CURRENT LIFE ISSUES:
u After the Assembly Appropriations Committee narrowly approved the bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide, lawmakers used an 11th-hour political maneuver to catapult their landmark bill into the Senate. The move, which transfers the legislation into a Senate bill, bypassed a Friday deadline and keeps the measure alive. (Read the story) The bill would make CA the second state to legalize assisted suicide. It is very important that your legislators be informed about this issue and about your opposition to it! Call, fax or email Gov. Schwarzenegger; he has not taken a position on this bill! Contact your Assembly and Senate representatives too!
u The US House of Representatives approved H.R. 810, the bill to provide federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. The vote was just 50 votes short of the 288 needed to prevent a presidential veto. President Bush has vowed that federal funds will not be used to support destructive research, and promised to veto the bill, if possible. The Senate only needs 67 votes to pass the bill and block the President's veto. Time is running out and your help is needed to ensure the opposition of this bill! Get all the facts and communicate with your senators, urge them to oppose H.R. 810!
u An initiative that would allow CA parents to be informed when their teenager daughters are considering an abortion will appear on the ballot the next time state voters head to the polls. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that parental notification is constitutional as long as teens don't have to tell their parents in abuse situations. Supporters of the initiative believe that such an amendment could mean 20,000 fewer abortions in the state each year. Governor Schwarzenegger has not taken a stance on the parental notification proposal. CPLC will have more information on the initiative as it becomes available!
u The latest development in the Prop. 71 Stem Cell Research Institute issue surfaced this week, with the Senate unanimously passing SB 18. The oversight bill, put forward by Senator Deborah Ortiz, requires the state auditor to make a performance audit Center for Regenerative Medicine, which will oversee some $3 billion in funds earmarked for stem cell research. SB 18 also beefs up existing strictures preventing the buying and selling of fetal tissue and human eggs. Last November, Ortiz was one of Prop. 71's strongest proponents, but the Senator realized too late the true nature of the institute created by the initiative's passage; she is now leading the efforts to prevent its access to California's funds. Read the complete story!
The CPLC website
has all the breaking news!
www.californiaprolife.org
WHAT'S HAPPENING AT CPLC:
u Equipping you with information and resources is part of our mission. We are constantly updating our website to provide you with the latest news and legislation and opportunities to help preserve the value of Life. Check out our web page for all the latest pro-life news, legislation, and general information and learn more about your part in the effort for Life.
u ACSI, the Association of Christian Schools International, is preparing for the 2005 series of conferences and conventions. There will be events in Sacramento, in October and in Anaheim, in November. If you'd like to go for free, contact us! We are looking for volunteers to help host our booths and we would love to have you on our team. Call 916.442.8315 for more information!
u CPLC staff will head to Minneapolis, Minnesota in June for the annual National Right to Life Convention. The convention is always a great opportunity to meet and share with pro-life people from all over. There will be informational seminars, banquets, a prayer breakfast, and a memorial service for Terri Schindler-Schiavo, given by her brother Bobby. Anyone who believes in the value of life can come! Check it out!
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O I N T H E A D V E N T U R
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"Courage,
it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger,
misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly
that life
with all its sorrows is good;
that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our
understanding;
and that there is always tomorrow."
—Dorothy
Thompson—
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
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