Life Advocacy Briefing

Yes, 7th Circuit, the Court Did Overturn Roe

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT AFFIRMED ITS DOBBS RULING last Tuesday by “grant[ing] Indiana’s request to reinstate a 2017 pro-life law requiring parental consent for minors’ abortions,” reports Clare Marie Merkowsky for LifeSiteNews.

“Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order,” writes Ms. Merkowsky, “enforcing the law, overruling the US Court of Appeals for the 7^th Circuit, which had insisted on waiting for the official judgment overturning Roe, as reported by NBC News. Lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing,” reports LifeSiteNews, “that ‘delay would only serve to prevent enforcement of a duly enacted state statute designed to protect minors, families and the unborn.’”

Formal notice of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling is “not expected,” according to Ms. Merkowsky, “to be published before July 25.” After that publication, lower federal courts are expected to handle petitions like Indiana’s without their having to keep pleading with the Supreme Court.

Just Who Is It that Embraces Slavery?

THE IRONY SEEMED TO GO OVER THE HEADS OF MANY IN THE MEDIA last week when Vice Pres. Kamala Harris (D) told the annual convention of the NAACP, reports Dave Boyer for the Washington Times, “that the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning abortion rights [sic] is reminiscent of the era of slavery in the US because women no longer have the right to control their bodies.”

Of course, the reality is that the great struggle to reinstate America’s opposition to abortion is actually on the side of those who struggled to eliminate slavery. In both cases, the operative principle is that no one person owns another or has the right to dispose of another.

The underlying principle of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs restores the long-standing heritage of America’s respect for the distinct lives of human beings and reminds us that no one – even a person’s own mother – owns or has the right to eliminate that person.

House Members Go on the Record

THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTED on Friday, July 15, to pass two bills seeking to take away the states’ powers to protect unborn human lives. HR-8296 represented a panoply of provisions taking America back to a universal “right” to abortion policy, and HR-8297 guarantees aborting mothers safe passage across state lines to access abortion regardless of laws in their home states (as though the state lawmakers have any thought of trying to interfere in interstate commerce).

The day before the House action, three Democratic Senators – Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Patty Murray (WA) and Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV) – sought to bring forward the Senate’s version of HR-8297 with a motion to pass it by unanimous consent, with no recorded roll call. Their effort was thwarted by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who objected to the bill’s consideration and passage, killing its consideration without a recorded roll call.

Phone calls to home-state Senators are still in order, requesting “no” votes on HR-8296’s twin, S-1975, which is sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). [Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121]

We publish the House voting record on final passage of the comprehensive bill at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing and plan to publish the record on final passage of the interstate bill next week.

So Far, So Good

CONGRATULATIONS TO MARYLAND DELEGATE DAN COX on winning last Tuesday’s GOP primary to succeed moderate Gov. Larry Hogan. The pro-life lawmaker ran on a “Make America Great Again” platform against a Hogan cabinet officer, Kelly Schulz, whose platform included maintaining the current state of the law on abortion in Maryland.

Maryland tolerates one of America’s most notorious late-term abortionists, LeRoy Carhart. ’Nuf said?

Drilling Down for the Abortion Cartel

AT A TIME WHEN THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT is being urged – as a way of atoning for the Supreme Court’s recent ruling – to be even more visibly devoted to caring for expectant mothers in distress, Michigan’s radical governor, Gretchen Whitmer (D) is reportedly poised to veto more than $20 million earmarked for support of adoptive parents, promoting adoption as an abortion alternative, expansion of maternity homes, a “maternal navigator pilot program,” and a program promoting  “childbirth, alternatives to abortion and grief counseling,” reports the Washington Times.

What can be expected, though, from a governor who, notes Ashley Sadler for LifeSiteNews, “has referred to abortion access as ‘a great part of [Michigan’s] legacy.”

A spokesman for the governor told the Detroit Free Press, reports Ms. Sadler, that the governor “will … also veto funding for pro-life pregnancy centers.”

