Life Advocacy Briefing

Deadline Dilemma

THOUGH OUR EDITORIAL TEAM WILL BE TRAVELING NEXT WEEK, we hope to publish Life Advocacy Briefing, but we cannot guarantee it. If we fall short of meeting our deadline, we will look forward to publishing the Senate voting record on the Kavanaugh confirmation as soon thereafter as possible, to be followed soon by our annual House and Senate Voting Record Index. Stay tuned!

Call Your Senators, Please

THE PRIME OBJECTIVE FOR THE CAUSE OF LIFE – at least on the DC front – continues to be confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to succeed recently retired Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.

Calls to home-state Senators are urgently needed. Capitol switchboard: 1-202/224-3121.

We ask our readers to recognize that this confirmation is not by any means a guarantee that Roe v. Wade is about to be overturned, as the abortion cartel is hysterically insisting (while at the same time declaring it to be “settled law”).

But Judge Kavanaugh has given no cause to believe he is anything other than an adherent to the meaning of the Constitution, a respecter of traditional American values and a man of impeccable character.

Reasonable people observing last Thursday’s so-called hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee can conclude nothing less.

Because we believe that Senators are influenced on the question of the Kavanaugh confirmation not only by their party’s political fortunes in the upcoming November elections but also on the pressure brought by left-wing pressure groups in fear of a Constitutional re-examination of such outlier Court rulings as Roe v. Wade, we will be reporting the Senate’s Kavanaugh confirmation vote as a Life issue.

Good News!

WE HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS TO REPORT on the international front.

In Finland last month, the country’s foreign minister, Timo Soini, “won a confidence vote,” reports Britain’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, “brought [against him] by four opposition parties by 100 votes to 60.” Why do we care? “Mr. Soini,” reports SPUC, “has faced repeated criticism for his outspoken views on abortion, particularly since attending a pro-life candle-light vigil in Canada while on an official trip. He has also come under fire,” notes SPUC, “for lamenting the legalization of abortion in Ireland and for congratulating Argentine lawmakers for voting down a pro-abortion motion there.” Writing on his Internet blog, Mr. Soini noted “‘how odd it is that someone would have to defend the right to defend life.’ He noted that he has stood against the culture of death for the last 30 years, all of them as an active politician. ‘It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I hold this position,’ he said,” reports SPUC. “‘And I’m not ashamed of it, nor will I ever be.’” Right on!

And in Australia, reports John Stonestreet in a The Point commentary, the nation’s Senate “narrowly defeated a measure that would have allowed euthanasia. One liberal Senator who changed his mind and voted against the bill said he couldn’t support it ‘without ensuring appropriate safeguards were in place.’ He’s right, up to a point,” states Mr. Stonestreet. “Because as we have seen in Belgium and the Netherlands, appropriate safeguards can never be put in place.” But for now, at least, we will take his vote and give thanks. As the late Phyllis Schlafly frequently counseled, we will accept with pleasure the casting of a right vote for whatever reason the official wishes to credit.

David Daleiden Weighs In on F.D.A. Fetal Tissue

THE UNDERCOVER REPORTER WHO EXPOSED PLANNED PARENTHOOD’s involvement in fetal tissue trafficking, David Daleiden, spoke out in late September on revelations that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has been acquiring aborted baby body parts for medical experimentation. His remarks were delivered to the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, an annual conference spearheaded by Family Research Council’s FRC Action, and co-hosted by an extensive list of conservative, pro-family organizations such as Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom and American Family Assn. 

“‘The exploitation of our unborn brothers and sisters is only able to be perpetuated so long as secrecy surrounds the practice of industrial-scale, taxpayer-funded child killing in the abortion industry in America,’” Mr. Daleiden declared, quoted by Claire Chretien of LifeSiteNews.com.

“That’s why this summer’s news that the FDA ‘has renewed a contract for baby body parts with the company of Advanced Bioscience Resources, ABR,’ is so important, the pro-life activist told the annual gathering of social conservatives,” reports Ms. Chretien. “ABR ‘is one of the entities purchasing baby body parts from Planned Parenthood and reselling them,’” noted Mr. Daleiden, “‘that was the subject of criminal referrals by the Congressional investigations and is under Department of Justice investigation right now.’”  

But Mr. Daleiden went beyond his concern that ABR was being used by the government and paid by taxpayers to procure and deliver tissue from aborted babies. “‘Just last year,’” he declared, “‘the National Institutes of Health spent $100 million on fetal experimentation, on projects using aborted baby body parts. And $20 million of that was for “intramural research,”’” he said, as reported by Ms. Chretien. “‘Experiments being done in government-run laboratories and government office buildings at the NIH.’”

