His remaining days in office are numbered, and this Thanksgiving, President Bush is certain to give thanks for many things accomplished during his tenure as President.
The right-to-life cause has reason to give great and grateful thanks to President Bush for his strong and dedicated promotion of the culture of life. During his presidency:
Abortions continued their downward trend.
Federal funding was denied to those promoting or performing abortions overseas or in military hospitals.
The partial-birth abortion ban became law. Not only did President Bush sign this important law, but his administration fought attempts to overturn it in three court jurisdictions and all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Born Alive Infants Protection Act was signed into law.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act was signed into law.
John Roberts and Samuel Alito were named to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Funding for abstinence programs was made available to the states.
Conscience rights for medical professionals and facilities were strengthened.
The Justice Department took an assisted suicide case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
President Bush changed the face of the stem cell debate. Not only did he refuse to spend federal monies to destroy human embryos for research purposes, Bush increased funding for ethical adult stem cell research which is helping real people with real diseases.
Bush withstood enormous pressure to fund destruction of human embryos and for that he is a special hero. His unwavering commitment to life led scientists to discover iPS cells which are revolutionizing the industry. iPS cells do not rely on the destruction of human life, are plentiful and easy to obtain, and will be patient-specific so they are not rejected by the recipient.
God be with you President Bush. Please know of our undying gratitude for all you have done to advance the cause of life. You will be sorely missed.
The latest addition to Obama’s team is our own Wisconsin “ethicist,
Alto Charo, who will serve his administration in the area of Health and Human Services.
We at Wisconsin Right to Life are very familiar with Charo who is a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin and is an “ethics” advisor to the embryonic stem cell research programs in Madison.
Charo has appeared at several public hearings passionately defending the destruction of embryos for research purposes. Her most memorable appearance was in opposition to a ban on all human cloning, including for research purposes. Remember, Charo is an “ethicist,” not a scientist. The real scientist sitting next to me was astonished to hear Charo tell the committee that human cloning was needed to trace genetic factors in families like hers. I’d like to pretend Charo made this up on the spot, but it was part of her written testimony.
Speculation is that Charo could also wind up promoting abortion as a high-level official in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Rounding out Obama’s anti-life picks are Jonathan Moreno, a professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and ardent supporter of destruction of human embryos, who will be Obama’s bioethics leader. Ellen Moran, Executive Director of the pro-abortion Emily’s List, will be the White House Communications Director.
Anyone who believes Obama is moderating his views, especially on the life issues, is living in a fantasy world.
Stopping the so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is the most critical current goal of the right-to-life movement. Wisconsin Right to Life is leading the way with creation of a special web page, complete with a video on FOCA, a petition to sign, sign-ups to keep posted on FOCA, volunteer recruitment for distributing materials, information on how to contact your Congressman/U.S. Senators, and full information on FOCA itself.
To visit this web page, please click here. Please help by circulating this link to whomever you can.
For all of their blather about the “right to choose,” pro-abortion groups remained silent about the plight of a Chinese woman, six months pregnant Arzigul Tursun, who was detained in a Chinese hospital so that she could undergo a forced abortion.
New Jersey Congressman and right-to-life hero, Chris Smith, pleaded with the U.S. Ambassador to China to spare Tursun and her child from a forced abortion. Human rights groups took up Tursun’s case and local groups in China helped her family. Tursun was eventually released.
This case demonstrates that China continues its longstanding forced abortion policy. For women who attempt to have second child, the Chinese government confiscates the family’s property, takes away jobs, or sterilizes and even imprisons those who simply want more than one child. The right-to-life movement, under the leadership of Rep. Chris Smith, has long fought funding for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) using federal tax dollars. UNFPA has been integrally involved in China’s coercive one child per family policy for many years.
President Bush has withheld $240 million in taxpayer dollars from the UNFPA since 2002 because of its involvement in forced abortions. Sadly, Obama has already announced he will renew payments to UNFPA.
Obama and his friends at Planned Parenthood and NARAL are proving by their actions , or lack thereof, that “pro-choice” really means “pro-abortion.”
Doug Kmiec strikes again! Just yesterday, I expressed skepticism that self-described pro-lifers like Kmiec who supported Obama would actually help lobby Obama to prevent the unraveling of all of the laws which have been saving lives for 35 years.
Kmiec told the Washington Post that efforts to ban abortion have failed so we have to turn our attention to meeting the needs of pregnant women.
How insulting! What does he think we’ve been doing for the past 35 years? While he is trying to redeem himself and cover Obama’s back by claiming that suddenly we are going to help pregnant women, his new “friends” at the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) initiated a broadside at the very Pregnancy Help Centers that have been helping pregnant women for decades.
It is clear that groups like FMF will lobby Congress and Obama to shut down the dedicated centers that selflessly work to meet every need a pregnant woman has.
