'Babies-for-sale' scheme shocks Armenia

YEREVAN, Armenia – Syuzan Patvakanyan has been searching for her daughter ever since doctors in post-Soviet Armenia forced her to give her up as a baby nearly 2 decades ago. 

Now 35, she shared her story with AFP as the authorities this month detained the country's chief obstetrician-gynecologist, the head of an orphanage and other officials as part of a probe into an alleged black-market adoption scheme believed to have been operating for years.

Patvakanyan accused the detained chief gynecologist, Razmik Abramyan, and other doctors of pressuring her to give up her daughter Stella.

She was just 16 when she "fell madly in love" with a man 5 years her senior, she said.

After Stella's birth, Armenian doctors threatened to report the father to police and coerced Patvakanyan into signing a consent form to hand over the baby.

"I cried, I didn't want to do it," she said in an interview, tears streaming down her face. 

When she returned to the maternity ward three days later to take her home, Stella was no longer there. 

The doctors claimed she had been sent to an orphanage in the country's second largest city of Gyumri. But the teenage mum could not locate her there either.

"We realized that the swaddled baby had been sold right out of the hospital," said the distraught woman.

Patvakanyan appears to be one of dozens of women caught up in an underground baby-selling network that is now the subject of an official investigation in the impoverished ex-Soviet country. 

In December, investigators said they had detained Abramyan, as well as the heads of a maternity ward and an orphanage in the capital Yerevan. 

The chief gynecologist was released several days later, sparking public outrage.

According to his lawyer, Abramyan dismisses the claims as "unfounded and absurd" and insists he had nothing to do with the adoptions.

The lawyer, Samvel Dilbandyan, confirmed Abramyan had helped to deliver Stella, but could not be expected to remember every birth he was involved in.

"It's been 20 years, how can he remember her?" Dilbandyan told AFP.

'MORE POWERFUL THAN DRUGS MAFIA'

Armenia's pro-reform leader Nikol Pashinyan has ordered a thorough investigation into the alleged scheme, which he said is believed to have been operating "for many years."

"How could such a scheme exist in Armenia?" Pashinyan indignantly asked at a government meeting this month.

Marat Kostanyan, a lawyer who has represented Patvakanyan since 2013, claims the network was vast and involved high-ranking officials and police, as well as staff at maternity wards and orphanages. 

"The mafia selling children is more powerful than the drugs mafia," Kostanyan said. 

"This criminal network has turned the country into a hatchery to produce babies."

Despite all his efforts, there has been little progress in Patvakanyan's case, the lawyer said. 

"As far as I know, no one has managed to achieve justice and get their babies back," he said.

Separately, Armenia's security service said in November it had exposed a criminal network that helped Italians adopt more than 30 babies in recent years.

It said that between 2016 and 2018 several young women who had wanted to terminate their pregnancies were instead forced to carry the babies to term and then give them up for adoption. 

"In some cases, the frightened mothers were told their newborn babies were sick," the security service said.

Deputy labor minister Zhanna Andreasyan said officials had started looking more closely into adoptions after noticing that four times as many children went to foreigners rather than to locals.

All adoptions have since been suspended while the investigation is ongoing.

Armenia, a South Caucasus country of fewer than 3 million people, has also pledged to abolish orphanages by 2023, instead reuniting children with their biological parents or finding new homes for them.

In a 2017 report, Human Rights Watch said that thousands of Armenian children were "needlessly" separated from their parents due to disability or poverty and placed in institutions.

More than 90 percent of children in residential institutions in the country have at least one living parent, it said.

According to Armenia's labor ministry, fewer than 650 children currently live in orphanages. More than 70 percent of these have disabilities, according to UNICEF.

'I WILL NEVER STOP'

Patvakanyan said she still hopes to find her daughter.

"I love my Stella very much, I miss her very much, I see her in my dreams. She comes to me and says: 'Mum, I live nearby, don't cry so hard'."

