Missing
In The Senate
In
the proposed Senate
Omnibus Bill, two
provisions, both of them
pro-life, are missing.
The Omnibus Bill is
meant to replace the
eleven appropriations
bills (out of total of
thirteen) that the
Senate failed to pass
last year under Democrat
leadership. The new
Republican leader, Bill
Frist, had hoped to move
the combined
appropriations bill
swiftly through the
Senate.
One
provision would prohibit
abortion coverage in
federal employee health
programs, except in
cases of rape, incest or
actual danger of death
to the mother. The
second missing provision
would prohibit abortion
in federal prisons.
There are many other
pro-life provisions
which remained in the
spending bills, but
these two vanished.
Neither are new, but
rather continuation of
current law and date
back to the
administration of Ronald
Reagan.
The
missing provisions were
noted by the White House
and reported to Senator
Frist. The White House
made clear it would veto
the massive spending
bill without the two
provisions. Outspoken
pro-life Senator
Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL)
immediately offered an
amendment to the Omnibus
Bill to restore the
language. The bill will
not be signed into law
unless the provisions
are reinstated at some
point. In the end the
Republican leadership
proposed to simply add
the language for the two
missing provisions at
the conference committee
to avoid delaying the
bill on the floor with a
Democrat filibuster
against the Fitzgerald
amendment.
How
did this happen? Even
the individual spending
bills are usually
massive, sometimes
thousands of pages. The
defense bill, as an
example, does not just
give some general
billions of dollars to
spend. The bill is
actually a budget that
includes exact details
for spending. Often
Senators "sneak
in" provisions to
benefit their states. It
is odd, however, for a
Senator to
"sneak"
something out.
The
Right to Life March on
Washington, DC on the
anniversary of Roe v
Wade attracted more than
100,000 people.
President Bush addressed
the massive rally by
telephone. The President
made clear his position
by telling the rally,
"You and I share a
commitment to building a
culture of life in
America, and we're
making progress. As the
President, I have signed
the Born Alive Infants
Protection Act, opposed
the destruction of
embryos for stem cell
research, and refused to
spend taxpayer money on
international programs
that promote abortion
overseas."
President
Bush also reaffirmed his
willingness to sign a
partial-birth abortion
ban, saying, "My
hope is that the United
States Congress will
pass a bill this year
banning partial-birth
abortion, which I will
sign. (Applause)
Partial-birth abortion
is an abhorrent
procedure that offends
human dignity." For
a full text of the
Presidents message click
here.
Meanwhile
... A committee in the
Virginia legislature
passed out a bill that
has abortion providers
shaking in their boots.
The Health, Welfare and
Institutions Committee
voted 13-8 to advance a
bill to hold abortion
clinics to the same
level of medical
preparedness as
outpatient surgical
centers. Abortion
clinics would be forced
to have the same
facilities and standards
of cleanliness as those
providing other
outpatient surgery, such
as cosmetic surgery.
In
most states, including
Virginia, a dangerous
procedure such as a late
term abortion can be
conducted under
unsanitary conditions in
the hallway of a
doctor's office, but a
"nose job"
must be conducted in
sanitary conditions
almost to hospital
standards. It has long
been the position of the
Religious Freedom
Coalition that all
surgical centers should
have the same standards.
The
abortion industry is
fearful of any control
by the state. State
standards mean state
inspections. What if the
state finds out the
clinics sell body parts
of the aborted babies
for research, or learn
that the clinic
"nurses" are
really commissioned
sales personnel wearing
white uniforms? Abortion
is unregulated big
business and the
providers want to keep
it that way. Our
position is simple:
Until we are able to
stop abortion entirely
let's at least not
endanger the lives of
women in unsanitary
abortion mills.
THE
WAR ON IRAQ - IS IT A
JUST WAR?
I
attended two major
panels this week that
were not related to
abortion. On Tuesday I
was part of a panel on
the coming Iraqi war.