The Detroit Free Press also, according to the LifeSiteNews report, quoted State Rep. Thomas Albert (R), chairman of the state’s House Appropriations Committee: “‘The governor claims to be a voice for “choice,” but her actions clearly support only one option for women in a crisis pregnancy – the deadly choice of abortion.’ … [Rep.] Albert said the leftist governor’s vetoes suggest that ‘helping pregnant women who might consider adoption instead is now a bridge too far,’ and slammed the governor’s line-item vetoes, which he said will strip away assistance for ‘expecting mothers and their babies, including those facing a crisis pregnancy, by denying them access to essential care both before and after giving birth.’”

Stateside

• LOUISIANA’s TRIGGER LAW has taken effect, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, now that a state district judge has ruled (on July 8) that she lacked authority to extend a restraining order secured quickly by the abortion cartel. That immediate temporary restraining order was “allowed to stand” by the state supreme court, “pending hearings in district and appellate court.” The district judge, Ethel Julien, next “determined that she lacked the authority to extend the restraining order due to [a] technicality,” writes Mr. Freiburger, stating “that the case had been filed in the wrong court.” God has His ways. Meanwhile, even while the law – which was enacted to prospectively outlaw abortion in the event Roe was overturned and therefore took effect with the Dobbs ruling of the Supreme Court – was under temporary restraint, the Louisiana attorney general, former Congressman Jeff Landry, “publicly notified the state’s abortionists in a letter that [the state] ‘does not – and cannot – immunize medical providers from liability from criminal conduct,’” notes Mr. Freiburger, who reports the warning continued: “‘Any medical provider who would perform or has performed an elective abortion after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs is jeopardizing his or her liberty and medical license.’”

• INDIANA’s LAW BANNING DISMEMBERMENT ABORTIONS has now been released from a June 2019 injunction, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs US District Judge Sarah Evans Barker responded positively on July 7 to a motion from Indiana’s medical licensing board, reports Matt Lamb for LifeSiteNews, effectively banning abortions “at around 13 weeks and later.” Notes the LifeSiteNews report: “Dismemberment abortions, also called dilation and evacuation, are often committed in the second trimester. Abortionists use a sopher clamp to rip out the body parts of a pre-born baby in the womb and to crush the baby’s skull, according to former abortionist Anthony Levatino.” Dr. Levatino’s testimony before Congress on this topic can be examined under the title “Abortion is not health care. Here is what it is.” on our home page at LifeAdvocacy.com.

• INDIANA’s LEGISLATURE IS SLATED TO BEGIN A SPECIAL SESSION today, and the state’s lawmakers are expected to take up both tax relief and abortion restrictions, potentially going so far as to outlaw the deadly act now that the Supreme Court has declared there is no constitutional right to kill a developing human baby.

• O.P. LAWMAKERS IN MICHIGAN – who dominate both chambers of the legislature – “have filed a request with the Court of Appeals,” reports Michael Haynes for LifeSiteNews, “to overturn a Michigan judge’s injunction preventing the state’s pre-Roe abortion ban from having effect.” The lawmakers “argued,” writes Mr. Haynes, “that a current ban on the state’s abortion ban was ‘judicial overreach, indeed, extreme judicial overreach.’” The judge who blocked enforcement of the long-standing Michigan abortion prohibition, Judge Elizabeth Gleicher of the Michigan Court of Claims, is known to have contributed to Planned Parenthood and to have been involved with the abortion behemoth before taking to the bench, but she refused to recuse herself from ruling on Planned Parenthood’s petition when requested to do so in May, before the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision. The state’s legislators intervened and secured standing to defend the 1931 still-standing law after the state’s radical attorney general refused to defend it.

• PENNSYLVANIA STATE SENATORS HAVE ADVANCED a state constitutional amendment clarifying, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “there is no state-level right to abortion” in an omnibus resolution which includes, he notes, “‘this Constitution does not grant the right to taxpayer-funded abortion or any other right relating to abortion.’” The amendment must still be approved by the House and then approved again by both houses in the 2023-2024 legislative session; having cleared those hurdles, it would be submitted to voters for final approval. Pro-abortion Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has no role in the matter. He has, however, acted to protect the state’s abortion industry via an executive order; that order can be revoked by a future governor or overridden, eventually, by the constitutional amendment, should the proposal pass its hurdles. A currently pending lawsuit seeks to have the state supreme court declare a state-level “constitutional right” to abortion despite the lack of such a provision in the state constitution and the recent overturning by the US Supreme Court of the claim in Roe v. Wade that the US Constitution can be construed to concoct such a “right.”

