Life Advocacy Briefing

Dropping the Shoe

THE HOUSE COMMITTEE PROBING FETAL TISSUE HARVESTING has proceeded to issue subpoenas to middleman outfit StemExpress, reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com.

“‘In light of the advice we received from witnesses at our hearing last month,’” said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), “‘these subpoenas are necessary in order for the Select Investigative Panel to complete a full review of StemExpress’s accounting records.’”

Despite political claims that the panel is going after Planned Parenthood’s involvement in baby-body-parts trafficking as a political tactic, the panel has actually gone well beyond the abortion industry behemoth to probe the entire chain of trafficking suspects, including, prominently, the California-based StemExpress company, which was seen in the Center for Medical Progress undercover videos as a major player in the racket, allegedly purchasing body parts from abortionists and allegedly reselling them to research outfits.

Said Chairman Blackburn in the LifeSiteNews report: “‘Documents uncovered by our investigation so far point to the very troubling possibility that StemExpress may have violated federal law by profiting from the sale of baby body parts. We have learned,’” she said, “‘that not only is this investigation warranted but further examination of accounting records is needed to get the complete facts about what was actually going on.’ …

“Planned Parenthood and StemExpress have long maintained,” notes Mr. Johnson, “that their financial arrangement does not violate federal law, which makes it a felony to sell human tissue or organs for ‘valuable consideration’ (a profit) but allows the reimbursement of reasonable expenses incurred in the process of transferring the samples. Investigators say,” reports Mr. Johnson, “Planned Parenthood incurs no expenses and that StemExpress pays per organ in order to keep its promise that partnering with it will bring abortion providers a new ‘revenue stream.’” Sounds like profit motive to us.

The Blackburn subpoenas were issued despite cries from some 98 House Democrats, whose names we reported in last week’s Life Advocacy Briefing, calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to block the issuance of subpoenas to their political backers in the abortion/body-parts trafficking racket.

Carhart Summoned by House Panel

AMONG THE SUBPOENAS BEING ISSUED this month by the House Select Panel on Infant Lives is an appearance summons to notorious late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart.

The Maryland-based late-termer is being directed, reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, “to answer questions about whether he illegally sold aborted babies’ body parts and let babies born alive die after botched abortions,” which is also contrary to federal law. He has been ordered to appear for a deposition June 13 on Capitol Hill.

The subpoena, released publicly last week, “asks [Mr.] Carhart,” writes Mr. Johnson, “to turn over ‘all disciplinary actions taken or threatened against’ him for his long history of hurting and sometimes killing women during abortions gone awry.

“‘Reports regarding the Germantown clinic are deeply troubling,’” said Panel chairman Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), quoted by Mr. Johnson, “‘both for the sake of babies whose lives are ended so close to – and possibly even after – birth and for the sake of the women who have been rushed from that clinic to the hospital with increasing frequency.’”

Subpoenas related to Mr. Carhart’s actions have also been issued, reports Mr. Johnson, to “his Germantown Reproductive Health Services in Maryland and numerous hospitals, emergency dispatchers and medical facilities that would have knowledge of [Mr.] Carhart’s actions.” Records from the state’s medical disciplinary agency related to Mr. Carhart’s business are also being sought.

Pithy Debate Advancing the Cause

ITS FATE WAS UNCLEAR at our writing deadline, with the Missouri legislature in its last throes of deliberation before its scheduled May 13 adjournment, but House passage on May 5 of a “personhood” constitutional amendment produced a debate deserving of notice.

The much-debated amendment proposal, which would buttress state efforts to recriminalize abortion, passed the House by a vote of 110 to 37. Its Senate fate was uncertain as the session clock wound down.

If the proposition does win Senate approval in time, reports the Kansas City Star, “voters would get to decide [this November] on whether to add ‘unborn human children at every stage of biological development’ to a state constitutional provision that protects the ‘right to life.’”

Opponents to the constitutional reform “say the bill could not only ban abortion,” reports the Star, “but could also ban most forms of birth control. It could also have implications, they contend, for infertility treatment and stemcell research.” (There are, of course, no implications for contraceptive methods that do not involve the destruction of already conceived boys and girls or for the productive research being undertaken with adult stem cells.)

