Life Advocacy Briefing

Accidental Truth, Part 2

LAST WEEK WE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE UNWITTING REVELATION by Democrat power figure Pete Buttigieg as to the true but usually unspoken answer to the “who benefits” question about legalized abortion. Recall? He told participants in a White Dudes for Harris video conference stunt, as reported in a story by Matt Lamb of LifeSiteNews, “‘Women’s freedom is Exhibit A, after Donald Trump demolished the right to choose. But of course men are also more free in a country where we have a President who stands up for things like access to abortion care,’” adding, “‘Men are more free when the leader of the free world and the leader of this country support access to birth control and access to IVF.’”

Then we quoted, from the same report, a reaction by pro-life leader Abby Johnson, who said on X (formerly Twitter), “‘Children shouldn’t have to die just so men can use a woman’s body for pleasure with no consequence,’” and she went on to call it “‘a disgusting concept.’”

Now comes Doug Imhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris. In a May 8 NBC News interview excerpted by Fox News last week, the man often referred to as the country’s “second gentleman” was asked, noted FNC, “About the role of men in pushing for abortion access, is there anything more you would say to that?”

Consider the implication of his answer: “‘It’s affecting men’s ability to plan their lives.’” So much for “women’s health care” or “equal rights for women.”

This is why we have for years counseled pro-life candidates – especially men – appearing at liberal-leaning candidate forums like those hosted by the League of Women Voters to respond to the inevitable “abortion” or “choice” question with a musing reply such as, “I have never been able to figure out why so many people seem to think abortion is a benefit for women, when the people who benefit the most from legalized abortion are irresponsible men who get to sow their wild oats all over town and don’t have to pay child support.” Of course, rapists and those who commit incest are the biggest winners; with a trip to an abortuary, they can do away with DNA evidence of their crimes.

Listen carefully to the men who prioritize support for abortion “rights.” And call them to account if you have the opportunity, dear Reader. By shifting the debate, we can open gullible minds and show the advocates of abortion for the cruel opportunists they are.

You Can’t Make This Up!

ILLINOIS GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D) HOSTED A SIGNING CEREMONY to finalize enactment of a law requiring insurance carriers to underwrite induced abortions, reports Cassy Fiano-Chesser for Live Action.

Sponsors of the radical new law title it the “Birth Equity Initiative,” which utterly fails to define how underwriting the killing of babies offers them “equity,” defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “justice according to natural law or right.” And where does birth come in?

The new law, explains Mrs. Chesser, “mandates that Illinois-based health insurance, both private and Medicaid [which is charged to taxpayers], must cover abortion with no co-pays or deductibles.”

Gov. Pritzker, who is heir to the Hyatt hotel chain fortune and was for a time considered by the media as a contender for vice president, injected race into his signing statement: “‘For too long,’” he said, quoted in the Live Action report, “‘we have failed to live up to the promise of equal health care for Black and Brown mothers in the state.’” [Note the term “mothers!”] “‘That is appalling and it’s unacceptable, and we’re not going to let that happen any more in the state of Illinois. It isn’t right that some women are forced to weigh their own mortality or their future health against bringing life [!] into this world.’” Read that again, but be careful to avoid whiplash!

Giving Up Is Not an Option

Aug. 7, 2024, BreakPoint commentary by John Stonestreet

             Both sides of the Presidential race are (finally) set, and Americans remain historically dissatisfied with both options. Of course, considering the flurry of events of just the last few months, it’s not impossible that something may change yet again. Whether we fall into the category of being so sick of politics already or being unable to look away, every citizen has two choices. First, whether to vote and, second, how to vote.

             After his White House days, Chuck Colson never publicly endorsed a political candidate. The Colson Center remains committed to that practice. He did, however, tell Christians to vote and why. “It’s our duty as citizens of the kingdom of God,” Chuck wrote, citing St. Augustine, “to be the best citizens of the society we live in. To do that, we must vote.”

             There are some Christians who disagree, and their hesitation is understandable. Since the Republican Party scrubbed pro-life and pro-family commitments from its platform, voters who prioritize life and family are left to choose between pro-abortion and pro-choice options. The Democratic nominee is the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic, with a vice presidential choice who has aggressively pushed dangerous gender ideology in Minnesota schools. The Republican nominees have each stated that the choice to terminate preborn lives should be left to the states.

             Even so, not voting in order to “keep our hands clean” is a form of pietism, not Christianity. [The Book of] James is clear that if there is good that we can do, we should. To not do the good we can is sin. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, even in the face of far worse political realities than ours, rejected pietism as being contrary to Christian responsibility. Because Chrisitanity is an incarnational faith, he wrote, it must be lived in “the tempest of the living.”

