Life Advocacy Briefing

Speaker Pelosi Bows Out

READERS SURELY KNOW BY NOW that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SanFrancisco) announced last Thursday she will not seek to continue to lead the House Democratic caucus, though she further announced she does plan to continue to be a Member of the US House. Whoever replaces her in the party leadership role will be, it appears, the Minority Leader for the next Congress. And whoever wins the battle enjoined last Thursday, it will be an abortion advocate.

One Reason Expectations Fell Short

ABORTION IS NOT HEALTH CARE. Did you hear a single pro-life candidate assert that truth in the recent campaign, either as a statement or as a response to a question about abortion?

The reality is, media interviewers customarily take on an adversarial role, and when they interview a pro-life candidate, they will nearly always ask questions in a way that puts the candidate on the spot. (This is true of elected officials, as well – not just during campaign season – when they are asked about this one issue.) It is seen as a gotcha question, and it usually works.

It works to wedge the pro-life candidate or official away from the average voter, because people are turned off by candidates who seem uncomfortable with a particular issue, and one-word answers suggest they are more given to hiding than being forthcoming.

What the people of America need to understand about abortion is not whether a particular candidate is for it or against it; what the average voter needs to grasp is the reality of abortion. And our minimalizing candidates – and public officials – give them nothing with which to open their eyes and their minds and their consciences, missing opportunity after opportunity to move voters toward the pro-life truth and, while they are at it, toward the pro-life candidate.

We counsel candidates and other pro-life communicators, and we are taking a moment to do that right now, as our readers include pro-life public officials, pro-life organizations and earnest pro-life citizens whose desire is to move their fellow citizens toward the truth in the interest of protecting innocent developing babies and their sometimes-vulnerable mothers.

So, what should one say when asked about abortion? Something more than a one-word response! Something more along the lines of: Let’s face what abortion actually is. Abortion is not health care. Abortion is the intentional killing of a developing human baby. I cannot be for such an obviously criminal act – can you?

Just a suggestion. We hope it helps. We cannot continue to let the abortion cartel dominate our elections, especially now that the Supreme Court has graciously reopened this question to public determination. We cannot repeat the unnecessary disappointment of the 2022 election.

A Bi-Partisan Thrust Against Online Suicide Kits

TWO DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMEN HAVE TEAMED UP with two GOP colleagues to offer a bill, reports Cassy Fiano-Chesser of Live Action, to “prevent online outlets like Amazon from selling so-called ‘suicide kits.’ The issue,” she notes, “came to the forefront after two families alleged that their teenagers were able to purchase a book telling them how to commit suicide, as well as the chemical needed to carry it out.”

Along with a book by a notorious suicide-abetting killer, Amazon’s website associates “a pure form of sodium nitrate, which a lawsuit claims has no household purpose,” notes Mrs. Chesser. “The only reason for buying it,” she writes, “would be to commit suicide, and long with [the] book, Amazon recommended ‘a small scale to measure the right dose’ and ‘Tagamet to prevent vomiting up the liquid.’”

US Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) in late October filed HR-9260, the “Stop Online Suicide Assistance Forums Act,” along with co-sponsors Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH), Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) and Rep. Katie Porter (R-CA). The bill has been assigned to the House Committee on the Judiciary and is not expected to see action before Congress adjourns in early January. It is, however, a forecast of legislation which could be taken up in the next Congress.

Said Rep. Trahan in a news release, quoted by Mrs. Chesser, “‘The last thing we need right now is an online forum operating in the shadows of the Internet that actively encourages and even assists people to die by suicide. … This bipartisan legislation will … ensure the Dept. of Justice has the authority necessary to target websites and users that push those in need of help toward self-harm …’”

Added Rep. Steward: “‘Online suicide assistance forums have no place in our communities. It’s time there be consequences for assisting another individual’s suicide attempt.’” True; that goes for so-called doctors abetting suicides as well.

Readers are encouraged to contact their own Representatives and request they co-sponsor the bill. (Capitol switchboard: 202/224-3121)

Voting for Life One Town at a Time

NOT ALL REFERENDUM RESULTS WENT SOUR on election day. Citizens in four Texas cities and six Nebraska villages, reports Mark Lee Dickson in Live Action, voted on outlawing abortion in their municipalities; of the 10 referendum propositions, only one failed to pass. That one was in Curtis, Nebraska, where voters rejected it 29% for to 71% against.

