Mother chooses hope after troubling prenatal diagnosis

Pregnancy was a natural and normal part of life for Bernadette and her husband Phil. After having seven children, the Grandville couple thought their family was complete, but the couple received a surprise when they found out they were expecting their eighth child, Hannah.

Though unexpected, Bernadette and Phil were happy to be blessed with another child. During the first ultrasound, the routine of another otherwise uneventful pregnancy was replaced with anxiety after the surprised sonographer left the room to consult with a doctor.

"What I see is not good," the doctor told the Smith's after looking at the screen......

After a long series of questions probing their health, eating habits and family history, the Smith's finally received a diagnosis for Hannah: Trisomy 18. The genetic disorder, also known as Edward's Syndrome, is caused by an extra copy of a chromosome in a person's DNA. The disorder can cause several types of birth defects, and according to the National Institutes of Health only half of unborn babies diagnosed survive the birth process, and those who do survive have an extremely poor prognosis.....

Fortunately for Hannah, Bernadette and Phil both strongly believed in the right to life for all unborn children.

Read the full story at Right to Life of Michigan's Real Life Stories.

Case involving Planned Parenthood's abortion "office" to be decided in 60 days

In 60 days, Circuit Court Judge James Alexander will rule on whether Planned Parenthood will be allowed to turn a building into an abortion clinic. The building in Auburn Hills, Michigan, has a deed restriction which nearby hotel owners want to uphold. The deed restriction says the building can only be used as a restaurant, retail store or office. Planned Parenthood intentionally disguised who it was and its plans to perform abortions when it purchased the building.

Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan is trying to remodel an office building on North Opdyke to hold a clinic that could perform abortions. The clinic site is in front of a hotel, whose owner, Shri Sai-Krishna group, agreed with the previous landowner that the front section could be sold only for use for retail, restaurant or offices.

FULL STORY

Planned Parenthood's Abortion "Offices"

Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan has filed a lawsuit in Oakland County against hotel owners who don't want the abortion provider to move into a building in the hotel's parking lot. The building in Auburn Hills, Michigan, has a deed restriction which the hotel owners want to uphold. The deed restriction says the building can only be used as a restaurant, retail store or office.

At Live Action's prolife blog, Daniel Lutz summarizes Planned Parenthood's unreasonable idea of what an office is.

Chances are you know someone who works in an office. It could be a spouse, parent, sibling, friend or even yourself. I think it is pretty safe to say we are all very familiar with offices. Most people would probably think of an office in terms of an administrative office, a legal office, or something along those lines. Something you may (not) think of, however, is an abortion clinic and that might be because it doesn't make any sense. It is called a clinic, not an office for a reason. Most reasonable people would not fit this into their idea of an office, but the creative minds at Planned Parenthood have. But then again, Planned Parenthood isn't known for being reasonable.......

Planned Parenthood is arguing before the local court that their building qualifies as an office by the definitions set out in the local zoning code. As their opposition points out, however, they are clearly mistaken. The local zoning code differentiates between medical offices and other offices when it states that "office buildings for any of the following occupations: executive, administrative, professional, accounting, writing, clerical, stenographic, drafting and sales' are separate and apart from ‘medical offices and outpatient clinics." It doesn't get much clearer than that. But if that was not clear enough, Planned Parenthood's legal opponents have also pointed out that the purpose of the building has not been disclosed by Planned Parenthood. It is no wonder why Planned Parenthood will not disclose the purpose for the new building; it is not an office.

FULL STORY

Michigan campus resource directory for pregnant and parenting students

The prolife organization Feminists for Life has put together a national campus resource directory for pregnant and parenting students which lists universities and colleges in Michigan and answers questions about what services they provide to pregnant and parenting students. The directory currently lists resources provided by Aquinas College, Central Michigan, Grand Valley State, Michigan State, Oakland University and Saginaw Valley State.

MICHIGAN CAMPUS RESOURCE DIRECTORY

Guttmacher study shows funding Planned Parenthood doesn't reduce unplanned pregnancies

The Guttmacher Institute, a former research arm of Planned Parenthood, recently released a study showing the rate of unplanned pregnancies remained steady from 2001-2006. The report also notes that in this time period, the unplanned pregnancy rate rose for poor women while lowering for women with higher incomes. While Planned Parenthood has used this report to call for more funding, the report indicates that increasing government funding to Planned Parenthood hasn't helped to reduce the rate of unplanned pregnancies among poor women.

