Kagan’s deception to defend partial-birth abortions

National Review’s Shannen Coffin discovers one of the reasons why the Clinton Library seemed determined to keep records of Elena Kagan's previous work quiet. The issue of partial-birth abortion had raged during the Clinton years, with the President ultimately vetoing a measure by Congress to ban the procedure, but Nebraska banned it on their own. In order to defeat that law, Kagan manipulated a report by a panel from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to fool the Supreme Court into thinking that doctors had supported the idea that it was a medically necessary procedure, when in fact ACOG couldn’t specify a single set of circumstances where it would save the life of the mother. HotAir

Who are the pro-life candidates in your area?

Every vote counts and making your vote count for life has never been more important. All human life has value and to make this a reality in Michigan and in the United States, we need to vote in the August 5th primary election for candidates who are pro-life. Generate your own personalized prolife ballot from Michigan Right to Life for the Tuesday, August 3, primary election. It has never been easier to identify the prolife candidates in your area.

Kagan Testimony: Extreme on Abortion

Responding to a line of questions from Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Elana Kagan confirmed her belief that “Roe (v. Wade) and Doe (v. Bolton) require” that any state “regulation” of abortion protect the “health” of women seeking abortion. AUL

Are we to blame for global warming?

Based on typical news reports, you would assume that the cause of global warming is obvious—coal and burning gasoline. But we should look closer at a more obvious source of fluctuation. What about the sun? AiG

Kagan 'Not Kosher'

Speaking on behalf of over 850 members of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, Rabbi Yehuda Levin said, "While any number of our co-religionists would represent the undeniable, historic Torah values shared by Orthodox and traditional Jews, we are devastated and broken-hearted by the choice of Elena Kagan." "According to the Torah perspective adhered to by our 850-plus member Rabbis, as well as hundreds of thousands of Orthodox and traditional Jews, Ms. Kagan is non-kosher - not fit to serve - on the Supreme Court or any other court." LifeSiteNews

Immortality Explored In 'Long For This World'

This Talk of the Nation interview discusses scientific evidences of immortality and the biblical implications of death. Listen to the audio for the complete discussion.

Parents Outraged at Planned Parenthood Class

Parents in Southwest Iowa have reacted in horror after learning that Planned Parenthood's co-ed sex education course not only used pornographic teaching materials but also taught children sexual positions. Colleen Dostal told Fox News Radio, after discovering that her 14-year-old son had been taught sexual positions using stuffed animals meant to represent STDs, that the class was "horribly inappropriate."

Parents said the school's principal was "mortified" when told the content of the class and apologized. Speaking for Planned Parenthood, Jennifer Horner defended the curriculum as giving children "accurate" information. LifeSiteNews

Related: Condoms, secrecy for Provincetown pupils

BeautifulPeople.com Launches Virtual Sperm Bank

BeautifulPeople.com, the dating site with a strict ban on ugly people, has launched a virtual sperm and egg bank for people who want to have beautiful babies. Founder Robert Hintze added: "Initially, we hesitated to widen the offering to non-beautiful people. But everyone - including ugly people - would like to bring good looking children in to the world, and we can't be selfish with our attractive gene pool."

BeautifulPeople.com is the largest network of attractive people in the world. Entry to BeautifulPeople.com is only possible after passing a democratic rating process, where members of the opposite sex vote 'yes definitely,' 'hmm yes, O.K.,' 'hmm no, not really' and 'NO Definitely NOT' based on photographs and a brief profile submitted by new applicants. PR Newswire

Editor: The question is, will they succeed where The Nobel Prize Sperm Bank failed?

Bork's revenge

How did the court become so partisan? It was an unintended consequence of Roe v. Wade.

Roe itself was not decided along party lines. Its author, Justice Harry Blackmun, was a Nixon appointee; of the six justices who concurred with Blackmun, four were nominated by GOP presidents and two by Republicans. The dissenters, White and Nixon appointee William Rehnquist, were a bipartisan pair too.

The current politicization of the courts did not begin with Roe v. Wade; a Democratic Senate had already blocked two Nixon appointees, Clement Haynsworth and Harrold Carswell, for being too conservative, and Democratic senators later made an unsuccessful effort to block Rehnquist's appointment.

But by intervening so heavy-handedly in a matter that over which there was not yet a political consensus, the Roe court prompted a powerful backlash, the rise of the antiabortion movement, which became a key part of the Republican constituency. The pro-abortion side in turn became ever more immoderate and powerful within the Democratic Party.

Since 1980, each party's position on abortion has been so extreme as to be out of step with the vast majority of Americans. Since the court has left very little room for legislation on the matter, the practical consequences of this have been minimal--except when there is a Supreme Court vacancy.

