Governor Butch Otter signed HB 154 this week – our legislation to better regulate chemical abortions in the state.
We are grateful for his continued support of the pro-Life movement, his defense of those most vulnerable babies in the womb. Governor Otter has created a tremendous pro-Life legacy.
Thank you Butch.
The United Nations is working tirelessly to reduce the number of people living on the planet.
In a recent media interview, UN “climate chief” Christiana Figueres argued that we should all make “every effort” to cut down on the number of humans. Apparently one reporter pressed the elite activist on what methods she would support to achieve a “sustainable” human population.
While Figueres declined to be publicly specific, the U.N. has long been pushed abortion, sterilization and birth control upon the world. International elites like Bill Gates and Al Gore are outspoken in demanding “fertility management” – i.e., killing preborn children – as an essential component of solving the “global warming crisis”.
Al Gore told a troupe of believers at the World Economic Forum that “empowering women and making ‘fertility management’ ubiquitously available … is crucial to the future shape of human civilization.”
Such blather has been a dominant message from the Left since at least the 1970’s – to rather amazing effect, given the fact that virtually none of the dire predictions from social engineers and pseudo-scientists have materialized over those decades. Still the babies are being killed. Families are becoming smaller, and even more rare.
When one begins to see the connections behind the agendas of organizations like the U.N., the environmental movement and players like Bill Gates, we can better appreciate the fact that the fight to protect preborn children from their evil clutches is also a fight for the survival and dignity of each of us. Human beings are not some kind of virus to be cleansed from the earth.
I had the opportunity to be in the House State Affairs committee hearing on SB 1146, legislation sponsored by Sen. Curt McKenzie to help families dealing with severe epilepsy in chilren. It was some of the most heart-breaking testimony I have ever seen during my time working the Idaho Legislature.
McKenzie’s bill would provide some legal protections to parents who treat seizures with an oil extracted from the cannabis plant. Parents testifying argued that other medical treatments had proven ineffective at arresting seizures, which can last for hours.
On the first pass through, the legislation died on a tied-vote, largely upon fears that this bill would open the door for legalizing marijuana in the state of Idaho. Such fears seem greatly misplaced, as this oil has no psychotropic side-effects. That sets it apart from the masquerade of “medical marijuana” – which has already created huge problems for states like Colorado and Oregon.
To blindly ban any by-product of a plant, simply because there are illegitimate and even evil uses to which that same plant or herb might be put, strikes me as unreasonable. After all, we read in Genesis that God gave mankind dominion over such matters for his care and well-being:
“The God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and
every tree that has fruit with seed in it….God saw all that he had made, and it was very
good.” (Genesis 1:29, 31).
Fortunately for the families suffering with this heart-rending situation, the State Affairs Committee reversed itself later this week. We commend those legislators who changed their votes: It was the compassionate and life-affirming thing to do.
– David Ripley
The Idaho House gave final legislative approval to HB 154, our legislation to restrict the practices of Planned Parenthood in dispensing this deadly drug. It should reach the Governor’s desk in a day or two.
The Abortion Industry fought this legislation strenuously – because it greatly interferes with their agenda of expanding abortion access across the state by circumventing the FDA regulations surrounding the use of RU-486. Throughout the public debate, Planned Parenthood has denied that our legislation involved any legitimate concern over a woman’s health. Instead, they tried to argue that they could be trusted to self-regulate.
The likes of Kermit Gosnell shows us what happens when government abdicates its responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of women and girls who submit themselves to an abortion.
Planned Parenthood is certainly motivated by convenience and profits in its drive to create a “remote control” abortion access system across the nation. But they are also driven by ideology.
They are attracted to using RU-486 over surgical abortions because it advances the notion that abortion is nothing more than treating a headache with aspirin. That is why they fought so hard over the terminology of chemical abortions – preferring that the media call them “medication abortions” instead.
Even their language is designed to deceive women and girls.
We are grateful to leaders like Rep. Tom Loertscher and Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll who stood tall this session to help us gain an important legislative victory.
And we are grateful to you, our readers and supporters for your prayers and participation in demonstrating that Idaho does, indeed, choose life.
The Iowa Supreme Court held a hearing yesterday on objections by Planned Parenthood to a ruling last year by the Iowa Board of Medicine that outlawed its new system of “remote control” abortions.
