NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  MARIA GALLAGHER, PA PRO-LIFE 717-541-0034

HARRISBURG, Pa. –The political arm of National Right to Life, the nation’s leading pro-life organization, has announced its support of Republican nominee Donald Trump for President.

The announcement clearly indicates that Mr. Trump is the Presidential candidate who will safeguard the rights of the country’s most vulnerable citizens.

Earlier this summer, the political action committee of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, an affiliate of National Right to Life, endorsed Mr. Trump for the White House.

“Donald Trump has pledged to appoint U.S. Supreme Court Justices who will strictly interpret the Constitution, rather than making laws from the bench,” said Maria Gallagher, legislative/PAC Director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation.

“In sharp contrast, Democrat Hillary Clinton has imposed a pro-abortion litmus test for Supreme Court nominees. Her radical stand is at odds with the vast majority of Americans, who oppose legal abortion in most circumstances, according to numerous public opinion polls,” Gallagher added.

Mr. Trump also supports a ban on taxpayer funding of abortion—a position supported by more than 60 percent of the electorate. Tragically, Mrs. Clinton has vowed to repeal the common sense Hyde Amendment, which bars taxpayer funding of abortion except in the rare cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.

While Mr. Trump supports a ban on grisly late-term abortions, Mrs. Clinton voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act while serving as a U.S. Senator. The law, which bans a gruesome act in which a baby is partly delivered, then killed, was ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Mr. Trump is committed to protecting the lives of preborn babies and the well-being of their mothers. Mrs. Clinton would set our nation back 40 years by pursuing extremist policies that threaten the lives of innocent unborn children and the health and safety of American women,” Gallagher said.

More than 58 million preborn babies have died in the U.S. since the tragic 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion throughout the country. It is estimated that approximately one million children each year are lost to abortion in the U.S.

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The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation is a grassroots right-to-life organization with members statewide.  PPLF is committed to promoting the dignity and value of human life from conception to natural death and to restoring legal protection for preborn children.

By Maria Gallagher, Legislative/PAC Director

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.”

The author of those words was Anne Frank, the young girl who epitomized courage in the face of terror during the Holocaust. Such wise words from a teenager whose life was cut tragically short.

I believe, like Anne, that, in their heart of hearts, people want to do the right thing. And I believe that is no less true at election time.

The problem is, there is a great deal of confusion in our overall culture and in our politics. The truth is often masked, and that makes a voter’s search for the truth difficult.

But it is not impossible to discover the truth—despite media manipulation, political spin, and inflammatory rhetoric. As the old TV series “The X-Files,” announced: “The truth is out there.”

The truth is that life is a fundamental good, and that no one can enjoy any other right without first having the right to life. This means that the fundamental life issues—abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia—are pre-eminent issues, and should be considered before all other issues (as important as those issues may be) when voting.

The two major party candidates for President have dramatically different views on the life issues. Republican Donald Trump supports a ban on late-term abortions—abortions in which fully-developed, living babies are killed in the womb. Hillary Clinton, in contrast, voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which outlawed a gruesome practice in which a baby was partly delivered, then killed.

Donald Trump supports a ban on taxpayer funding of abortion. Hillary Clinton wants to wipe out the Hyde Amendment, which bars tax funding of abortion except in the rare cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of a mother. Research shows that abortion totals skyrocket when taxpayer funding of abortion occurs.

Donald Trump will appoint Justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who will strictly interpret the Constitution according to its text and history and not use the bench to legislate. Hillary Clinton has a pro-abortion litmus test for Supreme Court Justices. Because of the advanced ages of many of the members of the Supreme Court, the next President may appoint as many as four Justices. A President with a pro-abortion agenda could enshrine, or even expand, Roe for generations to come.

We have lost more than 58 million innocent babies to abortion since the tragic 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade. One million precious children die each year in our country because of Roe.

Countless mothers are left to grieve the children lost to abortion. Some turn to drugs and alcohol to numb their pain. Relationships frequently die with these abortions. Families are fractured, and limbs of the family tree are severed. For with each abortion, we lose the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who may have been born to that particular person who died in Roe’s wake. Often, the abortion is not actually the woman’s choice—research shows that as many as 60 percent of abortions are coerced, meaning that a boyfriend, husband, parents, or even grandparents are making the decision for her.

One of only two people will be elected President—third party candidates or write-ins simply cannot generate enough votes to win the White House. Staying home on Election Day, or skipping the office of President when casting a ballot, is, in this election, a vote against babies and their mothers. It is also a vote for a culture that fails to respect the dignity of life from conception to natural death.

Please do not throw away your vote this critical year. Cast your vote for life. Future generations depend on it.

“You always dream of going to the Olympics and winning gold. I’ve learned over the years that there are lots of gold medals, but certain stories stick out and make a difference.” –Two-time Olympian and gold medalist Kerri Strug.

I love the Olympics.  It doesn’t matter if it is track and field, swimming, gymnastics, or any other Olympic event.  I love the patriotism shown by the athletes. I love the sheer strength of will on display.  What I love the most though are the stories that come to light of the personal challenges the athletes have to overcome.

One such life-affirming story is that of Simone Biles who is often referred to as the most decorated gold medalist in world championship gymnastic history.  However, her story is even more impressive because of how it began. Biles was born into a fatherless home and to an “unfit” drug-addicted mother…the ideal target for Planned Parenthood. Thankfully, Biles did not become an abortion statistic, instead eventually going into foster care, and then ultimately being adopted. Biles’ new parents introduced her to gymnastics and now her story is just one example of a person who has made history because someone (in this case both her birth mother and her adoptive parents) chose life.