By finding a right to abort in the Constitution's mystical emanations and penumbras, the court federalized what had previously been a state matter. Rather than remove it from politics, as the justices must have thought they were doing, this heightened the politics around it, almost all now focused on the court itself. WSJ

What Is Darwin’s Dilemma?

“Darwin’s dilemma” refers to Charles Darwin’s bafflement that the fossil record contradicted what his theory of evolution predicted. In his classic book On the Origin of Species, Darwin declared that if his theory of evolution were true “it is indisputable that before the lowest Cambrian stratum was deposited… the world swarmed with living creatures.” Yet Darwin admitted that the fossil record below the Cambrian strata seemed to be bereft of such creatures. Instead “species belonging to several of the main divisions of the animal kingdom suddenly appear in the lowest known fossiliferous rocks”—without any evidence of prior ancestral forms. Darwin frankly acknowledged that this lack of ancestral forms was “a valid argument” against his theory. But he hoped that time—and more research—would provide the evidence that was lacking. Some 150 years later, the documentary Darwin’s Dilemma probes how Darwin’s dilemma has been aggravated—not resolved—by the last century of fossil discoveries, starting with the strange and wonderful creatures uncovered a century ago in the Burgess shale in British Columbia, Canada.

Let’s Analyze the Cost of Raising Children

Last week the US Department of Agriculture released its 2009 report on the cost of raising children. It says the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 is $222,360, the biggest increase being in child care and education, and most of that is child care. You need to take these numbers with a grain of salt (at $2.99 per pound). If you read the entire USDA report you learn that many factors are at play in trying to figure out what it actually costs to have a child — or two or three. Or — to take my son Eric’s family as an example — eight. Pro-Life Action League

Cohabitation and Children Outside Marriage Linked to Higher Probability of Breakups

Second marriages are more than 90% more likely to break up than first marriages, according to a new study by Australian researchers. The researchers also found that cohabiting, having children before marrying, and an imbalance between partners in the desire for children are all correlated with marital breakup. The study, titled “What’s Love Got to do With It?” by researchers from the Australian National University, found that 20% of couples who had children before marriage, either from a previous relationship or the same relationship, were separated compared to just 9% of couples without children born before marriage. LifeSiteNews

Predicting an end to Roe v. Wade

Former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger predicted Tuesday night that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision that gives women abortion rights. The noted liberal scholar said the 1973 decision has become a “trophy” that the court’s conservative bloc could overturn if a Republican president chooses a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy. “I absolutely believe it,” Dellinger said. “For a while I thought that one could simply chip away at a lot more and more regulations that sort of protected access (to abortions) for the most affluent women but really made it impossible for women who were vulnerable to geography, poverty (and) youth. But now I think that, actually, it is such a symbol of a kind of jurisprudence that conservatives have set themselves in opposition to.” Politico

Land warns of 'social experiments'

Ungodly views of human life as well as dangerous social experiments are threatening America's future and clouding the legacy of the Gospel handed down from giants of the faith, Richard Land told messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 15 in Orlando, Fla.

He lamented the continuing slaughter of the country's unborn citizens through abortion and the impact the mindset behind the killing of the innocent has had on the nation. "I can't think of a deeper and more basic ethical issue that any society can face than who and what is a human being," Land said.

It is not news for Bible-believing Christians that life begins at conception, he said, citing Scripture passages as evidence of God's personal involvement in the creation of each human being. He noted that among the early civilizations in the Mediterranean basin, only the Jews did not practice abortion and infanticide, a position stemming from their belief in the teachings of the one true God.

He said church leaders early in the second century A.D., who were overwhelmingly Gentile and had come out of the Greco-Roman societies where abortion was commonplace, abhorred the "killing of human life in the womb."

"They bore eloquent testimony against abortion and eventually caused abortion to be put into the dark corners of the Roman Empire and there it stayed in Western civilization until the fall of the Christian consensus in Europe in the first half of the 20th century and in North America in the second half of the 20th century. There is no question where God is on this issue; God is, has been and will forever be pro-life," he said to sustained applause. Baptist Press

Students for Life Launches Outreach for Pro-Life Medical Students

Students for Life of America is launching their Medical Students for Life program designed to give support to pro-life medical students in a manner they've never experienced. Kristan Hawkins, the director of Students for Life of America, says Medical Students for Life aims to unite pro-life students at medical schools around the country at a time when many are facing pressure to learn abortions. The program is designed to give them the resources they need to spread the pro-life message to their peers. LifeNews