All those on the panel
were Christians and the
discussion was on the
"just war"
theory. This is the
first time I have served
on such a panel and
never before came face
to face with the
simplistic arguments
against just warfare. My
opponents in the
discussion even believed
that Saddam Hussein came
to power as a result of
poor American foreign
policy. Indeed I got the
impression that they
believed that every war
since 1776 was somehow
the fault of America.
My
comments concerning this
panel and my argument
for American
intervention to save
human lives can be found
at the RFC Internet
site. Click
here to go directly to
those comments.
TEN
COMMANDMENTS
On
Thursday I was part of a
panel discussion that
included a who's who of
Christian rights
activists including
Curtis May of ACLJ,
Richard Thompson of the
Thomas Moore Center for
Justice, Frank Wright of
the Center for Christian
Statesmanship
representing Dr. D.
James Kennedy, and
others. A total of more
than forty distinguished
panelists discussed the
defense of public
display of the Ten
Commandments.
Congressman
Robert Aderholt
(R-AL) hosted the event
in the Rayburn House
Office Building. Much of
the discussion was about
current cases, including
that of Alabama Supreme
Court Justice Roy Moore
in his fight to keep the
Commandments displayed.
The Commandments are in
fact displayed in the
United States Supreme
Court in Washington, DC.
During
the discussion the
famous Danbury Baptists
letter written by Thomas
Jefferson was brought
up, the letter that
coined the phrase
"separation of
church and state."
I was shocked that
virtually no one in the
room knew about the
letter FROM the Danbury
Baptists to Thomas
Jefferson, which brought
about his reply. Let me
recap: the Danbury
Baptists wrote a letter
to Jefferson saying that
they feared that the
Constitution would allow
the government to enter
into the affairs of the
church. Jefferson
responded with his
"wall of
separation" letter
to assure the Danbury
Baptists that the
Constitution prohibited
the government from
becoming involved in
church affairs.
Jefferson's
Danbury letter was not
intended to point out
that the church could
not influence the
government, but rather
that the government
could not influence the
church. Of course, we
have the reverse of that
in America today, to the
point that churches are
forced to collect taxes
for the government.
Both
the letter to Jefferson
from the Danbury
Baptists and his reply
can be found at the
Internet site of David
Bartons Wallbuilders.
THE
MIDDLE EAST
We
are continuing to have
problems helping the two
Christian brothers who
face death if they are
returned from Israel to
the West Bank
territories controlled
by Yassar Arafat. As I
mentioned last week,
their 14-year-old nephew
was murdered at school
in front of a teacher by
an 18-year-old. The
police were not called;
the family was just told
to come and pick up the
body.
We
could help the brothers
and their families move
to the United States
once they have
immigration paper work
filled out at the U.S.
Embassy. The problem is
that the embassy has
refused to accept their
applications for
processing.
Apparently,
it is just fine to have
millions of illegal
aliens come to the
United States each year
from Mexico and other
nations. We give visas
to men from terrorist
nations without blinking
an eye. Colin Powell has
said we need to allow
more Muslims to
immigrate to the United
States in order to show
the world we don't hate
Islam . Yet, our
government will not even
consider allowing two
Christian Palestinians
who are under a death
threat from Muslim
extremists to immigrate
to the United States. Am
I the only one having a
problem with this?
Congresswoman
Jo Ann Davis asked
the Israeli government
to keep the brothers in
Israel until we can find
them someplace to move
to. Now we have a second
congressman involved in
the immigration issue. I
will update you on this
story next week.
You
can also help by telling
others about the
situation of persecuted
Christians under Islamic
rule. Please forward
this e-mail to your
friends. If this
Legislative Update has
been forwarded to you
and you would like to
sign up, you can do so
at our Internet site.
Also, you can purchase
our latest documentary, Holy
Land Terror: Persecution
of Christians for
just $20.00 postage paid
at our online store.
This documentary has
actual scenes from
Palestinian TV and
Palestinian schools run
by Yassar Arafat. Please
order a copy and show it
to your Sunday School
Class. (SPECIAL: Order Holy
Land Terror and
Peirre Rehov's Holy
Land: Christians In
Peril for just
$35.00. Click
here for special)
William
J Murray, Chairman
Religious
Freedom Coalition
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