Life Advocacy Briefing

House Panel Mulls ‘Heartbeat’ Bill

A HOUSE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE HELD A HEARING last week on HR-490, the “Heartbeat Protection Act,” introduced by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and co-sponsored as of last week by 169 House Members. We list those co-sponsors at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Though no official action has yet been taken to advance the measure, we find the enlistment of co-sponsors and the hosting of a hearing to be encouraging signs that Members of Congress are beginning to turn their attention toward limiting the scourge of decriminalized abortion with an intent eventually to recriminalize the abortion industry altogether. Only then will unborn children in America be protected in the laws of our country and secure in the Constitutional protections they ought now to be guaranteed as living human persons.

The Heartbeat Protection Act would bar abortions on babies whose development has advanced to the point where a heartbeat can be detected. Gestating babies develop instrument-detectable heartbeats at 21 days, and, notes Claire Chretien, reporting on the hearing for LifeSiteNews.com, “Parents usually [can] hear their babies’ heartbeats around six or eight weeks,” a stage when most abortions are committed.

“‘To deny the unborn child’s heartbeat is to deny science,’” declared Janet Porter of Faith2Action, cited by Ms. Chretien as “the bill’s architect. … ‘To ignore it is heartless.

“‘We’ve never been to a funeral of somebody with a beating heart,’ noted [Mrs.] Porter” in the Chretien report. “If a person is dying on the ground,” she said, “‘the first thing you do is check for a pulse.’”

Rep. King declared, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘Since Roe v. Wade was unconstitutionally decided in 1973, nearly 60 million innocent babies’ lives have been ended by the abortion industry, all with a rubber stamp by the federal government.’ … [Rep.] King,” writes Ms. Chretien, “said he is committed to protecting ‘the lives of voiceless innocents’ and welcomes ‘this opportunity to have my legislation given in-depth consideration by Congress and to bring attention to the importance of preserving each of these precious lives.’”

Judiciary Committee member Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) declared, reports Ms. Chretien, “‘One of our most fundamental obligations as lawmakers is to protect human life … The proposed bill, the Heartbeat Protection Act, defends life from one of the earliest moments it can be detected – as soon as a doctor can find a child’s heartbeat. Each beating heart represents a unique human being with dignity and rights that deserves to be protected from the dangers of abortion.’”

Mrs. Porter conceded, reports Ms. Chretien, that HR-490, “for now, ‘[is] a compromise bill. It’s a scientific solution,’” she said, “‘upon which America can agree. … Once we protect babies whose heartbeats are detected,’” she urged, “‘then we can go back and get the rest.’”

Bringing Reality to Congress

AMONG THE WITNESSES at the “Heartbeat” hearing was Star Parker, president of the Center for Urban Renewal & Education (CURE), who brought forward her concerns about the disproportionate impact of decriminalized abortion in the black community. Calling on the Judiciary subcommittee to “‘readdress what has happened in … our most distressed zip codes,’” Ms. Parker said, quoted by Claire Chretien for LifeSiteNews.com, “‘[and] the way that Planned Parenthood targets these particular zip codes with abortion.

“‘Abortion is the leading cause of death in the black community today,’” Ms. Parker declared in the LifeSiteNews report. “‘Since Roe v. Wade was legalized, 20 million humans have been killed inside of the womb of black women. Then on Halloween,’” she noted in her testimony, “‘Planned Parenthood tweets out that the black women are safest if they abort their child rather than bring it to term. …

“‘Abortion feeds a narrative,’” she said, quoted by Ms. Chretien, “‘that women are victims, that they have no control over their sexual impulses. And the result of this narrative being forced down into our hardest-hit communities – we are seeing now recklessness in sexual activity, and marriage has collapsed. In the ’50s, 70% of black adults were married,’” she said in her testimony, quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘Today, that number is 30%. That is causing a lot more social pathologies,’” said Ms. Parker, “‘that have to be addressed in different types of legislation, not the Heartbeat Bill. The Heartbeat Bill,’” she declared, “‘is to protect the innocent.’”

A New Reform Proposal

THE ‘NO ABORTION BONDS ACT’ HAS BEEN FILED as a new bill, HR-4131, by Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) and 73 co-sponsors, whom we have listed near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. The proposal has been referred to the House Committee on Ways & Means.

This proposal for the “No Abortion Bonds Act” eliminates from the federally legislated definition of “Qualified Tax Credit Bond” “any bond issued as part of an issue any of the net proceeds of which are to be used to provide a facility owned by an abortion provider … or used (for any purpose) by an abortion provider for more than 30 days during any calendar year during which interest is paid on such bond.” It is an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code.

Freedom for Pregnancy Centers

A COUNTY SUPERIOR JUDGE IN CALIFORNIA ruled last Monday, reports Jay Hobbs for Pregnancy Help News, “that California must not force pro-life pregnancy medical clinics to post signage promoting state-covered abortions to their clients.”

