Life Advocacy Briefing

Timely Reminder

‘WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men … .’

This Nomination Must Be Stopped!

HEADING THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT might not seem a post of much interest to pro-life Americans. But the abortion advocacy of Pres. Biden’s radical nominee to the post is catching the attention of our friends in Operation Rescue (OR), and we believe it should catch the attention of our readers and of pro-life Senators as well.

Tracy Stone-Manning is seen by OR as “a radical environmentalist,” and the prominent pro-life group warns of “her radical leftist views on overpopulation.” The nominee “has been a proponent of population control policies that mirror those of Communist China’s one- and two-child limits,” reports OR, “and advocated for them in a 1992 graduate thesis prepared while attending the University of Montana.

“As first reported on by the Daily Caller,” notes OR, in her thesis, “she crafted eight commercials to ‘tug at the root of many of our environmental horrors – overpopulation.’ One of the ads she proposed depicted an American baby as an ‘environmental hazard.’” The ad stated, according to the OR report, “‘We breed more than any industrialized nation. … On average, each of us gobbles the same energy as three Japanese, 13 Chinese and 499 Ethiopians. … When we overpopulate, the earth notices it more. Stop at two. It could be the best thing you do for the planet.’”

If anyone could turn the Bureau of Land Management into a weapon for the abortion cartel, this nominee is just such a person!

We join OR in urging our readers to contact your home-state US Senators now to seek opposition to the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to head the Bureau of Land Management. [Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121]

“‘It is obvious that Stone-Manning has no regard for human life,’ said [OR president Troy] Newman. ‘We must oppose her nomination because her radical Communist-inspired ideology poses a threat to our Constitutional Republic and to human life, both born and unborn.’”

Nazi Science Returns to America

THE BIDEN-HARRIS REGIME ANNOUNCED LATE LAST MONTH it is “reversing the Trump Administration’s decision to end taxpayer funding for experimental research that uses fetal tissue derived from aborted babies,” reports Breitbart News.

The announcement came from the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS), whose secretary, lawyer Xavier Becerra, as California Attorney General before joining the Cabinet, took over prosecution of undercover journalist David Daleiden after his predecessor Kamala Harris resigned to mount a Presidential campaign.

The Daleiden expose implicated Planned Parenthood in production of tissue harvested from abortions of unborn human babies for purposes of medical experimentation.

The HHS notice covers the change of policy at the huge bureaucracy’s subsidiary agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), calling the reversal an “update.”

Citing The Hill as source, Breitbart reports testimony by Mr. Becerra before a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing in which he announced “the reversal of the Trump Administration policy would be forthcoming. ‘We believe that we have to do the research that it takes to make sure that we’re incorporating innovation and getting all of those types of treatments and therapies out there to the American people,’ [Secy.] Becerra said,” reports Breitbart. The scientists of the Third Reich could not have said it better.

“The announcement comes on the heels of a letter this week,” notes Breitbart, “from abortion industry allies and Democrat lawmakers Representatives Suzan DelBene (WA), Jan Schakowsky (IL) and Mark Pocan (WI), who urged [Mr.] Becerra to ‘immediately revoke the Trump Administration’s policies restricting fetal tissue use in biomedical research. … Fetal tissue is an irreplaceable resource for research that has led to numerous scientific and medical advances and contributed to the development of new therapies for many devastating diseases, including’” [wait for it!] “‘Covid-19,’ the pro-abortion Members of Congress wrote, adding the Trump Administration’s bans on taxpayer-funded research using the body parts of aborted babies ‘continue to threaten scientific and medical advances,’” not to mention the commercial benefits enjoyed by the abortion cartel.

“Dr. Tara Sander Lee, senior fellow and director of life sciences at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, said in a statement,” quoted by Breitbart, “the Biden-Harris administration’s ‘decision to resume experiments using the body parts of aborted children defies both the best ethics and most promising science.’ Lee asserted the claims of Democrats that tissue from the bodies of aborted babies is essential to develop essential drugs are false.  

“‘Exploiting the bodies of these young human beings is unnecessary and grotesque,’” said Dr. Lee, quoted by Breitbart. “‘Fetal tissue was not, and has never been, used for polio or any other vaccine, nor to produce or manufacture any pharmaceutical. There are superior and ethical alternatives available such as adult stem cell models being used by countless scientists worldwide to develop and produce advanced medicines treating patients now, without exploitation of any innocent life. All scientists should reject the Administration’s attempts to prey on fears related to the pandemic to advance the practice of harvesting fetal tissue.’”

Bring Back ‘Hyde’!

