Life Advocacy Briefing

September 12, 2016

Outrageous New Regulation Posted
Dems Demand Planned Parenthood $ in Zika Prevention Funding / R.I.P., Phyllis
Another Shop Shuttered / Is Zika Actually Not the Culprit?
Farewell to America’s Indispensable Champion / Senate Voting Record

Outrageous New Regulation Posted

JUST BEFORE LABOR DAY, the Obama Regime posted a new proposed regulation barring states from disqualifying abortion outfits, including Planned Parenthood, from government grants and contracts under the state-administered federal Title X (Ten) “family planning” program.

Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), a former nurse and a champion for Life in the Congress, responded to the initiative, reports Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, by calling for “us[ing] the full force of Congress and the grassroots strength of the national pro-life movement to defeat this absurd rule and prevent the Obama Administration from acting unilaterally to carry out political favors and prop up a scandal-ridden abortion provider. …

“‘We’ve known all along,’” she said, “‘that the Obama Administration will go to untold lengths to protect its friends in the big abortion industry. … After all, this Administration has previously used backdoor maneuvers to line Planned Parenthood’s pockets with ObamaCare navigator grants and praised the abortion provider’s “high ethical standard” even after it was caught trafficking in baby body parts. Now,’” Rep. Black said in the LifeSiteNews report, “‘they have taken the unprecedented step of thwarting states’ rights with a shady proposed rule change that prevents states from funding the providers who will best serve their citizens.’”

The rule change is proposed soon after an audit of Planned Parenthood Title X funds in Wisconsin showed, writes Mr. Johnson, “at least half of the family planning funds Planned Parenthood received [in the state] were fraudulent.”

 

Dems Demand Planned Parenthood $ in Zika Prevention Funding

THE MAJORITY LEADERSHIP IN THE U.S. SENATE CONTINUED last week to press for adoption of a conference report on HR-2577, a military appropriation bill on which is riding a spending measure for combating the Zika virus. And the Senate Minority continued to block the measure.

Why? Because the Zika provision applies only to agencies which fall under the Hyde Amendment.

Senate Democrats claim the Republicans have tainted the proposal by seeking to use it to defund Planned Parenthood. But, according to information we have learned from an aide to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Zika language does not “defund Planned Parenthood” but would bar the use of Zika-prevention taxpayer funds for abortion because of the Hyde Amendment coverage. And it would direct Zika-fighting monies to agencies which do not include the abortion behemoth.

We can only assume Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wants to use tax funds to abort babies of mothers who have been infected with the Zika virus rather than protecting women and/or their babies from infection by the mosquito-borne virus.

As reported by Ben Johnson of LifeSiteNews.com, “The bill … would direct funding to community health centers instead of Planned Parenthood’s Puerto Rico affiliate … .”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-AR) commented, reports Mr. Johnson, “‘The flow of funding [in the proposed conference report] is common sense. … In Zika-ravaged Puerto Rico, 20 community health centers served more than 300,000 people last year, compared to 8,000 people served at the island’s Planned Parenthood affiliate.’”

Making plain what the Senate Democrats’ agenda is, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) “admitted,” writes Mr. Johnson, “‘Of course we are not going to accept a bill that precludes Planned Parenthood.’”

We publish the roll call at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing; the question as disputed clearly relates to Life. It also has fiscal implications, of course, and it is that consideration which appears to have led Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Mike Lee (R-UT) – who usually cast a pro-life vote – to vote against the cloture motion to bring the measure forward.

The Oklahoma Republican, reports Mr. Johnson, “has asked where hundreds of millions of dollars in leftover public funding that have already been appropriated have gone. ‘In April,’” he said, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘the Obama Administration publicly stated there was $589 million left from the Ebola response that was available to quickly redirect funds to address Zika. As of today,’” he said last Tuesday, “‘only $112 million of the $589 million has been used. … Pres. Obama has still not answered the most basic question,’” asserted Sen. Lankford, “‘of why he has continued to demand more money while refusing to spend the nearly half-billion dollars of Zika funds already allocated.’”

