Idaho’s Mike Simpson joined with 179 other members of Congress in signing a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman David Obey, urging that they ensure that appropriations bills moved through the Congress retain the package of “pro-Life riders” which have become standard since the 1970’s.

The most well-known is the Hyde Amendment. These riders must be attached to appropriations bills in order to ensure that American taxpayers don’t pay for abortions.

The letter contains the signature of both Democrats and Republicans.

“We are grateful for Congressman Simpson’s leadership on this crucial issue,” said David Ripley, Executive Director of Idaho Chooses Life. “While the congressman is a member of the minority party, we believe his signature on this letter will carry special weight given his position on the House Appropriations Committee.”

Idaho Chooses Life wrote to Congressman Simpson last month, urging his signature on the letter, organized by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC).

The package of pro-Life riders protect not just taxpayers; some of the language protects the conscience rights of health care providers , while others deal with unethical medical research on aborted babies.

It appears that this effort has already had some impact. The omnibus appropriation bill now pending on the House floor reportedly contains most of these amendments. At this point, it appears that the big exception is one which specifically allows expanded funding of UNFPA- and removes the requirement that these international programs not use federal money in countries practicing coerced abortion.

It is hard to believe that Speaker Pelosi would take such a strong stand in defense of China’s coerced abortion policy, given her protestations of being an “advocate for women’s rights”. She and chairman Obey beat back an attempt by Rep. Chris Smith to strike this grossly anti-woman provision.

Labels: coerced abortions, Pelosi, Simpson, Smith

A story out of Mexico highlights both the dangers of President Obama’s support for abortion in foreign countries and the extraordinary self-centeredness of his “pro-choice” movement.

Amnesty International held several protests last week in Mexico City, demanding that the government force doctors to perform abortions and provide “emergency contraception”, regardless of their personal moral or religious objections. The left-wing group has been working hard since at least 2007 to persuade whoever will listen that abortion is a fundamental, international, human right. The protesters claim that the Mexican government is violating international treaties by not coercing doctors to participate in abortions.

There are more than ironies to be mined here.

First, please note that these are the international politics which the Obama Administration is financing with our tax dollars. Not only is that morally wrong – it is coercive, because it compromises the moral integrity of any and all American taxpayers who might hold the killing of preborn children a great wrong.

But this moral coercion is at the heart of the abortion movement: In the name of a woman’s “right to choose”, the rest of us are left to stutter in the street without any particular right to act on our moral convictions. Oh we can still hold signs and write letters; but those days are probably numbered as the Abortion Lobby seeks to use government power to achieve compliance with their deadly agenda.

What of the Mexican doctors who know killing an innocent human being is wrong? Too bad. Or perhaps not so bad … because for the Abortion Lobby to even lend that token consideration, it would have to acknowledge the moral reality of Others. What of the father who wants to see his child receive the gift God has bestowed? That could be a bit sad, depending on the worthiness of the father. And so the list goes: siblings, cousins, grandparents all stripped of any choice as to whether their brother or granddaughter will be allowed to live.

For the time being, we can at least rejoice in the fact that the Mexican is so far resisting this outrage from Amnesty International.

President Obama has made it clear he is ready to overturn the Bush ban of federal money for research involving human embryo stem cells. As he prepares his Executive Order, one can only hope that he notices a recent story from Israel.

Doctors there have been treating a boy who was injected with embryo stem cells when he was just 10 years old, and again at 12. The news report suggests that the injections were performed in Russia as his parents sought a miracle cure for a condition called ataxia telangiectasia.

Unfortunately for the boy, in the years since, he has developed massive tumors in his brain stem and spinal cord.

Scientists in Israel have conducted extensive tests to determine the cause of the tumors, and have concluded that the embryo stem cells are to blame.

Their research is about to published in PLoS Medicine – a magazine produced by the Public Library of Science.

As President Obama forces American taxpayers to become silent investors in companies engaging in such immoral therapies, one wonders if we shall also become liable for the monstrous consequences of experiments gone awry.