REPUBLICANS IN THE U.S. HOUSE HAVE INSTITUTED AN IN-HOUSE CAMPAIGN to bring to a vote HR-18, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which would make the long-standing, annually renewed Hyde Amendment a permanent feature of the law.

The Biden Regime and its Democratic allies in the Congress are currently pushing an FY-2022 appropriation measure which excludes Hyde protections for taxpayers and for unborn babies.

In late June, notes Priests for Life national director Fr. Frank Pavone in an e-mail bulletin, “Republican and pro-life leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), House Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Republican Conference Chair[man] Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) – who sponsored the bill – Andy Harris (R-MD), Kat Cammack (R-FL) and Michelle Fischbach (R-MN), made unanimous consent requests, asking Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) or her proxy to allow a vote on the bill. After each request, the Democrat-in-charge reads a speech,” writes Fr. Pavone, “denying the request.

“But Republicans plan to keep the pressure on,” he notes. “Every day the House is in session from now until the August recess, Republicans will ask for a vote on this bill. … In the House,” Fr. Pavone reports, “183 Representatives have co-sponsored the legislation, and many of them are planning in current days to stand up and ask for the bill to be released from the committees where it has been languishing since Rep. Smith introduced it on Feb. 5.”

We join Fr. Pavone in encouraging our readers to contact their own Member of Congress to insist that HR-18 be brought to a vote and that it be passed. [Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121]

We ask also that readers in the home districts of the following GOP Members contact their own Representative and politely request that he or she become a co-sponsor of HR-18 and join in the efforts to make the Hyde Amendment permanent. (The GOP Members below are not yet listed as co-sponsors but have a pro-life record or have stated a pro-life commitment. Their absence from the co-sponsor list may well be incidental and not intentional. A call from home can help alert them to the need to sign on.)

Needing a call: Arizona: Paul Gosar; California: Mike Garcia, Devin Nunes, Jay Obernolte; Colorado: Ken Buck; Florida: Carlos Gimenez, Maria Salazar, Dan Webster; Georgia: Drew Ferguson, Marjorie Greene; Indiana: Greg Pence, Victoria Spartz; Kentucky: Andy Barr; Michigan: Peter Meijer; Nevada: Mark Amodei; New York: Andrew Garbarino, John Katko, Nicole Malliotakis, Lee Zeldin; North Carolina: Madison Cawthorn; Ohio: David Joyce, Steve Stivers; Oregon: Cliff Bentz; Pennsylvania: Brian Fitzpatrick; Tennessee: Scott DesJarlais, Mark Green; Texas: Kevin Brady, Michael McCaul; and Wisconsin: Mike Gallagher.

A.P. Finds Americans Oppose Post-First-Trimester Abortions

A NEW POLL TAKEN BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) shows strong majorities of Americans believe abortion should not be legal when the victim has developed beyond the first three months of gestation.

“The poll comes just weeks after the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a currently blocked Mississippi law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, two weeks into the second trimester,” report AP writers David Crary and Hannah Fingerhut. “If the high court upholds the law, it would be the first time since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision confirming a woman’s right to abortion,” write the AP reporters, “that a state would be allowed to ban abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb.”

The AP poll found “65% said abortion should usually be illegal in the second trimester,” note Mr. Crary and Ms. Fingerhut, “and 80% said that about the third trimester.”

E.R.A. Still Dead

THE 1^st CIRCUIT U.S. COURT OF APPEALS on June 29 upheld dismissal of a lawsuit claiming the long-dead Equal Rights Amendment could still be ratified without being resubmitted to the states. The suit claimed further that a sufficient number of states had properly ratified the defunct proposal and is now incorporated into the US Constitution, even though recent ratifications occurred years after the 1972 proposal had expired.

“Today’s ruling,” declared National Right to Life lobbyist Douglas Johnson in an NRL news release, “continues an unbroken, 40-year losing streak by advocates of the ERA-is-alive cult in the federal courts, before federal judges of every stripe of judicial philosophy and political background.” Amen.

Unworthy of Honor

THOUGH ADDRESSING THE GRADUATION CEREMONY AT NOTRE DAME has become a tradition for American Presidents, the current occupant of the White House, Pres. Joe Biden (D) skipped the event, reports Liam Edgar for Tampa Free Press, “after thousands of alumni complained to the school’s administration about Biden’s abortion views.”

Though his staff claimed a scheduling conflict, the President and his wife actually spent that weekend at Camp David. His absence appears more related to avoidance of a growing controversy.

