Idaho Chooses Life

Kudos to Austin Hill (KIDO Radio – Boise) for his show on the dire threat of Obama’s “contraceptive” mandate. This new exercise of raw federal power shows the dangers of ObamaCare. But contrary to the liberal media spin, this raw power grab impacts much more than the Catholic Church or religious institutions.

Under the new edict, EVERY private employer will have to provide free sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients to their employees. Not only will every employer have to provide those “benefits” – they will have to pay the full cost of doing so. President Obama has determined that it is an “unreasonable burden” for employees to cover even a modest co-pay. That makes every private employer, including the many who have pro-Life/Christian values, an unwilling party to the destruction of innocent life.

This is but one example of the grave moral danger associated with the drive in the Idaho Legislature to submit to ObamaCare by creating a state insurance exchange. Regardless of the hype coming from the gaggle of lobbyists pushing greater state power and control over insurance competition – a state exchange is the cornerstone block of ObamaCare. As such, it must adhere, by federal law, to the rules and guidelines issued by the Obama Administration.

A state insurance exchange is an expensive idea whose time may never come; but is downright dangerous now as part of Obama’s drive to remake Idaho.

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Idaho Chooses Life

Boise’s Channel 7 ran a story on Planned Parenthood’s outrage over being dropped by the Komen Foundation. The impression they convey is that all of the Treasure Valley is up in arms because the local abortion clinic will no longer receive money raised under the auspices of “fighting breast cancer”.

Perhaps local donors will no longer be interested in finding a cure.

It has long been a curiosity that Komen got involved with the Abortion Industry in the first place. Setting aside the growing body of research which shows a linkage between abortion and increased risk of breast cancer – the simple truth is that Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms. The money they’ve been getting from Komen is in the form of “pass-through grants”, whatever that is. (There is an informative article on this point now up on LifeNews.Com). The local news “reporter” failed to ask anything about Planned Parenthood’s ability to actually screen for breast cancer. They simply gave Planned Parenthood staff the chance to publicly chastise and threaten Komen.

Channel 7 also failed to contact this organization for a fuller explanation of the upside for Komen. While there may be abortion zealots who are offended about not simultaneously helping kill babies while supporting cancer research – many in the pro-Life movement are energized. In fact, Komen is reporting that its donations have doubled since the announcement. That was, apparently, too much information to share with viewers in Idaho.

In truth, Channel 7 – the “Idaho News Leader” – rarely covers the pro-Life movement, despite the views and values of an overwhelming majority of its audience. How sad.

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Idaho Chooses Life

The pro-Life community is buzzing with the tremendous news that Planned Parenthood has lost the legitimizing cover of the breast cancer lobby. The Komen Foundation’s decision to end its partnership with the Abortion Industry is a huge blessing – on many levels.

There is the money which Komen has transferred from life-loving citizens to those promoting the death of women and babies. Seeing Planned Parenthood lose several millions in charitable support is certainly encouraging.

And we are all excited by the fact that pro-Lifers will no longer have to argue or wince or boycott fundraising efforts designed to end the scourge of breast cancer. In fact, we encourage our readers to at least send the Komen Foundation an email to express our gratitude; a donation in the name of innocent children would be better. Komen deserves sincere praise for protecting the integrity of the effort to treat and cure breast cancer.

But in the long term, the best aspect of this development is that Planned Parenthood can no longer hide its evil behind the skirt of “fighting breast cancer” – as if it were principally concerned about the health or lives of women. Whenever their killing operations have been exposed, they seek to change the subject by pointing to their work with Komen.

That ruse just got a lot harder.

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Idaho Chooses Life

The Board of Idaho Chooses Life has voted to oppose the creation of a state insurance exchange because of the myriad dangers it poses to Idahoans. Implementing ObamaCare, even as we challenge it before the U.S. Supreme Court, just doesn’t make sense. The pending lawsuit provides with a great exit ramp.

But the nation’s best hope is a rejection of Barack Obama at the polls this fall.

