Life Advocacy Briefing

April 19, 2021

The Battle Is Joined / And on Another Front / And Then There’s This One
Born-Alive Discharge Petition Circulating / Down Syndrome Protection Upheld
Planned Parenthood Ally Confirmed as Surgeon General
Look Who’s Shooting Arms / Standing for ‘Hyde’ / Senate Voting Records

The Battle Is Joined

TWO LEFT-WING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS – Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-NY) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) – announced last Wednesday their introduction of bills to add four Justices to the US Supreme Court. The fight is on.

The legislation is likely to receive largely party-line votes in the House and in the Senate, but its passage is not guaranteed despite Democratic Party control of both houses. Because of deaths and resignations, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) now controls just a two-vote margin in the House until special elections are held to fill the vacancies. And the Senate is in liberal control only via tie-breaking votes that can be cast by Vice Pres. Kamala Harris (D) in her role as Senate president. Any three Democrats withholding their votes in the House and any one Democrat withholding his or her vote in the Senate can defeat this outrageous, radical legislation, provided no Senate Republican crosses the line.

Though we usually counsel our readers to contact just their home-state Senators and in-district Representative, in this matter we believe volume is critical, so we urge readers additionally to call Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Jon Tester (D-MT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), as the likeliest Democrats to bend against the pressures of their party. [Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121] Message: “Please vote ‘no’ on the Markey-Nadler bill to enlarge the Supreme Court.”

And on Another Front

PRES. TRUMP’s ‘PROTECT LIFE’ RULE is now being reversed by the Biden Regime. Last Wednesday came the announcement that the Dept. of Health & Human Services – at the direction of Pres. Biden – has filed a rule change to remove the 2019 rule barring Planned Parenthood and other abortion outfits from funding under Title X (Ten) “family planning” grants.

A public comment period has opened. The following is the public comment mechanism we have identified on the Federal Register website: “You may submit comments, identified by Regulatory Information Number 0937-AA11, by any of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Enter the above docket ID number in the ‘Enter Keyword or ID’ field and click on ‘Search.’ On the next web page, click on ‘Submit a Comment’ and follow the instructions.
Mail or Hand Delivery [For paper, disk or CD-ROM submissions] to: Attn: Title X Rulemaking Office of Population Affairs, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, US Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20201. Comments, including any personally identifiable or confidential business information, received prior to the close of the comment period will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov.”

And Then There’s This One

THE FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION (F.D.A.) HAS REVERSED its previous directive which barred mail-order distribution of the abortion drug, using the excuse of pandemic lockdown orders, notes Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com (LSN), “supposedly making in-person consultations more difficult or dangerous.”

Already the abortion cartel has been dispensing abortion pills long-distance via “telemedicine,” a system by which supposed doctors interview customers via Internet connection to a satellite office rather than performing in-person examinations. Now the FDA is countenancing dispensing the abortion drug cocktail by mail.

“Politico reports that on Monday [April 12], acting FDA Commr. Janet Woodcock declared it safe,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “to allow mifepristone, the first half of the chemical abortion cocktail RU-486, to be taken home without medical supervision, noting that it would reduce risks of contracting the coronavirus,” which appears to have been enshrined by the world’s “health” community as the ultimate health risk, despite a greater than 90% recovery rate, while very few babies survive RU.

The Trump Administration’s “FDA had warned abortion-by-mail distributors,” reports Mr. Freiburger, “that their flouting of the Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program requirements, which ensure that providers can ‘assess the duration of the pregnancy accurately, diagnose ectopic pregnancies and provide surgical intervention in cases of incomplete abortion or severe bleeding, or to have arrangements for others to provide such care’ – and give women ‘access to medical facilities for emergency care’ – could expose themselves to regulatory action potentially ‘including seizure or injunction, without further notice.’

“The abortion lobby sued the Administration over the rule,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “and in January the US Supreme Court allowed the Administration to enforce it.” The Biden-Harris bureaucracy, of course, has no intention of doing so.

Under the Biden Regime, the abortion industry appears to be entering a wild-wild-west atmosphere of unfettered profitability at the expense of America’s future.

For its part, the cartel’s trade group, the National Abortion Federation “reacted to [Ms.] Woodcock’s announcement,” reports LSN, “with a statement that it was ‘excited’ that ‘in states that allow the practice, NAF members can use telemedicine and start mailing mifepristone pills to patients immediately,’ while simultaneously asking for fresh donations in the name of shipping expenses.”

