I know just how you feel today! It hurts! It makes us angry. It is profoundly bewildering. Still, it is the American way.

We gave our best efforts to persuade our fellow Virginians to vote pro-life in order to protect and save innocent babies lives and to protect all vulnerable innocent life from health care rationing and euthanasia under Obama Care!

There will be an official statement from VSHL soon today. Please use that statement with your chapter and local press, including blogs and Facebook connections.

Many of you braved rebuke and cold weather the last two months to help VSHL PAC try to get out the pro-life vote at locations, including churches and rallies across Virginia. Thank you for your willingness to get out the facts of “life”. I believe distributing those pro-life voter guides proved very importantly in influencing how close the final vote was in Virginia.

There is good new! We have saved all eight of our Virginia pro-life Congressmen! Wttman, Rigell, Forbes, Hurt, Goodlatte, Cantor, Griffith, and Wolf

Also, many counties around Virginia went for Romney/Ryan that have been traditionally Democrat, including most of southwestern Virginia! Kudos to our friends there who distributed thousands of NRLC comparison pieces all over that region.

VSHL PAC in worked closely with our County leaders and w/ National Right to Life to educate on radio and by telephone. Every action spread the facts and we reach more voters than ever bore.

A final thought!

If your Congressman was one of those that VSHL PAC endorsed and who won re-election, please send a note of congratulations to him As soon as possible! Our good men in Washington will need to know we have their backs! Theirs will be a tough fight ahead, particularly on pro-life matters in Congress!

Now we in Virginia at VSHL must stand up and get ready for the next go around! We must continue to lead for Life. Next up, the Virginia General Assembly starts in January.

So for this moment, hold your loved ones close and give thanks for what we all have, the gift of life!

God bless you all,

Olivia Gans Turner
President

Because of the March for Life, no other cause has had the same kind of annual, continuing presence in our nation’s capital. In that way, Nellie kept the truth of abortion and of the millions of lives it has taken in the faces of America’s politicians and on the minds of the American people.

Her work inspires us to continue working, harder than ever, to ensure that vulnerable human life is again protected in law.

SOLID MAJORITY OF U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
VOTES TO PREVENT ABORTION OF PAIN-CAPABLE UNBORN CHILDREN,
BUT 154 LAWMAKERS VOTE TO DEFEND CURRENT D.C. POLICY
OF LEGAL ABORTION FOR ANY REASON UNTIL BIRTH

WASHINGTON – In a landmark vote, a solid majority of the U.S. House of Representatives today voted to reject the current abortion policy of the District of Columbia, which permits legal abortion for any reason until birth, and to replace it with a law that would generally prevent abortion after 20 weeks fetal age.

The legislation is the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 3803).  The vote was 220-154 in favor of the bill – a strong majority (a 66 vote margin), although short of the two-thirds vote required under the fast-track procedure utilized today (“suspension of the rules”).

“Today’s groundbreaking majority vote constitutes a giant step towards this bill ultimately becoming law — perhaps after the replacement of some of the lawmakers who today were unwilling to protect pain-capable unborn children in the sixth month of pregnancy and later,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the national federation of state right-to-life organizations.  “154 House members will have to explain to their constituents why they voted to endorse a policy of legal abortion for any reason, until the moment of birth, in their nation’s capital.”

H.R. 3803 contains findings that by 20 weeks after fertilization (if not earlier), the unborn child has the capacity to experience great pain.  (This is equivalent to 22 weeks in the alternate “LMP” or “weeks of pregnancy” dating system used by ob-gyns and abortion providers.)  The bill prohibits abortion after that point, except when an acute physical condition endangers the life of the mother.  Nine states have already enacted abortion limitations based on the pain suffered by unborn children; no court orders have blocked enforcement of any of those laws.

The District Clause of the U.S. Constitution (found in Article I, Section 8) provides that “Congress shall . . . exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District . . .”  Like any other “legislation,” of course, laws pertaining to the federal district are subject to the president’s review.  Asked about H.R. 3803 today, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney responded, “The president’s position on a woman’s reproductive freedom is well known,” and went on to refer to the legislation as “controversial, divisive social legislation.”

