Life Advocacy Briefing

Breaking a Bit

HOPING OUR READERS WILL FORGIVE US! Our editorial staff will be traveling next week, and we will be suspending publication briefly. Expect to see Life Advocacy Briefing again at the beginning of March. And pray for us, please! We will have only about a day, after returning, to research and write the March 4 edition.

Justice Delayed

U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICANS ARE PRESSING every day for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) to bring to a vote HR-962, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. And each day, House Democrats refuse to allow consideration of the proposal, whose need was clearly shown by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s recent calm description of what he evidently sees as acceptable medical practice in deciding, after a baby survives an abortion, what – if anything – should be done.

The legislation was introduced Feb. 5 by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), who has gathered, as of this writing, 158 GOP co-sponsors and two Democratic co-sponsors, Representatives Dan Lipinski (IL) and Collin Peterson (MN). 

HR-962 updates the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act by adding enforcement penalties and a requirement that abortionists, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, “get such babies to hospitals” in the event that an abortion victim is born alive. 

Identical legislation, sponsored in the Senate as S-311 by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and 48 GOP co-sponsors, is pending on the Senate calendar after an attempt to bring it to an immediate vote was blocked by objection from Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).

The Democratic Party appears to be siding with the abortion lobby against overwhelming support for the reform among the public. Results of a public opinion poll conducted by the respected McLaughlin & Assoc. for the Susan B. Anthony List were released last Wednesday, according to Mr. Freiburger, and showed “77% of Americans support the protections of the … bill, and 62% oppose late-term abortions.” But the Democratic Party’s icon, ex-Pres. Barack Obama, opposed Born-Alive Protection repeatedly during his tenure in the Illinois Senate, when the infanticide of abortion survivors was first brought to public attention.

Calls Needed Now

HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP STEVE SCALISE (R-LA) IS GATHERING SIGNATURES on a discharge petition for House consideration of HR-962, Rep. Ann Wagner’s Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Discharge petitions can force a floor vote but can be considered, reports Rachel delGuidice for the Daily Signal “only … on the second and fourth Mondays of the month,” provided the House is in session on those days.

To bring forward the discharge petition, Rep. Scalise must obtain at least 218 signatures. Readers are asked to call their own Representatives – GOP or Democratic – and urge them to sign the discharge petition for the Born-Alive Protection Act, HR-962. Members may be contacted via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121; operators should know what office to connect, if the caller is unsure, via the caller’s zip code.

Rising from the Ashes?

JOINT RESOLUTIONS HAVE BEEN FILED in both houses of Congress to eliminate the deadline for states’ ratification of the long-dead Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution, which would, according to National Right to Life – and to the long-cherished wisdom of the late Phyllis Schlafly – in the words of NRL’s Feb. 6 letter to Congress, “provide a powerful legal weapon with which to challenge virtually any limits on abortion and to require unlimited government funding of abortion.”

HJRes-38 was filed by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and has 149 co-sponsors, including two Republicans (Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and New York’s Rep. Tom Reed). SJRes-6 is sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) as his co-sponsor. Both resolutions are currently residing in their respective house’s Judiciary Committee.

National Right to Life’s extensive letters to Members of the House and Senate on the topic can be viewed by downloading them from the Internet page at https://www.nrlc.org/site/federal/era.

Quick Takes

• REP. WALTER B. JONES (R-NC) PASSED AWAY last week at age 76. Though elected to his 13th House term in November, he had been ailing since last July and had not been appointed to any committees in the 116th Congress. Voters will choose his successor in a special election sometime this year, date as yet unspecified. His was a solid vote on the right to Life; he will be missed.
• FOCUS ON THE FAMILY IS PLANNING A PRO-LIFE RALLY in Times Square, New York City, on Saturday, May 4. Included will be the giant-screen posting of a live 4-D ultrasound of a baby brought by his or her mother for the occasion. Mark your calendar now! Details will be posted at www.focusonthefamily.com/pro-life.
• THE SUPREME COURT GRANTED LOUISIANA’s ABORTIONISTS a stay of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ September ruling upholding the state’s law which protects vulnerable abortion seekers by requiring abortuaries to have established admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the shop. The high court’s action came early this month on a 5-to-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the Court’s abortion wing to grant the stay. The law would have taken effect Feb. 4 but will be unenforceable for now, despite the 5th Circuit’s earlier ruling and the appellate court’s refusal in January to rehear the case.
• U.S. REP. DEBBIE LESKO (R-AZ) HAS FILED HR-956 to ban dismemberment abortions. The bill has 28 co-sponsors so far. Readers are urged to contact their Representatives (1-202/224-3121) to request them to add their names. The proposal has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
• U.S. REP. VICKY HARTZLER (R-MO) HAS FILED HR-833, the “Protecting Life & Taxpayers Act,” to, as reported by National Right to Life News Today, “limit the availability of federal tax dollars for any entity that performs abortions or which financially supports abortion providers.” The chairman of the House Values Action Team is joined on the bill by 62 co-sponsors so far, all of them Republican. Readers are urged to contact their Representatives (1-202/224-3121) to request them to add their names. The proposal has been referred to the House Committee on Energy & Commerce.
• STUDENTS AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY NOW HAVE EASY ACCESS to the Plan B contraceptive pill, which many consider to be an abortifacient. It is now being sold in vending machines at the Fairfax, Virginia, campus. The university, according to Live Action News reporter Zachary Petrizzo, “stands to make a commission from the sales.”

