"Facts of Life" Email: July 18, 2003

Facts of Life—July 18, 2003—Note:  Recall Gray Davis Rally & Faire in Sacramento   

If you’re within a hundred miles of Sacramento you should be there on Saturday, July 26 for the Recall Gray Davis Rally & Faire.  Even if you’re not, consider making your way to the State Capitol from 10 a.m. ‘til 4:00 p.m.—Rally from 11:00 ‘til noon.  There will be refreshments, activities for the kids, a carnival midway, live bands, speakers, radio station hosts and celebrities from throughout the state, gubernatorial candidates, and more.  The petition drive was a huge success—now help to launch the “YES on RECALL” campaign.   

In a rare Sunday session on July 6 the California Assembly rejected a budget plan put forth by Assembly Republicans which would have eliminated funding for abortions, except those necessary to save the life of the mother or for babies conceived by rape or incest reported to a law enforcement agency.  The Republican budget proposal included a provision advanced by Senator Ray Haynes (R-Riverside), which would have eliminated all state funding for health care that was not matched by federal funds.  It has been the policy of the federal government for nearly three decades to fund only extremely rare instances of abortion.  The Republican budget was rejected on a vote of 27 - 45.  Republican Assembly members,  Lynn Daucher  (AD 72), Shirley Horton (AD 78) and Keith Richman (AD 38) did not vote for this budget because of the elimination of abortion money.  Bonnie Garcia (AD 80) and Abel Maldonado (AD 33) also withheld their votes for this Republican budget proposal.  

On July 9 the U. S. Senate backed a pro-abortion provision sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer, which she had successfully included in the State Department’s authorization bill (S 925) in committee.  The Boxer amendment removed the pro-life provision prohibiting funding of agencies, which promote or perform abortions overseas, long known as the Mexico City Policy.  The floor vote occurred when pro-life Senators failed to restore it with a tabling motion by a vote of 43-53.  Conferees of the House of Representatives are expected to strenuously oppose the Boxer amendment, and the Office of Management and Budget told the Senate that President Bush will veto the entire $27 billion bill if the pro-abortion provision remains.   http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la-na-abortion10jul10§ion=/printstory and http://www.lifenews.com/nat33.html (A link to the Senate vote is in the Lifenews article.) 

On July 15, the U. S. House of Representatives restored a pro-life provision of the State Department authorization bill (H. R. 1950), which had earlier been removed by a narrow vote in the House International Relations Committee.  In effect for 18 years, the Kemp/Kasten amendment has prevented U. S. family planning funds from going into international programs where forced abortions occur, except during some of the Clinton years when he would not certify that coercion was a problem in China and elsewhere.  This policy has prevented tax dollars from going to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), because of forced abortions and forced sterilizations which are a part of China’s family planning policy, and because of coercive sterilization policies in other countries such as Peru and New Zealand.  The vote was very close, 216-211.  Three Republican members of the California delegation opposed the pro-life amendment, Doug Ose (CD 3), Bill Thomas (CD 22) and Jerry Lewis (CD 41). Four Democrat members of the California delegation spoke in favor of funding UNFPA, Barbara Lee (CD 9), Tom Lantos (CD 12), Lois Capps (CD 23) and Hilda Solis (CD 32).  President Bush had also indicated he would veto this bill if the Kemp/Kasten provision was removed.  See  http://www.lifenews.com/nat41.html, where you can link to the vote, and http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030715/ap_on_go_co/congress_foreign_affairs_4  

Sen. Barbara Boxer vowed to make her support for embryonic stem cell research “one of the biggest issues” of her 2004 re-election campaign.  As she toured the Geron corporation’s stem cell research lab in Menlo Park on July 1^st, she said, "I'm very excited by what I have seen and by the potential of stem cell research. You are doing what I feel is God's work."   Citing pro-life congressional efforts to ban all forms of destructive embryonic stem cell research, Boxer said, "I'm worried that for the first time in our history, we're not going to be the leader in a field that holds so much promise" (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/2). http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/07/02/MN261859.DTL  

Stanford University scientist, Irving Weissman, advocate for the cannibalization of human embryos for utilization of their stem cells in medical experiments, vowed to continue his controversial work.  Regarding the human embryos, from which stem cells are extracted, Weissman opined, “I don’t believe they’re lives.  I don’t.  Not for a second.”  Weissman chaired the National Academy of Sciences panel on cloning, and now spends a good bit of his time testifying before legislative committees dealing with these deadly forms of medical experimentation.  When he helped form the Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at Stanford, the head of the President’s Council on Bioethics chastised him for parsing words, deceitfully attempting to disguise the work they intend to do in human cloning.  Stanford has stood by Weissman and his team and their ghoulish research.    http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6243780.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp 

As reported by Channel 4 KARK, an Arkansas man has awoken from a 19-year coma.  KARK reported that “A Stone County man is beginning the long journey of healing--and catching up on half a lifetime. A tragic accident left Terry Wallis in a coma for almost 20 years. Two weeks ago, he came out of it.   http://www.kark.com/karktv/news/story_tmp.asp?cmd=view&Storyid=7162 

The Daughters of Charity have established the St. Eliz. Ann Seton New Life Center at the Seton Medical Center in Daly City.  According to the center’s director, Kathy Green, “[t]he philosophy is if you make the pregnancy a positive experience, it lends itself, with education, to more comfort in the role of parent. . . the whole program is based on the concept of respecting life, from the moment of conception.”  The new pro-life medical clinic will cater to the poor, and will include instruction in nutrition, parenting skills and childbirth, in addition to the normal pre-and post-natal medical care.  If the first couple of weeks are any indication, they will need to expand their services beyond the two days a week they are now open.  http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11268~1506741,00.html 

The Pregnancy Care Center of El Cajon, which has been fighting for two years to obtain a clinical license finally filed a suit in federal district court claiming discrimination, “because it offers pregnant women ‘the choice of life’ for their babies,” as Maria Gallagher reported in LifeNews.  The center claims in part that the “right to privacy” established in Roe v. Wade should apply equally to those mothers who choose to give birth, as to those who want to abort.  http://www.lifenews.com/state41.html  and http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33414 

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)