Life Advocacy Briefing

Taxpayer-Funded Abortions for Illegal Aliens?

THE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY is having to spend its precious time fighting over a budget item that would include abortion in a long list of taxpayer-funded “perks” for detainees being held in federal detention facilities operated by the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office. According to Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, writing in his May 28 Washington Update, “Most of the immigrants in ICE’s care are convicted criminals who were transferred out of prison, where they were serving time for other charges.”

Subcommittee chairman Rep. John Carter (R-TX) and Member Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-MS) secured a committee vote approving their amendment to bar abortion funding from the Homeland Security budget, repeating temporary action in the same arena last year. The amendment and budget bill have moved to full House debate, where the abortion lobby could try to reinstate the abortion funding mandate; stay tuned.

Get the I.R.S. Out of Our Health Care!

ALARM OVER APPARENTLY DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES at the Internal Revenue Service has prompted Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) and Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) to file two bills restricting IRS involvement in implementing ObamaCare.

The Price bill, HR-2009, would bar the IRS from enforcement duties conferred on it in the original ObamaCare legislation. It is co-sponsored by 67 Members, as of our deadline, and has been referred to the House Committee on Ways & Means.

Ways & Means also has within its purview HR-1993, co-sponsored with Rep. Forbes by some 43 Representatives at our deadline. It would bar the IRS from hiring new employees to implement ObamaCare.

Readers are urged to contact their own Representative via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121 to thank those who have signed onto these measures as sponsors and to ask others to come aboard with support for the proposals.

Co-sponsoring HR-2009 with Rep. Price are GOP Representatives Gosar & Salmon/AZ; Cotton & Crawford/AR; LaMalfa, McClintock & Rohrabacher/CA; Lamborn/CO; DeSantis, Posey, Rooney & Southerland/FL; Broun, Collins, Austin Scott & Westmoreland/GA; Labrador/ID; Bucshon, Rokita & Walorski/IN; Huelskamp, Pompeo & Yoder/KS; Barr/KY; Cassidy & Scalise/LA; Harris/MD; Bentivolio, Huizenga & Walberg/MI; Long & Luetkemeyer/MO; Daines/MT; Heck/NV; Coble, Jones & Pittenger/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Joyce, Latta & Tiberi/OH; Bridenstine, Cole & Lankford/OK; Perry & Pitts/PA; Duncan, Mulvaney & Wilson/SC; Blackburn, Duncan, Fincher & Roe/TN; Barton, Culberson, Gohmert, Hall, Sam Johnson, Marchant, Neugebauer, Olson, Sessions, Smith & Thornberry/TX and Bishop & Stewart/UT.

Joining Rep. Forbes in sponsoring HR-1993 are GOP Representatives Franks/AZ; Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook & McClintock/CA; Lamborn/CO; Posey &Webster/FL; Broun & Austin Scott/GA; Hultgren/IL; King/IA; Pompeo/KS; Bentivolio & Walberg/MI; Bachmann/MN; Harper & Nunnelee/MS; Graves & Hartzler/MO; Lance & LoBiondo/NJ; Pearce/NM; Gibson/NY; Coble, Holding & Jones/NC; Lankford & Mullin/OK; Thompson/PA; Wilson/SC; Blackburn & Fleischmann/TN; Conaway, Culberson, Gohmert, Neugebauer & Sessions/TX; Griffith, Hurt, Rigell & Wittman/VA and Reichert/WA.

Anti-Solution

WE MUST ADMIT, IT WAS A CREATIVE RESPONSE which Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) offered to the Gosnell murder verdict during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the Pain-Capable Abortion Prohibition Act being proposed by Arizona GOP Rep. Trent Franks (HR-1797).

Reacting to the murderous practices of the West Philadelphia abortionist, Rep. Nadler suggested simply “‘funding a Planned Parenthood clinic in every neighborhood to put guys like Gosnell out of business,’” reports CNSNews.com. Oh, like the Planned Parenthood abortuary in Delaware which has recently closed because of shocking complaints from staff describing horrific, unsanitary conditions?

Fewer abortuaries are the answer – better yet, zero abortuaries, please – if America is to shake off the terror of unscrupulous businesses killing babies and damaging their mothers. And while we’re at it, fewer fellow travelers of the abortion industry in key political posts like Congressional offices.

Admirable Intervention

A BIG THANK-YOU to Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning (R) for his intervention with the chief state medical officer seeking revocation of the license of Lindsey Creekmore, “the only nurse,” reports the Associated Press (AP), “at Dr. LeRoy Carhart’s abortion clinic in the Omaha suburbs.” Mr. Carhart is the notorious late-term abortionist who served the abortion lobby as plaintiff in their failed lawsuit challenging the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

It is highly unusual for a state official to take such action, and his petition raises the professional deficiencies of the nurse to public attention far more than if the complaint had come from private petitioners, as is the more common practice.

The Bruning complaint, reports AP, “said [Ms.] Creekmore improperly delegated some patient care to unlicensed staff and failed to accurately follow patient medication orders for sedatives and labor-inducing drugs. ‘Clinic records,’” said the attorney general, quoted by AP, “‘show a significant pattern of substandard care practices that, in any surgical center, would endanger the health and safety of the public.’ …

“If [Nurse] Creekmore lost her license,” notes AP, “[Mr.] Carhart would have to hire another nurse to help perform abortions at a clinic that is the subject of frequent protests. The allegations,” AP muses, “also could fuel another push for regulation of abortion clinics in Nebraska.” Do you think so?

