Wisconsin Eye filmed the entire Wisconsin Right to Life Education Fund dinner on April 24 with Fred Barnes of Fox News Channel as our featured speaker. With over 700 in attendance, the event was a huge success. See for yourself by visiting http://wiseye.org/wisEye_programming/ARCHIVES-april08.html. Look for the April 24 Wisconsin Right to LIfe dinner.
The Milwaukee Common Council, hardly a bastion of right-to-life support, unanimously passed a resolution on April 9 commending Wisconsin Right to Life on our 40 years of advocacy in defense of human life and wishing us well in future endeavors. Kudos to Alderman Jerome Dudzik for introducing the resolution and steering it through the Council.
Right-to-life Democrat and respected columnist, Nat Hentoff, an acknowledged agnostic and liberal, recently wrote a column stating that he cannot support Barack Obama for president. While expressing admiration for much of Obama’s legislative agenda, Hentoff changed his mind when learning that Obama supports continued partial-birth abortion and voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act as an Illinois senator. Hentoff was especially offended by Obama’s statement that he wouldn’t want his daughters “punished” with a child.
Hentoff wrote, “Among my children and grandchildren are two daughters and three granddaughters; and when I hear anyone, including a presidential candidate, equate having a baby as punishment, I realize with particular force the impact that the millions of legal abortions in this country have had on respect for human life.”
What’s the Wisconsin Right to Life connection to all of this? To buttress his argument, Hentoff included a quote in his column by 15-year-old Mariah Smet, a Wisconsin Right to Life teen leader, from her testimony before the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Health and Human Services asking that our Wisconsin abortion ban be preserved.
“Whenever we talk about abortion, suddenly it’s not an unborn child anymore,” stated Mariah. “Instead, people use words like ‘fetus’ or ‘embryo’ or ‘blob of tissue’….After an abortion, there is nothing except death…22 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion, and 47 percent of women having abortions have had more than one.” Mighty impressive words from one so young. Impressive enough to catch the eye of a national icon.
Life is indeed very cheap — for some people. It is a story that wrenches our hearts. A 75-year-old grandmother and Milwaukee pastor was murdered in December 2007 by her step-grandson. Why? Because she wouldn’t give him money for an abortion for his girlfriend.
Eric Paul Henry placed a bag over the head of Pastor Anne Gordon and bound her hands and feet so that she couldn’t remove it. She died of asphyxiation.
Imagine the courage of this woman of the Lord who said no to the request for $300 for the abortion. Anne Gordon understood the preciousness of human life. She knew what her step-grandson was doing was wrong. She was true to her principles and her faith, and lost her life for being so. In my mind, Anne Gordon is a modern-day martyr.
Eric Paul Henry was convicted is now facing a sentence of life in prison. Anne Gordon is a hero who surely rests securely in the arms of her Lord and Savior.
You know you’ve done a good thing if you can raise the ire of a pro-abortion group. The ink was barely dry on Wisconsin Right to Life PAC’s news release announcing the endorsement of John McCain for president when NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin fired up its spin machine.
First the good news – our PAC did indeed endorse John McCain. As we have explained in articles and news releases, and in this blog, McCain has a 25-year voting record to preserve the sanctity of life for unborn children. As a presidential candidate, he has become ever stronger in expressing his personal belief in the rights of the unborn. Contrasted with Obama/Clinton, it is no contest.
Now, the rant. According to the NARAL Pro-Choice news release, “John McCain has taken 130 votes related to reproductive health and rights, and voted against women’s health 125 times. John McCain has a 25-year record of voting against women’s health and privacy.” He doesn’t even want to reduce abortions ala measures supported by NARAL. Could that be because, just maybe, these measures wouldn’t actually reduce abortions?
Ad nauseum, we hear from Planned Parenthood, pro-abort legislators, candidates, and the media that abortion should be safe and legal. Well, it may be legal, but don’t tell Eileen Smith it is safe. This Massachusetts mother is in utter despair over the death of her 22-year-old daughter, Laura, from a botched abortion. Laura died at the hands of Rapin Osathanondh in September of 2007 at his abortion clinic. Osathanondh has given up his medical license, and is facing a wrongful death lawsuit and possible criminal charges.
Imagine that abortion was not legal and Laura died from a so-called back-alley abortion. It would be front page news and the lead story on network/cable television news for days on end. It would be drummed into the minds of the public that Laura would be alive if abortion were legal. Of course, there would be no mention of her child who also died.
How many of you have heard of Laura Smith? Silence from the media on this tragic death which must be buried so that people will not know that women do indeed die from legal abortion.
Eileen Smith is calling for Massachusetts to pass a right-to-know law to give women more information prior to an abortion. Massachusetts legislators have rejected this type of legislation several times. Keeping women in the dark is their priority.
And I am really nauseated at this cavalier attitude which destroys women, physically and emotionally, to preserve the “right” for them to kill their own children.
