Life Advocacy Briefing

April 29, 2019

Speaking Truth to Power / Case Already Closed
Persistent Policy Reversal / In the States / In the Courts
Fundamental Justice / Fundamentally Inhumane

Speaking Truth to Power

ANY CHANCE YOU CAN SHOW UP IN TIMES SQUARE next Saturday, May 4? Focus on the Family is responding to the radical celebration of death which occurred in the New York State capitol recently with passage of a radical law guaranteeing a “right” to abortion. The response: a celebration and demonstration of Life, right in the center of American commerce and power.

“Alive from NY: See Life Clearly” is a rally planned for May 4 “featuring live music, special guest speakers and live 4-D ultrasounds broadcast on a massive jumbotron,” as Focus on the Family announces on its Internet website. “The event is … designed to celebrate the sanctity of human life, marvel at the wonder of human development in the womb and encourage advocacy for women facing unplanned pregnancies and the preborn.”  

Participants need to register for a free ticket to attend this exciting event; capacity, according to the announcement, is “limited to 10,000 attendees.” Go to https://www.focusonthefamily.com/pro-life.

Case Already Closed

EX VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN (D) ANNOUNCED last Thursday he will seek his party’s nomination to challenge Pres. Donald Trump in 2020. In response, LifeSiteNews’s Calvin Freiburger wrote a quick review of the political veteran’s history on compelling issues, including the right to life, noting “he began his Senate career as a relative moderate on abortion but by the mid-2000s generally voted in lockstep with Planned Parenthood and NARAL [National Abortion Rights Action League]. As former Pres. Barack Obama’s running mate,” Mr. Freiburger notes, “[Mr.] Biden spent eight years in what was arguably the most pro-abortion Administration in American history.”

The former Democratic Senator from Delaware “claims to be an observant Catholic,” notes Mr. Freiburger, and he “told America Magazine in 2015,” reports LifeSiteNews, “that he was ‘prepared to accept as a matter of faith’ that ‘at the moment of conception there’s human life and being.’” But he added in the same interview, notes Mr. Freiburger, that he “wasn’t prepared to ‘impose’ a ‘rigid’ or ‘precise’ view on abortion that was ‘born out of my faith’ (ignoring that science is equally conclusive on when life begins).

“During a 2011 speech before a Chinese audience,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “[Mr.] Biden went so far as to assure them that while China’s one-child policy was unsustainable, he ‘fully understand[s]’ and was ‘not second-guessing’ the practice of forcing families into abortion and sterilization.”

Persistent Policy Reversal

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STRIPPED A PROPOSED U.N. RESOLUTION of its abortion trap last week, according to a report by Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com.

“The UN Security Council,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “has been debating updates [to] a resolution first approved in 2013 to combat the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. The US objected to a reference in the document,” he notes, “calling for ‘comprehensive health services, including sexual and reproductive health’ for ‘survivors of sexual violence,’ on the grounds that ‘reproductive health’ is a longstanding term of art for abortion and related services.”

The LifeSiteNews story cites a report by the publication Foreign Policy, which quotes an internal State Dept. cable explaining the US position on the wording. “America remains ‘strongly committed to preventing conflict-related sexual violence and holding responsible persons accountable’ and agrees ‘more needs to be done to deter the recurrence of such crimes and assist survivors,’ the cable said,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “but ‘cannot accept unamended explicit – or implicit – references to “sexual and reproductive health”’ because ‘we do not support or promote abortion.’ …

“An unnamed European diplomat complained to The Guardian,” reports Mr. Freiburger, “‘It [the US action] is, at its heart, an attack on the progressive normative framework established over the past 25 years.’” And rightly so.

“The US threat to veto the resolution succeeded,” writes Mr. Freiburger, citing US News as his source, “in getting the language removed from the final resolution [last] Tuesday. … The finalized text ‘ended up in a place that is closer in line with the White House’s priorities,’ an Administration aide said” in the LifeSiteNews report.

