Life Advocacy Briefing

July 13, 2015

Unwelcome Invasion / Dramatic Effect / Nice Try
Texas Moves Forward with Life Agenda / Planned Parenthood Loses Key Round in Court
How Long Will New Jersey Tolerate Brigham? / Who Decides?

Unwelcome Invasion

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE ABORTION INDUSTRY in coming up with creative ways to circumvent laws and justice to achieve their ends.

The international outlaws in “Women on Waves,” a European-based fanatical outreach of the abortion cartel, have come up with a new way to “deliver” abortion in countries where Life is protected in law. (Several years ago, WoW popped into the headlines for anchoring a floating abortuary in international waters and ferrying abortion-minded mothers from Life-honoring shores.)

Now WoW is harnessing the age of avionics. After announcing to admiring international “journalists” that they were turning to drones to foist abortion on resistant jurisdictions, WoW reportedly did pull off their first drone delivery of abortifacient chemicals into Poland in late June.

The RU-486 drug chemicals, supplied by a Dutch gynecologist, were reportedly dispatched from Frankfurt, Germany, into the hands of two abortion customers in Slubice, Poland, where abortion is illegal. (Slubice is located just across the Oder River from Frankfurt.) The two customers were, of course, being minded by activists from a Polish “women’s rights” group.

“Whether this latest venture is merely another in a long line of publicity stunts,” writes Dr. Randall O’Bannon, National Right to Life’s education and research director, “or is actually supposed to become some new delivery system will become obvious with time.”

For now, the successful Oder River drone strike is a demonstration of how far the abortion fanatics will go to circumvent the law.

 

Dramatic Effect

MINNESOTA’s PARENTAL NOTICE LAW HAS PASSED the 25-year mark in its enforcement, and according to statistical evidence, it has passed muster with flying colors.

Passed by the legislature in 1981, the law, which requires notice to both parents and a 48-hour waiting period, was ultimately upheld by the US Supreme Court on June 25, 1990.

“The annual number of [abortions on minors] in Minnesota peaked at 2,327 in 1980, the year before the parental notification law first went into effect,” notes Paul Stark, writing in National Right to Life News (NRL News). “Teen abortions then began to steadily decline.”

The law was enjoined in 1986 by a federal district court, but, reports Mr. Stark, “Since 1989, the last full year before the Supreme Court ruling, abortions performed on minors have dropped 79%. In 2013 – the latest year by which data [are] available,” he writes, “minor abortions fell to 295, the lowest number on record … and only 3% of all abortions.” (“Minor abortion” statistics are maintained from as far back as 1975.)

“‘Parental involvement laws don’t just save unborn lives from abortion,’ noted [Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life executive director Scott] Fischbach,” quoted in the NRL News report. “‘They reflect the commonsense principle that parents are responsible for their kids and that kids need their parents. To exclude parents, especially at a time of crisis,’” he said, “‘would be a tremendous disservice to children. Yet that is precisely what Planned Parenthood,’” which continues to fight sound parental notice laws, “‘wants to do.’”

 

Nice Try

WE HAVE NO FEAR OF HR-2972 PASSING IN THE CURRENT CONGRESS, but we do believe our readers should be informed of its introduction by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). It is described in the official records of Congress as purposed “to ensure affordable abortion coverage and care for every woman … .” Put simply, forcing taxpayers to fund abortion.

The proposal has been sent to the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). No hearing has been scheduled.

Co-sponsoring as of its filing on July 8 are Representatives Ruben Gallego & Raul Grijalva (AZ); Karen Bass, Julia Brownley, Tony Cardenas, Judy Chu, Mark DeSaulnier, Sam Farr, Michael Honda, Ted Lieu, Linda Sanchez, Adam Schiff, Jackie Speier & Eric Swalwell (CA); Diana DeGette (CO); Rosa DeLauro (CT); Corrine Brown, Kathy Castor, Theodore Deutch, Lois Frankel, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz & Frederica Wilson (FL); Henry Johnson (GA); Luis Gutierrez, Robin Kelly, Mike Quigley & Janice Schakowsky (IL); Chellie Pingree (ME), Elijah Cummings, Donna Edwards & Chris VanHollen (MD); Michael Capuano, Katherine Clark & Joseph Kennedy (MA); John Conyers & Brenda Lawrence (MI); Keith Ellison & Betty McCollum (MN); Donald Norcross, Frank Pallone & Bonnie Watson-Coleman (NJ); Michelle Lujan-Grisham (NM); Yvette Clarke, Eliot Engel, Steve Israel, Nita Lowey, Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Charles Rangel, Jose Serrano, Louise Slaughter & Paul Tonko (NY); Alma Adams & David Price (NC); Marcia Fudge & Tim Ryan (OH); Earl Blumenthal & Suzanne Bonamici (OR); Steve Cohen (TN), Sheila Jackson-Lee, Eddie B. Johnson & Beto O’Rourke (TX); Peter Welch (VT), Donald Beyer & Gerald Connolly (VA); Derek Kilmer & Jim McDermott (WA); and Gwen Moore & Mark Pocan (WI). All are Democrats.

