Legislative Day 2012

Legislative Day is March 27
Make plans to attend

Take advantage of an opportunity to connect with like-minded prolife people and attend the Right to Life of Michigan Legislative Day on Tuesday, March 27, at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing.

Legislative Day is an exciting day filled with information about current prolife legislation and lobby training you can put into action during a full-service luncheon with your legislator.

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER: Melissa Ohden

More than 54 million children have lost their lives to abortion in the United States since 1973. Many know the sad reality of this statistic, but most do not know that sometimes children survive failed abortions.

Melissa Ohden has a powerful story. She survived a failed saline infusion abortion in 1977 and has thrived. With a master's degree in social work, she shares the prolife message with a very unique prospective.

Melissa was formerly a college outreach speaker with Feminists for Life, traveling to college campuses to share her story while advocating for rights of the unborn.

The birth of her first child in 2008 prompted Melissa to found For Olivia's Sake, an organization which seeks to peacefully raise awareness of the inter-generational impact of abortion on men, women, children, families and communities. Painfully aware that Olivia would not have come into existence if the abortion would have succeeded in ending her life, Melissa felt driven to create this organization that would positively raise awareness of the ripple effect of abortion across generations.

Plan to join us to hear Melissa's struggle to face the reality of her life as an abortion survivor and, ultimately, becoming a voice for the unborn.

More Information & To Register

Infanticide: The logical conclusion to a pro-abortion argument

Two philosophers associated with universities in Australia caused an uproar after a paper they wrote was published in the Journal of Medical Ethics. The paper, “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” argues it should be legal for parents to kill their newborn children. In the abstract of the paper, Alberto Giubilini's and Francesca Minerva's argument is summarized:

“Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus' health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after‑birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.”

In the paper, Giubilini and Minerva use an argument which is often employed by abortion advocates and take it to its logical conclusion. Since the science of embryology has conclusively proven human life begins at conception, abortion advocates frequently argue the unborn aren’t “persons” (and therefore it should be legal to kill them) because they lack some quality like being self-aware or being rational. However, abortion advocates rarely follow their premises to their ultimate conclusions. Since newborn children aren’t self-aware or rational either, the “personhood” argument which justifies the killing of the unborn would just as equally justify the killing of the newborn.

Now a prolife person sees this argument and discerns that if your premises lead you to horrible and terrifying conclusions, then it is likely your premises are wrong and abortion should not be accepted.

However, instead of being revolted by the logical conclusion (infanticide should be permissible) of their personhood argument, taking a step back and dismissing their argument as abhorrent, Giubilini and Minerva accept it with open arms. This is what happens when people abandon the belief in the sanctity of human life and accept the idea that certain properties make humans valuable. To Giubilini and Minerva, human life by itself has no value.

While we may recoil at Giubilini’s and Minerva’s frankness, at least they have the nerve to follow their premises to their logical conclusions. Too often, abortion advocates assert the unborn aren’t persons therefore killing them by abortion should be legal. They then fail to provide any reasoning for why a short journey down the birth canal makes the same child worthy of legal protection.

For more responses to arguments in favor of abortion and information about the infanticide reality, please visit Right to Life of Michigan’s web site at www.rtl.org.

Mother's Day and Father's Day Bulletin Inserts

You can now order Mother's Day and Father's Day Bulletin Inserts from Right to Life of Michigan.

LEARN MORE AND ORDER HERE

State rep. debunks false claims about ultrasounds

Rep. Karen MacBeth of the Rhode Island state legislature is the lead sponsor of a bill that would require abortionists to offer to show an ultrasound to a woman before an abortion. She debunks the claim from abortion supporters that ultrasounds rape women. We have similar legislation pending in Michigan; informed consent is important and saves women's lives. Below is part of Representative MacBeth's speech:

Requiring an ultrasound to take place before an abortion is performed makes sense since it ensures that the mother is actually pregnant, determines the age and size of the baby, and aids in determining the location of the unborn child for either the vacuum machine or a needle used to end its life, if in fact a surgical abortion is decided upon. And in many abortion procedures, ultrasounds are used during the surgical abortion to ensure that the abortionist doesn’t physically harm the mother while they dismember the unborn child.

In short, ultrasounds are already being performed as part of most abortion procedures. And in those cases, my bill simply requires the abortionist to display these ultrasound images so that the woman may view them.

