The Hyde Amendment at 38

Pro-life champion, the late Rep. Henry Hyde

The Hyde Amendment sticks in the craw of abortion absolutists as much as any pro-life law ever enacted. And today marks the 38th anniversary of passage of the law (the “Hyde” is the late pro-life champion, Rep. Henry Hyde), a titanic struggle that represented a major success against federal funding of abortion.

Prior to its passage in 1976, the federal Medicaid program paid for 300,000 abortions a year. 

Conservative estimates are that there are well over one million people are alive today because of the Hyde Amendment.

On this anniversary, there are many things worth remembering. Here are just five.

#1. Pro-abortionists never gave up, and it was not until the Harris v. McRae case, settled in 1980, that the United States Supreme Court agreed the law was constitutional. And even then the Court was split 5-4. National Right to Life filed an important brief in that case.

#2. Pro-abortionists have made a concerted effort to pretend that somehow the Hyde Amendment would prevent ObamaCare from allowing federally-subsidized health plans to cover abortions. This was and is completely erroneous.

#3. Polls consistently show strong majorities against federal funding of abortion. President Obama opposes the Hyde Amendment. No surprise, in either case.

#4. Speaking of never giving up, pro-abortionists still grind their teeth when they speak of the Hyde Amendment. For them the “right” to abortion never meant only the legal right to abort. It required that through Medicaid you and I and every other tax payer fund their abortions.

#5. Because the Hyde Amendment is a limitation provision within an annual appropriations bill, it is a fight pro-abortionists could take up every time the annual appropriations bill of the Department of Health and Human Services comes up. Fairly detailed information on the history of the Hyde Amendment, its demonstrated impact, and related issues is found in testimony presented by NRL at a House hearing in 2011, here: www.nrlc.org/uploads/ahc/ProtectLifeActDouglasJohnsonTestimony.pdf

We have a lot to thank the late Rep. Hyde for. At the top is enactment of the Hyde Amendment.

By Dave Andrusko, NRL News

35 years after its release, Stevie Nicks confirms that “Sara” was about the baby she aborted

Stevie Nicks

I don’t know a lot about Stevie Nicks other than that she has a terrific voice and that she is part of (as they are often described) rock’s “famously fractious family”—Fleetwood Mac—which is on a reunion tour.

But apparently it was an open secret that Nicks aborted a baby she had with Don Henley, who was then the frontman for the Eagles. However until an interview she gave Billboard magazine that appeared last Friday, Nicks had never confirmed that one of her better known songs—“Sara”—was written about that baby. Here is the exchange with Billboard’s Rob Tannenbaum:

That reminds me of a story Don Henley told years ago, about your [Fleetwood Mac] song “Sara.” He said you got pregnant while the two of you were dating, and Sara was the name you gave the unborn baby.

Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara. But there was another woman in my life named Sara, who shortly after that became Mick’s wife, Sara Fleetwood.

So what Henley says about the song is accurate, but it’s not the entirety of the song?

Right. It’s accurate, but not the entirety of it.

The allusion to Henley’s story was a 1991 interview he gave to CQ:

“I believe, to the best of my knowledge, [that Nicks] became pregnant by me. And she named the kid Sara, and she had an abortion – and then wrote the song of the same name to the spirit of the aborted baby. ….I was building my house at the time, and there’s a line in the song that says, ‘And when you build your house, call me.’”

Ben Johnson explained that Nicks and Henley’s torrid two-year affair had been no secret, and the subsequent abortion had been well-known. According to Eagles biographer Marc Eliot, Nicks “was deeply upset about what she considered his fast and easy consent to her decision. Nicks took it as Henley’s way of saying he wasn’t interested in any type of serious long-term commitment.”

But Nicks had never acknowledged that the song was dedicated to her child until last week, 35 years after its release. The closest she had come was a statement in 1979 that “If I ever have a little girl, I will name her Sara. It’s a very special name to me.”

Here are the key lyrics to “Sara”:

Wait a minute, baby
Stay with me awhile
Said you’d give me light
But you never told me about the fire…

Sara, you’re the poet in my heartNever change, never stopAnd now it’s goneThey say it doesn’t matter what forWhen you build your house, call me…

All I ever wanted was to know
That you were dreaming
There’s a heartbeat
No, it never really died
You never really died

Ms. Nicks has never had any living children.

By Dave Andrusko, NRL News

Make your voice heard: Register to vote!

