Sanctity of Human Life Sunday Video

RLM Director of Development Brian Cusack does a short annual video message for his own church on the importance of the sanctity of human life. January 22 marks the 39th year since Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, and an estimated 54 million unborn children have lost their lives since that day. How will you use 2012 to help increase respect and protection for the smallest and most innocent among us?

Sanctity of Human Life from Grand Rapids First on Vimeo.

Illinois researcher uses umbilical cord stem cells to treat patients with Type 1 diabetes

Using a device which exposes the patients' T-cells to the umbilical cord stem cells, Dr. Yong Zhao, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, was able to help Type 1 diabetes patients make their own insulin. Dr. Zhao is also using umbilical cord stem cells in a clinical trial on patients with Type 2 diabetes.

In the study the 12 participants had their T-cells – which were separated from their blood – pumped into a device Zhao calls a "stem cell educator."

There the T-cells were exposed to cord blood stem cells for three hours, Zhao explained in an interview with the Star.

The stem cells "re-educated the T-cells", said Zhao, who specializes in endocrinology, stem cells and immunology. "They wake them up and correct their function. The stems cells are like a teacher. The T-cells are like a bad student."

Then the T-cells were pumped back into the participants' blood. The patients were then checked four times after the treatment at four weeks, then 12, 24 and 40 weeks later.

The results were astounding, said Zhao. "The patients couldn't make any insulin before the treatment. But after the treatment they began to make their own insulin."

FULL STORY

LEARN MORE ABOUT LIFE-AFFIRMING TYPES OF STEM CELL RESEARCH

Prolife television ads provide hope, help

When watching the news or your favorite television show, you may see two prolife ads beginning January 16. Right to Life of Michigan Educational Fund is airing two ads state-wide to bring hope and healing during the 39th memorial of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the two U.S. Supreme Court decisions which legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

The two ads are Accusations and Washing. Accusations, a 30-second ad, reinforces that no matter what obstacles are in your path, life is the best option. Viewers are directed to RTL.org - Right to Life of Michigan's web site which offers access to more than 150 pregnancy centers in Michigan providing hope for those in need. Washing is focused towards men. The issue of abortion for a man is a paradox. While a man has no legal right in a woman's abortion decision, he does have, as studies have uncovered, significant influence regarding the life of his unborn child. Abortion creates loss not only for women, but for men, too. A toll-free phone number, 1-877-LIFE OPTIONS, provides help for those in need.

These powerful prolife ads could not be aired without your generous donations. Thank you for providing hope and help to families in Michigan.

VIEW THE ADS

2011 revealed the abortion industry’s seedy underbelly

From beginning to end, 2011 was a year the light was shed on the seedy underbelly of the abortion industry. High profile cases of abortionists being charged with murder, Michigan abortion clinics being closed and undercover investigation by prolifers all received headlines. Below are just a few cases of the abortion industry being exposed in 2011.

In January of 2011, abortionist Kermit Gosnell, along with his wife and a number of his unlicensed employees were arrested and charged with killing a female patient and seven children who survived abortions. Gosnell allegedly killed seven "viable and alive" infants using scissors to sever their spinal cords. After Gosnell’s arrest, the release of a grand jury investigation and the description of Gosnell’s filthy abortion clinic, at least 11 Pennsylvania state employees, who took no action to shut down Gosnell’s clinic, were fired or resigned. Throughout the year, Gosnell’s employees have pled guilty to various crimes for the roles they played in Gosnell’s clinic. In light of the failings of Pennsylvania’s government agencies to inspect abortion clinics around the state, the Pennsylvania legislature passed and Governor Tom Corbett signed legislation in December of 2011 to regulate and regularly inspect Pennsylvania’s abortion clinics.

In February of 2011, the youth-led prolife organization Live Action released a number of hidden camera videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s willingness to help undercover actors posing as sex traffickers get abortions for underage girls. The undercover investigation led to the firing of a manager at one Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and encouraged legislators working to defund Planned Parenthood. While efforts to defund Planned Parenthood stalled in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House voted 240-185 passing legislation to defund America’s leading abortion provider.

