LifeVoice - May / June 2008

Wisconsin Right To Life PAC Endorses McCain

John McCain Has 25-Year Right-to-Life Voting Record

In recognition of his strong right-to-life voting record spanning 25 years, the National Right to Life Committee and Wisconsin Right to Life have issued a statement of support for Senator John McCain for president of the United States.

McCain has repeatedly called for overturning Roe v. Wade, would appoint judges who will uphold laws created by the people instead of legislating from the bench, and will ght to keep the right-to-life platform for the Republican Party. Both organizations recognize that McCain has voted to fund embryonic stem cell research, but note that McCain has recently indicated he is open to research that does not involve the destruction of human life. McCain supports a ban on all human cloning.

National Right to Life and Wisconsin Right to Life strongly urge voters to reject Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton because of their 100% pro-abortion voting records and their vow to appoint only supporters of Roe v. Wade to the U.S. Supreme Court.

To view Senator McCain’s voting record, please go to the National Right to Life website.

Authorized and paid for by the Wisconsin Right to Life PAC, Richard Fox, Treas. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Planned Parenthood Targets Legislators with Campaign of Lies

Planned Parenthood and their cohorts in the radical pro-abortion movement are waging a campaign of lies against Assembly Representatives Jim Ott (R-Mequon), Karl Van Roy (R-Green Bay), Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee) and Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem). In radio ads, website ads and in yers mailed to constituents of the four legislators, Planned Parenthood accuses them of supporting legislation that would result in women being imprisoned for having abortions.

The truth is, no woman in Wisconsin will ever go to prison or face any penalty whatsoever for having an abortion in this state! And Planned Parenthood knows that. To attempt to justify their outrageous claims, Planned Parenthood cites a law, s. 940.04, that prior to 1985, could have been used as the basis for prosecuting women who obtained abortions.

But the unscrupulous Planned Parenthood fails to tell people that the penalties were nullied by the legislature in 1985 when legislation was enacted (s. 940.13) that completely exempts women who undergo abortions in Wisconsin from being penalized in any way under Wisconsin law. Wisconsin Right to Life was one of the organizations that supported that provision. All four targeted legislators strongly oppose penalizing women for having abortions and strongly support s. 940.13.

What is even more shocking is that Planned Parenthood participated in and endorsed the passage of the enacted 1985 law so that women were not penalized for having abortions. And now they are attacking the very law they helped to enact. This is the height of hypocrisy!

What this is about, of course, is trying to bloody up these Assembly representatives in anticipation of the 2008 elections. Whether they do it with blatant lies doesn’t seem to matter. Getting a pro-abortion majority in the Assembly, at any cost, is their goal.

But the right to life movement has its eye on the prize too and we intend for the truth to win out in the end.

Gableman Victory - Oh So Sweet

Against enormous odds, a little-known judge from a tiny town in northern Wisconsin will now sit on the State Supreme Court for the next ten years. Michael Gableman made no promises about issues or cases, as is fitting a judicial candidate. His philosophy is what won the day. Gableman clearly understands and embraces fully the role of a judge to interpret, not make, law.

And, the public now clearly understands that some judges run rampant once elected or appointed and attempt to substitute their "wisdom" for that of the people who work to enact laws through the legislature.

The legislative, not the judicial, process is true democracy as envisioned by our nation’s founders The lesson of this judicial race and others to come is that the people are now very savvy about judges and the importance of judicial races. It was interesting to hear Gableman’s opponent and other judicial candidates fall all over themselves in attempts to portray themselves as judicial conservatives – when their decisions on prior cases indicate they are not.

Wisconsin Right to Life is very proud of our efforts in this race. Again, Gableman made no promises. But, our Wisconsin laws protecting unborn children from abortion and older people from assisted suicide seem ever so much safer today.

Obama / Clinton Offer No Protection Whatsoever for Unborn

Democrats may be divided as to which of the two remaining candidates should be their nominee, but Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have each passed their party’s pro-abortion litmus test with flying colors.

