Proof Is In The Record

Is your Democrat Delegate Really Pro-Life?

By Lisa Peana, WVRC President
http://www.wvrepublicanclub.org/

Many legislative Democrats claim to be pro-life. They run pro-life ads and send out mail pieces promising to protect the unborn.

But for some reason, once they enter the Capitol building, they have a sudden change of heart — until the next campaign.

What actually takes place in the Capitol is what really counts, not campaign ads. Roll call votes are how we know where legislators really stand on the issues.

By looking at the one of the most recent pro-life bills to go through this process: the Parental Notification Bill (SB-519), we can learn the truth about these so-called pro-life House Democrats.

The passage of SB-519 would have closed a gaping loophole in state law that allows a doctor to waive the parental notification requirement before a minor undergoes an abortion. Under current law, at least one parent or legal guardian is supposed to be notified in advance, but the law can be easily circumvented by using the doctor’s waiver loophole.

If parental notification truly needed to be waived, SB-519 would have required that decision to be made by a judge.

SB-519 would have helped place child rapists behind bars, and helped detect pregnancies due to incest as parents would be notified before evidence of the abuse was aborted.

If only a parent in these instances would have known that their young daughters had been violated, it would have helped bring more pedophiles to justice.

When the parental notification bill previously failed in 2005 due to a closed-door House Democrat caucus vote, pro-life legislators promised to bring it back in 2006.

As in the past, when House Democrats went back home, they preached a pro-life message, and when they got their questionnaire from the WV Family Foundation, they vowed to fight for parental notification in writing.

However, on March 7th, 2006, House Democrats abandoned their pro-life promises in favor of their liberal base. Pro-life House members brought a discharge motion to the floor to force consideration of SB-519 as pro-abortion committee chairman Jon Amores and his allies had once again kept it from being considered in the Judiciary Committee.

Sadly, only five of the 68 House Democrats elected at the time (Eustace Frederick, Tom Louisos, Tim Miley, Kenneth Tucker, and Sally Susman) voted to bring SB-519 to the floor for consideration and true parental notification was killed once again.

Of those five Democrats who fought for SB-519, two are no longer in office, as the liberal base that control the Democrat Primaries made sure that Sally Susman lost her bid for the State Senate and longtime Delegate Tom Louisos lost his re-election bid.

Even more outrageous, twelve House Democrats who claimed to support parental notification in their WVFF questionnaire voted to keep SB-519 off the floor.

After the 2006 election, pro-abortion activists and the trial lawyers helped Rick Thompson win the Speaker’s race over pro-life Democrat Scott Varner.

Why? Because Thompson would appoint Carrie Webster to chair the Judiciary Committee, and with Webster holding the gavel, pro-life legislation will never see the light of day.

As with Kiss and company, we once again have a House Speaker and Democrat caucus that profess to be pro-life in their districts, but allow the abortion supporters to always have their way in the House chamber.

Pro-abortion ideologues like Webster and Virginia Mahan (HD-27, Summers) are in positions of leadership, because at the end of the day: Democrats are the party of abortion on demand.

So which one is it? How much longer can we allow the ruling party to campaign on a pro-life platform only to have their minds changed by their leadership once they get in the Capitol building?

Pro-life rhetoric from Democrat Delegates doesn't save one single unborn child. Voting to kill pro-life bills is what aids in the continuation of their death.

If your Democrat Delegate is really pro-life, then it is way past time to work with like minded Republicans to make true parental notification for underage abortions the law of the land.

The following Democrat Delegates claimed to support Parental Notification legislation in the 2006 Family Foundation Candidate Questionnaire and then voted to block consideration of SB 519 (Roll Call # 343 – 03/07/06)

- Bob Beach, Monongalia, H-D 44
- JD Beane, Wood, H-D 10 (No Longer Serving)
- Brent Boggs, Braxton, H-D 34
- Kevin Craig, Cabell, H-D 15
- Richard Iaquinta, Harrison , H-D 41
- Marshall Long, Mercer, H-D 25
- David Perry, Fayette, H-D 29
- John Pino, Fayette, H-D 29
- Dale Stephens, Cabell, H-D 16
- Speaker Rick Thompson, Wayne , H-D 17
- Ron Thompson, Raleigh , H-D 27 (No Longer Serving)
- Jack Yost, Brook, H-D 02

WV Family Foundation 2006 Candidate Questionnaire: http://www.wvfamily.org/pdf/2006_House_FVQ_Results.pdf

Roll Call:
http://wvrepublicanclub.org/documents/Parential%20Notification%20Rollcall%20-%20SB519-RC343.pdf