Life Advocacy Briefing

Another Pro-Life Judge

THE SENATE REMAINED IN SESSION SEVERAL DAYS past the landmark confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with the principal business being confirmation of several more judges and a few appointees to key posts in the Trump Administration.

Among the notable votes was the 51-to-44 confirmation of Mark Saalfield Norris Sr. to be district judge for the Western District of Tennessee.

Judge Norris comes to the post from the Tennessee legislature, where he served as Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2018. Among his accomplishments as a legislator was co-sponsoring Tennessee’s new constitutional amendment making clear that the state constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion.

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein probed Judge Norris about his legislative record on abortion in written questions for committee consideration.

Though a few other issues attended Judge Norris’s confirmation, Life Advocacy views the tight roll call as an indication of each Senator’s commitment on the right to Life, and we are publishing the voting record at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. And we thank Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for his insistence on keeping the Senate in session well into October in order to achieve confirmations of several conservative judges.

Heading Off the Next One?

PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS RECRUITING A JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS DIRECTOR to try to head off confirmations of future pro-life judges.

In a posting on the outfit’s website, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) says, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, “its new Director of Judicial Nominations will work full-time in the nation’s capital to devise and carry out ‘year-long national and state advocacy plans focused on high impact, high priority judicial nominations in the lower courts’ as well as ‘in-state 360 campaigns that hold Senators accountable for appointing judges that value and protect access to abortion.’” The website further states the new director will “‘create a clear path for defeat and delay of targeted nominations.’”

Not that Planned Parenthood has been silent on the judicial nominations already advanced by Pres. Trump. The abortion cartel has been among the noisiest and politically potent of the protesters seeking to block nominations such as that of Justice Kavanaugh. And involvement by Planned Parenthood’s political warchest can be traced in the campaign funding disclosures of many “no”-voting Senators.

Mapping a Response

PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACTION FUND (P.P.A.F.) RECENTLY RELEASED a “new plan … to facilitate abortions across the United States,” reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com.

The shift in strategy comes in the wake of the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and relates to the abortion cartel’s fear that the Supreme Court’s landmark, unconstitutional Roe v. Wade edict might soon go the way of the Dred Scott precedent of the 19th century.

“Nine states never repealed their unenforced, pre-Roe abortion bans,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “while another four have enacted bans that would immediately take effect upon Roe’s fall. The pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) estimates that 22 states could ban abortion outright.”

No wonder Planned Parenthood is scrambling for a lifeline, though the likelihood of votes to overturn Roe by Justices Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch – and even Chief Justice John Roberts – cannot be predicted with any certainty.

“PPAF’s so-called ‘Care for All’ plan lays out a three-part contingency plan,” reports Mr. Freiburger, “for a post-Roe USA. At Salon,” he notes, “pro-abortion activist Amanda Marcotte calls the plan an ‘underground railroad,’ comparing the pro-abortion scheme to the 19th-century network that helped fugitive slaves escape to free states in the North,” besmirching the heritage of those courageous Americans who risked so much to secure the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for so many newly acknowledged persons.

The idea is to build the abortion infrastructure in key states to use them as magnets for the slaughter of the innocents to continue. “The first part [of the plan] is to expand facilities in abortion-friendly states like California or Illinois,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “so they can form a ‘Regional Access Network’ that would financially assist women traveling to them from pro-life states.

“This network would also expand telemed abortions,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “and leverage ‘technology and innovation to ensure patients, no matter what state they live in, can connect to resources and determine how and where they can access abortion.’” Telemed abortions are committed via chemical (RU-486 plus Cytotec), dispensed in an office setting after a remote-connection computer interview, with the so-called doctor never physically present with the customer but vending the drugs via remote control.

“The second part [of the Planned Parenthood panic] plan consists of lobbying legislatures,” reports LifeSiteNews, “to pass their favored bills and defeat pro-life measures, and ‘determine how we can use state policies to ensure there’s an ironclad network of states across the country where abortion will still be legal.’ It’s unclear from their examples – statutory codification of a “right” to abortion, taxpayer funding – this push differs from PPAF’s normal lobbying,” comments Mr. Freiburger. “Presumably it will also redouble efforts to let adults take unrelated minors across state lines for abortions.”

