Life Advocacy Briefing

Ominous Preening

AFTER STANDING OUT from their fellow Republican Senators with their votes against confirming Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, Senators Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME) dropped hints last week that they could find it difficult to vote to exclude Planned Parenthood from continued massive funding by US taxpayers.

As of this writing, the defunding of Planned Parenthood is expected to be incorporated by House Republicans in the must-have legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

“Pro-life groups have called on Congress to redirect money from scandal-ridden Planned Parenthood to federally qualified community health centers that don’t commit abortions,” reports Claire Chretien for LifeSiteNews.com. And Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) has filed legislation to do exactly that, mirroring legislation she offered in the last Congress.

Perhaps the two liberal ladies would like to explain to Sen. Ernst and her co-sponsors of S-241 why they insist on forcing taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood when the health centers which would benefit from S-241 are more numerous, more accessible and more comprehensive (except for the abortion mission of the business) than Planned Parenthood’s scattered entities.

While waiting for House action on the developing legislation, Sen. Ernst is joined on her bill by co-sponsoring GOP Senators Dan Sullivan (who is Ms. Murkowski’s state-mate from Alaska), Tom Cotton (AR), Marco Rubio (FL), David Perdue (GA), Mike Crapo and James Risch (ID), Chuck Grassley (IA), Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts (KS), Rand Paul (KY), John Kennedy (LA), Roger Wicker (MS), Roy Blunt (MO), Steve Daines (MT), Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse (NE), John Hoeven (ND), James Inhofe and James Lankford (OK), Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott (SC), Bob Corker (TN), John Cornyn and Ted Cruz (TX), Mike Lee (UT), and Michael Enzi (WY).

Readers are encouraged to contact home-state US Senators (Capitol switchboard, 1-202/224-3121) and request them to co-sponsor S-241 or thank them for already having done so. Urge them to end Planned Parenthood’s half-billion-dollar annual federal subsidy.

Those who contact Senators Collins and/or Murkowski might wish to point out that their party’s current platform, as quoted by Ms. Chretien, “calls for a ‘permanent ban on federal funding and subsidies for abortion and healthcare plans that include abortion.’”

Life Bills Popular in Wyoming Legislature

WYOMING LEGISLATORS SENT TWO BILLS TO THEIR GOVERNOR last week relating to the cause of Life.

HB-116 “makes it a felony,” writes Laura Hancock for the Casper Star-Tribune, “to sell, transfer or distribute tissue or cells from an aborted fetus.” After House passage on Feb. 3 by a 48-to-11 vote, the Senate advanced the measure to GOP Gov. Matt Mead last Tuesday on a commanding 20-to-10 roll call.

The State Senate last Monday passed HB-182 on a 19-to-11 vote, and the House followed through on Tuesday with a 47-to-12 vote to concur in a Senate amendment and send it on to Gov. Mead; the original House vote was 41 to 17 on Feb. 3. The measure, writes Ms. Hancock, “would require doctors to offer an ultrasound to patients seeking abortions … [and] would also require doctors to ask patients if they want to hear a fetus’s heartbeat.”

Gov. Mead had this to say in his 2010 campaign on the issue of abortion, from a posting on his campaign website: “Regarding abortion, I believe in the sanctity of life and am against abortion. But, as a conservative, I believe in individual rights and in those cases where rape or incest has occurred or the life of the mother is at risk, the decision is best left to the individuals involved, not to the government. I am against government funding of abortion. I fervently want every pregnancy to result in a happy, healthy child in a loving, supportive home.”

With these two bills arriving at his desk, Gov. Mead will have an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to the right to Life of innocent preborn babies and to achieve enhanced protection for Life in his state. The Casper Star-Tribune reporter did not indicate whether Gov. Mead has indicated his intention, but she did report that the Wyoming Medical Society opposes both measures.

Inspiration for the Days Ahead

PRO-LIFE ACTIVISM CHAMPION JOSEPH SCHEIDLER HAS RELEASED a memoir celebrating his life work for Life.

The founder of the Pro-Life Action League, which is based in Chicago and pioneered sidewalk counseling to encourage abortion-bound mothers to carry their babies to term, has saved countless babies over the decades since the Supreme Court commercialized abortion nationwide.

