Life Advocacy Briefing

October 19, 2015

Earned Payback? / Not Waiting for the U.S. Senate / Diminishing Capacity
Echoes of Nuremberg / House Voting Records

Earned Payback?

THE VOTE OF SEN. MARK KIRK (R-IL) WITH SENATE DEMOCRATS on their successful effort to block the Senate from voting on defunding Planned Parenthood has drawn notice from his constituents.  Sen. Kirk’s vote came last month just as his campaign was beginning to circulate petitions to put his name on the ballot to seek the GOP nomination to a second term, an odd time to break with his party over such a high-profile issue. Particularly so since Sen. Kirk’s enduring disability from a crippling stroke has rendered him more dependent than ever on the good will of party grassroots volunteers.

Some of those volunteers – the leadership of the Aurora Township Republican Party in west suburban Kane County – have expressed their shock and disappointment with the unanimous adoption of two resolutions, the first censuring him for his Planned Parenthood vote and the second pledging to exclude his name from any literature circulated to voters by their organization. The sanction cites the Illinois GOP’s platform, adopted in 2012, which clearly embraces the right to Life. 

 

Not Waiting for the U.S. Senate

NORTH CAROLINA HAS TAKEN ITS OWN ACTION to outlaw trafficking in the body parts of aborted little boys and girls within its jurisdiction and, reports Calvin Freiburger for Live Action News, “forbidding entities that [commit] abortions from receiving state family planning funds.”

The bill was signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory (R) on Oct. 1 after passing both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly in just a week’s time.

In response to Planned Parenthood’s claims that the outfit does not “participate in what they call tissue donation” in North Carolina, reports Mr. Freiburger, GOP State Rep. Sarah Stevens retorted that in that event, “supporting the bill ‘shouldn’t be a problem’” – just the right answer to the abortion behemoth’s specious argument.

In a further indication of legislator boldness in the face of Planned Parenthood lobbying, Rep. Larry Pittman replied to liberals’ objections that “denying Planned Parenthood funds would harm teen pregnancy” with his own retort, quoted by Mr. Freiburger: “‘The very idea that Planned Parenthood … would want to reduce the number of abortions is ludicrous.’” Right on, North Carolina!

 

Diminishing Capacity

WHILE OUR FOCUS HAS BEEN ON THE PLANNED PARENTHOOD REVELATIONS and fallout therefrom, several abortuaries across the nation – both PP shops and a few independently owned outfits – have been closing or at least embattled with state authorities.

Among the latest such developments is the shutdown Oct. 5 of a Connecticut abortuary which has been committing abortions since 1975.

The Summit Women’s Center in Bridgeport was part of a multi-site business which continues to operate abortuaries in Atlanta, Detroit and LasVegas. According to the outfit’s Internet website, Summit commits abortions on babies who have been gestating as long as 24 weeks and administers RU-486 chemical abortions against babies through their 9th week.

“Pro-lifers with Operation Save America estimate,” reports Calvin Freiburger for Live Action News, “that the [Bridgeport] facility has done 150,000 abortions over the last 40 years.” Apparently business has dropped off in recent times. “According to OSA,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “in 1990, the facility did up to 80 abortions a day, four days a week. This year, OSA reports there [have] been [fewer] than 10 abortions a day, two days a week.”

That cutback could diminish the bottom line, for certain. And then there is the matter, notes Mr. Freiburger, “of women seriously injured in botched abortions. [OSA] says it has witnessed ambulances taking women away from the facility on multiple occasions,” a sad but consistent characteristic, it seems, of “safe, legal abortions” in the front-alley shops protected by too many American politicians and judges.

 

Echoes of Nuremberg

Sept. 24, 2015, Commentary by John Jalsevac, managing editor of LifeSiteNews

Planned Parenthood is harvesting the brains of fully-formed aborted unborn babies – including one that apparently had a beating heart moments before his brain was removed – and justifying the practice in the name of “scientific research.”

As it turns out, there’s nothing new under the sun. Meet Dr. Julius Hallervorden. He was a German physician and neuroscientist who served as head of the Neuropathology Dept. of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research. He was also a Nazi.

I spent quite a lot of time last Thursday reading about this charming fellow, while working on the script for [a] video. As part of my research, I found myself on the archives of the Nuremberg Trials, hosted online by Harvard University.

What I’m about to tell you is incredibly shocking. But it actually happened and, in my opinion, is happening again.

According to these faded type-written pages – which are based upon post-war interviews with Dr. Hallervorden – during the Nazis’ time in power, the doctor learned that the regime was euthanizing psychiatric patients en masse via carbon dioxide in “killing centers.” As Dr. Hallervorden put it, “I heard that they were going to do that, and so I went up to them and told them, ‘Look here now, boys, if you’re going to kill all these people, at least take the brains out so that the material could be utilized.’”

