Life Advocacy Briefing

The Quotable Mr. Ryan

G.O.P. VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE PAUL RYAN, US Congressman from Wisconsin, spoke passionately about Life during the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, on Sept. 12. His speech was quoted extensively by John-Henry Westen for LifeSiteNews.com, starting with a vow on behalf of running-mate Mitt Romney that if elected President, Mr. Romney “would ‘on day one’ get to work ‘to repeal that [contraception] mandate and all of ObamaCare.’”

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who convened the Values Voter conference, quoted another section of Mr. Ryan’s speech in his Sept. 17 Washington Update: “‘Pres. Obama likes to say we’re all in this together. … It has a nice ring. For everyone who loves this country, it’s not only true but obvious. Yet how hollow it sounds coming from a politician who has never once lifted a hand to defend the most helpless and innocent of all human beings, the child waiting to be born.’”

Mr. Westen reports that Mr. Ryan went on to criticize the radicalism of the Democratic Party under Mr. Obama. “‘Giving up any further pretense of moderation’ on the issue of abortion,” Mr. Ryan said in the LifeSiteNews report, “‘and in complete disregard of millions of pro-life Democrats, Pres. Obama has chosen to pander to the most extreme elements of his party.

“‘In the Clinton years, the stated goal was to make abortion “safe, legal and rare,”’ [Rep.] Ryan continued,” reports Mr. Westen. “‘But that was a different time and a different President. Now, apparently,’” he said, “‘the Obama-Biden ticket stands for an absolute, unqualified right to abortion – at any time, under any circumstances and even at taxpayer expense.’”

“‘Vital’ questions on life and family,” Mr. Ryan said, as reported by Mr. Westen, “‘should be decided, not by the caprice of unelected judges but by the conscience of the people and their elected representatives.’ He added, ‘And in this good-hearted country, we believe in showing compassion for mother and child alike.

“‘We don’t write anyone off in America, especially those without a voice,’” he said, reported by LifeSiteNews. “‘Every child has a place in this world. Everyone counts, and in a just society, the law should stand on the side of Life.’”

Sebelius Found Violating Hatch Act

THE U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES (H.H.S.) IS NOT supposed to use her position to advocate for a candidate’s election, under the Hatch Act.

But Kathleen Sebelius did just that in a speech to the Human Rights Campaign homosexual lobby on Feb. 25, according to a Sept. 12 report from the US Office of Special Counsel, which is tasked with reviewing complaints of ethics violations by federal officials.

“The report found,” reports Michelle Bauman for Catholic News Agency (CNA), “the Secretary departed from her [prepared] outline twice … [and] that while [her] partisan remarks ‘would have been permissible if they had been made in her personal capacity,’ they violated the Hatch Act because she was acting under her official title and speaking about agency business.’”

Secretary Sebelius overtly endorsed the re-election of the President in that speech and also called for election of a Democrat as governor of North Carolina. Such behavior could subject her to dismissal or impeachment and possible punishment as a federal lawbreaker.

The first comment from the White House came as a comment, reports Alex Pappas, writing for The Daily Caller and citing the Associated Press (AP) as source, from a little-known White House spokesman, Eric Schultz: “‘These were extemporaneous remarks. … The US Treasury has been reimbursed, and Secretary Sebelius has met with ethics experts to ensure this never happens again.’”

Last Wednesday, reports Operation Rescue, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney got around to commenting on the violation, indicating, reports OR, “that there would be no serious punishment for [Mrs.] Sebelius for violating the Hatch Act … . He stated,” reports OR, “that ‘action has been taken by the Secretary and department to remedy what was the result of an inadvertent error based on extemporaneous remarks.’” What action did the Secretary take, we wonder; did she slap her own hand?

Theory Behind Roe ‘Utterly Idiotic’: Justice Scalia

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA EXCLUDED ROE v. WADE from the principle of judges adhering to precedent in their rulings, during a Reuters News interview last Monday.

Justice Scalia was interviewed along with the co-author of his new book, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts. He was asked, reports Reuters writer Terry Baynes, “what happens when linguistic analysis of a law conflicts with existing court decisions.” He answered “that judges cannot reinvent the wheel, particularly if precedent has been in place for a long time. ‘We are textualists. We are originalists,’” he said. “‘We are not nuts.’

