Life Advocacy Briefing

Refined in the Fire

SEN. JOHN McCAIN MADE A STUNNING CHOICE in his selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his running mate, a choice ratified by the Republican National Convention last Thursday in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Gov. Palin’s public record demonstrates respect for the sanctity of Life. But the “story” of her private life speaks even more eloquently than the talented speaker herself. When she delivered her fifth child in April, a little boy with Down Syndrome, she and her family issued a statement joyfully welcoming Trig Palin into the world and celebrating their joy in the challenge.

Sen. McCain’s choice was first announced on Friday, Aug. 29, in a joint McCain/Palin appearance in Dayton, Ohio. Already known to leaders in the pro-life/family community and winsome in her remarks that day, Mrs. Palin was welcomed instantly by conservative leaders and became an immediate national phenomenon. Naturally, that made her target-number-one for the leftwing blogs and major media.

Consistency, Not ‘Hypocrisy’

TARGETED SHE IS – INSTANTANEOUSLY AND RELENTLESSLY. An outrageous rumor making the Internet rounds (which we will not repeat here) prompted the Palin family to announce last Monday – even before the GOP convention began – that her 17-year-old daughter is expecting their first grandchild despite not yet having married her fiancé. Their announcement demonstrated their commitment not only to their daughter but also to the grandchild waiting to be born.

In the wake of that announcement, media reporters from many press and broadcast outlets demonstrated their total cluelessness concerning the attitudes and hearts of the vast majority of pro-life/family citizens and of conservative Christians. These story-hunters pestered several conservative opinion leaders with demands that they admit that Mrs. Palin and her backers are “hypocrites.” Why? Because she – and the vast majority of conservatives – endorse abstinence-until-marriage education. Indeed, the Republican Platform endorses such a policy [see GOP Platform Excerpts at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing].

No one expects that abstinence education – though vastly more effective and protective than its hedonistic alternative – works every time, though abstinence itself is 100% effective in preventing sexually-transmitted disease and premature pregnancy. But pro-life advocates, like Sarah Palin and millions of others of us, have established a broad network of pregnancy care centers precisely because we do care about and embrace the inconveniently expectant mother as well as her precious preborn boy or girl.

Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek, who writes “Pro-Life Pulse” at www.jillstanek.com and writes frequent columns for WorldNetDaily.com, asserts in her Sept. 3 WND column, concerning the behavior of the leftish media in hounding Miss Palin through her mother, “The left wants to make sure any girl in a similar situation aborts.” And that is the message they sought to send to young people across this nation, even while Mrs. Palin was affirming their pregnancies and setting an outstanding example for parents who discover their grandparenthood before the needed nuptials.

Palin Family Statements

Welcoming son Trig, source Anchorage Daily News, April 18, 2008

Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.

Welcoming unborn grandchild, source, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 1, 2008

We have been blessed with five wonderful children who[m] we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.

Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy, as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.

Obama Plays Abortion Card

THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN STRUCK BACK with its own ads seeking to stifle the boost it expected Sen. McCain to achieve in his choice of an outspoken pro-life woman as his running mate. Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins expressed surprise at the move in his Sept. 3 FRC ActionUpdate, “considering Sen. Obama’s radical support of abortion, which includes,” notes Mr. Perkins, “continuously fighting against a bill that would have protected babies that survive abortions.”

Radio ads airing in at least seven swing states “feature the voice,” reports Kathleen Gilbert for LifeSiteNews.com, “of a ‘nurse-practitioner with Planned Parenthood’ warning her listeners that [Mr.] McCain will seek to have Roe v. Wade overturned and ban abortion.

“‘I know abortion is one of the most difficult decisions a woman will ever make,’ says the woman’s voice,” quoted by Ms. Gilbert. “‘Let me tell you: If Roe v. Wade is overturned,’” the Obama ad continues, “‘the lives and health of women will be put at risk. That’s why this election is so important. John McCain’s out of touch with women today. McCain wants to take away our right to choose.’”

The ad concludes, reports LifeSiteNews, with the alleged Planned Parenthood nurse pleading, “‘We can’t let John McCain take away our right to choose. We can’t let him take us back.’”

The LifeSiteNews report indicates the radio buy “signals a shift in strategy by the Obama campaign, which until now has skirted the abortion issue in favor of other issues of interest to women, such as health care and workplace discrimination. According to Politico.com,” writes Ms. Gilbert, “the campaign decided to change its tone under pressure from women’s rights groups [sic] who are demanding [Mr.] Obama to clearly identify himself as the pro-abortion candidate.” We welcome his engagement in the battle at the same time as cautioning radio listeners not to fall for the sanitized rhetoric seeking to obfuscate the brutal, unjust nature of abortion.

Concludes FRC’s Mr. Perkins, “The more Sen. Obama draws attention to his far-reaching support of abortion, the more he will turn off likely voters. In the most recent ABC News poll, 76% of the people do not agree with the view, reflected by Sen. Obama’s voting record, that abortion should be legal in all circumstances.”

Pro-Life Advocate Named to State High Court

REJOICE WITH US IN THE APPOINTMENT of former Congressman Charles Canady to the Florida Supreme Court.  Mr. Canady is cited in the media as one of the prosecutors in the impeachment of Pres. Bill Clinton. He is so much more.

The sponsor of the original federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, Mr. Canady participated in Life Advocacy Resource Project’s first Winning with Life seminar in Florida in 1992. He was running, at that time, for a seat in the Florida legislature and went on to be an outstanding legislator in Tallahassee and eventually in Washington.

