Life Advocacy Briefing

A Little Off?

OUR EDITOR IS TRAVELING; consequently our publication schedule for the next two weeks could be a little off, and it is possible we will suspend for a week during that time. Please bear with us. We’ll do our best to bring you any news that is relevant and urgent.

Calls Needed to House Appropriators

THE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE IS EXPECTED THIS WEEK to mark up and advance to the House the massive Fiscal Year 2012 spending bill crafted by the panel’s subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations & Related Programs.

Readers are urged to contact Members serving on the Appropriations Committee and request that they decouple the Global Health account from the account for the Global HIV/AIDS initiative – commonly known as PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, instituted by Pres. George W. Bush).

The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), last week adopted a structural change merging the two accounts, prompting alarm among advocates for Life.

The PEPFAR fund is politically popular, and folding “Global Health” into it provides cover for the grants and contracts extended by the Global Health program to purveyors of “reproductive health,” also known as such outfits as International Planned Parenthood Federation and other groups that commit and advocate for abortion overseas.

Such groups “have demonstrated interest in gaining access to the billions of dollars designated for PEPFAR,” according to a memo we received from Capitol Hill. “Integrating PEPFAR with family planning/reproductive health,” continues the memo, “gives such organizations greater leverage in applying for PEPFAR funding,” which is politically sacrosanct.

The bill as it has emerged from subcommittee does contain language reinstating the Reagan-era Mexico City Policy, which disqualifies abortionists from US foreign aid programs relating to “family planning” and “reproductive health.” But the Mexico City language does not apply to PEPFAR funding, so to add to the other objectionable consequences of the account mergers, consolidation of the two funds would gut the effectiveness of the Mexico City Policy.

We publish the names of the House Committee on Appropriations members at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. They may be contacted via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121. Readers are asked especially to focus on Members from their home states.

State Dept. Bill Reformed in Other Ways

THE STATE/FOREIGN OPS SPENDING BILL DOES HAVE SOME GOOD FEATURES, once the consolidation of “Global Health” into “PEPFAR” is reversed.

The Mexico City Policy is reinstated to disqualify abortion-committing and -promoting outfits from funding under the “population assistance” program, reversing a 2009 Obama rescission of Pres. Reagan’s long-standing policy respecting taxpayers.

Funding of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is barred, despite Pres. Obama’s reinstatement of the controversial grant in 2009. Tax funds are not permitted to abet Red China’s horrific “one-child” depopulation pogrom – which is exactly what UNFPA has been caught doing.

Funding for family planning and “reproductive health” overseas is capped at $461 million – still too much by about $461 million, in our view, but cut from the Fiscal Year 2011 level of $575 million and even more dramatically off the FY2010 pace of “at least $648 million.”

Rep. Lowey Takes on ‘Mexico City’

THE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS [sic] [C.R.R.] ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK introduction of HB-2639 by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) – remember her? – and 103 co-sponsors.

Misleadingly titled the Global Democracy Promotion Act, HR-2639 would put into law a prohibition on “discrimination” in “funding overseas groups based on the type of health or medical services they provide,” as described by CRR. Translation: a statutory provision barring protections for taxpayers who do not want their funds directed through foreign aid to outfits that commit abortions or advocate for radicalization of abortion laws in other countries; that is, a legally ineffective bar to re-enacting the Mexico City Policy.

The silly bill has been assigned to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).

To identify some of the most dedicated abortion industry collaborators in the US House, check out the bill’s co-sponsor list near the end of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

‘Mexico City’ Added to Foreign Ops Authorization

THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HAS ALREADY marked up and sent to the full House a measure sponsored by committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) to establish policy for the State Dept. and other foreign-policy-related agencies.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton submitted a letter to the committee last week, reports Christine Dhanagom for LifeSiteNews.com, “cit[ing] the [bill’s] reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, along with numerous other provisions in HR-2583, … as reason for ‘profound concern.’

“‘The net effect of these and other restrictions in the bill would be debilitating to my efforts,’” wrote Mrs. Clinton, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘to carry out a considered foreign policy and diplomacy and to use foreign assistance strategically to that end.’”

So the Secretary of State claims she needs the authority to hand over our tax money to International Planned Parenthood Federation and its ilk in order to carry out the foreign policy of the United States?

The committee voted 25 to 17 to reinstate the Reagan-era Mexico City Policy and then voted 23 to 20 to advance the amended HR 2583.

