Life Advocacy Briefing

Celebrating America’s Founding

WITH INDEPENDENCE DAY COMING THIS FRIDAY – and our production director starting a week’s vacation – we expect to issue the July 7 Life Advocacy Briefing this Thursday and the July 14 edition on July 14, rather than on the previous Friday as is our custom.

With Congress in recess this week in honor of Independence Day, we urge pro-life citizens to take advantage of holiday festivities to see their public officials in person and ask them to stop financing Planned Parenthood with our tax dollars and to support abstinence education.

And we take advantage ourselves of this occasion to thank God for America’s founders and for their wisdom in acknowledging that the right to Life comes from our Creator and cannot with justice be revoked by the will of man; indeed that the very purpose of government is to secure the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

GAP Between Their Ears?

A COMMITTEE OF THE SPANISH PARLIAMENT last Wednesday advanced a resolution, reports John Jalsevac for LifeSiteNews.com, extending to “so-called ‘great apes’ the rights to life, liberty and freedom from torture.

“According to numerous mainstream reports,” writes Mr. Jalsevac, “the environmental committee’s resolution is supported across party lines and is expected to be passed by parliament, thereby coming into effect as law.

“Should [the] resolution … become law,” notes LifeSiteNews, “in Spain an ape would have more legal rights than an unborn human child.” But then, in America, an unhatched eagle has more legal protection than that same child, thanks to the Supreme Court.

The Spanish director of the Great Apes Project – fittingly cited as “GAP” – proclaimed, writes Mr. Jalsevac, “‘This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades [sic], which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity.’” Or was that, “go down with humanity?”

The GAP man, Pedro Pozas, acknowledged, reports Mr. Jalsevac, “‘We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain. But,’” he added, reports LifeSiteNews, “‘there is currently no law preventing that from happening.’”

Not only would the resolution, in effect, bar the use of apes in experiments, but according to a Reuters report cited by LifeSiteNews, it would “also become illegal to keep apes in circuses or for the purposes of television commercials or filming.” Whether animation depictions would become illegal as insulting to the dignity of the creatures or damaging to their precious egos is a matter for speculation.

“Since its inception,” reports Mr. Jalsevac, “GAP has lobbied in favor of a UN Declaration on Great Apes. That [draft] declaration demands ‘the extension of the community of equals to include all great apes: human beings, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orang-utans. The community of equals,’” the declaration goes on, quoted by Mr. Jalsevac, “‘is the moral community within which we accept certain basic moral principles or rights as governing our relations with each other and enforceable at law.’

“The list of ‘moral principles or rights’ includes the three ‘rights’ included in the Spanish parliamentary committee’s resolution,” writes Mr. Jalsevac. “Currently, however, it is not clear what penalties, if any, would be levied against an ape should an ape violate these moral principles by, for example, killing or injuring a human being or another ape in a case where it was not necessary for self defense.”

Mr. Jalsevac quotes noted bioethicist Wesley Smith, writing in an Internet weblog concerning the Spanish resolution, “‘Of course, the purpose of this isn’t to merely improve the treatment of great apes, which could be accomplished as it already has been in some places via normal animal welfare statutes. Rather,” writes Mr. Smith, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘the explicit point of the GAP is revolutionary: to demote human beings from the uniquely valuable species and into merely another animal in the forest.

“‘Once people accept that premise,’ he continues,” quoted by Mr. Jalsevac, “‘Judeo-Christian philosophy goes to the guillotine, allowing the utilitarian agenda to proceed unhindered, leading in turn to the moral value of the weak and vulnerable among us becoming archaic, resulting in their loss of the right to life and being used instrumentally for those deemed more valuable. (Lest you think I exaggerate,’” notes Mr. Smith, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘check out [Princeton Prof.] Peter Singer’s writings, and who can deny that his values are triumphing?’

“[Mr.] Smith concludes,” reports Mr. Jalsevac, “‘In the world being born out of the ashes of the sanctity/equality of human life ethic, value will be subjective and rights temporary, depending on one’s individual capacities rather than humanity. And we will see apes – animals (and eventually other animals) which are completely oblivious about the hue and cry being mounted against human worth in their names – being viewed as more important than some humans.’”

