Quick News Roundup 05/07/10

Late Term Abortions in Wisconsin – In February 2009, the board of the Madison Surgery Center had allowed all its organization to perform late term abortions. Documentation was obtained by pro-life groups in Wisconsin showing that the Center, which is connected to a number of university hospitals / clinics may have used the late term abortions to harvest fetal body parts for research. This week, the Madison Surgery Center with pressure from the Attorney General’s office and pro-life gruops has abandoned its late term abortion plan.

Canada – In British Columbia, pro-life groups have been asking for the government run medical facilities to release their abortion statistics. The response from the provincial Information and Privacy Commissioner? We’ll look into whether or not we’ll look into providing the public with these statistics. Freedom of information rules are not quite the same in Canada as they are in the United States.

Kansas Abortion Regulation Followup – The State legislature in Kansas tried to override the Governor’s veto of new abortion law and failed in the Senate. Last week, the House failed to override the Governor’s veto by 2 votes – one of whom was a supporter of the override which allowed him to bring back up the vote this week. The override passed the House on Tuesday, but failed in the State Senate by 1 vote on Wednesday. The legislation, if enacted, would have allowed people to sue if they felt an abortion was performed illegally and require doctors performing post-viability abortions to specifically detail the medical reason why the abortion was necessary. This is why it’s important to elect pro-life Governors in your home state.

Abortion Statistics – The number of poor women getting abortions has increased during this current economic downturn according to a study performed by the Guttmacher Institute. In 2000, the number of poor women getting abortions was 27%. In 2008, that number leapt to 42%. What else was found out by this study? 57% of women who received abortions paid for the procedure out of pocket. Based on the numbers provided – 43% of women receiving abortions in the timeframe covered in this study had some form of government or outside organization help pay for the procedure. Approximately 1/3 of these women had the procedure paid for by Medicaid.