Life Advocacy Briefing

Offering Truth

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY IS ORGANIZING five “Alive 2020!” rallies across the US on Saturday, May 9 (the day before Mother’s Day), to acquaint Americans with the reality of human life in the womb. The rallies will feature a live ultrasound of a baby in the womb at all five locations in southern California, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and South Florida. Registration for participation is available at https://www.focusonthefamily.com/alive.

Senate Votes Not to Vote on Protecting Babies

THE U.S. SENATE VOTED TUESDAY on two motions to protect developing boys and girls, seeking to end debate and vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), and on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was unable to muster 60 votes to achieve cloture on the two measures, the cloture motions afforded an opportunity for a touch of debate on the two proposals and on abortion policy. And it secured recorded roll calls giving Americans a tool for assessing their Senators’ position on late-term abortion and on requiring medical intervention for babies born alive in the course of an abortion.

We publish the voting records at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing and our transcripts of Senate speeches by Sen. Sasse and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK); we commend them to our readers’ attention.

Daleiden Persecution Persists

PRO-LIFE HEROES DAVID DALEIDEN & SANDRA MERRITT ARE UNDERGOING another trial in California as payback for having blown the lid off Planned Parenthood’s involvement in a fetal body-parts trafficking racket.

The undercover investigators, whose videos touched off a Congressional investigation leading to a Justice Dept. referral, pleaded “not guilty” in a SanFrancisco courtroom on Feb. 21 to nine felony counts alleging “illegal taping.” They are fighting the proceedings with a series of appeal motions, which could eventually take their case to the Supreme Court.

“‘David is being charged as a criminal,’” noted Thomas More Society legal counsel Peter Breen, quoted by Lianne Laurence for LifeSiteNews.com, “‘for using the same investigative reporting techniques regularly exercised by other journalists. … These industry practices are often lauded and rewarded,’” he said, “‘but here in California, Mr. Daleiden is being charged as a criminal and threatened with years in prison for shining his investigative light on the dark secrets of the abortion industry.’”

Candidate Watch

• THOUGH FIRMLY COMMITTED TO THE DISPOSAL OF CHILDREN before they are born – even at the expense of taxpayers – Democratic Socialist Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders “unveiled his plans,” notes Paul Smeaton for com, for “taxpayer-funded full-day, full-week child care” and to “enter pre-kindergarten beginning at three years old ‘regardless of income.’” His plan was revealed during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program. At the same time, Mr. Smeaton reminds us, “[Sen.] Sanders is running on an uncompromisingly pro-abortion platform” and in a recent Democratic Party debate not only vowed “never to nominate any person to the Supreme Court or the federal courts in general, ‘who is not 100% pro-Roe v. Wade,’” writes Mr. Smeaton, but also vowed “‘to significantly expand funding for Planned Parenthood,’” which already receives more than a half-billion dollars in annual taxpayer funding.

• DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER MICHAEL BLOOMBERG has released a plan, reports Calvin Freiburger for com, “‘to expand and safeguard access to reproductive services,’ … promising left-wing voters a litany of policies to keep abortion virtually unlimited and unregulated at taxpayers’ expense. ‘As President,’” he said, quoted by Mr. Freiburger, “‘I will fiercely protect a woman’s right to choose, and I will appoint judges who will defend that right.’” He added, notes LifeSiteNews, “‘On my first day in office, I will reverse the damage Pres. Trump has done to women’s rights and ensure that every woman has access to reproductive health care.’” His press release included a pledge to “‘encourage states to expand the types of medical professionals permitted to perform abortions.’” Mr. Freiburger further notes that “Planned Parenthood awarded the [then New York] mayor its Global Citizen Award in 2014 for his pro-abortion record, including investments to decriminalize abortion abroad and enacting a ‘gag order’ against pro-life pregnancy centers in New York City.”

