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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Senate Approves Parental Consent


The Idaho State Senate approved SB1082 on a 23-12 vote Monday morning. The vote puts the legislation well on its way to becoming law.


During debate, the bill sponsor, Sen. Russ Fulcher, argued that it was more than ironic that our teenage daughters needed our permission to get an aspirin from the school nurse – but we wouldn’t even be informed after an abortion as things now stand.


The only Democrat to support the measure was Sen. Diane Bilyeu of Pocatello. Sen. Edgar Malepeai, also from the Pocatello area, supported the measure in committee, but switched his vote on the floor. He said during debate that he was just troubled by how the legislation would affect girls coming from dysfunctional homes.


There were some other pleasant surprises. A number of freshmen cast votes on their first pro-Life legislation: Jim Hammond of Post Falls; Lee Heinrich of Cascade; Steven Bair of Blackfooot and Jeff Siddoway of Terreton.


Sen. John Goedde of Coeur d’Alene, who usually doesn’t support pro-Life legislation, cast a vote in support of the bill.


Probably the most disappointing vote came from John Andreason of Boise’s District 15. Without comment, he voted against the bill. Sen. Andreason has voted at least three times for Parental Consent legislation during his 7 terms in the Senate. But he bailed out on principle yesterday, voting against legislation which is considerably weaker than those previous versions.


The measure now heads to the House State Affairs Committee.


Here is how the full Senate voted:


02/26 SB1082 as amen - PASSED - 23-12-0


AYES – Bair (R), Bastian (R), Bilyeu (D), Cameron (R), Corder(R) Darrington(R), Davis (R), Fulcher (R), Gannon (R), Geddes (R), Goedde (R), Hammond (R), Heinrich (R), Hill (R), Jorgenson(R), Little (R), Lodge(R), McGee (R), McKague (R), McKenzie (R), Pearce (R), Richardson (R), Siddoway (R)

NAYS – Andreason (R), Broadsword (R), Burkett (D), Coiner (R), Kelly (D), Keough (R), Langhorst (D), Malepeai (D), Schroeder(R), Stegner (R), Stennett (D), Werk (D)

Absent and excused – None

Floor Sponsor – Fulcher
Title Approved - to House

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Saturday, February 24, 2007

Washington Planned Parenthood Clinic Closes


Planned Parenthood announced that it will close one of its Washington state facilities on March 8th. Located in Longview, the clinic does not provide abortion services – but it does offer various products like condoms, breast exams and contraceptives. They do, however, provide abortion referrals.


Planned Parenthood blamed the closing on cutbacks in state funding of “reproductive health services”.


STOP Planned Parenthood President Jim Sedlak joined many pro-Lifers in celebrating the setback for America’s largest abortion provider. He indicated in a news release that the closure demonstrates how dependent this radical organization is on public tax dollars.


The rejoicing may not over. Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Jennifer Allen indicated that several other clinics in the state may have to close as well.

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Parental Consent Bill Moves to Senate Floor


The Senate State Affairs Committee voted 7-2 to send a new Parental Consent bill to the full Senate. There are a couple technical amendments which ought be dealt with on the Senate floor by week’s end – then the legislation will be considered for final passage early next week.

From there, the legislation is expected to move to the House Committee on State Affairs.

The motion to send SB1082 to the floor was made by Sen. Geddes, seconded by Sen. Little. Chairman Curt McKenzie voted for the measure, as did Sens. Jorgensen, Darrington, Davis and Malepeai. The latter gentleman was the only Democrat to vote for the bill.

Pro-Life testimony was best summarized by Mrs. Susan Drayton, who pleaded, “Do not allow strangers to continue to trespass into our lives”. Without parental consent laws, abortionists and Planned Parenthood employees will likely have more to say to your teenage daughter about her abortion than you will. For several years now, Idaho daughters have had virtually no protection from the false promises of the Abortion Industry.

A number of pro-Life leaders testified in support of the bill, including Bryan Fischer of the Idaho Values Alliance and Brandi Swindell of Generation Life.

David Ripley, Executive Director of Idaho Chooses Life pointed to medical research showing the tremendous potential impact an abortion could have on a young lady’s future: Increased risk of breast cancer, drug abuse, premature births of subsequent babies and repeat abortions. All of those personal tragedies and social maladies come with a big cost to taxpayers. For those concerned about the litigation costs of Idaho’s pursuit of an effective Parental Consent Law over the past 7 or 8 years – they would be well advised to consider the huge impact of these social problems on the public treasury.

