Monday, April 26, 2010

This Week is National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week

National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week starts today and is a great opportunity for prolifers (especially prolife students) to use their clothing to educate others about prolife issues. The goal is increase awareness about the sanctity of life and how abortion ends the life of innocent human beings.

Visit Right to Life of Michigan’s online catalog to find prolife apparel and merchandise online.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Michigan Senate passes legislation to provide transparency and reporting to embryonic stem cell research

On April 21, the Michigan Senate overwhelmingly passed a package of bills to provide transparency for researching involving human embryos in Michigan. In November of 2008, Michigan voters voted to pass Proposal 2 and legalize the killing of human embryos in Michigan for research purposes. The language of Proposal 2 failed to provide any definitions or accountability. This package of bills draws clear parameters around this research as promised by the proponents and voted on by the people.

Supporters in the Republican-led Senate said regulations are needed to clarify vague areas of Proposal 2, the constitutional amendment voters approved in 2008 that expands use of human embryos for any research permitted under federal law.

"I'd like to know how many embryos the University of Michigan has stored. Is it thousands, or three?" said Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, a sponsor of the package. "It's an after-the-fact report -- it does not discourage, obstruct or restrict research."

FULL STORY

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Senate Moves to Implement Embryo Research Proposal

Guidelines Needed to Enforce People's Vote

The Michigan Senate, by a vote of 25-12, approved a bi-partisan package of bills designed to implement the constitutional amendment adopted by Michigan voters allowing live human embryos to be destroyed for research purposes. Proposal 2 of 2008 contained a series of requirements for allowing embryos created for infertility treatment to be donated for research. The legislation passed today ensures that those requirements are backed up in law with definitions and penalties.

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "The debate over Proposal 2 is behind us. The Legislature's job is to properly implement and enforce the proposal. Voters approved this measure expecting research would be limited to only excess human embryos, that there would be no buying or selling of human embryos and that parents would consent to their embryos being used for research."

Advocates of the research have falsely claimed that the bills would restrict the ability of researchers to use the stem cell lines they create after destroying the embryos. Nothing in the bills restricts what researchers can do with the stem cells once they are harvested. An analysis of the Michigan bills shows that they are less burdensome than state regulations in California and Massachusetts, the two leading states in stem cell research.

Listing said, "The bi-partisan vote in the Senate demonstrates that the opposition to this legislation is little more than deceptive rhetoric, much like we saw in the Proposal 2 campaign. Research will not be affected by the basic oversight called for in these bills. If we do not put these measures into effect, we will have the unregulated and unrestricted scientific experimentation we warned about in 2008."

Monday, April 19, 2010

Adult stem cell study in Michigan focusing on heart attack patients

Michigan Stem & Regenerative Medicine Program of the Michigan CardioVascular Institute and Covenant Health Care are conducting a Phase II clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an adult stem cell therapy called Prochymal which intends to reduce inflammation and promote regeneration in patients who have recently had a heart attack. Two Michigan residents have already received the treatment.

Dr. Safwan Kassas, an interventional cardiologist with MCVI, has successfully infused two patients, William C. Smith, 60, of Bay City, in December, and Brenda Sigmund, 62, of Caro, in January....

Kathleen Mostek, director of research and regenerative medicine for MCVI, 1015 S. Washington in Saginaw, said the stem cells were taken from five volunteers, grown in a lab and stored in a bank in a freezer.

“This protocol is adult stem cells, they are the same for everyone in the world, with no rejection,” Mostek said.

The Prochymal investigational therapy was developed by Osiris Therapeutics Inc., of Columbia, Md., and contains mesenchymal stem cells taken from the bone marrow of healthy, screened adult volunteer donors, Mostek said.

Studies have shown this formulation to be universally compatible, similar to type O blood, the universal donor....

The double-blind, placedo-controlled stem cell study is being conducted in the U.S. and Canada and will enroll about 220 patients. To be eligible for the trial, patients must have experienced their first heart attack within seven days.