So, let’s get things straight. Abortions have been decreasing fairly dramatically. But we are going to reduce them further by overturning the laws that have fueled the decrease , and put those who really care about mothers and their babies out of business.
Although we are now two weeks post-election, the glow of Obama supporters has not faded. They are elated for the various reasons for which they supported him. I am happy for them and the success they believe they have helped achieve.
What will happen to the Obama supporters who support the right-to-life, are against legal abortions, want parental involvement prior to a minor’s abortion, don’t want their tax dollars used to pay for abortions, and find partial-birth abortions abhorrent? Will they fade into the woodwork?
What about Doug Kmiec, the self-described pro-lifer, who jumped on the Obama bandwagon early? Will he now be as vocal in helping to Stop FOCA? Will he quietly or publicly tell Obama that his health care package should not include taxpayer funding of abortion? I am skeptical.
I am more interested in Obama supporters who are sincerely concerned about Obama’s extreme abortion views. Quite frankly, we need their help. If you are one of them, I welcome your comments, advice and assistance.
The good news about the election results is that the threat of losing all of the abortion restrictions so carefully constructed and fought for throughout the states over the past 35 years is energizing people to get involved.
Stopping FOCA will be a major project for Wisconsin Right to Life in the upcoming months. While pundits act as thought FOCA will not be an Obama priority (one even called it a suicide move for Obama), it is important not to give great credence to this rhetoric. To do so would be “suicide” for babies and mothers we have valiantly protected over the years.
Focusing on Obama is not the right strategy, anyway. Even though he promised Planned Parenthood that signing FOCA is the first thing he’d do as President, the bill has to get to his desk. This means the Congress, headed by ardent pro-abortionist Nancy Pelosi and sometimes right-to-life Harry Reid, will be in charge of when FOCA becomes a priority.
Make no mistake. Planned Parenthood and NARAL have fought abortion restrictions like parental involvement before a minor’s abortion and giving women full information prior to an abortion furiously in the legislatures and the courts for the past three decades. They salivate at the new Congress, viewing it as a means to realize their ultimate goal — abortion with no restrictions whatsoever and burying the right-to-life movement.
Stay tuned as efforts develop to make certain that, whatever we do in the next years, stopping FOCA is the ultimate effort to continue reducing abortions in our state and country.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the head of the national Catholic bishops’ conference, has succinctly framed the issue of abortion in a manner that has been a long time in coming.
While congratulating the American people for electing the first African-American president, George also challenged the nation and Obama.
“If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, that African-Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons, were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be President of the United States,” said George.
“The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice.”
This argument needs to be used over and over in convincing the public of the following: In the same manner that we justly decry racism as evil, society should denounce the killing of the helpless child in the womb as a fundamental injustice. It is just as wrong to be pro-abortion as it is to be racist.
The Catholic bishops are rightly concerned that the pro-abortion tilt of Obama and some in Congress will deny conscience protection to Catholic medical professionals and facilities. The bishops talked at their recent meeting of closing Catholic hospitals rather than comply with any mandate forcing them to perform abortions.
The bishops are planning to lobby Obama regarding the conscience issue, FOCA, embryonic stem cell research and taxpayer abortion funding. It is a hefty agenda. Will Obama listen?
After an eleven year string of failures in various states, euthanasia proponents recognized a significant victory when Washington State voters legalized assisted suicide via a November 4 ballot measure. Buoyed by this success, Compassion and Choices and its allies are gearing up for a state by state strategy to add to Oregon and Washington other states that will offer death as an option.
Will Wisconsin be next? Senator Fred Risser of Madison, who introduces legalization legislation every session, certainly got the message. His sidekick, Rep. Frank Boyle, has retired from the legislature, but Risser will be recruiting companions to assist him in pushing for a culture of death.
In Washington State, doctors and hospitals are lining up to let prospective patients and the public know they will not participate in assisted suicide. This is very good news — no practitioners, no deaths. Perhaps, assisting in death will become a new “specialty,” like abortion, with only a few medical people participating.
Proponents of euthanasia raised an incredible amount of money to promote the I 1000 initiative. Donors as far away as England made huge contributions. By concentrating on one state, proponents were able to consolidate their resources and achieve success. It is a lesson to be learned.
As expected, after the new Congress convenes in January, the Democrat congressional leadership along with their allies in the pro-abortion movement will push for the enactment of the so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).
FOCA would overturn all of the federal and state laws passed in the past 35 years that restrict abortion by protecting women and unborn babies.
Here’s what FOCA would usher in:
Taxpayer funding of abortion
Partial-birth abortions
Secret abortions for minors with no parental involvement
No required informed consent with waiting periods for women seeking abortions
No conscience rights for medical professionals who object to participating in abortion
That’s right … all of the laws that have been saving human lives since 1973 would be wiped out and the numbers of abortions will skyrocket.
Wisconsin Right to Life is now putting in action a comprehensive plan to defeat FOCA. Expect to hear more in the days and weeks to come.
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