June 28, 2010

By Dave Andrusko

Part Two reprints the closing remarks of NRLC 2010, delivered by NRLC President Dr. Wanda Franz. Part Three is the uplifting speech of House Minority Leader John Boehner. There are three National Right to Life News Today entries (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), including a look at the new "Toy Story 3" movie from a pro-life perspective. Please send all of your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like join those who are now following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.

Mark and LaRee Pickup speak at the Prayer Breakfast

It's amazing how so many items we've been discussing here, in National Right to Life News, and in National Right to Life News Today are coming together. Let me just mention one before I get the heart of today's discussion: NRLC's amazing 40th convention in Pittsburgh. (I'll be talking about different components of NRLC 2010 off and on all week.)

Obviously, with respect to buzz and importance, the opening day of the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is near the top. I understand that the last thing Obama wants is a substantive discussion of his second nominee to the Court, which is why the choreography behind Solicitor General Kagan's entrance puts Broadway to shame.

Recording artist Jaime Thietten singing "My Chance"

While there is plenty of other information the Senate Judiciary Committee should have--but won't--there is more than enough to persuade NRLC to oppose her confirmation. [http://nrlc.org/Judicial/NRLCletterToSenateOnKaganJune232010.pdf]

Her nomination represents the perfect storm. Kagan is awful on the issues that matter to us (abortion, cloning, assisted suicide, the ability of government to impose restrictions on speech about politicians, and judicial activism).

Worse yet it's clear from her stint working for pro-abortion President Bill Clinton and prior to that as a Democratic staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee (when Joseph Biden was chairman) during the confirmation proceedings for Justice Ginsberg, that Kagan revels at behind-the-scenes politicking--exactly the kind of justice Obama would want walking back and forth between the justices' chambers.

And talk about timing. While at the convention, listening to Dr. Steve Zelinski's fabulous presentation documenting the capacity of unborn children to experience pain by 20 weeks, we learned that a "Working Party" of the pro-abortion-to-the hilt [British] Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) released an article that not only denied that the unborn could experience pain at 24 weeks, but left open the possibility that this capacity might not exist for some time after that demarcation.

Young Bridget Maloney eats lunch at NRLC 2010

If you read many American press accounts, this is "damaging" a "serious setback." etc., etc. to the fortunes of Nebraska's landmark "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." This is poppycock. The evidence is unmistakable which is why pro-abortionists are still pondering whether to challenge HB 1130.

Responding to the RCOG document NRLC State Legislative Director Mary Spaulding Balch pointed out in a press release at the conference that

An objective expert in neurobiology would be appalled by the stunning lack of scholarship in the RCOG article. Its authors (predominantly abortion advocates and at least one abortionist) based their claim that unborn children do not experience pain before 24 weeks on the absence of complete nerve connection to the cortex before then.

They ignore the seminal 2007 publication of "Consciousness without a cerebral cortex," in the medical journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences and dismiss its evidence that children born missing virtually all of the cerebral cortex nonetheless experience pain.

Ironically, the article concedes the evidence that by 20 weeks pain receptors are present throughout the unborn child's skin, that these are linked by nerves to the thalamus and the subcortal plate, and that these children have coordinated aversive reactions to painful stimuli, and experience increased stress hormones from it.

Tomorrow I'll offer a running narrative of what proved to be (in my opinion) among the very, very best of the 30 conventions I have attended. But today I want to be sure to mention House Minority Leader John Boehner, who delivered a wonderful speech Saturday morning. (See Part Three for the entire text of the prepared remarks.)

It was a powerful speech, all the more effective because it was delivered in a low-key and intensely personal fashion. Let me quote just a few sentences to give you the flavor. He said,

"I never sought to be recognized as a leader of the movement. Never wore my pro-life credentials on my sleeve.

"I was what you might call a quiet warrior. I just voted for what I thought was right, and stood up for what I thought was right, like all of you do every day.

"But over the past few years, I've been compelled to raise my voice; to speak out a little more loudly.

"When you look at the agenda being pursued in Washington, if you believe in the right to life, being quiet isn't good enough. We don't have the luxury of being 'quiet.'"

Every general session this year had a noticeable vibe about it, but, none more so than Rep. Boehner's.

Please make a point of reading Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org) each day this week and pass them along through your email contacts and social networks. You will be glad you did--the convention was that good!

Part Two
Part Three