In the States

• MISSOURI LAWMAKERS ARE CONSIDERING a bill to strengthen the state’s parental involvement law by requiring both parents to be notified before an abortion on a minor girl. The law already provides for consent by one parent; the bill would bring the baby’s other grandparent into the matter by requiring notice. An exception is provided in the case of a parent who has been convicted of child abuse, according to LifeSiteNews.com, or a sex offense. The sponsor is Rep. Rocky Miller (R-Lake Ozark).
• ILLINOIS IS CONSIDERING REPEAL of the state’s 1995 Parental Notice Act; we publish an Illinois Family Institute Action Alert on the proposal at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.
• VERMONT LAWMAKERS ARE CONSIDERING an abortion legalization bill (H-57) which Live Action’s Nancy Flanders characterizes as more extreme than the notorious legislation signed ignominiously into law by neighboring New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Jan. 22. The Vermont proposal, Ms. Flanders writes, is “so extreme that pro-choice [sic] Gov. Phil Scott even declined to support the bill as originally written.” And at least one of the bill’s original sponsors, a GOP lawmaker has “backed away from the bill and removed his support. He said,” writes Ms. Flanders, “he wants limits on late-term abortion.”
• MISSISSIPPI’s LEGISLATURE IS WELL ON THE WAY to enactment of the Heartbeat Bill, which would require abortionists to check for a heartbeat of a developing unborn baby and to refrain from aborting a baby whose heartbeat can be detected. The proposal has passed both houses (House by 81-to-36, Senate by 34-to-14) in somewhat different forms, which must be resolved before final votes to put it on the desk of Gov. Phil Bryant (R), who has indicated he will sign it.

Out of Step

Feb. 13, 2019, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            It’s been two-and-a-half years since Hillary Clinton lost the election. And based on her latest talking points, she still doesn’t have a single clue why. The same extremism that turned off voters in 2016 is back, reminding Americans what kind of country they’d have if the woman who made late-term abortion her closing argument for President had won.

            This time, they aren’t squaring off on the debate – but Hillary Clinton is still managing to make one of the best cases for Donald Trump’s re-election. In a bitter response to his State of the Union address, the former First Lady tweeted Monday that the President was lying about the severity of third-trimester abortions. “Only about 1% of abortions happen later in pregnancy,” she tweeted, “almost always because a woman’s health or life is at risk, or the pregnancy is no longer viable. Lying about this is dangerous and a slap in the face to families who face heartbreaking situations.”

            First things first. The number of children it affects has nothing to do with the morality of late-term abortion. If there were only two kids on a burning bus, people wouldn’t shrug and say, “Oh, the bus isn’t full. Don’t bother.” Right is right. It doesn’t have quotas, check the polls or change with the times. If it’s your son or daughter in harm’s way, I guarantee you’d say that one life is worth saving.

            Like Hillary, Democrats are fond of throwing around this one-percent statistic on late-term abortion (1.3% if they’re feeling generous). It’s a convenient number to use, since most people are trained to dismiss it as nothing. But in this case, that “one percent” represents 5,597 children a year. That’s double the number of casualties on 9/11. (Only this time, we’re attacking our own!) Imagine if someone said, just as casually, “America only lost 2,996 lives on September 11th. It’s just .001 of one percent.” It would be unthinkable – almost as unthinkable as a country passing laws that make it easier to kill perfectly healthy babies. But unfortunately, that’s the culture abortion has created. In the 46 years of Roe, we’re talking about 257,462 late-term lives. How does “only one percent” sound now?

            Clinton also trots out the old and tired “health of the mother” argument – one of the biggest myths of the entire debate. Dozens of abortionists have gone on record agreeing with pro-lifers that there’s almost no instance when doctors would have to kill a baby to save a mother’s life. In fact, many point out, aborting a fully developed child is far more dangerous to the mom than delivering it. “If a woman with a serious illness … gets pregnant,” Dr. Don Sloan explains, “the abortion procedure may be as dangerous for her as going through the pregnancy. … The idea of abortion to save the mother’s life is something that people cling to because it sounds noble and pure – but medically speaking, it probably doesn’t exist.”

