Life Advocacy Briefing

Bad News Outweighs the Good

THE GOOD NEWS isthat the Senate will take up a limited agenda before recessing for the   election campaigns. The bad news is that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to call up – likely this week – a radicalized Defense Authorization bill which he and his colleagues have riddled with radical social policy.

Sen. Reid and his left-wing colleagues have laid social policy land mines – the Burris Abortion Amendment and the amendment repealing the long-standing ban on open homosexuality in the military – within the massive Defense bill, and it now appears he plans to add another bombshell by attaching a provision for amnesty for illegal aliens. And, in case the measure is not loaded down enough, he will likely tack on a proposal, reports Niels Lesniewski in Congressional Quarterly, “designed to curb the use of secret holds on nominations,” a long-standing prerogative of Senators.

The Burris Amendment would remove the long-standing prohibition on abortions in US military facilities, both stateside and overseas. It is the most radical of the Left’s various attempts to enshrine abortion into our military health system and would force conscientious personnel to leave the service.

Though Sen. Reid “conceded,” writes Mr. Lesniewski, “that he does not expect to complete [the measure] before the November election,” it is critical for concerned citizens to weigh in against even debating the proposal. Stopping it now by defeating cloture (the motion for immediate consideration) could help prevent Sen. Reid and his lame-duck liberals from passing it after the election.

The first and urgent approach to this measure is to insist that Senators vote against bringing the bill forward for consideration. That means phone calls now; the vote is expected at 2:15 p.m. EDT tomorrow, Tuesday.

Senators can be reached via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121, with the message, “Vote ‘no’ on Defense Authorization cloture.” We will consider this roll call a vote on abortion policy and will include it in our Senate Voting Record Index in October.

Incidentally, this measure is not required for sustenance of our troops; it is a policy measure, not an appropriation or spending bill.

We are publishing at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing a brief commentary by Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins about the Senate Majority Leader’s priorities as exhibited by the emphasis he is putting on this patchwork of leftish policy.

More Mischief

ANOTHER ITEM THE SENATE COULD BRING TO THE FOREFRONT is the labcoat lobby’s demand that Congress short-circuit the pending litigation seeking to enforce the statutory ban on spending tax dollars for experiments in which embryonic human beings are sacrificed for spare parts.

Legislation to moot the case has been filed in the Senate by lame-duck Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), whose S-3766 affirmatively approves even cloning embryonic humans for their value as experimentation subjects. His legislation was filed Sept. 13 and is co-sponsored, so far, by California Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. The bill is considered a companion to HR-4808, filed in the House last March by Rep. Diana DeGette and 67 co-sponsors.

A hearing on embryo vivisection was held last Thursday in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, Education & Related Agencies. The hearing was chaired by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), one of the Senate’s most ardent advocates of Frankensteinian “science.” The sole witness who defended the future of the human race was Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who, as a House Member in 1996 co-sponsored with then-Rep. Jay Dickey the annual appropriations rider which Judge Royce Lamberth cited in invalidating the Obama order.

Commented Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in his Sept. 14 FRC Action Update, “Despite the fact that there is not a single treatment from embryonic stem cells, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins continues to call [such experimentation] ‘life saving.’ Only in Washington,” remarked Mr. Perkins, “can you get away with such distortions.”

Mr. Perkins went on to urge Congress to “fund truly life-saving research.” We join him in urging “immediate … pass[age of] Rep. Chris Smith’s bill [HR-6083] to reauthorize the cord blood banking program, preserving the proven life-saving ability of umbilical cord stem cells instead of discarding them.

“Congress should also pass the Patients First Act,” urged Mr. Perkins, calling HR-877 “a non-controversial bill by Representatives Randy Forbes (R-VA) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL) that would refocus federal dollars on stem cells that are already ethically improving the health and saving the lives of thousands of patients, namely adult stem cells.

“Patients don’t have time to waste,” noted Mr. Perkins. “Passing [the Smith and Forbes/Lipinski] bills will help real people with real needs,” declared Mr. Perkins, “rather than wasting precious tax dollars on embryo-destructive research and human cloning.”

