The movie, which premiered last week in Des Moines, promotes a strategy of pursuing federal legislation that would grant civil rights to fetuses, on the grounds that their equal protection rights are protected by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, an idea championed by current presidential contender Newt Gingrich.

In a recent article, two physicians argue that the film is problematic because, in medicine, physicians must learn to separate their personal feelings from those of their patients.

Via ReligionDispatches.com:

Dr. Anthony Levatino, interviewed at length in the film, is an OB/GYN who formerly performed abortions. Levatino and his wife had fertility problems and were seeking to adopt a child; at one point he describes his regret as he was performing a first trimester abortion while he and his wife were undertaking that process. They eventually adopted a child who was later tragically killed after being hit by a car. Levatino describes a second trimester abortion he performed after the death of his daughter, after which he concludes about his patient, “I didn’t see her wonderful right to choose and I didn’t see what a great doctor I was helping her with her problem pregnancy.”

The Gift of Life draws on Levatino’s personal tragedy to portray his decision to stop performing abortions as a policy answer, rather than an individual, understandable response to grief. Dr. Daniel Grossman, senior associate at Ibis Reproductive Health, told me, “It is true that abortion providers often have conflicting feelings about the work we do.” But, he went on, “most of us have those feelings and are able to separate our personal feelings from those of our patients and what they need and want to do with their current pregnancy.”

Dr. Douglas Laube, Board Chair of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, echoed this view, describing Levatino’s reaction as “normal” given his circumstances, but noting that his patient’s reaction was not discussed. “I see it as a disconnect,” said Laube. “It does not connect logically with a reason not to support the right to choose. It’s his feelings versus her right to choose.”

Laube goes on to argue that the film peddles several abortion falsehoods, such as a claim that all fetuses feel pain and that abortion providers attempt to maximize the number of abortion procedures they perform, in order to profit from them:

The anti-choice activist Carol Everett claims she once worked for an abortion provider that aimed to perform three to five abortions on 13-18 year old girls so they would be accustomed to using abortion as a birth control method into adulthood. Dr. Laube called these claims “pure nonsense,” “pure fiction,” and “really a stretch.” He noted that abortion comprises 3-5% of Planned Parenthood’s budget, and that abortion is “certainly not a money-maker. At best, it’s a break-even.”

The fetal personhood movement, which aims to define life from the moment of conception, has swept the country in recent years. Personhood initiatives have cropped up in many states — most notably in Mississippi, where a personhood amendment was recently rejected by voters despite support from state policy-makers. In Florida, personhood organizers have told The Florida Independent that they are currently working toward placing an amendment on the state’s 2014 ballot.

In an interview conducted last month, Laube told the Independent that attempts to define human life from the moment of conception “flies in the face of common sense” and could have “wide-reaching impact to access to women’s health: cancer treatment, fertility treatment, birth control.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (FLORIDA INDEPENDENT/ Cooper Levey-Baker) 

The battle over Medicare has hit the airways in Iowa, as a group dedicated to fighting cuts to the popular government program has begun buying TV ads in Des Moines.

The Partnership to Protect Medicare spent $39,390 at the local CBS and NBC affiliates in Des Moines between Nov. 5 and Nov. 8. The bi-partisan, 501(c)4 non-profit was formed in 2011.

The ad asks viewers to call U.S. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Ames) and “thank him for protecting seniors at their greatest time of need.”

“Medicare represents a promise made to Americans that they will have access to quality affordable health care as they age or if they become disabled,” the group’s website reads.

It’s not the first issue-based group to buy ads in the state in recent months. The National Popular Vote initiative spent $62,890 in the state in October, and American Petroleum had bought $49,403 worth of ads in the state since late April.

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) continues to buy ads in the Des Moines network TV market, with spots scheduled to run through Nov. 13 at the local CBS affiliate.

Paul has so far spent $190,313 at KCCI and local NBC affiliate WHO, more than any other candidate. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty spent the second most at the stations, racking up $166,511 worth of ads during his abbreviated presidential run.

Coming in third is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who’s spent $104,179 at the two stations since late October. Make Us Great Again, a super PAC supporting Perry, has also begun buying ads in Des Moines.

Still noticeably absent the ad buy race with less than two months to go before the Jan. 3 Iowa Caucuses are former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, businessman Herman Cain and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) also hasn’t purchased any ads yet.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) hasn’t bought ads since mid-August and has spent just $35,138.

Another banner supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement appeared over Interstate 235 near downtown Des Moines on Monday morning, at least the third such “banner drops” seen in the last month over the major thoroughfare.

A member of Occupy Des Moines claimed responsibility for the banners last month, and at that point said more “drops” would be done. Today’s banner on a walkway spanning the roadway simply read “Occupy.”

The group in mid-October placed a banner reading “www.occupydsm.org” on a bike trail across I-235 between 42nd Street and Polk Boulevard.

And on Oct. 24 the group put up banners on two consecutive westbound bridges near downtown. The first read “banks got bailed out,” and the second “we got sold out.”

