When the Hyde Amendment celebrates its birthday next Friday, pro-lifers can rejoice in the number of children who can enjoy theirs because of it. Forty years ago this month, in one of the most significant victories for the unborn, Congressman Henry Hyde managed to lead the effort to ban taxpayer funding of abortion. Under the most pro-abortion president in American history, the policy has certainly been tested. And today, conservatives are as fiercely protective of it as ever.

In [Friday] morning’s House Subcommittee on the Constitution, the late Illinois leader’s amendment was again the subject of debate, as Republicans held a hearing on how to best hold the line on the provision in the face of so much Democratic opposition. For the first time in the history of the president’s party, the DNC actually included a call to repeal the Hyde Amendment in its 2016 platform, sounding the alarm across the country about the threats to taxpayer dollars. As part of Rep. Trent Franks’s (R-Ariz.) hearing, “The Ultimate Civil Right: Examining the Hyde Amendment and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act,” witnesses like FRC’s Arina Grossu and abortion survivor Gianna Jessen reiterated why the policies were so important.

Jessen, who suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of the saline abortion she survived, shared portions of her horrifying story — which she hopes to spare others from experiencing.

“Many Americans have no idea that babies can live through abortions and are often left to die, but this does happen. I know this, because I was born alive in abortion clinic after being burned in my mother’s womb for 18 hrs. My medical records clearly state the following: Born during saline abortion… Apart from Jesus himself, the only reason I am alive is the fact that the abortionist had not yet arrived at work that morning. Had he been there, he would have ended my life by strangulation, suffocation, or simply leaving me there to die.”

In an effort to stop horror stories like this one, the House GOP is working overtime to pass the Born Alive Abortion Survivor Protection Act, which would give babies who’ve lived through the procedure the chance at life they deserve. “The abortion industry labored all these decades to convince the world that unborn children and born children should be completely separated in our minds, that while born children are persons worthy of protection, unborn children are not persons and are not worthy of protection,” Franks said. In a civilized country like ours, it’s frankly shocking that we even have to have this conversation. Saving a tiny human being who endured the worst our world had to throw at her is a matter of basic human decency. But unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. As FRC’s Grossu pointed out:

“Despite the importance of this bill, the White House issued a ‘Statement of Administration Policy,’ shocking in its callousness, which promises that the President would veto the Born-Alive legislation because the bill would have a ‘chilling’ effect on "the provision of abortion services.‘ This could not be farther from the truth. I cannot think of a more chilling effect than continuing to let abortionists get away with infanticide, the intentional killing of born-alive, breathing babies after an attempted abortion.” (To read Arina’s full testimony, click here.)

Do your part to help the House GOP push this bill across the finish line. Contact your Member of Congress and voice your support for the millions of children who have no voice.

Originally published here.

Stereotypes Fit for a King

The Obama administration hasn’t exactly been friend of school choice. So when Education Secretary John King used a recent breakfast to attack homeschooling, it didn’t come as much of a surprise. The unpopular cabinet member, who was widely panned for his support of the controversial Common Core testing standards, made the comments to the Christian Science Monitor, suggesting — as most liberals do — that no one (including parents) knows better about children than Big Government!

“Students who are homeschooled,” King told the group assembled, “are not getting kind of the rapid instructional experience they would get in school” — unless parents are “very intentional about it.” In the Obama appointee’s opinion, homeschoolers would be better off in public schools, “getting the range of options that are good for all kids.” As far as he’s concerned, educating children at home deprives them of the “school experience.”

But considering that the “school experience” now includes everything from radical sex education to genderless locker rooms and showers, most parents are more than happy to exclude their kids. Maybe if the Obama Department of Education weren’t so hostile toward traditional values in their aggressive push of their agenda, it wouldn’t be driving so many children out of the public classroom. Instead, families are running for the exits after the president’s team put its agenda of sexual anarchy ahead of kids’ safety and learning experience. As Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) predicted back in the spring when the president ordered the gender free-for-all in schools and universities, “This will be the end of public education, if this prevails. People will pull their kids out, homeschooling will explode, and private schools will increase.”

Interestingly enough, the homeschooling boom started long before the president’s takeover of school bathrooms and locker rooms. The home-education movement has exploded under Obama, spiking from 1.5 million to more than two million in just five years. But not everyone is happy about the shift — least of all bureaucrats like Secretary King, who are worried that Washington is losing its grip on students. But based on the national test scores, the government already has. As U.S. News and World Report pointed out, homeschoolers are lapping the competition in almost every academic category. “Studies suggest that those who go on to college will outperform their peers. Students coming from a home school graduated college at a higher rate than their peers­ — 66.7 percent compared to 57.5 percent — and earned higher grade point averages along the way, according to a study that compared students at one doctoral university from 2004-2009.” Maybe that’s why Home School Legal Defense Association Co-Founder and Chairman Michael Farris took issue with Secretary King’s comments. “Homeschoolers are far outperforming their public-schooled peers, largely due to the fact that parents know what works best for their child instead of implementing an outdated, one-size-fits-all approach that Secretary King appears to favor.”

Lindsey Burke, who rebutted King’s comments for Heritage’s Daily Signal, thinks the results of homeschooling speak for themselves. “Many homeschooled students attend some of the most rigorous and intellectually challenging schooling there is.” According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, conducted by King’s own DOE, “just one-third of all eighth-graders in public schools can read proficiently. Roughly two out of 10 students don’t graduate high school at all,” Burke pointed out. So maybe the president’s secretary ought to consider getting his own house in order before he complains about the learning going on in ours.

Originally published here.