Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, November 30, 2007 

Recognizing the Pro-Life Accomplishments of Henry Hyde

Even though Henry Hyde has been retired for a short time, it is still a shock to learn of the loss of this great statesman and long-term advocate for life.  His oratory on life issues was always eloquent.  I remember the first time I traveled to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life.  Other than the people I came with on the bus, I did not see anyone else I knew scattered among the huge crowd who formed the March for Life. 

At the end of the march it was only a short distance to the congressional office building where Henry Hyde’s office was located.  He always arranged a meeting room for Illinois marchers to get together for some rest and refreshments after the march.  When we got to that room, we found many people we knew from Illinois there as well.  Then Henry Hyde came by and gave an inspirational talk to this group of citizens from Illinois.  That was a very moving occasion that will always be a cherished memory of Henry Hyde.

Probably his most remembered quote is called “When the Time Comes”.  It reads as follows:

"When the time comes as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God and a terror will rip through your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, "Spare him because he loved us," and God will look at you and say not, "Did you succeed?" but "Did you try?"'

Henry Hyde has now crossed that threshold and joined those he so valiantly fought for during his many years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, November 27, 2007 

More free speech violations

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman reported on a shocking violation of free speech rights that occurred November 24th in a suburb of Atlanta Georgia.   Bob Roethlisberger was arrested and jailed in a northern suburb of Atlanta on the charge of "Disorderly Conduct" for driving Operation Rescue's Truth Truck bearing signs with photos of aborted babies. The Truth Truck was impounded.

Gwinnett County Police Department officers arrested Roethlisberger after telling him that signage on the Truth Truck was "vulgar and obscene."  Officers ransacked the back of the Truth Truck without a warrant and ordered Roethlisberger to change or remove the signs.  When he refused, he was arrested and incarcerated for three days before being released on $1,000 bond.  The Truth Truck was released from impound late Monday, however both the signs and the mounting hardware on the truck were damaged when police forcibly ripped the signs off the sides of the truck.  Monetary damage to the property is estimated to be in the thousands of dollars.

"It is obvious that these police officers, under the direction of Major Thomas Bardugon, engaged in a serious incident of unconstitutional content-based discrimination and illegal distruction of property," said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. "Bob fully cooperated with officers, but refused to compromise on his message, which is unequivocally protected by the First Amendment. The officers misused their authority to punish Bob for expressing a viewpoint that ran counter to theirs. The arrest was nothing less than an egregious abuse of power."

Newman discussed the matter with Major Bardugon who refused to drop the charges and threatened to arrest Newman if he drove the Truth Truck through Bardugon's jurisdiction.

The Truth Truck was in Georgia because of a recently introduced Human Life Amendment that is scheduled to be considered by the State Legislature in January. The Truth Truck's mission was to help draw the attention of Georgians to the reality that abortion brutally takes an innocent human life, and emphasize the need to ban the grisly procedure.

Operation Rescue manages a fleet of Truth Trucks that have traveled tens of thousands of miles from coast to coast over the past seven years. The right to display those images has been upheld in courts across the nation.  They have also ruled that obscenity laws do not apply to aborted baby images.

"We intend to vigorously fight these unjust charges and will seek a remedy for our property loss," said Newman. "We cannot allow the illegal use of police authority to bully us into silence, when such silence could cost innocent human lives."

This serious incident amounts to more creation of law on the street, as I previously mentioned has unfortunately been occurring in Aurora during some of the vigils taking place at Planned Parenthood there.  It also appears that Oakland California continues to move forward to establish an eight-foot buffer zone around anyone entering an abortion clinic.  All such violations of free speech must be legally challenged or further restrictions will begin appearing.

 Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, November 20, 2007 

Restricting free speech rights to protect abortion

Attempts to deny free speech rights demonstrate that witnessing at abortion clinics has an impact.  Last Saturday about 200 people joined a witness in opposition to Planned Parenthood in Aurora.  Overall, this witness occurred without any major incidents, but the Aurora police have continued to restrict the freedom of participants.  Signs are now posted on the opposite side of the street that prohibit protesting.  The signs allowed police to challenge a man who was walking on that side of the street pushing a stroller.   Apparently, they consider prayer equivalent to protesting.

"I wasn't planning to be part of the protest today," said Aurora resident Roger Earl. "I didn't realize that I was breaking any law by walking along the sidewalk praying."   Earl said he was near the protest because his wife was participating, and he was watching their infant.  He said police approached him and asked him whether he was part of the protest, warned him twice and then threatened to arrest him. 

Police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said Earl was praying and wearing an insignia indicating he opposed abortion.  Apparently, even residents of that street who used their sidewalk could be challenged by police if they displayed insignia in opposition to abortion.

Of course, the abortionists impacted by protests try to justify their push to violate the Constitutional rights of those witnessing by claiming that their employees and customers must be protected from intimidation and harassment.  So who is really getting harassed?  Recently, a few people were praying on the sidewalk on the Planned Parenthood side of the street when a PP customer approached and threatened them.  They called police who told them that they would have to leave because they were creating the danger.

Earlier this month Oakland California moved forward an ordinance to establish an eight-foot buffer zone around anyone entering an abortion clinic.  This ordinance would make it illegal to approach anyone to talk to them or give them literature.  In Massachusetts, even an eighteen-foot buffer zone is not good enough.  The governor has signed a law that would expand the zone to 35 feet, making it much more difficult to communicate with those entering an abortion clinic.