The controversy was touched off by awareness among university alumni of the tradition of honoring a President addressing Notre Dame’s graduation. The thought of Notre Dame honoring Joe Biden was, according to Mr. Edgar, citing the Washington Times as source, too much for some 4,300 “‘members of the Notre Dame community,’” who “had issued an open letter to the Notre Dame president … to not invite [Mr.] Biden because of his ‘pro-abortion and anti-religious-liberty agenda.’ …

“‘“Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles,”’” the Catholic bishops of the US have declared, according to a quote from the protest letter reported by Mr. Edgar. The President, the letter continued, “‘is such a person writ large. … He rejects church teachings on abortion, marriage, sex and gender and is hostile to religious liberty,’” the letter continued, quoted by Mr. Edgar. “‘He embraces the most pro-abortion and anti-religious liberty public policy program in history. The case against honoring him is immeasurably stronger than it was against honoring Pres. Obama, an action that alienated countless Catholics and brought upon Notre Dame the harsh criticism of 83 cardinals, archbishops and bishops,’ the letter continued,” reports Mr. Edgar.

“‘Biden’s actions already taken and those promised will result in the killing of countless innocent unborn both here and abroad through federal funding of abortions and abortion organizations. This is not hyperbole. It is demonstrable fact because of Biden’s lifting the bar against the flow of federal funds to both domestic and international Planned Parenthood and similar organizations. The calamity will assume truly harrowing proportions if Biden achieves his goal of providing direct federal funding of abortions.’” Well said.

A Bridge Too Far

May 24, 2021, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

         The White House called it a “scheduling conflict.” But people at Notre Dame knew it was something else: a conflict of values. When Joe Biden didn’t give the keynote address at Sunday’s graduation ceremony, his absence was enough to make headlines. After all, it’s been a modern certainty that the President or Vice President of any new Administration is at least invited to South Bend to headline the commencement. The only truly controversial visit was Barack Obama’s in 2009, but that would be nothing – protesters warned – compared to the backlash over Biden.

         The news that Biden had even been invited (a fact the university still won’t admit) was enough to make some alumni’s blood boil. That swell of disapproval only grew when a group launched an open letter urging Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins to reconsider, blasting Biden for undermining church teachings. “Biden … rejects Church teachings on abortion, marriage, sex and gender and is hostile to religious liberty. He embraces the most pro-abortion and anti-religious liberty public policy program in history.” In fact, the organizers argue, his views are so radical that they almost make Obama’s seem tame. “The case against honoring him is immeasurably stronger than it was against honoring Pres. Obama, an action that alienated countless Catholics and brought upon Notre Dame the harsh criticism of 83 cardinals, archbishops and bishops.”

         More than 4,300 Notre Dame students, alums and community members signed the petition, which spelled out all of the ways Biden has financed, enabled or worked for the killing of the innocent unborn. But it’s his hypocrisy on matters of faith, they write, that’s the most offensive. “In terms of Notre Dame’s honoring Biden, matters are made still worse by Biden’s repeated professions of his Catholicism, and one who, as you have acknowledged, believes abortion to be morally wrong. His is not the familiar ‘personally opposed but will not impose’ dodge of too many Catholic politicians,” they argue. It’s his enthusiastic promotion of abortion that encourages people to do what “one knows is wrong.”

         And let’s not forget, the signers write, it’s not just unlimited abortion that Biden supports. On issues of “sex, gender and marriage, Biden’s actions already taken and those promised are breathtaking in scope and will undermine the religious liberty of individuals in their private lives, employment, businesses and social and religious activities and of religious organizations and institutions such as schools, including Notre Dame, hospitals and adoption agencies.” The new Administration’s policies and promises of policies would level institutions like Notre Dame, stripping them of their free speech, free exercise and federal partnerships. For that, they’d put Biden in a position of honor? Or give him a platform to lecture their graduates?

         Even now, the Biden Administration is so obsessed with the idea of unlimited, taxpayer-funded abortion that it’s plotting to blow up the Supreme Court and pack it with far-Left zealots who will do Planned Parenthood’s bidding. That’s not the posture of a man who’s personally pro-life. It’s the posture of a true abortion loyalist. If there was any doubt, the White House cleared that up last week when reporters asked about the Justices’ decision to hear the case over Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. What was the President’s response? Jen Psaki said he’ll work even harder to make Roe v. Wade permanent.

         Meanwhile, the President’s hard-Left turn on a procedure he refused to even fund his first 40 years in politics is creating a ripple effect at every level of politics. In state races like Virginia and Texas, extremist groups like EMILY’s List are making abortion the issue of 2022 – which is just fine with pro-lifers. They know better than anyone that Democrats are overplaying their hand on the issue, assuming voters are as radical as they are. They aren’t. Most Americans are horrified at the idea of legal abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, which is what Biden’s party supports. The last time NPR/PBS/Marist pollsters asked, only 29% of Americans thought abortion should be allowed after the first three months of pregnancy. That’s a far cry from what this Administration is advocating.