Life Advocacy Briefing

August 17, 2020

The Wait is Over / Pulling Together Loose Ends / Past Time!
Defending the Helpless / Standing Up for Life / ‘Biden’s Choice’

The Wait is Over

PUTATIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE JOE BIDEN last week named his choice for running mate, and US Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) wasted no time in attacking the Trump/Pence ticket.

The news of the Harris pick brought nothing good for pro-life voters, and former Reagan domestic policy chief Gary Bauer lost no time in offering a “special report on Sen. Kamala Harris,” urging that the readers of his End-of-Day Memo “share it with friends and family members.”

We reprint it at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing and commend it to our readers. It includes a lengthy section “on Life,” concluding, “This is the most pro-abortion ticket in history.”

 

Pulling Together Loose Ends

GEORGIA VOTERS IN NOVEMBER will decide in a special election whether appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) will continue to fill the vacancy created by the health-motivated early retirement of Sen. Johnny Isakson. The appointee is being challenged by US Rep. Doug Collins for the GOP nomination for the remainder of the term.

The hot contest is focused in part by how pro-life each candidate proves to be, and that may be among the reasons Sen. Loeffler organized two letters to the Trump Administration in early August pressing for answers to two questions of strong interest to pro-life voters.

Whatever her motive, we are cheered by renewed Senate interest in long-awaited answers in the Justice Department’s probe of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the trafficking of baby body parts and in Senators’ concern about the more recent scandal of Planned Parenthood’s securing, notes Calvin Freiburger of LifeSiteNews.com, of “somewhere between $65.8 million and $135 million” in federal funds appropriated for relief of small businesses set back by the Chinese virus pandemic.

The Senator was joined by 28 colleagues in signing a letter inquiring, reports Mr. Freiburger, “how the [COVID relief] money went out” to some 43 Planned Parenthood affiliates. And she was joined by 27 colleagues in sending a letter to Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, notes Mr. Freiburger, “request[ing] an update on any federal investigation of Planned Parenthood over the notorious baby-parts scandal first exposed in 2015.”

Whatever the spur to Sen. Loeffler’s leadership in these two pressing questions, we are glad she has spearheaded these inquiries and hope she and her colleagues will continue to seek answers, and we list for our readers’ interest the names of the signers of these letters near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. Though Senators are unlikely to be in their Capitol Hill offices this month, calls to their offices, thanking them for speaking up in these matters, would be entirely appropriate. [Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121]

 

Past Time!

A CAMPAIGN IS BUILDING to urge the federal Food & Drug Administration to withdraw FDA approval for the marketing of the abortion drug, RU-486, in the United States.

In late July, reports LifeSiteNews.com, “23 human rights groups, including two medical associations, demanded that the [FDA] Commissioner Stephen Hahn exercise his authority under 21CFR2.5 to ban the abortion pill as an imminent danger to public health.”

The “demand” comes in the wake of a July 13 judicial ruling “in favor of the abortion industry’s request that the in-person requirement of the FDA’s Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy be blocked during COVID-19. The abortion lobby,” notes LifeSiteNews, had “argued that the requirement that women be prescribed the abortion pill in a healthcare setting is an ‘undue burden’ to abortion access during COVID-19, but has openly acknowledged that it considers [the FDA’s limitations on the drug] ‘medically unnecessary’ and has been campaigning for its removal for years.”

Signatories to the pro-life appeal to the FDA commissioner include, notes LifeSiteNews, “the leadership of the American College of Pediatricians, American Assn. of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Live Action, Students for Life of America, Samaritan’s Purse and the Susan B. Anthony List.”

The pro-life organizers of the letter argued in their appeal to Commissioner Hahn, reports LifeSiteNews, “‘This rogue judicial activism is a gross breach of the separation of powers, undermining the FDA’s statutory authority to regulate drug safety, while recklessly endangering American women and preborn children. The FDA must fight back.’”

Commented Live Action’s Lila Rose, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘Mifepristone was not designed to heal an illness or manage symptoms of a disease; rather, it was designed to kill children,’ said [Ms.] Rose. “Mifepristone is not medicine or health care.’”

