Life Advocacy Briefing

Question of the Week

WHAT IS THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH IN THE U.S. & WORLDWIDE? Induced, intentional abortion of living human beings before and/or during birth. [Source: World Health Org.]

High Priority

HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA) WENT ON THE RECORD for defunding Planned Parenthood during a Fox News interview recently, reports LifeSiteNews (LSN).

After posting on X (formerly Twitter) that, under the next President, Republicans in Congress “‘will take a blowtorch to the administrative state and reduce the size and scope of government,’” Speaker Johnson was asked for clarification by Fox News host Martha McCallum, LSN reports.

“‘Two specific examples: Planned Parenthood and PBS are in Congressional control,’” said Ms. McCallum, quoted by LSN. “‘Are you planning to axe both of those?’” His reply: “‘I would like to. That’s for sure,’ he said. However, he said, ‘we have got to build consensus to have the votes to do that.’”

Speaker Johnson’s caucus, the House GOP, holds extremely narrow control in the House, particularly since President-elect Trump has plucked three Republican House Members – Representatives Elise Stefanik of New York as UN Ambassador, Michael Waltz of Florida as National Security Advisor and Florida’s Matt Gaetz, who resigned from Congress before withdrawing his nomination as Attorney General – for high-level posts in his forthcoming Administration. Once Rep. Stefanik and Rep. Waltz resign in early January, the House GOP will be facing three vacancies in their slim majority until special elections can be held.

Then once the new Congress is seated, “make Hyde permanent” is a message which will be critical for pro-life citizens to deliver to their own Members of Congress, regardless of party.

We appear to have the backing of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for that goal as part of their “Department of Gov’t Efficiency” project. “In a November Wall Street Journal op-ed,” notes LSN, “the duo said the federal expenditures they plan on cutting include the ‘nearly $300 million’ dedicated ‘to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood,’ as LSN reported.”

Beyond ‘Hyde’ and the defunding of Planned Parenthood, pro-life citizens need also to be insisting that the Dept. of Defense and Dept. of Veterans Affairs cease abetting service personnel and veterans in procuring abortions, as has been the practice of the Biden Regime.

Another Hopeful Appointment

INCOMING PRES. DONALD TRUMP HAS NAMED California human rights champion Harmeet Dhillon to lead the Civil Rights Division of the US Dept. of Justice.

The well-spoken conservative is likely to be the flipside of the current civil rights head, Kristen Clarke, who, notes Matt Lamb, reporting for LifeSiteNews, “has aggressively used the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) to prosecute peaceful pro-lifers protesting outside of abortion vendors.”

Ms. Dhillon “has represented a number of high-profile clients,” reports Mr. Lamb, “including pro-life journalist David Daleiden, The Daily Wire (against Pres. Joe Biden’s Covid shot mandate) and ‘detransitioner’ Chloe Cole.”

Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins responded to the appointment with a comment on X (ex-Twitter) directed toward Ms. Dhillon, Mr. Lamb notes: “‘Thanks for your defense of pro-life Americans like David Daleiden for his journalistic efforts to show what Planned Parenthood has allegedly been doing with baby body parts, and please protect the civil rights of peaceful pro-life protestors prosecuted through the abuse of the … FACE Act. … The pro-life generation can’t wait to see you in action.’” A sentiment with which we concur.

Hope but Verify

AS ENTHUSIASTIC AS MOST AMERICANS SEEM TO BE and as hopeful as we are about gazillionaire Elon Musk and his new hobby – remaking the shape of the federal government to trim out wasteful spending – his efforts bear watching by pro-life citizens.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show, reports LifeSiteNews, that Mr. Musk was the sole funder (at $20.5 million) of RBG PAC, a political action committee which ran television ads in the final weeks of the recent Presidential campaign, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “based around the proposition that [recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg] and Trump were two ‘great minds’ who agreed that abortion policy should not be decided at the federal level. …

“Its ads featured women explaining that they were voting for Trump ‘on the economy and keeping us safe,’” reports Mr. Freiburger, “while expressing that they believed in the so-called ‘freedom to choose’ and were satisfied that Trump did not stand in the way of that ‘freedom.’”

Perhaps the blooming and useful Trump/Musk partnership explains why candidate Trump “aggressively came out against federally banning abortion to the point of promising to veto any such bill that reached his desk,” reminds Mr. Freiburger, “forced a rewrite of the Republican Party platform to remove its long-standing commitment to eventually banning abortion nationwide, boasted about making the GOP less ‘radical’ on the issue, criticized multiple state pro-life laws for being ‘too tough,’ proclaimed himself the ‘father’ of embryo-destructive in vitro fertilization and pledged to continue allowing the illegal mail distribution of abortion pills – all while assuming (correctly, as it turned out) that most pro-life voters would decide he was still preferable to radically pro-abortion Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.”

Now that we are alerted to the apparent Musk admiration of the late left-wing Justice, it behooves pro-life citizens to watch Mr. Musk carefully and critically and to pray his enthusiasm both for spending cuts and for large families outweighs his seeming attachment to an icon of the abortion lobby.

