Welcome to The Vine, where every week I strive to bring you updates from around the pro-life community to help you keep up with the ever constant battle to save lives. If you aren’t plugged-in, it is my sincere hope that The Vine will allow you to get familiar with those on the front lines and find your place among them.

In 2010, the national pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) decided to invest in billboards in Ohio to inform voters that former Rep. Steve Driehaus supported taxpayer-funded abortion through his vote for the Affordable Care Act. However, due to an Ohio law concerning “false statements,” Driehaus attempted to stop SBA List from telling the truth about him. Now, 4 years and one US Supreme Court case later, SBA List has finally won their legal battle for free speech.

The irony of SBA List having to fight to tell the truth about pro-abortion candidates is how often Planned Parenthood engages in lying about pro-life candidates. In the latest example, Planned Parenthood of Iowa has launched attack ads on television claiming pro-life candidate Joni Ernst is anti-woman. According to Life News, Planned Parenthood is spending $450,000 on the ad, which shows women at dinner discussing the upsetting idea that Ernst would defund Planned Parenthood; because nothing says we don’t have enough money than spending $450,000 on one ad in one state.

According to a recent GAO report, Obamacare plans to add to Planned Parenthood’s coffers with taxpayer funds. Confirming the long-held suspicions of pro-life groups, as reported by National Right To Life News, “the report found that more than one thousand federally subsidized exchange plans currently cover elective abortion.” In response to the Obama administration’s largest effort to force taxpayers to fund abortion, members of the House and pro-life leaders, including Americans United for Life, gathered to urge Congress to pass H.R. 7, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act.”

While lawmakers work to stop the government from funding abortion, news of unsafe facilities and criminal activities continue to make the case for them. In Michigan, abortionist Robert Alexander has earned the nickname, “Gosnell of Michigan” for the horrendous conditions found within his clinic, which included splattered blood left on a suction machine. As detailed at Life News, despite his dirty clinic, history of jail time and previously having his license revoked, Alexander still has an active medical license. In Indiana, according to Operation Rescue, the Attorney General has filed four complaints against abortionists for numerous violations; including failing to report suspected child sexual abuse after performing abortions on girls as young as 13 years old. Covering up sex abuse is, tragically, the norm at Planned Parenthood clinics. In a new report by Life Dynamics, failure to report the sex abuse of underage girls has been found across the nation. The results are an epidemic of sex abuse against children in which Planned Parenthood is a willing partner.

Fortunately, those fighting against such evils are tireless and, around the world, will soon be gathering together for this year’s 40 Days for Life campaign. Starting on September 24, members of the pro-life community will be participating in 40 days of prayer, fasting, community outreach and peaceful vigils at abortion clinics around the world. 40 Days for Life is the largest international effort to end abortion and has made an enormous impact on the world for life. Since their beginning in 2007, nearly 9,000 lives have been saved, 101 abortion workers have quit and 54 abortion facilities have closed. This week’s Branch for Life goes to 40 Days for Life. I hope you will get involved this year, you can find a vigil location in your community here.

Until next week, I pray blessings for you and for all committed to life in The Vine. Please feel free to email or tweet me with any stories you’d like to see covered or any organizations you’d like to see as the Branch For Life!

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