November is National Adoption Month, and as believers and Americans who care about families, we have the opportunity this month to help. Please take a moment to learn what’s going on and then lend your voice to help children awaiting adoption!

The answer probably seems obvious if we asked:  When it comes to policies on adoption, should kids or politics come first? With nearly 125,000 children in the United States awaiting adoption and the average adoption wait time for a child in foster care at 31 months, of course the answer is that children should come first.

But, sadly, for many years the policy of our federal government put politics over children. It all started when the Obama Administration issued a last-minute rule saying that even faith-based entities working with the government to help children find forever homes had to comply with the Administration’s sexual agenda. In other words, the Obama Administration said that faith-based entities had to agree with the Administration on LGBT issues (even though LGBT classifications aren’t part of federal law) or—in many cases—shut down their ministry.

Faith-based ministries often specialize in placing hard-to-place children in forever homes—older children, special-needs children, and more. So, sadly, already-vulnerable children are those who suffer most when politics gets in the way of good adoption policy.

Thankfully, the Trump Administration is now prioritizing adoption—and working to keep kids first. His Health and Human Services Department (HHS) just issued a proposed new rule that protects faith-based adoption ministries—ensuring they will not be forced to choose between their faith and their service to their community’s children. This means that more agencies will be able to help children find a home—which makes the most sense when it comes to adoption policy.

Thousands of you have already thanked President Trump for prioritizing children and adoption in this way! Thank you so much!

But, more help is needed. The next step to ensuring that President Trump’s proposed rule becomes official adoption policy is called a “public comment period.” This means that the HHS Department will collect comments from the general public about whether or not to finalize the rule. You can be sure that they will hear from activists and others who want to keep the Obama-era policy that puts politics over children.

So, please join us in submitting as many comments as possible from believers, churches, families, and those who simply care about putting children first in support of President Trump’s proposed new rule!

Leaving a comment is very simple. Just click here, complete the simple form (comment and name) and click “Continue”. On the following page, just confirm and submit.

To make it even easier, here are some talking points to use when you write them—even a short paragraph is a huge help!

Please submit your comments in support of the proposed rule before December starts so that we can all celebrate Adoption Month together!

For Keeping Kids First,

Autumn Leva, Esq.
Vice President for Strategy

Last fall we alerted you that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was allowing research to be done using aborted fetal tissue. In response to Family Policy Alliance® and other pro-life organizations, HHS ended their contract with Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) which was providing aborted fetal tissue. HHS promised to investigate their other contracts to ensure conformity with the law, as well.

Many of you wrote to Secretary Azar asking that he end all research using aborted babies.

HHS has followed through on their commitment to do further investigation, and just last week, ended another contract with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) that was providing aborted fetal tissue. The agency has committed that they will not enter into any future internal contracts that require the use of aborted fetal tissue. In their statement HHS noted that “the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration.”

HHS has also stated that before funding any external grant contracts seeking to use aborted fetal tissue in research, an internal ethics board will review the proposal.

This administration is committed to following the ethics laws that have been passed by Congress that protect the dignity of aborted babies. Another way they are affirming this commitment is by reviewing alternative research models that do not rely on human fetal tissue.

Not only is this an important win for life but it also shows the impact that you can make when we together not only speak for truth, but also take action in the mission field of public policy and politics.

This is one more example of how your voice does matter. We commend the Administration for taking this bold step that promotes the dignity of every baby and upholds the rule of law. We look forward to working with the Administration in the future to continue to see all life respected.

For life,

Brittany Jones, Esq.
Policy Manager

By Brittany Jones, Esq.

Last week, we told you about the letter that Family Policy Alliance – along with over 40 pro-life organizations – sent to Alex Azar, who heads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We asked Secretary Azar to cancel a contract with Advanced Bioscience Resources that procured aborted baby parts for research in mice.

The response was swift! In response to the letter we sent, HHS rescinded the contract. This is a huge win for the pro-life movement and shows that our voice can and does make a difference. By your support, we are able to use our collective voices to affect departmental policies like this. Importantly, the Press Release from the department states:

“[The Advanced Bioscience Resources’] contract has been terminated, and HHS is now conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal-tissue research laws and regulations. In addition, HHS has initiated a comprehensive review of all research involving fetal tissue to ensure consistency with statutes and regulations governing such research, and to ensure the adequacy of procedures and oversight of this research in light of the serious regulatory, moral, and ethical considerations involved.”

There is still much more to be done. HHS is still doing research using aborted babies, just not with this specific company. It is important that you ask them to end all research that requires aborted babies. They are investigating their practices, which will hopefully lead to them banning all research of this nature. However, they need to hear from you.

Please thank Secretary Azar for cancelling this contract and call on him to end all research using aborted babies. It only takes a moment on our Action Center.

Let him know this not how the HHS should be using your tax dollars, but rather these funds should be used to fund ethical alternatives. This is a fantastic first step and shows that the Trump Administration is listening. But there is more to be done to protect the dignity of the pre-born.

 

Brittany Jones, Esq., is policy manager for Family Policy Alliance

By Brittany Jones, Esq., policy manager for Family Policy Alliance

Earlier this summer it was discovered that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signed a contract with a procurement organization for human fetal tissue, otherwise known as baby body parts, to be used in experiments with mice. The baby body parts are being used to create “humanized mice,” essentially mice with human immune systems.  So not only is the FDA attempting create a part rodent, part human creature in order to do testing, but they are using aborted babies and tax dollars to support defiling human dignity.

As if that weren’t bad enough, this contract encourages the continuation of elective abortions. Across the country over 600,000 abortions happen annually. This contract only increases demand for women to abort their babies.

