The purpose of this email is to inform you that a few short hours ago, a federal judge in North Dakota struck down the North Dakota heartbeat bill ruling it “invalid and unconstitutional.”  Please know that Federal Judge Daniel Hovland was appointed by President Bush in 2002 and is widely viewed as a conservative judge.  Recall, this decision today comes on the heels of the Arkansas Federal Judge’s decision striking down the Arkansas Heartbeat Bill last month.  That Arkansas federal judge was appointed by President George H.W. Bush and is considered a conservative as well.  Below, please find an article published today from the Associated Press relating to the North Dakota decision.

Michael Gonidakis

President

Ohio Right to Life

88 East Broad Street, Suite 620

Columbus, Ohio 43215

614/547-0099 ext. 301

www.ohiolife.org

US judge overturns North Dakota law banning abortion as early as 6 weeks into pregnancy

• Article by: JAMES MACPHERSON , Associated Press
• Updated: April 16, 2014 – 1:45 PM

BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge on Wednesday overturned a North Dakota law banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks into pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, who is based in Bismarck, said the law is “invalid and unconstitutional” and that it “cannot withstand a constitutional challenge.” The state attorney general said he was looking at whether to appeal the decision.

North Dakota is among several conservative states that have passed new abortion restrictions in recent years, but abortion rights supporters called North Dakota’s fetal heartbeat law the most restrictive in the country. A fetal heartbeat law passed in Arkansas would ban abortions at 12 weeks into pregnancy, but it was overturned by another federal judge. The state’s attorney general has said he will appeal.

North Dakota’s heartbeat measure was among four anti-abortion bills that Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed into law last year with overwhelming support from the state’s Republican-led Legislature. Backed by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, the state’s only abortion clinic, the Red River Clinic in Fargo, filed a lawsuit against the heartbeat law last July.

“The United States Supreme Court has spoken and has unequivocally said no state may deprive a woman of the choice to terminate her pregnancy at a point prior to viability,” Hovland wrote in his ruling. “The controversy over a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion will never end. The issue is undoubtedly one of the most divisive of social issues. The United States Supreme Court will eventually weigh in on this emotionally-fraught issue but, until that occurs, this Court is obligated to uphold existing Supreme Court precedent.”

Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights praised Hovland’s ruling.

“The court was correct to call this law exactly what it is: a blatant violation of the constitutional guarantees afforded to all women,” Northrup said in a statement. “But women should not be forced to go to court, year after year in state after state, to protect their constitutional rights. We hope today’s decision, along with the long line of decisions striking down these attempts to choke off access to safe and legal abortion services in the U.S., sends a strong message to politicians across the country that our rights cannot be legislated away.”

Supporters of the measure have said the measure is a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion up until a fetus is considered viable, usually at 22 to 24 weeks. Opponents say it’s an attempt to shutter the Red River Clinic.

Last year, lawmakers in oil-rich North Dakota allocated $400,000 that was requested by Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to defend against any lawsuits arising from the state’s new abortion laws.

Stenehjem told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he needed to read Hovland’s ruling and talk to the governor and others before deciding what the state will do next.

“There are those who believed that this was a challenge that could go to the Supreme Court,” Stenehjem said. “Whether or not that’s likely is something we need to confer about.”

Stenehjem said the ruling wasn’t a surprise because Hovland had signaled his intentions before the law was to go into effect on Aug. 1.

“He fairly telegraphed it when he issued his preliminary injunction,” Stenehjem said, referring to the Bismarck-based federal judge’s decision to block the law while considering the lawsuit.

Dayton Life Resource Center Highlighted on ABC 22

Good Morning All,

Yesterday evening we learned of a great news piece (article AND video) highlighting the amazing life-saving work Dayton Life Resource Center has been doing for the past thirty years.  While we spend each and every day knowing our work serves a higher purpose, it is not often the pro-life cause gets such positive media coverage.  This is a win for us all, and especially for Dayton Life Resource Center.

Congratulations to all in Dayton.  Our prayers are with you, and please know how grateful we are for all you do.  You are the feet on the ground and such an integral part to changing hearts and minds.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

To read the article and watch the video, click here.

