On Born-Alive, GOP Delivers
They’ve been shouted down, cut off mid-sentence, even had their microphones turned off. But today, House Republicans aren’t taking no for an answer.
They’ve been shouted down, cut off mid-sentence, even had their microphones turned off. But today, House Republicans aren’t taking no for an answer. After 25 trips to the floor, asking liberal leaders to do the right thing, pro-lifers are determined to stop the killing of born-alive babies — no matter what it takes.
Tuesday morning, on the steps of the Capitol, conservatives had a message for Democrats: they can’t hide from this issue any longer. As of this week, Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) are officially reaching for the discharge petition to force Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) hand. “This is one tool we have, especially as the minority party, to try to bring very important and critical legislation to a vote,” Scalise told reporters. If Democrats are going to block the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act, then, he vowed, “we are taking matters in our own hands.”
Under House rules, it will take every single Republican and 21 Democrats to free the bill from the majority’s grip. Frankly, it shouldn’t be hard. After all, the measure has absolutely nothing to do with abortion — and everything to do with protecting living, breathing, newborn children. “This shouldn’t even be a debate,” Scalise said in frustration. And the American people agree! Eighty-two percent of this country — including 70 percent of Pelosi’s own party — think leaving innocent babies to die on a hospital table is a bridge no civilized country should cross.
“You deserve to know: Where does your representative stand on stopping infanticide?” For at least three Democrats, there’s no question. To the relief of their constituents, Congressmen Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.), Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) not only support the GOP’s crusade, they’re cosponsors of it. Could there be 18 more? “If just a handful of Democrats have the courage to join us, hundreds of newborns across the U.S. will have a legally-protected chance to live a happy, productive life,” Scalise and Wagner wrote on Fox News. “Together, we can end infanticide and protect babies who are born alive.”
To the people who wonder if this bill is necessary, they argue, take a long hard look at the Abortion Survivors Network. This isn’t a hypothetical to Melissa Ohden, who “was a victim of an attempted saline abortion in which she was burned, born, and later saved by the grace of a nurse who ‘couldn’t just leave me there to die’ and rushed her to a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital for treatment. Some abortion survivors, like Melissa, publicly advocate for abortion survivor protection laws, and even more survivors live quietly as regular, productive Americans. However, hundreds of living, breathing newborn abortion survivors are not given a chance at life and are left to die in utility closets, buckets, or toilets.”
Right now, only six states collect the statistics of born-alive survivors. Imagine how many thousands of other nameless babies go unreported, victims of this myth that infanticide isn’t a real issue — or worse, a personal “choice” for moms and doctors to decide. That must stop. “We cannot discriminate between children who are wanted and children who are unwanted,” Wagner and Scalise insist. “All newborns deserve the opportunity to lead a long, happy life.”
You can help. Join with FRC and the pro-life leaders of the House in Ending Birth Day Abortion. Tens of thousands of you have already signed up to send a newborn hat to Nancy Pelosi to remind her of the cost of the Democrats’ extremism. Stand with us! Then, if you live in a Democratic district, take the time to contact your representative and ask them to support the discharge petition. As FRC’s Patrina Mosley urged in her Hill op-ed, “For those… House Democrats who may feel a sense of duty to stand with their party, I offer this word of comfort: Fear not. To vote for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act will not turn you into a Republican — or even a pro-lifer — just someone whose conscience has not been fully seared… We’ve got to be clear on where we stand on this as a country.”
Originally published here.
Equality Control: Dems Throw Weight behind Radical Bill
It wasn’t enough that House Democrats put the transgender pride flag outside their offices — now they’re trying to plant one in U.S. law too. If you like the idea of your daughter changing in front of a teenage boy, financing your employees’ sex changes, abolishing girls’ sports, and getting fired for using the wrong pronoun, then boy, does Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have the bill for you. Liberals call it the Equality Act, but as yesterday’s hearing made quite clear, the only equal thing about it is how much damage it does to every facet of American life.
Weeks before Nancy Pelosi won back the gavel last year, she was pretty up front about the dangers of her agenda. “If there is some collateral damage for some others… well, so be it…” Americans started to understand what “collateral damage” meant back in February with the Born-Alive debate. Now, they’re getting a glimpse of the next wave of victims, thanks to the most sweeping piece of LGBT propaganda ever considered. Women, faith, businesses, privacy, education, athletics, and health care — they’re all on notice: If the Equality Act passes, no one who thinks practically on gender and sexuality is safe.
Of course, Democrats will insist this is about ending discrimination, when it’s really about punishing anyone who disagrees with their fanatical LGBT agenda. For liberals like Pelosi, this is the ultimate prize after years of feigning concern for things like freedom and conscience. Once the Left gets its hands on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the nine other laws this bill would rewrite, gender identity and sexual orientation will be the most protected classes in America. Gone would be the centuries of religious liberty, open debate, and free speech. As far as the Left is concerned, those are just the price of “tolerance.”
