Life Advocacy Briefing

Persistently Pushing Back

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAD A CONSISTENT MESSAGE to the UN member nations during the United Nations General Assembly in late September.

In the midst of a lengthy address on a broad range of issues, President Donald Trump himself declared to the UN delegates, “Americans will … never tire of defending innocent life. We are aware that many United Nations projects have attempted to assert a global right to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand, right up until the moment of delivery. Global bureaucrats have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life. Like many nations here today, we in America believe that every child – born and unborn – is a sacred gift from God.”

And Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar gave an extensive message to the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, responding to the draft of a declaration which had been shaped by the Left in matters of social policy.

“Because we recognize that each nation has its own needs but shares the common goal of health,” Secretary Azar declared in a speech posted on his department’s Internet website, “the United States deplores that some countries politicized the negotiation over this declaration by including language that has been used to promote abortion as health care and promote sex education that diminishes the protective role of the family in improving health . … We do not accept the terms ‘sexual and reproductive health’ and ‘sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights’ in this Declaration,” he maintained, “and note that only documents approved by the General Assembly may inform their understanding and implementation.

“These terms must always include language, which some countries blocked,” he said, “to remind UN agencies that each nation has the sovereign right to implement related programs and activities consistent with their laws and policies, and that these terms in no way imply that there is an international right to abortion.”

Planned Parenthood Builds a Backstop

PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS SET TO OPEN A MEGABORTUARY in southwest Illinois, some 13 miles from its own troubled shop in St. Louis, which, IllinoisReview.com notes, is “fighting to keep its license” despite numerous emergency calls and reports of shoddy conditions.

What a difference a state line makes! While Missouri has been tightening its abortion laws and regulations, Illinois lawmakers and the state’s new radical governor have gone the other way, obliterating virtually all limits on the dark business in a political frenzy.

And Planned Parenthood is hedging its bets to preserve its business in the St. Louis region by tacking east across the Mississippi.

The building of the 18,000-square-foot “mega-clinic” in Fairview Heights, Illinois, was begun secretly in August of 2018, according to CBS affiliate KMOV, cited as source by LifeSiteNews.com reporter Calvin Freiburger, “under the auspices of a shell company to avoid pro-life protesters and delays from dealing with vendors who wouldn’t want to do business with the abortion industry. CBS additionally reported,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “that it cost almost $7 million and is expected to see an estimated 11,000 women a year.

“‘We were really intentional and thoughtful about making sure that we were able to complete this project as expeditiously as possible,’” said Planned Parenthood St. Louis Region’s chief medical officer Colleen McNichols in the LifeSiteNews report, “‘because we saw the writing on the wall.’”

The siting of this facility so close to the Missouri border should give fodder to US Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) for consideration of his Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, HR-611, which has 41 co-sponsors and is gestating in the House Judiciary Committee. The bill requires abortionists who prey on minor girls to furnish proof they have notified parents before committing an abortion on a girl who crosses state lines, if the girl’s state of residence requires it; the bill further penalizes non-parent adults from accompanying girls across state lines for an abortion without parents’ knowledge. Rep. Johnson’s chief co-sponsor, among 41, is a Missouri Representative, Vicky Hartzler (R). 

The secrecy involved in the huge facility’s construction is reminiscent of one of Planned Parenthood’s first megabortuaries, sited in Aurora, Illinois, a facility which has long been the target of protests led by the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, whose executive director Eric Scheidler said in a statement, reports Mr. Freiburger, “‘Planned Parenthood pretends that abortion is just another form of health care, but their practice of deceiving local communities shows otherwise. … Abortion is violence, and even those who support legal abortion don’t want to live next door to that violence.’”

Mr. Scheidler went on, in the LifeSiteNews story, to point out that Planned Parenthood “‘repeatedly deny any choice to local communities about whether or not they want a major abortion facility in their town. … They likewise deny pro-life contractors any choice in whether or not they want to help build an abortion center, by lying to them about what they’re actually building.’”

The Pro-Life Action League leader vowed, reports Mr. Freiburger, “‘We will confront this latest abortion center in Fairview Heights with our peaceful, compassionate, life-saving outreach.’”

No doubt the Chicago-based activist group will be joined by southern Illinois pro-life activists, who have long focused their efforts on the mislabeled Hope Clinic late-term abortuary in Granite City, Illinois, just 16 miles from Planned Parenthood’s new shop.