As this fall’s elections rapidly approach, pro-lifers have reason to be optimistic. We have a real chance of making significant pro-life gains in the United States Senate, perhaps even win enough seats to put control of the Senate in pro-life hands.

But we can’t do it without you. We need your vote. We need every pro-life vote we can get—yours, your pro-life family members, friends, and neighbors.

Each day voter registration deadlines come closer. It seems elementary but if you are not registered, you cannot vote! At the end of this article, there is a link to a site that makes registration in your state very quick and easy.

Please take a moment and make sure you and your pro-life friends and neighbors are registered. The outcome of the election may depend on it.

We were reminded just this summer how important each and every vote is. Consider out of a total of over 70,000 votes cast last month in a congressional primary race in Tennessee, the contest was decided by just 38 votes. Never underestimate how important your vote is.

In Minnesota’s 2008 U.S. Senate race, pro-abortion Al Franken defeated pro-life Senator Norm Coleman by a few hundred votes out of 2.8 million cast. That’s about seven thousandths of a percent or one voter in about every thirteen precincts in Minnesota.

Many races this year are expected to be extremely close. The balance of power in the United States Senate hangs in the balance. If every pro-lifer helped one friend or family member register to vote, we would have a tremendous pro-life impact on this election.

You would be surprised how many people you know are not registered to vote. One volunteer and dear friend of NRLC did a voter registration drive in her church a few years ago and signed 15 people up to vote, including the Pastor and his wife!

Be especially aware of people that are new to your area, maybe having just moved to your state, and young people who have just turned 18 or recently moved away to college. They may be excited to register but may not know how or where to do it—or even that they have to register.

The deadline to register to vote in Illinois is October 7th!  Time is running out, you can register to vote online at the IFRL website at http:www.ifrl.org,

By Elizabeth Spillman, National Right to Life Political Assistant, NRLC

Sandra Cano: RIP

Her case and Roe v. Wade handed down the same day in 1973

The following photo appeared on Sandra Cano’s Facebook page. (Left to right) Ms. Cano, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, one of the founders of the original NARAL and later a pro-life convert, and Norma McCorvey (the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade)

My only meeting with Sandra Cano, and it was very brief, was in June 1989 at the National Right to Life Convention in Minneapolis. Those who spent much more time with her–my then-assistant Leslie Bond [Diggins] and NRLC Convention Director Jacki Ragan—told me that a kinder, gentler woman you will never find.

Unlike Norma McCorvey—the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade—Sandra Cano (“Mary Doe”) was not nearly as well known, although her case—Doe v. Bolton—was decided the same day as Norma’s.

Neither woman—whose cases were instrumental in legalizing abortion on demand nationwide—ever had an abortion. Cano never wanted an abortion. Both felt terribly victimized by the pro-abortion attorneys that used them to undermine the abortion laws of all 50 states.

Cano died September 30. She was 66.

Allan Parker, president of the Justice Foundation in Texas, which represented Ms. Cano for 14 years, said her dying wish was for people to “pray for the end of abortion in America and pray for her family.”

I am reprinting the story Leslie wrote for the July 13, 1989 issue of National Right to Life News. She had interviewed Sandra one-on-one.

At that stage of her life (we were to learn), Ms. Cano was deathly afraid of public speaking. She was seated at the head table at one of the convention General Sessions when she suddenly got up, walked down the risers, and told Jacki she had to go home. But her presence at our convention, however brief, sent a powerful message.

But in the years to come Sandra gave more than a few memorable interviews, including with Tim Drake of the National Catholic Register.

Both Sandra and Norma had lived hardscrabble lives, making McCorvey and Cano just the kind of down-on-their-luck women the elitist pro-abortion attorneys could use unmercifully to gut the protective abortion statutes of all 50 states. Both came to be firmly on the side of life.

When pro-lifers speak of putting a “human face” on the abortion controversy, it is not just to remind people that a human life is lost in every abortion. Abortion exploits vulnerable women, then and now. 

Cano’s and McCorvey’s journey that culminated in an embrace of our Movement is deeply symbolic of a wider cultural shift in our direction.

I asked Jacki if she would write a concluding paragraph. As I knew it would be, her words were perfect.

“We did have a video that we recorded of her when Leslie and I were with her. I still have that. 25 years have passed but we still kept in touch, more so after Facebook. She was a kind, trusting, woman who was reunited with the daughter she placed for adoption (the one the pro-aborts used to help legalize abortion) and I believe was happy and content for the last years of her life. Sandra will be missed. Her gentle smile, her softspoken voice, and her love of the Lord.”

