Life Advocacy Briefing

Marching on Washington

PRO-LIFE CITIZENS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY will travel to Washington next weekend for the March for Life, which each year marks the tragic Jan. 22 anniversary of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton edicts which usurped the sovereignty of the American people and commercialized abortion in the United States.

Participants will rally at noon Monday, Jan. 22, west of the Capitol at 7th Street & the Mall and march down Constitution Avenue to the Capitol and Supreme Court. Between 9 a.m. and noon, pro-life students will fan out over Capitol Hill delivering red rose messages to each Member of Congress and Senate, the Supreme Court, and the President and Vice President. The day will close with the 25th annual Rose Dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, site of a pre-March conference which opens Saturday evening and continues Sunday afternoon, featuring outstanding pro-life speakers and opportunities for networking with fellow pro-life citizens.

Further information and conference registration information may be obtained by contacting the March for Life at 1-202/LIFE-377 (543-3377) or by visiting the organizers’ Internet website at www.marchforlife.org.

Opening Gambit

THE U.S. HOUSE VOTED THURSDAY TO KILL HUMAN EMBRYOS for experimentation at the expense of the taxpayers. Two roll calls related to the measure were the first abortion-related votes of the 110th Congress.

HR-3 passed on a 259-to-178 vote. Two years ago, the same bill, under the number HR-810, passed 238 to 194, during a full debate May 24 on a variety of approaches to biomedical experimentation. This time the utilitarian measure was debated and passed during the opening days of the new Congress, with no alternatives and no amendments permitted.

Debate opened with a speech by the House Minority Leader, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), who laid out the case against the measure and decried its staging. We publish his speech in this edition of Life Advocacy Briefing, just ahead of the House roll calls, which close our Briefing this week. Just two returning Members – Representatives Holden and Kildee – changed from a pro-life position to the anti-life side in this issue in contrast to the vote on HR-810.

We plan to publish excerpts from other speeches on the measure in future editions. The debate lasted several hours and included passionate speeches on both sides of the proposal, clearly displaying the diverse conclusions to which differing worldviews can lead a people. Nearly every speech appealed to a form of claimed morality; the distinction lay in whether one views human life as inherently sacred or whether one believes certain humans can morally be sacrificed for the good of others, the same dichotomy over which World War II was fought and the Nuremberg trials were pursued with such supposed finality over a supposed consensus on ethics.

Anti-Cloning Amendment Bid

AHEAD OF THE HOUSE PASSAGE of HR-3 came a motion by its floor manager, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), to send the measure to committee with instructions to amend it with a prohibition against taxpayer funds being sent to scientists pursuing human cloning as part of their experiments.

That motion lost on a vote of 189 to 238, and the shifts in votes were noteworthy. Several of the veteran Members who back embryo-killing subsidization recognized the pitfall in voting against a motion which was, in effect, a cloning-restriction amendment, but several newly elected Democratic Members who claim pro-life orientation evidently viewed the motion as a partisan Republican attempt to block the bill rather than a pro-life effort to protect taxpayers from complicity in cloning.

Behind the Scenes

THE HOUSE SPONSOR OF HR-3 GAVE KUDOS near the close of debate to Members who had been of special help in persuading fellow Members to vote for her utilitarian measure. Since she put their names on the record, we believe their identities might be of interest to readers who live in their respective districts. We quote her remarks here, adding party identification and state to aid our readers; the Congressional Record presentation of her comments lists only their names. [We had difficulty identifying one of the cited Members, “Mr. Bradley,” but assume she means one of the northeast pro-abortion Republicans who was defeated in the 2006 election; there is no “Mr. Bradley” in the 110th Congress.]

“Mr. Speaker,” said Rep. DeGette, “I want to thank Ranking Member Barton [R-TX] for his thoughtful, thoughtful approach and his support of this issue. I also want to thank my friend and compadre, Mr. Castle [R-DE], who has fought hand-in-hand for this legislation with me for years now. And I also want to thank the many Members who have helped us through this long process and will be helping us long after today.

“This is the first time I can remember a bipartisan whip effort in the 10 years I have been in Congress,” said Rep. DeGette. “Ms. Baldwin [D-WI], Mrs. Bono [R-CA], Mr. Bradley [presumably R-NH of the 109th Congress], Mrs. Capps [D-CA], Mr. Carnahan [D-MO], Mr. Dent [R-PA], Mr. Kirk [R-IL], Mr. Langevin [D-RI], Mr. Perlmutter [D-CO], and Mr. Upton [R-MI]. Thank you, thank you, and our work is not completed.”

No, thank you, Rep. DeGette, for identifying the Congressional activists who worked this bill inside the House on behalf of the Frankensteinian scientists.

