David Copperfield’s most famous trick of all was when he made the Statue of Liberty disappear in front of a live audience in 1983. To pull off the trick, Copperfield raised a giant screen in front of the statue. When he dropped it, the statue was gone, and a helicopter camera crew showed spotlights passing through the vanished statue.
So how did Copperfield move the statue? He didn’t! He actually moved the audience instead. When the sheet was lifted, the stage the audience was standing on shifted to the right, blocking the statue from view. Loud music covered up the noise and vibration of the moving stage.
What was Copperfield’s reason for this particular trick? He explained that he wanted to make the 310-foot statue disappear to remind us all how precious liberty is and how easily it can be lost. He said, “I can show with magic how we take our freedom for granted, by making Lady Liberty disappear.” Copperfield was no prophet, but he was right about how we can easily we can lose our freedoms if we take them for granted.
Last year, unborn children lost their freedom as Rhode Island legislators passed an extreme abortion law that removed any of their legal protections. They did this even though reliable surveys showed 74 percent of Rhode Islanders were against late-term abortions.
That was bad enough, but now legislators want to force taxpayers to pay for those abortions. Identical bills in the House and Senate (H7618 & S2476) will provide for abortion coverage in the Medicaid program and repeal abortion coverage exclusions for state employee insurance plans.
What I also found interesting as I read this legislation was that there was another sleight of hand to conceal an injustice not just against the unborn but against the traditional family itself. Pregnancy has always been naturally associated with women, as only a woman can carry a child and give birth. And yet, throughout the legislation, wherever the word “woman” occurs it is crossed out and replaced by “person” – an obvious accommodation for women identifying as men. Don’t be fooled by the absurdity!
Please email your legislators and voice your opposition to taxpayer funded abortions. You can reach both your state senator and representative in just seconds on our Action Center, which will send the message to your legislators automatically, based on your address.
Finally, as this theater of the absurd continues in the culture around us, I invite you to join us for The Bible, Gender & Sexuality Seminar. You’ll be informed and energized – and you’ll get a discount if you register before April 10th.
Together we can make Rhode Island a state where God is Honored, Religious Freedom Flourishes, Families Thrive and Life is Cherished.
Sincerely,
Dave Aucoin
Chairman, Board of Advisors, Rhode Island
P.S. Please use the buttons below to share this alert with others in our state who oppose funding abortions with their tax dollars.
A few years ago, marriage was redefined. Now, some Rhode Island politicians want to redefine parenthood.
A bill before the House Judiciary Committee would do just that – turning parenthood into a sci-fi playground that is disconnected from biology.
Called the Parentage Act, H 7541 would, among other things:
- Divorce child birth from parentage, completely obliterating the definition of parent and child in natural law and biology – and making the family entirely a creature of state contract law;
- Allow sperm and egg donors to be secret, thus deliberately creating children who will never know a biological parent – unlike adoption, in which an already-existing child has need of a home;
- Allow commercial surrogacy, to a degree, as financial contracts could be entered into that would allow for limited payments to a woman for gestating and birthing a baby;
- Encourage the use of Artificial Reproduction Technology – in which many extra embryos are created and, in most cases, eventually killed – thus adding to the loss of pre-born babies in our state.
Please make your voice heard to Rhode Island legislators today. In just 30 seconds on our Action Center, you can send a message to all 16 members of the House Judiciary Committee, asking them to oppose this bill.
Ingenuity can be wonderful if directed in the right places. But we need to be careful that our ingenuity and innovative technology doesn’t cross a line into ethical areas reserved for God – or we may regret the unintended consequences.
Please speak up today – and then be sure to pass the word to other Rhode Islanders. Thank you!
Sincerely,
David Aucoin
Chairman, Board of Advisors – Rhode Island