April 11, 2011
Dear Friend,
Last week, a lot was happening on Capitol Hill, and, like me, I’m sure you were struggling to keep up with it all. Today, I want to give you a quick recap and let you know where we stand.
As you know, last Thursday, Planned Parenthood and their pro-abortion allies rallied on Capitol Hill demanding that Congress ensure federal money continue to flow to the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.
At the rally, powerful, pro-abortion politicians like Senator Chuck Schumer, the Majority Whip of the U.S. Senate, declared that de-funding Planned Parenthood would “never, never, never” pass in the Senate. Even famous “Apollo 13” actor, Ed Harris attended and spoke to the crowd of only 1,000 attendees.
The theme for the day was to stop the pro-life movement’s “War on Women.” And Rep. Louise Slaughter, from New York, earns the “award” for the most horrific statement that day.
At the rally, Rep. Slaughter not only compared our efforts to stop taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood to Nazis, but also said, “they’re here to kill women.”
Throughout the rest of the week, we continued to hear pro-abortion politicians like Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Harry Reid speak on the Senate and House floors with this type of loaded rhetoric and misinformation.
And then late Friday night, a deal was struck between leaders in the House and Senate to avoid a government shut down.
For the pro-life movement, we saw a partial victory.
While the deal did not include de-funding Planned Parenthood, it did force the pro-abortion leaders in the U.S. Senate and President Obama to accept the pro-life Dornan Amendment, which prevents tax-paying funding of abortions in the District of Columbia. It also mandated that the U.S. Senate, for the first-time ever, will have to take a vote this week on the Pence Amendment to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
This is significant.
It has been estimated that the Dornan Amendment will save over 1,000 pre-born babies a year from tax-payer funded abortion in the nation’s capitol.
Because of your hard work, 1,000 precious babies will be saved this year in Washington, D.C.
And while, our goal of de-funding of Planned Parenthood was not achieved, we advanced the ball forward, pushing through the misleading rhetoric on Capitol Hill, and obtained the opportunity for an historic vote which will take place in the U.S. Senate this week.
This is huge! Just 2 months ago, experts were telling me that getting a vote in the Senate would be impossible, and I shouldn’t even hope for it.
Further, think about this…Our efforts were so effective that the disagreements over Planned Parenthood funding between the pro-life House and pro-abortion Senate leadership almost caused a government shut down.
After 38 years of legal abortion-on-demand, abortion still is the hot topic of the day, and our nation is divided more than ever on the issue.
The other day, I was reading some reports written after Roe v. Wade was handed down in the 1973, they all claimed that because of the decision the issue of abortion would finally go away.
As you and I can both see, it hasn’t. In fact, it’s intensified, and things are starting to move rapidly in our favor.
Last week may have ended without de-funding Planned Parenthood, but that decision should not break our defiance.
We will continue to fight for women and their preborn babies until we see an end to abortion. As the members of the White Rose, the student-led Nazi opposition group, once stated, “We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience.”
Right now, please consider doing 3 things:
1) Call your U.S. Senators today and demand that they vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood this week.
Remind, them that Planned Parenthood is lying about providing mammograms, and 98% of their services for pregnant women are abortions!
Go here to get their information: http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
2) Change your Facebook status message to this:
Last week may have ended without de-funding Planned Parenthood, but that decision will not break our defiance. We will continue to fight for women and their preborn babies until we see an end to abortion. As the members of the White Rose, the student-led Nazi opposition group, once stated, “We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience.” Call your Senator today and demand that they defund Planned Parenthood this week! www.exposeplannedparenthood.com
3) Donate to our efforts to de-fund Planned Parenthood and end all abortions on college campuses across America (donate.studentsforlife.org).
This spring, our staff has been working overtime – establishing pro-life presences on college campuses, training students every weekend, and organizing young pro-lifers to fight against pro-abortion policies both on their campuses and across the nation.
Students for Life has taken the lead in the Expose Planned Parenthood Coalition (http://exposeplannedparenthood.com), helping to mobilize other pro-life organizations and develop partnership events. But we need your support to continue this work, please consider investing today in Students for Life: http://donate.studentsforlife.org.
Thank you for all that you have done these past few months to de-fund Planned Parenthood and end abortion. I look forward to working with you until that day when no more babies die and no more women cry.
For Life,
Kristan Hawkins
Executive Director
Students for Life of America
www.studentsforlife.org
P.S. – Please connect with Students for Life daily on our Facebook Page:www.facebook.com/studentsforlife.