During the hearing, Planned Parenthood revealed that it had used its “web-cam” method to destroy the lives of over 7,000 babies in Iowa since 2008. For almost all of that period, the organization publicly denied that it was delivering abortion drugs without an in-person examination by a qualified physician.
Planned Parenthood claims that their experimental procedure is “safe” – yet the Board of Medicine determined otherwise, finding that the nation’s largest abortion provider violated community standards of care.
Planned Parenthood has already lost its appeal of the Board of Medicine rules in an Iowa district court.
A former manager of a Planned Parenthood clinic using the remote control protocol has announced publicly that employees who actually see the women considering abortion hold no medical degree(s) and undergo about two days of training on an ultrasound machine.
It is truly astounding how little regard Planned Parenthood has for the women and girls who come to them for help in sorting out difficult situations.
The Idaho House voted 55-14 to approve HB 154, legislation we brought forward with Right to Life to ban “tele-med” abortions in Idaho. The legislation also includes several specific safety measures regarding the dispensation of RU-486.
Chemical abortions have become an increasing problem for Idaho, with about 40% of Idaho babies now being destroyed with deadly drugs which deprive the baby of food, water and oxygen in the early stages of a pregnancy. And those numbers are expected to climb as Planned Parenthood continues to seek ways to expand the envelope of its operations, operating well beyond the scope of FDA regulations governing the use of RU-486.
Planned Parenthood operatives across the nation are engaged in a highly sophisticated campaign to not only “normalize” RU-486 by calling it “medication” – but to expand its use. They see it as a cheap way to expand access to abortion and are happy to cut as many corners as possible to achieve that goal.
Democrats on the House floor unanimously opposed the legislation, arguing that it had nothing to do with protecting a woman’s health.
They remain willfully incognizant of the dangers posed to women by the abuse of RU-486. In the name of a woman’s “right to choose”, they seem quite willing to look the other way as women and girls suffer emotional and physical damage.
Fortunately, Planned Parenthood is running into strong opposition from the mainstream medical community.
After conducting wide scale experiments on women and girls in Iowa, medical professionals asked the Iowa Board of Medicine to review Planned Parenthood’s “tele-med” abortion program in that state. In a highly unusual action, the Board voted 8-2 to ban the procedure outright in Iowa. Planned Parenthood is, of course, challenging that ruling in court.
18 states now prohibit the Planned Parenthood “remote control” abortion program, with Idaho on the way to becoming the next.
HB154 now heads to the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee for a hearing.
Following the House hearing on our legislation to regulate chemical abortions in Idaho, headlines went out across America that a legislator on the panel needed instruction about female anatomy from a witness for Planned Parenthood. Ridicule ensued.
This became the public narrative of the 3-hour hearing – not the demeaning and sleazy practices of Planned Parenthood in treating sometimes-desperate women and girls who come to them for help.
Rep. Vito Barbieri certainly did not need lessons in biology from the witness. What he needed, what he was after, was an admission that killing a preborn child was not in any way similar to the various “tele-med” procedures the witness described to the panel in dismissing our concerns.
The witness evaded Rep. Barbieri’s question by offering a sarcastic response.
And suddenly the Left had the narrative they were after: A story largely concocted by the liberal feminists covering Idaho politics and driven by their desire to protect the Abortion Industry at all costs.
These activist-reporters do not want you to know what we learned in the hearing: That RU-486 kills the baby in the first stages of life by depriving it of food, water and oxygen.
These “news” outlets do not want you to know that women have died at the hands of abortionists who refuse to follow the protocols established by the FDA because they might be inconvenient or more expensive.
And they don’t want your neighbors to learn that many women and girls suffer profound trauma when they find their dead baby on the bathroom floor after being told that the life growing inside them was not really human, not really a baby. It is so much better to distract readers by creating a narrative which allows them to bully righteous legislators like Rep. Barbieri into silence. Their story carries a warning to other leaders: mess with the Abortion Industry at your own peril.
The battle with Planned Parenthood and its allies in the state media is nasty business. We ask for your prayers on behalf of those courageous leaders, like Vito Barbieri, who choose to use their public office to defend the innocent.
The Idaho House State Affairs Committee voted overwhelmingly to place common-sense restrictions on the Abortion Industry when dispensing chemicals like RU-486.
Planned Parenthood and friends like the League of Women Voters fought hard to persuade legislators that women and girls don’t need to be protected from substandard medical care – but they rebuffed.
