Life Advocacy Briefing

Partial-birth Abortion? Really, Ms. Lynch?

AMONG THE QUESTIONS ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE Loretta Lynch had to face in the Senate Judiciary Committee Jan. 29 were questions by Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) and GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC) about her record of supporting partial-birth abortion. The questions and their answers were among many which developed a troubling picture of the lady’s philosophy of government on a variety of issues.

As Gary Bauer reports in his End of Day memo, “Under questioning by Sen. Lindsey Graham yesterday, [Ms.] Lynch … admitted that in 2006 she signed a legal brief on behalf of Planned Parenthood defending partial-birth abortion.”

Reports Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in his January 29 Washington Update, “Sen Chuck Grassley saw plenty of red flags in [Ms.] Lynch’s position on Life, pointing out that a majority of Americans – as well as the Supreme Court – supported the ban on partial-birth abortion. Yet she, judging by her questionnaire [submitted to the committee], personally wrote briefs that defended one of the most brutal and inhumane practices on the planet. Of all the cases to involve herself, Sen. Grassley asked,” reports Mr. Perkins, “why this particular issue? [Ms.] Lynch tried to deflect the question, claiming that she was concerned about how the law would be implemented and not the procedure itself.” Right; no doubt Planned Parenthood had the same concern.

In order to win confirmation by the Senate, Ms. Lynch must secure affirmative votes from every Democrat and at least three Republicans. Many GOP Senators have been expressing public concern about the nominee’s attitudes toward the Constitution on a variety of issues. Readers are asked to begin calling their home-state Senators – particularly Republicans – and ask them to reject Loretta Lynch. They can be contacted via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.

ObamaCare Repeal Passes House

THE U.S. HOUSE LAST TUESDAY VOTED TO REPEAL OBAMACARE and with it, its mandates, coercion and abortion subsidies. The 239-to-186 vote was largely along party lines, with the exception of three Republicans who voted with Democrats to preserve the President’s signature healthcare takeover. We publish the voting record near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing; roll calls on the lead-up procedural motions will appear in future weeks, as space permits.

We are pleased to note the Senate has begun procedures needed to bring the measure directly to the floor without reference to committee.

Overdue Confession

REP. TIM RYAN HAS FINALLY ADMITTED – after years of a pro-abortion voting record – that he is not pro-life after all, though in his early days in Congress he was listed as a board member by Democrats for Life.

Going public via an op-ed in the Akron Beacon-Journal, the Ohio Democrat “surprisingly cited his Catholic faith and the birth of his first child as reasons for his decision to support abortion,” reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com. Political observers thought it more likely that Mr. Ryan’s admission relates more to his attempts in recent times to line up major financial backing for a 2016 challenge to Ohio’s pro-life Republican Senator, Rob Portman.

Whatever his reason, Mr. Ryan has stirred interest in his declaration from a source he might not have expected. “Young collegians associated with the pro-life campus group Students for Life of America (SFLA) in northern Virginia,” writes Mr. Johnson, “will travel to [Rep.] Ryan’s northeastern Ohio district, which includes Youngstown, to protest his new stance. …

“‘Particularly troubling in Cong. Ryan’s op-ed,’” said SFLA president Kristan Hawkins in the LifeSiteNews story, “‘was that he completely dismissed the humanity of the preborn baby.’ … Instead, she said,” writes Mr. Johnson, “[Rep.] Ryan used ‘familiar talking points from the abortion industry’ to gloss over the fact that, in every abortion, ‘a life is taken – one that he didn’t even talk about in his op-ed.’”

The head of Democrats for Life of America (DFLA), Kristen Day, seemed to be less surprised, having observed the pro-abortion voting record of her former DFLA leader for several years. Ms. Day, reports Mr. Johnson, “said Democrats like Ryan change their tune on abortion for only one reason: money. ‘The truth is, you cannot get funding from national Democratic spigots unless you pass the pro-choice litmus test,’ [Ms.] Day wrote in an op-ed for The Hill,” quoted by Mr. Johnson.