We find it of interest and encouragement that the Kansas City Star took the trouble to quote some of the legislative debate from the pro-life side, including comments from the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove), who, the Star reports, “compared the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade … to its 1857 Dred Scott ruling that concluded all blacks – slaves as well as free – were not and could never become citizens of the United States.

“‘The court got it wrong with Dred Scott,’ [Rep.] Moon said,” quoted by the Star. “‘With Roe v. Wade, the court got it wrong.’”

Rep. Moon engaged the media before the House debate with a news release in which he said, reports the Star, “opponents of abortion can’t remain silent any longer. ‘The silence of those who want to protect the unborn,’” he said, quoted by the Star, “‘is similar to the silence of Germans who stood by and allowed Jewish people to be slaughtered by the Nazis.’” ­­

The Kansas City Star also quoted Stoddard County GOP Representative Tila Hubrecht, who declared, according to the news outlet, that “even when pregnancy results from rape, abortion isn’t the answer. ‘More violence,’” she said, “‘is not the answer to a rape.’” Earlier in the week, reports the Star, Rep. Hubrecht had “garnered national attention for referring to the birth of a child as a possible ‘silver lining’ of a rape.” A controversial comment, to be sure, but also quite perceptive.

Planned Parenthood Cut-off Delayed

THOUGH THE STATE OF KANSAS HAS GIVEN NO INDICATION of weakening in its resolve to disqualify Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid plan, a lawsuit filed by the abortion goliath to block the state’s action has delayed its implementation.

Originally set to cut off Planned Parenthood on May 10, Kansas authorities will now appear in court on May 25, according to the Wichita Eagle’s Gabriella Dunn, to advocate for the state’s sovereign authority in making the budgetary decision.

The lawsuit, in the usually intemperate phraseology employed by lawyers for the politically pervasive abortion outfit, called Gov. Sam Brownback’s defunding move “an ‘unlawful, unwarranted and politically motivated decision,’” reports Ms. Dunn.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Planned Parenthood has filed suit against the state to block Gov. John Kasich (R) from cutting off funding under a new law he signed in February to disqualify abortion businesses from state funding and from receiving federal funds administered by the state; that law is set to take effect May 23.

And in Mississippi, GOP Gov. Phil Bryant last week signed a new law disqualifying Planned Parenthood from taxpayer dollars expended by the state.

Killing Is Not a ‘Right’

A LEGISLATIVE BATTLE OVER DOCTOR-ABETTED SUICIDE may be developing in New York State, where a proposal has been filed for legislative consideration.

But it is starting out right, with a state appellate court ruling early this month upholding a 2015 finding, reports Lisa Bourne for LifeSiteNews.com, “that state laws forbidding assisted suicide are not a violation of civil rights.”

That case sought “legal protection for doctors,” writes Ms. Bourne, “who provide euthanasia drugs to mentally competent terminally ill adults. Such individuals have had the right in New York to refuse medical treatment,” notes Ms. Bourne, “but it is against the law for physicians to assist them in ending their lives.”

The court thankfully rejected a variety of contentions from plaintiffs, which included reference to the US Supreme Court’s recent shameful ruling invalidating marriage laws across the country. Citing that ruling, reports LifeSiteNews, “the plaintiffs [in the abetted suicide case] … said the possibility existed for established law to clash with terminally ill patients’ freedom, contending that ‘evolving social views are entitled to consideration in identifying rights that historically were rejected by the courts.’

“The court rejected this argument,” writes Ms. Bourne, “saying that a consensus had not been reached on physician-assisted suicide and that the debate should continue.”

Shameful Roots

A HISTORIC MEMO OUTLINING PLANNED PARENTHOOD’s CRACKPOT IDEAS for stemming population growth in the United States has been unearthed by a Christian apologetics ministry, Athanatos Christian Ministries, and posted on the Internet at www.jaffememo.com.

In a news release announcing the posting, Athanatos executive director Dr. Anthony Horvath said the 1969 document, written by Planned Parenthood’s then-vice president Frederick Jaffe, “calls into question Planned Parenthood’s real reasons for promoting birth control and abortion on demand. …

“‘Planned Parenthood paints itself as an organization that advocates for women’s rights,’” commented Dr. Horvath, “‘but the Jaffe memo proves that they were more than willing to dispense with such ideals in a pinch. The memo actually suggests,’” he said in the news release, “‘that women be forced – actually compelled – to get abortions. So much for “pro-choice.”’”