She said she would not marry or have another child until she gets her daughter back.

She has bought a small plot of land where she wants to grow a garden for her long-lost child. She buys her gifts. She intently studies the faces of strangers.

"I'll never stop searching for her," she said, weeping. "I will look for her even when my hair turns white."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

America's baby mayor, a face of the anti-abortion movement

WHITEHALL, United States – "The mayor's breakfast is ready," Chad McMillan sings out from the living room of his Texas ranch.

On the menu this morning: a warm bottle of milk and a jar of puree.

Charlie McMillan is no ordinary city official -- he's only seven months old and a new face of the anti-abortion movement in America.

The chubby baby became honorary mayor of his Texas community in October with a sweet slogan: "Make America Kind Again." 

A twist on US President Donald Trump's catchphrase of making the country great again, Charlie's "agenda" includes patriotism, adoption and "life" -- referring to the issue of abortion that tends to polarize Americans.

The infant mayor's emergence comes amid mounting anxiety among abortion rights advocates who fear the 46-year-old Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized abortion is under threat.

"One of his campaign platforms focuses on the brave and courageous choice that... his birth mother made for life," said Charlie's adoptive mother Nancy Jane McMillan. 

"She was in the midst of a crisis pregnancy and chose not to terminate the pregnancy but to carry him, and we were the incredibly blessed recipients of that brave and courageous choice."

Charlie's parents bought the honorary mayor title at an auction in October as part of a fundraiser for firefighters in their community of Whitehall, about an hour northwest of Houston.

The appointment, which does not involve any actual duties, was "just something fun that we were doing," McMillan said.

But then the 43-year-old real estate agent realized the influence that "Mayor Charlie" had on the people of Whitehall.

"Just a little bit of kindness goes such a long way, and in this time of political and cultural divisiveness in the United States, it's neat to see how a baby, a seven-month-old, with a campaign promise to make America kind again, can, we believe, impact change."

Charlie's parents are on the development board of the Houston Pregnancy Help Center, a Christian organization that steers women with unplanned pregnancies away from abortion.

NOT A DEMOCRAT, NOT A REPUBLICAN

The inauguration of the country's littlest mayor took place on December 15, with a big party featuring hot dogs, country music and a ceremony for the tuxedo-clad baby.

Local business owner Frank Pokluda said he gave Charlie the oath of office, "and naturally he nodded each time so he was well aware of what he was doing." 

"Look at the joy this child has brought to this community... there's people out there who'd love to have these kids so I think it's a great thing," he added.

Advocates for women's reproductive rights argue that access to abortion is vital for gender equality and the reduction of poverty and many other societal ills.

Outlawing terminations simply drives patients underground, they argue, where operations are unregulated and potentially deadly.

Chad McMillan, 51, hopes his son can provide a much-needed respite from the political battles that have divided the country.

"We hope that Charlie, who isn't a Republican, who isn't a Democrat, who isn't an independent, who loves people, can allow everybody to take a breath," said the Baptist pastor and missionary, who voted for Trump in 2016.

That could prove difficult with the Supreme Court to rule in the first half of 2020 on a Louisiana law that critics say would force the closure of most of the state's abortion clinics.

Several states this year tightened abortion access, making the procedure illegal when fetal heartbeat is detected, although courts struck down several such laws.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to appoint only opponents of abortion to the Supreme Court. He has named two of the court's nine justices, leaving the bench with a 5-4 conservative majority.

Abortion opponents are counting on the new justices to help overturn Roe v Wade, or at least allow states to restrict access to the procedure.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US states, cities fight religious freedom rule vs abortions

NEW YORK - Two dozen U.S. states and municipalities sued the Trump administration on Tuesday to stop it from enforcing a rule that would make it easier for doctors and nurses to avoid performing abortions on religious or moral grounds.