Big Victory!

ALL THOSE CALLS YOU MADE TO THE SENATE JUDICIARY HAVE PAID OFF! Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced last Thursday the committee would not consider confirming abortion collaborator Steve Six to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The White House had not withdrawn his nomination, but Sen. Leahy’s announcement means it is all but dead.

Thanks are in order to Kansas GOP Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, who both broke with the custom of endorsing a home-state nominee regardless of the President’s party affiliation, issuing news releases early in the committee process to oppose the Six nomination. Thanks, too, to Operation Rescue and to former Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline for determined efforts to put out the word on Mr. Six’s controversial record and active complicity in attempting to thwart the 107-count prosecution of Planned Parenthood, charges which will are scheduled to be pressed in a criminal trial this fall. And thanks to all the pro-life citizens who took up the challenge to bombard the panel’s Senators with sustained objections to the Six nomination. Hallelujah! He’s done.

And a Loss

THE NEWS FROM A VIRGINIA FEDERAL COURTROOM last week, on the other hand, was disappointing. US District Judge Royce Lamberth last week dismissed the lawsuit brought by adult stemcell research experts Dr. James Sherley and Dr. Theresa Deisher seeking to halt further tax funding of experimentation using stem cells drawn from the sacrifice of embryonic human beings. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are exploring options for appeal.

Judge Lamberth had raised hopes of halting the Obama Regime’s deadly scheme by granting the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction at the outset of their suit, signaling his own inclination to find the Frankensteinian subsidy to be a violation of the 1996-2010 “Dickey/Wicker” ban on funding embryo-killing experiments. Last Wednesday, Judge Lamberth cited the subsequent opinion of the DC Court of Appeals, which “overturned the [preliminary] injunction,” reports Kathleen Gilbert of LifeSiteNews.com, “at the urging of the Justice Dept, … conclud[ing],” she writes, “that his court was bound by the Appeals Court’s determination that the new NIH guidelines do not violate federal law, despite his own strong disagreement.”

The ruling is the latest move in a fierce drive by Frankensteinian scientists for federal funding and the leveraging government endorsement implied thereby. More responsible organizations, such as the respected ethics group “Do No Harm,” which operates a useful Internet website at www.stemcellresearch.org, cite not only the anti-ethical aspects of embryo vivisection but also its futility. The website features and continually updates a “scoreboard” of the relative successes of adult stemcell research vs. embryo stemcell experiments. The current score: 73 to 0.

“In the latest … breakthrough for adult stem cells,” reports Miss Gilbert, “this summer a cancer patient with advanced tracheal cancer successfully received a completely artificial windpipe, designed by British scientists and grown from his own [adult] stem cells.” As cited by “Do No Harm” on its scoreboard, not a single therapy or cure has resulted from the millions of taxpayer dollars – or private funding – invested in the Nazistic science of embryo stemcell experimentation.

Victory in North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA’S LAWMAKERS HAVE OVERRIDDEN the veto by Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) of an abortion informed consent statute. State Senators Thursday voted 29 to 19 to reject the veto and enact the law, following a 72-to-47 House override vote Tuesday. The legislation had earlier passed each house by just under veto-proof majorities, so the override votes were a welcome surprise.

The new law mandates a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion can be committed and requires the abortionist to furnish certain information – including an ultrasound image – in order to secure informed consent. Such legislation is widely recognized as effective in dissuading mothers from going through with plans to have their developing children done away with.

North Carolina has generally lagged the southern states in restricting abortion, but the lawmakers in Raleigh have enacted four pro-life measures since the GOP last November took majorities in both houses for the first time in more than a century.

Bishop Peter Jugis of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte focused on the informed consent measure in an open letter published June 30 in the Charlotte Observer, reports Jeremy Kryn for LifeSiteNews.com. “Bishop Jugis wrote,” reports Mr. Kryn, “‘In the coming weeks, my prayers and efforts will be focused on convincing at least two more legislators that the Woman’s Right to Know Act respects the dignity of a woman with an unplanned pregnancy as she considers the fate of the innocent human life she carries in her womb.’” Glory to God!

Gallup Finds Sustained Backing for Pro-Life Reforms

AMERICANS ARE CONTINUING THEIR SHIFT toward the pro-life reform agenda, according to public opinion findings released last Monday by Gallup, Inc. The cited survey of 1,020 adults nationwide was taken by telephone interview July 15-17.

