abortion.  President Obama changed all this, first by eliminating the long standing policy called the “Dornan Amendment” that prohibited all funds that Congress approved for D.C. (both “local” and “federal”) from being used for elective abortions.   With a liberal majority in the last Congress, language contained in a Continuing Resolution banned only the use of “federal” funds for elective abortions.  This change by pro-abortion legislators gutted the entire policy, because the District government could then use taxpayer funds to pay for abortion as long as a bookkeeping sleight-of-hand was employed to claim the abortions were being paid for with District of Columbia tax monies.  President Obama’s second successful attempt to federally fund abortions was through his health care legislation, which both funds and subsidizes the abortion industry.

In addition to the aforementioned examples, nothing currently prevents millions of dollars of grant money and subsidies from being allocated to the scandal-plagued abortion giant Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers annually.  This money goes to fund their non-abortion services, effectively freeing up their other funds to finance not only the hundreds of thousands of abortions they perform each year, but also their lobbying efforts to stop any piece of legislation that seeks to protect the life of the mother or her unborn child. 

Congress is not the only entity that is currently addressing this grave misuse of Americans’ hard earned tax dollars; several state governments have also taken up the issue of taxpayer funding of abortion.  As noted in the map below, four states have proposed constitutional amendments prohibiting the public funding of abortion.  Even more noteworthy, four additional states have proposed legislation not only aimed at denying direct funding of abortion but also denying funding to any entity that provides elective abortions. Two states in particular, New Hampshire and Indiana, have called out Planned Parenthood by name, emphasizing the fact that they will not be receiving state funds, and Montana has specifically not allocated any funds to Planned Parenthood in their state budget.

In addition to the states below that have addressed the issue of taxpayer funding of abortion, many other states have introduced bills that would prohibit coverage of abortion in health insurance plans (both state and private plans).  These measures are not addressed in the following map.

For further information check out the Chiaroscuro Foundation’s report: Does Planned Parenthood Need or Deserve Federal Funds?  An Analysis of Planned Parenthood’s Revenue and Services

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Lila Rose, President, Live Action and Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council talk about Live Action’s undercover videos of Planned Parenthood. To watch the entire webcast, click here.

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On April 11, 2011, Family Research Council will be hosting a Family Policy Lecture about how socialists are reshaping Spain. Ignacio Arsuaga will be the featured speaker, and will also be releasing his new book, The Zapatero Project: Chronicle of an attack on society. This lecture should be particularly interesting, considering Arsuaga’s work in defending human rights through his work as President of HazteOir.org.

You can register for this lecture, which will also be available by webcast, by clicking here.

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How you can protect your children from the dangers of child pornography and sex trafficking. Watch Bob Flores, former Administrator of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJD), and Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council to learn more. You can view the rest of the webcast by clicking here.

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On February 25^th, 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its annual abortion surveillance report with their most recently compiled data and statistics — in this case, from 2007 — on abortion in the United States.

Since 1969, the CDC has reported annually on abortion-related data; typically this information is made public in November, usually during Thanksgiving week. As reported by Erick Erickson earlier this year, the CDC did not release this information as expected in November, 2010, and as late as January, 2011, there was even a rumor that the CDC would not be releasing this information at all.

However, that proved to be false as the report was eventually published on February 25, 2011. The CDC claimed that it was late because of data compilation problems.

So now that we have the report, what does it tell us about abortion and women’s health?

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Are your children at risk? Samantha Vardaman, Senior Director of Shared Hope International, and Tony Perkins, President of FRC, talk about the growing number of American children exploited and trapped by Sex Traffickers. Samantha lists signs to watch for in safeguarding our children.

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FRC is proud to announce the availability of its new policy pamphlet entitled, “Who Should Decide How Children are Educated?” by Jack Klenk.  Mr. Klenk is a retired, long-time Department of Education policy expert and proponent of educational reform.

You can download the document here. [PDF]

Primarily, Klenk asks the following linked questions:  “Who has the primary responsibility for making critical decisions about the education of school-aged children? Their parents? Or government and the school system it operates?”

Klenk presents an extended overview of the development of American public education and demonstrates that we now have a “top-down” model that has been designed to promote the preferences of experts, bureaucracies, and unions above that of parents.  Rather, a system must be developed that overturns old patterns of behavior.  The current educational system is overdue for a modernization, that will it make it more flexible, less bureaucratic, and more family-friendly.  To be authentically public, it must serve all parents from the whole public.

For education to serve the public, it must give parents access to a variety of schools, not just the monolithic government option.  The old system is a monopoly that is not suited to modern life.  As with other monopolies, it gives disproportionate weight to itself and special interests, and not enough to the customers – the parents and children.  Furthermore, monopolies always resist improvement-forcing competition.  Any new system of education for the public must leave behind the mindset that only government schools can serve the public.  Parents should be allowed to select the educational institutions that best suit their needs.

However, the reforms must be accomplished in a manner that does not interfere with the freedom and distinctive identities of nongovernmental schools.  This is critical.  Government financial support of parental educational choices cannot be allowed to threaten the independence and distinctive features (e.g., religious education) of alternative institutions.  Vouchers, tax credits, and charter schools are all part of a wave of educational change that appears to be on the horizon as the public realizes that government schools are very costly and are not performing well.

