Life Advocacy Briefing

Doing the People’s Work

THE U.S. SENATE CONTINUES TO FOCUS DILIGENTLY on confirming President Trump’s nominees for various positions, including confirmation of new judges at the district and appellate levels.

The Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday advanced, on a party-line vote, the nomination of Sarah Pitlyk for US District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. This nominee is under fire for her firm advocacy of the right to life of unborn American children, and we urge our readers to call their two home-state US Senators and ask them to vote to confirm Sarah Pitlyk. (Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121) Sarah Pitlyk is a champion for the right to life and has earned the backing of those who put that first freedom first.

A broad coalition of conservative groups issued a statement last Wednesday urging her confirmation. We publish this statement near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

And we thank the US Senate for confirming Justin Reed Walker to the US District Judge for the Western District of Kentucky. We publish the two roll calls on his nomination at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing, as Judge Walker was opposed by the abortion lobby and other elements of the leftwing coalition. The chief controversy around now-Judge Walker appeared to be his having clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his tenure on the US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; he also clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court. The final vote to confirm him was 50 to 41.

Candidate Watch

• SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG, a Democratic candidate for the Presidency, “released an action plan for women” last week, reports Paul Bois for DailyWire.com, “that includes the repeal of the Hyde Amendment,” a plan, then, “which would force Americans to fund abortions with taxpayer dollars.” Declared the 37-year-old liberal, quoted by Mr. Bois, “‘With women’s rights under assault, we can’t wait any longer to ensure women have the power they deserve.’” Mayor Buttigieg, notes Mr. Bois, “characterizes himself as a moderate even though he has adopted some of his party’s most extreme views on abortion. When defending his stance on the practice of late-term abortion, [Mr.] Buttigieg chalked the moral argument down to it all being a woman’s ‘personal decision.’” In an MSNBC interview cited by Mr. Bois, the candidate “referred to the Georgia Heartbeat Law that protected unborn babies from abortion after doctors detect a heartbeat in the mother’s womb as a ‘cruel attack’ on women.”

• A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST REFUSED TO SERVE COMMUNION to ex-Vice President Joseph Biden (D) last week during a campaign visit to Florence, South Carolina.  Fr. Robert Morey later declared in a statement quoted by the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), “‘Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion,’” he said, “‘places himself or herself outside of church teaching.’” The priest later said he was praying for Mr. Biden. Readers who wish to examine further the priest’s actions may examine the NCR report at https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/biden-denied-communion-mass-during-campaign-stop-south-carolina.

Court Watch

• ALABAMA’s HUMAN LIFE PROTECTION ACT has been enjoined by US District Judge Myron Thompson, an appointee by Pres. Carter. The preliminary injunction was issued last Tuesday, blocking the law from taking effect as scheduled on Nov. 15. Plaintiffs Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates and the ACLU are the plaintiffs in the effort to block enforcement of the law, which, notes LifeSiteNews.com reporter Calvin Freiburger, “criminalizes abortion for any reason other than to ‘avert (a mother’s) death or to avert serious risk of substantial physical impairment of a major bodily function,’ or ‘if a second physician who is licensed in Alabama as a psychiatrist’ diagnoses a ‘serious mental illness’ with a ‘reasonable medical judgment that she will engage in conduct that could result in her death or the death of her unborn child,’” an odd twist, in our view. Alabama’s attorney general has “already declared,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “that he intends to take the case to the Supreme Court,” once Judge Thompson has completed a permanent ban, which appears to be his intent. Said GOP State Rep. Terri Collins, quoted by LifeSiteNews, “‘Our law was designed to overturn Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court level, and today’s ruling is merely the first of many steps on that legal journey. … I remain confident that our mission will be successful and appreciate the support of millions of citizens who support our effort to preserve unborn life.’”

