Fight the Obama Abortion Agenda

A memo from Missouri Right to Life:

Fight the Obama Abortion Agenda:

1. Urge Congress not to authorize funding of
research that kills human embryos

The Obama administration is pushing a step-by-step agenda to create and harvest human embryos for research. While the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced on April 16th that it would conduct research experiments only on “leftover” embryos from in-vitro fertilizations, it has also asserted that it can go much further when it so decides. Leading pro-abortion Democrats in this matter now refer to these embryos as “medical waste.”

National Right to Life believes that Democrats in Congress will suddenly bring up new legislation that they will claim “only codifies” the April 16 NIH decision, but which will, in fact, authorize further expansions involving the deliberate creations of human embryos for use in research by human cloning and other methods.

The House of Representatives may vote on this matter early this week, so please e-mail your opposition today.

Contact your U.S. Congressman

Contact your U.S. Senators

2. Urge Congress to Exclude Abortion from “Health Care Reform.”

NRLC believes that the impending legislation will contain provisions that will amount to a mandate for employers to offer insurance that would pay for abortion on demand, funded by government-mandated premiums and taxes. The plan will likely include coverage of abortion on demand for low-income citizens.

On July 17, 2007, during President Obama’s presidential campaign, he told the annual Planned Parenthood Conference “in my mind, reproductive care is essential care, basic care, so it is a the center, the heart of the plan I propose….insurers are going to have to abide by the same rules in terms of providing comprehensive care…that’s going to be absolutely vital”.

NRLC Federal Legislation Director, Douglas Johnson, notes “Pro-life Americans should vigorously oppose any federal “health care reform” that doesn’t explicitly exclude abortion from the scope of any government-defined or government-mandated packages of health care services.

The House and Senate are expected to vote on “health care reform” legislation this summer, soon after it is formally unveiled.

Contact your U.S. Congressman

Contact your U.S. Senators

3. Urge Senators to oppose confirmation of pro-abortion activist Dawn Johnsen.

President Barack Obama has nominated a radical pro-abortion activist, Dawn Johnsen, to one of the most important legal positions in the federal Executive Branch—the assistant attorney general of the Office of Legal Counsel.

The vote on her nomination by the full Senate may come early this week, with a Republican filibuster possible.

Contact your U.S. Senators

For more background on all the above and sample e-mails, access NRL website www.nrlc.org and click on:

LEGISLATION/LEGISLATIVE ACTION CENTER

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Jefferson City Event to Benefit Local Pro-Life Women’s Clinic

Enjoy a relaxing afternoon of sacred and classical choral works by Bach and other master composers! On Sunday May 3, 2009 at 4:00 PM the Our Lady Queen of Peace Center will host a concert by the Bach Society of Saint Louis at St. Joseph Cathedral in Jefferson City, MO.

The Queen of Peace Center offers quality women’s health care and Natural Family Planning services. Using the CREIGHTON MODEL FertilityCare™ System, the center helps women morally and effectively avoid pregnancy as well as identify fertility and other problems. Read testimony from a local woman who, after years of infertility and using other fertility treatments, was able to achieve pregnancy with the help of the Our Lady Queen of Peace Center. She now has two beautiful babies!

For tickets call 573-893-6279 or see this flyer for other options. Tickets are $30.

Pro-Life Protections Must Be Added to “Economic Development” Legislation

A memo from Missouri Right to Life:

SENATE BEGINS DEBATE ON
LIFE-DESTROYING LEGISLATION
UNDER THE TITLE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Background:

This week, the Missouri Senate and the Missouri House have succumbed to lobbying from organizations that support human cloning and embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) in numerous economic development pieces of legislation.

The Senate and the House are advancing legislation, SB 572 sponsored by Sen. Tom Dempsey (R-23), and HB 1029, sponsored by Rep. Shane Schoeller (R-139). This legislation creates the Science and Reinvestment Act establishing a board and fund to disburse state money to new research companies without providing limitations on the kind of research that can be done with these public funds. The list of companies eligible for this funding includes drug and pharmaceutical companies and other research organizations. These companies are given no limitations in SB 572 or HB 1029 from engaging in the destruction of human beings at their earliest stages of development through human cloning or embryonic stem cell research. Embryos created through in-vitro fertilization and those created through human cloning could be killed in order to produce a product for resale. It would be very difficult if not impossible to monitor the use of these funds and the numbers of lives lost. Among the supporters of this legislation is Donn Rubin who was a key leader and supporter of Amendment 2.

