Life Advocacy Briefing

Here We Go!

THE SUPREME COURT HAS ISSUED ITS LONG-AWAITED DECISION in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade (1973) and Casey vs. Planned Parenthood (1992). In so doing, the high court stopped short of finding in the Constitution the right to life of human beings before their birth but restored to the states their historic sovereignty in outlawing abortion.

The decision was handed down Friday, just past the publication deadline for our weekly Life Advocacy Briefing. Consequently, the balance of the June 27 edition was written in anticipation of the likely ruling, not reflecting its reality. But we have tried for several weeks to focus our Briefing on actions being taken in expectation of Friday’s ruling, forecast with cause since the leak in early May of a draft opinion, penned by Justice Samuel Alito, to which a majority of Justices had indicated agreement.

We thank our Lord Jesus Christ for this step forward for America, a step toward renewing our respect for Him by honoring His creation. We pray for peace in the face of threats of violent responses on the part of those who are invested – financially or emotionally – in the abortion cartel which has occupied this land for 49 years.

We urge our public officials to stand strong and to speak clearly in defense of Life. Facts sell, and the American people are tired of unprovoked violence. It is time for facts to be heard in the civic arena.

The Radical, Self-Exposed

IN A PATTERN THAT IS BECOMING TOO FAMILIAR to Americans who cherish our liberty, Pres. Joe Biden (D) and his advisors are reportedly considering issuing Presidential executive orders, reports Ashley Sadler for LifeSiteNews, “to ensure women can still kill their unborn babies if the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. …

“Politico noted,” writes Ms. Sadler, “that while the President can do little to stop pro-life states from enacting legislation to limit or outlaw abortion, the Biden Administration could choose from a range of options to make abortions easier to obtain.

“The outlet cited lawmakers and ‘abortion-rights groups’ in noting that potential executive actions could include ‘making it easier to obtain abortion medication, protecting patient privacy and making sure more people can afford and access contraception.’”

The LifeSiteNews reporter notes a further report from Politico that “pro-abortion Senators wrote a letter to [Mr.] Biden with a list of demands regarding abortion access. … In the letter, Senators asked the President to cut back FDA restrictions on abortion drugs, consider travel vouchers and additional support to finance travel from pro-life states to pro-abortion states so women can legally kill their unborn babies and look into whether abortions can be performed on federally-owned property in pro-life states.”

In a later, also frightening LifeSiteNews report by Jack Bingham, the President is reported to be mulling the declaration of a “national public health emergency … if Roe is overturned.”

In an appearance on a late-night television program, the President, reports Mr. Bingham, warned the overturning of Roe v. Wade “would cause a ‘mini-revolution. … I don’t think the country will stand for it,’ Biden told [comedian Jimmy Kimmel] … . ‘If in fact the decision comes down the way it does, and these states impose the limitations they’re talking about’” he said, quoted by Mr. Bingham, “‘it’s going to cause a mini-revolution, and they’re going to vote these folks out of office,’ the President asserted.”

This from a leader who has yet to utter a peep about the illegal intimidation coming every day or so against the Justices of the Supreme Court in their own formerly peaceful neighborhoods in violation of federal law.

Getting Ready

WHILE AWAITING THE SUPREME COURT’s IMMINENT RULING in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case – anticipating the vacating of the Roe v. Wade travesty – the chief legal counsel for National Right to Life Committee, James Bopp, has authored a “model abortion law” for enactment by states in the post-Roe era.

Because of the 49-year development of an entire industry around the killing of unborn boys and girls, the legislation to implement Dobbs – if it comes down as expected, as a states’ rights opinion rather than as a Constitutional right to life – Mr. Bopp proposes a detailed statute, carefully drawn and somewhat more detailed than one might expect. (This comment is not intended to undercut existing trigger laws such as the 49-year suspended 1931 Michigan law making abortion a crime.)

We urge readers to visit the Internet website www.bopplaw.com and read the memo and draft at the home page under the “Cases” heading at “National Right to Life Committee Proposes Legislation to Protect the Unborn Post-Roe/Read Memo.” The memo is 29 pages long, double-spaced, of which 25 pages are the model law draft itself, including several alternative paragraphs reflecting differences in state jurisprudence and statutory construction.