Labels: stem cell research

The horrific murder of a newborn baby in Florida provides us, should we have the moral courage, with an opportunity to look our Abortion Holocaust full in the face.

A young woman, 23 weeks along in her pregnancy, decided to kill her baby via abortion. She arranged an appointment with a Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique. But on the day of her scheduled abortion, the mother went into labor in the waiting room and delivered the baby girl.

One of the abortuary owners, not a doctor herself, rushed to cut the umbilical cord and knocked the newborn onto the floor. The baby began bleeding to death through the open cord. As the mother watched, the female owner then collected the baby and afterbirth into a biohazard bag and threw her out in the trash.

The AP story (www.buffalonews.com/260/story/570428.html) purports that everyone on both sides of the abortion issue are wringing their hands in horror at this terrible turn of events. But let’s tell some truth here.

First, state officials have been “investigating” the incident since getting an anonymous tip some 2 ½ years ago – a week after the baby was killed. An autopsy demonstrated that the baby girl had air in her lungs, which is generally the crucial fact in determining whether or not a “live birth” occurred. And, yet, no criminal charges have been filed.

In fact, we would probably know nothing about this horror if it were not the subject of a civil lawsuit filed by the mother.

That, my friends, is the purest form of chutzpah. The woman should be charged as an accomplice to murder: She witnessed the crime and never notified authorities – not then, not ever. No ambulance was called, no policeman, nothing. But all you abortion promoters out there needn’t worry. No one will be charged with the cruel destruction of this innocent baby girl, despite the fact that a federal law (The Born Alive Infants Protection Act) was passed to address just this horror. The abortionist, who wasn’t even on hand, may have his license suspended at some point; and the mother will almost certainly cash in on her role in aiding in the baby’s murder, by now playing the victim.

And that, as they say, will be that.

But this situation provides us all with an opportunity to grapple with the barbarity to which we have sunk as a society; moral corruption has been mainstreamed.

Look at the cowardice of our law enforcement system! Attorneys who hold the public trust to uphold the law cannot force themselves to bring criminal charges a five-year-old could discern. See the coldness of conscience which allows a mother to sue for her “pain and suffering”, while avoiding any responsibility for her role in silently watching as her baby is murdered and thrown away like trash.

What a terrible price Roe v. Wade has exacted from us all.

The Gallup Organization just released a national poll which looks at seven of President Obama’s biggest actions since taking office two weeks ago.

Not surprisingly, Americans gave Obama big approval ratings for seeking peace in the Middle East and tightening ethical standards for administration officials (76%). The notion of more efficient cars seemed like a good idea to most.

Obama received strong negative reviews for purportedly closing Guantanamo Bay’s terrorist prison.

But of the 7 specific policy initiatives tested, the strongest disapproval came on the question of “allowing funding for overseas family planning groups that provide abortions.” Only 35% of Americans approved of this measure, while 58% disapproved.

These numbers not only confirm the basic pro-Life orientation of America – they raise questions about how responsive our government is to the desires and values of the real folks out here. Certainly President Obama is aware of how far out his abortion policies are from the values of America; but his policies in this area are driven by a deep ideological commitment that is unlikely to be shaken except by spiritual intervention.

The London Times carried a chilling interview in their Sunday edition with Britain’s Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission. This government official boldly declares that it is “irresponsible” for people to have more than two children. To address the environmental impact of these nasty little creatures, Jonathan Porritt advocates shifting money from health care to population control programs like contraception and abortion.

This “green thinker” is not some weird professor at Princeton or Yale. This is a member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government.

As with many in the environmental movement, Mr. Porritt clearly believes that people are the problem. His ingenious proposal offers a two-fer: Reduced health care benefits means higher death rates among adults, and more coerced abortions means fewer such creatures in the future.

While this proposal may sound like “cutting edge” insight – it is just recycled trash think from the eugenics movement, now colored green.

The problem here is that the Environmental Movement has recast much of that elitist thinking and made it palatable by wrapping it with a sweet panda photo. We can, therefore, be grateful for this moment of honest insanity by Mr. Porritt because it helps us better understand the close working relationship between the Abortion Lobby and various environmental groups.