In the States

• MICHIGAN GOVERNOR GRETCHEN WHITMER (D) SEEMS TO BE EMULATING her counterpart in Illinois, announcing last week she will advance legislation that would, notes Kathleen Gray in the Detroit Free Press, “repeal existing laws that prohibit or restrict access to abortion.” But the DFP reporter acknowledges “the measures are going to be difficult, if not impossible, to adopt in a legislature that is currently controlled by Republicans, all of whom oppose abortion. Many of the measures,” writes Ms. Gray, “would require a two-thirds majority, because they would repeal voter-approved initiatives or constitutional amendments that restrict access to abortion.” Repealed would be “a 1931 law that prohibits doctors from performing an abortion,” still on the books but unenforceable while Roe v. Wade persists. And currently enforceable “regulations that require abortion clinics to operate like free-standing surgical centers;” a law requiring parental consent for abortions on minor girls; another imposing a 24-hour waiting period; and, notes Ms. Gray, “a ban on private insurance coverage for abortions.” The governor’s initiative would also, reports the DFP, “remove barriers to accessing medically induced abortion through telemedicine” and “remove barriers from healthcare providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving state and federal funding.” Writes Ms. Gray: “The bills come at a time when Michigan Right to Life is gathering signatures for a ballot proposal that would ban an abortion procedure called dilation and evacuation that is typically used in the second trimester. … A second petition drive from the Michigan Heartbeat Coalition is gathering signatures for a measure that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is typically about six weeks” of a baby’s gestation.

Unspeakable Inhumanity

Oct. 29, 2019, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            “For a long time, the scene in the van that day played over and over in my mind – how a living being just like us had his organs ripped out while he was still alive, and the frightful pain and fear in his eyes as he looked up at me. My heart couldn’t bear it.” – George Zheng, former medical student, China

            George will never wake up from the nightmare he lived in the early 1990s. That’s how long it’s been, many experts believe, since the human organ trade in China began. Even now, George says, the horrible memory of that day “cannot be erased. All those years, I didn’t want to touch it … because whenever I mentioned it, I could not hold myself together.” He, like countless other doctors and nurses in the Communist regime, know the horror exists – because they saw it with their own eyes.

            Annie, who escaped to the US, talked about her husband, a brain surgeon, who used to drive to the hospital immediately after his cellphone rang. It meant the arrival of a new group of Falun Gong or other dissidents, whose bodies were about to be subjected to the most excruciating form of human torture. “Some practitioners [sic] were still breathing after their organs were removed against their will,” she says, “but they were thrown into the hospital’s incinerator anyway.” Her husband, she says, forcibly removed over 2,000 corneas alone. “Every time he did this, he got lots of money and cash awards – several dozen times his normal salary … hundreds of thousands of US dollars,” she explains.

            She didn’t find out until 2003, when her husband was having horrible nightmares. He would wake up screaming and terrified, Annie remembers. “He would stare blankly at the TV. When our child or I touched him, he would shriek. I found him becoming abnormal. He told me, “‘You have no idea of my agony. These Falun Gong practitioners were alive. It would be okay if we removed organs from dead bodies, but these people were truly alive.’”

            Men and women like her husband would disappear – transferring to other cities or changing their names and living in secret. Anything to get away. But, as Ethan Gutmann explained Monday on [Family Research Council’s podcast] “Washington Watch,” there is no getting away from the truth in China, which is that this explosion of Communist organ harvesting isn’t going away. “Every province in China has a couple of major hospitals, transplant hospitals, and they’re going full tilt,” he warns. “We’re looking at something like 10 to 20 billion-dollar industry at this point.”

            Now, as the global concern over the persecution of the country’s Uyghurs rise, there are new fears that the Muslim minority is next in line for organ harvesting. As many as two million are already wasting away in concentration camps for their beliefs, where they would be easy pickings for a regime with no sense of humanity. These are enterprising Communists, the New York Post points out, since “China is not just ridding itself of troublesome minorities, it is profiting mightily in the process.”

            “China has accounted for more than 85% of the total number of live organ transplants in the world since 2000,” according to one whistleblowing doctor. And that means the number of people who’ve witnessed the country’s massive operation are growing. At one lecture, Ethan said, a man raised his hand and said he didn’t have a question, but he wanted people to know: he was a surgeon and had done this with his own hands. Not because he wanted to – but because he was forced.

            He remembers his team being taken to the execution grounds and told to take out the kidneys and liver of a man who had been shot. “The heart was still beating, and the blood was still pumping. [When] this man actually did the first cut, the [victim’s] body rebelled, but he was weak. [The doctor] took out the organs and then tried to stitch the guy back up.”

            To the NBA and Hollywood – or corporate giants like Apple and Google – the price of speaking up on behalf of victims like these is too great. Apparently, they’re only social justice warriors for people who can put money in their pockets. “It’s impossible to keep these moral monsters happy in the long run,” the editors of the New York Post warn about China. But too many businesses are trying. “We’ve always believed that open societies are inherently stronger than tyrannical ones. But for that to hold, freedom has to matter more than greed.”

