CAgateway('cwfa'); Legislative Action Center -- Concerned Women For America Bio Page
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Posted on 12/11/2001 11:44:06 AM PST by IM2Phat4U
October 23, 2001
Pro-Life Policies Quashed
By Charles R. MiVille, Washington, D.C., correspondent
Pro-life issues have taken a beating in Congress. One amendment recently went down to defeat, and two others were withdrawn before they ever received a vote.
In his campaign for president, then-Gov. George W. Bush pledged his support for funding abstinence education equal to so-called "safe sex" programs. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., seized the challenge, offering an amendment to the annual funding bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor/HHS/Education) departments. However, Istook's amendment was crushed in a 106-311 House vote two weeks ago, amid a purported desire among many lawmakers to finish appropriations bills without any additional controversial amendments.
That sentiment apparently impacted two other amendments that never even made it to a vote. One, sponsored by Rep. David Vitter, R-La., would have banned federal "family planning" funds from flowing to abortion providers. Michael Schwartz, vice president of government relations for Concerned Women for America, believes the public is strongly in favor of stopping family planning funds from going to abortionists.
"It is something that is in keeping with the whole point of the family planning program," Schwartz said. "After all, why should we be funding abortionists?"
He noted, however, that Congressman Ralph Regula, chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Labor/HHS/Education appropriations bill, went to extraordinary lengths to line up votes against the Vitter amendment. Faced with such opposition, Vitter pulled the amendment, vowing to try again next year.
Schwartz said Vitter really had no choice.
Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa., also planned to offer her amendment banning federal funds to public schools if they distribute "morning after" pills to students. Before she could offer the amendment, however, House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked her to withdraw it before it came up for a vote.
Hastert reportedly promised Hart a House vote on her legislation at some future time.
Meantime, John Paulton, of Focus on the Family, says pro-lifers have to get busy, "basically to show the elected officials in Congress that the American people won't stand silently by while abortion is funded by their tax dollars."
CAgateway('cwfa'); Legislative Action Center -- Concerned Women For America Bio Page
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Thanks -- as Oklahoma's 1st district decides today who will be the Republican nominee to replace Steve Largent, I needed this piece of moral support for my decision to leave the party.
TeenWebsite of Federally Funded Planned Parenthood Tells Your Kid How to Get an Abortion
From STOPP Planned Parenthood International:
Are Republican leaders indirectly funding Gore?
According to both the House and Senate subcommittees for Labor and Health and Human Services, Congress will soon finalize its decision regarding next year's proposed $35 million increase for family planning (Title X). Both subcommittees expect a resolution within a week.
"It is incredible that the so-called pro-life leadership in Congress would even contemplate caving in to the lame duck Clinton regime on this matter," said Ed Szymkowiak, national director of STOPP International, a division of American Life League. STOPP estimates that Planned Parenthood will receive about $7 million dollars of the $35 million increase, bringing its total Title X share to about $52 million.
Denny Hastert should begin action to remove this guy from the privilege of visiting Capitol Hill real soon - much as he would prohibit Osama Bin Laden from the area.
I hope you will rethink quitting, and instead continue to fight. We are slowly winning more and more converts, its been a long night, but please don't quit an hour before sunrise.
No it isn't. Just remember who is introducing the bills. The GOP is the pro-life party.
Congress, however, is pro abort. That is because there while there are committed pro-abort Republicans there are NO committed pro-life Dems. Hence the pro-aborts win most votes.
It's in the LP national platform that we wouldn't use taxpayer funds for abortion. So, as far as this topic is concerned, we're on the same side (in theory).
My [stock, any more] response:
Absent Allies
One of the pro-life movement's biggest frustrations has always been that the people who should be our biggest allies, the Republican Party and the church, have shown neither the character nor the courage to join the fight.
I include the church and politicians in the same section because I think they have entered into a kind of unholy alliance with each other. It's not that they all sat down in a room and cooked up some giant conspiracy, it's more like a conspiracy that naturally evolved from a common agenda.
It works something like this. First, the nation's politicians tell us to go away, claiming that abortion is a religious issue and not the sort of thing in which politicians should become involved. Then, the church tells us to go away becauuse abortion is a political issue and not something in which the church should become involved.
Of course, both know that this argument is complete rubbish, but the rhetoric surrounding it makes them feel more at ease with their cowardice, plus it gives them an excuse to throw us out of their offices.
It now appears that these guys intend to work this scam until we either give up or drop dead. That may sound farfetched, but I guarantee you that if the pro-life movement called a press conference to announce that it was going to surrender and disband, the three happiest institutions in America would be the abortion industry, the Republican Party, and the church.
In the case of the Republican Party, the first thing we need to understand is that it is totally unsuited for the abortion battle. Since the day this struggle began, it has always been clear that it is the political equivalent of a brawl in a waterfront bar. Unfortunately, the Republican Party is made up of a bunch of guys whose mammas dressed them for college. They might go into a waterfront bar, but when the first punch is thrown, the only thing you can be certain of is that you're about to hear the unmistakable pitter-patter of fine leather wingtips stampeding toward the door.
On the other hand, this is exactly the kind of fight that the Democratic Party relishes. Since the sixties, it has devolved into a political sanctuary for every kind of moral degenerate and social misfit known to man. In a political bar fight, they are totally amoral people who will lie, cheat, steal, or wallow in the filthiest cesspool, if that's what it takes to win. And they absolutely scare the Republicans to death.
A second problem with the GOP is that the gated-community, limousine liberals who control it are about as interested in abortion as a fish is in a bicycle. These people are motivated by money, and there is simply no money in saving babies.
The next time someone says to you that the right to life is a "core value" with the Republican Party, ask them if that's the same Republican Party which routinely
(a) backs pro-abortion candidates against pro-life candidates in the primaries,
(b) uses contributions from pro-lifers to help elect pro-abortion Republicans over pro-life Democrats,
(c) supports pro-abortion organizations like Republicans for Choice,
(d) awards influential party leadership positions to hard-core pro-aborts,
(e) votes to confirm pro-abortion judges to the federal bench,
(f) runs candidates for president who won't commit to name only pro-lifers to the Supreme Court, and
(g) appropriates taxpayer dollars to fund openly pro-abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood.
Anyone who thinks those are the actions of a political party which sees the right to life as a "core value" is about two french fries short of a Happy Meal."
Uh...do you mean to tell us that since October 23, 2001, the Republicans did pass a bill cutting off funds to Planned Deadbabyhood? If so, I apologize. If not, I am not sure what your point is.
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