The Daily Signal - The Fight Against Infanticide

Episode Date: November 25, 2019

Andrew Beckwith calls the Massachusetts ROE Act what it is--infanticide. Beckwith, President of the Massachusetts Family Institute, explains why this bill would endanger women’s health and remove restrictions that would allow abortion up to, and even during, delivery. Beckwith also discusses his institute’s effort to stand against transgender legislation. And he explains a new Massachusetts law that places a counseling ban on licensed mental health professionals, stopping them from helping children feel comfortable in their own bodies. Also on today's show:   We read your letters to the editor. You can leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write to us at [e-mail]. And we share a good news story about a young mother that Students for Life of America helped get back into college. To get involved with Students for Life of America, or learn how they can help educate you on title IX and connect you with resources, click here.    The Heritage Foundation is now accepting applicants for the spring 2020 semester. Apply here!   The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. All of our podcasts can be found at dailysignal.com/podcasts.   Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, November 25th. I'm Robert Blewey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we talk with Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, about his work in the fight against infanticide and transgender legislation. We also share your letters to the editor and a good news story about a single mom who chose to keep her baby and the community that supported her through that decision.

Before we get to today's show, Rob and I would like to tell you about one of the other great podcasts here at the Heritage Foundation. It's a weekly podcast called Heritage Explains that breaks down all the policy issues we hear about in the news at a one-on-one level. Hosts Michelle Cordero and Tim Desher mix in news clips and music to tell a story, but also bring in heritage experts to break down complex issues. For example, does China really influence Hollywood movies? Will the House actually succeed at impeaching President Trump? And what is Medicare for all? Heritage Explains offers quick 10 to 15 minute explainers that bring you up to speed in an entertaining way.

You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We even put the full episode on YouTube. Now stay tuned for today's show. Coming up next. I am joined on the Daily Signal podcast by Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. Mr. Beckwith, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Well, I'm also from the state of Massachusetts. I'm a proud New Englander, but as someone who believes in small government and traditional family values, I shudder at the extreme progressive policies that we're continually seeing pushed and embraced in the Northeast. Now, you all are on the front lines of the abortion debate and many other debates in Massachusetts, but I want to take a moment specifically to talk about what you all are doing around the abortion issue.

in states like New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia, we've seen legislation passed that allows for abortion up until or even during delivery. Now, a similar bill called the Rowe Act is trying to make its way through the Massachusetts state legislature. So why are you all calling this bill the Infanticide Act? Well, it's because of what the bill does. And I think before I get into those specifics, I want to just kind of put this in the context, as you mentioned, of what happened not only in New York, but then in Virginia. where the governor, who was defending their version of this Infanticide Act on the radio, talked about what would happen if his bill were enacted, and you had a baby that was born alive during an abortion. He said that the doctor would resuscitate the child if necessary, and then a conversation would ensue.

I think it was the language he used between the doctor and the mother. But at that point, if you have a live baby outside the mother's womb, there's really no conversation to be had unless you're talking about infanticide. And under the Infanticide Act in Massachusetts, which is technically titled the Roe Act, removing obstacles and expanding access to abortion for the Roe Act, it removes two current requirements under Massachusetts law. One would be one requirement that it removed, that it eliminates, is that doctors have to at least attempt to save the life of the unborn child during an abortion at 24 weeks or beyond if that wouldn't threaten the life of the mother. And they also have to have life-saving equipment on site available in the event, as the governor of Virginia spoke about, that a child is born alive during an abortion. The Infanticide Act of Massachusetts eliminates both of those requirements, and there's no justification for doing so other than making it easier for abortionists to allow babies that aren't killed during the abortion that survive to then just die. And that's how we get situations like Gosnell and other tragedies. And you not only have the removing of these requirements,

you also have the law changed if this bill were to pass so that late-term abortions are no longer needed to be done in hospitals. They can be done in clinics, again like the Gosnell Clinic. And so there's a financial incentive for the abortion industry to take them out of hospitals, allow them to be done in clinics, and they can be run by Planned Parenthood and remove the medical equipment requirements as well. So we're talking about dangers not only to the child but also to the mother. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's incredible that people who claim they're in favor of women's health care.

