Life Advocacy Briefing

They’re Back!

THE RECESS IS OVER; session resumes on Capitol Hill this week. Pro-life citizens are expecting and hoping that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will resume his attempts to bring forward S-178, the Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking bill. But enough Senate Democrats must agree to drop their filibuster over the measure’s inclusion of Hyde Amendment language. Have you called your two US Senators? Go ahead and make the calls, please, via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121. Ask them to support the long-standing taxpayer protections of the Hyde Amendment and end the filibuster of the Trafficking Victims bill.

Look to Medicaid When Seeking to Excise Planned Parenthood

THOUGH CONGRESS HAS SEVERAL TIMES SOUGHT to defund Planned Parenthood by disqualifying abortion businesses from Title X (Ten) “family planning” funding – and legislation to do just that is pending again in House and Senate committees – our pro-life lawmakers ought to be excising such businesses also, urges Stop Planned Parenthood’s Jim Sedlak, from the massive funding stream of Medicaid.

Commenting on a recently released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report requested in 2013 by pro-life lawmakers, Mr. Sedlak noted in an interview with Charlie Butts of OneNewsNow.com, that the GAO report discloses “‘that 75% of the money that goes to Planned Parenthood is not from Title 10 or Title 5 or Title 20 or any of the other programs that we usually talk about.’ Instead,” he said, “75% of the money is in Medicaid reimbursements.” [Note: We publish an extensive Breitbart News story on the GAO report and Congressional reaction at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.]

“Seventeen states use Medicaid to pay for abortions for any reason, which [Mr.] Sedlak says equates to taxpayers paying to abort the poor’s unborn children,” writes Mr. Butts. “In addition, Medicaid is not supposed to pay for family planning, but Planned Parenthood has campaigned for states to obtain waivers,” writes Mr. Butts. “The pro-lifer says 28 states have waivers for ‘family planning’ dollars. ‘And they are pouring millions of dollars into the coffers of Planned Parenthood under these waiver programs that were never supposed to be part of Medicaid in the first place,’ [Mr.] Sedlak complains,” reports Mr. Butts.

Mr. Sedlak suggests Members of Congress who seek to defund Planned Parenthood should look beyond Title X. “One place to look,” he said as reported by Mr. Butts, “is Medicaid.”

Rand Paul Gets This Much Right

MUCH HAS BEEN REPORTED ABOUT SEN. RAND PAUL’s ANNOUNCEMENT of his GOP Presidential bid last week. Writing for LifeSiteNews.com, reporter Dustin Siggins has covered a part of the Kentuckian’s subsequent Milford, New Hampshire, news conference that is actually worth noting.

Asked about his position on “abortion exceptions,” Sen. Paul retorted, as Mr. Siggins quotes, “‘We always seem to have the debate way over here on what are the exact details of exceptions or when [life] starts. … Why don’t we ask the DNC [Democratic National Committee], “Is it okay to kill a seven-pound baby in the uterus?”

“‘You go back,’” he told reporters, as Mr. Siggins writes, “‘and ask [DNC Chairman] Debbie Wasserman-Schultz if she’s okay with killing a seven-pound baby this is not just born yet. Ask her when life begins, and you ask Debbie when she’s willing to protect life. When you get an answer from Debbie,’” said the Senator in the LifeSiteNews report, “‘come back to me.’”..

Rep. Wasserman-Schultz, of course, had a flip response ready, mouthing abortion-lobby dodges which, writes Mr. Siggins, “confirmed [Sen.] Paul’s point. ‘Here’s an answer,’” the professional abortion advocate said as quoted by Mr. Siggins. “‘I support letting women and their doctors make this decision without government getting involved. Period. End of story. Now your turn, Sen. Paul.’ …

“[Sen.] Paul’s response at the press conference came after an interview on abortion exceptions earlier in the day with the Associated Press,” notes Mr. Siggins. “While [Dr.] Paul appeared to evade the AP’s question about whether he supports exceptions to allow abortions, he did say,” writes Mr. Siggins: “‘I think the most important thing is the general concept of: Do you support the sanctity of life? Do you think there’s something special about life? Do you think when we’re born that a human baby is different than an animal, that there’s something special that is imbued into human life? And I think there is.’”

Christie Endorses Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection

KUDOS TO NEW JERSEY RIGHT TO LIFE, whose long-established relationship with their governor, Chris Christie, no doubt has contributed to his raising his voice to urge action on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which continues to languish in subcommittee after being pulled from the calendar Jan. 22 in the US House.