Athens, Texas (population 13,121), passed the local abortion ban proposition 58% to 42%, reports Mr. Dickson. The proposition not only outlaws abortion within the city limits but also prohibits abortion on the city’s residents regardless of where the abortion occurs. (Enforcement of that provision could be challenging.)

Voters in Abilene, Texas (population 124,407), adopted the abortion ban for their city 53% to 47%, and, like Athens, outlawed abortions committed on the city’s residents wherever those abortions might occur.

In Plainview, Texas, the ordinance approval came in at 69% to 31%. And the ordinance includes the out-of-town ban on abortions committed on Plainview residents.

That same reach was included in the San Angelo, Texas, abortion ban, approved 56% to 44%.

Moving on to Nebraska, voters in Arnold (population 597) outlawed abortion 60% to 40%. And in Brady (population 428) the results were 57% to 43%, the same percentage as approved the ordinance outlawing abortion in Hershey (population 665).

The outcome was closer in Paxton, Nebraska (population 523), where the ordinance carried 52% to 48%.

Said the Paxton leader of the ordinance fight, Rev. Will Forbes of Paxton New Life Lutheran Church, quoted by Mr. Dickson, “‘The Roe v. Wade decision back in 1973 has had a tremendous influence in helping to subvert the conscience of our land so that we have become a violent culture. Our task is large. Helping to reinvigorate and again establish our cultural conscience is a large task and will not happen overnight. What we proclaimed on election day in this little town must be proclaimed in the next town and the next and the next. We must,’” he said in the Live Action report, “‘bring civility back to our land.’” Amen.

Taxpayers on the Hook Again in Illinois

NOT SATISFIED WITH HAVING LED THE DISMANTLING of Illinois’s long-standing laws limiting abortions, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) used the run-up to his re-election to announce that his state’s taxpayers would now authorize and pay for killing the unborn children of women who are incarcerated in Illinois correctional facilities. The policy change followed a so-called “investigation” by Chicago’s leading taxpayer-financed radio station, WBEZ, finding, reports Bridget Sielicki for Live Action, “that incarcerated women had been required to pay for their own abortions as well as the fees for the correctional officer accompanying them to their appointments.” (Question which seems to have not been asked: Who’s the father?)

“‘Moving forward, abortion procedures and their associated expenses will not be covered by incarcerated women,’ Illinois Dept. of Corrections spokes[man] Naomi Puzello wrote in a statement, according to the Chicago Sun-Times,” reports Ms. Sielicki. “‘Those who previously paid for expenses will be reimbursed’” – by taxpayers!

To make matters worse, “The Dept. of Corrections also issued a statement apologizing to those incarcerated women who may have previously sought abortions but were unable to get one due to state policy,” notes Ms. Sielicki. “‘We recognize that this policy likely caused additional trauma, and we sincerely apologize for any additional harm it created,’ the statement said.” Trauma and harm – a baby born to a mother who has little in life to give her hope and purpose.

States Ms. Sielicki: “Induced abortion is not health care, because it intentionally takes the life of a human being in the womb – and not receiving an abortion does not cause trauma. Instead, women who undergo abortions have repeated spoken out about the regret, trauma and pain they experienced for years afterward.

“As Live Action News has previously reported,” she writes, “incarcerated women routinely receive substandard prenatal care. If Illinois officials wanted to ensure that pregnant inmates receive critical health care, they instead should focus on ensuring that these women receive proper prenatal care and connect them with services that can help them raise their children after birth.”

She further notes: “Offering ‘free’ abortions for incarnated women without announcing any type of incentive or help for pregnant mothers who may actually want to keep their babies only increases the pressure that they feel to abortion. Imprisoned pregnant women in Illinois are now only hearing one thing from state leaders – they can kill their children on the taxpayer’s dime.”

Growing the Business

EVEN BEFORE CALIFORNIA VOTERS RATIFIED a ballot proposal to allow abortion up to birth for any reason, one of the eastern seaboard’s notorious abortuaries announced plans to open a shop in LosAngeles next fall.

DuPont Clinic, which, reports Nancy Flanders for Live Action “commits ‘all-trimester’ abortions,” boasted in their announcement of a “‘bi-coastal model’ which will increase abortion access. … In addition,” notes Ms. Flanders, “DuPont Clinic says it will work to secure abortion funding, transportation and lodging for underprivileged abortion-minded women as well as childcare for their born children.”

