January 30, 2009

Maryland Delegate proposes Personhood Amendment for state Constitution

Lawmaker wants to open public debate on ‘the glory of life’
Delegate proposes Personhood Amendment for state Constitution


Kevin SpradlinCumberland Times-News [ Maryland ]
January 30, 2009
www.times-news.com/local/local_story_030231824.html

— CUMBERLAND — A Republican lawmaker from Anne Arundel County is building support for a
Personhood Amendment to the state Constitution and plans to introduce a bill “to a somewhat reluctant legislature” as soon as next week.

Delegate Don Dwyer of Glen Burnie discussed some of the finer points of his draft legislation late Wednesday during a conference call organized by supporters from across the country. The call took place less than a week after the 36th annual March for Life in Washington.

“My goal in this whole thing is to open up the public debate on the majesty, the magnificence and the glory of life,” Dwyer said. “I want to force my colleagues to have to recognize that based on science, not rhetoric ... that there is no doubt that that is not mere tissue in a womb ... that is a human being in the process of development by the miracle of life.”

Dwyer said Delegates Wendell Beitzel and LeRoy Myers, both of whom represent portions of Allegany County, are two of more than two dozen supporters of the legislation. But the Judiciary Committee member is in a unique position to understand just what obstacles he faces among colleagues in Annapolis.

“The majority of members of the legislature ... are absolutely adamant pro-choicers,” Dwyer said. “There are going to be some people who do not want to have to look at the fact that life begins at conception.”

Western Maryland appears supportive of his cause. Many of those pro-choice votes come from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and Baltimore City, Dwyer said.

“The challenge there is going to be to mobilize the Christian base in each of those jurisdictions to look at this issue,” Dwyer said. “That’s a process that’s going to take some time.”

Dwyer said Delegate Joseph Vallario Jr., Judiciary Committee chairman, “committed to me (Tuesday) that he will not stop me or try in any way to impede a public hearing.”

Supporters and those who have advocated a similar amendment at the federal level or in different states helped Dwyer fine-tune some of the language during the call.

[continued…]

Dwyer insisted the focus of his bill is on life and not an anti-abortion stance.

“That’s not at all what I’m going to be focusing on,” he said. “I’m going to talk about life. Abortion isn’t going to be a word I’m going to use in any of my public discussion.”

Admittedly, during private audiences, Dwyer will discuss “the culture of death,” a phrase borrowed from a supporter on the issue. Dwyer said it makes sense society would be numb to “kill the unborn in the womb”
when people are regularly exposed to modern music, news broadcasts and videos that appear to condone and glorify such activity.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.

Please click here for a printable version of this article.

January 28, 2009

Christian principled ‘pro-personhood’ pro-lifers testify against National Right to Life SC chapter’s incremental, abortion/murder-regulation bill:

“Wait 24 hours and then the baby can be killed” – before SC House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee, January 28, 2009

GOD’S REQUIREMENT FOR MURDER IS JUSTICE, NOT INCREMENTAL REGULATION !

Quotes from article below:
www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090128/NEWS01/90128010/1004/NEWS01

Opponents at the hearing included two anti-abortion activists, who want abortion outlawed.‘‘ “It’s not God’s will to wait 24 hours and then kill the baby,” said Steve Lefemine, director of Columbia Christians for Life, who can frequently be seen at the Statehouse carrying posters
of aborted fetuses.’

Proponents of the 24-hour waiting period bill include:


“… Rep. Greg Delleney, the sponsor of last year’s law and the current proposal.”

“… Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council.” [ SC affiliate of Dobson’s Focus on the Family ]

“… Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life.”

Opponents of the 24-hour waiting period bill; in favor instead of SC’s PERSONHOOD bill, include:

“… Steve Lefemine, director of Columbia Christians for Life,…”

See text of “Wait-24-hours-before-killing-the-baby-bill” H.3245 at:

www.scstatehouse.gov/sess118_2009-2010/bills/3245.htm

Bill requiring women to wait day before an abortion heads to House
www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090128/NEWS01/90128010/1004/NEWS01
The Associated Press • January 28, 2009

COLUMBIA -- Women seeking an abortion in South Carolina would have to wait at least 24 hours after their ultrasound under a bill given initial approval Wednesday by a House subcommittee.

The measure would increase the waiting time from an hour to a day.

Proponents said it would bring South Carolina in line with other states that have waiting periods and give women time to reflect on the decision. Critics said requiring two trips creates a burden, especially for poor, rural women.

