Life Advocacy Briefing

Glad to be Back

OUR APOLOGIES for not having published last week. It is our custom to give a warning when we expect a hiatus. This one was unexpected. We’re glad to be back, offering you “timely news you can use in the cause of Life.”

Forced to Fund Abortion

THE OBAMA REGIME HAS DROPPED ANOTHER HAMMER in its relentless pounding of our God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In mid-March, the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS), principal tool of the White House in implementing ObamaCare, issued another regulation, this one more frontally subverting the conscience rights of every American citizen and, characteristically, furthering the death industry in the United States.

Here, in a nutshell, is the March 21 commentary by Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins on the move. Noting that Pres. Obama chose a week when the House of Representatives was out of session to issue the new regulation, Mr. Perkins said the Regime was “breaking a promise that the President made two years ago to keep Americans out of the abortion business. Under these regulations,” Mr. Perkins writes in his Washington Update, “we aren’t just involved in the business – we’re primary shareholders! Starting next year, anyone enrolled in an insurance plan that includes abortion will have to fork over [a] $1 premium to cover the costs of another woman’s procedure.

“And the worst part is,” opines Mr. Perkins, “most people won’t know about it until they’ve signed on their plan’s dotted line. To keep consumers in the dark, [HHS] Secy. Kathleen Sebelius included a gag order on the rule that blocks companies from explaining the abortion surcharge up front.

“So not only is the Obama Administration betraying America’s trust,” writes Mr. Perkins, “It’s violating the country’s beliefs and, more importantly, the law!”

We publish in this Life Advocacy Briefing the entire news release issued by House Pro-Life Caucus Chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), as we find the technicalities of the Obama Regime’s move to be important toward our understanding. We urge all to read it carefully to gain a full understanding of the enormity of the HHS/White House action.

As critical as the fight over the contraception/sterilization mandate is, we now see it as prelude to this assault, which must be resisted at least as firmly.

Fight Goes On Against Contraception/Sterilization Mandate

PRO-LIFE CITIZENS TOOK TO THE STREETS in 129 cities across America last Friday to protest the Obama Regime’s regulation requiring employers or their insurance carriers to cover sterilization and contraception – including abortifacient agents – as part of ObamaCare implementation. (The “contraception mandate” has turned out to be the first in a two-step process to force Americans to subsidize abortion, as reported elsewhere in this Life Advocacy Briefing.) The demonstrations were organized by Pro-Life Action League.

Americans United for Life, meanwhile, has, reports AUL president Charmaine Yoest PhD, “released a remarkable on-line video exposing the coercive assault by the Obama Administration on all Americans’ freedom of conscience.

“AUL’s video, The Con, counters the Administration’s efforts to convince the public that this issue is about contraception. But that’s a con,” said Dr. Yoest. “The issue is about mandating abortion-causing drugs.”

Obama War on Freedom Backfiring?

MANY POLITICAL PUNDITS SAW THE OBAMA CONTRACEPTION MANDATE as a political thrust to secure votes of women for the President’s shaky re-election bid. But the President’s strategists apparently misjudged the commitment of Americans – including women – to our rights of conscience and our fundamental freedoms.

The Obama gurus must be scratching their heads in the wake of polling which shows not only a preference for conscience rights for religious institutions and entities but also a slip in the President’s own approval rating among American women.

Writing in the Weekly Standard, John McCormack reveals the President’s approval rating among women was 53% favorable to 44% unfavorable in the month of February but had slipped to 50-45 in March. Among men, he slipped from 47-48 in February to a March rating of 41% favorable to 55% unfavorable in March.

How Far Will They Go?

U.S. REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN) SHARPLY DISAGREED earlier this month with a statement by Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius suggesting the cost of mandated contraception coverage would be more than made up by lowered costs from fewer babies being born. In an interview on broadcaster Glenn Beck’s Internet-based GBTV “Real News from the Blaze,” Rep. Bachmann warned the Secretary’s claim, writes Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, “sets a dangerous precedent.”