God Bless,

Kayla Smith

Ohio Right to Life

Director of Legislative Affairs

(614) 547-0099, ext. 303

88 E. Broad Street

Suite 620

Columbus, Ohio 43215

Contact:

KSmith@OhioLife.org

This 15-Year-Old is Courageously Taking on Planned Parenthood

by Liberty Pike | Portland, OR | LifeNews.com | 4/9/14 6:24 PM

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I think we can all remember what life was like at 15. We spent a lot of time with friends and at school, enjoyed listening to music, maybe played in some sports or had some other hobbies. But I don’t think many look back at this often challenging time between childhood and adulthood and said, “I spent hours praying outside an abortion clinic.”

Brenn does. She is a 15-year old from McMinnville, Oregon. She likes doing all the “normal” things that teenagers do. But she also likes to go to her local Planned Parenthood clinic with some signs and a couple of folding chairs to pray for the women and babies inside. I’ll let Brenn tell you, in her own words, why she does such a unique and courageous thing:

“My aunt, who has always been a role model to me, invited me to go and do 40 Days for Life, a peaceful prayer vigil outside of Planned Parenthood. I was kind of nervous, but I went anyway. I was just expecting to make it one-time thing–who wants to spend their time praying for strangers at an abortion clinic? But God changed my heart that day. I was reminded of the popular chorus, ’Break my heart for what breaks yours.’ God broke my heart for the babies who don’t have anyone to speak up for them and the women who are broken because of the choices they’ve made.

I have also been inspired to try and start the pro-life club at school, after seeing so many people, some of whom I recognized from school, going inside and coming out of the Planned Parenthood building. I want to try and show people that there is another option besides abortion, and to also show the people who have already had abortions that it’s okay and we still love them and want to help them.”

Brenn isn’t just a unique teenager—she is unique. Period. How many people do you know spend their free time praying outside abortion clinics?

When I told Brenn she was brave, she had this to say: “It was scary at first, but I really don’t feel like I am brave… I am just doing what I think is right. My advice to others is that if you are passionate about something and want to make a change you should follow your heart.”

Here in Oregon, we have the unfortunate “fame” of being the only state in the Union without a single restriction on abortion. However, that has resulted in a whole generation of pro-lifers not taking for granted hard-won victories and being willing to suffer hardships to change our state’s culture.

Connor York, president of the Students for Life club at the extremely liberal Oregon State University, recently spent his whole Saturday, along with SFL leaders from other colleges around Oregon, protesting at events for abortion rights supporter Dr. Monica Wehby. (She is running for the Republican Party nomination for US Senate against pro-life Rep. Jason Conger of Bend.) I asked Connor why he gave up his Saturday, and he said he is “tired of living in a state with no respect for basic human rights or protection for the weakest among us.”

Brenn, Connor and millions of young people like them around the world are proving more than ever that this truly is the pro-life generation. They grew up with the ultrasound portraits of themselves before birth, the age of viability getting younger all the time, and the uncomfortable truth that their parents’ generation advocated for the killing of one third of their generation.
Be worried, Planned Parenthood. They will not be sidelined and they will not be ignored. They will abolish abortion, if it is the last thing they do.

Enjoy this pro-life news article? Please support LifeNews with a donation during our April fundraising campaign!

If you are a young person interested in getting involved with the pro-life movement, a great place to start is with Students for Life of America.

LifeNews Note: Liberty Pike is Oregon Right to Life’s director of communications. A graduate of Eastern Oregon University with her bachelor’s in business administration, Liberty has been a speaker for ORTL for five years. Her passion and concern are demonstrated as she educates and stimulates conversation about pro-life issues. She and her husband have a young daughter, and motherhood has further fueled her desire to protect the preborn and help women see their children as gifts, not crises. Follow her on Twitter or visit ORTL’s website. 

Source:

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/04/09/this-15-year-old-is-courageously-taking-on-planned-parenthood/

Feminists unite—against Kirsten Dunst?

According to Merriam-Webster, “feminism” is defined in one of two general ways. First, “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” Second, as “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.”

This may have been the foundation upon which feminism was based. But it has become increasingly clear that this is not what so-called “feminists” are fighting for in America today.

