Contrary to claims made by the President and his supporters when they were pushing the Affordable Care Act through Congress, the law actually does pay for abortions.
A report from the General Accounting Office has revealed that many insurers receiving the government subsidies put no restrictions on abortions. The report shows 15 of 18 Qualified Health Plans ignored the rules that abortions are not to be covered except in cases of rape, incest or health of the mother.
“Of the 18 issuers offering QHPs that cover non-excepted abortion services from which we obtained information, all but three issuers indicated that the benefit is not subject to any restrictions, limitations, or exclusions,” noted the GAO.
“These 18 issuers offered a total of 246 unique QHPs that covered non-excepted abortion services — or 24 percent of the total number of QHPs covering non-excepted abortion services in the 28 states with no laws restricting the circumstances under which abortion services can be provided as a covered benefit.”
The National Right to Life Committee had warned in 2011 that the ACA was full of loopholes that allowed violations of right-to-life principles.
“As enacted, the PPACA contains multiple provisions authorizing federal subsidies for abortion, and additional provisions on which future abortion-expanding regulatory mandates may be based,” charged the NRLC.
A group of Texas family planning clinics has announced they are severing all ties with the nation’s largest abortion provider.
The group previously known as “Planned Parenthood Assocation of Hidalgo County” has changed their name to “Access Esperanza Clinics” and said the move was done to obtain funding for services.
“Changing our name and affiliation allows our agency to apply for state health programs and make low-cost services more available for thousands of our low-income women, men and teens,” Patricio C. Gonzales, CEO of Access Esperanza, said in a web letter. “We hope to be approved for the state’s Texas Women’s Health Program services by October 2014 and plan to apply for other programs to expand our range of primary care services.”
Planned Parenthood acknowledged they had been cut out of the group.
Access Esperanza does not list abortion as one of the procedures they offer to the public.
The funding to the group had been curtailed because of Senate Bill 7 passed in 2011. The bill revoked government funding of Planned Parenthood affiliated groups.
The Obama administration has decided even in light of the Hobby Lobby ruling from the Supreme Court to continue their action to force nuns to pay for abortion causing drugs.
The administration filed a “supplemental brief for the government” Monday in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in their lawsuit with the Little Sisters of the Poor. The order sued to not be forced to pay for abortion causing drugs because it violates the Christian faith.
“This Court should proceed with oral argument in these cases,” the administration wrote in the brief. “Because of the injunctions issued in these cases, the women employed by the plaintiffs have been and continue to be denied access to contraceptive coverage.”
The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, which is overseeing the case for the Little Sisters, told the Christian Post they were disappointed that the government is going to continue to target the nuns.
“We’re disappointed that the government still insists on picking religious winner and losers and exempting church while telling the Little Sisters of the Poor they’re not religious enough,” Adele Keim said.
A Pennsylvania woman will spend the next 18 months behind bars after being convicted of illegally giving her daughter abortion pills.
Jennifer Whalen of Washingtonville, 39, pleaded guilty last month to purchasing the drugs from an online site based in Europe. The woman’s 16-year-old daughter became pregnant in 2012 and didn’t want to keep the baby so the two found the drugs online.
The plot was exposed after the daughter experienced abdominal cramping and bleeding. She was rushed to Geisinger Medical Center where the doctors found an “incomplete abortion and urinary tract infaction.”
The case took over a year to bring charges because of the unique situation. Whalen was initially charged with unlawfully dispensing medicine, endangering the welfare of a child, simple assault and medical consultation. She had been free on bond prior to sentencing but will serve the prison term and community service upon release.
Diane Gramley of the American Family Association noted that Pennsylvania has a “safe haven” law where they could have left the baby at the hospital without any reprisal from the state.
“This baby did not have to die,” Gramley said.
A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott regarding a ruling that blocks parts of the state’s strong abortion law.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal on the grounds that Abbott was too late in filing the appeal.
