Prolife leaders from across Michigan meet in Lansing

Yesterday, April 27, about 300 leaders and volunteers from local affiliates throughout the state of Michigan met in Lansing for the annual Right to Life of Michigan Legislative Day.

Attendees were briefed about many prolife bills working their way through a tough legislative process at the State Capitol. Two of those bills would ban any exchange of money in connection with fetal tissue donations, and they passed the Michigan Senate 26-10 during Legislative Day!

Following the event and presentation by Sue Thayer, former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic, the crowd walked over to the State Capitol to encourage prolife representatives in the Michigan House.

Last week the Legislature completed work on the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act, sending it to the governor, but many more bills need action soon.

For more information on current priorities and ways you can make a difference, visit our Action Center regularly.

For information on all pieces of prolife legislation we're working on, visit our state legislation page.

Michigan Senate passes bill to ban fetal tissue trafficking in Michigan

On April 27, 2016, the Michigan Senate voted 26-10 to pass SB 564 and 565.  These bills will prohibit the exchange of any form of compensation for fetal tissue or organs and provide penalties for those who engage in the trade of fetal tissue or organs for monetary or other forms of remuneration.

A Right to Life of Michigan spokeswoman said the legislation addresses a loophole in federal law that allows fetal tissue donors to charge a procurement fee of any amount. The state legislation allows women to donate aborted fetal tissue but not for a fee, said Genevieve Marnon, public affairs associate for Right to Life of Michigan.

“We’re simply codifying the policy that Planned Parenthood said it adopted” in October 2015, Marnon said.

Six months ago, national Planned Parenthood said it would no longer accept reimbursement of its costs for donating tissue for medical research.

“If it is truly about donated tissue, what is there to fear?” Marnon said. “Researchers should be happy that they no longer have to pay a procurement fee.”

FULL STORY

You can learn more about this legislation here. 

House panel investigates fetal organ trafficking

On April 20 the U.S. House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives held a hearing titled “The Pricing of Fetal Tissue.”

Before the hearing the panel released documents showing how the tissue procurement company StemExpress would advertise their services as providing abortion businesses with “financial profits” and “financial benefits.” Selling fetal tissue for a profit is a federal crime.

Planned Parenthood has claimed that any dollars that changed hands over the aborted babies’ body parts were only reimbursements, which are allowed under federal law. The released documents and prior evidence however point to the tissue procurement company as doing practically all of the work associated with fetal organ harvesting.

The Planned Parenthood undercover videos repeatedly do show the abortion clinics willing to do the additional work of changing abortion procedures in order to harvest more intact organs. Changing procedures for the purpose of harvesting tissue is against the law, however.

Other issues brought up by the panel include potential HIPAA privacy law violations and improper informed consent practices.

The pro-abortion members of Congress on the panel—most of whom have received campaign donations from Planned Parenthood—began the hearing by trying to stonewall the proceedings and objecting to the documents provided. They also continued to falsely claim the Planned Parenthood undercover videos were fabrications.

 They defended harvesting the organs of aborted babies as medically necessary to save lives, while denying the abortion businesses were engaged in trafficking. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) at one point suggested that the panel continuing to investigate the issue would result in the death of children.

Abortion supporters seemed confused at two points during the hearing. Noted pro-abortion attorney Fay Clayton claimed the StemExpress brochure was only about adult tissue donations, despite the fact the brochure specifically mentioned “fetal” tissue multiple times. When confronted with this fact, Clayton claimed that somehow the profits mentioned on the brochure only referred to adult tissue. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said that the documents provided showed the abortion clinics actually had to do additional work to harvest the organs, justifying a reimbursement fee. It was pointed out to him, however, that the documents referred to the tissue procurement company, not the abortion clinic.

A new argument used to oppose the investigation was that there was an unrelated and unsuccessful investigation into fetal tissue trafficking in 2000. This argument attempts to attack the credibility of the undercover journalists who had nothing to do with an investigation 16 years ago. The lead undercover journalist, David Daleiden, would have been about 11 at the time.

Click here for a replay of the hearing.

Attorney General Schuette has filed lawsuit to close oldest abortion clinic in Michigan

Summit Women's Center abortion clinic

On April 7, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that he has filed a lawsuit to shut down the Summit Women’s Center abortion clinic in Detroit.  The abortion clinic has been operating illegal for nearly a year.  Summit Women’s Center is the oldest abortion clinic in the state of Michigan.

From the press release:

Summit Women’s Center provides medical services through Summit of Detroit, P.C., a professional corporation. But, in its May 2015 annual report to the state, Summit P.C. reported that David Lipton—not a licensed physician—was now Summit P.C.’s sole officer, director, and owner and that Summit P.C. had changed its corporate purpose to “management company,” which is not a lawful purpose for a professional corporation. The report also falsely certified that David Lipton was licensed to provide professional medical services.

The Attorney General is bringing this action to halt the clinic from providing medical care to patients at the Summit Women’s Center, to dissolve Summit P.C., and to investigate the possible fraudulent formation of Summit P.C.

Summit has been in the news before.  They hired abortionist Robert Alexander after his abortion clinic in Muskegon was closed by authorities and hired infamous abortionist Reginald Sharpe after his clinics were closed as well. 

Hillary Clinton says child has no constitutional rights hours before delivery

On April 5, 2016, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made an appearance on the television program The View.  During her talk with the shows co-hosts, Paula Faris asks Clinton if unborn children have constitutional rights on the day they are due to be born. 

You can read the transcript below and watch the video of Clinton’s comments.

FARIS: I want to ask you about some comments that you made over the weekend on ‘Meet the Press. ‘ You said, ‘The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.’ My question is at what point does someone have constitutional rights, and are you saying that a child, on its due date, just hours before delivery still has no constitutional rights?

CLINTON: Under our law that is the case, Paula. I support Roe v. Wade because I think it is an important — an important statement about the importance of a woman making this most difficult decision with consultation by whom she chooses: her doctor, her faith, her family. And under the law and under certainly that decision, that is the way we structure it.”

Right to Life coalition supports Ted Cruz for Republican primaries

National Right to Life--a coalition of prolife groups in 50 states including Right to Life of Michigan--announced on April 5 their support for Ted Cruz in the upcoming Republican presidential primaries.

As solicitor general of Texas, Ted Cruz helped lead states in defending partial-birth abortion bans and parental notification for abortion laws before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ted Cruz has a 100 percent prolife voting record as scored by National Right to Life.

Ted Cruz has promised to defund Planned Parenthood, protect the conscience rights of prolife citizens, and appoint judges who follow the U.S. Constitution.

Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "The field has been narrowed, yet many prolife people still have an important choice to make. I encourage prolife voters to ask themselves which candidate has a proven prolife track record and is most likely to defeat Hillary Clinton in November."

In the last few days Cruz's main competitor for the nomination, Donald Trump, has made several unclear and contradictory statements about his opposition to abortion.

Both candidates running in the Democratic primaries--current frontrunner Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders--support abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy, paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

Listing said, "There is a clear contrast in where the candidates stand on life. With the U.S. Supreme Court hanging in the balance, the stakes for the unborn are very high."