Life Advocacy Briefing

Embracing the Cause

WE APPRECIATE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) for having issued a statement on Jan. 22 supporting the March for Life which occupied Washington streets on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton edicts of the Supreme Court. Here is his statement:

“Today, countless Americans – and many Kentuckians – will gather in Washington to give witness to the idea that a just society begins with defending the most innocent life; and once again, we’ll see that the driving force of this movement of compassion has a youthful face.

“Despite the powerful interests arrayed against them, those participating in today’s March for Life are hopeful. They know their cause is just, and they are encouraged in the knowledge that the new Republican Senate will no longer keep their voices from being heard, and that Senators like myself will work to advance the principles of humanity and respect they march for today.”

Hiccups for Planned Parenthood

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO OPENING Planned Parenthood’s fancy new shop in San Antonio, built to replace the long-standing abortuary down the street when Texas law made that facility hopelessly obsolete.

A local court in San Antonio has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the abortion behemoth from going through with the planned January opening of their new 22,000-square-foot facility. Issues involving “zoning, building safety standards, traffic safety and neighborhood buffering” must be resolved before the fate of the facility is known, the court ruled, reports Operation Rescue’s Cheryl Sullenger.

“According to Stop Planned Parenthood SA Coalition,” writes Ms. Sullenger, “Planned Parenthood has used deception in an attempt to fast-track the opening of their new building, which is expected to have the capacity to [commit] 2,800 surgical abortions per year.”

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, the state Health Department “is refusing to let Planned Parenthood perform abortion services,” reports the Houston Chronicle, “at its new clinic under construction in New Orleans. … The organization received a rejection letter [last month] from the Dept. of Health & Hospitals,” notes the Chronicle, “which said Planned Parenthood didn’t demonstrate the need for another abortion facility in Louisiana.

“‘Your application failed to establish the probability of serious, adverse consequences to recipients’ ability to access outpatient abortion services if you are not allowed to apply for licensure,’ Health & Hospitals Secretary Kathy Kliebert wrote in the rejection letter,” reports the Chronicle. “Under a set of 2012 regulations, the Jindal Administration required abortion-related clinics to undergo the same ‘facility need review’ required of residential care facilities, like nursing homes and hospice facilities.”

Standing on Truth

THE 20-WEEK ABORTION BAN which frightened supposedly pro-life Members of Congress two weeks ago has been reintroduced at the state level by a Democrat.

The state-level Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is being championed in West Virginia by Delegate David Perry (D-Fayette County), whose similar bill last year drew a 25-to-9 vote in the state senate and 79-to-17 endorsement in the House. It was vetoed by self-labeled “pro-life” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat who, writes Kirsten Anderson for LifeSiteNews.com, “said he thought the bill inappropriately intruded on the relationship ‘between a woman and her doctor.’”

Last year, though a veto override can be achieved with a mere simply majority in West Virginia, reports Ms. Anderson, “the Democrat-led House of Delegates proved unwilling to buck the governor’s decision despite their support for the bill.” What is more, Gov. Tomblin has said he will veto it again if the measure passes this year. But now, notes Ms. Anderson, “Republicans control both houses of the state legislature, making a veto override a strong possibility.”

Delegate Perry told a local television station he is “‘very confident that the bill will pass this session,’” reports Ms. Anderson. “‘Whether the governor signs it into law or not, one thing I think we have this year is, we have the ability to override his veto.’” And apparently the confidence and – if it is needed – the courage to press forward with a highly popular proposal, prompting us to wonder whether some of our GOP Members of Congress could benefit from taking a cue from Del. Perry. 

Well Earned Shot

AMONG POTENTIAL G.O.P. PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS who appeared at Iowa’s Freedom Summit on Jan. 24, hosted by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) along with Citizens United and TEA Party Patriots, was 2010 GOP California Senate nominee Carly Fiorina, whose credentials include leadership of Hewlett Packard as its CEO.

Mrs. Fiorina was notable at the gathering not just as the only prospective female contender (unless former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is considering a run) and not just for her extensive national security experience as well as business leadership but as the one candidate who spent a significant amount of time advocating the cause of Life.

Indeed, she went beyond building personal bona fides in her pro-life stand and beyond even taking a well-earned crack at her former opponent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for having “once commented that a life is only a life when it leaves the hospital.”

Mrs. Fiorina also took a direct shot at her party’s leadership in the US House, pointing at their retreat from considering the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on the Roe/Doe anniversary, when it had been scheduled for passage.