He has served most recently as a Florida appellate court judge. At the age of 54, he expects to serve until reaching Florida’s mandatory judicial retirement age, some 16 years from now. Congratulations to Mr. Canady, and kudos to Gov. Charlie Crist (R) for a great pick.

Making the Case for Defunding Planned Parenthood

July 9, 2008, special order speeches in the U.S. House; source: Congressional Record. Please note: We at Life Advocacy Briefing are not expecting that this Congress will actually take up the Pence Amendment to defund Planned Parenthood in this election year; nevertheless, we find the “special order” speeches a compelling tool for educating the American people about the injustice in the massive subsidies taxpayers are forced to remit to Planned Parenthood. This week’s excerpt is by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

REP. JORDAN: … Just put it into plain language, think about what’s going on here in this practice. Planned Parenthood is using your tax dollars to raise more money to run against your candidate to elect someone who will give them more tax dollars. Stated even more simply, using your tax money to run against you and run against the candidates you want to support, those pro-life candidates. That’s what they’re doing. They want to keep electing people that will keep this process [of expanding Planned Parenthood] going forward.

This is just wrong, and it should stop. And the gentleman from Texas [Rep. Hensarling, see Life Advocacy Briefing for Aug. 18, 2008] was so right when he talks about those pregnancy resource centers, those crisis pregnancy centers out there who are doing the bake sales. Our church, we help support one where they give each family a bottle and you fill it up with coins and you stuff a few dollars, raising money just any way they can to protect human life, because they understand it’s sacred. They understand it’s precious. Contrast that with this practice that we see here that Planned Parenthood engages in … .

The wisdom and the vision the Founders had when they started this place, when they started the greatest country in history, the Founding statement: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

I think it’s interesting to note the order the Founders placed the rights they chose to mention. Can you pursue happiness? Can you pursue your goals, your dreams, those things that have meaning and significance to you and your family if you don’t first have liberty, if you first don’t have freedom? And can you ever experience true liberty, true freedom, if government doesn’t protect your most fundamental right, your right to life?

That’s what this legislation [the Pence amendment to defund Planned Parenthood] is about. It’s about protecting that most sacred, that most precious, that most fundamental right that the Founders understood was central to what we call this thing, America. …

GOP Platform Excerpts Touching Life

From the Republican National Platform, adopted Sept. 1, 2008, in St. Paul, Minnesota

Maintaining the Sanctity & Dignity of Human Life

            Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.

We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life.

We have made progress. The Supreme Court has upheld prohibitions against the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion. States are now permitted to extend health-care coverage to children before birth. And the Born Alive Infants Protection Act has become law; this law ensures that infants who are born alive during an abortion receive all treatment and care that is provided to all newborn infants and are not neglected and left to die. We must protect girls from exploitation and statutory rape through a parental notification requirement. We all have a moral obligation to assist, not penalize, women struggling with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy.

At its core, abortion is a fundamental assault on the sanctity of innocent human life. Women deserve better than abortion. Every effort should be made to work with women considering abortion to enable and empower them to choose life. We salute those who provide them alternatives, including pregnancy care centers, and we take pride in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed Republican legislative initiatives.

Respect for life requires efforts to include persons with disabilities in education, employment, the justice system and civic participation. In keeping with that commitment, we oppose the nonconsensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society. …

Health Care Reform: Putting Patients First

            … Because the family is our basic unit of society, we fully support parental rights to consent to medical treatment for their children including mental health treatment, drug treatment, alcohol treatment and treatment involving pregnancy, contraceptives and abortion. …

Funding Medical Research

            We support federal investment in basic and applied biomedical research. This commitment will maintain America’s global competitiveness, advance innovated science that can lead to medical breakthroughs and turn the tide against diseases affecting millions of Americans – diseases that account for the majority of our health care costs.

The United States leads in this research, as evidenced by our growing biotechnology industry, but foreign competition is increasing. …

Federal research dollars should be spent as though lives are at stake – because, in fact, they are. …

Taxpayer-funded medical research must be based on sound science, with a focus on both prevention and treatment, and in accordance with the humane ethics of the Hippocratic Oath. In that regard, we call for a major expansion of support for the stem-cell research that now shows amazing promise and offers the greatest hope for scores of diseases – with adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood, and cells reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells – without the destruction of embryonic human life. We call for a ban on human cloning and a ban on the creation of or experimentation on human embryos for research purposes.

We believe medicines and treatments should be designed to prolong and enhance life, not destroy it. Therefore, federal funds should not be used for drugs that cause the destruction of human life.

Furthermore, the Drug Enforcement Administration ban on use of controlled substances for physician assisted suicide should be restored.

Protecting Rights of Conscience

            The health care profession can be both a profession and a calling. No health care professional – doctor, nurse or pharmacist – or organization should ever be required to perform, provide for or refer for a health care service against their conscience for any reason. This is especially true of the religious organizations which deliver a major portion of America’s health care, a service rooted in the charity of faith communities.

Asserting Family Rights in Schooling

            … We renew our call for replacing “family planning” programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior. Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100% effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually.

We oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling and related services for abortion and contraception. Schools should not ask children to answer offensive or intrusive personal, nonacademic questionnaires without parental consent. It is not the role of the teacher or school administrator to recommend or require the use of psychotropic medications that must be prescribed by a physician.