At the Democrats’ first hearing on the bill Tuesday morning, Republicans ripped apart the Left’s arguments that safety and privacy are acceptable sacrifices for their “greater good.” Ranking member Doug Collins (R-Ga.) warned leaders,
“Don’t ignore the costs here — because they’re steep. H.R. 5 erases civil rights protections for biological women and sets the stage for children to fall victim — in permanent, unprecedented ways — to the confusion that often characterizes adolescence. If Democrats are determined to move this legislation forward, they must acknowledge it automatically privileges the rights of biological men over the rights of biological women. This bill will cause suffering that is far-reaching and, in many cases, enduring.”
He talked about the dangers of flinging open every American bathroom, shower, locker and changing room to men “putting [girls] once again at the mercy of any biological man who identifies, at any moment, as a woman.” Think about the doctors who would be forced to prescribe hormones or perform major surgeries on adolescents — against their best judgment or moral beliefs. Or the parents, who’ve “watched their children deteriorate physically and emotionally as they transition away from their biological sex,” he pleaded. They are “begging Congress to listen.”
Unfortunately, the Democrats’ star witnesses have no interest in reality – or the consequences of ignoring it. The GOP’s concerns are just “technicalities,” Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) insisted. Others tried to argue – unsuccessfully — that nothing about this proposal would harm the safety and privacy of girls. That’s interesting, since there’s a string of lawsuits from Pennsylvania to Illinois from teenage victims of policies just like this one. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), who represents a state where two students are suing their districts, brushed off the long list of documented locker and bathroom incidents as “phantom fearmongering.” Tell that to the parents in Palatine, whose daughters are wearing their gym clothes under their regular outfits out of fear. Or the moms in Honesdale, whose girls came home crying after a boy watched them undress. And they call themselves the party of women?
Even feminists agree: the Equality Act would “demolish the would the hard-won rights of women” just by ignoring the scientific differences of the sexes. And for what? The .6 percent. Julia Beck, who identifies as a lesbian, pointed out that she was kicked off the LGBTQ commission just for using the male pronouns of a male transgender rapist. Businesses would be subject to the same rules. Imagine not being able to set dress or grooming standards for your employees — or being fined for designating separate private spaces for men and women. No one is exempt – not private schools, nonprofits, or even religiously-incorporated companies.
Democrats like to say that everyone wins under H.R. 5. Not true, warns Collins. “There will be many losers because H.R. 5 bows to political expedience that silences calls for fairness, flouts science and has no compassion for the women and children it marginalizes.”
For more on the landmines of the Equality Act, check out Peter Sprigg’s paper, “Why Sexual Orientation and Gender Should Not Be Protected Classes under the Law.”
Originally published here.
New York Times Fails the Religious Test
Is hiring Christian leaders a crime? The New York Times seems to think so. More than halfway into President Trump’s term, the liberal media still can’t seem to wrap its mind around an administration that doesn’t see faith as a disqualifying factor for employment. From Russell Vought to Amy Coney Barrett, the Left is absolutely confounded at the idea that Christians are not only nominated by this administration — but embraced by them.
With typical horror, the Times zeroed in on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and some recent comments he made on a trip to Jerusalem that dared to reference his Christian faith. “Mike Pompeo,” the headline accused, “Blends Beliefs and Policy.” Yes, and so — by the way — did every member of Barack Obama’s team. It’s just that their beliefs usually had nothing to do with religion. Now that Pompeo’s do, it’s a problem.
The reporter ticks off a long list of offenses: Pompeo’s regular Bible reading, his religious background, and his concern for religious liberty as reasons he’s apparently unfit to serve as America’s top diplomat. “[N]o secretary of state in recent decades has been as open and fervent as Mr. Pompeo about discussing Christianity and foreign policy in the same breath. That has increasingly raised questions about the extent to which evangelical beliefs are influencing American diplomacy.”
The reporter seemed especially scandalized by an interview from November where Pompeo told the paper’s magazine that the Bible “informs everything I do.” It’s also informed almost every president since George Washington. It only became a problem recently, during Barack Obama’s eight-year war on Christianity. If believing in God is a problem, shouldn’t the Times be talking to Congress? According to Pew Research, 88 percent of the House and Senate are Christians.
When it comes to Donald Trump’s nominees, however, most liberals would agree: Christianity is a “great religion” — just don’t bring it to work. It’s the same Feinstein-Sanders “religious test” that’s played out in every confirmation fight since 2017. Last year, the Left’s intolerance got so out of hand in the Pompeo hearings that social media started parodying it. “Vox scoop: Mike Pompeo is a Christian,” one man joked on Twitter. “Local Christian is a Christian,” said another. “Follower of Christ says something followers of Christ typically say,” posted one. The jabs went on and on. One reader told the outlet that it might want to consider hiring an observant Christian so that they can spare themselves this kind of embarrassment. “Um, this is just kind of mainstream Christian theology.”
Extremists think people of faith should have three options: leave their faith at home, hide it, or have no faith. And none of those are as preferable as what the far-Left would really prefer, which is excluding Christians from public service altogether. We’ve seen that reaction just this week when a Pennsylvania legislator dared to open a session by praying in Jesus’s name. Democrats said they were offended because she mentioned Jesus 13 times. But if they’re being honest, it isn’t the number of references that offended them — it’s Jesus who did.
In the end, the values of Christianity have provided the moral framework for the United States to be a champion of freedom and human rights for decades. If anything, we should be proud of that heritage — not apologetic.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