FULL STORY

ACTION ITEM: Contact your Michigan Senator regarding religious, conscience rights

In response to a recent mandate by President Obama's Administration over conscience protection and religious freedom, Michigan prolife State Senator John Moolenaar has introduced Senate Bill 975, the Religious Liberty and Conscience Protection Act (RLCPA).

This comprehensive legislation would establish state-level protections for religious and conscience rights in three areas related to health care service:

1. No employer or individual would be forced to purchase a health care plan with objectionable services included.

2. A health facility can decline to perform any health care service it considers objectionable.

3. An individual health care provider (doctor, nurse, pharmacist, researcher, etc.) cannot be required to participate in an objectionable health care service.

The Senate Health Policy Committee will begin consideration of SB 975 with a hearing on Thursday, March 8.

This bill will face serious push back from a variety of special interests. Your prolife voice is vital.

ACTION NEEDED: Contact your Michigan Senator with the following simple message:

"Vote YES on SB 975. Protect Religious Liberty and Conscience Rights."

FIND YOUR LEGISLATOR

President Obama's budget proposes to end support for embryo adoption

The Washington Times has a story on President Obama's plan to de-fund a small program which provides funds to organizations who promote the adoption of human embryos. The program was originally started in 2002 under President Bush. Congress will eventually decide if Obama's plan becomes law.

In a move that pro-lifers are calling more evidence of the Obama administration's "pro-abortion slant," the White House has sought to defund the Embryo Adoption Awareness Campaign in its fiscal 2013 budget.

The Department of Health and Human Services "is not requesting funds for this program" because "the Embryo Adoption program will be discontinued in FY2013," HHS officials said in a February funding report to Congress.

While some observers support this move as a way to free up funds for more urgent reproductive-health concerns, supporters of embryo adoption say this is the wrong time to abandon embryos that are sometimes called "snowflake babies."

........

Between 2004 and 2009 alone, about 1,900 infants were born from the adoption process in the U.S., said Dr. Reg Finger, director of the Embryo Donation Services Center, which also was created with federal grant funding.

FULL STORY

Abortion clinic abuses documented

Right to Life of Michigan, the state's largest prolife organization, on March 6, 2012, released a report documenting abortion clinic abuses. Most of Michigan's abortion clinics are not in compliance with dozens of state laws or regulations. The report also cites a vital need for oversight and enforcement on the part of Michigan agencies charged with holding health providers and facilities to account.

The final report culminated months of research and thousands of pages of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. The report demonstrates that many abortion clinics have operated without holding a proper license or were granted a state license without ever being inspected.

The review comes in the wake of a notorious abortion clinic scandal in Pennsylvania that revealed a similar pattern of legal noncompliance. The problems cited in the report highlight deficiencies like those that led Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette to file lawsuits in 2011 resulting in two illegally incorporated abortion clinics closing permanently.

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "Our report reveals that women's health and welfare are needlessly being put at risk. We have heard numerous stories about the deplorable conditions that persist in Michigan abortion clinics. This blatant disregard for women's safety due to a lack of proper government oversight must stop."

Listing also noted that the changes needed to correct the reported failures are already getting attention in Lansing.

"We have received favorable indications about how the Snyder Administration and the Legislature intend to respond to this unacceptable situation," Listing said. "New personnel and new policies are taking hold in the oversight agencies, and key legislators are looking closely at what additional resources might be needed. With our report exposing the offenses, and state officials stepping forward to reform governmental functions, we expect the worst of the abortion clinics to face closure."

The report is available for download on Right to Life of Michigan's web site, www.rtl.org. The direct link is: http://media.rtl.org/pdf/legislation/Abortion_Clinic_Abuses_March_2012.pdf

Senators Stabenow and Levin vote against religious liberty, conscience rights

Today, Michigan's U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin voted alongside 48 other Democratic senators and one Republican senator, to table the Blunt Amendment. The Blunt Amendment would amend Obama's health care law to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates which violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance, such as the recent decree that virtually all employers, including religiously affiliated hospitals and schools, must purchase health insurance plans that cover all government-approved methods of birth control.

However, this debate is not limited to the specific parameters of the birth control mandate. The exact same statutory authority could be used by the Administration to mandate that all health plans pay for elective abortion on demand.

