Commentary

Our friend Congressman Trent Franks has announced that his legislation to protect preborn children after 20 weeks’ gestation will finally be before the U.S. House next week.

This is the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” which was almost considered by the Congress in January. Last minute objections were raised then about how the issue of rape was being handled in the legislation – despite the fact that an identical bill was approved by the U.S. House two years ago.

Speaker Boehner promised back in January that the legislation was being delayed for a matter of “days”, but that has turned into months. We were beginning to wonder if Franks’ bill would ever see the light of day again.

We are grateful that the bill will be considered – and likely passed – by the House of Representatives. The bill will force Americans to at least briefly reflect on the suffering and cruelty of killing preborn children later in pregnancy.

We congratulate Trent Franks – and Idaho’s Mike Crapo, a Senate sponsor of the bill – for his tenacity and commitment to protecting the most vulnerable among us. Hopefully this legislation will soon land on Barack’s Obama’s desk, where the nation will once again witness Obama’s depth of resolve in defending the Abortion Industry in all cases from the cries of the innocent.

The U.S. House voted on Friday night to disapprove a new law adopted by the D.C. city council that would require pro-Life groups operating within the city to hire persons who support abortion rights.

It will probably take a moment for our readers to get their mind around the basic problem, because it is so bizarre. 

Under the rubric of “non-discrimination”, the DC City Council has approved an ordinance called the “Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act”. It prevents employers from discriminating on the basis of a potential employee’s “reproductive health decision-making”.

Since our founding, the powers of the local government in the nation’s capitol are proscribed in order to protect the national government from being hampered by the decisions of ward bosses. Thus, Congress has the ability to review and veto any ordinance adopted by the DC city government. This particular law provides a tremendous lesson in why the Founder’s were profoundly correct in limiting the powers of the DC government.

While Obama and his Democrat comrades point to language in the DC law which would exempt “religious entities” from its provisions – there are many organizations operating in the DC area who fight for preborn children on a daily basis but who will not qualify for the exemption. Among those groups: American Life League, Right to Life, Family Research Council.  While religiously-motivated, these organizations are not strictly “religious” in nature.  You may be sure that Obama and his Planned Parenthood advisors are quite aware of the problem the DC ordinance presents for organizations like ALL.

Obama issued a veto threat of HJR 43 earlier on Friday, which the House brushed aside on a largely partisan basis. 225 Republicans supported the defense of the First Amendment, while 179 Democrats voted to impose draconian restrictions on pro-Life groups operating the nation’s capitol.

In supporting the measure, House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement Friday night:

                “America was founded on the principle of religious freedom, and faith-based employers deserve the ability to hire people who share their beliefs. The measure passed by the DC Council, however, discriminates against religious and pro-Life Americans, violates their conscience rights, and runs completely counter to the ‘free exercise’ clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. As a proud pro-Life Catholic, I condemn this form of discrimination and urge the president to reconsider his veto threat of our joint resolution.”

We are in a dark period of American history, where the core principles which gave rise to the nation are being discarded, ignored and even attacked by one of the major political parties in an organized attempt to impose their political/social agenda on a resistant population. The despicable actions by the political hacks in D.C. are part of a much larger pattern, and the Silent Majority must roust itself soon to defend America and our Constitution.

As pro-Lifers and constitutionalists were celebrating the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, Obama’s lawyers were figuring out a way to forestall defeat.

The Department of Health & Human Services has just issued “new” regulations for private employers and non-profits who believe killing preborn children in the womb with chemicals is wrong. While appearing to make accommodations for religious and moral objections, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) argues that President Obama is just finding new ways to impose his agenda: 

“Here he goes again. This new ‘notification option’ is really just another highly coercive regulation – a direct, obnoxious, unprecedented government attack on the conscience rights of religious entities and anyone else who for moral reasons cannot and will not include potentially abortion-causing drugs – such as Ella – or contraception and sterilization procedures in their private insurance plans.”

Smith argues that the new and “improved” regulations could cripple Christian colleges and businesses by imposing a $100 per employee/ per day penalty on private organizations who fail to comply with the Obama contraception mandate.

Obama’s cynicism and contempt for the Constitution is difficult to overstate. By modifying the regulations following his defeat at the Supreme Court, Obama is calculating that businesses like Hobby Lobby will be forced to launch new lawsuits – all the while accruing fines worth $36,500 per employee per year of litigation.

There are other lawsuits out there in the federal system by Christian entities like Little Sisters of the Poor and Wheaton College which may provide the vehicle for blocking Obama’s latest maneuver to impose his values on America. Much will depend on the skill of the lawyers involved and the integrity of the judges they’re dealing with.

But, ultimately, America must turn out this corrupt man from office if we are to restore constitutional government. Perhaps a first step in that direction will take place this fall in the battle to oust Democrats from the U.S. Senate.