Life Advocacy Briefing

It is Here

TOMORROW, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2013, government in the United States is scheduled to begin enrolling Americans in medical coverage and subjecting their medical care to government policy promulgated by the Obama Regime. Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Just Say ‘No’ to Cornelia Pillard

THOUGH THE SENATE – and alert constituents – are focused chiefly on the Continuing Resolution and its ObamaCare implications, every day the Congress is in session could be a day closer to the confirmation vote on radical abortion advocate Cornelia Pillard as a judge of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

We reiterate our appeal to readers to request both their US Senators to vote “no” on any motion advancing the Pillard nomination. Contact them via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.

Raising Consciousness of Conscience Rights

WHILE MEDIA FOCUSED ON SEN. TED CRUZ’s USE of a favorite children’s nonsense book to depict the American people’s rejection of ObamaCare, the 21-hour call to action by the Texas Republican focused in large part on substance.

Included in his marathon speech last week was a stinging rebuke of the Obama Regime’s fight against business owners who are litigating their God-given Constitutional right not to underwrite abortifacient prescriptions and sterilization procedures for their employees, warning American citizens that a government which will trample religious conscience rights of employers will soon do the same against any citizen.

“He read from Hobby Lobby’s testimony,” notes Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in his Sept. 25 Washington Update, “one of the many companies suing against the mandate that would order them to provide abortion-inducing pills against their faith. From there,” he notes, “[Sen.] Cruz broadened his attack to the Administration’s hostility toward Christians and chaplains in the military.”

With so much of the debate on defunding ObamaCare focused on extraneous issues, we thank the Senator for highlighting the healthcare takeover’s challenge to religious liberty, and we pray his colleagues will take his warnings to heart.

The Fight Goes On

THOUGH WE ANTICIPATE DISAPPOINTMENT in the likely ultimate outcome of the fight over the Continuing Resolution to appropriate funds for government operations beyond the Sept. 30 close of the current fiscal year, we anticipate also a continuing battle over ObamaCare defunding as the Congress proceeds with high-priority business.

The next likely fight will center around the Obama Regime’s determination to raise the debt limit, enabling government to continue to grow despite the faltering economy. “In the end,” acknowledges Tony Perkins in his Sept. 25 Washington Update, “the debt ceiling will probably be raised. The question is how much conservatives can extract from the Left in exchange for their cooperation in increasing it.”

The Family Research Council president notes a letter FRC had originated, signed by more than 200 religious leaders, “urging them to attach religious freedom protections to any must-pass legislation.”

And conscience rights are the focus also of a letter co-signed by more than 70 House Members and originating with Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) urging that conscience rights be attached to the debt ceiling proposal. “‘This [ObamaCare] attack on the pro-life conscience of America demands immediate Congressional action,’ they write to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH),” as quoted by Mr. Perkins. “‘Nothing short of a full exemption for both non-profit and for-profit entities will satisfy the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment, and nothing but a complete prohibition on public funding for abortion coverage will keep the status quo under the Hyde Amendment.’”

Longstanding protections under the Hyde Amendment are being undermined by various regulatory pronouncements implementing ObamaCare, a growing concern adding to the “conscience rights” litigation concerning abortifacient contraception.

The conscience provisions urged by Rep. Pitts and his colleagues in their letter refer to HR-940, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act, introduced last March by Rep. Diane Black (R-TN). The Pitts letter requests Speaker Boehner to attach HR-940’s provisions either to must-pass appropriations legislation or to the impending debt ceiling proposal as a requirement for House approval of Administration-sought legislation.

The comprehensive ObamaCare repeal-and-replace alternative legislation crafted by the House Republican Study Committee, whose unveiling we reported last week, includes an absolute prohibition on taxpayer funding for elective abortions and also includes explicit conscience protections. We urge our readers to contact their US Representative (Capitol switchboard, 1-202/224-3121) and urge that they co-sponsor the RSC/Scalise healthcare measure. Details can be reviewed on the RSC’s Internet website at rsc.scalise.house.gov.

Putting Planned Parenthood in Charge?

CURIOUS ABOUT WHO WILL BE VIEWING YOUR PERSONAL DATA under the planned implementation of ObamaCare?

“Consumers purchasing health insurance through healthcare exchanges,” reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, “will speak to ‘navigators’ whose jobs is to help them find the best coverage and determine if they are eligible for a federal subsidy.” Apparently, that task of determining eligibility will require such “navigators” to access, Mr. Johnson writes, “a vast federal database of sensitive information, including the Social Security number, tax form, bank account and medical records of every single American citizen.”

The data hub to be made available to the “navigators” compiles citizens’ personal information from seven federal agencies in addition to the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS). Warns Mr. Johnson, those agencies include “the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the Dept. of Homeland Security, the Defense Dept., the Office of Personnel Management, the Veterans Health Administration and the Peace Corps.”

Just who are these federal contract employees?

“The Obama Administration has awarded Planned Parenthood more than $655,000 of taxpayer funds to hire ‘navigators’” to enlist customers for ObamaCare, Mr. Johnson reports. “State affiliates in Iowa, Montana and New Hampshire were among the 105 organizations receiving $67 million in federal grants.”

But surely “navigators” will have to undergo background checks in order to gain access to such sensitive databases.

Sorry, no. The Dept. of Health & Human Services, reports Mr. Johnson, “will not require background checks or fingerprinting of employees, and a previous criminal conviction – including one for identity theft – does not necessarily disqualify an employee from becoming a navigator.”

