Life Advocacy Briefing

Key Confirmation

THE SENATE LAST TUESDAY CONFIRMED Catholic University law professor Robert Destro as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, a post which operates a bureau tagged “DRL,” with key responsibilities for training foreign service personnel in the true meaning of “human rights.” We publish the roll calls on nomination cloture and confirmation at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

The votes came amid howls of objection from left-wingers focused on a variety of issues, including what the Left calls “reproductive rights.” We have selected for our readers a few quotes from a March rallying cry by Katherine Olivera of the International Women’s Health Coalition, an outfit whose website declares it was “created by abortion rights pioneer Merle Goldberg to fund abortion training in a few select countries.”

Ms. Olivera begins by describing the distinguished professor as “join[ing] a long list of Trump-appointed ideologues in key diplomatic posts.”

Noting that the now-confirmed official comes from a post as “professor of law and the director of the Institute of Policy Research & Catholic Studies” at his DC-based university, Ms. Olivera declares Mr. Destro “has a long history of extreme opposition to women’s and LGBTQI people’s health and rights, rendering him unfit,” she blurts, “to execute the Bureau’s mission of ‘promoting freedom and democracy and protecting human rights.’

“[Prof.] Destro has spent his years in academia and law aggressively working to limit access to reproductive health care [sic]. Immediately following Roe v. Wade,” Ms. Olivera writes, “[Mr.] Destro published a paper arguing for a constitutional amendment to ‘protect life’ from the moment of conception. He has,” she further notes, “represented the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization seeking to end abortion.”

And Ms. Olivera darkly predicts, “If confirmed, Destro would bring his discriminatory and ideologically based positions to the DRL Bureau, potentially leading to dangerous US policies. In particular,” she cringes, “he would assume responsibility for crafting and publishing the State Department’s Human Rights Reports, which have historically been used as a tool by advocates and diplomats to highlight violations and hold governments accountable for human rights abuses.” [Translation: which anti-Life lobbyists have traditionally used to pressure Life-respecting governments into overturning their laws.] “The reports,” she wails, “have already suffered from the Administration’s anti-rights views with the removal of reproductive rights. If Destro is confirmed, there is a risk that the reports will be further politicized, undermining their reputation as a source of accurate analysis on the global human rights landscape.” Let’s hope so.

The anti-Destro screed goes on to attack Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for having “expanded [the DRL Bureau’s] official mission to include the protection of international religious freedom, which,” writes the abortion advocate, “under this Administration, is often used to justify discrimination. For example, the Administration has expanded protections for healthcare providers who deny care based on their personal beliefs.” [Translation: protect the consciences of medical professionals who refuse to participate in the killing of preborn babies.]

The report claims IHWC had “join[ed] with 46 organizations to urge the Senate to reject Destro’s nomination.” But he has now been confirmed and is taking up his key post in the State Department.

Revolting Reality

THOUGH NOT YET, APPARENTLY, DIRECTING A FEDERAL PROBE into the shocking discovery of remains of some 2,246 aborted babies in the Illinois home of recently deceased Indiana abortionist Ulrich Klopfer, the Vice President and White House Deputy Communications Director Judd Deere have both signaled a probe by the Justice Department would be appropriate.

“‘Murdering thousands of innocent babies is one thing,’” Mr. Deere told RealClearPolitics, quoted by Calvin Freiburger in a LifeSiteNews.com report, “‘but preserving and hoarding their bodies like trophies is a new level of sickness. … A full investigation is needed to determine whether crimes were committed and if anyone else was involved.’”

The LifeSiteNews reporter quotes Twitter messages from Vice President Pence, who was governor of Indiana at the time he was tapped to join Donald Trump on the GOP Presidential ticket. “‘The horrific discovery of 2,246 fetal remains in abortionist Dr. Klopfer’s Illinois home is appalling,’” declared Mr. Pence, “‘and should shock the conscience of every American. While I was governor of Indiana,’” he said, “‘we took his medical license away and passed a law requiring fetal remains be treated with dignity.’” And that was before the discovery of his hoarding, which occurred after the South Bend abortionist died on Sept. 3. “‘His actions should be fully and thoroughly investigated,’” declared Vice President Pence, adding, “‘The remains of the unborn must be treated with dignity and respect, and this abortionist’s defenders should be ashamed. We,’” said Mr. Pence, “‘will always stand for the unborn.’”

Breaking Their Word

DESPITE AN AGREEMENT secured in July by the White House with the four top leaders in the US House and Senate, assuring that appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2020 would not be saddled with pro-abortion provisions, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) led a move in the Senate Appropriations Committee Sept. 10 to attach an amendment blocking the Trump Administration’s Protect Life rule, which disqualifies abortionists from Title X (Ten) funding.

“Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee responded,” reports Matt Hasdro for Catholic News Agency (CNA), “by canceling a scheduled vote on the bill, prompting questions about the likely passage of the appropriations legislation just weeks before the [Sept. 30] end of the fiscal year.” The bill in question allocates taxpayer funds for the Departments of Health & Human Services, Education and Labor, as well as several other agencies.

Though the delay was occasioned by a breach of the top leaders’ agreement, Planned Parenthood’s chief lobbyist Jacqueline Ayers, reports Mr. Hadro, “called Republicans’ cancellation of the [scheduled committee] vote on the Labor-HHS appropriations bill ‘shocking and disgusting.’”

“‘It is unacceptable for Senate Democrats to renege on their end of the [appropriations] deal,’” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, quoted by CNA. “‘On day one of subcommittee markups,’” she said, “‘Senate Democrats are threatening to derail the entire process with an amendment to force taxpayers to fund the abortion industry against their clearly expressed will.’”

Candidate Watch

• KENTUCKY’s G.O.P. GOV. MATT BEVIN IS CONTINUING to raise the abortion issue in his fight to win re-election this November against Democratic Atty. Gen. Andy Beshear. In an eastern Kentucky radio interview reported by Calvin Freiburger of LifeSiteNews.com, Gov. Bevin declared, “‘I’m running against a guy in Attorney General Beshear who’s strongly pro-abortion; not only strongly pro-abortion, some of his strongest financial supporters are the providers of abortions that remain here in Kentucky.’” He continued, “‘NARAL, which is the most proactive pro-abortion organization in America, Planned Parenthood, all these people have maxed out to him, they contribute to him, they do fundraisers and they knock on doors.’” He also declared, reports Mr. Freiburger, “‘I’m a pro-life individual. I have been my entire life. I’m blessed to be the father of nine children; four of our children are adopted.’” What is more, Gov. Bevin “released an ad this week referencing the on-going trial against the pro-life investigators who exposed Planned Parenthood’s fetal organ harvesting business … . ‘This is who Planned Parenthood is; they are a barbaric organization,’ [Gov.] Bevin says in the ad,” notes LifeSiteNews. And he charges in the ad, “‘They hand-picked Attorney General Beshear. He was the one in the Democrat primary they endorsed. They sent people to rally votes on his behalf. They continue to support him financially and with feet on the ground.’” True, no doubt, but rather unusual activity for a supposed healthcare provider! Polling in the race has shown it to be a tight contest.

In the States

• WISCONSIN STATE SEN. ANDREW JACQUE IS PROMOTING a bill, reports Charlie Butts for OneNewsNow.com, which “would stop the trafficking, exploitation, use or transfer of aborted children’s body parts and … would require recording the gender and type of handicap [if any] of aborted babies.” The proposal would also, the sponsor told Mr. Butts, make sure that “‘any human remains from an abortion are disposed of in a way that … is more respectful than currently, which is unfortunately as medical waste or put down the drain.’”

• ABORTION SURVIVOR REBECCA KIESSLING CHALLENGED S. CAROLINA lawmakers to drop their intended rape/incest exception from the Heartbeat Abortion Bill being considered by the State Senate after having passed the House. “‘My story is that I was conceived when my birth mother was abducted at knifepoint by a serial rapist,’” Ms. Kiessling told the Senators, reported by Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.com. “‘She went to two illegal, back-alley abortionists [before Roe v. Wade was handed down], and I was almost aborted. Her choice was to abort me. I heard a Senator speaking about how it’s all about choice and telling different people that he’s so glad that they’re here and glad they’re alive. Well, are you glad I’m alive? Because I’m alive because I was protected. My mother did not choose life for me.’” She further declared the Heartbeat Bill’s sex-crime exception “has ‘no semblance of due process’ and is ‘denying equal protection to my people group. … These exceptions impact us lifelong,’ [Ms.] Kiessling argued,” as quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘It tells people like me that you don’t deserve to be living, that you’re subhuman somehow. That you don’t deserve to be alive.’”

Scandal Exposed

Sept. 16, 2019, Washington Update commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

            He was an “aberration,” they said. An outlier. When Pennsylvania officials raided Kermit Gosnell’s dirty, cat-infested, third-world excuse for an “abortion clinic,” liberals insisted he was an isolated case. They said it again when Douglas Karpen’s staff explained how he twisted off the heads of large babies. And they’ll say it again when reporters ask about Dr. Ulrich Klopfer, who drove the corpses of thousands of his victims to his home – some 100 miles away – to apparently keep as trophies of his killing.