“One prominent exception to that,” reports Reuters, “is Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. He does not consider that binding precedent, he said” in the Reuters story, “because it was wrong, remains controversial and is an issue better left to legislators than judges.

“What’s more, the court’s subsequent decisions on abortion are based on the judge-made theory of ‘substantive due process,’ which guarantees certain fundamental rights like privacy.” The Justice called that theory “‘utterly idiotic.’”

Close It Down!

YET ANOTHER PLANNED PARENTHOOD SHOP IS SHOWING what “shoddy” means and is facing a major malpractice suit and possible investigation.

The lawsuit against Planned Parenthood in Birmingham, Alabama, and a circuit-riding California abortionist (Aqua Don E. Umoren), stems from a botched abortion which nearly cost the life of a customer named Ms. Clark and did leave her infertile.

In late August, 2010, when Ms. Clark visited the Birmingham facility, she underwent ultrasonography, reports CEC for Life, at the hands of an untrained employee who “informed [her] that she was at a gestation of eight weeks, four days.” The report from the Life ministry of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, which has called for immediate closure of the facility, indicates that Ms. Clark next underwent a pelvic exam at the hands of Mr. Umoren, “who regularly performs abortions in Birmingham and Huntsville, … [which] concurred with the ultrasound. He then performed a suction curettage abortion on Ms. Clark,” reports CEC for Life.

“After 25 days,” the church group notes, “Ms. Clark was still experiencing nausea, bleeding and vomiting. She arrived at [a hospital] emergency room” in mid-September of that year, “where, after a physical examination and ultrasound, she was informed that she was at a 13-week gestation of an ectopic pregnancy in the left fallopian tube. She was admitted for emergency surgery which, according to the lawsuit, cited by CEC for Life, “ended in ‘the loss of the tube, which resulted in infertility.’

“Documents also show that Dr. Umoren failed to notify Ms. Clark,” notes CEC for Life, “that the tissue sample from her procedure on Aug. 20, 2010 – tested on the same day – showed no presence of fetal tissue. This would imply,” reports CEC for Life, “that while Dr. Umoren knew he had performed an unsuccessful abortion, he chose not to inform Ms. Clark, placing her life … in further danger.”

The Planned Parenthood shop, at the time of Ms. Clark’s injury, was in the midst of a  “yearlong probation” on the part of state regulators, “a direct result,” notes Life Legal Defense Foundation, of “a well-publicized investigation conducted by Live Action and reporter Lila Rose. Alabama’s health department responded to the independent research,” reports LLDF, “with a [corroborating] finding that the Planned Parenthood’s clinic operations were … not in compliance with state laws. In order to settle the dispute, the abortion provider willingly consented to a downgrade of its license rather than face revocation.”

That compromise on the part of state regulators led to continued jeopardy for mothers seeking abortions at Birmingham’s Planned Parenthood. The Dept. of Public Health revoked the license last spring of another area abortuary, notes LLDF, “after three women were rushed to the emergency room following bungled abortions.”

Will Ms. Clark’s near-death experience quicken the consciences of those whose duty is to protect the public? Planned Parenthood cannot be expected to clean up its own act. The experience of Ms. Clark defines the quality of care to be expected by the nation’s principal purveyor of abortion.

Charged Operation Rescue president Troy Newman: “We wouldn’t tolerate this kind of quackery in any other medical discipline, and we shouldn’t tolerate it when it comes to abortion. Umoren should have his license revoked, and Planned Parenthood in Birmingham should be shut down.” Amen.

Virginia Moves Forward on Abortuary Regs

THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA HAS BEEN WRESTLING with abortuary regulations for the past year, and the Board of Health recently took a surprising turn for the better in adopting health-and-safety rules that apply even to existing shops.

The regulatory upgrade began with a statute passed by the Virginia General Assembly and signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R). The new rules include provisions requiring abortuaries to meet “strict building standards,” reports the Associated Press (AP) that already apply to hospitals. The board three months ago adopted rules “that exempted existing facilities,” reports AP, “from such strict standards,” but on Friday, Sept. 14, “the board reinstated the provision imposing the new-hospital construction specifications” even for existing abortuaries.

Abortion fanatics, of course, misbehaved in response to the board’s about-face and had to be escorted out of the meeting room by police.