The proposal follows nearly two years of debate on whether to require women to view an ultrasound image before getting an abortion. Under a compromise passed last year, women must be asked whether they want to look at the screen during the procedure or see a printed image -- and sign a form verifying they were given the option.

The compromise kept in the law a 60-minute wait already required after women are handed brochures about fetal development and abortion alternatives.

“But one hour is not enough time to think about it,” said Rep. Greg Delleney, the sponsor of last year’s law and the current proposal. “I’m trying to give the chance for a child waiting to be born to have a birthday.”

He said he didn’t make it an issue last year because he didn’t want to further bog down the law’s passage.

At least 25 other states require waiting times for abortions, and all but two set them at 24 hours -- Indiana, the other, sets an 18-hour minimum, said Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council.

Several women who had abortions testified they would have changed their mind if they’d had more time to think it through.

“I went blindly, fearfully into a clinic,” said Carla Harvey, a nurse and a volunteer at Lowcountry Crisis Pregnancy Center in Charleston. “They’re in a waiting room. They’re numb. They’re afraid. ... Time really does make a difference.”

Advocates also noted South Carolina requires a daylong wait for a marriage license, and patients have to undergo pre-counseling or classes for many other surgeries, such as for obese patients and hip replacements.

“A waiting period before a final decision regarding abortion is far more critical than any other waiting period,” said Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life. “Before making such a grave and permanent decision, women deserve a 24-hour waiting period that safeguards their dignity, their health and their right to choose life.”

The South Carolina Coalition for Healthy Families opposed the measure, calling it extreme and said it could require taking two days off of work and finding transportation. The state needs to focus instead on reducing unintended pregnancies by funding preventive health care, contraception and comprehensive education beyond abstinence only, said coalition lobbyist Brandi Parrish.

Women must make appointments to get an abortion and already spend time agonizing over the decision, she said.

[continued…]

Opponents at the hearing included two anti-abortion activists, who want abortion outlawed.

“It’s not God’s will to wait 24 hours and then kill the baby,” said Steve Lefemine, director of Columbia Christians for Life, who can frequently be seen at the Statehouse carrying posters of aborted fetuses.


The measure stipulates the 24-hour waiting period applies only if an ultrasound is performed. But abortion rights advocates have testified that clinics already perform ultrasounds in nearly all cases to verify how far along the pregnancy is, since state law requires abortion doctors to tell women the likely age of their fetus.

The bill now goes to the full House Judiciary Committee.


Copyright ©2007 The Greenville News. All rights reserved.
____________________________________________________

See also the story reported by The State (Columbia, SC) at: www.thestate.com/local/story/666856.html

____________________________________________________

January 27, 2009

Catholic Bishops in Georgia, Montana, and Colorado opposed state personhood amendments for the pre-born

Judie Brown is a principled "pro-personhood" pro-lifer. Her national organization, American Life League, has provided information, materials, education, and advocacy for the personhood of the pre-born for many years. Judie Brown is also Roman Catholic. Her accurate article below, reporting the non-support and opposition of the Catholic Bishops in three states: Georgia, Montana, and Colorado, can be verified and readily independently documented by a variety of on-line resources.

"Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life educational organization."

I admire Judie Brown's principled pro-life position and her courage to speak the truth. I also pray she will be delivered from the false teaching of the Roman Catholic religion. If she is not already saved, I pray that she will be born-again, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in the Saviour alone.

However I will also add that the non-support and opposition of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, as manifested by the non-support and opposition of the seven bishops from three states (GA, MT, CO) mentioned in Judie Brown's informative article below, is paralleled, by the non-support and opposition of the National Right to Life Committee.

Here in South Carolina, the executive director of the SC chapter of National Right to Life actually approached the SC House legislator who was the primary sponsor of the "Right to Life Act of SC" Personhood Bill, and tried to dissuade him from further advocacy of the bill. SC Citizens for Life tried to kill the SC Personhood Bill.

Similar experiences with non-support by National Right to Life has been experienced in other states as well.

So principled "pro-personhood" pro-lifers have two additional enemies they may not have realized were actually working against their efforts to establish personhood for the pre-born with state-level personhood bills and constitutional amendments: the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy (bishops and above, all the way to the Vatican), and National Right to Life.

To paraphrase what Oswald Chambers says in so many words in a couple of his daily devotionals in "My Utmost For His Highest" - "Good" is the ENEMY of God's "Best." The incrementalist, abortion-murder regulation strategy of National Right to Life, is the ENEMY of those principled "pro-personhood" pro-lifers who are working to not just "regulate" abortion, but to END it !

