Pro-Life News

From http://lifenews.com/nat4829.html

Potential Obama Supreme Court Nominee Diane Wood Strongly Pro-Abortion

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 10, 2009

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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recovering from surgery for pancreatic cancer, speculation is ramped up about who President Barack Obama may choose as a potential replacement. One of the names on the short list political observers have pieced together is pro-abortion Judge Diane Wood.
Wood is a member of the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and she has a long history of taking the pro-abortion side when it comes to pro-life issues.
Wood ruled against bans on partial-birth abortion in cases involving legislation from Wisconsin and Illinois. She joined the federal court in ruling that Wisconsin's law was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court's first ruling on partial-birth abortions in 2000.
Judge Wood also ruled in favor of abortion advocates by allowing them to misuse the RICO law designed to control mob activities to sue pro-life protesters.

The Supreme Court twice overturned her opinion and, in February 2006, ruled a second time that federal racketeering laws used against mob bosses can't be used against pro-life advocates who protest abortions.
Wood kept alive the lawsuit against pro-life advocates even though the high court had already issued an 8-0 decision in their favor.
Joseph Scheidler, the defendant in the lawsuit, said after the decision that Wood " claimed an affiliation with Chicago NOW and Planned Parenthood throughout the duration of the" case.
Finally, Wood wrote a dissent in a case concerning an Indiana law requiring counseling and informed consent prior to an abortion. Similar laws in other states have reduced the number of abortions by giving women information about abortion risks and alternatives and have been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Wood would fit the bill of nominating a woman to replace Ginsburg, who is currently the only woman on the court and one of the five members of the pro-abortion majority.
Another woman, pro-abortion Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said last week she is "not interested in a Supreme Court appointment."
Before Ginsburg's health issues surfaced, Harold Hongju Koh, the pro-abortion dean of Yale Law School, was seen as one of the most likely Obama picks.
But Piero A. Tozzi, of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, points out that Koh, as a Supreme Court justice, might use a new standard beyond the so-called privacy basis to justify keeping Roe and its ruling that unlimited abortions should be legal throughout pregnancy for any reason.
"A Koh nomination would revive debate over the importation of 'transnational' social norms on contentious issues like abortion," Tozzi writes.

Tozzi notes that Koh's academic writings have redefined sovereignty as “a nation’s capacity to participate in international affairs,” and have blurred any distinctive national identity.
"Koh goes on to say that the way a nation exercises sovereignty responsibly is to accept all United Nations (UN) documents and the UN human rights review process," Tozzi writes.
With the United Nations, aided by a supportive Obama administration, possibly setting out to make abortion an international right and approving documents requiring countries across the globe to honor that right, a Koh appointment would make it that much harder to overturn Roe.

Buzz up!

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From http://www.lifenews.com/nat4825.html


Black Pro-Life Advocates Say Obama Faith Office Promotes Abortion, Not Faith

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 9, 2009
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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama, last week, announced the creation of his new White House faith office, but leading pro-life African-Americans say the office is long on abortion and short on faith. Obama led off the announcement with a speech that used pro-life language to condemn everything but abortion.
When Obama spoke of God not condoning "taking the life of an innocent human being" the black pro-life advocates hoped Obama would realize that includes abortion.
Their hopes were dashed, however, when he went on to talk about his faith office would instead promote family planning efforts by abortion advocates.
"We hoped President Obama would use his faith based programming to find common ground on issues such as abortion while finding room to tone down some of the positions he took on the campaign trail,” Catherine Davis, the director of minority outreach for Georgia Right to life, told LifeNews.com.

Davis said she was disappointed Obama did nothing to talk about reducing abortions.
Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro- Life Union, also noticed the lack of a concrete abortion reduction plan.
She told LifeNews.com the only actions Obama has taken on abortion have been ones promoting it.
“The President removed the Mexico City Policy on Jan. 23, to allow U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund radically pro-abortion organizations around the world," she said. "It is further proof that he plans to expand and increase death by abortion which means millions more children will die."
Johnny Hunter, a pro-life black leader and pastor from North Carolina, says the makeup of the faith office leaves something to be desired and that the office should be taking the lead on stopping abortions.

“When a person of faith goes to work, he does not check his moral values at the door. The president of the United States of America should not keep moral values out of the Oval Office," he said.
"Since he knows that God is displeased with those who intentionally kill the innocent, he should not use taxpayers to pay those whose who kill the innocent. When you view public policy, a moral compass needs to be heeded to take the country in the right direction, lest we lose our way," Hunter added.
Dean Nelson, director of the Network of Politically Active Christians, says African-Americans know there is an abortion problem and that Obama needs to address it.
“The black community is awakening to the genocidal impact of abortion in the black community," he said. “We are very disappointed in the President’s refusal to provide an avenue of redress in his faith based programming.”