Life Advocacy Briefing

Welcome, Speaker Ryan

CONGRATULATIONS TO REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI) on his election Thursday to lead the US House as its Speaker, succeeding Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), who a month ago resigned his House seat and the Speaker post, effective upon the election of his successor to the powerful post. Both Representatives Ryan and Boehner have long-term pro-life voting records.

The House vote on Rep. Ryan’s election was 236 to 184 for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco), with nine Republicans voting for Florida Rep. Daniel Webster and one Democratic Member voting for retired General Colin Powell. (The Constitution does not require that the Speaker be an elected House Member.)

House Acts on Planned Parenthood Defunding

THE HOUSE DID VOTE on Friday, Oct. 23 (after our press deadline), to bar funding for Planned Parenthood and to adopt significant amendments to ObamaCare, including repeal of the employer mandate which has so threatened the conscience rights of business owners.

The vote came on a reconciliation bill, a budget-focused device by which the Senate’s filibuster rule can be circumvented. We now await a vote in the Senate, where three conservative Senators have vowed to vote against the measure unless they succeed in amending it to convert the ObamaCare provisions to an outright repeal.

Some would characterize this ploy as an example of “the perfect being an enemy of the good,” should the effort by GOP Senators Mike Lee (UT), Marco Rubio (FL) and Ted Cruz (TX) fall short. The ObamaCare provisions, after all, are tied in this legislation to the defunding of Planned Parenthood, a proposal which these three lawmakers should not be eager to block.

The problem is, three other GOP Senators – Mark Kirk (IL), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME) – are clinging to their long-standing advocacy of Planned Parenthood; should they vote against HR-3762 to protect Planned Parenthood, while Messrs. Cruz, Rubio and Lee withhold their votes out of dissatisfaction with the ObamaCare amendment provisions, the House-passed legislation could fail to clear even the 51-vote threshold required in the Senate for a reconciliation measure.

SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser – as strong an opponent of ObamaCare as any of our elected lawmakers – “urged ‘the Senate to unify and take action,’” writes Dustin Siggins for LifeSiteNews.com. “‘This is a top priority vote for the pro-life movement,’” she said. “‘Weakened resolve in the face of Planned Parenthood’s conduct is unacceptable.’” And no matter what the motives behind a “no” vote on HR-3762, “weakened resolve” concerning forcing taxpayers to subsidize Planned Parenthood is exactly how a “no” vote will be seen.

We renew our call to readers to contact your home-state Senators – including especially those mentioned above – and urge them to vote for HR-3762 to defund Planned Parenthood and to remove life-threatening provisions from ObamaCare. They can be reached via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.

At the conclusion of this Life Advocacy Briefing, we publish the House roll calls on HR-3762 and on adoption of the Rule (HRes-483) by which the reconciliation bill was brought forward to a vote. A further procedural roll call related to this measure will appear in a future edition of Life Advocacy Briefing, as we continue our publication of procedural motion roll calls on various Life-related questions. (It takes a while to catch up on all the voting records, now that the Congress has reconvened and begun to act, while striving to give our readers worthy news content, week by week.)

G.O.P. Panelists Appointed to Probe Planned Parenthood

AMONG HIS FINAL ACTS AS HOUSE SPEAKER before his resignation became effective late last week, John Boehner appointed the GOP Members of the select committee created by the House on Oct. 7 to investigate Planned Parenthood, a panel which will operate within the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce and will be equipped with full subpoena power. Chairing the committee will be Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

In making his appointments, then-Speaker Boehner issued a statement, quoted by Matt Fuller in a report for Roll Call: “‘Recent videos exposing the abortion-for-baby-parts business have shocked the nation and demanded action. … At my request, three House committees have been investigating the abortion business, but we still don’t have the full truth.’ [Mr.] Boehner said,” writes Mr. Fuller, “[Rep.] Blackburn will have ‘the resources and the subpoena power to get to the bottom of these horrific practices, and build on our work to protect the sanctity of all human life.’”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has yet to announce her appointees to the panel; indeed, Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (CA) has hinted his party is not yet settled on whether to participate in what he expected could operate as a partisan investigation. We urge Mr. Becerra to rethink the potential public response to his party’s boycott of such an urgently needed probe.

Appointed by Speaker Boehner to join Rep. Blackburn are GOP Representatives Larry Bucshon (IN), Andy Harris (MD), Vicky Hartzler (MO), Joe Pitts (PA), Diane Black (TN), Mia Love (UT) and Sean Duffy (WI).

More Videos Released – This Time by Leaker

THOUGH THE PRODUCERS OF THE UNDERCOVER Planned Parenthood scandal videos were releasing them one by one over weeks’ time – for maximum effect and to prevent against overkill – a so-called journalistic Internet website now claims to have “obtained and released ‘all’ the remaining undercover videos,” reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com. “Eleven previously unseen videos,” Mr. Johnson writes, “have been uploaded” to www.youtube.com.

The leaking of the videos is being attributed to GotNews.com, founded, reports Mr. Johnson, by “journalist Charles C. Johnson, [who] said that an Internet hacker named Andrew ‘Weev’ Auersheimer obtained the footage and uploaded it to YouTube. ‘This material was turned over by Congressional whistleblowers not subject to the court order,’ [Mr.] Auersheimer said,” in the LifeSiteNews report.