His 470-page work, Racketeer for Life: Fighting the Culture of Death from the Sidewalk to the Supreme Court, is available via Amazon.com. The title refers to the decades-long lawsuit brought against Mr. Scheidler and others in his ministry by the National Organization for [sic] Women (NOW), a lawsuit which took the pro-life warrior to the US Supreme Court on more than one occasion. For those who seek inspiration in a true story of courage, the Scheidler story cannot be beaten.

Quoteworthy

Rev. Franklin Graham in a Facebook posting last Monday, quoted by Peter LaBarbera in a LifeSiteNews.com story: “Planned Parenthood is the number-one abortion provider in the United States. Raising funds for this organization is like raising money to fund a Nazi death camp – like Auschwitz, except for innocent babies in their mother’s wombs! … Reports say they perform over 300,000 abortions per year. And this is the organization whose employees were caught on video trying to sell baby body parts over wine. Disgusting.”

March for Life Speech: Rep. Mia Love

Jan. 27, 2017, Address to March for Life Rally by Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), transcribed by Life Advocacy from televised coverage by EWTN

Forty-one years ago, a struggling couple arrived in America. They left their country, entrusted their two children [whom] they wouldn’t see for another five years, in the care of family members to come here, to the land of opportunity. It was inconvenient for them to find out that they were pregnant with their third, because both had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Some would say it would have been easier for them to have an abortion, but this couple had to make a difficult choice – protect the life of their child or always wonder what might have been.

John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “Of all the sad words of the tongue or the pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.”

Each child, born and unborn, has the potential to open up our world and take us to places and spaces we have never imagined. Each living child carries with him or her the potential for greatness. A child born today may become a doctor that cures cancer or Alzheimer’s. That child may be the astronaut that takes the world to Mars or a CEO that leads a global business. That child may become a friend that saves a peer from suicide or a mom who strengthens her family, a neighbor that volunteers and eradicates hunger, or a teacher who inspires a struggling student.

Every time we kill a child through abortion, we kill our potential. Every time we kill a child, we – all of us – suffer. We lose a little of ourselves and a whole lot of our future. We, we strip a child from their God-given potential when we as a society accept abortion as health care.

My fellow Americans, we cannot accept “what might have been.” We won’t know “what might have been” when we allow an organization to convince our pregnant women that they have no choice but to abort the life and the potential within them. We cannot accept “what might have been.” We will not know what might have been when an organization limits a woman from being empowered so they can profit. They prefer for women to be victims because they know that a truly empowered woman profits herself, her community and everyone she touches.

We cannot accept what might have been. When those organizations that profit allow our children in the inner cities to feel that they can only be empowered with a life by ending a life, no, we will not accept that. We will not accept what might have been.

Instead of listening to the haunting refrains of what might have been, we must instead focus on what is to come. During the other march in Washington last week, I saw the picture of a young black teenage girl in the crowd who was holding a sign that said, “I survived Roe versus Wade.” That young woman beat the odds and was born into a world too far often that favors the abortion of a black girl instead of the life of a black girl. She could have become part of what might have been, but today she is instead part of what is and what is to come. I can’t wait to see what she and thousands like her become in the years ahead. She may be our astronaut, she may be that doctor that cures cancer, she may be a mother, a teacher, a daughter and a friend. She represents our “what is to come.”

Forty-one years ago, that couple from Haiti could have made the choice to abort, but they didn’t. They chose Life. They didn’t choose what might have been, they chose what is to come.  They went and followed and fostered that life and the future and the dreams that baby would bring. I’m certain that this couple would never have thought that that child would become the first black female Republican ever elected to Congress. Thank you. More than that, more than that, they would have never dreamed that she would grow up to fight for all children and those yet to be born.

We all have talents, we all have gifts, we all have a purpose. And all of this for the benefit of us in our society. All we are asking is that we no longer settle for what might have been. We embrace the possibilities of that life to come. The life of those unborn have the potential and deserve the chance because they will dream, they will create, they will add their colors to the fabric of our lives.

May God bless our women that are struggling with unplanned pregnancies. May we love them, may we embrace them, may we help them discover their power and their potential. But may we never, ever allow our funds to pay for the death of young children. May God spare them, may God bless you for being here today, and may God bless our pro-life United States of America.

