Life Advocacy Briefing

Hiatus

AS OUR EDITOR WILL BE TRAVELING late this week (to celebrate the birthday of that delightful little boy whose photo appears each week on our nameplate), we will be taking a break from publishing Life Advocacy Briefing. Expect us back for our February 29 edition.

David Strikes at Goliath Again

IF PLANNED PARENTHOOD & ITS FELLOW TRAVELERS THOUGHT they could silence undercover videographer David Daleiden by getting a grand jury to turn on him and by filing civil suits seeking injunctions against more videos being released, they were sadly mistaken.

So often an advocate for justice – whether as a politician or as an activist leader of some sort – dives for cover when attacked in the courts. Not David Daleiden or his Center for Medical Progress (CMP).

He is a man on a mission, and he will not be deterred.

A federal judge in California has ordered Mr. Daleiden not to release certain videos, in a lawsuit brought by the National Abortion Federation (NAF), whose annual meetings Mr. Daleiden has been recording, but last week, Mr. Daleiden did release a new video– one not specified in the unconscionable court order – and this one features two NAF employees. In fact, reports LifeSiteNews.com, it shows those NAF staffers “saying that abortion clinics would be interested in kickbacks from profits on fetal tissue and body part sales.”

That footage is particularly interesting, coming out just three days after District Court Judge William H. Orrick issued the injunction. The new video, according to LifeSiteNews, “is unrelated to the injunction.” What better response to the judge who is seeking to block Mr. Daleiden from exercising his Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech? Especially since Judge Orrick had claimed, reports LifeSiteNews, “that nobody from the abortion industry ‘admitted to engaging in, agreed to engage in or expressed interest in engaging in potentially illegal sale of fetal tissue for profit’ in the CMP videos.” Oh really?

The newly released video, according to LifeSiteNews, showed the NAF staffers offering the CMP investigators, “who had purported to be part of a biotechnology company with an interest in fetal parts, … the chance to be at a National Abortion Federation conference. ‘We have an exhibit hall and then we also have the general conference,’” said one of the NAF staffers in the video. “‘But I mean, this is a very great way to talk to our members. We have a group purchasing program through our membership,’ the journalists were told. ‘So it seems like this would be a really great option to be able to offer our members as well.’”

The CMP videos can be viewed at the organization’s Internet website, where donations can be made to support the investigation.

Moving Toward the Goal

WHILE CONGRESS IS STYMIED by a determined, radical President in their efforts to bar Planned Parenthood from the federal trough, state officials are doing their part to lead in this pro-taxpayer, pro-life battle.

The latest state-level “defund Planned Parenthood” actions came last week in Kentucky and Ohio.

Though out on the campaign trail in his Presidential bid, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) may have to return home long enough to sign legislation barring the state Dept. of Health, reports Jackie Borchardt for Cleveland.com, “from awarding state and federal grants to any organization that performs or ‘promotes’ abortion or to any organization that contracts with such an organization.” Should Gov. Kasich sign the legislation, Planned Parenthood will be looking at an annual funding hole of $1.3 million per year.

The Ohio measure directs, instead, writes Ms. Borchardt, “the money will be available to health departments, federally qualified health centers and other clinics.” Supporters of the legislation, notes the Cleveland.com report, “say there are more than 200 such facilities” – certainly offering more widespread healthcare delivery than could be offered by any number of grants to Planned Parenthood or other abortion outfits. The legislation also enhances funding for infant mortality programs while excluding Planned Parenthood from such grants.

Planned Parenthood backers, according to the Associated Press, attempted to wheedle lawmakers into opposing the defunding legislation by “deliver[ing] handwritten valentines to state lawmakers.” In a particularly tasteless, ineffective ploy, “they also,” reports AP, “gave condoms and pamphlets about the organization’s services.”

In Kentucky, where, as we reported last week, newly minted GOP Gov. Matt Bevin signed an informed consent measure as his first signed law, the State Senate Feb. 2 passed legislation, reports The Lane Report, “intended to curb the flow of non-Medicaid, state-administered tax dollars to Planned Parenthood clinics” in the state. The vote was a resounding 33 to 5, sending the measure to the Kentucky House.

The legislation does not outright disqualify Planned Parenthood but sets up a three-tiered priority system in which Planned Parenthood would come last “if any money remains,” reports Lane.