 

Texas Moves Forward with Life Agenda

TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R) HAS SIGNED A KEY MEASURE to curtail the unconscionable practice of healthcare facilities in speeding the death of seriously ill patients.

Over the years, shocking stories have come out of Texas when medical professionals or their institutions take it upon themselves – as has been lawful – to decide who dies when. For a state which has demonstrated a pro-life commitment on abortion during the past several years, the quality-of-life “ethic” governing end-of-life care has been deeply disturbing.

The new law, signed in mid-June, “serves as the first step,” notes Texas Right to Life (TRL) in a National Right to Life News Today report, “in reforming the thoroughly anti-Life provisions of the Texas Advance Directive Act, which affects patients in hospitals and hospices across the state.

“HB-3074 limits doctors from withdrawing artificially administered nutrition and hydration,” notes TRL, “from patients without their consent.”

Before the new reform was enacted, reports TRL, “physicians and hospitals could starve and dehydrate patients to death with the protection of law – and could even do so against the expressed wishes of the patient or his surrogate. Physicians simply had to issue 10 days’ notice before withdrawing life-sustaining treatments,” explains the pro-life group, which fought to pass the measure.

“Simply put,” notes TRL, “healthcare providers had critical omnipotence over the life and death of their patients.”

Having observed outrageous applications of the Advance Directive Act in past years, we at Life Advocacy Briefing commend TRL, Gov. Abbott and the lawmakers who fought for the 2015 changes,  particularly the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Drew Springer (R-Gainesville). Stopping the death lobby’s agenda is good; making progress to overcome their long-established victory is even better.

 

Planned Parenthood Loses Key Round in Court

A STATE APPELLATE COURT IN ILLINOIS HAS SET BACK Planned Parenthood’s operation of a megabortuary in Chicago-west-suburban Aurora, “overturn[ing] a lower court’s dismissal of a zoning and fraud lawsuit brought by the Thomas More Society [pro bono law firm] on behalf of Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood and several neighbors,” TMS reports in a news release.

The legal battle over the huge facility has raged for some eight years. The lawsuit is based on Planned Parenthood’s siting of its abortion center in a business development area, a district, notes TMS, “which is exclusively reserved for profit-making businesses.” Planned Parenthood, though wealthy in actual profits, is officially organized as a not-for-profit organization.

“The appellate court remanded the case for discovery and further proceedings in the [local] circuit court,” TMS reports, “focused on the nearby residents’ primary contention – that the clinic’s continued operation at this location would be illegal and in defiance of an explicit ban on non-profits.”

The TMS release quotes special counsel Peter Breen, who last year was elected to the Illinois House: “‘This facility was built on a foundation of deception, and the appellate court’s ruling reaffirms that Planned Parenthood must obey Aurora’s zoning laws, just like any other resident of Aurora. We look forward to returning to the [county-level] circuit court and continuing to prosecute this lawsuit aggressively.’”

 

How Long Will New Jersey Tolerate Brigham?

THE EAST COAST’s MOST NOTORIOUS ABORTIONIST, Steven Chase Brigham, is in trouble with the law again, according to a report by Cheryl Sullenger for Operation Rescue.

This time, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office has alleged Mr. Brigham’s continued operation of seven New Jersey abortuaries which the state had previously required him to relinquish, if the businesses were to remain open after his own medical license was revoked.

Mr. Brigham claimed to have “transferred ownership,” writes Ms. Sullenger, “to his longtime associate, abortionist Vikram H. Kaji.”

There are seemingly a couple of problems with that claim. One is that Mr. Kaji himself has declared repeatedly that he is not the owner or operator of the facilities; another is that Mr. Kaji has numerous blots on his own professional record.