In fact, at the public hearing on this bill in June, we had nearly a thousand people there in these bright red choose life t-shirts that we had printed up along with other pro-life activists in the state. And Planned Parenthood was there with their people. They had pink T-shirts that said abortion is health care. But, again, if you're really concerned about health for women, taking abortions out of hospitals and putting them in clinics and removing the requirement for certain medical equipment to be on site, I mean, how is that health care? Yeah. So where does the bill stand right now in the Massachusetts legislature?

It's still in committee. So in Massachusetts, you can have a public hearing, and then there's no fixed timeline after that for when the bill has to be voted on. So it could stay in committee. We're hoping that it will. But we're keeping our ears to the ground to see if it's going to come out of committee. But there's been a lot of talk about it. The public hearing itself, I think it's usually when they kind of test the waters, the supporters of the bill, to see what the resistance will be.

And it was massive. I mean, to have a thousand people there at the state house, we had a big rally outside beforehand protesting. And then there's Gardner Auditorium in Massachusetts, holds about 600 people. It's the main hearing hall. That was filled to capacity. They had a second, large overflow room also filled to capacity.

They'd open up a third overflow room. That's rarely, if ever happened in the state house for a piece of legislation. So there's massive pushback. And people are just outraged that they would try to pass something like this that really enables infanticide. And that's not all it does. It also would eliminate the requirement under current law that for an underage woman, a girl, under 18, to get an abortion. right now, she has to have the consent of at least one parent. That's totally eliminated. They also eliminate the existing reporting requirements for abortions. So, tragically,

every year Massachusetts has had somewhere between 17,000, 20,000 abortions that we know of, you know, recently on the past several years. That reporting requirements is eliminated. So we don't even know how many more abortions this bill would cause. Well, if it's passed, we'll never know because the reporting requirement is eliminated. as well. And how are you all working at the Massachusetts Family Institute to try and keep this bill from being passed and becoming law? Well, one of the main things we do is we educate people about it. I mean, there's, you know, 6,000 bills every two-year legislative session that are introduced, and most legislators don't even know what's in, you know, a lot of them. So part of our mission

is to take bills like this that are of concern to people of faith who share our family values on the sanctity of life, and really boil it down to the nuts and bolts so people know what's in these bills. And then they feel empowered to reach out and contact their state reps and state senators and let them know that they oppose this and really question them on why they're pushing this legislation. And they were also there to do what we're doing here, which is to talk about it in the media. So there's a real back and forth and not just sort of the one-sided Boston Globe agenda

that's constantly being pushed on everyone. Sure. And why is the fight in Massachusetts so important? I mean, if this bill passes in Massachusetts, will we see maybe that more states will follow suit? Possibly. I mean, Massachusetts does like to pride itself on being a trendsetter. I remember when the New York bill was passed, I mean, that was early on in the year. It seemed like it came out of nowhere. And, you know, the first thing people knew was seeing those pictures of the One World Trade Center lit up in pink, the pink needle.

ironically, lit up. And the governor and everyone just clapping and smiling and cheering for an aggressive abortion law. And I think that really kind of took people back. And that's why there was such a spotlight shined on the Virginia equivalent, just a few weeks later. And it's part of the reason why the governor had to go on air and defend it. And then he admitted what the bill actually did. And it just blew up. And then, of course, it had the whole, you know, his yearbook came out and the whole thing melted down. So, you know, I'm grateful for that because it exposed the issue nationally. And the wheels kind of came off. And I think if Virginia had passed it quickly in the wake of New York passing it, you would have seen maybe kind of a domino effect. It's really stalled out now. And that's good news. Yeah. Yeah. And you all are also on the front lines in Massachusetts of fighting against legislation having to do with parental rights around young people. who identify as transgender. So let me ask you first to explain the transgender and parents' right conflict that's happening right now in the state of Massachusetts.

Sure. I think the best way to explain that is to kind of give you an anecdote, a real-world anecdote. So back in the spring, I got a phone call from some parents whose 15-year-old daughter had a history of mental health issues and had recently begun identifying as male, as a boy. And when she went to her next therapist appointment, she told this to the therapist who then said, yes, you are a boy. We're going to start calling you by a male name, use male pronouns. And this is why you're having all these other problems because you're really just a, you're a boy trapped in a girl's body, and you shouldn't be suppressing that. And you probably should start taking puberty blockers and eventually testosterone injections. Well, I mean, the parents were not on board

for any of that. And the frightening thing, which should be of concern to all parents, is that they're sort of pushing back against this rush to somehow transform this girl, you know, chemically and surgically into a boy resulted in them being investigated by the State Department of Children and Family. So it's Child Protective Services, CPS, for Massachusetts. And this is a Catholic family. and the investigator actually went in and questioned the family's parish priest about what the church is teaching on transgenderism is.