By Dave Andrusko, NRL News

Illinois pro-lifers to meet at 90 different locations Sunday for annual Life Chain

In celebration of "Respect Life" month, prolifers will line the streets at 90 different locations statewide Sunday October 5th as the 27th year the national Life Chain will be celebrated in Illinois. 

The locations are listed below: 

* ALBION - IL 130 at Bone Gap Rd, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Shad McKinzie  618-445-2553  

* ALTON AREA - Broadway from Piasa to Henry St / Clark Bridge; 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Mary Ann Morris 618-465-3108  

* ARLINGTON HEIGHTS - Euclid Ave at W Northwest Hwy, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., meet at Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W Euclid; David Bergquist  847-385-2010  

* AURORA - E New York St at Oakhurst Dr, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Chuck Jones   630-896-3826  

* BELVIDERE - State Street Bridge, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Dennis Sullivan  815-986-8630  

* BERWYN - Ogden Ave at Harlem Ave, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.;  Mary Ann Pater  708-484-1204

* BLOOMINGTON / NORMAL - College Ave at David Anderson Park at east lot, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Jay Talsma  309-828-9250  

* BLOOMINGTON / NORMAL - College Ave at Grandview Dr, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Thomas Shilgalis  309-830-3935  

* BRAIDWOOD - IL Rt 53 at IL Rt 113, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Dave Wollgast  815-287-2036   

* BROOKFIELD - Ogden Ave at Prairie Ave, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.  

* BUNKER HILL - Washington St (Hwy 159) at Warren St (Rt 14), 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Jane Baker  618-973-2666   

* CARBONDALE - Main St (IL Rt 13) at Illinois Ave (US 51), 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Jeffrey Chmiola  618-687-2374  

* CHAMPAIGN - Kirby Ave at Hessel Park, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; John & Myrna Buyno   217-352-1007  

* CHICAGO - Ashland Ave at 19th St, 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.; Liz Gonzalez  773-680-7214  

* CHICAGO / BRIGHTON PARK - Archer Ave at California Ave, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Casey Niedos   773-927-0322  

* CLINTON COUNTY - communities along new Rte 50, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Esther Koch  618-526-8589  

* COLLINSVILLE - Vandalia St (Hwy 159) from Clay St to N Beltline, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Herman Wenos  618-344-4108  or  618-344-8778

* CRYSTAL LAKE - Rte 14 at Teckler Blvd, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Nancy Cole  815-455-7265  

* DARIEN / WOODRIDGE / DOWNERS GROVE - 75th St west of Lemont Rd, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Betty Girdwain 630-963-0654  

* DECATUR - Downtown, 2:30 to 3:30p.m.; signs at 407 Eldorado St; Diana Shipley  217-864-5422  or  217-423-8452

* DIXON - S Galena Ave at River St, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.; Margaret Brechon  815-288-1156  

* EDWARDSVILLE - Buchanan at Vandalia, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.;  Peggy Pace  618-659-9336  

* EFFINGHAM AREA - Keller Dr at Fayette Ave (Rt 40), 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Loretta Koester   217-857-3060

* ELBURN - Rt 47 at Pierce St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Carrie Walter  630-365-6030  

* ELIZABETH - Main St (Rt 20) in front of Elizabeth Garage, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.; Marilyn Gollmer  815-541-0354  

* FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS / METRO EAST - Hwy 159 at Hwy 50, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Stephanie Favela  618-550-9778

* FARMER CITY - Main St at Hwy 54, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Jerry & Judy Hahn  309-928-2109  

* GALESBURG / KNOX COUNTY - Main St at Broad St, 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. rally at public square at 3:00 p.m.; Mary Norton  309-343-0621 OR  Lisa Lindstrom 309-342-7214

* GLEN ELLYN - Roosevelt Rd at Finley Rd, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Carol Wright   630-469-2165

* GRANITE CITY - 3248 Nameoki Rd in front of store, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Kathy Mangi  618-931-7800  

* GRAYSLAKE / DOWNTOWN - Rt 120 between Lake St and Rt 83, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Ann-Marie Miller  847-212-9297

* GURNEE - Gages Lake Rd at Hunt Club Rd, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Meegan McNulty  847-855-0117

