Select Page

    FIND PAST HOMEPAGE TOPICS UNDER "CURRENT HEADLINES" IN THE LEFT MENU…

NEW! Platinum and Blue Light Combine to Combat Cancer

NEW! Walk for Life Southern California in March 2011

NEW! Planned Parenthood Reports: Abortions Up, Adoptions Down, Business Is Good

NEW! Iowa Planned Parenthood Abortion Groups Merge After 'Financial' Problems (& Possibly Exposure of "Telemed" Abortions)

NEW! Behind the Facade, Post-Traumatic Stress

NEW! UN Youth Conference in Flux After Tunisa Drops Out

NEW! Speaking Out Has Major Impact

New York City Council Considers ‘Crippling’ Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Creating a Movement for Life: The Human Experience

Tea Party Nation Rebuts Letter: We Want Action on Abortion

Pro-Life Report Highlights Adoption Benefits for Children, Families…

Platinum and Blue Light Combine to Combat Cancer
Professor Peter Sadler, University of WarwickWhen it comes to health care blue lights, are usually most useful on the top of ambulances but now new research led by the University of Warwick has found a way to use blue light to activate what could be a highly potent platinum-based cancer treatment.

Research led by the University of Warwick, along with researchers from Ninewells Hospital Dundee, and the University of Edinburgh, have found a new light-activated platinum-based compound that is up to 80 times more powerful than other platinum-based anti-cancer drugs and which can use “light activation” to kill cancer cells in a much more targeted way than similar treatments.

The University of Warwick team had already found a platinum-based compound that they could activate with ultra-violet light but that narrow wave length of light would have limited its use. Their latest breakthrough has discovered a new platinum based compound known as trans,trans,trans-[Pt(N3)2(OH)2(py)2] that can be activated by normal visible blue, or even green, light. It is also stable and easy to work with, and it is water soluble so it can simply dissolve and be flushed out of the body after use.

The University of Warwick researchers passed the new compound to colleagues at Ninewells Hospital Dundee, who tested it on oesophageal cancer cells cultivated within lab equipment. Those tests show that once activated by blue light the compound was highly effective requiring a concentration of just 8.4 micro moles per litre to kill 50% of the cancer cells.

The researchers are also beginning to examine the compound’s effectiveness against ovarian and liver cancer cells. Early results there are also excellent but that testing work is not yet complete.

Professor Peter Sadler, from the Department of Chemistry from University of Warwick, who led the research project, said:

“This compound could have a significant impact on the effectiveness of future cancer treatments. Light activation provides this compound’s massive toxic power and also allows treatment to be targeted much more accurately against cancer cells.”

“The special thing about our complex is that it is not only activated by ultra-violet light, but also by low doses of blue or green light. Light activation generates a powerful cytotoxic compound that has proven to be significantly more effective than treatments such as cisplatin.”

We believe that photoactivated platinum complexes will make it possible to treat cancers that have previously not reacted to chemotherapy with platinum complexes,” says Sadler. “Tumors that have developed resistance to conventional platinum drugs could respond to these complexes and with less side-effects.”

This research has been supported by the EPSRC, MRC, ERC and Science City (ERDF/AWM).

Note for editors: The research has just been published in Angewandte Chemie, under the title “A Potent Trans Diimine Platinum Anticancer Complex Photoactivated by Visible Light”. The authors are – Project leader Professor Peter Sadler, (University of Warwick) and Nicola J. Farrer, Julie A. Woods, Luca Salassa, Yao Zhao, Kim S. Robinson, Guy Clarkson, and Fiona S. Mackay.
[PR171 9th December 2010, University of Warwick, UK, http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/platinum_and_blue]

Save the Date
Walk for Life Southern California

On March 27, 2011 the very first Walk for Life Southern California will be hosted by LIFEsocal, a youth based pro-life group that believes "from the moment of conception, all babies deserve LIFE (Life Is For Everyone)."  The goal of the Walk for Life Southern California is to motivate young adults and teens to stand for life and to raise money for local pregnancy counseling centers.