Bill sponsor State Sen. Max Wise explained, reports Lane, “the first funding priority would be public health departments; the second priority would be nonpublic clinics that provide comprehensive and preventive health services,” not including Planned Parenthood, which comes in third. “‘Due to existing federal law and prior federal court of appeals decisions,’” said Rep. Wide, quoted by Lane, “‘this bill does not impact Medicaid funds that flow to Planned Parenthood. … While that is regrettable,’” he said, “‘it is the current landscape within which we must work.’” Perhaps, but it does beat not trying.

Sen. Wise filed the bill, reports Ryland Barton, capital bureau chief for Kentucky public radio, “in reaction to undercover videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the sale of fetal organs. ‘Until more significant changes can be made at the federal level,’” he said in the Barton report, “‘we must do what we can to keep public funds from groups like Planned Parenthood, which callously profit from death.’”

The legislation’s Senate passage came just a week, according to Mr. Barton, after “a new Planned Parenthood clinic in Louisville announced it had begun providing abortions,” the first time, Mr. Barton notes, that Planned Parenthood has “offered” abortions in Kentucky. “The service,” he reports, “ended quickly” when Gov. Bevin “said the Planned Parenthood branch was operating without a license. Letters between Planned Parenthood and former Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration show,” writes Mr. Barton, “that the organization had received approval to begin conducting the procedure but had never received a license. The Inspector General’s Office denied the license application on Jan. 28,” Mr. Barton continues, “saying documentation of an emergency hospital and ambulance service were deficient.”

Apparently the outfit went forward with abortions before being notified one way or the other on its license application. The public radio state bureau chief reports the president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky “said 23 abortions were performed at the facility between Jan. 21 and Jan. 28, when the governor told them to stop … .”

One State Senator, Whitney Westerfield, said, reports Mr. Barton, “the Louisville Planned Parenthood issue was an example of why the state needs to pull funds from the organizations. ‘I hope somebody’s looking at how those got approved in the first place,’ Rep. Westerfield said. ‘Because the blood or tissue or whatever they want to call from those 23 procedures is on their hands … .’”

The measure’s prospects in the House were unknown, at our press time. Democrats control the House by a 50-to-46 margin, reports Mr. Barton, who said the House Speaker “said he wasn’t sure whether the defund Planned Parenthood bill would gain support” in his chamber. “Republicans,” notes Mr. Barton, “appear to have electoral momentum following [Gov.] Bevin’s victory last year, and the GOP has narrowed the Democrats’ lead … . ‘I don’t know how it’ll do over here,’” said Speaker Greg Stumbo, quoted by Mr. Barton. “‘I haven’t really gauged that yet.’” The Democrat-controlled House, after all, did pass the informed consent bill this year, despite their traditional track record of derailing pro-life legislation. Let us pray.

Rescue

ABORTUARY WORKERS ACROSS AMERICA WERE NO DOUBT SURPRISED last weekend to receive Valentine messages from a pro-life organization.

Ex-Planned Parenthood administrator Abby Johnson, whose departure from the abortion industry into pro-life ministry, launched a “Love One Out” campaign, reports Pete Baklinski for LifeSiteNews.com, “because, she said, sometimes all it takes is showing someone in a difficult place a little love to help them move to a better place. ‘We have seen “love” work in the lives of 210 abortion clinic workers who have come through our ministry,’” she said, as reported by Mr. Baklinski.

Mrs. Johnson founded And Then There Were None (ATTWN), for the purpose of giving abortuary employees a comforting place to land in order to encourage them to leave their disturbing work. LifeSiteNews describes the campaign as “the best way to get friends or family members working in the abortion industry to quit their jobs. … You love them out of it,” writes Mr. Baklinski.

“With a Valentine’s Day theme,” he notes, “numerous pro-life volunteers will be delivering love letters along with flowers to abortion clinic workers across the country this month with the hope of helping them move away from a life-destroying industry to something better. … The message in the letters,” he writes, “is simple: ‘We love you, and you are too good to be working in an abortion clinic. We love you enough to help you quit. Healing is possible.’”

At the same time, as the Christian season of Lent has begun, Pro-Life Action League is calling on pro-life citizens to practice love through prayer, specifically asking “those who respect human life to turn that shock – even anger [at learning of Planned Parenthood’s fetal trafficking business] – into prayer for those at the center of the [PP] scandal.

