Life Advocacy Briefing

Observing Memorial Day

WE PAUSE, along with all America, to salute those who have sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom and the American way of life. Blessings to all our readers on Memorial Day. May our precious nation return to the God-ordained principles of justice and mercy which have distinguished the United States of America since the very days of our founding.

Our Apology!

IN COMPILING NAMES OF HOUSE MEMBERS last week for reports on both co-sponsorship of the Abortion Subsidy Ban and ObamaCare-related voting records, we made an error, and we wish to express our apology to first-term Representative Doug LaMalfa of California. We reported him as a Democrat; he is a Republican. We further reported he had voted against repeal of ObamaCare; he voted for it, and his vote will be so reported in our annual Voting Record Indices when we publish the compiled voting records for 2013 and for 2013-2014. We appreciate his vote and regret our error.

Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Bill to Expand

IN THE WAKE OF THE KERMIT GOSNELL CONVICTION in Pennsylvania, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) pledged last week to expand to nationwide application his HR-1797 barring abortions after 20 weeks gestation, originally in the District of Columbia, and renamed it the “Unborn Child Protection Act.”

“Knowingly subjecting our innocent unborn children to dismemberment in the womb, particularly when they have developed to the point that they can feel excruciating pain every terrible moment leading up to their undeserved deaths, belies everything America was called to be,” asserted Rep. Franks. “This is not who we are.”

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution & Civil Justice, chaired by Mr. Franks, held a hearing on the proposal last Thursday. Readers are urged to encourage their House Members to support the bill by calling their offices through the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.

We have previously reported the names of the co-sponsors who had joined Rep. Franks on HR-1797 in April. During the month of May, they have been joined by Democratic Representatives Mike McIntyre (NC) & Nick Rahall (WV) and GOP Representatives Womack/AR, Labrador/ID, Latham/IA, Camp/MI, Bachmann & Kline/MN, Luetkemeyer/MO, Daines/MT, Terry/NE, Ellmers & Pittenger/NC, Lucas/OK, Barletta & Thompson/PA, Fleischmann/TN, Sam Johnson & Marchant/TX, Bishop/UT, and Sensenbrenner/WI. Co-sponsors numbered 120 at our deadline late last week.

Plans & Plots

ONE OF THE ABORTION LOBBY’s MOST FORMIDABLE POLITICAL ARMS, EMILY’s List, is taking a couple of steps which ought to give pause to their funders and fans.

For starters, the group’s president, Stephanie Schriock, divulged last week that she is considering putting her own hat in the ring for US Senator from Montana, hoping to succeed retiring Sen. Max Baucus (D).

But beyond that rather surprising disclosure, the massive pro-abortion funds-bundling outfit “launched an initiative,” reports LifeSiteNews.com’s Ben Johnson, “entitled ‘Madame President,’ dedicated to electing the first female President.” (Their embattled allies on Capitol Hill must be wondering whether the fat PAC will bother with them while setting sights on the White House.)

But wait, it gets better!  Ms. Schriock “said she was not placing all her bets on a Hillary Clinton candidacy,” writes Mr. Johnson. “‘If she chooses not to [run], our options are far from exhausted,’ she said,” quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘We have a deep bench of women leaders committed to fighting for progressive change who are up to the task of taking their place on the Democratic ticket in 2016 and beyond.’”

Are you ready for the names? Here is where it gets really funny. “Among those she listed,” writes Mr. Johnson, “were Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D).

“Adding to the speculation,” writes Mr. Johnson – to our hilarity! – “The Washington Post named [Ms.] Napolitano ‘a woman to watch for 2016’ in February. The newspaper reports,” writes Mr. Johnson, “the DHS Secretary is ‘quietly making it known that she is considering the race, and there is reason to take her seriously.’” Right. Thanks for the warning. And the anticipation of a major spectacle!

Fund Raising for ObamaCare?

IT APPEARS THAT HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY Kathleen Sebelius may have been caught hat-in-hand in a scheme to fund implementation of the Administration’s takeover of the American medical system.

The House Energy & Commerce Committee, according to the Acton Institute, has instituted an inquiry into the cabinet official’s requests of healthcare industry notables for large financial donations for implementation in possible violation of the legal bar against cabinet members engaging in fund raising in an official capacity.

Said committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), reports the Acton Institute’s Elise Hilton, “‘Despite HHS’s insistence that the secretary did not directly ask for funds, one source said, “There was a clear insinuation by the Administration that the insurers should give financially to the nonprofits.”’” Yet another Obama Regime scandal, evidently.

But Ms. Sebelius this week will take time out from her questionable fundraising ventures to address a death-lobby international conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Or will she use the trip to pick up a few more bucks for her pet project? “Women Deliver” is a project fostered by none other than Mrs. Bill Gates and is co-hosted by International Planned Parenthood Federation, Population Action and the United Nations Population Fund.

