Life Advocacy Briefing

‘Hyde’ on Chopping Block if Dems Retain House Control

THE ‘HOUSE WILL WORK ITS WILL’ was all House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) would say to the LosAngeles Times when asked to confirm or deny a report that she and old-time radical Rep. Rosa DeLauro “privately told fellow Democrats last month that they will not include the Hyde Amendment in any government funding bills considered in 2021,” reports Calvin Freiburger of LifeSiteNews.com. The 15-term Democrat from Connecticut is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee which considers spending measures for the Dept. of Health & Human Services and related agencies, measures which typically include Hyde Amendment protections.

The pair appear to us to have been seeking pardon from the radicals in their delegation, pardon for not making “Hyde” repeal a central issue in Congress this year. “‘Although this year’s [appropriation] bill includes [Hyde],’” Rep. DeLauro “reportedly declared” in a party conference, “‘let me be clear: we will fight to remove the Hyde Amendment to ensure that women of color and all women have access to the reproductive health they deserve.’”

We find it interesting that they use such language even among themselves in political settings, not just in the propaganda they foist on the too-often malleable public.

Notes the LifeSiteNews reporter, “Included every year in federal budgets with little objection, the Hyde Amendment is estimated to have saved more than two million lives since its adoption more than 40 years ago by forbidding most taxpayer dollars from funding abortions except for cases of rape or incest or to save a mother’s life.” To some in America – but clearly not to the Pelosi troop – all lives matter.

The Pelosi-DeLauro pledge, asserts Mr. Freiburger, “is only the latest manifestation of the Democrat Party’s rising absolutism for abortion in recent years. Former Vice President and current Democrat Presidential nominee Joe Biden disavowed his own past support for the Hyde Amendment last year,” Mr. Freiburger notes, “and is now campaigning on a pledge to enshrine virtually unlimited abortion into … law at taxpayer expense.”

The Catholic News Agency, in its report on the Pelosi-DeLauro vow, revisits a 2019 quote from the head of the Catholic bishops’ pro-life committee, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, who “told CNA … that ‘there historically was broad consensus’ in support of the [Hyde] policy from members of both major political parties. ‘So it’s very disappointing to see the extremism now that’s attacking what most Americans would consider a very important principle,’ he said. ‘When you’re destroying a human life, this isn’t health care.’”

President Makes his Case

PRESIDENT TRUMP REACHED OUT in a Sept. 3 letter to “pro-life leaders and activists” outlining his Administration’s first-term accomplishments for the right to Life and making commitments for a second term.

We publish the text of the letter at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. It appeared on the letterhead of “Pro-Life Voices for Trump 2020,” a division of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

Model Communicator & Life Saver

AMONG THE MORE INTRIGUING SPEAKERS at the late-August Republican National Convention was a Catholic nun who is also a physician and a long-time military veteran.

We publish below the Convention address by Sr. Dede Byrne as a good example of a speaker engaging the audience first with interesting but unchallenging biographical information – hinting only vaguely at her pro-life motivations – and then moving quickly into a clear, ringing endorsement of the right to Life as a fundamental American value.

One item she did not mention in her biography – since it would have alerted her audience to “the other shoe” she was about to drop – is a fact which interests us and we hope will interest our readers.

Sr. Dede is part of a network of medical professionals who offer their services to aborting mothers who have ingested the pernicious abortion pill and quickly suffer regrets. Hundreds of unborn babies have been saved through this network of caring physicians who work to reverse the deadly effects of RU-486 by administering a drug commonly used to protect babies in the early stage of natural miscarriage. We salute her and her colleagues and pray for the day the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) withdraws RU-486 from the US market altogether.

Exceptional Advocacy

Aug. 26 speech by Sr. Dede Byrne at the Republican National Convention, transcribed by Pregnancy Help News

            Good evening. I am Sister Dede Byrne, and I belong to the Community of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Last Fourth of July, I was honored to be one of the President’s guests at his Salute to America celebration. I must confess that I recently prayed while in chapel, begging God to allow me to be a voice, an instrument for human life. And now here I am, speaking at the Republican National Convention. I guess you’d better be careful what you pray for.

