Life Advocacy Briefing

Question of the Week

WHEN JOHN THE BAPTIST LEAPED in his mother’s womb upon recognizing his unborn cousin Jesus, was he a human being or a mere mass of tissue?

God Is Calling

SPEAK UP for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. – Proverbs 31: 8-9, New Living Translation of the Holy Bible

Another Chance to Get It Right

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT HAS AGREED to take a case considering whether a state can disqualify Planned Parenthood and other abortion outfits from being funded by the state’s Medicaid program of medical care for indigent residents.

The case arises out of South Carolina, whose Medicaid program has been ordered by the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals to “restore Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood,” reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “after the state deemed the abortion provider not qualified, claiming Medicaid recipients had a right to the provider of their choice.”

The agreement of the Supreme Court to take the case is auspicious, especially considering that the high court had already ordered the 4^th Circuit to reconsider its ruling – based on the same claim – in a case called Talevski, which, notes Mr. Freiburger, “concerned whether the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act created federal rights healthcare recipients could enforce via lawsuits.” Apparently, the Supreme Court decided in that case that the recipient of the medically related coverage did not have such a right.

“In July, 68 Congressional Republicans urged the nation’s highest court to take up the case,” reports LifeSiteNews, “arguing that ‘South Carolina has every right to determine what qualifies and disqualifies Medicaid healthcare providers operating within [a] state,’ and ‘Private parties like Planned Parenthood have no right to undermine Congressional intent.’” Amen!

South Carolina’s GOP governor, Henry McMaster, also weighed in, quoted in the Freiburger story: “‘Taxpayer dollars should never fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,’” he said. “‘In 2018, I issued an executive order to end this practice in South Carolina. I’m confident the US Supreme Court will agree with me that states shouldn’t be forced to subsidize abortions.’”

Presumably the incoming Trump Administration will weigh in on the side of South Carolina in this case, since President Trump has declared that states, under the Dobbs decision, have the last word in abortion policy.

Closed!

ALASKA IS GETTING CLOSER TO BEING ABORTUARY-FREE, with the closure of Planned Parenthood’s shop in Juneau, the state’s capital. The facility had closed “temporarily” in November, reports Matt Lamb for LifeSiteNews, but has now announced “it will completely cease operations, leaving just two locations … in Alaska.”

And further great news from Idaho: Planned Parenthood’s regional website which encompasses the northwestern US announced one of its shops in the state “would no longer offer in-person appointments,” writes Mr. Lamb. That does not stop Planned Parenthood from pushing baby poison on customers who are not required to undergo physical examination, but it does end surgical baby killing at the facility.

Mr. Lamb reports that the Juneau facility will continue to “facilitate” distribution of the mifepristone abortion drug, but that appears to conflict with the announcement of “completely ceas[ing] operations.”

Efforts to defund the abortion giant are persisting in the Alaska state government, despite the continued precedent of a 2001 Alaska state supreme court ruling ordering the government to fund abortion.

Early in 2024, State Sen. Shelley Hughes (R) led the fight for an amendment to the state’s appropriations “allot[ing] $0.00 for abortion-related expenses in the state Medicaid Services budget,” reports Mr. Lamb, and to “bar the [state’s] Dept. of Health & Social Services from transferring funds into that budget to then use for abortion.”

Unfortunately, notes Mr. Lamb, “four Republicans in the state senate – including Senate President Gary Stevens and Majority Leader Cathy Giesel – joined all Democrats in working to kill [the] amendment.” The good news in that is that all but two other Republican Senators turned against their leadership team in backing the Hughes amendment. From the perspective of Life Advocacy Briefing’s editor – herself a former state legislator in Illinois – that breaking of the ranks is a good sign for future success. And Sen. Hughes’s creativity in the fashioning of the amendment is also encouraging.

Closing the Gate in Tennessee

TENNESSEE STATE LAWMAKERS ARE TACKLING THE CHEMICAL ABORTION challenge, proposing legislation, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “that would impose crushing financial penalties on anyone involved with mailing abortion pills into the state to prevent the practice from circumventing the state’s ban on the procedure.”

Citing Live Action as his source, Mr. Freiburger reports that “HB-26, the Unborn Child Protection Act of 2025, would make ‘any person or entity’ mailing or delivering ‘an abortion-inducing drug’ into Tennessee ‘strictly liable in the amount of $5 million in damages for the death of the unborn child.’ Manufacturers, distributors, online stores and any individual who directs somebody to them would all be covered.”