A heart attack occurs when blood flow is suddenly and completely blocked. Phase I of the trial involved 53 patients and found adverse effects were lowered, with improved heart function and irregular heartbeat reduced when comparing patients treated with Prochymal to the placebo group, Mostek said.


FULL STORY

Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Science of Killing a Twin

In an online article entitled, “The Truth About Multiples,” Dr. Mark Evans describes his work in screening, selecting and aborting children who part of a multiple pregnancy. He uses the term “multifetal pregnancy reduction” to describe the process of killing one or more unborn children in the womb while leaving one or more of the unborn children alive.

Evans admits that if he is unable to find anything wrong with any of the unborn children in multiple pregnancies, he will kill children based on their gender.

He also encourages women who are pregnant with twins to abort one of their twins.

FULL STORY

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Life experience of Planned Parenthood director changes life course

Legislative Day, April 28

Right to Life of Michigan is proud to present Legislative Day 2010 at the Lansing Center, located just blocks from the State Capitol. Join us on Wednesday, April 28, for a morning filled with information about current prolife legislation and lobby training you can put into action during a luncheon with your legislator. All this is followed by keynote speaker, Abby Johnson, the former Texas Planned Parenthood clinic director who quit her job after watching an ultrasound of a baby being aborted. You won't want to miss the true story of how her heart was changed. The cost is $40 for adults and $30 for students.

Abby Johnson quit her job. That simple act has become a national news story because Johnson was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas who said she experienced a "change of heart" while participating in an abortion procedure.

Johnson worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, for nine years, first as a volunteer and then as the director. Her duties included running the family planning and abortion programs. The clinic performed abortions two days a month. Although she had seen ultrasounds before, including during her own pregnancy, Johnson said she had never seen an ultrasound image during an abortion. She is unclear why she was asked to be in the procedure room on that day, because it was not a normal part of her duties. Still, Johnson said, the experience changed her forever. She knew it was time to leave after she watched the baby "crumple" while being vacuumed out of a patient's uterus.

"I just thought, what am I doing?" she said. "And then I thought, never again. I looked out the window and saw a couple of people praying and I thought, that's where I need to go."

EVENT SCHEDULE


REGISTRATION

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Making a Difference at Legislative Day

Plan on joining us at our annual Legislative Day on Wednesday, April 28 in Lansing. Come for a morning filled with information about current prolife legislation and lobby training you can put into action during a luncheon with your legislator. All this is followed by keynote speaker, Abby Johnson, the former Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic Director who quit her job after watching an ultrasound of a baby being aborted. You won’t want to miss her story!

With elections this Fall for many seats currently filled by those firmly committed to advancing pro-abortion laws, it's important for everyone to know how prolifers can make a positive change and begin advancing prolife laws, rolling back pro-abortion laws or repealing them. For information and to RSVP for Legislative Day, click here.

For information about pending state legislation, click here.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

April is Abortion Recovery Month

The organization Abortion Recovery International is promoting the month of April as Abortion Recovery Month.

The goals of Abortion Recovery Month are to:

1. promote and extend healing opportunities to those hurting after abortion
2. enlighten society on the effects of abortion on individuals and families

Right to Life of Michigan works with a number of pregnancy centers across Michigan, many of whom offer services for post-abortion women. If you are experiencing the pain of an abortion in your past, please visit the following: www.healinghearts.org or www.hopeafterabortion.com.

FULL STORY

Monday, April 5, 2010

Educational Presentation on Planned Parenthood

Right to Life of Michigan's web page on Planned Parenthood now has an educational PowerPoint presentation on Planned Parenthood which is available for download. There is also a script which gives presenters a seamless presentation.

The PowerPoint presentation entitled, "What Lies Beneath," concisely discusses Planned Parenthood’s history, their founder Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s commitment to abortion, their financial information and their lobbying work against prolife laws, along with other information.

Download the PowerPoint
Download the Script