About Life Gauge
In 1973, the US Supreme Court ruled in Roe v Wade that abortion is a Constitutional right in America, nullifying West Virginia's law against abortion.
In 1993, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Women's Health Center v Department of Health and Human Resources (hereafter called the Caperton decision) that West Virginia's Constitution grants a right to abortion. The decision assures, separately from Roe, that abortion is legal in West Virginia, and it forces the state to pay for abortions. *
Either decision, by itself, gives West Virginia's abortionists a right to kill babies. As long as Roe or Caperton stands, West Virginia babies have no protection. Two decisions must be reversed. While the nation waits for Roe to fall, Life Gauge is working on Caperton.
The Caperton decision can be overturned in two ways. One is for the West Virginia Supreme Court to reverse the decision. This is unlikely, given the makeup of the present court. The other way to reverse the decision is for the legislature to pass a Constitutional Amendment that allows the people of West Virginia to vote to reverse it.
Eighty percent of WV legislators say they protect babies. The great majority of West Virginians want to protect babies. Life Gauge's goal is to have the legislature pass a Constitutional Amendment that allows the people to reverse Caperton.
While that goal is pursued, and as part of the strategy, Life Gauge attempts to pass every kind of law that will make aborting babies more difficult. Every year, Life Gauge proposes dozens of bills that affect unborn children . . . bills that affect mothers, babies, government, clinics, and abortionists . . . bills that affect hospitals, medical workers, spending, pharmaceuticals, education, and public perception.
The legislature kills all of these bills. As it does so, Life Gauge learns which legislators truly protect babies, which ones merely talk, and which ones are hostile.
Cooperative legislators have introduced many bills over the last five legislative sessions. Each bill died when a committee chairman refused to place it on his committee's agenda.
For many years, one protective bill was introduced each year. Chairmen took turns killing it. The public hardly noticed.
Life Gauge's goal is to make the public notice. That's why Life Gauge introduces so many bills. When chairmen kill so many of them, there's a lot for people to notice. In 2002 the chairmen killed 14 Life Gauge bills. In 2003 that number was 43, in 2004 it was 60, in 2005, 83, and in 2006, 95. Having reached a number that makes it difficult to find enough bill ideas, in 2007 Life Gauge encouraged legislators to reduce that number. The total number of Life Gauge bills introduced in 2007 was 58.
If a chairman kills several dozen protective bills, the people in his district aren't pleased.
In addition to asking legislators to introduce bills, Life Gauge now asks them to introduce a motion to bring a Constitutional Amendment directly to the floor. This is a highly controversial motion to make, and it produces a high level of anger in many of the legislators. Few legislators are willing to risk that. If Life Gauge can find someone to make the motion, it results in a clear up-and-down vote on an amendment that would be the first step in protecting our babies. Life Gauge will continue to ask legislators to do this. Right now no one is willing.
Before each election, Life Gauge uses newspaper ads and fliers to tell people what their legislators are willing to do, and what they are not willing to do. We tell people which chairmen are killing so many protective bills. Such chairmen lose votes. They lose the respect of friends and neighbors. As publicity increases, the pressure increases. That's what Life Gauge does. Increase pressure.
Life Gauge's short-term strategy
is to introduce many bills, expecting the committee chairmen to kill them.
The public reaction must move the chairmen to accomplish the long-term goal, to stop killing the bills.
Five Tactics
1) Life Gauge asks legislators to be the lead sponsor of bills that protect babies. Those who refuse identify themselves as uncooperative.
2) Life Gauge wants a large number of protective bills to be introduced. By killing so many, the chairmen prove their cruelty to the babies.
3) Life Gauge proposes a Constitutional Amendment to undo the Caperton decision. When a chairman kills the amendment, this is publicized in the chairman's district.
4) Life Gauge assigns a grade to every legislator --- A B C D F --- based on cooperation and opposition.
5) Life Gauge places ads in West Virginia newspapers, listing the bills a chairman kills, and rating local legislators. Tens of thousands of people see the ads. This creates pressure on legislators.
|
|
I began my abortion-related efforts in 1979, after driving to Atlanta for Francis Schaeffer's lecture/film series Whatever Happened to the Human Race? I became involved with Mississippi Right-to-Life over the next few years. When I came back to West Virginia in 1983, I started a local chapter in Gilmer County.
In the summer of 1990, I volunteered at the West Virginians for Life office in Morgantown. I was soon an employee, serving for ten years as the Field Coordinator, logging thousands of miles on West Virginia highways, educating the public and organizing local chapters. In 2000 I began to help at the legislature, where I soon realized that legislators play a grand hoax on the people of West Virginia. Masters of delay and deceit, they have taken 30 years to pass paltry legislation that leaves us far behind the progress of other states. Though uninterested in bringing protection to babies, most legislators enjoy reputations as stalwarts for the unborn. To endorse so many of them, including the powerful leaders, is to help them stall the coming of justice for unborn babies.
I started Life Gauge January 1, 2002, in order to more accurately evaluate the legislators. By asking them to introduce protective bills that create pressure on the committee chairmen, I hoped to discover which legislators are sincere about protecting babies. Over the years Life Gauge has seen which legislators are willing to do what is right, measuring their willingness to make life difficult for committee chairmen who kill good bills. Life Gauge has also seen which legislators are not willing to do anything to help babies. Life Gauge's grades reflect the variety of legislators we have.
Cooperative legislators have helped create pressure on committee chairmen. When that pressure grows great enough, the legislature will pass the laws that West Virginia's babies need.
I'd be pleased to explain Life Gauge's strategy to any group of people. Give me a call.
Life Gauge PO Box 313 Glenville WV 26351
Life Gauge is not a corporation, either profit or non-profit. It is a sole proprietorship that does not sell anything, either goods or services. Donations are not tax deductible. Life Gauge does no telemarketing, sends no mass mail fundraising letters, and pays no wages or salaries.