Life Advocacy Briefing

June 24, 2019

Abortion Via Appropriations
A Step Toward Overturning Roe?
Candidate Watch / In the States
Putting It Plainly / House Voting Records

Abortion Via Appropriations

THE HOUSE HAS PASSED A MASSIVE SPENDING BILL with deep implications for abortion policy. The final passage vote was 226 to 203; we will publish the voting record in a future edition. 

We appreciate GOP Representatives Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Martha Roby of Alabama, Debbie Lesko of Arizona and Roger Marshall of Kansas for their (albeit unsuccessful) efforts to amend the bill to protect taxpayers from the pro-abortion-subsidizing provisions of HR-2740, the massive bill combining appropriations for the Departments of Defense, Labor, Energy, State and Health & Human Services (HHS), for Water Resources, Foreign Operations and the Legislative Branch. Each of these Members offered a pro-life amendment to the proposal. We begin our publication of the relevant roll calls at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing, beginning with “Cole” and “Roby”, the first two pro-life amendments to be considered.

The Cole Amendment, defeated 192 to 230, would have removed HR-2740’s provision blocking “implementation and enforcement,” reports National Right to Life News Today, “of the recent rule ‘Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care,’ issued by [HHS]. That rule,” notes NRL/NT, “would enforce approximately 25 existing long-standing statutory civil rights provisions that protect healthcare providers from suffering discrimination if they do not participate in abortion, sterilization or assisted suicide. The Cole Amendment,” explains NRL/NT, “would have struck this language and permitted the ‘Protecting Statutory Conscience Rights in Health Care’ rule to stand.”

The Roby Amendment would have struck the language in HR-2740 which prevents implementation of the Trump Administration’s rule disqualifying abortionists from Title X (Ten) funding. The vote was 191 to 231.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) also offered an amendment, but his was to make the bill worse. The Pocan Amendment was adopted and would block implementation of a new HHS policy restricting taxpayer funding of fetal tissue research. The vote on “Pocan” was 225 to 193; we will publish the voting record on this amendment in a future edition.

Rep. Marshall was seeking, as we are told by a source on Capitol Hill, to “reinstate Pres. Trump’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy (PLGHA) which bans funding of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning. The PLGHA affects nearly $9 billion and ensures that taxpayer funding is not used to promote abortion overseas.” PLGHA is the Trump update of the Reagan Mexico City Policy. We were unable to find a recorded roll call on his amendment in the Congressional Record.

The Lesko Amendment sought, according to our Capitol Hill source, “to strike the [bill’s]  requirement that not less than $750 million of Global Health Programs shall be made available for family planning and reproductive health services. While the PLGHA prevents funding for abortion providers overseas, this requirement creates an opportunity to have unlimited spending for domestic non-government organizations that provide reproductive health programs.” “Lesko” went down 188 to 225; we will publish the roll call in a future edition.

 

A Step Toward Overturning Roe?

JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS MAY HAVE SENT A SIGNAL in an opinion he authored for the Supreme Court last week, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com. The case in question did not relate to the right to Life, but it did relate to a long-standing precedent, and Justice Thomas went beyond the questions in the case itself to sharply criticize the Court’s typical embrace of a doctrine known as “stare decisis,” on which the claim is based that the Court should always cling to long-established precedent, even when it is wrong.

Perhaps Justice Thomas was thinking about the Dred Scott decision, by which the Supreme Court stubbornly clung to precedent in a case relating to the human rights of an American slave, a ruling which was eventually overturned but not until after the people of the United States endured a civil war over ending slavery and adopted two Constitutional amendments (XIII and XIV) to supplant the adamant attachment of the Supreme Court to an unjust, untenable “precedent.” Perhaps he was also thinking about the 46-year-old Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton edicts which the Left claim as precedent but which are poisoning the American culture and honoring the slaughter of tens of millions of innocent lives.

“‘In my view,’” wrote Justice Thomas, quoted by Mr. Freiburger, “‘the Court’s typical formulation of the stare decisis standard does not comport with our judicial duty under Article III because it elevates demonstrably erroneous decisions – meaning decisions outside the realm of permissible interpretation – over the text of the Constitution and other duly enacted federal law.’ The modern understanding of stare decisis, he argued,” reports LifeSiteNews, “exacerbates judges’ temptation to substitute their personal desires for the law ‘by giving the veneer of respectability to our continued application of demonstrably incorrect precedents. …

“‘When faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my rule is simple: We should not follow it,’  [Justice] Thomas declared. ‘This view of stare decisis follows directly from the Constitution’s supremacy over other sources of law – including our own precedents. That the Constitution outranks other sources of law is inherent in its nature.’” Right on, Mr. Justice Thomas!

