Life Advocacy Briefing

S-Chipping Away at Life

THOSE WHO HAVE SEEN THOSE TELEVISION ADS promoting Congressional reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), may be dismayed to learn what is being done to the program in the process.

“Both the House and the Senate versions,” reports Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in FRC’s Washington Update, “would expand spending on the program, at an added cost of $50 billion to taxpayers over five years in the House version.” But the budget-busting boost is not the only drawback to the reshaping of the massive social welfare program. The House version, writes Mr. Perkins, “declares war on pro-life Americans.

“One reason that S-CHIP has been embraced by some pro-life organizations,” writes Mr. Perkins, “was that it offered states flexibility on services, allowing them, if they so choose, to exclude controversial ‘procedures’ like abortion or sterilization from the taxpayer-funded program. The Democrats,” he reports, “have offered new language that would force states to pay for ‘family planning services,’ meaning abortion and contraceptives for what is billed as a children’s health program.” (We hasten to note: Life Advocacy is one pro-life organization which has never backed socialized medicine under the S-CHIP moniker or any other.)

“To add insult to injury,” writes Mr. Perkins, “the House bill also removes abstinence funding.”

And the House is not the only source of mischief on S-CHIP. Senate Democrats, reports Mr. Perkins, “consciously weakened the existing federal guidelines that defined ‘child’ as beginning at conception. States applying for prenatal services use this regulation,” Mr. Perkins explains, “to secure vital services for the unborn child. Senate Democrats would rather [that] states avoid the obvious … when developing their applications for prenatal care,” he notes: “… that the unborn child is in fact a human being.”

Pro-Life Persistence Pays

SUSTAINED EFFORTS BY PRO-LIFE MISSOURI LAWMAKERS and citizens to overturn last year’s referendum defeat have already begun to stymie the labcoat lobby’s plot to draw the world’s embryo vivisectionists to America’s heartland.

The Stowers Institute of Kansas City announced earlier this month it was “suspend[ing] major expansion plans,” reports Jason Gertzen in The Kansas City Star.

The privately owned “medical research” outfit explained the pull-back by revealing, reports Mr. Gertzen, “top scientists are skittish about persistent [embryo-killing] stem-cell research opposition in Missouri. …

“The announcement was the latest indication,” writes Mr. Gertzen, “of how last fall’s voter approval of a constitutional amendment protecting certain forms of stem-cell research failed to quell a determined base of opponents. … Voters did agree to amend the state constitution,” reminds the Star, “though it was by a slim margin. Soon thereafter, legislators renewed their campaign to impose restrictions. Stowers leaders,” writes Mr. Gertzen, “also anticipate concerted efforts in 2008 to overturn the constitutional provision.

It was the institute founders, Mr. and Mrs. Stowers, who conceived andpoured millionsof their own moneyinto last year’s campaign which misled Missouri voters into enshrining embryo stem cell experimentation as a right in their state constitution.

“After scientists specializing in embryonic stem-cell work rebuffed the institute’s recruitment efforts,” reveals the Star, “the Stowers board decided to back off plans to devote hundreds of millions of dollars toward building a second complex in the [Kansas City] area. …

“‘We did believe when we had a victory in November for Amendment 2 that we would be able to attract the world’s greatest embryonic stem-cell researchers to come to the Stowers Institute,’” said a Stowers spokesman, quoted by the Star. “Immediate legislative efforts to overturn the measure, however,” she said in the Gertzen story, “‘caused researchers to pause and still feel the situation is tenuous.’”

Even the determined couple who showered the Stowers Institute with their own fortune and endowed it with their name have pulled away from their Missouri dream, transferring some $850 million, according to Mr. Gertzen, from the Institute to a newly founded Delaware corporation called Stowers Resource Management, Inc.

Lesson for Lawmakers?

THE STOWERS INSTITUTE PULL-BACK IS JUST ONE INDICATION the incessant drive toward embryo vivisection could be beginning to wane, though whether reality will dawn upon the bloodthirsty ruling class in Congress is yet to be seen.

Missouri lawmakers have not only threatened to roll back the vivisectionists’ state constitutional amendment win but have already defunded the University of Missouri’s $150-million embryo-killing experimentation center, reports Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in FRC’s July 24 Washington Update.