Shock & Awe

MARYLAND VOTERS WHO FALL FOR THE EUPHEMISMS & LIES of the abortion lobby may be dealing with a blow to their consciences and in some cases a cracking open of their minds.

A jury in Rockville, after less than two hours of deliberation, convicted a 31-year-old man of “firing seven shots at his girlfriend …, killing her and their unborn son already named ‘Ezekiel,’” reports Doug Mainwaring for LifeSiteNews. Ezekiel was eight-and-a-half months along at the time of his death.

The charge: first-degree murder – in both deaths. “As the jury entered deliberations,” reports Mr. Mainwaring, “there was some discussion about convicting [Torrey] Moore of first-degree murder in the killing of [the mother] and applying a different charge to the killing of the unborn baby,’ according to the Washington Post.” But the first-degree murder charge stuck, applied to both victims.

That courtroom, where justice was done, is located “less than five miles,” notes Mr. Mainwaring, from the notorious late-term abortuary “formerly run by now-deceased Dr. LeRoy Carhart,” a fanatical late-term specialist who died in 2023.

“‘Jurors had more options of lesser counts for the child,’ the Post reported,” writes Mr. Mainwaring, “‘including involuntary manslaughter, according to court records. In the end, though, jurors concluded that Moore had to know he was killing the unborn child as he fired shot after shot, according to three jurors.’ The Post continued:

“‘The jurors said they were able to wall off their emotions as they viewed the evidence and rendered their verdict. But an hour afterward, evidence photos and testimony weighed on them. One such photograph, in particular, showed Ezekiel’s body after it had been removed from [his mother] during the autopsy. “It was a baby. It was a fully formed baby,” one of the jurors noted.’” Indeed.

Progress

INDIANA’s EXPERIENCE WITH ITS POST-DOBBS LAW restricting abortion is showing positive results, reports Matt Lamb for LifeSiteNews, even though it is far from perfect, in our view.

“Abortion dropped 98% in Indiana in the first year after [its] pro-life law took effect,” notes LSN, “a positive sign that the state’s law is reducing abortions, though 41 babies were still tragically aborted in the most recent quarter. …

“There was a total of 41 abortions committed in Indiana for the most recent quarter, compared to 763 for the prior quarter,” writes Mr. Lamb, “representing a drop around 95% compared to the same time period in 2023. The latest report completes the first full year since the law went into effect following legal challenges. In total,” he notes, “abortions dropped 98% according to an analysis by State Affairs.”

To get more specific, “eight innocent preborn babies were killed via abortion drugs, while another 13 were killed using ‘intracardiac interjections.’ This is the same,” notes Mr. Lamb, “as a heart-attack abortion, where an innocent baby is injected with drugs to cause cardiac arrest. Abortionists killed another 20 babies via ‘surgical’ abortions.”

The Indiana law permits the killing of developing babies up to their 10^th week if their conception resulted from a sex crime “as well as for alleged ‘substantial and irreversible physical impairment’ of the mother’s health, according to the legislation,” writes Mr. Lamb. “The law also allows for the killing of preborn babies if the baby allegedly ‘suffers from an irremediable medical condition that is incompatible with sustained life outside the womb up to 20 weeks.’”

A major “plus” in the legislation is its outlawing of abortion shops, restricting abortions to hospitals only, which severely curtails the cartel.

We congratulate the lawmakers of Indiana on having severely cut their abortion rate and urge them and lawmakers across America to adopt a principled abortion ban which acknowledges the humanity of every unborn child regardless of the circumstances of conception or the baby’s perceived disability.

Slipping Down the Slope?

THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT HAS TAKEN A REGRETTABLE STEP toward oblivion, voting 330-275 to advance a proposal authorizing doctors to commit euthanasia. The measure is not passed yet, but advancement to “third reading” is a troubling development.

On the “up” side, the bill is considered “controversial,” according to LifeSiteNews writer Andreas Wailzer, and “faced opposition across party lines. The vote was considered a matter of conscience,” he notes, “meaning that Members of Parliament were not expected to vote alongside their party’s position. Former Conservative [Party] Leader Rishi Sunak voted for the measure, whereas the new leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, voted against it.”`

Now there’s some good news … Rishi Sunak is no longer the Tory Party leader!

The “third reading” process, which can include attachment of amendments, is not expected to be completed before next April. A good platform for prayer.

Meanwhile, some of the debate is worth quoting. “During the debate,” writes Mr. Wailzer, “Conservative MP Danny Kruger said that disenfranchised people need to be protected from euthanasia and that Parliament needs to be their safeguard. ‘We are the people who protect the most vulnerable in society from harm, and yet we stand on the brink of abandoning that role,’ [MP] Kruger stated. ‘The Rubicon was a very small stream, … but on the other side lies a very different world, a worse world with a very different idea of human value: the idea that our individual worth lies in our utility, valuable only for so long as we are useful – not a burden, not a cost, not making a mess.’”

