Senator Mike Crapo and Congressman Bill Sali both received 100% scores for 2007 from the Family Research Council. Sali’s score was based upon 16 key pro-family votes during the 1st Session of the 110th Congress.

Congressman Mike Simpson received an 81% from FRC because he only voted with the organization thirteen-of-sixteen times. They report that he missed three key votes, 2 of which involved attempts to undermine President Reagan’s "Mexico City Policy". (This principle, first enacted by Reagan, prohibits the use of federal dollars from going to organizations that perform abortions in foreign countries; e.g., Planned Parenthood International.) Simpson also missed a vote on legislation which would guarantee that Christian organizations could access Head Start dollars.

The FRC Guide may also be misreporting Simpson’s opposition to the expansion of CHIP – the Children’s Health Insurance Program. They show both Sali and Simpson opposing this measure, which would use federal dollars to pay for abortions in some 17 states; our understanding is that Sali and Simpson have strong disagreements about this expansion and the impact on families and the nation’s moral health. if we're correct, Simpson's score should actually be 75%.

Senator Larry Craig received the lowest score in the delegation, 71%. He was dinged for missing two key votes on international funding of abortions.

It takes a certain arrogance to defy the culture and fundamental moral precepts like, "Thou Shall Not Kill". Such arrogance may best explain the stunning public remarks of Dr. Alberto Hodari to a group of students at Wayne State University last fall.

During the speech, Hodari discusses his abortion practice and the Detroit area abortionist laughingly tells his audience:

"My wife says we doctors have a license to lie, and it’s true. It’s absolutely true. Sometimes you need to lie to a patient about things they want to do or no."

His remarks have sparked controversy since a video tape was released last week by "Students for Life of America".

Over the long history of legalized abortion, thousands of women have reported that they were misled or manipulated by various players in the Abortion Industry into killing their baby. Lies like, "It is just a collection of cells" or "It is not really a baby" or "It will just take a few minutes and then your life will go back to normal" have been used to help pressure women and girls into disposing of their children.

This "just lay down and shut up" attitude seems all too common in the Abortion Industry – and denotes the lack of respect many seem to have toward women and girls in crisis.

And why is this guy even on campus in the first place?

Numerous pro-Life Christians from around the country have expressed outrage and repulsion at the antics of Planned Parenthood in Schenectady, New York this week.

The Times Union reported on a small group of clergy who concocted some sort of "blessing" ceremony of Planned Parenthood’s new abortion facility in the city. It was in part a celebration of Roe v. Wade, and partly a propaganda effort designed to further dull the nation’s conscience to the horrors of abortion.

The Reverend Larry Phillips of Schenectady’s Emmanuel-Friedens Church (United Church of Christ) led the pagan ceremony, declaring Planned Parenthood’s killing facility to be "sacred and holy" ground. He was joined by the Reverend Abby Norton-Levering, Rabbi Matt Cutler and the Reverend Bill Levering, senior pastor of the First Reformed Church.

Christians are rightly offended by such contempt for the Gospel, but we need to realize that this compromise with evil is nothing new to the American clergy. Planned Parenthood operative Linda Scharf is quoted as saying, "Clergy have long supported Planned Parenthood’s mission …. The clergy were instrumental in getting abortion services legalized in the United States and right here in Schenectady. I know a member of the clergy who was part of an underground who directed young women to safe abortions before Roe v. Wade."

For those interested in learning more about Satan’s work among the nation’s ministers, we urge you to find a copy of Tom Davis’s Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances. He is an advocate of abortion and documents in his 2005 book the extent to which apostate clergy have helped legitimize the killing of God’s innocents. Here is a chilling excerpt which proves the truth of Ms. Scharf’s claim:

"…on May 22, 1967, the Reverend Howard Moody and twenty one other leading New York City clergy startled the nation when the New York Times ran a front-page story describing the formation of something called the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion. The service would help women find safe abortions in a nation where the procedure was illegal. It quickly grew into a nationwide network of nearly 1,500 ministers and rabbis."

Such brazen activity puts even more pressure on legitimate, orthodox elders in the Christian and Jewish communities to defend God’s honor by engaging more vigorously in the fight to protect the most vulnerable among us.

Planned Parenthood’s Alan Guttmacher Institute published a report yesterday claiming that the number of babies killed through abortion declined to 1.2 million in 2005 – the latest year for which full numbers across the country are available. That is down from a national high of 1.6 million babies in 1990.

In fact, it is the lowest death count since 1976.

