Life Advocacy Briefing

Last-Ditch Effort

JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME, the US House and Senate last Wednesday adopted a Continuing Resolution (CR) authorizing funding of the federal government and its grantees and contractors through Dec. 11, the date chosen by Congressional Leadership for the next budget drama. The 2016 fiscal year began at midnight Sept. 30. Wednesday’s action was, unfortunately, entirely predictable.

Though the Senate devoted its budgetary consideration to sending the White House a measure that would bring pleasure to Pres. Obama, House conservatives fought to the end to alter the equation in favor of a truly clean CR – one that would not send another dime of taxpayer dollars to America’s abortion machine.

Just before the House adopted the CR, Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) put forth a concurrent resolution (HCR-79) to disqualify abortionists from Medicaid funding. We have transcribed major excerpts from her floor speech offering her resolution, and we publish that transcript before the voting records which conclude this edition of Life Advocacy Briefing.

Rep. Roby was well aware that the deck was stacked against her initiative and that, parliamentarily, it would disappear in the CR sent to the President; we do not presume to understand the arcane parliamentary maneuvers involved, but we do salute Rep. Roby for her effort.

We further note that Rep. Roby stood alone. That further baffles us; we had thought the days long over of a lone pro-life advocate rising in the House and being joined by no other Members on the pro-life side of a debate. The abortion lobby’s fellow travelers in the House Democratic delegation clearly took seriously Rep. Roby and their opportunity to preen their bloody feathers before their chief lobbying ally. The hundreds of pro-life advocates among the House Membership, however, let the little lady do their talking for them. She did an admirable job and deserves our thanks.

House Votes to Let States Defund Abortionists

THE U.S. HOUSE LAST TUESDAY TOOK UP HR-3495, filed Sept. 11 by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), to clarify the federal Medicaid Act to specifically authorize states to exclude “providers who are involved in abortions.” That, of course, includes state Medicaid defunding of Planned Parenthood, an action which at least three states have attempted, only to be rebuffed by the Obama Regime.

This legislation is urgently needed and clearly Constitutional, yet, given the Senate’s performance on all matters concerning Planned Parenthood, likely to get stuck in that body. We urge our readers to contact home-state Senators and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to insist on immediate passage of HR-3495. They may be reached via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121. Do not expect someone else to take care of this, and do not expect your Senator to vote appropriately.

Rep. Duffy was joined on the Women’s Public Health & Safety Act by some 25 co-sponsors, all Republicans. They are Representatives Gary Palmer & Mike Rogers (AL); Matt Salmon (AZ); Bruce Westerman (AR); Stephen Knight (CA); Ken Buck (CO); Gus Bilirakis (FL); Earl Carter (GA); Jason Smith & Ann Wagner (MO); Scott Garrett (NJ); Richard Hudson & Mark Meadows (NC); Robert Latta (OH); Markwayne Mullin (OK); Tim Murphy (PA); Mick Mulvaney (SC); John Duncan (TN); Kevin Brady, Bill Flores, Sam Johnson & Randy Weber (TX); Chris Stewart (UT); and Glenn Grothman & James Sensenbrenner (WI).

Among the speakers who advocated the bill’s passage in House debate was Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), a graduate of Life Advocacy’s Winning with Life candidate coaching seminar. We reprint her speech ahead of the voting records in this Life Advocacy Briefing. We publish the roll call on final passage of HR-3495 at the close of this edition.

Appeals Judge Rebuffs Regime

A FEDERAL APPEALS JUDGE ISSUED A KEY RULING in the lawsuit by which the US House is seeking to bring down ObamaCare.

Judge Rosemary Collyer of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 9 refused to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the US House seeking to invalidate certain key aspects of ObamaCare’s funding and regulations. The Obama Regime claimed the House of Representatives – the body from which the Constitution requires spending authority – lacks standing. Judge Collyer rejected that notion.

“This is a historic lawsuit and a historic decision,” writes Hans vonSpakovsky in The Daily Signal. “In the past, individual Members of Congress have filed a number of unsuccessful lawsuits against sitting Administrations. But this is one of the few occasions when such a suit has been pursued by the entire House of Representatives as an institution.” The House adopted a resolution on July 30, 2014, authorizing the Speaker to file suit on behalf of the body; the resolution was renewed by the House when the new Congress took office last January.

Should this lawsuit prove to be the official, dreamed-of raveling of the Obama Regime’s takeover of America’s healthcare delivery system, we will have Speaker Boehner and the House of Representatives in the 113th and 114th Congresses to thank, as well as Judge Collyer. After we thank the Lord.

Thank You, Speaker Boehner

WE ARE CONFIDENT OUR READERS ARE ALREADY AWARE of the startling announcement by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in recent days that he would resign from his leadership post and even from his seat in Congress as of the end of this month.

