Post election explanation of prolife endorsement process

The Grand Rapids Press printed a guest editorial by Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Director Larry Galmish regarding RLM-PAC endorsements.

Throughout its existence, the RLM-PAC has been guided by time-tested, carefully developed bylaws which outline the criteria which candidates must meet in order to be endorsed. These bylaws also guide the state PAC board when making a final decision on candidates.

In some races, all candidates will meet the RLM-PAC endorsement criteria, in which case no specific candidate will be endorsed. Rather, the RLM-PAC will stay out of the race and declare that all candidates meet criteria.

Unfortunately, some races with multiple candidates will include at least one who does not meet our criteria along with several who do. In these races, the RLM-PAC bylaws require the endorsement of a single pro-life candidate who does meet the endorsement criteria. The reason? To try to unite the pro-life vote behind one candidate and prevent a split among many, thus allowing the pro-abortion candidate to win. Unfortunately, unification of the vote doesn’t always occur, but common sense dictates this to be the right course of action.

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American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology notes that abortions associated with pre-term birth

In a recent letter to members, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists notes that a paper by Dr. Jay Iams in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology mentions how abortion is associated with pre-term birth.

An Iam’s observation of particular interest is the following:

“Contrary to common belief, population-based

studies,[34-36] have found that elective pregnancy

terminations in the first and second trimesters are

associated with a very small but apparently real

increase in the risk of subsequent spontaneous

preterm birth (PTB).[37]”

We applaud his statement. Most high profile American writers won’t breathe such a thing. Allow us to mention 2 points in regard to his observation.

1. “contrary to common belief…..’ There are currently 114 studies in the literature all showing a statistically significant association between induced abortion and subsequent preterm birth. And just about none to the contrary. Why then would this association be “contrary to common belief??” Because the association is systematically ignored or severely downplayed by the established authorities in our country. It is not mentioned under complications of induced abortion in any ACOG literature we know of. It is not generally taught. It is denied by default. Maybe that is why it is “contrary to common belief……” Obviously 114 articles should carry some weight, even to the willfully blind.

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School in California settles lawsuit over prolife T-shirt

A school district in Fresno, California has agreed to pay a prolife student $50,000 for forcing her to remove the prolife T-shirt she was wearing.

Tiffany Amador, a sixth grader, wore the shirt to Merced's McSwain Union Elementary School in 2008.

The shirt showed pictures of an apparent fetus and said "ABORTION: growing... growing... gone."

Amador's attorneys say she was told the shirt was disruptive and that she needed to remove it.

The district agreed to pay $50,000 to settle Amador's lawsuit on Friday.

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Prolife PAC Provides Voice for the Voiceless

Right to Life of Michigan's Political Action Director Larry Galmish shares about the RLM-PAC endorsement process and the role the PAC plays.

Throughout its existence, the RLM-PAC has been guided by time-tested, carefully-developed bylaws which outline the criteria which candidates must meet in order to be endorsed. These bylaws also guide the state PAC board when making a final decision on candidates.

In some races, all candidates will meet the RLM-PAC endorsement criteria, in which case no specific candidate will be endorsed. Rather, the RLM-PAC will stay out of the race and declare that all candidates meet criteria.

Unfortunately, some races with multiple candidates will include at least one who does not meet our criteria along with several who do. In these races, the RLM-PAC bylaws require the endorsement of a single prolife candidate who does meet the endorsement criteria. The reason? To try to unite the prolife vote behind one candidate and prevent a split among many, thus allowing the pro-abortion candidate to win. Unfortunately, unification of the vote doesn't always occur, but common sense dictates this to be the right course of action.

Interviews are conducted with each of the candidates - interviews in which the candidates lay out their very sensitive campaign strategies and efforts to win. Only after these interviews are conducted does the state PAC board vote to endorse the one candidate they believe has the best chance of defeating the candidate who does not meet the PAC criteria. This can often be a hard decision because there may be multiple candidates with stellar prolife voting records. These decisions are not made lightly nor are they based on personal feelings.

The state PAC board members, all of whom are volunteers from around the state, are also aware that their decision may not be popular among the supporters of those candidates who do not receive the endorsement. However, they also know that NOT making a decision would only encourage a bigger split in the prolife vote and a potential loss for the unborn - their only consideration.