* HANOVER PARK - Barrington Rd at East Ave, 2:30 to 4:00 p.m.; Maureen Deitche  630-935-8158  

* HARVARD - US Rt 14 at US Rt 173, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Richard Kirchner  815-403-8005  

* HERRICK - Broadway (RR 1) at Herrick Baptist Church, 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.; Pastor Jay Huddleston  618-604-3086   

* HIGHLAND - Route 40  at Route 143, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; park at shopping center; Angela Michael 618-654-5800

* HINSDALE - York Rd south of Ogden Ave, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Maureen Sager  708-352-5834  

* INGLESIDE - Grand Ave (Rt 59) at Wilson Rd, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Janet McEwen  847-546-8461

* JERSEYVILLE - State Street, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.;signs at St. Francis Church parking lot at 2:00 p.m.; Marilyn Parsell  618-535-6478   

* JOLIET - Six Corners at Plainfield Rd and Rt 30, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Karen Hatfield  815-744-6339

* LA GRANGE - Ogden Ave at LaGrange Rd, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.;  Wayne & Marianne Hamilton  708-579-0118

* LAKE VILLA - Milwaukee Ave (Hwy 83) south of Grand Ave (Hwy 132), 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Rosie Smyth     

 LAKEWOOD - Tower Hill-Herrick Rd, Lighthouse Tabernacle Pentecostal Church, 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.; Pastor Brown  217-567-3337  

* LANSING - Ridge Rd at Calumet Ave, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Cathy Dziubla  219-838-1138 or Dorothy Springer  219-838-1138  

* LIBERTYVILLE - Rt 176 (Park Ave) at Rt 21 (Milwaukee Ave), 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.; meet at Formation Center at 1:30 p.m.;  Renee Tam  847-680-6652 andCarol Walsh  847-542-3768

* LISLE - Ogden Ave at Main St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Carole Gassett  630-960-2916  

* MACOMB - Hwy 136 / 67 between Lafayette and Randolph at Chandler Park, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Connie Kreps  309-333-9483   

* MANSFIELD - Hwy 150 at McKinley St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Donnette Coley  217-649-9314  

* MARENGO - RT 20 at Rt 23, 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.;  Kelly Sergent  630-664-7435  

* MASCOUTAH - Rt 177 at Rt 4, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Sally Mueller  618-277-0449  

* McHENRY - Rt 31 / Richmond Rd at Pearl, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; signs at St Mary Church at 2:00 p.m.;  Karen Verr  815-355-5481    

* MENDOTA - Rt 34 at Hwy 251, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.; Andy Wujek  815-528-5678 or Tom Schuhler  815-538-1940   

* MILLSTADT - Washington St (Rt 158) between Lafayette St and Kossuth St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.;  Mary Thornton  618-476-3365  

* MORRIS - Rt 47 (Division St) at Jefferson St, signs at 118 E Jefferson St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Marilou Warrick  815-942-5575 or Renee Zettek  815-941-9121

* Mt. CARMEL - Cherry St at Ninth St, 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.; Pat Stouse  618-262-7643  

* Mt. VERNON - Broadway at 24th St, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.; Larry Pearson  618-755-4716  

* MUNDELEIN - US Rt 45 (Lake St) at Courtland St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Margaret (Peggy) Feinendegen  847-566-7658  

* NAPERVILLE - Ogden Ave at Washington, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Debra Scanlon  630-305-8724   

* NASHVILLE - Rt 127 at Rt 15, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Jennifer Detering  618-920-9829

 NEW LENOX - Cedar Rd at Rt 30, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Melinda Grundhofer  815-424-0371

* NOKOMIS - State St at Spruce St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Missy Huber  217-827-0723   

* NORMAL - 1006 E College Ave at Epiphany Catholic Church, TBA; Epiphany Catholic Church  309-452-3268     

* OLD MILL CREEK - US 45 at Rt 173, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Sandra Cervenka  847-975-8490   

* ORLAND PARK / TINLEY PSRK - 159h St from Harlem Ave to 80th Ave, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.;  William Beckman  708-429-2762

* PANA - Rt 51 two miles south of Pana at Celebration Community Church, 12:00 to 1:30 p.m.; Terry Walters 217-827-4347  

* PARKERSBURG - Olney to Albion - IL 130 from Olney past Calhoun, Parkersburg, West Salem and Bone Gap to Albion (29 miles), 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.;Kevin Schilt  618-456-8423  

* PEORIA - University at Northmoor, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Daniel Smith  309-691-3611;  See Central Illinois Right to Life.