On July 30, a federal judge in Arizona upheld as constitutional a new state law that generally prohibits abortion after 18 weeks fetal age (20 weeks of pregnancy) – two weeks earlier than
H.R. 3803.  U.S. District Judge James A. Teilborg, a Clinton appointee, found that “by 20 weeks, sensory receptors develop all over the child’s body” and “when provoked by painful stimuli, such as a needle, the child reacts, as measured by increases in the child’s stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure.”  Judge Teilborg also noted, “Given the nature of D&Es and induction abortions . . . this Court concludes that the State has shown a legitimate interest in limiting abortions past 20 weeks gestational age.”

Also today, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), the prime sponsor of the Senate companion bill (S. 2103, which has 30 cosponsors), filed the bill as an amendment to an unrelated bill that is currently pending on the Senate floor, S. 3414.

The NRLC website provides links to abundant documentation on the scientific studies that support the bill’s findings that unborn children, by 20 weeks fetal age if not before, have the capacity to experience great pain, here.  The abortion method most often used at this stage, the “D&E,” is depicted in a medical illustration, here.  Recent polling and other information on the legislation is also posted at http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/index.html.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization.

Stabbing death of unborn child in the District of Columbia
reveals total lack of right to life for all 9 months of pregnancy

“District law is consistent – consistent in refusing to protect the right to life of an unborn child at any moment prior to birth, either from abortionists or from knife-wielding home invaders.”

– NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson

WASHINGTON (March 23, 2012) — Press reports of a shocking crime highlight the fact that unborn children in the nation’s capital currently have absolutely no legal right to life at any moment prior to birth.

According to multiple press reports, an unnamed woman, about eight months pregnant, was asleep in her Southeast Washington apartment at about 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 22, when an unknown assailant entered her room and stabbed her in the abdomen. Taken to a local hospital, a son, Kuron Rashad Hunt, “was delivered and was later pronounced dead,” according to a press release issued by the Metropolitan Police Department. Kuron’s mother survived. It is unclear from these reports whether Kuron was born alive, which apparently will be determined by an autopsy that will be performed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), offered the following comments:

“This case provides another demonstration that in our nation’s capital, an unborn child has absolutely no right to life at any moment prior to birth. In the eyes of current local law, nobody died in this crime – not unless prosecutors can prove that Kuron Rashad Hunt was born alive before he died. Under current D.C. law, the unborn child is a complete legal non-entity, even during the final months of pre-natal development.”

Under the laws of 36 states – including Virginia and Maryland – the death of a baby under the circumstances reported would be regarded as a homicide, whether or not the baby was born alive. A 2004 federal law, theUnborn Victims of Violence Act, incorporates the same “two victim” principle, but it applies only to federal crimes.

“The District has no fetal homicide law because such laws are vehemently opposed by the pro-abortion lobby, with which the mayor and District Council are in lock-step,” Johnson said. “The District has no fetal homicide law for the same reason that abortion is allowed for any reason right up to the moment of birth in the District. District law is consistent – consistent in refusing to protect the right to life of an unborn child at any moment prior to birth, either from abortionists or from knife-wielding home invaders. This situation likely will endure until Congress exercises its constitutional responsibility to protect innocent human life within the Federal District.”

One area abortionist maintains a website on which he touts his supposed expertise in performing abortions to about the beginning of the eighth month — the same stage of development as Kuron Rashad Hunt had reached, if press reports are accurate. Under current District law, there is nothing to prevent this abortionist or others from killing such babies up to the moment of birth.

A bill introduced in Congress in January, the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act(H.R. 3803, S. 2103), would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks fetal age (about the beginning of the sixth month), except when the mother’s life is endangered. The legislation currently has 154 cosponsors in the House and six in the Senate. Five states already have enacted such laws, which are based on legislative recognition of the capacity of the unborn child to experience pain by 20 weeks fetal age.

This Washington Times Editorial was published on Friday, Jan. 27:

Jan. 22 marked the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade and corresponding abdication of social responsibility. The March for Life and other pro-woman and pro-life groups commemorated the day as they have every year since 1974, with vigils and gatherings across the country and a march from downtown Washington, D.C., to the Supreme Court.

There is much to mourn in this anniversary. The loss of at least a million unborn children (most recent data recorded 1.21 million in 2008) is most prominent. But what this decision says about us as a nation comes in as a strong second: America does not support its women and children. Many abortions are the result of women trying to find their way out of bad situations, whether lack of partner support, no funds, no access to child care, the need to finish school in an environment that’s hostile to parenthood, fear of recriminations – the list goes on.

