Life Advocacy Briefing

Calls Needed Now!

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID (D-NV) WAS BACKED INTO A CORNER by NBC host David Gregory on Meet the Press a week ago on the topic of banning late-term abortion.

Reminding the Senate’s chief executive of his claim to be “pro-life” – a position he seems to have forgotten years ago whenever in DC – Mr. Gregory inquired whether Mr. Reid would permit a Senate vote on banning abortions on five-month-and-older gestating babies.

When Mr. Reid sought to divert Mr. Gregory into other issues, Mr. Gregory persisted in his question. “[Mr.] Reid responded,” reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, “‘They can offer an amendment. It’s the Senate. And we’ll take it up.’

“He relegated the pro-life bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates could save up to 2,750 babies a year – or 7.5 children every single day,” notes Mr. Johnson, “to the same status as other ‘fringe issues.’ After a second follow-up,” reports LifeSiteNews, “the Nevada Democrat said he would be ‘happy to take a look at’ the bill.”

We recall the mid-’90s when lawmakers in both houses repeatedly took up and passed legislation banning partial-birth abortion – which the media termed “a ban on a certain type of late-term abortion” – despite control by liberals. The public made quite clear their revulsion at discovering that late-term abortion was legal. Now, through debate on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, they are learning that late-term abortion is still legal across the United States, thanks to Roe v. Wade and its companion, Doe v. Bolton. Public demand can achieve consideration and passage of this just and merciful proposal.

We join the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List in urging pro-life Americans to call Sen. Reid at 1-202/224-2158 and ask him to call up the late-term abortion ban legislation, a debate and vote which even David Gregory suggests is “reasonable.”

“‘Poll after poll has revealed great consensus on the issue of protecting babies and women late in pregnancy,’” said SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser in the LifeSiteNews story. “‘If [Mr. Reid] and his Senate colleagues stand with the American people in protecting women and five-month-old babies from the brutality of late-term abortion, they have nothing to fear from a Senate vote. Conversely,’” she said, “‘remaining silent on this – especially in the aftermath of Kermit Gosnell and other abortion clinic horrors – would be both a moral and political mistake.’”

Keeping Families SAFE

WHEN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES APPROPRIATION BILL COMES before the House of Representatives, likely this month, expect a potential floor fight over a protection which Family Research Council was promoting last week for insertion in committee; the amendment bars abortion coverage in ObamaCare’s multi-state health plans. It is copied from a bill (HR-346) proposed by Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-MS) and 68 co-sponsors, titled “the SAFE Act,” standing for Stop Abortion Funding in Multi-State Exchanges Act.

The language of the Nunnelee bill and the amendment to implement it mirrors a long-standing protection preventing coverage of abortion in the health insurance plans for federal employees and their dependents.

Readers are encouraged to contact their home-district Members of Congress via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121 and ask them to back the SAFE Act Amendment in the Financial Services Appropriation bill.

Victory in Texas

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TEX) LAST THURSDAY SIGNED landmark pro-life legislation for which he had had to convene two special sessions of the state’s legislature.

Provisions of the new legislation include a pain-capable five-month-gestation ban on abortion, application of standard health and safety regulations to abortuaries, hospital admitting privilege requirements for abortionists, and elimination of telemed abortions by requiring the prescriber to administer his baby-killing drugs face-to-face with the baby’s mother.

At the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing, we reprint major excerpts from Gov. Perry’s speech to the National Right to Life convention meeting in Dallas and commend it to your reading.

For Shame!

THE ABORTION LOBBY EMERGED FROM THE TEXAS CONTROVERSY covered in a fresh coat of shame and displaying their true colors for all the world to see. During the second special session called to pass protections for mothers and babies, the two sides of activists showed up in strength and color-coded clothing, with pro-life supporters wearing blue and opponents sporting orange.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, in his July 15 Washington Update, gave more details of the confrontation: “A local television station, KETK, found that the pro-abortion crowd was prepared to rain down more than noise on pro-life legislators and demonstrators. ‘DPS [Department of Public Safety] officers have thus far discovered one jar suspected to contain urine, 18 jars suspected to contain feces, and three bottles suspected to contain paint. All of these items – as well as significant quantities of feminine hygiene products, glitter, and confetti possessed by individuals – were required to be discarded; otherwise those individuals were denied entry into the gallery.’” It is believed the demonstrators’ intention was to hurl these objects at lawmakers during their deliberations. Mr. Perkins went on to assert, “Other pro-aborts were seen on video chanting ‘hail Satan’ in an attempt to drown out peaceful pro-lifers singing Amazing Grace.”