This year's Republican primary provided a perfect example of the feared split among prolife voters - four solid prolife candidates and one who is not prolife but ran as one. This prompted a great deal of discussion about Right to Life of Michigan PAC's endorsement decision. Rumors have abounded - that the RLM-PAC had an agreement with the Chamber of Commerce or that a large donation was promised or received from certain donors or that somehow religion played a part. All of these rumors are just that - and are categorically and completely false in every respect. The RLM-PAC board members' integrity in following the endorsement guidelines cannot be bought.

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Adult stem cells used to treat children with deadly skin disease

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have partially cured 5 children with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), a genetic skin disorder in which the patient's skin is plagued by painful blisters which can lead to infection and cancer.

With the new treatment, "there was improved healing, fewer blisters, and their quality of life was positively affected. They could do things they couldn't do before, like ride a bicycle or go on a trampoline," said Dr. John Wagner of the University of Minnesota, who worked on the study.

It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In addition, the patients' improvement progressed with time, he said. All five children who survived showed improvement within 100 days, although the pace varied widely, he said in a telephone interview.

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Florida abortionist gets his license suspended for the 4th time

The Florida Board of Medicine has suspended the medical license of abortionist James Pendergraft for the fourth time. His license has been suspended for one year and he will be on probation for 3 years following his suspension.

Pendergraft, who has subjected women to botched legal abortions, was ordered to pay $10,000 fine and take a course on record keeping.

The medical board suspended his license after it found Pendergraft had allowed an unlicensed employee to order and administer drugs even though she was unqualified and had a known history of drug abuse. Pendergraft also was disciplined for prescribing steroids to her for unknown reasons.

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A prolife victory remembered

At the web site for the magazine First Things, George Weigel writes about the 30th anniversary of Harris v. McRae.

On June 30, 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Harris v. McRae and upheld the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment, which had prohibited federal funding for Medicaid abortions since 1976. Three decades later, Harris v. McRae remains the pro-life movement's most important legal victory since Roe v. Wade created a "right to abortion" in 1973.....

Their achievement, however, is not secure. The Hyde Amendment, although deemed constitutional, still had to be re-enacted in every Congress, every year following Harris v. McRae—a fact of legislative history that raises the most serious questions about the Obama administration's claim that the Hyde Amendment is such "settled law" that it need not be replicated in the various legislative iterations of Obamacare. The administration's "deal" with certain Democratic congressmen to include a Hyde Amendment-type ban on abortion funding through a presidential executive order is the thinnest of barriers—some would say, a non-existent barrier—against claims that abortion is a "necessary" form of health care that requires taxpayer funding. That some Catholic members of Congress and some Catholic health-care advocates have fallen for this sleight-of-hand reflects either grave misunderstanding of the law or bad faith.

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The Politicization of Stem Cell Research

David Prentice and Gene Tarne have an editorial in the American Thinker comparing the over-hyping of embryonic stem cell research with the recent Climategate controversy. They provide numerous example of how scientists, advocacy groups, celebrities and politicians made outlandish claims about embryonic stem cell research and downplayed the success of adult stem cells.

Like Climategate, the public policy debate over hESCR has shown that scientists are not always disinterested parties. Rather, scientists can be every bit as political and partisan as the politicians, selectively using scientific "evidence" to justify their ideological viewpoint.

The patterns of behavior promoting public funding of hESCR have been strikingly similar to Climategate: selective use of data, manipulation of the peer review process, demonizing colleagues who question the prevailing orthodoxies, and appeals to a bogus scientific "consensus," among others. Those who question this supposed "consensus" have been dismissed as scientifically ignorant and accused of playing politics with science......

The most ironic -- and most troubling -- aspect to the stem cell debate is that all the talk about "playing politics" with science obscured the fact that in an open society, there is and must be a role for politics in determining the parameters within which science will be conducted. By itself, science is not competent to set these parameters. Science is a method to obtain knowledge; it can determine that one way may be more effective or more efficient than another. But efficient does not always mean morally acceptable.

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Adult stem cells to be used in spinal cord clinical trial

TCA Cellular Therapy, LLC has enrolled their first patient in a Phase I clinical trial which plans on using the patients' own bone marrow stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries.

TCA Cellular Therapy, LLC has enrolled its first patient to participate in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first adult stem cell clinical trial to treat spinal cord injuries. Enrollee and Marine Veteran, Matt Cole was paralyzed from the chest down in a 2005 insurgent attack in Iraq....

Utilizing TCA Cellular’s proprietary therapy, a couple of thousand adult stem cells have been extracted from the patient’s own bone marrow, Mesenchymal Stem Cells have been separated, purified, multiplied to millions and will be infused into Cole’s spinal cord later this month.