“And the pull-back isn’t limited to the US,” writes Mr. Perkins. “A former top executive of ES Cell International in Singapore says that the company’s investors are impatient with the lack of progress on embryo stem-cell [experimentation] and no longer want to back the experiments after they failed to ‘create a clinical product.’”

The optimistic Mr. Perkins expresses hope that “the changing embryo stem-cell [experimentation] landscape will help break Congress of its stubborn demands for more funding and also serve as a valuable lesson for states engaged in a similar debate.”

Power in People & Prayer

IN A STARTLING REJECTION OF EMBRYO VIVISECTION, the Delaware General Assembly a month ago “overwhelmingly defeated” legislation “which would have authorized the use of human embryos in medical experimentation,” reports Colleen Parro in her July 6, 2007, Republican National Coalition for Life (RNC/Life) Fax Notes. “The bill was defeated 4-to-1,” she writes, “in spite of intense lobbying by aides to Cong. Mike Castle (R-DE), who has introduced a similar bill in the US Congress.”

Mrs. Parro attributes the win to informed public opinion and to “regular prayer vigils since January,” as well as mobilization of “tens of thousands of Delawareans to call their legislators,” noting also the delivery of “more than 4,000 roses to Legislative Hall, each labeled with the name of a single constituent who opposed the bill. One of the hallmarks of A Rose and a Prayer,” the group marshalling the opposition to the bill, “is the strong working relationships,” writes Mrs. Parro, “developed between Catholic and evangelical Christians in order to defeat the bill.

“This is the second time A Rose and a Prayer has defeated legislation that would have legalized human embryonic stem-cell research in Delaware,” writes Mrs. Parro. “In 2006,” she reports, “A Rose and a Prayer orchestrated an eight-day, 2,400-person prayer vigil, the delivery of 2,500 roses from constituents and as many as 25,000 constituent phone calls to legislators, resulting in the removal of all mention of human embryos from [the 2006 proposal]. With that sort of wonderful grassroots organizing,” asks Mrs. Parro, “will the people of Delaware soon replace Mike Castle with a pro-life Member of Congress?”

Overdue Justice

TEACHERS IN OHIO HAVE SECURED THEIR RIGHT not to have their union dues spent on causes to which they have moral objections.

A federal district judge declared unconstitutional the Ohio Education Assn. (OEA) rule which designates which religious denominations qualify for the “conscientious objection” exception. The OEA leadership spends part of their members’ dues on support for legalized  abortion, yet the only religious affiliations recognized by OEA to qualify for the objection have been Seventh-Day Adventist and Mennonite membership.

The plaintiff in the case is a Roman Catholic who had “‘pleaded’ with  union officials,” reports Hilary White for LifeSiteNews.com, “to have her dues diverted to charity, but the union,” reports LifeSite, “refused and told her she needed to ‘change religions’ to get the exemption.”

Welcome, Rep. Broun

WE WELCOME THE ELECTION of Dr. Paul Broun (R) to fill the vacancy left by the passing of the late Rep. Charles Norwood (GA). The newly seated House Member is a family physician whose practice has consisted primarily of house calls. He bested a less conservative Republican in a run-off earlier this month. His opponent announced last week he would not seek a recount of the close vote.

In announcing his candidacy, Dr. Broun, notes his news release, “declared that he will be ‘a strong voice in Congress for the mainstream conservative values shared by the vast majority of Georgians.’ He listed those values,” his news release says, “as low taxes, limited government, strong national defense, securing our borders against illegal immigration, defending innocent human life and preserving America’s religious heritage.”

Rep. Broun further announced – and repeated as a campaign theme – that on arrival in Congress he would apply a “four-way test” to any legislation before him: “Is it constitutional and a proper function of government? Is it morally correct? Is it something that we really need? Is it something that we can afford?”

Pray for the Lion of Life

PRAYERS ARE SOUGHT for former Rep. Henry Hyde, recovering from triple bypass heart surgery. Millions of Americans owe their lives to this champion of justice and mercy. May the Lord richly bless him and his family during this time of recuperation and healing.

Elitist ‘Elders’ Claim Wisdom Over Us All

A chilling news report by John Jalsevac for LifeSiteNews.com, July 23, 2007

World-famous opponent of South African apartheid, Nelson Mandela, celebrated his 89th birthday last Wednesday by announcing the formation of a global council of elders, known simply as “The Elders.”

