Life Advocacy Briefing

Right Perspective

BALTIMORE RAVENS PLAYER MATT BIRK REFUSED last week to attend a White House ceremony with his team when they were honored for their Super Bowl victory.

The young man explained he did not feel comfortable visiting with the President after the nation’s chief executive addressed Planned Parenthood this spring, ending his speech with a phrase suggesting a prayer of blessing for the nation’s abortion behemoth. Bless you, Mr. Birk!

Determined Resistance to Reality

HOW IS THE ABORTION CAUCUS RESPONDING TO THE GOSNELL REVELATIONS in Congress? Just the way we should expect: by attacking pregnancy resource centers.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), reliable fellow travelers of the abortion industry, have filed HR-2030 and S-981, respectively. The bills are labeled as bids to “stop deceptive advertising for women’s services” but do not address problems in the abortion industry. They aim to force pregnancy resource centers to undergo speech policing by the Federal Trade Commission and redefine such non-profit organizations as “for-profit” businesses, according to attorney Casey Mattox of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

The proposals seek to force pregnancy care centers to “post and provide messages that discourage women from using the free services the centers provide.” Similar ordinances at the local level have been universally struck down in court.

Attorney Mattox submitted a letter to the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, which has jurisdiction over HR-2030, in which he asserted: “Pregnancy resource centers provide compassionate support and real choice for the mother, her family and the community. They should be free to share their message. …

“The real worry of the abortion lobby and some in Congress,” he noted, “is that pregnancy centers will serve people for free and give them lasting help, cutting into the bottom line of big abortion sellers like Planned Parenthood.”

Co-sponsoring HR-2030 with Rep. Maloney are Democratic Representatives Grijalva/AZ; Capps, Chu, Farr, Hahn, Lowenthal & Schiff/CA; DeGette/CO; Schakowsky/IL; Conyers/MI; Rangel & Slaughter/NY; Bonamici/OR; Brady/PA; Connolly & Moran/VA, and Moore/WI. And the co-sponsors of S-981 with Sen. Menendez is Democratic Senator Blumenthal (CT); the late Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) also had signed on as a co-sponsor but passed away last week.

Welcome, Sen. Chiesa

THE U.S. SENATE WILL GAIN A G.O.P. MEMBER, at least for the next several months, in the wake of the passing of veteran abortion champion Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced Thursday he was appointing his state’s Attorney General, Jeffrey Chiesa, to serve until completion of a special election set for Oct. 16; an Aug. 13 primary will produce nominees. The attorney general has indicated he will not compete for election to the seat this year. A Republican, incoming Sen. Chiesa is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

Late-Term Abortion Ban Beginning to Move

THE PAIN-CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT, which would outlaw abortions on babies who have gestated 20 weeks or longer, was advanced from subcommittee last week to the full Judiciary Committee. The subcommittee vote was 6-to-4, reportedly along party lines. The measure is also under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform.

Twenty-three more House Members have added their names as co-sponsors, now numbering 143 as of our writing deadline. They are Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson/MN and GOP Representatives Cotton/AR; Denham/CA; Lamborn/CO; Southerland/FL; Collins/GA; Stutzman/IN; Rogers/KY; Coble, Foxx, Hudson & McHenry/NC; Chabot, Turner & Wenstrup/OH; Murphy/PA; Barton, Farenthold, Hensarling, Poe & Smith/TX, and Duffy & Ribble/WI.

The House measure, being advanced by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), was originally filed as a ban on post-20-week abortions in the District of Columbia. The Judiciary subcommittee amended it, at the sponsor’s request, to broaden it to a nationwide ban.

A DC 20-week ban has also been filed in the Senate, where it has been sent to the Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs. Sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), S-886 is co-sponsored by GOP Senators Sessions/AL, Boozman/AR, Rubio/FL, Chambliss/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Coats/IN, Grassley/IA, Moran & Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Vitter/LA, Cochran & Wicker/MS, Blunt/MO, Fischer & Johanns/NE, Ayotte/NH, Burr/NC, Portman/OH, Coburn & Inhofe/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Thune/SD, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Hatch/UT, Johnson/WI and Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Born-Alive Protection Now Law in Florida

FLORIDA GOV. RICK SCOTT (R) SIGNED LEGISLATION last Wednesday “requiring that doctors performing an abortion offer emergency medical care,” reports Rochelle Kott in the Tampa Bay Times, “if the baby is somehow born alive.”

He signed the new Born-Alive Infants Protection Act at a Baptist children’s home in Pensacola. The nonprofit organization, reports Ms. Kott, “supports pregnancy resource centers and provides services for children who are neglected, abused or abandoned.”

In signing the measure, Gov. Scott said, reports the Times, “‘By signing this bill, we are protecting the most vulnerable among us and affirming their rights as individuals. … This legislation ensures commonsense measures are taken to help care for the babies who survive abortion procedures and grants those infants the same rights as infants who are born naturally.’ …

“Florida becomes the 29th state to enact similar legislation, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute,” reports Ms. Kott. Guttmacher is the research arm of Planned Parenthood and a frequent source for media reporters. Planned Parenthood stood aside and permitted unanimous passage of the bill in both houses after suffering nationwide embarrassment at the unconscionable testimony of its ill-equipped lobbyist when the legislation was heard in committee with Planned Parenthood’s opposition. It is the same policy which then-State Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly opposed when the prototype Born-Alive legislation came before the Illinois legislature.