In November of 2011, Michigan's prolife Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that two abortion clinics in Michigan closed permanently. The Lansing Health Care Clinic and Saginaw Women's Choice Clinic were temporarily closed by the order of an Eaton County judge earlier in November after Schuette accused them of operating illegally because neither was incorporated by a medical professional. The clinic owners are prevented from operating an abortion clinic in Michigan ever again. The investigation into these abortion clinics began after a local prolifer discovered the remains of aborted children in the Lansing abortion clinic’s dumpster.

At the end of December 2011, Maryland authorities charged abortionists Steven Brigham and Nicola Riley with various counts of murder. Brigham is a notorious abortionist and abortion clinic owner who has a long history of problems with the law. He has had his license to practice medicine suspended in numerous states. After Brigham and Riley botched an abortion on a young woman in 2010, authorities searched one of Brigham's clinics and found evidence of Brigham performing illegal late‑term abortions.

To learn more about abortion, other prolife issues and how to become involved in our effort to expose the abortion industry’s seedy underbelly, visit Right to Life of Michigan at www.rtl.org.

Judge allows Planned Parenthood to open clinic in Oakland County

On January 10, Judge James Alexander ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan and will allow them to open a new abortion clinic in Auburn Hills. For 14 months, prolife activists fought to keep Planned Parenthood from moving into a large building they purchased for nearly $750,000. Owners of a nearby hotel hold a deed restriction on the building and were opposed to Planned Parenthood moving in. Planned Parenthood has previously admitted plans to provide abortions at this location.

A Michigan court has allowed a local Planned Parenthood to build a new abortion business in the Detroit area despite a restriction on the deed Planned Parenthood obtained for a building prohibiting an abortion clinic.

The restriction was put in place by the owners of the Comfort Inn Hotel located behind the building Planned Parenthood purchased several years ago. In October 2010, attorneys for the abortion business tried to get the owners of the Comfort Inn to agree the building could be used as a "medical office" without mentioning that abortions would be done at the facility. Comfort Inn's owners balked and Planned Parenthood sued in court.

FULL STORY

Arrested abortionist has history of illegal late-term abortions

Abortionist Steven Brigham was recently charged with 10 counts of murder after the bodies of late-term aborted children were found frozen at one of the abortion clinics he owns. His facility was searched after he botched a late-term abortion in 2010.

In 1996, some of Brigham's facilities in New York were raided during a Medicaid fraud investigation and authorities found the bodies of children killed by late-term abortions. However, Brigham was never charged with committing illegal abortions.

At the time, investigators said there was evidence that Dr. Mark Binder, who worked for Brigham at the Central Avenue facility, American Women's Services, had performed abortions on fetuses that exceeded 24 weeks.

Brigham was never prosecuted in New York on abortion charges. He was prosecuted for Medicaid fraud and also found responsible by a state medical panel for gross negligence, including nearly causing the death of an abortion patient.

Brigham, 55, operated a second clinic in Nanuet, Rockland County, where investigators said they had additional evidence 15 years ago of late-term abortions.

FULL STORY

Michigan teacher supplied underage student with abortion pill

Cedar Springs teacher Jon Jungkind is on trial for two counts of third degree criminal sexual conduct after allegedly having sex with one of his students. Yesterday in court, the student testified she became pregnant and Jungkind supplied her with an abortion pill.

She said after the encounter in August at Jungkind's home, she became pregnant.

She was asked if Jungkind helped her with her pregnancy in any way.

"He was," she answered. "He bought the abortion pill for me and I took it."

FULL STORY

Coercive abortions are real, Michigan legislators have a plan

Michigan legislators have introduced legislation called the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act which hopes to prevent coercive abortions in Michigan by making coercing a woman into an abortion a specific crime, requiring abortion clinics to screen women to insure they aren't being coerced and giving women the right to sue someone who coerces her to abort.

