By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Donald J. Trump became the first American President to attend and speak at the March for Life event at the nation’s capitol; pro-life lawmakers are pushing for a post-abortion House bill which is being blocked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to come to the floor for a vote (the bill only lacks 14 votes); California is warned on Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that it cannot impose universal abortion coverage mandates on health insurance plans; undercover journalist David Daleiden, Center for Medical Progress, claims that he was targeted by California officials (Kamala Harris and the California Attorney General’s office) and Focus on the Family announces that Los Angeles will be one of four sites hosting ALIVE 2020 on May 9th Mother’s Day weekend.
President Trump speaks at March for Life
(Editor’s Note: To see the full text of President Trump’s historic 2020 March for Life speech go to: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/full-text-trumps-2020-march-for-life-speech.)
“We are here for a very simple reason: to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential. For 47 years, Americans of all backgrounds have traveled from across the country to stand for life.
“Young people are the heart of the March for Life. And it’s your generation that is making America the pro-family, pro-life nation. The life movement is led by strong women, amazing faith leaders, and brave students who carry on the legacy of pioneers before us who fought to raise the conscience of our nation and uphold the rights of our citizens. You embrace mothers with care and compassion. You are empowered by prayer and motivated by your unselfish love.
“All of us here understand an eternal truth: Every child is a precious and sacred gift from God. Together, we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.
“When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation. When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family. When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world – from my family, and I can tell you, I send love, and I send great, great love – and from the first day in office, I have taken historic action to support America’s families and to protect the unborn.
“And during my first week in office, I reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy and we issued a landmark pro-life rule to govern the use of Title X taxpayer funding. I notified Congress that I would veto any legislation that weakens pro-life policy or that encourages the destruction of human life.
“At the United Nations, I made clear that global bureaucrats have no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that protect innocent life. Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House.
“As the Bible tells us, each person is wonderfully made.
“We have taken decisive action to protect the religious liberty – so important – religious liberty has been under attack all over the world and frankly, very strongly attacked in our nation. You see it better than anyone. But we are stopping it. And we’re taking care of doctors, nurses, teachers, and groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor.
“We are preserving faith-based adoption and to uphold our founding documents, we have appointed 187 federal judges, who apply the Constitution as written, including two phenomenal supreme court justices – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
“We are protecting pro-life students’ rights to free speech on college campuses. And if universities want federal taxpayer dollars, then they must uphold your First Amendment right to speak your mind. And if they don’t, they pay a very big financial penalty, which they will not be willing to pay.
“Sadly, the far left is working to erase our God-given rights, shut down faith-based charities, ban religious leaders from the public square, and silence Americans who believe in the sanctity of life. They are coming after me because I am fighting for you and we are fighting for those who have no voice. And we will win because we know how to win.
“Together, we are the voice for the voiceless. When it comes to abortion – and you know this, you’ve seen what’s happened – Democrats have embraced the most radical and extreme positions taken and seen in this country for years and decades, and you can even say, for centuries.
“Nearly every top Democrat in Congress now supports taxpayer-funded abortion all the way up until the moment of birth. Last year, lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb right up until delivery.
“Then, we had the case of the Democrat governor in the state of Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia. And we love the Commonwealth of Virginia, but what is going on in Virginia? What is going on? The governor stated that he would execute a baby after birth. You remember that.
“Senate Democrats even blocked legislation that would give medical care to babies who survive attempted abortions. And that’s why I’ve called on Congress – two of our great senators here, so many of our congressmen here – I called upon them to defend the dignity of life and to pass legislation prohibiting late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in their mother’s womb.
“This year, the March for Life is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which forever enshrined women’s rights to vote in the United States and given by the United States constitution. Such a big event. Today, millions of extraordinary women across America are using the power of their votes to fight for the right and all of their rights as given in the Declaration of Independence – it’s the right to life.
“To all the women here today, your devotion and your leadership uplifts our entire nation and we thank you for that. The tens of thousands of Americans gathered today not only stand for life – it’s really here that they stand for it so proudly together. And I want to thank everybody for that. You stand for life each and every day. You provide housing, education, jobs, and medical care to the women that you serve. You find loving families for children in need of a forever home. You host baby showers for expecting moms. You make – you just make it your life’s mission to help spread God’s grace.
“And to all the moms here today, we celebrate you and we declare that mothers are heroes. Your strength, devotion, and drive is what powers our nation. Because of you, our country has been blessed with amazing souls who have changed the course of human history.
“We cannot know what our citizens yet unborn will achieve. The dreams they will imagine. The masterpieces they will create. The discoveries they will make. But we know this: every life brings love into this world. Every child brings joy to a family. Every person is worth protecting.
“And above all, we know that every human soul is divine and every human life, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of Almighty God.
“Together, we will defend this truth all across our magnificent land. We will set free the dreams of our people. And with determined hope, we look forward to all of the blessings that will come from the beauty, talent, purpose, nobility, and grace of every American child.”
