Life Advocacy Briefing

Congress Back

MEMBERS OF THE U.S. HOUSE & SENATE RETURN TO THE CAPITOL this week. Fasten your seatbelt and get your phone and electronic mail charged up ready to go. The Capitol switchboard number is 1-202/224-3121. Members can be reached via electronic mail through the Internet at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. If you wish to hold them accountable, it helps to give them your message in advance of their votes.

Tops on the Agenda – For Us

THOUGH THE SENATE FIRST WILL TAKE UP small business legislation and a judicial nomination, pro-life citizens cannot wait until we see the whites of their eyes before we let our Senators know: “No Burris Amendment on the Defense bill! Don’t drive good doctors and nurses out of military service. Vote to preserve the ban on abortions in our military facilities.”

And start contacting your House Member now to urge a vote against the DeGette legislation pushing the killing of embryonic human beings.

These matters can arise quickly, and what’s more, enough advance pressure could discourage Congressional leaders from bringing them to a vote; status quo is preferable to either “Burris” or “DeGette” going into law. If they don’t come up, the cause of Life wins for now.

A Rash of Actions Against Abortionists

STEPHEN BRIGHAM’s HORRIFIC PRACTICES are gaining attention from authorities in Maryland and New Jersey, and Operation Rescue (OR) is pressing Maryland’s attorney general to file criminal charges to hold the notorious abortionist “to full accountability under the law.”

The State of Maryland “issued a cease-and-desist order to [Mr.] Brigham on Aug. 25,” reports OR, after discovering his “scheme to circumvent the late-term abortion laws by beginning the abortion in one state, then transporting the women to Maryland for completion of the abortion.”

When authorities “raided [Mr.] Brigham’s Elkton, Maryland, abortion mill,” reports OR, they “discovered the remains of 35 late-term aborted babies.” Though he owns the facility, Mr. Brigham has never been licensed to practice medicine – or baby killing – in Maryland.

What had led them to the Elkton mill? “Three weeks ago,” writes Marie McCullough in the Sept. 3 Philadelphia Inquirer, “physician Steven Brigham led a car caravan of patients from his Voorhees [New Jersey] abortion clinic to his facility in Elkton, Maryland. After one of the patients was critically injured during her surgery there,” writes Ms. McCullough, “[Mr.] Brigham put the semiconscious, bleeding woman into the back of a rented Chevrolet Malibu and drove her to a nearby hospital emergency room rather than call an ambulance.”

New Jersey’s Medical Board last Wednesday suspended Mr. Brigham’s medical license, based on the same incident. Already banned from medical practice in Pennsylvania, New York, Florida and California, Mr. Brigham had held onto his active medical license in New Jersey until last week. Still, a suspension does not carry the weight of a revocation, and concerned citizens need to pressure the board for full revocation of this butcher’s medical practice privileges.

Stephen Brigham, notes OR spokesman Cheryl Sullenger in the OR bulletin reporting the development, “is just one example in an industry where this kind of behavior is the norm and not the exception. We have yet to find an abortionist,” she said, “who does not violate the law.” (This comment is particularly remarkable since US abortionists face so few regulations.)

The Brigham probe has thus far brought about, on Aug. 31, the suspension of the Maryland medical licenses of Brigham associates George Shepard Jr. of Delaware and Nicola I. Riley of Utah, disciplined by Maryland authorities, reports OR, “for helping [Mr.] Brigham skirt the law.”

“In another case,” reports OR, “Maryland abortionist Romeo Ferrer’s medical license was suspended based on a four-year-old abortion death complaint.” The board had heard evidence in June of Mr. Ferrer’s negligence in the Feb. 3, 2006, death of a 21-year-old expectant mother who underwent a second-trimester dilation and evacuation abortion at his hands. Overdosed on painkillers, the young woman “was not properly monitored,” OR recounts, “and appropriate emergency protocols were not followed.” The medical board failed to act in June but handed down the suspension order as an “‘emergency action,’” OR reports, last week in the midst of the Brigham spotlight.