H.H.S. Takes First Step

THE DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES (H.H.S.) HAS CANCELED its contract with Advanced Biosciences Resource, following public exposure of the contract to provide aborted baby remains to the Food & Drug Administration for experimentation.

In a press release issued on Sept. 24, quoted by Cheryl Sullenger for Operation Rescue (OR), the Department said, “‘HHS is now conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations. In addition, HHS has initiated a comprehensive review of all research and to ensure the adequacy of procedures and oversight of this research in light of the serious regulatory, moral and ethical considerations involved.’ However, this means,” notes Mrs. Sullenger, “that fetal tissue experimentation may continue as long as it meets government ‘standards.’”

The O.R. report goes on to quote Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List (SBA), who has been leading an effort to “halt all such activity. … ‘Secretary [Alex] Azar must put an immediate moratorium on funding for research using aborted baby organs and tissue purchased from the abortion industry. … Further,’” she said in a written statement quoted by Mrs. Sullenger, “‘Secretary Azar should instead devote tax dollars to ethical alternatives that – unlike experimentation on fetal tissue – produce successful therapies for patients. Canceling a single contract and conducting a review is a small step forward but overall is completely inadequate.’”

The Bad, the Ugly

IN A FURTHER UGLY ASPECT of the aborted baby tissue trafficking scandal, former employees of Stericycle have told Created Equal, an Ohio-based pro-life group, that the firm “is still disposing of aborted children’s remains despite having claimed last year it [had] ceased doing so,” reports Lisa Bourne for LifeSiteNews.com.

One ex-employee reported, writes Ms. Bourne, “that drivers had been ordered to meet abortion facility staff at a local gas station to pick up aborted fetal remains.” This has evidently come after Stericycle sought to redeem its business reputation after having been exposed for its involvement in the trafficking scandal.

“When the driver asked his manager about why employees were told to turn a blind eye to the pick-up of fetal remains,” reports Ms. Bourne, “he said the response was, ‘There’s a lot of money in burning babies. … Normally, if something’s incinerated, especially from an abortion clinic,’” said the ex-employee, quoted by Ms. Bourne, “‘it’s about $800 to $900 per box. … The motivation is there, and the motivation is money. Plain and simple.’”

The LifeSiteNews report indicates that the former Stericycle driver, who appears in a video produced by Created Equal, “is the second to offer such testimony.”

The driver quoted in the Sept. 20 LifeSiteNews report claimed, writes Ms. Bourne, “‘Under the table, they’re getting hundreds of dollars per fetus to destroy them. … And that’s the motivation to break the law and meet them off-site, that sort of thing.’ He resigned, he said,” reports Ms. Bourne, “because he could not be associated with the business of disposing of aborted children, stating, ‘It’s very, very shady. I couldn’t do it.’

“Stericycle has a long-time alliance with the abortion industry,” notes Ms. Bourne, “in the collection, transportation and incineration of aborted children, which include[s] partnering with infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell in the disposal of the children he killed.” It was the Gosnell connection which first prompted the pro-life movement to call for an investigation of Stericycle, though the abortion cartel connection evidently goes well back before Gosnell’s use of the company was unveiled in 2013. In 2011, reports Ms. Bourne, “Stericycle was fined $42,000 for illegally dumping aborted babies into a municipal landfill in Texas together with household and commercial garbage.”

Appealing to Secretary Azar

Sept. 13, 2018, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            The abortion industry doesn’t respect life before death, so it’s no surprise that they don’t respect it after. Still, most Americans had higher hopes for the US government, especially after Planned Parenthood’s ghoulish market of baby body parts [was exposed]. The Trump Administration has always treated human life with dignity, which is why pro-lifers were surprised to hear about a new FDA contract that sounds like something straight off the sci-fi network.

            Regardless of which side you’re on, the idea of experimenting on aborted babies is gruesome to most people. Americans were already unwilling funders of Planned Parenthood’s ring of baby organ sales. They shuddered when David Daleiden caught buyers asking for another “50 livers a week” or staffers remembering how the babies’ hearts kept beating before they packed them to sell. They got chills reading how abortionists like Kermit Gosnell treated his “debris,” filling “filled bags, milk jugs, orange-juice cartons and even cat-food containers” with “fetal remains.”

