Life Advocacy Briefing

Welcome

TODAY WE BEGIN THE 20th YEAR OF LIFE ADVOCACY BRIEFING. We are deeply grateful to our Lord, to our subscribers and to all of the support team of Life Advocacy Resource Project for making possible this milestone. If you value this publication and desire to support the game-changing work of Life Advocacy – equipping pro-life front-liners and activists for Winning with Life – please send a contribution today to Life Advocacy, 2004 E. Sherwood Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60004, or make a secure donation through our Internet website at www.LifeAdvocacy.com.

Time Gets It Right!

AS WE APPROACH THE JAN. 22 ANNIVERSARY of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court edicts decriminalizing abortion across America, what is on the cover of Time magazine?

The Jan. 14 issue bears the startling headline: “40 Years Ago, Abortion Rights Activists Won an Epic Victory with Roe v. Wade; They’ve Been Losing Ever Since.”

We anticipate the crowd at the Jan. 25 March for Life in Washington will demonstrate the unusual perceptivity of that proclamation – at least as far as public opinion is concerned – for the 40th anniversary March should bring hundreds of thousands of Americans to bear witness to the cause of Life, and a majority will probably be those in the abortion survivor generation, those whose mothers have brought them into this world while the abortion holocaust has held sway.

Targeting Military Babies

CONGRESS LAST MONTH PASSED THE DEFENSE DEPT. AUTHORIZATION ACT as proposed by the House/Senate conference convened to settle differences between the versions previously passed in the respective houses.

In so doing, the 112th Congress relaxed the ban on taxpayer-subsidized insurance coverage of abortions on military personnel and their dependents. The conference had approved a Senate provision offered by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) extending military health benefits coverage to the killing of babies conceived during a sex crime. Since 1981, military insurance has covered abortions only in the extremely rare case of a pregnancy’s actual threat to the mother’s life.

Completely discounting the injustice of intentionally killing preborn boys and girls, Sen. Shaheen “said on Dec. 21,” reports Susan Jones for CNSNews.com, “‘This is an issue of equity.’”

But then, her colleague in the House, Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) demonstrated even more obtuseness in refusing to “see the connection” when a caller to a C-SPAN program on which she was appearing as a guest tied the tragic schoolhouse massacre at Newtown, Connecticut, to the “‘culture of death’” fostered by legalization and subsidization of abortion, reports Kirsten Andersen for LifeSiteNews.com.

“‘Roe v. Wade took away the right to life,’ the caller said,” quoted by Ms. Andersen. “‘We encourage the culture of death by giving money to Planned Parenthood; they kill more people. Now it’s terrible what happened in Connecticut,’” the caller said in LifeSiteNews. “‘But unborn persons killed with the support of taxpayer money – these are persons, too.’” Responded Rep. Schwartz, “‘I don’t see the connection here.’”

But perhaps Rep. Schwartz can be forgiven her myopia, given her background; blogger Pat Archbold, writing in the National Catholic Register on June 7, 2011, noted “that Allyson Schwartz, besides having a perfect pro-abortion record in Congress, co-founded and acted as executive director of an abortion clinic in Philadelphia for 13 years (1975 to 1988).” She has served in the House Democratic Caucus, incidentally, as her party’s chief candidate recruiter.

Hobby Lobby Hanging Tough Against ObamaCare Mandate

THOUGH SOME COURTS DISAPPOINTED THE PLAINTIFFS seeking to delay Obama Regime enforcement of the abortifacient contraception mandate during the Christmas holiday season, several others offered hope to those seeking to defend their freedom of conscience in their employee health benefit packages. The mandate took effect Jan. 1 for most employers and is being challenged in more than 40 separate lawsuits.

The Hobby Lobby case started with refusal by Oklahoma-based federal Judge Joe Heaton to issue the desired preliminary injunction; the US 10th Circuit Appellate Court then refused to stave off the mandate while the litigation continues. The Supreme Court was the last hope for a temporary injunction, but as the case is in the 10th Circuit, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is assigned to take motions arising from that circuit, was the judge who heard the motion; her ruling is not considered indicative of eventual Supreme Court disposition toward the various lawsuits making their way through the process. The full court is expected to rule later in the lengthy litigation process, whether in the Hobby Lobby case or another.

The privately owned major retailer had sought, in this preliminary round, to block the government from imposing fines reportedly of up to $1.3 million per day (that is not a misprint) against the Christian-owned company while its lawsuit is pending at lower levels.

