Life Advocacy Briefing

Judicial Nomination Fight Underway

PRES. JOE BIDEN HAS NOMINATED two significant left-wing abortion activists to the federal judiciary. We appeal to our readers to contact their home-state US Senators and request they vote “no” on all motions pertaining to confirmation of Nancy Abudu and Julie Rikelman as federal judges. (Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121) Their nominations could come before the Judiciary Committee this week, according to Family Research Council Action (FRC/A).

Nancy Abudu is described by the leftish National Women’s Law Center as an “unwavering advocate … for reproductive rights and gender justice.” She is currently, notes NWLC, “strategic litigation director at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and has significant litigation experience protecting the rights of women, people of color and LGBTQ people in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, where the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction.” It is that court to which Mr. Biden has nominated the radical lawyer. Her resume also includes employment by the ACLU of Florida, where, notes NWLC, “she fought for reproductive rights, including a challenge to Florida’s HB-633 law,” which requires a 24-hour waiting period for abortion customers. She has an extensive career in leftwing legal causes.

Julie Rikelman has been nominated to the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Says FRC/A, “She has a long history of radical pro-abortion advocacy. As recently as August, 2022,” the conservative pro-family action group’s memo notes, “she served as the senior director of US litigation for the [notorious] Center for Reproductive Rights, an organization dedicated to establishing abortion as a ‘fundamental human right’ and attacking pro-life laws and legislation across the United States. Before this,” adds FRC/A, “she was a ‘Blackmun fellow’ at this organization, a fellowship named after the Supreme Court justice who authored the decision in Roe v. Wade. Rikelman,” states FRC/A, “also represented abortionists in court on several occasions, most recently in the Dobbs case. … Rikelman has consistently displayed the allegiances of an activist to the pro-abortion cause,” declares FRC/A, “mischaracterizing it as part of America’s history and tradition, showing an improper understanding of established legal precedent and a disregard for the right to life as outlined in our nation’s founding documents. … She has advanced radical arguments in support of abortion-on-demand and led the US litigation team for an organization dedicated to establishing abortion as a fundamental human right.”

The last thing America needs is for two such renowned radical abortion advocates to be confirmed for the appellate bench in two southern-based circuits. Senators’ votes for confirmation of either of these two nominees will present a clear commitment to the intentional killing of innocent preborn American children. Their very nomination constitutes an affront to America’s foundational value of respect for innocent human life.

Taking on the W.H.O.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX) HAS FILED LEGISLATION to prohibit US funding for the World Health Org. HR-343 would “prohibit the United States from providing assessed or voluntary [funding] to the WHO. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX).

In a news release issued by Rep. Roy’s office, the three-term Representative said, “Funneling millions of taxpayer dollars to the corrupt World Health Org. that serves the Chinese Communist Party is a slap in the face to hardworking American families struggling under record-high inflation and to all those whose lives and livelihoods were ruined and destroyed by the Covid pandemic.

“The WHO not only regularly promotes abortion and radical gender ideology but also praised China for their ‘leadership’ at the beginning of Covid-19 and has done nothing to hold the CCP accountable for the spread of Covid-19. It is far past time for Congress to use its power of the purse to cut off US funding to this corrupt international body, just like the Trump Administration did.”

Notes Live Action’s Cassy Fiano-Chesser, “The WHO is known for its radical pro-abortion ideology. Last year, it demanded that every country in the world legalize abortion – throughout all nine months of pregnancy, with no restrictions. … WHO also called abortion an essential service during the Covid-19 pandemic and partnered with Planned Parenthood to promote abortion and deride abstinence as ‘harmful.’ Additionally,” she reports, “it has forwarded ableist talking points, calling Down syndrome an extreme ‘birth defect’ to be ‘prevented.’ As many pointed out in response, Down syndrome is not a birth defect and does not need to be prevented – and the only way to supposedly ‘prevent’ it would be through an abortion following a prenatal diagnosis.”

Joining Rep. Roy as co-sponsors, at the time of this writing, are Representatives Andy Biggs & Paul Gosar (AZ); Tom McClintock (CA); Matt Gaetz, Cory Mills & Greg Steube (FL), Andrew Clyde & Marjorie Greene (GA), Mary Miller (IL), Clay Higgins (LA), John Moolenaar (MI), Matt Rosendale (MT); Dan Bishop (NC); Josh Brecheen (OK); Jeff Duncan (SC); Diana Harshbarger (TN); Pat Fallon, Wesley Hunt & Nathaniel Moran (TX); and Harriet Hageman (WY).

