Last week was an intense week on the Hill. There were protests-a-plenty. Lawmakers at odds. Demonstrators from both sides of the health care debate were arrested in Lieberman’s and Pelosi’s offices. So much of the tension, fear and angst came to a rolling boil in just the last 48 hours.

A long Saturday session in the House ended late last night with three pivotal votes.

The first was to amend the House health care bill with a bi-partisan proposal from Stupak and Pitts. The second was to consider the Republican alternative health care bill which failed as votes split right down party lines. The third was to pass the Democrat’s health care bill HR-3962 (known as PelosiCare).

All things considered, the Stupak/Pitts Amendment was the one we were waiting for that bans federal funding of abortion. Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, had proudly endorsed HR-3962 in the days prior and bragged publicly for mobilizing 18,000 phone calls to legislators and successfully blocking or defeating every pro-life amendment thus far. It was reported that Democratic leaders in a closed door meeting late Friday night were forced to compromise on “the abortion issue” in a last ditch effort to save their government takeover of health care. The Stupak/Pitts Amendment PASSED 240-194 splitting the Democrats and claiming 64 of them for the pro-life move.

Today, Cecile Richards has bitterly withdrawn her endorsement of HR-3962 because the truth is that Planned Parenthood is more interested in the lucrative business of abortion than in the “other” health services they claim make up the majority of their business. I think recent Planned Parenthood Director Defector, Abby Johnson, exposes the truth and worst side of this organization. She said when the economy took a downturn and business suffered, she was charged by her superiors to “get more abortions in the door.” That’s where the money is after all, and that’s why Richards was so into the Dems health care bill prior to the abortion amendment. It would have represented the largest expansion of the abortion industry since Roe v. Wade, and the darling PP would have been elevated to “essential health care” status.

The fight continues now and moves back to the Senate. Harry Reid stated last night that he’s eager to get going. The Senate version currently has no pro-life amendment in place even though many were attempted while it was in committee.

It’s gonna be really intense on the Hill between now and Christmas.

After months and months of staunch debate and up to 14 amendments blocked to remove abortion from government-run health care there seems to be an interesting turn taking place. A pack of 40 pro-life Democrats are challenging Nancy Pelosi and their own party to ensure that there will be no taxpayer-funded abortion allowed in the Health Care Reform bill.

This is very interesting indeed.

Stupac and others are “outing” their party’s plans to hide abortion coverage in some kind of accounting shell game.

Democratic leaders early this summer backed a provision that would allow people to use subsidies under the bill to buy insurance plans that cover abortion, but only funds from individual or employer health-care premiums could go toward paying for an abortion. Effectively, insurance companies would be tasked with segregating money from government payments from those coming from private sources, and only the latter could be used for abortion.

But Stupak and some Democrats, along with congressional Republicans, have criticized this provision as an accounting distinction. They say the federal subsidies and the private payments are combined for a person to buy a health plan; therefore, federal dollars are helping fund insurance plans that allow abortions.

(from The Washington Post, http://is.gd/4M4rK)

Please join me along with JHOP DC and Bound4LIFE in praying for abortion to be driven like a wedge into this debate and into the American conscience. You can join us in praying for the individual members of Congress at our new website First of All too.

I’m currently hanging out with family in Indiana and getting ready for a big weekend. This Sunday I will be officiating my first wedding. I typically don’t get nervous about stuff, but this has given me butterflies since the day Rebekah Orewiler (soon to be Jacks) asked me to do this.

This will be an outdoor wedding and the recent cold snap has thrown an unexpected curveball. Sunday’s forecast calls for a whopping 52 degrees. The bridesmaids will be wearing lovely Fall-colored dresses that are cut for Summer. Think strapless and knee length. This should be interesting. Hopefully everyone will be too pre-occupied with being cold to care if I do a good job or not. Maybe everyone, wedding couple included, will just want me to hurry up and get to the “I now pronounce you Man and Wife” part.

One can only hope.

Here’s some links to some AP Photos from today.

http://is.gd/3YWaa
http://is.gd/3YWu2
http://is.gd/3YWww

Today is the opening day of the Supreme Court, and we welcome Sonia Sotomayor to the elite seat of one of the Nine. Today is also the 5 Year Anniversary of the very first Silent Siege–what has become known as Bound4LIFE and JHOP DC. Actually yesterday October 4th was the real anniversary, but it was the Opening Day of Court that marked the beginning.

The Silent Siege was born against a dramatic backdrop in 2004. Leading up to the Presidential election that year between George W. Bush and John Kerry, the abortion issue was vibrating as clear differences became more and more articulated. Both pro-life and pro-abortion passions were flaring. The Opening Day of the Court was a flashpoint because most knew that the outcome of the election would determine who replaced at least one seat on the Supreme Court…namely Chief Justice Reinquist.

50 young people showed up on that day to pray in utter silence with “LIFE tape” covering their mouths while a few hundred pro-choice protestors yelled, chanted and were otherwise obnoxious. The contrast between the noise and the silence was startling. So much so that a leader from the N.O.W. came over and whispered, “What you guys are doing is brilliant strategy.” Unseen though, two things were taking place:

1) God was imparting a spirit of prayer for the ending of abortion and his heart for justice.

2) The young people began to identify with the weakness and silence of the unborn–the most marginalized, disenfranchised people group in America.

Now it’s five years later, and we’re still here. There are no abortion related cases that I know of that will be heard in this session of the Court. But at some point in the future when one gets there, I want to make sure there’s a long unbroken history of prayer, fasting and sacrifice that will have prepared the way.

THE RUNNING TALLY
I’ve kept track for the last five years of the number of pro-choice protestors that show up on the Opening Day of the Court to make their case. Here’s the numbers:

2004- There was a horde of angry pro-abortion protestors there shouting, chanting and demonstrating a high anxiety level about the future of Roe v Wade.

2005- 30 pro-abortion protestors showed up. They huddled together for some photo ops that made them look larger and more intimidating than they actually were.

2006- 6 pro-abortion protestors showed up. They waved some signs around, but then left shortly after due to the fact that there was no media interested in what they were doing. This is when we started feeling like we kinda owned the sidewalk for the first time after a couple years of continuous prayer.

2007- 1 pro-abortion protestor showed up. Yeah, just one guy with a sign. He walked by a couple times then left. Utterly pathetic!

2008- Another Election Year! 0 pro-abortion protestors showed up. I think there were a couple dynamics going on there. A) Four years of continuous prayer takes a serious toll on the spiritual powers of darkness. B) I don’t think anyone on the pro-abortion side wanted to draw any unnecessary attention to Obama’s pro-abortion stance.

2009- Another goose egg this year. There were 0 pro-abortion protestors at the Court today. No worries though, we’ll still be there when they come back!