Life Advocacy Briefing

Stepping Into a Hornet’s Nest?

THE HOUSE MAJORITY LEADERSHIP MAY BE HEADING FOR A BRUISING BATTLE within its own party conference over reports suggesting Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is preparing to bring HR-36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, back to House consideration but in a crippled form.

To appease the hysterical reaction of GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers to the President’s threat to veto the bill – supposedly because of the wording of the rape victim reporting requirement – Rep. McCarthy is said to be watering down that provision, which, in the bill as proposed, authorizes post-six-month abortions only in cases where the baby’s mother reports to police – within a reasonable number of days – that she has been raped.

In a totally incredible olive branch to this third-term North Carolina Representative, whose tantrum caused the GOP Leadership to withdraw the bill from its scheduled consideration on Jan. 22, the House Leaders are now offering to change the requirement from a police-report provision to using rape as the excuse to the abortionist with whom she is contracting for the late-term abortion!

“‘The demand that it be reported to law enforcement was completely unrealistic,’” Ms. Ellmers told the National Journal, according to Dustin Siggins in his report for LifeSiteNews.com, “‘and only further victimized the victims of rape, and I think that’s something that we have to be very conscientious about.’” That “demand” she complains about is standard language in state laws across this country; it is the attempt by those who excuse the pre-birth killing of children conceived in sex crimes at least to be sure their compromise is not abused. The thought that a “report” to the very abortionist committing the killing would be satisfactory is nothing short of ludicrous.

We take some heart from comments by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) in the LifeSiteNews report. Rep. Franks introduced the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and also chairs the subcommittee where the bill has been simmering. Reports Mr. Siggins: Rep. Franks “declined to stand behind [Ms.] Ellmers’s statements about what the new bill contains. … ‘We continue to search for language that will unify the pro-life base,’ said [Mr.] Franks in a statement. ‘However it is completely premature to say what that final language will be. With that end,’” he said, as quoted by Mr. Siggins, “‘the draft being discussed now differs in substantive ways from’ what [Rep.] Ellmers described.”

We cannot speak for all who consider themselves part of “the pro-life base,” but this much we can say: It would be terribly wrong to hand late-term abortionists the very tool they need to get away with continuing to kill late-term pre-born babies. The point of this legislation was to protect some children (and their vulnerable, often coerced mothers) and – just as important – to help the American people grasp the enormity of blindly following the misunderstood barn-door consequences of Roe v. Wade.

The bill as written – significantly, we believe – still has 181 GOP co-sponsors and has lost only two, Rep. Ellmers and Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) since Ms. Ellmers got cold feet back in January;
two more co-sponsors are Democratic Members and one is the Democratic Delegate from Guam. Even the very public Ellmers hysteria has not persuaded other co-sponsors to withdraw. Nor has the White House veto threat.

Gotcha!

THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF SENATE DEMOCRATS WERE CAUGHT last week in a spectacle of hypocrisy.

The week began with urgent passage of a measure addressing problems in Medicare – called the “DocFix” bill – whose chief purpose was to ensure that Medicare-dependent senior citizens would not lose access to their doctors. The popular, sensible legislation – which had already passed the House – passed the Senate with unanimous support from Senate Democrats.

Trouble is, there was Hyde Amendment language in the DocFix bill. Its easy passage demonstrated the lack of controversy which attaches to the decades-established public policy provision which bars the use of tax dollars from subsidizing abortion.

Here were Senate Democrats – all of them – voting for a measure which contained a provision they were protesting in the Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking bill (S-178), which continues to be the main order of business in the Senate as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refuses to drop Hyde language in order to end the weeks-old filibuster.

Sen. McConnell, through his lieutenant, Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), offered an amendment to S-178 Thursday to copy exactly the Hyde language which was contained in DocFix, giving abortion-cartel-aiding Democrats – who had just voted for that language in DocFix – no leg to stand on in carrying on their filibuster.

We commend to your attention last Wednesday’s McConnell Senate floor statement – reprinted at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing – calling on Senate Democrats to end their hypocrisy on Hyde.