In addition to demonstrators summoned by NARAL and Planned Parenthood from their adherents, activists from the “Occupy” movement, as well as rent-a-mob participants obtained via ads placed on CraigsList, an Internet-based employment advertising outfit, crowded the Capitol. Twelve arrests resulted from their attempt to disrupt debate.

Traditional national media failed to report on the mob atmosphere meant to deter duly elected legislators. However, in a personal account released by Students for Life of America via LifeSiteNews, the events surrounding the legislative victory have not chilled the movement. Rather, “Terror and mob rule will not intimidate the pro-life movement and will not change the minds of Americans that abortion is a human rights tragedy,” the organization asserted. “The momentum from the victory in Texas will carry us into other states, marching forward until abortion is abolished.”

Legislation Has Consequences

REACTION WAS SWIFT TO THE NEW SAFETY REGULATIONS IN TEXAS, with abortion industry apologists claiming the price tag to bring abortuaries up to the standards the public expects and requires for ambulatory surgical centers could force as many as 37 of the state’s 42 baby-killing shops to close. Estimates are running as high as $1.5 million for a single facility.

Such a sticker price reveals just how far below standard these shops are. The only reasonable conclusion is that, if they must spend that much money to continue offering their “services,” the public is better off without them, even without taking into account the death toll of babies on whose
killings they profit.

Earned Recognition

WE ARE DELIGHTED TO NOTE the selection of Live Action’s Lila Rose as the youngest woman cited by the National Journal last week on their list of “the top 25 Washington women” under age 35, as reported in Live Action News by Laura Peredo. Miss Rose is well known to the pro-life community for her video exposes of Planned Parenthood’s anti-social and even criminal practices.

“The National Journal was given a long list of women to choose from after asking their members and readers to pass on names of women through various forms of social media,” note Ms. Peredo. The publication, she reports, “attributes Lila’s rise as a national figure … to her ‘outspokenness at anti-abortion rallies, her sting investigations of abortion providers and her social-media presence.’ … Live Action’s social media presence is so great,” asserts Ms. Peredo, “that the Facebook page has nearly 581,000 fans, Lila’s Facebook page has over 47,000 and her Twitter account has over 25,000 followers.” Ms. Peredo then notes that the Facebook page posted by Planned Parenthood “has a little over 432,000 fans, and Cecile Richards,” she writes, “has just over 11,000.”

The penetration of Live Action and Lila Rose into social media offers the pro-life cause a growing opportunity for education of the public, especially of the younger generation so key to victory in the battle for justice and mercy in America.

We offer to Miss Rose and her phalanx of effective, youthful advocates for Life our warmest congratulations and commendation, along with prayers for growing effectiveness and influence on the American culture.

Abortion’s Underlying Purpose

July 15, 2013, report by Charlie Butts in OneNewsNow.com, division of American Family News

Statistics from the federal government now prove something that pro-lifers have contended – and the abortion industry has denied – for years: minorities are targeted by abortions.

The numbers come from the CDC Abortion Surveillance report (PDF published in November [http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6108.pdf]) showing that 63% of abortions terminate the lives of black or Hispanic babies. It also revealed the presence of multiple abortuaries in many super-minority population areas.

OneNewsNow turned to Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics, who has been watching the situation for years. “That just tracks what we found in our research that we’ve done before; and that is that the American abortion industry targets the minority community. They’ve been doing this since Day 1,” he offers.

The Life Dynamics work took a look at zip codes where abortion clinics are located and found they are largely in or near minority neighborhoods. According to Crutcher, that confirms that the underlying purpose of the abortion industry is eugenics.

