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LifeNews reports. Unfortunately, it appears that President
Obama and many in Congress would like to give your hard-earned tax dollars to
organizations like this.
Unfortunately the Senate defeated a motion today to reinstate the Mexico City Policy prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds to support overseas organization which provide or promote abortions. Members of the House are likely to try as well, with little chance of success. Click here to see how both your Senators voted on this important pro-life policy. Be sure to hold your elected officials accountable!
Senate Vote on the Martinez Amendment (S.A. 65) to restore the prohibition on funding of nongovernmental organizations that promote abortion as a method of birth control (the "Mexico City Policy")
January 28, 2009
Full Results | News Story
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Yeas |
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Nays |
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PRES |
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NV |
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Republican |
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36 |
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4 |
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— |
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1 |
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Democratic |
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1 |
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55 |
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— |
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1 |
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Independent |
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— |
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1 |
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— |
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— |
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TOTALS |
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37 |
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60 |
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— |
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2 |
Simply
put, this policy (Mexico City Policy) is important because it prevented your
tax dollars from supporting organizations that promote abortion as a method of “family
planning” in overseas countries. Our
friend Tom McClusky at FRC gives
a thorough explanation at FRC’s blog.
President
Obama released a statement on the issue explaining his rationale for
overturning this common-sense, pro-life provision. LifeNews
reports. Excerpt:
Obama also cast his decision to fund
international abortions and abortion efforts as a way to find common ground in
the abortion debate.
"For too long, international family
planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a
back and forth debate that has served only to divide us," Obama said.
"I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate."
"It is time that we end the politicization
of this issue. In the coming weeks, my Administration will initiate a fresh
conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best
meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world," he
said.
But for the majority of Americans who take
a pro-life position on abortion and oppose funding abortion efforts with public
money, the debate will continue.
Pray
that President Obama would reconsider this move, and that he would seek to
protect the inalienable right to life of the unborn in his administration.
Alan
Sears of Exodus International explains.
Excerpt:
No sooner had he finished speaking of his
fellow Americans in his inaugural address as a people who “have chosen hope
over fear [and] unity of purpose over conflict and discord” than his staff
posted, on the White House Web site, a virtual declaration of war against those
who oppose the demands for special rights and privileges by those who engage in
homosexual behavior.
 “Gay marriage” supporters often dismiss as mindless fear-mongering traditional marriage champions’ concerns over where tampering with the traditional definition of marriage might lead. In a court case in Canada, defenders of a polygamist are citing Canada’s same-sex marriage law as support for a right to polygamy.
When you begin to tamper with marriage, there is no rationale for excluding any sexual arrangement from state-sanctioned marriage. It is not discriminatory to declare that marriage is what it is. Congress should quickly move to pass a Federal Marriage Protection Amendment, as many states have already done, to protect traditional marriage from unelected judges and radical politicians.
Check the AdvanceUSA marriage page for more information.
So
says Dr. James Dobson as CitizenLink reports. See excerpts of Dr. Dobson’s interview with
Bundy before his execution here (or see
below).
For
help battling pornography click here.
Reuters
reports on this potential development which could have drastic repercussions
on American families.
 Yesterday President Obama signed
an executive order overturning the Mexico City Policy which had prevented
American tax dollars from supporting organizations that provide or promote
abortion overseas (especially organizations which participate in brutal
one-child-only forced abortion programs).
This action is a slap in the face to pro-lifers everywhere.
National Right
to Life responded immediately.
We
urge President Obama to reconsider this decision and to remember that he is
being watched by a holy God before whom he will one day give an account of how
he used the enormous power given to him.
President Obama should also remember the words of our third president
Thomas Jefferson.
Indeed, I tremble
for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep
forever.
Thomas
Jefferson
On
the 36th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision pro-life members
of Congress spoke out for the rights of the unborn on the floor of the House of
Representatives. CitizenLink and
the Miami
Herald report.
Watch
Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) speak here.
As LifeNews reports, many
members urged President Obama to oppose the so-called Freedom of Choice Act
which would enshrine Roe vs. Wade
into Federal law and would overturn every limitation on abortion in our
nation. Obama has indicated in the past
that passing the FOCA would be a top priority.
ABC News reports
on this first FDA authorized TRIAL using unethical embryonic stem cells. It should be noted that this trial does not
involve treatment but is only a test to see if health dangers occur or if there
is any real potential for success. Even
in the likely event that some sort of benefit is claimed from these studies,
that would not overrule the non-negotiable ethical problems with destroying one
human life for the benefit of another.
Daniel
Herbster reporting
 Wesley
J. Smith is an influential writer and commentator who has dedicated his career
to preserving human dignity and educating his fellow man on the principles of
bioethics and justice. He is a senior
fellow at the Discovery Institute and a
special consultant to the Center for Bioethics
and Culture. He has also written a
number of books, and he blogs at Secondhand
Smoke. Smith was kind enough to
share with AdvanceUSA’s readers about important bioethics issues facing our society
today and about his work.