Still Standing Tall

THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS last week issued a statement reiterating USCCB resistance to the ObamaCare contraception mandate.

Though bishops at a recent meeting “‘vent[ed]’ their frustration that valuable resources are being taken away from the church’s ministry to the sick and the poor in order to fight the mandate,” reports John Jalsevac of LifeSiteNews.com, the USCCB’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in his statement, “Any perceptions that the bishops are ‘flagging’ in the fight are, he said, ‘dead wrong.’ …

“‘As I’ve said before, this is a fight that we didn’t ask for and would rather not be in, but it’s certainly one that we won’t run from,’ the cardinal … wrote,” quoted by Mr. Jalsevac.

“‘Catholics – our parents and grandparents, religious sisters, brothers and priests – were among the first at the table to advance and provide health care,’” Cardinal Dolan wrote, quoted in the LifeSiteNews story. “‘And now we are being burdened because of the same Catholic values that compel us into these ministries. … All this in a country that puts religious liberty first on the list of its most cherished freedoms.’”

Writing to bishops across America, Cardinal Dolan wrote, reports Mr. Jalsevac, “‘I remain grateful for your continued unity in response to this matter of deep concern to us all.’”

Fellow Travelers?

THOUGH SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, convicted Philadelphia baby butcher Kermit Gosnell “has been reaching out,” writes Ben Johnson in LifeSiteNews.com, “to Melinda Gates and former Pres. Bill Clinton, according to a local journalist who has kept in touch with the former late-term abortionist since his trial.” That journalist is Steve Volk, who writes in Philadelphia Magazine.

Our first reaction to this news was to contemplate the chutzpah demonstrated by the serial murderer, who calls himself, according to Mr. Volk and quoted by Mr. Johnson, “a ‘soldier in the war on poverty.’” (Perhaps in the war on those living through poverty.) Then we reflected on a more relevant reality in the Gosnell outreach; that is, consider what it says about former Pres. Clinton and about Bill and Melinda Gates and their internationally pervasive depopulation foundation.

It turns out we are not alone in such a reflection. LifeSiteNews goes on to quote Fr. Peter West, vice president for missions at Human Life International (HLI): “‘While Gosnell used his own hands to directly take human life,’” noted Fr. West in Mr. Johnson’s report, “‘the Gates Foundation is focused on a worldwide campaign to keep women in developing countries from reproducing, reminiscent of Margaret Sanger’s dream to “stop the multiplication of the unfit.”’” This despite the fact that responsible economists agree that a growing population is necessary for a growing economy.

Cruelty sometimes dresses in seemingly clean robes.

Check, Please

ONE OF LIFE ADVOCACY’s OFFICERS, George Johnson of Park Ridge, Illinois, has resumed a business he founded many years ago – printing and sale of “pro-life” bank checks. His product line can be examined and orders placed via an Internet website at www.prolifecheckguy.com or by telephone at 1-VIP-PRO-LIFE. The checks present a variety of pictures of babies – including some yet unborn – and an appropriate Bible verse, as well as the standard information printed on bank checks.

Quoteworthy

The late great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, quoted by Reagan domestic policy chief Gary Bauer in his Sept. 25 End of Day Report: “Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Amen. Thank you, Mr. Bauer, for the timely reminder.

House Voting Record

House Joint Resolution 59 – Continuing Resolution extending appropriations into FY2014 but excluding funding for ObamaCare implementation – Sept. 20, 2013 – Passed – 230 to 189 (Democrats in italics; new Members in ALL CAPS)

Voting “yes”/defunding ObamaCare: Aderholt, Bachus, Brooks, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Franks, Gosar, Salmon, Schweikert/AZ; Cotton, Crawford, Griffin, Womack/AR; Calvert, Campbell, 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; Labrador, 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, SMITH, Wagner/MO; Daines/MT; Fortenberry, Smith, Terry/NE; Amodei, Heck/NV; Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, Runyan, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Gibson, Grimm, 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, 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, S. Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Neugebauer, Olson, Poe, Sessions, Smith, Stockman, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Matheson, Stewart/UT; Cantor, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Wittman, Wolf/VA; Hastings, McMorris-Rodgers, Reichert/WA; Capito, McKinley/WV; Duffy, Petri, Ribble, Ryan, Sensenbrenner/WI; Lummis/WY.

Voting “no” to Defunding ObamaCare: Sewell/AL; Barber, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Pastor, Sinema/AZ; Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Capps, Cardenas, Chu, Costa, Davis, Eshoo, 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/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, Duckworth, Enyart, Foster, Kelly, Lipinski, Quigley, Schakowsky, Schneider/IL; Visclosky/IN; Braley, Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Michaud, Pingree/ME; Cummings, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen/MD; Capuano, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Neal, Tierney, Tsongas/MA; Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Levin, Peters/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Peterson, Walz/MN; Clay/MO;Horsford, Titus/NV; Kuster, Shea-Porter/NH; Andrews, Holt, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sires/NJ; 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, Schwartz/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen, 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, Rigell, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Kilmer, Larsen, McDermott, Smith/WA; Rahall/WV; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Farr/CA, Polis/CO, Gutierrez & Rush/IL, Carson/IN, Delaney/MD, Thompson/MS, Cleaver/MO, Hanna & McCarthy/NY; Boehner/OH; Fattah & Murphy/PA; Herrera-Beutler/WA.