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Abortion Practitioner's
Prosecution Halted by California State Court SAN FRANCISCO -- The murder prosecution of abortion practitioner Bruce Steir has been suspended by the California Supreme Court, which ordered a review of whether pro-life politics motivated the charge against him. Steir, who performed about 1,000 abortions a year at abortion facilities in the Sacramento area and elsewhere, is the first abortion practitioner to be charged with murder in California in more than 25 years. A second-degree murder charge was filed against him in Riverside County following the death there of Sharon Hamptlon after a legal abortion in 1996. Prosecutors claimed that Steir showed a "conscious disregard" for Hamptlon's life. Though he knew he had perforated her uterus, they said, he failed to call for emergency assistance. The 27-year-old Medi-Cal patient bled to death on the way home from the abortion facility. But Steir claimed he was singled out because he performs and advocates abortions. His case was the first in which the state Medical Board referred a licensed physician to face a murder charge based on medical error, said his lawyer, Doron Weinberg. Weinberg unsuccessfully asked the courts in Riverside County to dismiss the case. But on Wednesday, a slim majority of the Supreme Court granted his request for access to official records and a chance to prove that the authorities are illegally discriminating against Steir. The case was returned to the Court of Appeal in Riverside for that review. In the meantime, Steir won't be tried. Janet Carroll, associate Western director of National Right to Life, said "Steir's charge that the prosecution is politically motivated is a charge that he's been making for a decade (in this case and others), while many women have been maimed at his hands." |
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North Carolina: Planned
Parenthood to Stop Doing Abortions in Charlotte |
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California Republican
Party Tackles Abortion SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Abortion advocates and pro-life supporters are waging a battle for power in the California Republican Party at their annual state meeting. Meanwhile, six of the presidential candidates are attending. "In the 1860s, Lincoln ended the moral outrage of slavery because he knew it was wrong. Abortion is the moral outrage of the 20th century, and I will end it because it too is wrong," pro-life Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire said as he announced his candidacy. Pro-abortion California Republicans believing that the party should weaken its opposition to abortion. And their first step is to put a pro-abortion person in as chairman of the California Republican Party. Silicon Valley entrepreneur John McGraw, currently the state party's vice chairman, would ordinarily ascend to chairman with little fanfare. But his pro-life views have prompted a challenge from Stanislaus County Republican leader Nicholas Bavaro, who has said he would, if elected, move away from pro-life issues. Enter the presidential candidates. Sen. John McCain of Arizona warned Friday night that Republican principles are too often overshadowed by ``the politics of division.'' It was a subtle reference to abortion -- which McCain opposes but would rather not interject into the political debate because he believes it is too personal and politically divisive. Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, another White House aspirant who ironically spent time in January wooing pro-life leaders, said Republicans must spend less time fighting over abortion and more time fighting over education. Alan Keyes sought to remind Republicans who want to shrink from the abortion fight: ``If you back away from the pro-life plank ... there will be no ground for unity in this party,'' he said to loud applause, although many of the GOP leaders did not clap. When McCain finished his address, Ed Hurlbutt of Fresno complained that the Vietnam war hero didn't mention abortion. ``It makes you wonder,'' he said. ``It suggests to me that Republicans don't know how to deal with the issue." -- Pro-Abortion Activist Will Run Against Santorum Peter Kostmayer, who took a leave of absence as director of the radical pro-abortion organization Zero Population Growth Feb. 1, "made it official this week" that he will challenge pro-life Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) next year. A former Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, Mr. Kostmayer had a 100% pro-abortion voting record during his tenure in Congress. Santorum, on the other hand, has been a champion of the unborn and led the fight on the floor of the Senate for the ban on partial-birth abortions. One of the things Mr. Kostmeyer can probably count on is the support of pro-abortion cable billionaire Ted Turner and his pro-abortion wife, Jane Fonda. At a 1997 dinner commemorating ZPG's 30th anniversary, Mr. Turner denounced pro-life ZPG opponents as "the forces of darkness in general." -- Republicans for Life PAC Looking for Associate Director This is our last call for folks interested in serving as the Associate Director of the Republicans for Life PAC. The PAC is a new organization dedicated to promoting the right to life in the GOP and, more specifically, working to elect pro-life Republicans over pro-abortion Republicans. If you are interested in this unpaid, volunteer position, please email us at GOPLifePAC@aol.com. We're looking for a staunch pro-life person who has some experience in working in the Republican Party and/or right to life organizations. Please send an email to the email address above, along with a 2-3 paragraph describing some of your experience. -- Donations to the Republicans for Life PAC The Republicans for Life PAC will be working this year to raise funds for pro-life candidates in 2000. One of the top priorities for the PAC will be funding pro-life candidates in primaries versus pro-abortion Republicans. Your help can make the difference. Please send your donation today to Republicans for Life PAC, P.O. Box 104, Chatham, IL 62629. -- Paid for by the Republicans for Life Political Action Committee and not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. -- |