But whatever conclusions they may eventually come up with, one thing is clear: increasing government funding of Planned Parenthood had zero effect on unintended pregnancy. Over the period covered in this study, Planned Parnethood’s funding from government grants and contracts increased from $240.9 million to $305.3 million. At the same time, unintended pregnancies rose from 48% to 49% of all pregnancies.

What’s more, the unintended pregnancy rate went up dramatically among poor women—the very group that Planned Parenthood purports to help the most. Measured in the number of poor women per 1,000 of childbearing age, the rate went up from 120 unintended pregnancies in 2001 to 132 in 2006. That’s right: the more money Planned Parenthood got from the government—supposedly to help poor women—the more poor women got pregnant.

FULL STORY

MORE INFORMATION ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S ABORTION AGENDA

New study shows abortion increases risk of mental health problems

A study recently published in the British Journal of Psychiatry shows abortion increases a woman's risk of having various mental health problems. The study showed that approximately 10% of mental health problems are attributable to abortion.

"Overall, the results revealed that women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81 per cent increased risk of mental health problems, and nearly 10 per cent of the incidence of mental health problems were shown to be directly attributable to abortion."

The study said that abortion was linked with a 34 per cent greater chance of anxiety disorders, and 37 per cent higher possibility of depression, a more than double risk of alcohol abuse – 110 per cent – a three times greater risk of cannabis use – at 220 per cent – and 155 per cent greater risk of trying to commit suicide.

FULL STORY

Prolife bumper stickers for only .10!!

We're having a Great Big Bumper Sticker Sale during September on our two stickers for only 10 cents apiece. We'd like to plaster every car imaginable in Michigan (and across the country) to show support for the sanctity of human life. Click the link below to go to our store to order.

Right to Life of Michigan's Online Store

West Michigan hospital recruiting patients for adult stem cell trial

Spectrum Health will be testing a new treatment for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) using patients' own adult stem cells. The trial hopes to show that adult stem cells can help prevent amputations.

The procedure involves extracting blood cells from bone marrow and injecting them into the leg to increase the body’s ability to grow new blood vessels.

PAD affects about 8 million Americans – about one in 20 adults age 50 and older. Cholesterol and fat collect on the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the limbs, reducing blood flow. The condition raises the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Most patients can be treated with lifestyle changes, medicine, endovascular and surgical procedures, said Dr. Christopher Chambers, a vascular surgeon with the Spectrum Health Medical Group.

“However, despite advanced techniques and technology, about 10 to 20 percent of people with severe PAD do not respond to these measures and are at risk for lower limb major amputation,” he said. “I’m hoping this new investigational technology will give these patients another option.”

FULL STORY

Chaunie's Story

Michigan's Chaunie Brusie shares the story of her unplanned pregnancy while in college on a new YouTube video posted by Feminists for Life. She also discusses the prolife work she did on campus to help her university provide more resources to pregnant and parenting college students. Chaunie and her husband live in Michigan with their daughters, Ada and Mya. Today she is a labor and delivery nurse who speaks for Feminists for Life on college campuses, at prolife events and at Capitol Hill briefings.

Komen foundation gave more than half a million to Planned Parenthood in 2010

From LifeNews:

New figures directly from the Komen for the Cure foundation show 18 affiliates of the breast cancer charity gave a total of more than $569,000 to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in 2010.

The donations will certainly prompt the continued boycott of the Komen breast cancer group by millions of pro-life Americans who find it disingenuous that the women’s organization would partner with an abortion business when abortions are linked to an increase in breast cancer and when Planned Parenthood has been proven to mislead the public by falsely claiming it performs mammograms.

FULL STORY

Learn more about the Komen for the Cure foundation's relationship with America's leading abortion provider from this Buried in Pink factsheet.

Recent advances with direct cell conversion

Biochemist and author Dr. David Prentice wrote about several recent studies involving direct reprogramming of regular cells, skipping the need to create or grow stem cells to obtain the cell types needed for potential treatments.

A passel of scientific papers have recently reported the direct conversion of skin cells to nerve cells, without going through an intervening stem cell step.

No fewer than seven studies published in the last three months have shown different methods for directly converting ordinary skin cells into types of nerve cells......

The even newer technique of direct conversion skips the stem cell intermediary, directly transforming one specialized cell type into another specialized cell type.

FULL STORY

Vice President Biden says he doesn't "second guess" China's coercive one-child policy

At The Week, Ed Morrisey discusses a recent controversy over Vice President Joe Biden's comments in China addressing their official state policy which strong arms women into only having one child. This policy has led to forced sterilizations, coerced abortions and millions of girls being aborted solely because they're females.

