Life Advocacy Briefing

Stand-Up Prospect

WHEN THE WHITE HOUSE RELEASED A LIST on Sept. 9 of prospective Supreme Court nominees, should he win re-election and be given an opportunity to nominate a Justice, the name of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was among the President’s picks. His reaction was unusual for a potential judicial nominee. Though nominees have long been counseled to avoid answering hot-button questions about their judicial views, Sen. Cotton promptly posted on Twitter: “It’s time for Roe v. Wade to go.”

He followed up the statement, notes Paul Smeaton for LifeSiteNews.com, “with another shortly after, stating: ‘The First Amendment protects your right to worship. The Second Amendment protects your right to own and carry a gun. And it’s time for Roe v. Wade to go.’”

A Wedge in Presidential Politics

PRESIDENT TRUMP RAISED THE ABORTION ISSUE against his challenger in a Latinos for Trump roundtable in Nevada in mid-September. Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com reports he “accus[ed] the former Vice President of ‘baby execution,’” citing The Independent as source.

Included in his remarks, according to Mr. Freiburger, was a declaration that Joe Biden “supports ‘after-term abortion, which is basically baby execution.’”

Disputing The Independent’s “claim” that “[Pres.] Trump’s characterization was ‘incorrect’ because [Mr.] Biden’s ‘voting record has been historically conservative with regard to abortion,” Mr. Freiburger notes, “while Biden was more moderate years ago, he is currently running as an abortion absolutist with a plan to enshrine virtually unlimited abortion into federal law at taxpayer expense. Last year,” he writes, “[Mr. Biden] abandoned the last vestiges of his former moderation by disavowing the Hyde Amendment … . Further,” he writes, “Biden has not dissented from his party’s opposition to the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would guarantee basic medical care for infants delivered alive after failed abortions, and even selected Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who voted against the bill, as his running mate.”

Tightening ‘Global Health’ Rule

THE STATE DEPT. IS SEEKING TO BROADEN EVEN FURTHER the President’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA), through which the Trump Administration reinstated and expanded the reach of the Mexico City Policy, which was inaugurated by Pres. Ronald Reagan.

The Trump PLGHA not only, notes Calvin Freiburger of LifeSiteNews.com, “bars the United States’ $8.8 billion in foreign aid from being distributed to entities that [commit] abortions,” but also takes “the additional step of expanding it to groups that promote or discuss abortion.

“PLGHA currently applies to foreign aid disbursed through grants and cooperative agreements,” explains Mr. Freiburger, “but the new rule proposed by the State Dept. would also exclude entities that receive foreign aid via contracts, regardless of whether those entities technically fund their abortion-related practices via separate sources. Such contracts comprise approximately 40% of health-related foreign aid, The Hill notes,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “meaning the new rule would significantly increase the amount of money directed away from abortion.”

Public comments supporting the rule modification can be submitted via the Internet until Nov. 13, clicking on https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/09/14/2020-17551/federal-acquisition-regulation-protecting-life-in-global-health-assistance.

Nice Try

THE LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, METRO COUNCIL REJECTED, in late August, a proposed “buffer zone” ordinance which would have authorized abortuaries to establish a no-free-speech zone around their entrances. Ordinance advocates, who have been pressing for the ordinance for years, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Darcy Costello, used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to abuse the free-speech-and-assembly Constitutional rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors.

The lever did not work – at least not to secure a council majority. The ordinance went down on a 12-to-13 vote after hours of discussion. All seven GOP council members were joined, notes the Courier-Journal, by six Democrats. One Democratic member was absent.

Ordinance opponents on the council were bright enough, when faced with the Covid-protection argument, to observe that the ordinance had no expiration date. So much for the “need” for the ordinance as an “emergency public health” intervention.

Unsafe at Any Speed

THOUGH A MAJORITY OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT CAN’t SEEM TO FIGURE OUT the urgent value in requiring abortuaries to employ only “doctors” qualified to secure admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, the reality of abortionists as the dregs of the medical profession continues to show up in actual practice, the latest example being substitution of an accused sexual predator to fill in for 74-year-old Thomas Tvedten at the Little Rock (Arkansas) Family Planning abortuary, which he owns.

Mr. Tvedten is unavailable to kill unborn boys and girls at his own shop at the moment, reports Cheryl Sullenger for Operation Rescue (OR), because his medical license is suspended “on an emergency basis after the Arkansas State Medical Board (ASMB) determined that his acts of ‘gross negligence and ignorant malpractice’ on a minor girl posed a danger to the public.” He faces a hearing Oct. 1 after allegedly being caught seeking to help a girl acquire marijuana. In 1983, reports Mrs. Sullenger, his license was suspended for three months “after he admitted ‘supplying patients with Demerol injections to be injected at the discretion of the patient.’ In 1987, [Mr.] Tvedten pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, a second-degree misdemeanor, for unspecified criminal acts.”