(Editor’s Note: The annual March for Life is in protest of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, that legalized abortion all over the nation and has taken the lives of an estimated 60 million unborn children. The theme of this year’s march was “Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman” in honor of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. Speaking at the March for Life were abortion survivors such as: Sio Mara (from Central America) Claire Culwell, who survived a botched abortion that took the life of her twin; and Melissa Odhen; as well as former abortion workers: Julie Wilkinson; Andrienne Moton; and Annette Lancaster. Meanwhile a new poll sponsored by the Knights of Columbus shows that 62 percent of Americans say Roe v. Wade should be revisited.)
Push made to pass post-birth abortion House bill
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said at the March for Life rally that he and others in the House of Representatives were pushing for a discharge petition that would go around House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and force a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act which requires medial care for infants born after failed abortions and could send doctors to prison if they failed to comply. The House bill needs 14 more House members to sign the petition in order to reach the 218 required for a floor vote. The U.S. Senate in 2019 had voted 53-44 in favor of the bill. This bill is an extension of H.R. 2175—the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 which was signed by President George W. Bush with bipartisan support and guaranteed infants born at any state of development full legal rights.
Other public officials who addressed the pro-life crowd included: Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Mike Lee (R-UT) and James Lankford (R-OK). Also speaking were Representative Katrina Jackson (D-LA) and the first Lady of Louisiana, Donna Hutto Edwards, wife of Governor John Bel Edwards (D-LA). Following the rally, marchers walked to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On the other side of the aisle, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tweeted on Friday that “abortion is health care.” In September, Senator Sanders suggested that population control, via abortions, was a means to address the climate change crisis. “The answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America…have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions.”
Meanwhile, Twitter flagged a pro-life video (which shows children and families and highlights the sanctity of life) tweeted by President Donald Trump’s official campaign account as “sensitive material” on Friday warning viewers that proceeding to view the content could subject them to “graphic, gory, or violent imagery.” President Trump’s response to the video censorship: “(This) is a perfect example of the left stomping on any idea they don’t like.”
California warned not to demand abortions in insurance plans
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) gave California a Notice of Violation on Friday stating that no longer could the State impose universal abortion coverage and mandate this in health insurance plans—an action that has deprived 28,000 people of plans that did not cover elective abortion but now must cover abortion due to California’s mandate.
The complaints were filed from the Missionary Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit, a Catholic religious order of sisters and Skyline Wesleyan Church, an evangelical Christian megachurch located in La Mesa (a suburb of San Diego).
HHS Secretary Alex Azar said California has violated the Weldon Amendment by mandating all organizations—even faith groups—to provide abortion coverage in their health insurance plans. The State has 30 days to respond with sufficient assurance that it will comply with federal law. Ignoring the warning can result in California losing federal funding under applicable grants and contracts.
“No one in America should be forced to pay for or cover other people’s abortions,” said OCR director Roger Severino.
Undercover journalist says he was targeted
David Daleiden, who lost his case to Planned Parenthood in a ruling made by San Francisco U.S. District Judge William Orrick III, said in a Breitbart interview prior to Friday’s March for Life in Washington, DC. that Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, and Kamala Harris and the California Attorney General’s office violated “our First Amendment civil rights. It has to stop and, hopefully the appeals courts are going to put a stop to it. We didn’t do anything different than what regular, local news reporters do on a daily basis in California and everywhere else when they record and publish undercover video.”
Daleiden, of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), says he has almost 200 hours of unreleased undercover footage that has been held back by Judge Orrick through litigation.
“The public has to know what Planned Parenthood and their business partners have been doing to children in the womb and have been doing to infants for decades at this point.”
LA to host pro-life event May 9th
Focus On The Family is hosting what they are calling one of the largest pro-life events in the 43-year history of the ministry via ALIVE 2020—with Southern California joining four other locations (Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, and South Florida) in simultaneous celebrations nationwide on Saturday, May 9th—Mother’s Day weekend.
Last year, Focus on The Family, had a pro-life event in Times Square (New York City)—the largest pro-life event in the city’s history with 10,000 attending. The ministry showed 4-D Ultrasound images of an unborn baby in the womb of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director and now a pro-live activist and the inspiration behind the movie “Unplanned.”
(Editor’s Note: See video: https://events.focusonthefamily.com/afny-livestream-2019/)
When billboard companies such as ABC, Clear Channel and Silvercast refused to allow Focus On The Family from showing the images on their massive digital screens (though they had rented their screens before to Planned Parenthood) the ministry brought in four of their own screens instead.
“This is a baby! This right here is a baby. This right here is a baby!” said Abby Johnson. “It’s not a cat. It’s not a parasite. This is a human being with a heartbeat, with its own DNA that is separate from my body. And this baby deserves to live,” said Johnson.
Other speakers from last year’s Times Square event included: Alveda King, Civil Rights activist and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York; Phil Stacey, musician and American Idol finalist; Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family; Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life; Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List; and Carter Conlon, senior pastor of the Times Square Church.
Meanwhile, Focus On The Family is seeking tax-deductible donations of $60 to save the life of one pre-born baby through it’s Option Ultrasound program. Since 2004, they report that 440,000 babies have been saved.
See all of LifeSite’s coverage of the March for Life 2020 here.
(Editor’s Note: To donate to Focus On The Family Option Ultrasound see link: https://store.focusonthefamily.com/singleitem/checkout/donation/item/don-butt-wp#refcd=856801).
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He has worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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