Life Advocacy Briefing

Get Ready

THE 2024 ELECTION CAMPAIGNS ARE LIKELY TO GET UGLY on a fundamental question facing Americans: What shall be our legal framework in defense of vulnerable, innocent, developing little babies and of their sometimes distressed mothers?

As focused as some voters need to be on the policies being advocated by the various contenders for the GOP Presidential nomination – and by candidates lower on the ballot – the approach being taken by the President himself is critical and worthy of concern by pro-life voters.

A LifeSiteNews report by Jean Mondoro offers an unsurprising, though concerning, peek at the intentions of the Biden campaign, based on “a recent interview with Joe Biden’s [deputy] campaign manager,” declaring “that the sitting President … is ‘adamant’ to ‘restore Roe’ if he is voted into the White House for a second term. …

“During the Jan. 7 installment of NBC’s Meet the Press, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, told host Kristen Welker that abortion would be the commander-in-chief’s ‘top priority’ if he returns to the White House next term. … ‘The President has been adamant that we need to restore Roe.’”

Back to the Supreme Court

THE SUPREME COURT HAS AGREED TO HEAR A CASE OUT OF IDAHO seeking to upend the state’s law prohibiting abortion, reports LifeSiteNews, “from the moment of fertilization except in cases of rape, incest or when the killing of the unborn child is falsely claimed necessary for the benefit of the mother’s health.” The Court placed a hold on a federal district court order requiring emergency rooms in Idaho to abort babies in the event of “an emergency.”

The Biden Regime is claiming the federal Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) “‘requires hospitals receiving Medicare funding to offer “necessary stabilizing treatment” to pregnant women in emergencies,’” wrote SCOTUS Blog’s Amy Howe, quoted by LifeSite. Within two months of the Dobbs ruling from the Supreme Court, the Biden Regime “went to federal court in Idaho” seeking to topple the state’s pro-life law as though the EMTALA trumps the authority acknowledged by the high court for states to outlaw abortion.

“‘Hospitals – especially emergency rooms – are centers for preserving life,’” noted Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Erin Hawley in a November, 2023, press release concerning the Idaho case, quoted by LSN. “‘Emergency room physicians can and do treat ectopic pregnancies and other life-threatening conditions. But elective abortion is not life-saving care – it ends the life of the unborn child – and the government has no authority to override Idaho’s law barring these procedures.’”

Let us pray the Supreme Court persists in that view and reinforces its Dobbs ruling in the Idaho case.

The Idaho case is also the topic of a report by Sarah Holliday in Family Research Council’s The Washington Stand, in which she notes that the White House released a statement on the appeal “with a less than celebratory tone.

“They argued,” writes Ms. Holliday, “that the Idaho law ‘forces’ doctors and women to leave Idaho in order to obtain access to abortion and classified abortion as ‘the health care [women] need.’ According to the Biden Administration, restriction to abortion ‘should never happen in America.’

“In response to Friday’s decision” by the Supreme Court to hear the Idaho appeal, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Human Dignity, Mary Szoch, “said,” writes Ms. Holliday, “‘The Supreme Court decision states the obvious: Abortion doesn’t stabilize anyone.’ She continued, ‘Intentionally killing an innocent human being isn’t health care. It’s not emergency medicine. It is murder.’’

[Life Advocacy views the above statements as model language for stating one’s view of abortion.]

Ms. Holliday goes on to quote Mrs. Szoch’s conclusion: “‘I look forward to SCOTUS definitively settling that forcing physicians to commit abortions is criminal.’” Bingo.

Here Comes the March

IF YOU HAVE NOT YET MADE PLANS to show up on the National Mall with your fellow pro-life citizens for the annual March for Life, you still have a few days to coax a buddy or two to go with you.

The annual March will rally at noon this Friday, Jan. 19, and proceed down the streets of the nation’s capital, concluding at the steps of the Supreme Court. Visits to Congressional offices are encouraged, and a banquet will top off the evening at the rally’s base hotel, Westin Downtown, 999 Ninth St. NW.

Among speakers at the rally will be Antonio deMello, a Brazilian man who has adopted 46 disabled children among those served at a faith-based community he founded “to serve children and adults living with disabilities after being spared from abortion,” reports Jean Mondoro for LifeSiteNews.

Details are available via the March for Life’s website at marchforlife.org.

Referendum Pending in Florida

THE SIGNATURES HAVE BEEN COLLECTED in sufficient number to post a proposition on Florida’s November ballot to lock abortion into the state constitution.

But according to a story in the Tampa Bay Times, quoted by Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen, “‘Floridians Protecting Freedom [sic] still faces the hurdle of a state supreme court approval. Attorney General Ashley Moody has asked the Florida high court to disqualify the amendment from the ballot, saying the language could mislead voters.’”