She continued, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘When the FDA approves drugs, it analyzes whether the risks of the drug outweigh its benefits. There are no benefits to mifepristone. The “successful” outcome of mifepristone ingestion is a dead child, and the possible side effects are an injured or dead woman. It is a grave injustice,’” declared Ms. Rose, “‘that the FDA approved mifepristone for US distribution under Bill Clinton 20 years ago, and it is 20 years past time that our elected and appointed federal leaders take the necessary action to ban this catastrophic drug within US borders. Stop the killing. Ban the drug.’” Amen!

Signers of the letter to the FDA: Live Action president Lila Rose, American Assn. of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists executive director Donna J. Harrison MD, American College of Pediatricians executive director Michelle Critella MD, Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, Samaritan’s Purse president Franklin Graham, Concerned Women for America president Penny Nance, Heartbeat International president Jor-El Godsey, National Institute for Family & Life Advocates president Tom Glessner, Radiance Foundation president founder Ryan Bomberger and Center for Family & Human Rights president Austin Ruse.

 

Defending the Helpless

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH HAS UNVEILED the roster of its Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board, established by Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar “to review NIH research grant applications and research-and-development contract proposals involving human fetal tissue,” reports Lianne Laurence for LifeSiteNews.com. For pro-life citizens, the roster could not be much more encouraging.

Chairing the 15-member panel is Paige Comstock Cunningham PhD, interim president of Taylor University in Indiana, and long known as one of the nation’s most prominent pro-life bioethicists. For many years, she led the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity at Trinity University in Deerfield, Illinois.

She is joined by ten other known pro-life members, including Greg Burke MD, of the Catholic Medical Assn. Ethics Committee; Maureen Condic PhD, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine; G. Kevin Donovan MD, director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center; and Ashley Fernandes MD, associate director of the Center for Bioethics at Ohio State University College of Medicine.

Also, C. Ben Mitchell PhD, Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Tennessee; the National Catholic Bioethics Center’s director of education, Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk PhD; Dr. David Prentice, vice president and research director at the Charlotte Lozier Institute in Arlington, Virginia; Kathleen Marie Schmainda of the Dept. of Biophysics at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee; Ingrid Skop MD of Northeast Obstetrics & Gynecology Associates in Texas; and H. Joseph Yost PhD, vice chairman for basic science research in the Dept. of Pediatrics at the University of Utah Molecular Medicine Program in Salt Lake City.

The advisory board has been operating since February, taking public input and testimony related to NIH research grant applications, reports Ms. Laurence, “and research and development contract proposals involving human fetal tissue.” The panel is set to submit its findings “no later than Aug. 18,” notes Ms. Laurence, after receiving written comments from the public and oral presentations from five medical researchers of varying views.

 

Standing Up for Life

CO-SIGNERS WITH SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA) both on letter to Atty. Gen. Barr seeking answers in the Justice Department’s promised probe of Planned Parenthood involvement in baby-body-parts trafficking and on letter to Treasury Dept. inspector general seeking a probe of Planned Parenthood’s applications for Paycheck Protection Program “loan” grants: GOP Senators John Boozman & Tom Cotton (AR), Rick Scott (FL), Jim Risch & Mike Rounds (ID), Mike Braun (IN), Chuck Grassley (IA), Bill Cassidy (LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith & Roger Wicker (MS), Josh Hawley (MO), Steve Daines (MT), Deb Fischer & Ben Sasse (NE), Thom Tillis (NC), Kevin Cramer & John Hoeven (ND), Rob Portman (OH), Jim Inhofe & James Lankford (OK), Lindsey Graham & Tim Scott (SC), John Thune (SD), Marsha Blackburn (TN) and John Barrasso & Michael Enzi (WY).

Additional co-signer on “baby-body-parts” letter: Sen. Joni Ernst (IA).

Additional co-signers on the Paycheck Protection inquiry: Senators Jerry Moran (KS) and Roy Blunt (MO).

 

‘Biden’s Choice’

Aug. 12, 2020, End-of-Day Memo by Gary Bauer, former GOP Presidential candidate and Reagan domestic policy chief, founder and president of “Campaign for Working Families”

            Joe Biden has made his choice for a running mate – California Sen. Kamala Harris. Predictably the lamestream media is describing her as a pragmatic moderate in the mainstream of American politics. That is totally false.