FULL STORY

Philosophers argue for infanticide, call it "after-birth abortion"

Two philosophers who work in Australia have published an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics which argues it should be legal for parents to kill their newborn children.  The authors argue that infants have no more value than the unborn so it should be legal to kill infants just as it is legal to kill the unborn. They use the term "after-birth abortion" to describe infanticide. This shows what can happen when people abandon the belief that all human beings have the right to life. 

The article, entitled "After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?", was written by two of Prof Savulescu's former associates, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva.

They argued: "The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual."

Rather than being "actual persons", newborns were "potential persons". They explained: "Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person' in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life'.

FULL STORY

ACTION ITEM: Call Now - U.S. senators to vote March 1 on prolife Blunt Amendment

Phone calls to U.S. senators are urgently needed in support of a vital prolife amendment, the Blunt Amendment, on which the U.S. Senate will vote on Thursday, March 1.

The amendment has been offered by prolife Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and is strongly supported by the National Right to Life Committee and Right to Life of Michigan. The text of the Blunt Amendment is taken from the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179). It would amend Obama's health care law to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates which violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance, such as the recent decree that virtually all employers, including religiously affiliated hospitals and schools, must purchase health insurance plans that cover all government-approved methods of birth control.

This debate is not limited to the specific parameters of the birth control mandate. The exact same statutory authority could be used by the Administration to mandate that all health plans pay for elective abortion on demand.

Contact Senator Carl Levin and Senator Debbie Stabenow today. The simple message is: "Please protect my conscience rights by supporting the Blunt Amendment, No. 1520, to the highway bill, S. 1813."

Senator Carl Levin (D)
Phone: (202) 224-6221
Web Site for online comment: https://www.levin.senate.gov/contact/email/

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D)
Phone: (202) 224-4822
Web Site for online comment: http://www.stabenow.senate.gov/?p=contact

Special Note:
While Senator Levin and Senator Stabenow have pro-abortion records, it is still important for us as their constituents to share our desires. Please contact both senators regarding this important issue. Use this opportunity to get others involved. The mere controversy over public policy proposals can change public sentiment. Legislation impacts our lives and our senators need to know where we stand.

America's largest abortion provider says Obama is their guy

The Detroit News has a story on a speech Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards gave to UAW workers and retirees urging them to support the re-election efforts of President Obama. Planned Parenthood is America's leading abortion provider, providing more than 300,000 abortions in a year.

FULL STORY

MORE ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S ABORTION AGENDA

Abortion debate on PBS

Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, recently debated Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL on on PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff. They discuss abortion and ultrasound legislation in the state of Virginia. There is legislation currently pending in the Michigan legislature to strengthen Michigan's ultrasound law.

Newspaper investigation in England finds abortionists willing to provide illegal sex-selection abortions

While abortions are widely available in England, it is illegal to have a sex-selection abortion. Undercover research by the Daily Telegragh newspaper has shown that a variety of abortion providers are willing to provide sex-selection abortion.

When a woman who was 12 weeks pregnant had an appointment with a doctor at the Calthorpe Clinic, she explained that she wanted to terminate her pregnancy because she had discovered she was having a girl but her and her partner “don’t want a girl”.

“Is that the reason?” asked the doctor, who introduced himself as Dr Raj. “That’s not fair. It’s like female infanticide isn’t it?”

When the pregnant woman asked if he could put down a different reason for the termination, the doctor said: “That’s right, yeah, because it’s not a good reason anytime … I’ll put too young for pregnancy, yeah?”

The patient agreed, at which point Dr Mohan again said: “It’s common in the Third World to have a female infanticide.”

He then moved on to discuss the abortion process before asking the pregnant patient to book an appointment for the termination the following Monday or Tuesday.

FULL STORY

Detroit News gets "facts" wrong in attempt to defend Obama's extremist votes

On February 23, 2012, the Detroit News ran a "fact-check" on statements made during a recent Republican presidential debate. During the debate, Newt Gingrich noted President Obama votes against a law which would have protected infants who survived abortion attempts. Below is Gingrich statement on the Detroit News' take on the "facts":

Gingrich : "If we're going to have a debate about who the extremist is on these issues, it is President Obama, who as a state senator voted to protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion."

