Life Advocacy Briefing

Senate to Vote on HR-1?

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID (D-NV) FRIDAY filed a cloture motion on HR-1, the House-passed Continuing Resolution which contains numerous pro-life reforms including the Pence Amendment disqualifying Planned Parenthood from federal funding.

The vote could come as early as tomorrow (Tuesday); calls to Senators asking support for HR-1 may be placed via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121. Electronic mail may be sent via www.senate.gov.

Tax Funding Ban OK’d by Judiciary Committee

THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE LAST THURSDAY APPROVED HR-3; it now must be considered by the House Committees on Ways & Means and Energy & Commerce before being sent to the full House for consideration. The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would make the Hyde Amendment permanent and extend it government-wide, so that federal tax funds could not abet elective abortions through any government program, including ObamaCare. Sealing the Hyde Amendment into law would avert the necessity of annually re-adopting the Life-affirming principle.

Hostile amendments were defeated in committee; they were offered by Democratic Representatives Judy Chu (CA), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FL), Henry Johnson (GA), Mike Quigley (IL), John Conyers (MI), Jerald Nadler (NY) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX).

In a statement issued after the committee markup, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), HR-3’s chief sponsor, cited a study by Planned Parenthood’s research arm “that taxpayer funding bans are a proven abortion reduction method. According to Guttmacher [Institute],” said Mr. Smith, “studies show that when abortion is not publicly funded, abortions in the covered population are reduced by roughly 25%.”

Committee Voting Record

THE COMMITTEE VOTE APPROVING THE MEASURE broke along party lines, with the exception of Puerto Rico’s “resident commissioner” Pedro Pierlusi, a Democrat who issued a news release after the markup session, boasting of breaking with his party to spare taxpayers complicity with abortion. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) and Democratic Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA) were absent.

Voting “yes” were Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) and GOP Representatives Trent Franks & Ben Quayle (AZ); Tim Griffin (AR); Elton Gallegly, Darrell Issa & Dan Lungren (CA); Sandy Adams & Dennis Ross (FL); Mike Pence (IN); Steve King (IA); Tom Reed (NY); Howard Coble (NC); Steve Chabot (OH); Tom Marino (PA); Trey Gowdy (SC); Louie Gohmert & Ted Poe (TX); Jason Chaffetz (UT); Randy Forbes & Bob Goodlatte (VA); and Jim Sensenbrenner (WI).

Voting “no” were Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) and Democratic Representatives Howard Berman, Judy Chu, Zoe Lofgren & Maxine Waters (CA); Ted Deutch & Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FL); Henry Johnson (GA); Mike Quigley (IL); Jerald Nadler (NY); Mel Watt (NC); Steve Cohen (TN); Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX); and Bobby Scott (VA).

More Co-Sponsors Needed

HR-3 IS SPONSORED by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), along with 210 co-sponsors. Further co-sponsors continue to be sought.

The following Members co-sponsored the same bill in the previous Congress but have not yet added their names to HR-3: GOP Representatives Brian Bilbray, Jerry Lewis & Dana Rohrabacher (CA); John Mica & Tom Rooney (FL); Tom Graves (GA); Dave Camp & Fred Upton (MI); Erik Paulsen (MN); Dennis Rehberg (MT); John Culberson (TX); and Cynthia Lummis (WY). Also Democratic Representatives Jason Altmire (PA) and Henry Cuellar (TX).

The following “freshman” Republican Members have not yet become co-sponsors either, though some of them are known to be pro-Life: Representatives Scott Tipton (CO); Sandy Adams, Richard Nugent & Daniel Webster (FL); Robert Dold (IL); Larry Bucshon (IN); Joe Heck (NV); Charles Bass & Frank Guinta (NH); Jon Runyan (NJ); Chris Gibson, Richard Hanna, Nan Hayworth & Tom Reed (NY); Jim Renacci (OH); Pat Meehan (PA) and Jaime Herrera-Beutler (WA).

Members may be contacted via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121 or by electronic mail through the House Internet website at www.house.gov. Calls asking Representatives to vote in favor of HR-3 are, of course, in order, as are calls urging co-sponsorship.

Calling Attention to ‘Pence’ Votes

THE PRO-LIFE SUSAN B. ANTHONY (S.B.A.) LIST WILL LAUNCH A BUS TOUR today to call attention to votes by various House Members on the Pence Amendment to defund Planned Parenthood.

Starting in Des Moines, Iowa, at 8 a.m. today and moving on to Davenport at noon, the “Women Speak Out” tour will focus on votes by Democratic Representatives Leonard Boswell and Bruce Braley against the defunding measure, which passed the House 240 to 185.

Featured in rallies along the bus tour route will be former Representative Marilyn Musgrave, who heads the SBA List’s “Votes Have Consequences” project, and Lila Rose, president of Live Action, the undercover video investigative team.

