Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Netherlands Raises $300 Million to Promote Abortion Worldwide

Netherlands Raises $300 Million to Promote Abortion Worldwide

 INTERNATIONAL   MICAIAH BILGER   JUL 31, 2017   |   4:49PM    AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Pro-abortion international leaders managed to raise $300 million to promote abortions world-wide this year after United States President Donald Trump prohibited taxpayer funding to groups that promote or perform abortions overseas.
The Netherlands launched the pro-abortion “She Decides” campaign in January. Since then, more than a dozen countries have signed onto the program and promised to give millions of their taxpayers’ money to promote abortions.
The AP reports countries have dedicated 260 euros (about $305 million) to the pro-abortion campaign so far.
“It’s fantastic to see how the funding gap is shrinking month by month,” said Lilianne Ploumen, the Dutch foreign trade minister who has taken charge of the pro-abortion effort.
Ploumen, who claims to be a Catholic, added, “[It’s] very good news for millions of women and girls in developing countries.”
The money to promote the killing of unborn babies comes from taxpayers in the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Belgium and other countries, as well as from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to NPR. Other supporting countries include Rwanda, Chad, South Africa, South Korea, Senegal, Nigeria and Mozambique.
In March, the countries’ leaders held a meeting in Belgium to plan the new pro-abortion fund. They estimated that they would need to make up about $600 million per year in lost U.S. funding. At the time, they had raised close to $200 million.
One of the private donations came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – a sum of $20 million, according to the AP. Another anonymous U.S. donor pledged $50 million, conference organizers said.
Canada, Finland and Sweden each promised $20 million, while Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway dedicated $10 million to the abortion fund, according to the report. Other countries also pledged smaller amounts.
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After Trump’s order in January, lawmakers in the Netherlands — one of the few countries where the barbaric practice of child euthanasia is legal, in addition to abortion – proposed the creation of the new global abortion fund to make up for the money the U.S. no longer will provide.
No one knows exactly how many unborn babies are aborted every year across the world.Some research groups put the number at about 50 million, but others say the number likely is smaller. It also is not clear how many of those unborn babies were killed in abortions with U.S. taxpayer dollars during the Obama administration.
As LifeNews.com reported, the Mexico City Policy, which Trump reinstated on Jan. 23 by executive order, also was in place during the entirety of the George W. Bush administration. President Barack Obama rescinded it during his first week in office.
Named for a 1984 population conference where President Ronald Reagan initially announced it, the Mexico City Policy made it so family planning funds could go only to groups that agree not to do abortions or lobby foreign nations to overturn their pro-life laws.
The policy does not stop non-abortion international assistance. It ensures U.S. foreign aid will continue to go to health care and humanitarian relief in the millions of dollars. It just will not subsidize abortions overseas.
When Trump signed the order to restore the policy, pro-life advocates were delighted that the International Planned Parenthood, Marie Stopes International and other abortion groups would no longer receive taxpayer dollars to promote or perform abortions.
Trump updated the Mexico City Policy by directing the Secretary of State to implement a plan that expands the policy across all global health assistance funding. This means taxpayer dollars will not support organizations that promote or participate in the management of a coercive abortion program — like China’s two-child policy that includes forced abortions.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), for example, is one such organization,with a long history of supporting China’s oppressive population control regime.


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Irish Health Minister Pushes Legalizing Abortion Even Before Citizens Vote on Referendum

Irish Health Minister Pushes Legalizing Abortion Even Before Citizens Vote on Referendum

 INTERNATIONAL   SPUC   JUL 31, 2017   |   5:29PM    DUBLIN, IRELAND
Irish health minister Simon Harris has defended his decision to start drafting legislation that could legalise abortion, before the committee set up to examine the issue has reported.
A special Oireachtas committee has been set up to consider under what conditions, if any, abortion should be permitted if the Eighth Amendment, which protects the equal right to life of mother and child, was repealed.
However, health officials are already drafting laws, including a way to legislate for potential lawful abortions for rape victims without a conviction, to be ready for a referendum in summer 2018, the timescale indicated by taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The committee is planning to start taking evidence in September.

Accelerating preparations

Mr Harris said he had “great regard” for the committee, which is following the work of the citizens’ assembly. “My department, in conjunction with the office of the attorney-general, is seeking to explore and research the issue so that, in so far as is feasible, as much preparation as possible can be drawn upon once the special joint committee finalises its recommendations,” he said. “I am concerned that we are prepared in the event that a decision is made by the Oireachtas to hold a referendum. This will be important if we are to complete the process in line with the timetable set out by the taoiseach.”
However, Mattie McGrath, an independent TD and one of only two of the 21 on the committee in favour of keeping the amendment, asked Mr Harris if he was trying to accelerate preparations for a vote while it was carrying out its work.
Pro-choice activists have also been agitating for an early referendum, claiming that holding it in June or July, when many students are abroad on holiday, “would effectively mean disenfranchising thousands of young people”.

