Pro-Life Legislators Call For Extension of Mexico City Policy
WASHINGTON - Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Steve Daines (R-MT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Braun (R-IN), John Thune (R-SD), James Inhofe (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tim Scott (R-SC), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) along with Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and 39 other representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday asking the administration to expand the “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” policy, formerly known as the Mexico City Policy, to address domestic non-government organizations (NGOs) that receive federal foreign assistance.
“The administration’s ban on funding overseas organizations that promote abortion has already saved and will continue to save countless lives across the globe,” Sen. Lee said. “President Trump and Secretary Pompeo have already demonstrated their willingness to step up to the plate in defense of innocent life here at home with protections put in place for Title X funding. We encourage the administration to hold domestic NGOs to the same standard in foreign assistance they are held to in Title X funding. Domestic NGOs should have to maintain physical and financial separation from abortion-related activities within federally funded programs.”
“As it stands, the United States is the largest provider of global health funding, and it’s imperative that federal funds for health care are used to preserve and protect the sanctity of human life,” Rep. Foxx said. Our position is clear: domestic NGOs must adhere to the same accountability measures outlined in Title X as they would if they received federal foreign assistance. If they choose to actively subvert these rules and engage in activities that support the termination of human life, their eligibility for taxpayer dollars should be forfeited.”
“Taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be sent to foreign countries to perform abortions,” Sen. Daines said.
“The Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy communicates the imperative that we hold children harmless in our family planning programs throughout the world,” Rep. Smith said. “Domestic NGOS must not serve as a trojan horse for the global abortion industry. It only makes sense to apply the same standards of protection for taxpayer funds to domestic NGOs as those that are applied to foreign NGOs.”
The letter also asks that the State Department require U.S. NGOs to certify that, during the term of any award for US funding, their foreign NGO subgrantees will not perform abortion as a method of family planning and it will not refer, train for, or counsel on abortion as a method of family planning.
The full text of the letter and an online version of this release can be found here.
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Trump right to contest prophets of environmental doom
By Dr. Jay Lehr & Tom Harris
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump called for a rejection of "predictions of the apocalypse." Completely at odds with the warning by 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg at the same meeting that the world "is currently on fire," Trump told the world's decision-makers said that this is a time for optimism, not pessimism.
Trump is right, of course. No where is this better demonstrated than in America where proper environmental protection has been going on for the past half-century.
1968 began a major legislative effort by scientists to bring knowledge of our environment to bear on procedures and regulations that could staunch the unnecessary outpouring of industrial, municipal and domestic waste into the air we breathe, the water we drink and swim in, the water wells we pump from and the soil in which we grow our food.
Between 1972 and 1980, Congress passed a safety net of environmental laws that adequately protected every medium of our environment. They spawned an environmental improvement and protection program during the ensuing two decades that became the most successful grass roots, self-improvement program in our nation’s history.
Today, the United States enjoys its cleanest environment ever, and by any measure, the best in the world.
The air in every major city in America has vastly improved as contaminants such a sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, lead, turbidity and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have declined dramatically and continue to do so. The EPA asserts, while showing the below graph, “This progress occurred while the U.S. economy continued to grow, Americans drove more miles and population and energy use increased.”
“Between 1970 and 2018, the combined emissions of the six common pollutants (PM2.5 and PM10, SO2, NOx, VOCs, CO and Pb) dropped by 74 percent.” – Environmental Protection Agency.
Most of our rivers and streams are now fishable and swimmable. The Cuyahoga River, near Cleveland, which caught fire in June of 1968, now abounds with pleasure boats and fishing boats. Likewise, the Hudson River in New York State, a veritable sewer in the 1970s, is clean and beautiful again.
You do not often read or hear this great American success story because the environmental movement has been co-opted by left-leaning organizations. It is now controlled by individuals and groups with hidden agendas that barely involve our air, water and soil. These people use the environmental concerns of the public to oppose capitalism, suppress individual rights, and enlarge government. Trump summed up the situation well in Davos:
"These alarmists always demand the same thing - absolute power to dominate, transform and control every aspect of our lives."
Their willing co-conspirators are most of the main stream news media, which has long known that bad news sells best, and the major environmental advocacy groups who package and sell fear to a willing public, apparently genetically wired to believe in the worst outcomes.
Our technology is constantly able to measure ever smaller concentrations of contaminants in our air and water without explaining the virtual lack of impact such small concentrations have on human health. Fifty years ago, we were lucky to measure contaminants in parts per million. Now we regularly measure everything in parts per trillion which is the equivalent of one second in 32,000 years. Such concentrations are insignificant to our health regardless of the chemical of concern.
A short list of environmental myths would include conventional wisdom on the impact of global warming, ozone holes, radon, asbestos, electric transmission towers, cell phones, arsenic, nitrates, nuclear power, pesticides, fertilizers, and wood preservatives to name but a few. That is not to say that everything and anything cannot become dangerous at high enough concentrations. They certainly can, but not at the levels commonly set for us by the federal government or fear-mongered to us by environmental advocacy groups.
The battle against overzealous environmentalism will never end, and we may not win, but we must persist in attempting to convince all those in our sphere of influence that the preachers of doom and gloom are simply wrong. Their messages are based merely on political agendas or simple ignorance, rather than sound science. Bravo to President Trump for calling out the prophets of environmental doom.
Dr. Jay Lehr is Senior Policy Advisor with the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). Tom Harris is Executive Director of ICSC.
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January 23, 2020
Gubernatorial Candidates Address Students at Charter Day on the Hill
CONTACT: Gina James, Director of Communication 801-673-3327 • gina@utahcharters.org
Republican gubernatorial candidates, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, Thomas Wright, Aimee Newton Winder, Greg Hughes, Jon Huntsman, and Jeff Burningham will address over 500 students at Charter Day on the Hill. Celebrated during National School Choice Week, Charter Day on the Hill highlights public charter schools as the choice for 12% of students in Utah.
Monday, January 27, 2020, Event begins at 11am. Gubernatorial candidate addresses begin at 11:15am. Student performances begin at 12:30pm. Event concludes at 2pm.
Utah State Capitol Rotunda, 350 State St, Salt Lake City, UT 84103
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The Utah Association of Public Charter Schools (UAPCS) provides advocacy, training, and technical support to promote excellence in public charter schools throughout the state. UAPCS provides shared service benefits, annual charter school conference, and other events to support public charter schools. UAPCS membership includes the vast majority of public charter schools in Utah. For more information visit www.utahcharters.org.
News
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Colbert, Mikie on the Deep State, Maher, Guess Who Is Taking Credit for Repealing the Tax Plan? Kimmel, Cutting Social Security--Silence from Utah GOP
