Life Advocacy Briefing

A Step Too Far

THE TAX-FUNDED NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (N.I.H.) LAST WEEK announced “a proposed change in the ethical limits of federally funded research,” reports Fr. Mark Hodges for LifeSiteNews.com, “allowing animal/human ‘cross-species,’ called ‘chimera’ research.”

Though Fr. Hodges indicates “the lifting of the NIH’s moratorium” on such anti-ethical experimentation is “a done deal,” in the view of both proponents and opponents, we urge our readers to add questions about the Obama Regime’s latest venture to the matters to be raised with Members of Congress and the Senate during their August recess.

“Researchers say they might be able to breed sheep, pigs and cows with human hearts, kidneys, livers, pancreases and other organs for human transplantation,” explains Fr. Hodges. “Pushing the ethical envelope even further,” he writes, “the NIH says creating animals with human sperm and human eggs in order to study human development and infertility is a possibility. …

“Proponents of the research say federal tax dollars are needed to advance scientific understanding and treatment of diseases,” notes Fr. Hodges. “Critics say creating a species of partially human ‘chimeras’ is inhuman, unethical and immoral. …

“New York Medical College biologist Dr. Stuart Newman decries such animal/human experimentation,” reports Fr. Hodges, “calling it ‘a Pandora’s box. … You’re getting into unsettling ground that I think is damaging to our sense of humanity,’ he said,” quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘Pigs with fully human brains; humans with animal brains that would be used for research or body parts. Who knows?’ Dr. Newman speculated. ‘I think that we just can’t say, “Since it’s possible, then let’s do it.”’”

Fr. Hodges goes on to quote Dr. Robert George, a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics (in a previous Administration), who is Princeton University’s well-respected McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, from an interview with LifeSiteNews. “‘Once again,’” he said, “‘they want to do what we were told “no one will ever want to do.” Do you remember,’” he asked, “‘when we were told that scientists working with stem cells wanted only to use “spare” embryos left over from IVF efforts that would otherwise die or be left in permanent cold storage? No one, we were told, was proposing to create embryos by cloning or other methods for experimentation in which they would be exploited and destroyed. That would be unethical!

“‘Of course, in no time flat,’” Dr. George commented, “‘the denial shifted to research embryos to be created by cloning in order to avoid the luck of the “genetic lottery” and control the genetic makeup of the embryonic stem cells,’” he said in the LifeSiteNews interview. “‘We were also told,’” he said, “‘that no one wanted to create human-animal hybrids. Now that is precisely to be demanded,’ Dr. George pointed out. ‘Anyone who can’t see a pattern of dishonesty here just doesn’t have his eyes open.’”

And any lawmaker who balks at intervening in this August-recess plot will some day have much to answer for. Bring on the soapy water for the washing of the hands. Or better yet, sound the alarm.

Planned Parenthood Always Paramount, to Some

THE OBAMA REGIME LAST WEEK PUT PRESSURE ON CONGRESS to pass additional funding for curbing the Zika virus and criticized the nation’s lawmakers for taking their traditional August recess without having put the President’s requested $1.9 billion spending bill on his desk.

Using an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus in Miami in an alarmist pitch, the White House sought to build public support for busting through the budget to develop a vaccine which cannot be administered any time soon rather than offending animal-rights allies with an already developed mosquito control campaign.

Funding to confront the Zika virus was passed by the Senate in May at a level some $800 million lower than the White House sought, and in June, the House passed a bill at the same level as the Senate’s. The House added a wrinkle to its measure, restricting the $1.1 billion anti-Zika spending proposal with a provision excluding Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from receiving any funds under the measure.

Though the idea of Planned Parenthood benefiting from anti-Zika funding might appear far-fetched, it was that provision which appeared to precipitate the blocking of the supposed emergency measure by Senate Democrats.

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio has said he will stand firm against funding for Planned Parenthood, reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, and drew controversy to himself in the national news media last week by saying, as paraphrased by Mr. Johnson, “that babies whose mothers contract Zika do not deserve to be aborted.”

The Zika virus, though causing only mild illness in most infected adults, is believed to be a cause of microcephaly in some babies born to mothers who are infected while pregnant. That connection is being used by the abortion industry to justify the targeting of developing babies whose mothers are found to be infected, another case of the abortion industry seeking to destroy babies who are suspected of being disabled.

Non-Partisan Guide to the Party Platforms

PRIESTS FOR LIFE HAS PUBLISHED A NON-PARTISAN VOTER GUIDE comparing not the positions of various candidates but key passages from the two major political parties’ platforms.

The guide can be found on the Internet and has been written in such a way as to comply with IRS regulations permitting distribution in churches and other tax-exempt venues.

The guide “shows stark differences,” notes a Priests for Life news release, “when it comes to the rights of the unborn, religious liberty, marriage and the family and respect for the US Constitution.

“‘We talk about voting with a clear conscience, which means you can’t vote against your values,’ said Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life,” quoted in the release. “‘But to vote with a clear conscience, one must consider that elections not only put individual candidates into power; they put political parties into power. The same questions you ask about the candidates’ positions on issues have to be asked of the party’s positions,’” he said. “‘Even if an individual candidate is weak on a particular issue, the party platform signals the direction in which he or she will be guided and influenced by staff and advisers and by constituents. …

“‘Many vote for candidates because of loyalty to a party,’” he said, “‘without examining the party platform. Our moral duty requires us to look deeper, and our comparison of the Democratic and Republican platforms will help voters do exactly that.’”