            The family of Ulrich Klopfer knew about his abortion business. What they didn’t know is that he was living in a makeshift graveyard, brimming with 2,246 baby bodies and pieces of bodies – the grisly keepsakes of the doctor’s 40 years of carnage. Moving in horror throughout the property, the family uncovered one gory secret after another – eventually calling the coroner’s office for help removing the evidence of his sick fixation.

            Of course, controversy was nothing new for Klopfer, who died Sept. 3^rd after years of scandal rocked his business and eventually cost him his license. Three years ago, after hours of chilling testimony and “thousands of exhibits,” the Indiana Medical Licensing Board found him guilty of multiple charges.

            Considered Indiana’s “most prolific abortion doctor in history,” witnesses told chilling stories about a man who refused to sedate his patients, hired unqualified staff, used “rundown” equipment, falsified documents, failed to get proper consent, and about 1,830 other violations listed in the formal complaint.

            “He spoke of a 10-year-old girl raped by her uncle who he performed an abortion on in an Illinois hospital but didn’t notify police about the child abuse. Instead, he let her go home with her parents,” wrote one reporter. “He didn’t give pain medication to all women,” the board discovered, “only those under 16 and those who could pay extra. And when he did sedate women, he didn’t follow best practices for administration of the drugs and emergency procedures.” It was a theme people close to the investigation would hear a lot – a callous and unaffected man who was “essentially using the same abortion and sedation procedures from the 1970s and 1980s.” He was, as one board member put it, “professionally incompetent.”

            Now, with this diabolical bombshell – that Klopfer kept a gory stockpile of decomposing babies – the Left is back in the familiar position of trying to distance themselves from the real evil lurking behind the abortion industry’s spa robes and hot tea. The world has seen the videos. They’ve read the grand jury reports. They hear the nonchalance in courtroom testimonies describing the market for beating baby hearts. Liberals fan the fears that pro-lifers are sentencing America to back-alley abortions. Well, I’ve got news for them – we’re already there. And an entire political party is fighting to keep it that way.

            If you’re wondering where the extremism of 2020 Democrats leads, you’re looking at it. While candidates like Pete Buttigieg complain about the assault on “women’s rights,” men like Klopfer are operating butcher shops right under his nose. As the Free Beacon pointed out just last month, Mayor Pete has been one of these deficient doctors’ best allies. When the Indiana state department refused to give one of the town’s other clinics, Whole Women’s Health of South Bend, a license because it lacked “reputable and responsible character,” this candidate for President defended them. Actions that suggest, as far as he’s concerned, it’s better to jeopardize the health of a mother than put the barest of safety requirements on a dangerous clinic.

            And he’s not alone. Five US Senators and candidates for President signed their names to a Supreme Court brief that would give villains like Klopfer a free pass. Five candidates who think disgusting conditions like bloody suction machines, expired medicine and rat-infested exam rooms are just fine for America’s mothers. And we certainly don’t have to guess where the other 15 stand in a field defined by their fight for legal infanticide and taxpayer-funded late-term abortion.

            When Republicans asked their Democratic colleagues if they could work together to crack down on these unregulated barbarians, Democrats said No. So, they can wrap their agenda in all the euphemisms they want – “choice,” “women’s bodies” and “reproductive rights” – but at the end of the day, their abortion platform is rooted in the same deadly disregard for humanity as Klopfer’s.

Senate Voting Records

Cloture motion to end debate – Nomination of Robert Destro to Ass’t Secretary of State – Sept. 17, 2019 – Adopted – 49-44 (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, Isakson & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Braun & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Hyde-Smith & 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, Blackburn/TN, Cornyn/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 & Coons/DE, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Collins & 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 & Whitehouse/RI, Leahy/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV, Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Harris/CA, Roberts/KS, Warren/MA, Booker/NJ, Alexander/TN, Cruz/TX, Sanders/VT.

Nomination of Robert Destro to Ass’t Secretary of State – Confirmed – Sept. 18, 2019 – Adopted – 49-44 (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, Isakson & Perdue/GA, Crapo & Risch/ID, Braun & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Moran/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Hyde-Smith & 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, Thune/SD, Blackburn/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Lee & Romney/UT, Capito/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Enzi/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Jones/AL, Sinema/AZ, Feinstein & Harris/CA, Bennet/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Carper & Coons/DE, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Collins & King(I)/ME, Cardin & VanHollen/MD, Markey/MA, Peters & Stabenow/MI, 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 & Whitehouse/RI, Leahy/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Manchin/WV, Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Roberts/KS, Warren/MA, Klobuchar/MN, Booker/NJ, Rounds/SD, Alexander/TN, Sanders/VT.