November 2015 Supreme Court agrees to hear lawsuit challenging Texas’ pro-life law By Dave Andrusko As widely, but not universally issue and lower courts have expected, the United States disagreed over the requirement Supreme Court agreed Friday that abortionists have admitting to take up a lawsuit brought by privileges at a nearby hospital a coalition of abortion providers for situations of medical that challenges two provisions emergencies. HB2 also requires of H.B. 2, an omnibus 2013 that abortion clinics meet the Texas law. same building standards as However reluctant justices ambulatory surgical centers. may (or may not) have been It is noteworthy what to wade into the abortion was never challenged: the controversy, it made sense Pain-Capable Unborn Child for the High Court to hear Protection Act. Also not before Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole. Abortion is an important See “Court,” page 17 Frustrated with Congress? Elect a Pro-life President and more pro-life senators By Karen Cross, National Right to Life Political Director According to a Gallup poll life legislation and it goes to released November 12, only the U.S. Senate. Under most 11% of Americans approve of circumstances sixty votes are Congress – the lowest point this required for passage. We don’t year and one of the lowest ever. have 60 pro-life votes in the But pro-lifers are frustrated Senate. for a very different reason. Both The Pain-Capable Unborn houses of Congress have strong Child Protection Act (H.R. pro-life leadership, but their 36), which would protect from efforts have been stymied by abortion unborn children 20 pro-abortion President Barack weeks or older, easily passed Obama and an entrenched pro- the U.S. House, 242-184 abortion minority in the Senate. (238 Republicans and four Currently, the gridlock happens when the U.S. House See “Frustrated,” page 31 of Representatives passes pro- Editorials Kermit Gosnell, PPFA, and Hillary Clinton What do abortionist Kermit Gosnell, Planned Parenthood, and Hillary Clinton have in common? Or, perhaps better put, what are the common threads that link a man convicted of three counts of 1st degree murder, the largest abortion provider in the known galaxy, and the pro-abortion frontrunner for the abortion-saturated Democratic Party’s presidential nomination? Some are obvious, others less so. Each judges human value on a sliding scale. Not just size and development but also the ability to protect oneself. Who can be more defenseless than the unborn child who depends not on the kindness of strangers, but his or her own parents? And what do Gosnell, PPFA, and Clinton tell those parents who might be wavering? You have only one life to live so extinguish that bothersome life inside you. Each--Gosnell, PPFA, and Clinton--is incapable of being embarrassed by behavior and language that in a less cruel world would have shocked normal people senseless. Gosnell, whose specialty was aborting huge babies, joked that one baby was so big he could “walk me to the bus stop.” In case you forgot, when police raided his home, they found it as flea-ridden and stench-filled as his Women’s Medical Society wondering, the added assurance, “Everything we provide is fresh.” abortion clinic--a place of unbearable smells where “You could In some respects, Clinton’s responses have been even worse. tell there was death somewhere.” What was Gosnell doing as When the nation was shocked by the release of the Center for police donned bio-hazard suits to investigate the basement Medical Progress videos, Clinton hedged : “I have seen pictures (besides calling himself a “nice guy” for providing a bottle of flea from them and obviously find them disturbing.” repellent)? Philadelphia Police crime scene investigator John Before you could say stalling-for-time, Clinton offered a full- Taggart said Gosnell sat at the piano and played Chopin. throated defense. “I defend, and I will continue to defend, Planned Various and sundry PPFA big-wigs were caught on undercover Parenthood, because services that Planned Parenthood provides are camera laughing about making enough money off of the baby parts broad, and necessary for millions of American women,” she said, of aborted babies to buy a Lamborghini. Another nonchalantly conflating for the gazillionth time family planning and abortion. told investigators posing as fetal tissue procurers, “We’ve just PPFA couldn’t be a billion dollar enterprise if it didn’t have been working with people who want particular tissues, like, you political muscle and politicians in their pockets. know, they want cardiac, or they want eyes, or they want neural. … Oh, gonads! Oh, my God, gonads.” And in case anyone might be See “Gosnell,” page 35 The importance of the 2016 elections Last month’s digital edition of National Right to Life News candidates (now whittled down to 14) competing, you would had a heavy emphasis on Planned Parenthood’s skullduggery. expect a disproportionate amount of attention to be pointed in As always, we will pay plenty of attention to the largest their direction. This is especially so because two non-politicians-- “provider” (what an odd choice of words) of abortion in this the Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson--are ahead in the polls and November edition, but if there is a major theme for this issue because pro-abortion Hillary Clinton is the odds-on favorite to be of the “pro-life newspaper of record” it is looking ahead to the the Democrats’ nominee. 2016 elections. But, ever and always, the tectonic plates are busy shifting Too early? No, as you can tell from the buzz about the Republican beneath the candidates’ feet. Whatever we think we know now, in debates and (to a much lesser degree) the Democratic debates, it’s a few months the reality will likely be vastly different. Let’s take not just political reporters whose juices are flowing. Clinton, for example. While it might try some/many people’s patience, the flip side is The former First Lady, senator from New York, and Secretary of that it signals that we are approaching the clubhouse turn on the State has impressive credentials, loads of money, and the backing eight bleak years of pro-abortion Barack Obama. While he will of the party and many of the big donors. On the surface, she faces always be remembered as the first African-American president, exceedingly weak competition, now down to former Maryland my guess is that, unlike other presidents, history will not be kind to him. See “Elections,” page 35 Naturally with a dozen and a half Republican presidential From the President Carol Tobias We must not allow the pro-life message to be silenced! For example, for many years, men have Colored People. The NAACP sued and won been told that abortion is a “woman’s the first round in federal court. Fortunately, issue” about which they have no right to an appeal to a higher court was successful say anything. Senator Claire McCaskill in determining that Mr. Bomberger’s free (D-MO) elevated this demand for self- speech rights still exist. censorship with a recent video in which On the flip side of being told to shut up is she stated, "As one of just 20 women being told what you must say. Several cities currently in the Senate, it's important to me have tried to tell pregnancy resource centers to encourage more women to run for office. what they can or cannot tell the women they But equally important is encouraging more seek to help. Fortunately, most of these men to sometimes just shut the hell up. It's laws have been overturned in the courts, The first amendment to the U.S. not that women don't value your thoughts, but these NARAL-inspired laws keep Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no it's just that we don't value all of them. getting passed. Just last month, the state of law respecting an establishment of religion, The world doesn't need your opinion on California took it to a new level. or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or everything. For example, what women do California passed a law to force pregnancy abridging the freedom of speech, or of the with their bodies. Hush." resource centers that offer medical services press; or the right of the people peaceably Responding to criticism on Twitter, she to give every client information about how to assemble, and to petition the Government wrote that the video was created as a joke. they may be eligible for free or low-cost for a redress of grievances.” But as several responding tweets stated, it family planning services, prenatal care, and So when Congress, under the guise of wouldn’t be so funny if a man had said the abortion from the state, along with a phone “campaign-finance reform,” tries to tell same thing to women. The defense that it number for where to get further information. individuals they don’t have the right to was a “joke” would sink like a lead balloon. Can you imagine a state government exercise their freedom of speech to oppose We know far too many men who wanted telling a Ford dealer that it has to tell candidates for office, we fight back. We to save their unborn children from abortion customers where they can buy a Honda? hope the courts will protect that right from but weren’t able to do so. Legally, men have Or forcing Taco Bell to tell customers it government encroachment. no right to protect their unborn children but only serves Pepsi products and that if they But what do you do when it isn’t Congress they should at least have the ability to speak want Coke, where they can find the closest trying to suppress free speech but other out about protecting those babies.