Hobby Lobby and its sister company, Mardel, Inc., owned by David and Barbara Green and their son Mart, are now faced with the option of violating their religious consciences by complying, facing enormous fines or canceling the health insurance coverage offered their extensive workforce of some 13,000 employees in 525 stores across 42 states.

The company has chosen, according to an announcement from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing them, to “continue to provide health insurance to all qualified employees” while the case is pending. With respect to the government’s mandate, the Becket Fund announced Dec. 27, “To remain true to their faith, it is not [the Greens’] intention, as a company, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.” So the battle is joined, and the clock is ticking on staggering potential fines for Hobby Lobby, the first major company known to be defying the ObamaCare regulation. The case is unlikely to arrive back at the Supreme Court – even for a hearing – before next autumn.

Scattered Victories on Mandate

THE HOBBY LOBBY EXPERIENCE appears so far, thankfully, to be the exception in the litigation challenges to the ObamaCare abortifacient contraception mandate.

Two Christian colleges won an early Christmas gift Dec. 18 when “a federal appeals court in Washington, DC,” writes National Right to Life’s Dave Andrusko, published in LifeSiteNews.com, “handed Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College a major victory in their challenges to the HHS [Health & Human Services] mandate. Last summer,” he explains, “two lower courts had dismissed the colleges’ cases as premature. However, the appellate court reinstated those cases and ordered the Obama Administration to report back every 60 days – starting in mid-February – until the Administration makes good on its promise to issue a new rule that protects the colleges’ religious freedom.”

The reinstatement came just two weeks after New York-based federal Judge Brian Cogan “ruled that a lawsuit from the [Roman Catholic] Archdiocese of New York against the Obama Administration’s HHS mandate may proceed,” Mr. Andrusko notes. [Life Advocacy Briefing previously reported on this decision, in which the judge rebuked the Obama Regime for suggesting the Archdiocese should, in the judge’s words, “‘trust us.’” The judge wrote, reports Mr. Andrusko, “‘The First Amendment does not require citizens to accept assurances from the government that, if the government later determines it has made a misstep, it will take ameliorative action.’”

Just before New Year’s weekend, two other federal judges collaborated in granting a Mennonite-owned cabinet manufacturer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a two-week reprieve from the abortifacient contraceptive mandate.

“After teleconferences with the case lawyers,” writes John P. Martin, in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec. 29, “US District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg imposed a temporary restraining order sparing the Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. from complying with” the controversial insurance coverage mandate. “[Judge] Goldberg is presiding over the case and wrote the ruling,” notes Mr. Martin, “but it was signed by US District Judge Berle Schiller.”

The company has 950 employees nationwide, notes Mr. Martin, and is privately owned by a man and his two sons. “In their lawsuit against the US Secretaries of Labor, Treasury and Health & Human Services,” writes Mr. Martin, “the Hahns, who are Mennonite Christians, contend that it would be ‘sinful and immoral’ and a violation of their free-speech and religious rights to make them pay for or support contraception. Violating the [regulation],” notes Mr. Martin, “could cost them $95,000 a day in fines.” The regulation calls for $100/day/worker fines.

Last Thursday, a federal district judge in Chicago “issued an order temporarily blocking the Obama Administration from enforcing the mandate on Triune Health Group and its owners,” writes John Jalsevac for LifeSiteNews.com, while litigation continues. … This is the tenth case in which a court has agreed to hand out a preliminary injunction blocking the mandate,” notes Mr. Jalsevac. “In three cases, the courts have refused to do so.”

The company happens, reports LifeSiteNews, to have been “recently named by Crain’s Chicago Business as the Best Place to Work for Women in the Chicago metro area.”

Also on Thursday, National Right to Life columnist Dave Andrusko, writing for LifeSiteNews.com, reported that pizza mogul and well-known Catholic philanthropist Tom Monaghan has obtained a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the mandate on himself and his property management company. The order was issued by federal District Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff of the Eastern District of Michigan.

Earlier last week, the seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago granted a temporary injunction against the Obama Regime in favor of Cyril and Jane Korte and a construction company owned by their family.

And a Court Victory on Defunding Planned Parenthood

A TEXAS STATE JUDGE RULED last Monday that the State of Texas “can cut off funding to Planned Parenthood’s family planning programs for poor women,” reports Chris Tomlinson for the Associated Press (AP).

