No Union Label for Abortion

DETROIT FREE PRESS, Sept. 25 — Shocked pro-life members of the United Auto Workers Union sprang into action this summer after learning their union was asking Detroit's automakers in confidential contract talks to cover abortions in their health care benefits package.

It didn't take long before the petitions started circulating in the plants and phones started ringing at UAW headquarters at Solidarity House in Detroit.

The controversial proposal has been crushed.

Robert Pollard, a UAW member who has worked for General Motors Corp. for 42 years, called the proposal “an insult to every Christian member of the UAW.”

Michigan for Babies

DETROIT FREE PRESS, Oct. 1 — The Michigan Senate has given final approval to the Legal Birth Definition Act, which defines birth as the moment any portion of a live baby emerges from the pregnant woman, in a hope to ban the horrific partial-birth abortion technique.

Pro-lifers hope the bill, by defining an emerging baby as a legal person, circumvents court rulings in 1997 and 2001 that struck down as unconstitutional Michigan bans on partial-birth abortions.

Surgery for the Unborn

CULTURE & COSMOS, Sept. 30 — Sen. Sam Brownback has held a hearing on Capitol Hill for the Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to promote awareness of advances in the field of in utero surgery.

Medical and scientific progress in this field is giving hope to parents who are often pressured to abort unborn children diagnosed with birth defects.

Dr. James Thorp, a maternal-fetal medicine physician present at the hearing, testified that, “Progress in this field today is unheralded. There are incredible opportunities to treat the child in the womb … There are [also] a number of diseases that have the potential to be completely cured by injecting stem cells from umbilical cords into a fetus's system.”

Wisconsin Birth Bill

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 26 — The Wisconsin state assembly has unanimously approved a bill that insures babies “born alive” after abortion attempts have the same legal right to live as any other human being.

The Assembly voted 95-0, without any public debate, to approve the legislation that would define “live birth” and “born alive” understate statutes for the first time.

Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin, the bill's main author, said the legislation requires doctors to give due care to any infant that survives an abortion attempt.

The bill has to be approved by the Senate and Gov. Jim Doyle to become law.