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: As disturbing as are the reports of killings by organ harvestings in Red China, Americans should be just as outraged – or even more, since it is happening on our own shores – by the blind eye being turned away from the ghouls exploiting Americans’ embrace of “freedom of choice” to ruthlessly target unborn boys and girls and to harvest and profit from trafficking in their organs. For bringing this atrocity to the attention of the public, heroes David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt are undergoing persecution by the State of California, the abortion industry and by abortion-complicit characters on the judicial bench in both a criminal and a civil trial. Justice is served by condemning the atrocities in Red China; justice can be served here in America only by condemning the atrocities in our own front-alley chop shops.]

Endorsing Sarah Pitlyk

Oct. 30, 2019, Statement by Coalition of Conservative Leaders Endorsing the Judicial Nomination of Sarah Pitlyk

            Conservatives support the nomination of Sarah Pitlyk to be a federal judge on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

            Ms. Pitlyk is a Yale Law School graduate, a former clerk to then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh and a long-time litigator. She has also worked as a public interest lawyer defending constitutional and civil rights on behalf of the Thomas More Society.

            However, her nomination has recently come under attack from abortion activists and the American Bar Assn.

            Abortion groups have assailed Ms. Pitlyk’s nomination, not only for her public interest advocacy but also for her connection to Justice Kavanaugh. Their position is simple: no lawyer who has ever argued a pro-life position in a case should ever be allowed on the federal bench. We reject this view wholeheartedly.

            The American Bar Assn. (ABA) has rated Ms. Pitlyk’s nomination negatively. This calls into question the organization’s fairness, as well as the overall consistency of their ratings. The ABA has been happy to give qualified or well-qualified ratings to nominees who have demonstrated far less litigation experience than Sarah Pitlyk.

            Consider that the ABA rated Justice Elena Kagan as qualified in 1999 when she was nominated to the DC Circuit, despite having never argued a case in front of any court.

            The ABA also rated as qualified Judge Allison Nathan on the Southern District of New York, despite being only 11 years out of law school and a longtime law clerk and academic with negligible practical experience.

            Ms. Pitlyk’s legal experience is wide-ranging and significant, touching every stage of the litigation process. Moreover, her substantive experience with areas of law – especially constitutional law – makes clear that she will not hesitate to uphold the rule of law and constitutional principles. She is more than qualified to carry out the duties of a federal judge competently and fairly.

            Pres. Trump has pledged to select principled, originalist judges. Sarah Pitlyk is a nominee in this mold. We support her nomination and urge her swift confirmation by the Senate.

Senate Voting Records

Cloture Motion on the Nomination of Justin Reed Walker as US District Judge (Kentucky) – Oct. 24, 2019 – Adopted – 50-39 (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Shelby/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, McSally/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio & Scott/FL, Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Braun & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Collins/ME, Wicker/MS, Blunt & Hawley/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Burr & Tillis/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Blackburn/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Lee & Romney/UT, Capito/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Jones/AL, Sinema/AZ, Feinstein/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Klobuchar & Smith/MN, Tester/MT, Cortez-Masto & Rosen/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed/RI, Leahy/VT, Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV, Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Harris/CA, Carper & Coons/DE, Isakson/GA, Moran/KS, Warren/MA, Hyde-Smith/MS, Booker/NJ, Whitehouse/RI, Sanders/VT, Kaine/VA.

Confirmation of Justin Reed Walker as US District Judge (Kentucky) – Oct. 24, 2019 – Confirmed – 50-41 (Democrats in italics; “Independent” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Shelby/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, McSally/AZ, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Gardner/CO, Rubio & Scott/FL, Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Braun & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Roberts/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Collins/ME, Wicker/MS, Blunt & Hawley/MO, Daines/MT, Fischer & Sasse/NE, Burr & Tillis/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Portman/OH, Inhofe & Lankford/OK, Toomey/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Alexander & Blackburn/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Lee & Romney/UT, Capito/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Jones/AL, Sinema/AZ, Feinstein/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper/DE, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, Klobuchar & Smith/MN, Tester/MT, Cortez-Masto & Rosen/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Menendez/NJ, Heinrich & Udall/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Brown/OH, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Casey/PA, Reed/RI, Leahy/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV, Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Harris/CA, Coons/DE, Isakson/GA, Moran/KS, Warren/MA, Hyde-Smith/MS, Booker/NJ, Whitehouse/RI, Sanders/VT.