Opening Shot

Speech by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), opening the debate opposing HR-3, Jan. 11, 2007, Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in opposition to HR-3, a bill to expand taxpayer funding of human embryonic stem cell research. I support stem cell research with only one exception, research that requires the killing of human life. Taxpayer-funded stem cell research must be carried out in a way that is ethical and in a way that respects the sanctity of human life.

Fortunately, ethical stem cell alternatives continue to flourish in the scientific community. Earlier this week we learned that amniotic non-embryonic stem cells may offer the same research possibility as stem cells obtained through the destruction of human embryos. We have also seen stem cells from noncontroversial sources, like umbilical cord blood, be used to treat humans afflicted with more than 70 afflictions. I think we need to be funding the research that shows the most promise.

I am deeply disappointed today that Democrat leaders have pressed ahead with this vote, rather than having hearings and markups where breakthroughs like amniotic fluid cell research could have been fully examined. This research offers the potential for a new consensus approach to the difficult issue of stem cell research, and I am disappointed that the Democrat majority was not willing to allow time for this new development to be thoroughly examined.

We all know what is going to happen with this bill. This bill is going to move through the House. It will move through the Senate and go to the White House, where it was vetoed last year, and it will be vetoed again.

We have a bill that has been introduced by Mr. Bartlett from Maryland and Mr. Gingrey from Georgia that says, let’s put more funding into amniotic stem cell research. This is a bill that I think the Congress can support, the House, the Senate and the White House, that really will provide new breakthroughs in medical science.

But that isn’t going to be allowed today, and it is not going to be on the floor today. Instead, we are going to go through a political exercise that will get us nowhere. And for that, I am deeply disappointed.

House Roll Calls

Final passage – HR-3 – Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act to tax Americans for experimentation necessitating the killing of certain embryonic human babies – Jan. 11, 2007 – Passed 253 to 174 (Democrats in italics; new Members in ALL CAPS)

Voting “no” / pro-life: Aderholt, Akin, Alexander, BACHMANN, Bachus, Baker, Barrett (SC), Bartlett (MD), BILIRAKIS, Bishop (UT), Blackburn, Blunt, Boehner, Bonner, Boozman, Boustany, Brady (TX), Brown (SC), BUCHANAN, Burgess, Burton (IN), Camp (MI), Campbell (CA), Cannon, Cantor, Carter, Chabot, Cole (OK), Conaway, Costello, Crenshaw, Cubin, Culberson, Davis (KY), DAVID DAVIS, JoAnn Davis, Lincoln Davis, Deal (GA), Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, Donnelly, Doolittle, Drake, Duncan, Ehlers, Ellsworth, English (PA), Everett, FALLIN, Feeney, Ferguson, Flake, Forbes, Fortenberry, Foxx, Franks (AZ), Gallegly, Garrett (NJ), Gillmor, Gingrey, Gohmert, Goode, Goodlatte, Graves, Hall (TX), Hastings (WA), Hayes, Hensarling, Herger, Hobson, Hoekstra, Hulshof, Hunter, Inglis (SC), Jindal, Johnson (IL), Sam Johnson, Jones (NC), JORDAN, Kaptur, Keller, King (IA), King (NY), Kingston, Kline (MN), Knollenberg, Kuhl (NY), LaHood, Lamborn, Latham, Lewis (KY), Linder, Lipinski, LoBiondo, Lucas, Lungren, Manzullo, Marchant, Marshall, McCARTHY (CA), McCaul, McCotter, McCrery, McHenry, McHugh, McIntyre, McMorris-Rodgers, Mica, Miller (FL), Miller (MI), Mollohan, Moran (KS), Tim Murphy, Musgrave, Myrick, Neugebauer, Nunes, Oberstar, Paul, Pearce, Pence, Peterson(MN), Peterson (PA), Petri, Pickering, Pitts, Poe, Price (GA), Putnam, Rahall, Rehberg, Renzi, Reynolds, Rogers (AL), Rogers (KY), Rogers (MI), Ros-Lehtinen, ROSKAM, Royce, Ryan (WI), SALI, Saxton, Schmidt, Sensenbrenner, Sessions, Shadegg, Shimkus, Shuler, Shuster, Simpson, SMITH (NE), Smith (NJ), Smith (TX), Souder, Stearns, Stupak, Sullivan, Tancredo, Taylor, Terry, Thornberry, Tiahrt, Tiberi, Turner, WALBERG, Walsh (NY), Wamp, Weldon (FL), Weller, Whitfield, Wicker, WILSON (OH), Wilson (SC), Wolf