And there is one more element to the panic plan: “Fighting cultural ‘stigma’ against abortion,” Mr. Freiburger notes. “PPAF teases collaborations on positive depictions of abortion through movies and TV shows, websites, videos and other ‘resources’ to ‘educate’ people about abortion. And general public awareness campaigns to normalize the killing of preborn babies.” Good luck with that.  

This plan to draw a black-widow-spider web across America is not the first plan the abortion industry has hatched this year to address the shrinking of the abortion industry. “Earlier this summer,” notes Mr. Freiburger in the LifeSiteNews story, “the pro-abortion group NARAL launched a more direct approach to compensating for the [potential] loss of Roe by lobbying House candidates to pledge that they would support federal legislation forcing all 50 states to allow abortion.”

And the abortion cartel was front-and-center in the anti-Kavanaugh mobbery, with “Planned Parenthood lobb[ying] Senators to block [Justice Kavanaugh] within days of his announcement, attack[ing] him during his confirmation hearings for accurately stating that legal scholars disagree about Roe and that some contraceptives are abortifacients,” reports Mr. Freiburger, “and threaten[ing] to be ‘LOUD’ and ‘NOISY’ while ‘coming for’ Senators who voted ‘yes.’

After the final vote, [PPAF executive vice president Dawn] Laguens and former Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards called on their followers,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “to ‘unleash your rage […] every day’ and to ‘stay angry’ because ‘you will need all your anger now.’”

Illinois to Become Midwest Abortion Capital?

EVEN BEFORE PLANNED PARENTHOOD ISSUED its black-widow-spider-web plan, Illinois appears to be lining up to take first place among abortion cartel siting targets.

“Planned Parenthood has plans to add five new clinics to its 17 already in Illinois,” reports IllinoisReview.com. And already it has “added two,” notes IR, “since abortions became taxpayer-funded.” The state’s legislature and socially liberal GOP Governor Bruce Rauner enacted a measure in 2017 “that forces taxpayers to pay for low-income women and state employees’ abortions,” reports IR, noting, “Illinois is sure to see a sizable uptick in abortion clinics.”

Even before enactment of “HB-40,” Illinois was seen as the abortion-friendly “hole in the donut” of Midwestern states. “In contrast to neighboring states,” reports IR, “the only restriction on abortions in Illinois is that minor girls must either obtain a parent’s permission or a judge’s bypass before undergoing the procedure.” Even that law was held up for years in a variety of court challenges, and during the years of that should-have-been-easy court battle, the state’s previously mixed-record Democratic Party lurched far to the left on abortion-related issues in the state legislature, where the 2011 reapportionment guaranteed Democratic domination for the current decade in a legislature where the two parties had been closely matched.

And Illinois’s growing dominance in the abortion industry is being fostered as well by new intra-cartel competition discovering the state’s growing favorability to the snuffing of the lives of innocent developing babies.

“A new more forthright abortion provider called Carafem,” reports IR, is now challenging Planned Parenthood’s dominance in the state’s abortion industry. “The Chicago Tribune announced [Oct. 9],” notes IR, “Carafem – now in Washington, DC, and Atlanta, GA – sees the northern suburbs of Chicago as a place to promote abortion.

“Carafem chose the Chicago area for its third clinic because Illinois’s abortion laws aren’t as restrictive as laws in neighboring states,” writes IR, “but it can draw patients from those other states, Melissa Grant, Carafem’s chief operating officer, told the Chicago Tribune,” reported by IR.

“And ‘promoting’ abortion is exactly what Carafem does. They placed ads on buses in Atlanta and Metro stations in DC,” reports IR. A Carafem ad: “‘Because there’s no shame [in aborting your baby]. Abortion. Yeah. We do that.’”

One local pro-life group told Illinois Review that the new Carafem shop in north suburban Skokie “‘charges $425-475 for chemical abortion and $550 for surgical abortion without insurance. That said,’” comments Lake County Right to Life, “‘Illinois Medicaid will pick up that cost, thanks to the passage of HB-40 and Gov. Rauner.’”

