Life Advocacy Briefing

Thankful

WE WRITE THIS LIFE ADVOCACY BRIEFING during Thanksgiving and offer our thanks to the Lord for this amazing country, for our families, for the Life Advocacy support team and for His salvation securing for us eternal life. May God bless each person reading this and grant you peace.

Welcome, Rep. Maloy

THE G.O.P.’s VACANCY HAS BEEN FILLED in the US House. Celeste Maloy (R-UT) has won the seat vacated by Rep. Chris Stewart when his wife’s illness necessitated his departure from Washington on Sept. 15. A special election was held Nov. 21, and the 42-year-old former chief legal counsel to the Congressman took 56.4% of the vote in a seven-way race.

The campaign website of Rep.-elect Maloy put her on the record for Life: “Celeste believes all human life is sacred and will stand up for the unborn and our pro-life values in Congress.”

Righting a Wrong

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX) HAS FILED LEGISLATION to repeal the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (F.A.C.E.) Act, which singles out so-called health facilities for police protection but has been used only to limit free speech and assembly of pro-life citizens in the vicinity of abortuaries. He is joined by 30 other US Representatives as co-sponsors on HR-5577, which is pending in the House Judiciary Committee.

In the Senate, a similar bill has been filed as S-3017 by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and five colleagues. This bill is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee under the title “Restoring the 1^st Amendment & Right to Peaceful Civil Disobedience Act.”

We encourage our readers to note the lists of co-sponsors at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing and to thank those who are signed on, as well as to urge other Representatives and Senators to add their names as co-sponsors of the respective bills. [Capitol switchboard: 202/224-3121]

Leading for Life

REP. JOSH BRECHEEN (R-OK) IS MAKING A NAME FOR HIMSELF during his first term in Congress. He has filed bills on a variety of issues – all projecting an American values agenda – and now he is turning his attention to the right to Life and the Biden Regime’s use of the federal government’s vast bureaucracy to promote abortion around every corner.

Last week he filed two bills which caught the notice of Mary Margaret Olohan at the Daily Signal, HR-6459 and HR-6460.

“‘Following the historic Dobbs decision,’” Rep. Brecheen said in a Daily Signal interview, “‘the Biden Administration has deliberately ignored federal law in order to pursue its far-left, pro-abortion agenda – all without the authority of Congress.’”

To make the law more explicit, HR-6459, which he calls the “No Abortion Coverage for Medicaid Act,” addresses a move by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to allow states to access federal funds for abortion,” notes Ms. Olohan. “In August 2022, shortly after the overturning of Roe,” she explains, “CMS sent a letter inviting states to use federal funds under Sec. 1115 of the Social Security Act to help promote abortions,” a move which Rep. Brecheen “argues … is a clear violation of Congressional intent.” His bill has been referred to the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, a panel frequently used for evaluation of abortion legislation.

And with it comes HR-6460, the “No Taxpayer Abortions for Unaccompanied Minors Act,” which, reports Ms. Olohan, “would prohibit the Secretary of Health & Human Services from ‘issuing, finalizing, implementing or enforcing any rule or guidance to facilitate abortions or access to abortions for an unaccompanied alien child.’” This bill has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee.

Co-sponsoring both bills are GOP Representatives Doug LaMalfa (CA), Doug Lamborn (CO), Mary Miller (IL), Ashley Hinson (IA), John Moolenaar (MI), Trent Kelly (MS), Matt Rosendale (MT), Jeff Duncan (SC), Randy Weber (TX) and Bob Good (VA).  Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) is also co-sponsoring HR-6459 but not HR-6460.

Taking Truth to Power

LIVE ACTION PRESIDENT LILA ROSE WENT INTO THE LIONS’ DEN on Nov. 17, addressing the United Nations Transatlantic Summit in New York which commemorated the 75^th anniversary, notes Ashley Sadler for LifeSiteNews, of “the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms a fundamental ‘right to life, liberty and security,’ as well as freedom from ‘torture or … cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.’

“The UN’s Declaration further states,” notes Ms. Sadler, “that the ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.’”

Nice sentiments, to be sure. But Ms. Rose told the international delegates, reports Ms. Sadler, “that the ‘hard truth’ is that the UN, which promotes the legalization of abortion worldwide, is actually advocating for the violation of each and every human right it outlines by supporting the destruction of preborn human life.

“‘Abortion not only violates the unborn child’s right to life’ but ‘also violates the child’s right to be free from slavery and their right to be free from torture,’ [Ms.] Rose stated, since abortion, particularly dilation and curettage (D&C) procedures, involves an ‘excruciating, torturous killing.’