Planned Parenthood spinmeisters immediately lurched to claim credit: “This study shows that prevention works, and that’s what we provide in our health centers every day,” says PP President Cecile Richards in a Yahoo News article published yesterday.

Pro-Life groups naturally contended that efforts to save babies during the past 35 years have had an effect: legislation, pro-Life pregnancy centers, prayer vigils and intensified promotion of abstinence programs during the past decade.

The Guttmacher study also found that the number of abortion providers declined from 2000 to 2005.

The 25% drop in the number of abortions represents a substantial drop in income for the Abortion Industry, led by Planned Parenthood. If the trends hold, they are losing some $190 million annually; which may explain why Planned Parenthood is pushing expansion of federal aid and the Morning After Pill with such desperation.

If the numbers are accurate, we have much for which to give thanks. The Lord has spared the lives of millions of babies over the last several years.

Americans United for Life has just issued its ranking of the states according to the strength of protections for preborn children and other pro-Life laws. Idaho scores in the middle –at 24th.
Topping the list is Michigan, followed by Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, Kansas and South Dakota.

At the other end: Montana (#40), Washington (#36), California (#49) and Oregon (#50).
Neighboring Utah came in just above Idaho at #23.

The results are not particularly surprising, given the slow progress we’ve made here pushing against the edicts of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Among the states in the nation’s most liberal circuit, Idaho scored second best behind Arizona (#21).

AUL specifically dinged Idaho for its failure to enact legislation banning human cloning and other unethical scientific research methods, an area which has received no legislative scrutiny.

As a new legislative battle looms over the “Comprehensive Sex Ed” dogma, another study appears from England showing that such efforts are extraordinarily damaging to young people.
Despite a greatly expanded government program to provide sex education and birth control to young children in that nation – or perhaps because of it – the rate of Chlamydia infection has hit epidemic proportions. It is estimated that 1 in 10 children in that country are infected with the disease. This report follows an earlier one showing that teen pregnancy is also up.

“These figures are astounding, and show that we need to focus more on discouraging young teenagers from having intercourse too early. No only is underage sex illegal, it is unhealthy and dangerous…,” says Dr. Trevor Stammers, a London physician quoted in a story appearing on WorldNetDaily. (01.12.08).

But don’t expect such facts to discourage champions of the “Condom Gospel” ensconced in the Idaho Legislature. Just 3 years ago, the Idaho Senate passed legislation giving Planned Parenthood $15 million in additional state money to pay for more condoms and birth control pills for children. It was only a pitched battle in the Idaho House which stopped this attack on Idaho’s kids.

Look for Republicans like John Andreason, Chuck Coiner and Shawn Keogh to once again lead efforts this session to expand public subsidies for Planned Parenthood – an action which will place our children at even greater risk.

As a new legislative battle looms over the “Comprehensive Sex Ed” dogma, another study appears from England showing that such efforts are extraordinarily damaging to young people.
Despite a greatly expanded government program to provide sex education and birth control to young children in that nation – or perhaps because of it – the rate of Chlamydia infection has hit epidemic proportions. It is estimated that 1 in 10 children in that country are infected with the disease. This report follows an earlier one showing that teen pregnancy is also up.

“These figures are astounding, and show that we need to focus more on discouraging young teenagers from having intercourse too early. No only is underage sex illegal, it is unhealthy and dangerous…,” says Dr. Trevor Stammers, a London physician quoted in a story appearing on WorldNetDaily. (01.12.08).

But don’t expect such facts to discourage champions of the “Condom Gospel” ensconced in the Idaho Legislature. Just 3 years ago, the Idaho Senate passed legislation giving Planned Parenthood $15 million in additional state money to pay for more condoms and birth control pills for children. It was only a pitched battle in the Idaho House which stopped this attack on Idaho’s kids.

Look for Republicans like John Andreason, Chuck Coiner and Shawn Keogh to once again lead efforts this session to expand public subsidies for Planned Parenthood – an action which will place our children at even greater risk.

Jewish World is reporting that three U.S. Congressmen are now in Israel hoping to support the growth of a pro-Life movement in the Biblical Homeland. During a meeting with Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, Congressmen Chris Smith, Joe Pitts and Frank Wolf expressed concern about the declining birth rate among Israelis.

The three Americans are outspoken champions of preborn children – and lauded the rabbi for his leadership in confronting the practice of abortion in Israel. In a recent pronouncement, the Rabbinic Council of the Chief Rabbinate voted to establish a committee to reduce abortions in Israel. According to the pro-Life group, Erfat, about 50,000 abortions are committed each year in that country.

