Legislative Alerts
REMEMBER TO VOTE!
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IMPORTANT ELCTION DATES FOR SPRING 2024
April 8 Last Day to Register to Vote
April 16 Deadline to apply for Mail-In Ballot
April 23, 2024 ELECTION DAY -Spring (Presidential) Primary
Contacting Your Legislators
In contacting State and US legislators, you may be wondering what is the most effective means of communicating with these elected officials. The following suggestions come from a recent Webinar from the National Right to Life organization.
- TWITTER: Most elected officials, especially US Congressmen and Senators, check their Twitter accounts regularly. This is probably the fastest way to be sure that your message is seen directly by the person you wish to address.
- PHONE CALL: Elected officials usually do not answer their phone calls directly, but do see a summary of all calls almost daily. When you call, ask to speak to the person who handles Pro-Life affairs for that legislator, as this person will understand the issues you are presenting.
- EMAILS: Elected officials may or may not see your emails, but will see a summary of all emails on a particular topic. Emails have the advantage over phone calls in that you know your words will be seen as written and will not be subject to misinterpretation.
- US MAIL: This has been the traditional way of contacting legislators, but has become the slowest means of communicating in recent years. Government mail must travel through inspections of various kinds and may take a month or more to reach the legislator. Although the advantage of this method is that the legislator may actually see your letter eventually, it is only a good method to use if the issue is not time sensitive.
If you wish to send a letter, it is best to send it to the Legislators local office, rather than their Harrisburg or Wash., D.C. office.
Contact information for all the Butler County legislators can be found under the YOUR LEGISLATORS tab of this website.
URGENT ALERT
House Bill 1888 has been submitted to the PA House Judiciary Committee. This bill would “enshrine” abortion in the PA Constitution. Specifically, it would prevent all current laws that require parental consent for about for minors, require 24 hour waiting periods, prevent taxpayer funding of abortion, require clinic safety regulations and restrict late term abortions.
Please contact your PA House Representative and ask that they oppose
House Bill 1888. If you are a constituent of Rep. Timothy Bonner, he is
on the House Judiciary Committee, where this bill is now awaiting
action, so it would be especially helpful to contact Rep. Bonner.
PA SENATORS INTRODUCE CONVENIENT CONTRACEPTIVE ACT
Senators Casey and Fetterman (and over a dozen other members of
Congress) introduced the Convenient Contraceptive Act this past summer.
This act would allow:
- Women to received prescriptions for a year’s supply of contraceptives (rather than the usual 3 month supply)
- Women to pick up the full one year’s supply of contraceptives in advance (rather than 1 -3 month’s supply at a time)
Fetterman is quoted as saying: “I will continue fighting to expand contraceptive access and protect reproductive freedom”.
US LEGISLATION
Please contact your US Congressman and US Senators to ask them to support continuing the Hyde Amendment. This amendment, which must be passed with every budget, prevents Federal money from being used to pay for abortions.
President Biden has stated that the new administration will work to abolish the Hyde Amendment, so it is important to contact our elected officials as soon as possible to tell them that we do not want our tax dollars used to pay for abortions.
The Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act
The Born-Alive Protection Act (H.R.619 and S.123) has been introduced in
both the US House and the US Senate. This legislation would enact an
explicit requirement that a baby born during an abortion must be
afforded “the same degree” of care that would apply “to any other child
born alive at the same gestational age”. In the US House, a discharge
petition was filed, which would force a vote on this bill, if it is
signed by 218 members; as of the end of April, there were 209
signatures.
The National Right to Life strongly supports this bill. H.R. Please contact your US Representative and ask him/her to sign the Discharge Petition and to vote FOR 619 when it comes up for a vote. There are currently 212 Republicans in the U.S. House, so we need at least 6 Democratic members to sign this Discharge Petition.
District of Columbus Statehood
The U.S. House passed H.R.51 on 4/22/21, which would make Washington,
D.C. a state; this would allow Wash., D.C. to have 2 Senators and 1
Representative. Since this area is traditionally Democratic, these
additional Senators and Representative will shift the balance of power
to the Democratic Party and allow the passage of more legislation
funding/promoting abortion.
The U.S. Senate will consider this bill next. Please contact your 2 PA Senators and ask them to vote NO on H.R. 51, the D.C. Statehood Bill.
“For the People Act of 2021” S.1/H.R.1
The National Right to Life Committee opposes H. R. 1, which passed in
the US House on 3/3/21 by a vote of 220-210. This bill would make it
difficult for corporations to spend money to communicate with the public
about the actions of federal office holders (our Congressmen/women).
Groups like the National Right to Life Committee would be subject to
restrictions on ads, as well as requirements that violate the privacy
rights of donors.
The US Senate will consider this bill next. Please contact your
2 PA Senators and ask them to vote NO on H.R. 1, the “For the People Act
of 2021”.
ERA
The U.S. House passed (222-204) H.J. Res. 17 on 3/17/21, a measure that
attempts to revive the long-expired Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
The ERA is a constitutional amendment that Congress proposed in 1972, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973. The ERA had a 7-year ratification deadline that expired on 3/22/1979. However, the pro-ERA supporters have developed legal theories under which approval of H.J. Res. 17 would result in the ERA being inserted into the U.S. Constitution. If H.J. Res. 17 were successfully passed in the U.S. Senate, virtually all Pro-Life legislation nationwide could be permanently wiped out.
The US Senate will consider this H.J.Res 17 next. Please contact your 2 PA Senators and ask them to vote NO on H.R.Res 17, “against cloture on the ERA”.
Biden Administration and Chemical Abortions
On 4/12/2021, the Biden administration suspended the federal Risk
Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirement that chemical
abortion drugs be obtained in-person. This will permit women to receive
these abortion-causing drugs by mail, without ever seeing a medical
provider.
This ruling overturns the FDA ruling that mifepristone must be provided in-person by a medical professional after the woman has a check-up. This drug, one of two taken together to abort unborn babies up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, has been linked to two dozen women’s deaths and thousands of serious complications in the U.S. since 2000. Women with ectopic pregnancies are vulnerable to deadly complications from taking mifepristone.
This abortion drug is currently used for about 39% of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute.
This action by the Biden administration begs 2 questions:
- Why does the administration think they have better knowledge of medicine than the FDA?
- Will not allowing unsupervised chemical abortions via telemedicine, without timely access to medical care, put more women in danger of complications?
What can we do about Mail Order abortions?
- Write to our PA Senator and Representatives; several states have already passed laws outlawing mail order abortions
- Write to our US Senators and Representative; asking for
legislation to outlaw mail order abortions
PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATION
The following are Pro-Life bills which have been introduced this year in PA; please contact your STATE representatives and senator and ask them to support these bills:
- House Bill 118 The Unborn Child Dignity Act, would ensure the burial or cremation of babies lost before birth
- House Bill 289 would require abortion centers to post the results of state health inspections on their websites
- Senate Bill 21 would ban the abortion of a baby solely for the reason of a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome
- House Bill 184 has been reported out of the PA House Judiciary Committee. The bill would strengthen the penalties for assisting in the suicide of a minor or person with intellectual disabilities.