"Facts of Life" Email:  November 15, 2002

In addition to adding pro-life Congressman-elect Devin Nunes (CD 21) to the California Congressional delegation, and Jeff Denham (SD 12) to the California State Senate, we have added all of these new pro-life members to the California Assembly:

Greg Aghazarian (AD 26)
John Benoit (AD 64)
Bob Dutton (AD 63)
Bonnie Garcia (AD 80)
Guy Houston (AD 15)
Rick Keene (AD 03)
Doug La Malfa (AD 02)
Bill Maze (AD 34)
Kevin McCarthy (AD 32)
Alan Nakanishi (AD 10)
George Plescia (AD 75)
Sharon Runner (AD 36)
Steve Samuelian (AD 29)

In addition, they will be joined by pro-life Senator Ray Haynes, just elected to AD 66, and current pro-life Assembly members Sam Aanestad (SD 4), Roy Ashburn (SD 18), and Dennis Hollingsworth (SD 36) will move over to the state Senate.

New members, Shirley Horton (AD 78) and Todd Spitzer (AD 71), are expected to oppose abortion funding, as would Dean Gardner (AD 30), if he is declared the winner in that close race. 

Thank you to all of you who worked to help elect these new pro-life legislators, and all the other pro-life candidates who ran for office this year.

Important pro-life election victories nationwide will loosen the logjam of pro-life bills and judicial nominees.  Pro-life Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate will mean that these pro-life objectives will move to the floor of the Senate instead of being bottled up as they were under the leadership of Senator Tom Daschle.  Some will undoubtedly be filibustered and thus require 60 votes to pass.  Bills that could reach the Presidents desk include a complete ban on human cloning, a ban on partial-birth abortions, the Child Custody Protection Act and the Anti-Discrimination Act. 

A baby was safely and anonymously surrendered at Sonoma Valley Hospital on November first, instead of being abandoned.  This was probably the 11^th baby to survive under the Safe Arms for Newborns law enacted in January 2001 to allow babies under 72 hours old to be left at a hospital or other places designated by the county board of supervisors.  Forty-one states have passed similar laws.  There is a $500,000 state campaign to educate the public about the law, called "no shame, no blame, no names."  That of course won't go far enough, but Sonoma Valley Hospital had just recently posted the "no shame, no blame, no names" posters.  A new law written by Assemblyman Ken Maddox of Garden Grove will assure that students will learn about the Safe Arms for Newborns law in any sex education courses they take in public schools.  Apparently 37 other babies, 17 of whom were found dead, have been abandoned since the new law passed, according to a November 7 commentary in the Sacramento Bee.  http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/columns/erwin/story/5101784p-6108182c.html  

California doctors must report suspected sex abuse of a pregnant minor, if she is under the age of 16.  Huge controversy has ensued from investigations by Texas-based Life Dynamics, Inc, which revealed that many abortion clinics have been covering up for sex-offenders guilty of statutory rape.  The office of California's attorney general released an interpretation of the state's child-abuse reporting requirements, asserting that, despite privacy concerns, physicians are required to make a report to authorities if an underage female patient is suspected of being impregnated by an adult male, according to Jon Dougherty of WorldNetDaily.com.  http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_id=29574

Time Magazine recently published glorious pictures revealing the marvels of the growth and development of unborn babies from a new book, From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds (Doubleday), by photographer Alexander Tsiaras and writer Barry Werth. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101021111-386944,00.html