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What’s Airing on Pro-Life Perspective Today? “The Year in Review: Federal and State Legislation”

Dec 28, 2011

By Dave Andrusko

NRLC President Carol Tobias

As National Right to Life President and Pro-Life Perspective Host Carol Tobias explains, it’s a tradition at PLP to take the last week of the year to look back on pro-life accomplishments.  In addition, she says, “We look ahead to the coming year to see where we can make the biggest difference in the lives of the most defenseless members of our society.”

Monday was a holiday for us, so if you happened to miss hearing the first episode of PLP for the week, we’ll begin by providing you with a few highlights for Monday as well as today’s PLP. (You can hear all episodes this week at www.prolifeperspective.com.)

Mrs. Tobias began with the action in Congress, focusing on four highlights:

1.   In May, the U.S. House passed, by a vote of 251 to 175, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” 

2.   In September, a ban on the issuing of U.S. patents on human embryos was enacted  the culmination of an eight-year effort in which National Right to Life played a key role.  The implications of this ban cannot be understated as NRLC legislative director Douglas Johnson observed, “This law recognizes that human life is not a commodity, and that a member of the human family can never be regarded as a mere invention, or as ‘intellectual property.'”

3.   In October we celebrated another victory in the U.S. House with passage of the Protect Life Act – a bill to nullify they multiple abortion-expanding provisions of the Obama Health Care law.  But like the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” it has yet to be heard in the Senate.

4.   Lastly, just last month, National Right to Life worked quickly with pro-life Senators to derail what was dubbed an “abortion express train.”  It was an attempt by Senate Democrat leaders to fast-track a funding bill laden with pro-abortion provisions. 

For today’s PLP, Mrs. Tobias switched her focus to state legislation. As our pro-abortion opponents have woefully complained, this was a solid year for pro-life legislation.

To name just a few there the passage of  the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in four more states. Alabama, Idaho, Kansas and Oklahoma enacted their own versions of the Act based on National Right to Life’s model, joining Nebraska which passed its law in 2010.

Another major state legislative milestone occurred in June when the New Hampshire state legislature took a stand for the rights of parents and their minor daughters by overriding the pro-abortion governor’s veto of the New Hampshire Parental Notification bill. Also this summer, North Carolina Right to Life and other pro-lifers celebrated a major victory when the state’s House and Senate voted to override pro-abortion Governor Beverly Perdue’s veto of the Women’s Right to Know bill.

Mrs. Tobias wrapped up today’s five-minute episode with these words of encouragement.

“Our thanks and congratulations go out to our state right-to-life affiliates for their leadership and dedication in seeing these laws enacted.  And we cannot say enough about the dedicated activists who worked with our affiliates to encourage their legislators to vote for these laws which protect unborn children and their mothers. 

“But, with the spring legislative session just a few weeks away, we know there’s still more to do.  I want to encourage you to take a stand and get involved.  You can find more information about how to contact the right to life affiliate in your state at www.prolifeperspective.com.”

Your feedback is very important to improving National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha

Categories: NRLC