By Tim Von Dohlen

TRAVEL WITH GRANDSONS, GOOD PRO-LFE PROGRESS AND ALERT FOR DADS

June 26, 2017

Pat and I have just returned from a week-long trip with two high school graduate grandsons – Trey and Patrick Von Dohlen.  Both graduated with academic recognition.  We went to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.  It was very unusual to be in snow on June 15 and the Snake River was raging from the snow melt.  We were able to fly fish in the Firehole River in Yellowstone.  Very beautiful, but you had to be careful as the small geysers were along the trail and right next to the river as we were wade fishing.  The boys did very good to catch rainbow and brown trout.

There is so much misinformation going around.  We so badly need to come together as a people proud of our country and the efforts of our leadership to make our country stronger.  There is some good news on progress for the recognition of protecting human life, although having passed the House it still must pass the Senate.

There is good pro-life news in information provided by the Susan B. Anthony List as follows:
“On May 4, 2017, the House of Representatives passed a health care bill that defunds Planned Parenthood and contains Hyde Amendment protections to ensure that our tax dollars will no longer pay for abortions as they currently do under Obamacare.

The bill now heads to the Senate.  There are pro-abortion Republican Senators who will try to remove the provision defunding Planned Parenthood.  SBA List should we lose the Hyde protections, we will oppose the bill.  Taxpayer funding of abortion in a Republican health care bill is simply unacceptable.  There is a 15 member Senate work group of which both Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are participants.

In January 2017, President Trump by Executive Order reinstated the Mexico City Policy which requires non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to agree not to ‘perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.’

President Trump in May 2017 also directed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as follows:  I direct the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to the extent allowable by law, to implement a plan to extend the requirements of the reinstated Memorandum to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies.

I further direct the Secretary of State to take all necessary actions, to the extent permitted by law, to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

The State Department recently announced this new plan called “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” in which nearly $9 billion in global health assistance funds will be appropriated to the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.

There’s a reason the Department of Defense is in ALL CAPS. In previous versions of the Mexico City Policy, the funds only applied to family-planning assistance provided by USAID and the Department of State. That was roughly $600 million. Now, it’s much more expansive as the Trump administration applies the policy to a much wider pool of money ($8.8 billion) within federal agency programs and includes Department of Defense programs as well.

A White House official says there will be no impact on the total amount of federal funds allocated to health programs around the world. The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that refuse to agree to the pro-life, “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” guidelines will lose out on the money, but the funds will be given to other organizations that do comply.

No longer will America export abortion to foreign nations.

This is ultimately a winning issue for the Trump administration. A Marist Poll in January 2017 showed 83 percent of Americans oppose federal funding of overseas abortions.

The American Health Care Act (ACHA) seeks to repeal and replace major portions of Obamacare.  When enacted by Congress, Obamacare’s subsidies, provided in the form of tax credits, lacked Hyde Amendment protections to prevent taxpayer funding of health care plans (over 1,000 such plans) that include coverage for abortion on-demand under the guise of an accounting gimmick.
Under the House GOP bill, the AHCA, any funding that pays for medical services or subsidizes insurance coverage is covered by language imposing the Hyde principle that the government does not fund abortion.  As such, Americans will no longer be forced to pay for abortions in federally subsidized-health care.

However, these Hyde protections will have to withstand the scrutiny of the Senate Parliamentarian.  Should these Hyde protections be dropped from the bill, SBA List would be forced to oppose it, even if it defunds Planned Parenthood.  Americans should never be forced to pay for the abortions of others, especially in any plan being advanced by a pro-life majority Congress. The language in the bill that defunds Planned Parenthood of $400 million and instead funds community health centers is believed to be safe for inclusion in reconciliation.”

The public is not being adequately informed about all the good actions of the Trump administration to offset actions by the Obama administration to promote abortion and its actions that have led to a disintegration of the family.  The family – wife, husband and children — are the backbone of American society. 

I want to share with you some shocking statistics put together by the Family Research Council and reported in Reverend Bob Gass’s Word for Today on June 19, 2017 regarding “fatherless children”:

  • Up to 200% more likely to experience emotional and behavioral problems.
  • Two times more likely to use drugs and alcohol.
  • More likely to become sexually active at an early age.
  • Three times more likely to commit violent crime.
  • 300% more likely to end up incarcerated.
  • most runaways leave fatherless homes.
  • 70% of juveniles in long term correctional facilities grow up without a father.
  • Fatherless daughters are 53% more likely to marry in their teens.
  • 164% more likely to have children outside of marriage.
  • have a 92% higher divorce rate.
  • fatherless sons are 35% more likely for marriage to fail.
  • 80 percent of teens admitted to psychiatric hospitals are from fatherless homes.
  • 50% more likely to have learning disabilities.
  • fare worse in school and three times more likely to drop out.
  • average dad spends 8 minutes a day in direct conversation with his kids – when mom works, only 4 minutes.

It is up to each father and mother to do what each can to help provide stability in the home.

You may never know what results come from your action.  But if you do nothing, three will be no result, as Mahatma Gandhi said.

Let’s ask for God’s guidance and fathers let’s do something!

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Timothy Von Dohlen is the founder and president of the John Paul II Life Center and Vitae Clinic in Austin, Texas. (www.jpiilifecenter.org)  For a more robust bio, click here.  – www.catholicbusinessjournal.biz/content/tim-von-dohlen. He may be reached at Timothy@CatholicBusinessJournal.biz

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