Having seen the constitutional amendments already adopted in Michigan and Ohio, we can understand how AG Moody could draw such a conclusion and hope the state’s high court will agree. These thwarting-Dobbs propositions are written in jumblese and so far have pulled together a broad variety of issues in the name of “privacy rights.” We have not seen the language of the Florida proposal; the petition is no longer posted on the sponsoring group’s website, now that the signature threshold has been attained.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, as quoted by the Daily Citizen, “‘The proposal would amend the state’s constitution to explicitly protect abortion access until viability, which is estimated to be around 24 weeks.’”

‘Abortion’ Takes the Stage

THREE OF THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT appeared in various televised forums a week ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses.

Former President Donald Trump was interviewed by Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha McCallum in an hour-long “town hall” in Iowa Wednesday evening. We publish our transcript of the “abortion question” segment near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

The same evening, CNN hosted a televised debate in Iowa featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. We publish our transcript of their remarks about abortion following the Trump transcript.

Trump on Abortion

Life Advocacy Briefing’s transcript of the “abortion” segment of Fox News Jan. 10, 2024, Town Hall with former President Donald Trump

Question from Rebecca, mother of six, in “town hall” audience: “You talk a lot about pro-life, your record. And that’s my number-one issue, and the cry of my heart is justice for all people, and I’ve been, you know, vocal and celebrating with you all of your pro-life victories from the past, but then in this campaign you’ve also blamed pro-lifers for some of the GOP losses around the country, and you’ve called Heartbeat laws like Iowa’s* terrible, and so I’d just like some clarity on this, because it’s such an important question to me. I’d like for you to reassure me that you can protect all life, every person’s right to life without compromise.”

Former President Trump: So, that’s a great question. I appreciate it, too. You wouldn’t be asking that question, even talking about the issue, because for 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I’m proud to have done it. They wanted to get it back, right? You wouldn’t have that; there would be no question. Nobody else was gonna get that done but me. And we did it, and we did something that was a miracle.

             When I walked onto the stage today, a gentleman in the back – probably works for Fox – nice guy, said, ‘Sir, I’d like to thank you.’ I said, ‘For what?’ He said, ‘You saved two million lives in the last three years, you saved two million lives,’ and I said, ‘Thank you very much.’ I knew exactly what he meant. Two million lives, and nobody’s done more in that regard than me.

             Now I happen to be for the exceptions, like Ronald Reagan, with the life of the mother, rape, incest. I just have to be there, I feel. I think probably 78% or so poll about 78%.

             It was Ronald Reagan, he was for it, I was for it, but I will say this: You have to win elections; otherwise, you’re going to be back where you were, and you can’t let that ever happen again. You’ve gotta win elections.

             If you look at it, Ron DeSantis, I don’t know what he really believes, because you know, you never know with a politician, and he’s just another politician as far as I’m concerned. His poll numbers have gone down to a level that he’s going to be out of the race very soon, going to be out very soon. You know I watched him last night. He’s standing up with his shoes, his fancy shoes, and he’s gonna be out of the race – a lot of people say – before, before New Hampshire. I don’t know if that was the reason, I hope it wasn’t the reason, I hope it’s for other reasons, I can see a lot of other reasons why he shouldn’t be, but he’s doing very, very poorly; it happened to coincide with that,  because a lot of people say, a lot of, you know, if you talk five or six weeks, a lot of women don’t know if they’re pregnant in five or six weeks.

             I want to get something where people are happy. You know this has been tearing our country apart for 50 years. Nobody’s been able to do anything. And again, you can only ask that question – and you ask it brilliantly, and I understand exactly where you’re coming from; I love where you’re coming from – but we still have to win elections. And they’ve used this. You know, we have some great Republicans and they’re great on the issue and you would love them on the issue, and a lot of them have just been decimated in the election, decimated, I mean absolutely, so we’re going to come up with something that people want, and people like.

             I would love you to – first of all you have to go with your heart, okay? You have to go with your heart first, go with your heart, your mind; go with it, but you do also have to put in there a little bit – you have to win elections. But if it weren’t for me with Roe v. Wade, you wouldn’t even be talking about this. You wouldn’t be asking that question, because remember this, they’re the radicals;  we’re not the radicals, because they’ll kill a baby.

             Remember I had the debate with Crooked Hillary Clinton; I don’t call her Crooked any more, I use that for Joe Biden, as you know. I call her Beautiful Hillary; she’s a beautiful woman. But in the debate with Hillary Clinton, I said, I said, you know, she’s willing to rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, and you know I never heard this; it happened to me; it just came to me during that debate. I didn’t go up there thinking I was gonna say that, and she even winced. Nobody wants to see that happening after a certain period of time. Nobody. They’re the radicals, because they’re willing to kill the baby in eight months, nine months or even after birth. If you remember the former governor of Virginia, where he said you kill the baby after the ninth month or even after, you set the baby aside, and you have a conversation with the mother, and if the conversation – Can you imagine?