In the States

• MAINE IS ENFORCING TWO NEW LAWS seeking to expand the illegitimate business of abortion in the state. Taking effect in late September, one of the laws authorizes physician assistants and some categories of nurses to commit chemical abortions without supervision of a licensed doctor. The other, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, “requires health insurance plans that cover maternity care to also cover abortions,” oh-so-graciously permitting churches and religious organization employers “to seek exemptions,” even though abortion is as much related to maternity as the nation’s chief abortion outfit is to parenthood. The definition of “religious employer,” notes Mr. Freiburger, is so narrow that it “only applies to federally recognized, tax-exempt churches or schools and associations affiliated with churches, not to all private businesses or nonprofits with religious owners or a religious mission statement.” Businesses like Hobby Lobby, if choosing to site stores in Maine, therefore, would be forced to cover abortions on employees, though the Christian-owned retail giant won exclusion from abortion coverage in a US Supreme Court ruling pertaining to ObamaCare. On the matter of broadening the permissible range of abortionist personnel, Mr. Freiburger reports Maine’s “pro-lifers object that letting non-doctors commit abortions puts abortion-seeking women in greater danger by subjecting them to abortionists with less training or experience,” a point which should have been obvious to lawmakers. “Infamous Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “delegated parts of the abortion process … to non-physician employees, one of whom was only 15 years old.” And the LifeSiteNews report cites a report by the Bangor Daily News that the personnel expansion law “would effectively increase the number of locations in Maine that can commit abortions from three to 18,” hardly a point of progress for the state.

• THE ONLY ABORTION SHOP IN TOLEDO, OHIO, “has announced that it will no longer commit surgical abortions,” reports Bridget Sielicki for Live Action. After a legal battle commencing in 2013, when Capital Care Center lost its transfer agreement with the University of Toledo Medical Center, resulted in the outfit’s inability to maintain its surgical license, the license was surrendered Sept. 10, according to the Ohio Dept. of Health. Though the shop plans to persist in its chemical abortion business, the cancellation of its surgical business could produce positive results, as a 2017 ODOH report shows some 62% of all abortions in the county were committed surgically.

In the Courts

• U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE HENRY HUDSON ISSUED A SPLIT RULING last Monday on abortion restrictions in Virginia. The judge sided with plaintiffs Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, in “striking down a requirement that non-surgical second-trimester abortions be performed only in a hospital and a requirement that centers that perform five or more abortions per month be held to the same facility requirements as hospitals.” But the G.W. Bush-appointed judge, Mr Freiburger writes, “upheld Virginia’s ultrasound and informed consent requirements, the ban on non-physicians committing abortions, the mandatory waiting period and clinic inspection requirements.”

• DISTRICT JUDGE STEVE JONES HAS TEMPORARILY ENJOINED enforcement of Georgia’s new Heartbeat Abortion Ban. The preliminary injunction was requested in July by plaintiffs Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights and issued by the Obama-appointed judge last Tuesday. In a LifeSiteNews.com report by Calvin Freiburger, Georgia Life Alliance director JoshuaEdmonds “vowed to ‘continue to fight to prevent Planned Parenthood and the ACLU from turning back the clock on human rights in Georgia.’ The LIFE Act’s supporters, such as lead sponsor Rep. Ed Setzler, have defended the law,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “by noting that Roe itself acknowledges, ‘If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’s right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment. The appellant conceded as much on reargument.’ Pro-lifers across the country,” declares LifeSiteNews, “hope that the current wave of state heartbeat laws will force a long-awaited Supreme Court review of Roe … . The office of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp says it is reviewing the ruling and that they ‘remain confident in our position’ … .

• U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE ROBERT JONKER TEMPORARILY BLOCKED an order by Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) which required foster and adoption agencies to include same-sex “couples” as “families” in placement of children in need. The injunction comes while a lawsuit over the mandate is underway, with the G.W. Bush-appointed judge opining, reports Rachel Lynn Aldrich for World magazine, “the [Nessel] rule conflicted with state law, existing contracts and established practice. … St. Vincent Catholic Charities in Lansing filed a complaint against the state for First Amendment violations in April,” notes Ms. Aldrich, “and [Judge] Jonker said the agency would likely win the case. The judge said the attorney general’s move to cancel Michigan’s contract with St. Vincent – part of a settlement with a lesbian couple who sued the state,” reports World, “‘strongly suggests the state’s real goal is not to promote nondiscriminatory child placements but to stamp out St. Vincent’s religious belief and replace it with the state’s own.’”