An example of coerced abortion is currently occurring in Texas where the family of a 14-year-old pregnant girl attempted to force her into having an abortion. The girl sought help and a prolife law firm in Texas was able to get a temporary restraining order to protect her and her unborn child from her family.

She sought out help after members of her family allegedly tried to force her to have an abortion last month. In one instance according to court documents, she was physically assaulted by a family member. In December one district judge granted a temporary restraining order. Wednesday, back in court, the girls attorneys had hoped to get that TRO extended through her pregnancy. But that didn't happen.

"It's not the first case in Texas and these cases are very very under reported. Girls go through these situations they don't feel like they have a representative or an advocate and that's what TCDL does, is we let them know they're not alone. And they have a constitutional right to carry their child and protect their child," Stephen Casey and attorney with the Texas Center for Defense of Life......

Again a hearing is set for the January 19 when Judge Medary will decide whether to continue to enforce the temporary restraining order or withdraw it. In the meantime, the TRO prohibits the family members of the girl not to coerce, threaten or try to convince the girl into having an abortion.

FULL STORY

INFORMATION ABOUT THE COERCIVE ABORTION PREVENTION ACT

Attention prolife students! Deadline approaching for national prolife essay contest

Every year, National Right to Life Committee holds a prolife essay contest for high school and junior high school students which encourages students to get involved in prolife work and share their prolife beliefs.

The deadline for the submission of essays is January 23, 2012. The topic of the essay should be "What effect has abortion had on your generation?"

MORE INFO ON PROLIFE ESSAY CONTEST

Michigan cord blood bank celebrates 100th transfer of cord blood

For more than a decade the Michigan Blood Cord Blood Bank has been collecting blood from umbilical cords and sending that blood which is rich in life-affirming stem cells to patients in need.

The blood cord bank recently marked the delivery of its 100th potentially lifesaving unit of stem cells from donated umbilical cord blood to a transplant center in the northeastern United States, where it will be transfused into a 14-year-old boy who is battling leukemia.

Such milestones are a proud time for the Michigan Blood Cord Blood Bank, but it's only a slice of what it has accomplished since its founding in 1999, said its medical director, Dr. LeeAnn Weitekamp.

Michigan Blood's Cord Blood Bank is the first public cord blood bank in Michigan, with a 12-year history of collecting, processing, banking and distributing donated cord blood for transplantation to patients with certain blood-related diseases, such as lymphoma and sickle cell anemia.

FULL STORY

Planned Parenthood's Annual Report reveals lots of abortion, few adoption referrals

Planned Parenthood Federation of American recently released their 2009-2010 annual report. The report shows that once again, Planned Parenthood is America's leading abortion provider. In 2010, they provided 329,445 abortions. This is a slight decline from the 331,796 abortions they claim to have provided in 2009 and the first year abortions have declined at Planned Parenthood in over a decade.

The report also reveals the number of adoption referrals at Planned Parenthood clinic dropped from 977 to 841, a 13.9% decrease. The number of prenatal services (which is different than the number of prenatal clients) was also down 23.2% from 40,489 in 2009 to 31,098 in 2010.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, Planned Parenthood received $487.4 million dollars in tax dollars from government grants. Planned Parenthood ended the fiscal year with a profit of $14.9 million. They have over $1 billion in net assets.

PPFA's 2009-2010 ANNUAL REPORT

MORE INFORMATION ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S ABORTION AGENDA

Abortionists arrested, charged with murder

Abortionists Steven Brigham and Nicola Riley have both been charged with murder in the state of Maryland. Brigham is a notorious abortionist and abortion clinic owner who has a long history of problems with the law. After Brigham and Riley botched an abortion on a young woman in 2010, authorities investigated Brigham's clinic and found evidence of Brigham performing illegal late-term abortions.

Dr. Steven Brigham, of Voorhees, N.J., was taken into custody Wednesday night and is being held in the Camden County jail, according to police in Elkton, Md. Authorities also arrested Dr. Nicola Riley in Salt Lake City and she is in jail in Utah. Each is awaiting an extradition hearing.