Twisted Thinking

A GREAT EXAMPLE of the twisted thinking of the abortion lobby is the lawsuit that was filed May 29 in Phoenix to overturn a two-year-old Arizona law banning abortions committed because of the race or gender of the targeted baby, calling the statute “racist,” reports Capitol Media Services writer Howard Fischer in the Arizona Daily Star. No prosecutions have been brought under the law, but the abortion industry and its fellow travelers evidently do not want any limits in law.

The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum. The case is coming before US District Judge Paul Rosenblatt, reports Mr. Fischer, seeking “to declare that the law is an unconstitutional infringement on the right of minority women to terminate their pregnancy without being questioned about the reason why.”

The law “requires the woman to sign an affidavit saying she is not terminating the pregnancy because of the child’s sex or race,” Mr. Fischer reports. It bars a doctor from committing an abortion, he reports, “‘knowing that the abortion is sought based on the sex or race of the child or the race of the parent of that child.’”

The law’s sponsor, GOP State Rep. Steve Montenegro, “argued,” writes Mr. Fischer, “that lawmakers are entitled to protect unborn children from being aborted solely because of their race or gender. He said the civil rights of these fetuses trumps the rights of women to end their pregnancies.”

Rep. Montenegro was quoted as calling the lawsuit’s characterization of his law as racist “‘unfortunate,’” reports the Daily Star. “‘We have never inferred that,’ he said. ‘What we’re trying to do is to make sure … discrimination like that isn’t happening by allowing an abortion, or at least standing by here in Arizona and even letting it get to the point where we allow an abortion to happen based on the baby’s race or sex.’”

Said the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, quoted by Mr. Fischer and making obvious her labor union orientation: “‘Sex-selective practices are really a symptom of “son preference” and really a symptom of gender inequity.’ … If lawmakers are concerned about inequity,” she said, paraphrased by the Daily Star, “there are better ways to address the root causes of the issue, like requiring fair pay.” Huh?

Another Urgent Reason to Repeal ObamaCare

Commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in his May 31, 2013, Washington Update

If there’s one thing ObamaCare is ensuring, it’s the growth of the President’s agenda. While the rest of the country is focused on the law’s biggest eyesores, [Health & Human Services – HHS] Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been quietly sitting on a multi-billion-dollar pile of undesignated cash. This slush fund, which FRC warned about as early as 2009, has more people’s attention now that the Administration is starting to burn through the money for taxpayer-funded lobbying. The Brookings Institution’s Stuart Taylor turned up the heat on Sebelius this week by exposing where some of the so-called “Prevention & Public Health Fund” is going. According to Taylor, HHS is dipping into this $12.5 billion pool for everything from massage therapists to politically motivated groups.

Although the mainstream press has largely ignored the controversy, Congress has not. House Republicans are keenly aware of the abuse going on behind HHS’s doors and have started pressing Sebelius for answers.  Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) has sent repeated letters to the Secretary’s office – the most recent on May 9 – demanding to know why HHS grants “appear to fund lobbying activities contrary to the laws [and] regulations … governing the use of federal funds.” Not surprisingly, there’s been no answer. That might change now that the HHS Inspector General is involved. As early as last year, the IG raised a red flag over the payments to third-party groups, warning the Secretary that her activities were “dangerously close to taxpayer-funded lobbying.”

In an administration rocked by scandals, these latest revelations are sure to pour more gasoline on the fire. “What makes the [slush fund] controversial,” writes Taylor, “is its multi-billion-dollar size, its unending nature (the fund never expires), and its vague spending mandate: any program designed to improve health and help restrain the growth of health care costs.” So far, HHS has defined “improving health” to mean anything from financing pickleball in North Carolina to Zumba, kayaking and kickboxing in Waco, Texas. Even more infuriating, Sebelius has managed to justify sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations fighting fast-food zoning laws or advocating for higher taxes on sugary drinks.

Unfortunately for Congress, the slush fund gives Sebelius absolute authority to spend these funds with zero oversight. In this $12.5-billion pot, she alone doles out the dollars “with no input from the states, ordinary rulemaking or administrative review.” As Congressman Upton said two years ago, when Sebelius first started using this account, “In the rush to pass the healthcare reform[s] … blank lines in the bill turned into blank checks signed by the American taxpayers.” The guidelines are so broad that Secretary Sebelius tried to use $110 million of the money for “teen pregnancy prevention” in 2012. That’s exactly what we warned about two years ago: that ObamaCare would just become another government pipeline to groups like Planned Parenthood. …

House Voting Record

Motion to Recommit (Block) – HR-45 – Repeal of ObamaCare – May 16, 2013 – Failed 190 to 230 (Democrats in italics) (Our final roll call in the ObamaCare Repeal series)

