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FIRST-PERSON: Culture of death silences pro-lifers in N.Y.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (BP)–The culture of death is relentless. And certain of its adherents — Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, for example — are not only committed to the promotion, provision and performance of abortions, but to removing every obstacle that might deter a woman from having one.

In this they prove that the argument isn’t really between pro-choice and anti-choice, as they wish to cast it, but between defenders of life and those consumed with the money-making opportunities which await doctors willing to kill hundreds of thousands of children each year at a rate of about one child every 95 seconds in Planned Parenthood centers. (If we consider all abortion providers, rather than Planned Parenthood alone, there are about 1.2 million abortions each year at a rate of about one child every 27 seconds.)

Just consider the full frontal assault NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and others have been carrying out against pregnancy centers in places like New York City throughout this year. With the help of all-too-willing accomplices like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city council, these profiteers of death have secured passage of a law which forces such pregnancy centers to post signs in English and Spanish telling women a long list of “disclosures” mandated by the city, including whether they perform abortions, whether a licensed medical provider is on staff (even though New York state law does not require medical providers at non-medical centers), and that the city health department encourages women to consult with one.

The law requires the signs to be posted in various locations throughout the pregnancy centers and replicated in any advertisements issued by the centers. Moreover, counselors working at the pregnancy centers must provide the same message “in person or over the phone when a client requests or inquires” about certain services.

Clearly, the purpose of the signs is to dissuade women from going to pregnancy centers instead of to abortion mills. In effect, the signs are part of a larger push to regulate pro-life help providers in order to deny choice to women who want to pursue solutions other than abortion when a need arises.

Of course, this law is a deep violation of the right to free speech. As Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York put it: “This legislation is designed to prevent pro-life advocates from speaking freely merely because their speech is considered unwelcome [by abortion proponents].” But isn’t this always how the Left works? They are quick to tolerate everything except that which they find intolerable: which, in this case, is protecting the lives of preborn children.

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This is why the Alliance Defense Fund is challenging the New York law. The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and others know that when women “considering abortion receive loving, supportive counseling from caring pro-life women…, they are more likely to choose not to have an abortion.”[1] Moreover, according to Project Ultrasound when “women considering abortion are allowed to see an ultrasound of the baby they’re carrying, 70 to 90 percent of them choose to let their baby live.” (By the way, the pregnancy centers which Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and others want to shut down are frequently equipped with ultrasound machines. They keep these on hand to show women they’re not just carrying around a mass of cells in their wombs, but a baby.)

Is it any wonder Planned Parenthood and its allies don’t want women to know that? Is it any wonder they want to kill off pregnancy centers across the country that provide alternative services or that they routinely oppose laws that allow women to make fully informed choices?

No, I’d say it’s not a surprise at all.

By the way, in the time it took you to read this article, abortion was used to kill seven preborn children in an abortion clinic somewhere in America. An eighth abortion will be nearly half-way done before you finish this sentence. But the tax dollars to Planned Parenthood keep rolling in.
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Alan Sears, a former federal prosecutor who held various posts in the departments of Justice and Interior during the Reagan Administration, is president and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund (www.telladf.org), a legal alliance working to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.

[1] http://theheartlander.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/bloomberg-tries-to-shut-down-crisis-pregnancy-centers-adf-fights-back/