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Home » News » Pro-Life This Week – March 12, 2021

Pro-Life This Week – March 12, 2021

Week in Review – 55,875 preborn babies; Senate and Becerra nomination; State actions

This week, ALL released a special report entitled American Life League’s 2020 Planned Parenthood Facilities Report, which documents how pro-lifers across the country have been extremely successful in their efforts to close PP facilities. Planned Parenthood has gone from 938 medical centers nationally in 1995 down to 563 such centers at the end of 2020. The report estimates that 55,875 preborn children were saved from surgical or pill abortions in 2020 alone because there were no Planned Parenthood facilities in their areas. 

Highlights from the report include:

  • The number of Planned Parenthood facilities as of December 31, 2020 = 563 (down from 938 in1995).
    • PP facilities closed in 2020 = 33
    • PP facilities opened in 2020 = 9
  • PP has 387 facilities that commit surgical or pill abortions.
    • PP has 174 facilities that do both.
    • PP has 213 facilities that do pill abortions but not surgical.
  • Surgical and/or pill abortions are committed at 69 percent of Planned Parenthood’s facilities.
  • All 563 Planned Parenthood facilities distribute abortifacient drugs and devices.
  • Planned Parenthood operates 53.5 percent of all surgical and pill abortion facilities in the United States.
  • Two states—North Dakota and Wyoming—have zero Planned Parenthood medical facilities.
  • The top 10 states with the largest number of Planned Parenthood facilities are (see Table 7): California (107); New York (47); Washington (33); Texas (32); Wisconsin (24); Pennsylvania (22); New Jersey (21); Ohio (19); Florida (19); Illinois (18).
    • These 10 states account for 61 percent of all Planned Parenthood facilities in the US.

In other news this week, the confirmation of Xavier Becerra as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services is still in question. The delay in moving the nomination to the Senate for a vote is giving some hope that there may not be enough votes to confirm him. See today’s Action Item in this newsletter for more information.

Even though we have an administration in Washington that is intent on killing as many preborn babies as possible—with taxpayer money—states around the country are still pursuing pro-life initiatives started under previous administrations. Texas, for example, is intent on stopping Medicaid funding of all those that commit abortions. On Wednesday of this week, a state district judge ruled on a lawsuit brought by several Planned Parenthood affiliates that Texas had followed all applicable procedures and the state can remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program. We’re sure more lawsuits will follow but, as we pointed out previously, just because the Biden administration says something, doesn’t mean it gets implemented immediately.

In a similar vein, Arkansas’ governor has signed into law a bill that restricts abortion in the state. The Iowa House passed a new amendment to the Iowa state constitution. This amendment states: “ . . . to defend and protect unborn children, we the people of the state of Iowa declare that this Constitution does not recognize, grant or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of abortion.”  

ALL in the News – Latest Planned Parenthood Facilities Report Proves over 55 Thousand Lives Were Saved in 2020

This week, American Life League published the 2020 Planned Parenthood Facilities Report. The report was sent to a detailed media list in an exclusive press release. The findings of the report show that in 2020, 33 Planned Parenthood facilities shut down, which saved 55,875 preborn babies’ lives. The press release was reprinted by Life News. 

Every Friday afternoon, the American Life League social media team, Dwain Currier and Katie Brown, host the Friday Live Show on Instagram Live. Last week, the duo discussed the Equality Act and how it attacks freedom of religion, along with basic other American freedoms. The show regularly discusses current events and provides young adults a platform where they can have their culture of life questions answered. Replays of the show can be found on Facebook.Last week, American Life League vice president, Hugh Brown, was interviewed by political commentator and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes. The full interview will appear on the show “Let’s Talk America with Alan Keyes”. Clips of the show can be found on ALL’s Facebook page.  

Twice a week, Judie Brown’s commentaries are distributed to an expansive media list. The list contains over 100 media outlets such as Fox News, The Federalist, Breitbart, and The Daily Caller, among others. Judie’s Tuesday commentary, Humpty Dumpty Lives, was featured on the front page of ALL.org and was reprinted by CNS News. Each commentary is also featured as a part of Judie’s recurring column on Renew America.

Jim Sedlak’s Pro-Life Activism from Creation to Death is a weekly talk-radio program on the Radio Maria USA network. The show can be heard live every Friday at noon (Eastern Time) and is repeated on Saturdays (10 PM). 

Video of the Week – Visitors to Qatar Children’s Hospital Greeted by Fetal Development Sculptures

One of the many beauties of being pro-life is the opportunity to display the miraculous process of human development before birth. Everyone begins as a single cell. Packed within that single cell is the all the genetic information necessary for growth.

