Life Advocacy Briefing

Intercession Needed

IT’S RARE THAT WE CAN REPORT GOOD NEWS OUT OF RED CHINA, but as of this writing we have a hopeful report on the renowned blind attorney, Chen Guangcheng, who won fame by attempting to litigate an end to forced abortion in the Communist country.

Chen has been in house arrest, guarded and unable to see friends and family, ever since his release from prison in September, 2010.

Now two human rights groups – China Aid and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers – report he escaped last week from his home and, according to China Aid’s Bob Fu, “is 100% safe in Beijing. … There is speculation,” reports China Aid in a news release, “that Chen is in the US Embassy in Beijing.

“China Aid was asked on Friday to convey to the outside world,” reports the group, “Chen’s intention to ‘fight to the end for the freedom of my family inside China.’”

Given the Red regime’s practice of punishing subjects for their relatives’ “crimes,” this could prove to be one more monumental effort for the heroic fighter for human rights. Worldwide attention to the family’s potential plight is needed to protect them, as are effective diplomacy and especially prayer. We ask all our readers to pray for Chen and all his family, and we ask our public officials to speak out and to demand that the State Department advocate fiercely for this man and his family.

In the words of China Aid’s Bob Fu, “We must report the true fact of this case and not let the Chinese propaganda machine spin this story as they see fit. We will stand with Chen and work with the international community and world media to fight for his freedom,” which of course must include the safety and freedom of his family.

Striking Results from Pennsylvania

WE RELISH A REPORT out of Pennsylvania’s GOP primary election last Tuesday from Susan B. Anthony List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser. We reprint it at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

While celebrating the victories she reports, we also note with sadness the loss in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary of US Rep. Tim Holden, who over 20 years in Congress has compiled a relatively pro-life voting record and was defeated by a more “progressive” Democrat in a redrawn district. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) is steadily gaining her dream of a 100% pro-death party caucus in the US House and implacably making her party an unwelcome place for those who embrace Americans’ cherished right to Life.

Taking Them On

SOME POLITICIANS – EVEN MANY WHO ARE HEART-COMMITTED PRO-LIFERS – clam up when it comes to defending the right to Life in a political context. They are told by pundits, consultants, colleagues and even well-meaning pro-life supporters to avoid the subject, minimize the comments, talk about other things. (Indeed, Life Advocacy exists in part to counter this wrong advice!)

Mississippi’s new GOP governor appears to have rejected this advice, and his overt advocacy for Life will advance both the pro-life cause and, very likely, his own career. (Voters prefer candidates who have convictions and are open and honest with them about their beliefs and intentions.)

We were cheered this week to read the follow-up story to Gov. Phil Bryant’s signing of a new abortuary clinic regulation law which many predict could result in his state being the first to have driven the abortion industry completely out.

Here is the followup story by Ben Johnson in LifeSiteNews.com: “The governor of Mississippi says Barack Obama and others who opposed a bill he signed this month to raise health standards at the state’s lone abortion clinic are hypocrites whose ‘one mission in life is to abort children.’

“Gov. Phil Bryant blasted ‘the hypocrisy of the Left,’ which ‘says that I should have never signed’ a law requiring all state abortionists to be certified ob-gyns with admitting privileges at a local hospital,” writes Mr. Johnson. “He said abortion advocates are more interested in assuring the state’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization in the state capital, stays open than they are in preserving women’s health.

“‘They don’t care if the mother’s life is in jeopardy,’” said Gov. Bryant in the LifeSiteNews story, “‘that if something goes wrong that a doctor can’t admit them to a local hospital, that he’s not even board certified.’”

Right on, Governor! Take the fight to the abortion lobby, which always claims to be “pro-woman.” If there is a “war on women” in this country, it is in the abortion cartel and its fellow travelers in and out of office, and the opening shot was fired in Washington, DC, on Jan. 22, 1973.

Family Values, for Real

WHILE TRYING TO FOOL PRO-LIFE LAWMAKERS AND AVERAGE VOTERS at the state level into thinking ultrasonography and clinic regulations are somehow dangerous for women, NARAL is now seeking to distort a federal parental notice bill by nicknaming it the “Arrest Grandma” Act, reports Kathleen Gilbert for LifeSiteNews.com.

The commonsense bill targeted by the National Abortion Rights Action League is HR-2299, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, sponsored by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and 165 co-sponsors. It emerged a month ago from the House Committee on the Judiciary on a 20-to-13 vote.

