Thousands gathered at Federal Plaza in Chicago on Sunday, January 15, 2017 to stand for LIFE!  Pro-life speakers at the march included Pat McCaskey of the Chicago Bears, three representatives from Congress, an abortion survivor, religious leaders, and pro-life students!  We got news coverage on Chicago’s WGN TV News and local CBS TV News!  More news coverage is likely to follow.

Overcoming Pro-choice Protesters

There was a pro-choice protest of the march, but pro-life marchers FAR outnumbered them!  The march officially started at 2 pm, but the protesters scheduled their protest to start at 1 pm to deceptively make it appear that they had more people. My friends in the pro-life groups LIVE PRO LIFE and Chicago Pro-life Future made sure we had a good presence at 1 pm to offset the small pro-choice protest.  We faced the pro-choice protest with fun pro-life chants and a line of professionally made signs!  Then, we put up a three sided sign that is 12 feet tall and ten feet wide with the same message.  We call it the “triangle.”

Cautiously Optimistic Signs For Future Activism

With the election of Donald Trump and the hope of pro-life changes that will bring, the pro-life movement is watching to see if there will be a change in engagement for pro-life or pro-choice activism.  Will pro-life and/or pro-choice activism get a boost?  March for Life Chicago was the first major test.  So far, it looks like both sides are getting a boost.  Pro-life people are excited that change is possible and we want to be engaged to help push ahead to a brighter future!  The official estimate for the pro-life side is 6,000!  Pro-choice people are upset that the law may be moving away from abortion and towards life.  They want to continue the status quo of a lack of legal protection for unborn humans, resulting in over 1 million humans aborted each year in the US.  We still outnumbered them, but we will need to be diligent in 2017 to keep the activism advantage that has been critical to moving our country in a pro-life direction.

Encouraging & Powerful Speakers

Gianna Jessen survived a saline abortion and was born in an abortion clinic!  She gave a powerful testimony of the power of her faith in living with cerebral palsy which was caused by the attempt on her life by the abortion doctor.  She’s forgiven her birth mother and boldly proclaims her faith and the stands up to the injustice of abortion, proclaiming unashamedly that abortion cannot be a woman’s rights, because her rights were not recognized when the abortion doctor was trying to take her life.

U.S. Representatives Dan Lipinski (D-Chicago), Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton) and Darin LaHood (R-Peoria) were bold and clear in standing up for life, declaring their commitment to defund Planned Parenthood, marching toward overturning Roe, and passing life-affirming legislation!  Pro-life Democrat Dan Lipinski highlighted that abortion should not be treated as a partisan issue and religious views shouldn’t separate people on it either because all humans deserve legal protection.  Instead of allowing abortion to divide people, we should all be united with the shared purpose of defending human life, especially the weak and vulnerable.

Brianna Todd shared her courage in choosing life for her unborn son and finding help at Aid for Women, a pro-life pregnancy resource center.

Fun & Young!

The march was packed full of energetic youth! They danced, they sang, and they jumped for joy!  There was a drum line, there were cheers, and there was the fun laughter and drive that youth brings.  It was a block party for LIFE that invaded the abortion culture that infects too much of Chicago.  It was nothing short of epic.

Pro-life Activists (left to right) Babette Holder, Jan Shaw, Dave Smith and Stephanie Trussell.

Last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed the federal Conscience Protection Act (CPA) by a vote of 245-182.  This vital legislation will help protect health care providers from being forced to pay for or participate in abortions, and allow victims of discrimination a “right of action” to defend their rights in court. (Read more HERE.)

Three Democratic Members voted in favor of the bill, including Dan Lipinski of Chicago’s south side.  The only Republican to vote against the bill was Richard Hanna of New York.  (Democrats voted 3 to 181. Republicans voted 242 to 1. There were six members not voting.)

This legislation will now move to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

How Did Illinois’ Congressional Delegation Vote?

Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D)—NAY
1st Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-4372
District Phone: (773) 224-6500
Webform

Rep. Robin Kelly (D)—NAY
2nd Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-0773
District Phone: (708) 679-0078
Webform

Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D)—YEA
3rd Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: 202-225-5701
District Phone: 312-886-0481
Webform

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D)—NAY
4th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-8203
District Phone: (773) 342-0774
Webform

Rep. Mike Quigley (D)—NAY
5th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-4061
District Phone: (773) 267-5926
Webform

Rep. Peter Roskam (R)—YEA
6th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-4561
District Phone: (630) 232-7393
Webform

Rep. Danny K. Davis (D)—NAY
7th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202)225-5006
District Phone: (773) 533-7520
Webform

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D)—NAY
8th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-3711
District Phone: (847) 413-1959
Webform

Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D)—NAY
9th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-2111
District Phone: (773) 506-7100
Webform

Rep. Bob Dold (R)—YEA
10th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-4835
District Phone: (847) 793-8400
Webform

Rep. Bill Foster (D)—NAY
11th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-3515
District Phone: (630) 585-7672
Webform

Rep. Mike Bost (R)—YEA
12th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-5661
District Phone: (618)-233-8026
Webform

Rep. Rodney Davis (R)—YEA
13th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-2371
District Phone: (217) 791-6224
Webform

Rep. Randy Hultgren (R)—YEA
14th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-2976
District Phone: (630) 584-2734
Webform

Rep. John Simkus (R)—YEA
15th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-5271
District Phone: (217) 347-7947
Webform

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R)—YEA
16th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-3635
District Phone: (815) 708-8032
Webform

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D)—NAY
17th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-5905
District Phone: (309) 966-1813
Webform

Rep. Darin LaHood (R)—YEA
18th Congressional Dist.
Washington Phone: (202) 225-6201
District Phone: (309) 671-7027
Webform

Take ACTION: Contact both of our U.S. Senators to urge them to sponsor and pass The Conscience Protection Act of 2016, to defend the conscience rights of those who wish not to be involved in supporting abortion. You can also call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be transferred.

Passing this law is even more urgent with the recent decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to allow the state of California to continue forcing healthcare plans to cover elective abortions. This bill is needed now to stop further discrimination against people who respect unborn human life. It is wrong for the government to force Americans to violate their deeply held moral convictions and respect for human life.

Support the work of IFI for your family and community

We must continue, now more than ever, to champion immutable moral principles and take a strong stand for traditional values. IFI will continue to be your voice at the capitol, in the community, in the media, and in the culture.  Bible believing Christians and true conservatives cannot afford to run the risk of complacency while anti-God, anti-American, and anti-freedom forces work overtime.

If you believe in the mission and purpose of Illinois Family Institute, please send your most generous contribution to IFI today. IFI is supported by voluntary donations from individuals like you across the state of Illinois. Donations to IFI are tax-deductible.

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Blue, blue California is not just an entity unto itself. As many have opined, as goes California, so goes the nation.

In their arrogance–or is it “pride”–California’s Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has  defied “the Hyde/Weldon amendments approved by the U.S. Congresses and leaders of both parties every year since 2004 by mandating “coverage of all elective abortions in all health plans under its jurisdiction.”

The Hyde Amendment (original amendment passed 9/30/76) “is a legislative provision barring the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortion unless the pregnancy arises from incest, rape, or to save the life of the mother.”

The Weldon Amendment (2009) stated:

(d)(1) None of the funds made available in this Act may be made available to a Federal agency or program, or to a State or local government, if such agency, program, or government subjects any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.

(2) In this subsection, the term “health care entity” includes an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.

In spite of Hyde/Weldon Amendments allowing for the rights of conscience, California’s DMHC deems itself omnipotent, and in 2014 began bulldozing any and all conscientious objections, forcing all health plans to cover abortions, including late term abortion.

Religious entities in California lodged a complaint, an objection with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the governing body for conscience laws. But on June 21, 2016, HHS ruled that California may continue forcing all health plans to cover all elective abortions.

