Life Matters

This is an important update on Senate Bill 320. Senate Bill 320 would mandated that in California state colleges and universities young women be given RU486 the abortifacient drug. This is not a morning after pill. This drug is only taken when the woman knows that she's pregnant and the child is well along. It attacks woman's body first by preventing it from giving any more nutrition to that child. Only then does the child die. It results in a spontaneous miscarriage when that young woman can least control of the situation. She sees the baby. She sees the clots of blood. It's extremely unpleasant. Once a woman has had this she does not want another one. But, with your tax money, we pay for it. Ask your state senators to vote "No" on Senate Bill 320.

In 1973, the laws of all 50 states were overturned; laws that had protected the children in the womb, laws that carefully outlined what a doctor should and should not do. The impact of that decision has been incredible. The significance for your culture, the significance to the right to life, is quite extraordinary and unless you look at it you won't understand the dramatic changes that have faced our society and the culture in which you live. It is you that can bring about change when you apply yourself to restoring the right to life.

Today's program is dedicated to an old friend of the right to life movement, Dr. Mildred Jefferson, MD. Dr. Jefferson was the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School. She was a central part of the founding of the National Right to Life Committee in 1973.

I served on the board of the National Right to Life Committee as a delegate from California during the late 80s, early 90s. Dr. Jefferson, who had served on the board in the 70s, returned again representing Massachusetts and during that time made a point of befriending me and that is always very humbling. For someone whom you respect and admire, to make a point of befriending you, it really opens you up to to who they are.

Mildred, as a person, was an extraordinary woman. You're going to hear some quotes from her that will shed some light as to what the right to life is and what the role of the doctor is.

The appropriate role of the physician is an essential element in what has made Western Civilization. Western civilization is known for asserting, respecting, and protecting the innocent and vulnerable. Dr Jefferson is a hero of our movement and all that it stands for.

In today's program I will speak with Dr. Mark Hoffman, PhD who is a clinical psychologist and chairman for the Stop Assisted Suicide Coalition. You can find out more information at stopassistedsuicide.com

Many of you know that I've been involved in the assisted suicide battle for many years starting with Kevorkian, but also with Derek Humphry the founder of the Hemlock Society who came here specifically to get this nation to embrace euthanasia and assisted suicide.

I had many interviews with Mr. Humphry and I wrote a book about it called, Death As A Salesman: What's Wrong with Assisted Suicide because that's what this is. This is the selling of death. Californians are now getting ready in the legislature to legalize the promotion and essentially, selling of suicide. That's Assembly Bill 282 which we will discuss in today's program.

You can go to stopassistedsuicide.com to find out more and to download a petition. This petition is applicable across the nation and we will get it to legislators in your particular state. But, here in California even though assisted suicide has been legalized it's not yet legal to promote it to people. You will see in the weasel language used by advocates of death the real goal is to get rid of people that they don't want to have around anymore and really it's the people who are kind of "lingering" that really bother them.

Assisted suicide isn't designed for people that we care for; it's actually designed for people we no longer wish to care for.

What were abortion laws before Roe v Wade? Where did they come from? Science and the law. Dr. Horatio Storer defended life as a fact-asserting advocate. British Common Law protected children after quickeningbecause that was the most advanced and conferrable science.

"Homunculus."

With the advancement in scientific medicine conception was confirmed as the start of human life when mammalian conception was witnessed under the modern microscope in 1836. The British Common Law followed in protecting children from the time of conception.

American Dr. Horatio R. Storer was studying in Edinburgh and came back to encourage each of the United States to now respect those human lives, even as they now had freed and protected slaves. From 1860 to 1880 he campaigned until all states protected that child, his second patient. Dr. Storer is also known as the Father of Gynecology. His education underscored that the child in the womb was a vulnerable human being. Started in 1857, recruited the AMA to assist righting the injustice of slavery and the injustice of abortion - objective facts demonstrate that both are human beings. Active civic involvement by Horatio R. Storer is what ensured protection for children. We must be like Storer. Bring facts to bear so that the laws will protect those who can't protect themselves. If the Life issue is an issue that matters -and it indeed is let's study and present the facts of life, so that innocent lives can again be protected.

Today we are talking about an insidious drug - RU486.

We're not talking about the morning after pill. The morning after pill has been marketed as kind of a backup contraception. It can be an abortifacient if conception has taken place, but primarily the morning after pill is designed to prevent conception so it's only taken when sex has already happened or shortly thereafter. RU486 is NOT contraceptive in nature. RU486 is only taken when a woman is pregnant. In fact, it can only be taken after the child is somewhat developed. The child has to be at least six or seven weeks old and doctors will insist that a woman be further along in her pregnancy in order for this drug to really kill the baby.

A lot of abortionists refer to use of RU486 as medical abortion and that's a little bit ironic because abortions that are done by a doctor would be medical. What they're trying to imply is a distinction between the use of this drug RU486 as a medicine and surgical abortion. But, as you can tell in the language game, it's misleading to call RU486 a medical abortion. It really should be called chemical abortion because this is not medicinal. RU486 is a very powerful steroid. It's a chemical that attacks the mother's body first and after doing so then the child dies in the womb because the child doesn't get nutrition from the mother anymore. This is designed to adversely affect women with the goal of killing that child in the womb.

Dr. Anthony Levatino is a former abortionist and we'll hear him tell his story and explain how the chemicals work step by step.

We'll also hear testimony of Kaye, a woman who took these pills to end her pregnancy and experienced the horrific nature of these chemical abortions. It is very important to understand the facts regarding these chemical abortions. Go to Abortionpillrisks.com to find out more about RU486 and the dangers of this drug.