A grand jury indicted the two doctors after a 16-month investigation, police said.

The investigation began in August 2010 after what authorities say was a botched procedure at Brigham's clinic in Elkton, located near the border of Maryland and Delaware.

An 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant suffered a ruptured uterus and an injured bowel, according to documents filed in a previous investigation by medical regulators. Rather than call 911, Riley drove her to a nearby hospital, where both she and Brigham were uncooperative and Brigham refused to give his name, documents show.

A search of the clinic after the botched abortion revealed a freezer containing 35 late-term fetuses, including one believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks, the documents show.

FULL STORY

Planned Parenthood closing abortion referring offices in southwest Michigan

Planned Parenthood, America's leading abortion provider, recently announced it would be closing down some facilities in southwest Michigan despite receiving state Title X funding through 2015.

While abortions were not provided at these facilities, every Planned Parenthood facility refers women for abortion.

As of Jan. 1, Planned Parenthood will not have an office in St. Joseph County.

The agency has already closed its Hillsdale and Sturgis offices and is moving out of Three Rivers and Coldwater as well.....

The move is related to funding.

Planned Parenthood was awarded the state Title X funding through 2015, said Steve Todd, health officer for the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency.

But apparently, it isn't enough to keep the doors open.

FULL STORY

MORE INFORMATION ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S ABORTION AGENDA

Happy New Years from Right to Life of Michigan

Dear Friends,

Right to Life of Michigan has had a great year. As I look back, many items standout
as victories for which to be thankful. I am not just thankful for the successes which you made possible, but I am deeply thankful for the awesome opportunity to work together helping mothers and their babies.

In 2011, I am thankful for:

• Signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban into law

• Closing of two abortion clinics in Michigan

• Airing of prolife state-wide television commercials providing access to assistance for women and families

• Passionate youth participating in the local and state oratory contests and the Prolife Youth Award contest

• Reaching and engaging thousands of people online via FaceBook, RLM Blog, Twitter, YouTube.com and LinkedIn

• Partnering with teenbreaks.com to reach at risk teens with prolife information

• Adding to our extensive web site with a page dedicated to men and abortion

• Developing fact sheets to promote the sanctity of human life

The list could go on, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of just a few of the successes we have had in Michigan. With your help, we are planning more victories for life in 2012!

I do not want to end this Happy New Year greeting without letting you know there is still time to have your tax-deductible donation doubled.

A tax-deductible matching gift opportunity is currently available through the Right to Life of Michigan Educational Fund. Online donations up to $50,000 will be matched until December 31, 2011. Please consider including Right to Life of Michigan Educational Fund as part of your year-end giving. Your financial gift will be doubled!

Please donate today.

With my appreciation,

Barbara Listing, President
Right to Life of Michigan

Video uses fetal development to share Christmas message

The prolife group Youth Defence is wishing their fellow Irish a "Happy Christmas" with an ad showing fetal development.

Planned Parenthood leader Lori Lamerand lies about abortion plans

Lori Lamerand, CEO of Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan, is not someone to be trusted. She claims prolife protesters are twisting the truth when they claim Planned Parenthood is planning on performing abortions at a yet unopened building in Oakland County. Lamerand says Planned Parenthood doesn't know if a planned facility in Oakland County will perform abortions or not.

Planned Parenthood officials are contending the group protesting a new facility location in Oakland County is twisting the truth.

"We don't know if we are even going to perform abortions there," said Lori Lamerand, CEO of Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan.

The problem with this statement is Lori Lamerand told pro-abortion Detroit News columnist Laura Berman in June of 2011 that Planned Parenthood was planning on performing abortions at this facility despite protests from the neighboring hotel owners. The article which notes Planned Parenthood's plans to perform abortions at the Oakland County facility is even posted on Planned Parenthood's web site.