“In theory we expect the cells to repair damaged neurons,” explained TCA Cellular president, Dr. Lasala. “At minimum, our team expects this therapy will provide some improvement to the patient’s motory and sensory functions with no side effects."

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National Right to Life: Kenya's proposed constitution allows abortion on demand

From the National Right to Life Committee's communications department blog:

Media reports regarding the proposed constitution in Kenya, which goes before the country for a vote on Wednesday, continue to misrepresent the proposed document’s impact on the country’s abortion policy.

“Many in the media are falsely reporting that the new constitution would not allow abortion except ‘where the life of the mother is in danger,’” explained Jeanne E. Head, R.N., National Right to Life Vice President for International Affairs and United Nations Representative. “The truth is actually the opposite.”

The language in the proposed constitution does not contain any meaningful restrictions on abortion, despite recognition of the right to life from conception. Section 26 contains language which allows abortion when in the “opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.”

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Italian researchers use adult stem cells to create windpipe for cancer patients

In Italy, two individuals with trachea cancer have undergone windpipe transplants. Their new windpipes were created with adult stem cells from their own bodies.

Doctors regenerated tissue from the patients' nose and bone marrow stem cells to create tracheas biologically identical to the patients' original organs. Both patients underwent the transplant in early July and were released from the hospital just weeks after the surgery, according to the Associated Press.

One of the patients was able to speak again only a few days after the surgery, said Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, professor of surgery at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the head surgeon in the cases.

"They are back to the home, able to speak, able to socialize with everybody," Giovannini told the Associated Press.

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Pro-choice columnist: Right to Life of Michigan knows what they're doing

Brian Dickerson, a Detroit Free Press columnist who favors legal abortion, notes in his column on Sunday how Right to Life of Michigan PAC's knows the importance of the primary election and local political races.

The organization has identified anti-abortion candidates in virtually every primary contest, from county commissioner and probate court to state Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

You may think it doesn't matter very much what your county commissioner thinks about abortion, but RTL knows better. It knows its voters play an outsized role in deciding the local races many primary voters ignore, and that anti-abortion candidates who prevail in such races often use their positions as a springboard to higher offices, including the state Legislature and appellate courts, where the stakes for Right to Life are larger.

You can see which candidates Right to Life is grooming for bigger things by checking out rtl.org.

And even if you're among the deluded majority who believe nothing politically important happens in August, you can be sure that RTL's savvy, committed army of anti-abortion voters will be out in force Tuesday.

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AP: Adult stem cell studies ahead of embryonic research

The Associated Press is featuring an article by science writer Malcolm Ritter which notes that adult stem cells are currently being used in a variety of successful treatments while embryonic stem cells are lagging behind.

For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it's adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments.

Adult stem cells are being studied in people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, heart attacks and diabetes. Some early results suggest stem cells can help some patients avoid leg amputation. Recently, researchers reported that they restored vision to patients whose eyes were damaged by chemicals.

Apart from these efforts, transplants of adult stem cells have become a standard lifesaving therapy for perhaps hundreds of thousands of people with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases.

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Bio-scaffolds with growth protein help adult stem cells regrow joints in rabbits

Researchers at Columbia University have used bio-scaffolds and growth protein to help encourage stem cell in rabbits to regrow joints in rabbits who had their joints surgically removed.

Today's titanium replacement joints work very well for 10 to 15 years, but replacing them after they've worn out is a challenge for both patient and surgeon. A team of researchers from Columbia University proposes a way around that problem: by implanting a scaffold that encourages the patient's own stem cells to regrow the joint....

Thanks to the added growth factor protein, the rabbit's own stem cells naturally migrated into the scaffold and regenerated both the cartilage and the bone beneath it.

The success is somewhat surprising. "I wouldn't have thought in a normal weight-bearing joint that you could [replace the newly forming] cartilage while the joint is being loaded," says Howard Seeherman, chief scientific officer for tissue repair at Pfizer. Seeherman says he would have expected the cartilage to just wear off when weight was put on the joint.

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National Right to Life: New Obama Regulation Proves Health Care Reform Law Doesn't Prevent Abortion Funding

National Right to Life Committee has issued a press release describing a new regulation imposed on states' federally subsidized high risk insurance pools. This regulation prevents abortion funding in one of the numerous new programs created by the health care reform law. Only after National Right to Life showed that some states were planning on covering abortion in these insurance pools, did the Obama administration make this regulation. While making the regulation, an Obama administration official also noted that this policy won't necessarily be applied to other health care programs.

