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Monday November 1, 2010


AUL’s Saunders on U.S. Election: ‘It’s Going to be a Good Day Tuesday’

By John Jalsevac

OTTAWA, November 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “It’s going to be a good day Tuesday.” So said Bill Saunders, the Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs for Americans United for Life, to hundreds of attendees at the International Pro-Life Conference in Ottawa, Canada this past weekend, in reference to Tuesday’s mid-term elections in the U.S.

Saunders told the crowd that “honestly and truthfully, from a non-partisan, pro-life perspective,” he believes Tuesday’s elections promise to deliver heartening results for those anxious to stall the Democratic administration’s radical pro-abortion agenda.

“I think the Republican Party is going to have massive wins,” he said. “I think that it’s possible that it will be the biggest switch in U.S. history.”

Saunders noted that Republicans are likely to pick up as many as 55 seats in the House, passing control of the House firmly into the hands of that party. While he said the Senate race is less sure than the House, he also said Republicans are still likely to pick up at least 6 seats, and possibly even more, putting control of the Senate in the realm of the possible.

Despite the fact that “not all Republicans are pro-life,” the shift towards a Republican majority will lead to some “very significant differences,” he noted.

Such a change may be most immediately palpable in the battle over health care reform. Saunders pointed out that there are two bills that have been introduced in Congress that address the issue of abortion funding in health care reform – the “Protect Life Act” and the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” In reference to the latter bill, Saunders said that “the Republicans have pledged to pass that bill.”

“And if I’m right and if the Republicans take the House, one thing that will be insisted on by pro-life Americans is that they pass that bill,” he said.

On the question of whether Obama would veto such a piece of legislation, Saunders responded, “Well, Obama says that he doesn’t want abortion in healthcare reform. The only thing this law does is make that clear. It says no abortion in any part of health care. How is he going to stand up and veto a bill that says what he wanted to do? I don’t know.”

AUL Action has placed ads in the 12 congressional districts of, in Saunders’ words, those “so-called pro-life Democrats who voted for health care reform that included expansion of abortion, after having promised not to.”

“We have said if you want to call yourself pro-life you have to vote pro-life. If you don’t vote pro-life we’re going to place ads telling your constituents that you didn’t vote pro-life,” he said. According to Saunders, as many as 10 of those 12, and possibly more, will lose on Tuesday.

The leader also alluded to the central issue in AUL’s conflict with Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper of Pennsylvania, who criticized the group for stating that she voted for taxpayer-funded abortion by voting for the health care reform law – a claim Saunders called incontrovertibly true.

While it’s legitimate for Americans to debate the form health care should take, he said, “What’s not legitimate is to pretend that the reform as it was passed does not increase abortion. It does it drastically.”

In addition, if Republicans were to capture the Senate, Saunders noted that the majority could put roadblocks in the way of any radical Supreme Court appointment that Obama might have the opportunity to make.

Currently the Supreme Court is split 4-4 between those who are solidly pro-life and solidly pro-abortion, with a ninth justice, Justice Kennedy, acting as the “swing vote.” Were Obama to be given the opportunity to appoint another justice of his choice, the Court could tip solidly in the direction of pro-Roe v. Wade, delaying its repeal for an indefinite period of time.

“So a lot depends on whether President Obama is able to pick radical justices to place in the Supreme Court,” said Saunders. “And my point is that after Tuesday he’s not going to be able to do that, because however undependable the Republicans are, there’s going to be enough Republican votes, and enough conservative Democrats who are not going to vote for a radical.”

In his talk, Saunders also stressed the “essential” need for international cooperation among pro-life groups. In the event that Roe v. Wade were overturned, he explained, pro-abortion lawyers will immediately turn to international law to vouch for an international “right to abortion” – an argument Saunders said “our courts will be very tempted to buy.”

“I mock those terms,” said the lawyer. “Abortion is the negation of human rights.

“There can be no human rights of any kind if there’s a right to abortion, because abortion says that some human beings can be subject to lethal violence on behalf of other, more powerful human beings. And if that’s the case, there is no rule of law.”

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