News & Updates
Call Him Emmett
I like to start these broadcasts with a hook, a statement or some word that will get your attention and help you be drawn into the message. A lot of times, hooks are slightly funny or slightly exaggerated. The point is to draw you into the broadcast. But with every new undercover video that’s released about Planned Parenthood, it becomes impossible for me to say anything even a little bit funny. And as for slightly exaggerated, what’s left to exaggerate? They have been caught red handed selling body parts from aborted babies.
The newest video, recorded and released by the Center for Medical Progress – features Planned Parenthood and their partners in the fetal tissue gray market admitting on camera what they have never admitted before; “it’s a boy” and “it’s a baby”. Before, they always tried to hide behind terms like “tissue” and “potential”, but – not this time. When they don’t know that the camera is running, Planned Parenthood admits what the rest of us have known for decades, the victims of their procedures are babies.
One person suggested we name the aborted baby Emmett after Emmett Till, the 14 year old black boy who was beaten to death by a mob in 1955 in Mississippi. He was beaten beyond recognition yet his mother insisted on an open casket so that the world could see what those men had done to her son. The images of Emmett in that casket galvanized the Civil Rights movement and the same thing could happen here. The veil has been pulled back and the general public now sees for the first time what really goes on in the abortion industry. How can another human being saying, “oh, another boy” and then casually negotiate a price for his body – organ by organ, tissue by tissue?
And yet, as these horrors are exposed to the public eye for the first time – there are those who would rather shoot the messenger. A federal court in San Francisco decided that the Center for Medical Progress should be forbidden in releasing their next video. The court issued a temporary restraining order to stop the video from coming out. Debating political issues is the very reason for which our Constitution protects free speech, contrary to the opinions of those on the left. The first amendment was not written to protect pornographers and public nudity, it was written so that no citizen of the United States should ever have their freedom of speech squelched by the government. But by a federal judiciary that can fabricate a constitutional right for same-sex marriage out of thin air, we should not be surprised at bad rulings.
Now while the elites are celebrating, a new so called “right” that is nowhere in the Constitution, they trample like cattle on the rights that actually are in the Constitution.
I should tell you something about Planned Parenthood, they only believe that they can win the debate if they use the force of law to prevent their opponents from speaking. In other words, they know they can only win if no one is allowed to speak the truth.
We will never stop speaking the truth, we remain confident that the rest of the Planned Parenthood undercover videos will see the light of the day and we’ll help publicize them so that the pro-family citizens can take action. It’s time to defund Planned Parenthood and it’s time to kick them out of our schools.
Investigate and Defund
Let me preface today’s broadcast by saying that I always regret when we have to talk about abortion, because I know there are families with young children who may be listening. But this week, how can we talk about anything else?
Two videos have recently been released, exposing Planned Parenthood officials discussing taking money in exchange for organs and tissue from aborted babies. They’re shocking and horrifying. To listen to them coldly negotiating a price for aborted baby parts simply boggles the mind.
Let’s put all the cards on the table. The videos reveal officials of Planned Parenthood discussing how they can extract liver, heart, and lung tissue from an aborted baby. Then they show these officials discussing how much money they will get in exchange for that.
And evidence that accompanies the video clearly states that it’s a financially profitable arrangement for clinics. One Planned Parenthood executive even wants to call the other Planned Parenthood clinics to see how much money they receive before settling on a price. So, it’s reasonable to conclude that Planned Parenthood makes a profit from harvesting body parts from aborted children.
Federal law prohibits selling organs for profit.
In other words, to all appearances, there is at least a possibility that federal law has been violated.
When the law may have been broken, the appropriate response is an investigation. And since Planned Parenthood receives federal funding, our U.S. Senate and Congress have a duty to do exactly that. At the Montana Family Foundation, we are calling on them to do their duty. We believe Planned Parenthood should be investigated and, if the results show what we believe they will show, they should be defunded and people should go to jail.
No more federal funds should go to an organization that
sells the body parts of aborted babies for profit.
We hope you’ll be willing to join us in this call. We have created a convenient form to help Montana families contact their U.S. Senators and Congressman. You can use it to call for the investigation and defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Simply click HERE and you’ll be taken to a form you can fill out. With just a few keystrokes and clicks, you can tell your representative and Senators that the time has come to defund Planned Parenthood.
This campaign has already produced results. Yesterday, Senator Steve Daines signed a letter urging an investigation. In less than a week, one of our three members of Congress has taken action thanks to you. Now, we need to keep up the pressure. Representative Zinke and Senator Tester must sign as well. Please, use the form to contact your Senators and Congressman. You can be a voice for change. We need your help, but it’s not just us who need you -the victims of Planned Parenthood need your help as well.
Selling body parts of aborted babies is horrifying. It’s illegal to do for profit. A Congressional investigation is not enough, but it is a first step. It will take your input to make that first step happen. Please join us in calling on Congress to investigate.
School Choice At Last!
Each year, for whatever reason, nearly 2000 kids drop out of Montana Public Schools. If your student needs a change from public school, we may have a solution.
One of the Montana Family Foundation’s major victories in the 2015 Legislative Session was a breakthrough on school choice. We worked to pass tax credit scholarships, which made it all the way through the process and became law. It created a $150 tax credit when someone donates to a scholarship fund for kids to go to private school.
What does that mean for you? Maybe your student could benefit from private school. Maybe you have a son or daughter who just isn’t reaching their full potential in public school, and you’d like to try a private one. But private school is expensive, especially when you’re already paying the heavy property tax burden that funds public schools.
This new program, which is a private sector solution to a public sector problem, will make more financial aid available. Scholarship and grant programs like them will become better funded. You’d be surprised how many scholarship opportunities there are for private school in Montana, and this new law should make that number grow.
