Life Advocacy Briefing

Beyond Rescue?

WE ARE SADDENED – though not surprised – to see the absolutism of today’s Democratic Party in the cause of legalized killing. In the entire US Congress, the formerly diverse party is down to one House Member who ever votes in support of Life for developing children. And now the party’s extremism is on display in the retreat of its one maverick candidate for President – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – from a nod to the humanity of unborn children once they have crossed an artificial line. 

“‘I believe that the decision to abort a child should be up to the woman during the first three months of life,’ [Mr.] Kennedy told NBC News” on a Sunday in August, reports Ben Johnson for The Washington Stand. (Note the language he used: “child,” “life”!) And the interviewer went on to ask, writes Mr. Johnson, “‘So you would cap it at 15 weeks? Or 21 weeks?’ asked … Ali Vitali. ‘Yes. Three months,’ [Mr.] Kennedy replied.

“‘So, three months – you would sign a federal cap on that?’ Vitali clarified a second time,” reports Mr. Johnson. “‘Yes, I would,’ Kennedy continued. ‘Once a child is viable outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting that child. … I think the states have a right to protect a child once the child can be viable.’”

Hardly a pro-life stand but clearly a departure from the absolutism of his party, right? But even this wishy-washy, unprincipled declaration could not be allowed to stand. By nightfall, his campaign issued a statement, reports Mr. Johnson, undercutting the independent image of their own candidate, assuring the abortion lobby, “‘Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question posed to him by [an] NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair. … Mr. Kennedy’s position on abortion is that it is always the woman’s right to choose. He does not support legislation banning abortion.’” Oh. Right. He is a Democrat. How sad.

Out of Left Field

THERE IS ONE DEMOCRAT – RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT – who declares her advocacy for the right to life while also describing herself as a “progressive atheist.”

Terrisa Bukovinac is founder of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, an activist group that has surfaced only recently. PAAU first came to public attention with the 2022 discovery by Ms. Bukovinac and a colleague named Lauren Handy of “the remains of over 100 aborted children, including five very late-term babies, in boxes of ‘medical waste’ from the abortion mill of notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo” in Washington, DC, notes Emily Mangiaracina for LifeSiteNews (LSN).

On her campaign website, reports LSN, she declares “that she wants to use her platform as a Presidential candidate to be a voice for ‘victimized’ children as well as pro-life Democrats. ‘I will not be silenced,’” she has written, according to Ms. Mangiaracina. “‘I won’t let these children be forgotten, and I won’t let pro-life Democrats like myself be ignored.’ …

“She told National Review on [Sept. 14] that, in fact, her campaign’s main purpose is to run ‘explicit’ ads showing the horrific reality of abortion in any state where she is able to get her name on the ballot. …

“‘I literally held the victims of late-term abortion in my hands,’ she told National Review,” quoted by LSN. “‘I’ve seen abortion extremism that comes from the Democratic Party up close and personal. And there’s just no going back from that for me. … I absolutely am committed to bringing about justice for these children because the Democratic Party is … to blame,’ she said. …

“In a campaign launch video,” writes Ms. Mangiaracina, Ms. “Bukovinac compared the dehumanization of the unborn with that of the Jews and other classes of people murdered by the Nazis, arguing, ‘The concept of a human “non-person” is a legal and social construct, one that has been used throughout history to discriminate against groups of human beings.’

“While her campaign is focused on abortion, Bukovinac is otherwise a typical ‘progressive’ liberal,” notes LSN, “and believes that abortion, along with other societal ills, should be addressed through a ‘democratic socialist framework.’ She advocates ‘expanding LGBTQ adoption and foster programs,’ ‘comprehensive sex education,’ ‘healthcare equity,’ ‘environmental regulations,’ ‘criminal justice reform,’ including the abolition of the death penalty, and ‘economic justice,’ as noted on her campaign website,” reported by Ms. Mangiaracina.

“‘I believe there cannot be justice for these babies until I can break the toxic relationship between the Democratic Party and the abortion industry,’ she told National Review,” as reported by LSN. “‘So, do I think that this campaign is going to accomplish that? Probably not. But is this campaign going to create space for that to happen in the future? I believe it will.’”

Planned Parenthood Admits: Daleiden’s Videos Are Authentic

FOR THE FIRST TIME in the protracted prosecution of pro-life undercover reporter David Daleiden, “Planned Parenthood has admitted the authenticity of [his] work,” reports Illinois Federation for Right to Life (IFRL).

“In a filing before the [US] Supreme Court,” notes IFRL, “Planned Parenthood admitted that Planned Parenthood employees negotiated the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts.”

The filing came in the protracted lawsuit of the abortion cartel’s chief purveyor, filed in 2015, against Mr. Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress (CMP) “after it released undercover footage showing various Planned Parenthood executives discussing the harvesting and sale of body parts harvested from aborted children.

