October, 2011

Wisconsin Family Action endorses personhood

  • October 31, 2011
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Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) has endorsed the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment, legislation that would amend the Wisconsin Constitution to apply personhood rights to preborn children at all stages of development. WFA is an associate of Focus on the Family. Click here for the WFA legislative memo urging co-sponsorship of the personhood amendment. Pro-Life Wisconsin agrees with WFA’s legal findings and conclusions.

Ironically, Clarke Forsythe of Americans United for Life – the pro-life attorney Wisconsin Right to Life brought in for their Day at the Capitol in February to oppose a personhood amendment in Wisconsin – seems to be warming up to the idea of personhood! Forsythe recently penned a column in the Washington Times entitled “Saving Personhood” in which he argues that “recognition of the personhood of the unborn child is a movement as old as English common law.” According to Forsythe, “[s]tate protection of the unborn child as a person is no longer a novel thing. It grows year by year, state by state, and the public supports it.” Click here to read the full column.

For more information on the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment, please go to www.PersonhoodWisconsin.com.

Milwaukee abortion workers dance in street after botched abortion

  • October 27, 2011
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This past Friday, October 21, an ambulance rolled up to Affiliated Medical Services to take away yet another woman to a nearby hospital after a botched abortion. Abortionist Bernie Smith was reportedly on duty.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

AMS staff can be seen laughing, dancing and doing the limbo as the woman was taken away. One AMS staffer even threatened vigilers, saying, “You’re lucky it isn’t you in the hospital.”

AMS’s consent forms (available publicly on their website, snippet below)  state, in part, “Complications, including death, may occur.”

Those who lobby for abortion’s legality claim that if abortion were made illegal, women would have to resort to dirty, back-alley abortions. But the reverse has actually happened — as was sadly illustrated with Kermit Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” abortuary in Philadelphia, the dirty, back-alley abortions are legal and no one is watching.

This is at least the third time this year an ambulance has arrived at AMS after a botched abortion; sidewalk counselors recorded two separate ambulance visits on April 8. Abortion facilities in Milwaukee are not subject to health inspections. Some days the smell of death — blood and flesh — can be smelled wafting out of AMS when the staff open the doors.

AMS has been the site of 40 Days for Life for three years now. Sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors are present at AMS year-round as well. 40 Days vigilers were in front of AMS when this occurred.

Women have been taken to Columbia St. Mary’s after botched abortions, forcing a Catholic hospital and staff to clean up the abortionist’s mess.

HT 40 Days for Life of Milwaukee for taking the video.

Wisconsin Catholic hospitals partner with abortion-training medical college

  • October 25, 2011
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The Medical College of Wisconsin, as of this fall, is now training ob/gyn medical residents in abortion procedures. MCW has partnered with the Ryan Residency Program, a George Soros-funded “initiative” to push abortion training into medical schools. A 2010 New York Times article revealed that the new frontier was training ob/gyn medical students in abortions, to bring abortion into every doctor’s office in the U.S.

We already know that MCW uses aborted fetal body parts in research and uses embryonic stem cells in research.

MCW is a private college (unlike UW-Madison, which is state-funded), so state laws regarding the use of state funds in abortions do not apply.

MCW partners with Columbia St. Mary’s and St. Joe’s Hospital in Waukesha for its family residency program. It is disappointing these hospitals have not withdrawn from the MCW program, as both the hospitals and the Archdiocese have been made aware of what is occurring at MCW.

Support the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment

  • October 24, 2011
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This past Wednesday, October 19, State Representative Andre Jacque (R-Green Bay) began circulating for co-sponsorship the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment, legislation that would amend the Wisconsin Constitution to apply personhood rights to preborn children at all stages of development. Click here to read the amendment language, and click here to view PLW’s legislative memo.

From a pro-life perspective, the Wisconsin Constitution contains a glaring error at its outset. In specifying the beneficiaries of its human rights, our state constitution leaves out the preborn. It applies rights to only those people who are “born.”

