Karen We Hardly New Ye

This post is sung to the tune of Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye and dedicated to Karen Cooper who is retiring as the head of NARAL Washington this month. It is also dedicated to all those doctors who are tempted to take up the abortionist's knife and join the war on women.

While goin' the road to Oly, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to Oly, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to Oly
A bag of cash and a drop in the eye
A doleful damsel did you hear her cry?
Karen We hardly knew ye.

With your knives and lies and lies and knives, hurroo, hurroo
With your knives and lies and lies and knives, hurroo, hurroo
With your knives and lies and lies and knives
The children how many you slew
And sold their bodies off to the U.
Karen We hardly knew ye.

Where are their eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their eyes that were so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their eyes that were so mild
When in their youth are so beguiled?
Why do ye skedaddle from a woman and her child?
Oh Karen, We hardly knew ye.

Where are their legs that wanted to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their legs that wanted to run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are their legs that wanted to run
When you went to carry an abortionist's gun
To be sure their dancing days are done
Oh Karen we hardly knew ye.

They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
They haven't an arm, they haven't a leg,
They're armless, boneless, motherless eggs,
They've been put in a bag and left with the dregs,
Oh Karen, We hardly knew ye.

I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home, hurroo, hurroo
I'm happy for to see ye home
From the lunches and boardrooms and places your known
It must be lonely when your all alone
Oh Karen We hardly knew ye.

They're puttin in the knives again, hurroo, hurroo
They're puttin in the poison again, hurroo, hurroo
They're lyin' to women again,
But we'll fight for the children again and again,
Yes, we'll fight for the children again,
Karen I'm swearing to ye.

Definition of Violence Continues to Shrink

Blessings and adoration surround leader in child-killing industry.

Compassion & Choices rejoices in killing of 66 year old cancer patient.

Priestess, Catholics, Rabbi and intellectuals have a thoughtful conversation about the sweet justice of killing.

Meanwhile...

Husband Poisons Wife.

Ho hum. Just another day in Washington.

GAP Comes to UW Campus

What: The Genocide Awareness Project

Where: The middle of Red Square

When: ALL DAY - Tuesday and Wednesday - May 26-27 - 8am - 5pm

Who: Students for Bio-Ethical Reform

Why: Because ABORTION is GENOCIDE and because society has decided that they do not want you to see these pictures.

How: 25 different 4ft x 8ft billboards that SHOW the UNIMAGINABLE HORROR of ABORTION

"Clump of cells"..."Blob of tissue"..."Conceptus"..."Parasite"..."Alien germ"..."Punishment"...????

It's a baby.

It is so easy to trivialize when you call it everything but what it truly is.

It's a person.

And we intend to make sure you have no refuge behind ignorance.

We intend to restore that which has systematically stripped from the innocent and helpless unborn: their HUMANITY.

There will be NO Speeches and No Presentations because the pictures tell ALL.

Representatives for the group will however be on hand to speak with anyone interested, answer questions, etc.

Please email us with questions, comments, or information on how to join our struggle at: s4ber@u.washington.edu

Pro-lifers Gain Momentum at State Level

North Dakota Rep. Dan Ruby with Elisha Lancaster

By Jonathan B.

Pro-lifers demoralized by last November's election results, and the rise of the most radical pro-abortion President in US history, are taking encouragement from the successes of the North Dakota state legislature. Led by State Rep. Dan Ruby, North Dakota just passed a series of regulations designed to make it much harder to kill unborn human beings in the Roughrider State. These regulations would force the state's only abortion clinic, Red River Planned Parenthood in Fargo, to offer women ultrasounds of their unborn baby (HB 1371), to notify them that abortion ends the life of a separate human being with a beating heart (HB 1445), and to protect women coerced into abortions by boyfriends, husbands, or parents (SB 2265).

These laws don't go into effect until August 1, so it's too early to know whether Planned Parenthood will comply with them, or if it will reduce the number of abortions, which although being close to half the national average, were reported in October to be heading towards a record number for the year, near 1,400. Many believe these types of laws will make a difference because, in Washington State, for example, Planned Parenthood clinics only show pregnant clients an ultrasound if and when they sign a form indicating they have chosen abortion. Also, many women who get abortions at PP clinics report never having been given medically and scientifically accurate information about their baby.

In addition to these three regulations, North Dakota also passed a resolution, HCR 3015, stating that North Dakota would reject any federally passed so-called "Freedom of Choice Act". The fifth pro-life measure, and the one which garnered the most attention from outside the state, was an attempt to enshrine in the law the medically recognized fact that human life begins at conception. Known as the "Life at Conception Bill", HB 1572 didn't just draw attention from Washington State, but also drew an important supporter.

When pro-life Washingtonian and frozen embryo adopter, Maria Lancaster, first heard that this so-called "Personhood Bill" passed the North Dakota house by a vote of 51-41 in the Spring, she felt that her testimony could be helpful, so she packed her bags and headed to Bismarck. Mrs. Lancaster and her husband Jeff, of Issaquah, adopted a frozen embryo six years ago. That former embryo is now her beautiful 6-year-old daughter, Elisha. After taking that step, one thing led to another, and she ended up standing with President George W. Bush on the podium as he heroically vetoed legislation that would have authorized government money to be spent on destructive embryonic stem cell research. She has since co-founded Embryo Adoption Services of Cedar Park, here in Bothell, Washington.