All sort of ostensibly in an effort to determine whether or not this family was a safe home for a, quote, transgender teen. Now that's, I mean, that's terrifying. DCF investigation is terrifying for any parent, but when it's done in this sort of, you know, bizarreo world of you are potentially an unfit parent because you don't want your daughter to be injected with testosterone and have a double elective mastectomy. I mean, how do you even deal with that? So the good news is I was able to put the family in touch with an experienced family law attorney who was there to, you know, make sure the DCF investigation didn't get out of control. And it came back unsubstantiated, which is good. And the daughter is doing better now.

And she's not on hormones. And she's not transitioning. and she's getting help for the underlying mental health issues that were the cause, not the symptom of this gender identity stuff, as best we can tell. Now, where this gets into the legislative piece, there was a bill that, unfortunately, was signed into law in June around the same time that this phone call came in, actually. And what it did is it now prevents licensed mental health professionals from kids. counseling children, so under 18, to feel comfortable in their own body and to process unwanted

same-sex desires. It's called a counseling ban. And those types of laws have been passed all across the country. I think every state in New England now has one of those. So the parents don't have the ability to go get the type of counseling for their children that they need to help them overcome. again, unwanted same sex desires or gender identity confusion, and I'll encapsulate it like this. Right now, in Massachusetts, if you have a 16-year-old girl who thinks she's a boy, you can take her to Boston Children's Hospital, gender clinic, get puberty blockers, testosterone injections, get her set up for a double elective mastectomy, and then bottom surgery, which I won't go into one air.

Okay, that's fine. You'll be parent of the year in Massachusetts. No problem. No legal barrier to that. if you take the same 16-year-old girl and get her help from a licensed mental health professional to literally feel comfortable in her own body, that is not prohibited by law. Wow. Wow. Just absolutely insane. And we're seeing other states embrace this and go down the same road. Right. Every state in New England right now. Wow. Wow. Just really, really shocking. Now, as individuals are, you know, listening and thinking, wow, you know, I've heard of similar things happening in my state, but I'm not sure how to get plugged in or involved with organizations like yours in Massachusetts. Is there a resource that they can go to or visit to find out if there is an organization like Mass Family Institute in their own state?

So fortunately, I'm part of a 40 state network of family policy councils all across the country. We've got one in New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island is launching one. We're working on Vermont, you know, all across the country. And sort of the umbrella organization for that, which is connected to focus on the family, it's called Family Policy Alliance. So if you just go to Family Policy Alliance.org, and then there's an Allies tab, and that lists all the state groups, their websites and contact info. And, you know, if you're encountering something like this in Massachusetts or in your home state,

I encourage you to, you know, go to that website and call your local family policy council. And part of our job is to kind of be that local state hub for resources for parents. So we have a great resource called the parent resource guide on the transgender issue. You can find it on my website at mafamily.org forward slash PRG as a parental resource guide. MAFamily.org forward slash PRG. And that's a national level resource that we have posted on our website. We know attorneys that can help with family law issues or other parental rights issues. Sometimes this turns into a freedom of speeches.

issue in schools where students are being told they must use the preferred pronouns of a classmate or teacher who transitioned. That's compelled speech. The school can't make you do that. So if you have those kinds of problems, you know, contact us and we'll oftentimes we can help. That's great. Thank you so much. Mr. Beckwith, we really appreciate your time today. My pleasure. Thanks for having me on. Tired of high taxes, fewer healthcare choices, and bigger government, become a part of the Heritage Foundation. We're fighting the rising tide of homegrown socialism while developing conservative solutions that make families more free and more prosperous.

Find out more at heritage.org. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show and in our Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who's up first? In response to our podcast two weeks ago, titled, Conservative Law Professor challenges campus left on free speech and wins them over, Keeley A. Dean from Fountain Valley, California, writes, Dear Daily Signal, I enjoyed reading the transcript of Rob Louise's enlightening podcast interview with Cornell Law Professor Bill Jacobson about the judgment in the case of Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College.

