Judge Issues Temporary Injunction Against Obama Embryonic Stem Cell Policy

Judge Royce Lamberth has issued a preliminary injunction against federal funding of embryonic stem cell research because it violates United States law under the Dickey Amendment.

The Dickey Amendment says "(a) None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for-

(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or

(2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero under 45 CFR 46.208(a)(2) and Section 498(b) of the Public Health Service Act [1](42 U.S.C. 289g(b)) (Title 42, Section 289g(b), United States Code).

As Judge Lamberth notes, "The Dickey-Wicker Amendment is unambiguous. It prohibits research in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subject to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed under applicable regulations." "ESC (embryonic stem cell) research is clearly research in which an embryo is destroyed." And therefore, "The Guidelines (instituted by the Obama Administration) violate that prohibition by allowing federal funding of ESC research because ESC research depends up on the destruction of a human embryo."

We agree, but the Obama Administration, like the Clinton administration, thought they found a way to legally fund embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) under the Dickey Amendment. Both administrations separated embryonic stem cell research into different "pieces of research," destroying the embryo and creating an embryonic stem cell line/culture, and performing research on the embryonic stem cell line that has been created by destroying the embryo. Both administrations argued that as long as the government didn't fund the destruction of the embryo, it could fund research on embryonic stem cell lines created by private funds.

The judge didn't buy that argument: "Despite defendants' attempt to separate the derivation of ESCs from research on the ESCs, the two cannot be separated. Derivation of ESCs from an embryo is an integral step in conducting ESC research. Indeed, it is just one of many steps in the "systematic investigation" of stem cell research. 45 C.F.R. § 46.102(d). Simply because ESC research involves multiple steps does not mean that each step is a separate "piece of research" that may be federally funded, provided the step does not result in the destruction of an embryo. If one step or "piece of research" of an ESC research project results in the destruction of an embryo, the entire project is precluded from receiving federal funding by the Dickey-Wicker Amendment. Because ESC research requires the derivation of ESCs, ESC research is research in which an embryo is destroyed. Accordingly, the Court concludes that, by allowing federal funding of ESC research, the Guidelines are in violation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment."

The judge also noted that his injunction "would not seriously harm ESC researchers because the injunction would simply preserve the status quo and would not interfere with their ability to obtain private funding for their research. In addition, the harm to individuals who suffer from diseases that one day may be treatable as a result of ESC research is speculative. It is not certain whether ESC research will result in new and successful treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease."

Meanwhile, non embryonic stem cell breakthroughs keep coming.

The injunction is temporary and could be lifted by a higher court. Lawmakers are also threatening to take action and write the Obama policy into law. And since the Dickey amendment is a yearly amendment that has been passed every year since 1996 it and can be left out or vetoed by the President. We'll keep you posted.

Read Dr. Keith Shonnard MD and Don Nelson's Reno Gazette Journal op-ed Embryonic Stem Cell Research is Unethical, Dangerous and Unnecessary on why we oppose embryonic stem cell research and the Obama policy.

Unborn Baby Gives British Mom a Thumbs Up in Rare Ultrasound Picture

 
Here’s an awesome picture from a rare ultrasound showing an unborn child giving a “thumbs up.”  Here’s the story about the ultrasound from LifeNews.com.    

 

Unborn Baby Gives British Mom a Thumbs Up in Rare Ultrasound Picture

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 24, 2010  

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Marie Boswell expected to get the latest information about the status of her unborn child from her physician. In a rare ultrasound picture showing her baby giving her a thumbs up, she got a progress report from the baby boy himself.

Bosworth was stunned by the ultrasound photo of her 20-week-old unborn baby giving her the popular sign when everything's all right.

"It was really funny," the 35-year-old mother said of the ultrasound picture she had at Wythenshawe Hospital, near her home in Manchester.

She told the London Daily Mail newspaper, "I went to the scan with my friend and my mum and we were all just laughing. He was giving us the thumbs up, it was just so clear."

"We couldn't believe it. I have big hands, but nothing on the scale of his," she told the newspaper. "We're thinking he might make a good goalkeeper. I've never seen a scan like this before - but we love it."

"I've been keeping it in a book because I want to show it to him when he is older," she added.

Boswell already has a 10-year-old daughter named Olivia and the doctors informed her that her baby, expected in September, is doing just fine.

Shari Richard, a pioneer of the use of ultrasound, believes it has the power to stop abortions.

More than a million American women will have an abortion in 2010 and 44 percent of American women will have an abortion at some point in their lifetime, Richard says.

With improvements in the imaging taking a two-dimensional picture and moving it into the world of 3D and 4D, Richard is not surprised that more Americans are becoming pro-life and more are opting against an abortion.

