Planned Parenthood Loses Stranglehold, Funding in 95 of 95 Tennessee Counties
Shelby County Commission Becomes Last to Direct Family Planning Funds Away From Abortion Provider-Promoter
After forty years of preferential treatment by many political and public health leaders in Tennessee and an ironclad monopoly on the tens of millions of tax dollars earmarked for “family planning” programs in Memphis and Nashville, the abortion giant has finally been dealt a serious financial blow. On Monday, members of the Shelby County Commission voted 9-4 to award the “family planning” contract to another non-profit organization, Christ Community Health Services.
The action follows similar efforts earlier this year when, under urging from the Haslam Administration, Nashville’s public health department agreed to accept all available “family planning” funds, a move resulting in the funds being diverted from Planned Parenthood’s Nashville abortion affiliate. Taken together, more than $1,000,000 in tax payer funds has been re-directed in Tennessee since May.
The outcome is a victory for pro-life Tennesseans and realization of another longtime priority for Tennessee Right to Life.
“Without question, lives will be improved, changed and saved as a result of directing these tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood’s abortion facilities in Memphis and Nashville,” said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life. “At risk women and families will now have the opportunity to receive quality care from ethical providers whose underlying goal is not to sell an abortion,” said Harris.
Tennesseans have proven one more time what can be positively accomplished for the protection of human life by working together. “Pro-life voters have spoken in a consistent manner over the course of years and their elected officials---councilmen, commissioners, legislators, mayors, congressmen, and our Governor---they have all joined the long effort to protect life and Tennessee’s taxpayers,” said Harris.
Tennessee Right to Life expresses sincere appreciation to Governor Bill Haslam, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, Congressman Diane Black, Speaker Beth Harwell, state Senators Stacey Campfield and Jack Johnson, state representatives Mark Pody and Bill Dunn, and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell for their key leadership in ensuring that family planning dollars are directed to respected health providers in communities across Tennessee. Additionally, the organization thanks members of the Shelby County Commission who voted to direct tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood: Brent Taylor, James Harvey, Terry Roland, Mike Ritz, Chris Thomas, Justin Ford, Steve Mulroy, Heidi Shafer and Wyatt Bunker.
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Steve Jobs Changed the World: Adoption Changed His
The news hit me in the gut. I couldn’t believe I was seeing those few numbers, communicating his passing, beneath his photo: 1955-2011. Steve Jobs has, literally, changed the world. I’m typing this on my Mac, will check my emails and Twitter status on my iPad, and will stay in touch with everyone I love through my iPhone.
As a creative professional, his visionary work has helped my own visions become reality.
But his vision, his destiny and his ability to affect people, globally, may never have happened. Jobs was adopted as a baby and loved by his parents, Clara and Paul Jobs. The baby they took into their hearts and home had a purpose in life that would be unleashed by the powerful act of adoption.
He began today’s revolutionary Apple company and has departed this world with a professional legacy that is awe-inspiring. The partially bitten apple represents the temptation that millions of us have been unable to avoid…waiting in day long lines for shiny objects that proved to us science fiction could be made reality by a creative genius. Jobs’ minimalistic approach delivered a multitude of near-perfect electronic devices. From amber screens to full-color high definition, visually we’ve been changed by the adoption of Apple’s technology.
It’s amazing to me that, in 2011, especially among Christians, how foreign a concept adoption is. Adoption is the essence of salvation. There is no Christianity without adoption, in the spiritual sense. Yet, in the physical sense, it is rarely considered as an option. For those who are so passionately prolife, it is often the challenge thrown before us in our opposition to abortion, and rightfully so. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-changed-the-world-adoption-changed-his/
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House Votes Thursday on Bill to Stop Abortion in Obamacare
The House of Representatives will vote Thursday on legislation that would stop abortion funding in Obamacare, the national health care plan that contains no limits on taxpayer funding of abortions.
H.R. 358, Protect Life Act, will likely come up for a vote on the House floor next Thursday after pro-life lawmakers fended off numerous hostile amendments from pro-abortion members of Congress during the committee markup. Capital Hill sources informed LifeNews today that they expect pro-abortion lawmakers to offer many of those weakening amendments that would water down the bill on the House floor.