Commitment to the Cause

Excerpts from the Jan. 24, 2015, Iowa Freedom Summit address of Carly Fiorina, transcribed by Life Advocacy

… I know how proud all of you were the other night to see your Senator, Joni Ernst, stand up and deliver the response to Pres. Obama’s State of the Union. Immediately after her Response, … the pro-abortion women’s group, Emily’s List, described Sen. Ernst – a mother, a soldier, a sitting Senator – as “window dressing.” Let us talk, please, about who is waging a war on women. …

It is on the issue of Life that the hypocrisy of liberals is at its most breathtaking. Liberals believe that flies are worth protecting but the life of an unborn child is not. The platform of the Democratic Party … asserts the right to an abortion at any point in a pregnancy for any reason, and there are now people in the Democratic Party pushing to allow these abortions to be performed by non-doctors. Barbara Boxer once commented that a life is only a life when it leaves the hospital.

We know that science supports those of us who believe in the sanctity of life.

When I married my husband Frank thirty years ago, I learned that his mother had been told to abort him because her life was in danger. But she was a woman of deep faith and great courage, and so she bore him. She spent a year in the hospital after his birth. But her son – my husband – was the joy of her life, and he is the rock of mine. And I have thought very often how different my life would have been if my mother-in-law had made a different choice.

A woman – any woman – who faces a difficult choice or a prenatal diagnosis, this woman deserves our empathy and our support, never our judgment or our condemnation. She knows she will face difficulty and struggle. But none of us can predict the future; none of us can predict the struggles we are going to face. I know this having watched our younger daughter Laurie consumed by the demons of addiction, which ultimately took her life. I know from my own battle with cancer that sometimes the greatest blessings in life come from times of struggle. And that the quality of ­a life is measured in love and in moments of grace and in positive contribution. I know that everyone has God-given gifts and every life has potential.

We know what separates liberals from conservatives. We know as conservatives that no one ofus is better than any other one of us. Liberals don’t believe that. Liberals actually think that some are better than others. Some are smarter than others, and so some are going to have to take care of others or decide for others. We know, we know, that work – work – brings dignity and family brings purpose. And faith brings meaning to our lives. We know. We know that every person has the capacity, has the desire, to live a life of dignity and purpose and meaning.

And yet, despite these clear differences, we get frustrated when these clear differences don’t seem to translate into a different direction. … The majority of Americans – and the majority of women – agree that abortion after five months for any reason at all is extreme. And yet politics – apparently – intervened to prevent the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act from being brought to the floor for a vote. This is disappointing, because what it says is that once again, politics has triumphed over principle, and expediency has triumphed over courage.

This is not leadership of the House. I am reminded … of the difference between management and leadership, between managers and leaders. You see, managers do the best that they can within existing constraints and conditions, within the system. Leaders change constraints and conditions. Leaders see possibilities, and leaders mobilize others to seize possibilities. Leaders do not accept what is broken simply because it has always been that way.

You know, in every profession, there’s a hazard. There’s a hazard that you’re so consumed by your profession that you don’t see anything else. And so you start to lose perspective. Your judgment is clouded. You cannot see the forest for the trees. You cannot see the principle for the politics. You cannot recognize the dysfunction all around you. In business, people can become obsessed, for example, with making the quarterly numbers. And they fail in that environment to see the long-term investments that need to be made, or they violate ethics or the law to make the numbers. In politics, people can become obsessed with the back-and-forth, with the tactical advantage, with the vote in front of them, with the press coverage about them. They fail to see the principle at stake or what is truly broken in our system.

People who have been in and around government and politics for their entire lives may no longer be able to see the truth: our government must be fundamentally reformed.  … Fundamental reform will take a return to the values that have always been the bedrock of this nation.

March for Life: Sen. Tim Scott

Speech by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) to the March for Life Rally, Jan. 22, 2015, transcribed by Life Advocacy

Let me say that the Senate will stand shoulder to shoulder with the House as you move forward legislation that protects Life. I remember way back when I made Jesus Christ the Lord of my life; let me just say, accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior helped me understand the importance of Life, and I will tell you this: Being a protector of Life is not simply an elected official’s responsibility. I believe it is the responsibility of every single American in our country. And we will win the battle for Life from coast to coast. We must always fight for Life.

I’ll tell you a very quick story, and I know I’m a politician, and my mama wanted me to be a preacher, so this story may not be as quick as some may like. I apologize. As a small business owner, I had several employees, and one of my employees several years ago had an unplanned pregnancy, and I had been involved with crisis pregnancy centers in South Carolina for the last twenty years, so I did what I thought was the right thing to do; I took her to a crisis pregnancy center, and because of the love, the affection, the counseling that happened on that day, she gave birth to her little one. And I will tell you, in her words, not mine, she said, while she thought “choice” should have been her option, the more she prayed, the more she listened, the more the counselors spoke, the more she understood that her only choice was a choice for life. And she is so happy she made the only choice.

We stand here, shoulder to shoulder, because you are our backbone. Because we pray together, our nation will rise to the occasion and continue to be a force for good. A force for Life.

Voting Record on Taxpayer Funding Ban

Procedural motion to close debate on HRes-42 –Rule for Consideration of HR-7 (‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act’) – Adopted – 239-183 – Jan. 22, 2015 (Democrats in italics)