“Shame on the women’s organizations that know this kind of abuse is occurring yet continue to cover up for abortionists,” declared Ms. Sullenger. “If groups like NARAL and the National Abortion Federation really cared about women,” she said, “they would work night and day to close these abortion chop shops and offer real solutions to pregnant women that [do] not include submitting them to abortionist quacks.” Nor pressuring moms to contract for the killing of their own offspring.

Pastor Mayandy, RIP

THE CANADIAN PASTOR WHOSE CONTINUED FEEDING & HYDRATION were first withdrawn and then restored has passed away peacefully and naturally. We offer condolences to his flock, for whom this entire episode has been a great trial. And we rejoice that his home-going was in accord with the Lord’s timing, not the government’s.

Shrinking the Industry

“Blog” commentary by Operation Rescue president Troy Newman posted Sept. 8, 2010, at www.operationrescue.org

In “A Wonderful Life,” every time a bell rang, an angel got his wings. But at Operation Rescue, when an abortion mill shuts its doors we rock out. “Another One Bites the Dust,” by the rock group Queen, blares at maximum volume from our office stereo system every time an abortion mill closes. It is a time-honored tradition in the Operation Rescue office dating back to 1991.

The OR national headquarters is located in a former abortion mill. The rock and roll could be heard for blocks away on the day we shut that clinic down.

Fortunately, the music is digital, or we would have worn the old vinyl record thin from celebrating all the abortion clinics that have lately closed. Since 1991, over 1,400 chop shops have shut down for good, leaving just slightly over 700 killing centers in the USA. The numbers don’t lie. Two-thirds of the industry has closed up shop and blown out of town. That’s something to rock about!

And the winds of change continue to blow in our favor.

In the years since the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey Supreme Court decision, the push from state legislatures has been to focus on placing restrictions and regulations on abortion mills and their staff. Although the attempts have been piecemeal, many laws have been enacted and enforced, resulting in the closure of clinics in several states.

A few years ago, the Missouri legislature passed a commonsense safety law forcing abortionists to have hospital privileges in order to stay open. As a result, at least one abortion clinic was closed, and our stereo blasted at full volume.

Kermit Gosnell’s license to kill was suspended by the Pennsylvania Dept. of State’s Board of Medicine after they raided his death camp and declared it a “shop of horrors” after finding numerous health and safety violations. His abortion mill was ordered to close. Another one down.

Maryland regulators are finally stepping up to the plate after an 18-year-old girl suffered a botched abortion at the hands of the unlicensed abortionist Steven Brigham. The state ordered Brigham to cease and desist from the practice of medicine and suspended the licenses of his two quack associates for helping Brigham evade the law. Operation Rescue is pushing the Maryland Attorney General for criminal charges. Brigham’s Elkton abortion mill is closed. Yet another one down.

The Louisiana Dept. of Health & Hospitals (LDHH) revoked the clinic license of Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport last week and ordered them to halt all abortions there after finding that they didn’t even bother to monitor a patient’s vital signs or physically examine women prior to abortions. The action was the first immediate suspension under the new Louisiana law, signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, which allows the State to order an abortion mill to cease operations. Another one bites the dust.

Virginia Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli recently placed abortion mills under the same standard of care required [for] other outpatient facilities. Abortion mills around the country often operate in a gray area and outside any regulatory oversight. I predict there will be some “for sale” signs going up soon in Virginia, and I [had] better warm up my stereo.

Laws and regulations that end with “now you can close the abortion clinic” are always a good thing for the babies. I know from first-hand experience that when abortion mills close, babies are saved.

So long live the regulators, the enforcers and the prosecutors who apply the law and close abortion mills. We can all hold hands and sing the refrain, “bump, bump, bump – another one bites the dust!

The Real Reason for Legalized Abortion

Sept. 4, 2010, commentary by Mark Crutcher, writing for Cybercast News Service, www.CNSNews.com

For almost 40 years, we’ve been told that the legalization of abortion was about “reproductive freedom” and “women’s rights” and “choice.” Now, an explosive new documentary is exposing this rhetoric as nothing more than marketing hype designed to conceal a nasty hidden agenda.

With a mountain of documentation, Maafa 21 is proving to audiences all across America that the real motivation behind the legalization of abortion was eugenics and racial genocide. In just over two hours, the documentary shows that the legalization of abortion was part of a campaign that had been created, promoted and financed by a small cartel of ultra-wealthy elitists.