We now anticipate – based on remarks by Sen. McConnell late Thursday – that the Senate will be taking up the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act will be taken up early this week and that a vote on the nomination of Loretta Lynch for Attorney General will follow soon thereafter. We ask our readers please to call home-state Senators and request them to vote for S-178 and to vote against confirming Ms. Lynch. They may be reached via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.

Always Trying

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA) ATTEMPTED last Tuesday to – as summarized by the official Senate roll call designator – “waive applicable budgetary discipline” in order to expand what liberals like to term “access” to what the abortion lobby likes to call “women’s health care.”

We count that as an attempt to aid the abortion industry (as well as to discriminate between the sexes!), so we publish the Senate voting record on her failed motion near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Oklahoma Outlaws Dismemberment Abortions

WHILE HOUSE LEADERS DICKER over whether to give abortionists the excuse that their customers have claimed rape in order to qualify for a late-term “procedure,” state officials continue to work to protect innocent human life and to challenge the cruel injustice of Roe v. Wade.

The latest: Oklahoma, which has now followed Kansas in enacting a ban on dismemberment abortions.  Gov. Mary Fallin (R) last Monday signed the measure which protects unborn babies from being torn apart limb-from-limb. Dismemberment abortion – officially called “dilation and evacuation” abortion, is the most common method of killing unborn children who have reached the second trimester of their gestation. According to the National Abortion Federation – the industry’s trade group – D&E abortions constitute 96% of the US’s 100,000 annual second-trimester abortions.

The new Oklahoma law takes effect Nov. 1. It passed the Senate during the second week in April on a 37-to-4 vote after having passed the House 84 to 2 in February.

Priests for Life national director Fr. Frank Pavone responded positively to passage of this legislation in both Kansas and Oklahoma, reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, declaring his ministry “‘has been advocating for over a decade that states begin to protect children from this procedure,’” and adding that “expanding the campaign to other states ‘is a key priority.’”

Fascinating Slip

Excerpt from the April 13, 2015, commentary by Gary Bauer in his End-of-Day memo for Campaign for Working Families

There was a very telling typo in the press release announcing Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the White House. Some poor campaign writer left the word “for” out of a sentence that ended up reading, “She’s fought children and families all her career.” While that’s certainly not what the Clinton camp meant, it’s not far off the mark, either.

Clinton has championed abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. In 2008, her campaign released a statement saying she “strongly opposed” legislation banning partial-birth abortions and supported taxpayer funding of abortions. She has embraced a radical redefinition of marriage and the family and supports higher taxes that make it more difficult for young couples to start a family.

Actual Discrimination

Commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in his April 15, 2015, Washington Update

Should pro-life organizations be forced to hire pro-abortion employees? Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) doesn’t think so.

As if ordering groups to pay for abortion wasn’t enough, now the City of D.C. is trying to order those groups to staff their offices with people who support [abortion]! That’s the effect of the District’s “Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act,” which the city passed to openly target Christian and pro-life businesses and organizations.

Under the [ordinance], even a conservative group like Family Research Council would be forced to hire people who are openly hostile to their values. If it sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is. In what alternative universe would the government strong-arm businesses to hire the competition – or in our case, opposition?

Fortunately, the District is still under the management of the US Congress, which has introduced two resolutions of disapproval, one on this measure and another on the city’s Human Rights Amendment.

Under the guise of “tolerance,” DC passed a bill that would require religious schools to embrace homosexuality and, specifically, gay and lesbian student groups. Led by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), the Republican Study Committee is asking for Congress to exercise its authority and protect schools from having to promote or participate in [homosexual movement] activities that violate their beliefs. Calling it an attack on religious liberty, [Rep.] Hartzler argues that “Americans are protected by the Constitution from being forced by their government to take actions that go against their religious beliefs. Forcing religious schools to go against their beliefs goes directly against our Constitution and shouldn’t be allowed.”

Although both “discrimination” acts were signed into law by the DC mayor, Congress still has the final say. And that say should be “no!” Encourage your Members to support the Black and Hartzler bills [HJRes-43 & HJRes-44] to bring DC back into line with the First Amendment the city houses!