Representative Jacque is proposing a minimal but absolutely essential correction, a personhood amendment, to make the Wisconsin Constitution cover all people, every person, at any stage of development. The amendment seeks to extend the inalienable right to life found in the Wisconsin Constitution to all preborn children from the beginning of their lives.

Should Roe v. Wade be overturned someday and the abortion issue remanded to the states, an activist Wisconsin Supreme Court could use the word “born” in our current state constitution to deny the right to life of the preborn by interpreting an independent right to abortion in that document. In so doing, the court could nullify any present or future pro-life laws in our state. The changing makeup of the Wisconsin Legislature could also jeopardize any pro-life laws in our state. Every two years our state election process determines the majority party in Madison. Legal protection of the preborn should not (and must not) be contingent upon which party controls the state legislature. The right to life should not be subject to the whims of a politicized supreme court or an ever-changing legislature.

The introduction of the Wisconsin Personhood Amendment is a watershed moment in the history of the pro-life movement in our state. It seeks to end abortion in Wisconsin, not to regulate or restrict it. We have been working toward the introduction of such an amendment for the last five years, and we thank Representative Jacque for demonstrating the courage of his convictions in finally making it a reality.

The personhood amendment will face stiff opposition from the pro-abortion industry.  Shockingly, the strongest opposition to the bill at this point is coming from Wisconsin Right to Life (WRL). In February WRL published a position paper vowing to oppose any effort to grant Wisconsin’s pre-born babies full constitutional rights as persons, labeling such efforts a “threat to [the] protection of Wisconsin unborn children.” They worked hard to ensure a personhood amendment was never introduced. Having failed in that effort, they are now calling every state legislator demanding that they not sign on to the bill. WRL admits that their legal reasoning for opposing a state personhood amendment is speculative. WRL offers no case law to back up their asserted problems, admitting that they are only “probable”. Pro-Life Wisconsin, on the other hand, offers recent Wisconsin case law clearly demonstrating that the proposed amendment is not a risk to our current, pre-Roe abortion law (Section 940.04, Wisconsin Statutes) by “implied repeal” or otherwise. Click here for PLW’s legal analysis rebutting their misguided objections.

The pro-life movement is founded on the bedrock principle that all human beings, at all stages of their development, deserve full protection under the law. Why oppose proactive people of good will endeavoring to provide full and lasting legal protection for preborn children? Pro-Life Wisconsin remains committed to constitutionally protecting Wisconsin’s preborn children, regardless of opposition from the abortion industry or from within the right to life movement.

Bishop Morlino leads 100 people in prayer at Madison Planned Parenthood

  • October 19, 2011
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Last night, Bishop Morlino led 100 people in prayer and pro-life reflection (photo, above) in observance of the mid-way point of 40 Days for Life. As the sun set behind him on Planned Parenthood (literally and figuratively, we pray!), Bishop Morlino discussed how the pro-life cause is ultimately in God’s hands; God is asking us to pray and act, and trust in Him.

Bishop Morlino was joined by two priests — Father Jim Murphy of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception parish in Portage, and Father John Putzer (photo, below, with one of the Knights of Columbus) of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary parish in Sun Prairie. Thank you to all the clergy who join us in praying for an end to abortion!

Senate Education Committee to hold public hearing on “Strong Communities… Healthy Kids Act”

  • October 17, 2011
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The Senate Committee on Education has scheduled a public hearing for Senate Bill (SB) 237, the “Strong Communities…Healthy Kids Act,” on Wednesday, October 19, at 12:00 p.m. in Room 201 Southeast of the State Capitol building in Madison.

Please consider attending the hearing and registering for or testifying in favor of this critically important legislation.

Senate Bill 237 is legislation authored by State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) that reverses the contraception education/instruction mandate of 2009, giving public school districts the freedom to adopt abstinence-only human growth and development curricula. Chastity/abstinence is the only message that will protect our children’s bodies and preserve their innocence, and local school districts should be given this option. The bill also prohibits school-based volunteer health providers from providing instruction in human growth and development. Sexual development is not properly under the purview of a school health room physician or nurse, especially one from Planned Parenthood. The bill prevents Planned Parenthood nurses and physicians from teaching about abortion and contraception in our public schools.

