Commentary

Reports surfaced this week that the Trump Administration is working on a revision of HHS rules which have proven to be a heavy burden on American employers. The ObamaCare Mandate to cover all forms of so-called “contraception” has been the subject of numerous lawsuits, most of which Obama lost.

There was the Hobby Lobby lawsuit, which made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court upheld the religious liberty rights of Christian employers refusing to pay for abortion-causing drugs like the “Morning After Pill”.

Despite its legal setbacks, the Obama Administration defied the Supreme Court. It simply re-wrote the rules – feigning an attempt to “comply” all the while keeping its foot firmly planted on the necks of Christian employers.

The same strategy was employed in a related case involving Little Sisters of the Poor – a Catholic order of nuns required to buy and provide contraceptive coverage despite Catholic Church teachings opposed to the use of such birth control methods.  Those poor people spent years battling Obama.

President Trump repeatedly criticized the Obama Administration during the campaign for its despotic approach to religious liberty concerns.

So it is very encouraging to see that Mr. Trump is following-through on promises made during the campaign to restore respect for the First Amendment. We will keep track of this issue as the revised rules make their way through the bureaucracy.

Freedom is making a comeback!

The news coming out of federal Judge William Orrick’s courtroom is just the latest travesty in a decades-long crusade by the judiciary to protect the abortion industry. Disregarding the First Amendment and the public’s need to know, Judge Orrick ordered that a new video from the Center for Medical Progress be taken down.

This latest video is a montage of discussions between practicing abortionists gathered at a professional convention. The gathering, sponsored by the National Abortion Federation, affords abortionists the opportunity to trade tips on the various techniques used to kill preborn babies more efficiently.  The most recent video shows them also offering one another emotional support in dealing with the horrors they inflict on babies every day.

One abortionist describes how “gross” and disturbing it was when “a [baby’s] eyeball just fell down into” her lap. Another ups the ante by relating how frustrating it is when a baby’s “head just gets stuck that we can’t get out.”

One is reminded of the challenges faced by the Nazi leadership in maintaining the morale of SS units assigned to slaughtering millions of undesirables across Europe.

Judge Orrick has determined that the American public simply does not need to see or know this sort of thing – the dark reality behind the bumper sticker’s proclamation of a “right to choose”. He well understands that such knowledge might just destroy the public’s tolerance of legalized abortion.

The federal judiciary has long employed such an abusive strategy to protect the abortion industry. A profound corruption of judicial authority is employed in almost every abortion challenge to ensure that the public cannot obtain an accurate picture of the abortion industry’s routine horror.  In this case, Judge Orrick has threatened CMP officials with federal imprisonment if they violate his order.

It is a picture of a world gone mad: Prison time for the truth-tellers. Safe spaces for the abortionists.

The White House unveiled its budget blueprint today, even as the President continued his effort to rewrite American foreign policy.

As promised, Mr. Trump’s budget proposal ends the dark partnership between the federal government and the country’s largest abortion chain. Instead, low income women and girls would be encouraged to receive legitimate health care from actual doctors and institutions more interested in their health than in selling them an abortion.

The President’s budget director, in response to media questions, issued a big caveat to this great news:

The budget assumes that the Congress will pass the enabling legislation to shift money. That language is contained in the ObamaCare repeal and language now pending in the U.S. Senate.

President Trump continues to deliver on his promises. Now it is up to the Congress to do its part.  Perhaps they can begin by cutting some of the vacation jaunts they’ve been enjoying and stay in session to get the Trump Agenda secured and implemented.

Today – the National Day of Prayer – was filled with hopeful blessings for Americans.

The President hosted an event at the White House to mark the Day of Prayer. Actual prayers were conducted at the White House, seeking God’s help with the daunting challenges facing this nation.  Actual prayers were launched from the Rose Garden on behalf of the President while he stood with bowed head.  Such a change from the Obama years.

We know that the Lord will bless such a public act of humility.

But the blessings don’t end there.

As part of the ceremonies, President Trump honored the Little Sisters of the Poor – who have fought a valiant battle against the Obama Administration for many, many years. Trump then signed an Executive Order bolstering religious liberties in this country.

But the blessings of the day don’t end there, either.

Today, the U.S. House enacted repeal of ObamaCare – itself a long-standing threat to Life. Most importantly, that repeal legislation includes many important pro-Life provisions.  At the top of the list: Defunding of Planned Parenthood.