So far The Elders includes Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Gro Harlem Bruntland, Mary Robinson, Jimmy Carter, Li Zhaoxing, Muhammad Yunus, Ela Bhatt, Graca Machel and, of course, Nelson Mandela.

The group of high-profile international leaders is intended to be an independent body of “wise” men and women that will use their combined experience to solve any of the host of problems currently facing the “global village.” “The only agenda of The Elders is that of humanity,” reads The Elders’s website.

“I see The Elders as a small but independent group that may fill an existing void in the world community,” said Elders member, former US President Jimmy Carter. Carter claimed that the group is “almost impervious to the consequences of outside criticism.” Members of The Elders cannot currently be in political office, with the intent of creating a non-partisan body.

Nevertheless, while some would debate the notion that the members of the group are “non-partisan” in the first place, what is more certain is that its members are by-and-large united by a common commitment to radical social liberalism and population control.

The Elders is the brainchild of British entrepreneur Richard Branson, owner of Virgin, and singer Peter Gabriel, who together approached Mandela about the project a number of years ago. According to The Times Online, the pair has already raised 9 million pounds [more than $15 million] for the group, which will be used for its first three years of operation.

“This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken,” said Mandela. He continued, outlining The Elders’s lofty goal: “to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict, and inspire hope where there is despair.”

However, with one of the primary figureheads being the Anglican priest Desmond Tutu, who is well known to pro-life and pro-family advocates for his vociferous support of “family planning,” including abortion in certain circumstances, and for criticizing the Catholic Church for its teachings on homosexuality and contraception, it is unlikely that The Elders’s agenda will be as innocuous as Mandela’s statement indicates.

“I’m not particularly reassured by that group,” said Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, Canada, and vice president of International Right to Life. “Given that almost all of the members of the group are well known, powerful figures in pro-abortion, pro-population control, pro-everything else circles, I can imagine what sort of ‘wisdom’ they plan on offering the world. Personally, I think the world would be a much better place without that sort of wisdom. The fact that they are touting themselves as the world’s wise men is simply a big joke. I would rather refer to them as the wise-guys. That’s closer to the truth,” he said.

Austin Ruse, the president of C-Fam [Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute], a non-profit, non-partisan research and education institute focusing on international social policy, had similar remarks about The Elders. “Rather than ‘The Elders,’ the group should be called the Crotchety Left Wing Gasbags,” said Ruse. “I am certain they will only bloviate on radical social policy. Only the hard left could cook up something so cringe-worthy.”

The group also includes the former head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Gro Bruntland, who, during her stint as Director-General of the WHO, pushed for abortion, contraception and population control under the euphemism of “reproductive health” and women’s health.

Kofi Annan, another member of The Elders, is one of the world’s foremost defenders of population control and has long supported same-sex “marriage” and human cloning. At the Cairo+5 sessions in 1999, Annan stated that “since Cairo” the world understands “we have to stabilize the population of this planet. … There is a limit to the pressures our global environment can stand. One form of pressure is the sheer size of the world’s population.” Annan’s solution to this “pressure” is the now entrenched agenda of the UN – to pressure countries around the world to allow for abortion and contraception on demand.

Even more astonishingly, The Elders has welcomed Li Zhaoxing, the former foreign minister of Communist China, as one of its “wise” men. Zhaoxing was the foreign representative for a country that is known for extensive human rights abuses, including a coercive one-child policy that has resulted in forced abortion and forced sterilizations. In one question-and-answer session at the Institute for Corean-American Studies, Inc., in 2000, Zhaoxing responded to questions about the one-child policy by stating that it is an admirable policy worthy of emulation elsewhere.

“Generally speaking,” said Zhaoxing about the one-child policy, “this policy reflects the interests of the nation, and people support it. And we really don’t know why some politicians in this country (America) don’t. I believe if they go to China and see for themselves, they would have a different idea.”

Other Elders include Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who, during her tenure at the UN, was one of the most outspoken proponents of homosexuality and abortion under the guise of protection from discrimination based on “sexual orientation” and “reproductive rights.” Another member, Graca Machel, Nelson Mandela’s wife, has pushed for universal access to contraception as being an integral part of “women’s health.” Nelson Mandela himself also has a pro-abortion record and has in the past proved himself an advocate of the pro-homosexual movement.

The Elders ha[s] not yet announced the particulars of what exactly they plan on doing but ha[s] indicated that they are embarking on a several month-long process of forming an agenda for the group.