“Operation Rescue [has] complained publicly,” writes Ms. Sullenger, “that any transfer to Kaji should be nullified, since he was an admitted sex abuser and had a long history of Board [of Medical Examiners] discipline.”

Not only did Kaji insist – during a Board-related hearing – that he was not the owner or operator of the abortion shops, “‘He expressly testified,’” said a deputy Attorney General, quoted by Ms. Sullenger, “‘that “there is no other person around. (Brigham’s) the only one who runs the show.”’”

The complaint filed by the Attorney General’s office calls Kaji’s “‘ownerhip of American Healthcare Services … a sham transfer,’” reports Ms. Sullenger. Kaji has now been charged with fraud.

“‘Because Brigham continues to illegally operate his chain of abortion clinics in New Jersey, they should all be immediately shut down, and Brigham should be criminally charged,’ said OR president Troy Newman” in the Sullenger report. “‘Brigham has made a career of deceiving the public and authorities in several states about his shoddy abortion businesses. It’s time for New Jersey authorities to see through this flim-flam man and end his notorious criminal enterprise with a long period of incarceration.’”

 

Who Decides?

June 30, 2015, commentary by Thomas Sowell, syndicated columnist

The highest court in America has once again demonstrated that the freedom for which whole generations have fought and died is gradually but increasingly being taken away from us with smooth and slippery words.

Many people are looking at the recent Supreme Court decisions about ObamaCare and same-sex marriage in terms of whether they think these are good or bad policies. That is certainly a legitimate concern, for both those who favor those policies and those who oppose them.

But there is a deeper and more long-lasting impact of these decisions that raise the question whether we are still living in America, where “we the people” are supposed to decide what kind of society we want, not have our betters impose their notions on us.

The Constitution of the United States says that the federal government has only those powers specifically granted to it by the Constitution – and that all other powers belong either to the states or to the people themselves.

That is the foundation of our freedom, and that is what is being dismantled by both this year’s ObamaCare decision and last year’s ObamaCare decision, as well as by the Supreme Court’s decision imposing a redefinition of marriage.

Last year’s Supreme Court decision declaring ObamaCare constitutional says that the federal government can order individual citizens to buy the kind of insurance the government wants them to buy, regardless of what the citizens themselves prefer.

The Constitution gave the federal government no such power, but the Supreme Court did. It did so by citing the government’s power to tax, even though the ObamaCare law did not claim to be taxing.

This year’s ObamaCare decision likewise ignored the actual words of the law, and decided that the decisions of 34 states not to participate in ObamaCare Exchanges, even to get federal subsidies, would not prevent those federal subsidies to be paid anyway, to Exchanges [set] up by the federal government itself.

When any branch of government can exercise powers not authorized by either statutes or the Constitution, “we the people” are no longer free citizens but subjects, and our “public servants” are really our public masters. And America is no longer America. The freedom for which whole generations of Americans have fought and died is gradually but increasingly being taken away from us with smooth and slippery words.

This decision makes next year’s choice of the next President of the United States more crucial than ever, because with that office goes the power to nominate justices of the Supreme Court. Democrats have consistently nominated people who shared their social vision and imposed their policy preferences, too often in disregard of the Constitution.

Republicans have complained about it but, when the power of judicial appointment was in the hands of Republican Presidents, they have too often appointed justices who participated in the dismantling of the Constitution – and usually for the kinds of social polices preferred by Democrats.

Chief Justices appointed by Republican Presidents have made landmark decisions for which there was neither Constitutional authority nor either evidence or logic. The first was Earl Warren.

When Chief Justice Warren said that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” he was within walking distance of an all-black public high school that sent a higher percentage of its graduates on to college than any white public high school in Washington. As far back as 1899, that school’s students scored higher on tests than two of the city’s three white academic public high schools.

Nevertheless, Chief Justice Warren’s unsubstantiated assumption led to years of school busing across the country that was as racially divisive as it was educationally futile.

Chief Justice Warren Burger, also appointed by a Republican President, gave us the “disparate impact” notion that statistical disparities imply discrimination. That notion has created a whole statistical shakedown racket, practiced by government itself and by private race hustlers alike.

And now Chief Jstice John Roberts, appointed by George W. Bush, gives the federal government the power to order us to buy whatever insurance they want us to buy. With that entering wedge, is there anything they cannot force us to do, regardless of the Constitution?

Can the Republicans – or the country – afford to put another mushy moderate in the White House, who can appoint more mushy moderates to the Supreme Court?