This is the single-most important pro-Life policy the Congress could enact, short of overturning Roe v. Wade through Constitutional Amendment. Both Idaho Congressman – Raul Labrador and Mike Simpson- voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

The language of this repeal also includes language ending tax benefits for insurance plans which cover elective abortion benefits.

Let us give thanks for the actions and tone of a new regime in our nation’s capital. And let us band together in prayer that the U.S. Senate will show similar resolve to end the evil partnership with Planned Parenthood.

Oh – and there is one other huge development of the day: President Trump announced that his first official overseas trip will be to the State of Israel and include a stop to the Vatican.  That prioritization says a great deal about this president.

The new Democrat national Chairman, Tom Perez, issued a statement this weekend, declaring his party’s support for abortion-on-demand is “non-negotiable”.

“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. This is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”

The statement was intended to purge Democrat candidates with pro-Life sympathies from continuing to associate with the Democrat Party. A pretty strange electoral strategy for a chairman tasked with rebuilding the political party.  According to a report carried by Breitbart, Perez went on to promise that the Democrat Party would only support candidates who were pure in their commitment to Planned Parenthood and abortion “rights”.

To make matters even more emphatic, the Democrat Senate leader, Dick Durbin, backed Perez up.

These political leaders would tolerate people who held pro-Life views – but only if they were “personal” views. As in, you can think what you want, but you can only act in accordance with the immoral dicta of the Democrat National Committee.  And, as we now know beyond discussion, that organization is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Planned Parenthood, Inc.

So next year, when you see a Democrat running for office in Idaho, you can be certain that they have already made their blood oath to defend slaughtering innocent babies in the womb.

The Left was on grand display in the auditorium of Meridian Middle School last night in a town hall meeting sponsored by Idaho’s Congressman, Raul Labrador. IEA teachers, environmentalists, Planned Parenthood activists, Medicaid recipients and miscellaneous other dependents of government largesse descended to confront the conservative lawmaker and set him straight about why socialism was the cure for what ails us.

For over three hours, Labrador took questions. Well, not really questions.  The event was more like a speech-a-thon in which everyone from college students to old hippies offered soliloquies about the state of the world, hoping to make an appearance on television and embarrass Labrador.

They did not succeed – at least in diminishing Raul Labrador.

Despite the fact that socialists outnumbered conservatives in the auditorium by at least 4-to-1, Labrador patiently waited for some kind of question. He easily handled over a hundred people at the microphone.  Liberal blogger Betsy Russell characterized the meeting as “feisty” – but the crowd was more often rude, arrogant and belligerent.  They supported one another with cat calls, boos and construction paper, likely the inspiration of IEA teachers:  Green ones for agreement, red ones for strong disagreement.  Like some kind of gathering in Pyongyang, hundreds of green squares went up.  At another comment, hundreds of red papers went up.  Red signs.  Green signs.  Red signs.  Very Creepy.

Over and again, Labrador masterfully waited them out, holding breath for the next bombastic speech – something like being held prisoner at a Democrat National Platform Committee meeting.

But the most remarkable thing about Wednesday night was the scientifically-verifiable evidence that “Trump Deranged Syndrome” is very real – even way out here in the West.

Many of those taking microphones hostage demanded that Labrador “do something” about Donald Trump. They clamored for an investigation of Russia, his weekends at Mar-a-Lago, his marriage to Melania, his daughter working in the White House for free.  The crowd clamored for an investigation into the President’s tax returns, his megalomania, his actions in Syria, his budget proposals and his racist plans to overthrow the Constitutional right to immigrate into the United States.

It was clear that this crowd drinks daily from Rachel Maddow’s punch bowl.

There were times when one wished Congressman Labrador offered a more vigorous defense of President Trump or free market principles. But that is probably too much to ask in such a forum.  Reason and facts were not generally well received.

Congressman Labrador acquitted himself well with humor, patience and just plain guts.

But we left the room with real anxiety over the future of our Republic. Those crazy conservative prophets of an earlier generation who warned about the long-term consequences of allowing the NEA free reign in our classrooms are, sadly, vindicated by the display we witnessed last night.

The Abortion Lobby in Colorado killed another bill this week aimed at making sure women and girls have vital information about their babies before undergoing abortion. The legislation would have required that women were given the option of seeing an ultrasound image of their babies.  It would have also required that women were informed about alternatives to abortion – like adoption.

This is but a piece of an aggressive, permanent campaign waged by Planned Parenthood against laws designed to protect a patient’s right to make an informed decision about abortion.

Planned Parenthood has, for example, vigorously fought every single bill in the Idaho Legislature which helps protect informed consent rights for women over the past 20-plus years. When they lose in the Legislature, they often resort to lawsuits to keep women in the dark.