"Without blinking, the Obama Administration had approved high-risk pool plans submitted by at least three states that would have funded virtually all abortions – until NRLC raised the alarms starting on July 13," said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. "In the regulation issued today, the Administration tells states that elective abortions may not be covered in the high-risk pool program – but simultaneously, the head of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy-Ann DeParle, issued a statement on the White House blog explaining that this decision 'is not a precedent for other programs or policies given the unique, temporary nature of the program . . .'"

"This entire episode demonstrates what National Right to Life said in March – there is no language in the new health care law, and no language in Obama's politically contrived March 24 executive order, that effectively prevents federal subsidies for abortion on demand," Johnson said. "This means that unless Congress repeals the health care law or performs major corrective surgery on it, there will be years of battles, as each new program is implemented, over how elective abortion will be covered – and the White House is suggesting that today's policy will not necessarily be applied when implementing the other programs, some of which will cover far larger populations."

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Abortion Coverage not Prohibited in High Risk Pools, says Congressional Report

A Congressional Service Report issued on July 23 found the health care reform law and President Obama's executive order do not explicitly prohibit government subsidized high risk insurance pools from covering abortion.

Thirteen senators wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Wednesday urging her to "act immediately" to bar states operating the high-risk pools from covering elective abortions.

"Absent such contractual requirements, it will be necessary for Congress to modify the current law," they wrote, asking for a response by Friday.

The senators referenced a Congressional Research Service report dated July 23 that found the health care law, the subsequent executive order on abortion restrictions and the contracts themselves do not explicitly prohibit the high-risk pools from covering abortions with federal money.

The high-risk program, called the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, was meant to help those denied coverage over pre-existing conditions until the broader provisions of the law go into effect in 2014. The law set aside $5 billion in federal subsidies for the program, which is supposed to be either administered by the state or the Health and Human Services Department.

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Will you be voting in the primary election?

The Michigan Primary Election is Tuesday, August 3. Historically, less than 20 percent of registered voters have cast ballots in past primary elections. Less than 20 percent! A few people will be deciding who will be on the November ballot.

The Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee is proud to endorse Mike Cox for governor. Mike Cox defended Michigan's ban on partial birth abortion to the U.S. Supreme Court despite the governor's opposition. Mike Cox defied Governor Granholm by immediately filing a lawsuit challenging the national health care law which includes federal funding of abortion. Mike Cox and his staff have been the most responsive Attorney General's office to our prolife goals in the post Roe era. Mike Cox has won two state-wide campaigns. Most importantly, Mike Cox is passionately and proudly prolife!

The Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee made 386 endorsements, ranging from governor to county commission. There are 38 state senators and 110 state representatives to be elected in November, but the August 3 primary election will in many cases be the determining election. Find out who the Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee prolife endorsements are for your area by generating a personalized prolife ballot.

GENERATE PROLIFE BALLOT

VIEW LIST OF ALL ENDORSED CANDIDATES

Mike Cox speaks about his religious beliefs and his position on abortion

Below is a video of Michigan prolife Attorney General Mike Cox speaking about his religious beliefs and his position on abortion. Mike Cox is the only candidate endorsed for governor by the Right to Life of Michigan Political Action Committee.

Staying Vigilant for Life: RLM Ensures that Federal Tax Money Will Not Fund Abortion in Michigan

The media is abuzz with the troubling news that several states originally included federal funding of abortions in their new state high risk insurance pools. The high risk insurance pools have been authorized by President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. Right to Life of Michigan is working to make sure federal tax money will not cover elective abortions in Michigan's new high risk pool.

On Wednesday, July 21, prolife legislators at the Capitol alerted RLM’s lobbyists to a legislative initiative creating a $141 million high risk insurance pool. Right to Life of Michigan Legislative Director Ed Rivet and Public Affairs Associate Mollie Schweppe spoke face-to-face in the Capitol rotunda with two top officials in the Granholm administration, the State Insurance Commissioner and the Director of the Department of Community Health.

Both of these cabinet-level officials assured RLM that the insurance plan being developed would not cover elective abortions. Furthermore, a reference was made that state Medicaid law was providing guidance in this area.

More than 20 years ago, the people of Michigan in a state-wide vote prevented state Medicaid money from paying for elective abortions. This victory established in law and in principle that Michigan is one state where taxpayer funding of abortion will not be tolerated, even during administrations that are hostile to the prolife cause. Decades later, RLM remains vigilant ensuring that the ground the prolife people of Michigan won for life will never be ceded.