             But how then should we vote? Often, Christians and other citizens of conscience describe voting as choosing between “the lesser of two evils.” My former colleague Kevin Bywater suggests a better approach. Christians, he said, should think of voting as a way of “lessening evil.” Not only does this approach better fit the political realities of our particular context, it recognizes the inherent limits of politics even while maintaining principle. Also, voting to lessen evil acknowledges the moral inadequacies of candidates while still seeking to accomplish good through voting.

             In the American context, the “lesser of two evils” approach tends to exaggerate the importance of the Oval Office. “Salvation,” Chuck Colson often said, “will never arrive in Air Force One.” Neither, for that matter, will the apocalypse. On the issues that matter most (such as life and family), state and local races and ballot initiatives are incredibly important, especially now. Voting to lessen evil recognizes these cultural realities.

             Of course, the Office of President is important, but more so because of the 3,000-5,000 personnel – especially the unelected, rule-making department heads – that come with each administration. The heads of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have been incredibly consequential in every recent administration, as are judicial nominations.

             For example, under President Obama, the HHS Secretary forced employers to provide contraceptives and abortifacients to employees free of charge and irrespective of religious beliefs. Without Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh or Coney-Barrett, there would be no Dobbs ruling. And since Dobbs, there have been all kinds of department-level maneuverings to advance abortion at the state and federal levels. Title IX [9] regulations are interpreted and reinterpreted under each administration by unelected officials that are appointed by the President.

             A system that allows unelected officials to hold such power is flawed, as are the candidates who appoint, and the leaders appointed. Voting to lessen evil should never be about excusing bad character. It should be our best attempt to enable the best outcomes possible while recognizing that the most important work the Church will do won’t be political.

             Years ago, Chuck Colson observed, “The church has allowed itself to become dangerously polarized into two camps: politicized and privatized views of faith. Neither view has anything to do with historic Christianity.” To address these errors, the Colson Center has produced a free video series, Why Vote? Courageous Faith in an Election year. For a free download, visit colsoncenter.org/why vote.

             Christ, not politics, is our hope. He’s called us to engage, to discern and to the best of our abilities, uphold good and lessen evil.

Punch Line

Aug. 2, 2024, quotation published by Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen

             “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.”

                                                                                    ~ Baseball legend Babe Ruth

The New Guy on the Scene

Aug. 7, 2024, Analysis by Ben Johnson, editor, The Washington Stand

             Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her vice presidential running mate on Tuesday [Aug. 6]. The obscure governor and former congressman has signed bills that would remove children from their parents’ custody if the parents refused to carry out transgender procedures, allowed abortion until birth and left churches meeting online while so-called “essential businesses” were permitted to open their doors more fully during the Covid-19 pandemic.

             The vice presidential nod had narrowed to Walz and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), whose ardent support of Israel would have complicated Harris’s ability to win Michigan. The 60-year-old Walz – who is in his fifth year as governor of Minnesota and served 12 years in the US House of Representatives – has sometimes drawn comparisons with Bernie Sanders by comparing socialism to “neighborliness.”

             “It just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is,” because she “listened to the Hamas wing of her own party in selecting a nominee,” Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance told a press gaggle late Tuesday morning. Tim Walz “has proposed defunding the police just as Kamala Harris has,” said Vance. “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail. So, it is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris. She doesn’t care about the border. She doesn’t care about crime. She doesn’t care about energy, and most of all, she doesn’t care about Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.”

             Walz’s career could be split into two halves, said those who have clashed with him over the years: His time as a congressman in a swing district, where he had to modulate his own liberal views, and his tack to the Left once he became governor. In Congress, “he focused on veteran issues, and kept his head down to some extent,” explained Moses Bratrud, director of strategy at the Minnesota Family Council, on Tuesday’s Washington Watch. But as governor, he has appealed more to the Ilhan Omar wing of the Democratic Party, said Bratrud. “It’s almost like there are two Tim Walzes.”

             Walz served six terms in the US House of Representatives (2007-2019) after defeating a Republican congressman in a rural district. His record sometimes tracked with his constituents’ more centrist views – for instance, his work on veterans affairs – although Walz’s social liberalism earned him a 0% rating from FRC Action in his next-to-last year in Congress.

             As governor, he has signed abortion-expanding legislation, placed transgender ideology over parents’ rights, and limited religious liberty.