This willful defiance of Hyde/Weldon sets a dangerous precedent, and other states (e.g., Washington and New York) are poised to follow. Don’t be deceived: Abortion would only be the first wicked act forced on people of faith and conscience. Euthanasia and other reprehensible acts would most likely follow.

In a counter move to stop the willfully immoral rulings of California’s DMHC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, legislation has been sponsored by U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK), S. 2927, and by U.S. Representative John Fleming (R-LA), H.R. 4828. Co-sponsors of this bill, titled The Conscience Protection Act of 2016, include four Illinois federal lawmakers: Randy Hultgren (R-Geneva), Dan Lipinski (D-Chicago), Darin LaHood (R-Peoria), and Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton).

The bill, The Conscience Protection Act of 2016, begins with a portentous quote from a Founding Father:

Thomas Jefferson stated a conviction common to our Nation’s founders when he declared in 1809 that “[n]o provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority”.

Members of the full U.S. House have repeatedly demanded answers from HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell for her acquiescence concerning California’s defiant mandates. It would seem Secretary Burwell feels she and California are above federal law, and certainly she cares not a whit about God’s laws.

The Conscience Protection Act of 2016, which is the remedy that will constrain arrogant legislators, makes clear its intent:

To prevent governmental discrimination against providers of health services who decline involvement in abortion, and for other purposes.

Now what’s needed is swift action on the part of citizens who revere life and abhor California’s despotic actions.

As noted at Human Life Action:

Even if you have responded to a previous alert, please contact your representatives again and urge them to support this bill. Read the Bishops’ news release here and a fact sheet on the ruling here.

Take ACTION: Contact your U.S. Representative to urge him/her to sponsor and pass H.R. 4828, The Conscience Protection Act of 2016, to defend the conscience rights of those who wish not to be involved in supporting abortion. You can also call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Passing this law is even more urgent with the recent decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to allow the state of California to continue forcing health plans to cover elective abortions. This bill is needed now to stop further discrimination against all people who respect unborn human life. It is wrong for government to force Americans to violate their deeply held convictions on respect for human life.

California and HHS reaffirm why President John Adams declared:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Let your voice be heard loudly and often. It’s up to moral people of faith to stop this hastening of the “slouching toward Gomorrah.”

Please re-post the link to this alert on your Facebook page or other social media platforms.

Responding to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month legalizing same-sex marriage, U.S. Representative Raul Labrador (R-ID) has introduced the First Amendment Defense Act (H. R. 2802).

H.R. 2802 protects religious freedom by prohibiting the federal government from punishing churches, charities or private schools for actions in opposition to same-sex marriage.

For example, the government could not revoke the tax exempt status of a church that refuses to perform a same-sex wedding because of their religious beliefs. It could not deny federal grants or contracts to any individual or institution (such as food banks or adoption agencies) that don’t believe in same-sex marriage.

And it will protect Christian radio and television stations that are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use the public airwaves. Already there are those who are urging the FCC to revoke licenses and shut them down.

Many Republicans say they hope to pass the bill before they head home and face constituents at August town hall meetings, but they need your voice to get other legislators to jump on board and move it quickly!

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who controls the floor schedule, has given no indication he’ll schedule a vote in the remaining three weeks before the House leaves town for the long August recess.

McCarthy needs to hear from your representative, but it won’t happen unless your representative hears from you today!

Please, TAKE ACTION NOW!  Click HERE to email your U.S. Representative to ask them to support AND co-sponsor H. R. 2802.  

Of Illinois’ 18 Congressional members, only two have stepped up to co-sponsor this important legislation: U.S. Representatives Dan Lipinski (D-Chicago) and Randy Hultgren (R-Campton Hills).

More ACTION:  After sending your email, please take a moment to personally call your representative’s office via the Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 2802. Elected officials have repeatedly said it only takes a few phone calls from voters in their district to move an issue to the top of their priority list.

Every year in America, more than 18,000 perfectly healthy babies – developed enough to feel pain and, in many cases, survive outside the womb – are brutally killed in their mother’s wombs.

Eighteen thousand. 

