Opinion Pieces
Smith Op-Ed in Washington ExaminerMore Determined, Faith-Filled, Hope-Filled Than EverBy Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) Since 1973, at least 58 million children have been killed by abortion — a staggering loss of children’s precious lives, a death toll that equates to the entire population of England. There is growing recognition that post-abortion women are co-victims, often suffering emotional pain in silence, in need of healing and unconditional love. Many of these women today are silent no more and have become courageous, outspoken defenders of life. Click here to read the op-ed on the Washington Examiner website. President Obama is using stealth, deception and the coercive power of the state to promote abortion violence—including the massive public funding of abortion on demand in Obamacare. Nonetheless the pro-life movement is stronger than ever and making serious, significant and sustained progress. At the state level the gains have been historic—282 pro-life laws have been enacted since 2010 including laws to stop dismemberment abortions, require a 72-hour waiting period, and informed consent. All of these measures save lives. Earlier this month, Congress sent the President landmark legislation to end taxpayer subsidies for Planned Parenthood. The Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 rolls back much of Obamacare and defunds Planned Parenthood. Special thanks to Speaker Ryan, Majority Leader McCarthy, Chairman Price and others in leadership for crafting this lifesaving legislation. In the last year alone nine powerful, pro-life measures have passed the House including the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. President Obama—the abortion President—has threatened to veto all of these bills if they make it to his desk, and this month vetoed the bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Astonishingly, the President who has everything—a great job, a wonderful family, good health, fame and fortune, a place in history—has no empathy whatsoever for the babies who have been or will be exterminated—an appalling empathy deficit. Under his watch attacks on conscience rights have accelerated at warp speed. The latest outrage: California forcing just about everyone, including churches and other faith-based entities, to subsidize abortion in their insurance plans. Passage of the Abortion Nondiscrimination Act would significantly enhance conscience rights for both individuals and organizations by providing a private right to sue, rather than relying on the Obama Administration to enforce current conscience laws (which it hasn’t). With this year’s March for Life, pro-lifers are more determined, faith-filled, and hope-filled than ever. Millennials are overwhelmingly pro-life. As the former head of the pro-abortion group NARAL observed after witnessing a recent March for Life, “I just thought, my gosh, they are so young…There are so many of them, and they are so young.” Public opinion polls concur that more Americans—especially women and young people—are pro-life. Although Hillary Clinton wants abortion on demand until birth and to repeal the Hyde amendment, a new Marist poll shows that more Americans want pro-life protections. And opposition to taxpayer funding for abortion has grown from 61 percent in 2009 to 68 percent today. Other polling has shown that 71 percent of millennials oppose taxpayer funding of abortion. And 59 percent of women favor a limit on abortion at least by 20 weeks, when the unborn child is capable of feeling pain (if not earlier), with 57 percent of young people supporting this approach. The Gallup Poll has found that Planned Parenthood’s favorability rating among women has dropped 24 points among women in the last two decades. Planned Parenthood is the significant tip of an ugly iceberg—a multibillion industry that systematically exterminates children and hurts women. Subsidized by over $500 million taxpayers’ dollars each year, Planned Parenthood dismembers or chemically poisons a baby to death every two minutes—killing over seven million innocent children since 1973. Planned Parenthood is “Child Abuse, Inc.” Recent undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress have exposed in numbing candor several high level Planned Parenthood leaders gleefully talking about procuring children’s organs for a price, all while altering gruesome dismemberment procedures to preserve “intact” livers, hearts and lungs from freshly killed babies. Watch the videos yourself at centerformedicalprogress.org. This isn’t the first time Planned Parenthood has been caught doing the unthinkable. In 2011 undercover videos by Live Action exposed several Planned Parenthood clinics that were eager, ready, and willing to facilitate secret abortions for child sex trafficking victims—some as young or younger than 14—to get them on the streets again. As the prime author of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the landmark law that seeks to protect victims, mostly women and children, I found the on-the-record willingness of Planned Parenthood personnel to exploit young girls and partner with sex traffickers to be disgusting. Watch the videos yourself on liveaction.org. In 2012 Live Action released another sting operation video, part of a series called “Gendercide: Sex Selection in America,” showing Planned Parenthood staff advising undercover female investigators how to procure sex-selection abortions. Caught on tape, Planned Parenthood tells the investigator to wait until the baby is five months along to get an ultrasound that will reveal the sex of the child, then if it is a girl, kill it. Far too many politicians including our Nobel Peace Prize-winning President and much of the media continue to ignore, trivialize—even defend—these gross human rights abuses. However, we will not be deterred in exposing this Planned Parenthood scandal, no matter how aggressive and misleading the cover-up. First elected in 1980, Cong. Smith (R-NJ) has co-chaired the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus for 33 years. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) is the caucus co-chair.
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