Life Advocacy Briefing

Question

CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN: What is reproductive about abortion?

A Thought About Speech Choices

NOW THAT AMERICA APPEARS – if one believes the polls, as our public officials and candidates appear to be doing – to have accepted the concept of legalized abortion, perhaps it is time for pro-life organizations to drop even the term “abortion” and instead use “child killing.” That, after all, is what abortion is, but it is becoming apparent that more direct – though certainly unpleasant – language must be used to reach the consciences of those who would prefer not to become involved.

Molech is worshipped, to our deep but redeemable shame.

“To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn … .” Surely now is the time to turn away from child killing, a time to turn back to the God of the universe, the One Who redeemed us by His own blood, the One Who offers forgiveness even for nations. The One Who embodies – and expects regard for – truth.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

‘FLORIDA’s ABORTION FIGHT NEEDS REPUBLICAN UNITY,’ proclaims Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen on Aug. 26, which goes on to quote Daniel Horowitz at The Blaze. We quote it here in grave disappointment and a touch of, shall we admit it, anger:

“‘For years, abortion was the issue that unified Republicans,’” writes Mr. Horowitz, quoted in the Daily Citizen. Well, to be more explicit, opposition to abortion. “‘Even when they disagreed on almost everything else, they rallied together,’” he writes, “‘during critical pro-life moments. …

“Now, Sunshine State Republicans – including Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and, yes, Donald Trump – have remained mum on Florida’s extreme Amendment 4. Their silence is indefensible.

“Almost no Florida Republican is willing to join Gov. Ron DeSantis in opposing Amendment 4.”

Are these Florida politicians not aware that Florida’s embrace of the unborn child – enacting even a heartbeat abortion ban effectively shutting down child killing in the state – is among the reasons normal, conservative Americans have been piling into their state as refugees from lurch-left states like California and Illinois?

Speak up, gentlemen. Speak clearly and compassionately, with justice and mercy on your tongue, and you will be thanked for it. Your voters have thought of you as leaders. Hiding behind a “let-the-voters-decide” mantra will not work to your political benefit when they look back in regret after the November vote; may it never be!

Choose Life, Nebraska!

NEBRASKA VOTERS WILL FACE TWO constitutional amendment propositions on their ballots this fall, one defining abortion as a “fundamental right” and the other banning the killing of preborn children once they have developed beyond the first three months of their lives.

The two propositions both achieved ballot access, each generating the required number of signatures and meeting other requirements for posting.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen (R) announced the ballot access granted to both the Protect Women & Children Amendment and the Right to Abortion Initiative and indicated, reports Peter Martin for LifeSiteNews, that as far as his office is aware, “‘Nebraska has never before had two conflicting petition efforts make the same ballot.’” One can only guess at the millions of dollars which will swell the coffers of Nebraska media outlets in the next three months.

“According to Secretary of State Evnen,” writes Mr. Martin, “while each of the proposed amendments garnered more than 136,000 signatures, backers of the ‘Protect Women & Children’ Amendment collected valid signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in 86 Nebraska counties, while supporters of the pro-abortion measure gathered signatures from at least 5% of voters in only 47 counties.”

As to the outcome on election day, the Secretary “explained,” writes Mr. Martin, “’that a ballot measure needs more ‘for’ votes than ‘against’ votes to pass and must win at least 35% of all votes cast in an election to be in favor of the proposal. If conflicting ballot measures [both] receive enough votes to pass, the ballot measure that receives the highest number of “for” votes will prevail to the extent of the conflict,’ he continued. ‘The governor is responsible for determining whether there is a conflict.’”

A Win in Court – in New York

A FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE IN NEW YORK RULED on Aug. 22, reports Joshua Arnold for The Washington Stand, “that pro-life pregnancy centers in New York may inform women ‘that the abortion pill reversal (APR) protocol is safe and effective for a pregnant woman to use, with her doctor, to reverse the effects of a first chemical abortion pill and thereby help to save the life of her unborn child.’

“District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr., a Trump appointee, granted a preliminary injunction” against the lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James (D), reports Mr. Arnold, “because the pregnancy centers are ‘likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment free-speech claim, and they are suffering irreparable harm each day that their Constitutional freedoms are infringed.’” Bingo!

The relief frees 11 faith-based pregnancy centers affiliated with Heartbeat International. The challenge to Atty. Gen. James’s punitive action was brought into federal court by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) on behalf of National Institute for Family & Life Advocates (NIFLA), which Mr. Arnold notes is a “pregnancy center network with 51 locations in the state,” and on behalf of two NIFLA members, Gianna’s House and Options Care Center.

