DEACON FOR LIFE

Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

CONDITION RED!

CONDITION RED! U.S. HOUSE TO VOTE THIS WEEK ON PRO-ABORTION OBAMA HEALTH BILL! URGENT * URGENT * URGENT * URGENT**

THIS IS A "CONDITION RED" CONGRESSIONAL ALERT FROM THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE IN WASHINGTON, D.C., ISSUED MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010 (updated SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2010)

PLEASE ACT IMMEDIATELY ON THIS ALERT.

President Obama, Speaker Pelosi pull out all stops to pass massive pro-abortion health care bill -- DECISIVE HOUSE VOTE TO OCCUR ON OR ABOUT MARCH 20!

WASHINGTON -- President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are making a final, all-out push to ram through a massive health care restructuring bill that the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) has branded "the most pro-abortion single piece of legislation that has ever come to the House floor for a vote."

The House will vote on whether to approve a bill (H.R. 3590) that already passed the Senate last December.

A March 5 statement from National Right to Life, posted here, said regarding this bill: "The Senate health bill is a 2,407-page labyrinth strewn with the legislative equivalents of improvised explosive devices -- disguised provisions that will result in federal pro-abortion mandates and federal subsidies for abortion. The so-called abortion limits that are in the Senate bill are all very narrow, riddled with loopholes, or booby-trapped to expire. . . . When all of the pro-abortion provisions are considered in total, the Senate bill is the most pro-abortion single piece of legislation that has ever come to the House floor for a vote, since Roe v. Wade. Any House member who votes for the Senate health bill is casting a career-defining pro-abortion vote. A House member who votes for the Senate bill would forfeit a plausible claim to pro-life credentials. No House member who votes for the Senate bill will be regarded, in the future, as having a record against federal funding of abortion."

In recent weeks, Obama Administration officials and House Democratic leaders had made public statements indicating that they would try to negotiate an agreement with pro-life Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.), who has said he will vote against the bill unless language is added similar to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that the House attached to a different health care bill on November 7, 2009. (That bill was not approved by the Senate.) However, on March 11, Democratic leaders announced that they would allow no changes to the abortion language in the Senate-passed bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) told reporters, "The fact is that once we pass it in the House, it's going to be the law of the land."

According to a March 12 report in National Review Online, Stupak said that pro-life Democrats in the House "are coming under 'enormous" political pressure" from the White House and Pelosi. "I am a definite 'no' vote," he says. "I didn't cave. The others are having both of their arms twisted, and we're all getting pounded by our traditional Democratic supporters, like unions."

The vote is too close to call. All House Republicans oppose H.R. 3590. The outcome will be determined by whether undecided Democrat lawmakers recognize sufficient opposition among their constituents to convince them to vote against the urgings of the President and their party leaders. Each House Democrat is ultimately accountable to his or her constituents -- not to the Speaker, who represents part of San Francisco.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Most political observers agree that if Speaker Pelosi does not succeed in ramming the Senate bill through the House by the time Congress goes into recess for Easter on March 26, the bill is very likely to die. Whether she succeeds or not depends on what House members hear from their constituents during the days immediately ahead. Each House member is ultimately accountable to the member's constituents -- not to the Speaker, who represents part of San Francisco.

Please immediately TELEPHONE the Washington, D.C. office of your U.S. House member. Any U.S. House office can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121. But better yet, enter your zip code into the "Call Now" box above, and you will be shown a direct-dial phone number for your representative in the U.S. House, along with helpful short talking points that you can use during your call. You will also be shown a "Your Feedback" form, which allows you to easily send a short e-mail report to NRLC about how your conversation went, if you wish to do so. This feedback is very helpful to NRLC's lobbying efforts against the health care bill.

The best time to call is between 9 AM and 6 PM Eastern Time. If you call during the evening, you are likely to get a recording machine or a message asking that you call again during office hours.

It is also very worthwhile to place a call to your representative's local office. Contact information for local offices can be obtained here.

Even if you previously have called your representative to oppose the health care bill -- please do it again! And ask any like-minded friends and relatives to do the same. Remember, President Obama and Speaker Pelosi are putting all their muscle into this, and they are getting plenty of help from the mainstream news media. It is critical that your representative gets loud and clear guidance from the people who he or she actually represents.