Life Advocacy Briefing

Kagan Confirmed

THE U.S. SENATE VOTED THURSDAY TO CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT of leftwing activist Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court. The vote on her nomination was 63 to 37. We publish the roll call at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

The 50-year-old Ms. Kagan succeeds retiring Justice John Paul Stevens in the life-time post. She is expected to carry on much the same philosophy as Mr. Stevens, but she is expected also to serve decades into the future.

Ms. Kagan has been Pres. Obama’s Solicitor General and as such has defended the current regime’s policies in litigation. Previously she worked as a legal counsel in the office of Pres. Bill Clinton and as such aided him in framing political strategy for such controversial Clinton positions as the shell game by which he sought to block enactment of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.

Until her nomination to the high court earlier this year, she was best known as the Harvard Law School dean who illegally denied military recruiters their customary place on campus in her personal protest against the federal statute protecting military readiness by barring armed forces participation by practicing homosexuals.

U.S. Foreign Aid for Abortionists

THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE HAS ADOPTED AN AMENDMENT advanced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to bar future application of Pres. Ronald Reagan’s “Mexico City Policy,” which disqualified abortion advocates such as International Planned Parenthood Federation from foreign aid.

The Lautenberg Amendment rode out of the committee on the State & Foreign Operations Appropriation bill, which cleared the panel on an 18-to-12 vote. If the bill is passed and signed in its current form, notes Tom Strode of Baptist Press, “a future pro-life President would not be able to reinstate the Mexico City Policy with an executive order. It would require Congressional action – a much taller hurdle.”

The policy is not currently in effect, having been lifted by Pres. Obama as one of his first acts in office in January 2009.

Readers are urged to contact their Senators and insist that they vote to drop the Lautenberg Amendment when the State Dept. Appropriation bill comes before the Senate, likely in September when Congress returns. The Capitol switchboard number is 1-202/224-3121, and messages can be sent electronically via the Senate website at www.senate.gov.

In contacting Senators, readers may wish not onlyto cite the Lautenberg Amendment but also to request opposition to the bill for its $55 million award of US tax money to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which abets Red China’s forced abortion and involuntary sterilization pogrom.

Delay in Defense Bill?

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ) FORMALLY OBJECTED Thursday to immediate consideration of the Defense Authorization bill. As long as he maintains his objection, the bill cannot come forward, giving Sen. McCain bargaining strength to negotiate for amendment opportunities on the Senate floor.

With barely restrained anger, he cited a previous amendment attached by the Armed Services Committee chairman to repeal the ban on practicing homosexuals in the armed forces of the United States and also the Burris Amendment to foist abortions on US military health facilities. He cited also the behavior a year ago of committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) in attaching a “hate crimes” amendment to the Defense bill and in blocking any opportunity for objecting Senators to strip that amendment in Senate floor consideration.  Sen. Levin indicated his “intention” for an “open” debate and amendment process.  Mr. McCain persisted in his objection, delaying a decision until after the Senate returns from recess.

Since the argument could be worked out in the interim, readers should expect the Senate to take up the bill in September and should accordingly contact their Senators to insist that the Burris Military Abortion Amendment be stripped from the measure. (1-202.224-3121, www.senate.gov)

No Abortion Coverage for Now

IN THE LATEST PING-PONG ROUND relating to abortion funding in ObamaCare, the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) issued a rule last week barring coverage of most abortions in the federally funded high-risk insurance pools to be set up by each state. The rule appears to have come in reaction to reports which surfaced in July showing that three of the first states to apply for funding – Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Maryland – had included elective abortions among the “services” to be covered.

The regulation constitutes a tacit admission by the Obama Regime that neither the massive law passed in March nor the subsequent blathering executive order issued by the President himself actually proscribed abortion funding through ObamaCare. If it were already illegal, a regulation would not have been needed.

The rule represents a victory for the 13 GOP Senators who sent a July 28 letter, which we reprinted last week, demanding that such a rule be issued immediately. That letter was initiated by Sen. Mike Enzi (WY), who is the Ranking Member on the House Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, and was co-signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and 11 others.

Still throwing bones over his shoulder to his abortion industry patrons, Pres. Obama did not just cover up with a quick HHS regulation. At the same time the regulation was published, the chief of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy-Ann DeParle, “issued a statement on the White House blog,” reports National Right to Life Committee in a news release, “explaining that this decision ‘is not a precedent for other programs or policies given the unique, temporary nature of the program … .’” Whatever that means!