The tour will move on from Iowa to 9 other stops covering 11 other districts in Illinois (Representatives Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren, voting “yes”), Ohio (Rep. Marcy Kaptur, voting “no”), Pennsylvania (Representatives Mike Kelly, Patrick Meehan and Mike Fitzpatrick, voting “yes,” and Jason Altmire, voting “no”), New York (Representatives Ann Marie Buerkle, voting “yes” and Bill Owens, voting “no”), Rhode Island (Rep. David Cicilline, voting “no”) and New Hampshire (Rep. Frank Guinta, voting “yes”).

According to an SBA List news release, the tour adds to “a larger $200,000 grassroots campaign including radio and television ads thanking Members for their votes to defund Planned Parenthood. The ad campaign launched [last Tuesday],” notes the release, “with a four-day $75,000 television ad airing throughout” the central New York State district of Rep. Buerkle. “The same day,” notes the release, “the SBA List commenced a series of one-week radio ads” in the Illinois districts of Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren, the Pennsylvania districts of Patrick Meehan and Mike Fitzpatrick, the New Hampshire district of Frank Guinta and the Florida district of Rep. Allen West.

Reality Show

LAWMAKERS IN OHIO RECEIVED ‘TESTIMONY’ last Wednesday from “the youngest people ever” to appear before a legislative committee, reports Charlie Butts for OneNewsNow.com, news division of the American Family Assn.

While considering a bill barring abortions on babies whose heartbeats can be detected (“as early as six weeks into a pregnancy,” according to Mr. Butts), an Ohio House committee was presented with live ultrasound of two babies in the womb.

“‘We had an unborn child – we actually had two of them,’” Janet Porter of Faith2Action told Mr. Butts, “‘They not only were seen but they were also heard. … We were able to zoom in on their beating hearts,’” she said, “‘and with the aid of an ultrasound, we could hear them as well.’”  Mrs. Porter said she was “‘hoping [the dramatic demonstration] will move the hearts of legislators to pass the Heartbeat bill.’”

“Abortion rights supporters,” writes Aaron Marshall for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “said they are dismayed by what they see as a spectacle dreamed up for media attention. ‘I think it’s a stunt that trivializes women’s health,’ said Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio,” quoted by Mr. Marshall. In the Plain Dealer story, Ms. Copeland called the real-life demonstration “‘an absolute circus in the House Health committee.’”

Faith2Action’s Mrs. Porter told Mr. Marshall the proposal “‘will be an arrow in the heart of Roe v. Wade.’”

Ohio Right to Life has not endorsed the measure, according to Mr. Marshall, but, notes Mr. Butts, some 50 of 99 state House members have subscribed to the proposal as co-sponsors.

States Seek Safety for Abortion Customers

IN THE WAKE OF REPEATED ABORTUARY SCANDALS, lawmakers in some states are seeking to tighten regulations on baby-killing shops.

Of particular note is legislation passed by the General Assembly in Virginia to impose hospital standards on “offices, clinics and centers that perform first-trimester abortions,” reports the Washington Post, which adds that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell “has said he supports the legislation.” A 20-to-20 tie in the State Senate was broken by the lieutenant governor late in February to send the bill to the governor’s desk.

Current state law, reports the Post, “requires second-trimester abortions be performed in hospitals.”

Among the implications: according to Victoria Cobb, president of Virginia’s Family Foundation, reports the Post, “the new regulations would for the first time could allow health inspectors into abortion clinics and potentially make requirements that specific equipment be on hand.”

“A review of these hospital-type regulations by the American Journal of Public Health,” reports the Post, “found that in Texas the number of abortion providers fell from 20 in 2003 before the regulations to four in 2007.”

A lawsuit over abortuary regulations in Louisiana, meanwhile, was dismissed last week by a federal judge on the basis, reports Charlie Butts of OneNewsNow.com, that the abortuary plaintiffs “could not prove that the State Dept. of Health was trying to shut them down.” (Is their fear an admission of unconscionable practices in their shops?)

“‘If abortionists really cared about the people who enter their doors,’” said Steven Aden, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney, quoted by Mr. Butts, “‘they wouldn’t be attempting to tear down these laws.’”

Abortion Mill Chain Shuts Down

A CHAIN OF FIVE ABORTUARIES in the San Francisco Bay area have shut down. The baby-killing shops were operated by an outfit called “Golden Gate Community Health” (GGCH), the successor corporation to Planned Parenthood Golden Gate (PPGG), which last summer was dumped by Planned Parenthood Federation of America because of allegations related to financial and administrative mismanagement. The outfit, with and without the PP affiliation, “had been in continuous operation for over 90 years,” according to a news release from Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF), citing GGCH’s website as source.