“The reality of abortion, [Ms.] Rose said,” reported by Ms. Sadler, “violates key components of the UN’s declaration and effectively renders the document meaningless. ‘Abortion, at its core, is a contradiction of every human right,’ she said,” noting further that, “‘Every year, globally, 70 million children are slaughtered by abortion. Abortion is, by far, the worst human rights crisis of the last half century, one that is ongoing, and one that few today even acknowledge.’”

After pointing out that the UN’s Human Rights Declaration was first adopted in 1948, “just a few short years following the end of World War II, in which the Nazis brutally murdered millions of Jews and others,” Ms. Rose declared, reports the LifeSite writer, “The same thing is happening in the modern day with regard to abortion. … ‘Many powerful people today argue that a human in the womb is not a human, not a life, not worthy of the basic human rights enumerated in the Declaration,’ she said. ‘Instead, they argue that one must pass through the magical birth canal in order to receive one’s humanity. How ludicrous.’ …

“For [Lila] Rose, the UN’s declaration of human rights means nothing if it does not apply to the most vulnerable and innocent people in society. Accordingly,” writes Ms. Sadler, “she urged the UN to introduce and pass a resolution to abolish abortion.” Amen.

What’s with Nikki Haley?

THOUGH CLAIMING A PRO-LIFE COMMITMENT, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley seems to veer away from the pro-life movement and the cause itself in her campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination.

We have been troubled by her repeated claim that “women” are at risk of imprisonment or worse if they opt for abortion in “certain states.” In fact, we find this misleading falsehood highly objectionable.

Now she has taken her I’m-not-one-of-those-people rhetoric a step further. We are mightily distressed to have found in one of our reading backlogs a September report by Matt Lamb for LifeSiteNews quoting her verbal attack on Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) for his lonely, principled stand blocking en masse confirmations of Biden military promotions as leverage against the regime’s deadly policy of using taxpayer funds to abet abortions on military personnel.

While discussing Sen. Tuberville’s resistance to business-as-usual in the face of the horrendous Biden military abortion push, she said in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, reports Mr. Lamb, “‘Let’s speak hard truths.’ … She said she opposes the ‘reimbursement policy’ and would end it as President, but then went on to explain,” writes Mr. Lamb, “why she opposes efforts to stop it now.”

She next characterized Sen. Tuberville’s stand as “‘using military families as political pawns.’”

Her interview with Mr. Tapper echoed an August interview with Hugh Hewitt, quoted by Mr. Lamb: “‘And you know, I appreciate what Tuberville’s trying to do. I do. Like it’s totally wrong that the Dept. of Defense is doing this. But have we gotten so low that this is how we have to go about stopping it?’” Well, Mrs. Haley, in light of the demonstrated stubbornness and cruelty of the Biden Regime, we believe, with Sen. Tuberville, the answer to your question is, yes.

Reflecting on the Ohio Loss

WE ARE NOT YET PAST thinking about the Nov. 7 constitutional amendment vote in Ohio purporting to confer a right to extinguish the lives of developing human babies. The patchwork pattern of state abortion policies is an improvement over the nationalization of baby-killing foisted on us by the now-rejected Roe v. Wade, but it is far from ideal or just. We reiterate – and hope future litigation will establish at the Supreme Court level: The right to life of every person is found in the 5^th and 14^th amendments to the US Constitution.

The claim of the abortion cartel has been that unborn babies are not persons. What, then, are they? Is it not the case – and should our system of law not reflect – that every member of the species homo sapiens is a person?

Knowing that the abortion cartel is already plotting state constitutional amendment referenda for at least four – and likely more – states in 2024, we urge the pro-life community to develop a counter petition giving voters a choice to affirm the right to life by a more direct means than simply voting “no.”

Another One Down

CITING THE INCREASED COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS, an abortuary in Jackson, Wyoming, has announced it will close its doors on Dec. 15.

The closest abortuaries still in operation in Wyoming, reports Ben Johnson for The Washington Stand, “are 280 miles away in Casper or 355 miles at a Planned Parenthood facility located on the edge of the Crow Indian Reservation.”

Wyoming has a “protective pro-life law,” notes Mr. Johnson, which “protect[s] nearly all of the state’s unborn children from abortion, including from the abortion pill.” But that law is not currently enforceable, as, explains Mr. Johnson, it “is currently hung up in court.”

Chris Slattery, R.I.P.

WE ARE SADDENED TO NOTE THE LOSS of a pro-life champion, Chris Slattery, who passed away last week after a long battle with cancer.

