Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Building on success in 2015, legislators in both Missouri and Kansas are working towards strengthening the culture of life through pro-life legislation that affects not only the unborn, but also ensuring the protection of the disabled, and elderly.
Pro-Life Resource Directory: Click HERE to see a directory of organizations serving the unborn, newborns and their moms in the area.
MISSOURI
Missouri Right to Life is working diligently to prevent your state tax dollars from being used for abortion services, human cloning and embryonic stem cell research.
And the Missouri Right to Life Political Action Committees (MRL PACs) have been the only organizations holding legislators accountable for their votes regarding public funding of abortion services, human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Many legislators have lost their endorsements based on their votes to fund unethical research under the disguise of economic development.
But the tide is changing with education on these issues, and pro-lifers have a huge group of legislators that stand in the gap to prevent this funding of abor- tion services, human cloning and embryonic stem cell research.
Missouri Right to Life has long said that marketing the bodies of aborted babies for research is a reality…. and now, once again, we see that proof.
Following the release of the controversial videos that raised questions about whether Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the U.S. was selling baby body parts for profit, Missouri lawmakers began holding investigation hearings.
The mothers (and babies) that enter a Planned Parenthood deserve to know the truth about the deceptions of “planned parenthood.” Planned Parenthood does not care for these women nor their babies.
For the last two legislative sessions, Missouri Right to Life has called for at least one required annual inspection of abortion facilities to be placed in statute. The inspection should not depend on the governor or the director of the Department of Health, whose diligence in oversight may be influenced by their position on abortion, but an annual inspection mandated by law.
- 2016 Legislation Proposed
• Ban Dismemberment Abortions in which living unborn children are aborted by a procedure in which forceps are used to pull the baby out of the womb in pieces. This procedure is used in 95 percent of second trimester abortions nation-wide.
• Redirect federal funding of family-planning dollars to qualified health centers and state rural health agencies to ensure that tax dollars are going to agencies that uphold state laws and that women receive quality health care.
• Abortion clinic inspection bill that includes the following:
• Require at least one annual on-site inspection of abortion facilities.
• Require an accounting report for the disposition of all tissue from aborted babies.
• Require an accounting to the state from any agency contracted with Planned Parenthood as to the disposition of aborted baby bodies/parts or tissue received from Planned Parenthood.
• Prevent state-funded agencies and universities involved in research from receiving or purchasing aborted baby body, body parts, or fetal tissue from aborted babies from any source in or out of state. • Specifically define “clinical privileges” so that any state agency or any institution receiving state monies can clearly understand the restrictions of the law.
• Increase penalty for selling or buying aborted baby bodies/body parts and include jurisdiction for the attorney general to prosecute.
Missouri Right to Life has welcomed these investigations of Planned Parenthood and has worked with the investigation committees. Now, Missouri Right to Life calls on the legislators to take action on these investigations. Continue inquiry…. and take action!
It is time to provide consistent oversight of Planned Parenthood in Missouri and end the subsidizing of their reprehensible actions with federal tax dollars.
KANSAS
2015 was another year of accomplishment as Kansas became the first state in the nation to enact the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act.
The act bans a brutally inhumane procedure in which the unborn child is torn apart, piece by piece, with sharp metal tools while still inside the mother. Over 800 precious, innocent unborn children were destroyed with this method in Kansas in 2014. With overwhelming support from Kansans, Gov. Sam Brownback signed the Act in April and restaged the bill signing in 4 Kansas locations with big crowds in attendance.
However—and not unexpectedly–Johnson County abortionists challenged the law and secured a legal injunction preventing the ban from yet going into effect. The extremist ruling came from a Topeka district judge, Larry Hendricks, who adopted the abortion attorneys’ novel claims that a state right to abortion—broader than the right to abortion created by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade—was secretly residing in the 1859 Kansas Constitution!
Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed an appeal of that decision, and the Kansas Court of Appeals will rule on the matter on an expedited basis
For Kansans, the potential that a liberal-leaning appellate court and the state Supreme Court might actually uphold the absurd notion of a state right to abortion cannot be understated. If upheld, EVERY state pro-life-protective law would be overturned and Kansans would be forced to PAY for abortions. Much prayer is needed!
More Pro-Life news in 2015
Kansas abortionist Kris Neuhaus continues to battle the 2012 revocation of her medical license from the state Board of Healing Arts, which called her “incapable of successful rehabilitation.” Neuhaus’ sole income for years was rubber-stamping approvals for late-term abortions for Wichita abortionist George Tiller. Her second appeal sits in the Topeka court of Judge Franklin Theis, who unbelievably allowed her first appeal. Abortions are now banned in Kansas at 22 weeks gestation due to the proven pain-capability of the unborn child at that age.
- Gov. Brownback announced an investigation into the disposition of fetal remains at Kansas abortion clinics. A national scandal of trafficking in baby body parts was revealed by the undercover videos released from July-October by the Center for Medical Progress.
- Several Congressional investigative hearings are under way and the U.S. Senate defunded Planned Parenthood for the first time ever. Pro-life legislation in Kansas will follow up the results of that investigation, including a law that makes permanent a court-upheld state budget provision effectively disqualifying Planned Parenthood from federal Title X health grants
- Attorney General Schmidt issued an opinion against a medical form targeting the elderly and chronically ill that is being heavily pushed by the Kansas City Center for Practical Bioethics.
- The opinion was requested by Rep. John Rubin (R-Shawnee) and verifies that in two distinct areas the “T-POPP” form contravenes current statutes that protect patients! Legislative hearings on this threat are planned to alert Kansans about this “T-POPP” document on special pink paper that “nudges” denial of life saving treatment.
As one can see from this brief update—liberal courts harm pro-life interests. Kansans for Life has prioritized reform of the Judicial Nomination Process. For more, see www.kfl.org.
- 2016 KANSAS CAPITOL RALLY
8:30 AM REGISTRATION – Location this year for registration/donuts/exhibit booths, as well as workshops, will be in the downstairs Capitol’s Visitor Center inside the North Entrance.
9:00 – NOON LOBBY – Take a tour, watch KS House in action, and other activities to be announced at registration.
9:00 – 10:00 WORKSHOPS – Location: Rooms 3 & 4 North, Capitol Visitor’s Ctr., basement level, North Capitol Entrance.
10:00 – 11:00 WORKSHOPS REPEATED
11:30 – 2:30 LUNCH – Available early for those not going to Mass; later for those who are. $5 Free will offering.
12:30 – 12:45 MARCH from TPAC to S. Capitol steps.
12:45 – 1:15 RALLY FOR LIFE on the south Capitol steps featuring: Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, introduction of pro-life legislators, and more.
1:30 – 2:30 PM WORKSHOPS – Repeated.
2:30 – 3:30 PM WORKSHOPS – Repeated.
For late-breaking information and updates go to the Kansans for Life Facebook page; KFL web site – www.kfl.org; or Twitter: @kansansforlife. Emergency Numbers for KFL Personnel are (785) 383-8636 and (913) 406-4446.