            “Viability of the pregnancy” is another grossly misused term. To one person, it could mean a fatal defect; to someone else, it’s a non-threatening disability like Down syndrome. Daniel Ritchie’s parents were told he wasn’t “viable” because he was missing both arms. Would we tell a soldier that, who comes home from Afghanistan with an amputated leg? You don’t deserve to live because you’re not our idea of “perfect?” Thank Goodness, Daniel’s parents didn’t listen. Today, he’s 34, married with two children, and has a vibrant ministry reminding people that their afflictions are for God’s glory.

            As usual, Hillary tried to soften the gruesomeness of what she’s supporting by calling them “heartbreaking situations.” Funny, it didn’t seem all that heartbreaking to New York Democrats, who jumped to their feet and wildly clapped for the chance to make the killing more common. And it didn’t seem heartbreaking to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) when he lit up the One World Trade Center to celebrate the kind of evil that toppled the building in the first place. Hillary is right about one thing, though. Lying about this is dangerous – especially to the political future of anyone who tries to make it a legitimate 2020 platform.

            Until then, Pres. Trump is content to be the face of opposition on late-term abortion, which is turning out to be one of the greatest areas of American consensus in all of my years in Washington. By fighting back publicly and (as the White House confirmed yesterday) privately in his meeting with Gov. Cuomo, he is setting this up to be a battle that could set the Democrats’ party back years.

            Even in deep blue states, where leaders are stubbornly moving forward with the Left’s abortion agenda, voters are overwhelmingly resistant, which is causing the approval ratings of the leaders to take a nose drive. In the heart of New England, Rhode Island’s polling on a New York-type bill spells disaster for the Left. Three-quarters of the state is solidly against late-term abortion until the moment of birth. An even greater number – 92.8% – want them to back off the issue altogether. Up in Vermont, where a radical abortion measure just made its way out of a House committee, the public was furious to find out the fine print of the bill, which would basically be a get-out-of-jail-free card for monsters like Kermit Gosnell.

            [Vermont’s] H-57, as the Washington Times explains, would forbid the prosecution of “any individual” for performing or attempting an abortion. Even if that individual runs a dirty, cat-infested, third-world operation where hundreds of babies are born alive and then killed with scissors. If Gosnell were to get out of prison and hang up a shingle, said Vermont Right to Life’s director, “there’d be nothing we could do about it.” Outside the statehouse, “there’s a horror,” she says. “There’s a community feeling that ‘Wait a minute; what are we doing?’”

            In Illinois, the debate is just as toxic. There, lawmakers just introduced a twist – cutting parents out of the abortion process altogether. In a country where we don’t let kids leave school without a permission slip, Illinois wants to let its teenage daughters have a deadly medical surgery without ever calling home. This, of course, is on top of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) vow to make the Land of Lincoln the most radical abortion state in America. And while the competition is steep, he’s well on his way – smiling as Democrats introduce four of their own birth day abortion bills.

            In the meantime, Hillary Clinton says she’s “not closing the door” on a 2020 run. But if she keeps up her gory agenda, who knows? Voters might close it for her.

How Low Can They Go?

Feb. 13, 2019, Action Alert from Illinois Family Institute, written by Kathy Valente

            Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Personal PAC have joined forces once again to eradicate any and all limits on killing babies in Illinois, absurdly claiming that Illinois’s parental notice law is “dangerous” and “unnecessary.”

            The push comes from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office and has materialized in the form of two bills. The language has not yet been submitted, but the intention is clear: Leftists want to make baby-killing even easier.

            In a press conference, State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), chief sponsor in the Illinois House for the grossly misnamed Reproductive Health Act (HB-2495), stated, “We know that there is a movement today to limit access to reproductive health care. We want to reflect our values in Illinois and trust women.”

            Well, she got one thing tacitly right. Those who wield power in Illinois have barbaric “values” that include utter disregard for the bodily integrity, dignity and sanctity of humans in the womb.

            In fear of Roe v. Wade being overturned, they will do everything in their power to preserve the non-existent moral “right” to slaughter inconvenient and imperfect humans in Illinois. According to speakers at the press conference, their bill will do the following:

• Repeal the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 including criminal penalties on doctors who commit abortion
• Repeal the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, which, [by so doing would allow] babies to be killed up to the time of birth
• Remove any and all regulations on clinics that commit abortion
• Repeal the Parental Notification Act of 1995

            State Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch (D-Westchester) is the chief sponsor of HB-2467, a proposal to repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995. This law only requires notification, not consent. But pro-abortion advocates don’t want anything – not even parents – to hinder a child’s ability to have her baby killed. Liz Higgins, Planned Parenthood Associate Medical Director, stated, “Planned Parenthood and our partners are not going to let this become a country where people can no longer access abortion.” This includes our daughters. The government is once again interfering in familial relationships in order to advance Leftist “values.”

            This must be stopped. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU will stop at nothing to achieve their body-and-soul-destroying goals. If we fail to do everything in our power to block the passage of these bills, we become complicit in the destruction of countless more innocent lives. How much longer will God stay His wrath on this state for shedding innocent blood?