Life Advocacy Briefing

A Little Late – Sorry!

WE’re LATE THIS WEEK IN PUBLISHING OUR POSTAL EDITION of Life Advocacy Briefing. We are sorry for any inconvenience. Our editor has been dealing with the hospitalization of a close family member, and she’s doing the best she can.

Postal subscribers who would like to switch to electronic mail or fax, to get Life Advocacy Briefing sooner each week, may simply send an electronic mail message to [email protected] with name, postal address, e-mail address and a note “switch to e-mail, please,” or may send a note to Life Advocacy at 2004 E. Sherwood Road, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004, giving the name, address and fax number.

Those subscribers who believe their subscriptions might not be up-to-date are welcome to send a subscription fee to Life Advocacy at the address listed in the paragraph above. Subscription fees underwrite our costs and enable Life Advocacy to stay in the fight. Contributions and subscription fees are not deductible for tax returns but are needed and always appreciated.

The Ultimate Boston Tea Party

THE NEW SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS ARRIVED IN WASHINGTON Thursday after an amazing electoral rebuke to the Obama Regime and the majority in both houses of Congress.

“‘One thing is very, very clear as I traveled across this state,’” said Senator-elect Scott Brown on election night in Boston, quoted by Kathleen Gilbert in LifeSiteNews.com, among many other news sources. “‘People do not want the trillion-dollar healthcare plan that is being forced on the American people, and this bill is not being debated openly and fairly,’ said [Mr.] Brown to cheering crowds. ‘It will raise taxes, it will hurt Medicare, it will destroy jobs and run our nation deeper into debt. The independent majority,’” he said, “‘has delivered a great victory.’”  Mr. Brown, notes Ms. Gilbert, cited ObamaCare’s taxpayer subsidy of abortions as one of his objections to the massive measure.

Welcome, Sen. Brown. We’ll look forward to your votes on pro-life reform agenda legislation, as you have embraced in your state legislative career and, from time to time, on the campaign trail. Labels are less important to us than votes. Along with America, we will be watching, and in congratulating you, we thank you for winning on a clear message of stopping the Obama machine. Your election seems now to have rescued us from imminent danger. The vigil continues.

Victory for Now

DISARRAY AMONG CONGRESSIONAL & WHITE HOUSE DEMOCRATS, stemming from the election of Scott Brown last Tuesday, appears to have derailed – for now – action on ObamaCare. Though Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) was vowing full speed ahead as his election loomed obvious, the duly elected average Democratic Members appeared to be finding their voices from the depths of fear for their own careers.

We salute – at the moment – those Democrats who have suddenly abandoned the lemming posture in which too many have persisted – even at grave personal political cost – during 2009. The people spoke last spring, they spoke last summer, they pleaded with you all during the autumn, and now they have voted. Just in time.

We thank Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and those who stood less noticeably behind him; without their sustained defiance of the cabal which has taken over the highest rungs of power in Washington, this fight would have been over – and the lives of the vulnerable among us would have been doomed – months ago.

We thank the Republican delegations in House and Senate and their leaders for standing steadfast and unified – for whatever their various reasons – standing even when public opinion was more equivocal than it is today. We pray they will learn from this victory that victory is gained through strength, not appeasement; that is as true in politics as in national security policy.

We invite our readers to join us in thanking God, from Whom all blessings flow.

Challenge to Obama: Relent on Dawn Johnsen

U.S. REP. STEVE KING LAST WEEK CHALLENGED PRES. OBAMA to withdraw the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Dept. Office of Legal Counsel. The President first attempted the controversial appointment last year; the Senate refused to act on her nomination before it expired at the close of 2009. Two weeks ago, the White House resubmitted her name for what will probably be another stalemate.

The text of Rep. King’s letter to the White House is reprinted near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing, just ahead of our first March for Life speech transcripts.

As on so many other occasions, we thank Rep. King for his outstanding leadership for the causes of liberty and of Life.

Marching for Life

PRO-LIFE AMERICANS FILLED THE STREETS in Washington, DC, Friday for the annual March for Life. In keeping with tradition, we plan to publish texts of the March rally speeches by various Members of Congress, transcribed by us from video recording. We hope you will find them informative and even inspiring. These stand-out public officials speak for “the least of these,” and we thank them and the organizers of this annual outcry.

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses,” declares the Lord in Deuteronomy 30:19b-20a. “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life … .”

Disgusting Behavior

IT HAPPENS EVERY TIME THERE’s A NATURAL DISASTER, and it’s just as outrageous this time as all the other times.

“Capitalizing on the compassion of developed nations towards Haiti following the disastrous 7.0 scale earthquake last Tuesday,” reports Patrick B. Craine for LifeSiteNews.com, “the International Planned Parenthood Federation has launched a fundraising appeal in order to further their aims in the devastated pro-life nation. Within a day of the disaster,” notes Mr. Craine, “IPPF had sent out an appeal letter seeking ‘urgent’ support for their Haitian affiliate PROFAMIL.”

The claim is that PROFAMIL needs the funding “in order to restore ‘basic medical services,’” reports Mr. Craine. The letter also explains that the IPPF front “has operated since 1984, providing ‘low-cost quality sexual and reproductive health care.’”

Many fine Christian ministries are helping the people of Haiti and have earned the trust of well-intended donors. The last thing the Haitian people need right now in their time of anguish is someone waving contraceptive devices in their faces and offering to hike the death toll with induced abortions.

Give Her Up, Mr. President!