We acknowledge that the Reid distortion of this issue could well have influenced the votes of certain Senate Democrats who usually vote on the pro-life side, but we also believe those Senators owed it to their constituents, to their own reputations and to their very consciences to vote according to reality and not according to the bleatings of Sen. Reid. And we thank Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) for his party-line-breaking vote.

 

R.I.P., Phyllis

MANY CONSERVATIVE LEADERS HAVE WEIGHED IN PUBLICLY on the life of Phyllis Schlafly, offering tributes to her after her passing on Labor Day. (We reprint one of those published tributes near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.) Our editor was among thousands of conservative women who benefited from long association with the “sweetheart of the silent majority,” as she was nicknamed by a biographer some 35 years ago.

Mrs. Schlafly convened a national grassroots training conference every September for the past 45 years, frequently alternating between Washington, DC, venues and conference centers in her home area of St. Louis. “Eagle Council,” as the conference is known, is scheduled for this coming weekend in St. Louis and will this year include a memorial service in tribute to the brilliant strategist, researcher, speaker, writer and leader.

Nothing said or written can do justice to this champion of American values, whose “Eagle” identification was derived both from one of America’s most beloved symbols and from a treasured Bible verse: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Reflecting on what we know of Phyllis Schlafly from years of personal contact and collaboration, we are moved particularly by a deep sense of trustworthiness that few in the political realm can claim. We can honestly say we have never seen Mrs. Schlafly make a decision on any basis other than what she was convinced was right and true, regardless of personal considerations. In short, she could be trusted.

Though this cannot be said of many individuals now or in history, we cannot fathom where America will go without her.

 

Another Shop Shuttered

WE OFFER OUR FRIENDS IN EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS, KUDOS and thanks for their now-successful efforts in drying up the market for Planned Parenthood’s “services” in the eastern Illinois community of some 12,600 population, less than 40 miles from a major university campus.

“‘I guess we finally wore them down,’” pro-life activist leader Rob McKerrow told the Effingham Daily News upon learning of the closing of Planned Parenthood of Illinois’s Effingham Health [sic] Center.

Mr. McKerrow “said he was one of a group of three to six people who would meet [at the Planned Parenthood shop] each Tuesday, which was the only day they were opened recently,” reports Dawn Schabbing for the Daily News.

Though Planned Parenthood, of course, “said protests had nothing to do with the decision” to close its Effingham outpost, Mr. McKerrow told the reporter “he and the group he joined believed in helping women choose an alternative to abortion. ‘All they’re doing,’” he said in the Daily News story, “‘is advising about abortion and passing out pills. The whole idea,’” he declared, “‘is that you can get rid of a child, and that’s murder.’”

The Effingham Planned Parenthood’s list of “services” has not included abortion directly, but their Internet website, according to Ms. Schabbing, includes “abortion referral” in its offerings, as well as “birth control, HIV testing, men’s health care and morning-after pill,” which acts as an abortifacient when a conception has occurred.

The last day Planned Parenthood offered its “services” in Effingham was Aug. 30, reports the Daily News. “A note on the back door,” writes Ms. Schabbing, “directs those needing records or services to the Planned Parenthood of Illinois Champaign Health Center,” some 80 miles away.

 

Is Zika Actually Not the Culprit?

Sept. 6, 2016, commentary by Bradley Mattes, president, Life Issues Institute

All along I’ve felt somewhat [dubious] that the Zika virus is linked to microcephaly. The US Centers for Disease Control and the New England Journal of Medicine both concluded the link is there. Both are heavy hitters in the realm of research; however, they admitted there’s no studied verification.

Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry were quick to jump on the abortion bandwagon for pregnant women with confirmed or suspected cases of the Zika virus. But a recent, expansive study has cast legitimate doubt on the Zika/microcephaly connection.

Anxiety over Zika has affected the Olympic and Paralympic games in Rio, as well as impacting the cruise industry in Florida, where Zika cases have been reported. Concern continues to grow.

Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry were quick to insert themselves into the medical crisis, because they’re absolutely desperate to link abortion to any perceived common good, and they thought the Zika virus was their ride to glory. As a result, they’ve been advocating abortion for at-risk pregnant women. Planned Parenthood even hired canvassers to go door-to-door in Miami.

