Fifty-two million American unborn children killed by abortion since 1973. The number is so staggering that to many it is unbelievable. Fifty-two million sons, daughters, grandsons, friends, nieces, nephews denied their very right to exist with a loss to society that cannot be calculated.
Different abortion numbers are reported from various sources. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provides numbers of annual abortions which are not reliable because the CDC relies on voluntary reporting from many states and doesn’t have data from states like California (where the number is certain to be huge) and New Hampshire. Consequently, National Right to Life and Wisconsin Right to Life rely on numbers provided by the Guttmacher Institute (GI), the former research arm of Planned Parenthood.
Using the GI numbers, National Right to Life estimates that 52 million abortions have been performed in the past 37 years. Abortions once reached a high of 1.6 million annually. Current annual estimates are 1.2 million.
The woman most likely to have an abortion is between the ages of 18-34, unmarried and black.
Wisconsin has experienced one of the most dramatic abortion decreases in the country and certainly in the Midwest. Wisconsin abortions numbered 8,229 in 2008. That same year, Minnesota had 12,948 abortions, Michigan 25,970, and Illinois a whopping 47,717. Wisconsin Right to Life will continue its focused efforts to decrease abortions even further while we pray for the day when abortion is illegal and unthinkable.
The most telling message on health care reform in President Obama’s State of the Union address last night was his chiding the Senate for requiring 60 votes to pass a bill. Hint, hint: “reconciliation” is coming. Many supposedly knowledgeable pundits continue to claim that Obamacare is dead and the Senate would not dare to use the 51 vote reconciliation process, reserved only for budget not policy matters. Think again.
Speaker Pelosi now says she has the votes to pass the pro-abortion Senate health care bill as long as reconciliation can be used to pass another bill which includes the changes House members want. Obama gave her the push she needs in his speech. Wants the public to believe it is unfair to require 60 votes to pass a bill in the Senate, even though the Senate has been doing it for decades.
(As a sub-plot, enter Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska who now claims that if the health care bill is “right,” he will support reconciliation to pass it. )
Doug Johnson of National Right to Life warns that now is not the time to be lulled into complacency. As soon as Reid and Pelosi have their votes and their bill in place, Pelosi could put the Senate bill on the House floor within 24 hours. A dreadful prospect for the unborn children and older people who will be harmed if this monstrous bill is passed.
A bill (LB 104) has been introduced in Nebraska which would prohibit the performance of abortions after the fetus has the “physical structures necessary to experience pain.” The bill would require that an abortionist determine the gestational age of the unborn child before performing an abortion. It is well established scientifically that by 20 weeks gestation, the unborn child experiences substantial pain. The impact of this bill, if passed and upheld, is that abortions after about 20 weeks or later would no longer be legal if a state passes a law prohibiting such abortions.
LB 104, of course, flies in the face of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and presents a new challenge to the holdings in Roe which allows abortions to be performed throughout the full nine months of pregnancy.
Nebraska is a good state in which to set up such a challenge since notorious abortionist LeRoy Carhart publicly claims that he does abortions at 24 weeks gestation. Carhart has also assumed the mantle of the late George Tiller as the person to whom women can turn late in pregnancy for an abortion.
A bill and a state to watch as the first of its kind in the nation.
National Right to Life and other credible sources are reporting that Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi are coalescing on a strategy to pass Obamacare — not a watered-down version but the whole package. Here is how it would work:
1. House (as members hold their noses) passes pro-abortion Senate version of Obamacare with no amendments.
2. President Obama signs Obamacare into law.
3. 52 Senators agree ahead of time to changes demanded by House members
4. Senate comes up with a new bill which includes the “fixes” demanded by House members.
5. Reid brings the new bill up under “reconciliation” requiring only 51 votes, not the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster
6. The 52 Senators who pledged ahead of time to make these changes vote for the bill
7. House approves the new bill, President signs it into law
It is a subversion of the normal process and will make Americans very, very angry but leaders appear ready to try this as a last ditch effort to foist Obamacare on the country.
Action is needed immediately to contact House members and urge them to vote against the pro-abortion Senate version of Obamacare. Don’t bother to contact Senators at this time.
As reported in this blog last week, the Obamacare train is not stopped, it is just idling on the tracks. The National Right to Life Committee agrees with that assessment and is urging everyone to participate in a nationwide e-lobbying campaign. According to NRLC, Democratic leaders, despite all of the grim polls and election results, continue to meet behind closed doors to hammer out a bill they will push through both houses of Congress. It may be a watered down version of what passed both Houses passed but no one expects it to be pro-life.
So, even after last week’s stunning political fallout, we still must worry about Obamacare being foisted on the American public on the backs of the lives of unborn babies and older people.