The compassion of truth

Our response to persons involved in homosexuality must be marked by genuine compassion. But a central task of genuine compassion is telling the truth, and the Bible reveals a true message we must convey. Those seeking to contort and subvert the Bible's message are not responding to homosexuals with compassion. To lie is never compassionate--and their lie leads unto death. CBMW

Sperm donation: The US regulatory vacuum and its ethical ramifications

In the US, anonymous donation is the prevailing norm. With no central registry and no federal or state regulation requiring long-term record keeping, information about donors is kept by individual sperm banks and fertility clinics according to various standards and for different lengths of time. The outcome of the current situation is that many US donor offspring will never have potential access to information about their donors (either non-identifying or identifying information subject to donor's consent to disclosure). BioNews

More news:

• Woman from India gives birth to triplets at 66
• Gynaecologists in Holland can now refuse access to IVF treatment to women deemed unsuitable
• Lesbian ruled not child's legal parent

Tea Party Movement Shouldn't Focus Only on Fiscal Conservatism

The Tea Party movement and its grassroots political activists are defined by loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, limited government and individual liberty -- not social issues such as abortion. That's what journalist and author Jonah Goldberg argued at a gathering of conservatives in Washington on Wednesday. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), however, disagreed.

The chairman of the House Republican Conference, said people are also drawn to the Tea Party movement because it embraces traditional American morality, including the sanctity of life and the traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. "What’s animating this authentic American movement is that our present crisis is not just economic and fiscal. It’s moral in nature. At the root of these times, I believe there are millions of Americans who see, in Washington, D.C., and on Wall Street, people in positions of authority walking away from the timeless principles of honesty, integrity, an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. . . . [P]ublic policy alone will not cure what ails this country.” CNSNews

The world in revolt

God’s gentleness in judging the rebels at Babel is a lesson for us today. God did not let man’s rebellion run its full course, as He had before Noah’s Flood. He nipped the rebellion in its early stages so that humans would not hurt themselves too much. By this simple act, God forced humanity to proceed down His chosen path—to resettle the earth by families. God’s first judgment after the Flood proved that He would continue to superintend the events of human history. AiG

DISCLOSE Act Condemned by Pro-Life, Pro-Family Groups

The Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress is preparing to vote on a new campaign finance bill, the so-called “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act.” Pro-life and pro-family groups are feverishly campaigning against the act, saying it will have a chilling effect on political free speech, especially with mid-term elections just around the corner. LifeSiteNews

Related: Battle intensifies over campaign finance reform

Surrogate Pregnancy Goes Global

“Google Baby” is a compelling documentary Wednesday on HBO2 that shows us how provincial the standard in-vitro fertilization procedure has become. NY Times

NIH Committee Recommends Withholding Federal Support For 47 Stem Cell Lines

The NIH Advisory Committee to Director Francis Collins recommended that the agency reject federal research funding for 47 embryonic stem cell lines because of a sentence of legal language in a contract signed by embryo donors. RGI, "one of the world's leading performers of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis," received the stem cells from clients who donated unwanted embryos for research, USA Today reports. Members of the advisory committee objected to a sentence in RGI's donation contracts that they said creates "exculpatory" language barring patients from subsequently filing lawsuits for negligence or harm -- language forbidden under federal research rules. MedNewsToday

A Decade Later, Genetic Map Yields Few New Cures

For biologists, the genome has yielded one insightful surprise after another. But the primary goal of the $3 billion Human Genome Project — to ferret out the genetic roots of common diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s and then generate treatments — remains largely elusive. Indeed, after 10 years of effort, geneticists are almost back to square one in knowing where to look for the roots of common disease. NY Times

We create them and then we destroy them

The advances we are making with all our scientific and medical knowledge is far outstripping any moral and ethical progress. The new medical technologies may open up all sort of dazzling possibilities, but without an informed moral framework with which to judge and assess them, they simply lead to more dehumanisation and depersonalisation. Christianity Today

Editor: This is another response to the news out of Britain about IVF pregnancies being electively aborted. We should keep in mind that IVF has always created embryos only to destroy many if not most of them. The success of the procedure has always relied upon selecting the "best" and discarding the rest . . . or leaving them to languish in frozen limbo. We really shouldn't be so shocked or appalled over the loss of life that has made it to the uterus, when loss of life in the test tube has been so trivialized.

First Ever GAO Report on Federal Funding for Abortion Advocates

This morning at a Capitol Hill news conference, Family Research Council joined members of Congress including Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) as well as other pro-life leaders to discuss the Government Accountability Office's first ever report on federal funding for abortion advocates. The report was requested by Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) and other key members of Congress.

The report revealed that six organizations connected to the abortion agenda received over a billion dollars in federal funds between 2002 and 2009. The six organizations are Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Population Council of the United States, Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth and Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.