Of course, it could be she is there simply to network among friends and to show the Regime’s flag. Among other  speakers at Women Deliver are notorious infanticide advocate Peter Singer and notorious partial-birth abortionist LeRoy Carhart. Nice company, Madam Secretary.

Facing Reality

DESPITE EFFORTS BY THE ABORTION LOBBY to call Philadelphia murderer Kermit Gosnell an aberration in their industry, more bad dudes are coming to light around the country. One late-term abortionist to make the headlines since the Gosnell verdict is Texan Douglas Karpen.

Mr. Karpen is under investigation in Harris County, with the state’s lieutenant governor demanding the inquiry be full-scale. The Houston Chronicle quotes an email to the paper from  Dept. of State Health Services spokesman Carrie Williams indicating her office is “‘aware of the allegations, and we are investigating. … This is a very high priority for us,’” she wrote.

The methods of choice by this Houston-based abortionist have been revealed on video, complete with cellphone photos, by Karpen employees in conversation with Live Dynamics, Inc., and are too gruesome for delineation in these pages. We look forward to his prosecution.

Authorities Call this Abortion a Murder

A TAMPA-AREA MAN IS BEING CHARGED WITH 1st-DEGREE MURDER after allegedly killing his own 6-week unborn child by administering a drug to his girlfriend. He was indicted for the crime by a federal grand jury.

The murder charge is coupled with a charge that the 28-year-old “tamper[ed] with consumer products,” notes Family Research Council’s Chris Gacek, and with violation of the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, commonly known as the Laci & Connor Peterson Law.

The accused man, who reportedly confessed to law enforcement authorities, is the son of an obstetrician-gynecologist. He “obtained the pills,” reports Ben Johnson of LifeSiteNews.com, referring to them “as his ‘weapon of choice,’ by forging his signature on a prescription.” The baby’s grandfather is not believed to be implicated.

The pill he had coaxed the baby’s mother to take was falsely labeled “Amoxicillin,” reports Mr. Johnson, an antibiotic commonly used to treat infections. The 26-year-old mother was not feeling well, and her boyfriend “told her that she had an infection” and supplied the supposed treatment.

But the drug was actually Cytotec or misoprostol, which is used by the abortion industry as the second drug in the RU-486 chemical abortion cocktail. The French RU drug kills the baby, and the body is expelled via Cytotec, whose manufacturer long ago issued a warning letter urging that the drug not be used in pregnancy because of its side effect of expelling a preborn baby.

“‘Misoprostol is a favorite of international abortion advocates,’” warned Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute vice president Wendy Wright, quoted in the LifeSiteNews story. “‘Several groups are working to make misoprostol easy to obtain – by anyone. … Pro-life advocates warn that easy access to misoprostol will result in women with wanted pregnancy being forcibly aborted.’” We would note the same is true of the easy access which the Food & Drug Administration and its abortion lobby allies are seeking for Plan B abortifacient “contraceptive” drugs.

What the killer did not perceive in plotting his crime was that his unborn child would be seen by authorities as a fully human victim who legally possessed the right to life – so long as the baby’s mother wanted him or her.

This mother certainly did and is now talking freely about the awful crime. “She says [her boyfriend] … told her to take three pills a day,” reports Mr. Johnson, “but after taking the first she began bleeding profusely. She drove to the hospital and passed out, awaking on Easter morning surrounded by her own blood. When medical staff informed her that her baby had died,” writes Mr. Johnson, “she was heartbroken. ‘Every woman dreams of becoming a mom,’ she said,” quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘I was never going to do anything but go full-term with it, and he did not want me to. … I cannot believe someone did something so malicious to me – and to himself,’ [she] told local media. ‘It was our baby.’”

Since this is believed the first case to be brought under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which was signed by then-Pres. George W. Bush, the killer probably did not figure the Obama/Holder Justice Dept. would bring charges. “Prior to quickening,” notes the Family Research Council writer, “killing an unborn baby is not [yet] a crime in Florida.”

Let us pray justice will be done and that this case will further bring to the conscience of Americans the awful heartbreak of abortion. We share the story with our readers in hope you will share it with others who need to learn what abortion is doing to real people in our land.

Arizona’s 20-Week Ban Struck Down, for Now

THE 9TH U.S. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS upheld the so-called right to choose abortion before viability, reversing a US District Court decision that had ruled constitutional Arizona’s Pain-Capable (Post-20-Week) Abortion Ban. Supporters of the legislation “said the law was meant to protect the mother’s health and prevent fetuses from feeling pain,” according to the Associated Press (AP) story on the three-judge panel’s leftish decision last week.