 

Candidate Watch

  • DEMOCRATIC SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (NY) HAS BEEN CALLED OUT by Dr. Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Priests for Life’s Director of Civil Rights for the Unborn, for her desperate effort to draw attention to her campaign for her party’s Presidential nomination by denouncing pro-life citizens as racists and anti-Semites. “I was shocked and saddened,” said Dr. King in a news release, “at the recent comments of Presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand comparing pro-life advocates to racists. As I wrote in Newsmax.com this week,” she said, “a baby in the womb is a ‘human being and should have equal rights to life.’ [Ms.] Gillibrand,” declared Dr. King, “is supporting abortion, one of the ‘most heinous forms of racism that exists’ that kills ‘the weakest members of our human race – babies in the womb. Little babies in the womb, regardless of race, gender or physical or mental disability, are people. To defend their right to live is not racism – it is true compassion!” Amen.

 

In the States

  • VERMONT GOV. PHIL SCOTT (D) HAS SIGNED legislation which, notes Dave Andrusko in National Right to Life News Today, “legaliz[es] unlimited, unregulated abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.” H-57, according to Vermont Right to Life policy analyst Sharon Toborg, quoted by Mr. Andrusko, “‘goes beyond Roe v. Wade and may well be the most radical anti-Life law in the nation. … H-57 grants abortion providers and clinics the right to sue the state if they are not allowed to establish a new abortion practice in Vermont,’ she said. ‘Unlike providers of any other medical procedure, H-57 grants abortion providers this private right of action against the state.” Votes to pass this new law in the left-leaning legislature were 24 to 6 in the Senate and 106 to 37 in the House. “‘Abortion already is legal in Vermont throughout all nine months of pregnancy with no regulations or restrictions on its practice,’” according to Mary Hahn Beerworth, VRtL’s executive director, quoted by NRL/NT. “‘Not a single one.’”
     
  • MAINE’s GOVERNOR, Janet Mills (D), has now signed a bill legalizing doctor-abetted suicide, making Maine the ninth state, according to the Catholic News Agency, “to make it legal for a doctor to prescribe a terminally ill patient a lethal dose of medication.” In a colossal illustration of naivete, at best, Gov. Mills told reporters, before she signed the bill, “‘It is my hope that this law, while respecting the right to personal liberty, will be used sparingly.’” The controversial bill passed the state’s House on a single-vote margin.
     
  • THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE is considering a bill allowing late-term abortions, removing the state’s 24-hour waiting period before an abortion can be committed, overturning the state’s parental consent law, removing language defining an unborn baby as an unborn child and providing abortion subsidy for those whose insurance plans do not cover the act. Competing demonstrations are occupying the state capitol, and according to Cassy Fiano-Chesser, reporting for Live Action, “even the pro-abortion governor of Massachusetts has publicly said he does not support this bill,” which is being called “the Roe Act.”

 

Putting It Plainly

June 18, 2019, excerpts from Pres. Trump’s Re-Election Announcement Rally Speech, transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing

            Virtually every top Democrat now supports taxpayer-funded abortion right up to the moment of birth, ripping babies straight from the mother’s womb. Leading Democrats have even opposed measures to prevent the execution of children after birth; you saw that in Virginia.

            Republicans believe that every life is a sacred gift from God. That is why I have asked Congress to prohibit extreme late-term abortion. …

            We believe in the American Constitution and the rule of law. We believe in the dignity of work and the sanctity of life. We believe that faith and family – not government and bureaucracy – are the true American way. … We will live by the words of our national motto: In God We Trust.