God's requirement for Murder is Justice, not Regulation !

"The Lord reigneth; ... righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne."
Psalm 97:1a,2b

Steve Lefemine, pro-life missionary
dir. Columbia Christians for Life
Columbia, South Carolina
January 27, 2009

Read more here.

January 13, 2009

Prophetic pro-life witness 1st day of 2009 SC Legislative Session

January 13, 2009, first day of 2009 South Carolina Legislative Session SC State House, Columbia, SC

With signs all around us that GOD IS JUDGING AMERICA, the South Carolina Legislature was welcomed back to the SC State House with yet another prophetic witness regarding the murder of preborn children [approx. 7,000/year] in this so-called "Bible-belt" (?) state.

America is being judged
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=85871
World Net Daily, Joseph Farah, January 12, 2009

After TEN YEARS (since 1998), the South Carolina Legislature and SC Governor have thus far refused to pass the "Right to Life Act of SC" "Personhood" Bill to END abortion in South Carolina, instead of perpetually regulating it according to the failed, unbiblical strategy of the incremental abortion (child-murder) regulators (such as National Right to Life and most of their state chapters, including the ecumenical SC chapter). God's requirement for Murder is Justice, not Regulation !

All these years and years of murder-regulation bills have proven to be a distraction from what even the language of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision itself says is necessary to end abortion: PERSONHOOD for the preborn child, with NO EXCEPTIONS.


See http://www.christianlifeandliberty.net/ , Homepage and "RTL Act of SC" page, and "RighttoLifeActofSC.net" for history of "Personhood" Bill in South Carolina, and several other states.


Anne Rainville
Johnny Gardner, dir., Voice of the Unborn
First Floor Lobby, SC State House



Steve Lefemine, dir., Columbia Christians for Life
Johnny Gardner, dir., Voice of the Unborn
First Floor Lobby, SC State House
_________________________________________________

It's well past time to pass "Personhood" legislation. Abortion could have been ended 36 years ago, in 1973, with state and federal "Personhood" bills. The opportunity is still there, and thankfully, the "Personhood" vision is growing. On November 4, 2008, for the first time, there was a statewide vote on a Colorado state-level "Personhood" constitutional amendment. Although it failed, it did much to spread the "Personhood" vision across the nation.

The Bible says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."
Proverb 29:18, KJB

It's time we who are pro-life and anti-abortion kept our eyes on "Keeping God's Law" - specifically, His Law in the Sixth Commandment: "Thou shalt not kill [murder]." Period. No Exceptions. No Murder Regulation (wait an hour, look at some literature, get a teen's parent to sign, etc. and then kill then baby).

It is time for born-again Christians to repent of following the lead of the Vatican's front organization, National Right to Life, which was originally founded by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, with its unbiblical positions and strategies (e.g., NRL endorsed pro-abort John McCain in 2008), and start following the Word of God in Exodus 20:13, and the Author of His Word, Who Alone is today, King of kings ! (1 Timothy 6:15). God is (and always has been) King of all the earth ! (Psalm 47:7).

_________________________________________________

Two pages of the 4-page handout distributed in the SC State House and Stae House Complex today can be seen in the attachments below:

C:\Users\Steve\Documents\Old F\~WORDAT\BUD09-01.doc;

C:\Users\Steve\Documents\Old F\~WORDAT\REP09-01a.doc;
__________________________________________________
January 13, 2009

A Message To:
S.C. House Members,
S.C. Senate Members,
Governor Mark Sanford:

From: Columbia Christians for Life, dir., Steve Lefemine
POB 50358, Columbia, SC 29250
(803) 794-6273;
CCL@ChristianLifeandLiberty.net

A Biblically-based, Constitutional, Pro-Life Agenda for the Year 2009 South Carolina Legislative Session will include:

[continued]
__________________________________________________

and
__________________________________________________


REPENTANCE FOR AMERICA'S BLOODGUILT
OUTDOOR WORSHIP SERVICE

Sunday, January 18, 2009
3:00 - 4:00 PM


Location: Columbia, South Carolina
SC State House, south steps


[continued]
___________________________________________________

Forget the US Supreme Court. The Congress is able to pass legislation to strip jurisdiction on this matter according to Article III., Section 2. of the US Constitution. And if even the 7-2 pro-abortion Supreme Court of 1973 could write into the text of the Roe decision that establishing "Personhood" "collapses" the legal argument for abortion, then that is what every principled pro-lifer in America should be working toward. Forget the foolish, time-energy-and-resources wasting abortion (murder) regulation strategy of National Right to Life. Forget National Right to Life. And find a principled Christian pro-life legislator in your State Legislature to introduce one of the various forms of state-level "Personhood" Legislation, and start aiming at the right target - to END ABORTION !

2007-2008 State-Level Personhood (and other selected) Legislation
- Including State-Level Personhood Bills and Constitutional Amendments
- AL, CO, GA, MT, SC, VA

Updated February 14, 2008
http://righttolifeactofsc.blogspot.com/2008/02/2007-2008-state-level-personhood-and.html

It is time to introduce "Personhood" legislation in every State House in the nation that will. And for those States that will not, they are violative of the principles of the Declaration of Independence (as all 50 are right now !), including the Creator-endowed unalienable right to life. Such States, in my opinion, should either withdraw from, or be thrown out of, the Union if they will not adhere to its founding, covenantal principles. If child-murder is permitted in America, anyplace in America, then the Declaration of Independence of 1776 has lost its meaning.

Steve Lefemine
January 13, 2009
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

AMERICA - A NATION UNDER DIVINE JUDGMENT.

Psalm 33:12; Proverb 14:34; Psalm 9:17; 2 Kings 24:1-4; Jeremiah 19:3-5; Psalm 106:37-42

"America repent" (music video)

"Contemporary Christian Artist: Tim Juillet"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvu6hHLSpzk


"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

Psalm 9:17, KJB

"But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it."

Psalm 94:15, KJB


Biblical "Separation" for a Nation
"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,..." 2 Corinthians 6:14-17a (KJB)
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
The Declaration of Independence is part of the organic law of the United States of America United States Code Annotated
http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml
http://lefemineforlife.blogspot.com/2007/10/biblical-separation-for-nation.html


The people of Iraq have far greater freedom to enshrine their national religion of Islam in the legal structure of their country than do Americans to honor Christianity and Biblical Law in the United States. Christianity was by far the predominant faith of the founding generations of America, from Jamestown in 1607 to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and beyond, as the historical record clearly shows:

No King but King Jesus! (Yeshua Messiah)
Declarations and Evidences of Christian Faith in America's Colonial Charters, State Constitutions, and other Historical Documents during over 375 Years of American History: 1606 to 1982
www.christianlifeandliberty.net/NoKingbutKingJesus.doc

The Sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams (son of John Adams, the Second US President, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence), said: "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." and "From the day of the Declaration... they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct."
Tragically, today in 2008, American law has become exceedingly anti-Christian. Witness the government-protected murder of One Million pre-birth human beings each year (http://www.ldi.org/ ).

The Constitution of the United States should be amended as first proposed by the National Reform Association in 1864, with a Christian Amendment:

Confession of the Saviour (Messiah) as the Ruler of Nations, including America, by amending the Preamble to the United States Constitution
In 1864, the National Reform Association advocated amending the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States to read, in substance:
"We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler among the nations, his revealed will as the supreme law of the land, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the inalienable rights and the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to ourselves, our posterity, and all the people, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." http://candst.tripod.com/nra.htm


Explicitly Christian Politics: The Vision of the National Reform Association
www.crownandcovenant.com/product_p/ds380.htm
"Since 1864 the National Reform Association has advocated an explicitly Christian approach to politics. In this book their vision of politics, based on the mediatorial reign of Jesus Christ over the nations, is explained for a new generation."

THE NATIONAL REFORM ASSOCIATION.;
CONVENTION IN PITTSBURG ON INSERTING A RECOGNITION OF DEITY IN THE CONSTITUTION.

February 5, 1874, Wednesday
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D06E3DF173DE43BBC4D53DFB466838F669FDE
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D06E3DF173DE43BBC4D53DFB466838F669FDE&oref=slogin

Further articles on the National Reform Association
http://www.puritans.net/news/natlreformasso113004.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reform_Association_(19th_century,_U.S.)
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200110/ai_n9003100


"... I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18
Yeshua Messiah


Hallelu-Yah !

Steve Lefemine, pro-life missionary
dir., Columbia Christians for Life
PO Box 50358
Columbia, SC
(803) 794-6273
http://www.christianlifeandliberty.net/
http://www.righttolifeactofsc.net/
http://www.lefemineforlife.net/
January 13, 2009
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...