Another powerful story is the witness of Olympian volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings.  In an interview with NBC, the three-time Olympic gold medalist (and we hope soon to be four time winner) compared competing in the Olympics to having children, saying:

“When you go through something that’s so momentous, and it’s either really hard or really inspiring, you kind of forget the details, and you just remember the feeling that you’re left with. Childbirth obviously leaves you with the best gift ever, and the Olympic experience has as well. But you forget the little things. And now that I’m here, it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I forget how special this is.’ I literally get goose bumps 20 million times a day, because you see someone or something, and you’re inspired.”

Abortion advocates like to argue that abortion has to be necessary for women to continue their careers. After all, the argument goes, you can’t expect a woman to be able to have a successful career while raising children.  Jennings, with her 3 gold medals, is living proof that a woman can be successful in her career and raise children at the same time.

The Olympics are just getting started, so there will undoubtedly be more stories like Simone Biles’ and Kerri Walsh Jennings’ that stick out and remind us that there is always a reason to choose life.

Kermit Gosnell

I recently watched the movie “3801 Lancaster: American Tragedy” about the house of horrors that was Kermit Gosnell’s abortion center.  There were a number of striking elements to the film (enough to fill several more blogs, so stay tuned). What struck me the most, however, was how much of his horror could have been prevented.

The fact of the matter is, there was plenty of evidence that Mr. Gosnell was not just committing horrible acts of infanticide, but also that he was a terrible doctor.  Going back as far as 1972 Gosnell participated in what is known as “The Mother’s Day Massacre,” when 15 women were bused from Chicago to Philadelphia where Gosnell performed abortions on them using an experimental device called a “super coil” without their knowledge.  Sadly, 9 of the 15 women suffered serious complications (including one who had to have a hysterectomy). Yet it was another 37 years before Gosnell was put out of business (and only then because he was caught selling drugs illegally).  Here are some of the signs during those 37 years that something wasn’t right:

–Reports from a former employee of Gosnell that he had unlicensed workers giving anesthesia, that he was using unsterilized equipment from one patient to another, that his facility was filthy, and more.

–Complaints from another doctor in the area (who ironically went on to become the head of the city’s health department) who referred several patients to Mr. Gosnell who all came back with the same venereal disease…one they didn’t have before going to see Gosnell.

–The death of a 14-year-old girl at the hands of Gosnell in 2002, and the subsequent lawsuit which the insurance company settled for 1 million dollars.

–One city employee did the right thing, and when she discovered Gosnell was scamming the citywide vaccination program, reported him and even filed a report identifying some of his most egregious transgressions. Sadly, her report went into a black hole.

–Only a few weeks after the employee filed her report, Gosnell’s sloppy practice killed female patient Kamamaya Mongar in 2009.

–Ironically, shortly after Mongar’s death, Gosnell applied to join the National Abortion Federation.  However the NAF denied Gosnell’s facility membership citing records that weren’t being kept properly, risks not being fully explained to patients, patients being left unmonitored, anesthesia being misused, and other violations. In fact, the NAF evaluator called it the worst abortion clinic she had ever inspected (although she never reported any of the violations to the proper authorities).

Let me be clear. Gosnell is not the only one with blood on his hands. Certainly you can find fault with his staff who participated in his misconduct.  Furthermore, you can look at the regulators at the city department of health, who were in Gosnell’s facility regularly collecting blood samples for testing and somehow magically didn’t notice anything amiss…or the PA Department of Health and the Department of State, both of which closed multiple complaints throughout the year against Gosnell and his facility after very little investigation and no further action.

The real question is, with the damage so broad, and so many to blame, what is being done to make sure it doesn’t happen again?  In 2011 Pennsylvania passed common sense legislation which requires abortion centers to meet certain basic conditions of cleanliness and allows for random, unannounced inspections from the Department of Health.

Winston Churchill famously said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”  Pennsylvania learned some difficult lessons from the Gosnell tragedy—but we must remain ever vigilant to ensure that would-be Gosnells do not set up shop in our Commonwealth again.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        

CONTACT:  MARIA GALLAGHER,

PENNSYLVANIA PRO-LIFE FEDERATION

717-541-0034                                                                                                                      

HARRISBURG, PA–Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump Monday renewed his call for U.S. Supreme Court Justices who will follow the Constitution rather than make laws from the bench.

During a rally which attracted thousands of people to Cumberland Valley High School outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Trump said that as President he would appoint Justices similar in philosophy to the late Justice Antonin Scalia. In sharp contrast, Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has pledged a pro-abortion litmus test for Supreme Court Justices.

“Donald Trump understands the havoc an activist bench has wreaked on our beloved nation,” said Maria Gallagher, legislative and political action committee director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, which represents more than 100,000 citizens throughout  the Commonwealth.

“Hillary Clinton will not appoint strict constructionists to the High Court. Rather, she is committed to naming Justices who will not only uphold the tragic 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade, but would expand it,” Gallagher added.  

 According to figures from the abortion industry itself, Roe has led to the deaths of more than 58 million unborn children in the U.S. It has also scarred countless numbers of women, who must live everyday with the grief of losing a child to abortion.

 The Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation PAC has unanimously endorsed Trump for President. Trump supports a ban on brutal late-term abortions. In sharp contrast, Clinton fought against the popular federal ban on Partial-Birth Abortion, which outlawed a gruesome practice in which a baby is partly delivered, then killed.