Funding Abortion Giant Will Do Nothing to Prevent Spread of Zika

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, Senate Democrats again rejected bipartisan legislation funding the response to and prevention for the Zika virus. For the third time, pro-abortion Democrats have prioritized their “war on women messaging” and Planned Parenthood funding over addressing the Zika public health crisis.

As the fiscal year deadline looms, speculation has mounted as to the Zika funding being included in a continuing resolution to fund the government.

“Pro-life Senators would be making a grave mistake to yield to abortion advocates and the Democratic party,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “Capitulating to our nation’s largest abortion provider on issues of public health sets a dangerous precedent. Even the President’s initial Zika funding plan did not include earkmarks for Planned Parenthood, which is what the pro-abortion Senate Democrats are seeking to include.

“Planned Parenthood has a vested interest in promoting abortion; their solution to fighting Zika includes abortion advocacy while disregarding the positive, medical work being done by groups like Florida State University in seeking an actual cure to Zika. Victims of the Zika virus deserve unbiased, real healthcare during this critical moment. The community health centers that provide both prenatal and pediatric care are the true providers that are on the frontlines of fighting the Zika virus and providing healthcare to women and babies.”

“We applaud Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for staying the course and focusing on health care for Zika elimination.”

For more information, please contact Brendan Bradley with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at

(703) 739-5920 or bbradley@sbpublicaffairs.com.

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This Sunday, September 4th, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta will be officially declared a saint in the Catholic Church. In an op-ed for the Washington Times, March for President Jeanne Mancini reflects on Mother Teresa’s life and legacy, writing: “Perhaps more than ever before, our culture needs what Mother Teresa’s life taught us: love and respect. “

OP-ED: Canonizing Mother Teresa for her exaltation of life

From the op-ed: “The life’s work of Mother Teresa and its universal recognition across the globe allowed her a unique platform to speak about the truth she had learned and lived in love for human life. To the chagrin of the politically correct audience before her when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, Mother Teresa she spoke about abortion as the most serious level of poverty that a culture could encounter:

‘And I feel one thing I want to share with you all, the greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other? To me the nations who have legalized abortion, they are the poorest nations. They are afraid of the little one, they are afraid of the unborn child, and the child must die because they don’t want to feed one more child, to educate one more child, the child must die.'”

Mother Teresa’s canonization is just what our culture needs. In just a few months, our nation will elect a new president. So many of us long for a better environment, culture of life, a culture of love — but are confused about how to bring that about amidst such a confusing and difficult political and cultural season.

We can begin by taking our cue from this remarkably brave and loving woman, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her profound understanding and radical living out of the truth about the inherent dignity of the human person.

WATCH: Jeanne Mancini discussing Mother Teresa on EWTN News Nightly >>>

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WASHINGTON, DC – On Monday, pro-life hero, cultural conservative activist and icon Phyllis Schlafly died at her home in St. Louis, according to a spokesman for the Eagle Forum political group she founded.

“Today the pro-life movement lost a hero, Phyllis Schlafly,” said Tom McClusky, vice president of government affairs for the March For Life Education & Defense Fund. “Mrs. Schlafly not only helped the Republican Party become pro-life in the 1980s, but spent the remainder of her life ensuring it remained so. I was honored to be trained to work on the platform under Phyllis’ wing and was able to witness first-hand how she fought to maintain its pro-life status.  It is fitting that the current platform has the strongest pro-life policies ever.”

Many Americans learned of Mrs. Schlafly through her almost single-handed defeat of the misnamed Equal Rights Amendment, which would have given abortion a more settled right in the U.S. Constitution as opposed to where it still stands today, on a decision of judicial activism.

“Phyllis Schlafly made a life defending the values of the country she loved so much,” said McClusky. “We are a better nation thanks to the work of Phyllis Schlafly – she was a role model for conservatives of all ages and stripes. We are praying for her family.”

For more information, or to schedule an interview with Mr. McClusky, please contact Brendan Bradley at bbradley@sbpublicaffairs.com or (703) 739-5920.

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Ahead of Saturday’s canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, March for Life President Jeanne Manini had an op-ed published in the Washington Times on Mother Teresa’s life and legacy.

Canonizing Mother Teresa for her exaltation of life

Hillary’s encounter for a future saint didn’t quench her passion for abortion

“Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.”

These moving words from Mother Teresa’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1997, a few months before her death, epitomized the deeply personal empathy the world came to admire her for during her lifetime. As we prepare to celebrate her canonization however, it is almost impossible to ignore the contrast between her message of love and life and a political culture that asks Americans to revel in abortion.