I'm an alumni of Oberlin College, class of 92, and have watched with dismay, but not surprise, the lawsuit mess with Gibson's bakery. I have received Oberlin's emails and letters on the subject, which were very one-sided, and did not even include the very basic fact that it began with a student who had shoplifted at the bakery. I had to look up the facts myself after receiving Oberlin's email to find out what had actually transpired. Again, unbelievable to me, but not a surprise. I appreciate your bringing to light, Mr. Jacobson's experiences, and his approach to our woefully undereducated college students and wider society. Keep up the good work.

As it is needed now more than ever, voices of calm and the hysteria are much appreciated. In response to Anthony Campau and Paul Larkin's article titled How Trump's New Executive Orders Protect the Public Against the Administrative State, Philip Daspit of Florida writes, The commentary begins to address the issues of the federal bureaucracy. The real issue is that Congress

is the body that must act on regulations instead of relinquishing responsibility to a faceless bureaucracy. Judging by their commentary, President Trump is taking some good steps. One of the biggest problems is that the ordinary citizen is not always aware of due process and can become intimidated by the regulator. Therefore, it is incumbent upon Congress and the bureaucracies to ensure that citizens are protected from arbitrary acts. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. Send an email to Letters at dailysignal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. Kianna Stedman is a Heritage Foundation intern and is back in studio with us today to share a good news story.

Before I turn it over to Kiana, though, I want to mention once again that we are still accepting applicants for the Heritage Foundation Young Leaders Program. internship. If you're interested in applying or you have a son or daughter or grandchild who you think would be applying, go ahead and visit the Heritage Foundation website at heritage.org and click about heritage at the top of the page and then click on careers and you can scroll down and find a whole tab talking about the Young Leaders Program and the internship and how to apply. We are always looking for strong applicants who have a passion for freedom and conservatism and want to be a part of the work that the Heritage Foundation is doing here. All right, Kiana, I will turn it over to you to go ahead and share a good news story.

Thank you, Virginia. Today's story is about Ruth Asmer Zeta, but it's also about any woman who has felt like they've had to choose between their education and their child. In 2017, Asmer Zeta was a student at Pikes Peak College in Colorado. When she became pregnant, she was pressured to have an abortion. However, she decided to have her baby and her. her sweet son Eli was born. Eli arrived right before final exams and Asmer Zeta assumed her teachers would let her reschedule her missed exams. However, they didn't let her make up her classes or test,

and she was even stripped of her financial aid. She had to withdraw from school and begin working three jobs while trying to raise her son, hoping that she would one day be able to raise money to go back to school. This is when Students for Life of America stepped in. This year, the organization begin a nationwide effort to help educate pregnant and parenting students about their legal rights. This supports their Pregnant on-campus initiative that has been running since 2011 to help pregnant and parenting peers get the resources available to them to help them on their new journey with a child. Students for Life of America President Kristen Hawkins said, Pregnancy should mark the beginning of a new life, not the end of an academic career. Know your Title IX rights.

Title IX is a federal law intended to help women continue their education and create the best possible lives for them and their families without discrimination. These rights should have allowed Asmer Zeta to reschedule classwork and continue her education. To help Asmer Zeta get back to school, students for Life of America started a fundraiser. The responses from pro-life supporters were amazing and within days they raised $6,000 needed dollars to help Asmer Zeta finish her education. They even threw her a baby shower. When Asmer Zeta found out about this fundraiser, she said, After a long day at work, and it's just, again, I'm so humble that you guys are just, you're listening to my story, and I'm amazed at how many women don't know their rights

and how, you know, people are moved by my story. And it's really heartbreaking to know that mine isn't the only one out there. But I'm very humbled and very honored that my story. can be shared and hopefully help others to become more aware of their rights. And even more honor that you guys have done so much to help me to finish my education. Students for Life of America help pregnant and parenting students in all 50 states know their title nine rights. They then help connect them with the resources they need to succeed, including legal help from Alliance defending freedom. They believe that no woman should

feel like she has to choose between her child and her education. Kiana, thank you so much for sharing that wonderful good news story. So encouraging to hear. All right, we are going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast comes to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurcashay Audio Network and all of our shows are available at dailysingle.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast. as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review and a five-star rating.

It means a lot to us and helps spread the word to other listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the DailySignal News. Have a great week. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Rob Bluey and Virginia Allen, sound design by Lauren Evans, Balea Rampersad and Mark Geine. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.