A lawsuit led by New York Attorney General Letitia James said the expanded "conscience" protections could undermine the ability of states and cities to provide effective healthcare without jeopardizing billions of dollars a year in federal aid.

It also said the rule would upset legislative efforts to accommodate workers' beliefs while ensuring that hospitals, other businesses and staff treat patients effectively.

Sterilizations and assisted suicide are other procedures that might be impeded, according to a complaint filed by New York and 22 other states and municipalities in federal court in Manhattan. California filed a similar lawsuit in San Francisco.

"The federal government is giving health care providers free license to openly discriminate and refuse care to patients," James said in a statement.

The rule is scheduled to take effect on July 22. It will be enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Roger Severino, director of HHS' Office for Civil Rights, said in a statement: "The rule gives life and enforcement tools to conscience protection laws that have been on the books for decades. HHS finalized the conscience rule after more than a year of careful consideration and after analyzing over 242,000 public comments. We will defend the rule vigorously."

President Donald Trump, a Republican, has made expanding religious liberty a priority, and the proposed rule drew support from anti-abortion activists.

Critics, including some civil rights medical groups, have said the rule could deprive some patients, including gay and transgender people, of needed healthcare because they might be deemed less worthy of treatment.

The Manhattan lawsuit said the rule could even prevent hospitals from asking applicants for nursing jobs whether they opposed giving measles vaccinations, even during an outbreak.

So far in 2019, the worst U.S. measles outbreak in a quarter century has sickened 880 people, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday.

The plaintiffs in Tuesday's lawsuits are led by Democrats or often lean Democratic.

They also include New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C.; the states of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin; and Cook County, Illinois.

Hundreds of lawsuits by Democratic-leaning states and municipalities have targeted White House policies under Trump.

The cases are New York et al v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-04676; and California v. Azar et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 19-02769. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Former Miss USA Olivia Jordan reveals she was molested, raped

MANILA – Former Miss USA Olivia Jordan took to social media where she revealed that she was molested as a child and was raped as a teenager. 

The revelation was part of a lengthy Instagram post, where Jordan aired her opinion about laws concerning abortion.

Jordan said it is through that lens that she views “the new policies that govern what happens to a woman’s body as a direct assault.”

“Decisions were made for my body without my consent. My body and mind have been traumatized in ways I am still recovering from many years later. Maybe it sounds unjust to compare criminalizing abortion to being raped; but to me, it feels the same,” she said.

“I used to get angry when confronted with anti-abortion messaging. I used to want to yell and scream back how I felt. But then we would just have two people screaming,” she added.


Jordan clarified that she is stating her piece not to impose her beliefs on others.

“No one will ever force you to have an abortion. And I ask, if you could pause for one second and realize how insane it is to impose your views on me, to force me or any woman to endure a pregnancy she is not ready for, maybe even one she didn’t consent to in the first place,” she said.

“Maybe you haven’t had the life experience I have had where your body has been controlled too many times without your consent but I have, and I will fight hard to stop any person from enduring the same fate,” she saud,

To end her post, Jordan appealed for others not to support “policies that strip people of their rights and their free choice.”

“Because when men make laws that govern women’s body without their consent, I feel like I am being assaulted all over again. I feel like we are letting the perpetrators win,” she said.

She then hoped “for a better future where we can realize that we can live in harmony even when we don’t agree.”

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Mississippi moves to ban abortion if heartbeat detectable

MIAMI - Lawmakers in the southeastern US state of Mississippi passed a bill Tuesday banning abortion of pregnancies where a heartbeat is detectable -- from six weeks -- as human rights groups vowed to fight the move.

The "Heartbeat Bill" makes exceptions for medical complications, but not for cases of incest or rape.

"Except when a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance with this section, no person shall perform an abortion on a pregnant woman before determining if the unborn human individual that the pregnant woman is carrying has a detectable fetal heartbeat," the law states.

In a tweet, Governor Phil Bryant said he looked forward to signing the bill into state law "very soon."