In the States

  • OHIO GOV. MIKE DeWINE (R) HAS SIGNED the Heartbeat Abortion law, which outlaws abortion of babies whose heartbeats can be detected, typically at about six weeks from conception. At the bill signing ceremony, Gov. DeWine said, quoted by Dakin Andone for CNN.com, “‘The signing of this bill today is consistent with that respect for life and the imperative to protect those who cannot protect themselves.’” The measure is expected to take effect 90 days after it is filed by the secretary of state, according to Mr. Andone, who quotes Ohio Atty. General Dave Yost (R), “‘Sometimes the evolution of the law requires bold steps. … In the last 46 years,’” he noted, reports CNN, “‘the practice of medicine has changed. Science has changed. Even the point of viability has changed. Only the law has lagged behind,’ he said. ‘This law provides a stable, objective standard to guide the courts.’” A legal challenge is expected from the abortion industry.
  • THE LOUISIANA HOUSE HAS VOTED TO ASK VOTERS to ratify a state constitutional amendment, reports Martin Barillas for LifeSiteNews.com, “to say there is no right to an abortion or taxpayer funding for abortions in the state.” The Love Life Constitutional Amendment has bipartisan support and was introduced by pro-life Democratic State Rep. Katrina Jackson. The needed two-thirds majority vote was achieved in the House with a 78-to-10 roll call. If it prevails by two-thirds vote in the Senate, as expected, it will appear on the ballot on Oct. 12, 2019. “‘By passing this we can rest assured,’” said Rep. Jackson, quoted by Mr. Barillas, “‘that, together with our state law, we will never become like New York, which recently legalized abortion up to the very moment before birth.’”
  • A STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROPOSAL guaranteeing “abortion rights” is making its way through the Vermont legislature, having already passed the State Senate 28 to 2 and having been heard in House committee this month with no opposing testimony. If adopted in the House, it will have to be approved a second time in each house and then be submitted to voters in 2022.
  • NORTH CAROLINA GOV. ROY COOPER (D) HAS VETOED his state’s Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would have required doctors, under penalty of law, to act to preserve the life of a baby born alive even in an attempted abortion. “The bill stated,” writes Jamey Cross for the Daily Tarheel, “that if an abortion attempt results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of North Carolina and entitled to care from the hospital, clinic or facility.” What’s wrong with that? Here’s a quote from the governor’s veto statement, quoted by Ms. Cross: “‘This needless legislation would criminalize doctors and other healthcare providers for a practice that simply does not exist.’” Perhaps the governor should consult with his colleague, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a doctor himself who recently explained to a radio audience how routine practice in such a situation is to decide the survivor’s fate in a post-birth consultation among medical providers and the child’s family.
  • NOTORIOUS VIRGINIA GOV. RALPH NORTHAM HAS SIGNED a bill, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, “toughening the state’s protection of animals against potential abusers, inviting a new wave of critiques for the embattled Democrat’s inhumane view of babies born alive after a failed abortion.” The stiffening of penalties for inhumanity to animals passed both legislative houses unanimously.
  • NEW JERSEY GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D) HAS SIGNED the narrowly passed doctor-abetted suicide law which puts his state into a collection of now eight states whose public policy endangers the lives of their residents. The law takes effect Aug. 1 and “allow[s] adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live to get a prescription for life-ending medication,” reports Taylor Romine for CNN.com. “The law requires either a psychiatrist or psychologist must determine,” writes Ms. Romine, “that the patient has the mental capacity to make the decision” to take “a series of self-administered pills that can be taken at home. … Some who voted against it,” reports CNN, “are apprehensive about its effects.” Really? Said GOP Sen. Robert Singer, quoted by Ms. Romine: “‘The bill has lasting ramifications and lots of loopholes. … We are so concerned about opioids and not trusting doctors with opioids. But now we are willing to trust them with this.’”
  • THE TEXAS HOUSE HAS APPROVED a measure “protecting infants who survive abortion,” reports Grace Carr for the Daily Caller, “and giving parents the right to sue physicians who violate the law. … Doctors who violate the law,” she reports, “would be charged with a third-degree felony and face up to $100,000 in fines.” The House voted 94 to 2 to send HB-16 to the state senate. The proposal, reports Ms. Carr, “mandates that physicians must ‘exercise the same degree of professional skill, care and diligence to preserve the life and health of the [survived] child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious physician would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age,’ according to the text. … The measure also requires abortion doctors to immediately transport and admit the baby to a hospital, according to the Texas Tribune,” quoted by the Daily Caller.

In the Courts

  • FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE MICHAEL McSHANE ANNOUNCED last week he will enjoin enforcement of the Trump Administration’s recently adopted regulation disqualifying abortion outfits from Title X (Ten) “family planning” grants and contracts. He called the changes, which are scheduled to take effect May 3, “a ‘ham-fisted approach to public health policy,’” reports Martin Barillas for LifeSiteNews.com. Judge McShane is based in Oregon, within the federal appellate court’s notorious 9th Circuit. He appears, however, to be limiting his expected ruling to granting Title X access to the listed plaintiffs in the case, preparing to decline to issue the national injunction the abortion industry is seeking in his court. “Judge McShane,” notes Mr. Barillas, “said he did not want to set ‘national healthcare’ policy.”