“I wanted a family but it was the wrong time,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America as she joyfully spoke to the Democratic National convention floor before a national audience in July. Rather than pleas for consideration and mercy, we are now subject to mainstream politics that asks women to “shout” their abortions as a normal and even positive action.

It has been said that the Holy Spirit raises up certain public saints, with a particular gift for a specific moment in history. Against the backdrop of having lost 57 million Americans to abortion since it was legalized in the United States, living in a culture where HBO runs a series aimed at normalizing abortion, and facing a presidential candidate who once said abortion should be safe, legal and rare now advocating abortion on demand at any time in pregnancy paid for by taxpayer dollars, our “shout your abortion” world needs the antidote of Mother Teresa’s gift of love and human dignity more than ever.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta understood the inherent dignity of the human person in a profound way. She saw Christ in every person she encountered — from the president of the United States to the addicted, sick, elderly person dying in one of the shelters she founded. She had the habit of pausing whenever she greeted anyone because she was greeting Christ in the person first. Her heart ached for the poor. She sought to satiate what she believed was God’s thirst by loving the poor. Interestingly this saint wasn’t known for being “nice” — certainly not politically correct — but rather for being radically faithful to God and her call to love the poorest of the poor, even when that meant conflict and challenge. She did not mince words and was single-focused in her mission.http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/31/canonizing-mother-teresa-for-her-exaltation-of-lif/

>>>> Click HERE to read the rest of the op-ed.

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Political Normalization of Abortion at Odds with Universal Message of Love

ALEXANDRIA, VA – On September 4, 2016, Blessed Mother Teresa will become an official canonized saint of the Catholic church, “St. Teresa of Calcutta” in ceremony led by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.

“Mother Teresa is one of my personal heroes. I am incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to volunteer in Calcutta with her sisters, and on one occasion to have met Mother Teresa,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “Against the backdrop of having lost 57 million Americans to abortion since it was legalized in the United States, and living in a culture where one of our presidential candidates now advocates for abortion on demand at any time in pregnancy, paid for by taxpayer dollars, the world is in desperate need of Mother Teresa’s message of love and respect for human dignity more than ever.”

“On September 4th, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta will be officially declared a saint in the Catholic church. A few months later, American voters will elect a new president. So many of us long for a better environment, culture of life, a culture of love — but are confused about how to bring that about amidst such a confusing and difficult political and cultural season. We can begin by taking our cue from this remarkably brave and loving woman, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her profound understanding and radical living out of the truth about the inherent dignity of the human person.”

Background information: In 1997, Mother Teresa spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. With Hillary Clinton in attendance as First Lady, Mother Teresa shared the following remarks with the crowd: “Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.” Mother Teresa also took the opportunity to speak one on one with Mrs. Clinton about why she was wrong on abortion. Unfortunately, since that time, the Democratic Party’s stance has only moved further in the pro-abortion direction.

Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, is available for comment on this story.

To schedule an interview, please contact Brendan Bradley with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs

at (703) 739-5920 or  bbradley@sbpublicaffairs.com.

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It’s not even Labor Day yet, but the 2016 campaign is already in full swing. To get the best understanding of where each political party stands on abortion, you can check out the party platforms.

• Democrat Platform
• Libertarian Platform
• Republican Platform

>>>> Read Jeanne Mancini’s op-ed in the Hill comparing the party platform’s stances on abortion.

As we get closer to Election Day and one must analyze the claims and promises made by candidates about abortion, it’s also important to know where the American people stand on abortion.

In a recent op-ed, March for Life President Jeanne Mancini provides some helpful data from Marist Polling, which is relied on by groups including NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and McClatchy Corporation.

A July 18^th Marist poll revealed that the strong majority of Americans want restrictions on abortion, including 78% of Americans who would essentially limit the procedure to the first three months of pregnancy. Additionally, the American people are at odds with the recent Supreme Court Decision in Whole Women’s Health, 78% of Americans believe abortion clinics should meet the same standards as other surgery centers, and 70% percent of Americans want doctors who perform abortions to be required to have hospital admitting privileges. Last, 62% of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortions (i.e., they support the Hyde Amendment).

>>>> Read the full Op-Ed, The Democrat Party’s Radical New Abortion Stance Could Cost Hillary the Election 

These infographics illustrate the Marist polling. Please share on social media to promote the truth about what the American people truly think about abortion!