The New England Complex Systems Institute has shed new light on the situation and opened the possibility that the declared Zika link may be premature. The study is expansive and so credible that the New England Journal of Medicine published the preliminary results in spite of already concluding Zika was the problem.

The study looked at nearly 12,000 pregnant Colombian women infected with Zika. None of them had a baby with microcephaly. Four cases of microcephaly were reported with women who didn’t have Zika symptoms and were not part of the study, which is consistent with the normal expected number of cases.

Based on estimated numbers, there should be about 60,000 pregnant women in Colombia with the Zika virus, yet there are hardly any cases of microcephaly. If the link to Zika is legitimate, there should have been a dramatic increase in the number of babies with microcephaly.

So what is the culprit?

Some scientists believe pesticides may be the source, specifically pyriproxyfen. It’s effective in controlling mosquitoes by acting as a larvicide. It interferes, the researchers say, with the development of mosquito larvae. Do you recognize the possible link?

Pyriproxyfen may also have a detrimental effect on developing unborn babies. Here’s why American researchers may be interested in this study: Pyriproxyfen was sprayed in areas with a high rate of microcephaly. Even more noteworthy is that they put this chemical in the drinking water in Pernambuco, a state in Brazil at ground-zero in the Zika epidemic. The chemical was sprayed and added to the water just before the outbreak of microcephaly.

These early findings aren’t conclusive, but they do open the distinct possibility that Zika may not be the cause of the increase in microcephaly cases. We must follow the research to see where it leads and respond effectively while we protect pregnant women and their unborn babies, regardless of the child’s [possible] disability.

 

Farewell to America’s Indispensable Champion

Eulogy to Phyllis Schlafly by Reagan domestic policy chief Gary Bauer in his Sept. 6, 2016, End of Day Memo to supporters of his Campaign for Working Families

Phyllis Schlafly, a dear friend of many years, passed away yesterday. It is always a risk to say someone is irreplaceable. But it is hard to imagine what the Republican Party would look like – and, more importantly, what America would look like – without Phyllis Schlafly.

Phyllis burst onto the scene in 1964 with her book entitled A Choice, Not an Echo. She wrote it to promote Barry Goldwater and, as the title implies, to ensure that voters had a real choice between the parties, not just an echo of the establishment elites. She would go on to write more than two dozen books, and she became a champion of American conservatism.

Phyllis fought every four years to ensure that the Republican Party platform remained pro-life. I was honored to stand with her on many of those occasions. She led the successful campaign to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment and warned that the feminist movement would lead to all kinds of unintended consequences.

She was labeled an extremist by the media for warning that those consequences would include the blending of genders and the undermining of marriage. Recent headlines have only proven that Phyllis Schlafly was right all along.

Feminist leaders of her day, like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, were treated by the media as if they were great celebrities, precisely because they mocked motherhood and marriage and supported abortion on demand. Conversely, Phyllis Schlafly spoke for millions of American women as “an example to all those who would struggle for an America that is prosperous and free.” All so true.

We already miss her, but I am sure Phyllis has already heard those glorious words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

 

Senate Voting Record

Cloture Motion to End Debate on HR-2577 Conference Report – Zika Prevention Funding Excluding Funding for Planned Parenthood in Puerto Rico – Sept. 6, 2016 – 52-to-46 – Failed, needing 60 “ayes” (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “yes”/pro-Life: Sessions & Shelby/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, Flake & McCain/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio/FL, Isakson & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Kirk/IL, Coats & Donnelly/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Vitter/LA, Collins/ME, Cochran & Wicker/MS, Blunt/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Heller/NV, Ayotte/NH, Burr & Tillis/NC, Portman/OH, Inhofe/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Corker/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Hatch/UT, Capito/WV, Johnson/WI and Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “no”/anti-Life: Boxer & Feinstein/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Nelson/FL, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Durbin/IL, King(I)/ME, Cardin & Mikulski/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Franken & Klobuchar/MN, McCaskill/MO, Tester/MT, Reid/NV, Shaheen/NH, Booker & Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Heitkamp/ND, Brown/OH, Lankford/OK, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Lee/UT, Leahy & Sanders/VT, Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV and Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Hoeven/ND & Kaine/VA.