But, added Ms. Day in Mr. Johnson’s report, “Money alone will not win the Senate race. ‘Abortion rights donors from outside the state may find his public pronouncement appealing and reassuring,’” said Ms. Day. “‘However, in elections, it is votes, not money, that matters,’ [Ms.] Day wrote,” reports Mr. Johnson. “‘Just ask Wendy Davis.’”

Ms. Day further wrote, quoted by LifeSiteNews, that she is “‘saddened to see this once hopeful Congressman fall deeper into the deception of the abortion lobby.’” Having watched Rep. Ryan’s pro-abortion voting record for all his years in Congress, we at Life Advocacy are relieved to see him finally coming clean as to how he conducts himself in office; we understand Ms. Day’s disappointment, which has no doubt grown increasingly acute over the years, but it was past time for his deception to end. Now with SFLA fanning out through neighborhoods in the Ryan district, his voters, too, will know the real Ryan record.

House Voting Record: ObamaCare Repeal

HR-596 – Repeal of the ObamaCare Act – Passed – 239-186 – Feb. 3, 2015 (Democrats in italics)

House Voting Record: Procedural on Taxpayer Funding Ban

H-Res-42 – Rule for Consideration of HR-7– ‘No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act’ – Adopted – 242-179 – Jan. 22, 2015 (Democrats in italics)

March for Life Speech: Rep. Chris Smith

Jan. 22, 2015, speech to the March for Life Rally by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, transcribed by Life Advocacy

Thank you very much. Thank you, March for Life. Jeannie, thank you all for bringing us all together to witness to the value and the dignity of every human life, because every human life is a God-given gift. On behalf of my wife Marie, I just want to say how grateful we are for the lawmakers; we have never had – I’ve been in Congress thirty-five years – more pro-life, more effective lawmakers than we have today, and a Leadership that is second to none. I’ll be brief.

You and I are here today because we have a compelling duty to protect the weakest and the most vulnerable from the violence of abortion. You are part of the most important human rights cause on earth. You and I are working, praying, even fasting, for the day when every life is cherished as a gift, every life loved despite one’s disability, race, sex, color, religion or dependency – or condition of dependency – and every life welcomed, no matter the inconvenience. A prenatal diagnosis of disability should mean empathy, love, concern for the child – so wonderfully exhibited by Cathy McMorris Rodgers for her son – not a death sentence.

And I have to tell you, Marie and I have been in the pro-life movement for a combined number of years of 82 years; got involved in 1972. It is encouraging to see so many young people. You know, Tom Brokaw talks about the greatest generation, and certainly the World War II era were the greatest. You, the Millennials, are the next greatest generation. Thank you for your witness.

On the floor right now, as you know, we’re all getting back to vote, and we just participated in the debate – HR-7, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act – cosponsored by every one of us here – will get a vote within an hour or so. That legislation is historic. It would end our forced complicity, our funding of abortion. You know, President Obama, in September of ’09, came to Congress and said, “Under our plan, no federal funds will be used to pay for abortion.” He put out an executive order that said he would comport with the Hyde Amendment. Those promises have turned out to be untrue, a lie, and now we have a situation where over a thousand Obamacare plans on the exchange are paying for abortion on demand. This legislation – and I know the Senate will do its level best to pass it – we will not quit until we take abortion out of ObamaCare and make the Hyde Amendment permanent.

Finally, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, our excellent conference chairman, said a moment ago, the Pain Capable legislation will be on the floor. We know that children at at least twenty weeks gestation suffer horrific pain, dismemberment abortions cause agony beyond our wildest beliefs; this legislation will at least protect those children from the twentieth week on, and our Leadership is true, they are faithful, and they will bring that legislation to the floor, and we will pass it. Thank you, and God bless you.