IT'S ABOUT LIFE!!!

Dear Ms. Sanford:

You have contacted me in the past regarding pro-life issues.  As you may
know, our nation recently lost a great advocate for life through the passing
of former Representative Henry Hyde.  Knowing your interest in protecting
the unborn, I wanted to share with you a speech I gave on on December 4,
2007 honoring Rep. Hyde's life, character, and service to our country.  The
text of the speech is provided below.

"I rise today to honor the life and accomplishments of a former Congressman,
the Honorable Henry Hyde. Often most recognized for his wisdom and eloquence
of speaking, there were other sides to him that are not so well known. Henry
was also a man of quick wit and a keen sense of humor, to which I was always
a willing audience. Above all, Henry Hyde was passionately committed to
protecting and improving the lives of all Americans, both the born and the
unborn.  Henry was an effective pro-life advocate, through prohibiting
federal funding of abortions with the Hyde Amendment, and his advocacy for
the ban on partial-birth abortions.  Conservative estimates indicate that
there are about 2 million Americans who are alive today as a direct result
of his work. Henry Hyde leaves behind a legacy that inspires and challenges
those of us who remain behind.  My condolences go out to his family, and may
God bless Henry Hyde."

I will miss my friend and colleague, and remain committed to advancing the
cause we were both passionate about, protecting the lives of the unborn.  If
you would like to view the speech, or to learn more about my pro-life views,
please go to www.house.gov/stearns and click on Stearns' Tribute To
Congressman Henry Hyde. With kind regards, I am

Sincerely,

Cliff Stearns
United States Representative

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View Current Signatures   -   Sign the Petition

To:  US President

What is Partial-Birth Abortion?

Brenda Shafer, a registered nurse who witnessed a partial-birth abortion procedure while working for Martin Haskell, an Ohio abortionist,wrote in a letter to Congressman Tony Hall that witnessing the procedure was "the most horrible experience of my life." She described watching one baby:

Th baby's body was moving. His fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. All the while his little head was still stuck inside. Dr. Haskell took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby's head. Then opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby's brains out.
Next, Dr. Haskell delivered the baby's head, cut the umbilical cord and delivered the placenta.


Haskell Presents D&X aka Partial-birth abortion
Th surgeon introduces a large grasping forceps*** through the vaginal and cervical canals into the corpus of the uterus. *** When the instrument appears on the sonogram screem, the surgeon is able to open and close its jaws to firmly and reliably grasp a lower extremity [leg].The surgeon then applies firm traction to the instrument *** and pulls the extremity into the vagina. ***
With a lower extremity in the vagina, the surgeon uses his fingers to deliver the opposite lower extremity, then the torso, the shoulders and the upper extremities [arms].
The skull lodges at the internal cervical os.
At this point, the right-handed surgeon slides the fingers of the left hand [sic] along the back of the fetus and "hooks" the shoulders of the fetus with the index and ring fingers(palm down).
While maintaining this tension, lifting the cervix and applying traction to the shoulders with the fingers of the left hand, the surgeon takes a pair of blunt curved Metzenbaum scissors in the right hand. He carefully advances the tip, curved down, along the spine and under his middle finger until he feels it contact the base of the skull under the tip of his middle finger.
[T]he surgeon then forces the scissors into the base of the skull or into the foramen magnum. Having safely entered the skull, he spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening.
The surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into this hole and evacuates the skull contents. With the catheter still in place, he applies traction to the fetus, removing it completely from the patient.

Source: Martin Haskell,M.D.. "Dilation and Extraction for Late Second Trimester Abortions," Presented at the National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar (September 13, 1992),in Second Trimester Abortion: From Every Angle, 1992,at pages 27, 30-31.




Gestational Ages of Babies involved in PBA
THE PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION PROCEDURE IS PERFORMED FROM AROUND 20 WEEKS TO FULL TERM.

Martin Haskell told the AMNews that the vast majority of the partial-birth abortions he performs are elective. He stated (to AMNews), "And I'll be quite frank: most of my abortions are elective in that 20-24 week range.*** In my particular case, probably 20% are for genetic reasons. And the other 80% are purely elective.***"

The late James McMahon used the partial-birth abortion method through the entire 40 weeks of pregnancy. He claimed that most of the abortions he performed were "non-elective," but his definition of "non-elective" was extremely broad. McMahon sent a letter to the Constitution Subcommittee in which he described abortions performed because of the mother's youth or depression as "non-elective." On a graph, McMahon listed, among other things, nine partial-bityh abortions performed because the baby had a cleft lip.