Chances are good that last week’s hearing was a mere sop to the labcoat lobby, but pro-life citizens cannot afford to assume that the brou is a haha. With leaders like Sen. Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) presiding in what may be their last days in charge, any radical goal could be pursued over the politically dead bodies of their own Members. Say a prayer and make a call; this fight could happen, and it could get nasty.

Sweet Upset

TUESDAY’s DELAWARE G.O.P. SENATE PRIMARY BROUGHT VICTORY not just for the “TEA Party” movement and conservatives generally but also for the cause of Life. Nominee Christine O’Donnell is a veteran pro-life activist who was backed by the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List political action committee, among others.

Just as delicious as her nomination is her defeat of the supposed frontrunner, the now retired Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), one of the most active and ardent backers of legalized abortion and specifically embryo vivisection within the GOP.  Mr. Castle had confidently expected to join his colleague Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) in the Senate GOP conference next year; Rep. Kirk, too, is running for the Senate. There goes that. It remains to be seen whether the Castle defeat will give the stubbornly liberal Mr. Kirk enough pause to prompt him to stop his secondary campaign of disrespecting conservatives whose votes he will need twice on Nov. 2 – once for the coming term and once in a special election to succeed the appointed Roland Burris for the lame-duck session.

We will be interested to observe what appointment Mr. Castle receives from the Obama Regime and how soon that reward for loyalty comes his way. In the meantime, our congratulations to pro-life warrior Christine O’Donnell, whose name just became as well known overnight as Scott Brown’s did last winter.

Nothing to Brag About

PLANNED PARENTHOOD WATCHERS HAVE BEEN WAITING since spring for the customary release of the annual report from Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). And the wait is not yet over.

But PPFA did release a “fact sheet” in effect bragging about its domination of the abortion industry. The fact sheet does not reveal how much government funding the outfit has absorbed, but it does give notable data concerning the “services” they delivered in 2008; their last full report was for 2007.

Comparing the two years’ “accomplishments:” In 2007, PP committed 305,310 abortions; in 2008, the abortion count was up to 324,008.

Not every category showed increases, though. Adoption referrals plunged from 4,912 in 2007 to 2,405 in 2008, and the number of prenatal services clients declined in 2008 to 9,433 from 10,914 in 2007.

These facts are useful in unmasking Planned Parenthood among uninformed citizens who have been deceived by PP’s smokescreens about abortion being “just a part” of their “services.” We urge readers to record these figures and use them in conversations with naïve acquaintances. Facts can open sleeping eyes.

Party’s Over?

MAYBE THE DELAY in Planned Parenthood’s financial report relates to the cartel’s long overdue divorce from its San Francisco affiliate, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate (PPGG).

Now a 2008 letter has surfaced, signed and sent by 30 PPGG staff members to the PPGG board and to the PPFA “mother” organization “complaining,” reports Operation Rescue, “about financial improprieties by former head Dian Harrison.” In its “From the Front Lines” bulletin of Sept. 10, OR publishes “a small sample” of PPGG staff complaints posted by the San Francisco Bay Guardian on its weblog site.

“It was well known within the agency,” writes a woman calling herself “Laura, former staff, “that the former CEO, Dian Harrison, didn’t care about the mission or the patients and was only enriching herself and living large off of PPGG’s budget. She was so corrupt she even took to hiding her salary on the agency’s 990 tax forms for several years until the IRS started looking into her business. If the government ever looks at PPGG’s books,” writes this ex-employee, “both Dian and the current CEO, Therese Wilson, will be sharing a jail cell next to Bernie Madoff.” Nicely said, if true.

Signing him/herself “another former staff member, sigh” was another complainer, who suggested to PPFA that affiliate reaccreditation include interviews with staff. “If staff sends you letters of concern,” this one wrote in an open message to Planned Parenthood, “and the occasional invoice for a luxury item purchased on the agency credit card that is probably sitting in Dian’s living room right now, maybe you shouldn’t ignore it and instead investigate. … We’re not sending you concerned letters and copies of bills for thousands of dollars of personal items for fun.”