* QUAD CITIES - Middle Rd at Happy Joe Dr, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Vicki Tyler  563-332-0475  

* QUINCY - 24th St at Maine St, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Jane Haas  217-224-5483 or 217-257-0533

* RICHMOND - US Rt 12 at Hwy 173, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.;  Laura Brumm  262-279-3061  

* RIVERSIDE - Ogden Ave at Harlem Ave, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Katie Kruse  708-442-7515  

* ROCKFORD - Alpine Rd at Highcrest Rd, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; signs at Holy Family Church; Joe & Joni Mata  815-505-6006  

* St. CHARLES - Rt 64 (Main St) from Kirk Rd, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Rebecca Hendershott  847-309-5656 

* St. CHARLES - Rt 64 (North Ave) at 5th St, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Larry & Karen Johnson  630-513-0911  

* SALEM - Main St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Tony Wagner  618-322-9655   

* SHELBYVILLE - Rt 16 (E Main St) at the Courthouse. 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.; Diana Litteral 217-774-4874 

* SPRINGFIELD - Sangamon Ave from 19th to Dirksen, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.; Kathy Cinotto 217-691-4230

    

* STERLING - Locust St at 6th St, 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.; Deacon John Kellen  815-626-3965

* SULLIVAN - Rt 121 (Jackson St) at Rt 32 (Hamilton St), 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Ruth Ann Lusk 217-232-8881   

* SUMNER - Alternate Rt 250 at Walnut St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Brad Schilt  618-838-9993  

* TOWER HILL - Hwy 16 at Hwy 51 interesction, 12:00 to 1:15 p.m.; Pastor Randy Miller  217-821-1250 

  

* VANDALIA - Gallatin St at Kennedy Blvd, 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.;  Pastor Peter Kolb  618-704-8148   

* VOLO - NW corner of Rt 120 at Rt 12, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.;  Pietrina Probst  847-550-1325

* WAUCONDA - Rt 176 at Church St, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.; Mary Ann Fijalkiewicz  847-526-7101  

* WAUKEGAN - Washington St at Orchard Ave, 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.; Pastor George Jones  847-336-0664 

* WEST DUNDEE / NORTHERN KANE COUNTY - Rte 72 at Rte 31, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.; Debbie Schmalen 847-426-7326  

* WESTCHESTER - Mannheim Rd at Wright St, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Patricia Meyers  708-865-0374  

* WESTERN SPRINGS - Ogden Ave at Wolf Rd AND Ogden Ave at Grand, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Blanche Heaney 708-246-7437  

* WILLOW SPRINGS - Archer Ave at Willow Springs Rd, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.; Mary Bartik  708-839-8834  

* WOOD DALE - 203 E Irving Park Rd, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.;  Mary Stuhr  630-250-7521  

(For additional information about Life Chains in Illinois, please contact State Director Gail Bordley  847-623-4980 or 847-361-1582).

( * means verified for 2014)

Illinois Review

Abortion in Elections: It’s not about us – it’s about the 3,000 babies who will die by abortion today

I’m going to say something some may find shocking.

It’s not about you.

Nope. And it’s definitely not about me. It’s about the nearly 3,000 unborn children who will die a brutal death by abortion today. And another 3,000 tomorrow. It’s about protecting their lives – and their futures.

Occasionally, I hear from people who are opposed to our endorsements who complain that a Congressman or Senator has “been in too long,” or they’re too old, or that they’re “not conservative enough.”

These concerns entirely miss the point. We are in the business of saving lives. If someone has reached a level of power after serving long enough that they can impact lifesaving legislation, God bless them!

And what on earth does age have to do with whether a member of the House or Senate can vote for life?

How they vote, and whether they will vote to protect life, is what really matters.

Life matters.

Protecting life transcends all political parties, all religions, all races, and people of all economic status.

This year, the United States Senate is only a net gain of six seats shy of achieving pro-life leadership.

Thirty-six U.S. Senate seats are up this year – 21 are held by pro-abortion Democrats or “Independents” who caucus with them, and 15 are held by Republicans.

We, who understand how precious life is, must defend the pro-life seats.

And, we must also work to take those seats held by pro-abortion senators and representatives and replace them with legislators who will vote for life.

Since 1973, more than 56 million defenseless babies have been aborted – more than 3,000 each day, 

365 days a year. When we stay home on election day babies die, allowing atrocities seen in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell to continue across the nation.