             In January, 2023, Walz signed the Protection of Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, which allows unlimited abortion-on-demand until birth. He also increased the payments abortionists receive from the government when they carry out taxpayer-funded abortions, removed informed consent laws, curtailed funding for pro-life pregnancy resource centers and removed a requirement that babies born alive during botched abortions receive life-saving emergency care.

             “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make up the most pro-abortion Presidential ticket America has ever seen. There is no daylight between them on this issue,” said SBA Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand.

             Walz called his state an “island of decency” for allowing abortion in an area allegedly dominated by pro-life policies. Walz said among “the things we value most around freedom” include “reproductive freedom,” a euphemism for abortion. At times he has said the “golden rule” is: “Mind your own d—n business” about who people “marry, their own healthcare decisions, what books they read.”

             “Sadly, these aggressive attacks against vulnerable women and children have earned Walz a place as Harris’s running mate on the Democratic ticket,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Action, in an email to TWS. …

             Walz summed up his views of the last four years in a social media post, stating, “Joe Biden is and has always been an American hero. History will look fondly on his legacy.”

             Walz was born on April 6, 1964, in West Point, Nebraska, to James F. Walz and Darlene Rose Reiman Walz. He served 24 years in the Army National Guard and worked as a teacher, including a year on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

             The Democratic Vice Presidential candidate has longstanding ties to America’s most potent foreign adversary, [Red] China. Walz spent a year teaching in the People’s Republic of China, instructing students at Guangdong Province’s Foshan No. 1 High School in English and American history in 1989 – the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre. If it left unpleasant memories, they were soon forgotten, as Walz and his wife Gwen … took their honeymoon in China in 1994. They set up a company that carried out exchange visits to China, Educational Travel Adventures. Walz said he had visited China 30 times by 2016.

             Walz belongs to the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which has paid for its employees’ abortions through its healthcare plan, ordained non-celibate homosexual clergy and promoted transgenderism and “queerness” as “beauty.” He and his wife, Gwen, have two children … both conceived through in vitro fertilization IVF), a fact Walz has used as a political weapon in his campaign speeches. Walz got his first political job in 2004 as an organizer for the John Kerry Presidential campaign.                                                                                                               

Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Excerpted from this column is a lengthy section concerning Gov. Walz’s “aggressive” promotion of “the transgender industry” and “extreme gender ideology in the state, including for minors against their parents’ will,” as well as weird agendas such as requiring schools to “put feminine hygiene products in boys’ restrooms.” Also a section on Gov. Walz’s discriminatory treatment of churches during the Covid pandemic. Readers who wish to explore these sections of the report can find the entire report online at https://washingtonstand.com/news/who-is-tim-walz-kamala-harriss-vp-candidate.

How Does Nancy Feel About Tim?

Aug. 6, 2024, Daily Wire report by Leif LeMahieu

             Democrat Vice Presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz once said that he was so pro-abortion that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) suggested that he moderate his position.

             When Walz first ran for governor back in 2018, he joked about his extreme views on abortion. “My record is so pro-choice Nancy Pelosi asked me if I should tone it down,” he said. “I stand with Planned Parenthood.”

             Walz … has a 0% pro-life score from the National Right to Life. After he voted for a bill in 2018 that would protect babies who survive botched abortions, he apologized and said that he had accidentally voted for the measure.

             “Accidentally voted for HR-4712 today,” he said. “It was an honest mistake. I meant to vote NO, as I did on an identical bill last Congress. My apologies for the confusion. I’ll keep fighting for women’s access to health care.”

             The bill would have required doctors to care for babies who were born alive after failed abortions and charged doctors with murder if they end the life of the baby outside of the womb.

             As governor, Walz signed a measure in January, 2023, that effectively removed all restrictions on abortions. Republican lawmakers said the law would allow for abortions at any stage of pregnancy.

             “Every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about the individual’s own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care,” the legislation said.

The Goalpost Has Not Moved

Aug. 2, 2024, nugget from Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen

             Many pro-life organizations, including Focus on the Family [and Life Advocacy], affirm that babies deserve to be protected nationwide via federal abortion legislation, in addition to state protections. Whether a preborn baby gets a chance at life should not be determined by their zip code or what state they live in.

             Prof. Carter Snead asserted that the pro-life movement is at an inflection point following the Dobbs decision. Indeed, the Supreme Court decided in Dobbs that “there is nothing in the text, history or tradition of our Constitution that forbids the people from restricting abortion, to protect unborn babies from the lethal violence of abortion,” Prof. Snead summarized. “There’s nothing that forbids the states or the federal government, from doing that.”