When:  Sunday March 27, 2011
Where:  Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA
What:  The event will begin with a three mile walk around the Rose Bowl.  After the walk, everyone is invited to LIFEfest with featured speakers Lila Rose, Walter Hoye, Carol Liebau and Karyme Lozano.  There will also be live music, information booths, food trucks, and video entertainment. 

Don't miss this first-time event!
For more information visit Walk4LifeSoCal.com

 

Planned Parenthood Reports: Abortions Up, Adoptions Down, Business Is Good…

The United State’s largest single abortion provider, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), has released their 2008-2009 Annual Report, but have omitted to say how many abortions were performed, adoptions referred, or prenatal clients seen by its affiliates for that period.

However, a factsheet released by PPFA in September indicates that in 2008 the number of abortions incre

ased from the previous year to 324,008. In contrast, the number of prenatal clients was 9,433, while the number of adoption referrals to other agencies was 2,405.

The data shows an upswing in the abortion business for Planned Parenthood, and a dramatic decline – approximately half – in its already small adoption business. In 2007, the number of abortions stood at 305,310, while the number of adoptions was 4,912. PPFA also had close to 1500 more prenatal clients (10,914) in 2007.
While PPFA has expanded the number of abortions it performs each year, it is a source of speculation whether the deepening economic recession in 2009 may have accelerated PPFA’s upswing in abortions.

The PPFA report stated that group received $363 million in government grants and contracts, although it did not specify how much of that money came from the federal government.

The report also stated that its affiliates have delved into more than 80 research projects, including “advances in abortion service delivery.”

It added that several of their affiliates upgraded video surveillance, made possible by PPFA security grants during 2008-09, that allows clinic staff to observe pro-life activities at the clinic, when they are on-site or off-site.

The report also shows PPFA’s main priorities for 2008-2009, which were including “comprehensive reproductive health care as part of health care reform”, preventing doctors, nurses, and pharmacists opposed in conscience to abortion and contraception from denying these services to potential clients, and to “increase government funding for family planning programs”.

However, the report shows that Planned Parenthood has been busy using its funds to promote abortion in third world countries. The report says that Planned Parenthood trained Kenyan activists in a campaign “to increase public support for decriminalizing abortion.” It further states that in “Latin America and the Caribbean, we offered training for health center security and tracking groups hostile to women’s health and family planning.”

The group says that in northern Nigeria, they finally persuaded “a large religious organization to introduce basic reproductive health care through its more than 100 health centers”. It adds that 60 of these centers now offer birth control and refer women for abortion.

The latest PPFA report is also likely to fuel more fire for the House of Representatives to defund PPFA of its share in Title X grant money which totaled approximately $317 million last year, and was slated to increase $10 million this year…  Pence is author of the ‘Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act’, which would prohibit family planning organizations that perform abortions from receiving Title X, and the legislation is expected to be on the agenda when the Republicans take over the House in January.


     For the entire article, visit http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/planned-parenthood-reports-abortions-up-adoptions-down-business-is-good?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c279a9338d-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines12_17_2010&utm_medium=email
[Dec 17, 2010, Peter Smith, D.C., LifeSiteNews.com]

 

 

 

 

Iowa Planned Parenthood Abortion Groups Merge After Financial Problems
Two Iowa affiliates of the Planned Parenthood abortion business are merging and, though they cite other reasons, pro-life groups say financial troubles are likely responsible.

Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa will combine with Des Moines-based Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.

The Iowa-based Planned parenthood organizations have come under fire from pro-life advocates for engaging in the new telemed abortion scheme whereby women obtaining the abortion drug are denied an in-person meeting with a physician before getting it. Instead, they are relegated to seeing a doctor over a computer monitor.

The merger was announced yesterday and will take place next year.

Vanessa Solesbee, the board chairman of Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa says the centers it runs in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque will stay open.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Solesbee and the head of the PPH affiliate say the merger is coming so the two can “allow more efficiencies in purchasing and technology.”