• ARIZONA’s ‘PERSONHOOD’ LAW declaring that life begins at conception has been put on hold by US District Judge Douglas Rayes. He ruled July 11, reports Joseph Summers for LifeSiteNews, the law is “too vague in its personhood provision, holding,” writes Mr. Summers, “that the rights of abortion providers in Arizona were violated, as they would not know how to act in accord with the law.” Perhaps they should try following their own Hippocratic Oath to do no harm! Judge Rayes, incidentally, was appointed in 2014 by Pres. Barack Obama (D).

• A STATE JUDGE IN WEST VIRGINIA last Monday “struck down a pre-Roe ban” on abortion in the state, reports ABC News. The law has been on the books in the state since 1882. But Kanawha County Judge Tera Salango issued a ruling assuring the state’s only abortuary, located in Charleston, it could resume the killing of preborn babies without fear of prosecution, and the shop has resumed “booking abortion patients for appointments,” notes ABC. “‘The impacts of abortion being pushed out of reach for the last month have been devastating,’ Katie Quinonez, executive director of the clinic, said in a statement” quoted by ABC. “‘Make no mistake,’” said the abortion executive. “‘Essential health care shouldn’t depend on the whims of a court or politicians.’” But abortion is not essential health care; it is the intentional killing of an innocent fellow human by a professional whose job is supposed to be protecting life. And the decision of the Supreme Court in its recent Dobbs ruling was certainly not whimsical but was born of conscience and of responsible legal scholarship. And the law in West Virginia defines abortion as a felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison, reports ABC. The state’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey has vowed to appeal the ruling.

• MISSOURI’s BAN ON ABORTING BABIES WITH DOWN SYNDROME was reinstated early this month by the 8^th US Circuit Court of Appeals. It has been the object of litigation brought by Planned Parenthood since its passage in 2019. The protection for Downs babies was specified with the now reinstated law, which also, according to Clare Marie Merkowsky, reporting for LifeSiteNews, “protects unborn babies in most circumstances.” Thank you, Justice Alito.

Closed, for Good

NOT ONLY HAS MISSISSIPPI’s ONE REMAINING ABORTUARY CLOSED, the building long housing the Jackson Women’s Health Org. has now been sold, according to an Associated Press report. Owner Diane Derzis expects soon to set up shop in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

‘The Heart of the Issue’

July 19, 2022, BreakPoint commentary by John Stonestreet & Kasey Leander

             Post-Roe rhetoric continues to reach new levels of rumor, scare tactics and red herrings. Take a recent headline from Scientific American: “Abortion Restrictions Could Cause an Ob-Gyn Brain Drain.” The implication is most doctors want to offer abortion so badly, they’ll leave medicine if they can’t. The truth, however, seems to be the opposite.

             The LA Times reported, from a 2019 survey of American ob-gyns, that “while nearly three out of four had a patient who wanted to end a pregnancy in the past year, fewer than one in four were willing and able to perform one themselves.”

             For some, the reasons were pragmatic. Many others cited pro-life convictions. As Dr. Donna Harrison of the Assn. of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists put it, “We have two patients: both the unborn child and the mother. As physicians, we’ve taken the Hippocratic Oath … . We don’t kill our patients.”

             That’s the actual heart of the issue. Doctors are there to heal, not kill. It’s not hard to tell the difference.