Standing for Life

NINE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS appeared on the March for Life rally platform on Jan. 20 with March for Life president Jeanne Mancini. Two spoke, and, as is our tradition, we will publish our transcripts of their speeches in today’s and future editions of Life Advocacy Briefing.

The March draws Americans from across the country and fills the streets of the nation’s capital after crowding the National Mall for an hour-long noon rally. More localized such marches and rallies are being scheduled across the states on a variety of dates. The national march gathered quickly after the Roe v. Wade atrocity was imposed on America on Jan. 22, 1973, and has repeated every year since.

The nine Republicans who appeared before the massive crowd were Representatives Mary Miller (IL), Jim Banks (IN), Andy Harris (MD), Michelle Fischbach (MN), Chris Smith (NJ), Bob Latta & Brad Wenstrup (OH), and Mike Kelly (PA), along with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (LA).

Not to be Outdone

PRO-LIFE OFFICIALS WERE NOT THE ONLY ONES to speak out on the anniversary of the now-defunct Roe v. Wade edict which so crippled the United States for the past 50 years. Pres. Joseph Biden took the occasion to hail Roe as “a ‘balanced decision with broad national consensus that the majority of Americans have continued to support for the last 50 years’ (an assessment not shared by the late left-wing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who acknowledged in 1985 that Roe ‘appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict’),” writes Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.

As for the Dobbs decision by which the Supreme Court overturned Roe last June, Mr. Biden charged the Court had “‘put the health and lives of women across this nation at risk. … Never before has the Court taken away a right so fundamental to Americans,’ Biden claimed,” reports Mr. Freiburger.

And then there was the Jan. 22 speech in Florida by Vice President Kamala Harris, in which she completely left out the right to life when supposedly quoting the Declaration of Independence. Reports Mr. Freiburger: VP Harris referred to “‘A promise we made in the Declaration of Independence that we are each endowed with the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. …

“‘And since our founding,’” she said, “‘we have then been on a march forward to fully realize our promise to complete the unfinished work to secure freedom and liberty for all,’” later claiming, writes Mr. Freiburger, “that now ‘patients are denied critical care and even fear that they will be punished simply for seeking care … .’”

Abortion, we will say again, because it bears repeating, is not health care. Abortion is the intentional killing of a developing human being. And the fundamentals of American jurisprudence, despite the neglect by the Supreme Court in failing to acknowledge it, surely include protecting those boys and girls from being killed before birth.

Stateside

• A STATE APPEALS COURT IN ARIZONA has upheld the state’s 15-week abortion limit but blocked enforcement of the state’s 1864 all-out ban on the basis that the subsequent legislation, in barring abortions after 15 weeks, implicitly authorized abortions before 15 weeks while the older law was unenforceable. Since the new attorney general is pro-abortion, the ruling is not expected to be appealed. The battle now shifts to protection of the 15-week ban, which Arizona’s new Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, has vowed to repeal.

• THE IDAHO SUPREME COURT ruled 3 to 2 on Jan. 5 that the state constitution does not guarantee the right to abort an unborn child. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling last June, the state’s trigger law has taken effect, banning abortions except when the targeted baby was conceived in a sex crime or when the baby must be sacrificed to save the life of the mother. Wrote Justice Robyn Brody, quoted by National Right to Life News, “‘We cannot read a fundamental right to abortion into the text of the Idaho Constitution. … Since Idaho attained statehood in 1890, this court has repeatedly and steadfastly interpreted the Idaho Constitution based on the plain and ordinary meaning of its text, as intended by those who framed and adopted the provision at issue. That is our duty as the judicial branch: to sustain the rule of law – not to promote our personal policy preferences.’”

• IN ITS FINAL HOURS before the new General Assembly took office, the Illinois legislature compounded its radical abortion agenda, reports Illinois Right to Life, by enacting a law which allows midwives, physician assistants and advance practice nurses to commit surgical abortions so long as general anesthesia is not required; creates a permit for doctors and the listed professionals to cross state lines to commit abortion; makes Illinois a “sanctuary state” for abortionists who have lost their licenses in other states; removes a cause of action against medical personnel and facilities for wrongful death in a botched abortion, authorizes birthing centers to commit abortions and requires insurance coverage of abortion, abortifacients and hormonal therapy medication.