Born-Alive Discharge Petition Circulating

PRO-LIFE MEMBERS OF THE U.S. HOUSE HAVE RESUMED a campaign begun two years ago to force a vote in the House on legislation to provide for preemie medical intervention for babies who survive abortion.

First-term Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) last Monday filed a discharge petition to bring HR-619 out of committee for a vote in the full House. The discharge petition needs 218 signatures; Republicans hold 214 seats in the House, now that Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) has taken office (on April 12) after winning a special election to succeed her late husband Luke, who passed away on the eve of his anticipated swearing-in as a new Member in January. All Republicans are expected to sign the discharge petition; the bill itself has 199 co-sponsors as of this writing.

Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) is chief sponsor of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, as she was during the previous Congress, when GOP Members took turns making a motion to discharge her bill on virtually every legislative business day, nearly 80 times.

Rep. Cammack comes to Congress with a compelling personal story, according to a memo from Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. The freshman Congresswoman’s “own mother,” notes Fr. Pavone, “had to withstand pressure to abort her.” How fitting that she should so soon take on a leadership role in the cause for Life within the House of Representatives.

Fr. Pavone notes further in his memo, “We have documentation on hundreds of cases of babies born alive after abortion. This comes from the CDC and seven states that report on such situations. There are also hundreds of survivors of abortion,” he states, “who have formed a national network.”

He goes on to say, “It’s amazing that some in public office don’t seem to know that leaving a newborn baby alone and gasping for breath until he or she dies is unacceptable in a country that works hard to ensure human rights for every citizen.”

Down Syndrome Protection Upheld

THE 6^th CIRCUIT U.S. COURT OF APPEALS LAST TUESDAY UPHELD Ohio’s Down Syndrome Non-Discrimination Act, which bars abortions committed because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome.

“In 2018, the US Court of Appeals for the 7^th Circuit,” notes LifeSiteNews.com (LSN), “ruled against a similar prohibition on discrimination abortion in Indiana. [Last Monday’s] favorable ruling by the 6^th Circuit in favor of Ohio’s Down Syndrome law has created a circuit split – a development that greatly increases the possibility of Supreme Court review.”

Said Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, quoted by LSN, “‘We encourage the High Court to act now that this issue has received further consideration in the lower courts. Discriminatory abortions based on sex, race and disability are no less than modern-day eugenics and must swiftly come to an end.’”

Planned Parenthood Ally Confirmed as Surgeon General

THE U.S. SENATE HAS CONFIRMED as US Surgeon General a man who not only held the post from 2014 to 2017, serving the Obama Regime, but who has also been paid by Planned Parenthood to speak at their conferences and who has, according to Live Action writer Cassy Fiano-Chesser, “advocated for [Planned Parenthood] to continue receiving taxpayer funding,” which was interrupted from certain federal programs during the Trump Administration.

“At the Washington Ideas Forum,” notes Mrs. Chesser, Vivek Murthy “told Huffington Post correspondent Sam Stein that the abortion corporation should continue receiving taxpayer dollars, claiming,” she reports, “that removing such funding would have catastrophic consequences for public health care,” claiming that “‘many women get … basic health care and preventative care from Planned Parenthood.’” Many legitimate providers are available to provide “basic health care” to Americans, but Dr. Murthy apparently prefers to boost the finances of one whose principal mission is the killing of innocent human beings.

It is not surprising that the Biden-Harris Regime would reinstate to “the nation’s top doctor” post a man who firmly advocates taxing Americans to finance Planned Parenthood. What is disappointing, however, is that his confirmation vote was 57 to 43. We publish the voting records on his confirmation and on the motion to bring it to a vote, at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Look Who’s Shooting Arms

NEVER ONE TO MISS AN OPPORTUNITY, Planned Parenthood “is launching a major campaign,” reports Raymond Wolfe for LifeSiteNews, “to distribute Covid-19 vaccines and convince people to get them.

“Today [April 8], Planned Parenthood announced a $2 million English and Spanish ad blitz to promote Covid-19 vaccines to at least 1.5 million people, on top of campaigns to distribute shots through clinics and mobile sites in five states.”

Planned Parenthood’s participation in vaccine promotion and administration is apparently part of the Biden regime’s new “Covid-19 Community Corps” program which enlists non-government organizations to blanket America with shots.

Affiliates of the abortion giant in Minnesota, Montana, New York, California and Washington State, according to Mr. Wolfe, “will be vaccinating people in abortion centers, deploying mobile clinics to rural and lower-income areas and running pop-up vaccination sites.” The LSN reporter attributes this information to an April 8 report by Politico.