Voting “yes” / anti-life:Abercrombie, Ackerman, Allen, ALTMIRE, Andrews, ARCURI, Baca, Baird, Baldwin, Barrow, Barton (TX), Bean, Becerra, Berkley, Berman, Berry, Biggert, Bilbray, Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Bono, Boren, Boswell, Boucher, Boyd (FL), BOYDA (KS), Brady (PA), BRALEY (IA), Corrine Brown, Ginny Brown-Waite, Butterfield, Calvert, Capito, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, CARNEY, Carson, Castle, CASTOR, Chandler, CLARKE, Clay, Cleaver, Clyburn, Coble, COHEN, Conyers, Cooper, Costa, COURTNEY, Cramer, Crowley, Cuellar, Cummings, Davis (AL), Davis (CA), Davis (IL), Tom Davis, DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Dent, Dicks, Dingell, Doggett, Doyle, Dreier, Edwards, ELLISON, Emanuel, Emerson, Engel, Eshoo, Etheridge, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Fossella, Frank (MA), Frelinghuysen, Gerlach, GIFFORDS, GILLIBRAND, Gonzalez, Gordon, Granger, Al Green, Gene Green, Grijalva, Gutierrez, HALL (NY), HARE, Harmon, Hastings (FL), HELLER, Herseth, Higgins, HILL, Hinchey, Hinojosa, HIRONO, HODES, Holden, Holt, Honda, Hooley, Hoyer, Inslee, Israel, Issa, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee, Jefferson, JOHNSON (GA), E. B. Johnson, Jones (OH), KAGEN, Kanjorski, Kennedy, Kildee, Kilpatrick, Kind, Kirk, KLEIN (FL), Kucinich, LAMPSON, Langevin, Lantos, Larsen (WA), Larson (CT), LaTourette, Lee, Levin, Lewis (CA), Lewis (GA), LOEBSACK, Lofgren, Lowey, Lynch, Mack, MAHONEY (FL), Maloney (NY), Markey, Matheson, Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum (MN), McDermott, McGovern, McKeon, McNERNEY, McNulty, Meehan, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY),  Melancon, Michaud, Millender-McDonald, Miller (NC), George Miller, MITCHELL, Moore (KS), Moore (WI), Moran (VA), MURPHY (CT), PATRICK MURPHY, Murtha, Nadler, Napolitano, Neal (MA), Obey, Olver, Ortiz, Pallone, Pascrell, Pastor, Payne, Pelosi, PERLMUTTER, Platts, Pomeroy, Porter, Price (NC), Pryce (OH), Ramstad, Rangel, Regula, Reichert, Reyes, Rodriguez, Rohrabacher, Ross, Rothman, Roybal-Allard, Ruppersberger, Rush, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Sarbanes, Schakowsky, Schiff, Schwartz, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, SESTAK, Shays, SHEA-PORTER, Sherman, SIRES, Skelton, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Snyder, Solis, SPACE, Spratt, Stark, SUTTON, Tanner, Tauscher, Thompson (CA), Thompson (MS), Tierney, Towns, Udall (CO), Udall (NM), Upton, VanHollen, Velazquez, Visclosky, Walden (OR), WALZ (MN), Wasserman-Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, WELCH (VT), Wexler, Wilson (NM), Woolsey, Wu, Wynn, YARMUTH, Young (AK), Young (FL)

Not voting: Bishop (GA), Buyer, Gilchrest, Hastert, Gary Miller, Norwood, Radanovich, Westmoreland

Motion to recommit HR-3 and to direct a House committee to amend the bill to bar eligibility for grant applicants who practice cloning – Jan. 11, 2007 — Failed 189 to 238