Elisabeth Smith, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the law would "ban abortion before most women know that they're pregnant."

Last year, the state passed another law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but a judge blocked it before it was ruled in November that it violated women's rights.

"Already, Mississippi has a slew of abortion restrictions and only one abortion clinic, making it nearly impossible to access abortion before six weeks of pregnancy," Smith added in her statement.

Last week, the state of Kentucky passed a similar law banning abortion where a heartbeat is detectable, but it was immediately blocked by a judge.

And there was a similar scenario in Iowa -- that law was blocked in January.

Lawmakers in Tennessee and Georgia, both southeastern states, are considering their own versions of the "Heartbeat Bill."

lm/ska/oh

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Some Filipinos rue results of Irish referendum on abortion

DUBLIN, Ireland - Some Filipinos here were disappointed over the turnout of the referendum that effectively made abortion legal in this European nation.

Health care assistant Cherry Rivera said the landslide win in favor of abortion was heartbreaking.

“What is there to celebrate? Killing unborn babies? Nothing to celebrate about. It’s a sad day to think people are out there celebrating this victory with no thought of the thousands of children who will never take their first breath. I voted No, Children are a blessing and a gift from the Lord,” said Rivera.

Millions of Irish residents, including Irish-Filipinos, went out to vote on May 25 to either retain or repeal the eight amendment of the constitution that states: “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

"Before the poll, I knew that 'yes' was very popular but I was still hoping for a dramatic turn of events. I somehow, understand where the other party is coming from but the end doesn’t justify the means. I am deeply saddened by the result," said nurse Josephine Caragan O’Roarke.

The eighth amendment – article 40.3.3 of the Irish constitution – which prohibited abortion, will be replaced with a clause stating: "Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy."

The Irish government is planning to bring legislation before the Dáil (Parliament), providing for abortion on request up to the 12th week of pregnancy, with a 3-day “cooling off” period before medication is administered.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he wanted the new law to be enacted by the end of the year. There will be provisions for medical practitioners to object, although doctors will be obliged to transfer care of the pregnant woman to another doctor.

Despite the results of the referendum, a lot of Filipino Irish, most of whom are working as nurses and health care assistants, vow to not participate in abortion procedures should it finally be enforced in Irish Hospitals.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US court urged to allow abortions for immigrant teens

WASHINGTON - A US court on Monday heard arguments from lawyers for two pregnant teenage immigrants who are being prevented from having abortions while in custody.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in a motion filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, identified the two girls by the pseudonyms "Jane Roe" and "Jane Poe."

"Jane Roe and Jane Poe seek a temporary restraining order to prohibit the federal government from continuing to block them from obtaining an abortion," the ACLU motion said.

"Both are 17-year-old unaccompanied immigrant minors who are currently in the federal government's legal custody, living in government-funded shelters," it said.

"Ms. Roe and Ms. Poe are pregnant and are resolute in their desire to have an abortion," the ACLU said.

The lawsuit is the second concerning abortion in just a few weeks pitting the ACLU against the administration of President Donald Trump.

Judge Tanya Chutkan, who heard the case on Monday, allowed another teenaged immigrant girl in federal custody to have an abortion in October.

"We've already stopped the Trump administration from blocking one young woman's abortion," ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri said in reference to the previous case.

"It's unreal that the federal government is trying to force more young women to continue their pregnancies against their will," Amiri said.

The US Supreme Court affirmed the right to abortion nationwide in 1973 but the landmark legislation has come under threat since Trump took office in January.

The nearly century-old ACLU has undertaken numerous legal challenges of the Trump administration.

seb/cl/dw

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UN slams Brazil bill that would ban all abortions

RIO DE JANEIRO - The United Nations on Monday voiced concern over a bill under consideration by Brazil's congress that would ban access to all abortions, even in cases of rape and women whose lives are in danger.

The bill "poses an increased risk to women's health," the UN Population Fund's Brazil office said in a statement.