            My journey to religious life was not a traditional route, if there is such a thing. In 1978, as a medical school student at Georgetown University, I joined the Army to help pay for my tuition and ended up devoting 29 years to the military, serving as a doctor and a surgeon in places like Afghanistan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

            After much prayer and contemplation, I entered my religious order in 2002, working to serve the poor and the sick in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, Iraq and in Washington, DC.

            Humility is at the foundation of our order, which makes it very difficult to talk about myself. But I can speak about my experience working for those fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries all around the world. Those refugees all share a common experience. They have been all marginalized, viewed as insignificant, powerless and voiceless. And while we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is, the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States. They are the unborn.

            As Christians, we first met Jesus as a stirring embryo in the womb of an unwed mother and saw Him born nine months later in the poverty of the cave. It’s no coincidence that Jesus stood up for what was just and was ultimately crucified because what He said was not politically correct or fashionable.

            As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for Life against the politically correct or fashionable of today. We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb. Keep in mind, the laws we create define how we see our humanity.

            We must ask ourselves: What are we saying when we go into a womb and snuff out an innocent, powerless, voiceless life?

            As a physician, I can say without hesitation: Life begins at conception. While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I’m not just pro-life, I’m pro-eternal life. I want all of us to end up in heaven together some day.

            Which brings me to why I am here today. Donald Trump is the most pro-life President that this nation has ever had, defending life at all stages. His belief in the sanctity of life transcends politics. President Trump will stand up against Biden-Harris, who are the most anti-life Presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide.

            Because of his courage and conviction, President Trump has earned the support of America’s pro-life community. Moreover, he has a nationwide of religious standing behind him. You’ll find us here with our weapon of choice, the rosary. Thank you, Mr. President, we are all praying for you.

Moral Equivalency

Sept. 3, 2020, BreakPoint commentary by Stan Guthrie

            “While abortion is horrific,” a Christian commenter allowed on social media, “it is not the only issue to consider. I research both candidates’ stances on all issues before casting my vote.”

            Substitute the word “slavery” for “abortion” and ask yourself whether abortion is simply one issue among many. Slavery, I think, all readers would agree, truly is horrific – with the power to bring on “intense aversion or repugnance.” But does abortion, the deliberate taking of human life in the womb, really create in us the same gut-wrenching reaction? It should. Abortion supporters will complain that it’s not a fair comparison, but let’s count the ways the two things line up:

• Africans were seen as sub-human and therefore as fair game for exploitation. Proponents of chattel slavery actually argued that black people were better off living as slaves than as free men and women in their African homelands – and that their masters were decent people with a benevolent interest in them. … Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, has a racist past in which the organization tried to limit the number of births of what founder Margaret Sanger labeled “the unfit,” the “delinquent and dependent classes” and the “feeble-minded.” This legacy continues today [in Planned Parenthood]. If you don’t believe me consider this: Some 79% of Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities in our day target minority communities. In some cities, such as New York, black abortions outnumber black live births by the thousands. Talk about “systemic racism!” Abortion proponents, of course, never tire of telling us that, if not for “choice,” many of the unborn would grow up poor, in broken families and in otherwise miserable conditions. Don’t pro-lifers care? As author Rebecca Warner has said, “How can we talk about the rights of a fertilized egg when we don’t care enough to see that every child is born into a stable, safe and nurturing environment?” Of course, no one queries the unborn about whether, despite these challenges, they would like a chance at life, just as no one bothered to ask the slaves whether they preferred freedom or servitude. Rather than dismissing such hurting communities, perhaps we ought to give more thought about improving them.

• In the antebellum South, slavery was justified as a matter of state’s rights – in other words, as a matter of choice. “You can believe anything you want,” supporters told opponents, “but slavery is part of our culture.” This sounds eerily similar to one of today’s bumper-sticker arguments for abortion: “If you are against abortions, don’t have one.” Can you imagine someone saying, “If you are against slavery, don’t have one”? Abortion, like slavery, is horrific and should not be tolerated. But in this cultural environment, moral or scientific arguments proving that a fetus is a human being and has worth and dignity are ruled out of bounds. Nothing must be allowed to challenge a fundamental tenet of the Sexual Revolution – that we are free to engage in any sexual activity we desire without consequence. Abortion, along with the Pill, paved the way.