Voting “yes” / pro-life: Aderholt, Akin, Alexander, BACHMANN, Bachus, Baker, Barrett (SC), Bartlett (MD), Barton (TX), BILIRAKIS, Bishop (UT), Blackburn, Blunt, Boehner, Bonner, Boozman, Boustany, Brady (TX), Brown (SC), BUCHANAN, Burgess, Burton (IN), Calvert, Camp (MI), Campbell (CA), Cannon, Cantor, Capito, Carter, Chabot, Coble, Cole (OK), Conaway, Costello, Crenshaw, Cubin, Culberson, Davis (KY), DAVID DAVIS, JoAnn Davis, Deal (GA), Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, Doolittle, Drake, Dreier, Duncan, Edwards, Ehlers, Ellsworth, Emerson, English (PA), Everett, FALLIN, Feeney, Ferguson, Flake, Forbes, Fortenberry, Fossella, Foxx, Franks (AZ), Gallegly, Garrett (NJ), Gerlach, Gillmor, Gingrey, Gohmert, Goode, Goodlatte, Granger, Graves, Hall (TX), Hastings (WA), Hayes, HELLER, Hensarling, Herger, Hobson, Hoekstra, Holden, Hulshof, Hunter, Inglis (SC), Jindal, Johnson (IL), Sam Johnson, Jones (NC), JORDAN, Keller, King (IA), King (NY), Kingston, Kline (MN), Knollenberg, Kuhl (NY), LaHood, Lamborn, Latham, LaTourette, Lewis (CA), Lewis (KY), Linder, LoBiondo, Lucas, Lungren, Manzullo, Marchant, Marshall, McCARTHY (CA), McCaul, McCotter, McCrery, McHenry, McHugh, McIntyre, McKeon, McMorris-Rodgers, Mica, Miller (FL), Miller (MI), Moran (KS), Tim Murphy, Musgrave, Myrick, Neugebauer, Nunes, Oberstar, Paul, Pearce, Pence, Peterson(MN), Peterson (PA), Petri, Pickering, Pitts, Platts, Poe, Price (GA), Putnam, Regula, Rehberg, Renzi, Reynolds, Rogers (AL), Rogers (KY), Rogers (MI), Rohrabacher, Ros-Lehtinen, ROSKAM, Royce, Ryan (WI), SALI, Saxton, Schmidt, Sensenbrenner, Sessions, Shadegg, Shimkus, Shuler, Shuster, Simpson, SMITH (NE), Smith (NJ), Smith (TX), Souder, Stearns, Stupak, Sullivan, Tancredo, Taylor, Terry, Thornberry, Tiahrt, Tiberi, Turner, Upton, WALBERG, Walsh (NY), Wamp, Weldon (FL), Weller, Whitfield, Wicker, Wilson (NM), Wilson (SC), Wolf, Young (AK), Young (FL)

Voting “no” / anti-life: Abercrombie, Ackerman, Allen, ALTMIRE, Andrews, ARCURI, Baca, Baird, Baldwin, Barrow, Bean, Becerra, Berkley, Berman, Berry, Biggert, Bilbray, Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Bono, Boren, Boswell, Boucher, Boyd (FL), BOYDA (KS), Brady (PA), BRALEY (IA), Corrine Brown, Ginny Brown-Waite, Butterfield, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, CARNEY, Carson, Castle, CASTOR, Chandler, CLARKE, Clay, Cleaver, Clyburn, COHEN, Conyers, Cooper, Costa, COURTNEY, Cramer, Crowley, Cuellar, Cummings, Davis (AL), Davis (CA), Davis (IL), Tom Davis, DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Dent, Dicks, Dingell, Doggett, Donnelly, Doyle, ELLISON, Emanuel, Engel, Eshoo, Etheridge, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Frank (MA), Frelinghuysen, GIFFORDS, Gilchrest, GILLIBRAND, Gonzalez, Gordon, Al Green, Gene Green, Grijalva, Gutierrez, HALL (NY), HARE, Harmon, Hastings (FL), Herseth, Higgins, HILL, Hinchey, Hinojosa, HIRONO, HODES, Holt, Honda, Hooley, Hoyer, Inslee, Israel, Issa, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee, Jefferson, JOHNSON (GA), E. B. Johnson, Jones (OH), KAGEN, Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kennedy, Kildee, Kilpatrick, Kind, Kirk, KLEIN (FL), Kucinich, LAMPSON, Langevin, Lantos, Larsen (WA), Larson (CT), Lee, Levin, Lewis (GA), Lipinski, LOEBSACK, Lofgren, Lowey, Lynch, Mack, MAHONEY (FL), Maloney (NY), Markey, Matheson, Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum (MN), McDermott, McGovern, McNERNEY, McNulty, Meehan, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Melancon, Michaud, Millender-McDonald, Miller (NC), George Miller, MITCHELL, Mollohan, Moore (KS), Moore (WI), Moran (VA) , MURPHY (CT), PATRICK MURPHY, Murtha, Nadler, Napolitano, Neal (MA), Obey, Olver, Ortiz, Pallone, Pascrell, Pastor, Payne, Pelosi, PERLMUTTER, Pomeroy, Porter, Price (NC), Pryce (OH), Rahall, Ramstad, Rangel, Reichert, Reyes, Rodriguez, Ross, Rothman, Roybal-Allard, Ruppersberger, Rush, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Sarbanes, Schakowsky, Schiff, Schwartz, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, SESTAK, Shays, SHEA-PORTER, Sherman, SIRES, Skelton, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Snyder, Solis, SPACE, Spratt, Stark, SUTTON, Tanner, Tauscher, Thompson (CA), Thompson (MS), Tierney, Towns, Udall (CO), Udall (NM), VanHollen, Velazquez, Visclosky, Walden (OR), WALZ (MN), Wasserman-Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, WELCH (VT), Wexler, WILSON (OH), Woolsey, Wu, Wynn, YARMUTH

Not voting: Bishop (GA), Buyer, Lincoln Davis, Hastert, Gary Miller, Norwood, Radanovich, Westmoreland