Viewers are also stunned to learn that it was the American eugenics movement that gave rise to the Nazi effort to create “racial purity” and that this effort was in large measure funded with dollars from American corporations. They also learn that the first anti-abortion organizations in America were radical civil rights groups of the 1960s, whose leaders had seen that eugenics and black genocide were the driving forces behind the call for legalized abortion.

Some people are also surprised to learn about the numerous links among America’s number one abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, its founder Margaret Sanger and the America eugenics movement. They learn that Sanger gave a speech to a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and was then invited back to speak to 12 “similar groups,” as she wrote in her autobiography.

They learn that Planned Parenthood was an integral part of the sterilization boards that operated in more than 30 states. They learn that Sanger once tried to merge Planned Parenthood with the American Eugenics Society.

The revelations go on and on, and each one is fully documented.

The reality is that Maafa 21 is a primer on power, corruption and betrayal. Ironically, within days after the first edition of Maafa 21 was released, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was being interviewed by a reporter for the New York Times and made the following statement when asked about Roe vs. Wade – the decision that legalized abortion: “Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

Here is the most radical abortion proponent that’s ever been on the Supreme Court openly conceding that the arguments made in Maafa 21 are absolutely accurate. She is admitting that the  legalization of abortion was not about women’s rights or reproductive freedom; it was about eliminating certain groups of people. In other words, it was about eugenics.

More than 20,000 copies of Maafa 21 have already been distributed on DVD, and it is being shown in theaters, churches, college campuses and conventions across the country. It has even been shown twice in the Congressional Visitors Center in Washington, DC. Audience reactions run the gamut from sadness to shock to rage.

There is no disputing that the content of Maafa 21 can be a little overwhelming, but it “connects the dots” in a way that makes it clear why the abortion holocaust is happening.

Legalized abortion has killed 50 million unborn children so far in America, and it kills over 3,000 more every day. At least now, people will no longer be able to deceive themselves into thinking that this is happening for one reason when, in reality, it is happening for a totally different and totally unrelated reason.

In the final analysis, Maafa 21 does what all good documentaries do: It exposes what the media have being hiding and tells you what the political establishment doesn’t want you to know. To learn more, go to www.Maafa21.com.

Family Matters

Commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in the Sept. 9, 2010, FRC Action Update

On Wednesday, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who is also the chairman of the Republican Governors Assn., spoke to reporters here in Washington and cautioned Republican candidates against bringing social issues into their campaign[s]. He said that if candidates go beyond economic issues, they “are using up valuable time and resources that can be used to talk to people about what they care about.”

My experience in the political arena is that politicians want to avoid issues that they are not very comfortable with. However, just because [certain] issues are not important to a candidate does not make them unimportant to voters.

I’ve repeatedly said that economic issues are currently at the forefront of the minds of most voters, but the electorate – especially social conservatives – have the ability to consider a candidate’s view on more than one or two issues.

Most self-identified pro-life Americans, the number of which have been increasing over the last 30 years, will decide their vote not on where a candidate stands on a flat tax or a value-added tax but on where a candidate stands on the value of human life.

Case in point, one of the biggest upsets this election season was Joe Miller, a Senate candidate in the state of Alaska. He defeated Alaskan political legacy Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The day after the election, Mr. Miller told the Anchorage Daily News that he thought the pro-life parental notification ballot measure he shared the ticket with brought out voters who supported him over Sen. Murkowski (who was supported by pro-abortion groups). “The Proposition 2 supporters were our supporters …; the pro-life vote was important.” Throughout the campaign, Mr. Miller made his pro-life stance a central part of his primary campaign, while his opponent waffled.

A nation’s economy will never have greater stability than its core economic unit – the family, and the stability of the family is determined by more than money. Family matters, and if the Republicans want to succeed where they failed last time, they had better remember that fact.

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Our organization exists to equip the pro-life community for effectiveness toward reforming America’s abortion laws. In pursing that mission, we counsel pro-life candidates to help them gain confidence in using Life as a winning issue.  Gov. Barbour is a great leader, but in this regard he could not be more wrong, nor could his advice be more counterproductive.]

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