“PPGG was not only one of the oldest PP affiliates,” notes the release. “It was also one of the most litigious. PPGG instigated frequent litigation against pro-life activists from the ’80s to as recently as a year ago. The affiliate,” reports LLDF, “was a party in at least six lawsuits against pro-life activists, as well as the impetus for a seventh suit in federal court. … PPGG was also,” reports LLDF, “one of the plaintiffs in challenging the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.”

The Bay area chain “lost $2.8 million during the tax year 2008-2009 and had not broken even since 2006. GGHC,” reports LLDF, “was reported to have run up a shortfall totaling $536,000 in 2010 and had attempted, apparently unsuccessfully, to raise $1.5 million in order to keep its clinics open.

“At the same time,” notes LLDF, “PPGG contributed over $750,000 to defeat three California ballot initiatives in 2005, 2006 and 2008 that would have required parental notification before a minor could have an abortion.”

Planned Parenthood Fights Back

March 3, 2011, RNC for Life E-Notes by Dianne Edmondson, executive director, Republican National Coalition for Life

Thanks to Cong. Mike Pence’s legislation which prohibits any federal funding of Planned Parenthood throughout any federal department or agency, the nation’s largest chain of abortion mills is reeling from the cuts to its taxpayer funding. PP is scrambling to try and convince voters that it deserves their money. In an effort to influence the US Senate vote on the House bill which cut the funding [HR-1], PP is purchasing $200,000 worth of TV advertising, which will run on cable television as well as network TV in the District of Columbia.

The ads emphasize the non-abortion services Planned Parenthood offers – even though the PP abortion business has been exposed for falsely touting mammograms as a potential service for women, despite not actually offering mammograms at any of its centers. And according to former Texas PP clinic direct Abby Johnson, who writes about her experience there in the book Unplanned, the real money-maker in their abortion clinics is killing babies, with quotas assigned to ensure a profitable “bottom line.”

Planned Parenthood is the dominant abortion provider in America, having committed more than 27% of the 1.2 million abortions performed annually, some 332,000. PP’s abortion business has climbed steadily each year, with a clear correlation between the amount of taxpayer funding and the number of abortions performed.

While it claims to provide many non-abortion related services, Planned Parenthood’s own new report documents that the abortion organization provided prenatal services to merely 7,021 women and referred only 977 women for adoption services. These numbers were a 25% drop in prenatal care clients and a whopping 59% decline in adoption referrals from the 2,405 adoption referrals in 2008, according to LifeNews.com. The PP annual reports prove that health care provided to pregnant women has dramatically decreased over the years: 97.6% of pregnant women going to Planned Parenthood are sold abortions while less than 2.4% of pregnant women received non-abortion services, including adoption and prenatal care. That’s up from 96.5% getting abortions in 2008. …

Since the pro-abortion Democrats control the Senate, the defunding of PP will have a much tougher time passing this portion of the GOP’s spending cuts.

However, recent undercover videos have exposed Planned Parenthood’s illegal activities, such as showing PP employees who were willing to aid undercover “sex traffickers” obtain abortions and STD testing for underage girls who are victims of the sex trade. This embarrassing publicity may make it hard for some Senators to vote to continue the PP funding, especially when nearly two dozen Democrat Senators are up for election in 2012. …

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.

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI): Hey, welcome, warriors for life. Sean Duffy, northern Wisconsin, one of the freshman class. I’m married to a beautiful pro-life woman, Rachel. We have six children, and we are in the battle with all of you. I’m pro-life not because I read it in a book but because I lived through an unplanned pregnancy and experience the unplanned joy that comes from a new baby girl. Children are our nation’s great resource, regardless of the circumstances in which they are conceived. You know what? You guys are out here bearing the cold weather, and you may be ignored by the media. But you know what? You are speaking truth to power. Keep up the fight. Game on!

Rep. Robert Latta (R-OH): I’m Bob Latta from the 5th District of Ohio, and I want to thank you all for being here today. Your voices are going to be heard, just like they were last year. The American people spoke, and look what happened uptown here. We’ve got a great freshman class, but I tell you what: Your voices have got to be heard at home. Call us, even if you know that we’re pro-life, just call us. We want to hear from you. You’ve got to call everyone. Get your friends and neighbors – look around you. If everybody here called ten people, look what you could do. We’re counting on you. The unborn are counting on you. Can I count on you? Thanks very much. We look forward to seeing you up on the Hill.

Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA): Good afternoon, I’m Congressman G. T. Thompson from the 5th District of Pennsylvania. How many of you are from Pennsylvania? All right! Well, it is cold here today, but you warm my heart for what you’re doing for the pre-born. This is my second term and third straight year of speaking at the March. And I represent that middle part of Pennsylvania, and yes, I am pro-life. Yes, I believe that Pennsylvania’s pro-life, and I vote pro-life. I’m very proud to be a co-sponsor of the four bills that we have already protecting the pre-born and the unborn. And finally, yes, Congress hears you. They definitely heard you in November. Now we have to seize the opportunity. Thank you for being here, and God bless you.

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