But Steven Brody, executive director of Dubuque County Right to Life, says there are other reasons prompting the change.

“Regardless of the spin that Planned Parenthood may issue, mergers are typically caused by affiliates not meeting financial goals and benchmarks,” he explained to LifeNews.com. “The smaller affiliates will be absorbed by the larger affiliates in order to keep facilities afloat. ”

He says a review his group conducted of their 2009 Federal Form 990 shows that Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa “was obviously mismanaging the funds it was receiving, allocating exorbitant salary and employee compensation increases even as its revenue was falling.”

“While revenue was declining (they ended the year in the hole at -$58,010), salaries increased from $657,840 to $1,060,100,” he noted. “This would indicate that Planned Parenthood is following its established pattern of phasing out affiliates that do not commit abortions and are therefore not profitable, in order to pour its resources into its lucrative abortion business.”

Brody says the merger “increases our concern that telemed abortions will be introduced in both Dubuque and Cedar Rapids.”

“Planned Parenthood will attempt to streamline their operations and increase revenue at the same time, by introducing abortion services and only needing a doctor in Des Moines to serve their affiliates via webcam,” he said. “We call on all our friends and supporters to continue this campaign until we see Planned Parenthood’s office in Dubuque closed for good.”

News of the merger comes after Planned Parenthood disaffiliated an affiliate in San Francisco, California that had significant financial mismanagement and problems.
[10 Dec 2010, Ertelt | Des Moines, IA | LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/10/state-5732/ ]

 

 

Comment: And yet the NYT and APA continue to deny post-abortion stress! N Valko R.N.

Behind the Facade, Post-Traumatic Stress

A soldier returns from war unable to get the images of battle out of his head. An earthquake survivor rides out long, anxiety-filled nights. A young woman in a pretty floral dress walks her dog along the streets of Manhattan.

All three may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The woman walking her dog is Robin Hutchins, 25. She looks confident and self-assured, and few would guess that a year ago she discovered that she had the stress disorder.

“When I tell people I have P.T.S.D., it’s like I have to convince them it’s a real issue,” she said.

The disorder — in which a traumatic experience leaves the patient suffering from severe anxiety for months or years after the event — is often associated with battlefield combat and natural disasters. But as Dr. Frank Ochberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, noted in an interview, the typical trigger is more mundane — most commonly, a traffic accident.

In Ms. Hutchins&

rsquo;s case, it was sexual violence. During her first year in college, on a weekend home to tend to a broken leg, she was raped by a young man she knew. She returned to college without telling her parents about it. “I just really wanted to be a freshman in college,” she said.

Ms. Hutchins spoke to a counselor there and resumed her routine — attending class, hanging out with friends and trying to put the trauma behind her. “Nobody ever said, ‘You need to stop your life and deal with this — you can’t just walk through it,’ ” she said.

The following year she was briefly pinned to a wall by a drunken male student. Seemingly a minor incident, but it sent Ms. Hutchins into a tailspin. Anxiety and panic began to strike her without warning. The prospect of leaving her dorm terrified her. She stopped going to class.

Her reaction was not to get help, but to leave college. She traveled to Mongolia in hopes of clearing her head, but a car accident during her trip only made things worse.

Friends didn’t understand why she never wanted to go out. They would play down her anxiety and say, “Oh, you’re just going to laugh at this in a couple days.” It took years of sleepless nights and paralyzing anxiety over tasks as simple as grocery shopping before she began to look for help.

She sought out psychologists, but some dismissed her. “They’d say, ‘What does a pretty girl like you have to worry about?’ ” she said. Others were simply too expensive. Finally, during an initial consultation, a psychologist heard her full story and said the simple phrase that changed everything: “You have P.T.S.D.”

