Life Advocacy Briefing

Freedom on the Way

THE DRAFT OF A REGULATION CHANGE – leaked while being circulated within the bureaucracy – suggests the Trump Administration is preparing to free Americans of conscience from being forced to provide or purchase insurance covering abortifacient contraception.

One plaintiff after another – such as Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby – has been granted relief from the Obama-era mandate by the US Supreme Court. It appears the rest of the country will soon be freed from the ObamaCare-based mandate through the deregulatory process being undertaken by order of the White House, certainly a welcome prioritization of relief from an abusive mode of coercion.

“‘Better late than never,’ said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel with [the] Becket [Fund for Religious Liberty],” quoted by Claire Chretien in LifeSiteNews.com. “‘At long last, the United States government acknowledges that people can get contraceptives without forcing nuns to pay for them.’”

Texas Moves ‘Life’ Agenda Forward

LEGISLATION TO OUTLAW ‘DISMEMBERMENT ABORTIONS’ WAS SIGNED last Tuesday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). The new law, reports Claire Chretien for LifeSiteNews.com, also bars the sale of aborted babies’ bodies and “requir[es] that babies killed via abortion are buried or cremated rather than treated as medical waste.”

The new law, she adds, “also makes partial-birth abortion illegal” under state law, opening the door to state-level prosecutions of what has already been outlawed at the federal level; the federal statute appears to hold a low priority for federal prosecutors.

A further provision warns “those who assist an abortionist committing an illegal abortion” that they could, writes Ms. Chretien, “potentially face charges.”

The new law further, reports LifeSiteNews, “directs the state to create and maintain ‘a registry of … participating funeral homes and cemeteries willing to provide free common burial or low-cost private burial’ for aborted babies. The registry,” Ms. Chretien writes, “will also include ‘private nonprofit organizations that register with the department to provide financial assistance for the costs associated with burial or cremation of the embryonic and fetal tissue remains of an unborn child.’ This information,” she notes, “will be available to doctors or facilities that request it.”

LifeSiteNews reports, citing the Dallas News as source, “that Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) ‘openly wept’ as she begged her colleagues to vote to keep dismemberment abortion legal.” The sponsor of the amendment which outlawed dismemberment abortions, Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-FortWorth), reports Ms. Chretien, “said it was necessary to stop the practice of ‘draw[ing] and quartering’ pre-born humans.”

Texas Lawmakers to Take Up ‘Life’ Again in Special Session

TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R) HAS CALLED A SPECIAL 30-DAY SESSION of his state’s legislature, beginning July 18, to deal with 20 specific legislative proposals, including four pro-life measures left undone at the time the legislature adjourned its regular session.

The hottest topic of the special session is expected to be consideration of a proposal, reports Peter LaBarbera for LifeSiteNews.com, “designed to protect women and girls against gender-confused (“transgender”) men using female restrooms and locker rooms.” But the legislature is also being asked to take up a wide range of proposals including property tax reform, voter fraud prevention, public school financing, school vouchers and abortion, among others.

The pro-life bills being sought by the governor, according to Mr. LaBarbera’s report, are: “Prohibiting state and local governments from spending money on killing unborn children; prohibiting insurance companies from requiring coverage for the killing of unborn children; requiring the reporting of health complications that occur in women during the killing of unborn children; [and] protecting patients from hospital death panels that institute ‘do-not-resuscitate’ orders.”

Already on the governor’s desk, LifeSiteNews reports, is “a bill protecting the conscience rights of faith-based child welfare and adoption agencies in Texas. …

“Texas Right to Life applauded Gov. Abbott,” notes Mr. LaBarbera, “for adding pro-life legislation to the special session [call]. ‘Important pro-life measures were thwarted during the regular session,’” TRL said in a news release quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘by political games in the Texas House. While these important bills still have a long way to go before they get to the governor’s desk,’” said TRL, quoted by Mr. LaBarbera, “‘pro-life activists can celebrate the opportunity to add significant gains to the victories won in the regular session … .’”

Plotting Depopulation

THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND (U.N.F.P.A.), which Pres. Trump recently defunded from US taxpayer grants by his own order, appears to be seeking to spread the deadly Red Chinese depopulation pogrom to Africa, according to a report by Joseph Abbamonte of the respected Population Research Institute (PRI).