The substitute being hired to fill in for the sidelined abortionist is, reports Mrs. Sullenger, “nationally known abortionist Willie Parker,” who will “act as medical director and fill the ObGyn requirement on a temporary basis in order to keep the facility from closing. As previously reported by OR,” notes Mrs. Sullenger, “[Mr.] Parker was once idolized by the Left but fell out of favor after a woman came forward and posted a blog about an unwanted sexual encounter with [him] and warnings about what she believed was his predatory sexual behavior.”

OR’s president Troy Newman is calling on the state of Arkansas to shut down the Little Rock Family Planning abortuary in the interest of public safety. Amen.

Worthy Message

FOOTBALL GREAT BEN WATSON HAS PRODUCED a pro-life documentary which was scheduled for release last Thursday. His co-producer is Jason Jones, founder and president of Movie to Movement, who came to public notice as producer of the celebrated pro-life film Bella, first released in 2006.

Divided Hearts of America is, notes Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, a film featuring “Benjamin Watson’s in-depth conversations with Americans on both sides of the abortion debate.” It includes interviews with Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, pro-life champion Alveda King, abortion survivor Melissa Ohden, Louisiana State Sen. Katrina Jackson (D) and US Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), among others. 

“‘I believe in the sanctity of life, be it in the womb or on your deathbed; that’s my conviction,’ [Mr.] Watson declares,” reports Mr. Freiburger. “‘But with the film, I’ll engage those who disagree and hear their reasoning. The Number One thing I’m looking for is empathy on both sides.’ He hopes his film,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “will help ‘unveil the truth about abortion, the laws, the history and where our country is headed.’”

The film can be viewed for a price of $19.99 at https://salemnow.com/divided-hearts-of-america.

Discerning the Differences

PRIESTS FOR LIFE HAS PUBLISHED a comparison of the two major party platforms on the following issues: “Human Life, Planned Parenthood, Judges, Education/School Choice, Sex Education [and] Foreign Assistance.”

The guide can be viewed or downloaded and printed at the Internet website https://www.priestsforlife.org/candidates/2020-party-comparison.pdf.

It appears as a single page in English and a single page in the Spanish language.

Troubling Trend

July 10, 2020, report by Operation Rescue’s Cheryl Sullenger

            In case you haven’t noticed, pro-abortion globalists with a radical depopulation agenda have deeply infiltrated American abortion groups and politics – a trend that is dangerously on the rise. …

            The latest collaboration was announced by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is a New York-based legal organization that attacks pro-life legislation in the courts. It has joined hands with Ibis Reproductive Health – a globalist, socialist abortion group – to attack pro-life legislation and vilify those who are pro-life with the false notion that pro-life people lack empathy and compassion for women and families.

            The Center for Reproductive Rights was successful in challenging abortion safety laws at the US Supreme Court in the Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt and the recent June Medical Center v. Russo cases. Ibis Reproductive Health, funded in part by the Society of Family Planning, advocates expanding the use of abortion-inducing drugs to more women later into their pregnancies and is working to push back gestational limits on abortion to allow for more late-term abortions on viable babies.

            In a press release dated July 9, 2020, the two organizations announced a new website that details pro-life legislation in all 50 states. It also attempts to disparage the priority motives of legislators with accusations of hypocrisy by correlating the number of pro-life laws with the number of laws that support “pregnant women; promote children’s and adolescents’ health, education and safety; and support family financial health.”

            However, the new website fails to take into consideration the vast private networks of pro-life pregnancy help centers and other resources that provide support for women and families – all without being mandated or funded by local, state or federal governments.

            “In states that pass pro-life legislation, there are also a great deal of resources available to pregnant women that are supplied by the faith community and private pro-life organizations,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “This reduces the compulsion to create more government entitlement programs, as it should.”

            There are approximately 2,750 private pro-life facilities that offer free services, referrals and in some cases housing to pregnant women and their families in the spirit of charity. These vastly outnumber the approximately 700 abortion facilities in the US – many of which offer no other services than abortion.

            It also fails to mention the thousands of volunteer pro-life sidewalk activists in hundreds of cities that offer practical help and assistance to abortion-bound women outside abortion facilities nationwide that have been responsible for saving thousands of lives from abortion.

            The Trump Administration has done much to push back against the globalists who are foisting abortion on women around the world. For example, [the President] halted American funding of International Planned Parenthood and has withheld funds from the World Health Organization [WHO], with plans to withdraw from it.

