|
|
Maryland Right to Life, Inc. 420 Chinquapin Round Rd. Suite 2-I Annapolis, MD 21401 Phones: (410) 269-6397
Need pregnancy help? Find a Pregnancy Center |
|
Current News from Maryland Right to Life
Violence Against Pregnant Women Continues With Lack of Legislative Action
Annapolis (June 29, 2011)-- According to the Baltimore Sun, in an article published on June 29, 2011 (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bs-md-co-parkville-deaths-20110629,0,4240138.story), a tragic murder in Parkville has proved to be yet another case of violence against pregnant women.
Brian Lamont Eggleston, Jr. has been charged with first degree murder for the deaths of Alicia Avery, his girlfriend, and her four-year-old daughter Darry'el. Unfortunately, despite Avery being three months pregnant with twins, Maryland law prohibits law enforcement from prosecuting Eggleston for each of their deaths.
Homicide is the leading cause of pregnancy associated death for women in Maryland. A recent study published in 2010 showed about 86% of murders of pregnant women in Maryland occur before the Chief Medical Examiner deems the beginning of viability. Yet, in spite of a plethora of tragic stories, a bill (House Bill 1024 (http://mlis.state.md.us/2011rs/billfile/hb1024.htm)) to allow for prosecution of violent criminals who target pregnant women for the death of unborn children before seven months gestation was not allowed a vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
“Sadly, once again we see a tragic example of violence in Maryland. The suspect has been charged with the deaths of two of his victims. Unfortunately, his other two victims (the unborn twins) are blatantly ignored in Maryland's criminal justice system," remarked Jeffrey Meister, Director of Administration and Legislation for Maryland Right to Life.
“The Maryland legislature needs to amend current criminal law to ensure that no violent criminal, no matter who he targets, can escape prosecution based on the age of his victims. With North Carolina taking action recently, twenty-six states now fully protect pregnant women regardless of how long they've been pregnant. Maryland needs to be number twenty-seven," continued Meister.
######
MDRTL Mourns the Death of Dr. Bernard Nathanson
ANNAPOLIS – Maryland Right to Life joins the National Right to Life Committee and other state affiliates across America in mourning the loss today of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, the former abortionist who became a pro-life champion in the late 1970s after ultrasound technology convinced him of the humanity of the unborn.
Dr. Nathanson died this morning at the age of 84 after a long battle with cancer.
One of the original founders of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL), now known as Naral Pro-Choice America, Dr. Nathanson was at one time the director of the largest abortion facility in the world, New York City's Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health. He wrote that he was “personally responsible” for 75,000 abortions, and had himself performed about 5,000 abortions.
After converting to the pro-life cause in the late 1970s, Dr. Nathanson wrote Aborting America, which exposed how he and other NARAL founders deliberately fabricated statistics about abortion, exaggerated the number deaths from illegal abortions, and adopted a strategy of systematically vilifying the Catholic Church hierarchy.
The rest of his life was devoted to working to undo the damage he had caused as a proponent of legalized abortion. In 1984, he unveiled “The Silent Scream,” a powerful video showing sonogram images of an unborn child frantically trying to avoid the abortionist’s instruments. Three years later, he released “Eclipse of Reason,” which showed the horrifying death of a living unborn child through endoscopic photography.
A self-professed Jewish atheist for many years, Dr. Nathanson was received into the Catholic Church in 1996. He tells the story of his conversion in his autobiography, titled The Hand of God.
“Dr. Nathanson had the courage to recognize his error and accept responsibility for the harm he had done,” said Angela Martin, executive director of Maryland Right to Life. “His efforts to demonstrate the humanity of the unborn child changed countless hearts and saved untold lives.”
U.S. House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood
WASHINGTON (February 18, 2011) -- The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the nationwide federation of state right-to-life organizations, expressed strong approval that the U.S. House of Representatives today adopted, 240-185, an amendment offered by Congressman Mike Pence (R-In.) to cut off federal funds to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and 102 named PPFA affiliates.
“This landmark vote demonstrates that most House members now recognize Planned Parenthood is a hyper-political, under-regulated, out-of-control mega-marketer of abortion as a method of birth control,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson.
In a letter to House members, NRLC said, “PPFA is the nation’s largest abortion provider, reporting 324,008 abortions in 2008. … According to press reports, PPFA has recently mandated that all of its regional affiliates must provide abortions by the end of 2013. Recent media reports regarding abuses associated with PPFA-affiliated clinics in multiple states provide additional justifications for the amendment.”
The allegations regarding abuses, uncovered by independent journalists posing as sex traffickers, have received substantial coverage in mainstream news media in recent weeks, including this story in the New York Times.
The Pence Amendment does not affect the funding level for any federal program. Instead, it disqualifies PPFA and its named affiliates from receiving any type of federal funds. (In a 2010 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected a claim that a similar law, cutting off federal funds for the organization ACORN and its affiliates, violated the Constitution's Bill of Attainder Clause.) PPFA affiliates receive about one-third of their aggregate clinic-level income from selling abortions. PPFA has a total annual budget of about $1.1 billion, of which about one-third comes from various levels of government, including at least $88.7 million in a year (2008) from the federal government.
The Pence Amendment was added to H.R. 1, a measure to fund all federal agencies through September 30, 2011. The bill contains a number of other pro-life provisions supported by NRLC, including a provision to restore a policy (overturned by President Obama) denying U.S. foreign aid funds to certain organizations that promote abortion as a method of birth control, and a provision restoring a previous ban on the use of congressionally appropriated funds for abortion on demand in the Federal district (Washington, D.C.), where abortion is currently allowed without any limitation.
The abortion-related provisions will next be considered in the U.S. Senate -- where 33 seats, 23 of them currently held by Democrats or independents who caucus with the Democrats, will be on next year's general election ballot.