A crucial decision

The significance of a referendum was highlighted on Saturday, when Mr Varadkardismissed UN criticism of Ireland’s abortion laws. The UN committee against torture told the Irish government that it had a responsibility to explain to the public that if the state kept its constitutional ban on abortion, it would continue to breach the human rights of women. Mr Varadkar responded saying: “One thing I would be very firm about is that whatever laws we have in Ireland, those laws should be determined by either the Irish people through a referendum or through the Oireachtas voting democratically.”

Fair debate?

The news comes after Irish pro-life organisation Youth Defence had some of their information boards seized by gardai (police) in Kilkenny, during their annual roadshow. Spokeswoman Rebecca Roughneen told the Irish Independent that the event has left Irish pro-lifers concerned that they won’t get a fair debate during the referendum. “It was a very peaceful street event which was attracting a lot of support since the referendum is in the news so much these days, and everyone is very concerned in regard to what happened,” she said. “This has very serious implications for a free and fair debate ahead of the referendum on abortion expected in spring.”


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Attempts to Legalize Assisted Suicide Have Failed in Every State in 2017 So Far

Attempts to Legalize Assisted Suicide Have Failed in Every State in 2017 So Far

 NATIONAL   ALEX SCHADENBERG   JUL 31, 2017   |   1:29PM    WASHINGTON, DC
Initial data from a research study by Dr. Jacqueline H. Abernathy at Tarleton State University finds a staggering increase in the number of attempts to legalize assisted suicide in U.S. over the past year, in spite of an overwhelming failure rate associated with such legislation: fewer than one percent of all assisted suicide bills become law.
The analysis, to be presented at the 2017 National Euthanasia Symposium in Toronto on October 28, included all bills introduced in 36 states and the District of Columbia since 1994. Of the 231 total bills, nearly one-fifth (43 bills) were introduced just this year in 26 states and all attempts failed. This increase in the number of attempts to legalize assisted suicide is notable due to the fact that such bills have greater than a 99 percent failure rate. Only three have been signed into law in the last 23 years. In spite of the volume of bills introduced this past year, 100 percent of these attempts failed while Alabama tightened their assisted suicide statute.
Only in the last 4 years have any bills passed the legislative process and of the three, only one, Vermont in 2013, was signed into law following standard legislative procedure.California followed in 2015 by resurrecting a defeated bill in an unrelated special session, where processes are abbreviated and legislation is rushed. Similar can be said of Washington DC that recently passed their ordinance through only a city council vote rather than a bicameral legislature. These victories may explain, in part, the staggering increase in the number of bills introduced in other states.
Dr. Abernathy’s analysis indicates that while the number of attempts in 2017 alone make up 18 percent of the total number of attempts since 1994, only one state, Indiana, made its first attempt this past year. In 2017, Indiana introduced two bills to legalize assisted suicide alongside the 43 bills in a total 26 states. The other 25 states (or 96 percent) had introduced previous failed assisted suicide legislation. Therefore the analysis shows a potential uptick in the number of bills proposed within each state, there was not a significant increase in the number of new states considering assisted suicide legislation.
Dr. Abernathy also notes that there appears to be no correlation between the number of attempts and an increased likelihood of success. This is in spite of the increase in the number of multiple bills introduced in a single session as well repeat attempts over a number of years. While 12 of the 13 states with previous failed bills introduced more than one bill in 2017, including the one state without previous attempts, historically, the number of bills introduced in one year does not appear to correlate with the likelihood of having a bill pass.
The same can be said of repeat attempts. Vermont introduced a total of 12 bills before the assisted suicide law passed and California proposed 8 but DC had only one proposal. Likewise, Hawaii introduced 5 bills in 2017 alone, adding to a total of 35 failed attempts since proposing its first bill nearly 20 years ago in 1998. Of all 36 states, only Louisiana has only one attempt on record. Over half of all state legislatures that have attempted to legalize assisted suicide have five more attempts and seven of these 19 states have attempts numbering in the double digits. Considering the number of states that continue to fail after exceeding both Vermont and California in both the number of repeat attempts and number of bills per session, this political strategy has yet to suggest that perseverance alone can win sufficient legislative support.
Further analysis should offer more insight but these initial reports demonstrate a continuing overall failure rate of assisted suicide legislation in spite of both recent loses and the significant increase in the frequency of attempts. These initial results do indicate the use of persistence as a political strategy for the assisted suicide lobby but do not validate the efficacy of that strategy. As of yet, these numbers do not suggest lawmakers in general are willing to accept assisted suicide after a certain number of bills are introduced. Perhaps a greater number of lawmakers are willing to introduce bills, but the fact that these bills continue to fail and fewer states are rushing to consider such legislation suggests that assisted suicide remains an unlikely cause to advance in U.S. statehouses.
This article is based on the, yet to be published, analysis of assisted suicide legislation in the U.S. by Dr Jacqueline Abernathy at Tarleton State University.
LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.


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