“‘Going with that logic,’” she said, quoted by Mr. Johnson, “‘it isn’t far-fetched to think the President of the United States could say … we need to save healthcare expenses … [so] the federal government will only pay for one baby to be born in the hospital per family. Or two babies to be born per family. That could happen. …

“‘I’m not saying he is going to do it,’” [Rep.] Bachmann clarified, quoted by Mr. Johnson. “‘I’m saying he has the power and authority to do it.’” And Secy. Sebelius’s comment certainly lends itself to expecting Mr. Obama and his Regime actually harbor such a desire.

Commented Fr. Peter West, Human Life International’s vice president for mission “in a statement e-mailed to LifeSiteNews.com, ‘Certainly what Congresswoman Bachmann claimed is not out of the realm of possibility, given what we know about the extreme views of some members of the Obama Administration and the new powers they have assumed via ObamaCare.’”

Indeed, once the government controls our health care, it controls many fundamental decisions Americans have always enjoyed the freedom to choose for ourselves.

ObamaCare Kills American Freedom – & Children

March 16, 2012, news release from Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus

This week while the House of Representatives was out of session, the Obama Administration confirmed its insidious plan for public funding for abortion coverage in ObamaCare (Public Law 111-148) when it issued rules for ObamaCare exchanges, complete with an abortion surcharge and a secrecy clause.

“The mass deception of the Obama 2010 Executive Order [through which the President wheedled pro-life Democratic Congressmen, notoriously led by the naïve ex-Rep. Bart Stupak] has finally been exposed,” said Cong. Chris Smith, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. ‘The Executive Order implemented the same accounting gimmick, abortion surcharge and secrecy clause that was in the original text of the bill.

“We knew it at the time, and the final exchange rule confirms once again that the President was suggesting one thing while doing precisely the opposite,” said Smith.

This week’s Obama abortion funding rule confirms that publicly funded insurance plans will include abortion on demand. Using an accounting gimmick, the premium payers will pay the President’s abortion surcharge of at least one dollar per month. This separate charge will go directly into an abortion fund.

“Requiring the segregation of funds into allocation accounts – a mere bookkeeping exercise – is a cheap political trick designed to circumvent long-standing prohibitions on taxpayer funding of abortion,” said Smith. “This is an unprecedented break with longstanding federal policy on funding for abortion.”

The rule also contains a secrecy clause specifying that the abortion surcharge cannot be itemized in marketing materials and may “only” be disclosed “as a part of the summary of benefits and coverage explanation at the time of enrollment.

“This secrecy clause requires insurance companies to bury the abortion surcharge in the summary of benefits so Americans shopping for an insurance plan on the exchange won’t know about the abortion surcharge until they sign up for coverage – and even then they could easily miss the fine print,” said Smith. “Undoubtedly many enrollees will be shocked when they get a bill for the Obama abortion surcharge. Once enrolled, even pro-life Americans will be forced to pay for other people’s abortions.

“There is no abortion surcharge and there is no secrecy clause in the Hyde Amendment or in legislation I authored in 1983 (the Smith Amendment) to prohibit abortion funding in the Federal Employee Health Benefits program,” said Smith. “Both of these long-standing policies explicitly prohibit coverage for abortion in the federal programs they cover, but Pres. Obama refused to apply the same policy to ObamaCare.

“That’s why the House has passed three bills to overturn this attack on longstanding policies,” Smith said. The three bills are as follows:

• On Jan. 19, 2011, the House passed HR-2 to repeal ObamaCare by a bipartisan vote of 245 to 189. The President threatened a veto, and the Senate defeated a similar provision by a partisan vote of 45 to 53.

• On May 4, 2011, the House passed Smith’s bill, HR-3, the “No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act,” by a bipartisan vote of 251 to 175. The President threatened a veto, and the Senate has taken no action.

• On Oct. 13, 2011, the House passed HR-358, the “Protect Life Act,” by a bipartisan vote of 251 to 172. The President threatened a veto, and the Senate has taken no action.

“Recognizing the gravity of the accounting gimmicks, abortion surcharge and secrecy clause, 15 states have already passed laws to prohibit elective abortion coverage in their exchange,” said Smith. The 15 states are: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia.