Of course, all these examples are serious violations of First Amendment rights.  Clearly, the extreme measures that abortion supporters are pushing demonstrate the effectiveness of those present at the abortion clinics, regardless of whether they are praying, sidewalk counseling, or protesting.  Abortion supporters just would not be going to all this trouble if business remained as usual when there is a Pro-Life presence outside.  Hopefully, these restrictive laws will be struck down in court so other locales are not encouraged to take similar measures.

Illinois Right to Life News for Friday, November 16, 2007   

Standing up for principle against abortion

Legal efforts are moving forward to establish that human life begins at conception.  Progress on that effort was made this week in Colorado.  Family Research Council summarizes the good news by reporting:

For a case with such enormous implications, Tuesday's ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court has received relatively little media attention.  The Rocky Mountain region is poised to take an enormous step in the movement to defend and define the personhood of the unborn.  By a unanimous 7-0 decision, the high court gave its approval to language for a ballot initiative that pro-lifers hope to put before voters in November 2008.  If successful, the campaign would make Colorado the first state to vote on the question of when life begins.  Even more importantly, it would give voters the opportunity to establish a human life in the womb as a "person" under state law.  As such, even the smallest unborn child would receive the constitutional protections of "inalienable rights, justice, and due process."

A victory would strike at the very heart of Roe v. Wade and have far-reaching significance in addressing the legality of abortion.  While social conservatives have a momentous task before them--collecting 76,047 signatures in the next six months to secure the amendment's place on next year's ballot--they believe the momentum is building in their favor.  Those who live in Colorado are encouraged to get family and church involved in this petition drive.  For those watching this debate unfold from afar, consider starting a movement in your own state or get involved in one that has already begun.   Similar proposals in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Montana, Mississippi, and Oregon are already underway.  Regardless of where you live, your family can enter the battle in the most crucial way of all--by committing to pray that the voters of Colorado spark all Americans to revisit the dignity of life at every stage.

Across the ocean, doctors in Portugal are refusing to comply with a governmental mandate that they remove from their national organization's bylaws a provision saying it's wrong to do an abortion.  The government legalized abortion in January and has seen numerous physicians decline to do them.  Pedro Nunes, the head of Portugal's Medical Association, said doctors have a right to object to doing abortions despite threats from the government to take them to court.

"Having an opinion and ethical principles is what separates rational beings from a flock of sheep," he noted.  The code his organization has in place says abortion is objectionable and that physicians should respect human life from conception until natural death.

"This has nothing to do with abortion. It has to do with doctors having the right to have their own opinion," Nunes, whose group represents about 35,000 doctors, stated. "The health minister threatened to take us to court if we did not change our code ... but the code can only be changed by doctors and not by a health minister."

Illinois Right to Life News for Tuesday, November 13, 2007 

More deceptive attacks on abstinence education

Proving once again that they operate based on politics rather than science, so-called comprehensive sex education advocates issued a report claiming that abstinence education is not effective in modifying the behavior of teenagers.   How reliable is that report, called Emerging Answers?  The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) reviewed the report, and begins by pointing out that “Dr. Douglas Kirby, the author of the research, is one of sex education's most noted advocates.  He also serves on the staff of the company that publishes many of the sex education curricula featured in the study.  If the monetary conflict of interest was not so blatant, perhaps Kirby's analysis would be more credible.”

Emerging Answers ignores any study that gives results that differ with their desired conclusion that abstinence education is not effective.   Valerie Huber, Executive Director of NAEA, observed, “This study, like most of the so-called comprehensive sex education programs it features, offers a very narrow definition of 'high risk' behavior, and gives the medically inaccurate impression that condoms make sex safe.  This message fails our youth because we know that condoms do not protect from all STDs, and certainly do not provide a barrier for the emotional dangers young people encounter through casual sex.  The study entirely misrepresents the abstinence education approach, and Dr Kirby fails to properly acknowledge the peer-reviewed studies that showcase the growing success of abstinence programs.”

Those studies, such as one in Georgia, found teen pregnancy rates have been cut in half, dropping for 11 straight years since the state mandated abstinence education.  “Successful abstinence programs from small towns in Georgia to large cities like Washington, DC, provide a green light for Congress to continue investing in America's teens,” said Huber.  The Emerging Answers report critical of abstinence education was politically timed as Congress is considering a bill for the Health and Human Services Department that provides $141 million for abstinence education efforts.

Related misinformation about attitudes on distribution of contraceptives to children also appeared recently.  Associated Press reported on a study that claimed 67% of adults surveyed agreed with the idea of giving out contraceptives to children in public schools.  People who find those results somewhat shocking should investigate further, says Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA).  She says she wondered how so many people could support the idea of giving birth control to children.

“[Indeed] when we actually looked at the poll, we found [that] most of those who were interviewed weren't parents,” notes Huber.   NAEA says according to its breakdown of the poll, almost two-thirds (63%) of the 1,004 adults polled were not parents -- and that only 30% of those questioned believed schools should provide contraception to children without parental consent.  Of course, none of those inconvenient truths were mentioned in the AP article.

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