Their voting records show there is no unborn child they will vote to protect. It doesn’t matter the gestational age of the child or the reason for the abortion. Obama and Clinton support abortion on demand throughout the full nine months of pregnancy for any reason.

While serving in the Illinois legislature, Obama twice voted against the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act, legislation that required hospitals to provide appropriate medical care to babies born alive after an abortion attempt. In some of our nation’s hospitals, these tiny survivors are thrown in the garbage (alive) or left in a supply room until they die without any medical attention whatsoever. Later, as chairman of the Illinois Health and Human Services Committee, Obama prevented the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act from advancing to the oor for a vote by the full senate.

Keep in mind these babies have been completely delivered from their mothers and have taken their rst breath, making them a "legal person." On this one, Obama went beyond even late-term abortion by supporting the infanticide of already born infants.

In 2003, Clinton voted to keep the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure legal by opposing the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Obama was not in the Senate when this vote took place.

Both Obama and Clinton have maintained 0% right-tolife voting records since being elected to the U. S. Senate, according to the National Right to Life Committee.

Both are co-sponsors of the so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which would invalidate all laws, state or federal, that would "deny or interfere" with "a woman’s access to abortion." Some of the laws FOCA would invalidate are laws restricting taxpayer funding of abortion, laws that ban the gruesome, late-term partial-birth abortion procedure, laws requiring parental consent prior to a minor’s abortion and many, many others. Obama has even stated that his first act as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act.

Clinton and Obama support taxpayer funding of abortion and embryonic stem cell research; creating human clones and killing them for research purposes; and allowing a stranger to transport a minor girl over state lines to have an abortion to keep her abortion a secret from her parents.

Clinton even hinted in responding to questions by an Oregon reporter that Oregon did the right thing in legalizing assisted suicide.

For people who believe that human life at all stages is intrinsically valuable and ought to be protected, Obama and Clinton are more than unacceptable … they are frightening!

To view Clinton and Obama’s voting recordsplease go to the National Right to Life website.

So-Called Freedom of Choice Act would Create an Absolute Right to Abortion

In response to the April 18, 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Gonzales v. Carhart) upholding the federal Partial- Birth Abortion Ban Act, prominent Democratic members of Congress the next day reintroduced the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA), a proposed federal law to nullify virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion. Among the types of laws that the FOCA would invalidate are laws requiring parental notication or consent.

Among the types of laws that the FOCA would invalidate are:

• 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, or judicial authorization, 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 alternatives 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.
  
  
  

ACTION NEEDED: Please contact U.S. Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold and your own U. S. House member to express your opposition to the "Freedom of Choice Act (H.R. 1964 and S. 1173). For contact information and to find out who your U. S. House member, go to www.WisconsinRightToLife.org and click on "Legislation."

Billion Dollar Baby (Killing) Corporation

Planned Parenthood Continues to Rake in Cash at Babies' Expense

When writing about Planned Parenthood, it’s hard to know where to begin. This mega-corporation is an incredible blight on our nation — and yet it receives enough public and private dollars to make it a $1 billion corporation nationally. That’s right — $1 billion. While it continues to be the top abortion provider in the nation, it speaks out of the other side of its corporate mouth that it is the major contributor to reducing the number of abortions. Sadly, some people actually buy this doublespeak.

In its most recent report from 2005-2006, Planned Parenthood (PP) performed (and received funds for) 289,750 abortions, or 25% of all U.S. abortions. As the number of abortions decline nationally, PP is bearing most of the load by increasing the number of abortions it performs by 9% in a year. Abortions provide 31% of the group’s annual income. This self-proclaimed "all options" group provided prenatal care in that same year for just 11,058 women and did only 2,413 adoption referrals.

On a brighter note, things went quite badly for Wisconsin’s PP last year. It had to shut down its Appleton and Milwaukee abortion clinics for seven months! In keeping with its penchant for doublespeak, PP claimed that the clinics were closing for only two months, supposedly to upgrade surgery centers, paperwork, and employee training. Then, ads appeared on the PP website looking for abortionists for — guess what — the Appleton and Milwaukee abortion clinics. Logic suggests that they couldn’t nd anyone to perform abortions.