Women in Brazil currently only have access to abortions when the pregnancy is a result of rape, their health is at risk, or in cases of the fetus having severe medical defects such as anencephaly, when most of the unborn child's brain is missing.

The new bill, which was green-lighted by a congressional committee two weeks ago, is seen as a "Trojan horse" by pro-choice activists.

Its initial goal was to extend maternity leave for mothers of premature babies, but ultra-conservative members of congress linked to evangelical churches inserted a clause stipulating that the right to life should be "inviolate from the moment of conception," which would deny access to abortions even for women who currently qualify.

The revised version of the bill "denies women the opportunity to decide on issues relating to matters that involve serious violations of their most basic rights ... doubly penalizing victims of sexual violence or women in vulnerable positions," the UN statement said.

The organization also denounced it as a "step back" which "distances Brazil from its international engagements" in terms of women's rights, and noted that backstreet abortions are "one of the leading causes of death in mothers in Brazil and around the world."

The bill is currently making its way through congress but faces a series of hurdles before it can become law. It must first be debated once again by the committee before a full vote in the lower house of congress, where it will need to gain the support of three-fifths of law-makers.

Demonstrations against the bill took place last week in a number of major cities in Brazil.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tens of thousands march for abortion rights in Ireland

DUBLIN - Tens of thousands of people marched in Dublin on Saturday to demand the loosening of some of the strictest abortion laws in the world ahead of a 2018 referendum on the issue.

Abortion remains a divisive issue in once stridently Catholic Ireland, where a complete ban on the procedure was only lifted in 2013 to allow terminations in cases where the mother's life was in danger.


In 2016 over 3,000 Irish women travelled to England for abortions, according to the British Department of Health, but activists say the real number is far higher.

The government has promised to hold a referendum next May or June, but it has yet to decide exactly what question to put to the Irish people.

The human rights arms of the United Nations and Council of Europe have pressed the government to decriminalise abortion and widen the law to allow for the procedure in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, rape or incest.

But pro-choice activists want a more liberal regime, closer to that of England, which allows terminations to be carried out up to 24 weeks after conception. Opinion polls show a large majority of voters want some change.

"Government ministers have suggested only the most restrictive terms will pass, but I think the people want more than that," said Sarah Murphy, a 26-year-old recruitment professional.

"Ireland is changing. I don't think you would have seen a march like this a few years ago," she said.

Like many at the march she was wearing a black jumper with the word Repeal in white, a reference to a campaign to repeal the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, which gives the unborn child equal rights to those of the mother.

A panel of citizens called together to advise government on the issue voted overwhelmingly that the eighth amendment should be changed.

An all-party committee in parliament is now considering those recommendations and is due to report to parliament by the end of the year.

Some of the crowd, which marched across the city before assembling outside the office of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, chanted "Get your rosaries off our ovaries" in reference to the influence the Catholic Church has long had on social policy in Ireland, while others held posters demanding "Repeal now."

The growing pro-choice movement is seen as a sign that the Catholic church, which has dominated Irish life for centuries, is continuing to lose influence.

Ireland was the first country to adopt gay marriage by popular vote in 2015, approving it by 62 percent to 38 percent despite the opposition of the church. (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pope Francis to allow all priests to forgive abortion

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis will give all priests discretion during the Roman Catholic Church's upcoming Holy Year to formally forgive women who have had abortions, in the Argentine pontiff's latest move towards a more open and inclusive church.

In Church teaching, abortion is such a grave sin that those who procure or perform it incur an automatic excommunication, which can only be lifted by designated church officials.

However, from Dec. 8 to Nov. 26, during an extraordinary Holy Year or "Jubilee" on the theme of mercy, all priests will be able to do so if the women repent "with a contrite heart", the pope said in a letter published by the Vatican on Tuesday.

Francis described the "existential and moral ordeal" faced by women who have terminated pregnancies and said he had "met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision".