Radical feminists cannot fathom such beauty. For all their harping about the uterus, they never admit to its purpose: to grow a baby.

The Sidra Medical Hospital in Doha, Qatar, describes itself as a state-of-the-art center committed to providing healthcare for women and children. The sculptures debuted five years ago and have since been cleaned and polished to their original luster. The installation presents 14 stages of human development, beginning with fertilization.

Action Item of the Week – Continued action on Becerra needed    

As we write this, there are conflicting reports coming out of Washington, DC, on the nomination of Xavier Becerra to be the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services. To block Becerra’s confirmation, we will need to have 51 US senators vote NO.

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT EVERY PRO-LIFER IN AMERICA CONTACT HIS OR HER TWO US SENATORS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND TELL THEM NOT TO CONFIRM BECERRA. 

You can contact them through their local offices in your state, or alternatively, you may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request. If you don’t know the name of your senator, don’t worry. Just tell the operator which state you live in and she’ll tell you the name of your two senators and connect you to their offices.

In the PLTW of February 19, 2021, we brought you the reasons why Becerra’s nomination is so dangerous. We repeat the information below:

FROM THE FEBRUARY 19 PLTW:

Biden has nominated Xavier Becerra, a pro-abortion zealot with no discernable health experience, to become the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. If he is confirmed by the United States Senate, it will be Planned Parenthood making all national medical decisions.

There is a major effort by pro-life groups across the country to have people in every state contact their two senators and tell them NOT to approve Becerra.

TODAY, WE ARE ASKING YOU TO ADD YOUR VOICE TO THIS EFFORT.

A letter circulated by pro-life groups cited the following reasons why Becerra should not be confirmed.

Becerra is an enemy to every pro-life policy and law and has demonstrated complete disregard for the religious and moral convictions of those opposed to the brutal act of abortion. His radical record in public office as California’s attorney general and member of Congress lead our organizations to ask you to reject Mr. Becerra’s nomination. 

As attorney general, Mr. Becerra went out of his way to attack pro-life policies and conscience protections. He led the charge against the Title X Protect Life Rule, which under the prior administration successfully defunded Planned Parenthood of $60 million.

Despite the Supreme Court already siding with the Little Sisters of the Poor in an earlier case, Mr. Becerra took the nuns and similar groups to court to force them to violate their conscience.

Mr. Becerra has argued in opposition to following an existing federal law against forcing healthcare entities to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortion (the longstanding Weldon Amendment) calling the enforcement of such provisions “illegal”.

If confirmed, Mr. Becerra would be responsible for overseeing the Title X program; establishing the federal preventive service mandates that infringed on the conscience rights of the Little Sisters of the poor; and enforcing the Weldon amendment. 

Pro-Life leaders are also concerned about Mr. Becerra’s abuse of his statewide office to target pro-life health centers and journalists. This includes:

Taking pregnancy centers to court to enforce California’s so-called Reproductive FACT Act, Mr. Becerra futilely sought to force government-compelled speech on pro-life individuals who refused to direct women to abortion centers.

Furthermore, as the successor to Kamala Harris, Becerra sought to intimidate and prosecute investigative journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt after their reporting uncovered the unethical and likely illegal sale of aborted baby body parts by Planned Parenthood. Mr. Becerra sought 14 felony charges for recording 14 videos against these journalists, a move that the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board called “a disturbing overreach.”

More recently, Mr. Becerra’s actions to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to expand abortion demonstrate that he will not let a crisis go to waste. As most Americans sought to direct resources to essential health services, Mr. Becerra led a letter of pro-abortion state attorneys general who sought to use the public health emergency to lift federal restrictions on chemical abortion under the FDA Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) protocol. Such a change to the REMS would lead to mail-order abortion without physician oversight, a situation which could have dire consequences for women and girls. If confirmed to head DHHS, he would have authority to make these changes.

These radical views are not new for Mr. Becerra, whose pro-abortion track record extends back to his earliest years in public office. While a member of Congress, he voted against numerous attempts to regulate abortion and even voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which made it a crime to harm or kill an unborn child during the commission of a violent crime; 38 states, including California, currently have similar protections.

Pro-life Social Media – The Best Pro-Life Memes We’ve Seen This Month

America is blessed to have hundreds of local and national pro-life organizations. Each one is unique in its mission to protect the most vulnerable people among us—the preborn, the handicapped, the elderly, and the dying.  Occasionally we scroll through their social media timelines and find original images that rise above the rest.  Below are a handful created by pro-life groups that we think are worth sharing.