One might suppose that an American vice president would take the opportunity to draw attention to the horrific procreation policies of Beijing, and try to take a positive step for both their economy and for human rights. Instead, Biden gave the one-child policy at least a tacit endorsement:

"Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I'm not second-guessing — of one child per family. The result being, that you're in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable. So hopefully we can act in a way on a problem that's much less severe than yours, and maybe we can learn together from how we can do that."

Biden fully understands China's one-child policy? Let's hope not — because if so, then he has truly brought shame on the United States and this administration with this statement. (Biden's spokesperson later backtracked on his behalf, saying the vice president finds China's policy "repugnant.")

FULL STORY

The Importance of Life

At Public Discourse, O. Carter Snead provides an essay which explains the prolife postion, compares the Bush and Obama presidencies and discusses the importance of having a prolife president.

The central animating claim of the pro-life movement is that each human being is intrinsically equal in basic dignity simply because of who he or she is as a member of the human family. Each human being is valuable and irreplaceable, regardless of her age, size, location, race, sex, usefulness (or burdensomeness) to others, her possession or lack of certain favored physical or mental capacities, or the worth assigned to her by others. It is worth pausing for a moment to focus on the radical and distinctive nature of this claim. The moral status of each human being is, according to this view, unconditional and noncontingent. It does not wax and wane according to the judgment or interests of others, in light of physical, mental, or circumstantial criteria that such others might establish........

The “life issues” are not merely the ancillary concerns of a small but active fringe of our political landscape. Rather, they involve essential questions of membership—of “who counts” for purposes of moral concern and basic legal protections—at the heart of our nation’s commitment to justice and equality for all, including the most vulnerable. These are questions that we cannot afford to ignore or answer wrongly. Literally millions of lives hang in the balance. Regarding the unborn child, the only path that comports with our best moral traditions and our nation’s founding principles is to provide equal justice for all, even when it would seem more useful or convenient to do otherwise. In this regard, the office of the presidency offers a unique power to promote justice or do great harm. The man or woman who holds that office must have the wisdom, courage, and, yes, the empathy to use his or her powers to protect the least among us to the extent that the law allows.

FULL STORY

Only 37% of Michigan voters approve of Senator Stabenow's job performance

A survey of likely Michigan voters taken in August found only 37% of give the pro-abortion United States senator a positive job rating. Stabenow is up for re-election in 2012.

A poll shows Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow could face trouble in her 2012 re-election bid.

The survey of 600 likely Michigan voters released Monday by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA shows 37 percent gave her a positive job rating, while 54 percent gave her a negative rating and 9 percent were undecided.

Forty-seven had a favorable opinion of the two-term senator, while 38 percent had an unfavorable view and 13 percent were undecided.

FULL STORY

SENATOR STABENOW'S PRO-ABORTION VOTING RECORD

NY Times piece on the "selective reduction" of twins

Last Sunday, the New York Times' Magazine featured a story on women, who after becoming pregnant with twins through in-vitro fertilization, decide to have one of their twins killed through a type of abortion known as "selective reduction."

The concept of killing one of two twins solely for elective reasons even makes some who favor legal abortion uncomfortable.

As word spread, a stream of patients called Wapner’s office, scheduling reductions to a singleton. A few months later, after the last patient of the day left, the sonographer who had worked with Wapner for nearly 20 years stopped at his office. She told me what happened next, on condition of anonymity because she doesn’t want her relatives to know everything her work entails: “I told him I just wasn’t comfortable doing a termination of a healthy baby for social reasons, and that if we were going to do a lot of these elective reductions, I thought he should bring in someone else who was more comfortable. From the beginning, I had wrestled with the whole idea of doing reductions, because I was raised in the church. And after a lot of soul searching, I had decided there were truly good medical reasons to reducing higher-order multiples to twins. But I had a hard time reconciling doing reductions two to one. So I said to Dr. Wapner, ‘Is this really the business we want to be in?’ ”

Wapner immediately called a meeting with his staff. Every one of them — the sonographer, the genetic counselors, the schedulers — supported abortion rights, but all confessed their growing unease with reductions to a singleton. “There’s no medical justification in a normal twin pregnancy to reduce to one,” Wapner said. “So we decided to allocate our resources to those who would get the most benefit. We were in the business to improve pregnancy outcomes, and those reductions didn’t fit the criteria.” He hasn’t done an elective two-to-one reduction since.

FULL STORY

President Obama's Justice Department goes after 79-year-old sidewalk counselor

The National Review has an article by Hans von Spakovsky which discusses the U.S. Justice Department's attempt to prosecute 79-year-old sidewalk counselor Richard Retta. Retta is a sidewalk counselor in the Washington, D.C. area who attempts to persuade women going into a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic to choose life for their unborn children.

