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​With President Trump’s recent appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, questions regarding the nomination revolve mostly around abortion. The question many are asking is, “What would happen if Roe were overturned?”
 
As a life-affirming ministry, we believe a Supreme Court shift toward defending innocent life is a major step forward, but it may not be what some believe.
 
Many in the abortion lobby claim abortion would suddenly become illegal across the country, but this is not the case. In truth, overturning Roe would most likely send the question of abortion back to individual states, which could then create their own laws or restrictions.
 
In our state of California, most experts believe that abortion will remain legal.  But regardless of what might happen in California or across the country, here is what we know:
 
We will be a source of accurate information.
 
Should Roe be overturned, it is important that all of us understand the ramifications of the Court’s decision. Because of the nature of our work, we will continue to provide factual, accurate information regarding how any ruling affects our clients, and our community.
 
The need for Silent Voices will only grow.
 
Should abortion remain legal here in California, it is still likely more women will seek our services. As always, we will serve anyone who comes in our door with positive options, providing hope for those challenged by an unplanned pregnancy.
 
Should abortion become more limited, we are committed to expanding our life-affirming services. Our mission is not dependent on whether abortion is legal; we are focused on serving those facing unplanned pregnancies in any political climate.
 
We are in this for the long haul!
 
With or without Roe, our mission is about loving, assisting and reaching out to those in challenging situations. As long as there is a need, we are here. We’re thankful for your support, because it is you who partner with us, reaching out to those who come our way.
 
While the nation watches the Supreme Court, we come to our offices each day, ready to listen, and prepared to serve anyone who asks for our help.
 
Please pray for Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his family. They will be put through the fire during this confirmation process.

A shocking new poll from Gallup indicates strong public support for the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
The poll found a full 62 percent of American view the billion-dollar abortion “non-profit” favorably, the strongest supporters being women and young adults.
But the poll also found that 52 percent of people who attend religious services at least once a month view the abortion chain favorably, while 43 percent do not. Even 36 percent of people who identify as pro-life said they have a favorable opinion of Planned Parenthood, according to the poll.
The strongest opposition comes from Republicans, 63 percent of whom view the abortion giant unfavorably.
Gallup commented on the data:
The nation has been nearly evenly divided on the issue of abortion in Gallup polling in recent years, with less than a majority identifying as either “pro-choice” or “pro-life” each time the question has been asked since 2009. But Planned Parenthood, though prominently identified with the pro-choice side of the debate, is viewed favorably by majorities of most major demographic groups — including men and women, all age groups, all levels of education and all income levels.
Notably, however, Planned Parenthood’s favorable rating “is down sharply from the two times it was measured more than two decades ago, when roughly eight in 10 viewed it favorably,” according to the polling group.
The biggest shift happened within political parties. While Democrats’ favorable opinion of Planned Parenthood has not changed much in the past two decades, Republicans’ and independents’ opinions have changed drastically.
According to the polling group:
In the 1993 poll, more than two-thirds (69%) of Republicans had a favorable opinion of Planned Parenthood, along with 83% of independents and 91% of Democrats. By 2015, Gallup polling showed only 35% of Republicans with a favorable view, and favorable views among independents had dropped to 56%. Among Democrats, there was a smaller decline to 82%. Now Democrats are almost back to the 1993 level at 89%, while the views of Republicans and independents have not changed significantly over the past three years.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion chain in America, aborting about 320,000 unborn babies every year. Its most recent annual report showed a record income of $1.46 billion, with about half a billion dollars coming from taxpayers.
In the past 10 years, the abortion chain saw huge drops in patient numbers and actual health services and scandal after scandal involving aborted baby body parts harvesting, sexual abuse cover-ups, Medicaid fraud and more. The U.S. Department of Justice currently is investigating whether Planned Parenthood illegally sold aborted baby body parts. Meanwhile, its abortion numbers and taxpayer funding increased.
The abortion giant operates a huge, well-funded communications department that constantly crafts new ways to draw attention away from its deadly abortion business. This coupled with multi-million dollar donations from some of the richest old white men in the world and massive political donations have helped the abortion chain stay afloat.