Eyewitness Horror

A CONTRACT ABORTIONIST AT THE TILLER ABORTUARY in Wichita, Kansas,stabbed a live infant to death, according to a nurse who was employed by the mill at the time.

The eyewitness account of nurse Tina Davis, which she brought to Operation Rescue in April, is being investigated both by the Wichita police, reports OR in a news release, and by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. The incident is believed to have happened within the past two years.

Operation Rescue’s Troy Newman last week called on the medical licensing board to close the Tiller shop “until a full inspection and investigation can take place” and also insisted that the board suspend the licenses both of Mr. Tiller and of Shelley Sella, who rides a circuit among the Tiller mill, a Planned Parenthood abortuary in California and a variety of smaller abortion shops.

“We were told that the baby was 35 weeks gestation at the time of the abortion,” related Mr. Newman. “The baby came out and was moving,” he said in the news release. “[Ms.] Sella looked up at Ms. Davis, then picked up a utensil and stabbed the baby in the left ribcage, twisting the utensil until the baby quit moving.

“At 35 weeks, there is no doubt about viability,” noted Mr. Newman. “This is murder in anybody’s book.”

Mr. Newman said he and his colleagues “have every reason to believe that the story she told us was true. We have been able to confirm many of the other things she told us,” he commented. “Mrs. Davis came forward because she was troubled by what went on at the abortion clinic and was seeking peace. We pray she finds it.” Amen. Peace and justice.

Another ‘Bottom Feeder’

A LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, ABORTUARY HAS BEEN CLOSED following a state investigation, reports Tim Waggoner for LifeSiteNews.com, into what one reporter described “as a ‘hellish abortion operation.’”

The state’s medical board suspended the license of Hamid Sheikh after finding “evidence,” reports an Operation Rescue news release, “of fraud, filthy conditions and illegal abortions.” Besides having been “indicted for defrauding Medicaid out of thousands of dollars,” reports OR, Mr. Sheikh “is also accused of maintaining unsanitary conditions, including dirty hospital gowns and surgical equipment. “An investigation revealed out-of-date medications,” reports OR, “and biohazard waste that had not been picked up for 12 weeks.”

Mr. Waggoner adds, “investigations revealed the doctor did not use ultrasounds to affirm a woman’s pregnancy and refused to issue pain pills or anesthetic before operations.”

“Women have come forward,” reports OR, “saying [Mr.] Sheikh did not use pain medications and that abortions he committed on them were excruciatingly painful. One teenager,” notes OR, “reported that she was told to ‘shut up’ because her screams would disturb the other patients.”

LifeSiteNews adds that “eight patients were not ordered to wait the required 24 hours before having an abortion.”

Said OR president Troy Newman, “The horrific conditions discovered at [Mr.] Sheikh’s mill are not the exception; they are what we have come to expect from America’s failing abortion industry.” No wonder the brilliant strategist Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics calls abortionists “the bottom feeders” of the medical profession.

Abortionist Jailed, Pending Charges

THE CALIFORNIA ABORTUARY CHAIN OWNER who was arraigned earlier this month on 18 charges of practicing medicine without a license, as we reported June 16, has now been arrested and charged with 10 additional felony counts and jailed on $500,000 bail. Bertha Bugarin’s arraignment is scheduled for July 2 on the new charges, which range, according to Associated Press, from “grand theft” to “posing as a doctor to perform abortions, some of them unsuccessful,” notes AP, “or resulting in severe complications and hospitalization.”

The new charges against the 48-year-old owner of five abortion mills followed “a year-long investigation,” reports AP. “She faces more than nine years in prison,” notes AP, “if convicted. …

“‘This defendant preyed on women in the Hispanic community,’ district attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis said in a statement” quoted by AP. “‘By passing herself as a doctor,’” noted Ms. Dumanis, “‘she put these women’s lives in serious danger.’” And, of course, by operating an abortuary, she cost countless babies their lives.

