Life Advocacy Briefing

Thanks to our Readers

WE APPRECIATE CONTINUED SUPPORT AND PRAYERS OF OUR READERS as our editor continues to recover slowly from head and other injuries suffered in an auto/pedestrian accident. We are pleased to note that she was able to write certain paragraphs in this week’s Life Advocacy Briefing as well as contributing to some of the editorial decision-making. We are grateful for the assistance of our team in producing the Briefing during this time and hopeful that we can soon announce Penny’s full return.

Prayers & Hope

WE EXTEND TO OUR ROMAN CATHOLIC READERS our congratulations upon the selection of the new Pope, Pope Francis, formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina. We offer our prayers on his behalf and on behalf of retired Pope Benedict, whose advocacy for the universal right to human life was inspiring and salutary throughout his papacy. God bless all those who serve Him and embrace the salvation offered by the sacrifice and lordship of Jesus Christ.

The selection of Pope Francis was welcomed by the pro-life community because of his demonstrated commitment as the Catholic leader of Argentina to the cause of Life and the family. He has been quoted as equating abortion of a child conceived in rape to a form of unjust death penalty.

Seeking to Defund ObamaCare

THE US SENATE REJECTED LAST WEDNESDAY an amendment by GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to the Continuing Resolution (CR) that would have prohibited any taxpayer funding of ObamaCare implementation. The CR seeks to fund federal programs for the balance of FY2013 and is used as a legislative substitute for passage of a federal budget.

The vote fell upon party lines. We publish the voting record later in this Life Advocacy Briefing and we thank Sen. Cruz for his effort.

Planned Parenthood Backs Down

SOON THE WAIT WILL BE OVER for South Dakota, now that Planned Parenthood has dropped its legal challenge to that state’s 72-hour waiting period law, a measure that has recently been strengthened by new legislation excluding weekends and holidays.

The new measure potentially extends the 72-hour period to as long as six days, according to a report by Reuters, before a mother can obtain an abortion after first seeking to terminate her child if she approaches the abortionist on or just before a weekend.

Now that the suit has been abandoned, the waiting period can begin to be enforced within the next several weeks, according to Planned Parenthood in its expression of disappointment over this latest defense of Life in the Mount Rushmore state. Kudos to our friends in South Dakota for taking this lead to protect mothers and their babies from the unscrupulous abortion cartel.

Time to Demand Reform

THE LAXITY – EVEN COMPLICITY – OF STATE MEDICAL DISCIPLINARY BOARDS in policing the abortion industry has reared its ugly head again in New Mexico, where the Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) abortuary, magnet for the killing of late-term gestating babies, has sent another customer to the hospital to address complications.

Operation Rescue reports the March 1 ambulance transportation of an abortion customer to the University of New Mexico Medical Center in Albuquerque was “the 14th medical emergency” from the abortuary “since November, 2008. The last medical emergency at SWO,” notes OR, “took place on Feb. 7.” How many more, Medical Board? How many more?

The abortionist on duty March 1 was reportedly Susan Robinson, a former employee of the late and notorious George Tiller, late-term abortion specialist in Wichita, Kansas. Besides Ms. Robinson, SWO employs the notorious Shelley Sella, also a former Tiller staffer, who “narrowly survived charges of gross negligence last month that were brought by the New Mexico Medical Board based on complaints filed by OR and Project Defending Life. That case,” reports OR, “was related to a botched 35-week abortion that resulted in a life-threatening ruptured uterus. That patient can no longer bear children.” Yet the Medical Board apparently bought Ms. Sella’s claim that SWO’s policy is always to call 911 in the event of an emergency, something which did not occur in the March 1 incident.

The two women baby butchers are among four US late-term abortionists who were celebrated this winter by the Sundance Film Festival. The other two are the notorious LeRoy Carhart, whose incompetence appears recently to have cost the life of a 29-year-old school teacher and her late-term baby, and the notorious Warren Hern, who specializes in killing late-term preborn babies at his shop in Boulder, Colorado.

