Please read these facts – it can change the course of the fight for life.
Did you know: over the past 37 years more than 5,000 pieces of prolife legislation have been proposed and more than 1,000 passed – yet, most prolife activists cannot name one elected official whose job it is to enforce those laws?
Did you know: more than $800 million has already been given directly to congressional candidates and more than $5 billion was spent for the 2012 elections? Furthermore, dozens of prolife groups work to influence those elections, but not a single prolife group in the nation (except this one) is focused on supporting the men and women who will enforce our laws.
Did you know: a single Congressman is one of 435 persons who cannot directly engage in enforcing our laws, while the average District Attorney has, in most instances, sole authority to enforce our laws designed to protect women and children and restrict abortion?
Did you know: that pro-lifers will contribute millions of tax deductible monies to organizations to track congressional action, but the prolife community has not engaged in ensuring the enforcement of state and federal laws restricting abortion?
Did you know: that despite the passage of all of the prolife legislation through the years the only single enforcement effort ever against Planned Parenthood was the one initiated by Phill Kline?
Did you know: that in the next 7 years, it is estimated that Americans will spend over $17 billion on control of Congress. Our entire budget during those 7 years is $1.2 million, less than 100th of 1%.
Did you know: the average US House seat requires a candidate to raise and spend over $1 million, and the average Senate seat over $6 million with incumbents winning over 90% of the time? Meanwhile, the average race for county and district attorney will cost a total of $57,000 with many costing less than $20,000. A little bit goes a long way in enforcement power.
Through all of these 37 years, we as a community have not engaged in an effort to enforce our laws – until now! Phill Kline has teamed with Life Issues Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio to initiate the first ever effort to ensure our laws are enforced.We have already completed hundreds of thousands of dollars of research and have an incredible team, including a Harvard PhD. as an analyst.
The daily work of the Amistad Journey:
- Research state statutes for weaknesses in current laws.
- Work with key legislators to strengthen laws for enforcement.
- Help elect the right law enforcers in key districts.
- Support law enforcers when they face personal, political, and legal challenges.
- Keep the locations of our efforts under the radar.
To continue this work, you must join us. Together, we will engage this battle in wisdom. We will pick the battlefields and win the fight before the enemy even knows we’re there.
Your investment will save children from continued abuse, protect women and save lives.
Mr. Kline became the first prosecutor ever to successfully subpoena Planned Parenthood records and to seek to enforce our nation’s laws restricting late-term abortion. He was the first prosecutor ever to file charges against Planned Parenthood. This battle continues today.
He should not have been the first, and God willing he will not be the last. He learned much in his 8-year battle against Planned Parenthood. He knows the enemy. He knows the enemy’s tactics and he knows the enemy’s weaknesses. With your help, we can and will prevail.
Please send your tax deductible contribution today! It just simply does not make sense to continue efforts to write the rules while ignoring who enforces the rules.
Why Do We Call This Effort “The Amistad Journey?”
Conditions on transatlantic slave ships were abhorrent. Shackled Africans were stacked like cordwood, below deck, immersed in feces, body fluids and vomit. The dead chained to the living. Unknowing of their destination or the purpose for their confinement.
In February of 1839, Portuguese slave hunters kidnapped a large group of Africans from Sierra Leone and shipped their captives to Havana, Cuba, a center of the slave trade where the 53 captives were sold into slavery in April in the service of two Spanish planters. On June 28 they were placed on a Cuban schooner, the Amistad (meaning “Friendship”), for delivery to a Caribbean sugar plantation. On July 1, the captives revolted, killing the ship captain and cook and obtaining control of the vessel.
The Africans ordered the remaining crew to set sail for Africa. During the day the remaining Cuban crew set sail to the east and the rising sun, but at night they steered the Amistad towards the United States. On August 26, the Amistad was seized off of Long Island and escorted by a US Naval vessel to New London, Connecticut.
Immediately, the Spanish Crown demanded that the Africans be turned over to Spanish authorities to be executed for mutiny and murder. United States President Martin Van Buren, focused on re-election and wanting to avoid offending the South and an international incident with Spain, agreed and order the authority of the US Government to back Spain’s claim. The Spanish citizens who purchased the Africans filed a claim in US Federal Court for their “property” to be returned.
At this point, three prominent abolitionists formed a committee to defend the freedom of the Africans and began building a legal claim for their freedom. The defense team learned that the documents alleging that the Africans were born Cuban slaves were forged. When the Federal District Court ruled that the Africans were kidnapped freemen who should be returned to Africa, Van Buren was furious and ordered an appeal. At one time, President Van Buren positioned a US Naval vessel off of the coast of Connecticut, ready to forcibly kidnapped the Africans, who were being held in jail pending the appeal, so that they could be transported to Spain.
On appeal, the abolitionists secured the assistance of Congressman and former President John Quincy Adams. The case was argued before the United States Supreme Court on February 22, 1841. In March, the United States Supreme Court ordered that the Africans be freed immediately and denied all Spanish claims.
The Amistad decision was handed down exactly 16 years prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford in which
Justice Taney, writing for the Court, stated that it was clear that under the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that blacks:
“had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could be made by it.”
The Amistad was 19 years prior to the Civil War, 22 years before the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in rebellious states, 24 years prior to the 13th Amendment prohibition of slavery, 600,000 deaths prior to the end of the Civil War, 113 years before the
United States Supreme Court prohibited racial segregation in schools in Brown v. Topeka Bd. of Education and 123 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned racial discrimination in public buildings.
Yet, the Amistad Journey and those who through the years stood firm in their faith in the truth that in creating man God gave value to every human being; corrected a grave evil and gave this nation a precious gift. They stood in unity of purpose, devotion to cause and measured themselves, not by earthly measurements, but by their duty as defined by Almighty God.
Such a time is upon us again. As America rationalizes and embraces evil, we are compelled to stand as God grants us the ability to stand: in truth, with integrity to His purpose and in the unity of His Spirit; not questioning God’s timing while challenging all evil.
And so: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give us a spirit of unity among ourselves as we follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…(and) may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him….” Romans 15:5, 13.
We welcome your Questions and Comments.
Please direct them to:
Hannah Tomlinson, Deputy Counsel
theamistadjourney@gmail.com
To make a financial contribution, click here
or
Mail your check to:
Life Issues Institute
1821 W. Galbraith Rd.
Cincinnati, OH 45239
Please make your check out to “Life Issues Institute” and note “Amistad” in the subject line.