Passing the House several times during the Bush Administration but languishing in the Senate, the proposal, explains Miss Gilbert, “would make it illegal to transport a minor across a state line in circumvention of a state law requiring parental involvement.” And, notes Miss Gilbert, “it mandates that abortionists comply with parental consent laws in the minor’s home state, by giving notice or obtaining consent for the abortion [whichever the law requires] from the minor’s parents.”

Where does “Grandma” come in, to the twisted minds of the NARAL industry lobbyists? The measure reflects the long-standing policy in this country that parents are responsible for the care and nurture of their own children. NARAL’s anti-family plea, expressed in an e-mail from NARAL president Nancy Keenan and quoted by the LifeSiteNews report: “‘Shouldn’t a teen in this situation get all the family and community support that she needs – especially if she chooses abortion?’” She goes on to say – no doubt with a smirk about the naivete of her readers – “‘Isn’t this what “family values” is [sic] all about?’”

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen has answered that question in championing the bill to put parents back in charge of protecting their own children, and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) answered that question during the committee’s markup of the bill last month, quoted here by Miss Gilbert: “‘Parents play a critical role in the well-being of their daughter, particularly in the abortion context.’” And, he noted, reports LifeSiteNews, “widespread enactment of [state parental involvement] laws has ‘made it clear through legislation that parents have a right to know whether their daughters are trying to undergo abortions.’”

And Congress has every right and reason to aid the states in enforcing their laws and preventing some Planned Parenthood counselor or school-based-clinic operator from transporting girls in trouble across state lines into the bloody hands of an abortionist, Grandma notwithstanding!

We urge our readers to contact your Member of Congress (1-202/224-3121) and request a “yes” vote on HR-2299.

Elections Have (Long-Lasting) Consequences

A KEY PLANNED PARENTHOOD STAFFER HAS BEEN NAMED Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs by Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Tait Sye has been the abortion behemoth’s media director, reports Christian Post writer Paul Stanley, “and most recently had to defend HHS’s rule that require[s] most employers – including some self-insured religious institutions – to provide free birth control.” His new role will include coordinating communication for the Food & Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control & Prevention [sic].

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, told the Washington Times, reports Mr. Stanley, “‘Frankly, this is not surprising. Planned Parenthood and HHS have practically become synonymous, so there will be very little – if any – learning curve.’”

The Christian Post story also quoted comments by Charmaine Yoest PhD, CEO of Americans United for Life: “‘Personnel is policy,’” she wrote in an e-mail to Politico. “‘This is one more example of how intertwined the Obama Administration is with the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood.’”

Handcuffing the Prosecution

IT’S NOT SURPRISING, really, that Planned Parenthood would try to scrub courtroom language during Kansas’s prosecution of the abortion behemoth on a variety of charges. Still, a peek at the defendants’ motions in the case shows the outfit seeking, writes Kathleen Gilbert for LifeSiteNews.com, “to silence certain details of their abortion business while facing accusations of aborting babies beyond the gestational age legal in the state, according to documents unsealed” in mid-April.

Oops! Did we say “babies”? Not only did Planned Parenthood seek to block public disclosure of the dirty secrets of their trade, they also sought, according to Miss Gilbert, citing Operation Rescue (OR) as source, moved to block the use of the terms “baby,” “child,” “infant” or “late-term abortion” in the courtroom, “or referring,” she writes, “to unborn children as abortion ‘victims.’”

The defendants also “had moved,” writes Miss Gilbert, “to ignore a 2005 law extending the statute of limitations, … to prohibit prosecutors from asking about the costs of abortions, handwriting discrepancies in abortion reports or the weight of the unborn children aborted,” though questionable records and the implications of babies’ weight are essential points to the prosecution of the charges. What is more, the defendants sought, according to OR and Miss Gilbert, “to question jurors about their religious beliefs. …

“‘They want no one with a moral compass standing in judgment of them,’ said [OR president Troy] Newman,” quoted by Miss Gilbert. “‘This leaves only those who support abortion eligible for the jury, and that is … prejudicial to the state’s case. This motion,’” he said in the LifeSiteNews report, “‘exposes Planned Parenthood’s extreme bigotry against those whose faith differs from theirs.’”

Pennsylvania Shutting Down Brigham – for Good?