‘Fitting’ Tribute

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-SanFrancisco) WAS NAMED A ‘CHAMPION of Women’s Health’ by none other than Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the most lucrative abortion cartel in the US. Others singled out for the praise of the baby killers: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

PP president Cecile Richards cited Speaker Pelosi’s jamming ObamaCare through the House, a key goal of the abortion behemoth, which will benefit financially from the scheme. Said Miss Richards in presenting the award to Ms. Pelosi, quoted by Baptist Press, “‘She’s walked across hot coals for us.’”

Though we would dispute the implied characterization of the boondoggle as beneficial to “women’s health,” we certainly find it appropriate that Speaker Pelosi would receive a major award from such a notorious outfit.

Fleeing Justice?

TWO ABORTIONISTS HAVE ‘TERMINATED’ their medical licenses in Kansas, one just days after the Kansas Board of Healing Arts (KSBHA) went public with its 11-count disciplinary petition against Ann Kristin Neuhaus for allegedly “improper late-term abortion referrals,” reports Operation Rescue in an OR news release, to the late, notorious Wichita abortionist George Tiller.

Shelley Sella and Susan C. Robinson, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, had worked for Mr. Tiller before his death last year. Their withdrawal from the license to practice in Kansas now, notes OR, “plac[es] them outside the disciplinary jurisdiction of the KSBHA.”

Ms. Robinson had inactivated her Kansas license a month after the Tiller business closed in 2009, according to OR.  Ms. Sella “canceled her Kansas license” in late July, OR has discovered.

Their action to pull out of Kansas “‘says a lot about their legitimate concerns that they could also have faced discipline,’” commented OR president Troy Newman in the release, “‘for abortion abuses in which they may have participated while in Kansas.’”

This is not to say the pair have gone straight. “Both abortionists are now operating,” reports OR, at an Albuquerque “late-term abortion mill operated by former back-alley abortionist Curtis Boyd, [who] boasts of having done thousands of criminal abortions prior to Roe v. Wade and acknowledges that he is aware that he is killing by doing abortions. …

“‘The people of New Mexico … need to be aware that these two have a history of shady abortion practices,’” commented Mr. Newman. “‘Sella, Robinson and the new employer, Curtis Boyd, all have flouted the law and placed the lives of women at risk,’ said [Mr.] Newman” in the OR release. “‘[Their] recent efforts to place themselves outside of the disciplinary jurisdiction of Kansas show they are defiant and are unwilling to amend their ways or submit to justice. Their above-the-law attitude is a dangerous one that could cost women their lives.’”

California Bottom-Feeder Faces Homicide Charge

A ‘HOMICIDE’ CHARGE WAS ADDED in late July to the complaint already pending at the California Medical Board against abortionist Andrew Rutland. “The action,” reports Operation Rescue in an OR news release, “came after the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office reclassified [the] death [of Ying Chen] as a homicide in June. …

“[Mr.] Rutland had committed a second-trimester abortion on Ying Chen,” reports OR, “at a dirty, unlicensed acupuncture clinic in San Gabriel, California, during which he administered an overdose of lidocaine. He failed to recognize the symptoms of the overdose,” reports OR, “and the patient went into cardiac arrest.” OR further complains that neither he nor his staff was trained or equipped “to handle the medical emergency. After a ‘significant delay,’ in contacting 911,” reports OR, “the woman was transported to a local hospital, where she died six days later.” Her death, notes OR, was at first “classified as accidental.”

The current disciplinary action against Mr. Rutland involves a license revocation hearing, reports OR, scheduled for next February.

Persisting in Futility

DESPITE MOUNTING EVIDENCE THAT ADULT STEM CELLS OFFER GREATER PROMISE for treating and curing diseases and conditions in human beings, the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized Geron Corp., reports Peter J. Smith for LifeSiteNews.com, citing New York Times as source, “to test the effectiveness of human embryonic stem cells on human patients.”

The stem cells to be used “were developed,” writes Mr. Smith, “by Geron Corp. and the University of California [at] Irvine.” (They were derived from killing a human being created by God.)

The Geron experiment will attempt a therapy, reports Mr. Smith, “for individuals with very recent spinal cord injuries – within two weeks – that would repair the damaged insulation (myelin) of nerve cells and restore their ability to transmit signals.

“The Times notes, however, that Geron was first cleared by the FDA to begin clinical trials in January 2009,” writes Mr. Smith, “and then stopped. The reason for the hold? Cysts were discovered in mice injected with embryonic stem cells, prompting the FDA to put the kibosh on the trial until Geron came up with another mouse study.”