“Lower courts did not apply any First Amendment protections to the case,” notes IFRL, “awarding nearly $16 million to Planned Parenthood after CMP exposed its criminal actions. CMP appealed this case to the US Supreme Court in an attempt to remedy this. Planned Parenthood’s Aug. 22 filing admits that Planned Parenthood executives ‘spoke the words recorded in the videos.’ The filing argues,” reports IFRL, “that CMP’s undercover methods justify the lower court rulings, regardless of whether the videos are protected by the First Amendment.”

You Win Some!

A BEVERLY HILLS ABORTUARY HAS LOST ITS LEASE, reports Cassy Fiano-Chesser for Live Action, “after widespread pushback from the community as well as the pro-life movement.”

Once the property manager learned that the DuPont Clinic was planning, writes Mrs. Chesser, a “facility which would kill preborn children in all three trimesters of pregnancy,” the lease was canceled.

DuPont is claiming, reports Live Action, “four city officials, including Mayor Julian Gold, withheld permits, pressured the landlord to cancel the lease and held ‘secret meetings’ with Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, during which they ‘promised them it would stop DuPont from opening.’ …

“‘It’s disappointing to try to return to California – after so much has been in the news about how the state is ready to help people access abortion – only to discover the reality is different,’ Matthew Reeves, DuPont’s founder, told the LosAngeles Times,” quoted by Mrs. Chesser.

And You Lose Some

COLORADO DOCTORS WHO OFFER ABORTION PILL REVERSAL are now at risk of state disciplinary action after the Colorado State Medical Board responded in August to the signing of a “first-in-the-nation law,” reports Nancy Flanders for Live Action, “to ban abortion pill reversal, which is the administration of progesterone to counter the effects of the first drug of the abortion pill regimen, mifepristone.”

Mifepristone – a/k/a RU-486 – starves the developing baby by blocking nutritional sustenance in pregnancy. Doctors have developed a reversal technique by administering progesterone – which is standard practice for preventing miscarriage of an at-risk baby – before the second drug in the abortion cocktail – misoprostol – is administered to expel the dead remains.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a former Democratic Member of Congress and fierce abortion advocate, “wanted the medical board to deem abortion pill reversal as ‘unprofessional conduct’ by any doctor who prescribes it,” writes Ms. Flanders. “The board, however, did not label the process as such but did say it will review reported instances of abortion pill reversal on a case-by-case basis.” The new rule, which puts conscientious doctors at risk while not delivering an edict, states, reports Ms. Flanders, “‘The board does not consider administering, dispensing or delivering progesterone with the intent to interfere with, reverse or halt a medication abortion through the use of mifepristone to meet generally accepted standards of medical practice.’”

Circumventing Congress

Aug. 23, 2023, The Washington Stand commentary by Ben Johnson

             … The Biden Administration has issued two controversial federal rules that would further advance the interests of the abortion lobby. The latest rule concerns the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), a law passed last year intended to guarantee pregnant women can receive reasonable on-the-job accommodations related to “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.” The Biden Administration rule would legally force businesses that employ 15 or more people to facilitate their employees’ abortions, such as furnishing them with abortion-related leave, or face a federal complaint.

             “This is just a brazen attempt from this Administration to force abortion even within a pro-life piece of legislation,” Roger Severino, vice president for Domestic Policy at The Heritage Foundation, told Washington Watch guest host, former Congressman Jody Hice, on Monday. “Their creativity apparently knows no bound when it comes to pushing abortion on the American people.”

             The Biden Administration’s proposed regulation accomplishes the Left’s political objectives by redefining the words of the law. The rule states that the [law’s] “definition of ‘pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions’ includes current pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential pregnancy, lactation (including breastfeeding and pumping), use of birth control, menstruation, infertility and fertility treatments, endometriosis, miscarriage, stillbirth or having or choosing not to have an abortion, among other conditions.” (Emphasis added.) It adds that “nothing in the PWFA requires or forbids an employer to pay for health insurance benefits for an abortion.”

             The regulation appears to violate the express intentions of the law’s authors, who assured senators the bill “could not” result in pro-abortion regulatory action. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) stated categorically last Dec. 8: “I want to say for the record, however, that under the Act, under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the EEOC, could not – could not – issue any regulation that requires abortion leave, nor does the act permit the EEOC to require employers to provide abortions in violation of state law.”

             During the floor debate, Casey said the bill intended to help pregnant young women whose employer denied their requests for reasonable accommodations necessary to avoid having another miscarriage, such as UPS worker Peggy Young who asked for the right to limit how much she lifted. “This legislation would provide commonsense protections for pregnant workers, like extra bathroom breaks or a stool for workers who stand, so they can continue working while not putting extra strain on their pregnancies,” said Casey, the son of renowned pro-life Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey* after the bill’s passage.