Dr. Ochberg, the Michigan State professor, who has never met Ms. Hutchins, estimated that as many as 80 percent of rapes may lead to symptoms of post-traumatic stress. But the stigma of rape, along with a general misunderstanding of the disorder and how it can affect anyone who has suffered trauma, often gets in the way of a proper diagnosis.

For Ms. Hutchins, the diagnosis came as good news. “When you can’t control your emotions at work, at home, with friends, you stop trusting yourself,” she said. “Knowing that my panic attacks came from P.T.S.D. was such a relief.” Understanding the cause of her emotional outbursts gave her tools to change them.

Dr. Ochberg explained that the disorder causes violent memories to surface despite a person’s best efforts to tame them.

Worse, the memory often feels more recent than it should. “There’s no sense of place in time,” Dr. Ochberg said.

Studies suggest that the disorder may be associated with structural changes in the brain — in particular, a shrinking of the hippocampus, a region associated with memory.

For most young professionals, a night out at a bar is routine; for Ms. Hutchins, the strange faces and crowds put her on high alert. Crossing the street calls up a swarm of terrifying possibilities: Will the bus hit me? Is that guy following me? Should I run? Should I fight back? If I do, will I put others at risk?

Weekly therapy sessions helped her work through some of those irrational fears, and anxiety medications helped prevent some of the panic attacks. Still, she remained unnaturally vigilant.

Then she met Dexter.

After reading that “emotional support” dogs can be trained to comfort people with post-traumatic symptoms — staying by their side in overwhelming situations, for example — Ms. Hutchins adopted a small Lhasa apso from a shelter. Now, she and Dexter are training each other.

Dexter keeps Ms. Hutchins calm on airplanes and forces her to go outside for long walks. People who see Dexter in his little blue service jacket smile at him — and at her, calming her further.

She is still working on gaining control of her emotions, and she knows that the post-traumatic symptoms may linger. But there is less anxiety, fewer panic attacks. About Dexter she said, “He’s given me a partner in all of this.”
[22 Nov 2010, Karen Barrow, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/health/23voices.html?_r=1&ref=health&pagewanted=print ]

 

 

 

 

 

UN Youth Conference in Flux After Tunisa Drops Out
If present dithering is any indication, the promised global conference celebrating the UN International Year of Youth may not happen after all.

As it stands now, governments at the UN cannot decide on a date, sponsor, funding, or venue. However, some fear that a hasty youth conference will be thrown together at the last minute, given the example set by the World Youth Conference in Mexico this past August.

Last spring the UN announced a conference for youth in July 2011 to cap off the International Year of Youth. As talks over the practical aspects of the conference began, Tunisia came forward as a potential sponsor and began to organize the event.

In August, Tunisia abruptly pulled its sponsorship and a new sponsor has yet to be found. Delegates reported that there was frustration on Tunisia’s part with no institutional support from other member states and no extra funding for the conference.

One delegate told the Friday Fax that the U.S. and Japan refused to fund the event, estimated to cost upwards of $15 million, even at UN headquarters.

Meanwhile Mexico staged its own World Youth Conference in Leon, Guanajuato last August as the beginning of the Year of Youth. Although the Mexico conference was not an official UN event, it boasted the support of various UN agencies and several UN member states.

The chaotic Mexico World Youth Conference frustrated delegates and participants alike. Delegates agreed upon a statement, called the Declaration of Guanajuato, only after a tension-filled struggle with delegates having to hunt down a drafting committee to submit their proposals.

The Mexico conference was allegedly going to be a stepping-stone in anticipation of Tunisia, and the Declaration of Guanajuato was supposed to be presented to the UN General Assembly during the MDG summit in September. The Declaration of Guanajuato would also serve as the groundwork for an outcome document from the Tunisia conference.

While the draft of the actual Declaration of Guanajuato was much improved by the end of the Mexico conference, pro-life lobbyists were particularly concerned about a radical youth statement calling for redefinition of gender identities, comprehensive sexual education, and abortion that would be attached to the declaration.

