This Just In ...

U.S. House Passes Bill to Stifle Our Free Speech

It was just three years ago that Wisconsin Right to Life won its case against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in the U.S. Supreme Court and put a crack in the McCain Feingold campaign finance reform act. Earlier this year, the Supremes opened the crack wider by striking down more of the restrictions inflicted on free speech by Americans under McCain/Feingold.

The President and his allies in Congress vowed to enact new restrictions and the House of Representatives did just that last week with passage of the DISCLOSE Act by a 219-206 vote. The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) led the opposition. Why? Because the DISCLOSE Act would make it as difficult as possible for corporations like NRLC and WRTL to communicate with the public about actions taken by federal officeholders. Here's the kicker -- the bill gives wider latitude to communicate to labor unions and has a special exception carved out for the National Rifle Association.

Wisconsin House members voting against  the DISCLOSE Act were Ryan, Petri and Sensenbrenner.   Voting for were Baldwin, Kind, Moore, Obey and Kagen.

The fate of DISCLOSE is uncertain in the Senate where it faces a filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would have to hold all 41 Republicans together and get some help from a Democrat or two to keep the bill from coming up for a vote. Don't count on our two Senators, Feingold and Kohl, to be of any help whatsoever in protecting free speech under the First Amendment.

Last week our parent organization, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), sent a four page memorandum to all U.S. Senators detailing why a "no" vote is vital on the Elena Kagan nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. NRLC reviewed various memoranda and other material written by Kagan while she served as White House staff to President Bill Clinton.

"Our conclusion is that Elena Kagan is first and foremost a social engineer, animated primarily by a desire to shape public policy on a host of issues," says NRLC. "...if confirmed.....we anticipate that Ms. Kagan often will treat the U.S. Constitution not as a body of basic law that truly constrains both legislators and judges, but rather, as a cookbook in which may be found legal recipes that will allow the imposition of the policies that Ms. Kagan deems to be justified or advisable, or that are so regarded by whatever groups she sees as the enlightened elites on a given subject."

Kagan helped President Clinton formulate a position in favor of a phony ban on partial-birth abortion to avoid an override of his veto. "Ms. Kagan played a key role in keeping the brutal partial-birth abortion method legal for an additional decade," states NRLC.

Kagan also wrote in favor of cloning and assisted suicide.  Other writings indicate that one cannot expect Kagan to uphold freedom of speech under the First Amendment, an issue in which Wisconsin Right to Life has played a prominent national role.

A 1995 Kagan statement summarizes in full why we should greatly fear her confirmation: "it should be no surprise by now that many of the votes a Supreme Court Justice casts have little to do with technical legal ability and much to do with conceptions of value." We know her values are extremely anti-life. Thus, we know how she will vote. It is critical that this nominee be defeated.

Read the entire NRLC letter here.

The federal government gave $150,000 to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin last year for 10 video machines which allow PP to communicate with patients by video phone. The 10 video phones were installed at Planned Parenthood offices in Racine, Delavan, Waukesha, Fond du Lac, West Bend, Portage, two clinics in Madison and two clinics in Milwaukee. This information was reported in a July 2009 article in the Milwaukee Business Journal.

"This allows for far easier access and we can read a patient's body language to see what is really upsetting them," says an official of PP of WI.

PP piloted the program in March 2008 at three locations in Milwaukee, Fond du Lac and Delavan. According to the Business Journal, funding for the pilot project came from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin.

Is it a coincidence that Planned Parenthood has piloted 1,500 telemed abortions in Iowa and is considering doing them nationwide? Sounds like a very cozy set-up. Our tax dollars pay for the video machines and PP segues into using them to do abortions. Makes the blood boil.

Read entire Business Journal article here.

A recent Rasmussen Reports poll of 500 likely Wisconsin voters shows Scott Walker leading Tom Barrett for Governor by 49% to 41%. Mark Neumann also holds a big lead over Barrett of 47% to 39%.   Rasmussen says that "both Republicans have led Barrett in surveys back to the first of the year, with Walker consistently running slightly stronger than Neumann."

Rasmussen goes on to say:  "Among male voters in Wisconsin, both Republican gubernatorial candidates hold a double-digit advantage over Barrett.  Female voters are more evenly divided.  Voters not affiliated with either major party prefer the GOP candidate by roughly two-to-one in both matchups."  The big swing of independents to the GOP candidate can't be good news to the Barrett camp.

The poll also shows Ron Johnson in a virtual dead heat with Russ Feingold for U.S. Senate.

The good news continues as 58% of likely voters favor the repeal of Obamacare with 49% strongly favoring repeal.  The trends are good but November is still a long ways away.

View poll results here.

Wisconsin Right to Life is working with several legislators on legislation which will allow Wisconsin to opt-out of abortion coverage in the state-based insurance “exchanges” created by Obamacare.  Polling indicates that citizens do not want to subsidize abortion coverage or pay for abortions.

The new law requires federal agencies to subsidize and administer health plans that will pay for elective abortions.   The law also opens the door to direct federal funding of abortion in Community Health Centers, hundreds of which are operated by Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest abortion provider.

The Executive Order signed by President Obama, widely and inaccurately reported as prohibiting taxpayer abortion funding under the law, cannot overrule the abortion impact of the law.   Unfortunately, the opt-out provision can only be applied to abortion coverage.   Action at the federal level will be needed to negate the impact of direct abortion funding at Community Health Centers.

Opt-out legislation cannot be introduced until January of 2011.  Wisconsin Right to Life is promoting a petition to our new Governor, who will take office then, letting him know that thousands of Wisconsin citizens want Wisconsin to opt-out of subsidizing abortions through health insurance under Obamacare.

You can download the opt-out petition here.   Or , you can sign up online and urge your friends and email address book to do so also.