Obama’s DOJ claims that Retta’s sidewalk counseling violates the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, enacted by Congress in 1994. In a July 2011 complaint, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division says that Retta violated federal law because he “walks very closely beside patients” as they enter the clinic. It also claims that Retta follows them when they leave.

But FACE permits Retta to walk beside patients, coming or going, on a public sidewalk. And the First Amendment protects his right to speak to them. In fact, the FACE Act (18 U.S.C. § 248) forbids only physical obstruction, intimidation, or the use or threat of force. The FACE Act protects the activity that Retta engaged in: The statute specifically states that it does not “prohibit any expressive conduct (including peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstration).”

................

Retta was shocked to learn that DOJ had brought charges against him. The department’s doubtful claim is also brought into question by Retta’s history. He doesn’t just counsel women on the sidewalks about the tragic consequences of abortion; he has also taught sidewalk-counseling classes for about a decade.

He prints a homemade, 22-page training manual that teaches volunteers how to conduct themselves. Item number two on his list of “don’ts”: “DO NOT block the woman’s path.”

FULL STORY

Abortion advocates weren't expecting this much prolife legislation

The Christian Science Monitor has a lengthy article on American United for Life's president Charmaine Yoest, the prolife movement and prolife legislation. The article includes some revealing quotes from abortion advocates who weren't expecting as much prolife legislation to pass this year.

Yoest, the president and chief executive officer of Americans United for Life, a group that offers 39 pieces of model legislation for state lawmakers and advocates, is one of the key actors pushing a wave of highly restrictive – the other side would say dangerous and illegal – initiatives limiting access to abortion. AUL's goal is to eat away at the underpinnings of the protections provided by Roe v. Wade – the landmark United States Supreme Court decision that extended the right to privacy to a woman's decision to have an abortion – not necessarily to challenge it outright. At least not yet.

So far this year, AUL and other like-minded groups have caught their adversaries flat-footed; some 22 states have enacted a record 86 new measures in 2011, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which studies sexual and reproductive health and supports abortion rights.

Just two years after the election of a pro-abortion rights Democratic president, it appears the antiabortion movement has been reborn.

"We were expecting a bad year – we weren't expecting this bad of a year," says Elizabeth Nash, a Guttmacher public policy associate.

FULL STORY

West Michigan man chronicles adult stem cell procedure

In her health column, Living with Cancer, Sue Schroder shares Tom Felten's reports on an adult stem cell transplant to treat his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Next: Apheresis. This involved lying still in a hospital bed for several hours with a needle in one arm (sending blood into the machine) and a needle in the other (allowing the blood to return) minus the collected stem cells. I needed two days of collection. By God's grace, we got just enough.

The cells were carefully "cleaned," removing cancer cells, cryogenically frozen and stored.....

After a "day of rest," I received my stem cells back. Intravenously, I was given eight bags of stem cells on the 23rd and 4.5 more bags on the 24th (my big 5-0 birthday!). Due to some serious volume, my transplant came in two phases instead of one.

The process of receiving the cells back is simple. A cart holding what looks like a small garbage can and a hot dog cooker is wheeled in. The "can" holds the bags of frozen stem cells, while the "cooker" thaws them to the right temperature for re-entry into your body. Some patients (become nauseated), but I felt fine.

FULL STORY

To learn more about adult stem cell research and life-affirming stem cell treatments, visit www.stemcellresearchcures.com.

Time is running out - register for RLM's Annual Conference today

Register today for the Right to Life of Michigan 38th Annual Conference and take advantage of $10 in savings until September 15.

This year, Right to life of Michigan is welcoming former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline and Prolife Mom Ellen Salter.

Click now to find out more about these speakers and this year's conference.

Oakland County pregnancy center featured in Detroit News

The Detroit News featured an article about the new Birth Choice pregnancy center in Clarkston, which moved into the same building as an abortion clinic, and their recent dinner with special guest Michael Reagan. The center was a joint effort of many prolifers in Oakland County and has been featured in a recent Real Life story.

Opinion poll results show Americans don’t know Roe

In late July, the Gallup Polling Company released the results of a national poll gauging the public’s position on various kinds of prolife legislation. The poll was taken between July 15‑17, 2011, and asked specific questions about various laws which restrict abortion. Many of the laws have recently been passed in various states while other states are currently considering some of these laws.

The poll found 87 percent of respondents favored laws requiring doctors to tell women about the possible risks of abortion, 71 percent favored parental consent laws, 69 percent favored a 24‑hour waiting period before an abortion, 64 percent favored a ban on partial birth abortion and 50 percent favored a law requiring women seeking abortions to be shown an image of their ultrasound.