Legislators heard from people like Ms. Susan Thayer, a woman who worked as a Clinic Director for Planned Parenthood in Iowa. She was fired by Planned Parenthood after she raised concerns about their plan to turn every one of their killing centers into a “webcam” abortion facility:
“For Planned Parenthood, it was a solution to the shortage of doctors willing to travel the state doing surgical abortions,” Ms. Thayer told legislators on Monday. “With no doctor, nurse or any medical staff on site, transvaginal ultrasounds are done by entry-level and non-medical staff.”
Thayer testified that “tele-med” abortions are a big money maker for Planned Parenthood because of the minimal overhead in pushing women and girls through the turnstyle.
That is the kind of shabby treatment of women we are fighting to outlaw here in Idaho. What is convenient and profitable for Planned Parenthood is not necessarily good for women and girls.
After extensive investigations, the Iowa Board of Medicine determined that Planned Parenthood’s “remote control” abortion system in that state should be stopped because it is “unsafe” for their female clientele.
The legislation now awaits action by the full House of Representatives.
Democrat Congressman Tim Ryan (Ohio) publicly announced this week that he is “repenting” of his former pro-Life views to embrace a woman’s right to kill her own baby. At one time, this man served on the Board of Democrats for Life; but he has not cast a single pro-Life vote since 2009.
In blog postings, Ryan claims that his reversal on the fundamental question of our time was brought about by conversations with women who had chosen abortion: “These women gave me a better understanding of how complex and difficult certain situations can become. And while there are people of good conscience on both sides of this argument, one thing has become abundantly clear to me – the heavy hand of government must not make this decision for women and families.”
Pro-Life leaders in Ohio have a slightly different view of Ryan’s flip-flop. They believe he is preparing to challenge Republican Senator Rob Portman. To mount such challenge, he will need the backing of the Washington, D.C. power brokers. That means being a loyal soldier for the Death Merchants at Planned Parenthood and the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Such bold self-seeking is nothing new for politicians, of course. Remember the sickening display by former Florida governor Charlie Crist?
And what of Democrat ‘leader’ Harry Reid? As a member of the LDS Church, Reid has often claimed that he is “pro-Life”. Yet he is now busily raising money for his leadership PAC with a letter describing Congressman Franks’ legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks “our worst nightmare”.
He declares Trent Franks to be a “Republican extremist”, and his late term abortion ban as nothing more than “an attack on life-saving women’s care”. (Don’t try confusing Reid with the fact that Frank’s legislation includes exceptions to save a mother’s life if threatened by a pregnancy).
What is on national display is not just a callous disregard for the most vulnerable among us. We are looking at shameless, self-centered people clawing for power and personal prestige – without a care in the world for the lives they would gladly forfeit in exchange. It is truly revolting.
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of legalized abortion in the United States, following an edict by a Supreme Court corrupted by a “progressive” ideology. So how much progress have we made over the last generation?
The closest “official” toll of destroyed lives comes from the Guttmacher Institute – an arm of Planned Parenthood. They report annual figures which the government is too lazy or embarrassed to collect. Based upon the Abortion Industry’s numbers, 57,762,169 babies have been destroyed in the womb.
All those commas add up to something close to 58 million deaths.
But that staggering figure grossly underestimates the piles and mounds of the dead. It does not include the millions destroyed via chemicals – like RU-486 or the “Morning After Pill” or Ella. The truth is, we don’t know really know how many lives have been snuffed out in the Roe era. Only the Maker of mankind has a true count, and you may be sure that He knows the name and promise of each one of those little ones.
You may also be sure that a reckoning will come for this nation. In fact, there are signs all around us of God’s increasing judgment stemming from this great national sin.
It would take a large book to catalog the entire price tag we are paying to support abortion. But we’ll take a moment to consider some of the more obvious ones
America is experiencing a declining economic strength, based upon an aging population and smaller workforce. We are witnessing the destruction of the nuclear family and catastrophic divorce rates. We are seeing a clergy compromised by accommodations with abortion. And we are being ruled by a class of national political leaders with considerably less stature and wisdom than in previous generations.
But it is the pain of abortion on an individual, personal basis which is the hardest to measure or even fully discuss: The women who spend a lifetime trying to convince themselves that the grief is not real; the children who will know no siblings. The men who have been deprived of fatherhood. And what of the elderly with homes empty of grandchildren?
Yes, there is much to ponder and weep over as we pass yet another mile marker.
May God bring us to repentance.