Other potential GOP candidates for President have previously endorsed the measure, according to Charlie Butts of OneNewsNow.com, attributing Breitbart News as his source.

Gov. Christie’s statement is particularly helpful, as we see it, because it stresses how radical the Roe v. Wade abortion regime is, something of which millions of Americans are unaware.

“‘America is one of just seven countries,’” he said, quoted by Mr. Butts, “‘that permits elective abortions past this point’” at five months into pregnancy. “‘We can do far better than this,’” he urged, adding, “‘I urge Congress to take swift action on this important issue.’”

Planned Parenthood Suspends Abortions in Nebraska Capital

IS IT ONLY TEMPORARY? Or has Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) altogether abandoned abortion in Lincoln, Nebraska? Hard to know, but even its temporary cessation could save lives. Hallelujah, Amen.

PPH announced late last month the Lincoln facility “has halted abortions for now,” reports Cheryl Sullenger for Operation Rescue, “citing the ‘unanticipated departure’ of its ‘long-time’ abortionist.

“This announcement comes after Operation Rescue received a letter of confirmation,” Ms. Sullenger writes, “that the Lincoln Planned Parenthood facility is under investigation [by] the Office of Acute Care Facilities after [the state agency] received Operation Rescue’s complaint against the abortion clinic for unsafe conditions that could have delayed or prevented emergency help from accessing the facility.

“Operation Rescue [had] received photographs,” notes Ms. Sullenger, “of the abortion clinic’s ambulance entrance from a confidential informant showing the area around the door cordoned off and completely blocked. A five-to-six-foot-deep trench, piles of dirt and construction debris [at the site] would have prevented ambulance personnel from using the entrance or getting a gurney [to] the door in the event of a medical emergency. … Abortions were taking place at the Planned Parenthood facility at the time the photos were taken in March.”

What is more, the abortionist who has apparently quit the Lincoln facility has apparently left Planned Parenthood’s Omaha shop as well, “seriously curtail[ing] abortion availability there as well,” notes Ms. Sullenger. “Currently,” she writes, “the Omaha facility is being staffed by a very part-time Iowa-based abortionist, according to [Planned Parenthood spokesman Angie] Remington.”

Most customers “are being referred,” reports Ms. Sullenger, “to Planned Parenthood’s Council Bluffs, Iowa, office for medication abortions or to Des Moines, Iowa – three hours and 187 miles away – for surgical abortions.” Council Bluffs is 63 miles – more than an hour – away from Lincoln.

“The notorious late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart also operates a surgical abortion clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska,” an hour from Lincoln, “but Planned Parenthood will not refer to him,” perhaps because his shop is so near theirs in Council Bluffs.

Kill This Practice Now, Before It Kills Again

March 30, 2015, BreakPoint commentary by Eric Metaxas, www.Breakpoint.org

It starts under the pretense of alleviating suffering, but it ends up killing the most vulnerable among us. I’m talking about physician-assisted suicide.

In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled in Vacco v. Quill that there was no Constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. Those of us here at BreakPoint recall how Chuck Colson and others breathed a sigh of relief.

But a lot has changed in 18 years. What was legally unthinkable then is oh-so-thinkable today. And even if the Court doesn’t reverse itself, at least 18 states and the District of Columbia are contemplating following the lead of Oregon and several European countries, most notably the Netherlands and Belgium.

That’s why a vitally important Heritage Foundation paper by Ryan T. Anderson is most welcome. The title says it all – “Always Care, Never Kill: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Endangers the Weak, Corrupts Medicine, Compromises the Family and Violates Human Dignity and  Equality.”

As Anderson says, the words of the Hippocratic Oath are “an essential precept for a flourishing civil society.” Here they are: “I will never give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.”

A society that legalizes intentionally causing the death of an innocent person cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be called “good” or “flourishing.” This is especially true when, as Anderson points out, the burdens of this legalization falls disproportionately upon the weak and marginalized.

Anderson is correct when he points out that whenever physician-assisted suicide has been legalized, “safeguards purporting to minimize this risk [of killing people against their will] have proved to be inadequate and have often been watered down or eliminated over time.” Just think about what’s happening in countries like Belgium, which last year revised its law to cover children. It requires willful blindness to believe that it’s the child who will “choose” to be killed.

It requires similar willful blindness to disregard the potential impact of physician-assisted suicide on the practice of medicine. For starters, Anderson asserts that physician-assisted suicide “corrupts the profession of medicine by permitting the tools of healing to be used as techniques for killing.” In so doing, it “reduces patients’ trust of doctors and doctors’ undivided commitment to the life and health of their patients.”