Among the findings: 87% (89% of women) favor “a law requiring doctors to inform patients about certain possible risks of abortion before performing the procedure.”

“A law requiring women under 18 to get parental consent for any abortion,” as Gallup put the question, drew favorable response from 71% (72%) of women.

Sixty-nine percent said they would back a 24-hour waiting period, according to Gallup, whose findings are posted on www.gallup.com, and 64% said they favor a law to “make it illegal to perform a specific abortion procedure conducted in the last six months of pregnancy known as a ‘partial-birth abortion,’ except in cases necessary to save the life of the mother.”

Pro-Abortion Sponsors of HR-2639

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), chief sponsor, and co-sponsoring Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva (AZ); Karen Bass, Howard Berman, Lois Capps, Judy Chu, Susan Davis, Anna Eshoo, Sam Farr, Bob Filner, John Garamendi, Michael Honda, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Doris Matsui, George Miller, Grace Napolitano, Laura Richardson, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Jackie Speier, Fortney Stark, Mike Thompson, Henry Waxman & Lynn Woolsey (CA); Diana DeGette, Jared Polis (CO); Rosa DeLauro & Christopher Murphy (CT);

Also Democratic Representatives Corrine Brown, Theodore Deutch, Alcee Hastings, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz & Frederica Wilson (FL); Henry Johnson, John Lewis (GA); Colleen Hanabusa & Mazie Hirono (HI); Danny Davis, Luis Gutierrez, Jesse Jackson, Mike Quigley, Bobby Rush & Janice Schakowsky (IL); Bruce Braley, David Loebsack (IA); John Yarmuth (KY); Chellie Pingree (ME); Elijah Cummings & Chris VanHollen (MD); Michael Capuano, Barney Frank, Edward Markey, James McGovern, John Olver, John Tierney & Niki Tsongas (MA); John Conyers, Sander Levin, Gary Peters (MI); Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum (MN); Russ Carnahan, Wm. Clay & Emanuel Cleaver (MO);

And Democratic Representatives Shelley Berkley (NV); Rush Holt, Frank Pallone, Donald Payne, Steven Rothman & Albio Sires (NJ); Gary Ackerman, Yvette Clarke, Joseph Crowley, Eliot Engel, Brian Higgins, Maurice Hinchey, Steve Israel, Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Charles Rangel, Louise Slaughter, Edolphus Towns (NY); David Price (NC); Betty Sutton (OH); Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio & David Wu (OR); Chaka Fattah (PA); David Cicilline (RI); Steve Cohen (TN); Lloyd Doggett, Gene Green (TX); Peter Welch (VT); Gerald Connolly, James Moran & Robert Scott (VA); Jim McDermott & Adam Smith (WA); Tammy Baldwin & Gwen Moore (WI), plus Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), who, as a Delegate, is not a Representative but is given the courtesy of being permitted to co-sponsor legislation.

Roster – House Appropriations Committee

Chairman Harold Rogers (KY) and Republican Representatives Robert Aderholt & Jo Bonner (AL); Jeff Flake (AZ); Steve Womack (AR); Ken Calvert & Jerry Lewis* (CA); Ander Crenshaw, Mario Diaz-Balart* & Bill Young (FL); Tom Graves & Jack Kingston (GA); Mike Simpson (ID); Tom Latham (IA); Kevin Yoder (KS); Rodney Alexander (LA); Alan Nunnelee (MS); JoAnn Emerson (MO); Denny Rehberg (MT); Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ); Steve Austria* & Steven LaTourette (OH); Tom Cole* (OK); Charlie Dent* (PA); John Carter, John Culberson & Kay Granger* (TX); Frank Wolf* (VA); and Cynthia Lummis (WY).

Ranking Member Norm Dicks (WA) and Democratic Representatives Ed Pastor (AZ); Sam Farr, Michael Honda, Barbara Lee, Lucille Roybal-Allard & Adam Schiff* (CA); Rosa DeLauro (CT); Sanford Bishop (GA); Jesse Jackson* (IL); Peter Visclosky (IN); John Olver (MA); Betty McCollum (MN); Steven Rothman* (NJ); Maurice Hinchey, Nita Lowey* & Jose Serrano (NY); David Price (NC); Marcy Kaptur (OH); Chaka Fattah (PA); and James Moran (VA).
* Member, Subcommittee on State/Foreign Ops