Wisconsin Abortion Ban Saved as Hundreds Flock to Capitol!

If you believe people can’t make a difference – you are wrong. Over five hundred valiant, committed Wisconsin right-to-lifers left home, school and jobs to come to the state capitol for a public hearing on February 27. Their goal – to save Wisconsin’s 160-year-old historic abortion ban by opposing SB 398, proposed legislation to repeal the ban. This ban would go into effect and immediately shut down Wisconsin abortion clinics once Roe v. Wade is overturned. SB 398 never even made it out of committee as the sun faded on the 2007-2008 biennial legislative session on March 13. Mission accomplished! The ban is saved.

The most compelling part of the hearing was the testimony of post-abortive women who have been devastated by abortion. Up-and-coming right-to-life youth leaders were poised, passionate, and articulate in their defense of human life. The testimony of these individuals is a credit to you – the supporters of Wisconsin Right to Life who give generously to our youth programs and outreach to post-abortive women. Please login to our website and visit this page to read this outstanding testimony.

Planned Parenthood (PP) and its legislative allies were taken by surprise when their 50 or so people were totally outnumbered by the hundreds of right-to-lifers. PP could be heard in the hallways on phones pleading with their supporters to come – to no avail.

Wisconsin Right to Life gratefully thanks those who came, those who testified, Relevant Radio, diocesan respect life coordinators, diocesan newspapers, and Christian radio stations for their part in achieving this glorious outcome. We must be ever vigilant to ensure that s. 940.04 of the statutes, our Wisconsin abortion ban, continues to transcend the centuries as a lasting solution to protect our precious unborn children and their mothers.

Teen Training Camps Prepare Teens to Speak Up for Life!

How do our young people learn what they need to know to speak up for life?

They attend Wisconsin Right to Life’s Teen Training Camps!

Change of schedule: Our 2008 Wisconsin Teens for Life Summer Leadership Training Conferences have had a change of schedule. The North camp, originally scheduled for June 15 – 20, has been re-scheduled for August 10 - 15.

The South camp dates (July 20 – 25) remain unchanged.

Nehemiah is the advanced training camp. Esther is a prerequisite for attendance at Nehemiah. Teen Training Camps Prepare Teens to Speak Up for Life! You can sponsor your teen or a young adult to one of these camps.

Please send your donation for the summer camps to Cathy Souhrada, Wisconsin Right to Life, 10625 W. North Avenue, Ste. LL, Milwaukee, WI 53226.

For camp registration information, contact Joleigh Little via email.

Learn more at the Wisconsin Teens for Life website.

The Top Five Reasons to Die Without a Will

Here are the top five most compelling reasons to depart this life without a will. . .

1. The court can do a better job of deciding how to disburse your assets than you can.
   
   
2. The court can choose a better representative to handle your estate than you can.
   
   
3. The court can choose a more caring guardian for your children than you can.
   
   
4. The government will use your estate tax dollars more efficiently than your favorite charity would use a charitable bequest.
   
   
5. Your grieving loved ones will be better off looking after your affairs without your will.

Good reasons? Hardly. Wisconsin Right to Life urges you to take action now. For the sake of everyone involved, please don’t put off this important planning any longer. You can extend life beyond your lifetime by remembering Wisconsin Right to Life in your will. Learn more by contacting our development office, toll free, 877 855-5007.

Or, learn more online at our Legacy Gifts page.

How to be an Email Grass-Roots Lobbyist in Five Minutes or Less

Visit our website. At the home page, click "Sign Up for E-Voice." Fill in the required fields and you’re all set to be a "Five-Minute Grass-Roots Lobbyist." How? From time to time you will find an E-Voice email in your inbox urging you to take immediate action on a particular right-to-life issue. Right in the body of the email you will find your legislator’s name, email address and phone number.

All you need to do to take action is email or call your legislator. Saving lives through legislative action has never been easier or faster!