“Abortion isn’t health care,” said Smith. “We live in an age of ultrasound imaging – the ultimate window to the womb. We are in the midst of a fetal healthcare revolution, an explosion of benign innovative interventions designed to diagnose, treat and cure disease or illness any unborn child may be suffering. ObamaCare should do them no harm. Tragically, it does the worst harm of all. It kills children and makes others complicit in abortion.”

March for Life Speech Transcripts

Continuing our series of Congressional speeches at the March for Life, Jan. 23, 2012; transcribed by Life Advocacy from recorded-live video. Our speakers today are Representatives Chuck Fleischmann, Vicky Hartzler, James Lankford, Tim Walberg and Bill Johnson. We expect to wrap up next week with Rep. Phil Roe and Rep. Allen West.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN): My name is Chuck Fleischmann, and I hail from the great state of Tennessee. I’m a freshman, but one of the issues I ran on and I served so strong is the right to life. Let us come together as a nation – whether it’s rain or shine or snow or cold – this issue is the issue of our lifetime. Let’s stand in opposition to Roe versus Wade. Let’s stand up for the sanctity of life from conception unto the grave. And God bless the great state of Tennessee and the United States of America. And God bless you all for coming out today. Thank you.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO): Hi, I’m Vicky Hartzler from the great state of Missouri, and I’m so glad, so glad you’re here. And so honored to be part of the largest pro-life class of freshmen in Congress’s history. I’m also glad to serve with the largest group of pro-life women in Congress and to take back our country and remind them that we have a Creator, and our Creator has granted us certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And with your help, we’re going to continue to stand strong for life. Keep the faith, keep working, keep praying, and let’s get involved this election. Thank you so much.

Rep. James Lankford (R-OK): My name is James Lankford. I’m from Oklahoma City. It is great to see you out here in the rain. Let me just say to you: Thank you, God bless you for coming and standing in the rain and standing for Life. You’ve come from all over the country; you’ve spent your own money to be able to stand out here in the middle of this city and to say to America: This has to end. What happened with our founders when they wrote down, We hold these truths to be self-evident—should be obvious that our Creator has endowed each of us with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not up to the choice of a woman to choose whether that child has the right to life. God has given that right to that child, and that is the One that makes that decision who has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our committee was the one that stood up and said to this Obama Administration, you cannot go back to Catholic bishops and say that you can just preclude service to human trafficking because the Catholic bishops would not encourage abortion. Not just provide but even encourage abortion. And so they were pushed away. We need to stand for the basic right of every church and every American and say, that is a life, not just tissue. God bless you, what you’re doing.

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI): I’m Tim Walberg, Congressman from Michigan, 7th District. Go blue, go green. Thank you so much for being here. You don’t know how much it encourages my wife and myself; we’re parents of three. We have four grandkids, one in heaven, two on the ground and one in the womb. Who says you can’t be a grandparent to one who’s pre-birth but who is alive? And I look forward to meeting that little guy in less than a month. I praise God for you being here, standing for life. We are a force of redemption, aren’t we? Redeeming those that have been consigned to death without their choice, redeeming the young ladies who have been sold a bill of goods that is a lie, and ultimately responding to the same One Who said, “I am come that you might have life and life abundantly.” He was the Redeemer. We thank God for Him. Thank God that He was not aborted and brought us salvation. We too can follow after His pattern. God bless America, as we respond to His truth and support life. Thank you.

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH): I’m Bill Johnson, and I’m another one of your conservative pro-life Representatives from the great state of Ohio. And I am so honored and humbled to be here with you, the thousands of you who are showing up today to choose Life. You know, our founding fathers had it right when they said that our Creator had endowed us with certain inalienable rights, and it was no accident that life was the first one of those rights that they mentioned. As a father of four and as a grandfather of five, I know how precious life is. And as a 26-year veteran of the Air Force, I also know what the sacrifices are that are required to protect life. You can better believe that I and my colleagues here are going to continue to fight Washington to prevent your tax dollars from funding abortion. God bless you. God bless America. Let’s keep this fight up. Thank you for being here.