We have distributed a “Policy Statement” on the idea of a state exchange to key members of the Legislature and are now meeting to reinforce our message. Rather than voluntarily submit to the edicts of Obama and Secretary Sebelius, Idaho must offer national leadership by choosing a private-sector path to better, cheaper health care.

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Idaho Chooses Life

President Obama issued a public statement this past Sunday honoring the Supreme Court for its heinous act 39 years ago this week:

“We must remember that [Roe v. Wade] not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.”

That is special. As the present leader of a movement to strip Americans of privacy and their right to pursue happiness and retain the fruits of their labor – the one area Obama would acknowledge “privacy” is in the matter of destroying an innocent life. In his view, the destruction of a defenseless human being should remain a “personal” matter between a mother and her abortionist.

How truly sad it is that the “leader” of the free world has nothing more to offer than legitimizing moral chaos in the name of “freedom”.

We ask that you join us in praying to the Lord Almighty that He would raise up a righteous man to help restore America’s moral grounding by tearing down the high altars of libertinism.

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Idaho Chooses Life

Americans United for Life has released its pro-Life rankings of the states for 2012. They rank Idaho as the 19th “safest” place for preborn children in the country – at least in terms of the legal protections afforded our preborn brothers and sisters. That is an improvement of four spots from the year before, reflecting our strong 2011 legislative session. In 2009, AUL ranked us at 26 among the states.
Leading the list for the past several years has been Louisiana, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

A deeper look at the rankings shows that, generally speaking, the states governed by the ultra-liberal 9th
Circuit are the deadliest. California and Washington have been fighting over dead-last for several years. The average ranking for states in the 9th Circuit – without Idaho and Arizona – is an appalling 45th. Part of that phenomenon reflects the Abortion Lobby’s death grip on the political culture in states like Montana, Washington, Oregon and California. But one cannot discount the deleterious impact of 9th Circuit judges on the pro-Life movements operating within their political orbit.

The rankings from AUL are by no means the last word on the subject, as the organization does come at the question with certain biases. However, it does give us a feel for state of the nation and the great disparity between the states.

It also reminds us of the work we have left to do.

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Idaho Chooses Life

Pro-Lifers will gather once again on Saturday, January 21st to mark the 39th year of our national suffering under the Supreme Court edict legalizing abortion.

In Boise, folks will meet at the Julia Davis band shell at 1 pm. A rally on the steps of the Idaho Statehouse to defend preborn children will follow the march down Capitol Blvd.

Our best estimate is that over 54 million children have lost their lives under the Roe regime. May the Maker of Heaven and Earth reach down and save us from our great national sin.

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Idaho Chooses Life

A story last month in Newsweek attempts to portray Pocatello woman Jennie McCormack as the next Norma McCorvey, more victim than perpetrator. She is the woman at the center of a lawsuit which seeks, among other things, to create a “right” to easy abortion access.

This woman apparently killed her preborn child – during the late 2nd or early 3rd trimester – using RU-486 pills she obtained over the internet. McCormack tells her sympathetic media confessor that she decided to end the baby’s life for the sake of her other children. (Quite a burden for those siblings to carry).

In a lawsuit against Bannock County prosecutor Mark Heideman, Ms. McCormack argues that not only does she have a right to an abortion – she has the “right” to access an abortion provider. Her constitutional gripe is that there aren’t enough abortion providers in Southeast Idaho. So far, she has found a sympathetic audience in federal judge Lynn Winmill. (In fact, we are hard pressed to recall a single instance when Winmill has denied demands from the Abortion Lobby – but that is fodder for a congressional investigation).

The upshot of this lawsuit is a drive by the Abortion Industry to legalize the use of RU-486 at any stage of pregnancy and without medical supervision. Such a circumstance would contradict regulations issued by the FDA when it approved the deadly drug – in which they limited its use to the first 49 days of a pregnancy, as well as requiring a physician’s involvement to protect the health and lives of women using it).