Further, it inadvertently encourages abortion providers to mislead women about what will happen to their baby once the baby is aborted. The Center for Medical Progress discovered that abortion providers were tricking women into allowing research to be done using their aborted baby’s body parts.

This is why Family Policy Alliance, along with our national ally Susan B. Anthony List and nearly four dozen other prolife leaders, called on Health and Human Services’ head, Secretary Azar, to end the FDA’s contract with the fetal tissue procurement entity. We point out that Advanced Bioscience Resource, the company that the FDA has contracted with, is under federal investigation for profiting from sales of fetal organs. We also question the transparency and the openness of the Department of Health for concealing this contract and other contracts associated with the Department that involve procuring fetal remains.

Importantly, the letter points out that using human baby parts is not medically necessary to do the proposed research. “Contrary to claims, there is no scientific requirement of aborted fetal tissue to construct humanized mice . . . But good scientific alternatives exist to this grisly sourcing . . . There are abundant modern scientific alternatives, making aborted fetal tissue unnecessary.”

If you are interested, you can read the full letter for yourself here.

Hillary Clinton’s claim that women cannot succeed without abortions is false. The claim that we cannot fully understand the human immune system without killing preborn babies and desecrating their remains is false. We hope you will work with us to restore a nation where God is honored and life is cherished.

 

 

By Stephanie C., policy manager for Family Policy Alliance®

A few months back, nearly 8000 of you sent emails through our action center to President Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, urging them to create rules that will ensure Title X taxpayer funding does not go to abortion providers.

On June 1st, the Department of Health and Human Services (responding to the concerns of millions of Americans) proposed a new rule, “The Protect Life Rule.” If adopted, this rule will have a significant impact on prohibiting the tide of Title X funds going to abortion clinics—especially Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Family Policy Alliance submitted a public comment urging HHS to pass the “Protect Life Rule,” joined by many of our state family policy council allies, in strong support of the new rule and on behalf of our constituents. You can read our Official Comment here and look for your state!

Title X is a grant program intended to provide funding for family planning services.  Family planning services refers to planning the number and spacing of children prior to pregnancy. The Title X statute explicitly prohibits funds from going to abortion clinics. Yet, during the Clinton Administration, HHS passed rules that required family planning dollars to support abortion referrals and abortion counseling. In addition, family planning dollars have been used by clinics that perform abortions, as long as that clinic claims they are using the money solely for family planning services.

In our official comment, we applauded HHS’s proposed “Protect Life Rule,” which would no longer allow abortion facilities to receive Title X dollars, even if they do provide “family planning services”. The rule will also prohibit clinics receiving Title X dollars from referring or counseling on abortion. Title X dollars must go to clinics that provide real family planning services. The more money abortion clinics receive, the less money is available for complete healthcare clinics that provide true preventive care, particularly those clinics in rural and underserved communities. Women and families seeking real preventive care are harmed when taxpayer money, that is intended to help them, is used by abortion providers to take life.

Like you, we are unapologetically prolife and support funding that truly empowers families to make healthy choices while receiving comprehensive preventive healthcare. This is why we strongly urge the HHS to adopt the new “Protect Life Rule”.

Visit our Action Center today and thank Secretary Alex Azar and President Trump for restoring prolife protections to the Title X program.

Your quick help is needed to urge President Trump to take an action that would end a portion (about $60 million) of taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood. Coincidentally, 60 million is also the approximate number of abortions in America since 1973 – a number that Planned Parenthood has added to more than any other abortion business.

Please click here to go to our Action Center and send your email in just seconds.  

Or for more info, read on …

Last week, Family Policy Alliance joined with other pro-life organizations in submitting a letter urging the Trump Administration to revise Title X regulations.

For far too long, the Title X Family Planning Program has been integrated with abortion centers.  Thus, the unified pro-life groups told the president that it is time to act swiftly to disentangle abortion centers from the Title X network.  Doing so would reinstate President Ronald Reagan’s Title X regulations and would be consistent with President Trump’s pledge to defund Planned Parenthood and reallocate funding to alternative providers.

But pro-abortion activism is intense in Washington, D.C., and President Trump and Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, need to know that they have the backing of thousands of American voters.

Will you join with us and make your voice heard today?

Thank you for taking action, and please pass this along to others as well!

The Family Policy Alliance Team

The Trump Administration proposed that life begins at conception. The opposition quickly declared that’s not a scientific statement, but a matter of belief.

In his Stoplight® commentary, Stuart Shepard asks a single question that brings it all into clarity. It’s a question you should ask yourself.

Thank you for sharing Stoplight with your friends.

Ask the President to nominate a Secretary of Health and Human Services who agrees that life begins at conception. It’s quick and easy to send a message through our Action Center

 

 

“Respecting the inherent dignity of persons from conception to natural death”: That’s just one way a draft policy by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) affirms a pro-life worldview.

The “HHS Strategic Plan, FY 2018-2022“contains multiple references to life beginning at conception. It recommends that department policy reflect that scientific fact.

During the Obama Administration, every new action by the White House seemed to decrease protections for preborn babies. And it sent billions of our tax dollars to organizations that promote or provide abortion – in the U.S. and overseas.

But the Trump Administration is weaving a culture of life back into the federal government.

“HHS accomplishes its mission,” the draft plan explains,” through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of 61 activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception.”

The HHS Strategic Plan sets the agency’s policy goals for the next four years. As well as affirming life, the Plan consistently acts to protect people of faith. It seeks to remove, “barriers for faith-based and other providers, in order to expand access to health care.”

The position for Secretary of HHS is currently vacant. It’s important to ensure that HHS continues to protect life through the selection of a someone who is firmly committed to pro-life values.

TAKE ACTION

Ask President Trump to nominate a defender of life to be Secretary of HHS. We’ve made it quick and easy to send a message through our Action Center.