​Watch your energy use and costs with email or text alerts from SDG&E. Energy alerts can help you set monthly spending goals, track your progress and get automated alerts to stay in control and on budget. Alerts you can sign up for include:

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• A weekly energy use summary with all this information plus energy saving tips

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To learn more, visit sdge.com/alerts.

​Get the money you deserve! Do you earn $22,300 or less? Have you lived in California for more than half of the year? You may be eligible for the expanded California Earned Income Tax Credit. Visit CalEITc4Me.org to find out how much in state and federal earned income tax credits you may be able to receive just for filing your tax returns. Find out if you’re eligible for the Credit on this online calculator or check out this infographic. The website is also available in Spanish, Mandarin and Vietnamese. And while on the website, find free tax preparation in your community. 

The State of California passed a bill in 2015 that would require us to post notices promoting abortion.  In our minds, this was clearly a violation of our First Amendment rights - and appealed the bill to the 9th Circuit Court, which, not surprisingly, held up the bill as constitutional.  It finally landed at the Supreme Court's doors yesterday, and was heard by the Justices.

​We are cautiously optimistic that this bill will be overturned by SCOTUS.  All of the Justices - across "party lines" - expressed skepticism about the constitutionality of the bill.  Now that they've heard the case it will be several months before they issue a verdict - we expect to hear from them by sometime in June.

​Please continue to pray that this bill is overturned!

As parents, the clearest way to communicate love and care to our children is to spend time with them. Find 30 minutes a day to spend undistracted time with your child(ren), especially your teenagers. It doesn't need to be fancy or planned. Simply ask what they want to do, and spend some time joining them! It could be as simple as playing a video game together, helping with homework, listening to music, dicussing a book, taking a walk, or going to the gym. These times will provide opportunity to have discussions about sex and relationships and strengthen your family bond. It also shows your child(ren) that you love and care for them and will always be there for them. Even if it's difficult to fit in, it's probably the most important 30 minutes of your day!   

By JENNIFER HABERKORN

A senior Trump health official who has promoted abstinence will be the final arbiter of which groups receive federal family planning funds — a change from prior years, when a group of officials made the decision, POLITICO has learned.

Conservatives have long criticized the $286 million Title X program, which funds family planning services, mostly for low-income women, because it gives money to Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions, even though there is a prohibition on using those dollars for abortions.

Now, for the first time since 1987, the final decision of who gets the funding will be in the hands of one person — Valerie Huber, the acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs at HHS, a longtime advocate of abstinence.

Prior to joining the Trump administration, Huber was president and CEO of Ascend, a national organization that promoted “sexual risk avoidance” — a term she used instead of abstinence — among young people. Huber also managed the Ohio Department of Health’s sexual risk avoidance program from 2004 to 2007.

Women’s health advocates on the other side of the debate fear that the Trump administration will funnel money away from groups that provide contraception and toward crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion or groups that promote abstinence-only education.

"This is unprecedented, and has dangerous implications,” said Kashif Syed, a senior analyst at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “We’re talking about a program that 4 million people rely on for basic reproductive health care — or in many cases, their only form of health care. Now is not the time to play politics with people’s lives — but that’s exactly what the Trump-Pence administration is doing.”

Planned Parenthood treats about 41 percent of Title X patients but did not say how much total funding it gets through the program.

An HHS official this week confirmed the change in decision-making authority in response to questions from POLITICO.

HHS has been working since 2013 to “streamline administrative function” for Title X to bring it in line with other grants from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, according to an HHS spokesperson. “The selection process in the funding opportunity announcement has been updated to reflect that the office head, in this case, the [deputy assistant secretary for population affairs], will make the final selections,” the spokesperson said.

The policy change was little noticed when the Trump administration announced the new Title X application process last month, but a close review of this year’s application, compared with prior years, shows a change in decision-making.

Since 1987 and until now, final decisions were made by a regional health official along with the HHS deputy assistant secretary for population affairs and the assistant secretary for health, according to language in applications distributed in prior years.

Prior to 1987, the deputy assistant secretary had responsibility for funding decisions, according to an HHS spokesperson.

The shift comes on top of other Title X policy changes: Administration officials have stressed the importance of abstinence education and downplayed the role of all FDA-approved forms of contraception.