In the States

• FLORIDA’s LEGISLATURE HAS SENT A PARENTAL CONSENT bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who called for the measure’s passage in his January State-of-the-State address. “The House voted 75-43 largely along party lines,” reports Associated Press (AP) writer Brendan Farrington, “for the legislation that expands a current law that requires a girl’s parents are notified before she can have an abortion.” Debate, he notes, lasted “nearly four hours.” Said chief sponsor Rep. Erin Grill (R), quoted by AP, “‘What we are talking about is a child, and here we are talking about a child who is carrying a child. … By including parents in this decision, we empower the family. It is the critical backbone of our civilized society.’” Said Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez (R), also quoted by AP: “‘We require parental consent for a minor to get a driving learner’s permit, because it is common sense. … A parent guiding their children through major life decisions is a good thing.’” The Senate passed the bill earlier in February by a party-line vote of 23 to 17. As is typical in abortion-connected parental involvement laws, the penalties – in this proposal imprisonment up to five years – apply not to the minor but to the abortionist who profits from killing the girl’s unborn child without receiving consent from the young mother’s parents.

• AT A TIME WHEN AMERICA’s ABORTION DEATH TOLL IS DECLINING annually, the number of abortions committed in Illinois shot up by more than 3,000 in 2018 from the previous year, when then-Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed legislation adding abortion to taxpayer-paid coverage under Medicaid and state employee health insurance policies. Part of the seven-percent increase can be attributed, reports W.J. Kennedy for Prairie State Wire, “to women traveling to Illinois from other states – 5,668 out-of-state patients [sic] in 2018, up from 5,528 in 2017.” The total Illinois abortion death toll reported by the state Public Health Dept. was 42,441 in 2018, up from 39,329 in 2017. The “out-of-state number,” notes Mr. Kennedy, “is expected to accelerate as neighboring Midwestern states move to more restrictive abortion policies, while Illinois last year enacted the most unrestricted abortion-access law in the nation, the Reproductive Health Act signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker last June.”

• THE WEST VIRGINIA SENATE HAS UNANIMOUSLY PASSED a Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. The measure had already passed the lower house of the legislature, and Gov. Jim Justice (R) is expected to sign it.

• WISCONSIN LAWMAKERS ARE CONSIDERING a state constitutional amendment that would establish personhood, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, by “remov[ing] the word ‘born’ from its language recognizing persons with ‘inherent rights’ to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and clarify[ing] that ‘as applied to the right to life, the term “persons” shall apply to every human being at any stage of development, born or unborn.’ … In order to amend the Wisconsin Constitution,” explains Mr. Freiburger, “AJR-130 must first pass both chambers of the legislature, then be ratified by the voters of the state. Republicans currently control both the Assembly and Senate,” he notes. “The governor (currently Democrat Tony Evers) has no role in the amendment process.”

A Plea for Humane Justice

Senate floor statement by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing from C-Span

            Madame President, this afternoon, we are going to vote on the simplest bill in the history of the United States Senate, the simplest bill we’ve ever considered here. It says that if a newborn baby survives an abortion, she deserves medical care. … Senators are going to muddy the issue, and sadly too many in the press are going to report with headlines like “abortion restrictions” and with anti-science jargon like “a fetus that was born;” that was an actual portion of a headline this morning, “a fetus that was born.” Sadly, a lot of folks seem determined to look the other way; looking the other way from the issue that we’re considering today in this body shouldn’t be an option. …

            This bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, simply says that if a baby survives an abortion, she should get the same degree of medical care that any other baby would get at that same gestational stage. … My legislation, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, is not actually about abortion; it’s about babies that have already survived a botched abortion. My legislation is not about Roe v. Wade; it’s about what happens after a baby is already born, when an abortion failed to accomplish the purpose it had – a sad purpose in my view – the purpose it had to terminate the pregnancy; this is about the babies that have already been born. This is about whether that baby who has survived the abortion and is now lying on the abortion table, on the medical table, whether or not that cold, naked baby – alone – has a right to medical care. And we all know the answer; the answer is: Of course she does! Every baby dies if you leave her to passively die of exposure, whether she was born in a gold-plated hospital with a lot of fancy, expensive cars in the parking lot outside that NICU unit or whether or not she was born in the unfortunate circumstances of an abortion clinic in a strip mall – every little baby that’s already been born, they’ll die if you deny care to them.

            And so of course, we shouldn’t do that; of course the United States Senate should stand up and defend those babies. We all know that denying care to the most vulnerable among us is barbaric, and this body ought to be able to stand a hundred-to-zero against that barbarism. It’s inhumane, and it’s passive infanticide, and the Senate should today condemn and prohibit that practice. … Last year forty-four senators filibustered this legislation; they said that it was okay to look the other way while newborns were discarded; they said that federal law should not ensure that these babies are treated with care. They seem to have a real hard time saying that human beings outside the womb have the same right to life as you and I ought to have … .