The facts : As an Illinois state senator, Obama voted against legislation promoted by anti-abortion activists that would have conferred protection to fetuses showing any signs of life after an abortion, even if doctors did not believe the fetus was viable. Obama pointed to an existing Illinois law requiring doctors to protect fetuses they believed were likely to survive after an abortion, and said he was concerned the proposed new law was so broad it could interfere with routine abortions. Obama said he would have supported federal legislation President George W. Bush signed in 2002 that would protect a viable fetus but reaffirmed a woman's right to an abortion.

In actuality, when a Illinois state senator, Barack Obama voted against a bill which would have protected children who survived abortions. The legislation was even amended to include to specific language preventing it from effecting the legality of abortion. For years, Barack Obama didn't tell the truth about this legislation and his vote against it. National Right to Life detailed the truth of Obama's vote and cover-up in 2008.

FactCheck.org agreed with National Right to Life and noted that Obama's reasons for voting against an amended version of SB 1082 were "false."

MORE INFORMATION ON BARACK OBAMA'S BORN-ALIVE LIES

Hillsdale College student given prolife award

Laura Wegmann, a senior art major at Hillsdale College, was recently awarded a Young Leader Award by the Susan B. Anthony List for her prolife work.

This semester, Wegmann is promoting a program for the Indiana Right to Life. Called "Friends For Life," the training course is directed towards teaching college-age students how to articulately defend the pro-life message, and effectively refute pro-abortion rhetoric.

Wegmann wants to turn her involvement into a career in the pro-life movement, primarily helping them with their marketing and advertising.

"I hope to help work on their aesthetics," she said. "If we fail to package the message appropriately, we lose an audience."

While she appreciates how energetic members of the movement are, she believes they have fallen short in presenting the pro-abortion case in a winsome manner.

"I'd like to use my aesthetic sense and my art major to help," she said. "The question is not if the movement ought to be judged by packaging; that is beside the point. They are being judged in that way, so it does a disservice to the truth if we don't present it in the best light."

FULL STORY

Are the unborn parasites?

In the Chicago Tribune, Dennis Byrnes responds to the pro-abortion argument that the unborn are "parasites."

The analogy between fetus and parasite fails on a couple of important counts. A fetus, unlike a tapeworm, is not an organism of one species living in another. Fetus and mother, I dare point out, are of the same species. A fetus, unlike a parasite, does not die once separated by birth from the "host organism." It thrives and continues in a positive and healthful relationship with the mother.

At least, the claim wasn't made that a fetus is a cancerous tumor or evil spirit that must be exorcised.

I'll leave biologists to fight over what appears to be an essentially linguistic argument of whether fetus is a subset of parasite. As for laymen, most still will recoil at the thought that a developing human is akin to a scabies mite, blood fluke or Wuchereria bancrofti, which can lead to elephantiasis.

The mind rebels at the thought because the human mind innately knows that the "thing" in the womb is one of us.

That anyone could consciously reject that knowledge is frightening.

FULL STORY

Working to protect your conscience rights

Right to Life of Michigan is working at both the federal and state levels to protect your rights of conscience in regards to health care. A recent mandate by President Obama's Administration has caused grave concern over conscience protection and religious freedom. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate will force all employers to provide the full range of FDA-approved contraceptives including those that may cause early abortions. In addition, the same provision could be used in the future to mandate abortion coverage.

Learn how Right to Life of Michigan is helping to protect your conscience rights at the federal and state levels. At the federal level, your help is needed to contact Senator Levin and Senator Stabenow.

Federal Level

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote soon on a vital prolife amendment offered by Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway bill that is pending on the Senate floor. The text of the Blunt Amendment consists of the language taken from a National Right to Life Committee endorsed bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179). It would amend the national health care law to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance.

This debate is not limited to the specific parameters of the birth-control mandate. The exact same statutory authority could be used by the Administration -- as early as next year -- to mandate that all health plans pay for elective abortion on demand.

The most likely time frame for the vote now appears to be the week of February 27.

Action Item: Contact Senator Carl Levin and Senator Debbie Stabenow today. The simple message is: "Please protect my conscience rights by supporting the Blunt Amendment, No. 1520, to the highway bill, S. 1813."