The increasing rates of late-term abortion complications cries out for the public to demand of their lawmakers both legislation to criminalize the odious practice and intervention cracking down on the complicity of medical disciplinary boards with the abortion industry. The blood of the martyrs is crying out; so should the voters.

Getting the Point

MARYLAND’S TRADITIONALLY APATHETIC MEDICAL BOARD is under so much pressure that it appears to be beginning to function with respect to protecting citizens from some of the nation’s worst abortion practitioners.

Prompted by a letter from 17 Maryland House delegates following the death of a 29-year-old mother under the ministrations of LeRoy Carhart, the state’s Dept. of Health and Hygiene has clamped down on three surgical abortion shops operating in the state and affiliated with Steven Brigham, one of the east coast’s most notorious abortionists. The official investigation turned over a rock when inspectors determined that a mother with a heart condition was aborted at a Baltimore facility where the practitioner wasn’t certified in CPR and the defibrillator on the premises wasn’t working, as reported by the Baltimore Sun from a letter sent by the department to the Maryland General Assembly.

Besides the Baltimore clinic, similar facilities in Cheverly and Silver Springs have been shut down as a result of the investigation. Mr. Brigham has personally been de-licensed in several states, most notably Pennsylvania. We continue to await the Maryland licensing board’s action to protect the public from Mr. Carhart.

Congress to G.A.O.: Analyze Planned Parenthood

DURING THE PAST TWO WEEKS, Life Advocacy Briefing has reported on a letter sent by a bevy of Congressmen to the General Accounting Office calling on that administrative watchdog to provide an update on the efficacy of tax-funded programs in promoting health among women. We provide more information on this undertaking in a commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, near the close of this week’s Briefing.

Warped Funding

THE US AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT submitted a report to Congress early this month which documents USAID’s overwhelming focus on so-called family planning in developing countries around the world.

Almost half ($93 million) of the agency’s 2012 budget for health research and development was designated for HIV/AIDS work. The remaining funds were dominated by a $25 million allocation to expand “family planning” practices in developing countries. Children’s health was awarded the leftovers at $1.5 million, with $9 million set aside to address concerns for maternal and newborn health. Another sad glimpse of the Obama Regime’s priorities.

Senate Voting Record

Cruz Amendment to Prohibit Funds for Implementation of ObamaCare in HR-933 (Continuing Resolution funding measure) – Rejected 45 to 52 – March 13, 2013 (Democrats in italics; Independents marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Sessions & Shelby/AL, Murkowski/AK, Flake & McCain/AZ, Boozman/AR, Rubio/FL, Chambliss & Isakson/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Kirk/IL, Coats/IN, Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Vitter/LA, Collins/ME, Cochran & Wicker/MS, Blunt/MO, Fischer & Johanns/NE, Heller/NV, Ayotte/NH, Burr/NC, Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Coburn & Inhofe/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Thune/SD, Alexander & Corker/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Hatch & Lee/UT, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Begich/AK, Pryor/AR, Boxer & Feinstein/CA, Bennet & Udall/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Nelson/FL, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Durbin/IL, Donnelly/IN, Harkin/IA, Landrieu/LA, King (I)/ME, Cardin & Mikulski/MD, Cowan & Warren/MA, Levin & Stabenow/MI, Franken & Klobuchar/MN, McCaskill/MO, Baucus & Tester/MT, Reid/NV, Shaheen/NH, Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Hagan/NC, Heitkamp/ND, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed/RI, Johnson/SD, Leahy & Sanders (I)/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Rockefeller/WV, Baldwin/WI.

Not Voting: Lautenberg/NJ, Whitehouse/RI, Manchin/WV.

Backstory of Congressional Inquiry to G.A.O.

Commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in his Feb. 26, 2013, Washington Update

When it comes to abortions, Planned Parenthood won’t take “no” for an answer. Just ask Ayanna Byer. If it weren’t for the quick thinking of an emergency room doctor, she might not be here to hold them accountable for their ruthless approach to women. Byer’s horror story started at the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, where, seconds away from her abortion, she had a change of heart. When the staff couldn’t administer her anesthesia, Byer told them she wanted to stop the procedure. According to court documents, the abortionist refused, “turned on the vacuum machines, and told Byer it was too late…. He proceeded while Byer, fully awake, was forced to feel the full pain of the procedure against her will….”