DH: Why are bioethics issues so important?
WJS: Bioethics is a contraction for “biomedical
ethics.” It is a field that has profound influence over core areas of human
endeavor that help establish and define the morality of society, and indeed,
the meaning of human life itself. Should elderly people have their health care
rationed? Is assisted suicide a proper
medical service? Is it right to create
cloned human embryos for use in research or to bring to birth? Is it wrong to abort fetuses because they
test positive for Down syndrome? Should parents be able to genetically enhance
their children? Are there morally relevant differences between humans and
animals? What should happen if a nurse
refuses to participate in an abortion or a physician wants to cut off wanted
life-sustaining medical treatment because the patient has a poor “quality of
life?” These and other equally important
bioethical issues are much larger than the sum of their parts because they
establish philosophical norms that exert tremendous influence upon society
beyond the policies themselves. Indeed,
I can think of few fields more important than bioethics in determining the kind
of society we shall become in the 21st century.
DH: What is “human exceptionalism” and how does
it relate to issues of life and justice?
WJS: Human exceptionalism refers to the sheer
moral importance and unique value of being human. I believe strongly that adhering to human
exceptionalism is the predicate to defending universal human rights. Indeed,
whether we accept or reject human exceptionalism may be the most important
issue we face as a culture. For if we say that simply being human is not what gives value to life, we have to
ask a second question: What does? That
second question leads directly to a system wherein those with power decide
which of us has greater--and which lesser—value, and who decides those who
don’t make muster. Thus, many in bioethics support “personhood theory,” which
denies the objective moral value of being human and claims that what matters morally
is being a “person,” a status earned
by possessing minimal cognitive capacities. In this view, there is such a thing
as a human “non person,” such as fetuses, newborns, and people who have lost
these capacities, such as Terri Schiavo.
Worse, because the human non person is defined as having lesser value,
they lose the right to life and, can be used instrumentally such as in medical
experimentation or as sources of organs.
Indeed, there is much agitation in bioethics and within the organ
transplant community to redefine death to include a diagnosis of persistent
vegetative state—meaning that if this view prevails, severely compromised
people could essentially be killed for their organs. This isn’t happening—yet—but the only way to
make sure that such policies are never instituted is to adhere to human
exceptionalism.
The Star Tribune
reports. Only time will tell what
will happen to Bush’s important pro-life regulations after the Obama
administration “reviews” them.
 New White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
House
Republicans, with the input of Grover Norquist, Mitt Romney, and other conservative
economic experts, have released an alternative to the Obama stimulus plan that
claims to be more family-friendly and more supportive of free market
solutions. Click
here to read a summary of the plan.
Yesterday,
Gov. Romney spoke to CNBC about
the alternative plan and his thoughts on economic recovery. “The best medicine for a sick economy is
permanent tax relief” said Romney in committee hearings yesterday.
AdvanceUSA has learned from friends
on Capitol Hill that the Obama administration is expected to quickly overturn
Bush policies limiting taxpayer funding of unethical embryonic stem cell
research and taxpayer funding of overseas abortions (ex: Mexico City Policy) soon
after the inauguration. Please contact President-elect Barack
Obama through his transition website to tell him you want him to preserve
these important, common sense pro-life policies.
We
must preserve the executive branch restrictions on taxpayer funding of
embryo-destroying research and overseas abortions.
 During economic downturns families
are forced to make tough decisions and one area of major concern is what kind
of tax burden a family will face.
President-elect Barack Obama is touting a $1 Trillion stimulus package
which now contains tax cuts but would also skyrocket the nation’s debt. Now there are reports that Democrats
in Congress are pushing to eliminate
any tax cuts whatsoever.
In
response to Obama’s expressed desire to consider ideas from all sources,
Republicans in the House are working on an alternative stimulus
proposal which focuses more on tax relief for families and businesses (who
provide jobs). Eric Cantor, John
Boehner, Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, and others will hold hearings
tomorrow to promote a plan that does the following:
1) Support Families
through Tax Relief
2) Provide Economic
Relief for American Businesses and Entrepreneurs
3) Save Future
Generations from a Crushing Debt Burden
Jonah
Goldberg weighs in with a
conservative perspective on the stimulus proposals at National Review
Online.
CitizenLink reports. Abstinence is not just about sexual
decisions. It also correlates with many
other productive and responsible life choices.
The
Heritage Foundation has prepared this helpful paper warning
of the serious dangers posed by the CEDAW treaty which unfortunately has
strong supporters in Congress.