The government of Kenya brought UNFPA into Nairobi last month, Mr. Abbamonte reports, for “the first annual Africa-China Conference on Population & Development,” co-hosted also by the Red Chinese government. “Many conference participants,” notes Mr. Abbamonte, “spoke positively about [Communist] China’s population control strategies, holding China’s brutal Planned Birth policy up as an example for developing countries to follow. …

“The UNFPA has long wanted to ‘export’ China’s Planned Birth policy to other countries,” writes Mr. Abbamonte. “This conference may be the beginning of an effort to do exactly that. … The conference is the first installment,” he adds, “of what is planned to be an annual gathering where developing nations can learn from one another on how to implement effective strategies for limiting the number of births.” The next such conference is scheduled for 2018 in Red China.

“‘Kenya [and] other developing countries should indeed learn from the ‘important population and development lessons’ the China experience provides,’” commented PRI president Steven Mosher, who first unveiled the brutal one-child policy while living among the rural Chinese in 1979-1980 as an anthropologist. “‘But they should learn that such programs were not successes to be emulated,’” he said in the PRI report. “‘Rather, they should learn from China’s sordid history of coercive population control that forcibly implemented measures which harm women, destroy families and undercut economic growth.

“‘China has a long history of violating the human rights of its people,’ [Mr.] Mosher says. ‘African countries should not follow the example of China in this regard but should respect the natural right of men and women to form families and bear children. The UNFPA, for its part, seems determined to continue to promote the Chinese model in Africa.’” Let us pray.

Debate Model

A REPORT ON A KANSAS LEGISLATIVE DEBATE offers superb examples of focused, noble, downright exciting points by pro-life lawmakers, something we have not seen in quite a while on Capitol Hill in Washington. The debate was on “The Disclose Act,” which, notes Kathy Ostrowski, policy and research director of Kansans for Life, “requires abortion businesses to provide – in an easily readable typeface – minimum professional information about each abortionist listed on clinics’ online informed consent documents.” Here are some of the wholly appropriate pro-life lawmakers’ jabs, for our readers’ pleasure, taken from Ms. Ostrowski’s report:

In debate on a motion to send the measure back to committee “to extend the disclosures to other medical practitioners, … Sen. Ty Masterson (R-Andover) chastised opponents for ‘veiling their opposition’ to the Disclose Act under the complaint that abortion was being treated differently. ‘Abortion is different,’” he said, in a retort which we at Life Advocacy Briefing applaud, “‘because there is a third person involved in the procedure.’” (This might appear to pro-life citizens to be obvious, but it must be stated, again and again.)

“Sen. Steve Fitzgerald (R-Leavenworth) added, ‘The point is that in this procedure, the intended result is a dead human being.’ He hammered at the claims from senators not to know this difference, saying this ‘must be explained not [due] to ignorance but to insincerity, deceit and self-delusion, and that is offensive.’ Sen. Fitzgerald continued, charging that the actual intent of opponents “cloaked in ‘concern’ [about other medical procedures] was ‘to deny women important, relevant information in convenient format at the appropriate time.’

“Rebutting claims that the state Healing Arts Board makes providing women disclosure unneeded, Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook (R-Shawnee) reminded that the Board does not act as a consumer protection agency, and ‘it is [our] legislative duty to protect, not point to another agency.’  Sen. Pilcher-Cook also read some excerpts from the National Abortion Federation convention which indicated the coarseness of abortionists. ‘The nature of abortion is ugly, and it’s evil because it kills a human being,’ she said.

“The comment from one senator that too much time had been spent on this bill when budget issues remained sparked this rebuttal from Sen. Gene Sullentrop (R-Wichita): ‘I don’t think money is more important than Life. … We should be making law about this.’”

Calling a Spade ‘a Spade’

June 7, 2017, BreakPoint commentary by Eric Metaxas

            What does Planned Parenthood do? Everyone seems to know the answer except Planned Parenthood.

            When I say “Colgate,” what comes to mind? Well, toothpaste, of course. Too bad no one in the 1980s explained that to Colgate when they launched a line of frozen dinners named “Colgate Kitchen Entrees.” Understandably, customers found the idea of eating food from a toothpaste company less than appetizing, and the whole experiment bit the dust.

            But there’s another brand today trying very hard to convince the public that it sells more than one product. Planned Parenthood has spent the last few years insisting that its clinics offer all kinds of services besides abortions. As the latest stunt in this ongoing campaign, they’ve partnered with “Avengers” director Joss Whedon to produce a high-budget ad titled “Unlocked.”

            In this three-minute propaganda piece, Whedon depicts a world without Planned Parenthood. It’s a dark and scary place where a mother dies of cancer because she can’t get screenings, where a couple breaks up because of a sexually transmitted disease, and where a young woman’s dreams of college are crushed by a positive pregnancy test.