You may have contacted your Senators and Representative already or even several times. We can’t quit know. Please help NRLC reach its goal of 250,000 contacts with Congress starting right now by clicking here. Urge them to vote NO on any version of Obamacare.
Thirty-seven years. Half a lifetime devoted to unbridled killing of unborn children. Every year, the January 22 anniversary of Roe v. Wade is a painful day, a day of immeasurable hurt. Hurt for another 1 million+ unborn children who have lost their lives. Hurt for the pain each child suffers in an abortion. Hurt for mothers and fathers, grandparents, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, who suffer the loss of a missing child or children in their lives. Hurt for society for the absence of the unique gifts each of these dead children would have brought to enrich our lives. Hurt for the loss of values which allow some to prey on the vulnerability of others, taking away their very existence.
The death toll from legal abortion in the United States alone now stands at 51 million. The number is too staggering to comprehend. Some find it unbelievable. But it is real and represents an enormous stain on the conscience of America as the most egregious and sweeping human rights abuse ever.
How do we go on year after year, defending the defenseless against odds that seem insurmountable? The real question is, how can we stop? To leave the voiceless without defenders is not an option. One by one, every human life saved is worth every sacrifice made.
We live and pray for the day when Americans recognize the enormity of what we are doing and cry out in a singular massive voice — no more, no more.
Don’t hold your breath. While pundits pontificate and even pronounce it dead, Obamacare still has breath and therefore has life. Yes, my prediction that the Senate version of Obamacare would be on the House floor tomorrow was wrong. But I believe the Obamacare train is idling on the tracks, hiding in the weeds, and refueling for the next leg of the journey.
The Dem spin on what the Brown victory means is just laughable. Even though exit polls clearly indicate that Obamacare was the main impetus to vote for Brown, our nation’s leaders pretend it isn’t so. Here’s one of my favorites from Organizing for America: “Yesterday’s disappointing election results show deep discontent with the pace of change.” The “pace” of change? These people have made a religion out of attempting to change the subject. What they don’t understand is that people are on to them and deftly read through their feeble attempts.
Obama and Pelosi are not about to throw in the towel. The next phase of Obamacare is about to unfold. And, it is certain to be pro-abortion.
Poor Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska can’t get a break. Nelson continues to claim that the phony abortion funding restrictions he approved to get his vote for Obamacare will actually prohibit federal funding of abortion coverage. Senator Barbara Boxer of California, who played a role in crafting the language, is laughing behind his back. Boxer told McClatchy News Service that the Senate version of Obamacare will do nothing to stop federal funding of abortion.
McClatchy reported that Boxer “said it’s only an ‘accounting procedure’ that will do nothing to restrict [abortion] coverage.” Sounds exactly like what the National Right to Life Committee has been saying.
Between this abortion blunder and the Nelson amendment to protect Nebraska from having to fund health care costs for new Medicaid recipients, Nelson looks inept and without principle. No wonder his approval rating has plummeted among his constituents.
If Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts Senate seat today, it will signify an enormous sea change in the world of politics. But, it will still be lost on President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid. The White House sent a very strong signal about what will happen by announcing that the State of the Union address will occur next week. Remember the plan — pass Obamacare so that Obama can tout this “achievement” in his speech.
Realistically, the only way that can be accomplished is for the House to take up the unamended Senate bill and pass it. Pelosi must have the votes or there would be no State of the Union address so soon. And, acting swiftly will divert news away from the damaging defeat in Massachusetts and back to Obamacare.
Watch for the House to take up the pro-abortion Senate bill later this week. Very sadly, this is my prediction.
A full year after it was publicly disclosed that UW Hospital and Clinics, its doctor group, and Meriter Hospital were discussing a plan to begin performing late-term abortions at the Madison Surgery Center, an outpatient facility, not a single late-term abortion has been performed. A huge public outcry ensued as the boards of the various institutions approved such a plan early last year. A number of organizations including Wisconsin Right to Life began a massive campaign to inform the public about the plan and to disrupt the revenue stream of these facilities. To date, our efforts have been successful. UW admitted in a January 17 Wisconsin State Journal article that setting up the practice is taking longer than expected.
Wisconsin Right to Life sponsored full-page ads in the State Journal, with the most important one asking individuals to switch their health insurance and health care to another system. The Alliance Defense requested and received, under the Freedom of Information Act, email correspondence between the principal leaders of the late-term abortion plan. The State Journal article reveals the content of some of the emails, most notably the ones in which officials worry if patients and doctors are leaving and going somewhere else.
The battle is far from over and more work needs to be done. It is gratifying, however, to know that between 100 and 125 babies did not suffer the pain and life-extinguishing impact of a late-term abortion last year because thousands of individuals stepped up to the plate to protest this horrendous plan.
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