“In our documentary MAAFA21, we fully documented that the real motivation behind the legalization of abortion was to eliminate what these people would describe as ‘dysgenic groups’ – groups of people they don’t want reproducing and having children,” he says. “And of course, to no one’s surprise, these are generally blacks and Hispanics.”

Crutcher says it is difficult to get the word out on these findings, because the secular media seems wedded to the abortion industry “and won’t recognize that it’s a eugenics campaign in which minorities are targeted for extinction.”

‘The Least We Could Do’

Excerpts from June 27, 2013, speech by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) to National Right to Life Convention in Dallas

… I’m blessed to have you all here in Texas today, men and women who value human life, standing united to protect our nation’s most vulnerable citizens – the unborn. … I’m particularly glad to have you all here this week, of all weeks, as we witnessed the extremes the pro-abortion forces will resort to in order to further their cause. They demonstrated that, even if they lose at the ballot box, even if they come up short in attempts to stall on the Senate floor, they will resort to mob tactics to force their minority agenda on the people of Texas.

… What we witnessed Tuesday was nothing more than the hijacking of the democratic process. This is simply too important a cause to allow the unruly actions of a few to stand in its way. I have announced that I am bringing lawmakers back to Austin to finish the work and the will of the people …, and I’ve put pro-life measures at the top of the call list.

In the four decades since Roe v. Wade, more than 50 million children have lost their chance at life. Even in Texas, where the unborn are already more protected than in most places, nearly 80,000 unborn children are lost to abortion each year. Every time I hear that statistic, it breaks my heart; nearly 80,000 lives lost before taking their first breath. …

It makes zero sense that the second most common surgical procedure in the United States is done at clinics that are not held to the same standards as other surgical facilities. They say that adopting these laws will lead to the closure of most abortion clinics in Texas. But the majority of Texas lawmakers agree that any patient should have the expectation that facilities being used for a procedure are up to standards and that when there’s an emergency situation, they can receive the care they need. If the abortion industry decides that the expense of running clean, safe facilities outweighs the money they can make, that’s entirely their decision.

We’ve seen far too many horror stories, coming out of Philadelphia and even Houston, about unsafe, unsanitary abortion mills that turn a profit by preying on women in desperate circumstances and the gruesome nature of the lives lost there, mothers and children alike. It is important to remember that, as a state, while we are under an obligation to protect the health and safety of the people who live here, we are under no obligation to make things easier for abortion providers.

The ideal world, of course, is a world without abortion.

Until then, however, devoted Texans across our state … are forming organizations and founding life centers to give women – and the children they carry – a chance at a new life. They help women who might think there’s no other way out see that there are options – better options – than stopping the beating heart of their child. Already these individuals and their organizations have made a huge difference in lives throughout Texas and helping families realize God’s greatest gift: The love of a child. …

Yes, many children are born into difficult circumstances, but there is no such thing as an unwanted child, because no life is trivial in God’s eyes. Who are we to say that children born into the worst of circumstances can’t grow to live successful lives?

In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances, the daughter of a single mother and a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. It’s just unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example: that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential, that every life is precious.

Our founding fathers knew this. That’s why they affirmed the right to life in the Declaration of Independence, listing it first, ahead of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As our forefathers correctly understood, life is nothing less than a gift from God, and defending that right is a calling worthy of our best. That’s why we work so hard to protect all of God’s children. There is no higher calling or more basic standard than that. … It’s the least we could do in memory of the 50 million who have been robbed of their lives.

Over the past few days, the world has seen images of the Texas Capitol filled with pro-abortion activists screaming, cheering and drowning out our elected officials. Going forward, we have to match their intensity but with the grace and dignity of the very cause we champion. We need to voice our opinions and stand for what we believe without compromising our values or our basic goodness. And just remember: the louder the opposition screams, the more we know we’re doing something right.

Until the day Roe v. Wade is nothing but a shameful footnote in our nation’s history books, we won’t give up the good fight.

May God bless you and, through you, may He continue to bless this nation we love so much.