GOP State Rep. Gino Bulso has filed the bill and is quoted in the Freiburger report: “‘I learned that there were some young ladies in Tennessee who had ordered and received abortion pills through the mail. … I began thinking about what else we might be able to do, both to deter folks from breaking the law and to provide a civil remedy to the family of an unborn child who’s killed because abortion pills were illegally sent into the state. … It’s broader than just exposing manufacturers and distributors to liability. It imposes liability on any person or company who actually sends abortion pills or delivers abortion pills into the state for the purpose of killing an unborn child.’”

Such state legislation appears necessary because of the refusal of the Biden Regime to enforce long-standing federal law barring the use of the post office to deliver poisonous materials, including abortifacients, and the posture of the incoming Trump Administration limiting abortion restrictions to the state level.

Persisting

VIRGINIA GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN (R) IS TRYING AGAIN to eliminate taxpayer-funded abortions of babies diagnosed with fetal anomalies, reports Live Action’s Bridget Sielicki. This is the third straight year for the governor’s initiative, which is annually repulsed by a Democrat-majority legislature.

“According to [the] Virginia Mercury,” writes Ms. Sielicki, “current state law allows state insurance to cover abortions for cases in which a doctor has diagnosed ‘gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or with a gross and totally incapacitating mental deficiency.’ Youngkin’s budget,” writes Ms. Sielicki, “would explicitly remove this, with language saying ‘no expenditures from general or non-general fund sources may be made out of any appropriation by the General Assembly for providing abortion services, except otherwise as required by federal law or state statute.’”

Planned Parenthood weighed in, of course, calling the governor’s budget amendment “‘discriminatory’ and ‘cruel.’ But,” notes Ms. Sielicki, “choosing whether another person should live or die because of that person’s physical or mental capabilities is the ultimate act of discrimination.”

Open Letter to the President-elect

Nov. 13, 2024, “Open Letter” by Dan Miller of Pro-Life Wisconsin

             Congratulations on becoming the 47^th President of the United States of America! You have faced insurmountable odds, including attempts on your very life, and you have won a hard battle. May God bless you as you prepare to return to the White House … . But do not forget those who put you back into office, Mr. President.

             Pro-life voters turned to you to stave off a Harris presidency that would have brought abortion-on-demand up until birth into every corner of the United States: blue, red and purple counties alike.

             Mr. President, you were once a champion for all of the babies! You came out to the March for Life DC with strong words in support of every human life from the moment of conception.

             “Together, we must protect, cherish and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.” – 47^th annual March for Life, Washington, DC 1/24/2020

             “Our nation will continue to emphatically affirm the self-evident ideal that all children, born and unborn, are created in the image of God, are worthy of life and deserve to be loved.” – National Down Syndrome Awareness Month message 10/1/2020

             “Today we focus our attention on the love and protection each person, born and unborn, deserves. … Under my Administration, we will always defend the right to life.” – 45^th annual March for Life, Washington, DC 1/19/2018

             Mr. President, do not shirk your duty to the American people, including the preborn, whose rights are being stripped away even now as individual states deprive them of the right to life that they are guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution:

             Preamble to the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

             14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Section 1. Right: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

             Mr. President, on your 2024 campaign trail, you did not speak of the preborn in terms of protection; rather you deflected, saying it was up to the states to decide on abortion. However, because abortion deprives a preborn human person of their fundamental right to life, you are saying that these smallest Americans can be deprived of the right to life by their states. May we remind you that this is the United States of America, where our inalienable rights are protected no matter which state we reside in.

             President Trump, killing babies in the womb is no more a state’s right than owning slaves. The issue of life is already covered in the 14^th Amendment. We encourage you to protect pre-born babies by enforcing the highest law of our land – the United States Constitution!

             Mr. President, we need your strong leadership! The babies need your protection. As the leader of the free world, we look to you to keep the spotlight on the issue of Life at the federal level. If any member of our society is being oppressed by the states, it is the duty of the President to work to end that injustice.

             In the four years to come, we are hopeful that you will once again take up this mantle of justice for the preborn. For our part, we will continue to advocate for these least ones, not just at the state level but at the federal level as well.