The pope's letter did not mention those who perform abortions.

Francis is the first non-European pope in 1,300 years and has marked himself out for tolerance on taboo topics. Although he has shown no intention of retracting the Church's opposition to abortion, he has alarmed conservatives by taking a less forceful tone than his predecessors.

"This is by no means an attempt to minimize the gravity of this sin, but to widen the possibility of showing mercy," Vatican chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters.

Deputy Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini said that "for now" the change would apply only during the Holy Year.

Usually only a bishop, missionary or the chief confessor of a diocese can offer absolution for an abortion, Benedettini said, although bishops in countries such as the United States and Britain, have delegated this authority to parish priests.

Boston College theology professor James Bretzke said the Pope was "emphasizing mercy and not retribution ... embracing reconciliation and not excommunication".

Liberal group Catholics for Choice welcomed the move as a gesture of engagement with women, but said Catholic women in the United States have abortions at the same rate as non-Catholics, highlighting the gulf between religious teaching and real life.

"This is a pope who is not stuck in the pelvic zone, and perhaps his message on how he thinks about abortion is more for his brother bishops than Catholics in the pew," Catholics for Choice President Jon O'Brien said.

INDULGENCES

The Holy Year is one of the 1.2 billion-member church's most important events, and sees the faithful make pilgrimages to Rome and other religious sites. It takes place every 25 years unless a pope decrees an extraordinary one to bring attention to a particular topic or need.

Catholics performing pilgrimages or good works during the Holy Year can traditionally gain indulgences, or the remission of punishment for sins, under certain conditions.

Unlike in previous holy years, when pilgrims had to come to Rome, cathedrals and other religious venues around the world are expected to be designated national pilgrimage sites.

In his letter, the pope also said indulgences would be available to prisoners who cannot pass through the Holy Doors of the papal basilicas in Rome and the Vatican City, which are bricked up in non-Jubilee years.

Of prisoners, Francis said: "May the gesture of directing their thought and prayer to the Father each time they cross the threshold of their cell signify for them their passage through the Holy Door."

Holy Year activities will also be open to adherents of the ultra-traditionalist Roman Catholic splinter group known as the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).

The Swiss-based SSPX, which rejects some of the reforms made at the historic 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, defied Rome in 1988 by illegally consecrating four bishops, triggering their excommunication by the late Pope John Paul.

Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications in 2009 and made some concessions to the group. But one of the bishops, British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, caused an uproar by denying the Holocaust.

(Additional reporting by Philip Pullella,; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Crispian Balmer)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Abortion foes rally in Washington, spurred by pope

WASHINGTON - Thousands of marchers braved freezing temperatures in Washington on Wednesday to demand an end to abortion in the United States, with Pope Francis tweeting his support.

The annual March for Life marks the anniversary -- in this case the 41st -- of the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe versus Wade decision that effectively legalized abortion nationwide.

"We're pro-life because we believe in the rights of unborn children," March for Life president Jeanne Monahan told the crowd on the snow-covered National Mall, with the Capitol in the distance.

On Twitter, where he has three million followers in English, Pope Francis sent from the Vatican a message of support to the protesters, including large numbers of Roman Catholics.

"I join the March for Life in Washington with my prayers," said the pontiff, who last year denounced abortion as a symptom of today's "throw-away culture."

"May God help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable," he added.

US President Barack Obama, who has expressed admiration for some of the pope's messages and is due to meet him in Rome in March, is on the other side of the debate.

In a statement to mark the anniversary, the White House reaffirmed Obama's position that "every woman should be able to make her own choices about her body and her health.

"We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman's access to safe, affordable health care and her constitutional right to privacy, including the right to reproductive freedom," it said.

At the rally on the nearby Mall, speaker after speaker mourned the estimated 56 million fetuses which, they said, have been "brutally slayed" in American abortion clinics over the past four decades.