• EVEN WITH THE RADICAL ABORTION LEGISLATION which Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has pushed through the formerly pro-life Illinois legislature, the Presidential aspirant is now pursuing a state constitutional amendment to “enshrine a right to abortion” in the state’s constitution. Reported by Illinois Right to Life, Gov. Pritzker made this declaration in his speech inaugurating his second term: “‘One thing last year proved is that if given the chance, a bunch of right-wing judges and legislators will take away women’s rights. Well, Illinois spoke loudly and decisively in 2022 and declared that in the Land of Lincoln, we trust women! The right to privacy and bodily autonomy demand that we establish a constitutional protection for reproductive rights in Illinois. The extremists still want to take away a woman’s right to choose, and I don’t intend to let them. That’s why yet again, on women’s rights, Illinois will lead.’” And leaders like Gov. Pritzker are among the reasons Illinois ranks third – behind only California and New York, according to Forbes – in states hemorrhaging population to other states.

• CASTING ABOUT FOR HOW NEW YORK COULD go even further into the abortion camp, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) announced in her “State of the State” message, reports Live Action’s Nancy Flanders, that she will expand “abortion access on the State University of New York and City University of New York campuses. The governor’s plan,” notes Ms. Flanders, “also includes allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraception and increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for abortion. ‘As other states wage war on abortion access,’” said the radical governor, quoted by Live Action, “‘my message to New Yorkers is clear: Not here, not now, not ever.’” Wow, how original! “‘The women of New York will never be subjected to government-mandated pregnancies,’” she said. The Live Action report notes Gov. Hochul is also pushing for “all public colleges in the SUNY and CUNY systems to offer chemical abortions (the abortion pill) either at campus health facilities or by building relationships with abortionists to whom they can directly refer students for abortions.’” The State University of New York has 64 campuses across the state, and the City university system has 25 campuses.

March for Life Rally Speech

By House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jan. 20, 2023, at the March for Life Rally platform on the National Mall, Washington, DC (transcribed by Life Advocacy Briefing)

             How y’all doin’? What an exciting crowd – to see all these beautiful young people here to defend Life. This has been a battle for decades in the United States, and the Left will have you believe that all young people are just here to support the abortion industry. You are showing us and giving us hope that the young people of America support Life, defend Life, are here to march for Life, because when you’re in a battle, it’s important to keep your focus on what the mission is, but every step of the way it’s also critical that we celebrate victories along the way and boy, did we get a huge victory just a few months ago when Roe was overturned.

             But as you all know, that’s only the end of the first phase of this battle. The next phase now begins, and that’s what this year’s march is all about – the next steps in a post-Roe era. And we in Congress – and how about my colleagues here – Chris Smith, all my colleagues behind me who defend Life.

             Just think about this, just a few months ago, when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House (boos) – I’m not sure if she accepted the invitation to come speak – we brought a bill – Ann Wagner’s bill – called the Born-Alive Act; the bill that says if a baby is born alive outside the womb, you cannot murder that baby and call it abortion. Do you know – and why do you march, why do you get involved in elections, why do you support people who are pro-life – 80 different times, 80 different times, Nancy Pelosi blocked that bill from coming to the floor (boos).

             The story actually gets better: In just eight days of a Republican Majority, we brought up that bill and passed it through the House of Representatives. That’s what difference elections make. It’s why you get involved. For those of you that are about to become 18 or just turned 18, you’ve got to register, you’ve got to vote, you’ve got to go support pro-life candidates, because it matters. It matters that life and death is at stake in this march for life.

             And so, when you look at this battle, that bill is over in the Senate right now. We only – think about this: a bill that says if a baby’s born alive outside the womb you can’t kill the baby and call it abortion – One out of 212 Democrats supported that bill. Now that’s not America. 70% of Democrats in America think it’s wrong to allow that baby to die. Yet up here in Washington, that’s how extreme they have gotten on the Left. And so, we’ve got to continue this march.

             Call your senators. If you have two Senators, call them right now. I don’t know which side they’re on of this debate, but the bill’s over there. They haven’t brought it up yet. Chuck Schumer doesn’t want to bring it up, but if he hears from all of you, they’ll have to bring that bill up.

             America: It’s not like every country is doing this. There are only about a handful of countries that allow this barbaric practice. Countries like China, like North Korea, and unfortunately America. America should not be on that list of barbaric countries.

             We ought to continue to march. You know how much is at stake. It is incredibly inspiring for us to see all these young people – tens of thousands of young people – but it’s not just here in Washington. It’s back home in your states, in your communities. This fight continues because of what’s at stake.

             I can’t thank you enough for continuing this fight, for being willing as a young person to stand up for Life. Jeanne Mancini and the March for Life – what they do to continue this tradition – it inspires all of us every day. We will [ever] continue fighting for Life, you’ll [ever] continue marching for Life. Let’s continue this battle, let’s win this battle. God bless all of you. God bless the United States of America.