Life Advocacy Briefing

December 14, 2020

Troubling Rumor / Swift Reaction to the Biden H.H.S. Pick / Progress?
Ohio Seeks to Enact Humane Disposal Statute
High Court Turns Back Satanic Temple Appeal
Who’s the Racist? / Becerra Prospect a Defining Warning

Troubling Rumor

WITH A HANDFUL OF U.S. HOUSE RACES BEING CALLED on razor-thin margins, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) told Fox News viewers last Monday he is concerned that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) is planning to open the 117th Congress with a move to steal two House seats from GOP Members-elect.

The two Republican Congresswomen-elect whose seating he believes are targeted are Iowa’s Mariannette Miller-Meeks, about whose election we reported last week, and former Rep. Claudia Tenney, who leads current Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D) by a margin of 12 votes to regain her seat.

Article I – Section 5 of the US Constitution provides: “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members,” but to deny seating of Members whose election has been certified in their states – just because of a narrow vote margin and for clearly partisan reasons – cannot be justified, as it robs from voters their right to choose their own representatives, just as surely as vote fraud takes that right from them.

Speaker Gingrich cited House Democrats’ “theft” in 1985 of an Indiana Congressional seat in the same manner. Here is our transcript of his warning:

“I am very worried that they are going to try to steal both a New York Congressional seat and an Iowa Congressional seat – straight-out theft. They are taking those two races – instead of going to court, they are now going to bring them into the House, where they have a majority. I lived through this in 1984-1985, when they stole Indiana 8th. I know it was just literally a theft. There was no question that they went out and the Democrats in the House stole the seat; in fact, it deeply embittered the Republicans.”

“And I think [House GOP Leader] Kevin McCarthy ought to have a battle cry of “Thou shalt not steal!” And if they can’t win in the state courts, they should not be allowed to change the outcome in the US House. That’s what she [Speaker Pelosi] intends to do. She intends to steal two seats.”

 

Swift Reaction to the Biden H.H.S. Pick

THE PUTATIVE PRESIDENT-ELECT, ex-Vice President Joe Biden (D), last week named his team’s choice for Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS), California’s left-wing attorney general Xavier Becerra. We publish a commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins about the Becerra record – in California and in Congress – at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Though we are not yet ready to counsel our readers to call their US Senators to oppose Mr. Becerra’s nomination – especially since Mr. Biden has not become President – we are encouraged by some Senators’ early public responses to the thought of his assuming the helm of the massive social-spending-and-policy bureaucracy.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted the following reaction under his name at Twitter: “Xavier Becerra spent his career attacking pro-life Americans and tried to force crisis pregnancy centers to advertise abortions. He’s been a disaster in California, and he is unqualified to lead HHS. I’ll be voting ‘no,’ and Becerra should be rejected by the Senate.”

Then Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) gave the following reaction in a Fox News interview last Monday (transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing): “I’m concerned about the reports that say that he’s been a champion for late-term abortion and at-the-time-of-birth abortion, and that’s outside the norm. Even pro-choice people a lot of times will say they believe in some restrictions, but to believe in sort of complete, unlimited abortion till the time of birth or after I think is something that’s a very radical position, and I would hate to have him in charge of trying to dispense government monies toward that kind of policy. So we’ll look long and hard; I’ll try to keep an open mind, but my first impression of what I’m hearing about him is that he may be way outside the mainstream of what anybody in Kentucky would think is right.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), interviewed Tuesday on Fox & Friends (transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing): “Other than the fact that Mr. Becerra has no healthcare training; other than the fact that based on his behavior, he celebrates abortion; other than the fact that he wants to take away the on-the-job, employer-provided health insurance of about 190 million Americans, I guess he’s fine. I’m obviously being facetious; I think he’s going to have a tough time with confirmation. I don’t understand this pick by Mr. Biden. I think he’s going to have a tough confirmation.”

Considering these first reactions of some of the most vocal GOP Senators, confirmation of the Becerra choice could indeed be a steep hill to climb. Along with so much else that could ravel in the next two-to-four years, the fate of this highly problematic prospective nomination could well depend on the outcome of Georgia’s Jan. 5 special election, in which two GOP incumbents are facing left-wing opponents in close run-off contests.

 

Progress?

THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL (CDC) HAS FINALLY RELEASED its report of abortion statistics for 2018, showing a decline since 2009 but an increase from 2017.

The reported death toll for 2018 is 619,591 – every one of them an innocent human being targeted in his or her mother’s womb.

Among the reasons totals are declining from earlier death tolls exceeding one million is withdrawal from reporting by California, the District of Columbia, Maryland and New Hampshire.