Read more at www.washingtontimes.com…

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE ANNOUNCES PRIORITIES FOR 2012: Defeat Barack Obama and Protect Pain-Capable Unborn Children in the States and the District of Columbia

WASHINGTON – As right-to-life activists gathered across the country to mourn the loss of more than 54 million unborn children since the U.S. Supreme Court’s January 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates, announced its political and legislative priorities for 2012.

“It should not be a surprise to anyone that the top priority for National Right to Life’s Political Action Committee this year is defeating Barack Obama and electing a pro-life president,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Additionally, building upon recent success in five states, National Right to Life will urge Congress to adopt a ban on aborting pain-capable unborn children in the Federal District, and will push for enactment of this ban in several more states.”

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act developed by National Right to Life has served as a model for laws enacted so far in Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho, Alabama, and Oklahoma. Already in 2012, similar bills have been introduced in legislatures in Virginia, New Hampshire, and Florida, with additional states expected to join the list.

In states that have passed the law, the legislatures declared that there is substantial scientific evidence that the unborn child is capable of experiencing great pain during abortion procedures by 20 weeks after fertilization, and on the basis of those findings, applied general bans on abortion from that point on (i.e., from about the beginning of the sixth month, in layman’s terminology), except for rare cases in which acute physical disorders endanger the mother. No serious legal challenge has yet been mounted to any of these five laws.

Congressman Trent Franks (R-Az.) will today introduce the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill would ban abortion of pain-capable unborn children within the Federal District – the district created by the U.S. Constitution for the specific purpose of serving as the seat of the national government.

“Today, in our nation’s capital, an unborn child can be killed at any point prior to birth, for any reason,” said NRLC Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “Under the U.S. Constitution, the sole and exclusive legislative authority to protect unborn children within the Federal District resides with the Congress. If abortion remains unrestricted in the nation’s capital, during the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth months, it will be because certain members of Congress, or the President, have obstructed this bill. If they do that, then they alone, under the Constitution, are fully accountable for that policy.”

At least two abortion providers currently are advertising that they provide abortions in the District past the point that the bill would establish protection – one to 24 weeks after fertilization, and the other during the third trimester, at least to seven and one-half months, and perhaps later.

“Enactment of the D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act will be a top legislative priority for National Right to Life during 2012,” said Johnson. “The capital city of the United States should not also be the capital for causing torment to unborn babies in the sixth month and later.”

“Pro-abortionists often say that limiting abortion would ‘take us backwards,’ but really, they are the ones who insist that society must remain locked in the Dark Ages of ignorance regarding the capacities of unborn children,” noted Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., National Right to Life director of state legislation. “Our knowledge about the capacities of the unborn child has increased by orders of magnitude since Roe v. Wade, thanks in part of 4-D ultrasound and other sophisticated imaging techniques. Our legislation also reflects what medical science has learned about the necessity for controlling the baby’s pain during open-womb fetal surgery, and when performing painful procedures on very premature newborn infants.”

Dear Member of Congress:

The Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade was issued during the “Dark Ages” in terms of pre-natal medical science. In the ensuing decades, knowledge regarding the development of unborn humans, and their capacities at various stages of growth, has advanced in quantum leaps. For example, improvements in ultrasound and other imaging technologies have allowed doctors to see smaller and smaller details of the unborn child’s anatomy. The first open-womb fetal surgery was performed in 1981, and such procedures are now routine at a number of facilities. During fetal surgery, physicians were able to observe unborn children reacting to painful stimuli, and this was one major factor that led to the current recommended practice of administering anaesthesia to the unborn child at around 20 weeks.

Some of the extensive evidence that unborn children have the capacity to experience pain, at least by 20 weeks and possibly earlier, is summarized here:

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/Fetal-Pain-The-Evidence.pdf

It is long past time for lawmakers to take note of these developments and the implications that they should have for abortion policy. Five states have already done so, during 2010 and 2011, by enacting the NRLC-backed Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. In these states, legislatures have adopted factual findings regarding the medical evidence that unborn children experience pain at least by 20 weeks after fertilization (about the start of the sixth month), and they therefore prohibit abortion after that point, with narrowly drawn exceptions. Those states are Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Alabama. There has been no serious legal challenge mounted to any of these laws. Additional state legislatures will be considering such legislation during the months ahead.

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) has long been dismayed by the abortion policy that is currently in place in one jurisdiction that is under the direct constitutional authority of the Congress: the Federal District (District of Columbia). While it will come as a shock to many Americans, in the capital of our nation, abortion now is allowed for any reason at any point in pregnancy. Abortions are openly advertised and performed far past the point at which an unborn child becomes pain capable.