ABORTION INDUSTRY LIES ABOUT PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION

Ron Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, said he intentionally misled in previous remarks.He said on "Nightline"(November 1995) on ABC THAT HE "LIED THROUGH MY TEETH" WHEN HE SAID THE PROCEDURE WAS USED RARELY AND ONLY ON WOMEN WHOSE LIVES WERE IN DANGER OR WHOSE FETUSES WERE DAMAGED.

Ban Partial Birth Abortion
We,the undersigned, ask that President Bush sign into law a ban on Partial Birth Abortion,with the exception to save the life and physical health of the mother.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

View Current Signatures

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[Orlando Sentinel - 2/2/01 - OCALA] An Orlando abortion doctor vowed Thursday to keep his clinics open, despite his conviction on charges of conspiring to extort money from Marion County officials.

A federal jury deliberated for eight hours during two days before finding Dr. James Pendergraft and his associate Michael Spielvogel of Orlando guilty of all charges. Both were released without bail until U.S. District Judge Terrell Hodges sets a sentencing date.

Pendergraft, who operates two Orlando clinics and three others in Florida, faces up to 30 years in prison. Spielvogel could get as many as 40 years.

"I'm disappointed in the justice system as far as saying that I'm guilty," Pendergraft said. "But I will continue to fight that, and in the interim I will take care of women in their most difficult time."

Jacob Rose, Pendergraft's lawyer, promised a quick appeal.

Bill Parizek, a spokesman with the Florida Board of Medicine, did not comment specifically about Pendergraft's case but said physicians must report being convicted within 30 days. A panel then investigates to see whether the conviction would interfere with a doctor's ability to practice medicine. He said a clinic could remain open even if its owner is in prison if another physician is appointed to run it.

Pendergraft was found guilty of conspiracy, attempted extortion and mail fraud. Spielvogel, his real estate adviser, was convicted of the same charges, plus lying to the FBI and filing a false statement.

Pendergraft and Spielvogel showed no emotion in the courtroom, but County Commissioner Larry Cretul seemed relieved: "I believe this jury's decision brought the truth out."

Cretul's testimony and his secretly taped FBI conversations with the two men apparently convinced jurors that Pendergraft and Spielvogel tried to get county officials to pay them off to keep them from opening a clinic in Ocala.

But Pendergraft's supporters contended the prosecution was politically motivated by abortion opponents in this city 75 miles northwest of Orlando.

"We can see how an innocent person can be convicted in a United States courtroom," said Dr. Sangeeta Pati, a spokeswoman for Right to Fight, a coalition of abortion-rights groups. "Abortion was an issue. Race was an issue."

Anti-abortion activists disagreed. "It looks like justice was done," said Meredith Raney, spokesman for Christians For Life. "It didn't have anything to do with him being an abortionist. It had to do with extortion, but if it takes him out of the abortion business, I'm thrilled with that."

Rose, Pendergraft's attorney, said he would appeal based on what he called prosecutor misconduct. He failed Wednesday to get the judge to declare a mistrial based on Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Devereaux's closing arguments in which he said Pendergraft, who is black, was "shuckin' and jivin' " on the witness stand. "It was disrespectful," Rose said.

Even worse, he said, Devereaux accused the doctor of bribing Spielvogel to lie on the witness stand, Rose said.

Spielvogel's plans for appeal were less certain. "I've got to talk to my client about that," said his attorney, Dan Brodersen.

The prosecution's case centered on threats that Spielvogel claimed were made to him in a telephone call by Cretul. According to Spielvogel, Cretul said it was not a matter of "if" but "when" Pendergraft's clinic would be bombed. Spielvogel admitted in court that he made up the remarks attributed to Cretul and that he faked a telephone conversation in front of Pendergraft so the doctor would think that Cretul had made the threats.

At a taped meeting with a county attorney, Pendergraft also threatened to bankrupt the county by seeking $100 million in damages.

Pendergraft made headlines in 1996 when he successfully sued Orlando after officials tried to block the opening of his Orlando Women's Center. He also operates the EPOC center in Orlando, the clinic in Ocala, one in Tampa and another in Fort Lauderdale.

http://www.refuseandresist.org/ab/020201sentinel.html

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By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

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Tammy Skinner

Tammy Skinner, 22, was arrested this afternoon and charged with inducing an abortion, using a firearm in the commission of a felony and filing a false police report.

