While the House of Representatives votes AGAINST funding Planned Parenthood with tax dollars (PP is the largest abortion provider in the United States), the Senate continues to vote FOR supporting Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, some good news from individual states. The Family Research Council reports:
Thankfully, state legislators such as North Carolina State Rep. Nelson Dollar aren't waiting for the U.S. Senate to take Planned Parenthood's hands out of your wallet. State Representative Dollar is advancing a budget that prevents Planned Parenthood from receiving $473,000 in state funds. On Tuesday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a law that will ensure that Planned Parenthood is no longer the beneficiary of special tax credits. On Wednesday, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed a ban on abortions after the twenty-first week of pregnancy on the basis that the baby can feel pain, and another bill that requires parental consent for minors seeking an abortion. Fetal pain legislation has also been signed into law by Idaho Governor Butch Otter and similar legislation will soon be approved by Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. In the last election, the American people sent a resounding message that they are fed up with big government that uses tax dollars against us. U.S. Senators may be hard of hearing but we are encouraged by state elected officials who are accelerating pro-life legislation as never before. To find out what actions you can take to expose and defund Planned Parenthood, download FRC's new publication: "Planned Parenthood--What Every Parent, Teacher, Woman, Community Leader and Elected Official Needs to Know.
Elections matter!
In 2009, Barack Obama appointed then-Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. This was a troubling pick for conservatives, given her support for abortion-on-demand and support from abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Since her appointment, Sec. Sebelius has justified these concerns, as she has advocated for federal funding of abortion, abortifacient drugs and stem cell research using human embryos.
Yet there is a significant bright side to Sec. Sebelius' departure from Topeka: Former Senator Sam Brownback, a champion for life, is now Governor of Kansas. And what a difference that has made.
Yesterday, Gov. Brownback signed legislation that "strictly limits abortions after 22 weeks based on the fact that fetuses can feel pain beginning after the 21st week of pregnancy" and another measure, "the Abortion Reporting Accuracy and Parental Rights Act," which "requires minors who seek abortions to obtain consent from both parents and places certain prohibitions on late-term and partial birth abortions."
Kathleen Sebelius would have fought these bills from their introduction. Sam Brownback not only signed but celebrated them.
To those who say that Christians should withdraw from political engagement and concentrate on private acts of charity or work solely with church or ministry groups, consider Sam Brownback and his allies in the Kansas Legislature.
These bills are part of a larger legislative mosaic that is building, gradually but steadily, a culture where the personhood of the unborn child is being recognized in law and in the American conscience.
Does political engagement bring complete resolution of every problem? No. But political action can make a decisive, if incremental, difference in a host of areas -- most importantly those involving the sanctity of life from conception until natural death, the dignity of marriage, and the centrality of religious liberty to American public life.
Elections matter. Just ask Sam Brownback -- and, in years to come, the children whose lives are saved through the bills he just signed into law.