I could cite the easy examples — the horrible treatment women like Margaret Thatcher, Sarah Palin, Laura Ingraham, and Michelle Malkin, among many others, have seen from supposed feminists for not following feminist orthodoxy. (Palin chose to — *gasp* — bear her Down syndrome child! The horror!)

However, this time the target of feminist anger is no political person, but an actress: Kirsten Dunst.

And what did Ms. Dunst, not exactly a controversial public figure — then again, I had a crush on her for a few years after “Small Soldiers” came out, so I may be biased — say to ignite such disdain? Why, she thinks woman’s choice to stay at home is valuable, and women should look for a “knight in shining armor” to be their life partners:

I feel like the feminine has been a little undervalued. We all have to get our own jobs and make our own money, but staying at home, nurturing, being the mother, cooking — it’s a valuable thing my mom created. And sometimes, you need your knight in shining armor. I’m sorry. You need a man to be a man and a woman to be a woman. That’s why relationships work.

The results have been shockingly predictable, if entirely distasteful. Over at Jezebel.com, in a post entitled “Kirsten Dunst thinks ladies in relationships should wife the f%$# out,” she was accused of being “kind of dumb about” gender theory. At UpRoxx.com, one writer crassly described her “hate” for Dunst — stemming from a very mild childhood experience that has everything to do with the writer’s state of mind, and little to do with Dunst — using it as an excuse to attack the actress’ comments.

And at TheGloss.com, while Dunst gets some credit for wanting women to do what makes them happy, she also gets attacked amid a series of crude insults. (The word “dumb” makes a cameo appearance during the post.)

So what did Dunst actually say? Seems to me this working woman — she has another movie coming out soon, the latest in 28 years as an actress — was trying to get this across to our divorce-ridden culture:

1. Independence is needed, but stay-at-home moms are undervalued.
2. Her personal experience shows the value of having a parent working in the home.
3. Men and women have defined roles in relationships because of how we’re created.
4. Women should want to be with a man who treats them well (a knight).
5. Relationships work great when men and women understand that we are equal as a whole, but different in complementary ways.

Gosh. So offensive.

But this is what happens when a Hollywood actress breaks the oppressive atmosphere that is modern feminism — which wants freedom for women, as long as they are freely choosing to destroy their bodies with contraception, killing their children through abortion, and cool with men using their bodies for base sexual pleasure.

SOURCE:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/feminists-unite-against-kirsten-dunst?

Lately, the Toledo Blade has been using a lot of ink to promote abortion. We felt compelled to respond. This morning, the Toledo Blade ran my response. Please find the text below.

Though the Blade often writes its editorials against us, we are encouraged when they let our voice be heard. I hope you find it encouraging, as well, and that you keep sending your letters and editorials to your local papers. With reasonable and compassionate voices, I think we will always find a way to reach people.

My best,

Katherine McCann

Public Relations Manager

Ohio Right to Life

88 East Broad Street, Suite 620

Columbus, Ohio 43215

614/547-0099, ext. 304

www.ohiolife.org

Abortion no help to poor women Your March 26 editorial “Danger and desperation” asserted that abortion rights should become a significant issue in the next election. At Ohio Right to Life, we agree, and echo the empathy that your editorial attempts to convey for the poor.

Nevertheless, your editorial exudes hypocrisy. In attempting to defend poor women, you also advance their likelihood to have an abortion.

The idea that abortion helps a poor woman is heartless. Rather than helping a woman become a self-sufficient mother who makes moral, nonviolent choices, the abortion industry and its advocates tell her simply to kill her child.

Poor women already have a disproportionate number of abortions. Women who live below the federal poverty line make up 14.5 percent of American women — but 40 percent of abortions are performed on them, according to Planned Parenthood’s research arm, the Guttmacher Institute.

America is no longer conducting a war on poverty, but is instead waging a discriminatory war on the poor, with abortion the primary weapon.

Your editorial attempted to highlight what you call the hypocrisy of small-government, pro-life Republicans. But the whole premise of the small-government philosophy is that government’s only legitimate purpose is to defend our basic freedoms — life, liberty, and happiness — against violence.