House Voting Record

HR-8296 –Make Abortion Legal – Final Passage – July 15, 2022 – Passed 219-210 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “no”/pro-Life: Aderholt, Brooks, Carl, Moore, Palmer, Rogers/AL; Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Conway, Garcia, Issa, Kim, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Obernolte, Steel, Valadao/CA; Boebert, Buck, Lamborn/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Cammack, Diaz-Balart, Donalds, Dunn, Franklin, Gaetz, Gimenez, Mast, Posey, Rutherford, Salazar, Steube, Waltz, Webster/FL; Allen, Carter, Clyde, Ferguson, Greene, Hice, Loudermilk, Scott/GA; Fulcher, Simpson/ID; Bost, R.Davis, Kinzinger, LaHood, Miller/IL; Baird, Banks, Bucshon, Hollingsworth, Pence, Spartz, Walorski/IN; Feenstra, Hinson, Miller-Meeks/IA; Estes, LaTurner, Mann/KS; Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers/KY; Graves, Higgins, Johnson, Letlow, Scalise/LA; Harris/MD; Bergman, Huizenga, McClain, Meijer, Moolenaar, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Fischbach, Stauber/MN; Guest, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/MO; Rosendale/MT; Bacon, Flood, Smith/NE; Amodei/NV; Smith, VanDrew/NJ; Herrell/NM; Garbarino, Jacobs, Katko, Malliotakis, Stefanik, Tenney, Zeldin/NY; Bishop, Budd, Cawthorn, Foxx, Hudson, McHenry, Murphy, Rouzer/NC; Armstrong/ND; Balderson, Carey, Chabot, Davidson, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bice, Cole, Hern, Lucas, Mullin/OK; Bentz/OR; Fitzpatrick, Joyce, Keller, Kelly, Meuser, Perry, Reschenthaler, Smucker, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Mace, Norman, Rice, Timmons, Wilson/SC; Johnson/SD; Burchett, DesJarlais, Fleischmann, Green, Harshbarger, Kustoff, Rose/TN; Arrington, Babin, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Cloud, Crenshaw, Cuellar, Ellzey, Fallon, Flores, Gohmert, Gonzales, Gooden, Granger, Jackson, McCaul, Nehls, Pfluger, Roy, Sessions, Taylor, VanDuyne, Weber, Williams/TX; Curtis, Moore, Owens, Stewart/UT; Cline, Good, Griffith, Wittman/VA; Herrera-Beutler, Newhouse, Rodgers/WA; McKinley, Miller, Mooney/WV; and Fitzgerald, Gallagher, Grothman, Steil, Tiffany/WI.

Voting “yes”/anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O’Halleran, Stanton/AZ; Aguilar, Barragan, Bass, Bera, Brownley, Carbajal, Cardenas, Chu, Correa, Costa, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Garamendi, Gomez, Harder, Huffman, Jacobs, Khanna, Lee, Levin, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Panetta, Pelosi, Peters, Porter, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; Crow, DeGette, Neguse, Perlmutter/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Hayes, Himes, Larson/CT; Blunt-Rochester/DE; Castor, Cherfilus-McCormick, Crist, Demings, Deutch, Frankel, Lawson, Murphy, Soto, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Bourdeaux, Johnson, McBath, D.Scott, Williams/GA; Case, Kahele/HI; Bustos, Casten, D.Davis, Foster, Garcia, Kelly, Krishnamoorthi, Newman, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky, Schneider, Underwood/IL; Carson, Mrvan/IN; Axne/IA; Davids/KS; Yarmuth/KY; Carter/LA; Golden, Pingree/ME; Brown, Hoyer, Mfume, Raskin, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, Trone/MD; Auchincloss, Clark, Keating, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Pressley, Trahan/MA; Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin, Slotkin, Stevens, Tlaib/MI; Craig, McCollum, Omar, Phillips/MN; Thompson/MS; Bush, Cleaver/MO; Horsford, Lee, Titus/NV; Kuster, Pappas/NH; Gottheimer, Kim, Malinowski, Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sherrill, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Leger-Fernandez, Stansbury/NM; Bowman, Clarke, Espaillat, Higgins, Jeffries, Jones, C.Maloney, S.Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Morelle, Nadler, Ocasio-Cortez, Rice, Suozzi, Tonko, Torres, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Manning, Price, Ross/NC; Beatty, Brown, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Cartwright, Dean, Doyle, Evans, Houlahan, Lamb, Scanlon, Wild/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Allred, Castro, Doggett, Escobar, Fletcher, Garcia, Gonzalez, Green, Jackson-Lee, Johnson, Veasey/TX; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, Luria, McEachin, Scott, Spanberger, Wexton/VA; DelBene, Jayapal, Kilmer, Larsen, Schrier, Smith, Strickland/WA; and Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Gonzalez/OH and Cheney/WY.