“[Abbott] waited until 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31 to file the stay motion; a corrected version was sent at 12:08 a.m. Monday, Sept. 1,” decided the Fifth Circuit. “This did not allow time for a response, or for the court adequately to consider the motion, before the scheduled effective date, though the appellants claim irreparable harm from the statute’s not being enforced.”
Abbott had appealed a decision that stops the regulations regarding abortion clinics having the same safety standards as ambulatory surgical centers. Judge Lee Yeakel, who had attempted to strike down the law previously before being overruled on appeal, said the requirements clinics have health standards like surgical centers makes it too hard for a woman to kill their child via abortion.
The ruling now will stand pending a full appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A Federal judge has ruled that because a majority of abortion clinic providers refused to make changes to their clinics as required by a Texas law and thus would have to close, the law is unconstitutional.
District Judge Lee Yeakel, who had previously ruled against the law in a case that was quickly overturned by an appeals court, said that requiring clinics to widen doors so paramedics could bring in a stretcher for a woman in distress is “too costly for abortion clinic owners” and therefore puts an undue burden on women wanting to kill their baby via abortion.
“The court concludes that the act’s [House Bill 2] ambulatory surgical center requirement, combined with the already-in-effect admitting privileges requirement, creates a brutally effective system of abortion regulation that reduces accesses to abortion clinics, thereby creating a statewide burden for a substantial number of Texas women,” Yeakel wrote.
The clinics had a year to bring their clinics up to the new standards but some abortion providers just refused to make the changes. That did not matter to the judge.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state will appeal the decision.
Abortionists have filed a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana over a law that the claim will force them to close.
HB 388 passed the Louisiana House of Representatives 88-5 and the Senate 34-3. The bill would require abortionists to obtain admitting privileges if a woman is injured during an abortion and require further medical care.
“On the date the abortion is performed or induced, a physician performing or inducing an abortion shall have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services,” the bill reads.
The lawsuit claims that there is not a sufficient amount of time from the passage of the law until it goes into effect for the clinics to obtain the approvals necessary to stay open after September 1st.
Laws similar to the Louisiana law have been upheld in most other states including Texas, where at the end of 2014 it’s predicted only 6 of 41 abortion clinics will remain open.
A Catholic pro-life organization is actively campaigning for PBS to drop their plans to air the pro-abortion movie “After Tiller.”
The American Life League called upon PBS to pull the movie which is scheduled to air on Labor Day. The group says that because PBS is “publicly funded” is “has no business” airing a slanted, pro-abortion film.
“Why are pro-life tax dollars being used to paint a sympathetic picture of abortionists who stab babies in the base of their skulls just moments before they are born?” said ALL President Judie Brown. “Where is the sympathy for the babies, whose brains are being sucked out by vacuum machines by these abortionists?”
PBS says they will air the movie as part of their “Point of View” series that has been running for 27 seasons.
“‘After Tiller’ follows these four doctors as they confront a host of obstacles — from moral and personal dilemmas to restrictions placed on their practices by state legislation,” stated PBS in a press release. “Rather than trying to take a comprehensive look at the heated political debate surrounding abortion, the film weaves together revealing, in-depth interviews with the abortionists and intimate vérité scenes both from their lives outside their clinics and the time they spend in their clinics, counseling and caring for their anxious, vulnerable patients at profoundly important crossroads in their lives.”
Pro-life groups around the world have shown the “After Tiller” film to be slanted in favor of abortion.
I am so excited about Lori’s House! We are approaching the time when we can finally open it and welcome our first girls in! We’re not quite there yet, but it’s soon… very soon. We have the right people in place now, and we are moving rapidly to finish the building and create a safe place where ministry, love, rest, learning, fellowship and caring will take place with its main goal of saving babies and caring for their mothers.
There will be no charge to a young woman who wants to live at Lori’s House through her pregnancy. The ministry, through generous donations, will provide assistance for food, clothing and medical care. Education and job training will be provided and an individual program will be tailored depending on each girl’s special needs.
Through it all, she will be comfortable, safe and “at home.” Continue reading →