Maria, Jeff, and Elisha Lancaster with President George W. Bush

She continued to take her expertise and experience to the halls of power when she testified before the North Dakota Senate in defense of the Informed Consent and Personhood bills. "Knowing that my daughter could have been a medical experiment instead of adopted motivates me to tell people that embryos are human," Mrs. Lancaster told Abortion In Washington (AIW).

The Personhood Bill, which wasn't actually connected with the nationwide Personhood Movement despite suggestions by naysayers, ultimately failed in the state Senate after a barrage of opposition from not only super-wealthy pro-abortion forces, but also some hesitant pro-lifers, most notably the Conference of Catholic Bishops. Questions were raised about the exact wording of the bill, and the possible consequences on issues like fertility clinic practices and miscarriages. Interestingly, the publicity didn't come until after the bill had already passed the lower chamber. Rep. Ruby told AIW that he was surprised by all the reaction, but he is undeterred. It was the first time it was tried, and the first time such legislation has been approved by any legislature in the US, and Rep. Ruby told us he hopes to reintroduce the legislation in two years, when North Dakota's citizen legislature sits again, after working on perfecting the wording and letting citizens and experts discuss it more.

The bill is intended to be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade by finally addressing the elephant-in-the-room question which Roe-based jurisprudence has consistently avoided: when does human life begin? By defining an unborn human being as a person, that individual will automatically come under the protection of the 14th amendment, effectively abolishing legal abortion. It's not clear on what grounds even a liberal Supreme Court would obviate such a law, since the medical facts seem undisputed. The only real opposition seems to be based on consequences.

"North Dakota wants to be abortion free," Mrs. Lancaster told AIW, "and Dan Ruby and his colleagues are serious about taking measures to make that happen". She tells the story of how she testified about the fact that the baby's heartbeat starts at about 17 days of life, 2 days after a pregnant woman misses her first menstrual period, and hence the earliest she could know she was pregnant or schedule an abortion. Her point was that every single abortion is done on a baby with a beating heart. She was the last of the scheduled speakers in support of the Informed Consent bill. Slated to speak immediately after her was Tim Stanley, representing the radical advocates and practitioners of abortion, Planned Parenthood.

But after her testimony, she said, Mr. Stanley got up and left. "He realized he would have just looked like an idiot, a complete fool, if he'd gone ahead and tried to claim that this was just a bunch of cells, or what they like to refer to as POC, Products of Conception," she said. "A POC doesn't have a beating heart." In fact, when the committee chair, Sen. David Nething, asked if there was anyone who wanted to speak against the legislation, there was silence. He even went so far as to ask if there was anyone who was "neutral". Again, nothing.

AIW asked Rep. Ruby if he expected Planned Parenthood, which is famous for being in conflict with the law in numerous states, to comply with the new regulations, and what the enforcement provisions were. "That is a problem", he conceded. "It's up to the State's Attorney", he added, and how frequently inspections and audits are carried out. The regs require clients to sign forms indicating they have received the offer of an ultrasound, and have been told they are killing their unborn child, but he indicated he wasn't sure if PP was simply required to keep forms "on file", or required to send them in to the state Department of Health. "I will look into it," he said. He also told us that the ultrasound bill does not go so far as to require abortion clinics to offer pregnant clients a chance to listen to their baby's heartbeat on a fetal heart monitor.

AIW contacted Planned Parenthood of North Dakota for comment. We spoke with Kathi Di Nicola, media relations director for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Dakotas. She said she would try to get Mr. Stanley to call us back, but he failed to return our call by deadline. All she could tell us was that Planned Parenthood did oppose all these regulations. She wasn't, however, prepared to explain why.

Rep. Ruby said he would also be interested in investigating other regulations, such as death certificates for unborn victims of abortion, limits on how much abortionists can charge, and even investigating whether PP is engaged in Medicaid Fraud with the 340B drug discount program, as has been charged in California and Washington. But perhaps the biggest impact will come if the Personhood Bill is passed in 2011, and ultimately brings Roe v. Wade crashing down.

All this goes to show pro-lifers that even in the current climate, state-level initiatives can succeed, and can have a dramatic impact for life.

So Much for Dialogue

The Seattle area has a little know connection with Fr. Jenkins of Notre Dame University -- Rick Steves of Europe through the Back Door, a very popular travel show on public television, is married to Fr. Jenkins' sister Anne.

Rick Steves is an abortion advocate and sits on the Honorary Council of Washington NARAL.

One of Fr. Jenkins' excuses for inviting pro-abortion president Obama to Notre Dame to receive an honorary law degree is that it will promote "dialogue".

If after years of Thanksgiving dinners and family get-togethers you can't even get your brother-in-law off the radically pro-abortion NARAL Honorary Council how do you expect to get POTUS off his wildly pro-abortion ideals?