Occupy Des Moines is hoping to attract occupiers from around the country to descend on the state in advance of the Jan. 3 Iowa Caucuses. One member of the group, Ed Fallon, said last week there’s a good chance of that happening.

The three men spoke Saturday evening at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s 11th annual fall banquet in Des Moines. About 1,000 people turned out for the event at a cost of $55 a plate, and all major Republican presidential candidates spoke except for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Steve Scheffler

Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, described the event as “the beginning of the end of the socialist agenda that permeates Washington, D.C.” He is also a Republican National Committeeman.

“We are going to be soldiers marching into battle, and the great crowd tonight is indicative that we are alive and well and on the march,” he said.

And Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, said this is a “fight between freedom and government’s insatiable appetite to grow.”

“I’m here because I’m concerned about the future of this country,” he said. “I believe that we’re in a battle for freedom.”

Ralph Reed (photo by Dave Davidson, TEApublican.com)

Ralph Reed, chairman of the national Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the group plans to distribute 40 million voting guides in evangelical and pro-family churches over the next year. There are also plans to compile a voter profile containing 27 million names, with each person being contacted seven to 12 times.

“Friends, we’re going to turn out the largest, most enthusiastic and the most dynamic pro-life, pro-family vote in the history of this country, and when we do America is going to be restored to greatness,” Reed said.

He said 55 to 60 percent of Republican caucusgoers in Iowa are evangelical Christians, and about 44 percent of all Republican primary voters identify as evangelical as well. The “pundits and pollsters continue to be confounded” by that, he said.

“We know sometimes we bring forward issues that others might prefer not to talk about, but we are compelled to do so,” Reed said. “Like the fact that every human being is made in the image of all-mighty God and that every life is sacred from conception to natural death and is worthy of our love and protection.”

Wednesday about a dozen of the demonstrators appeared before a judge in Polk County District Court. Most pleaded not guilty, but a handful opted to plead guilty and pay a fine of $317 for the simple misdemeanor.

Sally Frank, a law professor at Drake University and member of the National Lawyers Guild, is providing legal support to the demonstrators. She has submitted jury demands and expects the demonstrators to represent themselves with assistance at trial.

Frank said a total of 37 people were arrested on Oct. 10, as well as two juveniles. A date has not yet been set for the jury trial.

“If the state chooses to violate people’s First Amendment rights by making unlawful arrests it will have to prove it’s case against people who will exercise all of their rights within the system,” said Frank.

Megan Felt opted not to plead guilty on Wednesday, saying “our brutal arrest epitomizes the profound inequality and injustice of our governing system.”

“When average citizens get thrown in jail for participating in democracy and exercising our First Amendment rights, while big banks like Wells Fargo can crash the economy, kick people out of their homes and walk away with record profits and get a get out of jail free card, that’s not right,” she said.

Joe Fagan of Des Moines was one of those that pleaded guilty, although he was not apologetic for his actions. He said he was “there for a reason,” and blamed the country’s economic woes on financial institutions that “lied to people.”

“I plead guilty to trespassing, to being on the wrong side of some dotted line someplace, but I know in my heart what I did was the right thing to do,” Fagan said.

Dozens of demonstrators were arrested Oct. 9 for refusing to leave the State Capitol grounds after the 11 p.m. closing time. Many of them are contesting their arrests and have asked for a jury trial, saying their First Amendment rights were violated.

The group, including a “chain gang” of about 10 demonstrators, marched to Wells Fargo’s downtown Des Moines offices after gathering at the courthouse, where a sign on the door said the building was closed “due to an emergency.”

Check back later for a story on what happened in court.

The invitation differs little from those that have gone out previously to Iowa pastors and church leaders. It reads:

Iowa Renewal Project cordially invites you to participate in its Pastors’ Policy Briefing, “Rediscovering God in America,” with special guests historian David Barton, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the honorable Bob McEwen and Governor Rick Perry, who will be accompanied by Pastor Ken Graves, Pastor Jason Taylor, attorney Kelly Shackelford, Dr. Don Wildmon and other guest speakers.

Gingrich was also a participant of a Pastors’ Policy Briefing held in Des Moines this past March. Others who appeared at that time — U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour — do not appear to be scheduled for a repeat performance at the upcoming two-day conference at the downtown Marriott. To his credit, this is hardly the first time that Gingrich has appeared at such an event in Iowa or elsewhere. Long before he began his quest for the White House, Gingrich was speaking at Pastors’ Policy Briefings and appeared beside Huckabee at one in Des Moines in 2007.

Although Perry has previously attended such meetings in his home state of Texas, this seems to the first time he will address members of the Iowa clergy. According to our sister site, The Texas Independent, Perry was scheduled to join Focus on the Family’s James Dobson and others during a Florida Pastors’ Policy Briefing. David Lane, a California-based activist who organized that event as well as Perry’s controversial religious conservative event “The Response” earlier this year, said other 2012 candidates had also been invited to speak in Florida.

“Meals and lodging are complimentary,” states the invitation, “and will be provided by the Iowa Renewal Project.”

