Abortion providers are the targets of a trio of House bills that seek to ensure that taxpayer dollars will not find their way into such coffers.

“The time has come to deny any and all taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood,” Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican, said at a Feb. 10 press conference about his Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act.

A second pro-life bill blocks federal funds from paying for abortions, even indirectly, under the new health care law, and a third measure codifies the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortions, into law...

With the House of Representatives having approved a budget amendment to revoke all taxpayer funding from the Planned Parenthood abortion business, the pro-life push now turns to the Senate — where the battle will be more difficult.

The Pence amendment to de-fund Planned Parenthood was part of a House Republican designed continuing resolution that funds the federal government but it’s a funding bill the Senate will not likely approve, at least in its current form.

The current continuing resolution expires on March 4 and lawmakers in both parties are eager to avoid a government shutdown — and lawmakers may have to resort to a temporary continuing resolution to keep the federal government running until the House and Senate can negotiate a long-term funding bill...

The decision by the administration of President Barack Obama to weaken the pro-life conscience protections President George W. Bush put in place for medical workers has leading pro-life groups upset.

In 2008, the Bush administration issued a rule that prohibited recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and health care aides who refuse to take part in medical procedures to which they have religious or moral objections.

The House of Representatives is starting debate on a budget bill that could wind up promoting pro-life policies on five very important issues to the pro-life community.

House Republicans submitted a continuing resolution on Friday that would fund the federal government through 2011 and the resolution contains fixes to three situations where taxpayer dollars go to pay for or promote abortions. The resolution also provides pro-life advocates the opportunity to float two amendments that would de-fund Planned Parenthood and put in place conscience protections for medical workers.

The House will engage in three days of debate on the spending bill that will conclude with a final vote on the measure late Thursday...

As pro-lifers return from this week’s March for Life in Washington, DC, there exist plenty of reasons for optimism.

In recent years pro-lifers have made impressive gains in the court of public opinion. These gains have been the largest among America’s youth and the media reports of the March will undoubtedly express surprise at the number of students who were in attendance. Furthermore, even though recent statistics indicate that abortions increased slightly in 2008, the overall numbers have dropped by nearly 25 percent since the early 1990s. These are all good signs. Unfortunately, amidst all this sunny news, one development from 2010 has the ability to undermine much of the hard fought progress the pro-life movement has made since the Roe v. Wade decision. That is, of course, this last spring’s passage of Obamacare...

President Barack Obama delivered a State of the Union speech last night that was long on political rhetoric on other political topics but essentially ignored pro-life issues at a time when they are prominent on the minds of Americans.

Just one day after hundreds of thousands of people participated in the March for Life in the nation’s capital and on the heels of the national controversy surrounding the arrest of grisly abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell and his staffers — who killed and injured women in abortions and killed babies via infanticide shortly after their purposeful premature birth — Obama mentioned nothing about abortion.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a pro-life advocate, delivered the Republican response and he mentioned that protecting human life is part of the proper role of the federal government...

(CNSNews.com) – The annual March for Life rally is scheduled to take place in the nation’s capital on Monday, Jan. 24, bringing thousands of pro-life activists to Washington to commemorate the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Held every year since 1974, the year following the high court’s decision, the march regularly draws upwards of 150,000 activists to Washington to mark the anniversary of the Roe decision and to oppose the continued existence of abortion on demand.

This year’s march will feature Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) as the keynote speaker at its Rose Dinner event that marks the end of a weekend of protests and ceremonies focused on ending abortion...

With the House of Representatives expected to clear its repeal bill later today, pro-life House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the number two GOP lawmakers, challenged pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid’s spokesman says that the Senate won’t bring up the repeal bill for a debate or vote because he claims polling data shows Americans don’t support it — even though that’s not the case.

“Not only would repeal not pass, but according to a poll by AP over the weekend, three out of four people don’t want it to,” Reid spokesman Jon Summers said. “Why? Because full repeal means raising taxes on small businesses, reopening the Medicare donut hole, and putting insurance companies back in charge of your health care”...

Reacting to the news from the Guttmacher Institute that the two-decade decline in abortions has stalled, pro-life groups say the numbers point to the need for legislation to de-fund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.

The new report indicates abortions rose in 2008 after the previous report, covering 2005, showed abortions continuing to decline. While the abortion increase can be accounted for by the inclusion of California abortion centers not included in the 2005 report, the numbers clearly show the abortion decline has stopped, at least for now.

At the same time, the Planned Parenthood abortion business has further increased its share of the abortion market and now does more than 26 percent of all abortions in the United States, according to its own numbers from its annual report.

New figures from the Guttmacher Institute reveal the number of abortions in the United States and the abortion rate has risen slightly after its last report showed historic lows.

The institute is pro-abortion but regarded by pro-life groups as having more accurate abortion figures than the Centers for Disease Control because it receives its numbers directly from abortion businesses and accounts for all 50 states, whereas the CDC does not receive reports from California and others.

The new numbers show the actual number of abortions in the U.S. rose from 1,206,200 in 2005 to 1,212,350 in 2008 — the first increase since steady decreases during both the 1990?s and 2000?s. Abortion figures peaked in 1990 but had been dropping ever since thanks to pro-life legislative and educational efforts as well as the work of pregnancy centers offering women tangible pregnancy help and abortion alternatives...