Life Advocacy Briefing

February 1, 2016

Calls Needed Now / Cross Bearing / Initial Response / The Defense
Marching for Life / Providential Storm / Quoteworthy
March for Life Rally Speech: Carly Fiorina

Calls Needed Now

HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN (R-WI) LAST WEEK ANNOUNCED the House will be asked on Tuesday, Feb. 2, to vote on a motion to override the President’s veto of HR-3762, the Budget Reconciliation bill by which the House and Senate have voted to defund Planned Parenthood and to gut significant provisions of ObamaCare.

Readers are asked to call their US Representatives now to urge a “yes” vote on the Reconciliation override. They may be reached via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.

 

Cross Bearing

NO ONE EVER SAID PLANNED PARENTHOOD WOULD NOT FIGHT BACK. And no one ever said the abortion cartel has no friends in useful places.

When an assistant district attorney in Houston was discovered last summer to be a board member of Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast, the DA claimed her affiliation would not present a conflict within her office just because her office had been tasked to investigate PPGC’s involvement in the aborted-baby-body-parts trafficking scandal.

Last week, the shoe dropped on the undercover investigating team that probed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking connections and turned a very public video spotlight on the abortion goliath. Houston’s district attorney secured indictments from the grand jury that was supposed to be investigating the PPGC trafficking scheme – indictments, that is, of David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the undercover team from the Center for Medical Progress.

The charge: tampering with government documents, based on the team’s alleged use of doctored driver licenses to mask their true identity – a standard journalist/investigator tactic – during their heroic sting operation. As the executive director of Human Life Alliance, Minnesota, noted in a memo about the explosive news out of Houston: The charge relates to “a Texas law typically used to defend senior citizens against attempted financial fraud. It’s the same law they use,” noted HLA’s Jo Tolck, “to convict minors of underage drinking with a fake ID in Texas.” Hardly relevant to self-protection in undertaking a risky undercover probe.

The grand jury’s conclusions concerning the clear video evidence of PPGC’s sales pitches for tissue from aborted babies – Planned Parenthood’s own version of “products of conception” – oh, was that what they were supposed to be looking at? Not a word about Planned Parenthood’s own activities. When it came to charging anyone with being involved in body-parts trafficking, the grand jury had the nerve to add a charge to Mr. Daleiden and Ms. Merritt that, in getting PPGC to talk trafficking business, they were seeking to procure body parts!

Regardless of the grand jury’s vaulting gymnastics, District Attorney Devon Anderson has a choice: Does she want to bring intense, adverse scrutiny upon her own office and its seeming insider connections or does she want to see justice done and in so doing, protect her own name? If the latter, she can and should choose not to prosecute. After all, if she does move forward, Planned Parenthood’s own actions can be expected to play a prominent role in the defense of David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt.

 

Initial Response

David Daleiden’s Jan. 25 statement in response to the Harris County grand jury charges

The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws. We respect the processes of the Harris County District Attorney and note that buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well. Planned Parenthood still cannot deny the admission from their leadership about fetal organ sales captured on video for all the world to see.

 

The Defense

REPRESENTING DAVID DALEIDEN at this point in the Harris County judicial arena is the Thomas More Society, pro-bono pro-life law firm based in Chicago. Thomas More is representing Mr. Daleiden also in the civil lawsuits brought by the National Abortion Federation and by Planned Parenthood in order to block release of the still forthcoming further video evidence of their body-parts trafficking. Discussions are reportedly taking place concerning the engagement of a Harris County defense attorney in addition.

Mr. Daleiden’s investigation aide Sandra Merritt is being represented by Matt Staver of Liberty Counsel in the Texas prosecution and in the civil lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood.

Mr. Staver commented in a public statement issued Jan. 26: “Planned Parenthood is the ‘Corrupt Organization’ here, and the Texas indictment is outrageous. The fact that our client has been indicted and Planned Parenthood was not is mind-blowing. Anyone who has watched Planned Parenthood employees sort through dismembered baby parts and heard the Planned Parenthood officials attempt to sell them knows that Planned Parenthood is the criminal, not our client.”

Said Peter Breen, special counsel to Thomas More Society, in an interview with Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com: “‘How can anyone claim that David Daleiden tried to buy baby body parts for profit without agreeing that Planned Parenthood was willing to sell baby body parts for profit? David’s purpose was to bring light to an illegal and disgusting practice of the abortion industry, and he’s done so.’” Mr. Breen added, in the LifeSiteNews interview, “‘David caught Planned Parenthood in Houston on tape agreeing to change abortion procedures, presumably without telling their patients, in order to get better organs from aborted babies.’”