            There’s just something profoundly barbaric about defiling tiny human corpses. So pro-lifers were understandably disturbed to hear about a new project of the FDA that uses the tissue of “fresh” aborted babies in a study on humanized mice. Scientists will argue that $15,000 is a drop in the taxpayer bucket, but to Americans, even a single penny spent experimenting on human life is too much. And a coalition of pro-life leaders is making sure that HHS gets that message this week.

            In a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, I joined with other conservative leaders in asking the administration to put the brakes on any medical research on aborted babies’ remains. Of course, it’s entirely probable that Secretary Azar was completely unaware of the project. HHS is, after all, a massive government agency – with almost 80,000 employees and one of the largest budgets in the federal government. But now that he’s aware of the project, conservatives are hopeful he’ll stop it.

            Expressing our “shock and dismay,” we explained in the letter that it’s “completely unacceptable” for the FDA to use federal tax dollars to help create demand for human body parts from aborted babies.

            When a reporter uncovered the contract, the FDA explained that it’s “committed to ensuring that its research is conducted responsibly, conforms with all legal requirements, and meets the highest ethical standards.” As almost 50 pro-life leaders stated in the letter:

            “These experiments using aborted fetal organs are neither responsible nor do they meet even modest ethical standards, and there are serious questions about the legality of methods used to procure the aborted baby organs and tissue. … Advanced Bioscience Resources, the company with which the DA has its contract for procurement of aborted fetal organs, is among the entities referred for criminal investigation by both houses of Congress for potential collusion with abortion facilities as well as possibly profiting from the sale of fetal organs from aborted babies.”

            What makes the discovery even more frustrating is that there’s absolutely no reason to use human remains. As we explain to Secretary Azar, “good scientific alternatives exist to this grisly sourcing, including use of human umbilical cord blood stem cells and adult peripheral blood stem cells. There are abundant modern scientific alternatives, making aborted fetal tissue unnecessary.” We expect better from HHS – and as taxpayers, we deserve better.

Still Experimenting on Aborted Babies

Sept. 25, 2018, FRC Action commentary, published by Family Research Council’s lobbying arm

            It looks just like any other online shopping cart. There’s a drop-down menu for parts and prices. “What type of tissue would you like to order?” the form asks. Hearts? Lungs? Livers? Brains? There’s even an option for age. Four weeks? Eight weeks? 16? “Same day delivery!” the site promises.

            It’s the same baby body part business that Planned Parenthood said it was “proud” to supply. But to most Americans, the biggest surprise was finding out the name of one of the most prominent buyers: the US government.

            The news that the FDA was contracting with a fetal tissue seller rocked the pro-life world. After all, this is the Trump Administration. Surely they weren’t helping a procurement business carve up tiny, lifeless babies for profit. The story turned out to be true; a new project of the FDA was, in fact, using the tissue of “fresh” aborted babies in a study on humanized mice. Eighty-five Members of Congress weighed in, calling on HHS to cancel the project. “Unborn children are not commodities to be bought and sold,” they argued. “The practice of conducting research using the body parts of children whose lives have been violently ended by abortion is abhorrent.”

            David Daleiden, whose undercover videos triggered both Congressional and FBI investigations, spoke to the crowd at Values Voter Summit about the absurdity of funding a practice the House spent months investigating. “It’s unconscionable that the United States government would be sending a message with taxpayer dollars that these children are worth more to the US government dead than alive,” he said. Forty-five pro-life leaders were next, demanding in another letter that Secretary Alex Azar step in.

            This week, he did. In a public statement, HHS announced that it had pulled the plug on the contract with Advanced Bioscience Resource.

            “After a recent review,” the agency explained, “… HHS was not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements. As a result, that contract has been terminated, and HHS is now conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving fetal tissue to ensure consistency with statutes and regulations governing such research, and to ensure the adequacy of procedures and oversight of this research in light of the serious regulatory, moral and ethical considerations involved.”

            Pro-lifers cheered the quick action by Azar, who showed that he was willing to move HHS in the right direction on research that’s not only unethical – but unnecessary. Of course, there’s a lot more the agency can do to clean house on this ghoulish practice, including cutting off almost $100 million in grisly experiments at NIH, where Obama holdover Francis Collins is still writing checks for baby body parts. No one seems to understand quite why, since it’s unpopular and unproductive compared to the moral alternatives that are actually helping patients.

            Overall, it’s a good first step – but we agree with Missouri’s [Rep.] Vicky Hartzler (R). “I find it deeply disturbing that the federal government continues to contract with companies that facilitate the trafficking of human fetal remains. This practice must stop.”