            “The new pro-abortion website is more than just another attack on pro-life legislation. It is an attack on the deeply held beliefs of millions of pro-life legislators and citizens who oppose abortion and support a plethora of services for pregnant women and needy families. It wrongly leads people to believe that the compassion and generosity of pro-life supporters simply does not exist, when in fact it is alive and healthy and saving lives on a daily basis,” said Newman.

            But Newman concluded with a warning of the intensifying focus of globalist organizations and funding that is attacking pro-life legislation while promoting radical policies to expand abortion and abortion practices.

            “It is shocking how much influence the socialist, globalist abortion organizations have infiltrated the US abortion cartel,” said Newman. “These organizations are emerging from the shadows to force the expansion of an ailing abortion industry that was imploding until recently. Political corruption and a huge influx of globalist money has been poured into America to keep abortion from ending here. We must recognize this threat and face it head-on with a unified voice if we are ever to counter this attack and make America abortion free.”

Dump ‘Hyde’ at Your Own Peril

Aug. 31, 2020, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            How do you stop people from fighting an unpopular political agenda? Well, if you’re a House Democrat, you turn it into a race debate. Based on their latest comments, that’s how the far-Left has decided to tackle the country’s objections to taxpayer-funded abortion. Their goal is to frame it as an issue of injustice, so that even if people don’t agree with it, they’ll be too scared of being labeled to push back. But after 43 years of this bright red line called the Hyde Amendment, will Americans really be so quick to cross it?

            “It’s an issue of discrimination,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) insisted, “against low-income women, women of color … .” She, like other female Democrats, is starting the drumbeat for next year’s Congress, when her caucus plans to stop supporting one of the only true legislative compromises left in DC: the ban on taxpayer-funded abortion. Of course, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) has been on board with the idea for years but understood that starting a war on this rider – which is a part of almost every domestic spending bill – would grind Congressional business to a halt. After all, this isn’t just a policy that Republicans support, but members of her own party, too. In fact, it’s such a contentious idea that even Barack Obama didn’t have the stomach to call for the Hyde Amendment’s repeal.

            But now, with Democratic candidate Joe Biden throwing his lot in with the fringe elements of his party, Pelosi and company think they have a chance to take the country where no one imagined it would go. During a subcommittee meeting earlier this year, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) warned her members, “Although this year’s bill includes it, 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.” Starting in 2021, they have declared, House Democrats will “challenge the status quote.”

            It’s a nice messaging tool for their base, but a war over the Hyde Amendment would face some serious obstacles – not the least of which are Americans’ strong feelings on the issue. Despite four years of pushing the party into some of the most radical terrain in Democratic history, liberals’ position on the Hyde Amendment is still a far cry from most voters’. As recently as the 2020 Marist Poll, six in 10 Americans (60%) objected to tearing down the wall between taxpayers and abortion, including 37% who identify as “pro-choice.”

            Making matters even more complicated, millennials aren’t exactly on the free abortion bandwagon. Only seven percent of the 18-34 crowd agree with the DNC’s national platform on abortion – which is no legal limits and forced funding by taxpayer dollars. Memo to Nancy Pelosi: Not only are millennials one of the larger voting blocs in America, they’re also one of the most cautious when it comes to taking human life. If the Left thinks it can slap a racist sticker on the Hyde Amendment and topple the four decades-old policy, they’re mistaken. A surprising number of young people are more concerned about the racism of the abortion industry, not a law that’s saving “mostly nonwhite lives.”

            Even liberals at Slate have made the argument that abortion funding “isn’t as popular as Democrats think it is.” Over the past three years, William Saletan cautions, surveys have “debunk[ed] much of what the Left believes – not just about public support for government-funded abortions but also about how attitudes on that issue intersect with gender, class and reproductive freedom … .” He rattles off statistics showing what a miscalculation this anti-Hyde crusade is. At the end of the day, Americans may agree with the legality of some abortions, “but on the question of direct payments, most voters agree with the GOP. If Democrats make that question a litmus test, they’ll regret it.”

            Of course, the far-Left has never let public opinion get in the way of a bad policy agenda. But, as far as outgoing Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-IL) is concerned, the warning signs are all there – House leaders just aren’t heeding them. Rallying with other pro-lifers at a side event during the Democratic National Convention, he told the story of several Democrats who came to him during his eight terms in Congress and explained that they left the party “because of the Life issue.” “We are in the mainstream,” he insisted about the growing pro-life contingent, “and we cannot back down.” He said, “I think it’s a moral imperative that we protect Life.”