             That [proposed regulation] language turns the bill’s intent upside-down and enables the federal government to make a constitutional argument in favor of abortion, Severino assessed. “The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was a bill designed to protect pregnant workers. What is the opposite of pregnancy? Abortion. Yet this Administration, through the EEOC’s proposed regulation, is saying that abortion is going to be a protected, enshrined right that workers will have a right to an accommodation even in pro-life states,” Severino told Hice … . Regulations are “going to recruit employers as part of this machinery of death.” And, he predicted, Administration lawyers will cite the US Constitution’s supremacy clause, which allows federal law to supersede state law and local ordinances, “to push aside all the pro-life state laws that prohibit cooperation and assisting in abortion.

             “The Biden Administration is taking something that is meant to protect life, the giving of life” – pregnancy – “and flipping it and saying, no, we’re going to make it easier for them to extinguish that life,” said Severino. “Employers around the country are going to be forced to assist in abortion in violation of state law.”

             “The new law is pro-life, certainly, but in the most holistic way possible: it exists to help every pregnant woman thrive in both her calling as a mother and her calling as a worker. But now, at the behest of the abortion industry, the Biden Administration is trying to hitch an abortion mandate to this profoundly pro-woman, pro-life legislation,” agreed Julie Marie Blake, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom.

             Furthermore, the regulation would trample the conscience rights of employers who oppose abortion-on-demand, critics state. “The rules contain no meaningful religious exemption, meaning that the First Amendment rights of employers are at risk,” said the Colorado Catholic Conference. “Faith-based organizations would be compelled to facilitate abortions in contradiction of their well-founded beliefs.”

             Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade last June, the Biden Administration has increasingly turned to executive orders, regulations and federal fiats to promote abortion. Biden compelled taxpayers to underwrite abortion-related travel for women in the US armed services, in a memo signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last October. The Administration has paid for the abortions of underage illegal immigrants. “This is massive resistance that we haven’t seen since the civil rights era, when certain recalcitrant states were resisting the integration of American life based on race,” said Severino, who led the Office of Civil Rights department at HHS under President Donald Trump. “Now we’re seeing this based on the question of abortion.”

             The Biden Administration has also facilitated do-it-yourself chemical abortions by eliminating the need for an in-person visit, allowing pharmacies to dispense the abortion pill mifepristone, and issuing a hotly contested legal opinion that pharmacies may mail or ship abortion pills to pro-life states with impunity. “This Administration is playing fast and loose trying to make the abortion pill something like an over-the-counter vitamin,” said Severino. He also called the Trump-appointed US District judge who ruled against the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Austin [TX], “a hero.”

             “The Biden Administration won’t be happy until abortion pervades every aspect of our lives, as evidenced by their attempt to sneak abortion – the ending of a new human life – into a program that is about the exact opposite: supporting the growth of a new human life,” said Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins in a statement mailed to The Washington Stand. “It doesn’t get much more backwards that that, but that’s exactly what we’ve seen time and again from this administration.” Instead of “Build Back Better,” Hawkins said, Biden’s slogan appears to be “Build in Abortion Wherever.”

             Those efforts include trying to shut down pro-life investigations into abortionists who violate state laws. The federal office Severino formerly led, the HHS Office for Civil Rights, [has now] issued a draft regulation stating that health privacy laws prohibit abortionists or insurance companies from turning over records to officials in states that limit abortion, such as whether an abortionist mailed mifepristone and misoprostol to states that do not allow chemical abortion. Turning over that information would violate the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA), under the new rule.

             An anonymous Administration official told journalists the Biden Administration promoted the rule in April, because it feared pregnant women “may hesitate to interact with” abortionists, although no state has passed any law punishing women who seek or obtain abortions. The laws punish the abortionists who carry out the abortions. Additionally, “some [abortionists] get fearful when they receive a subpoena,” the official said. The order circumvented the legislative process and imposed some of the terms of a Democrat-sponsored bill, the so-called “Secure Access for Essential Reproductive (SAFER) Health” Act, which has never passed Congress.

             Severino noted the public can offer comments on the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act regulation until Oct. 10. A total of 14,257 comments have been received as of this writing, including 7,464 discussing abortion.

             The Left’s tidal wave of federal regulations prove Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have a “laser-like focus on things like pushing abortion until birth, environmental fanaticism [and] the LGBT agenda,” Hice concluded.

*Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Readers should not confuse the two Caseys. Sen. Casey’s advance of a law which seeks to affirm pregnancy is the only action he has taken in his father’s honorable legacy since attaining office. On legislation directly involving abortion, Mr. Casey the Younger consistently sides with the abortion cartel.