National Right to Life: Protect Unborn Children and Defund the Abortion Industry

WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations, today called on all pro-lifers, including pro-life public officials and pro-life candidates, to pledge to enact pro-life laws such as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, and work to end public funding of the entire abortion industry.

“One of our top priorities should be enactment of legislation like the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which will at least begin to limit the ability of the abortion industry to deliver intact, well-developed baby body parts to order,”  said Carol Tobias, National Right to Life president.  “Pro-life activists, public officials, and candidates alike also need to prioritize ending public funding of the abortion industry. It’s time to say ‘enough is enough’.”

National Right to Life’s call to action comes following the release earlier this week by an organization call The Center for Medical Progress of a hidden-camera recording remarks by Deborah Nucatola, senior director for medical services for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) about the procurement of baby body parts.

Dr. Nucatola specifically describes abortionists manipulating unborn children in order to remove them feet first, to facilitate obtaining an intact head, apparently to preserve an intact brain. This statement and others raise a host of ethical questions, including whether pregnant women are being given detailed information in advance about exactly what is going to be done to them and their babies.

Her statements highlight the need for legislation like the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, which would greatly expand protections for unborn children from late abortions, which obviously would also curb some of the grisly practices described by the senior Planned Parenthood doctor-executive. Twelve states have enacted the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a federal version of the bill. It is currently pending in the U.S. Senate. Earlier this year, Kansas and Oklahoma became the first two states to ban dismemberment abortions.

“It is stomach-churning to hear a top doctor for the national Planned Parenthood organization admit, on videotape, that Planned Parenthood abortionists can and will alter late abortion procedures to facilitate the harvesting of intact baby body parts – she specifically mentioned hearts, lungs, livers, even intact heads – in order to fill specific pre-orders,” Tobias said.  “Such callous disregard for the tiniest members of our human family is further evidence that the abortion industry cares more about preserving their financial bottom line than they do about the women they purport to help.”

A March 2013 poll by The Polling Company found that 50% opposed “tax dollars for family planning services going to organizations that perform abortions.” Only 46% supported such funding. The same poll found that 58% opposed using tax dollars to pay for abortion.

Tobias also noted:  “Abortion is big business and abortionists rake in hundreds of millions of dollars each year. The abortion industry receives hundreds of millions of dollars annually from federal, state, and local taxpayers. Corporations that are heavily involved in abortion should not be receiving tax dollars for any purpose – it merely allows them to further expand their killing empires.”

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.