Can you imagine the public outrage if 18,000 babies died every year from faulty baby formula or substandard infant car seats? Liability lawsuits would flood the court systems and manufacturing companies would shutdown in bankruptcy and disgrace.

These particular 18,000 babies have been growing for 20 weeks or more in their mother’s bodies.

“These are innocent and defenseless children who can not only feel pain, but who can survive outside of the womb in most cases, and who are torturously killed without even basic anesthesia. Many of them cry and scream as they die, but because it is amniotic fluid going over their vocal cords instead of air, we don’t hear them, ” U.S. Representative Trent Franks of Arizona told LifeSite News this week.

Eighteen thousand innocent babies.

Next Wednesday, 42 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs Wade decision legalizing abortions for any reason up to the moment of birth, Franks and U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) will ask their Congressional colleagues in the U.S. House to vote on H.R. 36 – a federal measure to protect those 18,000 innocents from painful, violent deaths.

Franks and Blackburn expect to be joined by nearly 180 other House members who will co-sponsor the measure.

Five Illinois Congressmen have signed on thus far as co-sponsors, four Republicans: Randy Hultgren (Geneva), Peter Roskam (Barrington), Aaron Schock (Peoria) and John Shimkus (Effingham) and one Democrat: Dan Lipinski (Chicago).

Three Republican House members have yet to commit on the bill: Adam Kinzinger (Rockford) and newbies Mike Bost (Murphysboro) and Bob Dold (Mundelein).  Historically the remaining Democratic members of Illinois’ delegation have supported abortion advocates’ position.

Abortion defenders are holding the line against any restrictions whatsoever.  They deny the medical studies showing 20 week old preborn babies can feel pain.

“The studies are pretty clear — at 20 weeks, there is no indication that nerves are developed. Abortion is really rare past 20 weeks and is incurred because of a set of complex circumstances,” Jamila Perritt, MD, medical director of Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington, D.C., said at a press conference this week.

In response, numerous brain and nerve activity experts cite the need for prenatal surgeons to anesthetize their patients during in utero surgical procedures.

“To experience pain an intact system of pain transmission from the peripheral receptor to the cerebral cortex must be available. Peripheral receptors develop from the seventh gestational week,” Marc Van de Velde and Frederik De Buck wrote in, “Fetal and Maternal Analgesia/Anesthesia for Fetal Procedures”:

From 20 weeks’ gestation peripheral receptors are present on the whole body. From 13 weeks’ gestation the afferent system located in the substantia gelatinosa of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord starts developing. Development of afferent fibers connecting peripheral receptors with the dorsal horn starts at 8 weeks’ gestation. Spinothalamic connections start to develop from 14 weeks’ and are complete at 20 weeks’ gestation, whilst thalamocortical connections are present from 17 weeks’ and completely developed at 26–30 weeks’ gestation. From 16 weeks’ gestation pain transmission from a peripheral receptor to the cortex is possible and completely developed from 26 weeks’ gestation.

Numerous other doctors have filled in about prenatal infants’ pain capability and made their testimony available at www.doctorsonfetalpain.com.

Medical science is convincing the American public that preborn babies can indeed feel pain. In a March 2013 survey by The Polling Company, 64 percent of 1003 registered voters said they would support a law such as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act prohibiting abortion after 20 weeks — when an unborn baby can feel pain — unless the life of the mother is in danger. Less than a third opposed such legislation.

It’s very likely Franks and Blackburn’s H.R. 36 will pass the U.S. House as the nation remembers the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs Wade decision.  It could also pass the U.S. Senate in the days after.

However, Congress.gov says the measure has less than a five percent chance to be implemented because it’s unlikely President Barack Obama, who hailed the practice of Partial Birth Abortion, would ever sign abortion restrictions into law.

And what about the chances of overriding an Obama veto?

“I’m told there is no way there are 60 votes to override a veto in the Senate,” said nationally-popular prolife blogger Jill Stanek.

So why try to so hard pass legislation that won’t become law?

“We just keep pushing, educating, making a big deal out of the humanity of preborn babies and pain,” Stanek said. “This will be similar to when [former President Bill] Clinton vetoed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban twice.”