Putting lifesaving laws on the books, establishing prolife principles in state government and holding leaders accountable is part of Right to Life of Michigan's daily work. Thank you for supporting this mission to protect all human life in Michigan.

Mike Huckabee endorses Mike Cox for Governor

Listen to the radio ad featuring former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee endorse Mike Cox for governor of Michigan.

Hispanic Reporting Law will Collect Additional Abortion Data

Building a culture of life continues in Michigan with a new prolife law on the books. Right to Life of Michigan supported HB 4406, Hispanic Ethnicity in Abortion Reporting, which was signed into law on July 13, 2010. The Michigan Department of Community Health will now make plans to adjust the official abortion reporting form to include data on Hispanic origin.

Better understanding abortion demographics provides the necessary information Right to Life of Michigan needs to help mothers facing untimely pregnancies.

This demonstrates why electing prolife men and women makes a difference. With prolife lawmakers in place, we step-by-step build a culture of life in our state while striving to eliminate the scourge of abortion.

Indiana Planned Parenthood caught misleading patient

Live Action, a youth-led prolife organization headed by Lila Rose, has released another undercover video showing a Planned Parenthood employee in Indiana misleading a woman pretending to be considering an abortion.

When the woman, purportedly 10-weeks pregnant, asks the clinician, named "Sarah," when her baby's heart begins to beat, Sarah replies, "It's around I think the 8th or the 9th week that you can hear the heartbeat." The heart actually begins beating 3 weeks and 1 day after conception, according to Moore and Persaud's well-known textbook The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology. The Planned Parenthood clinician also insists, "It's not a baby, it's a fetus," which, she claims, is "not like a person."

In the video, Sarah assures the woman that "having an abortion is safer than carrying to term." The woman asks, "The abortion won't hurt me from having more kids in the future, will it?" and the counselor replies, "Nope." But a 2009 study from the Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey recently found that a previous abortion increased a woman's risk of pre-term birth by 20%, and a 2003 report from the Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research notes a 55% increased risk of future miscarriages for women who have abortions.

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Senator Stabenow gets award from Planned Parenthood

On July 15, 2010, Senator Debbie Stabenow, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, received "Champions of Women's Health" awards from Planned Parenthood. America's #1 abortion provider gave Senator Stabenow the award for her "efforts to support women and their reproductive health" and working behind the scenes to pass health care reform which includes government subsidized coverage for abortions.

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Despite Poor Economy Michigan's Abortions Decreased in 2009

The number of abortions performed in Michigan decreased in 2009, according to recently released statistics from the Michigan Department of Community Health. The report from the Michigan Department of Community Health states that 22,357 abortions were performed in Michigan during 2009 compared to 25,970 Michigan abortions reported in 2008, a drop of 13.9 percent or 3,613 abortions. Since 1987, there has been a 54.4 percent decrease in the number of abortions performed in Michigan annually. Abortions in Michigan have decreased in four of the last six years and the number of abortions performed in 2009 represents the lowest annual total of reported abortions in Michigan since abortion providers were required to start reporting information in 1979.

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "We are extremely grateful for the continuing decrease in Michigan abortions despite the hard economic times we've faced in Michigan. The fact that fewer mothers are having abortions in Michigan shows more and more women are coming to the realization that abortion is not the answer for an unplanned pregnancy."

Recently released polls from CBS and Gallup show our nation is turning its back on the idea that abortion is the solution to unplanned pregnancy. A CBS poll, conducted in April of 2010 found that 61percent of Americans favor either stricter limits on abortion (38 percent) or that abortion should not be permitted (23 percent). A Gallup poll, released in May 2010, found that a plurality of Americans consider themselves "prolife." For two years in a row, more Americans have called themselves "pro-life" than "pro-choice."

Listing said, "There are far too many women who enter an abortion clinic thinking abortion is their only choice. Thinking abortion is your only choice is equivalent to having no choice at all. Unfortunately, not enough women know that there are more than 150 pregnancy centers in Michigan which are here to help. All women deserve real, life-affirming options for themselves and their children. Right to Life of Michigan's toll-free phone number, 1-800-57WOMAN, and online outreaches are designed to connect women to these essential resources."

Mike Cox, the Governor We Need

Here's a link to a PDF flier which highlights RLM-PAC endorsed candidate Mike Cox and his prolife efforts as Michigan's Attorney General.