             May God bless you, and may God bless America! [Amen]

Little by Little

Dec. 30, 2024, Daily Citizen report by Nicole Hunt for Focus on the Family

             As 2024 draws to a close, let’s take a moment to consider the pro-life wins we saw this year and thank God for His faithfulness to preborn babies and their mothers.

             First, we celebrate the fact that 12 states remain abortion-free. Abortion-free states include Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Pro-life laws in those states save the lives of over 111,400 babies annually.

             Another four states – Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina – have heartbeat laws in place that protect preborn babies beginning around six weeks gestation. And still, another two states (Nebraska and North Carolina) protect preborn babies from abortion at 12 weeks and beyond. Laws in these six states protect another 83.700 babies from abortion every year.

             Collectively, pro-life laws in these 18 states are protecting more than 195,000 babies from abortion every year!

             Second, abortion amendments were defeated in three states this year. Victories in Florida, South Dakota and Nebraska represent the first wins against extreme abortion amendments across the country since the fall of Roe in June of 2022. As reported by the Daily Citizen, they also represent three different pathways to victory for future abortion amendment battles at the ballot box.

             Third, pregnancy resource centers are growing in number and impact. The Charlotte Lozier Institute released a report, A Legacy of Life and Love: Hope for a New Generation, cataloging the growth in services and people served by pregnancy resource centers. The report analyzed data from 2022, the most up-to-date information available on pregnancy resource centers, and found that there are 2,750 centers in the US, up 50 centers since 2019.

             The report also found that the value of life-affirming pregnancy services and goods provided to clients was nearly $368 million, up from $266 million in 2019. This includes about $206 million in free medical services, $83 million in education and support services and $78 million in material goods. According to the report, pregnancy resource centers have provided more than 16 million sessions with clients. The report estimates that ultrasound services were up 12% in 2022, compared to 2019, participation in educational offerings was up by 41%, abortion pill reversal services were up 16%, and material items provided were up 194%.

             Pregnancy resource centers are the future of the pro-life movement, and it is exciting to see them thriving like never before.

             Fourth, state funding for pregnancy resource centers is growing. Since Roe’s reversal in 2022, it is estimated that nearly $500 million has been appropriated by as many as 21 states for pregnancy resource centers. Some states have gone above and beyond in their support … . In Florida, state support for pregnancy resource centers increased from $4.5 million in 2022 to $25 million in 2023. Tennessee’s spending increased from $3 million in 2022 to $20 million in 2023.

             Fifth, 29 abortion clinics were closed in 2024, according to a new report by Operation Rescue … .  Abortion Care Network writes in its latest report that at least 11 of those closures were independent abortion clinics. Since 2020, Operation Rescue noted that a total of 238 abortion clinics have closed.

             Looking ahead to 2025, we already know there will be a multitude of challenges that face the pro-life movement as it seeks to make abortion unthinkable. Today, let’s take a moment to be thankful for all the ways God has demonstrated His goodness and faithfulness in advancing the cause of Life.

Taking the Message to DC

Nov. 18, 2024, Daily Citizen report by Nicole Hunt for Focus on the Family

             The 52^nd annual March for Life will be held in Washington, DC, on Jan. 24, 2025. The theme for this year’s march is “Life: Why We March.”

             Since the reversal of Roe two year ago – and the subsequent challenges the pro-life movement has faced – organizers say this theme is about reminding us what it’s all about. Their hope is to “encourage pro-life advocates to draw renewed energy for this challenging moment in the movement by reflecting on the basic truth that inspires the pro-life cause: every human life – including the unborn and their mothers – is beautiful, has unique dignity and [is] worthy of protection.”

             March for Life produced a powerful video explaining this year’s theme. [That video can be watched via the internet at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOi8X4eiCKo] Current president Jeanne Mancini narrates the piece and concludes, “Because every single life deserves a chance. That is what real human flourishing looks like. That is why we march.”

             March organizers say “the goal of the national March for Life is to not only change laws at the state and federal level but to change the culture to ultimately make abortion unthinkable.”

             Earlier this fall, the March for Life announced a leadership change and welcomed their new president-elect Jennie Bradley Lichter. Lichter is an attorney and formerly worked at the White House on domestic policy and rulemaking to defend the dignity of human life. Lichter will assume her role as president on Feb. 1, 2025. …

             Pro-life friends who plan on attending the March can RSVP and learn more details at https://marchforlife.org.