            Speaking with Time magazine, Whedon said that if Planned Parenthood shuts down, “millions of people lose access to basic health services,” like contraception, cancer screenings and sex ed. In other words, he’s parroting the talking points we’ve heard non-stop from Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards and others who insist that the organization “does so much more than abortion.”

            But as our friends at Save the Storks point out, Planned Parenthood’s 2014-15 annual report shows that they perform a meager 1% of the nation’s pap smears and less than 2% of all clinical breast exams. The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute reports that over 80% of teens receive sex ed instruction from somewhere besides an abortion clinic, and contrary to repeated claims by Planned Parenthood’s leadership and advocates, they perform a grand total of zero mammograms.

            In other words, all 650 Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics in the US barely participate in real health care. In fact, Americans so rarely choose this abortion giant for other services, we hardly notice when the few clinics not offering abortions close.

            LiveAction News reports that Planned Parenthood quietly shuttered three of its six New Mexico facilities, all of which were dedicated to those “other services.” Apparently, they weren’t covering expenses. Waving off the closures as no big deal, a Planned Parenthood regional official said – get this – that community health centers could pick up the slack. She might as well have admitted her organization’s services were not needed.

            Colgate sells toothpaste, and Planned Parenthood sells abortions – more than anyone else in the business. In fact, it’s where over a third of all abortions in America happen. We know how Planned Parenthood’s bread is buttered, and Planned Parenthood employees know it, too.

            Recent footage from undercover investigator David Daleiden captured affiliates at the National Abortion Federation conference who spoke openly of Planned Parenthood “selling” fetal body parts to “increase revenue.” Some also joked about pulling unborn babies apart and how “gross” it is when tiny eyeballs fall into their laps.

            YouTube quickly removed the video, and now US District Judge William Orrick is considering contempt sanctions against Daleiden, who’s already facing 15 felony charges for taking this undercover footage in the first place.

                Planned Parenthood wants to be known for nicer, less horrifying, less controversial services. But, ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the day, their name means one thing: abortion. And lives depend on putting this big-name brand out of business.

What More Do We Need?

June 2, 2017, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            Defending Planned Parenthood has always been a tough job, but last month it got even harder with the release of some of the worst undercover videos to date. Just when you thought the group couldn’t be any crasser, David Daleiden caught employees laughing about some of the collateral damage of abortion – like eyeballs rolling into staffer’s laps – and other horrifying tales.

            But the stories were more than stomach-turning – they were also incriminating. At one point, Planned Parenthood Dr. Ann Schutt-Aine talked about how the group evades the partial-birth abortion law by “pull[ing] off a leg or two, so it’s not PBA.”

It’s that obvious disdain for the law that’s gotten Cecile Richards’s group into trouble before. After a series of videos showed the higher-ups at Planned Parenthood were hiding a massive baby-organ-selling ring, Republicans finally had enough. Led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the House launched a special panel to investigate the organization propped up by more than a half-billion taxpayer dollars. Despite the Left’s refusal to cooperate, Blackburn and company uncovered plenty of abuses of fetal tissue and born-alive-infant protection laws.

            Unfortunately, under the most pro-abortion President in American history, Congress didn’t have the support of the White House to move those allegations forward. Now, armed with more evidence – and friends in the White House and Congress – conservative groups are asking Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to pick up where the Obama Administration never left off. “We, the undersigned, representing millions of Americans, strongly support an investigation into paid fetal tissue transfers involving Planned Parenthood.”

            Signed by a dozen pro-life organizations (including FRC), movement leaders point out, “The Select Investigative Panel made 15 criminal and regulatory referrals of tissue companies and abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood affiliates. … The facts uncovered raise a reasonable suspicion that these organizations, and/or individuals employed by them, may have engaged in a conspiracy to violate the fetal tissue law. … The previous Administration decided to turn a blind eye to the wrongdoing, which led to the creation of the Select Panel. We request that the Justice Dept. continue the investigation into the practices surrounding this scandal.”

                Of course, the first step in stopping this apparent illegal behavior is to stop funding it! Congress should pull the plug on the $554 million the nation’s largest abortion provider rakes in from taxpayers every year. The GOP’s healthcare push is designed to do exactly that, zeroing in on the biggest slice of Planned Parenthood’s pie: more than 80% of its Medicaid funding. Based on the report Cecile Richards released last week, her group hardly needs the money. Record abortions led to record profits for the organization ($77 million), whose clinics only seem to give birth to one thing: scandal. It’s time to hold the group’s feet to the fire. And Atty. Gen. Sessions is just the man for the job.