The poll also notably found the vast majority of Americans oppose abortion after the first trimester, more than 2/3 of poll takers (71 percent) thought abortion should be illegal in the second three months of pregnancy and nearly 90 percent favored making abortion illegal in the third trimester.

Interestingly enough if Gallup had asked these same poll takers whether they thought Roe v. Wade was a good decision, the majority of them would have probably said “yes.” That’s what a 2010 poll by CBS News found. In those results, 58 percent of Americans thought Roe v. Wade was a good decision.

This is noteworthy because the reason no state has banned abortion in the second trimester is because Roe v. Wade prevents them from doing so. While many state legislatures would likely have the votes to ban abortion after the first 3 months of pregnancy, no such ban has passed because legislators know such legislation would run afoul with Roe v. Wade and would quickly be ruled unconstitutional.

So how can 71 percent of Americans favor a policy which can’t happen because of ruling 58 percent of Americans think was good?

The answer is Americans don’t know Roe. A great follow-up to the question of whether they thought Roe was a good ruling would have been: “What did Roe v. Wade do, exactly?” A high number of responses would start with “Ummm...” and end with “I don’t know.”

This is where prolifers and the importance of educating the public on prolife issues need to come in. The main reason 58 percent of the public supports Roe v. Wade is because vast swaths of citizens have no clue what Roe v. Wade did. If they knew it overturned abortion laws in 50 states and set up a framework which prevents states from banning late-term abortions, support for Roe would plummet.

To learn more about how the public perceives abortion and the ramifications of Roe v. Wade, visit Right to Life of Michigan at www.rtl.org.

Even majority of "pro-choice" Americans think 2nd trimester abortions should be illegal

Following up on recent polls, Gallup points out that on many issues, people agree the current status of abortion on demand through all nine months is wrong. Even 52% of self-described "pro-choice" Americans believe second trimester abortions should be illegal. More than 2,000 abortions take place in Michigan every year after the first trimester.

POLL RESULTS

Prolife candidates win local elections

Candidates endorsed by RLM-PAC won in local elections held in Grand Rapids and Warren on August 2. Walt Gutowski kept his seat as 1st Ward city commissioner in Grand Rapids while 8 of 9 candidates in Warren's local elections moved on to the general election.

WARREN ELECTION RESULTS


RLM-PAC ENDORSED CANDIDATES

Abortion fund report reveals Michigan teen traveled to Colorado for 27+ week abortion, no physical reason given

In June of 2011, the Third Wave Foundation released a report detail regarding the 2010 actions of their Emergency Abortion Fund which provides money to women who can't afford abortion. The report gives "snapshots" into some of the cases in which they provided funding for abortion.

One of the cases involved a 14-year-old girl from Detroit who traveled to Colorado for an abortion after raising funds and keeping her pregnancy a secret from her mother, whom she claimed was suicidal. They claim this case was severe yet there was no physical reason given for the girl's abortion.

This year we funded a 14 year old high school student in Detroit who was keeping the procedure a secret from their mom because their mom was suicidal and dealing with her own mother's recent death. All of their mom's savings went towards their grandmother's funeral and a recent divorce. By the time they were able to get enough funding together for an ultrasound, they were told that they were 27 weeks into the pregnancy. The only clinic they could attend was in Boulder, CO, 1,300 miles away. Without telling their mom, they fundraised after school, got enough money together for a bus ride, and made up a story to tell their mother about where they were going, but they still faced a $10,000 procedure cost. By the time the clinic notified us of this case, the patient only needed $3,000 more dollars. After our pledge of $350, the clinic agreed that they would provide the procedure at a steep discount given the severity of the case and their age.

The report also notes the case of 17-year-old from Detroit who traveled to Ohio for a 22-week abortion after various abortion clinics in Michigan charged her for ultrasounds and then told her she was too far along for their clinic to perform an abortion.

FULL REPORT

Detroit abortion clinic damaged, Right to Life of Michigan committed to non-violence

In July, a suspicious package left outside the Summit Women's Center abortion clinic in Detroit damaged the building.

Peaceful solutions to the violence of abortion is the goal of Right to Life of Michigan. Any vandalism against abortion facilities concerns Right to Life of Michigan. To counter violence with violence is against our principles. Prolife people have consistently worked peacefully through the democratic process in order to reach our goal - the end of violence within clinic walls. We are a peaceful movement.

FULL STORY

RIGHT TO LIFE OF MICHIGAN'S POLICY AGAINST VIOLENCE