Another Tory MP, Sir Edward Leigh, was quoted by Mr. Wailzer from the debate: “‘I was really very struck by the comment which was made earlier … that we can’t consider this just in terms of individual hard cases but in terms of society as a whole. What sort of society are we? Are we a society that loves life, that loves our National Health Service, that loves caring, that loves the hospice movement? Or are we a society which believes that there is despair? So, I will be voting for hope …, and I will be voting against this bill.’” Bravo!

Even one MP on the liberal side of Parliament was quoted by LifeSiteNews: “Labor MP Florence Eshalomi also gave an impassioned speech against the proposed legislation. ‘Put simply, … we should be helping people to live comfortable, pain-free lives on their own terms before we think about making it easier for them to die.’”

And Across the Channel

FRANCE HAS FINED A TELEVISION CHANNEL more than $100,000, reports Clare Marie Merkowsky for LifeSiteNews, “for accurately reporting that abortion is the leading cause of death worldwide.”

The French media regulatory agency asserted that unborn human beings “‘are not considered as persons.’” Oh? Then what species are they?

During a program aired last February, notes Ms. Merkowsky, a journalist named Aymeric Pourbaix “presented a chart from the Worldometers, which is based on figures from the World Health Organization,” certainly not a pro-life source, to say the least! “According to the graph,” she reports, “abortion constituted 52% of deaths worldwide, with 73 million babies being killed each year. This is compared to only 10 million from cancer and 6.2 million from smoking.”

Clearly, then, abortion is the leading cause of death, and its legalization is clearly contributing to the falling population rates which are concerning so many demographers. But, shhh. In France, at least – and no doubt in many other places – we must not utter uncomfortable truth.

But no worries! The French television channel apologized for its so-called “‘error,’” even though it was a fact taken from the vaunted WHO.

Responds Jean-Marie LeMene, head of the pro-life Jerome Lejeune Foundation, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘In order for abortion to be practiced with a clear conscience, it is forbidden to say that abortion takes life. Otherwise, the keystone of the system collapses. But,’” she added, “‘who believes this fiction? … Abortion, the leading cause of death in the world, is unfortunately a fact, not an opinion.’”

Surgi-Killing Down, Chemi-Killing Up

Dec. 4, 2024, report by Wade Searle for LifeSiteNews

             The historic ruling by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, which empowered states to enforce laws that protect unborn lives, has led to dramatic changes in abortion trends and numbers – particularly on how abortions are performed – according to a new report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute [GI].

             The pro-abortion research entity reports that the number of abortion clinics in the US has decreased, especially in states that have enacted and enforced stronger pro-life laws. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of clinics dropped 5%, from 807 to 765. In 14 states now enforcing total abortion bans, all clinics have closed, where there used to be a total of 63 clinics in 2020. This trend would vindicate a previous report from LSN that there is indeed a tangible impact of laws designed to uphold the dignity and sanctity of all life, stopping abortions and saving lives in the process.

             Unfortunately, states that still allow the murder of the unborn have seen a small increase in clinic numbers, suggesting a shift in focus for the abortion-industrial complex to states with a lack of protections for preborn babies.

             In 2023, approximately 1,037,000 abortions were reported in states that have not implemented total abortion bans, an 11% increase from the 930,160 abortions recorded in 2020. If true, this would mark the highest record number of murdered unborn babies in a single year in over a decade. It is worth noting that these figures from the GI exclude self-managed abortions.

             While the number of abortion clinics continues to decline, new challenges for those advocating for the unborn have emerged as women increasingly turn to interstate travel, abortion pills and other methods of self-induced abortion. The GI reports that in 2023, medication abortions accounted for 63% of all clinician-provided abortions in states without total bans, a sharp rise from 53% in 2020.

             “Abortion pills” are a lethal combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, which are commonly prescribed by virtual clinics or even obtained online. Pro-life advocates argue that this approach dehumanizes the unborn child, reducing their life to a matter of convenience for the mother. A report from NBC News found that the rise of abortion pills, marketed as convenient and private, is primarily due to “a small network of medical providers who found ways to prescribe and ship* abortion pills around the country from places where they’re still legal.”

             Another concerning trend is the significant rise in women traveling across state lines for abortions. The GI reports that 81,000 women traveled out of state for an abortion in 2020. In 2023, that number jumped dramatically to over 166,000.

             Serra Sippel, the executive director of the Brigid Alliance, which offers resources and funds for interstate travel for abortion seekers, told NBC News: “It was kind of all hands on deck after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health to get people the information and access to make sure that these abortion bans were not going to stop people from being able to access care.” [sic]

             At the same time, however, some pro-lifers argues that the increase in travel shows that laws restricting abortion and closing abortion facilities are changing behavior, proving that legislation can and does save lives. LifeSiteNews previously reported on new data from the CDC that would suggest abortions dropped 2% in 2022, the year the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade.