From Michael J. McMonagle, President
Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania
March 4, 2013 Meeting With Lt. Gov.
Jim Cawley and Policy Secretary Jen Branstetter
At their invitation, leaders from
the pro-life organizations in Pa. met with these state government officials, as
well as Lt. Gov. (LG) Cawley's Chief of Staff(COS), Guy Ciarrocchi, Esq. and
Gov. Corbett's Deputy COS, Luke Bernstein. Our assiduous efforts to
prepare a clear, united and cogent agenda, I believe, proved highly
worthwhile. I am attaching a sheet that summarizes this agenda by
presenting the requests that we made in each area.
The positive part of the meeting was
LG Cawley's strong engagement and promise of a response to our requests at the
meeting. The disappointing part of the meeting was the absence of Michael
Wolf, the Acting Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH), or any other
official from DOH.
Gov. Corbett's DOH, while a
significant improvement from Govs. Ridge and Rendell's DOH, only has a mixed
record. If this meeting does not result in improvement from DOH, I expect
that leaders in the Pa. pro-life movement and I will be issuing a strong call
for contact with Gov. Corbett regarding his DOH's deficiencies in enforcing
state laws and regulations against the Pa. abortion industry, as well as DOH's
now lengthy lack of response to requests from pro-life citizens and
organizations.
Passing Obamacare Abortion Opt-Out Legislation
in the Pa. General Assembly
I believe that significant progress
was made on this issue on March 20, 2013,when other leaders in the Pa. pro-life
movement (Maria Gallagher, Tom Shaheen, Randy Wenger, Esq. and Jack O'Brien)
and I met with the Senate President and the House Speaker. I believe that
we broke the ongoing stalemate over "Should the House or the Senate Bill pass?"
by receiving an affirmative response from both Sen. Scarnati and Speaker Smith
to our request to promptly pass S.B. 3. So, our next step is to urge Sen.
Don White, the Chairman of the Pa. Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, to
pass S.B. 3in this Committee as soon as possible when the Pa. Senate returns on
April 8, 2013.
Promoting Action on Other Pro-Life Legislative
Proposals
We cannot and should not consider
the passage of S.B. 3 to constitute a successful2013-2014 legislative
term. This legislation only prevents some of the deadly harms of
Obamacare in our state. We should be aggressively pursuing a positive agenda
that will significantly reduce the number of abortions, abortion facilities
and/or abortionists in our state.
The January 2011 Philadelphia Grand
Jury's Report provided an urgent and important legislative agenda item for the
2011-2012 term. However, no clear consensus has yet emerged as to our next
legislative priority after abortion opt-out legislation.
Some other leaders in the Pa.
pro-life movement and I are having some success in achieving a consensus that
our next priority should be "The Priorities Bill." This bill
would effectively de-fund Planned Parenthood (PP) and other abortion committers
by assigning such committers the lowest priority for the receipt of state
funds.
We and some pro-life legislators are
taking some actions to prepare and introduce this legislation.
Nevertheless, the most likely way to effect the passage of this legislation is
for Gov. Corbett to include this language in his 2014 budget.
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