Telling the Truth Even When It Hurts

LIVE ACTION IS LAUNCHING a new video series called “What Is Abortion?”, demonstrating clearly that abortion is not health care. The videos, Live Action announced, “feature innovative and realistic animations and … are narrated by four female doctors who previously worked as abortionists, … walk[ing] viewers through the devastating reality of abortion,” including “chemical, aspiration (D&C), dilation and evacuation (D&E) and induced abortion procedures. Additionally,” notes Live Action, “they give viewers information on fetal development at the stage of pregnancy during which each type of abortion typically takes place.” The videos are being posted on YouTube.com and are being released also through LiveAction.org.

Relentless Pursuit

AFTER GETTING NO SATISFACTORY ANSWERS to a letter sent by Members of Congress last October to the Secretary of Health & Human Services, a large group of Congressmen and Senators have now sent a letter to the HHS inspector general, requesting “an audit to determine whether fetal tissue research funded by HHS at the University of Pittsburgh violated federal law.”

The letter was organized by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) in the House and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) in the Senate. We thank the signers and list them near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

“Between fiscal years 2016 and 2020,” reads the letter, “the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided approximately $1.5 million to the University of Pittsburgh as the GenitoUrinary Developmental Molecular Anatomy Project Tissue Hub & Collection Site. The University of Pittsburgh had stated in its funding application,” notes the letter, “its Health Sciences Tissue Bank could provide tissue from unborn babies six to 24 weeks old, and its partner, the International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine, could provide tissue from unborn babies 25 to 42 weeks old.”

Much of the letter’s text is technical, but its essence is to ask the inspector general to look into whether the university and its partners “violate[d] federal law prohibiting the alteration of abortion procedures solely for the purpose of obtaining fetal tissue.” And it asks the inspector general to determine, “has tissue being used for research been derived from aborted babies who were born alive and then killed by organ or tissue harvesting?”

These questions were raised by terminology used by the university and its partners in NIH applications.

“We ask for your assistance in conducting an audit,” reads the letter, “to answer the questions that the Department has failed to answer.”

Stateside Preparations

WHILE WE CONTINUE TO AWAIT what could well be the Supreme Court’s last decision to be announced during the term that concludes at the end of June, policymakers and lobbying operations on both sides of the abortion question are planning and even beginning to act on the assumption that this is indeed the eve of the cancelation of Roe v. Wade, after 49-plus years of legalized baby killing in America.

• IN IDAHO, Rep. Ross Fulcher (R) had the pleasure in mid-June of witnessing the closure of a Planned Parenthood shop in Boise. The shutdown not only anticipates the Supreme Court’s expected ditching of the Roe v. Wade ruling but also reflects the operation of a pro-life Stanton Healthcare clinic next door. In celebrating the closure of the abortuary, Rep. Fulcher related his involvement several years ago – during his career in real estate and before his Congressional service – as “the agent who helped Stanton Healthcare” site their clinic next to Boise’s Planned Parenthood and, several years later, assisting Stanton in locating next to Planned Parenthood in Meridian, Idaho. 

• IOWA’s supreme court surprised everyone recently, we have learned from the Thomas More Society pro-bono law firm, by doing “an about-face and rul[ing] that the Iowa constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion.” The ruling reverses an emphatic declaration by that court four years ago that “the Iowa Constitution guarantees a fundamental right to abortion.” The earlier declaration came in a ruling striking down Iowa’s informed consent law, notes Thomas More, “requiring that women considering an abortion be given factual information about the procedure and 72 hours to review it before having an abortion.” The reversal of that ruling now opens a path not only for a renewed attempt to enact “informed consent” but actually for a robust legislative response to the anticipated Dobbs decision being prepared by the US Supreme Court.

• MICHIGAN lawmakers have officially requested the state’s Court of Claims to grant the legislature intervention as defendants in the lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood to invalidate the 1931 state law which criminalizes abortion, a law which has been unenforceable under Roe but is still on the books. The motion from the legislature, which is controlled by the Republican Party in both houses, asks the court to reconsider a May 17 order issued by a claims court judge who has documented ties to Planned Parenthood. The legislature’s intervention is necessitated by a state attorney general who is a radical abortion advocate and cannot be expected to offer any defense of the law.

