FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—An organization headed by former Vice President Mike Pence will release its “Future of Freedom” agenda on Friday morning ahead of the 51st annual March for Life.
Advancing American Freedom’s agenda, first obtained by The Daily Signal, outlines 16 pieces of pro-life legislation for lawmakers to support, bills intended to go on offense against President Joe Biden’s administration’s efforts to target the pro-life movement following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Roe v. Wade was sent to the ash heap of history, where it belongs, but the fight for life forges on,” Pence told The Daily Signal. “The Biden administration will stop at nothing to advance abortion on demand, but we will not grow weary in defending the pro-life movement. This battle remains the calling of our time. Defending life is defending the future of our nation. Our movement, based on compassion for the mother and her unborn child, will keep working every day to ensure life keeps winning in America.”
The legislation that AAF is promoting is focused on protecting pro-life organizations from the Department of Justice, protecting pregnancy resource centers from violence and vandalism, and fighting back against the threat to cut Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding to pro-life groups.
That last effort comes in response to the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ attempt to take TANF funding away from pregnancy resource centers.
“This is blatant government targeting, and it is wholly unconstitutional,” Pence wrote in December.
“Unfortunately,” he warned, “the TANF proposal is also just a part of a wider assault on the pro-life movement by the Biden administration. Since the overturning of Roe, the Biden administration has gone out of its way to circumvent state laws banning abortion while slow-walking investigations into the attacks on pregnancy resource centers and pro-life groups across the country.”
“The Future of Freedom” list of legislative proposals specifically includes protections for unborn babies who can feel pain, such as the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act, sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
It also includes legislation protecting babies born alive in botched abortions, such as the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
In light of the Biden administration’s use of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to prosecute pro-life individuals, such as Mark Houck, Advancing American Freedom’s list also includes the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2023, sponsored by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
“For all the time that we have and all of my days that remain on this Earth, I will always stand for life, and
I’ll always stand with each and every one of you,” Pence said in his “Life is Winning” speech in 2020, remarks quoted in the agenda. “That’s my solemn promise.”
“And it’s not just about each one of you,” he added. “I know what all of you know as well: That He who said, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you’ is about life. And we do well in this movement to always remind ourselves that when we make the cause for life our cause, we make His work on this Earth our very own.”
“So, do not grow weary in doing well, because in the last four years, we’ve shown when men and women of faith and conviction come together to stand up for the unborn, to speak out for the voiceless, life can win in America,” he added. “And with your help and God’s help, life will keep on winning.”
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