This kind of manipulation is vital to Planned Parenthood’s bottom-line: Women who know the development of a preborn baby are much less likely to choose abortion.

Planned Parenthood’s fanatical opposition to informed consent legislation seriously undermines their credibility as an advocate for women. Rather than trusting women to make decisions based upon sound science and facts, Planned Parenthood’s whole business model depends upon shielding women and girls from the truth – including her options and the risks of submitting to an abortion.  This may be the only legal medical procedure in which full disclosure of the risks and consequences are not mandatory; and it is certainly the only segment of the medical industry shielded from standard malpractice safeguards.

The Senate confirmation of Judge Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court is truly an important accomplishment for President Trump and the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate. While the military action in Syria has deflected some of the attention which should properly be focused on this monumental victory, we predict the fruit of Gorsuch’s tenure on the Court will long outlast the day’s headlines.

Given the impact the Supreme Court has on modern American life, this appointment and confirmation will likely justify and commend the entire Trump presidency.

By every measure, Gorsuch is a very smart and qualified jurist. But the world is full of clever people.  What makes his position on the court so important is that he is, apparently, a righteous person.  Everything we have read about his previous work on the federal courts indicates that he has a profound respect for the traditional values which gave rise to the greatest nation in history – particularly the principle of religious liberty.

   A momentary reflection on the alternative reality of a Hillary pick joining the other leftists on the Court should be enough to bring every reasonable American to his or her knees in gratitude for God’s mercy.

We think it is also important to publicly commend the leadership and work of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He has not always been able to provide the kind of conservative leadership many of us have desired – but in this matter, he has performed magnificently.  He protected the Court from Obama’s last minute attempt to pack the bench, and he quietly and courageously led his Caucus into a gun fight with the mindless Democrat minority.  Unlike many such fights – the Republicans won and the nation won big.

It was McConnell’s finest hour. In fact, it may not be too much to say that he and President Trump helped save the Republic yesterday.  At a minimum, the placement of Gorsuch on the Court has given us all the chance to continue our fight to keep it.

The pro-Life movement has suffered several set-backs since the death of Justice Scalia. So we are very hopeful that the years ahead will see a spring-like renewal of opportunities for the states to defend preborn children and their mothers from the evil seductions of Planned Parenthood.

May the Lord bless Justice Gorsuch and the United States of America.

Legendary country music artist Charlie Daniels posed a daring question: If cities, counties and even states are able to ignore federal law by harboring illegal aliens – perhaps we can use the same logic to provide sanctuary for the most vulnerable humans in America: preborn babies.

Daniels posted a conscience-provoking challenge to his Twitter account:

“How about some cities declaring themselves a sanctuary for the unborn and refuse to abide by the federal laws allowing abortion?”

Of course, such a challenge to the various edicts coming from the nation’s federal courts would be met with violent protests from the anarchist Left which has sought to bully society in recent years. One can hope that their Democrat allies in Congress might see the contradiction exposed by Daniels, or feel compassion for the babies being terrorized while they rest in the womb.  But reason and reasonableness seem to be in very short supply among Democrats these days.

The Senate approved SJR13 this week, repealing rules Obama pushed through before leaving office. His actions were designed to handcuff state legislators from eliminating funding of Planned Parenthood.  This finalizes congressional action on striking down the HHS rule, and the measure goes to President Trump.

All Democrats and 2 Republicans locked arms to protect the nation’s largest abortion chain – even as new videos surfaced this week of their barbarous treatment of preborn children. The close vote required Vice President Pence to break the tie.

Idaho’s two senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, both voted to overturn the rule.

This measure is a vital step in dissolving the sordid partnership between Planned Parenthood and America’s taxpayers – but it is not the big one.

The Congressional measure to defund Planned Parenthood is wrapped up in the whole ObamaCare repeal fiasco still percolating in Washington. Republican leaders had planned to use the Reconciliation process to cut Planned Parenthood funding.  We can only pray that Republicans come together to get legislation to the president’s desk.

In the meantime, we can be grateful for this important step forward.

UDPATE:

After posting, we ran across a side story on this important vote.  Turns out there is an unsung hero in this historic battle: Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson.  He managed to make the Senate vote while recovering from two different back surgeries in recent weeks.  He has been unable to cast a vote since February 17th, but made a courageous appearance on the Senate floor, using a walker, to cast the 50th vote.  This allowed the Vice President to break the tie.  Lord bless him.