The injunction against the unconstitutional California law “applies,” writes Mr. Hobbs, “to over 200 privately funded pregnancy centers in the state that offer free alternatives to abortion.” The law has been on the books since 2015 but has been the subject of immediate litigation. Riverside County Judge Gloria Trask has now issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the politically motivated speech restriction.

“Pushed through on a purely party-line vote,” writes Mr. Hobbs, “the law has only been enforced in one jurisdiction – the city of LosAngeles – but has served as a template for other Democrat-controlled states – including Hawaii and Connecticut – to crack down on pro-life pregnancy centers that offer free service to expectant mothers” and thus compete with Planned Parenthood and other abortuaries.

Last Monday’s ruling came despite a decision by the notoriously overturned 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which earlier upheld the clearly unconstitutional statute.

Said Judge Trask, quoted by Mr. Hobbs, “‘Compelled speech of a political or cultural nature is not the tool of a free government.’”

Shopping for Babies’ Organs

THE CENTER FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS (C.M.P.) HAS RELEASED a new video, this one of an interview with a former employee of baby parts trafficker Stem Express. The interview conducted by CMP’s David Daleiden was taped with the knowledge of the now regretful interviewee, unlike the previous videos, which were obtained “undercover.”

In the new video, whistleblower Holly O’Donnell, writes Dorothy Cummings McLean for LifeSiteNews.com, “tells David Daleiden that Planned Parenthood revealed private patient medical information to third party contractors like her. As an employee of StemExpress,” writes Mrs. McLean, “[Ms.] O’Donnell worked inside Planned Parenthood centers in northern California, drawing blood and dissecting organs from aborted babies. These were then sold to such clients as researchers at Harvard and other institutions.”

That information has been uncovered in previous videos, but Ms. O’Donnell got into some startling details of her work day that have not previously been exposed.

“‘At the beginning of the day,’” she related, quoted by Mrs. McLean from the video, “‘we would let them (Planned Parenthood) know what we were looking for,’ [Ms.] O’Donnell says in the video. ‘There was a lot of coordination. … We’d open up the task page (on our computers). … It shows you what the researchers want, how many specimens they want for that day or that week. Roughly saying,’” she declared, “‘it was like a grocery list of what to get for that day.’  …

“In response,” notes Mrs. McLean, “clinic management would share the private medical information of pregnant women coming to Planned Parenthood for abortions. ‘We’d go to the head nurse, let the nurses know, hey, this is what I’m looking for today,’” explained Ms. O’Donnell in the video. “‘They’d give you a sheet of the appointments, which women were coming in, and it would tell you how many patients, what time they were coming in, their name and if they knew how far along they were.’

“[Ms.] O’Donnell would highlight the names of patients,” reports Mrs. McLean, “whose babies matched the criteria requested by the researchers. The former StemExpress employee also told [Mr.] Daleiden,” notes Mrs. McLean, “that Planned Parenthood gave her access to patient medical charts and even made available to StemExpress patient schedules across the entire Planned Parenthood affiliate. CMP now has in its archives,” writes Mrs. McLean, “a StemExpress e-mail to [Ms.] O’Donnell reminding procurement technicians to download these schedules every Friday.

“On its website, the CMP reminds readers that the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel referred StemExpress, Planned Parenthood MarMonte and Planned Parenthood Northern California to the US Dept. of Health & Human Services for five years of ‘systematic violations’ of the HIPAA privacy rule in these businesses’ baby parts harvest,” writes Mrs. McLean.   …

“[Mr.] Daleiden added,” writes Mrs. McLean, “‘that Planned Parenthood MarMonte and Planned Parenthood Northern California together see approximately 300,000 patients each year.’ He observed,” reports LifeSiteNews, “that this put the ‘private health information of hundreds of thousands of pregnant women at risk.’”

The recently released video can be viewed via the Internet at the CMP website: www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2017/10/trailer-new-cmp-video-series-highlights-eyewitness-testimony-of-stemexpress-worker-inside-planned-parenthood/.

Unintended Consequences?

Oct. 26, 2017, BreakPoint commentary by John Stonestreet & G. Shane Morris

            The abortion industry has long billed itself as a champion of women’s rights. Almost 30 years ago, the head of the National Abortion Rights Action League, or NARAL, told the New York Times that “Abortion is the guarantor of a woman’s right to participate fully in the social and political life of society.”

            But as Cathy Ruse pointed out recently at the Daily Signal, abortion is being used right now to keep millions of women from participating in life – at all.

            By some estimates, there are as many as 160 million girls and women missing worldwide because of sex-selective abortion. Modern technology that allows parents to find out before birth whether they’re having a boy or girl, coupled with traditional cultural preferences for boys, results in nothing less than “gendercide” – the systematic killing of female babies over males. And it’s not just happening overseas.

            Newsweek reported last year that sex-selective abortions are on the rise right here in the US. One study by Columbia University found that Chinese, Korean and Indian parents on their second pregnancy gave birth to 117 boys for every 100 girls. For third children, the ratio shot up to a staggering 151 boys for every 100 girls. The culprit, says Newsweek, is sex-selective abortion. So-called “family planning” clinics like those affiliated with Planned Parenthood are helping women kill their unborn daughters.