According to a news release from the activist pro-life group, “For Lent this year, the Pro-Life Action League is calling for a special prayer campaign on behalf of three women who are key Planned Parenthood figures at the heart of the scandal over harvesting and selling baby parts.” The three cited by the PLAL as abortion industry workers in special need of prayer are Deborah Nucatola and Mary Gatter, who appeared in the first and second shocking undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, and Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, “who,” notes PLAL, “after people were shocked by what they saw in these videos, publicly apologized even while denying that Planned Parenthood was seeking to maximize their financial gain for providing fetal tissue.”

PLAL’s executive director Eric Scheidler, according to the news release, “admits these women are far from sympathetic figures and that some may find it difficult to pray for them. But [he] reminds people of faith of the Biblical directive to ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ (Matthew 5:44) and suggests, ‘In God’s eyes, what abortion has done to these three women may be worse than what they’ve done to unborn children, who now rest in our Lord’s loving arms. These three architects of Planned Parenthood’s baby-parts scheme have devoted their lives to the destruction and exploitation of human life in the name of “choice,”’” he said in the release. “‘If we won’t pray for them, who will?’”

March for Life Rally Speech: Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA)

Transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing from televised coverage on EWTN network

Thank you. Welcome to Washington, DC. Good afternoon, everybody. First, let me say that there is no place I would rather be than right here with you on this cold January day. So thanks for coming out. I am truly honored to be here today not only to stand but to march to protect the most vulnerable of our society. Thank you all, including those I met this morning from the great state of Iowa and all of the young future leaders that we have here today in the crowd, for getting in your cars, for boarding those planes and those trains, putting on your coats, your mittens, your gloves and fighting for Life.

Over the last year, thank you for helping me fight to remind those in Washington that we are a nation that protects life. Thank you for helping me to fight in Washington to shine a light on the lack of compassion shown by Planned Parenthood for women and their babies. And thank you for helping me fight to remind those in Washington that we are a nation that will stand up together and say ‘we can and we must do better.’

The theme of this year’s march is Pro-Life and Pro-Woman Go Hand in Hand. And it is such an important message. Many of those fighting against us have claimed that our efforts to defend and protect life at all stages of development constitute a war on women. I reject that. I reject that because I will remind them that I am a woman, and I have been to war, and let me be clear: This is no war on women. That’s right. That’s right. Rather, to me being pro-life means that you have a deep respect for the miracle of life and a woman’s unique ability to bring life into this world.

Being pro-life means you recognize the joint responsibility of a mother, father, and society at large to protect and nurture each and every life from the moment that it is created, and you see abortion as a reflection of our collective failure to meet that responsibility and not a litmus test for the advancement of women’s rights. Being pro-life means you reject the notion that the loss of millions, millions of babies through abortion honors the civil liberties, independence or strength of a woman. Being pro-life means that you mourn the loss of thousands of baby girls and boys that are lost each year to abortion in the United States. And you believe we should cherish women and girls equally at every stage of their development. Thank you.

Look around you. Look to your left and look to your right. Look around you. As you can see by the crowd assembled here today, many of us are mothers, grandmothers, sisters. Pro-Life and Pro-Woman does indeed go hand in hand.

In my first year in office, I have tried to embody that important message. As you may know, I have been leading the fight to safeguard taxpayer dollars for women’s health care by redirecting them from Planned Parenthood, which is the nation’s single largest provider of abortion, and instead providing them to other eligible entities like community health centers and hospitals which provide greater healthcare services to women but do not provide abortions. Thanks to your support, earlier this month, Congress was able to put legislation on the President’s desk to defund Planned Parenthood.

I have also joined my colleagues in support of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in an effort to ban abortions after five months of pregnancy, a stage of development at which evidence shows unborn babies can feel pain. The day I took to the Senate floor to speak in favor of the bill, I had the opportunity to meet an adorable little boy, a three-year-old beautiful boy from Newton, Iowa, named Micah Pickering. Micah was born prematurely at just five months of development. As Micah joyfully ran around my office, his mother and father explained to me that they know Micah was just as full of life at five months of development as he is now, and as Micah proved, an unborn baby in his fifth month of development is not just a clump of cells. They have ten fingers and ten toes. They can feel pain, and they can survive outside of the womb. It’s what we all know, folks. It’s what we all know.

Life is indeed precious, and we are a country that stands for Life. In order to rise and meet that commitment, we must protect the most vulnerable in our society, particularly those who cannot protect themselves. As a mother and a grandmother, thank you for joining me today here and every day to stand, to speak, and to march for life. God bless you all. Thank you.