RE: OUR ANALYSIS OF THE 2012 ELECTION RESULT AND WHAT WE WANT NEXT
Dear Friend of the Unborn:
We have no way of
knowing if The Esperansa Project plays any role in influencing
elections. We do know that we have approximately 1000 subscribers to our
newsletter and that there are many forwards. We also know that we
receive supportive and appreciative feedback from many.
But more importantly,
we know that prior to the formation of The Esperansa Project in 2008,
there had been no legislative movement to regulate the abortion industry
on Guam for nearly 20 years; and since 2008:
- It is now illegal to stab a chid in the back of the head and suck its brains out, i.e. Partial Birth Abortion (PL 29-115)
- Minors cannot procure an abortion without parental consent (PL 31-155), and
- Women seeking an
abortion must be fully informed about the abortion's risks and their
alternatives (once Bill 52-31 is fully implemented).
However, we have also
failed. And we will address that failure later. For now, a quick
overview of the senatorial race by order of the candidates' placement.
1. Dennis Rodriguez,
Jr. - Of course Senator Rodriguez has been an unflinching and unfailing
champion of the Esperansa cause from even before he was as senator (He
testified in favor of the ban on partial-birth abortion in 2008). But as
a senator, his efforts to see Bill 52-31 through to a vote are
unmatched. True, he was the chairman of the bill's oversight committee.
But he did not let the bill die like the previous chairman (Frank Aguon,
Jr.). True to his commitment to do all he could to protect the unborn,
Senator Rodriguez stared into the face of his own party and pushed the
bill forward anyway. Whether his actions relative to Bill 52 and our
public support of him had anything to do with his first place showing - a
rare thing for only a second term senator - we don't know. We are just
happy that we have a proven pro-life champion at the top of the
senatorial pile.
2. Frank Aguon, Jr. -
Mr. Aguon may have benefitted from his two year vacation from the
legislature. Had he been in office, we would have hammered him harder
than anyone else these past two years. There is no one senator more
responsible for the death of pro-life legislation than Frank Aguon. His
role in trying to keep Bill 54-30, the first informed consent bill, from
ever getting to a vote was well documented in the days leading up to
the 2010 election. And his shameful trashing of Bill 309-30, a bill that
would have mandated normal medical care for children who survive failed
abortions, is nothing less than a trail of blood leading right to his
door. The federal equivalent of Bill 309-30, the Born Alive Infant
Protection Act of 2002, received very rare unanimous support in the
senate. There was not a single NO vote, not even from pro-abortion
stalwarts Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy voted against it. But we
couldn't even get Frank Aguon to report the bill out of committee. We're
sure Aguon hoped the people of Guam would forget his shameful anti-life
deeds in the 30th Legislature, and it appears they did. But we are here
to remind them every day Frank Aguon is in the 32nd Guam Legislature.
3. Tom Ada - Mr. Ada
voted NO on Bill 52, and in so doing placed himself in the company of
extreme abortion supporters who do not want a woman to even know the
risks that await them or about the possibility of giving an unwanted
child up for adoption. However, Tom Ada's actions regarding Bill 52 were
the only pro-abortion actions of record, and happening only a few days
before the election as they did, did not have a chance to become
well-known. In addition, Ada, rather than making a long rant against the
Governor as did most of his colleagues who joined him in his NO vote,
let someone else do his talking by emotionally reading an email from a
"woman I respect". The email was opposed to the bill but even then, it
was not certain how Ada would vote. From the feedback we received, Ada's
NO vote was a major shock to those who thought they knew him. They
weren't surprised by anyone else.
4. Thomas Morrison -
Mr. Morrison was quick to respond to our survey of the non-incumbent
candidates and firmly expressed his support for pro-life legislative
efforts. We quickly endorsed him are happy for his success. Way to go.
5. Michael F.Q. San
Nicolas - Mr. San Nicolas was quick to respond to our survey of the
non-incumbent candidates and firmly expressed his support for pro-life
legislative efforts. We quickly endorsed him are happy for his success.
Way to go.
6. Anthony Ada - Mr.
Ada's personal pro-life positions are firm. Though he did not speak at
the debate over Bill 52, he supplied a solid YES vote. We endorsed him
and look forward to more solid support for pro-life legislation.
7. Michael Limtiaco -
Mr. Limtiaco was quick to respond to our survey of the non-incumbent
candidates and firmly expressed his support for pro-life legislative
efforts. We quickly endorsed him are happy for his success. Way to go.
8. Chris Duenas - Next
to Senator Rodriguez, no other Senator has been as helpful in making
Bill 52 go forward or as willing to show his public support for unborn
human life. He showed notable courage as a first term senator in
standing up to forces who wanted to trash the bill. We STRONGLY ENDORSED
him and are happy for his high showing.
9. Benjamin Cruz - Mr.
Cruz ranked higher this time around than he did in 2010. Perhaps that
was due to Tim Rohr's personal recognition of Mr. Cruz' noble defense of
Bill 52 in the midst of an extreme display of anger coming from some of
his colleagues, perhaps not. Senator Cruz gets credit for at least
recognizing that a woman has a right to hear about her options and the
possible risks associated with abortion. As a man of law, it is also
assumed that he was very aware of the Supreme Court decisions which
provided the platform for Bill 52 and supported it as a matter of
integrity.