The nation’s capital belongs to the American people as a whole, and with respect to vital matters of public policy, the U.S. Constitution makes it crystal clear that the buck stops with Congress. The “District Clause” of Article I, Section 8 is unequivocal, stating that Congress shall “exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District . . .”

Thus, Congressman Trent Franks yesterday circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter announcing that he will introduce, on January 23, The District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Essentially, this bill would prohibit, within the Federal District, the abortion of any “pain-capable” unborn child, defined as any unborn child who is 20 weeks or more past fertilization. The bill contains findings and exceptions similar to those enacted in the states named above.

The National Right to Life Committee strongly supports the D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and urges you to sign on as an original cosponsor of this legislation. The “Dear Colleague” letter specifies that this can be done by sending an email to Jacki Picki, counsel to Mr. Franks (Jacki.Pick@mail.house.gov).

Enactment of the bans on abortion of pain-capable unborn children are currently a top priority for NRLC.

NRLC also encourages you to cosponsor, if you have not already done so, the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA, H.R. 3541) and the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA, H.R. 2299). Summaries of these and other worthwhile bills endorsed by NRLC are available at the NRLC Legislative Action Center at http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/home/

Thank you for your consideration of NRLC’s position on these important legislative initiatives.

Sincerely,

Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
512 10th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004
(202) 626-8820

Additional resources on the pain of unborn children are available here:

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/index.html

What:  Strength In Numbers Pro-Life Bake Sale

Where:  St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church
1029 Monroe St., NE
Washington, DC 20017

When:  This Sunday, November 20th, after the 8:30 and 10 AM Masses

Items Needed:

Cookie
Cakes
Breads
Muffins
Cupcakes
Etc.

Please have all these items wrapped and ready to go home with

Volunteers

Anyone who is available to help us with the bake sale on Sunday, Nov. 20, please do not hesitate to email Luis: luiszaff [at] gmail.com

Obama claimed he wanted to reduce the number of abortions, but his policies have had the opposite effect.

Late yesterday the Associated Press (AP) reported that in the two years  during which Congress allowed the District of Columbia to spend money on elective abortions, 300 had been performed.  This news was acquired from city officials after AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

Except for a very brief period, prior to the 2008 election of pro-abortion President Obama and concomitant Democratic control of both houses of Congress, there was a ban on the District of Columbia paying for abortions going back to 1988. That ban was lifted in 2009 and lasted until the ban was re-imposed last April.

During the two years Congress allowed the District of Columbia (jurisdictionally, a federal enclave) to spend money on elective abortions the city spent $185,000 for 300 abortions, according to AP.

“The responsibility for these 300 government-funded abortions rests squarely with President Obama, who urged Congress to lift the longstanding ban in 2009, and with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who rammed through the repeal without allowing roll call votes on the issue in either house of Congress,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “Some of these unborn children would be alive today, if it had not been for the Obama-dictated change in policy.”

Johnson noted that when Obama ran for President, “he said he would push policies to reduce abortions, but this is one of many examples in which his pro-abortion actions belie those empty words.  Thanks to Speaker John Boehner and other House Republican leaders, the pro-life ban was restored during negotiations last spring — but we can expect renewed clashes over the issue during the months ahead.”

The details about the District of Columbia are known only because the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request–and the fact that “The number of abortions the city now says it paid for contrasts with previous statements.”

Mayor Vincent Gray told Congress in May that the number of abortions was 117, according to the AP. The mayor’s office agreed the 300 figure was accurate and explained the “discrepancy” to bills not being submitted on time. Notably “City spokeswoman Doxie McCoy said that the exact number of abortions the city paid for could still rise because claims are still being processed.”

Express cover for March 24, 2011.

This morning hundreds of thousands of DC-area comuters and other readers of the Washington Post Express saw a cover story titled “Roe v. Wade: Law of the Land?” which discussed the breadth of state-level , pro-life laws advancing across the country.

Thanks to the grassroots network of National Right to Life and their state affiliates, laws like Nebraska’s ban on abortion after 20 weeks based on the ability of the unborn child to feel pain.  Similar laws are advancing in states such as Idaho and Kanasas.

The Express article prominently featured a block quote from NRLC State Legislative Director, Mary Spaulding Balch: “When a woman is pregnant and doesn’t want to be, the more information she has, the better.  That’s what these laws are trying to do–give a thoughtful pause so the mother can understand the options that are out there.”