“Judge Gary Harger said that Texas may exclude otherwise qualified doctors and clinics,” reports AP, “from receiving state funding if they advocate for abortion rights.”

The defunding law is being challenged in court; Judge Harger rejected Planned Parenthood’s bid for a temporary injunction against the ban while the case is being heard.

Though Planned Parenthood’s local CEO called the preliminary ruling “‘shocking,’” in the AP story, a spokesman for the Texas Attorney General told AP her boss, Greg Abbott, is “‘pleased the court rejected Planned Parenthood’s latest attempt to skirt the law. … The Texas Attorney General’s office,’” she said, “‘will continue to defend the Texas Legislature’s decision to prohibit abortion providers and their affiliates from receiving taxpayer dollars through the Women’s Health Program.’”

For his part, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “welcomed the court’s ruling,” reports AP. “‘Today’s ruling finally clears the way for thousands of low-income Texas women to access much-needed care while at the same time respecting the values and laws of our state,’ [Gov.] Perry said,” in the AP report. “‘I applaud all those who stand ready to help these women live healthy lives without sending taxpayer money to abortion providers and their affiliates.’” Indigent Texas women have access to legitimate care via abortion-clean facilities, which have been providing service to more than half the women seeking state-paid care. The state has already sustained loss of federal funding for the program and responded to the federal cut-off with a commitment, reports AP, “to start a new program using only state money.

Still, the AP writer predicted “capacity issues … in the next few weeks as women try to make appointments with new clinics and doctors.” But a spokesman for the newly framed program suggested confidence in the state’s ability to deliver, telling AP: “‘We have more than 3,500 doctors, clinics and other providers in the program and will be able to continue to provide women with family planning services while fully complying with state law.’”

In the days and weeks ahead, Texas is clearly offering an opportunity for pro-life professionals to step up with abortion-clean ministry for needy women.

Help Is on the Way

STUDENTS FOR LIFE OF AMERICA (S.F.L.A.) TONIGHT WILL RELEASE A BOOK designed to inspire the abortion survivor generation to abolish abortion in America.

Titled Courageous: Students Abolishing Abortion in this Lifetime, the book was written by SFLA executive director Kristan Hawkins and presents “heartwarming stories of pro-life students who have answered the call to abolish abortion,” according to the group’s Internet website at www.studentsforlife.org. “Readers will be inspired by the young people whose stories will no doubt resonate in their own lives as they continue their fight against abortion.”

Mrs. Hawkins, who has coined the effective phrase “abortion abolitionists” to describe her exciting youth movement, will be convening a major conference in Washington, DC, during the March for Life festivities later this month.

We urge our readers to check into this group and consider acquiring the Courageous book as a measure of encouragement both of SFLA and of ourselves; the next generation is taking its place.

Perspective

Excerpted from a Christmas season message issued Dec. 28, 2012, by Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago

A twinkling star millions of miles distant provides light in a darkened sky, viewed by all – even over centuries. The star of Bethlehem enlightens our darkened world; a world embedded with a continual tendency toward violence, especially among our most vulnerable – the child in the womb, children in classrooms and children on our streets. Our original grace in Eden was likeness to God, albeit with vulnerability: “They were naked and felt no shame” (Genesis 2:28); the original sin was thinking how we could become like God and so hide or deny our God-given need for Him.

A sad anniversary is upon us: the 40th anniversary of the US Supreme Court decisions Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, that were handed down on Jan. 22, 1973. From then to now, unique, living human and vulnerable life became expendable, unprotected by civil law. This “choice” to nurture life or to cut it short remains an abhorrent option.

This anniversary provides us an opportunity to reform individual conscience. Take up this challenge. Vulnerable lives need our voices, our passion and our truth-saying as spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “You are precious in my eyes and I love you.” (Isaiah 43: 4) …

We cannot tire of presenting the fact that human life begins at conception. At this time, the deepest relationships begin: parent and child; child and Creator; this child in communion with all humanity. As Pope Benedict XVI wisely counseled the world and some new ambassadors on June 10, 2011, we need an ecology of the human person. We need to foster a culture of receiving the sacred and unique person in the womb when first announced as present among us. We need to encourage our families to become strong; families are the fabric of society and Church. We need to continue to shape public conversations about a culture friendly to family and new life.

… This season of birth, family and light invites us to renewed compassion and commitment. Thank you for your dedication to your people, especially the vulnerable. You are in my daily prayers; please keep me in yours.