An Informative Minute

GARY BAUER’s AMERICAN VALUES ACTION HAS POSTED a short video on the Internet demonstrating Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s commitment to decriminalized abortion. It can be viewed on YouTube.

Exposing Planned Parenthood’s Roots

AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN PRO FOOTBALL PLAYER BENJAMIN WATSON and SanDiego’s Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center was picked up by Arthur Weinstein of Sporting News and posted on a key Internet host/news page on Aug. 6.

The topic? Mr. Watson’s outspoken “claim … that Planned Parenthood was created,” writes Mr. Weinstein, “to ‘exterminate blacks’ and that ‘it’s working.’”

The Baltimore Ravens tight end has a reputation, notes Mr. Weinstein, for speaking out “on the state of race relations in the United States, but he has “drawn both criticism and praise” for his claim related to Planned Parenthood.

In the Turning Point interview, Mr. Weinstein writes, the football player “said that he’s puzzled why so many blacks support Planned Parenthood. “‘I do know,’” said Mr. Watson, “‘that blacks kind of represent a large portion of the abortions, and I do know that honestly the whole idea with Planned Parenthood and (group founder Margaret) Sanger in the past was to exterminate blacks, and it’s kind of ironic,’” he said, “‘that it’s working.

“‘We (as minorities) support candidates and overwhelmingly support the idea of having Planned Parenthood and the like,’” he said in the published interview, “‘and yet, that is why she created it. We are buying it hook, line and sinker, like it’s a great thing. It’s just amazing to me,’” he said, “‘and abortion saddens me, period, but it seems to be something that is really pushed on minorities and provided to minorities especially as something that they should do.’”

Black Americans, Mr. Watson said, as published by Sporting News, “are ‘killing our children. … And we are buying the lie that it’s our personal decision to make.’”

The football player “is not alone in sounding the alarm about the disproportionate impact abortion has on the African-American community,” writes Ben Johnson in a report on the Watson/Turning Point interview for LifeSiteNews.com. “‘For every 1,000 black babies born alive, there are 1,100 aborted each year in’ New York City, said Ryan Bomberger of the Radiance Foundation in an interview published … at The Stream,” quoted by Mr. Johnson. “‘The black community is the only community where there are more induced deaths than births … yet so-called “civil rights leaders,” including the NAACP, call this deliberate destruction “reproductive justice.”’”

The prominent football player went on to post on his Facebook page, reports Mr. Weinstein in Sporting News, “‘[A] lot of the women wouldn’t be having abortions if the men would step up and be a part of what they are already biologically a part of,’” a comment which applies to men of all races.

In his LifeSiteNews report, Ben Johnson notes that Mr. Watson had “weighed in on the Planned Parenthood videos” in July of 2015, “writing on Facebook, ‘As horrific as it is, the issue isn’t really the sale of human parts. It’s the legal practice that allows this to even be a possibility. Killing children and simply discarding the leftovers is not any more acceptable than profiting off of them.’”

Mr. Weinstein closes his Sporting News report with an acknowledgment that the Ravens star “is certainly not the first person to point out [Margaret] Sanger’s racist views, which were unfortunately common in American society,” he writes, “in the early 20th century. But as a popular NFL star sharing the message on social media,” he notes, “that history might find a new audience unaware of Planned Parenthood’s origins.” Especially when the interview was picked up by Sporting News and posted on a prominent Internet news home page.

No Longer Even Pretending

July 28, 2016, report by IllinoisReview.com

Illyse Hogue wanted a family, but when she found out she was pregnant, it was the wrong time. So, the president of the National Abortion Rights Action League said proudly from the stage of the Democratic National Convention that she had an abortion at a clinic. The crowd cheered.

Hogue says that now she’s married and has two children. But sad enough for her first child, he or she was conceived at the “wrong time” – an inconvenient time.

As the abortion rights movement becomes stronger and bolder in their arguments for “women’s choice of what to do with her own body,” their arguments are more and more provocative. Now they are no longer arguing to save the life of the mother, to protect the health of the mother. Now, it’s because the pregnancy was at an inconvenient time. And already they’re arguing for abortion if the child’s sex is not the preferred choice.

And they are now demanding that abortions cost them nothing out of pocket, and that taxpayers pay for them.

House Voting Record

Previous Question (Procedural Motion for Immediate Vote) on H. Res. 822 – Rule for Consideration of S-304 – Conscience Protection Act  – July 13, 2016 – Passed – 245-183 (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, 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, 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; Collins, Donovan, Gibson, Hanna, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Zeldin/NY; Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Davidson, 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, 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, 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, Castor, Deutch, Frankel, Graham, Grayson, Murphy, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, D. Scott/GA; Gabbard/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, Dingell, 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/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/TX; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Kilmer, Larsen, McDermott, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Hastings/FL, Takai/HI, Pearce/NM, Poe, Vela/TX, Ryan/WI.