Surprisingly, the Mexico World Youth Conference was only mentioned briefly in Mexico’s speech at the MDG summit in September, and the Declaration of Guanajuato was never brought up at all. Throughout the General Assembly meeting, delegates were anticipating hearing of preparations for a UN youth conference, however it never came up in the Third Committee.

The last major UN conference dedicated to youth was held in Lisbon in 1998, and addressed “ministers responsible for youth”. The conference produced a document called the Lisbon Declaration …that recognized the family as “the basic unit of society” and affirmed the call of young people to marriage.
LifeNews.com Note: Amanda Pawloski writes for the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. This article originally appeared in the pro-life group’s Friday Fax publication…
[2 Dec 2010, Amanda Pawloski, New York, NY, LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/02/int-1704/

Speaking Out Has Major Impact

How many t

imes have you heard someone say, "What can I do? I'm just one person." I want to share a story with you that demonstrates the effect just one person can have towards protecting our children and in the long run, saving lives.

Mike, a teacher, discovered Planned Parenthood wanted to run a program in his school which would have targeted Asian children, teaching them all about birth control and abortion. Mike was appalled to think Planned Parenthood would have access to influence his students, so he attended a school meeting, where the Planned Parenthood program was being discussed. Mike contacted HLA as a resource to gather information for the meeting. He was the lone voice crying out in protest and it caused the principal to postpone a decision until they had more information.

The school did the research and when they discovered what Planned Parenthood intended to teach, they denied their request to have the program at Mike's school. But the story doesn't end there. Because of Mike's action, other schools in the area  became aware of Planned Parenthood's curriculum and denied them access to their schools!

One voice can have a powerful influence!
You can be that voice in your school, church or community. Request HLA's easy to use resources today– www.humanlife.org
[3 Dec 2010, Human Life Alliance]

 

 

 

 

New York City Council Considers ‘Crippling’ Crisis Pregnancy Centers
The New York City Council considered a bill yesterday that would require crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to post signs warning that the CPCs do not provide abortion services. The bill, which was described as potentially “crippling” by one New York pro-life leader, would also require that CPCs state whether they have a licensed physician on staff.

Bill 371 was introduced to the City Council at a meeting on October 13th and was immediately referred to the Committee on Women’s Issues for consideration. The Committee held a hearing yesterday, November 16th, on the bill.

Chris Slattery of Emergency Mother Care Frontline Pregnancy Centers noted:  “This bill's set of unconstitutional laws could cripple our work with its new free speech-strangling regulations of our advertising and outreach with the threats of staggering fines, and probable shutdowns of our offices aimed at crippling our work of ministry to abortion-minded clients.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, about 50 people on either side of the issue turned out for the hearings. Among those who spoke was City Council member Jessica Lappin, one of the bill’s primary sponsors. Lappin argued that the bill was not biased, but was only intended to protect “women’s health.”

“There are two dozen anti-choice centers masquerading as health clinics right here in New York City … Rather than provide full and accurate medical information to women they mislead and manipulate them,” said Lappin, according to WSJ.

Slattery, however, defended the crisis pregnancy centers, saying that while some do not have licensed physicians on staff, many of them do.

Council Member Daniel Halloran pointed out that the bill is inherently unfair, since abortion [businesses] are not required to post signs describing what services they don’t supply.

Whereas pregnancy centers specialize in providing women in distress with the counseling and resources that they need to be able to keep their babies, Halloran suggested that Planned Parenthood, which specializes in killing those babies, should have to change its name to indicate that it also aids in “nonparenthood.”

The bill is similar to two laws currently enforced in Baltimore, Maryland and Austin, Texas. These bills also require CPCs to post signs explaining that they do not provide abortions. The Baltimore law is currently being challenged…

In March, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien called the Baltimore law “a clear violation of these centers’ constitutional rights to free speech and their free exercise of religion.” The Archbishop went on to say that the ordinance “runs directly counter to Maryland’s conscience clause, which protects the rights of Maryland’s citizens to refuse to provide or refer for abortions.”

