In a message that appeared on Planned Parenthood Action Fund's YouTube page, Obama promised to work throughout his presidency to protect government funding for the organization.

The president said he knows Planned Parenthood "will continue providing care no matter what. I know you'll never stop fighting to protect the health care and the choices that America's women deserve. As long as I have the privilege of being your president, neither will I."

He also said, "ver the past year, you've had to stand up to politicians who wanted to deny millions of women the care they rely on and inject themselves into decisions that are best made between a woman and her doctor."

The action fund is the advocacy and political arm for Planned Parenthood.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted last year to eliminate federal funds for Planned Parenthood, but the Senate defeated the proposal.

Planned Parenthood affiliates reported performing 329,445 abortions in 2010, the latest year for which statistics are available. Planned Parenthood and its affiliates received $487.4 million in government grants, contracts and reimbursements alone in 2009-10.

A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee is conducting an investigation into Planned Parenthood's policies and practices. Undercover investigations by pro-life organizations in recent years have shown Planned Parenthood employees demonstrating a willingness to aid self-professed sex traffickers whose prostitutes supposedly were in their early teens, seeking to cover up alleged child sex abuse and agreeing to receive donations designated for abortions of African American babies.

700 BABIES SAVED IN '40 DAYS FOR LIFE' -- More than 700 unborn children were saved from abortion in the 40 Days for Life campaign that concluded April 1.

As of April 3, 40 Days leaders had received reports of 718 babies rescued in the latest effort. The reported number of babies saved likely will increase as more reports come in. The effort, which began in Texas in 2004 and went national in 2007, has received reports of more than 5,700 unborn lives saved as a result of its campaigns.

The 40-day effort -- which focuses on peaceful, pro-life prayer vigils outside abortion clinics -- was the largest spring campaign in 40 Days for Life's history, with initiatives in 258 cities in the United States, plus sites in Canada, Australia, England, Ireland and Spain.

Shawn Carney, 40 Days campaign director, reported the following developments in the last week of the campaign:

-- Three more abortion clinic workers left their jobs, bringing this spring's total to eight and the overall total since 2007 to 69.

-- A 40 Days volunteer in Charlotte, N.C., reported five more babies saved for a total of 46 during the spring campaign.

-- A 40 Days volunteer at an unnamed location shared the following testimony: "I had my first abortion at age 14 and hardly knew what it meant -- then another through the following years, still not understanding that it was true lives being terminated. When a friend talked me out of a fourth at age 23, it was the best thing my friend could have done. My one and only son is now 18 and graduating high school. It was the best decision I ever made."

-- A participant in Pensacola, Fla., said five more children were saved at the city's last abortion clinic.

The semi-annual 40 Days campaigns consist of 40 days of prayer and fasting to end abortion, as well as community outreach and the prayer vigils outside clinics.

LOTTERY IS 'SUICIDAL CRAZE,' PASTOR SAYS -- As the frenzy ensued over the record-breaking $656 million Mega Millions drawing in late March, a pastor warned would-be winners not to tithe their lottery money at his church.

"Christ does not build his church on the backs of the poor. Pray that Christ's people will be so satisfied in him that they will be freed from the greed that makes us crave to get rich," John Piper, preaching pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, wrote at desiringgod.org March 30.

Lottery agents in New York reportedly were selling 1.3 Mega Millions tickets per hour the day before the drawing of the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history. On average, more than $500 per American household is spent on lottery tickets each year.

Piper gave seven reasons why people should not play the lottery and should ask their political representatives not to support it. Among them, "It is a kind of embezzlement."

"Managers don't gamble with their Master's money," Piper wrote. "All you have belongs to God. All of it. Faithful trustees may not gamble with a trust fund. They have no right. The parable of the talents says Jesus will take account of how we handled his money."

Playing the lottery is a fool's errand, Piper said, noting the odds of winning were nearly 176 million-to-one. "The smaller amounts paid out more often are like a fog to keep you from seeing what is happening," he wrote. Continued...