by Carder

Girls need to hear success stories. People need to know that women have abortions every day and they go on and live their lives….

And now I’ve got children.

~ Alicia, whose abortion story was featured in the latest pro-abortion play, Out of Silence, Think Progress, January 22

[Photo via US News and World Report]

Good morning, and Happy Sunday!

I was disappointed that, to my knowledge, no conservative political cartoonist addressed the 20-week abortion ban scandal in the GOP-controlled House.

That aside, here were my top five favorite political cartoons this week. Be sure to vote for your fav in the poll at the bottom of this post.

On the topic of abortion on this 42nd anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, here are two. The first is actually an illustration by Alexander Hunter of the Washington Times to accompany an op ed by Ken Blackwell, “Aborting black America”:

 by Steve Breen of Townhall.com…

 On a related topic – Pope Francis’ controversial remark – by Jeff Danziger at GoComics.com…

 Steve Kelley at Townhall.com provides a nice segue…

 And can’t let Deflategate go unmentioned, by Nate Beeler at Townhall.com…

The Lord will answer you in times of trouble.
The name of the God of Jacob will protect you.
He will send you help from his holy place
and support you from Zion.

He will remember all your grain offerings*
and look with favor on your burnt offerings*. 
He will give you your heart’s desire
and carry out all your plans.

We will joyfully sing about your victory.
We will wave our flags** in the name of our God.
The Lord will fulfill all your requests.

Now I know that the Lord will give victory to his anointed king.
He will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty deeds of his powerful hand.

Some rely on chariots and others on horses,
but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God.
They will sink to their knees and fall,
but we will rise and stand firm.

Give victory to the king, O Lord.
Answer us when we call.

~ Psalm 20, God’s Word translation

* Sacrifices and obedience

** JLS note: I substitute “pro-life signs” for “flags.”

By now everyone knows what went down Thursday: GOP House leadership panicked and pulled the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, after promising the pro-life world they would pass it on the 42nd anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, the same day hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers were descending on Washington for the March for Life.

I’m told these same spineless, convictionless wimps are promising to introduce a retooled ban, but our people are now demanding a timeline, and they want the clock to start ticking SOON.

So what do you think? Will it happen? Also take the poll….

Really driving home this shameful dichotomy yesterday, as Republicans peed themselves in fear over the prospect of appearing slightly opposed to murdering babies, President Barack Obama issued a radical pro-abortion statement declaring child murder a “core constitutional right.”

Once again, while the GOP scrambles to find the “middle” of the abortion debate, the left makes it clear that they intend to make no concessions. They want all abortion legal, and they want it free, and they want us to celebrate it. And they’ll insist on all of that while telling those simpering, gullible Republicans that they have to be balanced on the issue.

~ Pro-life blogger Matt Walsh, The Blaze, January 23

[HT: Kelli]

I was leaving the One Voice worship service at the Renaissance Hotel in D.C. Wednesday night, on my way to meet fellow pro-lifers at the Dubliner Pub (dichotomous activities, I know, at least for a Protestant :), when Casey Mattox of Alliance Defending Freedom stopped me in the hall.

“They’re pulling the 20-week ban,” said Casey, “and substituting ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion‘.”

Casey started walking again, but I remained frozen, with my mouth agape, watching Casey until he entered disappeared around a corner.

I knew Rep. Renee Ellmers had tried to slow progress of the Pain Capable Child Protection Act.

But it was beyond the scope of my imagination to think GOP House leadership could be so traitorous, weak, and stupid as to pull a publicly supported landmark pro-life bill they’d publicly promised to sign the following day – during the largest public annual pro-life gathering in the world, and literally in their own backyard.

My shock turned to anger, and at all involved – Ellmers for fomenting a pro-abortion talking point the other side had never even thought of, and House leadership for their “deflated balls,” as Sarah Palin aptly put it, when it came to the pro-abortion cabal, but balls of steel when it came to such a brazen and senseless betrayal of their base.

I learned House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (pictured right) had broken the news to bill co-sponsor Trent Franks earlier in the evening at an inopportunely timed pro-life reception at which McCarthy was scheduled to speak.

Leaving a tearful Franks and pro-life leaders in his wake, McCarthy departed without giving that speech. What could he say?

This led to a tweet that was a bit out of character for me (two Guinnesses helped, I’m sure) but conveying the emotion I felt at the moment, which frankly hasn’t dissipated…

.@GOPLeader was supposed to speak at #prolife event tonite and bailed. #fu

— Jill Stanek (@JillStanek) January 22, 2015

Yesterday morning I woke up crying, and I pretty much haven’t stopped. The emotion of holding the 21-week-old abortion survivor at Christ Hospital has returned.  Maybe I’m experiencing PTSD, dunno. I haven’t been this upset about it in years.

The 20-week ban was so close. It needed to get to Barack Obama’s desk. If he blocked it, well, been there, done that with the Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

But for our own side to abandon these babies, especially when they had the power not to, well, it makes me want to punch somebody.

Well, not really. I had the chance to do that yesterday and passed on it.

As I said, I woke up crying. And an idea I had broached with friends at the Dubliner the night before (that’s us brainstorming, right) to protest Ellmers’ office took hold.

More than that, for the first time since I joined the pro-life movement 15 years ago, I felt I was in the midst of an unjust moment in time for which I was willing to commit civil disobedience during the protest – in honor of that baby.