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 Illinois: State
Legislature Working on Parental Notification Law Source: February 25, 1999 St. Louis
Post-DispatchSt. Louis -- A 16-year-old St. Louis girl arrived at the Hope Clinic for Women abortion facility in Granite City, Illinois this week with her brother and a friend, telling a familiar story. She was pregnant. She wanted an abortion. She didn't want her mother to know. Under Missouri law, she would need her mother's permission, inwriting, before having the abortion. Under Illinois law, she wouldn't. So she crossed the state line to have one. Activists on both sides of the abortion fight say it is common: minorscrossing into Illinois from the states that surround it -- Missouri,Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Kentucky -- to obtain abortions withouttheir parents finding out. All of those states require the consent or notification of a parent or relative. A bill filed by pro-life state Rep. Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville, would endIllinois' status. "The purpose is to basically just stop them from crossing state lines to supersede their own state laws," said Reitz, who filed the legislation last week. "We should honor other states' laws." Pro-life activists in Illinois and Missouri say abortion advocates have called attention to the difference in laws. Jan Boyle, a board member for Missouri Right-To-Life in St. Louis, said: "All you need to do is listen to the (St. Louis) radio stations. . . . They advertise for Hope Clinic in Granite City. They always include that you don't need parental notification." Pam Sutherland of Illinois Planned Parenthood said border-crossing into Illinois for abortions "happens all the time." Illinois abortion facilities performed 53,613 abortions in 1996 (the most recent year for which full statistics are available), according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Of those, 7,612 were on girls age 19 or younger. And of those, 1,262 were performed on girls not from Illinois. Though newer statewide figures are still unavailable, there are indications that Illinois' status as a magnet for teen abortions is increasing. Hope Clinic in Granite City alone performed 3,200 abortions on women from other states last year -- mostly Missouri -- constituting about 45 percent of the total, according to executive director Sally Burgess. The abortion facility doesn't keep track of how many of those out-of-state abortions were on girls under 18. But on average, Burgess said, 13 percent of the girls who get abortions there are minors. The clinic states plainly in radio ads and in its Yellow Pages listing: "No parental consent required." Pro-life leaders in neighboring states say what Illinois abortion facilities are doing is nothing less than an intentional circumvention of other states' laws. "I think (Reitz's legislation) sounds great," said Boyle, the Missouri Right-To-Life official. "It's protecting Missouri teen-agers from doing something that their parents might not approve of." Part of the problem is that, nationwide, there is a virtual patchwork of laws among states regarding parental notification. Some 15 states require parental permission before an abortion can be performed (including Missouri and the Illinois border states of Wisconsin, Indiana and Kentucky). Fourteen others require parents to be told about the abortion (including Illinois border state Iowa). Pro-life leaders are addresing the issue as well on a federal level. National Right to Life has worked with members of Congress to forumlate the Child Custody Protection Act. This legislation would make it a crime for a non-parent to take a minor girl across state lines for an abortion that circumvents stte laws that require parental consent or notification. The House overwhelmingly passed the Child Custody Protection Act but pro-abortion members of the Senate blocked the bill. Illinois passed its own parental notification law in 1995, but it was enjoined by a federal judge during a court challenge and has never been enforced. The state, under pro-abortion Gov Jim Edgar (R-IL), never fought that injunction. Reitz and others want to pass a new parental notification law to replace the invalid one. Meanwhile, Reitz said, Illinois should honor the notification laws of other states. "In my mind, the people that live (in other states) and are mandated by their own states to get parental consent before getting an abortion" should be accountable to those laws, said Reitz. His legislation would make it a Class 4 felony, punishable by one to three years in prison, for anyone to obtain or perform an abortion in Illinois when the girl is an underage resident of a state with a parental notification law and hasn't adhered to that state's notification law. Abortions at the Hope Clinic abortion facility cost from $310 up to $1,200, depending on how long the girl has been pregnant. Katy Shannon works there and estimated she sees two minors a week that come to Illinois to avoid the parental consent laws of other states. Last week, Shannon brought in the 16-year-old girl from St. Louis, whose boyfriend had called around to abortion facilities in the St. Louis area only to find out they, fortunately, required parental consent for abortions. For More Information Contact: Illinois Federation for Right to Life 1102 Milton Rd., Alton, IL 62002-3152 Phone: (217)544-5433 Web: http://www.rbmall.com/ifrl/ifrl.html Email: ifrl@hotmail.com |
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 World: Abortion
Numbers on the Rise in Great BritainLondon -- The number of abortions in Great Britain has risen every year since 1996. The Bristol United Press reports that there were 179,700 abortions in England and Wales in 1997, compared with 177,500 in 1996 and 163,600 in 1995. Officials with the Office for National Statistics expect another rise in 1998, as data for the first three quarters show 140,600 abortions (BBC News, 2/17). |
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CHARLOTTE -- Planned Parenthood won't perform abortions in
Charlotte until the pro-abortion agency raises as much as $300,000 to renovate building
space as it consolidates two offices into one.