Trent's Blog
Comments on Remarks Made by Congressman John Conyers at the SBA Frederick Douglass PreNDA Hearing
Posted By: Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union on December 8, 2011
Day Gardner, President of NBPLU, Eileen Macapanas Cosby, President of the Filipino Family Fund, Congressman Trent Franks, and Steven H. Aden, Alliance Defense Fund
I participated in the press conference with Congressman Trent Franks and attended the hearing held later in the afternoon.
What I found quite interesting was that media totally ignored the fact that I participated in the press conference representing thousands of blacks who also support PreNDA.
What I also found interesting were the remarks made by Representative John Conyers (D-MI) at the hearing.
Rep. Conyers seemed to have one main problem with the bill—it’s name. He insisted that he studied Frederick Douglass more than Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) which I thought was quite amusing and yet terribly insulting. How could he possibly know to what extent any of us, including Rep. Franks, studied Frederick Douglass? He then stated that he had never heard or read Frederick Douglass saying anything about prenatal nondiscrimination. If I were standing, I would have had to sit down for that one.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ life’s work was eradicating slavery--working to save and enrich the lives of all black people, men , women and children—so that they too, could enjoy that which we all are promised in America--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you read anything about Frederick Douglass you would know that he never said life and liberty should be only for those who were born already.
So, with regard to Mr. Conyers, this Frederick Douglass quote comes to mind: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Yes, I am suggesting that Rep. Conyers is a broken man in that he has most certainly forgotten what the “struggle” for civil rights was all about. His very broken soul has bought into the idea that more than anything else—it is age that decides if a man is a human being and deserving of life.
Day Gardner
President
202-834-0844
Franks in the News -- Week of 11/27/11
Posted By: Congressman Trent Franks on December 5, 2011
On February 11, 2011, Representative Trent Franks (R–AZ) introduced H.R. 668, the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage (SHIELD) Act.[23] The act essentially allows the FERC to enable emergency measures to protect the reliability of bulk-power systems and defense-critical electric infrastructure via directive of the President amid an imminent grid security threat. The act prescribes implementation procedures and cost-recovery measures. It also directs FERC to order the Electric Reliability Organization to submit reliability standards regarding these bulk-power systems from geomagnetic storms or EMPs.
A U.S. congressman has reintroduced legislation that would ban sex-selection or race-based abortions. Congressman Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican who is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, has brought back the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act.
One of the great shames in the battle against HIV/AIDS is the fact that the same conservatives who, statistically, give significantly more to charity than their liberal counterparts, with some notable exceptions, have been largely content to allow one of the greatest humanitarian crises in the world to be hijacked as an exclusively “liberal issue.”
Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks once again is pushing to outlaw abortions that are due to an unborn child’s race or sex, with legislation that would punish medical providers who perform abortions, or accept funding for abortions, based on those criteria.
A measure to protect the unborn from discriminatory race and sex-selective abortions by punishing medical providers of such procedures was re-introduced in the United States House of Representatives on Tuesday.
It only lasted for about an hour, but bipartisanship took hold in the House on Wednesday as lawmakers lined up in support of a measure to honor Gabe Zimmerman, the aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) who was killed in the Tucson shootings on Jan. 8.
There is little that is more tragic than when a baby is aborted merely because it is perceived to be the “wrong” gender or race. And yet, this exact scenario is playing out all over the world, including in the United States. In fact, the situation in the United States may be the worst of all, because it is happening in full compliance with the law.
The ACLJ applauds Congressman Franks for his heroic stand against race-based and gender-based abortions. We call on the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and President Obama to stand with 86% of the American people (from both sides of the abortion debate) and enact this common-sense legislation. It is time – at a minimum – for the U.S. to catch up with the international community on this basic human and civil rights issue.
Michele Bachmann earned her first congressional endorsement today, from a hard-line conservative in the pre-Super Tuesday state of Arizona.
Should someone’s race or sex determine whether or not they should live? Whether or not these things should matter, unfortunately they do: minority babies are aborted at five times the rate of white babies.
Some conservatives in the meeting balked at the ideas, and Boehner faces yet another uphill fight to persuade his members to compromise with Democrats. Republicans are facing intense pressure from the White House, which is accusing them of wanting to violate their party orthodoxy and allow a tax increase on working Americans.