Blind Eye

U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE GREGORY STIVERS, based in western Kentucky, has struck down Kentucky’s law requiring abortuaries to have ambulance transfer or transport agreements with local hospitals. The effect of the order by the Obama appointee is to hang a still-open-for-business sign on the state’s only abortuary, EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville. Joining EMW in the lawsuit opposing the perfectly reasonable law were the ACLU and Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky.

Planned Parenthood “wasted no time celebrating the ruling,” reports Cassy Fiano-Chesser for Live Action, “announcing that it could begin committing abortions in Kentucky again. ‘We are thrilled that women in Kentucky who need this medical service [read: abortion] will be able to access it here. We look forward to helping those women.’”

But what motivated enactment of the law by Kentucky’s duly elected lawmakers? Without doubt, it was concern for the vulnerable mothers who – whether of their own volition or under pressure by others – undergo abortions in the EMW shop or in an anticipated Planned Parenthood abortuary.

“Take EMW itself,” writes Mrs. Chesser. “State inspectors found the abortion facility to be ‘filthy,’ with unlicensed abortions committed in dirty conditions and using expired medicines.”

The Live Action report goes on to detail horrific inspection results from other abortuaries in Delaware, Virginia, Michigan and Missouri, and concludes its list with a focus on itinerant late-term abortion Leroy Carhart, who, writes Mrs. Chesser, is “alleged to keep his facilities in disgusting condition, with blood on surgical instruments, illegal drug use among his staff and illegal dumping of biohazardous waste, patient records and drugs.”

Surely an ambulance transfer agreement is the least a state – or a federal judge – could do to protect the safety of those mothers who have been deceived or pressured into contracting for the death of their own children.

It’s All About the Vulnerable

Oct. 11, 2018, commentary by National Right to Life political director Karen Cross in National Right to Life News Today

            With just 26 days [now two weeks] before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, I’m going to say something some may find shocking: It’s not about you.

            No. And it’s definitely not about me. It’s about the nearly 3,000 unborn children who will die a brutal death by abortion today. And another 3,000 tomorrow. It’s about protecting their lives – and their futures.

            We are in the business of saving lives. Thanks to you, the carnage is far less than it once was. But one baby lost to abortion is too many.

            When we elect pro-life women and men, life-saving legislation is passed. For example, in South Carolina alone, there are nearly 175,000 people alive today because they passed pro-life laws.

            And just one piece of federal legislation – the Hyde Amendment, which limits federal funding of abortions – is [credited with] saving two million lives.

            A lot is at stake in 26 days. Lives are at stake. This year, there are 35 US Senate seats up for election: 26 Democrat seats and 9 Republican seats. If Democrats were to control the Senate, pro-abortion Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would be Senate Majority Leader. Consider the fate of eminently qualified judges such as Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, were the Senate in the hands of pro-abortion Democrats.

            If pro-abortion Democrats take over leadership in the US House and Senate, there will be consequences. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), for instance, would become House Majority Leader. And pro-abortion legislation would be promoted, such as the Woman’s Health Protection Act – we refer to it as the Abortion without Limits Until Birth Act – which is so extreme, if enacted, it would invalidate nearly all state and federal limits on abortion.

            Shame on them.

            We wouldn’t be able to pass protective pro-life legislation like the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. This bill would require that a baby born alive during an abortion must be afforded the same degree of care that would apply to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.

            We cannot allow pro-abortionists to win.

            You are pro-life because you recognize that it’s not about us, or our individual states, or our preferred candidate. It is about protecting the lives of vulnerable human beings – unborn children, and medically dependent and people with disabilities. The 3,000 babies who die by abortion today are too important to lose sight of that ultimate goal.

Senate Voting Record

Confirmation of Judge Mark Saalfield Norris Sr. – Oct. 11, 2018 – Confirmed – 51-44 (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked with “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Jones & Shelby/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, Flake & Kyl/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Isakson & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Collins/ME, Hyde-Smith & 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/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

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

Not voting: Feinstein/CA, Nelson & Rubio/FL, Heinrich/NM, Heitkamp/ND.