For Roman Catholics, the defense of life is a sine qua non, one that’s sadly missing form many politicians who self-identify as “Catholics.” To wit: Nancy Pelosi (C-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Vice President Joe Biden.
So, it’s refreshing when a politician defends life, especially at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where the proposed bill—the “Women’s Health Protection Act“ (WHPA) (S.1696)—would block all restrictions on abortion. WHPA includes sweeping federal authority to preempt “any provision enacted by a state or subdivision.” Of course, the bill is a legislative response to the recent Hobby Lobby decision.
According to CNSNews.com, Congresswoman  Marsha Wentworth Blackburn (R-TN) stated in her comments: “Our Constitution does not put a qualifier on life.” Blackburn then held up a large, 3-D ultrasound image of her grandson. She continued:
And I have to tell you how exciting it was for me to see this ultrasound. I was thrilled. I could tell…three months before he was born, he had my eyes and nose. Now, for a grandmother, that’s a really big deal. I could see his hands. I could see his arms. And I could see him peacefully resting in his mother’s womb. That’s the wonder of science. That is life!
Our Constitution does not put a qualifier on life. The pursuit of life, liberty–pursuit of happiness. Those protections–the right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, (exist) even in the mother’s womb.
I urge the committee to reconsider this legislation.
As for the bill’s title, Blackburn said it’s misleading:
I find it so curious that this legislation is termed “The Women’s Health Protection Act.”  In my opinion it would be more accurately titled the “Removal of Existing Protections and Safety Measures for Women Undergoing Abortion Act.”
Kind of refreshing, isn’t it, to see an elected representative bringing the battle for life right into the Chambers? Would that every Roman Catholic member of Congress courageously promoted the cause of life, as does this member of the Presbyterian Church in America.
Pro-Life kudos to U.S. Representative Marsha Wedgeworth Blackburn!
To read the CNSnews.com article, click on the following link:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/rep-blackburn-constitution-does-not-put-qualifier-life
To read The Motley Monk’s daily blog, Omnibus, click on the following link:
http://richard-jacobs-blog.com/omnibus.html
Thanks Be To God!
Congresswoman Blackburn defending unborn Life. Thank you M.M. for this story. Thank you for the Good-News.
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn is no wimp…watch her take on former VP Gore by confronting him with evidence of self dealing via his undisclosed personal investments in a Cap and Trade scheme which would profit from his defense of “climate change”.
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http://youtu.be/py6yay2c0Oo
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Mothers and unborn babies are now the beneficiaries of her righteous efforts. Excellent work Marsha!
What is scary is the way they always choose a title for the law that is the opposite of what the bill really does. So, the “:Women’s Health Protection Act” really allows people to kill babies.
When they refuse to tell you exactly what they are doing in the name of the bill, they are up to no good.
She lives up to the wonderful appellations of Mother and Grandmother and public Servant.
Gerald: I could (no probably am) be wrong. I see the act’s title as a euphemism as “Arbeit macht frei” was emblazoned on the gates of concentration camps. Birds of a feather . . .
Ms. Blackburn did a great job there! The baby is beautiful and she is beautiful to say what she said.
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Compare if an Elizabeth Warren or a Patty Murray had the guts to stand up with that same 3-D picture and state for the record, “Those protections — the right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness — DO NOT EXIST in the mother’s womb.”
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Too bad we can’t convince the Obama administration to grant refugee status to each female baby in danger of being torn limb from limb if she remains in her home uterus.
Great work Congresswoman! Having it be pictures of her own grandson makes it even better.
Meanwhile, can we start calling this bill “The Kermit Gosnell Protection Act?”
I know it seems surprising that it took so long for this to happen considering how long we have had 3 D ultrasound, however there are often behind the scenes political manipulations taking place which keep such actions from happening in committee testimony. The public health committee, which was purposely loaded with liberal pro-abortion Democrats in order to vote keep pro-life bills from getting to the state house floor for consideration, in our state house during session of our state legislature 4 years back was headed by a woman named Linda Tyler-who is still proud of killing every single pro-life bill that came before her committee that session. The liberal Democrats knew that, if a pro-life bill made it out if committee to the full state house for a vote, that the pro-life bill might pass with a vote of the full house as there were many more balanced house members in the full state house and would have a much easier passage through the state senate and end up on our governor’s desk who would not have easily been able to explain any veto of such reasoned bills as were being run at the time. Therefore the decision was made to pack the publuc health committee with pro-abort Democrats so that all such bills died in committee. Tyler’s house committee even voted down a bill that would have outlawed abortions in which a medical doctor is not physically present but is directing an abortion procedure being carried out by a unqualified 3rd party via video feed. This type of abortion puts women at greatly increased risk IMHO-even more than normal. But back to the subject at hand–why testimony, such as that of US Rep. Blackburn re: her grandchild, had not occurred in the past before a political committee. The chair of a political commiittee is basically a dictator in their given committee meetings. Chairs determine who testifies, how long, when, what materials can be presented, etc. Tyler demanded that all materials to be passed out/presented be approved by herself in advance of the presentation of any pro-life bill (yes, a chair of a committee can do that.) Very positive, non-controversial video was blocked from presentation–as well as simple pics of a healthy baby in utero. Tyler wanted to make sure that her committee members were able to use