It isn’t the first time that Iowa pastors have been invited to the state capital for a “Rediscovering God in America” policy briefing, and it also isn’t the first time that Iowa clergy have received marching orders from the Iowa Renewal Project.

According to invitation documents uncovered previously by The Iowa Independent, at least 14 states have had “renewal project” events. An invitation to a 2007 New Hampshire Renewal Project indicates the event in that state was “its first ever” and featured social conservatives Tim and Beverly LaHaye and evangelical historian Barton. The New Hampshire event was held just weeks before the Granite State held its first-in-the-nation primary.

Shortly after the New Hampshire affair, then Louisiana Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal held a “Pastors’ Inaugural Prayer Breakfast” that was hosted by the Louisiana Renewal Project. In addition to Jindal and social conservatives featured in the upcoming Iowa program, Perry was also listed as an attendee.

At least 13 states have played host to “renewal project” gatherings: California (twice, one being specific to San Diego), Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Louisiana and South Carolina. Although many speakers remain the same from state to state, special guests have include Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Col. Oliver North, Jerry Falwell and U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint.

What goes on behind the closed doors of the conferences isn’t well known. At the beginning of a 2007 conference in Des Moines, a speaker began the program by announcing the meeting was private and intended only for the members of clergy and church leaders present. In no uncertain terms, members of the media were told to leave. It was at that same conference, through the ballroom doors, that another speaker could be heard telling those in attendance to “set your pulpits on fire” and place the fear of God into congregants in relation to the upcoming 2008 election as well as government policy discussions on education and a wide variety of issues traditionally championed by the religious right such as marriage and abortion.

An insert that arrived with an invitation to Iowa pastors and church leaders to participate in a November 2011 Pastors’ Policy Briefing in Des Moines. Click to enlarge.

An insert included with the latest invitation appears to be little more than a copy-paste production of that attributed to Huckabee that was distributed earlier this year, which was nearly identical to wording by Perry that was included in an invitation to a Texas Restoration Project event years earlier. For this conference, however, the dialogue (shown in the accompanying graphic) is supposedly coming “from the desk of David Barton.”

Others named on the Iowa invitation are:

Ken Graves — founder and pastor of Calvary Chapel near Bangor, Maine. During the lead-up to a 2009 ballot question on same-sex marriage, Graves produced and distributed a 30-second ad that urged residents to overthrow a law passed by Maine lawmakers and signed by its governor that allowed same-sex marriage.

“You see these commercial of two happy moms, or two happy dads and happy siblings — when in fact they are not happy families. They are depressed,” Graves told reporter Joe Garofoli before admitting that he didn’t actually know any gay couples. Graves said he relies on the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family for his information about homosexuality.

Ultimately, 53 percent of Maine voters chose to overturn the law.

Don Wildmon — is the founder and serves as chairman emeritus of the Mississippi-based American Family Association, which bankrolled Bob Vander Plaats’ opposition of the Iowa Supreme Court. Wildmon was ordained as a United Methodist Church minister in 1964, but left the calling roughly a decade later to campaign against immorality by founding the National Federation for Decency in 1977. The organization was renamed the American Family Association in 1988. Following a lengthy hospital stay in 2009 and surgery for eye cancer, Wildmon stepped down as leader of the AFA, basically turning over the organization to his son, Tim Wildmon.

Kelly Shackelford — has been, since 1997, the president and chief executive of Plano, Texas-based Liberty Institute, a merger of the Free Market Foundation and the Liberty Legal Institute. Earlier this summer, Shackelford offered his signature to an open letter to “Conservative, Catholic and Evagelical Leaders” organized by right-wing activist and former California lawmaker Steve Baldwin. The letter asked the church leaders to refuse to support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign for president, stating “a Romney candidacy would be disastrous for the conservative movement and for the country” and noting that Romney “continues to support many aspects of the homosexual agenda even today.” Shackelford was also a speaker at a similar 2008 Texas event that also featured Perry.

Participants and supporters of the Occupy Des Moines movement — a loosely-knit group that generally objects to perceived ongoing political and economic inequalities — are currently meeting to discuss a possible path ahead if their permit, state officials say was only issued for a three-day time period, expires at 11 p.m. Individuals who have been providing outreach for the demonstrators are reaching out to their networks today, requesting that supporters contact Gov. Terry Branstad’s office regarding the permit and also meet at “People’s Park” at 6 p.m. for more discussion.

As they have previously attempted, demonstrators hope to attain a “critical mass” of activists in the park at 11 p.m. to deter possible arrests or other action from the Iowa State Patrol, which is tasked with upholding order on the grounds. Such a move, however, was unsuccessful Sunday night when several dozen demonstrators were arrested for trespassing.

Caleb Hunter, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, told reporter Rob Boshart that the agency has typically held a policy of not allowing groups to hold a permit for statehouse grounds activities for a period longer than three days.

Demonstrators have erected several tents on the property since receiving their permit and, by accounts on social networking sites, have no intention of ending their activities.