Back
Placeholder Image

2016: A Call to Action

ve8QAd   |   February 11, 2016

To say this year’s presidential election is of monumental importance would be an understatement. But to be honest, you’ve heard that or similar language bandied about every presidential election. This one is different. It will almost certainly be the most important presidential election you and I will cast a vote for during our lifetime. Let me explain why.

During the 2008 election, Life Issues Institute along with other pro-life organizations predicted that Barack Obama would be the most aggressively pro-abortion president in our nation’s history. And he is.

Judicial Damage

Let’s take a look at some of the carnage Mr. Obama has inflicted on our nation, starting with the more high-profile issues like appointments to the US Supreme Court. As president, Barack Obama has appointed two justices to the Court and both held
extreme pro-abortion positions before serving on our nation’s highest court. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Justice Elena Kagan served in the Clinton administration as US Solicitor General. She was significantly involved in advising President Clinton on the legal issues surrounding the partial birth abortion ban, specifically the wording of a woman’s “health” exception to the bill that would have rendered it useless.

With Judge Sonia Sotomayor on its board, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund filed six amicus briefs with the Supreme Court on abortion-related decisions. All were from an
extreme pro-abortion perspective. As Supreme Court justices, both Sotomayor and Kagan ruled against Hobby Lobby’s efforts to freely express their deeply held religious beliefs that they should not be forced to facilitate abortion through abortion-causing drugs.

When the next president takes the oath of office, four justices on the US Supreme Court will be over 82 years old. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has survived pancreatic cancer and is considered in frail health. The next president has the potential opportunity to appoint four new justices to the Court. How does a pro-life majority on the Court translate to life for
America’s unborn babies? Let me count the ways!

Obviously, there’s the potential of reversing Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which would return authority to the states to determine protection for unborn children and their mothers.
Or, though unlikely, the Court could rule that the right to life for all human beings, from the moment of fertilization, is in the Constitution and must be protected.

Minimally we could expect incremental pro-life legislation, both federal and state, to be ruled constitutional. This would include requirements that abortionists have transfer agreements with local hospitals or that abortion facilities be required to have the same patient protections in place as other outpatient ambulatory surgical centers. Not funding Planned Parenthood would in all probability be the sole right of Congress and state legislatures. Waiting requirements, informed consent, parental rights and other common sense protections would likely be constitutionally recognized.

President Obama has also appointed 54 judges to appellate courts where decisions are critically important to ending abortion. Most court cases never get to the Supreme Court, thus allowing lower appellate court rulings to stand. The president has also appointed 260 district court judges. Consider the impact this has had on hundreds of pro-life state laws
passed in recent years. Imagine how many more children we could save with more pro-life judges.

The Power of the President’s Pen

Key pro-life federal legislation has the potential to save tens of thousands of children each year. The only way we were able to pass a ban on the gruesome and brutal partial birth
abortion procedure—killing a baby during delivery—was to replace Bill Clinton, who twice vetoed the ban, with pro-life George W. Bush. President Bush also signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. He also told Congress he would veto any legislation weakening existing pro-life policy.

If we currently had a pro-life president, Planned Parenthood’s tax funding of over $528 million dollars would be all but history because the reconciliation bill passed by the Senate this past December required only a majority vote, not the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster by pro-abortion senators. Consider the tremendous debt carried by Planned Parenthood affiliates after building mega abortion mills. A law preventing Planned Parenthood from being funded with your tax dollars would create a financial crisis within the abortion giant. Such an enormous diversion of cash away from Planned Parenthood to community health centers would level the playing field between Planned Parenthood and pro-life organizations. This financial tsunami would give pro-lifers the advantage and bring us much closer to our ultimate goal of ending abortion.

The Weight of Obamacare

Not only has Obamacare seriously damaged America’s healthcare system, it embedded
abortion on demand within its cavernous bureaucratic structure. Abortion coverage is available through state insurance exchanges. Almost all plans offer abortion coverage via a monthly surcharge, but you are not allowed to know if abortion is part of your coverage until after you purchase the plan—and even then it’s a difficult task. Obamacare also mandates free coverage of abortion-causing drugs, makes it possible for abortion to flourish in community health centers and may allow discrimination against doctors who refuse to participate in providing abortion services.

The reconciliation legislation passed by the Senate in December included a near total reversal of Obamacare. We would never have had Obamacare with a pro-life president,
and we will certainly need one to sign legislation abolishing this albatross of government-controlled healthcare.

Facing 2016 Head-On

One of the last episodes of our pro-life TV program, Facing Life Head-On, to air in 2015 had the same title as this article, 2016: A Call to Action. We reformatted this TV episode into a half-hour radio program under the same title that aired on over six hundred radio stations throughout America late in January around the anniversary of Roe.