Senate Voting Record

Murray Motion to Waive Budgetary Discipline on Women’s Health Access – April 14, 2015 – Failed 43-57 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”)

Voting “no” / pro-Life: Sessions & Shelby/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, Flake & McCain/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio/FL, Isakson & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Kirk/IL, Coats & Donnelly/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Vitter/LA, Collins/ME, Cochran & Wicker/MS, Blunt/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Heller/NV, Ayotte/NH, Burr & Tillis/NC, Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Casey & Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Corker/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Hatch & Lee/UT, Capito & Manchin/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “yes” / anti-Life: Boxer & Feinstein/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, & Coons/DE, Nelson/FL, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Durbin/IL, King(I)/ME, Cardin & Mikulski/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Franken & Klobuchar/MN, McCaskill/MO, Tester/MT, Reid/NV, Shaheen/NH, Booker & Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Heitkamp/ND, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Leahy & Sanders(I)/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Baldwin/WI. 

Spectacle in the Senate

April 15, 2015, Senate Floor Statement by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Hours ago, 100% of Senate Democrats followed the lead of Republicans and Democrats in the House – including Nancy Pelosi and the Pro-Choice Caucus – in voting to endorse the bipartisan principle that federal funds leaving the government should be subject to bipartisan Hyde language. Given that Americans overwhelmingly support what Hyde does, it’s no wonder this principle has been applied by both parties to appropriations and authorizing legislation for as long as anyone can remember.

We hope Democrats’ statement of support for Hyde in last night’s Medicare vote will finally clear the way for passage of anti-slavery legislation they had been filibustering over the very same Hyde principle.

It was never a morally tenable position. Considering what we saw just 12 hours ago, it’s no longer a politically tenable one either. Democrats couldn’t possibly justify voting for Hyde language in order to help doctors, as they did hours ago, but then look an abused victim in the eye and tell her she’s not worth it.

Human trafficking is a serious problem in our country. It’s hard for a lot of people to believe, but it occurs in every single state. I recently saw a news report about a local non-profit that’s worried about trafficking at big events like the Kentucky Derby. “They’ll take a girl to one city for one to two weeks,” an official with that group said, “then they’ll go to another city, and they just follow these circuits. … It’s really hard to ever get them out of it.”

Look, it’s unconscionable for anyone to continue filibustering this human rights bill over a principle that’s been a fixture in federal law for decades. That was in the bill when Democrats co-sponsored it and voted unanimously to endorse it in committee. And that was endorsed again by Democrats just last night.

But just to ensure there are no possible excuses left to continue this filibuster, Senator Cornyn offered another compromise amendment last night to eliminate any remaining pretext. His compromise ensures that, by supporting this bill, Senate Democrats would only be endorsing the same Hyde language that 100% of them just voted to support last night. Remember, this is essentially language endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and the Pro-Choice Caucus.

It’s actually the third compromise we’ve offered on the Senate floor to our friends across the aisle. First, we offered our colleagues a simple up-or-down vote last month to strike the language that they once were for – before they decided to be against it. Then, before the recess, Senator Cornyn offered to make the monies in the fund subject to the appropriations process, something our Democratic colleagues had said was important to them.

So now this is the third compromise we’ve offered on the floor. It’s time for Democrats of courage to finally bring their party’s filibuster of anti-slavery legislation to an end. A large bipartisan majority of the Senate has already demonstrated its commitment to doing so. And all that’s needed now are a couple more Democrats to join us.

All that’s needed now are a couple more Democrats willing to show the same level of compassion to enslaved victims they offered to doctors just a few hours ago.

As an official with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women put it, our Democratic colleagues should stop “choosing a phantom problem over real victims.” Because, as the Los Angeles Times said, “… the Hyde Amendment has been the law for many years. A fight over whether a fraction of the projected millions of dollars in aid to victims of trafficking and hunters of traffickers can be used on abortion services seems fruitless, and the bill should not be derailed by such a fight.”

This has gone on long enough. It’s time for Senators of conscience to stand up and end this filibuster now.