Perhaps even worse, “the option of [physician-assisted suicide] would provide perverse incentives for insurance providers and the public and private financing of health care. Physician-assisted suicide offers a cheap, quick fix in a world of increasingly scarce healthcare resources.”

It undermines “social solidarity and true compassion” by making it more likely that people will come to “view elderly or disabled family members as burdens” and, just as bad, having the elderly and disabled view themselves that way.

Anderson is most profoundly correct when he writes that physician-assisted suicide’s “most profound injustice is that it violates human dignity and denies equality before the law.” It tramples upon the conviction that “every human being has intrinsic dignity and immeasurable worth.”

Any decent society must treat this principle as inviolable. Any decent society should respond to illness and suffering with “compassion and solidarity,” not a lethal dose of phenobarbital.

Please come to BreakPoint.org, click on this commentary [titled “Always Care, Never Kill”], and I’ll link you to Anderson’s report. The time to stop this demonic juggernaut is before it gets started. 

Abortion Funding Quantified – Now Stop It!

March 25, 2015, report from Breitbart News by Dr. Susan Berry

A newly released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirms that Planned Parenthood Federation of America and five other groups are using taxpayer funds to advocate for abortions as “reproductive health care.”

The report of the GAO investigation, which was called for by over 60 Members of Congress in 2013, indicates that the six organizations – Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth (which claims to assist young women and youth of color access contraception and serves gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning youth), Population Council and the Sexuality Information & Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) – spent over $482 million in federal funding between 2010 and 2012.

The report states: “In summary, two federal agencies – HHS [Dept. of Health & Human Services] and USAID [US Agency for International Development] – reported obligating about $236 million in grants, cooperative agreements and contracts to the six organizations from Fiscal Year 2010 through Fiscal Year 2012. Of this amount, HHS obligated about $107 million to the six organizations, while USAID obligated about $128 million to two of the six organizations, Population Council and member associations of International Planned Parenthood Federation. During this same time frame, the six organizations reported expending over $482 million in federal funding. In addition to funding they received directly from HHS and USAID, the six organizations reported expending funding they received indirectly from HHS and USAID as well as the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Housing & Urban Development and Justice.”

In response to the GAO’s report, US Representatives Diane Black (R-TN), Pete Olson (R-TX) [and] Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) said the following in a press release:

“The report found that the six organizations spent $481 million [sic] in federal funding from Fiscal Years 2010 to 2012 as well as about $1.2 billion in combined federal and state funds under federal health programs that require shared funding. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) spent the greatest share of this public funding – approximately $1.5 billion in combined state and federal dollars, or an average of about $500 million a year.”

The GAO also indicated, note the Members of Congress, that federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) that provide health services not offered by the six organizations that promote abortion served 21 million individuals without providing abortions. Black, Olson, Smith and Vitter view these FQHCs as “offering a positive alternative to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.”

Black and Vitter have authored the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act [S-51 & HR-217], which “would end Title X grants for ‘health care’ providers that perform abortions.”

“This report confirms what we suspected all along: hard-earned taxpayer dollars continue to be used to promote abortions,” said [Rep. Diane] Black. “The GAO study found that Planned Parenthood Federation of America alone – the nation’s largest abortion provider – spent about $1.5 billion in combined federal and state funding during this reporting period.

“This is shameful, and we have a responsibility to stop it. As a nurse for more than 40 years, I know that abortion is not health care,” she continued. “In light of this report, Congress should act swiftly by passing the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would help cut off federal funding of organizations like these that promote the destruction of unborn life.”

As [Rep.] Black observed and Breitbart News reported earlier this week, the GAO report is released as Senate Democrats are working to up-end a human sex trafficking bill that would help victims of trafficking, in order to protect the abortion industry. The bill contains the Hyde Amendment, which would forbid taxpayer funding of abortions.

“It shouldn’t take a GAO request from Congress for the American public to know where their tax dollars are being spent,” [Rep. Pete] Olson said. “Yet, since I’ve been in Congress, this is the only way we can get answers.”

“Planned Parenthood – Child Abuse Incorporated – is responsible for killing more than six million unborn children, and it is unconscionable that this organization continues to be subsidized by the American taxpayer,” said [Rep. Chris] Smith.

“Taxpayer funding should in no way support abortions. But when we hand out funding to groups like Planned Parenthood, we know exactly where it’s going. They proudly admit that the majority of their pregnancy-related resources go toward abortions,” [Sen. David] Vitter said. …