Videos recently turned over to Congressional investigators included footage from National Abortion Federation conferences. Their public release was enjoined by a US District Judge in California, but the injunction applied only to the Center for Medical Progress, owner and creator of the videos, and its leadership. The same federal judge okayed their release by CMP’s David Daleiden to the Congress after Mr. Daleiden was served with a subpoena to turn over all his footage to the official investigating panels.

The National Abortion Federation has now notified Charles Johnson and his GotNews.com website that they “will be ‘subject to severe legal sanctions,’” reports LifeSiteNews. The Internet journalist responded publicly, writes Ben Johnson, “he and his website are not bound by [Judge Orrick’s order] and will continue to make the footage available to the public. ‘The law firm wants GotNews.com to turn over all texts, emails with [Mr.] Daleiden,’” he said, quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘This is easy. There aren’t any,’” adding, “‘GotNews.com will contest any unconstitutional prior restraint of speech all the way to the highest courts in the land.’”

NAF Panel Speaker Exalts ‘Killing’

IN ONE OF THE JUST-LEAKED VIDEOS recorded undercover at last April’s 38th annual meeting of the National Abortion Federation in San Francisco, an abortionist speaking about responding to qualms about abortion told her audience, reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, that the claim by the abortion industry that the unborn child is “an undifferentiated blob of tissue has ‘been a failure.’ …

“‘Ignoring the fetus is a luxury of activists and advocates,’ she said” in the video, reports Mr. Johnson. “‘If you’re a provider, you can’t ignore the fetus, right, because the fetus is your marker of how well – how good a job you did. … Women know what’s in there,’ she continued. ‘They’re not stupid.’

“Instead, she said, abortionists should admit the child is a living human being,” writes Mr. Johnson, “and that aborting it is their life’s calling. ‘I actually think we should be less about denying the reality of those images and more about acknowledging that, yeah, that’s quite a truth.

“‘So, given that we actually see the fetus the same way,’” she said in the panel discussion quoted by Mr. Johnson, “‘and given that we might actually both agree that there’s violence in here, ask me why I come to work every day,’ said the abortionist in the video. … ‘Let’s just give them all the violence. It’s a person, it’s killing. Let’s just give them all that,’ she said, her voice rising,” writes Mr. Johnson. “‘And then the more compelling question is, “So why is this the most important thing I could do with my life?”’”

House Voting Records

HR-3762 – Reconciliation Bill Defunding Planned Parenthood & Amending ObamaCare – Oct. 23, 2015 – Passed – 240-189 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes,” pro/life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Franks, Gosar, McSally, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, Knight, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao, Walters/CA; 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, Westmoreland, Woodall/GA; Labrador, Simpson/ID; Bost, R. Davis, 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, Peterson/MN; Harper, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/MO; Zinke/MT; Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei, Hardy, Heck/NV; Guinta/NH; Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Donovan, Gibson, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Zeldin/NY; Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, McHenry, Pittenger, Rouzer/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, Fincher, 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, Salmon, Sinema/AZ; Aguilar, Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Capps, Cardenas, Chu, Costa, Davis, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Farr, Garamendi, Hahn, Honda, Huffman, Lee, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, Napolitano, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; Buck, DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Himes, Larson/CT; Carney/DE; Brown, Frankel, Graham, Grayson, Hastings, Murphy, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, D. Scott/GA; Gabbard, Takai/HI; Bustos, D. Davis, Dold, Duckworth, Foster, Gutierrez, 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, Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Ashford/NE; Titus/NV; Kuster/NH; Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Hanna, Higgins, Israel, Jeffries, Lowey, C. Maloney, S. Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Rangel, Rice, Serrano, Slaughter, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Jones, Meadows, Price, Walker/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, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not Voting: McNerney/CA; Castor,Deutch/FL; Kelly/IL; Payne/NJ; Boehner/OH.

HRes-483 – Rule for Consideration of HR-3762 Defunding Planned Parenthood & Amending ObamaCare – Oct. 22, 2015 – Adopted – 240-187 (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, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao, Walters/CA; Buck, Coffman, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Clawson, Crenshaw, Curbelo, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Jolly, Miller, Nugent, Posey, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Webster, Yoho/FL; Allen, Carter, Collins, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, T. Price, A. Scott, Westmoreland, 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, Rogers, Whitfield/KY; Abraham, Boustany, Fleming, Graves, Scalise/LA; Poliquin/ME; Harris/MD; Benishek, Bishop, Huizenga, Miller, Moolenaar, Trott, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Kline, Paulsen/MN; Harper, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/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, 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, Fincher, 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, Loretta Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Himes, Larson/CT; Carney/DE; Brown, 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, Lipinski, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Loebsack/IA; Massie, Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Pingree/ME; Cummings, Delaney, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen/MD; Capuano, Clark, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Tsongas/MA; Amash, Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Peterson, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Ashford/NE; Titus/NV; Kuster/NH; Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Higgins, Israel, Jeffries, Lowey, C. Maloney, S. Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Rangel, Serrano, Slaughter, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Jones, 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, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not Voting: Knight/CA; Castor, Mica, Rooney/FL; Kelly/IL; Payne/NJ; Rice/NY; Boehner/OH.