California’s Proposition 1 passed with 68% of the votes counted initially; full results are not yet known but are not expected to turn around. The ballot measure puts abortion into the state constitution as a “right” and does not permit adoption of protections even for babies at full term.

As to DuPont Clinic’s practices, the outfit, notes Ms. Flanders, “commits abortions up to 32 weeks and six days for any reason. In the third trimester (typically starting at week 28), preborn human beings are most often killed via lethal injection, which causes them to go into cardiac arrest…

“California aims,” writes Ms. Flanders, “to be an abortion destination. Gov. Gavin Newsom spent thousands advertising abortion availability in the state using billboards placed across pro-life states, and organizations stand ready to bus underprivileged women from those states to California for abortions. It seems,” she concludes, “DuPont Clinic is positioning itself to make financial gains as a result.”

Going Public

Oct. 11, 2022, Commentary by Joy Stockbauer, Policy Analyst for Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity

             There is perhaps no foot soldier more faithful to the abortion lobby than Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). Bush uses her Congressional platform to advocate for repealing the Hyde Amendment and codifying Roe v. Wade – in other words, she supports legalizing abortion-on-demand until the moment of birth, funded by taxpayer dollars. Right now, the pinned tweet on Bush’s Twitter reads, “People everywhere need to know that Dems are the pro-human rights, pro-bodily autonomy, pro-reproductive justice party fighting to protect our fundamental rights!”

             Yet despite all of her persistent pro-abortion advocacy, Bush herself has been profoundly harmed by the exploitative and racist tendencies built into the very bones of the abortion industry – racism that some commentators might even dare call systemic.

             In a deeply vulnerable interview with PBS last week, Bush detailed how she changed her mind about having an abortion when she was 19 years old. The abortion facility worker, however, ignored Bush’s assertion that she no longer wished to follow through with the procedure.

             Bush shared, “And, so I remember laying there looking to see if there was someone else in the room that would listen to me. … And I’m saying, ‘No,’ but it was too late, because you couldn’t stop once it started.”

             This tragic story was, unfortunately, not the first time that Bush experienced racial prejudice at the hands of the abortion industry. In September, 2021, Bush shared for the first time publicly about her first abortion at the age of 17, which took place after she was sexually assaulted on a trip with her church.

             In the waiting room of the abortion facility, Bush recalled the workers discussing the only other black girl who was there for an abortion; “I overheard the clinic staff talking about her, saying she had ruined her life, and that’s what ‘they’ do – ‘they’ being black girls like us.” The counselor at the abortion facility urged Bush to undergo an abortion or else face a future of food stamps and welfare. Bush remembered, “I was being talked to like trash, and it worsened my shame.”

             Bush is not alone in her experience of racial discrimination at the hands of the abortion industry. Manipulating and demeaning minority women is the lifeblood of the abortion industry – which explains why Planned Parenthood intentionally locates its abortion facilities within walking distance of minority neighborhoods. Though only 13% of American women are black, 38% of all abortions in America are committed on black women. The pro-life movement has long decried the abortion industry’s eugenic roots and consistent targeting of black babies.

             But make no mistake. Cori Bush’s story is not one for us to point at in triumph and say, “Look, we were right!” There can be no real triumph in a story that ends with two children killed and the sanctity of a woman’s body desecrated.

             Cori Bush deserved justice for the sexual assault that she suffered as a young girl; she deserved to know that her parents wouldn’t kick her out of the house for being pregnant. She deserved informed consent about the psychological anguish that her abortion would cause her and information about the opportunity to place her child for adoption. She deserved to have her voice heard when she said that she had changed her mind.

             But what she got was two abortions and a lifetime of pain. This is the cycle of exploitation and suffering that America accepted for nearly 50 years – the deep harms perpetrated by a society that accepted the abortion industry as the arbiter of care for poor and minority women.

             Legal abortion has done nothing to repair or address the real problems that women in America face. How long will innocent unborn children be forced to bear the misplaced blame that belongs with rapist fathers, unsupportive parents and an industry that has targeted the children of minority women?

             It is difficult to comprehend the pain and suffering that Cori Bush has gone through at the hands of an exploitative industry that took the lives of two of her children, even against her will. Her courage in sharing her story should be commended. Let us pray that, even if she never changes her mind, there will one day be justice for her and for her children when the abortion industry falls.