At this stage of the process, it seems unlikely SB1082 will be challenged in court. During hard questioning by Senate members, abortion advocates were unable to identify a single constitutional issue with the bill.

Your continued prayer support is essential.

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Friday, February 09, 2007

Anti-Coercion Bill Introduced in House

It may sound elementary at a time when all we hear is the chorus, “A woman’s right to choose….” But all around us, women and girls are facing multiple levels of pressure and intimidation to abort their babies.

The Elliot Institute reports that up to 64% of post-abortive women confess that they were forced into abortion.

Some of that coercion takes the form of emotional blackmail. Some threats involve a husband or boyfriend abandoning the woman if she doesn’t kill the child. There have been national stories about parents kidnapping their teenage daughters and carrying them into an abortuary; or employers promising job termination if the woman’s pregnancy doesn’t end.

Oddly enough, only 5 states have laws which attempt to protect women from coercion. Idaho is not one of them.

On Thursday, the House Health & Welfare voted to print a bill which seeks to correct that serious hole in Idaho law. Led by Rep. Bob Nonini in the House and Sen. Monty Pearce in the Idaho Senate, a group of seven legislators are working with Idaho Chooses Life to enact the “Idaho Anti-Coercion Act”.

It would, for the first time, make it clear that it is a crime to coerce a woman or girl into getting an abortion.

We believe that most legislators will come to see this protection as necessary and long overdue. But we will need your help to get the legislation passed. Please make time in your schedule over the next week to contact your legislator.

Idaho’s daughters need to be protected. They need to be free to choose life for their vulnerable babies.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Feminist Engineers Suffer Setback


We carried a piece in our recent newsletter about efforts by the feminist movement to revive the Equal Rights Amendment. Some of our folks were a bit incredulous. After all, many have even forgotten about this ill-advised attempt to reengineer society.

The Equal Rights Amendment, submitted to the states back in 1972, was officially declared dead by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 after it failed to get approval by 38 states in the time established by Congress.

But, believe it or not – leaders of the movement are determined to resume efforts on securing three more states’ ratification. Having become quite accustomed to special treatment from the federal courts on matters like abortion – they are betting that they can call the Supreme Court’s bluff.

And just this week, they brought forth a vote in the Arkansas House on the ERA. At first, it seemed like a forgone conclusion. Feminists announced earlier this year that they had some 66 co-sponsors of the ratifying language. I guess denial was finally overcome as conservatives swung into action.

Pro-Life leaders began working legislators in Arkansas. They needed to know that ERA language adopted in state constitutions have already been used as potent weapons to destroy the minimal restrictions on abortion won through the legislatures. For example, the New Mexico state ERA was used by state courts there to obliterate restrictions on public funding of abortions. A similar phenomenon occurred in Connecticut.

Fortunately for America – an Arkansas House committee voted down the ratification resolution after 20 of those original sponsors learned more about its ramifications.

We need to watch this whole plot more closely. And give thanks for those family champions who met the threat in Arkansas.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Parental Consent Bill Launched in Idaho Senate


The Senate State Affairs Committee voted to introduce our Parental Consent legislation yesterday. It should have an official bill number early next week.

Sen. Russ Fulcher (R-Kuna) is championing the measure in the Senate; Rep. Tom Loertscher (R-Iona) is the chief House sponsor. Sen. Fulcher fielded a variety of questions from members of the panel – many of whom have been involved in this effort for many years.

Naturally, some members of the committee are skeptical of claims that this version of Parental Consent will withstand the scrutiny of Judge Lynn Winmill and his compatriots on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. We have, after all, been down this road several times. Skepticism aside – the hearing went well. Sen. Fulcher handled preliminary questions with skill and appreciation for the long and hard road we’ve been on to secure basic protections for our daughters.

Representatives of Attorney General Lawrence Wasden also handled themselves and the questions with great professionalism. His office has put tremendous effort into resolving a number of potential problems with a parental consent law in Idaho; given two rounds of litigation in Idaho federal courts since 2000, that job has gotten exceedingly complex.

In what is a rarity in our experience – the motion by Sens. Little and Jorgenson to formally consider the bill was supported by a unanimous voice vote by the committee.

Now that the bill has been made public – we urge you to contact legislators. It may be a week or more before the actual hearing, which gives the Abortion Lobby plenty of time to organize public opposition. Your diligent prayer support is necessary for this effort to succeed.

We’ll have a more thorough discussion of the legislation in a coming post.

But let’s close this one with a warm “thanks” to the Lord for helping us remain faithful to this effort – and for the leadership of champions like Russ Fulcher and Tom Loertscher.

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