  • Harris is extremely left-wing. She votes with Bernie Sanders 92% of the time. The nonpartisan site Govtrack ranked Harris as the 4th most liberal senator. For perspective, Elizabeth Warren was ranked as the 13th most liberal senator.
  • She was one of only nine senators who voted against the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which funds our military and benefits for our servicemen and -women. She opposed the Defense Authorization Act this year, saying, “I unequivocally agree with the goal of reducing the Defense budget.”
  • Harris co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’s socialized healthcare scheme, Medicare for All.
  • She has endorsed the radical Green New Deal.
  • She wants to ban fracking, a technological revolution in domestic energy production.
  • Harris co-sponsored legislation calling for reparations for slavery.
  • Harris strongly sympathizes with the “defund the police” movement, saying we need a “smarter distribution of resources in our country.” Translation: Police “absolutely” should have their funding slashed.

On Life

            Joe Biden used to hedge his support for abortion by talking about his Catholic faith. Harris is proudly pro-abortion. Harris has a 100% pro-abortion voting record with Planned Parenthood. Harris wanted to brag about her extreme pro-abortion record during the Democrat Presidential debates.

            As California’s attorney general, Harris began the prosecution/persecution of pro-life activist David Daleiden, who exposed Planned Parenthood’s illegal trafficking of aborted baby body parts.

            Like Biden, Harris wants to crush the Little Sisters of the Poor because they refuse to support the abortion agenda. And she viciously attacked a federal court nominee because of his membership in a group that deeply disturbed her. What was the group? The KKK? No. The Nazi Party? No. The Communist Party? No. The nominee was a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s organization.

            This is the most pro-abortion ticket in history.

On the Second Amendment

            During the Democrat debates, Harris promised that if elected she would immediately introduce legislation to restrict the Second Amendment. And if she couldn’t get it passed in Congress, she would issue executive orders to ban firearms.

            This is not like the orders Trump is being criticized for, which involve shuffling around money. Harris seems to think she has the power to repeal parts of the Constitution!

On Immigration

            Harris supports decriminalizing illegal entry into the United States. She compared ICE agents to KKK terrorists and embraced left-wing demands to “abolish ICE,” saying we should reexamine immigration enforcement by “starting from scratch.”

            She also supports giving free health care to illegal aliens.

Harris & the Black Vote

            Many pundits suggest that the “historic” selection of Kamala Harris as the first black woman on a Presidential ticket will help Biden get the black vote. Well, she had trouble attracting black voters during the primaries.

            Polls consistently showed that Biden got more of the black vote than she did. In fact, if she is such a “historic” candidate, why did Democrats reject her? In her home state of California, she peaked in the low 20s and finished at 7% when she dropped out.

            The more people saw Harris, the worse she did. There’s virtually no evidence that she will attack young minority voters. In fact, she may repel them. She made up false stories to justify her hypocrisy on some popular issues with younger voters.

            And while Harris campaigns as a social justice warrior today (even supporting Jussie Smollett), as a prosecutor and California’s attorney general, Harris denied justice to several wrongly convicted individuals. She even fought against advanced DNA testing to clear a potentially innocent man on death row.

Bashing Biden

            During the Presidential primary, Harris strongly suggested that Joe Biden is a racist. When multiple women came forward to accuse Biden of sexual harassment and even sexual assault, Harris said, “I believe the women.”

            So, how ambitious is she? Let’s put it this way: Harris has been doing everything she could to be the running mate of a man she believes is a racist and a sexual harasser.

Trump vs. Harris?

            The race may very well become a Trump vs. Harris contest. A recent Rasmussen poll found that 59% of Americans do not believe Joe Biden will finish his term in office. So, a majority of Americans believe that Biden just picked the person who could well become President some time in the next four years.

            I don’t think it was an accident that Pres. Trump was out last night immediately defining Harris. In many ways, she is his main opponent. While Vice Pres. Pence will have the honor of debating her, I believe Pres. Trump will be talking about Harris as much as he talks about Joe Biden.