The Partial Birth Abortion Ban was finally signed into law by President George W. Bush November 5, 2003 – nearly eight years after the first version was introduced.

H.R. 36 prohibits an abortion from being performed if the pain-capable child is 20 weeks or more, except when a mother’s life is endangered, or the pregnancy is the result of reported rape or incest.

How can anyone oppose saving those 18,000 innocent babies’ lives and protecting them from potential inhumane pain and suffering?

On the other hand, perhaps we should ask ourselves how we could ever explain to future generations how we didn’t even try.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to your U.S. Representative asking them to support H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Or call the Capitol Switchboard to ask to be connected to your U.S. Representative’s office: 202-224-3121.

If you live outside of Illinois, Click HERE to send an email through the National Right To Life Committee’s web site.

The Truth Project

First Annual IFI Worldview Conference
featuring Dr. Del Tackett
April 10-11, 2015

CLICK HERE for Details

On March for Life, Eve of State of the Union, Pro-Life Leader Calls for Grassroots to Seize Momentum in 112th Congress

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ — Today, in her first annual State of the Unborn video address, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser called the 38th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision a unique opportunity for pro-life America. The address, available at www.sba-list.org/stateoftheunborn, coincides with the annual March for Life in Washington, DC.

“It’s not just a movement anymore. All the polls show this is pro-life America now,” Dannenfelser said. “It’s time for us to flex the muscle that we just flexed in this election and do everything we can in this Congress to protect human lives… I invite you to go to our website, www.StopAbortionFunding.com, and, if you’re not marching today, please take a moment to pray and act. Then, tomorrow night, watch that State of the Union message. See if the president decides to follow up on his promise [that tax dollars not be used to fund abortion in health care] because right now is the moment, a moment in time which we have not seen since 1973, where we have the momentum. We have the power. We have all the ability to save children’s lives by stopping the funding of their deaths. When he gives his State of the Union message, it should certainly include how he has or has not lived up to that promise.”

Dannenfelser’s address comes on the heels of the introduction of three bills aiming to end taxpayer funding of abortion – the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” sponsored by the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL), the “Protect Life Act,” sponsored by pro-life champion Rep. Joe Pitts (PA-16), Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, and the “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act,” sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” creates a government-wide statutory prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion. The bill also codifies the Hyde amendment which ensures that no federal funds pay for abortion under the Labor Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill along with several other pro-life riders that currently have to be considered every year. The “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act” ensures that tax dollars are not sent to abortion providers under Title X family planning grants. The “Protect Life Act” amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to ensure that no federal funds pay for elective abortion, prevents any federal agency from mandating abortion and protects the conscience of healthcare workers.

More than 40,000 pro-life activists have signed the SBA List’s Stop Abortion Funding petition lobbying to end taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion providers.

Dannenfelser will be available for comment on-site during the annual March for Life on Monday, January 24. Contact Kerry Brown at 703-470-1926 if you would like to speak with her.

The Susan B. Anthony List spent $11 million during the 2010 midterm election cycle. Overall, the SBA List was involved in 90 races including 62 wins and 28 losses. Successes included: defeating 15 of 20 so-called “pro-life” Democrats who voted for abortion funding in the health care reform bill; increasing the number of pro-life women in the House by 70 percent; filling the void of pro-life women in the U.S. Senate and increasing the number of pro-life women governors from one to four.

For further information, please contact Kerry Brown at (703) 470-1926

Introduce IFI to your friends, church or civic group

Serve as a contact person by receiving information from IFI and distributing it to others or posting it on bulletin boards. You can keep current by signing up for IFI E-Alerts and IFI E-Newsletters and be registering and checking in on our Take Action center.

Host a gathering of friends for a private evening with the IFI team.

Staff members are available to speak at your church or group function about IFI’s work at the Illinois Capitol, with parents working against liberal indoctrination at their public schools, and a variety of other issues including marriage, fatherhood, and current family policy initiatives.