Fundamental Justice

Feb. 11, 2019, commentary by US Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), published by LifeSiteNews.com

            I just left the House floor where, for the fourth straight legislative day [now exceeding 20], House Democrats blocked a vote on a bill that would protect babies who survive abortions from being murdered. I just asked for “unanimous consent” to bring Rep. Ann Wagner’s (R-MO) Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to the House floor for a vote. Democratic leaders, supporting the abortion industry agenda, refused to even consider the legislation, fearing the thought of allowing their Members to vote their conscience and what they know to be morally straight.

            In the wake of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s comments endorsing infanticide and abhorrent legislation in Virginia and New York that lifts essentially all limits on abortion, my GOP colleagues are making it clear that we stand firmly with both the born and the unborn, protecting the fundamental right to life. Though not news to many, Gov. Northam laid bare the startling and sickening reality of the pro-abortion lobby – they want abortion on-demand, in the last moments of pregnancy, and even after birth.

            Though they refuse to go on the record and vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, the new House Majority has already shown where it stands on these atrocities.

            Last Congress, the Republican Majority boldly led the way in protecting Life, passing a permanent ban on taxpayer-funded abortions, preventing abortions after the child can feel pain in the womb, and supporting the Trump Administration as they protected life around the world. But our new Congress – comprised of the most pro-abortion majority in history and led by Nancy Pelosi – wants to deny the rights of children and the unborn. On day one, the new Democratic Majority passed a bill to force taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in foreign countries. Their legislation would also have given $37.5 million to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports wide-scale, coercive abortions, involuntary sterilization and unjust eugenic programs around the world.

            Even further, a number of House Democrats joined with abortion giants to push for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment – a move that would force every American to pay for abortions. These positions are radical and out of touch with what we know to be true and right as Americans.

            Now, it is imperative that we talk about the importance of life and what it means to conservatives. Two events in the early part of the year remind us why it’s important to fight for life. The first is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. King understood that to “sacrifice the future of his children for immediate personal comfort” was a recipe for failure. He also professed the value and hope of every single human life. The second is the March for Life. Every year since the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, pro-life advocates have flooded our nation’s capital to boldly speak for those who can’t speak for themselves. They march to remember the more than 58 million unborn children who have had their futures stolen by abortion.

            Both events were just a few weeks ago. Each was a celebration of life, justice and human potential. But, as my friend Benjamin Watson put it, in the middle of these events, we saw a “sad and evil day.” Mr. Watson recently retired from the NFL and spoke last year at a Historically Black College & University Conference I hosted with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). His conviction to speak up on issues of faith and life makes him a bold example for all of us. Last week he said, “It is a sad and evil day when the murder of our most innocent and vulnerable is celebrated with such overwhelming exuberance.” He was responding to the image of cheers in the legislative chamber to celebrate a new law in New York.

            The law allows for abortion up to birth – practically without limits. It authorizes the legal murder of a fully viable human baby. This is what was being celebrated. This was why the Freedom Tower was lit bright pink.

            New York already faces a cataclysm. In New York City, more than 500 abortions are performed for every 1,000 births. The numbers are even more staggering for African-American babies – more of whom are aborted than born.

            This is the greatest injustice of our time.

            I support federalism and the idea that New York can make its own laws for New York. My question is not a legal one but a moral one. How long will our American society allow this? Can we expect the new House Democratic Majority to continue down this path?

            To revive the American Dream, we must reclaim America’s soul. That means standing with the majority of the American people to reject federal funding of abortion. That means putting the life and health of women ahead of the desires of abortion giants like Planned Parenthood. That means valuing every single human life and the potential that he or she has – both 20 weeks before birth and 20 weeks after.

            This is what House Republicans are dedicated to doing. We are dedicated to the value of all human life. We will not stop fighting. For those of you fighting on this issue, there’s no more noble cause than to fight for those who are defenseless. For these children who have no voice, never stop raising yours. …

Fundamentally Inhumane

April 15, 2019, The Point commentary by John Stonestreet & G. Shane Morris

            Preventing cruelty to animals is an admirable goal. In fact, William Wilberforce, the great British Parliamentarian and Christian social activist, started a society for animal welfare. He believed, as Proverbs says, a good man is kind to all of God’s creatures.

            But Wilberforce knew protecting human beings was much more important. And so he devoted his life to fighting against and eventually ending British slavery.

            Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam has different priorities. He signed a law to tighten penalties on animal abusers, which is great. In fact, some cases of animal abuse are now a felony. But just weeks ago, this same governor supported a bill that would have relaxed restrictions on late-term abortion and would leave even newborns vulnerable.

            A public official who prioritizes the protection of animals and the extermination of children at the same time is a hypocrite of the highest order. Gov. Northam’s concern for cats and dogs is great, but he’s not humane while humans are killed on his watch.