For this PPFA affiliate, the party could be over, but the trouble could go higher; OR discloses in its bulletin that “the Criminal Division of the Internal Revenue Service is conducting an audit” of PPGG and further notes that “a federal appeals court quietly reinstated a lawsuit [in August] filed secretly in 2005 by Victor Gonzalez, former chief financial officer for PP Los Angeles … alleg[ing] that various PP affiliates, including the Golden Gate organization, ‘knowingly engaged in a criminal plot to fleece state and federal taxpayers out of more than $180 million over the course of at least six years.’”

The plaintiff in that suit, reports OR, “is represented by Walter Weber, senior litigation counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ).  [Mr.] Weber recently told WND.com [WorldNetDaily.com] that he believes that the disclosures of financial fraud could ultimately lead to the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

“‘The precedent is ACORN,’” said Mr. Weber, quoted by OR from the WND.com interview. “‘When the level of scandal around a certain organization reaches a boiling point, Congress might say no more money,’ said [Mr.] Weber. ‘This case isn’t going to shut down a billion-dollar operation in California. But it could induce other states to look at PP billing practices in their own jurisdictions. If enough lawsuits get filed and enough illegal billing is brought to light,’” he said, “‘PP might become toxic, like ACORN, and political pressure could force Congress to withdraw support.’” (Pity it takes financial irregularities to unmask an outfit already known to be killing more than 300,000 innocent preborn boys and girls every year.) Are you listening, House GOP?

Get Tough to Protect Life

AMID A FLURRY OF BABY-TEETH REGULATORY LICENSE SUSPENSIONS of notorious abortionists in the mid-Atlantic region, a criminal prosecution of a Massachusetts abortionist has netted a guilty plea in the manslaughter death of abortion patient Laura Smith three years ago.

The butcher of Barnstable, Rapin Osathanondh, was sentenced last week to three months in jail, four months in home confinement and then three years of probation.

The abortionist’s manslaughter conviction, said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, “should encourage prosecutors across the nation to criminally charge other abortionists who are breaking the law. It is the only way,” he noted, “to protect women from suffering at the hands of these dangerous and predatory abortionists, on which traditional forms of discipline simply do not work.”

His remarks are backed up by the state of Maryland’s experience with abortionist Steven Brigham, never licensed in that state yet caught committing late-term abortions at his own Maryland shop, as we have reported previously. Suspending his license appears not to be the answer in his case and never has been; how about a prosecution?

‘The Cause’ in the Flesh

PERSONAL WITNESS IS CRITICAL in persuading folks of the reality of abortion and the injustice of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. We have run across a couple of tools our readers can use to reach others with the truth. One is a two-part video series tracing the life story of abortion survivor Melissa Ohden and her little daughter; “Marked for Death” can be found at www.facinglife.tv. The other is a brief audio presentation by Arizona Congressional candidate David Schweikert at his Internet campaign website, www.David10.com, clicking “On the Issues” and then “David on Life.” Born to an unwed mother and given over for adoption, this candidate tells his story briefly and effectively in a testimony to the value of Life.

Homosexuals & Abortion Over Jobs: Harry Reid’s Distorted Priorities

Commentary by Tony Perkins in the Sept. 14, 2010, FRC Action Update

With the economy still in the doldrums and a massive job-killing tax increase scheduled for January looming over our heads, you would think that legislation that would help average Americans find jobs in the private sector would be the top priority for the Democratic leadership in Congress. If you thought that, you would be wrong.

Finding jobs for homosexuals in the military appears to be the top priority for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Yesterday he told colleagues that next week [Sept. 21] he will bring to the Senate floor a bill that would repeal the 1993 law which codified the military’s longstanding prohibition of homosexual conduct in the ranks.

The amendment to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military is found in the defense authorization bill – along with another anti-family amendment that would turn US military medical facilities here and around the globe into abortion clinics.

ABC News reported that this “will likely be the one major piece of legislation that the Senate tackles before the November mid-term elections.” This bill is not necessary to fund our military; an appropriations bill does that. The only urgency comes from Reid’s desire to pander to his pro-homosexual, pro-abortion base.

Senators should reject Reid’s distorted priorities by voting against advancing this bill at every step. Contact your Senators today and tell them to stop using the military to impose this Administration’s radical homosexual [and pro-abortion] agenda.

Permission granted to quote with attribution. Reproduction rights granted only by express authorization.