the dehumanizing term, fetus, in committee without having to actually look at a pic of a “fetus”–I guess she thought it would be harder to vote to allow the killing of children in the womb unabated while looking at a pic of such a child. I would not have known of Tyler’s blocking of such presentations before her committee if it had not been for living in the same county with Andy Mayberry who, as a pro-life Republican, was presenting a pro-life bill before Tyler’s dreaded committee. Tyler for sure didn’t want Mayberry to present pics or video of his own sweet, disabled daughter before the public health committee–and basically banned Myberry from doing anything but talking during the presentation of his bill. The pro-abortion forces have great reason to fear any presentation by Mr. Mayberry or his wife. The Mayberrys could have presented beautiful pics of their own wheel chair bound daughter to the committee. While Mrs. Mayberry was carrying her daughter, the Mayberrys were advised by their doctor to abort this sweet child who is their youngest child because amniocentesis indicated that their daughter had spina bifida in utero. I have had the great pleasure of listening to Mrs. Mayberry speak before an Arkansas Right to Life Banquet te: her personal conversion from apro-abortion position to a pro-life position as a result of her struggles & prayers re: whether or not to abort her baby –who is now an absolutely beautiful teenager with gloriously beautiful, long blonde hair and a smile & laugh that is pure sunshine & joy. Mrs. Mayberry has been a well known, statewide news broadcaster, state wide pro-life speaker/advocate, founder of the first dance troop for children with disabilities in the state, and publishes a pro-traditional family weekly periodical. Prior to her husbsnd’s presentation of this particular pro-life bill during this legislative session,
Mrs. Mayberry and her children had made more than one visit to the statehouse for various events & to meet their father for lunch. Children in the statehouse are a very common sight. Children under 10 in wheelchairs who are moving smilingly confident and freely independent about the state house are not a common sight–and are sure to attract every eye–which means that Tyler’s committee members most likely had seen and/or interacted with this joyful wheelchair bound wonder. I had the great pleasure of seeing the Mayberry’s daughter moving about in her chair and interacting with people at the state capitol-she never meets a stranger & charmed the pants off of people. 😀
The rub is this: the party that has the majority in a given house or given senate chamber determines who chairs the committees that these bills must pass out if to get to be voted upon by the full house and full senate. The chair of a committee determines what testimony is presented in their committee and in what form that testimony may be presented. Hence Mrs. Blackburn’s testimony and pic of her grandchild were presented in the Republican majority US House of Representatives. This type of pic would most likely not have been allowed in the Democrat majority US Senate where pro-abort Democrats run the committees.
Mrs. Blackburn was testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee, as the post nots.
“notes…” Sorry for the typo.
“Mrs. Blackburn was testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee, as the post nots.”
Thanks.
I got to thinking about that over night and did not reread the post–assuming that because she was a US Rep that she must have been testifying in front of a US House Committee. Each session of our state legislature adopts its own unique rules. The state house votes it’s own unique set of rules, and the state senate as well. The party with the most members in each chamber obviously has the most influence on what those rules are. Those rules adopted along with the chairs of the committees, the membership makeup of committees, the makeup of entire chambers, the governor, and the plethora of shenanigans pulled in public and behind the scenes all determine the outcome on various sponsored legislation.
I have no idea what the rules are for the US House or US Senate currently.
At our statehouse, a committee does not meet unless a committee chair calls for a meeting and is present–with no exception to that to my knowledge. I do not know if the chair if this senate committee was even present at the time that US Rep Blackburn was testifying or had a someone chairing the committee. I also not know the customary rules re: testimony in Congress. In our small state, it is usually customary to let the committee chair know when someone testifying is going to need access to equipment for video feed, pics, etc. as the committee chair is responsible to provide access to the needed resources/equipment. That is how the testimony of the pro-life state rep from my county was reigned in by the rabidly pro-abortion chair of our public health committee. The pro-life state rep had made contact with the chair of the committee, Rep. Tyler to let her know he had video & large screen pics to present in his testimony for his bill. Hence Mrs. Tyler taking the ax to the testimony she did not want presented. The chair had insisted that ALL testimony to be given was provided for review to her in advance–which is an allowable but rarely used demand. Also, I have seen instances where no on cared what the opposition to the bill be presented says as the the votes to pass the bill are there–so no matter who says or shows what–the bill us going in to the full chamber in which case it isnt nexessarily worth it to ban given testimony and cause offence. In most instances, the chair of the committee does not know in total who will be testifying for or against a given bill until the committee meets and the witnesses actually sign up.
Most likely, US Rep Blackburn was not asked to submit her complete testimony in full, for approval of the committee chair, before testifying. Also, no electronic format/media is needed to hold up a pic during ones testimony. It would seem to me to be much mote difficult at the national level. By the way, Linda Tyler, the former chair of our state house committee, lost her next race to a staunchly pro-life minister as she had been deceptive with her voters in her district regarding her position on abortion. The pro-life legislator who defeated her went on to pass limits on abortion in our state which was signed into law in 2013. 😀
May Rep. Blackburn’s voice ring. On the other side of state .gov activity:
http://bostoncatholicinsider.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/cardinal-omalley-housing-illegals-more-important-than-protecting-unborn/#comments