It is not yet known when the New York City Council will vote on their version of the law.
[17 Nov 2010,  Matthew Anderson, NEW YORK CITY, New York, http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/nov/10111703.html ]

Creating a Movement for Life: The Human Experience
The creators behind The Human Experience, the groundbreaking motion picture documentary whose celebration of human life has captured the imagination of hundreds of thousands at screenings around the globe, say they hope that the movie “becomes a movement,” especially now that they are making it available for purchase.

After two years of traveling the world holding screenings, Grassroots Films announced last week that they are releasing the DVD of The Human Experience, just in time for Advent and Christmas. The film can be purchased at their website.

Amplified by cutting-edge filmmaking and a haunting score, the documentary delves deep into the real-time experience of its stars, who followed no script as they sought a new perspective on life through the eyes of those who suffer on the streets of New York, in a home for disabled children in Lima, Peru, and finally among a Ghanaian leper colony. There, say its makers, the unique film strove to capture the raw beauty of each human life, and the spirit that unlocks its meaning.

The deeply pro-life and pro-family film has accrued over 30 film festival awards and accolades, including Best Documentary Feature at the Maui Film Festival, Grand Prize for Best Feature Film at Toronto’s Moving Image Film Festival, and Best Documentary Feature at the New York Independent International Film & Video Festival.

Writer and co-producer Michael Campo shared with LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) what he learned during the two years he spent holding screenings across the globe and hearing questions from audiences, whose reactions to the film he said “amazed” him.

Through word of mouth only, the film has been screened by more then 200,000 people at over 300 pre-screenings in 115 cities worldwide.

“People are really, really, really inspired by The Human Experience. There’s something in there that moves people,” Campo told LSN in a telephone interview. “It’s been absolutely amazing.”

Campo said that audiences reacted with “everything from, ‘This has changed my life,’ to, ‘I’m changing my major,’ to, ‘How can I make the world a better place.” He said that some audience members told him later they had been inspired to visit the impoverished locales featured in the film and volunteer there.

Campo attributed audience’s reaction to the film’s authenticity in seeking out the big questions, saying that, “We didn’t try to Hollywood it up, or make it anything that it isn’t.”

“We thought the best way to do that was to live through other people’s experiences,” he said. “The stuff that we’ve gotten from them is like a treasure. These people that we met really have a clear understanding that life is truly a gift that we need to celebrate every day.”

Asked about his hopes following the
DVD release, Campo said, “I hope it becomes a movement.”

“I hope that people see this film and they don’t just, after they’re done seeing the film, eat their popcorn, drink their diet soda, and go back to their life,” he said.

“I think everyone has this desire to do something great or to make the world a better place, and … just by seeing the film it can be a reminder that this is something we’re all called to do.”

The Limited Edition Holiday DVD features full-length commentary with Director Charles Kinnane, Executive Producer Joseph Campo, and Writer/Producer Michael Campo. The DVD also includes a photo gallery and versions of the movie in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Polish, and can be played anywhere in the world as it is encoded to be region-free.

Purchase The Human Experience at grassrootsfilms.com 
[Kathleen Gilbert, Nov 26, 2010
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/creating-a-movement-for-life-the-human-experience?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c60447b690-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines11_26_2010&utm_medium=email

 

 

 

Tea Party Nation Rebuts Letter: We Want Action on Abortion

After a letter signed by a handful of Tea Party activists made national headlines for its request to downplay social issues like abortion, a new letter signed by Tea Party Nation leaders goes the other direction.

The Tennessee-based tea party group led by National Tea Party Convention organizer Judson Phillips has a new letter and a list of action items that reflects the views of pro-life advocates.

Calling for the dismantling of the “liberal-political complex,” the new letter, addressed to Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker-elect John Boehner, calls for dismantling ObamaCare and its abortion-funding provisions and de-funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

“America is a conservative country. We expect conservative leadership,” the more than 185 tea party activists who signed this new letter say.

