Life Advocacy Briefing

Expect Us, But Late

WE EXPECT TO BE A BIT LATE next week. We’ve scheduled the Feb. 14 edition, which would normally be faxed, e-mailed and mailed on Feb. 11, to be sent out on Monday, Feb. 14. Our tech wizard tells us he’ll be on a beach on Feb. 11. Can’t blame him!

First Try Falls in Senate

IN A VOTE WEDNESDAY ON OBAMACARE REPEAL, the Senate voted 47 to 50 on a procedural motion, killing the repeal amendment being offered to an unrelated bill (a legitimate tactic under Senate rules). The vote went along party lines, with Senators Lieberman and Warner missing. We publish the roll call at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Following the vote – which achieved the goal of putting vulnerable Senators on record – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued a statement in which he vowed: “This fight isn’t over.” Addressing the American people, he said, “I hope you’ll stay in the fight with us.” Amen.

Defunding Abortion: House Hearings

TWO HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEES WILL HOLD HEARINGS THIS WEEK on getting taxpayers out of the business of abortion. Below are the details. We urge all pro-life subcommittee Members to attend:

Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution: HR-3, “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” – Tues., Feb. 8, 4 p.m., 2141 Rayburn House Ofc. Bldg. Panel Members: Franks, Pence, Chabot, Forbes, Steve King and Jordan (R); Nadler, Quigley, Conyers, Bobby Scott (D).

Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health: HR-358, “Protect Life Act” – Wed., Feb. 9, 1 p.m., 2322 Rayburn House Ofc. Bldg. Panel Members: Pitts, Burgess, Whitfield, Shimkus, Mike Rogers, Myrick, Blackburn, Gingrey, Latta, McMorris-Rodgers, Lance, Cassidy, Guthrie, Barton, Upton (R); Pallone, Dingell, Towns, Engel, Capps, Schakowsky, Gonzalez, Baldwin, Ross, Weiner, Waxman (D).

Horror in Philadelphia

WITH ALL THE ENCOURAGING ACTION GOING ON in Congress since the first of the year, we have had to hold in abeyance our coverage of the abortion industry’s latest horrific scandal in Philadelphia. But our readers need to know what is happening in Pennsylvania, where state inspections of abortuaries have been suspended for the past 17 years.

The news of Philadelphia’s so-called “house of horrors,” operated by abortionist Kermit Gosnell, broke into public view with release of a 281-page grand jury report which has shocked people of conscience throughout Pennsylvania and beyond. Presenting gruesome details about conditions in the Gosnell shop, the grand jury report demonstrates the vital importance of states not only applying a framework of health and safety regulations to abortuaries but also following through with vigorous enforcement through frequent, objective inspections and publication of inspection reports, in addition to conscientious disciplinary action by the medical boards charged with licensing providers.

We urge our readers to contact their state lawmakers with the request that they look into the Pennsylvania scandal, read the grand jury report, check their own abortuary regulatory statutes and rules and examine their state’s performance in inspecting abortion facilities and disciplining licensed abortion personnel.

What’s in the Grand Jury Report?

ABORTIONIST KERMIT GOSNELL WAS ARRESTED in mid-January by authorities in Philadelphia, reports Patrick Craine for LifeSiteNews.com, “for eight counts of murder, which included charges for killing seven babies that were born alive and one count for the botched-abortion death” of a 41-year-old Nepalese refugee.

The “281-page photograph-laden grand jury report,” writes Mr. Craine, “detailed [Mr.] Gosnell’s bone-chilling practices, including the killing of what clinic workers testified were ‘hundreds’ of living, breathing newborn children by severing their spinal cords or slitting their necks.”

The grand jury also “implicates the National Abortion Federation,” a trade group which included Mr. Gosnell’s shop among their supposedly self-policed business members, and, writes Mr. Craine, “slammed the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health and other state government agencies for turning a blind eye to [Mr.] Gosnell’s practices, despite their knowledge,” writes Mr. Craine, “of complaints and lawsuits against the abortionist.”

Therein is a further dimension to the scandal, also from the grand jury report. “According to the grand jury,” reports LifeSiteNews, “the state ceased inspecting abortion facilities in 1995 under the administration of former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a pro-abortion Catholic” and a Republican who served as the first Secretary of Homeland Security in the Bush (II) Administration. Inspections were not resumed, reports Mr. Craine, until 2010, in the closing months of Democrat Ed Rendell’s administration.

“‘The Pennsylvania Dept. of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all,’ said the grand jury,” quoted by Mr. Craine. “‘With the change of administration from Gov. [Robert] Casey [Sr.] to Gov. Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions … . Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety.’”