Carey, who took the hotel's case for free, says the owners hoped they could persuade Planned Parenthood to operate a nonsurgical facility. He has reached out for financial support from those against abortion to wage the court fight.

But Lamerand is holding firm to a plan to create what the organization delicately calls "a full-service clinic" that would provide reproductive and contraceptive services, including abortion.

FULL STORY

Regulating mercury doesn't make Senator Stabenow and Senator Levin prolife

World Magazine has published an editorial by E. Calvin Beisner which discusses advertisements by an organization called the Evangelical Environmental Network. The ads (which have aired in a number of states including Michigan) encourage U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators to vote in favor of a bill regulating mercury emissions. The ads claim this is a prolife issue while completely ignoring the issue of abortion and Senator Carl Levin's and Senator Debbie Stabenow's 100% pro-abortion voting records.

Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin (both D-Mich.) had 100 percent pro-abortion voting records in the 110th Congress (2007-08), but if the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) has its way, pro-life voters will think they’re pro-life.

Why? Because the EEN considers support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new limits on mercury emissions from power plants reason enough. That’s despite the fact that even the EPA admits that its new regulations would yield no measurable benefits to health.

The EEN is running radio and television ads and placing billboards in nine states claiming 12 politicians are “pro-life or sensitive to pro-life concerns.” This is despite the fact that six of the nine with voting records in the 110th Congress, and at least two of the three without, support abortion “rights.”

FULL STORY

Christian bookstore removes Bibles from shelf which were going to help fund the Komen Foundation

Due to the Komen Foundation's relationship with Planned Parenthood, America's leading abortion provider, LifeWay Christian Bookstores has removed a Bible from their shelves whose sales would have provided funding to the Komen Foundation. Komen Foundation affiliates frequently provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to Planned Parenthood.

The Bible, which was published by B&H Publishing Group, was sold with the stipulation that $1 from the sale of each Bible would go to the Komen Foundation. The foundation says on its website it gives money to Planned Parenthood, stating that funds from the foundation go to "Planned Parenthood-sponsored breast cancer health programs."

When Lifeway realized they were donating to a foundation that also donated to Planned Parenthood, they released a statement stating they "made a mistake."

"When our leadership discovered the overwhelming concern that some of Komen's affiliates were giving funds to Planned Parenthood, we began the arduous process of withdrawing this Bible from the market," stated a release by Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay. "Though we have assurances that Komen's funds are used only for breast cancer screening and awareness, it is not in keeping with LifeWay's core values to have even an indirect relationship with Planned Parenthood."

FULL STORY

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE LINK BETWEEN THE KOMEN FOUNDATION AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Learning begins in the womb

CNN's web site has a column by author Annie Murphy Paul discussing what scientific studies are showing us about what unborn children learn while they're in the womb.

What it all adds up to is this: much of what a pregnant woman encounters in her daily life -- the air she breathes, the food and drink she consumes, the chemicals she's exposed to, even the emotions she feels -- are shared in some fashion with her fetus. They make up a mix of influences as individual and idiosyncratic as the woman herself. The fetus treats these maternal contributions as information, as what I like to call biological postcards from the world outside.....

The recognition that learning actually begins before birth leads us to a striking new conception of the fetus, the pregnant woman and the relationship between them.

The fetus, we now know, is not an inert blob, but an active and dynamic creature, responding and adapting as it readies itself for life in the particular world it will soon enter. The pregnant woman is neither a passive incubator nor a source of always-imminent harm to her fetus, but a powerful and often positive influence on her child even before it's born. And pregnancy is not a nine-month wait for the big event of birth, but a crucial period unto itself -- "a staging period for well-being and disease in later life," as one scientist puts it.

FULL STORY

It’s time for proponents of killing human embryos to tell the truth

In 2008, voters in Michigan passed Proposal 2, a constitutional amendment which allows researchers in Michigan the ability to kill human embryos for research.