Mr. Slattery was a champion of the sidewalk counseling movement, which offers mercy to distressed expectant mothers and their babies in times of most confusion. He also founded a network of pregnancy care centers, credited, in a report by LifeSiteNews, with helping to “save 43,000-plus children from abortion since 1985.” He worked principally in the New York City battlefield.

What’s Hot in the House?

November 16, 2023, commentary by Eagle Forum

             Amidst all the turmoil in Washington, DC, in recent months, House Republicans are forging ahead with their goal of passing individual spending bills for each federal agency. For at least a decade, Congress has not done this and instead has enacted continuing resolutions that fund the government at or above previous years’ spending levels. The federal government has been saturated in unnecessary programs, leftist policies and enormous debt by avoiding the tough choices.

             Thankfully, many Republicans continue to hold the line on fiscal conservatism and regular order even though the Senate’s Democrat majority has refused to vote on the appropriations bills passed by the House of Representatives.

             To date, the House has successfully passed seven out of the twelve appropriations bills. After Thanksgiving, the House will consider the Labor, Health & Human Services and Education  “LHHS” funding bill (HR-5894). The Obama and Biden administrations have used programs in the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) to promote abortion, gender ideology and critical race theory. Now that the Left is pushing everything under the “health” umbrella (“abortion is healthcare” and “gender-affirming care in necessary medical care”), conservatives in Congress need to defund as much of this social engineering as possible.

             The House LHHS bill would cut spending on these programs by $60.3 billion, 29% lower than the previous year’s levels. The bill eliminates 61 programs and reduces funding in certain departments, including the National Institute for Health and Centers for Disease Control. Congress is correct to scrutinize the ridiculous research projects such as the romantic patterns of parrots or incredibly dangerous “gain-of-function” research that could cause another pandemic.

             The Left loves to fund abortion programs through the HHS spending bill, but pro-lifers in the House are attempting to stop it. The House LHHS bill would eliminate all Title X [Ten] family planning money. The Trump administration was successful in diverting that money toward women’s health clinics rather than abortion facilities, but the Biden administration reversed course. Title X money also funds problematic school-based sex education programs that encourage children to have sex and introduce them to radical gender ideology.

             Additionally, the House bill would maintain the Hyde Amendment which prevents federal funding of abortion.

             In addition, the LHHS bill would prohibit funding research that uses any fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions. It also prohibits human embryos from being created or destroyed for research (also known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment).

             Republicans included provisions in the bill to reverse the Left’s attempts to spread “sexual orientation/gender identity” (SOGI) politics throughout the federal government. Language in the LHHS bill prohibits the implementation of Biden’s executive order on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation that blurs the distinctions between males and females and endorses medical procedures on children without parental consent. In addition, the LHHS bill would prohibit taxpayer funding of genital-mutilating medical procedures. 

             The Biden Administration has also targeted the Dept. of Education’s Title IX rule that protects women’s sports and privacy by proposing a new rule that redefines “sex” to include gender identity rather than biology. This would allow men access to women’s sports, locker rooms and bathrooms. The LHHS bill includes language to prohibit the new rule from being implemented.

             The radical Biden Administration policies have negatively impacted individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs. For example, pro-life medical professionals should not be forced to assist in abortion procedures or dispense abortion drugs. The LHHS bill contains a private right of action for individuals who are forced into these situations and denied their conscience rights. Similarly, it extends the same protections to individuals who believe that marriage should only be between one man and one woman.

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Members of the House may be contacted via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121.]

Co-Sponsors for HR-5577 – Repeal of FACE Act

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), chief sponsor, joined by GOP Representatives Barry Moore (AL); Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar & Debbie Lesko (AZ); Doug LaMalfa (CA); Ken Buck & Doug Lamborn (CO); Anna Paulina Luna & Greg Steube (FL); Andrew Clyde & Mike Collins (GA); Mary Miller (IL); Jim Banks (IN); Eric Burlison & Matt Rosendale (MT); Adrian Smith (NE); Chris Smith (NJ); David Rouzer (NC); Warren Davidson (OH); Josh Brecheen (OK); Jeff Duncan & William Timmons (SC); Mark Green & Diana Harshbarger (TN); Brian Babin, Lance Gooden & Keith Self (TX); Burgess Owens (UT); Bob Good (VA); and Alex Mooney (WV).

Co-Sponsors for S-3017 – Restoring the 1st Amendment

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), chief sponsor, joined by GOP Senators Mike Braun (IN), Cindy Hyde-Smith & Roger Wicker (MS), Josh Hawley (MO) and J.D. Vance (OH).