You’d think organizations that pride themselves on protecting and empowering women would want this to stop, but you’d be wrong. Last year, after the state of Indiana passed a law banning sex-selective abortion, a federal district judge granted a permanent injunction against the law at the request of – you guessed it – Planned Parenthood. In the name of ending discrimination against women, this abortion giant is literally making sure fewer women exist. This is beyond perverse.

            Even worse, pro-choice and feminist support for gendercide remains virtually unflinching. Back in March, when Arkansas enacted a ban on sex-selective abortions, the American Civil Liberties Union complained that the law prevents women from “obtaining abortions that they want for whatever reason,” even, apparently, if that reason is preferring boys over girls.

            As Ruse remarks, “Modern abortion politics has done strange things to our culture.” Those who claim to be advocates for women turn a blind eye to the single greatest form of discrimination against them.

            Now occasionally, a pro-choice feminist will let slip how he or she really feels about gendercide. That’s what happened back in 2011 when Pulitzer finalist Mara Hvistendahl published a book called Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men. In it, she decries systematic discrimination against female fetuses but comes up short of blaming the real culprit: abortion. Reviewing the book in the New York Times, Ross Douthat observed that the problem of gendercide puts pro-choicers in a “distinctly uncomfortable position.” They insist “that the unborn aren’t human beings yet and that the right to abortion is nearly absolute.” But this leaves them “struggling to define a victim for the crime [they’ve] uncovered.”

            As pro-lifers, we need to continually point out this glaring inconsistency in the pro-choice worldview. To anyone not sold out to abortion-on-demand, it’s obvious that the sex of a baby is not a legitimate reason to kill her.

            Of course, there’s never a legitimate reason to deliberately kill a baby – in the womb or out. But the 160 million missing girls worldwide should convince many that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry – far from empowering women – have become the greatest perpetrators of their extermination.

Co-Sponsors of ‘No Abortion Bonds’ Act – HR-4131

            Chief sponsor: Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC). Joining him: GOP Representatives Biggs & Franks/AZ; LaMalfa & Rohrabacher/CA; Lamborn/CO; Dunn, Gaetz, F.Rooney, Webster & Yoho/FL; Allen, Hice, Loudermilk & A.Scott/GA; Labrador/ID; Bost, Hultgren & Kinzinger/IL; Banks, Bucshon, Messer & Rokita/IN; Barr/KY; Abraham, Higgins & Johnson/LA; Harris/MD; Bishop, Huizenga & Moolenaar/MI; Kelly & Palazzo/MS; Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer & Wagner/MO; Fortenberry/NE; Smith/NJ; Foxx, Hudson, Jones, Meadows, Rouzer & Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Davidson, Gibbs, Jordan & Renacci/OH; Rothfus/PA; Duncan & Norman/SC; Noem/SD; Black, Duncan & Roe/TN; Babin, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Olson, Ratcliffe, Smith, Weber & Williams/TX; Brat & Williams/VA; Jenkins & Mooney/WV; Duffy & Grothman/WI.

            Also, Democratic Rep. Lipinski/IL.

Co-Sponsors of ‘Heartbeat’ Bill – HR-490

            Chief sponsor: Rep. Steve King (R-IA). Joining him:GOP Representatives Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby & Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Biggs, Franks, Gosar, Hill & Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman & Womack/AR; Hunter, LaMalfa, Rohrabacher & Valadao/CA; Buck, Harper & Lamborn/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Dunn, Gaetz, Mast, F.Rooney, T.Rooney, 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, Bucshon & Rokita/IN; Blum & Young/IA; Estes, Marshall & Yoder/KS; Barr, Comer & Guthrie/KY; Abraham, Graves, Higgins & Johnson/LA; Harris/MD; Amash, Bergman, Bishop, Huizenga, Mitchell, Moolenaar & Walberg/MI; Emmer/MN; Kelly & Palazzo/MS;

            Also, GOP Representatives Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith & Wagner/MO; Gianforte/MT; Bacon, Fortenberry & Smith/NE; Pearce/NM; Collins & Tenney/NY; Budd, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger, Rouzer & Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Davidson, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Latta, Renacci, Turner & Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Lucas, Mullin & Russell/OK; Barletta, Kelly, Marino, Murphy, Perry, Rothfus, Shuster, Smucker & Thompson/PA; Duncan, Gowdy, Norman, Rice & Wilson/SC; Noem/SD; Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fleischmann, Kustoff & Roe/TN; Arrington, Babin, Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Hensarling, S.Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Olson, Poe, Ratcliffe, Smith, Thornberry, Weber & Williams/TX; Bishop & Love/UT; Brat, Garrett & Wittman/VA; McKinley & Mooney/WV; Duffy, Gallagher & Grothman/WI.

            And, Democratic Rep. Peterson/MN, totaling 169 co-sponsors as of Nov. 1, 2017.