Senator Carl Levin (D)
269 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6221

Web Site for online comment: https://www.levin.senate.gov/contact/email/

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D)
133 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4822

Web Site for online comment: http://www.stabenow.senate.gov/?p=contact

State Level

At the state level, law makers are addressing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that assaults conscience rights and religious freedom. House Resolution 185 passed the House Government Operations Committee and the Michigan House of Representatives on February 15.

Right to Life of Michigan supported House Resolution 185 because it calls on the Obama Administration to rescind the HHS mandate and it urges Congress to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

In addition to the House Resolution, Sen. John Moolenaar introduced legislation to protect conscience rights and religious freedom in Michigan.

Senate Bill 975 would establish the Religious Liberty and Conscience Protection Act in Michigan.

Right to Life of Michigan will continue to keep you up-to-date on federal and state legislative initiatives to protect innocent human life and rights of conscience.

Girl healed by brother's umbilical cord blood stem cells

A local NBC affiliate recently did a story on Carol Mulumba, a ten-year-old girl whose sickle cell anemia was cured after she received stem cells from her younger brother's umbilical cord blood.

Just days after Lucky Mulumba gave birth to her first child Carol, she learned her baby had sickle cell anemia.

"Doctors said she had the most severe type and they told me she would have a hard life. Some doctors told me she would not live past ten years," Mulumba said.

Two years later she learned she was pregnant with her second child Mark.

Her doctor suggested she bank his umbilical cord blood in the event one day it might be used to help Carol......

When she was 6 she started to have small strokes and doctors warned she could die from one.

That's when Carol underwent a stem cell transplant using cells from her brother Mark's banked cord blood. The procedure worked.

Carol was cured of sickle cell anemia and has been disease free for three years.

FULL STORY

MORE INFORMATION ON LIFE-AFFIRMING FORMS OF STEM CELL RESEARCH

Urge U.S. Senators to Vote for the Blunt Amendment To Protect Conscience Rights and Block an Abortion Mandate!

From National Right to Life:

The U.S. Senate may vote any day on a vital prolife amendment offered by Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway bill that is pending on the Senate floor.

The text of the Blunt Amendment consists of the language taken from an NRLC-endorsed bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179). It would amend the Obama health care law (“ObamaCare”) to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance......

When President Obama's health care legislation was under consideration in the Senate in 2009, NRLC warned that a provision dealing with “preventive health services” would empower the Secretary of Health and Human Services to mandate coverage of any medical service, including abortion, merely by adding the service to an expandable list. Predictably, the Administration issued a decree in August, 2011, covering all FDA-approved birth control methods – a mandate that, unless overturned, will produce an irreconcilable conflict between conscience and the coercive force of government for many employers. In recent months, the Administration's "birth-control mandate" has elicited vigorous protests from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, and many other religious leaders, as an attack on religious liberty

But this is not a debate only about the specific parameters of the birth-control mandate. Exactly the same statutory authority could be used by the Administration -- as early as next year -- to mandate that all health plans pay for elective abortion on demand.

FULL STORY

Legislation to outlaw women being coerced into abortion voted out of committee

Yesterday, the Michigan House Families, Children and Seniors Committee voted out the CAPA package of bills that would give protection to women who are coerced into having an abortion. Stay tuned for more details as the bills go to the floor of the House.

A bill that would protect pregnant women from being coerced into having an abortion cleared a state House Committee on Tuesday, though some Democrats on the panel said women who want to terminate their pregnancies often need help, too.

With votes along party lines, a package of Republican-backed bills moved from the Families, Children and Seniors Committee, making it a crime to force a woman into an abortion, either through assaults or threats to her person or employment.

Edward Rivet II, legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan, said the bills create a process for clinics to better screen women before they undergo the procedure to determine if they are being forced.

“A lot of times there is intimidation before the women even make it to the clinic,” he said after the hearing.

FULL STORY

MORE INFORMATION ON CAPA LEGISLATION

Spring 2012 RLM News now online

The Spring 2012 issue of the Right to Life of Michigan News is now online.

Articles include stories about Michigan's prolife legislative agenda, prolife outreach during Black History Month, affiliate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday events, a change of heart at the March for Life and Susan G. Komen for the Cure's decision to buckle on grants to Planned Parenthood.

Adult stem cells successfully treat damaged hearts

Researchers at the Cedars Sinai Heart Institute have published research in the Lancet which shows patients' own adult stem cells can be used to reduce scarring and create more heart muscle.