 

House Voting Records

Cole Amendment to HR-2740 – Safeguarding the HHS Medical Providers Conscience Protection Rule – June 12, 2019 – Failed – 192-230 (Democrats in Italics; new Member in ALL CAPS)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Hunter, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes/CA; Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Diaz-Balart, Dunn, Gaetz, Mast, Posey, Rooney, Rutherford, Spano, Steube, Waltz, Webster, Yoho/FL; Allen, Carter, Collins, Ferguson, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, A. Scott, Woodall/GA; Fulcher, Simpson/ID; R.Davis, Kinzinger, LaHood, Lipinski, Shimkus/IL; Baird, Banks, Brooks, Bucshon, Hollingsworth, Pence, Walorski/IN; King/IA; Estes, Marshall, Watkins/KS; Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers/KY; Abraham, Graves, Higgins, Johnson, Scalise/LA; Harris/MD; Amash, Bergman, Huizenga, Mitchell, Moolenaar, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Hagedorn, Stauber/MN; Guest, Kelly/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/MO; Bacon, Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei/NV; Smith/NJ; Collins, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Zeldin/NY; Budd, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, McHenry, Meadows, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Armstrong/ND; Balderson, Chabot, Davidson, Gibbs, Gonzalez, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Stivers, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Cole, Hern, Lucas, Mullin/OK; Walden/OR; Fitzpatrick, Joyce, KELLER, Kelly, Meuser, Perry, Reschenthaler, Smucker, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Norman, Rice, Timmons, Wilson/SC; Johnson/SD; Burchett, DesJarlais, Fleischmann, Kustoff, Roe, Rose/TN; Arrington, Babin, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Cloud, Conaway, Crenshaw, Cuellar, Flores, Gohmert, Gooden, Granger, Hurd, Marchant, McCaul, Olson, Roy, Taylor, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Curtis, McAdams, Stewart/UT; Cline, Griffith, Riggleman, Wittman/VA; McMorris-Rodgers, Newhouse/WA; McKinley, Miller, Mooney/WV; Duffy, Gallagher, Grothman, Steil/WI; Cheney/WY.

Voting “no”/anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O’Halleran, Stanton/AZ; Aguilar, Barragan, Bass, Bera, Brownley, Carbajal, Cardenas, Chu, Cisneros, Correa, Costa, Cox, Davis, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Garamendi, Gomez, Harder, Hill, Huffman, Khanna, Lee, Levin, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Panetta, Peters, Porter, Rouda, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; Crow, DeGette, Neguse, Perlmutter/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Hayes, Himes, Larson/CT; Blunt-Rochester/DE; Castor, Crist, Demings, Deutch, Frankel, Lawson, Mucarsel-Powell, Murphy, Shalala, Soto, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, McBath, D. Scott/GA; Case/HI; Bustos, Casten, D.Davis, Foster, Garcia, Kelly, Krishnamoorthi, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky, Schneider, Underwood/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Axne, Finkenauer, Loebsack/IA; Davids/KS; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Golden, Pingree/ME; Brown, Cummings, Hoyer, Raskin, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, Trone/MD; Clark, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Pressley, Trahan/MA; Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin, Slotkin, Stevens, Tlaib/MI; Craig, McCollum, Omar, Peterson, Phillips/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Horsford, Lee, Titus/NV; Kuster, Pappas/NH; Gottheimer, Kim, Malinowski, Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sherrill, Sires, VanDrew, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Haaland, Lujan, Torres-Small/NM; Brindisi, Clarke, Delgado, Engel, Espaillat, Higgins, Jeffries, Lowey, C.Maloney, S.Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Morelle, Moulton, Nadler, Ocasio-Cortez, Rice, Rose, Serrano, Suozzi, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Price/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Horn/OK; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Cartwright, Dean, Doyle, Evans, Houlahan, Lamb, Scanlon, Wild/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn, Cunningham/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Allred, Castro, Doggett, Escobar, Fletcher, Garcia, Gonzalez, Green, Jackson-Lee, Johnson, Veasey, Vela/TX; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, Luria, McEachin, Scott, Spanberger, Wexton/VA; DelBene, Heck, Jayapal, Kilmer, Larsen, Schrier, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Pelosi, Swalwell/CA; Buck/CO; Hastings/FL; Gabbard/HI; Bost/IL; Palazzo/MS; Gianforte/MT; Green/TN; Ratcliffe, Wright/TX; Herrera-Beutler/WA, Sensenbrenner/WI.

Votes by US Territory Delegates – NO: Norton (DC), Plaskett (Virgin Isl.); NOT VOTING: Radewagen (Amer. Samoa), SanNicolas (Guam), Sablan (N. Mariana), Gonzalez-Colon (Puerto Rico).