Mr. Breen forecast, writes Mr. Johnson, that “his team will ‘win all of the legal options that have been brought against David and the Center for Medical Progress across the country,’ because they lack merit. However,” notes the LifeSiteNews reporter, “he believes Harris County DA Devon Anderson should save the taxpayers of Houston money and give up the case at once. ‘It is our understanding that at any time the district attorney can move that these charges be dismissed, and we respectfully urge that they should be. … If they are not,’” Mr. Breen told Mr. Johnson, “‘then we will vigorously defend David through the discovery process and at trial.’”

Readers who may be interested in supporting one or both of these non-profit law firms may contact the Thomas More Society at 19 S. LaSalle # 603, Chicago, IL 60603, or Liberty Counsel at P.O. Box 540774, Orlando, FL 32854.

 

Marching for Life

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF EARNEST PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES clogged the streets of Washington, DC, on Friday, Jan. 22, as the first snowflakes fell in one of the worst blizzards in the capital’s history.

The March itself and the rally preceding it went off without an apparent hitch. After hearing from such notables as GOP Presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R), NFL veteran Matt Birk and pro-life caucus chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the crowd marched up Constitution Avenue to the face of the Supreme Court building, all in observance of the Jan. 22, 1973, Supreme Court edict foisting the abortion industry on the American people.

The theme for this year’s March was “Pro-Life and Pro-Woman Go Hand in Hand.” Emceeing the rally was Jeanne Mancini, who succeeded the late Nellie Gray as leader of the coordinating organization.

 

Providential Storm

THE MARCH AFTERMATH BECAME A WEEKEND WITNESS for Life, as ralliers were marooned in Washington or struggled to return home. “In [God’s] Providence,” writes Lisa Bourne for LifeSiteNews.com, those “pilgrims” to Washington “responded in faith wherever they were, with amazing results.

“As a direct result of the storm and all that’s happened in its wake,” writes Ms. Bourne, “the March for Life has received unprecedented coverage, and media outlets normally not friendly to the pro-life cause were forced to mention in their storm coverage the reason why so many people who were stranded had found themselves in the blizzard’s path. The media coverage,” she adds, “also shone a light on the pro-life movement’s foundation in faith.”

Though many stories emerged from the post-March struggle, the most prominent was the stranding of “dozens and dozens of buses,” reports Ms. Bourne, “from dioceses and pro-life-groups in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and more … among thousands stranded on the Pennsylvania Turnpike after an accident blocked the highway around 9 p.m. Friday, the day of the March.

“The pro-life pilgrims sat for many hours not knowing when they would get out, as food and water dwindled for some and bus bathrooms broke down for others,” writes Ms. Bourne. “It would be roughly 24 hours before they were moving again, longer for many, as reports to LifeSiteNews indicated the backup may have stretched some 30 miles.”

Ms. Bourne relates many moving stories, including some measures of heroism, as young Life Marchers moved out of their own autos and buses to dig out other motorists stuck in the snowdrifts blocking the highway. Others sacrificed food and water to share what they had with those around them. Some posted signs from the March in the snow as a witness to other strandees. Some crafted a cross from fallen tree branches and erected it in the snow. And some even built an altar and launched a prayer and praise rally in the form of an impromptu Catholic mass.

Seventeen-year-old Karina Manriquez was quoted by the Sioux City Journal, reports Ms. Bourne, having attended the March for Life for the first time. Her Iowans for Life bus was one of those stranded, and she was one of the participants in the impromptu “now famous Turnpike Mass,” reports Ms. Bourne.

“Though she worried at first during the trip, as reports of the storm got worse,” writes Ms. Bourne, “[Miss] Manriquez told the Sioux City Journal she had no regrets. ‘People started to build stuff in the snow, and then they came and talked to Father [Pat] Behm about Mass, and we all started to get really excited,’ [Miss] Manriquez said. ‘I think, in a way, it proves our faith. That even with the hard times, we’re still here together,’ she continued. ‘I don’t regret any of it.’”

Indeed, many of the reports outlined by LifeSiteNews suggest the stranded Marchers – particularly the youth – were inspired as much by the aftermath as by the March. Reading the inspiring reports from the Providential blizzard, we conclude that next year’s March will swell, as this year’s participants re-up and recruit friends to rally in Washington every January until justice and mercy are restored to American jurisprudence. Amen.

 

Quoteworthy

Former Reagan domestic policy chief Gary Bauer in his Jan. 22 End of Day memo for his Campaign for Working Families: “We fought a civil war to settle the question of whether some men could be considered property, possessing no rights we were bound to respect. In keeping with our founding principles, we rightly determined that every life has dignity and is worthy of respect. Roe v. Wade is an injustice based on the same misguided philosophy as Dred Scott – that some humans are not ‘people’ for the purposes of our Constitution. But I have confidence that this good and decent land will someday once again live up to its image as a ‘shining city upon a hill,’ when every child is welcomed into the world and protected under the law.”