DARE WE HOPE THE NEWS IS REAL, THIS TIME? Agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have tried time and again – though often half-heartedly – to end the abortion business of the notorious Steven Brigham. Revoking his medical license wasn’t enough to stop him; barring him from owning abortion shops simply brought a transfer of ownership from him to his own mother! Now it appears two of his shops are finally being shut down for good.

After 15 years of not inspecting abortuaries, state health inspectors have been making the rounds since the discovery a year ago of Kermit Gosnell’s notorious “house of horrors” in the Philadelphia area. Among the stops on their tour was Mr. Brigham’s (or his mom’s) Allentown Medical Services.

“‘Numerous health and safety violations [were found] at this abortion center,’” reports Maria Gallagher of Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, quoted by Charlie Butts for OneNewsNow.com. “‘I mean, blood was spattered on the walls; they were using unsterilized instruments. It was really a house of horrors for women,’” she said, “‘and it’s high time that this abortion center be closed.’

“Fetal body parts were also discovered,” reports Mr. Butts, “and the speculums – instruments used in the abortion process – were reportedly so unsanitary that they had ‘an accumulation of brown debris in the hinge areas,’” said Ms. Gallagher, who said the Pennsylvania pro-life community “‘are very hopeful that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health will also take action against other abortion facilities that are associated with Steven Brigham.’”

Ms. Gallagher’s “hope” appears to be coming true, at least in part. In addition to Allentown, shut down by the state after its landlord terminated the lease, according to LifeSiteNews.com, Mr. Brigham’s American Women’s Services in Pittsburgh “was ordered closed by the Dept. of Health after it failed to report the resignation of its medical director. Local activists,” reports LifeSiteNews, “indicate that there has been no replacement,” but the abortuary “denies that its medical director has quit” and has hinted at an appeal.

“The medical director at Allentown Women’s Services also resigned earlier this year,” reports LifeSiteNews, “but was replaced by long-time Brigham employee Vikram Kaji, an abortionist who has been disciplined for sexually abusing at least three of his patients and indiscriminately prescribing dangerous controlled substances.”

When the pro-life community founds its Abortion Memorial Museum somewhere in America, a special room should be reserved for the enterprises of Steven Brigham. And another for the lax regulatory activity in Pennsylvania, among other states, and the see-no-evil politicians who cravenly abet the abortion cartel. Thank God the Commonwealth is coming around; enough mothers and their children have suffered unspeakable treatment at the hands of Mr. Brigham and his ilk.

Planned Parenthood’s Bad, Bad Night

Posted April 25, 2012, on www.redstate.com by Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List pro-life political action committee

An untold story today following yesterday’s Pennsylvania primaries is what a bad, bad night it was for Planned Parenthood.

In Pennsylvania’s 134th [state] House District, they spent an eye-popping $100,000 on a TV ad campaign trying to sink the candidacy of Republican Ryan MacKenzie by linking him to ultrasound legislation that was before the legislature. As Politico noted, this was seen as a trial balloon of sorts:

“Most state legislative races and ad campaigns don’t necessarily have any larger resonance, but Democrats have been working to make the ultrasound bill the kind of liability for Republicans in Pennsylvania that a related proposal became for Republicans in Virginia.”

That trial balloon popped when MacKenzie cruised to victory by an 18-point margin, 59% to 41%.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania’s 31st District, former Planned Parenthood CEO and board member, Republican Helen Bosley, lost in the primary to a pro-life Republican woman, Anne Chapman. Thanks to the help of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, abortion played a central role in the race, and again, it was no contest. Despite Bosley’s endorsement from the Bucks County Republican Committee, pro-life Chapman won with 63% to 37% — a commanding 26-point margin.

And on the Democratic side, they didn’t fare much better. In the tightly contested primary between Representatives Jason Altmire and Mark Critz, Altmire relentlessly attacked Critz – in TV commercials, in the mail and in debates – for voting to defund Planned Parenthood. Altmire went down by four points despite leading in most polls leading up to last night.

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Though neither Mr. Critz nor Mr. Altmire voted consistently on questions of Life, Mr. Altmire actually compiled a somewhat better record (pro-Life on ten of twenty)  than Mr. Critz (pro-Life on six) in our 2011 House Voting Record Index. When he attacked Mr. Critz from the left on Life, he blew his own brand as well as helping Mr. Critz appeal to the pro-life voting majority in the southwest Pennsylvania district, long represented by the late Democratic Rep. Jack Murtha, who assiduously curried the favor of Johnstown-area pro-life voters despite a mixed record.]