Michiganders Fighting ObamaCare Abortion Coverage

A PETITION DRIVE IS UNDERWAY IN MICHIGAN to block automatic abortion coverage in health plans within the state; the proposal is spurred by abortion coverage within ObamaCare. Under the proposal, spearheaded by the highly respected Right to Life of Michigan (RLM), abortion coverage would be available – but only through an optional rider paid for by the insurance applicant. (Petition language permits non-optional coverage only of abortions necessary to save the mother’s life, an exceedingly rare circumstance.)

The goal for the petition campaign is to exceed 258,088 valid signatures, report Christopher Behnan and Kathleen Gray for LivingstonDaily.com, to be filed with the secretary of state. If that official certifies that the signature threshold has been met, notes the LD reporters, organizers “would then submit the petitions to the Legislature, which would have 40 session days to vote to approve the petition. If approved, the measure would become law … without a signature from the governor or a public vote.”

The question would appear on the November, 2014, ballot, note the reporters, only “if the Legislature rejects the petition – an unlikely occurrence,” declare the LD writers, “in the House and Senate, which have both Republican and anti-abortion majorities.”

The appropriate state agency has cleared the wording of the petition form, reports LD, which notes comments by RLM president Barbara Listing assuring that “organizers can begin collecting signatures as soon as petitions are printed and circulators are trained.”

We join Michigan pro-lifers, by the way, in thankfulness for the closing, announced in mid-May, of the 39-year-operating Birth Control Center in Sterling Heights, the seventh Michigan abortion mill to close since September, reports Jill Stanek, who inspires and informs pro-life citizens via her blog at www.JillStanek.com. Several of the closings are attributable in part to legislation signed Dec. 28, 2012, by Gov. Rick Snyder (R), which, among other things, defines abortion clinics as “surgical outpatient facilities,” notes Mrs. Stanek, for purposes of regulating abortuary conditions and providing for their inspection.

Facing Reality

Commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in his May 23, 2013, Washington Update

Dr. Anthony Levatino understands plenty about post-abortion grief. When the obstetrician/gynecologist lost his little girl in a car accident, the man who had performed as many as 1,200 abortions said he couldn’t finish another one without getting sick. “For the first time after all those years … I didn’t see her wonderful right to choose; I didn’t see what a great doctor I was, helping her with her problem. All I could see was somebody’s son or daughter,” he said quietly.

Today Dr. Levatino brings that passion and emotion to the debate over abortion – most recently in his testimony this morning for Rep. Trent Franks’s (R-AZ) fetal pain bill. In a roomful of people, the long-time doctor explained with stomach-turning clarity the reality of abortion. “Imagine,” he said, “if you can, that you are a pro-choice obstetrician/gynecologist like I once was … and [your patient] is asleep on an operating room table.” In graphic detail, he described the instruments he would use on women who, at 24 weeks, had already felt their babies kicking.  Dr. Levatino talked about a specialized clamp, whose wide jaws and rows of sharp metal teeth were for “grasping and crushing tissue. … When it gets a hold of something,” Dr. Anthony Levatino warns, “it does not let go.” I won’t go into the horrific details, but Dr. Levatino makes it quite clear that “if you refuse to believe that this procedure inflicts severe pain on that unborn child, please think again.”

Under Rep. Franks’s bill, America would at least outlaw this inhumanity when babies can feel pain, at 20 weeks. Eleven states have similar laws, but Franks’s HR-1797 would extend [such a ban] nationwide. Jill Stanek, a nurse who helped expose infanticide in US hospitals, testified on the hypocrisy of the abortion movement. Why is it, she asks, that premature babies “are routinely given pain relief who are born at the same age as babies who are torn limb from limb? … The World Health Organization,” she told the committee, “goes so far as to recommend analgesia for preemies getting simple heel pricks for a couple drops of blood.” Do people think that “babies marked for abortion are somehow numb, while their wanted counterparts aren’t?”

Dr. Maureen Condic, an expert on pain science, gave a lengthy background on the medical facts of these babies’ suffering. “Imposing pain on any pain-capable living creature is cruelty,” she told leaders. “And ignoring the pain experience[d] by another human individual for any reason is barbaric.”

Based on the latest polling data, an overwhelming majority of Americans agree. Sixty-four percent of the country said they would support a law like the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act – including 47% who identify as “pro-choice.” They understand, as Trent [Franks] said, “We’re not trying to subjugate women or restrict freedom. We’re trying to protect children.” It’s time Americans stopped trying to numb their consciences and started focusing on the real pain of abortion. Urge your Congressman to help by backing HR-1797.

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Representatives in Congress may be reached via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.]

House Voting Record

HRes-215 – Rule for Consideration of HR-45 (Repeal of ObamaCare) – May 16, 2013 – Adopted 226 to 192 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Bachus, Bonner, 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/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; Collins, Gibson, Grimm, Hanna, King, Reed/NY; Coble, Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, McIntyre, 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-McLeod, 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,  Lewis, D.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, 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:  Brooks/AL; Campbell/CA; Labrador/ID; Duckworth, Quigley/IL; Keating, Markey/MA; Walberg/MI; Wagner/MO; Pearce/NM; McCarthy/NY; Boehner/OH; Clyburn/SC; Cohen/TN; S.Johnson/TX; Duffy/WI.