RNC/Life Winter Report Outlines Candidates' Views on Life Issues 
If you haven't done so, read about the current presidential candidates' positions on issues related to the right to life.

We have been notified that former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore's campaign wishes to correct his position as reported. Rather than allowing abortion to be legal during the first three months of pregnancy, Mr. Gilmore would allow it for the first 60 days, or two months. Thereafter he would support prohibiting all abortions except to save the life of the mother. Two months instead of three represents a distinction without a difference. After all, as Dr. Seuss wrote in Horton Hears a Who, "A person's a person no matter how small."

Missouri Governor Yanks Funding from Planned Parenthood 
STLtoday.com reported the following on March 19, 2007: Republican Governor Matt Blunt said today he has yanked funding for two Planned Parenthood clinics that were providing free health screenings for poor women through a state program.

At Blunt's request, the state Department of Health and Senior Services has ended the contracts with two Planned Parenthood programs in Springfield and Joplin. Two other area organization — Jordan Valley Community Health Center and Ozark TriCounty Health Care — will begin offering the screenings for breast and cervical cancer, Blunt's office said.

"Patients should not have to go to an abortion clinic to access lifesaving tests," Blunt said in a written statement. But Planned Parenthood of Southwest Missouri said the clinics that participated in the program have never provided abortions. Governor Blunt's spokeswoman Jessica Robinson responded that "philosophically Planned Parenthood is known as an abortion provider."

Governor Blunt has proposed increased funding for the health screening program so that more poor women can receive the services without the taint of Planned Parenthood's involvement.

You may call Governor Blunt's office at 573-751-3222 if you wish to convey your appreciation to him for acting on his pro-life convictions.

Michael Steele Joins Republican Leadership Council 
The former Republican Governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, an advocate of legal abortion, has resurrected the Republican Leadership Council, a political action committee with the "vision" of a Republican Party "that is unified by the basic tenets of fiscal responsibility and personal freedom, but that allows for diverse [pro-abortion, anti-family] opinions on social issues by its members." Under Whitman's leadership, the RLC has long been on record opposing the pro-life plank in the Republican National Platform.

Whitman is joined in this effort by the former Lt. Governor of Maryland, Michael Steele, who ran for the U.S. Senate from Maryland as a pro-life candidate, and former U.S. Senator from Missouri, John Danforth, who lent his active support to efforts to pass a ballot initiative in 2006 allowing embryonic stem cell research and cloning in Missouri. Michael Steele's involvement in the Republican Leadership Council is a big disappointment.