PHL/SWR Butler County Chapter

Pennsylvanians for Human Life

Legislative Alerts

REMEMBER TO VOTE! (click here)

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.

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:

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:

  1. Why does the administration think they have better knowledge of medicine than the FDA?
  2. 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?


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: