Life Advocacy Briefing

Oops! Very Sorry!

A TYPO in the Feb. 14, 2011, Life Advocacy Briefing was just brought to our attention. (Thank you, Steve!) In the “Cover Blown, Game Over?” item, the last sentence contained an inadvertent but significant error. It should have read “We must defund Planned Parenthood.” We apologize for any confusion this might have caused.

Hang On, Mr. Speaker!

NEGOTIATIONS ARE ON-GOING concerning the government funding impasse between House Republicans and the Senate and House Republicans and the White House. Though the House has passed a continuing resolution which would not only cut current-year spending by approximately $61 billion and which would respect Americans who do not want their taxes spent on abortion, the Senate has rejected the omnibus proposal both because of the depth of cuts and because of the “social policy riders” which respect Life.

Speculation abounds that the House GOP Leadership is preparing to give up on such key policy reforms as defunding Planned Parenthood and the UN de-Population Fund. And such eminent Senators as Charles “Mr. Extreme” Schumer (D-NY) have called the Planned Parenthood defunding reform a “deal-breaker.”

But House Speaker John Boehner – at least publicly – appears to be gritting his teeth and holding on for the ride. According to a Politico.com report last Wednesday, reports Kathleen Gilbert for LifeSiteNews.com, Speaker Boehner “has told White House officials that GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber will not agree to remove a series of GOP-sponsored budget cuts, including one stripping federal funds for Planned Parenthood, from the budget bill.”

While recognizing that “the real battle” will come in the budgeting for Fiscal Year 2012, we acknowledge also that the current fiscal year spending fight is real in itself and a critical precursor to the negotiations on FY12. We thank Speaker Boehner for his grit thus far and pray he will not blink.

Rooting Abortion Out of the Trough

THE HOUSE WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE HAS SENT TO THE FULL HOUSE a measure to dig abortion subsidies out of the Internal Revenue Code.

HR-1232 was filed by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), who chairs the pivotal committee. A companion to HR-3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” it is expected to be folded into HR-3 when that major legislation is taken up by the House.

HR-1232 would exclude abortion from tax credits for medical coverage in ObamaCare and, according to a Capitol Hill memo furnished to Life Advocacy Briefing, would “also stop the current IRS practice of giving tax-preferred status to abortion by allowing individual deductions for abortion and tax-free payment for abortion through health savings accounts (HSAs), medical savings accounts (MSAs) and flexible spending arrangements (FSAs).”

The committee vote approving the measure was 22 to14 along strict party lines; we publish the committee voting record near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. The only hostile amendment was offered by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY); it was defeated 14 to 22.

Planned Parenthood Caught Again

LIVE ACTION’s LILA ROSE HAS RELEASED ANOTHER VIDEO documenting abuse by Planned Parenthood – this time, abuse of the truth in political discourse.

In a series of undercover phone calls, one PP facility after another proved the falsity of PP CEO Cecile Richards’s claim that Congressional action to defund Planned Parenthood would deny women access to mammograms.

Calling 30 different PP outposts in 27 different states, Miss Rose and her associates were told the prospective customer “will have to go elsewhere,” reports the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List (SBA) in a news release, “with many admitting that no Planned Parenthood clinics provide the service. …

“‘Planned Parenthood is first and foremost an abortion business,’” said Miss Rose, quoted by SBA, “‘but Planned Parenthood and its allies will say almost anything to try and cover up that fact and preserve its taxpayer funding. It’s not surprising that an organization found concealing statutory rape and helping child sex traffickers would misrepresent its own services so brazenly, playing on women’s fears in order to protect their tax dollars.’”

Arizona Breaks Ground with New Abortion Curb

ARIZONA GOV. JAN BREWER (R) LAST WEEK SIGNED INTO LAW a ban on racial and sex-selection abortion, subjecting violating abortionists to up to three-and-a-half years in prison and potential loss of medical license. Fines up to $10,000 could be levied against any medical professional who knows of a violation and fails to report it.

“The newly enacted ‘Susan B. Anthony & Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act,” reports LifeSiteNews.com, “makes it a Class 3 felony to perform or in any way coerce someone into receiving an abortion based on the race or gender of the unborn child.”

Additionally, the new law “allows the father of an unborn child (if he is married to the mother) to bring a civil action on the child’s behalf,” reports LifeSiteNews. The same right is conferred on the maternal grandparents in the event the abortion is committed on an unemancipated minor.

A handful of other states already bar sex-selection abortions, but Arizona is the first to prohibit abortions committed because of the race of one of the parents. Abortionists are required under the law to keep on file an affidavit signed by every customer certifying that the sex or race of the unborn victim was not the motive for the abortion.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona opposed the measure, claiming, reports Associated Press writer Mark Carlson, the legislation “‘overrides the doctor-patient relationship.’”

Abortuaries Subjected to State Regs in Virginia

VIRGINIA GOV. BOB McDONNELL (R) HAS SIGNED A NEW LAW requiring abortuaries to meet patient safety standards, triggering a 280-day deliberation process for the commonwealth’s Board of Health to develop regulations which will be implemented by Jan. 1.

The whining advocates of commercialized abortion “have complained,” reports Peter Smith for LifeSiteNews.com, “that as many as 17 out of 21 Virginia [abortion] clinics could close over the cost of complying with the new requirements on hallway and doorway width, staffing and equipment rules. Many of these rules,” notes Mr. Smith, “are standard safety procedures; the regulations related to hallway and doorway size are designed to help emergency rescuers maneuver in and out of a building in the event of a medical emergency.”

But such sensible, woman-protective measures are controversial when they touch the abortion cartel’s bottom line. The bill passed the Senate in February on a 20-20 tie vote, broken by the presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who favored the reform.

“Over the past two decades,” reports Americans United for Life, “abortion clinics [in Virginia] only had to meet the less stringent standards imposed on nonsurgical doctors’ offices.”

Virginia’s NARAL Pro-Choice executive director “denounced the new regulations,” writes Mr. Smith, “saying that it is a ‘distressing day for the women of Virginia.’ She called the regulations ‘a legally questionable and ethically indefensible political gimmick.’”

Olivia Gans, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, called the legislation “‘much needed protections for women against the unscrupulous and unregulated abortion practitioners in the state of Virginia,’” adding, reports Mr. Smith, “‘What we must remember is that while the clinic regulations can in fact be beneficial towards women’s lives, the reality is that every abortion still stops the beating heart of an unborn child, and we need to continue to work toward greater protective legislation that will directly and completely procure the safety of unborn children.’” Amen.

Yes, Virginia, It’s Worth the Effort

DO STATE PRO-LIFE LAWS ACTUALLY WORK? That’s the question answered in “a new analysis of abortion data,” writes Kathleen Gilbert for LifeSiteNews.com, “from nearly every state over a span of 21 years.”

The study, published in State Politics & Policy Quarterly, was undertaken by Michael New, PhD, reports Miss Gilbert, and “found solid evidence that legislation intended to reduce abortion, such as parental involvement laws, is effective.”

The researcher drew data, reports Miss Gilbert, “from both the Centers for Disease Control and the Alan Guttmacher Institute, whose data on abortion rates provided what [Dr.] New found was a clear indication that Medicaid abortion funding restrictions, parental involvement laws and informed consent laws effectively lower abortion rates.

“Parental involvement laws specifically,” notes LifeSiteNews, “were found to reduce in-state abortion rates for minors by approximately 15%.”

A response to the study came from Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, with which Dr. New formerly served as an adjunct fellow, quoted by Miss Gilbert: “‘Politicians can talk about “reducing abortion rates,” but if they truly want to do so, they will support parental-involvement legislation and defund such organizations as Planned Parenthood that perform or promote abortions.’”

Another Consequence of Commercialized Abortion

A GHASTLY COMMERCIAL USE OF EMBRYONIC HUMAN BEINGS has been discovered by the Children of God for Life (COGL), which specializes in monitoring – and bringing to the attention of the public – the use of aborted fetal tissue in medical and consumer products.

A little-known company called Senomyx, which develops artificial flavorings for food processing companies, is, according to COGL executive director Debi Vinnedge, “using HEK-293, human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce” isolated human taste receptors in what the Senomyx website calls “the discovery and development of savory, sweet and salt flavor ingredients that are intended to allow for the reduction of MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products.”

An alternative source is available, according to Ms. Vinnedge, who said in a COGL news release, “They could have easily chosen animal, insect or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors.”

The pro-life group called for a boycott of Pepsico, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup, Solae and Nestle, all of which were listed as “collaborators” on the Senomyx website, COGL noted, after writing the companies letters warning them of a potential customer backlash.

Soon after the COGL release was issued, Campbell Soup Co. notified COGL it had severed its relationship with Senomyx. The company had earlier responded with a letter quoted by COGL in its news release: “‘Every effort is made to use the finest ingredients and develop the greatest selection of products, all at a great value. With this in mind, it must be said that the trust we have cultivated and developed over the years with our consumers is not worth compromising to cut costs or increase profit margins.’” Campbell Soup is no longer listed on the Senomyx website.

Senomyx itself, noted COGL, “ignored” the letter in which the group outlined the “moral options for testing their food additives that could and should be used.”

Quoteworthy

Margaret Somerville, director of McGill University’s Centre for Medicine, Ethics & Law, quoted by The Bioethics Monthly from the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity: “The first question we must ask is this: Is surrogate motherhood, in general, ethically acceptable? For a variety of reasons, I believe the answer is no: Surrogate motherhood breaches children’s human rights regarding their coming-into-being; it confuses family roles and relationships; it exploits poor women; and its international commercialization has opened us up to dehumanizing scenarios, such as Fed-Ex-ing frozen embryos to ‘warehouses’ of surrogate mothers in developing countries.”

Committee Voting Record

HR-1232 preventing abortion subsidies in the tax code – Ways & Means Committee markup – March 31, 2011 – Approved 22 to 14 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Chairman Camp (MI) and CA/Herger, Nunes; FL/Buchanan; GA/Price; IL/Roskam & Schock; KS/Jenkins; KY/Davis; LA/Boustany; MN/Paulsen; NE/Smith; NV/Heller; ND/Berg; OH/Tiberi; PA/Gerlach; TN/Black; TX/Brady, Sam Johnson & Marchant; WA/Reichert; WI/Ryan.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Ranking Member Levin (MI) and CA/Becerra, Stark & Thompson; CT/Larson; GA/Lewis; MA/Neal; NV/Berkley; NY/Crowley & Rangel; OR/Blumenauer; TX/Doggett; WA/McDermott; WI/Kind.

Not voting: NJ/Pascrell.

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. Steve Chabot (R-OH): Good afternoon, I’m Steve Chabot from Ohio, and what I want to know from everybody else out here, how do we get all these noisy people from Kansas up front up here, that’s what I want to know! Okay, okay. I’m a freshman, sort of. I was here for fourteen years and then went back home for two years, and I’m back. And one of the things that I’m particularly proud of the fourteen years that I was here was being the author and the principal sponsor of the Ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. And it’s now the law of the land. And you know, Chris Smith, who was one of the first speakers up here – and I know there’s been a lot of us, and we’re almost done – but Chris Smith talked about that horrendous case, that doctor in Philadelphia who destroyed these innocent human lives, and he’s being brought up on charges, and the newspaper article I saw it on back home called it a “house of horrors.” Well, I got news for you: What happens in these abortion mills around the country – they’re all houses of horror. Every one of them. And I’ll conclude with this: Last Saturday, two days ago, January 22, of course was Roe versus Wade day; it’s also an important day to me because it happens to be the day that I was born – it was my birthday – and every year, I can’t help but think on that day of how many innocent unborn lives have been snuffed out because of that horrendous decision. We are going to reverse Roe versus Wade in this country, and it’s going to start right here! So God bless each and every one of you for being a part of this – this is so important, and please stick with it. Never give up! We will prevail. God bless each and every one of you, God bless your families, and yes, God bless the United States of America. Thank you.

Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL): Good afternoon, I’m Daniel Webster from the great state and sunny state of Florida. Before I made it to Congress, I served in the state legislature, and I was interviewed one time by a reporter who was doing an in-depth study of the pro-life movement. And she asked all kinds of questions about my mom and my dad and my life and my faith and my business. And at the end, she asked one last question; she said, I have a last question, and that’s this – so given all these things that I’ve talked to you about and asked you about, when is it that you became pro-life? I told her: At conception. Thank you for coming today and for honoring life that does begin at conception. Keep up the work. God bless all of you.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ): I’m Congressman Trent Franks from Arizona. You know, recently, the President gave a speech. He said all of us should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to the expectations of our children. And I believe that to be true, but Mr. President, we cannot do that while we stand by and watch 4,000 of them be killed every day. Mr. President, there is nothing liberating about killing our children. Mr. President, America has not yet forsaken her unborn. And in two more years, we’re going to have another election, Mr. President. And by the grace of God, we will see Roe versus Wade fall on the ash-heap of history. God bless you.

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