Get started today at: www.WisconsinRightToLife.org

Father's Adult Stem Cells Give Life to Son

In yet another triumph of adult stem cells, little Andrew Meuting of Dodge City, Kansas, has been cured of a life-threatening disease after he received adult stem cells from his father’s blood. A special machine ltered and prepared Nick Meuting’s blood to be transplanted to his son. Andrew’s body is now free of the disease, called malignant infantile osteopetrosis, and he is expected to live a normal, healthy life.

Now three years old, "Andrew’s doing great," his mother Paula told NRL News. "He’s brilliant. He wants to know everything, be involved with everything."

Born after an uneventful pregnancy September 7, 2004, Andrew’s parents didn’t suspect anything was wrong until a few months went by. They noticed that the soft spot on his head was raised, and he was not eating very well.

Eventually, they took him to the emergency room, where a doctored diagnosed hydrocephalus and prescribed the placement of a shunt to drain excess water from Andrew’s brain. But before the surgery was to begin, a chest x-ray showed that all of his ribs were broken.

Doctors realized that rather than fluid on the brain, Andrew had a rare condition called malignant infantile osteopetrosis. His ribs had probably been broken during his birth. The genetic condition affects the normal process of bone development, when cells called osteoblasts make bones and osteoclasts break down bone tissue. This process occurs throughout life. In Andrew’s body, however, the osteoclasts were not working, causing bone tissue to build up unchecked.

"It causes bones to be like chalk," Paul Meuting said. "They are dense but will easily break and shatter." The condition is usually fatal within a few years, because the bones grow so dense they will strangle bone marrow to cause anemia, the optic nerve to cause blindness, and other vital systems.

While their doctors were researching potential treatments, the Meutings went to the Internet to educate themselves. They e-mailed specialists in the field and eventually went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The stem cell transplant took place February 2, 2005. First, Andrew underwent chemotherapy "to knock out his immune system so it didn’t reject the new cells," Mrs Meuting said. Nick was given medication to increase his production of stem cells. The donation was obtained in much the same way that a person would give blood. Nick’s blood was then filtered to remove the T-cells, which could cause Andrew’s body to reject the transplant.

The actual transplant "was anticlimactic," said Paul Meuting. "It took 20 minutes, and was a push of blood into the IV."

Although the transplant was soon shown to be successful, Andrew faced another 77 days of challenges, probably the result of the trauma to his system by the chemotherapy, Mrs. Meuting said. He suffered respiratory failure and had to be intubated, and was sedated in a medically induced coma for 50 days.

Eventually, Andrew gained strength and was able to breathe on his own. Subsequent tests have shown that Andrew’s blood is now made up completely of Nick’s cells, which will prevent the osteopetrosis from reoccurring.

Paula Meuting had nothing but praise for everyone who helped them through the ordeal. Due to flexible work schedules and supportive employers, they were able to stay at St. Jude’s with Andrew for the entire time he was there. And St. Jude’s charges families nothing. "If there was something the insurance company wouldn’t pay, St. Jude never billed us," she said.

"We were lucky in every way, shape, and form."

"Our families have helped us so much to make sure that Andrew didn’t miss a beat," Meuting told the Catholic News Service. "He’s really a bright kid; it’s truly amazing. He remembers just about everything. Ask him to sing a song and he’ll sing it for you. He knows the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors. He’s known that for a year. Intelligence wise, it hasn’t slowed him down a bit."

Thanks to Liz Townsend, NRL News, for this story.

Where do the candidates for president stand on life?

Find out! When you download the comparison, you'll find "Where Do the Republicans Stand on Life?" (in red) and "Where Do the Democrats Stand on Life?" (in blue).

Available here:
Download the Presidential Comparison (PDF)

Memorials and Honorariums:
Honor a loved one’s anniversary or special occasion with an Honorarium gift, or celebrate the life of a loved one with a Memorial gift. Special cards in honor of your gift are sent to your loved one’s family and their names will be published at our website: www.WisconsinRightToLife.org/memorials.htm

United Way:
You may be able to designate your United Way gift to us. Contact Mary Phillips in our development office, toll free at (877) 855-5007 or (414) 778-5780.

Learn more about Wheels for Life and print donation forms online.