And that’s what happened. Dr. Hallervorden gave the killers instructions on how to harvest the brains of these euthanized patients, and ultimately he received shipments of some 500 of them. Though he said he sometimes felt “slightly nauseated” when he received the brains, he justified it all in the name of science. “There was wonderful material among those brains, beautiful defectives, malformations and early infantile diseases,” he said. “I accepted those brains, of course. Where they came from and how they came to me were really none of my business.”

Dr. Hallervorden also explained how the Nazis chose which psychiatric patients were to be euthanized. It was, according to the doctor, an “excessively simple and quick method.” Namely, nurses in the [psychiatric] institutions would [choose] whichever patients they found hard to manage, didn’t like or were too busy to take care of, and ship them off to the killing center.

“The worst thing about this business was that it produced a certain brutalization of the nursing personnel,” he said. “They got to simply picking out those whom they did not like, and the doctors had so many patients that they did not even know them, and put their names on the list.”

It’s not considered good online etiquette to compare your opponents to Nazis – so much so that a variation of the so-called “Godwin’s law” states that the first person to bring up the Nazis in an online debate loses the argument. I’m willing to run that risk. Because other than the age of the victims, I see little difference between what Planned Parenthood is doing and what Dr. Hallervorden did.

After reading all of the above, who can watch that video footage of a former lab tech who worked in a Planned Parenthood facility describing how she was ordered to harvest the brain tissue of that aborted baby with a still-beating heart, without immediately thinking of Dr. Hallervorden’s macabre “research?”

Or who can watch the graphic footage of PP lab technicians sifting through the dismembered arms and legs of a baby identified moments earlier as a 20-week aborted twin and discussing pricing for “specimens,” without intuitively recognizing a terrible evil, on par with the worst evils of the 20th century eugenics movement?

Or who can listen to the New York Times quoted approvingly on PP’s Facebook page that fetal tissue is a “precious resource” that ought to be “utilized,” without hearing echoes of Dr. Hallervorden’s statements that those brains he received contained “wonderful material?”

Or who can listen to the head of StemExpress talking about how lab techs might “freak out” when they receive shipments of “fully intact” fetuses, without thinking of Dr. Hallervorden’s admission that even he sometimes felt nauseous in the face of what he was involved in?

Finally, who can hear Dr. Hallervorden’s account of how the nurses would simply exterminate the patients they found troublesome, without thinking of the millions of unborn babies exterminated simply because they were deemed “inconvenient” to their parents? Indeed, if systemic euthanasia brought about a “brutalization” of the Nazi nursing staff, how much more so has legal abortion brought about the “brutalization” of our entire culture?

We can no longer afford to ignore the truth. We can no longer let Planned Parenthood and the mainstream media get away with their lies and obfuscations. It’s time to defund Planned Parenthood and shut them down for good.

 

House Voting Record

Procedural Motion to End Debate and Vote on HRes-421 – Rule for consideration both of Defund Planned Parenthood Act and of Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act – Sept. 17, 2015 – Passed – 243-183 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes,” pro/life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Franks, Gosar, McSally, Salmon, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, Knight, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao, Walters/CA; Buck, Coffman, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Clawson, Crenshaw, Curbelo, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Jolly, Mica, Miller, Nugent, Posey, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Webster, Yoho/FL; Allen, Carter, Collins, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, T. Price, A. Scott, Woodall/GA; Labrador, Simpson/ID; Bost, R. Davis, Dold, Hultgren, Kinzinger, LaHood, Roskam, Shimkus/IL; Brooks, Bucshon, Messer, Rokita, Stutzman, Walorski, Young/IN; Blum, King, Young/IA; Huelskamp, Jenkins, Pompeo, Yoder/KS; Barr, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers, Whitfield/KY; Abraham, Boustany, Fleming, Graves, Scalise/LA; Poliquin/ME; Harris/MD; Amash, Benishek, Bishop, Huizenga, Miller, Moolenaar, Trott, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Kline, Paulsen/MN; Harper, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith/MO; Zinke/MT; Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei, Hardy, Heck/NV; Guinta/NH; Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Donovan, Gibson, Hanna, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Zeldin/NY; Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Renacci, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Cole, Lucas, Mullin, Russell/OK; Walden/OR; Barletta, Costello, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Kelly, Marino, Meehan, Murphy, Perry, Pitts, Rothfus, Shuster, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Gowdy, Mulvaney, Rice, Sanford, Wilson/SC; Noem/SD; Black, Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fleischmann, Roe/TN; Babin, Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hensarling, Hurd, S. Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Neugebauer, Olson, Poe, Ratcliffe, Sessions, Smith, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Love, Stewart/UT; Brat, Comstock, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Rigell, Wittman/VA; Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Newhouse, Reichert/WA; Jenkins, McKinley, Mooney/WV; Duffy, Grothman, Ribble, Ryan, Sensenbrenner/WI; Lummis/WY.