Some people wrongly believe what they personally do won’t really make a difference. Yet, this past spring in West Virginia (my home state), four House of Delegates candidates lost or won their primary elections by fewer than twenty votes combined. Had a handful of their friends shown up to vote, the outcome may have been altered.

What is the clear message? You CAN make a difference in your community, and even in our nation. You can make sure your pro-life family and friends go to the polls and vote for pro-life candidates.

Together, if we remain focused and we persevere, if we continue to work and organize, in 2014, we can bring needed change to Washington, D.C. We can begin to reverse the perverse culture of death which is shaming our nation. It is essential that we prioritize protecting our nation’s most precious resource – our children, and those who are most vulnerable.

You are pro-life because you recognize that it’s not about us, or our individual states, or our preferred candidate: It is about coming closer each day to a pro-life Court that will protect the lives of vulnerable human beings – unborn children, and medically dependent and people with disabilities.

The 3,000 babies who die by abortion today are too important to lose sight of that ultimate goal.

By Karen Cross, National Right to Life Political Director, NRLC

Justice Ginsburg circles back to her concern that poor people having too many babies

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Kudos to the ever-readable, always thoughtful Mollie Hemingway for her excellent piece yesterday, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Really Wants Poor People To Stop Having Babies”

We had also written about the excerpt from the interview Justice Ginsburg gave Elle magazine.  But we focused on how she had trashed fellow Justice Anthony Kennedy, Congress, the “Hobby Lobby” Supreme Court decision, and had more subtly tweaked affluent younger women (for insufficient pro-abortion advocacy) and President Obama who had used the prospect of her possible resignation prior to the November elections as red meat to gear up Democratic activists. (Ginsburg made it clear she likes it just fine where she is.)

Hemingway zeroed in on Ginsburg’s…insensitive comments about poor people having babies (I am trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, although that is hard).

Hemingway reminds us of the incredible comments Ginsburg made to pro-abortion scribe Emily Bazelon in a piece that ran five years ago in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

NRL News Today wrote about that exchange, a 4,327-word-long Q&A about the direction justices like Ginsburg would like abortion jurisprudence to go. (Hint: back to the future.)

Ginsburg momentarily got herself in hot water in response to Bazelon’s inquiry about what Bazelon described as the “lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women.”

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.”

As I wrote at that time it was hard not to reach a very ugly conclusion. Ginsburg read Roe to be setting the stage for the government to pay for the abortions of poor women. Why? Because part of the backdrop for Roe—and the reason she expected the High Court in to overturn the Hyde Amendment’s limitation on Medicaid-financed abortion in McRae–was fear that the “wrong” kinds of people were experiencing population growth (the kind “that we don’t want to have too many of”).

It is no accident, as they say, that three years later, Bazelon would caught up with Ginsburg after a speech at Yale College to read her the quote and ask her what she really meant. Bazelon then dutifully transcribed Ginsburg’s revisionism in the form of an article for Slate.com.

Hemingway explained to her reader that Ginsburg was back saying the same old ugly things, only more briefly.

Hemingway writes, “Anyway, in an interview with Elle, [Ginsburg] says her kid and grandkid don’t get how awful it would be to not have legal approval for snuffing out one’s growing baby in the womb. And then when she’s trying to say that protections for unborn children hurt poor women more than wealthy women since wealthy women can just pay the baby away, she lets that old eugenics thing slip again.” Ginsburg said

“It makes no sense as a national policy to promote birth only among poor people.”

I could paraphrase Hemingway’s brilliant conclusion but I could not possibly do her justice. So here it is:

“I get that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of the most important champions of abortion and that those people who think people should be able to end some lives after they’ve begun just love her to pieces. And I get that the birth control and abortion rights movements have always had deep ties to eugenics, population control, and master race-type stuff. I get all that.

“But it’s all kind of unseemly, no? It would be one thing if she were talking about the importance of promoting birth among all groups of people as a way of affirming the sacredness of life or what not, but her long-standing focus on how some ‘populations’ shouldn’t be encouraged to have babies and should have subsidized abortion is beyond creepy. We get it, RBG, your social circles think life would be so much better if you didn’t have to deal with those awful poor people and their unapproved backgrounds and living conditions. But you’re supposed to be a tad bit better in covering up those motivations, mmmkay.”

NRL News, Dave Andrusko