"Ultrasound technology is credited with an important role in changing attitudes. If women see images of their unborn children, and are educated about developing life in the womb, they are less likely to abort," she says.

Richard personally experienced the grief and pain of abortion but, in 1990, through Sound Wave Images, she produced the videos Ultrasound: a Window to the Womb and Eyewitness to the Earliest Days of Life.

These powerful videos, seen by millions, showed fetal development and facts related to the emotional and physical trauma of abortion.

As a voice for the unborn, Shari Richard knows a picture is "worth a thousand words."

Note: A law was recently passed in Oklahoma which requires abortion doctors or staff to perform an ultra sound and give the woman considering the abortion a chance to view it. 

 

Good News For MS Sufferers: “Adult Stem Cells, Not Embryonic, Helping Patients With Multiple Sclerosis”

Here's a good story from Life News.  Over the last few years we’ve forgotten about the exaggerated manipulative claims of embryonic stem cell research and cloning supporters and their pandering politicians like Harry Reid.  Not one single human benefit has been derived from embryonic stem cell research-which destroys tiny human beings- despite years and years and billions of dollars of research, though they keep promising it’s the best course if strategy and that we will have a trial next year-for the last several years of course.  If Mr. Reid is so confident, he can try some.  The truth is that they are too dangerous to try in humans.  They cause tumor formation and teratomas.  In fact one of the ways you know you have “pluripotent” cells like embryonic stem cells is that they create tumors.  But adult stem cells, taken from a human’s own body have been providing successes and progress for years.  Here’s an encouraging article by Dr. David Prentice, a fellow at the Family Research Council.  I interviewed Dr. Prentice several times when he taught at Indiana State University and at U Indiana Medical school before they harassed him into retiring for opposing embryonic stem cell research and cloning and promoting adult-non-embryonic stem cell research.

“Adult Stem Cells, Not Embryonic, Helping Patients With Multiple Sclerosis”

by Dr. David Prentice
May 11, 2010

From our friends at Life News.com

 

A groundbreaking new study published in the last week provides more good news for treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) with adult stem cells. Researchers at the University of Bristol used patients’ own adult stem cells to treat their MS.

In a Phase I clinical trial, six patients with MS were treated with their own bone marrow adult stem cells and their progress followed for one year. The treatment appeared to stabilized the patients’ condition and showed some benefits. As one measure of the success of the procedure, damaged nerve pathways were able to carry electrical pulses more effectively after the treatment.

Multiple sclerosis is an incurable disease, with the patients own immune system attacking the central nervous system and eventually leaving many patients in a wheelchair.

One of the most encouraging aspects of this trial was the elegantly simple procedure. Patients reported to the hospital and had bone marrow adult stem cells removed, the cells were filtered, and then given back to the patients intravenously. The patients went home before the end of the day.

The research team is led by Professor Neil Scolding, at the University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust. Professor Scolding said:

“We are encouraged by the results of this early study. The safety data are reassuring and the suggestion of benefit tantalising. Research into the underlying mechanisms is ongoing and vital, in order to build on these results. We believe that stem cells mobilised from the marrow to the blood are responsible, and that they help improve disease in several ways, including neuroprotection and immune modulation.”

The team is now planning a Phase II/III study. The report for this trial is published in the Nature journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Previous studies have also had good success at stopping MS progression, and in some cases putting patients into remission. Dr. Richard Burt at Northwestern University has published several studies showing good success using adult stem cells to “reboot” the immune system of MS patients. Scientists in Australia have also used the procedure with success, and recently Dr. Mark Freedman of Ottawa, Canada has produced “long-lasting remission” in MS patients.

In these cases, patients had their bone marrow adult stem cells collected, then received chemotherapy to knock the rogue immune cells that were attacking their nervous system. Then their adult stem cells were re-injected. While recent successful treatments have used milder chemotherapy, this is still not a gentle or risk-free procedure for the patient. The new approach by the Bristol team is all the more interesting in this respect, because there is no pre-conditioning with chemotherapy.

An international group of multiple sclerosis researchers have looked at these uses of adult stem cells for treatment of MS, and propose moving forward with additional clinical trials to help patients.

There Will Be A Pro-Life Nevada Candidate For Senate In November.

There's good news for pro-life Nevadans. It's almost certain that Harry Reid, who authored the most massive increase in abortion funding through his health care bill will have a rock solid pro-life opponent in November.

With one or two exceptions, the Nevada Republican candidates for the United States Senate are pro-life. The leading three candidates, Sue Lowden, Danny Tarkanian and former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle are solidly pro-life with endorsements from exceptional pro-life groups or individuals.

Senator Reid will pretend to be pro-life again, but his protestations are meaningless since he wrote and pushed through the abortion funding health care bill. Abortion is not health care and you can't write and vote for the most massive increase in abortion spending since Roe v. Wade and be pro-life. Reid alone wrote the abortion funding health care law and is solely responsible for its contents. He has carried water for Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-choice America, the ACLU and the abortion establishment. Reid is beyond being a hypocrite. He is a phony and an imposter.