Writing for National Review Online, Americans United for Life staff counsel Mailee Smith explained, “It is universally accepted that risks to maternal health from abortion increase as pregnancy progresses. There is no debate on that fact,” she wrote, “and peer-reviewed evidence utilized by the Arizona Legislature demonstrated that abortion imposes significant risks of harm beginning at 20 weeks gestation.”

But for the infamous 9th District Court of Appeals, it appears that worshipping at the feet of the abortion industry is more important than any attempts to restore protections for women’s actual reproductive health into the legal fabric of our nation’s laws – not to mention protecting the right to life of innocent preborn babies.

House Voting Record

Motion to Call the Question on HRes-215 – Rule for Consideration of HR-45 (Repeal of ObamaCare) – May 16, 2013 – Adopted 228 to 193 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Bachus, Bonner, Brooks, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Franks, Gosar, Salmon, Schweikert/AZ; Cotton, Crawford, Griffin, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, McKeon, Gary Miller, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao/CA; Coffman, Gardner, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Crenshaw, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Mica, Miller, Nugent, Posey, Radel, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Southerland, Webster, Yoho, Young/FL; Broun, Collins, Gingrey, Graves, Kingston, Price, A.Scott, Westmoreland, Woodall/GA; Simpson/ID; R.Davis, Hultgren, Kinzinger, Roskam, Schock, Shimkus/IL; Brooks, Bucshon, Messer, Rokita, Stutzman, Walorski, Young/IN; King, Latham/IA; Huelskamp, Jenkins, Pompeo, Yoder/KS; Barr, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers, Whitfield/KY; Alexander, Boustany, Cassidy, Fleming, Scalise/LA; Harris/MD; Amash, Benishek, Bentivolio, Camp, Huizenga, Miller, Rogers, Upton, Walberg/MI; Bachmann, Kline, Paulsen/MN; Harper, Nunnelee, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer/MO; Daines/MT; Fortenberry, Smith, Terry/NE; Amodei, Heck/NV; Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, Runyan, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Gibson, Grimm, Hanna, King, Reed/NY; Coble, Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Renacci, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Cole, Lankford, Lucas, Mullin/OK; Walden/OR; Barletta, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, Kelly, Marino, Meehan, Murphy, Perry, Pitts, Rothfus, Shuster, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Gowdy, Mulvaney, Rice, Sanford, Wilson/SC; Noem/SD; Black, Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fincher, Fleischmann, Roe/TN; Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hall, Hensarling, Marchant, McCaul, Neugebauer, Olson, Poe, Sessions, Smith, Stockman, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Matheson, Stewart/UT; Cantor, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Rigell, Wittman, Wolf/VA; Hastings, Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Reichert/WA; Capito, McKinley/WV; Petri, Ribble, Ryan, Sensenbrenner/WI; Lummis/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Barber, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Pastor, Sinema/AZ; Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Capps, Cardenas, Chu, Costa, Davis, Eshoo, Farr, Garamendi, Hahn, Honda, Huffman, Lee, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Geo. Miller, Napolitano, Negrete-McCleod, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Vargas, Waters, Waxman/CA; DeGette, Himes, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Larson/CT; Carney/DE; Brown, Castor, Deutch, Frankel, Garcia, Grayson, Hastings, Murphy, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Barrow, Bishop, Johnson, D.Lewis, Scott/GA; Gabbard, Hanabusa/HI; Bustos, D.Davis, Enyart, Foster, Gutierrez, Kelly, Lipinski, Rush, Schakowsky, Schneider/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Braley, Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Michaud, Pingree/ME; Cummings, Delaney, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen/MD; Capuano, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Neal, Tierney, Tsongas/MA; Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Levin, Peters/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Peterson, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO;Horsford, Titus/NV; Kuster, Shea-Porter/NH; Andrews, Holt, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sires/NJ; B.Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Bishop, Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Higgins, Israel, Jeffries, Lowey, Maffei, C.Maloney, S.Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Owens, Rangel, Serrano, Slaughter, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Butterfield, McIntyre, Price, Watt/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Brady, Cartwright, Doyle, Fattah, Schwartz/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Cooper/TN; Castro, Cuellar, Doggett, Gallego, A.Green, G.Green, Hinojosa, Jackson-Lee, E.B.Johnson, O’Rourke, Veasey, Vela/TX; Welch/VT; Connelly, Moran, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Kilmer, Larsen, McDermott, Smith/WA; Rahall/WV; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting:  Campbell/CA; Labrador/ID; Duckworth, Quigley/IL; Keating, Markey/MA; Wagner/MO; McCarthy/NY; Boehner/OH; Clyburn/SC; Cohen/TN; S.Johnson/TX; Duffy/WI.