The Protect Life Act makes it clear that no funds authorized or appropriated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), including tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, may be used to pay for abortion or abortion coverage. It specifies that individual people or state or local governments must purchase a separate elective abortion rider or insurance coverage that includes elective abortion but only as long as that is done with private funds and not monies authorized by Obamacare.
The bill also specifies that insurance issuers may offer health plans that include elective abortion and may offer separate elective abortion riders, so long as they ensure PPACA funds are not used for premiums or administrative costs. The bill also clarifies that issuers who offer elective abortion coverage must also offer a qualified health benefits plan that is identical except that it does not cover elective abortion.
The pro-life measure also ensures that state laws “protecting conscience rights, restricting or prohibiting abortion or coverage or funding of abortion, or establishing procedural requirements on abortion” are not abrogated by Obamacare. It also makes it so any state or local governments receiving funding under Obamacare may not subject any health care entity to discrimination or require any health plan to subject any entity to discrimination on the basis that it refuses to undergo abortion training, refuses to require abortion training, refuses to perform or pay for abortions, or refuses to provide abortion referrals.
ACTION: Contact your member of the House at http://www.house.gov to urge strong support for the Protect Life Act and opposition to any weakening amendments. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/06/house-votes-next-week-on-bill-to-stop-abortion-in-obamacare/
Cloning Eggsploitation
Scientists at Columbia University in New York have created cloned human embryos and then destroyed them for their embryonic stem cells. Failing at creation of real clones, they actually created genetically abnormal clones, knowing that the cells from the destroyed clones would be useless for therapies and even questionable for laboratory studies. Beyond the grave ethical failure of specifically creating young humans solely for destruction in science experiments, the scientists also used cash incentives to solicit women to risk their health and fertility by undergoing harvesting of dozens of eggs for the experiments.
Faced with their inefficient results, they then boldly claimed success and pleaded for many more women to come forward for “eggsploitation”. Besides the repugnance of creating human beings solely for destructive experiments, the obsession with embryonic stem cells and clones ignores the thousands of patients helped by ethical, successful adult stem cells. Congress and the states should reject all human cloning, just as the United Nations has done, and focus resources on the patients first and adult stem cell solutions. To see some examples of real help and hope, visit stemcellresearchfacts.org.
According to federal tax records obtained by national pro-life groups, affiliates of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation gave more than half a million dollars in 2010 to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest promoter and performer of abortion. These contributions were given despite increasing scientific evidence that abortion is a “known risk factor” for breast cancer, including a study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle which reported a “20 to 50 percent increased chance for breast cancer among women who had had an abortion compared to women who carried their pregnancies to term.”
Researchers offer the following explanation as a possible means of documenting a link between abortion and increased risk for breast cancer:
In early pregnancy, levels of estrogen increase, leading to breast growth in preparation for lactation. If this process is interrupted by an abortion-before full maturity in the third trimester-then more relatively vulnerable immature cells could be left than there were prior to the pregnancy, resulting in a greater potential risk of breast cancer over time.
For a thorough biological explanation of the abortion-breast cancer link, visit Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, http://www.BCPInstitute.org and click on its online booklet, “Breast Cancer Risks and Prevention.”
Tennessee Right to Life urges concerned Tennesseans to consider directing research contributions to one of the following ethical research groups:
Breast Cancer Prevention Institute: Founded by Joel Brind, Ph.D. and Angela Lanfranchi, M.D.; a leader in the study of the link between abortion / contraceptives and breast cancer; 1-86-NO CANCER (1-866-622-6237); http://www.bcpinstitute.org
The Polycarp Research Institute: A non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating high-quality research designed to enhance the physical, psychological and spiritual condition of mankind; 717-732-4904; http://www.polycarp.org
Coalition on Abortion / Breast Cancer: A leading international women’s organization that provides education and information on abortion as a risk factor for breast cancer; 877-803-0102; http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com