They mark the latest administration moves against Obama-era policies in support of contraception. The administration recently eliminated funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and reversed the Obamacare requirement that most employers provide contraception in their employee health plans.

Huber believes public health officials should normalize the idea of delaying sex, according to a statement her organization wrote in 2016.

“As public health experts and policy makers, we must normalize sexual delay more than we normalize teen sex, even with contraception,” Huber said in the statement while at Ascend. “We believe youth deserve the best opportunity for a healthy future.”

Huber has criticized American culture in general and Planned Parenthood specifically for “normalizing” sex among teens and for glossing over the risks of sex before marriage.

“We think it’s very important for teens to know that even if they use a condom or contraception, that doesn’t make sex safe. It doesn’t mean they won’t get pregnant. It doesn’t mean they won’t have an STD. It doesn’t mean they won’t have any negative consequences,” she said in a 2012 speech to the Bringing America Back to Life symposium. “We think that young people need to know information that is going to help them make the best decision — and that best decision is to wait.”

Syed criticized Huber for backing abstinence pledges and imposing her opposition to birth control on other people.

“The Trump-Pence administration is handing the future of the country’s program for affordable birth control over to a woman who wants to mandate abstinence pledges,” Syed said. “Valerie Huber has called abstinence an anti-poverty program, and has made it clear she will impose her beliefs on people no matter how many get hurt in the process.”

Title X applications are due in May, and grants will be rolled out in September. As in prior years, Title X applications will be reviewed by an independent review panel, which is typically made up of public health experts.

The applications will then go to Huber, according to the language in the funding announcement.

Huber said a conference call with reporters last month that Planned Parenthood is welcome to apply for funding. But she stressed that she wants to expand the reach of Title X.

"This is a program that’s important to the administration, and we think it’s really important to make some meaningful changes to extend the coverage of the program," Huber said.

​SOURCE

Fathers are the forgotten people in the abortion equation.

As LifeNews blogger Lauren Enriquez has written, “With the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 came the legalization of the ultimate usurper of fatherhood: abortion.”

“America faces the unpleasant reality that, thanks to abortion and the sexual revolution, the role of fatherhood has rapidly made an about-face. Fatherhood has gone from being an unquestioned ingredient in family life to a variable that occurs in the family dynamic only when circumstances are aligned just right,” she writes.

With that in mind, consider this tragic and heartbreaking story Mike & Kathy Forck of the 40 Days for Life campaign in Columbia, Missouri.

"It was almost time to leave.  It had been an unusually cold afternoon and as the clean cut young man walked over to me, I wondered what he would say.

"He stopped, he looked at Columbia Planned Parenthood and he said, 'Thank you for being here.'

"He wanted to say something else it seemed and then he blurted out, 'My baby died there.'  His face changed to one of sorrow.

"He told his story quickly–he didn’t want the abortion, his girlfriend did and even though he begged her, she would not listen to him.  It happened about seven years ago, just when we began our prayer vigils in Columbia.  He did not come with her and I told him how they lined the  women up outside on the sidewalk and off duty policemen checked them in and took away their phones.  Just for a second, he seemed to have compassion for the mother of his child.  Maybe she too had second thoughts.

"He told how he had come to Jesus a couple of weeks before she found out she was pregnant and she was heading the opposite direction.  This clean cut, well mannered, nicely dressed young man had been a drug dealer in the neighborhood and somehow Jesus saved him, not once, but twice when the grief of the loss of his child was unbearable.

"He said he could hardly wait to be a father–he is married now and looks forward to being a dad.  I gently reminded him that he is a dad; and that his child is in heaven and that with God’s grace, he would meet him some day.  I told him that his baby knew he wanted him– that he tried to save him and that his baby loved him.  He left with something to think about–his fatherhood and the child that he has never forgotten somehow seemed more real to him.

"The loss he suffered will be with him the rest of his life. I think how sometimes God brings them to the sidewalk looking for healing and comfort and how all of us are there for them–with love and never judgment.  I thank God that I was there that day and that the sidewalk wasn’t empty.  God truly works in mysterious ways."

​Source