swo-abq-selectpanel
By Cheryl Sullenger
Albuquerque, NM – In response to Operation Rescue’s letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to publicly commit to extending the Select Panel on Infant Lives into the next Congressional session, the New Mexico pro-life group Protest ABQ has announced a bold new campaign.
In conjunction with the prominent national pro-life groups of Operation Rescue and Priests for Life, Protest ABQ plans to use public protest and other educational outreaches to urge State Attorney General Hector Balderas to act on the Select Panel’s June 23, 2016, recommendation that he prosecute the publicly-funded University of New Mexico and their abortion partners, Southwestern Women’s Options. The Select Panel submitted evidence that the two entities were working together to violate state and federal law related to patient privacy and the use and sale of aborted baby remains.
Balderas has had plenty of time to investigate the 291 pages of allegations and documentation provided to him by the Select Panel, and was well aware that there were concerns expressed months earlier about the UNM/Southwestern Women’s Options body parts partnership.
“[The Select Panel’s] criminal referral was issued almost one year after Protest ABQ filed an initial formal complaint with Attorney General Balderas’ office with reference to possible violations of state laws, and concerns about the late-term abortion clinic’s consent forms that indicated the use of fetal tissue obtained during abortions that would later be used in medical research,” said Tara Shaver, Senior Policy Advisor for Protest ABQ.
Yet, according to Shaver, Balderas has so far failed to act despite the clear and convincing evidence. His reluctance to enforce the law where abortion providers are concerned is showing the country what is fundamentally wrong with liberal politics in New Mexico.
“We are glad to stand with Protest ABQ and Priests for Life in demanding prosecutions for UNM and Southwestern Women’s Options crimes,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Southwestern Women’s Options is the largest late-term abortion facility in the country where babies are aborted throughout all nine months of pregnancy. All abortions are bad, but there is just something particularly heinous about killing viable babies just days or weeks before they would have been born. It becomes even more appalling when their organs are then exploited for illegal profit and experimentation.”
Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, who is known as the “Protest Priest” with Priests for Life, criticized politicians like Banderas, who are Catholic Democrats that support child-killing though abortion, despite the clear pro-life teachings of the Church.
“Attorney General Balderas is just one in the group of New Mexico Catholic Democrat elected officials who support pre-born child killing throughout all nine months of pregnancy with no restrictions,” said Fr. Imbarrato, who noted in last week’s election, one of the leaders of the Catholic Democrats was defeated for re-election. “It is now time to focus on Balderas especially as he is most likely planning to run for Governor or another higher office.”
Fr. Imbarrato also questioned the lack of outrage by Republican politicians who claim to be pro-life but have been reluctant to act on their stated beliefs.
“So we contend, as we always have, with Catholic pro-abortion Democrats and silent ‘pro-life in name only’ Republicans. Where is the Republican outrage over Balderas ignoring the crimes against babies that are happening here in New Mexico? These two groups of politicians are what makes New Mexico a deadly place for pre-born children,” Fr. Imbarrato said. “We will continue to expose this failure of leadership and protest their complicity in pre-born child killing until babies are finally protected in our state.”
Shaver remarked, “The abortion cartel in New Mexico has been operating by its own standards for far too long, and now the state’s publicly funded university is involved in an unspeakable scandal of using aborted baby remains from one of the most notorious late-term abortion facilities in the nation. This requires immediate action and without peaceful and prayerful pressure there may never be any progress in this matter of life and death that weighs heavily on the state.”