Voting “no” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Bachus, Bonner, Brooks, Roby, Rogers/AL; Young/AK; Franks, Gosar, Salmon, Schweikert/AZ; Cotton, Crawford, Griffin, Womack/AR; Calvert, Cook, Denham, Hunter, Issa, LaMalfa, McCarthy, McClintock, McKeon, Gary Miller, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce, Valadao/CA; Coffman, Gardner, Lamborn, Tipton/CO; Bilirakis, Buchanan, Crenshaw, DeSantis, Diaz-Balart, Mica, Miller, Nugent, Posey, Radel, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Southerland, Webster, Yoho, Young/FL; Broun, Collins, Gingrey, Graves, Kingston, Price, A. Scott, Westmoreland, Woodall/GA; Simpson/ID; R. Davis, Hultgren, Kinzinger, Lipinski, Roskam, Schock, Shimkus/IL; Brooks, Bucshon, Messer, Rokita, Stutzman, Walorski, Young/IN; King, Latham/IA; Huelskamp, Jenkins, Pompeo, Yoder/KS; Barr, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers, Whitfield/KY; Alexander, Boustany, Cassidy, Fleming, Scalise/LA; Harris/MD; Amash, Benishek, Bentivolio, Camp, Huizenga, Miller, Rogers, Upton, Walberg/MI; Bachmann, Kline, Paulsen, Peterson/MN; Harper, Nunnelee, Palazzo/MS; Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer/MO; Daines/MT; Fortenberry, Smith, Terry/NE; Amodei, Heck/NV; Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, Runyan, Smith/NJ; Pearce/NM; Collins, Gibson, Grimm, Hanna, King, Reed/NY; Coble, Ellmers, Foxx, Holding, Hudson, Jones, McHenry, Meadows, Pittenger/NC; Cramer/ND; Chabot, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Renacci, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner, Wenstrup/OH; Bridenstine, Lankford, Lucas, Mullin/OK; Walden/OR; Barletta, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, 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; Barton, Brady, Burgess, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hall, Hensarling, Marchant, McCaul, Neugebauer, Olson, Poe, Sessions, Smith, Stockman, Thornberry, Weber, Williams/TX; Bishop, Chaffetz, Matheson, Stewart/UT; Cantor, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Rigell, Wittman, Wolf/VA; Hastings, Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Reichert/WA; Capito, McKinley, Rahall/WV; Petri, Ribble, Ryan, Sensenbrenner/WI; Lummis/WY.

Voting “yes” / anti-Life: Sewell/AL; Barber, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, Pastor, Sinema/AZ; Bass, Becerra, Bera, Brownley, Capps, Cardenas, Chu, Costa, Davis, Eshoo, Farr, Garamendi, Hahn, Honda, Huffman, Lee, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Matsui, McNerney, Geo. Miller, Napolitano, Negrete-McLeod, Pelosi, Peters, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Vargas, Waters, Waxman/CA; DeGette, Himes, Perlmutter, Polis/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Esty, Larson/CT; Carney/DE; Brown, Castor, Deutch, Frankel, Garcia, Grayson, Hastings, Murphy, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Barrow, Bishop, Johnson, D. Scott/GA; Gabbard, Hanabusa/HI; Bustos, D.Davis, Duckworth, Enyart, Foster, Gutierrez, Kelly, Rush, Schakowsky, Schneider/IL; Carson, Visclosky/IN; Braley, Loebsack/IA; Yarmuth/KY; Richmond/LA; Michaud, Pingree/ME; Cummings, Delaney, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen/MD; Capuano, Keating, Kennedy, Lynch, McGovern, Neal, Tierney, Tsongas/MA; Dingell, Kildee, Levin/MI; Ellison, McCollum, Nolan, Peters, Walz/MN; Thompson/MS; Clay, Cleaver/MO;Horsford, Titus/NV; Kuster, Shea-Porter/NH; Andrews, Holt, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Sires/NJ; Lujan, Lujan-Grisham/NM; Bishop, Clarke, Crowley, Higgins, Israel, Jeffries, Lowey, Maffei, C. Maloney, S. Maloney, McCarthy, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Owens, Rangel, Serrano, Slaughter, Tonko, Velazquez/NY; Butterfield, Price, Watt/NC; Beatty, Fudge, Kaptur, Ryan/OH; Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader/OR; Brady, Cartwright, Doyle, Fattah, Schwartz/PA; Cicilline, Langevin/RI; Cohen, Cooper/TN; Castro, Cuellar, Doggett, Gallego, A.Green, G.Green, Hinojosa, Jackson-Lee, E.B. Johnson, O’Rourke, Veasey, Vela/TX; Welch/VT; Connelly, Moran, Scott/VA; DelBene, Heck, Kilmer, Larsen, McDermott, Smith/WA; Kind, Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting:  Campbell/CA; Lewis/GA; Labrador/ID; Quigley/IL; Markey/MA; Conyers/MI; Wagner/MO; Engel/NY; McIntyre/NC; Boehner/OH; Cole/OK; Clyburn/SC; S. Johnson/TX; Duffy/WI.