The CDC’s report shows an increase in the percentage of abortions committed via chemicals versus surgical methods, suggesting to us that pro-life policymakers should consider limits on the abortion drug at least as much as regulations on surgical abortion shops.

And if the lawsuits challenging fraudulent practices in the November election somehow prevail, President Trump should direct his Food & Drug Administration to withdraw authority for RU-486 marketing in the US.

Dead babies are dead babies, regardless of the instruments of their killing.

 

Ohio Seeks to Enact Humane Disposal Statute

OHIO’s LEGISLATURE IS MEETING EVEN THIS MONTH, and, we’re pleased to report, the state House is using some of its December session time to address pro-life legislation.

Taking a cue from its neighboring state of Indiana, the Ohio House on Dec. 3 passed SB-27, which requires abortion shops, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com, “to either bury or cremate the remains of the preborn babies they kill, ensuring they will not be disposed of as medical waste.” Medical-waste disposal is a common practice in the abortion industry. The House on Dec. 9 voted to agree with Senate amendments and send the measure to the governor.

The Indiana statute was sufficiently unnerving to the abortion cartel that it was challenged all the way to the US Supreme Court, which upheld it last year, notes Mr. Freiburger.

The Ohio measure, which has been awaiting House action since its Senate passage in March of 2019, “would enable women seeking abortions to choose one of the two methods of final dispensation, Catholic News Agency reported,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “with an abortion facility having to choose one or the other if she opts not to.”

Said Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis, quoted by Mr. Freiburger, “‘The unborn victims of abortion deserve the same basic decency that we afford to all humans: a dignified burial. … Although we look forward to the day when we no longer have to lay to rest the broken bodies of Ohio’s abortion victims,’” he said in the LifeSiteNews report, “‘we are proud to say that our state has taken another step towards recognizing not only the humanity of the unborn but of ourselves as well.’”

Let us hope pro-life Gov. Mike DeWine (R) proceeds to sign the measure, as he is expected to do, and that its enactment will not only assure proper disposition of human remains in the abortion context but also could lead abortion-minded mothers to think twice about what they are seeking to do.

 

High Court Turns Back Satanic Temple Appeal

PERSISTENCE BY THE SATANIC TEMPLE in suing Missouri to overturn the state’s pro-life laws has been given a final rebuff by the US Supreme Court, which late last month refused to take the radicals’ appeal of an 8th Circuit Court dismissal of their case.

The Satanist cult claims that Missouri’s limits on abortion – notably the state’s 72-hour waiting period requirement – undermine their “tenets” and “religious rites,” which include abortion.

“In what may have been a desperate attempt to swing the [Supreme] Court in their favor,” notes Cassy Fiano-Chesser, reporting for Live Action, “the Satanic Temple even tried – and failed – to have Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused from its case, asserting that she is pro-life and is therefore unable to remain impartial.”

 

Who’s the Racist?

Dec. 9, 2020, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            It’s usually Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s (D-CT) purple hair that gets people’s attention. But lately, she’s being noticed for something else: Her adamance that taxpayers fund abortion. DeLauro, who’s next in line to chair the House Appropriations Committee, made no bones about her priority at Tuesday’s hearing, declaring that the 44-year-old Hyde Amendment was as good as gone if Democrats get their way. Don’t bother stopping us, liberals warned, or everyone will know – pro-lifers are racist.

            Deep down, Democrats know their position on taxpayer-funded abortion is wildly unpopular. In every poll, the Left-leaning Slate points out, Americans oppose it. So, what do liberals do? They turn it into a race debate. If liberals can make it about prejudice, they think Republicans will be too scared to fight back. That’s why DeLauro and others spent so much time hammering that message home. “It’s a longstanding issue of racial injustice,” DeLauro claimed. By telling poor women that the government won’t pay for their abortions, she insisted, we’re denying “the humanity of people of color.”

            Now, wait just a second, Republicans fired back. The only people denying humanity are the abortion advocates! They’re the ones ignoring the value and personhood of the unborn. They’re the ones fattening their bank accounts on the backs of innocent children. And if you’re looking for racists, start with the groups targeting blacks and Hispanics for abortion – the Planned Parenthoods of the world, who’ve built 80% of their killings centers in low-income neighborhoods.

            Frankly, Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler (R-WA) pointed out, what’s hurting Americans isn’t the lack of taxpayer-funded abortion. It’s the Left’s insistence that children are a burden – and women have to take a life to improve theirs. Abortion on demand, she argued, is “a failure to help women in need. It capitulates to despair and says there is no hope for the mother or child.” Just think about what this conveys to our communities, she insisted. “When I look at some of the great black Americans who are radically changing this country for the better, many of [them] grew up in poverty. What if their parents had received and believed that message?” Supporters of abortion in this meeting, she pushed back, need to think long and hard about what they’re saying. They “should question whether the promotion of abortion itself is structurally racist … . I don’t know how you can see that any other way.”