Dr. Horvath outlined several other way-out suggestions by Planned Parenthood, including, he noted, “adding fertility control agents to the water supply and forcibly sterilizing people who have more than two children. The organization,” according to the news release on the Jaffe memo, “even contemplated forcing women to work, and then ensure th­at there were few childcare facilities. ‘The idea,’” said Dr. Horvath, “‘was to make women choose between a family and their career. If childcare was scarce and expensive,’” he said, “‘women would make the “right” call and have smaller families. The goal was to get women to do what Planned Parenthood wanted them to do but have the women think it was their own idea. …

“‘If there really is a “war on women,”’” said Dr. Horvath in the news release, “‘documents like the Jaffe memo suggest that perhaps it is Planned Parenthood and its allies that are the ones carrying it out.’”

And the Jaffe memo carries racial overtones as well, according to Dr. Horvath. “‘Black communities have long been suspicious,’” he said, “‘about the number of abortion clinics in their neighborhood. The Jaffe memo suggests that those suspicions are well-founded. If I were a woman or a black person,’” said Dr. Horvath, “‘I’d worry less about [GOP Presidential contenders] Cruz and Trump and worry more about my supposed “allies” like Planned Parenthood, with its continued demand for federal funding.’”

Quoteworthy

Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, quoted by National Right to Life’s Dave Andrusko in his May 10, 2016, commentary for NRL News: “In our day, sanctity-of-life issues are foundational, not because of anyone’s ‘religious’ views about abortion – although these are important – but because the act of dehumanizing and killing the unborn child attacks human dignity in a uniquely grave way. Deliberately killing the innocent is always, inexcusably wrong. It sets a pattern of contempt for every other aspect of human dignity. In redefining when human life begins and what is and isn’t a human person, the logic behind permissive abortion makes all human rights politically contingent.”

Sickening Priority

May 10, 2016, commentary by Gualberto Garcia Jones JD, reprinted from LifeSiteNews.com

Last week, the pro-abortion Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, issued a press release calling for the legalization of abortion to combat the purported effects of the Zika virus.  Mr. Almagro described the Zika crisis as a “historic opportunity” in the constant struggle to legalize abortion.

The neurological effects of the Zika virus upon the developing child in the womb are still not understood. Yet there has been a loud clamor among abortion activists like Mr. Almagro to use the Zika virus’s possible link to microcephaly as an excuse to weaken the right to life in affected regions.

At the same time, environmentalists in the United States have delayed the FDA approval of a genetically modified mosquito which has proven to eliminate up to 96% of the specific Aedes aegypti mosquitos that carry not only the Zika virus but the much more lethal Dengue fever.

The company that has developed the genetically modified mosquito, Oxitec, has tested the mosquitos in Brazil and is currently releasing the mosquitos in the Cayman Islands and other Caribbean nations.

Oxitec describes itself as “a pioneer in controlling insects that spread disease and damage crops. Its products build upon the use of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), an effective, species-specific and environmentally friendly method of controlling harmful and damaging insects.”

At the heart of the technology is a genetic reengineering of what Oxitec refers to as the world’s most dangerous animal, the mosquito. “The mosquito has killed more human beings than any other animal in human history,” states Haydn Parry, CEO of Oxitec. Every year from 200 to 300 million human beings are infected with malaria, killing 1.5 million, and 50 to 100 million are infected with Dengue fever.

The way Oxitec’s mosquitos work is through a fatal gene that is transmitted from a male mosquito, which does not bite human beings but who will transmit the gene to the female, who in turn will produce offspring that die before they can infect human beings.

The application of this revolutionary pest control to Puerto Rico and the Florida Keys has been stalled by the public comment requirement phase of the FDA approval, which had already tentatively approved field testing.

Pro-life leaders have warned that the link between Zika and microcephaly has not been proven. Dan Becker, president of the Personhood Alliance, stated that “while microcephaly is a serious condition, it is not usually life threatening and should never justify stripping these disabled children from their God-given right to life.”

Becker concluded, “It is extremely ironic that the very people who encourage infertility among human beings through population control would be so concerned about preserving the fertility of mosquitos.”