As House Republicans gather this week to choose new leadership for their conference and a candidate for the House Speaker post, we thank Speaker Boehner for his commitment to the cause of Life and for his pledge to establish, before his departure, a select House committee for the investigation of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in baby body-parts trafficking and, in his own words reported by Ben Johnson for LifeSiteNews.com, the “‘horrific videos’” which show Planned Parenthood’s barbaric treatment of “‘aborted fetuses born alive.’”

On Our Backs

HOUSE OVERSIGHT CHAIRMAN JASON CHAFFETZ (R-UT) FOCUSED ATTENTION in last week’s Planned Parenthood (PP) hearing on questionable spending to which federal taxpayers are shackled.

With PP CEO Cecile Richards appearing before the panel, Rep. Chaffetz noted her own near-$600,000 salary and cited massive salaries of some of PP’s affiliate bosses as well.

The abortion giant, he told the committee and the public, according to a report by Dustin Siggins for LifeSiteNews.com, “‘is so flush with cash’ that it sends $32 million overseas.” He “highlighted,” writes Mr. Siggins, “that PP has used its money for a concert and other entertainment-focused activities.”

Among the most troubling of Mr. Chaffetz’s charges about the tax-deductible outfit, cited by Mr. Siggins, is that “$500,000 was sent from the non-profit 501-c-3 Planned Parenthood organization to its 501-c-4 campaign arm and its Political Action Committee.” Yet, under the Continuing Resolution by which the House and Senate refused to challenge the President, some half-billion dollars in taxpayer money continues to flow to the notorious, baby-parts-trafficking cartel.

Standing for Life

Sept. 29, 2015, House floor speech by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) in support of HR-3495 transcribed by Life Advocacy

Protecting innocent unborn lives is paramount to defining who we are as a people and as a nation. Killing innocent babies before they even have a chance at life is unconscionable, let alone turning around and selling the fetal tissue for profit. Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest provider of abortion. This abortion chain received 1.2 billion dollars of taxpayer money through Medicaid over a three-year period. Planned Parenthood last year reported that over 500 million dollars of their annual revenue comes from government funding. This is reprehensible. No federal money should go to any institution in the business of harvesting and selling baby parts of aborted children.

Can you imagine what people would say in this country if this practice occurred with our beloved pets? Most of us have cats and dogs. Would we stand for them to be killed and their body parts harvested and sold for profit? Where is the outrage that this is happening to our country’s babies, our unborn children?

I continue to fight to defund Planned Parenthood at the federal level, and I encourage all state and local governments to also stop funding Planned Parenthood. In light of the recent undercover videos, three states have attempted to end their Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood, and the Obama Administration said disqualifying Planned Parenthood because of its abortion business violated federal Medicaid law. Well, today’s bill amends the Medicaid law to empower states with the ability to exclude abortion providers from Medicaid. Given the horrific nature of the videos showing the shameful length that Planned Parenthood will go to in order to harvest and sell fetal organs, I am hopeful that each and every state would exercise this option. I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill, which is critical to the fight to protect innocent lives.

Standing Against Planned Parenthood

Excerpts from Sept. 30, 2015, House floor speech by Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) in support of HCR-79, transcribed by Life Advocacy

This resolution and the related enrollment process sends a signal about this House’s commitment to bar funding for Planned Parenthood and gives the Senate the opportunity to limit funding in a Continuing Resolution.

My colleagues might be wondering if I saw what happened in the Senate. Why take up this bill when the votes just aren’t there in the Senate? The answer is simple: Because I believe as long as there is an opportunity before us to defund Planned Parenthood, we should take it. Because when it come to this fight, I don’t want to leave it all on the field.  I understand that so far we have lacked the votes in the Senate to include defunding language in the Continuing Resolution. I realized this is a last-ditch effort to do this, that the chances of this correction maneuver succeeding in the Senate are low. But I believe that we have to fight until the very end. …

Pro-life advocates in my state and around this country understand the math, and while they hope that Senate Democrats will change their hearts, they don’t really expect them to. What they do expect is for us to try to fight to the very end, to exhaust every possible option in our effort to stop tax dollars from flowing to this organization. [Well said, Madam Representative.]