The LifeSite story quotes Family Research Council’s senior fellow for life sciences, David Prentice MD, writing on FRC’s Internet weblog, “‘Many pro-embryonic stemcell scientists have expressed concerns about Geron’s trial, that it is not proven even in rats and could cause harm to the patients.’”  Dr. Prentice went on to compare the dubious experiment to the already established track record for therapies using adult stem cells. “‘In terms of real effectiveness, even for patients injured years previously,’” noted Dr. Prentice, “‘adult stem cells have already shown published scientific evidence not only for safety but for the reality of successful repair of spinal cord injury in patients.’”

The Vatican weighed in on the news from a moral and ethical perspective. Elio Sgreccia, former head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told Vatican Radio, according to Mr. Smith, “‘Despite the efforts that are made to deny it, science continues to show us that the embryo is a human being in the making.’”  Mr. Sgreccia said, reports LifeSite, “that human embryos are ‘sacrificed to extract the stem cells from them,’ and regardless of the cures being sought, such a process ‘from an ethical point of view can only receive a negative judgment.’”

Kudos

WE EXTEND HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS to our colleagues at Life Issues Institute – and particularly to executive director Brad Mattes – on receiving a regional Emmy Award in the Interview & Discussion category for the organization’s weekly pro-life television program, Facing Life Head On.

Mr. Mattes, host and executive producer of the program, in characteristic humility offered thanks and praise to God in his speech accepting the award. “The glory goes to Him,” said Mr. Mattes. “This is His ministry.”

Missouri Rejects ObamaCare

Aug. 4, 2010 commentary by Gary Bauer in his Campaign for Working Families End of Day Memo

Three states held primary elections [last Tuesday], but the big news today isn’t about a winning candidate but rather a losing issue. The Missouri legislature [had] put a proposed law (Proposition C) on the ballot exempting Missouri citizens from ObamaCare’s individual mandate. The measure passed overwhelmingly – 71 to 29%.

More than 938,000 votes were cast for and against Proposition C, compared to 899,000 votes cast in the Republican and Democrat Senatorial primary races. In other words, more Show-Me state voters turned out to vote against ObamaCare than for the candidates for US Senate.

An analysis of the vote is very revealing. There were significantly more votes cast in the GOP Senate primary than in the Democrat primary, but not enough to equal Proposition C’s winning total. Assuming that every Republican voter supported Proposition C, then nearly one-third of the voters in the Democrat primary must have supported Proposition C too.

The media will try to ignore it, but this was a crucial vote. Missouri is considered a political bellwether state. Since 1904, it has voted for the winning Presidential candidate in every election but two. In 2008, the state split, 49.4% for John McCain to 49.3% for Barack Obama. It doesn’t get much closer than that. But last night a state that was 50/50 for Obama voted 71% to 29% against his signature legislative initiative. That’s very bad news for Congressional Democrats seeking re-election who voted for ObamaCare.

Senate Voting Record: Kagan

Confirmation of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court – Aug. 5, 2010 – Passed 63 to 37 (Democrats in italics; new Senator in ALL CAPS)

Voting “no” / pro-Life: AL/Sessions & Shelby, AK/Murkowski, AZ/Kyl & McCain, FL/LeMieux, GA/Chambliss & Isakson, ID/Crapo & Risch, IA/Grassley, KS/Brownback & Roberts, KY/Bunning & McConnell, LA/Vitter, MA/Brown, MS/Cochran & Wicker, MO/Bond, NE/Johanns & Nelson, NV/Ensign, NC/Burr, OH/Voinovich, OK/Coburn & Inhofe, SC/DeMint, SD/Thune, TN/Alexander & Corker, TX/Cornyn & Hutchison, UT/Bennett & Hatch, WY/Barrasso & Enzi

Voting “yes” / anti-Life: AK/Begich, AR/Lincoln & Pryor, CA/Boxer & Feinstein, CO/Bennet & Udall, CT/Dodd & Lieberman (I), DE/Carper & Kaufman, FL/Nelson, HI/Akaka & Inouye, IL/Burris & Durbin, IN/Lugar & Bayh, IA/Harkin, LA/Landrieu, ME/Collins & Snowe, MD/Cardin & Mikulski, MA/Kerry, MI/Levin & Stabenow, MN/Franken & Klobuchar, MO/McCaskill, MT/Baucus & Tester, NV/Reid, NH/Gregg & Shaheen, NJ/Lautenberg & Menendez, NM/Bingaman & Udall, NY/Gillibrand & Schumer, NC/Hagan, ND/Conrad & Dorgan, OH/Brown, OR/Merkley & Wyden, PA/Casey & Specter, RI/Reed & Whitehouse, SC/Graham, SD/Johnson, VT/Leahy & Sanders (I), VA/Warner & Webb, WA/Cantwell & Murray, WV/ GOODWIN & Rockefeller, WI/Feingold & Kohl

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