"Now senators, too, will go on record on whether to push the snout of this bloated abortion mega-marketer, Planned Parenthood, out of the U.S. Treasury feeding trough," said NRLC's Johnson.
Any differences that emerge between the House and Senate versions of the funding bill will become subjects for negotiations between the two houses, and with the White House.
Recommended further reading regarding PPFA's accelerating efforts to increase its abortion “market share”: “Planned Parenthood: Building an Abortion Empire,” by Randall K. O'Bannon, Ph.D.; and “Planned Parenthood's Unseemly Empire: The Billion-Dollar ‘Nonprofit,’” by Charlotte Allen.
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life organizations and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide, is the nation's largest pro-life group. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Anti-Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Law in Baltimore Found Unconstitutional
The city ordinance enacted by the Baltimore City Council in 2009 that required pro-life pregnancy centers to post signs declaring that they do not provide abortions has been overturned by a federal court judge.
December 2009 marked the first time that any government body had passed an ordinance intended specfically to harass pro-life pregnancy centers. The legislation, which was introduced at the behest of the pro-abortion lobby, exempted abortion facilities and pro-abortion counseling centers from any similar regulation.
The ordinance was signed into law despite a vigorious lobbying effort by Maryland Right to Life to stop the measure. The law was immediately challenged in court by the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, which supports the city’s pregnancy centers affected by the regulation. On Jan. 28, a federal judge declared the ordinance unconstitutional and unenforceable.
Judge Marvin J. Garbis wrote, “As discussed herein, the Court holds that the Ordinance violates the Freedom of Speech Clause of Article I of the Consitution of the United States and is unenforceable. Whether a provider of pregnancy-related services is ‘pro-life’ or ‘pro-choice,’ it is for the provider – not the Government – to decide when and how to discuss abortion and birth-control methods. The Government cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, require a ‘pro-life’ pregnancy-related service center to post a sign as would be required by the Ordinance.”
Judge Garbis ruled that the Baltimore City law interferred with the constitutional protection to free speech. “...requiring the placement of a ‘disclaimer’ sign in the center's waiting room is, on its face, a form of compelled speech. Moreover, the Ordinance regulates the center’s speech by mandating the timing and content of the introduction of the subjects of abortion and birth-control.”
Additionally, Judge Garbis tackled the issue of viewpoint neutrality – that is, a governmental body cannot target one particular viewpoint on an issue while leaving others unaffected by the regulation. He wrote, “It is revealing that Defendants (the City of Baltimore) refer to the Ordinance as a means of mitigating the ‘harm’ caused by Plaintiffs’ underlying ‘propaganda’ speech relating to abortion and contraception …. Such descriptions can only support the conclusion that Defendants enacted the Ordinance out of disagreement with Plaintiffs’ viewpoints on abortion and birth-control.”
Click here to download the complete judicial decision.
Maryland Poised to Become Abortion Capital of U.S.
Notorious Late-term Abortion Specialist Will Practice in Germantown
LeRoy Carhart, the notorious late-term abortionist whose name is on the Supreme Court case that upheld a federal ban on partial-birth abortions, is expected to begin performing abortions at a Germantown facility on Monday, Dec. 6.
Banished from Nebraska after the state adopted a ban on abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation, Carhart has set his sights on Maryland, where permissive abortion laws and a lack of regulation make the state a welcoming environment for purveyors of the grisly practice of aborting viable unborn babies.
Carhart will be filling a void left by Steven Brigham, a New Jersey abortionist who recently was found to be performing abortions in Maryland without a medical license. The Maryland Board of Physicians ordered Brigham to cease and desist after learning that he was initiating abortions in New Jersey and then requiring the medicated and partially dilated women to travel in their own vehicles to a facility in Maryland where the procedure was completed.
Brigham, who owns several abortion facilities in Maryland, was licensed to practice medicine in New Jersey, but his abortion facility there did not meet state standards for late-term abortions. The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners recently suspended his medical license, calling him “a clear and imminent danger to public health and safety.”
Two other out-of-state abortionists who were working with Brigham were suspended at the same time for gross violations of medical standards. One of them, 88-year old George Shepard, Jr., of Lewes, Del., has had his license permanently revoked. Carhart, who is coming from Nebraska to perform abortions at Germantown Reproductive Health Services, has a license to practice medicine in Maryland but does not have hospital privileges.
Under Maryland law, abortion facilities are not bound by state regulations governing all other medical facilities where ambulatory surgery is performed. Any doctor with a valid medical license — regardless of medical specialty — is allowed to perform abortions, and abortions may be performed at any time during pregnancy.
“Maryland’s permissive abortion law is making our state a haven for abortionists who are not welcome elsewhere,” said Angela Martin, executive director of Maryland Right to Life. “Abortionists like Carhart and Brigham are a threat to women’s lives. They prey on the fears of vulnerable women and specialize in dismembering unborn babies who feel pain and who might be capable of surviving if given proper care.”
“The Maryland legislature should take action protect women from out-of-state abortion providers who come to Maryland to take advantage of our permissive abortion laws.” Martin continued. “If we fail to do so, our state is likely to become the abortion capital of the nation.”
######
Click here to view all media releases
Washington Post Letter to the Editor: A More Humane Approach to the Abortion Debate (Angela Martin)
Maryland Morning — WYPR (an interview with MDRTL Legislative Director Jeff Meister)
Washington Times: Lawmakers in Three States Gird Against Abortionist
The Christian Post: “Late-term Abortionist Moves to Maryland”
| Maryland Right to Life • 420 Chinquapin Round Rd., Suite 2-I • Annapolis, MD 21401 • 410-269-6397 • 301-858-8304• www.mdrtl.org |