Senate Voting Record

Confirmation of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General – Procedural motion to close debate – Feb. 7, 2017 – Adopted – 52-47 (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”; new Senator in ALL CAPS)

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

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Feinstein & Harris/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Nelson/FL, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Donnelly/IN, King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Franken & Klobuchar/MN, McCaskill/MO, Tester/MT, Cortez-Masto/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Mendendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Heitkamp/ND, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Leahy & Sanders/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Baldwin/WI.

Voting “present”: Sessions/AL.

House Voting Record

H-Res-55 – Rule for Consideration of HR-7: Permanent ‘Hyde’ Amendment – Procedural motion to close debate on Rule – Jan. 24, 2017 – Passed – 233-187 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Biggs, Franks, Gosar, McSally, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, Knight, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao, Walters/CA; Buck, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Curbelo, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Dunn, Gaetz, Mast, Posey, F.Rooney, T.Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Rutherford, Webster, Yoho/FL; Allen, Carter, Collins, Ferguson, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, A.Scott, Woodall/GA; Labrador, Simpson/ID; Bost, R.Davis, Hultgren, Kinzinger, LaHood, Roskam, Shimkus/IL; Banks, Brooks, Bucshon, Hollingsworth, Messer, Rokita, Walorski/IN; Blum, King, Young/IA; Jenkins, Marshall, Yoder/KS; Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers/KY; Abraham, Graves, Higgins, Johnson, Scalise/LA; Poliquin/ME; Harris/MD; Amash, Bergman, Bishop, Huizenga, Mitchell, Moolenaar, Trott, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Lewis, Paulsen/MN; Harper, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/MO; Bacon, Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei/NV; Frelinghuysen, Lance, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Donovan, Faso, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Tenney, Zeldin/NY; Budd, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Davidson, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Latta, Renacci, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Cole, Lucas, Mullin, Russell/OK; Walden/OR; Barletta, Costello, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Kelly, Marino, Meehan, Murphy, Perry, Rothfus, Shuster, Smucker, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Gowdy, Rice, Sanford, Wilson/SC; Noem/SD; Black, Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fleischmann, Kustoff, Roe/TN; Arrington, Babin, Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hensarling, Hurd, S.Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Olson, Poe, Ratcliffe, Sessions, Smith, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Love, Stewart/UT; Brat, Comstock, Garrett, Goodlatte, Griffith, Taylor, Wittman/VA; Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Newhouse, Reichert/WA; Jenkins, McKinley, Mooney/WV; Duffy, Gallagher, Grothman, Sensenbrenner/WI; Cheney/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, O’Halleran, Sinema/AZ; Aguilar, Barragan, Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Carbajal, Cardenas, Chu, Correa, Costa, Davis, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Garamendi, Huffman, Khanna, Lee, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Panetta, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Himes, Larson/CT; Blunt-Rochester/DE; Castor, Crist, Demings, Deutch, Frankel, Hastings, Lawson, Murphy, Soto, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, D.Scott/GA; Gabbard, Hanabusa/HI; Bustos, D.Davis, Foster, Gutierrez, Kelly, Krishnamoorthi, Lipinski, Quigley, Schakowsky, Schneider/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Pingree/ME; Brown, Cummings, Delaney, Hoyer, Raskin, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes/MD; Capuano, Clark, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Tsongas/MA; Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Peterson, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Kihuen, Rosen, Titus/NV; Kuster, Shea-Porter/NH; Gottheimer, Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Espaillat, Higgins, Jeffries, Lowey, C.Maloney, S.Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Rice, Serrano, Suozzi, Tonko/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Price/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Brady, Cartwright, Doyle, Evans/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Castro, Cuellar, Doggett, Gonzalez, A.Green, G.Green, Jackson-Lee, O’Rourke, Veasey, Vela/TX; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, McEachin, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Jayapal, Kilmer, Larsen, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not Voting: Coffman/CO; Price/GA; Rush/IL; Zinke/MT; Jones/NC; Joyce/OH; Blumenauer/OR; Payne/NJ; Slaughter, Velazquez/NY; Mulvaney/SC; E.B.Johnson/TX; Ryan/WI.