Amazingly, that was just the beginning of Ayanna’s nightmare. The clinic sent Byer home with a few pain pills and never once tested to see if the procedure was complete. Turns out, it wasn’t. Two days later, Byer was rushed to the emergency room with her life on the line. His patient bleeding profusely, Dr. Steven Foley ran tests and found that Planned Parenthood had left dismembered body parts [in] Byer’s uterus. He rushed Ayanna into “an immediate high-risk surgery” to save her from Planned Parenthood’s botched abortion.

Dr. Foley was so outraged that he submitted testimony in the lawsuit filed on Byer’s behalf by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). In it, he fumes that Planned Parenthood refused to perform even the simplest of tests to ensure their patient was safe. “No practicing physician can maintain privileges to practice and perform surgery,” he fumed, “if they do not provide specific coverage for their patients in case of a complication. It is considered ‘abandonment’ of your patient. It is not acceptable to refer your patients to the Emergency Department and assume the on-call doctor will take care of any complications and assume all the risk associated with the complications. It is medically inappropriate for a physician to remove products of conception and not confirm the diagnosis with pathology. I know of no physician or hospital that would allow the removal of a specimen of this nature and assume what the diagnosis was by just ‘looking at it.’”

Coercion, incompetence, physical torture—is this the type of “women’s health care” taxpayers can expect from their billion-dollar investment in Planned Parenthood? Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), Rep. Peter Olson (R-TX), and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) think not. Like the majority of Americans, this trio is incensed at how taxpayers have been dragged into the dark world of the abortion industry. Together with 50 other members of Congress, they demand a specific accounting of how Planned Parenthood is spending taxpayers’ money (since it’s obviously not going to patient comfort, pathology reports, or follow-up care).

Although Cecile Richards’s group can’t, by law, use the millions of tax dollars it receives for abortion, one would think that it helps free up the organization’s other bank accounts for basic surgical necessities—like anesthesia. “My hope,” said former nurse and Congresswoman Diane Black, “is that through greater transparency and accountability we can successfully mobilize the support needed to defund abortion providers—once and for all.”

March for Life Speech: Tony Perkins

Delivered Jan. 25, 2013, at the March for Life on the National Mall in Washington, DC, transcribed by Life Advocacy; rally closing prayer and march launch by Tony Perkins, president, Family Research Council. This will be our final transcript from this year’s March.

Thank you for coming to Washington and bringing the message of Life. And this prayer is not a prayer to close us. Rather I see it as a prayer to open a new generation that will choose Life. I’m grateful for the vision of Nelly Gray, as we see the baton being passed to a new generation. I see Jeanie Monahan being so able to carry this message, and I believe in this generation, we can see America return to a nation that respects Life. Let’s pray:

Father, we come before You today with hearts that are both heavy and hopeful. Heavy for a nation that has wandered in the wilderness of moral relativism, resulting in forty years of children created in Your image—babies that You have declared to be blessings—declared by our courts as a choice and by our policies as burdens to be discarded. But we as Your followers, Your children, have hope that springs eternal. We stand here today, praying for and working for a nation that will embrace Life.

Today, forty years after the highest court in our land opened the door to this manifestation of a culture of death, a new generation stands before You. In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy, through Your servant Moses You put before a new generation the covenant that was over a thousand years old. It was this new generation’s time of choosing. You said, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. That you may love the Lord your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.”

As this new generation, Father, we repent, not just for abortion—abortion is a symptom—we repent for a nation that has chosen death by rejecting You. Father, may this generation standing here today choose life. May we not just see the end of government-sanctioned abortion, but may we see a nation that truly chooses life, abundant life. May we love You with all our hearts, all our soul and all our strength. May we listen and obey Your commandments. And may we lean on You and You alone.

Father, today we choose life. In the Name of Jesus we pray. Amen.