The discovery of the Gosnell house of horrors resulted not from an abortuary inspection but in execution of a warrant alleging controlled substance violations. Observations by the warrant servers – such as the discovery of jars in which the ghoul stored body parts from his baby victims – led to a raid by authorities and an order to close the shop; some 46 complaints were filed against the business over the years and ignored, even though some involved the deaths of customers.

The LifeSiteNews story quotes horror stories from many of Mr. Gosnell’s living victims as told to various news media outlets. The story can be retrieved from the Internet at www.lifesitenews.com/news/house-of-horrors-victims-allege-gosnell-forced-them-into-abortion. We encourage our readers to forward this report to every state lawmaker with a request for investigations into actual practices in the abortion industry and among regulatory agencies and an appeal for appropriate legislation regardless of whether it could chill the choice to kill(!).

When Gosnell Faced the Judge

KERMIT GOSNELL IS NOT GETTING MUCH RESPECT from Philadelphia media these days. A Jan. 21 report posted at www.philly.com, the Internet edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, opens by calling Mr. Gosnell “abortion doc.” (The Inquirer could not be characterized as a pro-life publication.)

Inquirer reporter Stephanie Farr notes Mr. Gosnell appeared by video hookup from police headquarters where he was being held. She writes Mr. Gosnell “was surprised when he was denied bail at his arraignment … . ‘Is there some cause to believe I’m a risk or might flee?’ he asked District Judge Jane Rice,” who “explained to [Mr.] Gosnell, 69,” writes Ms. Farr, “that there is no bail for murder – and he was facing eight counts of it.

“‘Is it possible you could explain the seven counts?’ he asked,” writes Ms. Farr. “‘I understand the one count because of the patient who died but not the others.’ The others,” writes the Inquirer reporter, “were for babies who were born alive and viable, well past the state law allowing abortions for the first 24 weeks, and whose spinal cords he allegedly cut with scissors.” The one salient detail Ms. Farr leaves out is that the grand jury charged Mr. Gosnell with having induced the births of those babies – and reportedly many more – for the purpose of killing them.

Another reportworthy moment in the courtroom came when one of Mr. Gosnell’s nine co-defendants, his 51-year-old sister-in-law and a “clinic” employee, “appeared before the camera, sobbing. ‘Please,’” said the judge, quoted by Ms. Farr, “‘don’t start with the tears.’”

Ms. Farr notes that “family members of only one defendant … showed up in court for the arraignments.” But then, many of the Gosnell family were defendants themselves. The “clinic” which has come to be known as the “house of horrors” was largely a “family” business. The owner himself was the only clinic worker trained or licensed to practice his trade.

As to the one whose husband attended the court hearing, Tina Baldwin’s charges involved “allegedly administer[ing] anesthesia without a license,” and, writes Ms. Farr, prosecutors said she “let her 15-year-old daughter, who also worked there, do the same.”

Michael Baldwin, writes Ms. Farr, “said [his wife] didn’t know about the alleged atrocities going on at the clinic. He said his wife told him that investigators would go in and out of the building and never told her anything was wrong. ‘She thought that’s how an office was supposed to be run,’ he said” in the Inquirer report. In fact, according to Ms. Farr, Mr. Baldwin told reporters his wife had testified before the grand jury and “didn’t think she would be charged, he said. That all changed at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday [Jan. 19],” Ms. Farr writes, citing Mr. Baldwin as source, “when 20 cops came to their home and took his wife into custody.”

It’s not nice to abuse abortion customers nor to kill their born and breathing babies, nor to practice medicine without a license as Mrs. Baldwin allegedly did – not nice even to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Equipping our Front-liners to Defund Planned Parenthood

FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL (F.R.C.) HAS LAUNCHED a new Internet website along with undercover documentarian Lila Rose’s Live Action Films. The website, at www.ExposePlannedParenthood.com, is a key resource in growing efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, both at the Congressional level and in state and local budgets.

Among the features on the website is the video of a webcast first aired live last Thursday evening hosted by FRC’s Tony Perkins and Lila Rose and featuring various pro-life leaders, including US Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), sponsor of HR-217, the Abortion Provider Prevention Act, designed to defund Planned Parenthood as well as other abortion-committing recipients of Title X (Ten) family planning grants.

Also posted on the website are segments of the latest Live Action documentary, in which a Planned Parenthood counselor is shown advising a man posing as a pimp in how he can use PP to advance his business by servicing the teens supposedly in his employ. A major focus on the webcast program is Planned Parenthood’s complicity in the sex trafficking trade.

Defunding Planned Parenthood – Additional House Sponsors

House Members who have added their names as co-sponsors to HR-217 (Pence et al.), the Abortion Provider Prohibition Act after its introduction. Total co-sponsors at this writing: 154, including three Democrats, Rep. Lipinski, Rep. McIntyre and Rep. Shuler. More co-sponsors are needed and can be encouraged by calling Congressional offices via 1-202/224-3121. We thank those listed below and the original co-sponsors, whose names we published in our Jan. 10, 2011, edition.