So Reverend Pat Mahoney and I started organizing our protest. And when a reporter oddly but coincidentally asked if I was prepared to be arrested, I said yes.

This piqued the media’s interest. Calls started coming in. “You’re willing to be arrested?” I was asked by MSNBC, CBS, etc.

The prospect also terrified Ellmers’ staffers, I’m told. (By the time of our protest Ellmers had gutlessly left town.)

So when we, together with a group from Students for Life of America, showed up at Ellmers’ office at the appointed time of 3 p.m., news cameras were waiting, and three of Ellmers’ staff stood outside her locked door – to preclude a sit-in – with a bucket of iced refreshments.

So after pro-life spokespersons, including me, made their statements, and Ellmers’ people responded with, “We’re here to listen, we want to hear you,” blah blah blah…

… I was ready for my sit-in but had nowhere to sit but in what was fast becoming an empty hall, which seemed pretty lame.

There were seven capitol policemen ready to arrest me, but their boss told me that would only happen if I broke a window or punched somebody. Otherwise, no.

So unable to civilly but disobediently take a stand for the little 21-weeker who was being cast aside by Republicans, along with thousands of his friends in the name of political cowardice, I glumly left to crash at my daughter’s house, drained from the emotional roller coaster of the past 24 hours, which had started on such a high note and ended with PTSD.

Today I woke up crying again.

This all reminds me of the time the Born Alive Infants Protection Act failed in Illinois for the first time. I was naive and so taken by surprise I began sobbing uncontrollably and had to be led to a bathroom by my friend Fran Eaton to compose myself.

But the first, second, third, and fourth fails of BAIPA were for a reason. Had BAIPA passed without a hitch, the pro-infanticide proclivity of then no-name state Sen. Barack Obama would never have been known. This has served more than one good purpose, I think, for instance to further educate the American public on the barbarism of abortion.

Is it a coincidence that it was only in 2009 that more Americans first told Gallup they were pro-life than pro-choice? And have polled our way five of nine times since? I don’t think so.

So I’ll return to the battle in faith that this setback, too, will somehow work for good.

_______________

[Photo of Dubliner via Brandi Swindell; photo of reporters via Andy Moore; photo of crowd via Kristina Hernandez of Students for Life of America; credit for “GOP’s Abortion Barbie”: Erick Erickson]

Some good commentaries to read on this catastrophe:

“Why everyone should be terrified of the GOP’s abortion bill debacle”

“Renee Ellmers says she won’t flip-flop on bill protecting viable infants from late-term abortion”

Planned Parenthood VP’s tweet supporting Republicans’ cave

“Why does @RepReneeEllmers want to protect rapists and abortionists?”

“The pro-life movement must stop being whores of the Republican Party”

by Kelli

• Big Blue Wave points out the reluctance of those on the pro-abortion side of the aisle to state whether or not the human fetus at 20 weeks is, in fact, a human being. First, Nancy Pelosi dodged the question, and then Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland (where late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart kills viable children for a living), claimed that whether or not a 20-week preborn child is human “is not a real issue.”
• At the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, Justina Van Maren gives excellent tips on how to debate the “what about rape?” question when talking to people on the street.
• After Abortion says while the CDC currently acknowledges 12 legal abortion deaths from 2008, “such reporting isn’t always recording what is truly attributable to abortion. Not by a long shot.”

• At Bound4Life, Josh Shepherd reports on 30 things pro-lifers prayed for at OneVoiceDC, an ecumenical prayer gathering that took place the night before the March for Life.
• Clinic Quotes shares the testimony of Carole Novielli, who describes the day she saw abortion firsthand, discarded illegally in a dumpster behind an abortion clinic, along with the records of the abortion patients.
• Down on the Pharm says the UK National Health Service has officially fitted at least 3 10-year-old girls with contraceptive implants:
  

  [T]he long term, progestin only class of BC is strongly associated with osteoporosis. Giving this drug to girls while their bones are still growing is therefore not a good idea.

… Progestin only birth control is also associated with increases in susceptibility to STDs. Etonongestrel is the active metabolite of desogestrel, which gained fame from thrombotic events in so many patients, and the ensuing class action law suits.

• American Life League’s Judie Brown says that for all the talk of “human dignity” in various “death with dignity” circles, it is certainly lacking in our society’s laws surrounding human life from conception to natural death:
  

  [H]ow did we get to a point where international surrogacy and the buying and selling of babies is even a question? Well, human dignity in the era of reproductive technology has disappeared. Today the laboratory is used for mixing babies in petri dishes because would-be parents of any variety are willing to pay big bucks for the resulting child. Of course, first they want certain quality control standards to be applied before they pay for the product.If the buyers reject the chosen item, it’s curtains for you, baby!

  Sadly, the old-fashioned way of procreating children involving conjugal relations in marriage has become passé for far too many in this age of turning preborn children into marketable commodities.

  This dehumanization of persons robs each one of them of their dignity at the moment human cells, genes, and chromosomes become nothing more than tools in the scientist’s bag of tricks.

[Graphic via lifenews.com]

by Kelli

From CBN News comes this report on the new Healing the Shockwaves of Abortion campaign, and the reasons behind it, in the organizers’ own words:

Pro-life leaders gathered at the National Press Club just a few days before the Jan. 22 March for Life to announce that a special emphasis this year will be on the many and usually unpublicized ways abortion hurts.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/r8W1-q9NbQ0[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.