My impressive list of guests included Congresswoman Mia Love of Utah, Dr. Jerry Johnson, president of National Religious Broadcasters, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, and Missy Stone with Students for Life of America. All of them made impassioned pleas for you to get involved in this year’s elections. Each abortion—if pro-life Americans become active in the political process. If you have a smartphone, please take a moment to scan the code at right (link here) and watch what each had to say.

The primary season is upon us, and that is when you and I have the best opportunity to influence the outcome for your favorite presidential candidate. Marjorie and Congresswoman Love have excellent advice for you during this critical time. You
can watch a brief part of their interviews by scanning the code at left (link here).

Dr. Jerry Johnson says that about half of Evangelical Christians are registered to vote, and only half of those actually vote. “That’s just not right,” said Dr. Johnson, “That’s pathetic. It’s sinful. We’re abrogating our responsibility to be salt and light.”

Best Doesn’t Mean Perfect

But what if you work hard to elect your favorite presidential candidate and he or she does not get the nomination? It is time for you and me to get behind the best possible candidate and vote pro-life. The people who reasoned during the last two presidential elections that John McCain wasn’t pro-life enough to earn their support or that they would not vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon are in part responsible for the moral and ethical carnage inflicted upon America by the Obama administration.

Wthout Mr. Obama we would not have Obamacare, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan or hundreds of other pro-abortion judges. The United Nations wouldn’t have the formidable
strength of the pro-abortion American delegation inflicting coercion and force upon pro-life nations to abandon their laws protecting unborn babies and their mothers. As president of the International Right to Life Federation, I have seen firsthand evidence of the UN bullying pro-life countries—most of them poor and struggling to defend their unborn citizens.

And without Mr. Obama you wouldn’t see your religious freedoms quickly eroding. There would be no bureaucratic thugs persecuting Little Sisters of the Poor and other people of faith for their refusal to provide abortifacient drugs as part of their religious ministries. And you would not have to daily worry that your job or livelihood would be in jeopardy if you spoke up for your beliefs or acted upon them.

To those who couldn’t find it in their hearts to vote for a less-than- perfect presidential candidate, please reevaluate the damage done to our nation the last seven years and ask yourself if you think American can endure another president with an extreme pro-abortion agenda. Marjorie has good advice when faced with a candidate that is not all we hoped for. Scan the code at left and hear what she has to say (link here).

An Unprecedented Opportunity

The pro-life movement and the people of America have an unprecedented opportunity not
seen since Roe v. Wade. We have several presidential candidates arguing who is the most pro-life. The Planned Parenthood videos were so revealing and shocking that they
brought additional voters into the pro-life camp—voters who have not previously been with us on the issue of abortion.

You also have the confidence of knowing a majority of Americans agree with you that our nation’s abortion laws are extreme. Pro-abortion activists understand this and are worried about the future of legal abortion. It often makes them say outrageous and foolish statements to defend killing babies. Congresswoman Love recalled her amusement while on the House floor when one of her pro-abortion colleagues said that pro-life laws are a  ploy by a caucus of angry white men. Her response was, “I’m not angry. I’m not white. And I’m not a male. What I am is a mother who’s disappointed. This is about a child.”

With continued pro-life majorities in both the House and Senate, a pro-life president would
set the stage for unprecedented gains toward ending abortion in America. That is, if we educate and motivate pro-life citizens to register to vote and get to the polls during both the
primaries and general election.

Throughout 2016 Life Issues Institute will strive to educate Americans about their honor, privilege and obligation to vote pro-life because lives literally depend upon it. We will be sharing with you ways you can and should participate in hiring the people who represent us in Washington, DC—employees who, as one pro-life leader put it, know the difference
between serving the public and killing the public.

If you have not already done so, visit lifeissues.org and subscribe to my weekly update that will provide the latest developments in this ongoing battle to protect innocent human life, born and unborn.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


3 thoughts on “2016: A Call to Action

  1. Wake up to the call to end the tragic abortion laws in America… please stop the killing of babies in the womb!

Latest News

From our articles & videos

View all

March 27, 2024

The Supreme Court Hears Chemical Abortion Challenge

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories, L.L.C. v....

Read More

March 26, 2024

SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments on Chemical Abortion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 26, 2024| Link Contact: Victor Nieves, vnieves@lifeissues.org 513-719-5813 SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments on Chemical Abortion Today...

Read More

March 21, 2024

World Down Syndrome Day

Today is World Down Syndrome Day. The date was selected because Down syndrome occurs when an extra 3rd of the...

Read More