10. Judith Won Pat -
Ms. Won Pat's fall from power is probably more due to her derogatory
comments about the Marines and her opposition of the military build up
than anything we said about her. However, of all the incumbents who
opposed pro-life legislation, Won Pat is the only one who was willing to
allow a public record to be doctored to cover her willful skipping of a
required legislative procedure during the debate of Bill 54-30. The
doctoring of a public record is a criminal act, a violation of the Open
Government Law. We can't prove that she personally doctored it or
ordered it be doctored, but we can prove that she knows about it and has
done nothing about it and is willing to let the public record be in
error. We thoroughly documented this online but took down the website
after the vote on Bill 52. However, now that she will be in the
Legislature for another two years, we will republish the site.
11. Tina Muna Barnes -
This is a very low showing for Barnes given how high she was in the
early polls. Though we thoroughly exposed her infamous attempt (a
successful one) to strike the words "unborn child" from Bill 54-30, our
attempt to expose her probably invoked some sympathy for her given our
error and subsequent apology for some misinformed comments. If anything
hurt Barnes, it was her own speech during the debate over Bill 52.
Anyone who saw it will know to what we refer.
12. Ben Pangelinan -
Mr. Pangelinan has been careful not to enter the abortion issue fray. We
assume he knows that it is not an issue he can win given that he is
certainly hard core pro-choice. Had he just voted NO on Bill 52 he might
have fared better. But Mr. Pangelinan took the occasion to public beat
up the Governor and the other supporters of this legislation and he may
have hurt himself there. But more likely he was hurt by his opposition
to the military buildup and his standing in the way of tax returns. You
don't mess with other people's money and get away with it for long.
13. Dr. Aline
Yamashita - Dr. Yamashita has publicly stated that she was pro-choice
and a NO vote would have been no surprise. But the extra rant at the
debate probably didn't help her. She was doing poorly in the polls
before the vote and the Esperansa voter guide, so we don't think we had
much to do with her poor showing.
14. Brant McCreadie -
like the other newcomers, Mr. McCreadie was quick and firm about his
intent to support pro-life legislation and we were proud to endorse him.
Congratulations Brant.
15. Rory Respicio - No
one has fallen further than Senator Respicio. While Respicio did vote
for Bill 52 and even made some supportive statements later, there is no
denying that the very public 2 year long "fist fight" between Esperansa
and Senator Respicio did not do the Senator any favors. Senator Respicio
was most responsible for keeping Bill 52 from coming to a vote earlier
and we made that very clear. While we are encouraged by his actions and
words during and after the vote on Bill 52, there was no erasing the
past. However, the Senator also had some problems with his positions on
the military build up and tax returns, and that may have hurt him more.
We mentioned earlier
that while we have had successes, we have also had failures. We mention
one failure in particular because this is the bill we want to see passed
next. We already mentioned our failure to get Frank Aguon, Jr., when he
was Chairman of the Committee on Health, to report out Bill 309-30, the
CHILD'S RIGHT TO LIVE ACT.
This bill would have
required normal medical care for children who survive a failed abortion.
Bill 309-30 would have addressed this terrible and gruesome
circumstance. Children who survive abortions are either drowned,
beheaded, have their spines snipped in half, or left to die and
discarded with the day's trash.
The question is asked
does this occur on Guam. We know of two cases. One we can tell you about
because the child's adoptive father, former Homeland Security Director,
Mike Carey, told more than a hundred people the story last December at
the Rally for Life.
The child's mother had
been living with a boyfriend who was in the military. The boyfriend got
deployed. The woman found somebody else to have sex with and got
pregnant. She was near full-term when she got word that her boyfriend
was on his way home from deployment - earlier than expected.
We don't know what
type of abortion she attempted to procure, but it was most likely a
chemical abortion in which the woman ingests a poison which kills the
baby and then labor is induced normally 24 hours later.
Something went wrong
and instead of going back to the abortion clinic, the woman ended up in
the Emergency Room at GMH, where the baby came out, damaged, but alive.
Thanks to hospital staff the baby received immediate care and began to
thrive.
An employee at the
hospital knew of the baby and called Mr. Carey who happily adopted her.
As mentioned, Mr. Carey shared this story to several hundred of us at
the Rally for Life last December and showed us pictures of his beautiful
7-year old adopted daughter.
Another story is not
as happy. The mother, after being injected with saline designed to kill
the baby by burning its skin off, panicked several hours later and ended
up at the emergency room. The woman delivered the baby alive, but
according to the personnel who saw it, the child's skin was "dripping
off his body". Attempts were made to do something for the child, but he
was too far gone. He died three days later, and perhaps was one of the
bodies in the tiny casket interred at Pigo Cemetery this past week.
Because of a strict
request for anonymity we cannot share anymore about this story, but it
is not necessary. Simply google the words "abortion survivors" and read
and listen to many such stories...from the survivors themselves.
So yes, we failed. We failed to keep the actions of Frank Aguon, Jr. in the news. We won't fail again.
THE ESPERANSA PROJECT
