Friday, July 07, 2006

In the news 7/6/06...

(from FotF's Pastor's Weekly Briefing)


Grants Awarded to Promote Birth

Minnesota lawmakers and Gov. Tim Pawlenty last year approved the "Positive Alternative Act" which states that North Side Life Care Center and 36 other groups that steer pregnant women away from abortion will receive a combined $4.75 million from the state over two years. The process started last Saturday.

At North Side, located in a former dentist's office, a $129,180 grant will help expand prenatal care and other services — including free ultrasounds, infant formula and car seats — to more expectant mothers. Their mission is to encourage women in the surrounding area to have babies, not abortions.

The grants can't go to groups that provide abortions or refer women to others for abortions, but they can mention abortion among the list of options, according to the Associated Press. Groups that provide family planning services including abortion still get more money from the state — some $3.7 million a year, with nearly half of that to Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. But family planning funds are slated to drop to $1.8 million a year starting next summer.

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Cecelia Fire Thunder, tribal council leader for the South Dakota Oglala Sioux Tribe, who began a fundraising campaign for an abortion clinic on tribal lands without permission of the tribe, was formally removed from office last week. Fire Thunder, who had worked part time in the past at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in California, began pushing for the clinic on the reservation shortly after South Dakota passed a law banning almost all abortions in the state.


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