“The Covid-19 vaccine program,” writes Mr. Wolfe, “recalls Planned Parenthood’s sordid history of racist medical campaigns aimed at ethnic minorities. In the 1930s,” he writes, “as part of the organization’s years-long, eugenics-rooted ‘Negro Project,’ Planned Parenthood ran mobile contraception clinics throughout the South to suppress black births. The group still disproportionately targets black and Hispanic customers for abortion and contraception. …

“Planned Parenthood officials have admitted,” writes Mr. Wolfe, “that the [Covid] move is an attempt to boost perceptions. ‘Hopefully years in the future, someone can look back positively on their experience getting a vaccine through us,’ a systems manager at a California Planned Parenthood affiliate told Politico Pro. ‘We’re reaching folks who might not otherwise have thought of Planned Parenthood as being able to provide services such as these.’

“The vaccine initiative also may be a new source of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood,” notes Mr. Wolfe. Do ya think?

Standing for ‘Hyde’

April 13, 2021, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council’s Connor Semelsberger

If a federal law has saved almost 2.5 million lives, you’d think it’s worth keeping on the books, right? This is exactly why conservative Members of Congress are on a mission to preserve the Hyde Amendment.

The Hyde Amendment, a federal law preventing federal tax dollars from paying for abortions, was first adopted in 1976 and has been included as a bipartisan measure in every spending bill since. Yet, to take effect, it must be passed annually, and this important measure is more at risk than ever before. The policy in Hyde both saves lives and protects American taxpayers from having their consciences violated. Research shows that 58% of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion. That number is up from 55% last year.

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) recently told listeners on [Family Research Council’s] Washington Watch that this is an issue Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on: “This issue is really not about whether you support abortion, but yet embrace the Hyde Amendment, because it’s only saying we’re not going to use the taxpayer dollars.”

Historically, Democrats have supported this commonsense measure. Even Pres. Biden supported the Hyde Amendment until as recently as 2019. His repudiation of this policy was an unfortunate reversal. Rep. Aderholt suggests that reiterating support for the Hyde Amendment once again is a way for Biden to pursue unity with the other side: “If he wants to reach out to the conservatives in just a small way, this is a way to do it.”

These days, just about any policy that liberals disagree with may be deemed “racist.” And critics – including Biden’s deputy director of the Office of Management & Budget Shalanda Young – have levied this same complaint against the Hyde Amendment. There’s just one problem with that. The Hyde Amendment has disproportionately saved minority lives from being ended in the tragedy of abortion.

One recent report from the US Catholic Conference of Bishops notes that 46% of minorities say abortion is morally wrong, a statistic comparable to white Americans. Yet the abortion industry disproportionately targets minority communities. In fact, the abortion rate among black women is almost four times that among white women. And that’s without federal funding. How many more minority lives would be lost to abortion if the federal government paid for it?

Pro-lifers have long observed that abortion clinics tend to set up shop in minority communities, taking advantage of communities that need real maternal healthcare and support, to make their own financial profits from abortion. In places like DC, where minority women barely have access to a single ob/gyn clinic, the solution from pro-abortion politicians is not to give them necessary medical care, but rather force the American people to pay for their abortions.

For decades, the Hyde Amendment enjoyed strong bipartisan support. Rep. Aderholt recalls that when he first entered Congress around 25 years ago, the issue was so settled that no one would seriously argue for getting rid of it.

Unfortunately, it will now take a drag-out political fight to retain the Hyde Amendment. Thankfully, brave and committed Congressmen who value life are ready to take up that fight. We must do all we can to support them in that effort.

Senate Voting Records

Cloture motion to close debate on Nomination of Vivek H. Murthy as Surgeon General – March 23, 2021 – Adopted 57-43 (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “no” / pro-Life: Shelby & Tuberville/AL, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Rubio & Scott/FL, Crapo & Risch/ID, Braun & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Kennedy/LA, Hyde-Smith & Wicker/MS, Blunt & Hawley/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Burr & Tillis/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Blackburn & Hagerty/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Lee/UT, Capito/WV, Johnson/WI and Barrasso & Lummis/WY.

Voting “yes” / anti-Life: Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, Kelly & Sinema/AZ, Feinstein & Padilla/CA, Bennet & Hickenlooper/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Ossoff & Warnock/GA, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Marshall/KS, Cassidy/LA, Collins & King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Klobuchar & Smith/MN, Tester/MT, Cortez-Masto & Rosen/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Lujan/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Brown & Portman/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Romney/UT, Leahy & Sanders/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV and Baldwin/WI.

Confirmation of Vivek H. Murthy as Surgeon General – March 23, 2021 – Confirmed 57-43 (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)