"Our society and our leaders must stop upholding abortion and start encouraging adoption," said Vicky Hartzler, a Republican congresswoman and Tea Party favorite from Missouri.

"Abortion hurts everyone," she declared.

Fifty-three percent of Americans support a woman's right, in consultation with her doctor, to decide whether or not to undergo an abortion, the principle enshrined by Roe versus Wade, according to a Gallup poll at the end of last year.

Twenty-nine percent want the Supreme Court ruling overturned, however, while 18 percent have no opinion on the matter -- the highest level since Gallup started asking the question in 1989.

Another poll, by YouGov.com for the Huffington Post website, found 47 percent supporting Roe versus Wade, 33 percent against and 20 percent "not sure."

But the anti-abortion movement -- underpinned by the Catholic church and social conservatives -- remains a political force to be reckoned with, not least with the 2016 presidential election looming.

Last year alone, 22 of the 50 states enacted a total of 70 abortion restrictions -- the greatest number in any year besides 2011, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a specialist think tank.

The issue, meanwhile. returned to the Supreme Court last week when its nine justices heard arguments over a Massachusetts law creating a buffer zone around abortion clinics targeted by pro-life activists.

Pro-abortion advocates cancelled plans for a counter-protest in Washington on Wednesday, citing the cold snap that followed a snowstorm Tuesday up and down the northeastern US coast.

On their stoppatriarchy.org website, they lashed out at what they called "a Christian fundamentalist-driven assault ... imperiling abortion, birth control, real sex education and women's lives."

In the pro-life crowd Wednesday, university graduate Kristin Hagelin, 21, attending her first March for Life, said her opposition to abortion took shape "quite recently" after her boyfriend proposed to her and she reflected on married life.

"A lot of people don't realize how horrible abortion is," she told AFP as she handed out "I Am the Pro-Life Generation" placards.

"Even just seeing pictures of what abortion is -- it's tearing a life apart."

From Pittsburgh, 57-year-old electrical engineer Don Kirkwood, a member of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, marched with a statue of the Virgin Mary, "a role model for all young mothers."

"It seems it's getting worse rather than better," he said when asked how he thought the struggle against abortion was going.

"Even Catholics in Congress and the Senate are not doing what good Catholics should do," he complained.

But Kirkwood, who has attended every March for Life for the past 20 years, added: "What I find encouraging are all the young people here."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

DJ Mo Cries Foul Over Ogie's Spoof Video

MANILA, Philippines — Few months ago, a quite telling video featuring DJ Mo Twister was leaked online by an “unknown source.” In his tweet below, DJ Mo described it as an “abortion video,” where he cried his heart out for supposedly losing this child. His ex-girlfriend, who opted to remain silent, was dragged into the issue. During the “Mr. and Mrs. A” concert of Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez, a video diary featuring Ogie that seemingly spoofed that of DJ Mo’s, was played.

DJ Mo Twister (@djmotwister) on what is classy:

“Just heard @ogiealcasid made fun of me crying in the abortion video. Classy move bud. Didnt you just have a child? Glad, its alive.”

“hey guys, dont worry bout it. i’m sure he got a good laugh out of it. a few kids dying is pretty fucking funny. unless its his @ogiealcasid.”

“thanks for offering an apology @ogiealcasid I texted you back, hope you got it.”

Ogie Alcasid (@ogiealcasid) on his apology to Mo:

“@djmotwister thanks for accepting the apology”

DJ Mo on his counter-apology:

“@ogiealcasid I’m sorry too for the tweets. My life turned upside down when the thing happened so I get defensive bout it. It is hard on me.”

Good thing that the good-natured Ogie offered his apologies immediately.

I just wonder, what’s running through the mind of Mo’s ex-girlfriend who was put to shame because of that video? Did Mo offer his apologies to her?

And, Mo, before crying foul over this, maybe should first find out who uploaded that video. Could it be him, or is it just me?

source: mb.com.ph