Representatives Jo Bonner (AL); Don Young (AK); Daniel Lungren (CA); Sandy Adams, Ander Crenshaw & Bill Young (FL); Jack Kingston & Austin Scott (GA); Raul Labrador (ID); Randy Hultgren, Adam Kinzinger, Dan Lipinski & Peter Roskam (IL); Brett Guthrie & Ed Whitfield (KY); Rodney Alexander, Bill Cassidy & Jeffrey Landry (LA); Dan Benishek (MI); Jeff Fortenberry (NE); Christopher Lee (NY); Virginia Foxx, Sue Myrick (NC); Lou Barletta & Mike Kelly (PA); Tim Scott (SC); Scott DesJarlais (TN); Bill Flores (TX); Robert Hurt & Robert Wittman (VA); Thomas Petri (WI).

March for Life Speeches

Congressional speeches delivered at the Jan. 24, 2011, March for Life, transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing from EWTN television coverage; more to follow in future editions.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA): Good afternoon. I’m Eric Cantor, Majority Leader of the US House. I stand here with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle. I’m joined by other members of our House Leadership – the Majority Whip, Kevin McCarthy of California; the chairman of the Republican Conference, Jeb Hensarling from Texas; the Policy Committee chairman, Tom Price of Georgia; and many, many others. We stand with you for Life.

I want to thank all of you who have made the trip here today, and I want to salute you for coming out in this bitter cold, demonstrating how strongly you feel about this cause. I especially want to thank and recognize the eight buses that made their way up [Interstate] 95, from my hometown of Richmond. Thank you, from Virginia.

For the past two years, the Life community has suffered the consequences of being completely out of power in this town. But bit by bit, we have seen unfortunately, too many, too many have tried to weaken the moral fabric of our country. Against the will of a majority of Americans, an agenda was jammed through Congress that forces taxpayers to fund abortion and embryonic stemcell research – and even attempted to repeal conscience protections for healthcare providers.

But now the tide has turned; thanks to your support last November, there’s a new Majority in town. Our Majority has been re-energized by a strong crop of pro-life advocates, with the leaders like Chris Smith and Joe Pitts at the helm of key committees and subcommittees. We also have the biggest and the most pro-life freshman class in memory.

Our Majority has pledged to institute a permanent, government-wide prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion; this is a bill at the top of our agenda in the House. We know we’ve got an uphill battle in the Senate and in the White House. But I can promise you one thing: the people’s House will stand unapologetically for Life, and we will do everything in our power to make sure that our values – that your values – are reflected in the law of the land. Thank you all again very much, and God bless.

Senate Voting Record

Procedural motion to advance amendment to repeal ObamaCare law – Feb. 2, 2011 – Failed 47 to 50 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”; new Members in ALL CAPS)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: AL/Sessions & Shelby, AK/Murkowski, AZ/Kyl & McCain, AR/BOOZMAN, FL/RUBIO, GA/Chambliss & Isakson, ID/Crapo & Risch, IL/KIRK, IN/COATS & Lugar, IA/Grassley, KS/MORAN & Roberts, KY/McConnell & PAUL, LA/Vitter, ME/Collins & Snowe, MA/Brown, MS/Cochran & Wicker, MO/BLUNT, NE/Johanns, NV/Ensign, NH/AYOTTE, NC/Burr, ND/HOEVEN, OH/PORTMAN, OK/Coburn & Inhofe, PA/TOOMEY, SC/DeMint & Graham, SD/Thune, TN/Alexander & Corker, TX/Cornyn & Hutchison, UT/Hatch & LEE, WI/JOHNSON, WY/Barrasso & Enzi.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: AK/Begich, AR/Pryor, CA/Boxer & Feinstein, CO/Bennet & Udall, CT/BLUMENTHAL, DE/Carper & COONS, FL/Nelson, HI/Akaka & Inouye, IL/Durbin, IA/Harkin, LA/Landrieu, MD/Cardin & Mikulski, MA/Kerry, MI/Levin & Stabenow, MN/Franken & Klobuchar, MO/McCaskill, MT/Baucus & Tester, NE/Nelson, NV/Reid, NH/Shaheen, NJ/Lautenberg & Menendez, NM/Bingaman & Udall, NY/Gillibrand & Schumer, NC/Hagan, ND/Conrad, OH/Brown, OR/Merkley & Wyden, PA/Casey, RI/Reed & Whitehouse, SD/Johnson, VT/Leahy & Sanders (I), VA/Webb, WA/Cantwell & Murray, WV/MANCHIN & Rockefeller, WI/Kohl.

Not voting: CT/Lieberman (I), VA/Warner.

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