Planned Parenthood Exposed

June 23, 2008 PRI Weekly Briefing by Colin Mason, Media Director, Population Research Institute

Margaret Sanger is one of the pro-choice [sic] movement’s iconic figures. She is extolled as a pioneering feminist, health worker and woman’s activist. Her quotes on these subjects are treated as scripture. But she was also an outspoken supporter of eugenics, who wanted more children from the fit and sterilization – even segregation – for the unfit. The infamous Negro Project, which targeted blacks for contraception and sterilization, was one outcome of this.

Planned Parenthood, of course, does not want you to know these facts. So the organization works hard to burnish Sanger’s reputation and goes into damage control mode whenever questions are raised about her more unsavory views. At the same time, however, they continue to quietly practice what she preached.

Although Planned Parenthood denies it, it continues to be obsessed with race, deliberately targeting minorities in their propaganda, methods and even choice of building sites.

Consider the recent investigation of Planned Parenthood by UCLA pro-lifers working with Students for Life of America (SFLA). Their goal was to see if Planned Parenthood would accept donations specifically for the abortion of black babies. The students first determined where it was legal to secretly record telephone conversations and then made arrangements to call Planned Parenthood abortuaries in those states. An actor was hired, and the calls were made from the Students for Life offices in Arlington. The results of the calls were published in The Advocate, UCLA’s pro-life student magazine, but the story attracted the attention of the major media.

In the recorded conversations, the actor made it clear that he was a racist, saying things like “There are too many black babies being born.” He also insisted that his donations be specifically earmarked for the abortion of black babies. Most organizations would want nothing to do with an openly racist proposition of this kind, but Planned Parenthood personnel were only too happy to accept them.

“The Idaho Planned Parenthood development director expressed excitement,” Kristan Hawkins, the executive director of Students for Life, said to PRI. “She said she wanted to make sure she was getting everything down because this was the first time this had happened to her and she was very excited. She also laughed when the actor said, ‘The less black babies out there, the better,’ and said ‘understandable, understandable.’ And in Ohio, the administrative assistant contacted said, ‘We’ll take your money for whatever reason.’”

The investigation was part of SFLA’s larger push against Planned Parenthood. Not only does Planned Parenthood accept racist donations, it has a propensity for building clinics in minority neighborhoods. Students for Life’s push against Planned Parenthood is to be admired not only for its courage but for its ability to mobilize the black community against the outrages that are being committed against it.

On April 24th, Students for Life organized a demonstration at the 16th Street Planned Parenthood abortuary in Washington, DC. Prominent black leaders and pastors stood up and demanded that Congress cease funding this transparently racist organization. These included black leaders like Day Gardner (National Black Pro-Life Union), Jesse Lee Peterson (Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny ), Dr. Lillie Epps (Preserving Life & Legacy), Rev. Clenard Childress (LEARN) and others.

“The pastors and leaders emphasized the recent allegations that have been brought against Planned Parenthood,” said Hawkins. These included other inquiries and accusations being brought to bear against Planned Parenthood across the nation by other groups and organizations, like the ongoing fight against Planned Parenthood’s fraud in Aurora, Illinois, the battle against their unethical practices by Kansas attorney Phill Kline, and the charges made earlier by the same UCLA students that Planned Parenthood covers up instances of statutory rape.

Planned Parenthood, predictably, insists that it is not a racist organization but refuses to address the substance of the allegations. It does admit that its development directors showed a “serious lack of judgment,” saying that “had the employees been properly prepared for this kind of attack, they would have figured out that the calls were nothing short of a cruel hoax, designed to portray Planned Parenthood as money-grubbing racists.” In other words, Planned Parenthood is claiming that the student investigators (mean and spiteful right-wingers) somehow tricked its sophisticated fundraisers into sounding like “money-grubbing racists.” To which we say, If they “sounded like money-grubbing racists,” this is because they probably are money-grubbing racists. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck … .

More and more instances are cropping up all over the nation where Planned Parenthood has been guilty of overt or implicit racial profiling. Recent research by PRI shows that even Alaska natives and Native Americans are being targeted as well, even though they are the tiniest of tiny minorities. PRI hopes that the pioneering research being done by groups like Students for Life and The Advocate will join the fast-expanding body of evidence that will indict Planned Parenthood and the genocidal legacy of Margaret Sanger once and for all.