"Facts of Life" Email: February 27, 2004

Facts of Life -- Friday, February 27, 2004

Be sure to vote in the Tuesday March 2^nd Primary, and help all of your pro-life friends and relatives to get to the polls.  The California ProLife Voter's Guide is on our website, as well as all the information we have about local candidates who may be on your ballot.  Go to www.californiaprolife.org/voter.  If you want still more information about the candidates and the issues on your primary ballot, check out www.RobynNordell.com.

The investigation following the RU 486 death of Holly Patterson has resulted in the state citing a Pleasanton hospital, Valley Care Medical Center, and a Hayward Planned Parenthood  for not reporting her death as an "unusual occurrence." This prompted her father, Monty Patterson, to charge that deaths and "adverse events" from abortion drugs may be "widely underreported."  The California Department of Health Services also found that Planned Parenthood failed to follow its own consent and information policies when it administered the abortion drug to the healthy 18 year-old.  http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/8037531.htm  "The FDA needs this reporting information to monitor and evaluate the safety of the drugs they have approved," Monty Patterson said in a statement on Wednesday. http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8044903.htm  Patterson supports federal legislation that would repeal the FDA's approval of RU-486, and direct the Government Accounting Office to review the drug's approval process (HR 3453).  Neither facility was sanctioned for the reporting oversight.   

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA -- HR 1997), recognizing by a vote of 254-163 that a federal crime that results in the deaths of both a pregnant woman and an unborn child claims two victims.  The UVVA is also known as "Laci and Conner's Law."  California and 28 other states already have similar provisions in state law.  The UVVA has passed the House of Representatives three times, but has yet to come to a vote in the U.S. Senate.  In an audio-taped statement played today at a Capitol Hill press conference Sharon Rocha -- mother of Laci and grandmother of Conner, who were murdered in a nationally publicized crime here in California, sharply rebuked Senate Democrats for obstructing the bill, including our own two senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.  She called on senators who had previously not supported the bill, including Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Senator John Edwards (D-NC), to reconsider their positions. The entire press statement of NRLC, which includes a link to the Rocha audiotape, can be accessed in the first item on the home page of the National Right to Life Committee, www.nrlc.org.   The House first had to reject a phony substitute (by a vote of 186-229) offered by another of our California Representatives, Zoe Lofgren of San Jose. 

All Democrats in the California delegation voted for the Lofgren attempt to scuttle the bill and against the UVVA, except for Dennis Cardoza of Merced.  Please thank him.  All Republicans voted to oppose the Lofgren substitute, except for Mary Bono, Doug Ose and Bill Thomas.  Except for Mary Bono, all Republicans voted for final passage of the UVVA.  Please let Mary Bono of Palm Springs know of your disappointment in her votes.  (Three Democrats did not cast a vote on either bill, Reps. Mike Honda, Tom Lantos, and Juanita Millender-McDonald.)  You can easily reach any of California's U.S. Representatives by going to NRLC's Legislative Action Center at www.nrlc.org.

The California Republican Party (CRP) at it's semi-annual convention in Burlingame, on February 22, adopted without controversy a platform that included pro-life commitments which have been held since 1992. It reads in part, "[t]he CRP affirms its support for the protection of innocent human life at every stage, from the pre-born to the elderly, the infirm and the disabled."    See http://www.cagop.org/about/platform.cfm  to read it in its entirety in the section entitled "The Sanctity of Life," the send to the last plank of the platform. 

Pro-Life legislation introduced in the California Legislature for 2004:

Forced Abortions -- AB 2291 -- Assemblyman Ray Haynes

            AB 2291 would prohibit the funding of an abortion under the Medi-Cal program unless the physician performing the abortion has obtained written assurance from the patient that she understands that she may not be coerced into having an abortion, and that the decision to have an abortion must be made voluntarily, without duress or intimidation.  The bill would prohibit the reimbursement of an abortionist unless he has submitted a statement signed by the patient that she is aware that it is against the law for anyone to force intimidate, or coerce her into having an abortion.

Forced Abortions -- SB 1593 -- Senator Dennis Hollingsworth

            SB 1593 is essentially the same bill introduced on the Senate side, so that the issue will be addressed in committees of both houses of the California Legislature.

Fetal Pain -- AB 2331 -- Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy

AB 2331 would, for an abortion performed in the 3^rd trimester of pregnancy, require the physician performing the abortion to offer to the pregnant woman information and counseling on fetal pain and offer to the pregnant woman anesthesia for the unborn child.  The bill would require the physician to arrange for anesthesia to be administered, if the pregnant woman voluntarily consents for the unborn child.  It would also require the woman to sign a document that information and counseling on fetal pain was provided and that the physician offered anesthesia for the fetus.

Repeal SB 322 -- AB 3012 -- Assemblywoman Sharon Runner

            AB 3012 would repeal SB 322, a bill signed into law last year, which requires that the Department of Health & Human Services develop an advisory committee to write guidelines for research involving the "derivation" of human embryonic stem cells from human embryos, either cloned or "left-over" from infertility programs.  The process of "derivation" (a euphemistic term) of cells from human embryos results in killing the newly formed human being.  SB 322 is one of the bills that Gov. Schwarzenegger asked to be repealed, because it was an unfunded mandate, one of many, passed last year.

            Watch the CPLC website for continuing updates on these and other pertinent legislation. 

 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)

Check out the CPLC website "news" section to stay up with the latest in pro-life happenings. www.californiaprolife.org.

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)