• Slavery propped up an unjust economic system. While the northern states became increasingly industrialized, the South relied on cotton and cheap, renewable slave labor to plant and harvest it. Because of the invention of the cotton gin, “A cotton boom made plantations the center of the economy.” Slave owners were loathe to give up the source of their wealth. Today, of course, an abortion-industrial complex helps keep the grisly practice alive. Between 2013 and 2015, Planned Parenthood received more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds, nearly all of which went to subsidize abortion. The organization also profits from the harvesting and sale of fetal tissue. Abortion is simply too profitable to give up.

• The Civil War happened, in large part, because the South’s desire to spread the “peculiar institution” into new states and territories was stymied, first by the Missouri Compromise and second by a growing abolitionist movement. Abortion supporters, likewise, seem never content with the status quo but ever seek to expand the practice. While attempting to take credit for the decline in the nation’s rate of abortions, they oppose anything that would actually keep those numbers falling. “Safe, legal and rare” is no longer the watchword. They profess righteous anger over the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funding for abortion; sidewalk counseling; successful pro-life attempts in the states to limit or close down abortion clinics; the nomination of pro-life judges; and efforts to cut off taxpayer money for Planned Parenthood – all the while claiming that such tactics do not work! Unsurprisingly, abortion proponents in this year’s elections are vowing to overturn the Hyde Amendment as part of their “reproductive health” platform. Not only are they seeking to expand access to abortion. They demand that you pay for it.

• Those who supported antebellum slavery, unable to overcome the arguments of the abolitionists, resorted to slandering them. They were dismissed mockingly as “the vulgar … pious divines, tender-hearted poetesses and short-sighted politicians.” Some were called fanatics. The abolitionists, however, were undeterred and kept on speaking the truth. The same dynamic is at work today. Many who defend legal abortion slander the pro-life movement as anti-woman or anti-child.

            But we must keep on, in the unshakeable conviction that one day abortion – like chattel slavery before it – will be seen not just as one policy among many, but as a truly horrific affront to human rights and human dignity. It can happen again. It will happen again.

            As Theodore Parker said at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Convention in 1858, “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, [but] I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see, I am sure it bends toward justice.”

Appeal to You from President Trump

Sept. 3, 2020, text of letter from President Donald Trump to “Pro-Life Leaders and Activists”

            In 2016, I ran as a pro-life candidate for President, and with your support, we won the White House. Since my inauguration, I have proudly governed as the most pro-life President in our nation’s history. Together, we have accomplished so much for unborn children and their mothers during my first term in office by:

• Transforming the federal judiciary with the confirmation of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court and over 200 lower-court judges;

• Fighting for the unborn around the globe by enacting the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy which prevents tax dollars from funding the international abortion industry, and combating efforts at the United Nations to make abortion an international right;

• Stopping taxpayer funding of the big abortion industry, such as Planned Parenthood, through the Title X Protect Life Rule;

• Fighting for the conscience rights of the Little Sisters of the Poor and for medical professionals such as nurses from being forced to participate in abortions;

• Ending taxpayer funding for new medical research using aborted baby body parts at the National Institutes of Health;

• Becoming the first President ever to address the March for Life and the Susan B. Anthony List Campaign for Life Gala in-person.

            As I seek re-election this November, I need your help in contrasting my bold pro-life leadership with Joe Biden’s abortion extremism. The Democratic Party unequivocally supports abortion-on-demand, up until the moment of birth, and even infanticide – leaving babies to die after failed abortions. Joe Biden’s embrace of this extreme position is most evidenced by his support for taxpayer funding of abortion-on-demand. Forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions is an abhorrent position that must be defeated at the ballot box. Joe Biden has doubled down on these positions with his selection of abortion extremist Kamala Harris as his running-mate.

            With your help, I will win re-election, ensuring we have another four years to fight in the trenches for unborn children and their mothers. Together we will work to:

• Continue our transformation of the federal judiciary, filling the Supreme Court and lower courts with judges who will respect the Constitution and not legislate an abortion agenda from the bench;

• Overcome Democratic filibusters in Congress to finally pass and sign into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act;

• Fully defund the big abortion industry such as Planned Parenthood of our tax dollars.

            I thank Marjorie Dannenfelser and Christina Bennett for co-chairing my Pro-Life Voices for Trump coalition. I urge every pro-life American to join this effort and do your part to defeat abortion extremism this November. Instead, we can score a major, historic victory for unborn children and their mothers.