This lawsuit highlights one of the great lies behind the Abortion Industry’s claim that it is all about protecting women. The strategy to remove any restrictions on the sale and use of RU-486 is all about money.

We encourage you to read the disturbing account of McCormack’s crusade to expand abortion in Idaho for yourself by clicking here.

As an aside, we would urge Ms. McCormack to be cautious about her present role as professional victim for the Abortion Industry. We had a chance to meet and talk with the original Norma McCorvey when she came to Boise in 2010. She continues to carry a heavy burden for the role she played in moving Planned Parenthood’s agenda. It is hard to see how this ends well for Ms. McCormack.

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Idaho Chooses Life

The Idaho Statesman shares the important story of a young Pocatello woman, Jenni Lake. Her death from cancer was at least expedited by her decision to protect her preborn baby from the dangers of chemotherapy. She gave birth to Chad on November 9th. She died on November 21st, just prior to her 18th birthday.

Ignoring the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the pregnancy, we must marvel at the pure courage and strength this young woman displayed in choosing life for her baby.

We are more familiar with stories of courage coming from men in combat. But most of the time those heroic moments are built upon split-second choices. Jenni’s decision to put herself at greater risk for the sake of her baby is bravery of a different magnitude. Each day, each hour – her decision could be reversed. One can be sure that many times over the course of her pregnancy people urged her to save herself by destroying the vulnerable baby within her womb. No doubt, as she lay in the quiet of the night, doubts and fear challenged her decision.

Yet she was a person committed to defending and honoring the gift of Life within her. Unlike many in our society whose moral vision extends only to the boundaries of their own skin, Ms. Lake had a deeper, richer, more truthful understanding of our unique value as God’s creation.

By her actions Ms. Lake lived a good life, turning her personal tragedy into a deeply hopeful searchlight of hope for people around the world. (Her story has already appeared in London papers).

There is no doubt that God will continue to use her story to teach and inspire us. Perhaps she will even change the culture.

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Idaho Chooses Life

It seemed all but certain that women and girls would be able to get “Emergency Contraception” straight from the grocery store shelves after intense lobbying by drug makers seeking to expand their profits. They were partnered with the Abortion Industry, which blindly seeks to increase the number of babies killed in the womb.
And the heck with those girls and babies who may be destroyed in the process.

Under regulations adopted during the Clinton Administration, Emergency Contraception can be obtained by women “behind the counter”, at the local pharmacy. Girls under 17 need a doctor’s prescription.

Responding to the long-term lobbying campaign, the FDA approved changes in regulation of the deadly drug – treating “Emergency Contraception” essentially like Tums or aspirin.

This drug regimen contains super-doses of the hormones contained in “The Pill” – which, by the way, requires a prescription. The reasons that normal contraceptive pills need professional involvement are known to anyone watching television commercials, in which drug manufacturers list many potential serious complications stemming from the use “The Pill”. (We have also seen many lawyers trolling for clients in lawsuits against those drug companies).

The point is that “Emergency Contraception” pills are potentially dangerous to both girls and the babies who may be killed by their use. It is unbelievable that the FDA would ignore the dangers and obvious opportunity for abuse. We have heard direct testimony from counselors at Idaho pregnancy centers regarding the prevalent abuse by teenage girls of the “Morning After Pill”. (Readers should also know that the FDA has NEVER conducted research on the long-term impact of EC on the health of teenage girls who avail themselves of the drug).

Imagine how much worse it could be without any kind of hurdle to obtaining the drugs!

And that says nothing about the ease with which predators could buy supplies of the drug to enable their continued abuse of teenage girls.

So – how to explain the completely uncharacteristic decision by Kathleen Sebelius to overrule the FDA? This rabid abortion champion has gone to unseemly lengths over her public career to advance abortion-on-demand; going so far as to facilitate the shredding of Planned Parenthood records during her tenure as Governor of Kansas.

One can only say that some sort of miracle has taken place. There may be more mundane explanations available – but we can say with certainty that the Abortion Industry must be as stunned as we at Sebelius’ intervention.

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