            Regardless, Beutler argued, refusing to “pay for the destruction of someone’s child” isn’t hateful. If anything, it reinforces every person’s worth – regardless of their skin color or the balance of their bank account. But then, Dr. Andy Harris (R-MD) said, nothing about the Democrats’ position makes sense. After five decades of legal abortion, they’re suddenly arguing that women won’t have abortion rights until every American is forced to pay for them. That’s ridiculous. The Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade has been the prevailing policy of the land on abortion since 1973. If they’re so worried about the cost, Harris pointed out, “Maybe Planned Parenthood – with all of the money they made selling baby body parts” – could start chipping in. After all, he quipped, they’re a “501/c/3 charity. So maybe they should be paying for abortions for women who can’t afford them [instead of] asking taxpayers to do it.”

            He’s right. If Planned Parenthood is so concerned about women of color, why aren’t they offering free abortions? Or taking the $40 million they spend on political campaigns and redirecting it to patients? Simple. Because their concern isn’t women – it’s their bottom line. At the end of the day, abortion is a business, and their goal is to make as much money as possible. “That’s what this is all about,” [Rep.] Harris told listeners of Washington Watch. “It’s about getting federal taxpayers to flood the coffers of Planned Parenthood.”

            And unfortunately, that isn’t just their goal – but the goal of the Biden-Harris Administration [should it come about]. With Obama’s vice president at the helm, Americans are staring down the most extreme, pro-abortion White House in the history of this country. How do we know? Because their party platform says so. That’s what makes the Georgia run-offs so important. Without the Senate, liberals like DeLauro will have a much harder time making their radicalism a reality. As plenty of people have pointed out, House Democrats will have their hands full as it is. Not only will they have to find a way to keep their shrunken Majority together, but they’ll be contending with 18 new pro-life Republican women too. For the Hyde Amendment’s sake, let’s hope that’s more than enough to keep them occupied. …

            Join us in praying for the upcoming Congress as well as the election and religious freedom lawsuits taking place all over the country. …

 

Becerra Prospect a Defining Warning

Dec. 7, 2020, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            If anyone believed there was a moderate bone left in Joe Biden’s body, they got a rude awakening Sunday night. The media’s presumptive President picked such an extremist to lead HHS that even the New York Times called it “a surprise.” Xavier Becerra (D), the current California attorney general, spent 24 years in Congress – building one of the most radical abortion records in public service. Just imagining him in charge of the government’s largest budget is enough to give conservatives nightmares.

            Becerra, who succeeded fellow radical Kamala Harris, picked up where she left off in the Left’s ferocious fight against pregnancy resource centers. Representing her outrageous crusade in the Supreme Court in 2018, he argued that pro-life offices should have to advertise for abortion. Fortunately, California’s liberals lost – but the message was clear: Like his predecessor, he doesn’t believe in free speech. He’s in favor of partial-birth abortion, taxpayer-funded abortion, Medicare for All, ObamaCare mandates and Planned Parenthood funding. When the federal government cracked down on California for forcing every health plan to cover abortion, he refused to comply.

            In Becerra’s 24 years in Congress, he voted against Family Research Council’s position 127 times. If he’s confirmed, Biden will be declaring war on pro-lifers, nuns, the unborn, medical professionals, taxpayers and anyone who believes in the First Amendment. Not that this is shocking, considering that Obama’s vice president swore to reinstate the healthcare mandate that would destroy groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor. “If I am elected I will restore the Obama-Biden policy that existed before the [Supreme Court’s 2014] Hobby Lobby ruling: providing an exemption for houses of worship and an accommodation for non-profit organizations with religious missions,” Biden said in July. Becerra’s elevation to HHS Secretary is the first warning shot that he means it.

            The AG has also taken an aggressive shot at undercover journalist David Daleiden, prosecuting him for trying to expose Planned Parenthood’s grisly baby-body-part business. As Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress pointed out, “Daleiden was the first journalist to be prosecuted under the state’s new law against recording ‘confidential’ conversations, not because of the method of video recording he utilized in his investigation – which is common in investigative journalism in this state, but instead because his investigation revealed content California officials wished to cover up.”

            Becerra would be a disaster for HHS and a menace to every American who cares about life and freedom. If anything, Biden has done the country a favor by announcing his intent. It underscores why the Jan. 5 Senate runoff races [in Georgia] are so important. A Republican [Senate] majority may be the only way to keep Biden’s nominations in check.