“‘Women in New York have literally saved their babies from an in-progress chemical drug abortion because they had access to information through their local pregnancy centers about using safe and effective progesterone for abortion pill reversal,’ said ADF Senior Counsel Caleb Dalton,” reports Mr. Arnold. “‘But the attorney general tried to deny women the opportunity to even hear about this life-saving option.’”

Wrote the federal judge, quoted by Mr. Arnold: “‘The First Amendment protects Plaintiffs’ right to speak freely about APR protocol and, more specifically, to say that it is safe and effective for a pregnant woman to use in consultation with her doctor.’”

Standing Down in Iowa, for Now

ON AUG. 22, PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF THE HEARTLAND and its co-plaintiffs “opted,” writes Dave Andrusko for National Right to Life News, citing an Associated Press report by Hannah Fingerhut, “to forgo ‘a continued legal battle after the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the state’s strict abortion law and reiterated that there is no constitutional right to an abortion in the state.’”

So, Iowa’s Heartbeat Law is not just passed and signed, not just cleared by the state’s supreme court, but now also beyond further litigation any time soon.

“Iowa’s fetal heartbeat law protects most unborn babies after fetal heart activity can be detected – at about six weeks,” writes Mr. Andrusko. “There are exceptions for incest or to save the life of the mother.”

The NRL News editor offers credit to the state’s governor, Republican Kim Reynolds, who, he said, “worked assiduously since 2018 to have such a law passed. ‘As the fetal heartbeat law finally takes effect, our work will continue to strengthen a culture of life in Iowa,’ [Gov.] Reynolds said in a statement. ‘I remain deeply committed to supporting women in planning for motherhood, promoting the importance of fatherhood, elevating adoption and protecting in vitro fertilization [oops]. Families are the foundation of our society,’” she said, quoted by Mr. Andrusko, “‘and policies that encourage strong families will make our state and country strong for generations to come.’”

The law had no difficulty getting passed but has struggled to take effect. In 2019, a judge blocked it from taking effect, notes Mr. Andrusko, but in June of this year, the state supreme court “reversed the district court’s injunction and declared the law could be enforced. In doing so, the justices ruled 4-3 that the state need only show a ‘rational basis’ for laws restricting abortion, a much lower bar for legislators seeking to limit or eliminate abortion access. The law,” reports Mr. Andrusko, “formally took effect July 29.”

Ironic But Welcome

Aug. 28, 2024, The Washington Stand commentary by Ben Johnson

             The pro-life movement got a much-welcomed victory last week, but its architects say there’s an even greater irony at work: the abortion industry lost because of a trap laid by the gambling industry.

             Aside from seeing the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate promise to expand abortion nationwide and the Republican Party’s presidential candidate step away from pro-life protections at the federal level, pro-life advocates have endured a series of reversals at the state level. Numerous state ballot initiatives have erased commonsense pro-life protections after pro-life advocates could not effectively counter campaigns based on lies and churned out by an endless torrent of abortion industry funding.

             Thankfully, one state will be spared this onslaught of abortion-industry lies. The Arkansas Abortion Amendment aimed to overturn popular pro-life laws statewide. “It would have legalized abortion for the entire nine months of pregnancy in many cases, and pretty much obliterated all of the good” pro-life protections that “we’ve had on abortion to protect the health and safety of women,” Jerry Cox, president of the Arkansas Family Council, told Washington Watch guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice on Monday.

             But after suing all the way to the state supreme court, the abortion-expansion language will not appear on the ballot due to a technicality. State law requires that proposed initiatives receive 90,704 signatures from 50 counties before being placed before voters. The abortion amendment received 87,675 signatures from volunteers and another 14,143 from paid canvassers. But Arkansas has stringent laws about how the paperwork must be filed, and the abortion lobby failed to file necessary paperwork. As The Washington Stand reported last Friday: “On Thursday, the court rejected a petition brought by [the abortion lobby front group] Arkansans for Limited Government (A[F]LG), citing an insufficient number of volunteered signatures. Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston (R) ‘correctly refused’ to count the signatures of paid canvassers when considering whether to allow A[F]LG’s proposed amendment to appear on November’s ballot. … The court found that A[F]LG ‘failed to comply with the statutory filing requirements for paid canvassers.’”

             “The far left pro-abortion crowd in Arkansas showed they are both immoral and incompetent,” quipped Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R).