The organization which put the proposal forward was called “Cure Michigan” and an organization which was set up prior to proposal’s introduction to begin advocating for the killing of human embryos is named “Michigan Citizens for Stem Cell Research and Cures.”

The main thrust of these organizations and their campaign was the promise of cures: cures to Parkinson’s; cures to spinal cord injuries; and cures to diabetes. You name a prominent disease and they promised the passage Proposal 2 would help lead researchers to finding that disease’s cure. They paraded countless individuals (including some teen and child patients) suffering from various ailments in front of the cameras and claimed voting against Proposal 2 would be voting against cures to their diseases. Pro-Proposal 2 ads stated “Vote Yes on Prop 2 as if lives and families depended on it.”

While prolife advocates pointed out the numerous flaws with the proposal’s language and noted the numerous scientific (immune system rejection and the formation of tumors) and ethical (the killing of human beings) problems with embryonic stem cell research and the unlikelihood of them ever leading to cures, the majority of voters couldn’t say no to the “best hope” for cures to little Ellie Clark’s diabetes and Lauren Jackson’s paralysis.

Three years later, it is clear the promises of Proposal 2’s unending cures aren’t going to materialize.

After studying human embryonic stem cells for more than a decade and spending in the neighborhood of $150 million on it, a biotechnology company called Geron recently ended the first FDA approved clinical trial on humans using cells created from embryonic stem cells. This is a huge blow to the field of embryonic stem cell research. The experiments were supposedly halted because Geron could no longer afford to continue the embryonic stem cell research program and instead would focus on cancer research.

When they closed the clinical trial, Geron’s chief executive noted there were “no signs” that any of the patients they treated were being helped by the treatment. So much for that “best hope.”

As the research progresses and alternatives to killing human embryos arise, former prominent advocates of embryonic stem cell research are turning away from the field due to the scientific implausibility and monetary impossibility of the cells ever being used in large scale ways to cure diseases.

Ian Wilmut, who used cloning to create Dolly the sheep, recently addressed a stem cell conference in California and urged fellow scientists to shift their focus away from embryonic stem cells and towards newer and safer forms of research.

While leading scientists shift away from killing human embryos, some researchers in Michigan are still killing human embryos and using tax dollars to experiment on cells taken from these tiny human beings. The promises of right-around-the-corner cures just aren’t heard as often now.

To learn more about ethical forms of stem cell research which don’t require the destruction of human embryos, please visit www.stemcellresearchcures.com.

Former staffers accuse Planned Parenthood of misusing federal funds

In a letter to the heads of a congressional committee, seven former staff members of Planned Parenthood claim America's leading abortion provider didn't maintain proper separation between federal funds and funds used to provide abortions, failed to notify parents when teen girls had abortions, and failed to provide accurate information about abortion and fetal development to women considering abortion among other charges.

"We are of one mind that the extent of these problems with the organization is not fully understood by the American people, who are underwriting the growth of Planned Parenthood and its potent outreach to the young and the poor," said the seven in the letter circulated to Congress by the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group.

Planned Parenthood had no immediate comment.

The committee is probing allegations that Planned Parenthood is misusing taxpayer funds, which the seven pegged at $1 million a day in state and federal support. In opening his investigation, Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns recently demanded documents related to audits, abortion-funding, and policies on reporting sexual abuse from Planned Parenthood.

FULL STORY

Christmas Greetings from Barbara Listing & Right to Life of Michigan

During this Christmas season, I want to thank you for supporting the life-saving work of Right to Life of Michigan.
While Michigan continues to make national headlines because of the tough economic climate in our state, your donations have allowed us to lead the nation in another way.

Here are a few highlights which often don't make the news:

• Abortions performed in 2009 (most recent annual statistic available) dropped 13.9 percent over 2008. Second largest decrease in Michigan history! Despite the economy!

• Abortions performed in Michigan hit a high mark in 1987. Since that time, the overall abortion number has decreased 54.4 percent.

• Minor abortions in Michigan have decreased 63 percent since the 1990s.