Illinois Out of Whack?

Sept. 30, 2019, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            Apparently it’s not enough that Illinois passed one of the most shocking abortion laws in America. Now, they want to punish states who don’t.

            State Rep. Daniel Didech says it’s not a “boycott,” per se, but his bill outlawing [state employee] travel to pro-life states could have fooled us. The idea behind his HB-3901 is to put the hurt on places like Alabama, Georgia and other states where leaders listened to voters and took great strides to protect the unborn. Now, in retribution, Didech thinks Illinois employees should either be outlawed from going to those states on business – or forced to pay for it out of their own pockets.

            “The purpose of the bill is to protect women who may not be able to get the health care they may need when they’re traveling on official state business,” he argues. “What these other states are doing is, to me, very dangerous. To a large extent, yes, abortion is a big part of it, but it’s not entirely about abortion,” Didech told reporters. “As a member of the legislature, I have the responsibility to protect our state employees.” Protect them how? people want to know. Didech fired back that this wasn’t about promoting abortion but protecting women. In one of the most absurd explanations ever for one of these liberal travel bans, the Buffalo Grove politician argues that a pregnant Illinois employee might miscarry in a pro-life state and not have access to health care!

            Of course, that’s absolutely ridiculous, because unlike Illinois, these states actually ensure that mothers have the cutting-edge care they need – unlike the Land of Lincoln, where women are subjected to chop-shop abortions because the state doesn’t want to regulate them. Still, Didech claimed, a female worker might miscarry during travel and she “could get tangled [in an investigation] that’s outside her control.”

            Since when do pro-life states investigate a woman’s miscarriage? Not one of the 12 states on Didech’s blacklist even criminalizes a woman for an abortion – let alone launches formal inquiries after a miscarriage. Yet this is all part of the messaging subterfuge of the Left. If Rep. Didech cares about protecting women, maybe he ought to start in his own back yard, where abortionists like Ulrich Klopfer are roughing up women and then carrying their babies’ bodies into Illinois to stack like trophies in his garage. This is a state that just made infanticide legal, and their liberals are complaining about the threat of pro-lifers?

            Illinois has a serious human dignity problem. And the only people who are in real danger are the ones traveling to Didech’s state, where life is only safe if it’s wanted – and warehoused by a maniac if it’s not.

Over the Edge

Sept. 12, 2019, The Point commentary by John Stonestreet & David Carlson

            Imagine an elderly patient sitting on the bed in a sterile hospital room. The doctor approaches her with a needle, but she, a dementia patient, wants no part of it. So at the doctor’s request, the old woman’s daughter and son-in-law hold her down. Despite the struggle, the doctor succeeds in administering the injection. Moments later, she’s dead.

            It wasn’t a mistake. This is a real story.

            The doctor’s injection was intended to kill her. He did so with her family’s permission which, ostensibly, indicated her permission.

            But, as Dutch prosecutors argued in court, how could a woman who struggled against an injection give consent?

            This is the dark world of legalized euthanasia.

            As an Alliance Defending Freedom International spokesperson said, “Instead of simply taking care of the most vulnerable, medical staff are facing a lot of pressure to make controversial decisions regarding the lives of elderly.” He added, “Once a country allows euthanasia, as in the Netherlands, there is no logical stopping point.”

            No, there isn’t.

BreakPoint editor’s note: As if to reinforce our claim that there is “no logical stopping point” for euthanasia, a Dutch court yesterday cleared the doctor in question of any charges because, the court decided, … in rare cases of severe dementia in which the patient had previously put in writing the request to die, the doctor “did not have to verify the current desire to die.”

Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Even in many states which have not expressly decriminalized doctor-abetted suicide, an individual’s advance directive or lack thereof can be risky if its implications are not clearly understood. We urge our readers who may not be aware of statutory provisions in their states or who may not have executed an adequate legal protection document to contact the Patients Rights Council (on the Internet at http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org) for their personal protection from an increasingly defensive and bureaucratic medical community.