Newsbriefs

Lansing, MI – Michigan H.B. 4655, which addresses Family Planning Funding, has passed the House and now rests in the Michigan Senate Families, Mental Health, & Human Services Committee. A hearing for testimony only was held on the bill on February 27. A committee vote is expected in April.

Senators, even prolife senators, need to hear your support for this. Call, e-mail, fax, or write your state senators and urge them to vote YES on H.B. 4655 to separate abortion from family planning.

Boston, MA - The New York Times recently reported a story about a healthy child named Jack who was born in November. Months earlier this child had undergone surgery while still in the womb.

Doctors at Brigham and Women's Hospital were the first doctors in the United States to correct a deadly heart defect in an unborn child.

An ultrasound scan at about 20 weeks of pregnancy showed that Jack's aortic valve was severely narrowed and his left ventricle was barely working.

On September 13, 2001, Jack's doctors opened the pinched valve during the 23rd week of pregnancy. In doing so, they prevented a condition that if left untreated is fatal soon after birth.

When he was born, doctors expected that they would need to widen Jack's valve again, but to their surprise his valve, though narrower than average, was wide enough for Jack to live a normal life.

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation declaring that a child who is born alive is a person under the law whether the child is the result of a vaginal birth, a cesarean section, or a failed abortion. RLM is currently working with several Lansing legislators to write a package of laws that will ensure children born alive after an attempted abortion will be given the full rights of personhood. Though these children are legally persons under the current law, they frequently are not treated as such.

The package will require abortion survivors to be given everything from medical treatment to a proper burial if they are not able to be saved.

New York - New York's Attorney General Elliott Spitzer has called off his attacks of his state's crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).

Earlier this year, Attorney General Spitzer declared war on the important life-saving efforts of New York's prolife citizens by issuing subpoenas for information from New York's CPCs in an attempt to intimidate these centers, which are staffed mostly by volunteers who are trying to help women make the right decision for themselves and their children.

Spitzer rescinded these subpoenas after negotiations with a few of the centers and because of the response from prolife groups and individuals rallying to support New York's CPCs. Many of the CPCs filed suit to squash the unfounded investigation.

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