             But, according to Cox, there was a glistening gospel detail that hones the beauty of this defeat: The provision pro-abortion forces violated had been supported by the purveyor of another vice: the state’s gambling industry. “The gambling interests, … trying to protect their monopoly on gambling got some laws passed that are very specific when it comes to how you do your filings of paperwork and so forth when you do a ballot measure. And they did that so they could stop people who are trying to change the Constitution that would affect their gambling monopoly … ,” said Cox.

             In 2012, Arkansas ballot Initiative 3 and Initiative 4 would have expanded casino gambling statewide and closed the state’s race track. The court invalidated the election results on legal grounds and, within a year, new standards were adopted which continued to be refined up until last year. …

             The precise details of the ruling regarding paid canvassers can best be described as arcane. … Cox used a more understandable analogy: “It’s like a football game. You may be running for the goal line and there’s nobody there to stop you. But if you step out of bounds just a little bit, it’s all over.” And that means it’s all over for Arkansas’s abortion-expansion amendment, at least for now.

             Unfortunately for A[F]LG, the law aborted their amendment before it could reach its full potential and be placed on the ballot this November. “How odd that it was the gambling interests that put this law in place. And yet it tripped up the abortion folks when they were trying to amend the Constitution,” mused Cox.

             In effect, the dons of the gambling industry whacked the abortion amendment. Greed scuttled murder. Although neither build healthy societies, if society must choose between vices, it does better to choose the lesser evil.

             It’s important to note that the thanks are not all due to the gambling industry. Much of the praise should go to grassroots pro-life organizers who raised awareness about the ill effects the ballot measure would bring their state. “I’ve been around the petition process for almost 40 years here in Arkansas, and I’ve never seen that many people rise up all at once and urge people not to sign a petition. We believe that reduced their number of signatures, probably by about 50%,” said Cox.

             “Because our people around the state blunted their signature effort just enough, they fell about 3,000 signatures short. Had that not occurred, I think we would still be fighting this measure,” he said.

             If such a measure comes to your state, Cox urges, “Launch a very aggressive grassroots effort and urge people not to sign the petition. That was a game changer.” …

A House Divided?

Aug. 26, 2024, The Washington Stand commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

             In 1858, as he kicked off his bid for the US Senate, Abraham Lincoln gave one of his most notable speeches. The issue was slavery, and the question before him was this: Could the nation survive half-free and half-slave?

             Drawing from scripture, Lincoln began his address, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” Lincoln’s words were prophetic. The Union teetered and nearly fell, but it was not dissolved, and after a bloody and costly war, America became a nation where all men would eventually become free.

             This is an inviolable truth: a divided family, a divided church and a divided country cannot long stand. Can anyone deny the obvious reality of our divided nation? It’s a different era, but the issue remains the same, deeply rooted in the inalienable rights bestowed upon us by God: life, ordered liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

             Can we truly be one nation when just over half the 50 states protect the unborn and half do not? The Democratic Presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, has made clear she wants a nationwide policy that would trample upon the right to life and eliminate nearly every pro-life state law. Don’t take my word for it; read the party’s 92-page platform, which clearly outlines their plans and priorities. [https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-democratic-party-platform]

             “Vice President Harris and Democrats are committed to restoring the reproductive rights Trump ripped away. With a Democratic Congress, we will pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again.” First, definitions matter: “Reproductive rights”? Everyone has the right to not engage in sex or to use contraception; taking the life of an unborn child is not health care, nor should it be a right. However please take note of their state objective: national legislation that would make Roe v. Wade the law of the land. That legislation, the Women’s Health Protection Act, has already been introduced by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and it would take the nation back to 1973, erasing hundreds of pro-life policy victories won over the last 50 years and imposing abortion until birth – at taxpayer expense – upon the entire nation.

             What is Donald Trump saying on the issue? He avoids it by saying abortion is now a states’ rights issue. While the stats have led the charge to protect life, they can’t do it alone when the federal government has greenlighted deadly abortion pills, which now account for the majority of abortions, being mailed into every state – even those with the strongest protections for the unborn.

             America cannot and will not withstand being half for protecting life and half for taking life. We will be one thing or all the other. That is why we must not focus only on the Presidential race, as important as it is. Every elected office matters. Be informed and be engaged.

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: We add simply: Insist to your local pro-life candidate/s that they take a firm public stand and expose the radicalism of their opponents on the killing of our future. The best defense is a good offense, and voters have the right to know where their candidates stand.]