            Just three weeks ago, one of the Democratic candidates for President was asked on national television about infanticide point-blank: Would he be comfortable if a mother invoked infanticide to kill her now already born alive child? Mayor Buttigieg’s response: Quote: I don’t know what I’d tell ’em, Close quote. Really? Somebody asks you if you can kill a baby that’s already been born, and you say you don’t know what to say? Every one of us – especially somebody running for the highest office in the land to uphold the laws, laws that promise to protect the right to life – should be able to say without any hesitation: Leaving babies to die is unacceptable. … This is about babies that have been born alive and whether or not you can decide to kill them. There’s really no debate to be had here. … You can’t defend the morally reprehensible procedure that is backing away, that is passive infanticide; there are no exceptions, there are no special circumstances. We should protect every human being, no matter how small they are, no matter how weak they are.

            And if the Senate says that it’s okay to ignore born-alive babies, what we’re really saying is, we are okay with a society where some people count more than other people, we’d be saying that we want a society where some people can be pushed aside if other people decide those folks are inconvenient, a society where we can dispose of you if you happen to come into the world a certain way. … A born-alive baby is a human being with fundamental human dignity, which is undeniable; she should receive the care and affection due to every other human being, and today we have a chance to advance our commitment to human dignity. … Please do not turn your backs on those babies.

Response to Senate ‘Born-Alive’ & ‘Pain-Capable’ Votes

Conclusion of Feb. 25, 2020, Senate floor speech by Sen. James Lankford, transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing from C-Span

            … I’m amazed, absolutely amazed, when I think about, 100 years ago, my wife, my mom and my daughters could not vote. I just can’t even process that, that 100 years ago, my wife, my mom, my daughters were not allowed to vote in America. And I think, what were we thinking as Americans, that we did that? I’m amazed there was a time in America – not that long ago – that if you were of Japanese descent, they rounded you up and put you in camps and held you as an American citizen, just because you were of Japanese descent. I can’t even process that we did that as Americans. I cannot believe there was a time in America that we looked at African Americans and said, that’s three-fifths of a man. I cannot even process that was in our law, that we declared some human beings three-fifths of a person. I am so grateful that we no longer round people up because they are of Japanese descent, that we allow women to be able to vote, that we consider all people equal. I am so grateful that that time has passed.

            And I long for the day that I believe is coming, that we as a nation will look back and say: What were we thinking, that we allowed children to live or die based on our convenience? And if a child was inconvenient, we just killed them – or, we set them on the table and allowed them to slowly die from exposure because they were inconvenient in the moment.

            There will be a day we will look back on this season in American history, and we will say, what were we thinking – that we considered some children more valuable than others, that we considered some lives worth living and some to just be thrown away. What’s your line? When is a life worth protecting? When is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness actually applied to you in America? I wish it was conception – or at least when they can experience pain, or at least when they were fully born. But this body has not yet found the moment when we can agree: that life is valuable, and I long for the day when we do.

Senate Voting Records

Cloture Motion to End Debate on S-3275, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act – Feb. 25, 2020 – Failed 53-44 (needing 60) (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Shelby/AL, Sullivan/AK, McSally/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio & Scott/FL, Loeffler & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Braun & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Hyde-Smith & Wicker/MS, Blunt & Hawley/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Burr & Tillis/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Casey & Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Blackburn/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Lee & Romney/UT, Capito & Manchin/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Jones/AL, Murkowski/AK, Sinema/AZ, Feinstein & Harris/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Collins & King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Smith/MN, Tester/MT, Cortez-Masto & Rosen/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Leahy/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Warren/MA, Klobuchar/MN, Sanders/VT.

Cloture Motion to End Debate on S-311, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act – Feb. 25, 2020 – Failed 56-41 (needing 60) (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Jones & Shelby/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, McSally/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio & Scott/FL, Loeffler & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Braun & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Collins/ME, Hyde-Smith & Wicker/MS, Blunt & Hawley/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Burr & Tillis/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Casey & Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Blackburn/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Lee & Romney/UT, Capito & Manchin/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

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

Not voting: Warren/MA, Klobuchar/MN, Sanders/VT.