Jan. 20, 2010, letter from Rep. Steve King challenging Pres. Obama to withdraw nomination of abortion radical Dawn Johnsen to key Justice Dept. post

Dear Mr. President:

In a March 24, 2009, letter, I, along with 62 of my colleagues, respectfully requested that you withdraw your nomination of Ms. Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel. To date, we have received no response to our letter. On January 7, 2010, you demonstrated a lack of attention to this issue by nominating Ms. Johnsen again for this position.

Dawn Johnsen’s pro-abortion agenda is a stark contrast to your stated intention to find common ground on the issue of abortion. She has condemned virtually every type of regulation of abortion conceived by a legislature, no matter how mild the regulation or how shocking the practice regulated, as unacceptable. In a Supreme Court amicus brief that she authored, Ms. Johnsen wrote, “While a woman might choose to bear children gladly and voluntarily, statutes that curtail her abortion choice are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state’s asserted interest.” Ms. Johnsen also included that “abortion restrictions ‘reduce pregnant women to no more than fetal container.’” [sic]

Ms. Johnsen’s record demonstrates that she is incapable of placing the Rule of Law above her political philosophy or personal agenda. The Office of Legal Counsel needs a leader that will respect the Constitution and resist the temptation to substitute personal ideology for sound legal reasoning.

I respectfully request that you withdraw Dawn Johnsen’s nomination to head the Office of Legal Counsel. I have enclosed a copy of the March 24, 2009, letter for your convenience. I look forward to your response.

Speaking for Life

Rally speeches delivered by Members of the US House and Senate to the massive crowd assembled Jan. 20, 2010, for the March for Life in Washington, DC; transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing from recorded-live video coverage.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS): Thank you, Nellie. Do you realize now for the first time since the polling has been done – the Gallup organization has done it – that you now live in a majority pro-life country? And you’re the reason for it. You have changed hearts and minds, and you’ve done it by persuading people and living for a culture of Life. Keep it up. We’ve got a lot of members of Congress here. We’ve just won a big debate on health care, in that they’re not going to have abortion funding in this health care bill; that’s because of your interest in it. This is my last year in the United States Senate. I am more convinced than ever that we are going to win the cause of Life. We have to win it. The movement for Life will not be silent, and it will not be still. You are winning the hearts and minds. We are going to win this fight. Keep it up. God bless you all.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN): Thank you, Nellie. On behalf of my fellow marchers, Audrey Pence, age 15, Charlotte Pence, age 16, I’m Mike Pence, I’m from Indiana, and I’m pro-life. You are come to your nation’s capital at a historic moment in the life of this movement. A pro-abortion majority in Congress has been met with the most pro-abortion President in American history: “Mexico City” overturned, unnecessary destructive embryonic stem cell research funded, and a health care bill that was poised to provide government subsidies for elective abortions. Let us say with conviction here on our nation’s Mall, ending an unborn human life is morally wrong. And it is also morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use it to subsidize abortions at home or abroad. Abortion is not health care. Abortion funding has no place in healthcare legislation, now or ever. Abortion organizations overseas have no right to American foreign aid. And the time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America. Thomas Jefferson, in words that are inscribed just down this Mall, said, “God, Who gave us life, gave us liberty.” I say to all who are in this movement, Life may be losing in Washington, D.C., but Life is winning in America. And because of all of you, the pro-life America will take this Congress back in 2010 and take this country back in 2012. So help us, God.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI): Good afternoon. I’m Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin. During my six years as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, I managed the law that banned partial birth abortion and the law that tried to save Terry Schiavo’s life. Thank you all for coming. We’ve been reading an awful lot about health care lately, and the original bill that Obama and Pelosi and Harry Reid introduced used your tax dollars to pay for elective abortions. As Mike Pence has said, that is morally wrong, but it’s also bad policy. Because we should not use the power of taxation granted to the Congress by the United States Constitution to force you to pay for a procedure that you believe is morally wrong. And Congress has recognized that for thirty-four years with the Hyde Amendment being on the books. Now the people who have buried the healthcare bill are trying to deceive all of you into thinking that this war has been won. We have won a battle by defeating ObamaCare with the help of the voters of Massachusetts last Tuesday. But the people who are trying to push this law through and to make you pay for elective abortions are going to step back, are going to hope that you aren’t as involved in the next three or four or six months, and then they’re going to come up with something that’s just as bad as what was defeated in the Massachusetts election, and try to ram it through. My message to all of you is simple: The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in this country since 1776. You can’t have liberty, you can’t have the pursuit of happiness, if you don’t have life. So stay awake – don’t fall asleep. Keep on going to your senators’ and representatives’ town meetings, keep on sending us post cards and emails. Keep on bugging us. I like you folks to bug me. And the more you bug us, the more fights we will win and we’ll win this war. Thank you all, God bless you, and God bless America.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers(R-WA): Welcome to our nation’s capital and thank you so much for coming to this year’s March for Life. I’m Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and I’m the proud mom of a two-year-old. He’s the light of my life, and he also happens to have Down Syndrome. And it breaks my heart to know that 90% of women who find out that their baby has Down Syndrome choose to abort. We know that abortion is never the answer. What we need to do is raise awareness as to the joys of motherhood. We need to support moms and dads who find themselves in the midst of an unexpected pregnancy. They might be scared; they might be confused. But if we give them love, encouragement and support, we can show them a better way, a way that protects Life. Thank you for coming today. You are standing up for your children. You’re standing up for my son Cole Rodgers. You’re standing up for the future of America. God bless you, God bless the cause of Life, and may God continue to bless America.

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