How many organizations have as its goal to put itself out of work? That’s exactly the goal we at Wisconsin Right to Life are striving for.
Imagine a world where every member of the human family, born and unborn, is valued and welcomed into society regardless of their age, their mental or physical capacity, or their socio-economic status. That is the kind of world we pray and strive for… a world in which there is no need for a right-to-life movement.
That vision, unfortunately, is a long way off. As as we have done for the past 40 years, Wisconsin Right to Life will continue on into the future to advocate for the most vulnerable members of society.
This Thursday, Wisconsin Right to Life will be celebrating 40 years of life saving work at our annual Gala at the Midwest Airline Center with Fred Barnes, Charlie Sykes, Steve True, dozens of public officials, dignitaries and over 700 dedicated supporters of our great cause.
We will re-dedicate ourselves to the cause we so deeply believe in and we will do it with joy and a sense of purpose. Yes, at times we do get discouraged as we see life devalued at virtually every stage of development by certain segments of society. But that discouragement is fleeting because we know that the work we have done over the years has saved over 75,000 Wisconsin children. Wisconsin abortions are at their lowest number in 30 years and the abortion rate is 1/3 of the national rate.
The right-to-life laws that have been enacted, the educational programs (most notably the television outreach of our Veritas Society), our wonderful chapters in every county, the tremendous members and supporters of Wisconsin Right to Life and our exceptional grassroots network have all contributed to lives being saved!
There is much to be grateful for yet so much more to do! With God’s grace, let us go forward into the future with hope and determination to create a world where the right-to-life movement is no longer necessary.
Unlike the state legislature which adjourned for the 2007-08 session, the U.S. Congress is still in session. That means that right-to-life folks have to remain vigilant. With both houses of Congress under pro-abortion leadership, you just never know what is coming around the corner.
Case in point: The so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).
Apparently, the pro-abortion crowd is really upset that the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure is no longer legal in the United States. Never mind that all of the other equally gruesome ways to kill an unborn baby remain legal. The pro-abortion lobby and their allies in congress don’t want ANY restrictions on abortions!
What to do? Promote legislation (FOCA) that would not only codify Roe v. Wade but would also nullify all of the major types of right-to-laws passed by congress and by the states.
Among the types of laws that FOCA would invalidate are:
Laws prohibiting partial-birth abortion.
The Hyde Amendment, which prohibits most federal funding of abortion, and the laws of many states that restrict state funding of abortion.
Laws in effect in some jurisdictions that bar abortions in government-operated hospitals.
Laws requiring parental notification or consent before an abortion can be performed on a minor daughter.
Laws requiring that girls and women seeking abortion receive certain information on matters such as fetal development and alternative to abortion, and then wait a specified period before the abortion is actually performed, usually 24 or 48 hours.
Conscience laws, allowing doctors, nurses, or other state-licensed professionals, and hospitals or other health-care providers, to decline to provide or pay for abortions.
Under FOCA, virtually every success achieved by the right-to-life movement over the past 25 years would be wiped out!
Representative Don Pridemore has a 100% right-to-life voting record. That is very good.
Don Pridemore wants to draft legislation that would infringe on the ability of Wisconsin Right to Life and other citizen organizations to provide information to the public about the voting records and positions of candidates. That is very bad.
Pridemore believes that the information disseminated at election time by organizations, like Wisconsin Right to life, is a bother to politicians. It seems some politicians just don’t like it when organizations talk about their voting records and postions on issues. And to stop citizens organizations from getting in the way, Pridemore is considering legislation that would place restrictions on citizen organizations that would be so burdensome that the organizations would likely stop exercising their First Amendment right to freely discuss the positions and voting records of politicians.
Consider this. Unless the right-to-life movement had exposed the voting records of politicians on the issue of partial-birth abortion, how would citizens have ever received that information? Pro-partial-birth abortion politicians have never wanted this issue discussed back in their districts because a huge majority of the public strongly opposes the gruesome abortion procedure. When the right-to-life movement has informed the public which politicians voted to keep PBA legal, it made those politicians look pretty bad in the eyes of their constituents. But that wasn’t the fault of the right-to-life organizations. It was the politicians who voted to keep the procedure legal.
This is the same type of information Wisconsin Right to Life has consistently provided to the public. .. objective information that merely informs the public how politicians have voted on right-to-life issues. Issues like protecting women from being forced into having abortions, requiring parental consent prior to a minor’s abortion and other issues.
In order for Wisconsin Right to Life to continue to provide this information to the public, Pridemore wants to require us and other citizen organizations to hand over the personal information of our donors to the State, where it would be a matter of public record! That information would likely include each donor’s name, address and in certain circumstances, employment information.
Although Pridemore hasn’t specified yet what penalities he would impose if Wisconsin Right to Life refused to hand over the personal information of its donors to the State, other similar legislative proposals have included prison sentences and hefty fines.