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March for Life President Jeanne Mancini had an op-ed published in the Daily Caller regarding the radical abortion platform adopted by the Democrat Party.

The Democratic Party’s Radical New Abortion Stance Could Cost Hillary The Election.

“I wanted a family but it was the wrong time,” proclaimed Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America as she joyfully “shouted her abortion” at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. As the dust settles after the DNC and we race towards November 8th, it’s critical for independent pro-life Americans to review the newly adopted radical stance on abortion in the same party’s platform, which includes seeking unlimited taxpayer funding of abortion by eliminating the Hyde Amendment.

More than 57 million lives that have been lost and hurt because of abortion in the United States since it was legalized in 1973. To quote Carl Anderson, current head of the Knights of Columbus, “what political issue could possibly outweigh this human devastation?”

Viewers watching the Democratic Convention in late July likely noticed that what once was considered the social justice party is now more aptly called the abortion party. The DNC schedule featured Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, and Hollywood abortion advocates including Tony Goldwyn and Elizabeth Banks. These speakers and others sought to normalize and de-stigmatize abortion, and adopt a party platform that advocates abortion moving from “safe, legal and rare” to “unlimited, without apology, and paid for by tax dollars.”

The Democratic Party would have done well to pay attention to a major opinion poll released the week of their convention. Marist Polling is relied on by groups including NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and McClatchy Corporation.  The July 18th Marist poll revealed that the strong majority of Americans want restrictions on abortion, including 78% of Americans who would essentially limit the procedure to the first three months of pregnancy. Additionally, the American people are at odds with the recent Supreme Court Decision in Whole Women’s Health, 78% of Americans believe abortion clinics should meet the same standards as other surgery centers, and 70% percent of Americans want doctors who perform abortions to be required to have hospital admitting privileges. Last, 62% of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortions (i.e., they support the Hyde Amendment).

In short, the Marist Poll showed that when it comes to issues of abortion policy, the Democratic Platform is totally out of touch with mainstream America.

Perhaps the most egregious aspect of the platform is eliminating the prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion known as the Hyde Amendment. Named for Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois, originally passed in 1976, the Amendment is annually included in the appropriations bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. It prohibits use of taxpayer funds for abortion for Medicaid recipients, thereby reducing the incidence of abortion by a staggering 20-35% every year.

Until this summer the Hyde Amendment was considered an uncontroversial, bipartisan, popular public policy. Even Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine was known to support the Hyde Amendment – until being named to the 2016 ticket, after which his stance became confusing at best. Perhaps emboldened by the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the ensuing abortion-related court decisions issued in late June, Democrats have moved into a full court press mode on abortion policy and ending the Hyde Amendment is a top priority, despite the fact that this is not appealing to mainstream American voters.

What’s an independent pro-lifer to do?

In contrast, the 2016 Republican Party had adopted one of the most pro-life platforms ever written in our nation’s history.  Included is a commitment to appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court; a promise to defend and protect conscience rights for pro-lifers who are appallingly being forced to cooperate in abortion; and even a section on defunding our nation’s largest abortion provider.

This November, will Americans vote to increase the rate of abortion (and its often unspoken wounds) by an enormous 20-35% every year? Will they vote to continue to try normalize the termination of innocent life because “we had three kids, that was enough,” to quote Cecile Richards as she explained her abortion. I pray not. For those working through real issues of conscience this election, the human devastation of abortion and its cultural consequences cannot be ignored.

Jeanne Mancini was has served as President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund since 2012, directing the small non-profit organization committed to restoring a culture of life in the United States, most notably through the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., held on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

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Washington, D.C. – Last Friday, HBO Documentary Films released Abortion: Stories Women Tell in six U.S. cities. The film aims to shed “new light on the contentious issue with a focus not on the debate, but rather on the women themselves.”

“The production and promotion behind Abortion: Stories Women Tell is a disturbing attempt to glamourize abortion into the mainstream of American culture,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “In reality, when a woman is facing an unexpected pregnancy she might believe that abortion will ‘erase’ the life of her growing child and thereby solve her problems. But the truth is that once life is conceived it can’t be erased, only taken, and because of this countless women profoundly regret choosing abortion. Abortion advocates have moved steadily away from the mantra ‘safe, legal and rare’ to ‘unlimited, without apology, and paid for by tax dollars.’ Women will bear the emotional and physical costs of this calculated effort to try to normalize a sad, violent, and un-natural procedure. Hopefully viewers will walk away with that in mind, but equally pitting the reality of that suffering against ‘positive’ abortion stories is a dubious muddling of the truth.”