Roby Amendment to HR-2740 – Protecting the Abortionist Disqualification from Title X Funding – June 12, 2019 – Failed – 191-231 (Democrats in Italics)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Hunter, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes/CA; Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Diaz-Balart, Dunn, Gaetz, Mast, Posey, Rooney, Rutherford, Spano, Steube, Waltz, Webster, Yoho/FL; Allen, Carter, Collins, Ferguson, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, A. Scott, Woodall/GA; Fulcher, Simpson/ID; R.Davis, Kinzinger, LaHood, Lipinski, Shimkus/IL; Baird, Banks, Brooks, Bucshon, Hollingsworth, Pence, Walorski/IN; King/IA; Estes, Marshall, Watkins/KS; Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers/KY; Abraham, Graves, Higgins, Johnson, Scalise/LA; Harris/MD; Amash, Bergman, Huizenga, Mitchell, Moolenaar, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Hagedorn, Peterson, Stauber/MN; Guest, Kelly/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/MO; Bacon, Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei/NV; Smith/NJ; Collins, Katko, King, Reed, Stefanik, Zeldin/NY; Budd, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, McHenry, Meadows, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Armstrong/ND; Balderson, Chabot, Gibbs, Gonzalez, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Stivers, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Cole, Hern, Lucas, Mullin/OK; Walden/OR; Fitzpatrick, Joyce, Keller, Kelly, Meuser, Perry, Reschenthaler, Smucker, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Norman, Rice, Timmons, Wilson/SC; Johnson/SD; Burchett, DesJarlais, Fleischmann, Kustoff, Roe, Rose/TN; Arrington, Babin, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Cloud, Conaway, Crenshaw, Cuellar, Flores, Gohmert, Gooden, Granger, Hurd, Marchant, McCaul, Olson, Roy, Taylor, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Curtis, Stewart/UT; Cline, Griffith, Riggleman, Wittman/VA; McMorris-Rodgers, Newhouse/WA; McKinley, Miller, Mooney/WV; Duffy, Gallagher, Grothman, Steil/WI; Cheney/WY.

Voting “no”/anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O’Halleran, Stanton/AZ; Aguilar, Barragan, Bass, Bera, Brownley, Carbajal, Cardenas, Chu, Cisneros, Correa, Costa, Cox, Davis, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Garamendi, Gomez, Harder, Hill, Huffman, Khanna, Lee, Levin, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Panetta, Peters, Porter, Rouda, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; Crow, DeGette, Neguse, Perlmutter/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Hayes, Himes, Larson/CT; Blunt-Rochester/DE; Castor, Crist, Demings, Deutch, Frankel, Lawson, Mucarsel-Powell, Murphy, Shalala, Soto, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, McBath, D. Scott/GA; Case, Gabbard/HI; Bustos, Casten, D.Davis, Foster, Garcia, Kelly, Krishnamoorthi, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky, Schneider, Underwood/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Axne, Finkenauer, Loebsack/IA; Davids/KS; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Golden, Pingree/ME; Brown, Cummings, Hoyer, Raskin, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, Trone/MD; Clark, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Pressley, Trahan/MA; Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin, Slotkin, Stevens, Tlaib/MI; Craig, McCollum, Omar, Phillips/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Horsford, Lee, Titus/NV; Kuster, Pappas/NH; Gottheimer, Kim, Malinowski, Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sherrill, Sires, VanDrew, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Haaland, Lujan, Torres-Small/NM; Brindisi, Clarke, Delgado, Engel, Espaillat, Higgins, Jeffries, Lowey, C.Maloney, S.Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Morelle, Nadler, Ocasio-Cortez, Rice, Rose, Serrano, Suozzi, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Price/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Horn/OK; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Cartwright, Dean, Doyle, Evans, Houlahan, Lamb, Scanlon, Wild/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn, Cunningham/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Allred, Castro, Doggett, Escobar, Fletcher, Garcia, Gonzalez, Green, Jackson-Lee, Johnson, Veasey, Vela/TX; McAdams/UT; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, Luria, McEachin, Scott, Spanberger, Wexton/VA; DelBene, Heck, Jayapal, Kilmer, Larsen, Schrier, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Pelosi, Swalwell/CA; Buck/CO; Hastings/FL; Bost/IL; Palazzo/MS; Gianforte/MT; Davidson/OH; Green/TN; Ratcliffe, Wright/TX; Herrera-Beutler/WA, Sensenbrenner/WI.

Votes by US Territory Delegates – NO: Norton (DC), Plaskett (Virgin Isl.); NOT VOTING: Radewagen (Amer. Samoa), SanNicolas (Guam), Sablan (N. Mariana), Gonzalez-Colon (Puerto Rico).