• NEW JERSEY Phil Murphy (D) announced a package of proposals to welcome abortionists to his state in the event that other states are given the green light to outlaw their deadly businesses. One proposal would authorize non-physicians – such as midwives, physician assistants and advance-practice nurses – to commit abortions. Another would compel insurance plans to cover New Jersey abortions. Then there is a Reproductive Health Accessibility Fund to train more abortionists, to offer security for abortion shops and to underwrite abortions on uninsured or underinsured mothers. These proposals were resisted by the legislature in recent deliberations; the package appears to be a bid to turn out abortion-minded voters in this fall’s election. Whether the governor can push them through a legislature which has already rejected them – or even makes a serious effort – remains to be seen.

• NEW YORK Kathy Hochul (D) signed six new laws June 13 to “promote abortion tourism” to her state, reports Ashley Sadler for LifeSiteNews. One blocks state courts “from issuing subpoenas or extraditing abortionists in connection with out-of-state pro-life laws,” Ms. Sadler writes, citing Politico as source. “Other measures will shore up legal protections for people seeking to obtain abortions and sex-change procedures within New York,” she reports, “‘prohibit disciplinary measures against health practitioners for providing legal reproductive health services to patients who reside in states where abortion is illegal, bar medical malpractice insurance companies from taking any adverse action against a reproductive healthcare provider who performs legal reproductive health care,’” still quoting Politico in the LifeSiteNews report, “‘and increase confidentiality for abortion providers and patients.’” National Right to Life News editor Dave Andrusko quotes Kristen Curran, lobbyist for the New York Catholic Conference, commenting on the plethora of abortion facilitations: “‘This package of bills seeks to encourage abortion tourism rather than helping women and children who may be in need. As a state that claims to value autonomy and choice, New York,’” Ms. Curran said, “‘should stop presenting abortion as the best and only option for struggling women … . This abortion-or-nothing narrative only demeans women.’”

• PENNSYLVANIA legislators are working on a state constitutional amendment stating, reports Clare Marie Merkowsky for LifeSiteNews, “that there is no ‘right’ to abortion or taxpayer funding of abortions.” The proposal, which has passed the Senate and must pass both houses twice and then be approved by voters at the ballot box, is seeking to overcome an abortion-cartel lawsuit being considered by the state’s supreme court. “The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation warned,” reports Ms. Merkowsky, “the lawsuit could force taxpayers to fund elective abortions in addition to overturning the state parental consent law … . The lawsuit could also result in late-term abortions,” she warns, “and remove informed consent for women. ‘We would also lose regular inspections of abortion facilities, meaning that hair and nail salons would face greater scrutiny than abortion centers,’ the [PPLF] organization added,” notes LifeSiteNews.

• TEXAS is in good shape, should the Supreme Court do the right thing in their upcoming Dobbs ruling. But the state’s capital city, Austin – arguably the most left-wing neighborhood in the entire state – is “considering a measure,” reports Bridget Sielicki for Live Action, “that would effectively circumvent the state’s trigger law that will protect preborn human beings should the US Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade.” It comes in the form of a resolution seeking to “ensure,” writes Ms. Sielicki, “that enforcement of the abortion ban would be the lowest possible priority for police, effectively ensuring that abortionists and the women who receive abortions would not be convicted of any crimes.” It restricts the use of city funds for investigation of any crimes related to abortion and declares such investigations the lowest priority for the Austin police. Texas Right to Life asserted, reports Ms. Sielicki, that the resolution is a “‘reminder that the private enforcement mechanism which made the Texas Heartbeat Act so successful must be applied to all pro-life laws. Private citizens,’” the group declared, “‘must rise to [the] occasion to enforce pro-life laws and save lives especially when politicians refuse.’”

Signers of UPitt Letter

GOP Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), joined by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (LA) and GOP Conference Chairman Elise Stefanik (NY), together with GOP Representatives Robert Aderholt & Barry Moore (AL); Andy Biggs & Debbie Lesko (AZ); Rick Crawford (AR); Doug LaMalfa (CA); Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck & Doug Lamborn (CO); Scott Franklin, Bill Posey, John Rutherford, Michael Waltz & Daniel Webster (FL); Rick Allen, Earl Carter, Andrew Clyde, Jody Hice & Barry Loudermilk (GA); Mike Bost, Rodney Davis & Darin LaHood (IL); Jim Banks, Larry Bucshon & Jackie Walorski (IN); Randy Feenstra & Marianette Miller-Meeks (IA); Jake LaTurner (KS); Garret Graves, Mike Johnson & Julia Letlow (LA); Andy Harris (MD);