• Michigan has put together the finest track-record in the nation in terms of reducing abortions performed.

As we prepare to move full speed ahead into the New Year, I wanted you to know that a tax-deductible matching gift opportunity is currently available through the Right to Life of Michigan Educational Fund. Online donations up to $50,000 will be matched until December 31, 2011.

Thank you for being a part of Michigan's success. Our state is a better place because of your dedication.

Please consider a donation today! Your gift will be doubled which increases the life-saving work of Right to Life of Michigan!

Thank you for helping Michigan teens

Parents of teenagers know that having a conversation about life doesn't always go as planned. As much as we want to be there for our kids, nieces or nephews to help with answers to questions, we may not have the opportunity.

We at Right to Life of Michigan care about teens. The life issue has an impact on every age group, but teens especially need educational material addressing relationship issues, pregnancy and the realities of abortion. Our goal is to reach teens before a crisis to inspire self-respect and instill a dignity for all human life.

We are able to reach thousands of teens each month by participating with a Google Ad Word Campaign. Teens who search for life information are directed to www.teenbreaks.com.

In the area of abortion, our results have been successful because of your help. Fewer teens are having abortions. The Michigan Department of Community Health reports:

• In 1985, teens in Michigan had 12,666 abortions

• In 2009, teens in Michigan had 4,105 abortions

For many, the teen years are drama filled. Sometimes it is during a flood of emotion that a teenager reaches out for information. Other times, a student is working on a school report and is in need of prolife facts. No matter the prompt, we are here to help.

We have found reaching teens online works. By partnering with www.teenbreaks.com, Right to Life of Michigan is able to reach teens with a positive prolife message. We are hearing testimonies from Michigan teens that teenbreaks.com has indeed made a positive impact for life.

Sex selection abortion in the United States

Steven Mosher writes about sex-selection abortion in the United States and new legislation introduced to outlaw it's practice.

Columbia University economists Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund also found clear evidence of sex-selective abortions in what they called "son-biased sex ratios," that is, a higher ratio of boys to girls than would occur in nature. Looking at the sex ratio at birth among U.S.-born children of Chinese, Korean, and Asian-Indian parents, they found that first-borns showed normal sex ratios at birth. But if the first child was a girl, the sex ratio jumped to 117, and if the first two children were girls, then the sex ratio jumped to 151. That is to say, for every 151 boys, there were only 100 hundred surviving girls. The rest had been eliminated.

This is not just misogyny; it is misogyny that kills......

We have been told by the self-described "pro-choice" movement that women who go in for abortions do so because they (not their husbands, in-laws, or kinship group) have decided not to continue their pregnancies. If this turns out not to be true, and others bend you to their prejudices where gender and race are concerned, then the pro-choice argument evaporates.

FULL STORY

Is it time for proponents of killing human embryos for research to apologize?

Michael Cook, the editor of MercatorNet, calls on the proponents of killing human embryos for stem cell research to apologize for misleading the public about all the cures embryonic stem cells were supposed to provide.

Killing human embryos for research was legalized in Michigan after embryonic stem cell advocates put forth a constitutional ballot amendment and continually promised cures to numerous diseases including diabetes and Parkinson's.

When push came to shove, the consensus was that ethics had to take a back seat to science. At the time, the scientific case for allowing "therapeutic cloning" and research on human embryos was overwhelming. There were politicians and voters who had qualms about the commodification of human life involved in killing embryos, but the experts assured them that the medical potential was dazzling. The loss of a few human embryos was a small price to pay.

In effect, there was an implicit pact between the public and stem cell scientists: we'll swallow our misgivings and provide the funding; you provide the cures.

But what happens when the pact falls apart? Because this seems to be what is happening. Embryonic stem cell research is looking increasingly like a dead end. Last week, after many false starts and a year after launching a human trial for spinal cord injuries, the California-based biotechnology firm Geron pulled the plug on all of its embryonic stem cell research to focus on cancer drugs. It had to: it was going broke.

FULL STORY