For those of you who reside in the Beloit area, the Beloit School District has been developing human growth and development curriculum proposals through an ad hoc committee since last December. The district is currently without a sex education program. Listening sessions on curriculum proposals will begin on October 24 and continue into early November.

Thank you for speaking up for our children!

Background:

Last session the Wisconsin Legislature and Governor Doyle enacted 2009 Wisconsin Act 134, the so-called “Healthy Youth Act.” The new law prohibits local public school districts from adopting “abstinence-only” human growth and development programs – a freedom and flexibility they enjoyed under previous law. Under current law, if a school district chooses to adopt a human growth and development program it is forced to include in its curriculum instruction on the “health benefits, side effects, and proper use of contraceptives and barrier methods.” This ties the hands of local human growth and development advisory committees – a violation of the principle of local control. These advisory committees include teachers, parents, medical professionals, clergy and others, all of whom work very hard to craft curricula that match the goals and values of their local communities.

Wisconsin Act 134 also removed a common sense provision in previous law that prohibited school-based health volunteers from providing human growth and development instruction in the areas of human sexuality, reproduction and family planning. Current law permits contraceptive or abortion education by school volunteer health care providers, including those from Planned Parenthood. This could involve a referral to the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic where a child could be given contraceptive drugs and devices or directly referred to one of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics. Significantly, school volunteer health providers are considered agents of the state and therefore are immune from civil liability. Wisconsin taxpayers should not be assuming legal costs for a civil action brought by the parents of a student who has been referred by a health volunteer to a local Planned Parenthood clinic and there given birth control drugs such as the “morning-after-pill” or referred for an abortion, ending in an adverse outcome.

Green Bay billboard proclaims, “We’re all just grown-up embryos”

  • October 14, 2011
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Pro-Life Wisconsin is excited to announce the launch of a multi-media effort, spreading the personhood message across Wisconsin. The personhood movement has tremendous grassroots support in Wisconsin and throughout the country, and we are excited to be able to spread that message even further.

A billboard located on Highway 41, south of Green Bay, features people at different stages of development, along with the tagline, “You, Me, Everybody… We’re all just grown-up embryos.” The billboard directs viewers to PersonhoodWisconsin.com, a website launched to promote the personhood movement here in Wisconsin.

To view the billboard, click here. The billboard will move to a different Green Bay location every three months.

With the recent news that abortions in Wisconsin declined in 2010, we hope this billboard will raise even greater awareness of the humanity of the preborn person and emphasize that, at one point, all of us were just embryos.

Wisconsin State Representative Andre Jacque (R-Green Bay) plans to introduce an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution that would apply personhood rights to preborn children at all stages of development. The amendment is currently in drafting and will be formally introduced in October, Respect Life Month.

The proposed amendment extends the inalienable right to life found in the Wisconsin Constitution to all preborn children. It seeks to bring into the Wisconsin Constitution a true definition of human life, thus making the highest law in our state cover all people, every person, at any stage of development. We are excited to begin educating the public and the legislature on the necessity of legal personhood. Only by enshrining the right to life in our state constitution will preborn children be afforded full and lasting legal protection.

The billboard is a collaborative effort between Pro-Life Wisconsin, 40 Days for Life of Green Bay, Personhood USA and Youth Defence, Ireland’s most active pro-life group.

Groupon features Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin as a “Deal of the Day”

  • October 11, 2011
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Today, Groupon featured Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin as one of its deals.

Guess that answers the pro-abortion/pro-life question regarding Groupon and its founder.

The premise for the so-called deal? “If 48 People Donate $10, Then Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Can Fund Cancer Screenings for Eight Women.”

So really, you don’t get anything in return, only the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that a woman (your sister? friend? cousin? spouse? neighbor? co-worker?) will be receiving a cancer screening while an abortion is performed in the next room.

