FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS 
Several solid pro-life candidates, endorsed by RNC/Life PAC, were elected to Congress on November 7.

Those who won open seats are: Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Gus Bilirakis (FL-09), Bill Sali (ID-01), Peter Roskam (IL-06), Michele Bachmann (MN-06), Adrian Smith (NE-03), Jim Jordan (OH-04), Mary Fallin (OK-05), and David Davis (TN-01). Each of them is known to be a staunch defender of the inherent right to life. We wish them well and pray that they will remain steadfast champions of the cause, not simply as supporters of legislation regulating the practice of abortion, embryonic stem cell research and other anti-life practices, but as active pursuers of justice by working to ensure the restoration of legal protection of the right to life from its inception until natural death.

Tim Walberg (MI-07) won election after challenging and defeating liberal incumbent Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz in the August primary.

Incumbents who received the support of RNC/Life PAC and were reelected are: Trent Franks (AZ-02), Marilyn Musgrave (CO-04), Steve King (IA-05), Ron Lewis (KY-02), Pete Hoekstra (MI-02), Candice Miller (MI-10), Todd Akin (MO-02), Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Tom Cole (OK-04). Their job, for at least the next two years, will be to place legislative obstacles in the path of the Democrats’ anti-life legislative agenda. They will need aides who are skilled in writing “killer” amendments. They will need strong wills and determination and a willingness to make their voices heard in the media so that the lies of the pro-abortion crowd will be fully revealed to the American people.

We are hearing a lot about seeking “common ground” with those who will assume power in January, and yes, there are issues about which reasonable people may differ and solutions to problems can be found through compromise. But that does not apply to the right to life!

There is no common ground between those who respect the sanctity of innocent human life and those who do not. There can be no compromise between those of us who know the scientific truth that a human being is in existence at the moment a 46-chromosome single-cell human organism is engendered and those who think their lives have no value except as laboratory specimens. There will be no agreement between people who would murder someone who is living with a profound disability, as in the case of Terry Schiavo, and those who would protect her right to life.

As Bette Davis famously said in the movie All About Eve, "Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” We urge pro-life Members of Congress to hold fast and play a strong role in electing new and truly conservative leadership for the Republican Caucus in the House. A policy of “go along to get along” will not result in success for Republicans, now or in the future.

THE BAD NEWS 
Pro-life ballot initiatives went down in flames. The South Dakota ban on abortion was overturned. Voters apparently rejected it because it did not have an exception for rape or incest. There is a lesson to be learned from this experience. We’ll have more to say on that later.

California and Oregon defeated measures that would have required parental notification prior to an abortion being performed on a minor.

Missouri voters legalized somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or cloning. and embryonic stem cell research. Massive amounts of money were spent by the abortion industry and their biotech friends to pass the Missouri measure, a constitutional amendment that was deceptively worded to confuse voters into thinking they were voting against cloning, when they were really voting to legalize it. Both South Dakota and Missouri are pro-life states and our losses there cannot be underestimated. However, both initiatives presented an opportunity for the education of millions of people, who didn’t have a clue, to the fundamental principles involved. When Rush Limbaugh accused Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, of “lying to sick people” because of his TV ad asking Missourians to vote for the Democrat for U.S. Senate rather than for Republican incumbent Jim Talent who opposes embryonic stem cell research, it caused a huge ruckus. As a result, Rush explained the ESCR/cloning issue every day for a week. Now, his 20 million listeners, along with those of Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin who also took up the cause, understand the subject. That’s progress.