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In an address to the U.N. General Assembly President Bush said:

“Each year, an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are bought, sold or forced across the world’s borders. Among them are hundreds of thousands of teenage girls, and others as young as five, who fall victim to the sex trade.  This commerce in human life generates billions of dollars each year — much of which is used to finance organized crime.  There’s a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable. The victims of sex trade see little of life before they see the very worst of life, an underground of brutality and lonely fear. Those who create these victims and profit from their suffering must be severely punished. Those who patronize this industry debase themselves and deepen the misery of others.  And governments that tolerate this trade are tolerating a form of slavery.”

This tragic form of slavery is not just a problem “over there,” in third world countries far removed from us.  On the contrary, it is happening right in our own backyard.  Despite laws criminalizing it, sex trafficking is a huge problem in America.

In The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children, Shared Hope International affirms that at least 100,000 American children a year are victims of sex trafficking, and that number may be much higher.  The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) highlights the fact that sex trafficking of children is largely under-reported in their estimate that 1 in 5 girls are sexually abused or assaulted before they become adults and 1 in 10 boys, however less than 35% of those cases are reported.  Researchers estimate that 10–15 percent of children living on the streets in the United States are trafficked for sexual purposes according to the National Institute of Justice in their report Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: What Do We Know and What Do We Do About It?.

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How can we stop sex trafficking where it starts? Pat Trueman, CEO of Morality in Media and Founder of PornHarms.com, joins Tony Perkins, President of FRC, to talk about what leads to Sex Trafficking, and how we can take steps to confront the problem at its origin.

You can view the entire webcast by clicking here.

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Check out our new video:  “Why a Federal Judge Ruled Obamacare Unconstitutional.”  Ken Klukowski, Director, Center for Religious Liberty, at Family Research Council explains the reasoning behind the judge’s ruling.

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A team of scientists from Thessaloniki, Greece, have shown that chemotherapy followed by adult stem cell transplant can stop progression of aggressive multiple sclerosis (MS). The team observed a group of 35 patients who received transplants of their own bone marrow adult stem cells after being treated with chemotherapy to wipe out the rogue immune cells that were attacking their nervous system and causing their MS. An average of 11 years after their transplants, 25% of the patients in Greece have not seen their disease progress, the researchers report. Among patients with active lesions on MRI scans before their transplants, indicating that they were in an inflammatory phase of the disease, 44% have not progressed. For 16 people, symptoms improved by an average of one point on their disability scale after the transplant, and the improvements lasted for an average of two years. The participants also had a reduction in the number and size of lesions in their brains. But two patients died from transplant-related complications. The results are published in the journal Neurology, the journal of the American Association of Neurology. Co-author Dr. Vasilios Kimiskidis said:

“Keeping that in mind, our feeling is that stem cell transplants may benefit people with rapidly progressive MS. This is not a therapy for the general population of people with MS but should be reserved for aggressive cases that are still in the inflammatory phase of the disease.”

Other researchers not associated with the current study commented that this was still a big step forward in the use of adult stem cells to treat MS Dr. Richard Nash of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle noted:

“This is the first long-term paper that’s being published on this.”

Nash is part of a National Institutes of Health trial of stem cell transplants for MS, but he was not involved in the Greek study.

Dr. Richard Burt, Chief of the Division of Medicine-Immunotherapy for Autoimmune Diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, points out:

“It’s the only therapy to date that has been shown to reverse neurologic deficits. But you have to get the right group of patients.”

Burt published a study in 2009 in The Lancet in which 17 out of 21 patients with relapsing-remitting MS improved after stem cell transplants.

In a gentler method of treatment, Prof. Neil Scolding and colleagues published positive results in 2010 for stabilization of MS patients using their own adult stem cells.

Adult stem cells continue to lead the way, showing published evidence of positive benefits for thousands of patients with dozens of diseases and conditions.

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I was researching a U.S. history book several years ago when I read about Gov. Nelson Rockefeller shaking hands with the 110-year old Henry Herndon in Indiana in 1968. Rocky was very excited. You could have given him Venezuela and the billionaire would not have been as happy. The reason?

The governor was told that Henry Herndon shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. Rocky went around for days telling everyone he met: “Hey, fella, shake hands with me. I just shook hands with a man who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln.”

I mentally filed that not away. Nice to know. Interesting comment, too, on American politics. When Lincoln shook hands with Henry Herndon, he was no longer the poor lad born in the log cabin. By that time, Lincoln was a successful lawyer from Springfield, Illinois.

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At a March 18 meeting in San Francisco, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the creation of a “top-level domain” — .xxx – for sites dedicated to pornography and obscenity.

As PCWorld put it, “ The adult entertainment industry now has a home on the Internet: It’s called .xxx.”

The Family Research Council has opposed the creation of the .xxx porn ghetto for years, and we are profoundly disappointed that this measure was approved.  We believe that ICANN’s action legitimizes hardcore pornography by giving it a designated location on the internet.

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