Senate Voting Record

Cloture Motion to Proceed for Vote – Continuing Resolution for FY2016 Gov’t Funding Disqualifying Planned Parenthood – Sept. 24, 2015 – Failed – 47-52 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes”/pro-Life: Sessions & Shelby/AL; Sullivan/AK; Flake & McCain/AZ; Boozman/AR; Gardner/CO; Rubio/FL; Isakson & Perdue/GA; Crapo & Risch/ID; Coats/IN; Ernst & Grassley/IA; Moran & Roberts/KS; McConnell/KY; Cassidy & Vitter/LA; Cochran & Wicker/MS; Blunt/MO; Daines/MT; Fischer/NE; Burr & Tillis/NC; Hoeven/ND; Portman/OH; Inhofe & Lankford/OK; Toomey/PA; Graham & Scott/SC; Rounds & Thune/SD; Alexander & Corker/TN; Cornyn & Cruz/TX; Hatch & Lee/UT; Capito & Manchin/WV; Johnson/WI; Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “no”/anti-Life: Murkowski/AK; Cotton/AR; Feinstein/CA; Bennet/CO; Blumenthal & Murphy/CT; Carper & Coons/DE; Nelson/FL; Hirono & Schatz/HI; Durbin & Kirk/IL; Donnelly/IN; Paul/KY; Collins & King(I)/ME; Cardin & Mikulski/MD; Markey & Warren/MA; Peters & Stabenow/MI; Franken & Klobuchar/MN; McCaskill/MO; Tester/MT; Sasse/NE; Heller & Reid/NV; Ayotte & Shaheen/NH; Booker & Menendez/NJ; Heinrich & Udall/NM; Gillibrand & Schumer/NY; Heitkamp/ND; Brown/OH; Merkley & Wyden/OR; Casey/PA; Reed & Whitehouse/RI; Leahy & Sanders(I)/VT; Kaine & Warner/ VA; Cantwell & Murray/WA; Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Boxer/CA.

House Voting Record

HR-3495 – Women’s Public Health & Safety Act authorizing states to disqualify abortionists from Medicaid – Sept. 29, 2015 – Passed – 236-193 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “yes”/pro-Life: Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne, Palmer, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Franks, Gosar, McSally, Salmon, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, Knight, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao, Walters/CA; Buck, Coffman, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Clawson, Crenshaw, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Mica, Miller, Nugent, Posey, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Webster, Westmoreland, Yoho/FL; Allen, Carter, Collins, Graves, Hice, Loudermilk, T. Price, A. Scott, Woodall/GA; Labrador, Simpson/ID; Bost, R. Davis, Hultgren, Kinzinger, LaHood, Lipinski, Roskam, Shimkus/IL; Brooks, Bucshon, Messer, Rokita, Stutzman, Walorski, Young/IN; Blum, King, Young/IA; Huelskamp, Jenkins, Pompeo, Yoder/KS; Barr, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers, Whitfield/KY; Abraham, Boustany, Fleming, Graves, Scalise/LA; Poliquin/ME; Harris/MD; Amash, Benishek, Bishop, Huizenga, Miller, Moolenaar, Trott, Upton, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Kline, Paulsen, Peterson/MN; Harper, Kelly, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer, Smith, Wagner/MO; Zinke/MT; Fortenberry, Smith/NE; Amodei, Hardy, Heck/NV; Guinta/NH; Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, MacArthur, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, King, Reed, Zeldin/NY; Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger, Rouzer, Walker/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Renacci, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Cole, Lucas, Mullin, Russell/OK; Walden/OR; Barletta, Costello, Fitzpatrick, Kelly, Marino, Meehan, Murphy, Perry, Pitts, Rothfus, Shuster, Thompson/PA; Duncan, Gowdy, Mulvaney, Rice, Sanford, Wilson/SC; Noem/SD; Black, Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fincher, Fleischmann, Roe/TN; Babin, Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hensarling, Hurd, S. Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Neugebauer, Olson, Poe, Ratcliffe, Sessions, Smith, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Love, Stewart/UT; Brat, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Rigell, Wittman/VA; Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Newhouse/WA; Jenkins, McKinley, Mooney/WV; Duffy, Grothman, Ribble, Ryan, Sensenbrenner/WI; Lummis/WY.

Voting “no”/anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Sinema/AZ; Aguilar, Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Capps, Cardenas, Chu, Costa, Davis, DeSaulnier, Eshoo, Farr, Garamendi, Hahn, Honda, Huffman, Lee, Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Napolitano, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Vargas, Waters/CA; DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Himes/CT; Carney/DE; Brown, Castor, Curbelo, Deutch, Frankel, Graham, Grayson, Hastings, Jolly, Murphy, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, D. Scott/GA; Gabbard, Takai/HI; Bustos, D. Davis, Dold, Duckworth, Foster, Gutierrez, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Pingree/ME; Cummings, Delaney, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen/MD; Capuano, Clark, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Tsongas/MA; Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Lawrence, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO; Ashford/NE; Titus/NV; Kuster/NH; Norcross, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sires, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Clarke, Crowley, Donovan, Engel, Gibson, Hanna, Higgins, Israel, Jeffries, Katko, Lowey, C. Maloney, S. Maloney, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Rangel, Rice, Serrano, Slaughter, Stefanik, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Butterfield, Price/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Boyle, Brady, Cartwright, Dent, Doyle, Fattah/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Castro, Cuellar, Doggett, A. Green, G. Green, Hinojosa, Jackson-Lee, E.B. Johnson, O’Rourke, Veasey, Vela/TX; Welch/VT; Beyer, Connolly, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Kilmer, Larsen, McDermott, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: Larson/CT; Kelly/IL; Hudson/NC; Boehner/OH; Comstock/VA; Reichert/WA.