Last week a dozen Tea Party activists signed on to a letter to Congress urging them to abandon social issues and focus exclusively on economic matters. The letter was sponsored by the homosexual rights advocacy group GOProud.

Tea Party Nation says that letter came from “non-Tea Party, non-conservatives … trying to claim leadership of the Tea Party movement.”

The new Tea Party Nation’s letter is signed by 180 tea party activists and that includes about a dozen members of the Tennessee-based Sum­ner County group SURG and sev­eral more from a Greencastle, Indiana tea party group.

The letter was posted Monday on teapartynation.com and Judson Phillips, who wrote the letter, told WorldNetDaily the signers represent a variety of groups.

“Tea Party Nation is a significant minority of signers,” Phillips told WND. “We also got signatures from a lot of Tea Party groups, many groups from New England, North Carolina Freedom, and some 9-12 groups. The final tally was about 185, but we could have added 60 or 70 more.”

“We had to define who speaks for the movement,” said Phillips. “It’s got to be Tea Party groups that speak for this movement, and GOProud is not in the movement. They never have been and are not a part of the movement.”

“Last Monday, a small group of non-Tea Party, non-conservatives, released a letter, trying to claim leadership of the Tea Party movement and purporting to tell you what the Tea Party movement wants,” the letter begins.

“We, the undersigned, are leaders of mainstream Tea Party groups. We are the people that helped get conservatives elected on November 2. While we do not speak for this movement as a whole, we are a large cross section of this movement and we want to tell you what this movement wants,” the letter continues.
[23 Nov 10, Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/23/nat-6876/

Pro-Life Report Highlights Adoption Benefits for Children, Families

In a new paper released today by the Marriage and Religion Research Institute at the Family research Council, Dr. Patrick Fagan demonstrates how adoption improves children’s lives significantly.

Fagan is Senior Fellow and Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute and the paper is titled Adoption Works Well: a Synthesis of the Literature.

It examines the relationships among family, marriage, religion, community, and America’s social problems, as illustrated in the social science data.

“Adoption is an act of love that has profound implications for the lives and well-being of both children and parents,” says Fagan. “It is love expressed by a birth-mother who gives-up a child for whom she cannot provide to parents who want to give love to a child for whom they long desperately.”

“We have quantified how adoption benefits children in a variety of ways, which quantifies what most of us know intuitively: adoption changes lives for the good. We are issuing the paper at the end of National Adoption Month, but there is never a time when drawing attention to adoption is not a good idea,” Fagan added.

Fagan noted that many adopted children move to materially advantaged homes with no or few children, where they are nurtured by supportive, focused parents. Very early adoptions (those that take place within the first year of the child’s life) produce the best outcomes, he explained.

He also points to polls showing 90 percent of adopting Americans view the practice in a positive light, and a decade after adopting and less than 15 percent express regrets over their adoption decision.

Adoption Works Well identifies certain factors as contributors to a successful adoption, such as flexible, yet consistent and engaged parenting Other factors include sensitivity on the part of the adoptive mother and residing in a densely populated area.

Additionally, married parents adjust better than unmarried parents, and households with more adopted children–but a smaller overall number of children–are more likely to produce a positive, stable adoption.

Adopted children see mental health providers less than children from any other family structure (except for intact families), Fagan notes about the benefits for children.

Adopted boys have higher reading scores than the general population, and one study showed only 7% of children adopted in infancy repeat a grade, compared to 12% of children in intact families.

Fagan concludes: “Adoption is a remarkable act by generous people, who offer their financial resources, attention, affection and time to give young children a better chance in life. Though not without difficulty for some, compared to what life was offered them initially, adoption makes an enormous positive difference. For the overwhelming number of those who adopt and are adopted, it works very well.”

Despite the positive benefits of adoption, Planned Parenthood still engages in significant more abortions than it does processing adoptions.
[29 Nov 2010, Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/2010/11/29/nat-6894/