“The board voted 13 to 2,” reports AP, “to enact the regulations, including the provision requiring all abortion clinics – including the 20 already operating in Virginia – to meet the same architectural standards as new hospitals on issues ranging from doorway widths to room sizes. The board had previously voted 7 to 4 to exempt existing clinics from the building requirements,” notes AP, “but some board members changed their minds after Atty. Gen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, an anti-abortion Republican, said they had overstepped their authority and refused to certify the regulations. …

“[Mr.] Cuccinelli said in July that the building standards were mandated by the law passed by the General Assembly in 2011,” reports AP, “so the board had to include them in the regulations. He also told board member[s] his office might not represent them if they ignored his advice again and got sued.”

The new rules took effect last Jan. 1 “on an emergency basis,” reports AP, and “also deal with issues including staff training, sanitation and equipment standards.”

The regulations now go back to Atty. Gen. Cuccinelli and Gov. McDonnell for final approval and, clearing that, “will be open to another public comment period,” notes AP, “before a final vote by the board next year.” And then comes the question of enforcement, something at which many of the states’ health boards seem to balk.

Who’s Missing?

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR AN EXAMPLE of someone the world almost had to do without, another one has popped into public view, and this example should have great appeal to the youth generation.

Justin Bieber.

That’s right. The teen pop “idol” could easily have become a victim of decriminalized abortion. His mother discussed “the pressure she suffered to abort her famous pop-star son” in an interview with Kathie Lee Gifford for NBC’s Today show, reports Johanna Dasteel for LifeSiteNews.com.

His mother, it turns out, was a victim of childhood sexual abuse and, writes Ms. Dasteel, “engaged in drinking, drugs and sex at a young age, ultimately finding herself pregnant at the age of 17. Even though she was encouraged to abort, she told [the television personality], ‘I just knew I couldn’t. I just know I had to keep him. I didn’t know how I was going to do it,’” she said during the interview, reported in LifeSiteNews, “‘but I just knew that I couldn’t abort. I had to do my best, and I was determined to do whatever it took.”

It could be that his own beginnings were among the reasons the 16-year-old Mr. Bieber, in a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone’s editor, said, quoted by Ms. Dasteel, “‘I really don’t believe in abortion. I think it [the unborn child] is a human. It’s like killing a baby.’”

The teen heart-throb was then asked the usual stupid question about justifying the killing of babies conceived in sex crimes. “The young singer replied,” reports Ms. Dasteel, “‘Well, I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don’t know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven’t been in that position, so I wouldn’t be able to judge that.’”

Sadly, No End in Sight

Commentary refuting recent reports that Beijing is relenting in the face of international pressure on forced abortion and involuntary sterilization; copyright: Population Research Institute http://pop.org

“Reports that the Chinese Party-State has ended its practice of forcibly aborting women pregnant in violation of the one-child policy are premature,” says Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute.

Mosher, who blew the whistle on forced abortions in China back in 1980, points out that “The Chinese Party-State has asserted for over three decades that the one-child policy is ‘entirely voluntary.’ But this assertion of ‘voluntarism’ is no more true now than it was when I saw women who were five-, seven- and nine-months pregnant held down on the operating table and aborted. Women continue to be arrested, aborted and sterilized against their will at this very moment.”

The claim that China has ended its cruel and inhuman practice of forced abortions originates with All Girls Allowed (AGA), which reached this conclusion after learning that a Chinese government “document [was issued] to Family Planning offices that bans forced abortion and sterilization.”

“I do not doubt that such a document was issued,” maintains Mosher. “Indeed, I expected that the Chinese government would engage in exactly this kind of damage control. After all, the recent spate of adverse publicity generated by blind activist Chen Guangcheng’s flight into exile, and Feng Jianmei’s brutal forced abortion at seven months gestation has made hundreds of millions of people around the world and inside of China aware of its crimes against humanity. The Chinese Party-State, which is responsible for such criminal acts, has lost face and is now trying to recover.

“Coercion will continue,” Mosher went on. “How will officials successfully extort huge fines from women and their families for violating the one-child policy if they can’t threaten women with forced abortion and sterilization for not paying up?

“This latest document will no more end forced abortion than did the 2002 Population & Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China, Article 4 of which directed population control officials to ‘enforce the law in a civil manner, and [they may] not infringe upon legitimate rights and interests of citizens.’

“Forced abortions and other abuses won’t end,” notes Mosher, “until the Chinese Party-State not only abandons the one-child policy but abandons its Maoist-Marxist belief that it has the right to control the reproduction of human beings under a state plan.”