 

March for Life Rally Speech: Carly Fiorina

Transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing from televised coverage on EWTN network

Good afternoon. Thank you, Jeannie. It’s so inspiring to see so many great pro-life, pro-woman advocates out here on a chilly afternoon. It’s not quite as cold as Iowa or New Hampshire, I have to tell you. Still it’s inspiring to see you all out here with “snowmageddon” bearing down on us, but even snowmageddon can’t stop us from rallying for a cause we know is so important.

In less than a year, there will be a new President in the White House, and that next President will have the awesome responsibility to pick up to four Supreme Court justices who will decide issues of life and religious liberty. She will decide, she will decide whether we force taxpayers to fund the political arm of the abortion industry, whether we as a nation believe, as the Democrat platform says, that a life isn’t a life until it leaves the hospital. Yes, that is the Democrat platform: That a life isn’t a life until it’s born. And they call us extreme. It is Democrats, the pro-abortion industry that is extreme. The next President of the United States will have a lot to say about whether a baby only a month, only a month from being born is only as good as the organs you can sell from it.

Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, this election is a fight for the character of our nation.

Now the establishment media and the political class actually don’t want us to talk about what the abortion industry is doing. You saw what happened when I talked about the horrific truth of the Planned Parenthood videos during one of the Republican debates. Unlike the media, you have watched the videos. You have seen an aborted baby, its legs kicking, its heart beating while the technician described how they want to keep these babies alive to harvest their organs. The left called me a liar. They said there were no such videos. There are no aborted babies born alive. Nobody is selling body parts. That was the litany of the left. But look what happened next. A few short weeks later, Planned Parenthood came out and said that they no longer would take compensation for baby organs. Boy, I’ll tell you what: That sounds like an admission to me.

As we stand here today, Hillary Clinton is in New Hampshire giving a pro-abortion speech. She is saying that I as a conservative woman, that all of us as conservative women don’t count. But here’s the truth: The left has perverted feminism into a political ideology where women are pitted against men and used as a political weapon to win elections. Being empowered, I know, having started out as a secretary, being empowered means having a voice. But ideological feminism now shuts down conversation on college campuses and in the media. If you are a pro-life man or – heaven forbid – a conservative woman who doesn’t believe the litanies of the left, then you are waging a war on women or you are a threat to women’s health or you are variously described as window dressing – that is how they described Senator Joni Ernst—or offensive as a candidate—Carly Fiorina.

Ladies and gentlemen, ours is a fight for the character of our nation, for the value of life. It is a fight that we must win to take our country back, and, citizens, we must take our country back. It is why I am running for President. Because I believe the time has come—we are facing a pivotal and perilous time as our nation. We must take our future back, we must take our politics and our government back. Citizens, we must take our country back.

I have visited pregnancy centers around the country. They are doing God’s work, and they do not receive a dime of federal funding. The pro-abortion left cannot stand it when we talk about defunding Planned Parenthood. They scream at the top of their lungs about taking away women’s health, unless, of course, you bring up pregnancy centers or community health centers. Then the left goes dead silent. Because, actually, this has never been about women’s health for them. It is about instead the litanies of the left. It is about funding their political agenda. This is a fight we must win. Ladies and gentleman, this is a fight we can and will win.

Now, I have to tell you, Planned Parenthood regularly shows up at my events. So let me say this to all the Planned Parenthood supporters who show up: You can scream and throw condoms at me all day long. You will not silence me. You will not scare me. I have battled breast cancer. I have buried a child. I have read the Bible. I know the value of life.

Thirty-four years ago, I met my husband Frank. When we were married, I learned that his mother had been told by her doctors to abort him. She was a woman of great faith and courage, and she chose instead to bring her son into the world. She spent almost a year after his birth in the hospital. But he was the joy of her life, and he has been the rock of mine. And I have thought often about how different my life would be had she made a different choice. I know what each of you know: Every person has God-given gifts. Each of us have far more potential than we realize. Science is on our side. Public opinion is on our side. We are winning this fight, ladies and gentlemen. We are winning this fight, but it is a fight. And so we need a fearless fighter in the White House. Not just to win this election but to restore the character of our nation. You can bet that I will win this fight against Hillary Clinton. And you can count on what I will do as President. I will defund Planned Parenthood. I will support pregnancy centers around the country. Together we will restore the character of our nation. So, citizens, join with me, fight with me, stand with me. Together, we must take our country back and restore its character. Thank you so very much. God bless you all.