Wisconsin Right to Life will NEVER provide the State with personal donor information. So, if Pridemore’s ideas were ever to become law, the organization would either have to stop exercising its First Amendment right to provide candidate informationto the public or face stiff penalities. Neither one is an acceptable option!
The only acceptable option is for Pridemore to cease and desist!
The fact is, the First Amendment grants every citizen the right to freely engage in political discussion at election time (or at any other time) with out any government intrusion.
It doesn’t make a bit of difference that this offensive, unconstitutional idea is coming from a legislator who has a right-to-life voting record. In this case, Pridemore’s ideas are an affront to our cherished First Amendment rights and to every Wisconsin citizen!
Speculation runs rampant on who Senator John McCain will pick as a running mate. Names like Pawlenty, Romney, Huckabee, Crist and others are bandied about.
McCain was queried directly by Hardball’s Chris Matthews about whether he would pick former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge. The forum was a town hall meeting at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, packed with students.
“Would you put a person on the ticket with you — like the former governor of this state who is very popular, Tom Ridge — even though he may disagree with you on the issue of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights?…..Would that stop him,” stated Matthews, salivating at what the response might be.
McCain responded: “I don’t know if it would stop him but it would be difficult………..I am saying it’s basically the respect and cherishing of the right of the unborn is one of the fundamental principles of my party and it’s a deeply held belief of mine.”
The student audience erupted with cheers when McCain strongly proclaimed his personal belief in the rights of the unborn.
So, who will McCain choose? Clearly, he understands by his “difficult” statement that he could lose a significant number of right-to-life voters if he chooses someone like Ridge. Although we don’t know what he will do, it was fantastic to hear McCain personalize his belief in the rights of the unborn.
It tugs at our heartstrings to see beautiful children and adults with Down syndrome at the Special Olympics, in the public, in our churches. In many ways, they are the most beloved people because of their inherent sweetness. They enrich our lives in so many ways.
Yet, there is a calculated campaign to wipe out – not this condition — but people with this condition. And, of course, it happens in the womb.
Demographically, Down syndrome children are born in greater numbers to women who have children at an older age. So, the fix is to offer amniocentesis and other prenatal tests, to a pregnant woman to see if her baby has (horror of horrors) Down syndrome or other anomalies.
Here’s the sad part. It is estimated that up to 90% of babies in the womb detected with Down syndrome or other anomalies are aborted.
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback is trying to alleviate this problem. He has introduced legislation (S. 1810) in the U.S. Senate with the goal of reducing the number of Down syndrome abortions. The legislation is designed to educate parents of a baby with a detected anomaly about the condition and to provide connection to support systems. A mother of an unborn or newborn baby with a disability would be given “up-to-date, scientific, written information concerning the life expectancy, clinical course, and intellectual and functional development and treatment options for a fetus diagnosed with or child born with Down syndrome or other prenatally or postnatally diagnosed conditions.” The bill also creates a national registry of families who will adopt children with anomalies. S. 1810 was approved by a Senate committee and Brownback is hoping to get action by the full Senate soon.
Herein lies the schizophrenia: on the one hand, we celebrate the diversity of and work to assist people with disabilities after birth. On the other hand, we allow almost an entire population of individuals with disabilities to be brutally destroyed in the womb.
On April 13, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel carried a front page story about an unborn baby boy who received lifesaving treatment in utero. And, herein lies the problem for the pro-abortionists. Was the little boy a “baby” or a “fetus?”
The mother and father knew he was a baby — in fact, they refused to “terminate” their son upon learning he had developed a tumor that affected his heart and impeded development of his lung. In a sad commentary on the medical profession, “termination” was the first and immediate option suggested. The baby boy was already 18 weeks old.
Even the Journal Sentinel had a hard time deciding. It was a “baby” in the headline and some parts of the story, and a “fetus” elsewhere. We right-to-lifers have come to detest the term “fetus,” not because it is medically inaccurate, but because we know it is the way pro-abortionists de-humanize the child. It just sounds so much better to kill a fetus than a baby. Add a gender — and you surely don’t want to say that you support killing a baby boy or girl.
This story has a very happy ending. Minimal treatment outside the womb did not work. The mother’s health worsened, the baby was going to die. So, the parents agreed to a delicate, risky in utero surgery to drain the tumor and allow the baby’s heart and lungs to escape the impact of the tumor. Success!
Baby Aden was born prematurely in January. He had surgery to remove the remainder of the tumor and part of his lung.
Baby Aden is incredibly fortunate. His parents knew he was a baby — their baby — and wanted him to live. Medical technology came to his rescue and saved his life. If every unborn baby was known as just that — a baby instead of a fetus — wouldn’t parents and medical professionals be more inclined to do everything possible to help him or her live?
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