The goal of assisted suicide is to legalize euthanasia. Assisted suicide is really a form of voluntary euthanasia. The problem is, not all the people that advocates think should have the benefit of euthanasia will volunteer. So these "advocates" want to make sure that those folks who just can't bring themselves to make the decision, or maybe aren't "smart" enough to know their own suffering, or understand that their life is so limited that they'd be better off dead, their goal is to make sure that they can also dismiss those lives in their "compassionate" way. The way they do that is by advancing intentional, medical dehydration and you need to watch out for it in nursing homes and hospitals throughout the country.

Brian outlines an overview of Ronald Reagan and his stalwart commitment to life.

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, was the only president to publish a book while in office, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation.

Numerous quotes and portions of Reagan speeches punctuate Brian's commentary on the Reagan years. These incisive stories on adoption, the need to stop abortion, and the political challenge of addressing law as both Governor and President are instructive and inspiring.

Brian also retells the story of being befriended by Judge William Clark, Justice of the California High Court, National Security Advisor, Secretary of the Interior and many other important, yet less vaunted roles. Judge Clark was the man that Reagan's official biographer considered the 'one individual spiritually closest to Ronald Reagan.'

"... there is purpose and worth to each and every life. " - From Ronald Reagan's tombstone.

Years ago I used to counsel in front of an abortion clinic in Santa Rosa, California. That clinic is gone now, but at that time, a young woman and I would prayerfully talk to those that were coming in. She would talk to the young ladies and if there was a gentleman, I would talk to him. Numerous times that guy did not want to talk, he would in fact, push or punch me. It takes a lot of self-control in that circumstance but it points out that abortions are actually done to help the man. He wanted to make sure that abortion happened regardless. He didn't want to be accountable.

Harvey Weinstein, who is Hollywood's greatest single donor to Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry, as you know, routinely abuses women and routinely uses them sexually. Abortion helps men. It hurts women.

Brian Johnston discusses how to impact our culture with the message of life. He's joined by Joe Langfeld of Human Life Alliance.

Human Life Alliance provides excellent cultural impact communication tools for people everywhere to use where they see fit.

It's very good to have spoken to Joe about culture and how Human Life Alliance is addressing the culture and communicating in an image inclined world of memes. What an excellent resource they are. It's important to understand the nature of culture. Brian lives on the banks of the Sacramento River. It's the largest river in the state of California. Where the Sacramento river is joined by the American, at the confluence of those two rivers, is where the town of Sacramento was founded. That's because it was the farthest inland you could actually come up from the sea, through the bay, and come inland with a seagoing ship to Old Sacramento.

Culture is a lot like a river. Culture flows. It is the result of contributing factors and streams that are upstream. Little rivulets go to little rivers, to bigger rivers.

Creeks, tributaries contribute to a larger river and that's the case in your culture.

These rivulet sometimes are contaminated. But sometimes they're very, very pure and I want you to understand that cultures are also that way. There are things in our culture that aren't good for you and you know that.

But the most important aspect of this stream, this river we live by and where we draw water from - our culture, is the fact that it has banks. That's what defines the river. Now at times it may overflow its banks but those banks will, once the waters have receded, reemerge. The banks of the river define and delimit the river.

The banks for a culture are the laws of a culture. In 1973, the Supreme Court threw out the laws regarding abortion. Every state in the nation had protective laws for those babies but the Supreme Court threw them all out. The laws are critically important. Laws define your culture.

If you care about human beings and the cultural values we want to establish to protect those who are the seemingly insignificant - if you know that they are indeed significant, then you need to pay attention to the laws. The laws are there to help protect the flow of culture, to make sure that it doesn't over run its banks and destroy people and lives and property. That's really what happens when laws are broken. That's what happens literally here in Sacramento if these levees break or are overtopped. It brings great harm. So it is true with our laws. Our laws are there to protect and this being an election year, I want to remind you - wherever you are in the nation to go to: nrlca.org because National Right to Life pays attention to these laws on the federal, on the state and on the local level. Here you can find your state's affiliate. It is important because it allows you to be involved in building up the banks of our culture, building up the levees, building up the protective nature of what's flowing through our lives so that people are not harmed. We have to pay attention to the laws. We have to pay attention to politics.

You may not believe it but, just a handful of votes turns many elections and that is much more common on the local level from city council or supervisors in the county to the school boards. Planned Parenthood targets school boards. Very often it's a school district's policies that determine whether they give access to the children.

So it is very important in this election year to get involved with National Right to Life to make sure that the protections that need to be in place for our culture and the way to do that is to understand the need for good and just laws and understand your need for civic involvement. I mentioned the school board because if you get involved in local school boards and find out who the pro-life candidates are, who wins sometimes by 5 or 10 votes, are some of the smallest jurisdiction in your state. Everyone who votes for pro-life school board members is going to vote for a pro-life city council member and anyone who votes for those two is going to vote for the pro life County Supervisor and for the pro-life State Assembly and State Senate and for the pro-life candidate for Congress and pro-life candidate for governor and yes for the pro-life federal offices all the way to the president. So by getting involved in helping your community be aware of the cultural war and the cultural values and being aware that they can make a difference where they are, that the laws are important, the laws are the banks of the cultural river. You can make a difference right where you are go to nrlc.org.

On January 22nd of each year, we mark the anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision. But that decision can't be understood unless you also read the companion Doe v. Bolton decision. It came down the same day and was designed to work in tandem with Roe. It declared that we don't know when life begins and gives no recognition to the child in the womb. Doe v. Bolton goes much further and explains that abortions are really done for a woman's health and that in defining a woman's health, all factors: physical, emotional, psychological, familial, a woman's age, anything, can be considered relevant to the well-being of that patient. The child is disregarded completely. Doe v. Bolton and Roe v. Wade have legalized abortion on demand.