Missouri Right to Life has stood alone in its opposition to this legislation. To date, there has been no movement to place pro-life protective language on any economic development bill. It was suggested in one of the hearings that the appropriation process would be the safeguard that would prohibit the destruction of human beings at the earliest stages of life. However, appropriations are dependent on the legislators and leadership in control of appropriations. With term limits, elections and individual beliefs on human cloning, ESCR and abortion, there are no guarantees to prevent future funding of unethical research. Pro-life protections need to be attached to legislation establishing a board that will be responsible for distribution of state funds.

Action Needed:

Please call your state representative and your state senator and urge them to oppose SB 572 & HB 1029 and any economic development legislation until pro-life protections are added.

Link to HB 1029
Link to SB 572
Link to Senators
Link to Representatives

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Protect Missouri Doctors

A memo from Missouri Right to Life:

Dear Pro-Lifers

Pro-Life Response Needed Soon to Obama Axing Abortion Conscience Protections Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

President Barack Obama has proposed overturning the conscience protections the Bush administration put in place and pro-life advocates have until Thursday to respond. Prominent pro-life groups are urging every pro-life advocate to issue a public comment by this week’s deadline.

Three different federal laws provide legal protections for medical professionals. After determining those laws were not always followed by local governments and some medical centers, the Bush administration sought to strengthen them. The Bush administration put the rules in place to require a written agreement to follow the conscience laws and gave victims better access to federal employment discrimination agencies to consider legal action if their rights were violated. Relying on claims from leading pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, Obama instructed his administration to overturn the new rules.

Pro-life advocates can express their opposition to the Obama proposal by emailing proposedrescission@hhs.gov. The deadline for submitting comments is April 9. Comments may be submitted electronically on the Web site www.Regulations.gov (by entering 0991-AB49 in the search box). Several pro-life groups have also banded together to offer freedom2care.org, a web site with tools to make it easy for pro-life people to respond to Obama’s likely decision to rescind the medical protections. http://www.freedom2care.org / Full story at LifeNews.com

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Misrepresenting Missouri’s Coerced Abortion Bill

Blogger Jivin Jehoshaphat recently commented on a column by Pamela Merritt at RHRealityCheck.org that misrepresents the pending MO legislation that would make coercing a woman to have an abortion a criminal offense. Read: Pamela Merritt isn’t being honest about Missouri’s legislation to prevent coerced abortions

Federal Court Upholds Choose Life License Plate Ruling

Last week a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling requiring the Missouri Department of Revenue to issue a license plate with a pro-life message:

A non-profit group, Choose Life of Missouri Inc., applied in 2005 to have specialty plates reading “Choose Life” included among the plates available to Missouri drivers. A legislative committee rejected the application based on the objections of two lawmakers.

The group sued, and in 2008 a federal district court ruled in its favor, finding a portion of the law governing specialty plates to be unconstitutional and requiring the Department of Revenue to issue the “Choose Life” plates.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld both the lower court’s orders.

The appeal turned on whether a specialized license plate issued by the state represented the private speech of the driver or the government speech of the state.

Reflecting the lower court’s view and rulings in other courts across the country, the Eighth Circuit found the plates to be private speech. Thus, it ruled, a legislative committee had no authority to deny issuance of a plate based on the views of its sponsors.

Read more

MO Choose-Life license plates are available online at ChooseLifeMissouri.org

Baptist Recounts Her Own Coerced Abortion

From the Pathway:

Amy Knudsen, a 42-year-old mother of two and a member of Calvary Baptist Church here, supports Senate Bill 264, which would criminalize coerced abortions, because she believes that she herself was coerced into an abortion 28 years ago by her mother and her doctor.

“Coercion played a huge role in what happened to me,” she said. “Both my mother and my doctor told me I was going to have the abortion. I was never even told what an abortion is.”

It was the summer before her freshman year in high school. She was 14—a self-described emotionally neglected girl who was seeking love in all of the wrong places. Unaware of what a period was, she was “completely oblivious” to what was happening to her body when she ended up pregnant.

“To say that I was naïve is an understatement,” she said.

She complained of stomach aches, and the pediatrician ordered a series of x-rays. In looking back on it, she suspected he knew what was happening; he did a pregnancy test that came back positive. Eventually she went to Kansas City to have the abortion.

She said she was coerced into having her abortion because her doctor and her mother convinced her that because of the x-rays she had, the baby would be potentially deformed.

“I was told this was the only answer,” she said.

Read more

See the latest action for life alert on SB 264 which would make coerced abortion a crime in Missouri. Contact your Senator and let them know about Amy’s story and the importance of this legislation.