The 22-week infant later died in intensive care at a hospital in the mother's home town of Rossano in southern Italy.

The mother, pregnant for the first time, had opted for an abortion after prenatal scans suggested that her baby was disabled.

However the infant survived the procedure, carried out on Saturday in the Rossano Calabria hospital, and was left by doctors to die...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two new polls show the November mid-term congressional elections could yield a landslide for the pro-life movement. As pro-life groups look to replace the aggressively pro-abortion Democratic leadership that gave Americans the health care bill and its taxpayer funding of abortions, polls show change is coming.

With the leadership of the Republican Party in the House and Senate strongly pro-life and with most GOP candidates taking a pro-life stance and most Democrats backing abortion, a party change in Congress benefits pro-life interests.

With that in mind, a new Gallup poll shows a marked enthusiasm gap in this year’s electorate.

Republicans narrowly lead on the generic ballot, 46 to 45 percent, which is very rare for the GOP as Democrats typically lead in party versus party polls...

Major pro-life organizations are letting members of the U.S. House of Representatives know they haven't forgotten the vote approving healthcare reform.

The House's action on "ObamaCare" means federal funding for abortion, despite the president's executive order barring use of the money for that purpose. Dan Kennedy, CEO of Human Life of Washington, along with roughly 50 others, signed on to a letter sent to members of the House.

He explains, "The bottom line is we're telling the House of Representatives that we understand and that we think they understand that the executive order really does nothing" because the law as passed by Congress has more authority than a presidential edict....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a preview of he upcoming battle over a Supreme Court nomination, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says in a new interview that he expects pro-abortion President Barack Obama to use the nomination to advance his radical agenda.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, a pro-life Alabama Republican, talked with ABC News and said Republicans expect to use the nomination as a chance to talk about the proper role of judges.

The expectation is that Republicans will not be able to stop the confirmation of Obama's nominee, who is expected to support abortion, but they will use the media attention to go after Obama for appointing radical judges who legislate from the bench in the manner the Supreme Court did in the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed 52 million abortions...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new bill filed by pro-life members of Congress would apply the historic Hyde amendment language to the new health care bill President Barack Obama signed into law that calls for massive abortion funding.

The legislation would afford the same pro-life protections that were approved with bipartisan support in the House last year via the Stupak amendment that didn't make the final bill.

Stupak, the author of the previous amendment, eventually joined with other pro-life Democrats in voting for the pro-abortion health care bill in exchange for an Obama executive order that pro-life groups say won't truly ban abortion funding...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Leading pro-life organizations are awaiting the upcoming Supreme Court battle and fully expect President Barack Obama to name a pro-abortion replacement for retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens. They say Obama, despite his protests to the contrary, issued an abortion litmus test this week.

During a meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders, Obama said he is "somebody who believes that women should have the ability to make often very difficult decisions about their bodies and the issues of reproduction."

He claimed he had no litmus test but, in the next breath, said he would appoint someone who "who is going to be interpreting our Constitution in a way that takes into account" legal abortions...

Live Action, a student-led pro-life group, has exposed alleged illicit practices at another abortion clinic.

In June 2008, Live Action's Lila Rose and Jackie Stoller entered a Louisville, Kentucky, abortion clinic with Rose posing as a 14-year-old impregnated by a 31-year-old man. During Rose's interview, clinic personnel did not gather information needed to report the crime of statutory rape. In Kentucky, sexual intercourse between a girl under 16 and a man 21 or older constitutes rape in the third degree.

According to spokesman David Schmidt, personnel at EMW Women's Surgical Center provided incorrect information on the baby. "They said it's not like a living, breathing baby," he reports, "really giving the idea that it was not a living entity, which...really is misleading to women who are trying to make informed decisions"...

Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) -- The Virginia state legislature last night sided with pro-life Gov. Bob McDonnell by upholding his amendment to the state budget to cut taxpayer-funded abortions. The move makes it so the state will cut out funding for about 99 percent of all abortions it previously paid for before.

Last week, McDonnell amended the FY 2011-12 state budget to prohibit taxpayer funding of most elective abortions for low-income residents. That includes abortions in cases where the unborn child is merely disabled or has a condition such as Down syndrome.

The Family Foundation and pro-life groups had been working for the ban on taxpayer funding of abortion for decades and its director Victoria Cobb was elated...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The top spokesman for President Barack Obama was stymied by the press Wednesday afternoon after Obama said in a morning meeting that he would have no abortion litmus test for the Supreme Court and then proceeded to outline how any nominee must support unlimited abortions.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was unable to defend Obama against questions from media outlets asking how Obama spoke out of both sides of his mouth.

"The President just said when asked about the issue of abortion that he wants somebody who’s interpreting our Constitution in a way that takes into account individual rights, and that includes women’s rights. Isn't it artifice to say that this is not a litmus test?" one reporter asked Gibbs.

"No," he replied...

President Obama managed to avoid a full-scale eruption over abortion politics with his first Supreme Court nominee, but he probably won't get that lucky twice.

After surging to the political forefront during the contentious health care debate, the abortion issue shows no sign of retreating in time for the Supreme Court confirmation process this summer. Republicans and pro-life groups remain furious over the compromise struck between pro-life Democrats and the White House that they say left the prospect of taxpayer-funded abortion in the health care law.

That anger is likely to spill over into the confirmation hearings, despite Mr. Obama's plea Wednesday for a "smooth, civil, thoughtful nomination process and confirmation process" like the one in 2009 for Sonia Sotomayor. Hes expected to make a nomination in the coming weeks...