Abortion

Today's surprise announcement by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to reverse its decision to fund Planned Parenthood has pro-life groups and advocates shaking their heads. The reversal will mostly likely alienate supporters on both sides, causing even more trouble for the breast cancer group.

The nation's leading advocate for breast cancer awareness previously gave abortion provider Planned Parenthood millions of dollars in grants, including at least $700,000 in 2011 alone.

"Well, I think one of the benefits that has come from this saga is now the broad majority of Americans realize the Komen connection to the world's foremost abortion provider," Brian Harris, the director of Tennessee Right to Life, told The Christian Post. "Millions of pro-life Americans – who have momentum now – will know to avoid any involvement with Komen until they become consistently committed to protecting all human life." more >>

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation announced on Friday that it will continue to consider Planned Parenthood for future grants.

A special announcement on the Komen website revealed that the cancer foundation is clarifying its policy changes to only disqualify groups based on conclusive criminal investigations and not "political" ones such as the federal inquiry currently taking place on Capitol Hill.

The announcement also included an apology for its earlier decision on Tuesday about cutting ties with Planned Parenthood Federation of America. more >>

A South Carolina State Senate panel has decided to end state employee insurance coverage for abortions pursued because of rape or incest.

In a 3-2 vote that fell along party lines, the Republican proposal would only allow for funds to go to an abortion if the woman's life was endangered.

Republican State Senator David L. Thomas, one of the panel members who voted for the measure, told The Christian Post that abortion access was not the issue with the proposal. more >>

In 1808, President Thomas Jefferson stated the matter bluntly: "I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises."

Fast forward 204 years and President Barack Obama has reversed that logic, ordering religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for employees that must include contraceptives, including those that may induce an abortion.

Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services made the announcement January 20, stating: "Today the department is announcing that the final rule on preventive health services will ensure that women with health insurance coverage will have access to the full range of the Institute of Medicine's recommended preventive services, including all FDA-approved forms of contraception." more >>

Planned Parenthood Federation of America fundraised over $600,000 in a 24-hour period after cancer fund Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation discontinued grants with the abortion provider.

Donors poured donations into the nation's leading abortion provider in reaction to the news that the well-known breast cancer organization had split financial ties with PPFA clinics. In total, PPFA raised $650,000 all in one day.

Of the sum, $400,000 was collected online from over 6,000 donors. PPFA normally collects 100 to 200 donations daily. more >>

WASHINGTON – New York Times bestselling author and humor writer Eric Metaxas may fool you at first with his non-stop wisecracks (including how he wished the head table at the National Prayer Breakfast was filled with celebrities rather than politicians), but once he gets talking about his Christian faith, he gets pretty serious, pretty fast.

Metaxas, author of books such as Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, was the keynote speaker at the 60th National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. After an entertaining introduction – where everything from the Occupy movement to the hefty prayer breakfast fee ended up as materials for jokes – the born-again Christian author got down to business and focused on contrasting phony religiosity and real faith.

"The lives of both of these men (Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer) illustrate between phony religiosity and really believing in God in a way that it changes your life – it must change your life and the lives of others," said Metaxas. more >>