News

COLUMBUS November 14, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the presidential election a thing of the past, pro-life advocates must look to the states as entities that will protect the unborn. Several such motions are moving the pro-family agenda forward – or backward – coast-to-coast.

Ohio
Ohio moved a step closer to defunding Planned Parenthood on Wednesday afternoon, The House Health and Aging Committee passed a bill that would prioritize the state’s family planning dollars to facilities that do not perform abortion. HB 298 passed by a vote of 11-9. “We applaud the undaunted Ohio state representatives who, acting on the will of the pro-life citizens of the Buckeye State, are wasting no time in working to get taxpayers out of the abortion business,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said. “Planned Parenthood and other abortion-centered businesses simply do not need or deserve taxpayer dollars.

Texas
Legislators in Texas plan to file a bill restricting abortion performed on pre-born children who would feel pain, according to Texas for Life Director Elizabeth Graham. She sent supporters a message Monday saying the “Texas Right to Life’s Pre-born Pain Bill” will be filed shortly. “The general medical consensus is that the developing human pre-born child is capable of experiencing torturous pain at 20 weeks post-fertilization,” she said. Similar bills have been passed in other states, leading to a showdown with the 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion, which allows abortion throughout the first-trimester. 

California
San Francisco has approved a measure forcing city taxpayers to fund transgender sex-change surgeries for all uninsured residents. The city Health Council approved transition surgeries on Tuesdays. Similar “benefits” had long been open to city employees. “Why should Christians pay for people to change their bodies into something God never created them to be?” asked Jennifer LeClaire of Charisma News.  

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Pennsylvania
The state capital of Harrisburg adopted a buffer rule requiring pro-life protesters to stay at least 20 feet away from abortion facilities. Pro-lifers say such ordinances are unnecessary and are often used to harass or wrongly imprison peaceful activists. 

Massachusetts
The Republican Party’s State Committee has adopted Mitt Romney’s platform alongside its own, rather than the national GOP platform. The Romney campaign allowed for exceptions in the cases of rape or incest, while the national platform made no such provisions. The state platform takes no stance on the issue.