Sue Lowden is a former state senator and past chairman of the Nevada Republican party. Although Mrs. Lowden has admitted to supporting abortion twenty years ago, Lowden has become pro-life. We celebrate those who have crossed over from the darkness of abortion to the pro-life cause. Those who have changed their mind and become pro-life have helped create our pro-life majority. Mrs. Lowden is a practicing Catholic and says her views are consistent with her church. Mrs. Lowden has the endorsement of the Susan B. Anthony List. Senator Maurice Washington says she was a strong proponent of a parental notification bill when they served together in 1995.

Former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle was one of our favorite guests on the Voice for Life radio show with Toni Berry and me. In the Nevada Assembly, Angle authored a bill that would have required the dangerous connection between abortion and breast cancer be disclosed as part of informed consent to an abortion in Nevada. Though the bill did not pass, Angle was years ahead on this important issue and her bill has been vindicated. Last year a leading pro-abortion critic of the abortion breast cancer connection admitted that abortion is a known risk factor to breast cancer. Mrs. Angle has always run for office as an outspoken pro- lifer. She's been an outspoken opponent of abortion as well as an encourager and supporter of all of us in the pro-life movement. Mrs. Angle has the endorsement of Nevada Concerned Citizens, Pro-life icon Phyllis Schlafly and others.

Danny Tarkanian is another solid pro-life candidate and is endorsed by Professor Francis J. Beckwith, one of the leading pro-life intellectuals. Long time Nevada pro-lifers remember how hard it was being pro-life in 1990, even in our churches. That year the notorious Question 7 initiative was passed. It prevents the Nevada legislature from changing the right to abortion. Because of Question 7, nothing will change in Nevada after Roe is overturned except by another costly initiative. While many Nevada clergy and others who knew better, and who could have made a difference, went into hiding, Mr. Tarkanian was running to the front lines and putting his reputation as a former UNLV basketball star and son of UNLV coaching icon Jerry Tarkanian on the line by cutting commercials against Question 7 and explaining his pro-life views and why Nevadans should oppose the initiative.

More could be said about each of these, but we are thrilled that there will be an authentic pro-life candidate for Senate in November. The best way to make a difference for the pro-life cause this year is to get out and help a pro-life candidate get elected.

Obama Executive Order On Abortion Shows Reid Bill Was Always An Abortion Bill.

Nevada LIFE News Release March 21, 2010

Obama Executive Order On Abortion Shows Reid Bill Was Always An Abortion Bill.

· Reid Knew All Along That Health Care Bill Funded Abortion.
· Executive Order Worthless And Will Not Trump Statutory Law.
· Orders Can Be Changed, Revoked. Obama Not Trustworthy On Abortion.
· Unenforceable Order Will Be New Roe v. Wade.

The following statement can be attributed to Nevada LIFE President Don Nelson:

The agreement between President Obama and Bart Stupak to issue an executive order to prevent government funding of abortion is an admission that the health care bill funds abortion. It also admits that the Hyde Amendment does NOT cover the health care reform bills. Obama's promise of an executive order also demonstrates that Obama, Pelosi and Reid's nine months of insistence that the health care bill is not about abortion, is not an abortion bill, that the status quo on abortion will not change, that the Hyde Amendment would prevent health care funding of abortion, that there will be no funding of abortion and calling pro-lifers liars for doing so shows a callous disregard for the truth and open contempt for the public.

The deal Stupak struck with Obama is worthless. First, the "statutory requirements and defects are not subject to correction or nullification by the chief executive or his appointees, whether by Executive Order, regulation, or otherwise."

Second, even if an executive order could nullify or correct the statutory abortion funding provisions, it can be revoked or changed. The President, along with Senator Harry Reid who is solely responsible for the Reid Senate health care bill, is dishonest when it comes to abortion. The president has misrepresented, misled, obfuscated and lied about his record on abortion, and along with Senator Reid, is guilty of the same regarding the abortion provisions of the bill and about pro-life advocates who have claimed the bill covers abortion with government funds. Mr. Obama's assurance and word to opponents of government funding of abortion (along with Harry Reid's) are worthless.

The Hyde Amendment stopped the government from paying for 300,000 abortions a year. Passage of the Reid health care reform bill will lead to the largest increase of abortions since Roe.

-30-

Vote To Fund Abortion & Ration Health Care Imminent.

Time is short. The United States government is on the verge of paying for and subsidizing abortion, and rationing health care. The health care bill poses another Roe v. Wade on America and will prove to be as difficult to remove as Roe.

