• • 40 Days for Life Prayer Campaign Saves 196 Babies From Abortion, So Far
• • Indiana Passes Bill to Make it Second State to Ban Abortions Based on Down Syndrome
• • Black Pastors Protest Planned Parenthood: "It Undermines the Morals of Our Community"

Since it's Leap Day ... here's something worth leaping for! During this 40 Days for Life campaign, we have reports of 196 children spared from abortion - that we know of!

We have seen a surprising number of situations this campaign where mothers with five or more children have shown up for abortion appointments.
Thankfully, these moms turned away.

Mother Teresa said, "How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers."

Our culture often views children as burdens to our time and money. But there is nothing burdensome about the joy, courage and sacrifice of mothers and fathers who put their children before the pressures of the world.  Their sacrifice is real - and so is their love.

Temple Terrace, Florida

Kim watched as an SUV pulled into the parking lot and a woman walked into the abortion center.

Over the course of the next hour, she came out ... and went back in. "A pastor from a local church was praying with me on the sidewalk," Kim said, "and I told him she is struggling."

Finally she came out and got in her car to drive away. "They slowed down when they drove past and I asked if I could give them a brochure - and they said yes."

They told Kim they didn't know what to do. They already had ten children. She was there for an abortion ... but just couldn't go through with it. They were thinking now of adoption.

Falls Church, Virginia

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An Indiana bill to protect unborn babies from being aborted simply because of a disability, race or sex is on its way to Gov. Mike Pence's desk this week.

The Indiana House gave final approval to House Bill 1337 on Wednesday in a 60-40 vote, sending it to the pro-life governor's desk, according to The Journal Gazette. The state senate passed the bill in February.

Indiana House Bill 1337 would ban abortion doctors from knowingly aborting an unborn baby solely because of a genetic disability such as Down syndrome, the unborn baby's race or sex. The bill also has several other abortion-related measures, including a requirement that aborted or miscarried babies' bodies be cremated or buried and another requirement that abortionists who have hospital admitting privileges renew them annually. The burial/cremation requirement backs up a law passed in 2015 by Gov. Pence requiring that aborted babies' bodies be disposed of in a humane way.

State Sen. Travis Holdman previously said the measure would basically make it "a criminal act" for an abortion doctor to knowingly end an unborn child's life because of discrimination against sex, race or disability.

Indiana state Sen. Liz Brown, who worked with Holdman on the measure, said previously that many families face pressure to abort from doctors or other health care professionals when their babies are diagnosed with an illness or disability in the womb. LifeNews has documented numerous cases of families saying the same thing.

"What we hear from doctors is - it would really be better off if you were not born," Brown said. "If you are born, we will love you, and we think you have equal rights and should be a member of society. In fact, we have the Americans with Disabilities Act and have to make accommodations. But we don't want to make the accommodation before you're born, and in fact, it would really be easier if you were not born."

On Wednesday, Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter praised the pro-life legislators for passing the bill.

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A pro-life group in Kentucky is working with a group of African-American pastors to protest Planned Parenthood's abortion practices this week.

The initiative follows Gov. Matt Bevin suing a new Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Louisville for allegedly performing 23 illegal abortions without a license from Dec. 3 to Jan. 28, LifeNews reported. The Courier-Journal reports the abortion clinic stopped doing abortions after Bevin's office sent a "cease and desist" order at the end of January.

Angela Minter, the head of Sisters for Life, a mostly black pro-life group, told WLKY news that they will join the pastors to protest the abortion clinic.

"Abortion undermines our community, and it undermines the morals of our community," Minter said. "But in addition to that, having abortions in our community also has had a disproportionate havoc on the black community."

LifeNews has previously reported on this phenomenon, with evidence that 79 percent of Planned Parenthood abortion facilities are located in minority neighborhoods.

Bradley Mattes of Life Issues Institute said, "This solid evidence is overwhelmingly convincing that Planned Parenthood's business model is to generate income from an increased number of abortions in minority neighborhoods."

Further evidence can be seen in New York City where more black babies are aborted than are born alive.

Minter said, "Abortion has become black genocide in this country," in support of Bevin's lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, from the Courier Journal. "Do we want Planned Parenthood out of the neighborhood? Yes! There are other organizations that provide help that don't kill babies."

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If this human breakthrough had occurred with embryonic stem cells, the front page stories would have screamed around the world.

But it was adult stem cells and so the reporting was muted. You see, the media still-after all these years-tend to judge the newsworthiness of a story based on whether a breakthrough is embryonic.

The story is sensational, nonetheless. Adult stem cells have cured blindness and may provide a splendid treatment for cataracts. From the Telegraph story:

This is great news. And the potential is really exciting:

In November 2014, Milena* arrived at the hospital in Štip, Macedonia, seeking an abortion. She was 40 years old, married with two children, and now, pregnant with twins. She was afraid, unable to see how she could care for two more children at her age.

In another time in Macedonia, the conclusion to Milena's story could easily have been abortion. Years of largely permissive abortion laws, a troubled economy, and an increasingly small average family size certainly may have produced that outcome.

But, a recently enacted law requiring counseling prior to an abortion positioned Daniela, a counselor from Macedonia's first pregnancy center, to help Milena.

Daniela was there to meet Milena the day she arrived at the hospital for an abortion. She opened Milena's eyes to assistance that was available to her-private and public alike. Not only does Daniela's pregnancy center, "Lydia: A Beating Heart," provide private assistance in the form of clothes, diapers and other material resources, the Macedonian government provides public assistance for having a third child.

Milena became overjoyed at the idea that she might be able to keep her babies. She told Daniela, "I have been praying that somehow God would stop me from having an abortion!"

As Daniela recalled, Milena left the hospital crying and hugging everyone in sight. Seven months later, Milena and her husband welcomed the twin babies, a boy and a girl, into the world.

An Opening through to the Crisis of Population Decline

In a small Balkan state where the norm is to have no more than two children, the prospect of four children is rare. According to the World Bank, Macedonia's fertility rate hovers at 1.5.

The Independent Balkan News Agency reports that since 1948, the number of babies born among the Slav Macedonian community has dropped by 50 percent. In response to the population decline, the government pays a monthly sum of 135 Euros for 15 years for families who have a third child.

As the government seeks ways to respond to its population decline, it is simultaneously enacting stronger regulations of abortions.