Voting “no,” anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Sinema/AZ; Aguilar, Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Capps, Cardenas, Chu, Costa, Davis, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Farr, Garamendi, Hahn, Honda, Huffman, Lee, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Linda Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Torres, Vargas/CA; DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Himes, Larson/CT; Carney/DE; Brown, Castor, Deutch, Frankel, Graham, Grayson, Hastings, Murphy, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, D. Scott/GA; Gabbard, Takai/HI; Bustos, D. Davis, Duckworth, Foster, Gutierrez, Kelly, Lipinski, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Pingree/ME; Cummings, Delaney, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen/MD; Capuano, Clark, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Tsongas/MA; Conyers, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Peterson, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Ashford/NE; Titus/NV; Kuster/NH; Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Higgins, Israel, Jeffries, Lowey, C. Maloney, S. Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Rangel, Rice, Serrano, Slaughter, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Price/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Brady, Cartwright, Doyle, Fattah/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Castro, Cuellar, Doggett, A. Green, G. Green, Hinojosa, Jackson-Lee, E.B. Johnson, O’Rourke, Veasey, Vela/TX; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Kilmer, Larsen, McDermott/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Loretta Sanchez, Thompson, Waters/CA; Westmoreland/GA; Boehner/OH; Dingell/MI; Wagner/MO; Fincher/TN; Smith/WA.

HRes-421 – Procedural Motion to adopt Rule for consideration both of Defund Planned Parenthood Act and of Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act – Sept. 17 – Adopted – 246-179 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes,” pro/life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Franks, Gosar, McSally, Salmon, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, Knight, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao, Walters/CA; Buck, Coffman, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Clawson, Crenshaw, Curbelo, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Jolly, Mica, Miller, Nugent, Posey, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Webster, Yoho/FL; Allen, Carter, Collins, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, T. Price, A. Scott, Woodall/GA; Labrador, Simpson/ID; Bost, R. Davis, Dold, Hultgren, Kinzinger, LaHood, Lipinski, Roskam, Shimkus/IL; Brooks, Bucshon, Messer, Rokita, Stutzman, Walorski, Young/IN; Blum, King, Young/IA; Huelskamp, Jenkins, Pompeo, Yoder/KS; Barr, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers, Whitfield/KY; Abraham, Boustany, Fleming, Graves, Scalise/LA; Poliquin/ME; Harris/MD; Amash, Benishek, Bishop, Huizenga, Miller, Moolenaar, Trott, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Kline, Paulsen, Peterson/MN; Harper, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith/MO; Zinke/MT; Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei, Hardy, Heck/NV; Guinta/NH; Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Donovan, Gibson, Hanna, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Zeldin/NY; Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Renacci, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Cole, Lucas, Mullin, Russell/OK; Walden/OR; Barletta, Costello, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Kelly, Marino, Meehan, Murphy, Perry, Pitts, Rothfus, Shuster, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Gowdy, Mulvaney, Rice, Sanford, Wilson/SC; Noem/SD; Black, Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fleischmann, Roe/TN; Babin, Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hensarling, Hurd, S. Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Neugebauer, Olson, Poe, Ratcliffe, Sessions, Smith, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Love, Stewart/UT; Welch/VT;Brat, Comstock, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Rigell, Wittman/VA; Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Newhouse, Reichert/WA; Jenkins, McKinley, Mooney/WV; Duffy, Grothman, Ribble, Ryan, Sensenbrenner/WI; Lummis/WY.

Voting “no,” anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Sinema/AZ; Aguilar, Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Capps, Cardenas, Chu, Costa, Davis, DeSaulnier, Farr, Garamendi, Hahn, Honda, Huffman, Lee, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Linda Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Himes, Larson/CT; Carney/DE; Brown, Castor, Deutch, Frankel, Graham, Grayson, Hastings, Murphy, Wasserman-Schultz/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, D. Scott/GA; Gabbard, Takai/HI; Bustos, D. Davis, Duckworth, Foster, Gutierrez, Kelly, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Pingree/ME; Cummings, Delaney, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen/MD; Capuano, Clark, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Tsongas/MA; Conyers, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Ashford/NE; Titus/NV; Kuster/NH; Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Higgins, Israel, Jeffries, Lowey, C. Maloney, S. Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Rangel, Rice, Serrano, Slaughter, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Price/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Brady, Cartwright, Doyle, Fattah/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Castro, Cuellar, Doggett, A. Green, G. Green, Hinojosa, Jackson-Lee, E.B. Johnson, O’Rourke, Veasey, Vela/TX; Beyer, Connolly, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Kilmer, Larsen, McDermott/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Eshoo, Loretta Sanchez, Thompson/CA; Wilson/FL; Westmoreland/GA; Boehner/OH; Dingell/MI; Wagner/MO; Fincher/TN; Smith/WA.