The real ideological fringe consists of pro-choice extremists who reject standards for abortion clinics, ignoring the fact that Center for Choice in Toledo shut down after health inspectors determined it violated health and safety standards with rusty and moldy equipment.

If Ohio backtracks and exposes our children to the brutality of the pro-choice, pro-discrimination philosophy, then we will face the danger and desperation of people who ignore science and reject morality in a world that uses force to accomplish its goals.

KATIE McCANNPublic Relations Manager, Ohio Right to LifeColumbus

Toledo Blade Runs ORTL Response Abortion No Help to Poor Women

New York state’s abortion facilities are inspected less often than McDonald’s

Updated at 12:43 p.m. to include remarks from Lila Rose.

NEW YORK CITY, April 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A fast food restaurant in New York state is far more likely to be inspected for health and safety standards than an abortion facility, according to documents unearthed from a Freedom of Information Act request.

Since abortionists are not required by law to list “abortion services” as part of their description, the New York State Health Department regulates only 25 abortion facilities, of the state’s estimated 225 abortionists.

The pro-life Chiaroscuro Foundation received documents about the department’s inspection of abortion offices from 2000-2012 that show a level of neglect rivaling neighboring Pennsylvania before the Kermit Gosnell case.

The health department has inspected only 17 of the 25 abortion offices it oversees since 2000. Only eight of those were inspected more than once in a dozen years, allowing multi-year gaps between assessments.

However, every restaurant from Long Island to Buffalo is inspected annually to assure compliance with relevant health procedures.

In all, the state conducted 45 abortion facility inspections. During that time, there were 1,515,108 abortions reported statewide.

That means the state conducted one abortion facility inspection for every 33,669 abortions.

Greg Pfundstein, president of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, said he asked for the documents after being “horrified by the revelations in the trial of Kermit Gosnell.”

The Gosnell grand jury report stated, “With the change of administration from” pro-life Democratic Gov. Bob Casey to pro-abortion Republican Gov. Tom Ridge in 1995, “officials concluded that inspections would be ‘putting a barrier up to women’ seeking abortions.”

“We began to wonder whether any inspections were being done in New York,” Pfundstein said in a press release. “We are encouraged to know that some inspection is done in New York, but we can’t say on the basis of what the State has done over the last 13 years that anyone should be confident there is not a Kermit Gosnell at work somewhere in New York.”

Health regulators have closed only one abortion facility in 14 years. The Choices Women’s Medical Center located in Queens hired Dr. Allan Zarkin, who earned the nickname “Doctor Zorro” for carving his initials into a woman’s stomach at Beth Israel Medical Center in February 2000.

In Queens, Zarkin would sometimes perform an abortion every five minutes. Inspectors found his “surgery schedule does not allow time to assess patients prior to surgery, to monitor patients or to clean and prepare the room for the next patient.”

They also reported that one unnamed abortionist would perform abortions on two women in different operating rooms simultaneously.

The state levied a $60,000 fine against the facility, but allowed it to reopen. Zarkin was banned from medicine and ordered to receive psychological counseling in May 2000.

“These filthy killing centers maim mothers and destroy their babies for money, and the state does nothing,”  said Lila Rose, president of Live Action. “There is no excuse for this sort of negligence, especially in the wake of mass-murdering Kermit Gosnell in Pennsylvania and ‘Gosnell-like conditions’ at Planned Parenthood of Delaware. New York is being exposed once again as a partner in the full-throttle attack on the most basic of human rights.”

The state’s willingness to turn a blind eye to the abortion industry puts women at risk, the Chiaroscuro Foundation said.

“Women’s health is women’s health,” spokeswoman Molly O’Connor said. “Women deserve to know whether a clinic they are about to visit has been inspected and is in compliance with health regulations.”

Click “like” if you want to end abortion!

“Whether you are an abortion supporter or an abortion opponent, we should all stand firmly on the side of safety,” O’Connor said.

She challenged “NARAL and other abortion groups to join together with us in demanding answers from New York State.”

SOURCE:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-york-states-abortion-facilities-are-inspected-less-often-than-mcdonalds