Not With My Hands, Not With Our Tax Dollars
March 18, 2010
Written by Angela Michael 

             “…Because they had not obeyed My laws…I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by…” Ezekiel 20:24-25.

Small Victories’ director, pro-life advocates, educators, and healthcare workers once again lobbied the Illinois House of Representatives at the Capitol in Springfield , Illinois . It was a long, grueling day. After meeting at the Diocese offices in Springfield , we strategized and went over target legislators. Soon after, we walked to the Capitol building where we went through security and were met with loud chants. We recognized a large group that was in the rotunda protesting proposed legislation of more tax dollar cuts of day care and basic family care.

We soon found Stratton Hall, and it was like a feeding frenzy outside the House of Representatives’ doors. Protocol is that you hand a card stating the representative’s name you wish to speak with and your name and contact number or the matter you wish to speak about to the page or ushers monitoring the traffic and the entrances. A loud protest was underway which made it even harder to hear yourself or let alone speak. If the requested legislator wants to speak with you, they will come out briefly and you have your chance to “lobby” them into voting your way on a bill or piece of legislation. Today, there were so many important bills; there were more handshakes and patting on the backs going on. Like I said, it was a feeding frenzy.

After waiting patiently for several hours sending several cards into the House Speaker’s chambers, none of our targeted legislators came out; all had various excuses. However, we were able to speak with other Democratic representatives. After listening to our brief concern for this proposed legislation (that being HB6205), the legislators told us they were very pro-choice. One Black American D-Rep. Annazette Collins pointed to her young daughter who was in the midst of lobbying herself and added, “So is my daughter.” Must be a generational thing.

We had several good discussions with those legislators who did speak with us and some of the protestors. We sympathize that everyone needs healthcare, but abortion is not healthcare; it’s murder. To compromise some lives to save others’ is morally unacceptable. The abortion industry tells us to mind our own business when it comes to abortion on demand, but they are reaching in our wallets to pay for this business that we cannot morally or religiously support. It’s wrong. We don’t want to see much needed day care or healthcare cut from the budget for families, but who is paying into the system? Our country is about to go bankrupt. Social Security is on its last breath. As Illinois taxpayers, why are we responsible for the irresponsible sex habits of others and forced to pay for the end result of promiscuity?

            This government forced bill will protect abortionists from being held accountable for botched abortions and medical malpractice. How many deaths from legal abortion and lawsuits citing gross negligence, medical battery, and abortion induced sterility do we help facilitate or witness at this one abortion facility in Granite City , Illinois ? Red flags have been going up for some time now.  

            -Section 20 requires taxpayer funding of abortions and emergency contraception without pregnancy or ovulation testing. State employee health insurance plans, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the All Kids Health Insurance Program would all be required to spend taxpayer dollars on this coverage. Research shows that public funding of abortions increases the incidence of abortions three-fold.

            -In Illinois we have NO ENFORCED parental notification law. Since parental notification passed in Illinois , over 46,000 abortions have been performed on girls under 18.

            -Until parental notice is enforced, a girl under 18 could not only have an abortion without her parents knowing- now the State would pay for it. This is especially troubling since teenage girls are at a higher risk for complications from an abortion than any other age group.

            -Section 25 gives doctors unprecedented liability protections in performing abortions. It exempts doctors who perform abortions from the same liability standards that apply to every other medical procedure.

            -Liability laws exist to protect patients. To carve out a special exception for doctors performing abortions puts any woman who receives an abortion in Illinois at risk.

            -This puts women under the age of 20 especially at risk since they are TWICE as likely to have medical complications as women over 25 and have a 150% greater risk of cervical injury than women over 30.

We as pro-life advocates for women and children do care about women’s and girls’ healthcare. We know that more lives can be protected and saved with early detection, education, and by providing information to increase awareness. Another risk factor that is not even mentioned in this bill is breast cancer. Why is there such an epidemic of breast cancer since the inception of elective abortion in 1973? Why are we not informing women that there is a proven and direct link between breast cancer and elective abortion? See link: www.AbortionBreastCancer.com    

            “Among women who had been pregnant at least once, the risk of breast cancer in those who had experienced an induced abortion was 50% higher than among other women.” “Highest risks (more than double) were observed when the abortion was done at ages younger than 18 years…” ~Dr. Janet Darling Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1994

            Never did it enter my mind that I would “lobby” as a last ditch effort to try and persuade politicians to come to their senses when it comes to girls’ healthcare, but being the mother of 9 daughters and a sidewalk counselor for 17 years it does concern me. The government needs to stay out of the family business. Parents need to be involved with their own children when it comes to their healthcare. Why shouldn’t a parent be notified when their minor daughter is undergoing a serious, invasive surgical procedure such as abortion? Would you let them get an appendectomy without your knowledge or consent? The school nurse cannot even give your daughter an aspirin at school without your permission.

            Judges should not be legislating from the bench and that is exactly what is happening in Illinois with the parental notification law. The ACLU, Hope Clinic, and the lobbyists know whose hands to grease. Money talks in the halls of many a courthouse. Biblically, these are more signs and judgments coming from God against our nation. The fact that injustice reigns in our courts is not our problem. It is a sign and judgment from God. “When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?’ Job 9:24.  

            We tried to be the messenger once again and deliver God’s mail, but to stand back and witness how corrupt our legislative halls have become is depressing. It felt very degrading. We are fighting Chicago corruption and politicians. Politics is the art of compromise. We cannot keep looking to man to help us. If our nation is going to continue to thrive, we must repent and turn to God. Politicians will never stop abortion. But that does not mean we don’t try.

           

Editor’s note: As we write this article we have learned the Healthcare Reform bill has been passed. The Democrats who were holding out for a worthless promise on a piece of paper that abortion funding would not be included, bought the lie and caved in at the last minute. Instead of hand-wringing there are still more lessons to be learned. #1 “…for the help of man is worthless.” Psalms 60:11-12. The monumental support of child killing through the guise of healthcare by politicians is foolish.

             #2 God continues to show His people that we need Him, not man. Men’s hearts are wicked and full of every evil under the sun. We cannot depend on politicians to do what the Church of Jesus Christ has been ordained to do. This is God’s war; He just asks His people to show up for the battle. As God-fearing Americans, we need to take back what the devil has stolen. The American people need to take control again by declaring state by state across the nation that a preborn human being be recognized as a person, therefore making it necessary to pass a federal human personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution, instead of wasting anymore time playing pro-life games and tickling politicians’ ears. This is the new civil rights battle and movement of our time. The only way it can be won is in the streets and in the hearts of men. “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” -C. S. Lewis  

Be encouraged ~Angela