The
treaty poses serious threats to morality, family health, and the pro-life cause
in any nation which ratifies it. Here is
an excerpt explaining the pro-life threat:
CEDAW is a much-debated and carefully
negotiated document, and access to abortion is not required, nor even
mentioned. But the committee's actions are an entirely different matter. In its
discussion of women's health, the committee focuses almost exclusively on
contraception and abortion, referencing its own General Recommendation No. 24
to require countries to liberalize their laws regarding abortion.[34] The
committee called on Nigeria "to assess the impact of its abortion law on
the maternal mortality rate and to give consideration to its reform or
modification."[35] Yemen was reminded that "contraceptives should be
free or affordable."[36] One committee member wanted to know whether women
in Lithuania had access to affordable contraceptives, including emergency
contraceptives, and was particularly concerned about a proposalunder
consideration in Lithuania to restrict legal abortion. She warned that,
"If the Government [intends] to restrict abortion, the consequences would
be disastrous for women."[37]
Apparently
the Big Abortion industry is looking for a bailout now. As CitizenLink and Planned
Parenthood’s own website make clear, supporting the newly proposed
Prevention First Act will be a high priority of the nation’s largest abortion
provider. The bill promises to make sure
that “reproductive health services” (i.e. mostly abortion) are available to all
families, regardless of income (likely at tax-payer expense.
 The Committee
for Justice (among others) is urging president-elect Barack Obama to
appoint some of George W. Bush’s most unfairly treated judicial nominees who
have yet to have Senate confirmation votes.
When George W. Bush first took office he re-nominated a number of
Clinton nominees as a sign of good will and fair play, and some are urging
Obama to follow the precedent. Excerpt
from Committee for Justice:
Assuming Obama wants to match his
predecessor’s numbers, he’ll need to chose a second Bush nominee – in addition
to Keisler – for the circuit courts. Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney in Maryland
and a Bush nominee for the vacancy-plagued Fourth Circuit, would be the perfect
pick. The Washington Post supports his nomination and Senate Democrats and
their allies haven’t found a bad thing to say about him. Maryland’s Democratic
senators blocked his consideration by the Judiciary Committee, but the best
they could come up with, to quote the Post, is the argument that “Mr.
Rosenstein is doing such a good job as U.S. attorney that he should be kept in
that post rather than moved to the court.”
Helen
M. Alvaré at the Culture of Life Foundation, provides a helpful look at where
unethical embryonic stem cell research stands today and what related
political developments we should expect to see in the near future. Excerpt:
Incoming President Barack Obama’s strenuous
support for legal abortion is well-known. His unbridled enthusiasm for
destructive embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) is likely less visible to most
Americans. But President-elect Obama’s
statements about ESCR throughout his campaign, and his behavior as a U.S.
Senator, make him a ‘warrior” for the cause no less fierce that (now-disgraced)
Senator John Edwards, who famously over-stated that if the federal government
had funded ESCR all along, the late actor Christoper [sic] Reeve might have
“[gotten] up out of that wheelchair and walk[ed] again.” ...
Fast forward four years, and science is demonstrating, as (Dr. E.
Christian Brugger wrote in his recent “Morning of the Stem Cell Revolution)
that it is adult stem cell research which is providing actual patient
treatments.
LifeNews reports. Excerpt:
One major problem is that they tend to form
cancerous cells or tumors after they are injected -- and scientists have yet to
stop that from happening.
A new article in Nature Reports Stem Cells
highlights the work of Mickie Bhatia and colleagues at McMaster University that
shows that the embryonic stem cells that look the best may perform the worst.
"When it comes to embryonic stem
cells, the very qualities researchers use to pick out a robust cell line may in
fact be bestowed by precancerous transformations," the article suggests.
“Current measurements are not capable of
distinguishing the difference between great stem cells and cancer stem cells in
vitro,” Bhatia explains.
The researchers say the problem is and
can't be determined before they transform into specific body tissues through
the process called differentiation. As a result, solving the problem of tumors
from embryonic stem cell injections may be difficult, if not impossible.
If
you’d like to keep tabs on who president-elect Barack Obama is nominating to
his cabinet and administration and you want to know more about their background
and experience, check out the Family Research Council’s Change Watch Website.
The
Washington Times reports. After
their recent defeats in California, Florida, and Arizona, “gay marriage”
proponents have decided to go after “low hanging fruit” by targeting New
England states. Since Massachusetts and
Connecticut are the only states currently recognizing same-sex marriage, these
radical activists hope to institute same-sex marriage in six more Northeastern states
by the year 2012. Supporters of
traditional marriage will need to be active and vigilant to head off this
threat.
HT:
FRC
House
Minority Leader John Boehner is upset about proposed rules changes which would
make it virtually impossible
for the minority to have any voice or input. Excerpt from Boehner’s article at Red State:
President-elect Obama has called for
Congress to move quickly and in a bipartisan fashion on legislation to help our
economy get back on track. The Democratic majority in Congress has responded by
proposing to revoke key elements of the Contract with America — reforms put in
place as part of the Contract in 1995 to make Congress more transparent and
accountable to the people it serves.
Janice
Shaw Crouse explains. Excerpt:
The authors, G.L. Forward, Alison
Sansom-Livolsi, and Jordanna McGovern, stress the fact that a family is more
than merely a group of individuals who live under the same roof. They cite
numerous studies indicating that parents play a crucial role in a child’s
personal and social development. In fact, a child’s relationship with his or
her parents is the single most important factor in predicting that child’s
long-term happiness, adjustment, development, educational attainment, and
success.
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