·  Vote To Fund Abortion & Ration Health Care Imminent. How You Can Help

The flurry of emails from abortion leaders today tells us that the health care bill funds and covers abortion.

Nancy Northrup of The Center for Reproductive Rights, "Last night we learned that Rep. Bart Stupak filed a new resolution in his effort to ban abortion coverage."

Nancy Keenan from NARAL Pro-Choice America says "late last night we learned that Rep. Bart Stupak has reached new lows in trying to force his abortion- coverage ban into the health-care bill."

Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood "Right now, congressional negotiations over the final details of the health care reform bill are going on behind closed doors - and Congressman Bart Stupak is still insisting that the final bill include his total ban on private health insurance coverage for abortion."

In addition to funding abortion, the bill will also ration health care for seniors and would allow the secretary of health and human services to prevent them from escaping rationing with their own funds or supplemental insurance.

There are some things we can do at the last minute.

1. We need to pray. These kinds of evils require prayer.

2. The Susan B. Anthony list says these congressmen are still undecided. Kathy Dahlkemper, Marcy Kaptur, Paul Kanjorski, Baron Hill, Solomon Ortiz, Earl Pomeroy, Chris Carney, Lincoln Davis, Alan Mollohan. Call them at the capitol switch board at 877-762- 8762 or 202-225-3121. If it's busy, keep dialing several times today and tomorrow and jam the switchboard.

3. Pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak (202 225-4735) needs and deserves our support and praise. Congressman Stupak is standing against his party, his president, the media, and we suspect, many pro- life democrats.

4. Call and email Nevada Congresswomen Shelly Berkley and Dina Titus and tell them that you oppose any health care bill that funds abortion and that you support the right of people to supplement Medicare with additional insurance or their own personal assets. Contact info is in the side bar.

The health care bill is another Roe v. Wade. The president is showing that he is an abortion radical. He is willing to risk health care for abortion. Time is short. Please make your voice heard and spread the word.

 

Reid Health Care Bill Is A Massive Abortion Funding Bill. Ten Ways The Reid Bill Funds Abortion.

Despite claims to the contrary, President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid all know that the Senate Health Care Bill under consideration is a massive abortion funding and subsidization bill that will radically change the long standing widely accepted public policy of not using government funds for abortion.

They also know that the Hyde Amendment will not apply to government funding of abortion through health care. Hyde is a yearly rider that prohibits abortion funding through Medicaid. The Reid bill is not abortion neutral, will increase abortion access at government expense and does not contain adequate conscience protections.

Ten Ways The Reid Bill Funds Abortion:

1. It directly funds community health care centers, of which Planned Parenthood would be a beneficiary. $11 billion has been set aside for community health care centers with no restrictions to prevent abortion coverage. Abortion advocates are already discussing how these centers can use these funds to pay for abortion and are campaigning for these centers to perform abortions.

2. The Reid bill subsidizes health care plans which cover abortion. These plans will cover tens of millions of people.

3. Massive pools of money are appropriated with no abortion restrictions. National Right to Life says “The Senate bill contains additional pools of directly appropriated funds that are not covered by any limitations regarding abortion, including $5 billion for a temporary high-risk health insurance pool program (Sec. 1101 on pages 45-52) and $6 billion in grants for health co-ops (Sec. 1322, pp. 169-180).”

4. Bureaucrats are granted authority to force health care plans to cover abortion. It does not mandate that they do so, but it gives them the authority. Its hard to see how a president like Barack Obama, who opposed protections for children born during an abortion and promised Planned Parenthood that abortion would be part of health care, would not appoint someone to mandate abortion coverage. The Mikulski Amendment to the Reid bill would require insurers to cover any preventative service. Abortion will be defined as a preventative service and private health care plans will be forced to cover abortions.

5. Plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefits program will be allowed to cover abortion. No federal plan is currently allowed to cover abortion.

6. There is no restriction on abortion in the Indian Health program.

7. Restrictions related to direct funding (not to be confused with subsidies) of abortion are attached to the status of the Hyde amendment. These restrictions on direct funding will remain in place as long as the Hyde amendment, which bans funding of abortions through Medicare, continues to be reauthorized every year. These restrictions will disappear if the Hyde amendment is not reauthorized.

8. There’s an abortion mandate. At least one subsidized health care plan in every area will be required to cover abortion.

9. Enrollees in government subsidized insurance plans will be required to pay an abortion surcharge whether or not they agree with abortion. If an employer CHOOSES that plan, employees must take it or leave it.

10. The Reid bill allows states to opt out of abortion covering plans, but even where that may happen, residents of those states will still be required to pay for abortions in other states.

Obama, Pelosi and Reid’s insistence that the health care bill is not about abortion, is not an abortion bill, that the status quo on abortion will not change and that there will be no funding of abortion shows a callous disregard for the truth and open contempt for the public.