But wait… aren’t taxpayers already funding those cancer screenings? PPWI receives $18 million in federal and state taxpayer funding annually; since taxpayer funds can’t pay for abortions, all that taxpayer money is allocated for other “services.” In the budget signed this year, PPWI did lose approximately $1 million in funding; but it is still receiving millions and millions in Title X funding, which DOES provide funding for cancer screening.

So who’s checking to make sure that PPWI uses its money as allocated?

We know PPWI performed 612 less abortions in 2010 than 2009. Given the huge profit margin made from performing abortions, is PPWI looking to recoup some lost money?

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is the state’s largest abortion provider, accounting for 4,827 of Wisconsin’s 7,825 abortions in 2010. Live Action has caught PPWI on video giving misleading medical information and covering up statutory rape.

If you are a Groupon customer and disagree with Groupon directing donations to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, contact Groupon via email: support@groupon.com
or call Customer Service at (877) 788-7858, Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm CST.

When was the last time you asked a pregnant mother, “How’s your fetus/parasite/blob doing?”

  • October 11, 2011
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The least interesting part of this story is the media’s inability to differentiate between a baby and a fetus.  The term “fetus” is constantly used when referring to an unwanted pre-born baby in the abortion context.  It is dehumanizing and the media knows it.  Now we have this tragedy.

The media seems confused as what you should call a baby who is forcibly extracted from his mother’s womb and left to die.

This past Saturday, a 23-year-old woman, Maritza Ramirez-Cruz, and her unborn baby, Omar, were murdered near 7th & Mitchell Street.  The reason Maritza was killed will shock you, but may not surprise you.  After Annette Morales-Rodriguez  struck Maritza repeatedly with a baseball bat, she took an exacto knife and cut out Maritza’s unborn baby from her womb.  Rodriguez was trying to steal Maritza’s baby, Omar, who was scheduled to be delivered Monday, October 10.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the incident happened in the vicinity of 1600 S. 7th Street, just one block north of Planned Parenthood. Please keep Maritza, Omar and the entire Ramirez-Cruz family in your prayers.

It is absolutely legal to abort your baby at ANY time during pregnancy in the United States. The only difference between Maritza’s baby and any of the 115 late- term abortions done in Wisconsin in 2010 is that Maritza’s baby was “wanted.”  This is what happens when society sends the message that pre-born baby is a fetus, blob, parasite, grain of rice, product of pregnancy, or isn’t conscious/aware – therefore not human.

The “fetal abduction” case, as the Milwaukee police department has termed it, is an extreme example of how people internalize the constant barrage of anti-life rhetoric put out by Planned Parenthood, the secular media, politicians, lawyers and the abortion industry itself – but this is reality.  When was the last time you asked a pregnant mother, “How’s your fetus/parasite/blob doing?”

Run for the Unborn marks 2nd birthday

  • October 10, 2011
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This past Sunday, October 10, I participated in the Run for the Unborn, a 5k run/walk in Slinger, Wis. Many organized runs/marathons support a cause or intend to raise awareness about a particular illness (Alzheimer’s, Down syndome, etc.)

The cause of the unborn — the 55 million who have been killed since Roe v. Wade — is the focus of  this annual event. The tagline, if you will, is “Run for the Unborn …because they will never learn to crawl.”

Think about that.

The run happened just 2 days after the state of Wisconsin released its annual report on the number of abortions in the state in 2010. Abortions dropped in 2010, thank God; but 7,825 abortions is 7,825 lives snuffed out, 7,825 babies who were “unplanned,” inconvenient, too expensive, or diagnosed with a birth defect.

A photographer from the local newspaper was there, so I’m sure pictures of the event will surface soon. You can read the Milwaukee Catholic Herald’s article about last year’s inaugural Run for the Unborn and also view pictures from 2010.

As with last year, we had great response from the community.  One of my thoughts about this event was, Wow, it’s so great that the city of Slinger has been so supportive. And then I wondered if the city of Milwaukee would support a similar effort.

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