             But these are the radicals; we’re not the radicals; we are not the radicals, but we’re living in a time when there has to be a little bit of a concession one way or the other. And I think you know I wanna get, I wanna get it right; I have to get it right, but without what I did, you would never even be asking that question, because there was no chance that that was going to happen. For 54 years they campaigned on that issue, and nobody pulled it off but me, so I think you’re gonna be happy in the end. Thank you very much.

*Iowa has enacted a Heartbeat Law, outlawing abortions on babies whose heartbeats can be detected, generally at about six weeks’ gestation.

DeSantis v. Haley on Abortion

Life Advocacy Briefing’s transcript of the CNN debate’s “abortion” segment, Jan. 10, 2023

CNN Debate moderator Dana Bash: I want to turn now to the topic of abortion, which of course has been hotly debated in this Republican primary campaign.  Gov. Haley, last week Gov. DeSantis said that former President Trump is not pro-life. Do you agree?

Gov. Nikki Haley: I mean, look. I think that he did some pro-life things when he was President. You’d have to ask him – that’s why he should be on this debate stage. Don’t ask me what President Trump thinks. You need to have him on this debate stage and ask him for yourself.

Debate moderator Dana Bash: Gov. DeSantis?

Gov. Ron DeSantis: Well, look, I think that we’ve stood very strongly for a culture of life. Governor Reynolds is here. She has stood strongly for a culture of life and enacted pro-life protections. We’ve done it in the state of Florida. You know Donald Trump has attacked that. What they did under Governor Reynolds here in Iowa, he said that that’s a – quote – terrible, terrible thing. I don’t know how you square that. He was at the March for Life when he was President his last year, and he said that that life is a gift from God, that the unborn are made in the image of God and that you needed to have protections for those, for that human life. And now saying it’s a terrible, terrible thing, he’s given a gift to the Left to weaponize that against pro-lifers, and that’s wrong. But here’s the thing: Republicans need to do a better job of lifting up folks who are having children. It’s very difficult to raise kids in this environment. You need to help with medical care, you need to help with affordability, and we need to help with education choice. You’ve got to be pro-life for the whole life, and you’ve got to have some compassion for what is going on in the country.

Debate moderator Dana Bash: Governor, yesterday in Iowa, you criticized Gov. Haley on this issue of abortion. You said she has – quote – indulged in leftwing tropes and chastised pro-lifers. Do you believe Gov. Haley is sufficiently pro-life?

Gov. DeSantis: I think she’s been confused on the issue. I think she’s trying to speak to different groups with different things. But when she says things like pro-lifers need to stop talking about throwing women in jail, that’s a trope. No one I’ve ever met thinks that that’s something that’s appropriate. These women are in vulnerable situations. They don’t get any help a lot of times from these fathers who don’t want to be there, supportive. A lot of times they don’t have resources themselves. So, it’s a very difficult situation. And we’ve got to have compassion for those situations. But I think when she starts bringing that in, that’s using the language of the left to try to attack pro-lifers. So, I think that that is wrong, but at the end of the day, I do agree with her on this: Donald Trump should be on this stage. He owes it to you, here in Iowa, to explain this change he’s had in his positioning, to explain why he has a tough time saying whether a man can become a woman or not, to explain why he wants to build a billion-dollar-plus big, beautiful new FBI building right in the heart of the swamp in Washington, DC; he needs to explain why he didn’t build the wall and why he added 7.8 trillion dollars to the debt. Every candidate needs to earn your vote. …

Debate moderator Dana Bash: Governor Haley, your response?

Gov. Haley: I didn’t hear the criticism from Ron about me for being pro-life, but I’m not surprised. It’s something that he does all day everyday. I’m unapologetically pro-life, not because the Republican Party tells me to be but because my husband is adopted and I’ve got my two sweet children sitting in front of me, and I had trouble having both of them. These fellows don’t know how to talk about abortion. I’ve said over and over again, the Democrats put fear in women on abortion and Republicans have used judgment. This is too personal of an issue to put fear or judgment. Our goal should be, how do we save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible. That’s what we’re gonna focus on doing. We’re not gonna demonize this issue anymore. We’re not gonna play politics with this issue anymore. We’re gonna treat it like the respectful issue that it is, and the tropes that you wanna talk about – you keep saying where is anybody talking about putting a woman in jail or giving her the death penalty? South Carolina. There is legislation right now that would put a woman in jail if she got an abortion. That’s why I say that.