According to their pronouncement, a majority of these abortions are a “grave sin” because they are not the result of a serious health threat to the mother. They even pointed out that the rate of abortions in Israel may delay the coming of the Messiah, because of an interpretation of rabbinical writings asserting that the Messiah will not come until all souls meant to be born to Jewish mothers are, in fact, born into the world.

During meetings with members of the Israeli Knesset, proposals were discussed to form a joint working group between American and Israeli legislators.

Under current Israeli law, abortions must be approved by a special committee. Abortions are being routinely authorized if the mother is under 17 or over 40; if the conception was the result of rape, incest or extramarital relations; or if the pregnancy might endanger a woman’s physical or mental well-being.

There is a rather important backroom story to Clinton’s narrow win in New Hampshire last night. As polls predicted a devastating second defeat for Hillary Clinton, her campaign sent out a mass mailer to pro-abortion women in New Hampshire, hoping to rally last minute support. She sought to make her case that she has spent a life time fighting for the “right” to kill one’s children at any time in the pregnancy. Clinton argued that her opponent, Barak Obama, was not as reliable.

The Obama Campaign responded immediately by using a Planned Parenthood board member in New England to defend his commitment to equal-opportunity killing of the innocent.

I had incorrectly assumed that Clinton was endorsed by the Abortion Lobby. Further research, however, indicated a potentially important split within the abortion movement – one that may be explained by generational differences.

Planned Parenthood’s PAC, for instance, has made no endorsement, arguing that all three of the Democrat candidates are acceptable.

NARAL takes much the same view. In fact, this organization actually issued a statement defending Obama’s abortion record following the Clinton mailing.

Frankly, this is pretty curious – and a dynamic Hillary must find especially frustrating. She and husband Bill have done untold damage to the families and children of America through their life-long obsession with abortion-on-demand. Bill’s first act as President was to lift the ban on American tax money being used overseas to pay for abortions. And one of his last was to jam the legalization of RU-486.

Hillary Clinton has been endorsed by EMILY’s LIST and the National Women’s Political Caucus. Both groups take a traditional feminist view that prefers female advocates of abortion killing over males.

Planned Parenthood and NARAL prefer to await the Democrat nomination process, probably secure in the knowledge that they can trust either Obama or Clinton to expand taxpayer funding of their killing factories. Why waste resources paying old debts?

Today’s opening of the Idaho Legislature comes with the customary sense of optimism and hope that this winter will bring new protections for preborn children. Idaho Chooses Life will once again focus our attention on creating an unambiguous right to choose life. But more on our anti-coercion legislation later.

Today, we’d like to preview another issue certain to be at the forefront of debate.
Planned Parenthood and Company have plans for us as well. We are expecting they will attempt to create a new coercion statute of their own: this one forcing pharmacists, doctors and hospitals to dispense the “Morning After Pill” – regardless of scientific or moral evidence that it often works as an abortion-causing drug. This heavy-handed initiative will seek to strip medical professionals of their right to refuse to participate in ending life, often referred to as the “conscience clause”.

We also expect these same forces to make a concerted assault on abstinence education programs in Idaho. The groundwork was laid by Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart in a Statesman Opinion piece a week or so ago.

This effort to indoctrinate our children in the culture of birth control will find some willing allies in the Idaho Legislature – despite two generations’ worth of experience demonstrating that “educating” children in matters of sexuality produces sexualized children. And that produces the exact set of outcomes policy makers are ostensibly seeking to avoid.

Teaching children all about sexual behavior, including every known variant, and expecting they will not pursue their own research projects is as silly and counter-intuitive as showing a child how to start the mini-van, leaving him the keys and expecting, with a straight face, that nothing harmful will happen while we’re at the mall.

The evidence of Planned Parenthood’s failure to prevent premature sexual activity is overwhelming.

A recent story from England (The London Telegraph; 01.03.08) provides us with yet more such facts. Despite a massive increase in government spending on birth control programs aimed at children in the past several years, underage pregnancies increased by 4%, with an even higher rate of increase among girls under 16.

The article quotes Dr. David Paton, an economist at Nottingham University Business School:
“There has been a tendency for the Government’s teenage pregnancy strategy to focus on schemes where teenagers can get the morning-after-pill or other forms of family planning at school or clinics. The danger with this sort of approach is that it can lead to an increase in risky sexual behavior amongst some young people. There is now overwhelming evidence that such schemes are simply not effective in cutting teenage pregnancy rates.”