The March for Life in Washington, D.C., began as a small demonstration on January 22, 1974, the first anniversary of the now-infamous Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton and rapidly grew to be the largest pro-life event in the world.  The peaceful demonstration that has followed on this somber anniversary every year since is a witness to the truth concerning the greatest human rights violation of our time, abortion.

Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education & Defense Fund is available for commentary. For more information, please contact Brendan Bradley at bbradley@SBPublicAffairs.com or (703) 739-5920.

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Today is National Bump Day and moms-to-be are posting their pregnancy pictures on social media to celebrate their “baby bumps.” We love it! Every life is a miracle and being a mother is a tremendous blessing. Check out some of the sweet pictures we’ve compiled below!

The advocacy day is an effort to help raise awareness about the need for maternal health care worldwide and is a joint effort among maternal health organizations. It’s organized by the What to Expect Foundation, the brand behind the popular and widely read “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” guide.

Conspicuously absent from the awareness campaign are abortion advocacy groups, like Planned Parenthood, our nation’s largest abortion provider, and NARAL Pro-Choice America, the group credited with making abortion legal in the early 1970s. Although these groups tout themselves as leaders in women’s health issues, the health of pregnant women seems to be less of a priority judging by their absence in the Bump Campaign.

I guess it isn’t surprising considering that Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the entire abortion industry refuse to acknowledge what is obvious to our culture – an unborn baby is a human being. And at the March for Life, we know that every life is a gift and that every person possesses inherent dignity.

We don’t know the opinions on abortion of every woman posting a #babybump picture today, but everyone can agree about the love they feel and display for their growing baby.

National Bump Day illustrates the contradictory and even outright discriminatory nature of abortion. Our culture says that a wanted baby is one that deserves protection and that every health precaution should be taken to protect his or her life. But what if the baby is unplanned or unwanted? Sadly, instead of providing support for the mother to help carry the baby to term and possibly choose adoption or find other resources necessary to provide for that precious person within her, groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood actively advocate that a woman has the moral right to “eliminate” the pregnancy, just because she wants to. At least that’s how NARAL and the abortion lobby have tried to indoctrinate our society.

The President of NARAL, Ilyse Hogue, is a prime example of this mindset. At the Democrat Convention last week, Hogue spoke passionately about the abortion she had before she wanted children in her life, as well as the children she had later in life when she was ready for a family. The abortion worldview is about “making decisions that are best for us” versus seeing every life as a gift and pregnancy as a blessing and beautiful responsibility.

>>>> During the Super Bowl, NARAL complained that a commercial showing an ultrasound was “humanizing” a fetus.

It’s wonderful to see social media efforts like National Bump Day because they draw attention to the inherent truth that pregnant women are caring for new life in the womb. Their bodies aren’t displaying a “bump” because of a “clump of cells” but rather because miraculously, a unique human being is growing and developing inside his or her mother’s body. Every bump, planned or unplanned, is the beginning of new life. And for that, each one should be supported and celebrated.

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Washington, D.C. – Friday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed the SB 1554 legislation that amends the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act to require health care providers to promote abortion even if it contradicts their religious or moral beliefs. The legislation will force pro-life doctors to refer their patients to clinics and providers that are willing to perform abortion procedures, and was passed narrowly in the Illinois House on strictly partisan lines. Jeanne Mancini, President of March for Life Education and Defense Fund, has provided the following comment on the controversial bill:

“By signing this radical bill into law, Illinois Governor Rauner is literally forcing medical experts to defy their consciences on an issue as important as being pro-life. This is blatant discrimination, and this law will have a negative impact on the quality of the medical community,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “As more and more states, from California to New York and now Illinois, continue to attack the conscience rights of health care professionals and providers we call on the U.S. Senate to pass the Conscience Protection Act, which has already passed the House. Forcing health care providers to violate their consciences on the issue of life is deplorable, un-American and must be stopped.”

The March for Life in Washington, D.C., began as a small demonstration on January 22, 1974, the first anniversary of the now-infamous Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton and rapidly grew to be the largest pro-life event in the world. The peaceful demonstration that has followed on this somber anniversary every year since is a witness to the truth concerning the greatest human rights violation of our time, abortion.

Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education & Defense Fund is available for commentary. For more information, please contact Andrew Shirley at Ashirley@SBPublicAffairs.com or (703) 739-5920.

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