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Carol Tobias, President
National Right to Life |
By Carol Tobias, President National Right to Life
Election Day is upon us. In just days we will know who is our 45th President and whether the U.S. Senate remains under pro-life leadership.
Have you, like me, waited for this day for four years?
For those who care passionately about protecting unborn children, Election Day 2012 was an extremely difficult day. We knew that the re-election of President Obama would delay the day when unborn children would be protected from abortion.
Hillary Clinton is running as if for Obama’s third term–a continuation of his anti-life policies, included. Like you, I truly hope and pray that the American people say, “No!”
In the most straightforward terms, what is our goal? To protect unborn children, the vulnerable elderly, and those with disabilities. Part and parcel of this is restoring the basic principle that every human life–not just the “planned and the perfect”–has intrinsic value and infinite dignity.
A great way to foster that respect for human life is to elect men and women who understand that a society that kills its weakest, its most vulnerable, is not a city shining on a hill, but a culture that resembles the proverbial circular firing squad.
What can an election do? Allow me to review what is at stake.
Judicial appointments
We understand the importance of the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, instead of being an arbiter, and a check against constitutional infringements by Congress and the Executive Branch, we sometimes see that Court act as if it were a legislative body, setting national law, as seven unelected justices did in Roe v. Wade. We need a president who will nominate justices who understand the proper role of the High Court.
There is grave danger, however, that we will instead see the emergence of a Court majority that will insist that the U.S. Constitution prohibits elected state and federal lawmakers from limiting abortion – including late abortion – in any meaningful way at all. The result would be the step-by-step invalidation even of pro-life laws upheld in the past – both federal laws such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Hyde Amendment, and hundreds of state laws. It could also become difficult if not impossible for pro-life individuals to serve as doctors and nurses, because the “conscience” laws that currently protect their right to avoid involvement in abortion could be invalidated.
Aside from the U.S. Supreme Court, the president also appoints judges to the powerful federal courts of appeals, and hundreds of federal district judges – all of these being lifetime appointments. These federal judges often decide which laws stand and which will be nullified (since the Supreme Court accepts only a very limited number of cases for review).
Pregnancy Resource Centers
As you have read, Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRC) are under ferocious attack at the state level. But they can and most likely will be affected by the actions of the next president.
The abortion industry does not like PRCs–and understandably so. For every woman they help and every baby they save, that is money the abortion industry did not get. There is an ongoing effort to infringe on the free speech of these centers, forcing them to tell clients who come through the door which services (i.e., abortion) are NOT offered at the facility. The state of California goes so far as to require that PRCs inform women where they can get an abortion and that the state may pay for it.
Many of the laws or city ordinances that tried to limit the PRCs have been struck down but federal courts have, so far, allowed the extreme California law to remain in force. Will federal judges appointed in the future protect the right of PRCs to offer only the services they desire? Or will the PRCs become unwilling tools for a local or state government as influenced (controlled?) by the abortion industry. That can be impacted by the next occupant in the White House.
Administrative positions
In addition to federal judges, the president also makes hundreds of key appointments to Executive Branch positions that can greatly diminish or increase the threat to the lives of innocent, vulnerable, human life. Some of these appointments are high-level and very public, such as secretary of state, secretary of health and human services, and attorney general.
Many are mid-level positions, filled by people whose names are not often in the news and are not well known by the people. However, these may be the federal employees who take a law passed by Congress and draft the rules to implement it for the rest of us to follow. This may be a person who works on how to further implement Obamacare or who works to dismantle and replace Obamacare after it has been repealed.
This may be the person who decides if Planned Parenthood can apply directly to the federal government for reimbursement if a state has decided not to fund PP.
International policy
The next president will appoint a team to work with the U.N. and other countries in determining international laws and treaties. Will the U.S. continue, as it has for the past eight years, to further the campaign to recognize abortion as an international “right”?
Congress
Of course, in addition to president, we are electing members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. These bodies can pass or defeat legislation that will affect innocent human life. Will our next Congress be able to pass legislation like the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, or will they be voting to eliminate the Hyde Amendment, as Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party platform have called for.
The above list is only scratching the surface of what is at stake in this election. The importance of elected officials, their appointments, and their staff can have broader, more wide-reaching, consequences than most of us can imagine.
During testimony before a congressional committee, Hillary Clinton once famously asked, “What difference, at this point, does it make?” To the millions of innocent unborn children and those lives vulnerable to Obamacare and assisted suicide, the November 8 elections matter immensely.
Vote wisely and encourage like-minded family and friends to do the same. Innocent human lives are depending on you.
