"Facts of Life" Email:  December 20, 2002

Christmas Blessings. The staff at California ProLife wish you all the blessings of this holiday season, and thank you for your support and your pro-life work throughout 2002.  Merry Christmas!!!

 

The following is a statement from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) in Washington, D.C. regarding Senators Bill Frist and Trent Lott in response to a number of press inquiries in connection with the news coverage surrounding the office of Senate Majority Leader:

Regarding the position of Senator Bill Frist (R-Tn.) on pro-life issues:  Senator Frist has a pro-life voting record.  In a 1998 letter to constituents, Senator Frist wrote, "As a physician, my professional ethics are grounded in preserving life, and I am opposed to abortion.  I would make exceptions for instances of rape, incest, or to preserve the life of the mother."  Regarding human cloning -- another pro-life issue much in the news recently -- Senator Frist has repeatedly expressed support for legislation to ban the cloning of human embryos; President Bush and National Right to Life also support such legislation.
    Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Ms.) has maintained a pro-life voting record throughout his congressional career, and supports banning all human cloning.
 

Governor Gray Davis Fails the Test.  When Monsignor Edward Kavanagh, a prominent Sacramento pastor, learned that the pro-abortion Governor, Gray Davis, was expected on the grounds of St. Patrick's Home for Children, which is under the Monsignor's administration, he knew he had to act.  This pastor was not about to legitimize a pro-abortion politician-- especially one who claims to be a practicing Catholic.  But ever the shepherd, Msgr. Kavanagh gave the Governor a chance to redeem himself by signing a statement which read, "I, Gray Davis, repent ever having promoted the killing of innocent unborn children through the murderous act called abortion.  I promise that I will use all of my personal and gubernatorial power and resources to restore the right to life and to fully protect unborn children."  The statement also would have committed the Governor to ending taxpayer funding for abortions. 

    Davis refused to sign the form and instead invited some of the kids to the Capitol for the annual gift-giving event.  His staff filled in for him with additional gifts at the home.  Davis said, "I'm unapologetically pro-choice and I'm not changing my position.  The tradition is about children, not grown-ups."

    That's right, Governor Davis!!! 

 

The California Medical Association (CMA) withdrew a resolution that, if passed, would have put the American Medical Association (AMA) in opposition to Attorney General Ashcroft's efforts to enforce a federal ban on the use of federally controlled substances for physician-assisted suicide.  The resolution was withdrawn after a caucus of the CMA on the first day of the AMA's December 7-11 semi-annual meeting in New Orleans.  The AMA has consistently opposed euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.  The CMA, which also has opposed physician-assisted suicide, has nonethless filed a brief recently in the 9th Circuit Ct. of Appeals opposing the Attorney General's attempts to enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act in Oregon, the only state to have made physician-assisted suicide legal.  It is the Bush administration's position that physician-assisted suicide does not serve a legitimate medical purpose.    

UPI Reports the Pro-LIfe Advantage-- WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Capital Comment . . . Life. It has its advantages...
    Pollster John Zogby's post-election survey of actual voters shows that 41 percent of voters said the abortion issue affected how they voted in the nine closely contested U.S. Senate races where the Republican opposed abortion rights and ran against a Democrat who supported them. The survey of 5,408 voters found that the "pro-life advantage" for U.S. Senate candidates was 7 percent and that, for candidates in general, it was 12 percent.
    Among those who said that abortion affected their vote, 55 percent of those polled voted "for the pro-life Republican Senate candidate" -- 23 percent of all voters -- while the "pro-abortion Democratic Senate candidate" got only 39 percent of the vote representing 16 percent of all voters.

The 30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade is January 22, 2003-- Prayer Breakfast and Rally for Life planned. Please join us in remembering the more than 40 million unborn children killed by abortion since 1973, and their wounded mothers. The annual Prayer Breakfast is at 8:00 a.m. at The Grand, 1215 J Street, Sacramento.  The Rally for Life is at noon on the west steps of the Capitol building. There will also be workshops before and after the Rally, and the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and Catholics for Life will sponsor a pro-life Mass at 10:30 a.m. A Youth Rally will take place at 10:30 a.m. on the north steps of the Capitol.  Please consider organizing a bus to get pro-lifers from your area to Sacramento on this important day. 
    If you want to join pro-lifers bussing from the Los Angeles area, call Marcella Melendez at 310-839-4197.  If you can join pro-lifers bussing from the San Francisco/San Jose area, call Cathal Gallagher at 408-257-1149. 

California ProLife Council (CPLC) (www.californiaprolife.org) is the largest statewide organization in California solely dedicated to pro-life issues. CPLC is a non-sectarian, non-partisan, non-profit grassroots organization of pro-life groups and individuals in California dedicated to protecting and fostering the most basic value of our society, respect for LIFE itself. We seek to educate our community in regard to abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, to identify and organize the pro-life population of the state into an effective team, and to restore respect for human life to public policy. California ProLife Council is the California affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, Inc. (www.nrlc.org).