As of 2:30 p.m., Skinner was still being processed at the Suffolk police station.

Skinner called police about 4 a.m. last Thursday from a cell phone and said she had been shot. Emergency personnel located her at a car dealership on North Main Street and took her to the hospital. Her full-term baby girl died.

Skinner, a single mother of two other children, told police she didn't know where she was when she was shot or who shot her, according to court documents. She did say that she had been at a friend's house about an hour before she called police.

Authorities towed Skinner's car, which had a red stain on the seat, from the Barton Ford dealership.

Skinner's father, Larry, said his daughter has been suffering from depression for some time.

For more on this story, see Wednesday's Virginian-Pilot.

© 2006 HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com   http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/print.cfm?story=100336&ran=212974

Written by justice1949 Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

Supreme Court Backs Abortion Protesters

By TONI LOCY

AP   WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to abortion clinics in a two-decade-old legal fight over abortion protests, ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations.  

Anti-abortion groups brought the appeal after the 7th Circuit had asked a trial judge to determine whether a nationwide injunction could be supported by charges that protesters had made threats of violence absent a connection with robbery or extortion

  The 8-0 decision ends a case that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had kept alive despite a 2003 decision by the high court that lifted a nationwide injunction on anti-abortion groups led by Joseph Scheidler and others.  

Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer said Congress did not intend to create "a freestanding physical violence offense" in the federal extortion law known as the Hobbs Act.  

Social activists and the AFL-CIO had sided with anti-abortion groups in arguing that similar lawsuits and injunctions could be used to thwart their efforts to change public policy or agitate for better wages and working conditions.   http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles?id=n20060228105509990001&cid=2194

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SUFFOLK — Thursday was supposed to have been Kysharia Skinner’s birthday.

But on the day the baby was due to be born, her life ended violently.

Her mother, Tammy Skinner, called Suffolk police from a cell phone before dawn. Alone, frightened and bleeding, she told the dispatcher she was in the lot of a North Main Street car dealership and had been shot in the stomach.

Later in the day, police spokeswoman Lt. Debbie George said Skinner was in good condition at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

However, the woman, who lives with her two young girls not far from downtown, was in her last trimester of pregnancy, George said, and her baby didn’t survive.

George said Kysharia’s body was taken to the Norfolk Crime Lab for an autopsy Thursday afternoon. The case represents the city’s second violent death of the year.

On Jan. 18, Deshawn Parker, 17, was fatally shot, and two other teenagers have been charged with first-degree murder in his death. One of them, Brandon Artis, will undergo a competency evaluation to determine if he will stand trial.

Artis, 15, is to be tried as an adult because of previous crimes. The name of the other suspect in Parker’s death has not been released because of his age.

George said that police are not yet considering the baby’s death a murder.

“But we’re not ruling it out,” she said.

Under Virginia law, the charge of causing an abortion or a miscarriage is a Class 4 felony, said Marie Walls, senior assistant commonweath’s attorney in Suffolk. In theory, a murder charge could result from the shooting, depending on whether the baby took a breath before dying, Walls said.

“For it to be considered murder, the victim has to have breathed first,” she said.

After Tammy Skinner was taken to the hospital, police towed a red compact car from the auto dealership. The woman’s father, Larry Skinner, who works the late shift at a local plant, said he had bought the car for his daughter.

George said investigators don’t believe the shooting was random. She declined to comment on any suspects or motive and said police are still trying to find out where the shooting took place.

Larry Skinner said he didn’t sleep well Wednesday after he got off of work at 10 p.m. When his phone rang at 5:30 the next morning, he was up immediately.

When he heard the news, he said, his first thoughts were for his daughter’s two girls, ages 1 and 4. His daughter, he said, knew that her third child would be another girl and had already named the baby.

“Why? Why?” he said, tears in his eyes. “Why would somebody want to do something like this?”

Larry Skinner said he first went to his daughter’s apartment to check on the two girls and found they were safe. His daughter had left them with relatives the night before.

Then he went to the hospital. After going through surgery early in the day to have the bullet and the baby removed, his daughter was in and out of consciousness all day, Larry Skinner said.

He said she knew the baby had died but she said little about the shooting.

Larry Skinner said his baby granddaughter, whom he saw at the hospital, was “small, but full term, perfect and beautiful.”

“Ask everybody to pray for us,” he said.

Reach Linda McNatt at (757)222-5561 or linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com.

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