Also, GOP Representatives Bill Huizenga, Lisa McClain & Tim Walberg (MI); Michelle Fischbach (MN); Michael Guest & Steven Palazzo (MS); Hartzler, Blaine Luetkemeyer & Ann Wagner (MO); Chris Jacobs (NY); Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy & David Rouzer (NC); Steve Chabot, Warren Davidson, Jim Jordan, Robert Latta & Brad Wenstrup (OH); Markwayne Mullin (OK); John Joyce, Mike Kelly, Guy Reschenthaler & G.T. Thompson (PA); Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman & William Timmons (SC); Diana Harshbarger, David Kustoff & John Rose (TN); Brian Babin, Michael Burgess, Michael Cloud, Dan Crenshaw, Jake Ellzey, Louie Gohmert, Ronny Jackson & Randy Weber (TX); Ben Cline, Bob Good & Morgan Griffith (VA); David McKinley & Alex Mooney (WV); Glenn Grothman (WI).

And from the Senate, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), joined by GOP Senators John Boozman & Tom Cotton (AR), Mike Braun (IN), Steve Daines (MT), Cindy Hyde-Smith & Roger Wicker (MS), Josh Hawley (MO), James Inhofe (OK), John Thune (SD) and Ted Cruz (TX).

Crickets

June 16, 2022, National Review report by Caroline Downey

             In a letter organized by the non-profit Catholic Vote, 25 pro-life leaders – mostly think-tank presidents – called the Justice Dept.’s attention to the many attacks on pregnancy centers, churches and even Supreme Court justices that have occurred since the Dobbs majority opinion leak last month.

             “The relative silence from the Administration endangers Americans even more,” the letter read. “One extremist group is advocating for violence in response to the final Supreme Court decision on Dobbs,” the group said, invoking a recent statement from rogue pro-abortion militants who call themselves Jane’s Revenge promising to unleash a rampage of violence against pregnancy centers who don’t close their doors.

             The group has taken credit for dozens of attacks in recent weeks in which pro-life pregnancy centers were firebombed, graffitied and otherwise vandalized.

             “Another group has published home addresses and encouraged people to show up at Supreme Court Justices’ homes, churches and their children’s schools in an attempt to coerce the Justices and influence their final decision,” the group wrote, referencing the radical activities of pro-abortion organization Ruth Sent Us in May.

             The leaders also cited the attempted assassination of Justice Kavanaugh.

             Last Wednesday, suspect Nicholas Roske arrived at Kavanaugh’s house in suburban Maryland armed with a gun and burglary tools. Roske told police he was there to kill the Justice to prevent the overturning of Roe v. Wade. …

             Many of the pro-abortion assaults have also targeted Catholic congregations across the country, the letter noted.

             “Since May 2020, over 130 incidents have occurred across 29 states and the District of Columbia at Catholic properties alone,” the letter read, citing a calculation from an incident tracker generated by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

             Some of these incidents have included arson, statues being beheaded, damaged or desecrated, and gravestones being defaced with swastikas and anti-Catholic epithets.

             Citing “18 US Code Sec. 247,” which assigns to the Attorney General the duty of investigating and prosecuting those who “do damage to religious property or participate in the obstruction of persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs,” the group implored Garland to issue a “prompt, comprehensive and public response.”

             So far, Garland has been silent on the threatening warning from Jane’s Revenge and the string of attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers. However, on Wednesday, White House Assistant Press Secretary Alexandra LaManna told the Daily Wire that “violence and destruction of property have no place in our country under any circumstances, and the President denounces this.* We should all agree that actions like this are completely unacceptable regardless of our politics,” she said.

*Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Whether or not some assistant press secretary claimed it, there has been not a word from the President on the extremist violence of the abortion movement or even on the attempted assassination of a Supreme Court Justice.

Further editor’s note: We appreciate the comments of Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) in remarks to the Senate on June 22, in which he referred to the radical abortion mobs occupying the capital city’s streets around the Supreme Court and storming the neighborhoods of the conservative-leaning Justices as “illegal intimidation mobs,” while the White House and Congressional Democratic leaders continue to seem complicit.