For example, there’s the ACE Scholarship organization which grants $2,000 scholarships to more than 50 private schools in Montana, and they’re already providing financial aid to more than 500 students. And now that donors can get a tax credit, expect those amounts to increase.
Tax credit scholarships are only the beginning of the benefits that Montana could be seeing from school choice. During the Legislature, we tried to pass Education Savings Accounts, a bigger tax credit than the $150 allowed in SB 410, and charter schools. Every one of those would make it easier for parents in Montana to send their kids to a different school. Unfortunately they ran into fierce opposition from the education establishment and either died in the process or were vetoed by the governor.
But when it comes to helping Montana families educate their children, any victory is better than nothing. And for years, nothing is all we could get. The teachers’ union is so adamantly opposed to school choice that it’s been a long haul to get even the $150 tax credit contained in SB 410. And when you’re trying to pay for your child’s education, every little bit helps.
Even now, the state Department of Revenue and Office of Public Instruction are organizing the system that will implement this $150 tax credit for scholarship donations, and the Montana Family Foundation is actively working to influence the outcome in the most positive way possible for families.
You and people like you are the ones who made this victory possible. During the Legislative session, dozens of pro-family Montanans came to the capitol to lobby on behalf of school choice bills. Many listeners to this broadcast were on the front line and I want to thank you for that.
Today, we’re seeing the results. You can expect an increase in the amount of financial aid money that’s available for Montana kids to go to private school. And these are private dollars, not public tax dollars, so they didn’t increase the budget. That’s a victory that came directly from informed citizens choosing to play a role in their government. These tax credit scholarships will be available in the beginning of 2016 and we’ll keep you posted on the progress. I hope you’ll continue to stay informed and take action. We need parents helping shape our state’s school policy because education is far too important to be left to the bureaucrats.
God Bless America
My country right or wrong?
I know some Americans who are having a hard time this Fourth of July. With our Supreme Court having just made such an historic error, which put our country on the wrong side of God’s word, the Fourth of July becomes different for some.
Perhaps there are people reading who are deeply discouraged that our nation has redefined marriage away from what God says it is. Perhaps there are some who find it harder, this Fourth of July, to sing, “God shed his grace on thee.” Perhaps encouraging God to “Stand beside her, and guide her,” is harder.
Maybe today there are some readers who even struggle with the fourth verse of our national anthem, written during the war of 1812: “And this be our motto, in God is our trust.”
For those who feel that way, I have some good news!
We live in a great and resilient nation, and the future is bright. Our nation was founded by men called forth by God for that specific purpose. This country was forged for the very purpose of enduring trials, and often trials of our own making.
When we began, the unchristian evil of slavery was written into our constitution by American hands. Yet this nation rose above it. That same constitution once did not allow women to vote, yet this nation rose above it.
As a nation, we make mistakes. America is made of human beings, after all, and we live in a fallen world. But that does not make America a mistake.
This great nation has been through tragic errors before. We will survive this one too, and we will rise above it.
And so we remember, when we sing God Bless America, that it’s not just a prayer that God stand beside her and guide her. That famous lines conclude with words that mean more today than they have for most of our lives.
God bless America. Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with the light from above.
The decision redefining marriage has given me much cause for prayer this week. Like you, I am sad to see my country do something so wrong. But with you, I am determined to help my country make things right.
Tomorrow, the Fourth of July, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of independence. It is the document that created the United States as a separate country. It is also a document that contains the truth that the secular left fears:
Our rights come only from our creator.
The Supreme Court cannot create new rights. Nor can the government. Five unelected people cannot change the fundamental character of a nation founded by appeal to God, no more than they can change the fundamental character of an institution created by God.
Today, we celebrate the declaration of independence. In that famous document, the founders appealed to the “Supreme Judge of the World.” They declared themselves reliant on “divine providence.”
So, too, may we.
In this America of the 21st century, every one of us should place our trust, just as the founders did, in divine providence. We should trust that we certainly are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. And we should use those rights every day to advocate for a better America. There is no better way to celebrate the Fourth.
Most of all, this Fourth of July, we should not fear to say, sing, and pray what our countrymen have for generations.
God Bless America.
I am confident that he will.
The Court Got It Wrong
Today the Montana Family Foundation denounced the Supreme Court’s ruling and vowed that the battle for marriage is not over.
Jeff Laszloffy, President of the Montana Family Foundation, said, “The court got it wrong, pure and simple, just as they did when they upheld slavery in Dred Scott and, as some would argue, more recently in Citizens United.”
Laszloffy authored and the Montana Family Foundation led the effort to pass Montana’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. In 2004, 67 percent of Montana voters voted in favor of that amendment.
He went on to say “The narrow 5-4 ruling proves that the Supreme Court is as divided on the issue as the people of the United States. When the vast majority of states, as diverse as California and Montana, vote to uphold traditional marriage only to be overruled by 5 unelected judges, something has gone terribly wrong with our country.”
Laszloffy also said, “Marriage connects children to both of their biological parents to provide the best possible situation for the child. Same-sex marriage enshrines, for the first time in our history, the idea that either a mom or dad is irrelevant. This point was made eloquently in an amicus brief filed in the case by the children of same-sex couples. Although they love their parents, they begged the court not to redefine marriage because kids need a mom and a dad.”
Laszloffy acknowledged disappointment with the decision, but he said the focus should be on the positive. “Just as in Dred Scott and more recently with Roe v. Wade, public opinion eventually won out and negated the court’s decision. This is a short term detour. When the full effect of this decision on children and families is finally realized, America will reverse course and reinstate marriage in its traditional form.”
He concluded by stating, “We know the struggle to defend the bedrock institution of society isn’t over. The Montana Family Foundation is committed to working for marriage and religious freedom for as long as it takes.”