“We were gratified to see that the scars shrank in patients who had gotten the cells,” Marban says. “Not only that, but these patients also had a big increase in living heart muscle. The regeneration of living tissue, or regrowth of lost tissue, which is what we were able to achieve, is encouraging.”

All of the patients were enrolled in the trial within 1.5 months of having a heart attack, and had their hearts scanned with an MRI. Seventeen of the patients had a biopsy of their heart tissue so the researchers could extract the heart’s stem cells and expand them in the lab; the researchers then re-infusing 12 million to 25 million new heart cells into each patient’s heart artery 1.5 months to 3 months later. The control patients received standard care of medications and monitoring to recover from their heart attack.

At six months and again at one year into the study, Marban and his colleagues took additional MRIs of the patients’ hearts, to measure any changes in the size of their scar tissue. The patients who had received the heart cells showed markedly smaller scars and more living tissue over time, compared with those who received standard therapy. In fact, new tissue formation increased by 60% on average, compared with scar shrinkage.

FULL STORY

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT LIFE-AFFIRMING FORMS OF STEM CELL RESEARCH

Michigan abortions rose slightly in 2010, still historically low

On January 25, 2012, the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) released Michigan’s 2010 abortion statistics. The report relays that a total of 23,307 induced abortions were reported in Michigan in 2010, which was a 4.25 percent increase from the total of 22,357 reported abortions in 2009, but a 52.5 percent decrease since 1987 (the year with the largest number of induced abortions). While reported abortions increased in 2010, 23,307 abortions is still the second-lowest annual total since the state of Michigan began requiring abortion reports in 1979. Michigan’s abortion rate and abortion ratio are still far below national averages despite our state’s difficult economic times.

Here are a few noteworthy statistics from the report:

Repeat abortions: More than half of the women (50.3 percent) having an abortion in 2010 were having a repeat abortion. Nearly a quarter (24.2 percent) of women who aborted had at least two previous abortions. For residents of Wayne County, 61 percent of women were having a repeat abortion and 33 percent had at least two previous abortions.

Race: Black women continue to have a disproportionate number of abortions. According to estimates from the U.S. Census web site, black women compose about 15 percent of Michigan’s female population, but the MDCH report notes black women had 44 percent of the state’s abortions in 2010. White women compose about 80 percent of the state’s female population and had 49.6 percent of Michigan’s abortions.

Teen abortions continue to decrease: The number of abortions performed on women younger than 20 decreased 3.4 percent to 3,964. This is the lowest number ever for this category and an incredible 71 percent decrease since 1987 when 13,624 women under 20 had abortions. The number of abortions performed on minors also decreased 4 percent to 1,410.

Post first trimester abortions: A total of 2,813 abortions were performed after 12 weeks of pregnancy and 20 abortions were performed after the 24th week of pregnancy.

Location: The vast majority of abortions are provided by abortion clinics. Only 37 abortions took place at hospitals in 2010.

Right to Life of Michigan will continue to reach out to women in need so they know abortion is not their only option. There are far too many women who enter an abortion clinic thinking abortion is the only choice for them. Thinking abortion is your only choice is equivalent to having no choice at all. To learn more about these statistics, visit Right to Life of Michigan at www.rtl.org.

Prolife legislation on the move in Michigan

The Detroit Free Press has an article on prolife legislation which has been introduced in Michigan including a bill to create choose life license plates, a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks and legislation to prevent coercive abortions.

"We have a strong contingent of pro-life legislators seated right now in both chambers," said Ed Rivet, legislative director for the state's Right to Life organization. "There are more bills introduced that we have an interest in than we've ever had before."

Pro-abortion rights groups say the measures are part of a national attempt to chip away at Roe v. Wade, the federal court decision that makes abortion legal.

"We see a lot of these bills session after session after session," said Sarah Scranton of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan. "This time around we are seeing them move more than we have in the past, which certainly worries us."

FULL STORY

HHS Rule lays groundwork for future national abortion mandate

Controversy over the Health and Human Services Rule has continued after President Barack Obama announced an "accommodation" regarding FDA-approved birth control drugs and devices. Below is the response from National Right to Life on how this precedent lays the groundwork for a future national abortion mandate. Right to Life of Michigan and National Right to Life support the enactment of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE'S RESPONSE