Originally Published by National Eagle Forum

DECEMBER 21, 2023 
Has Congress been Naughty or Nice?  Looking back on this session, it’s easy to see the disappointing things that belong on Santa’s Naughty List. But several things deserve positive recognition. In the true spirit of giving, here are some of the “gifts” that Congress gave us this year:

• 221 Republicans gave the GOP a majority in the House. While this was only an eight-member lead over Democrats, it was enough to make a difference. House Republicans had to be strategic and unified in their efforts this year. Even though there were growing pains, the American people were given a transparent view of the chess game that is our lawmaking process.

• 20 Republicans reined in the powers of the Speaker of the House by demanding reforms before voting for Rep. Kevin McCarthy. Conservative members secured the ability to be placed on key committees and implemented transparency measures through simplified bills and a 72-hour period to consider them before votes. In addition, they extracted commitments that each of the twelve appropriations bills would be passed individually instead of by a massive omnibus package and that the Speaker would not use the House Leadership Fund to sway primary elections.

• 55 pages of a House Rules package that ensured regular order in the House of Representatives. In addition to the 20 Republicans’ priorities mentioned above, the bill included the elimination of proxy voting, a higher threshold to approve tax increases (three-fifths), a prohibition on spending increases, and the creation of the Select Committee of the Weaponization of the Federal Government chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

• 12 appropriations bills marked up and voted on. In an amazing feat, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees passed all bills to the floor. Seven of those have passed the full House and three have passed the Senate.

• 11 pro-family bills made it to the House and Senate floors. Eagle Forum scored in favor of bills this year to protect the sanctity of life and the safety of women and girls, to hold the Biden administration accountable for overreaching federal policies, to secure our nation’s borders, and to affirm the rights of parents. You can find those votes in our scoreboard and in Eagle Forum’s End of Year Report which will be released in January.

• One Senator was bold enough to take an unwavering stance for life and the law. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) placed holds on all military promotions due to the Department of Defense’s decision to break federal law by allowing military personnel and their family members to be reimbursed for travel to obtain out-of-state abortions. For eleven months, Sen. Tuberville successfully fought the Biden Administration’s harmful and arguably illegal policy. Eagle Forum dubbed him a “Hero of the Republic” for standing up for babies, moms, and American taxpayers.

• One year of the Capitol being open to all. The first thing (now-former) Republican Speaker McCartney did was reopen the Capitol and House offices to visitors. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had made it very difficult for the public to access House buildings and the Capitol using the COVID pandemic and the J6 event as an excuse. The Republican majority ensured the People’s House would be open to visitors without extra restrictions.

Not only can we thank Congress for the good they have done, but we are grateful for the advocacy and accountability you provide to your elected representatives. Your vote, make your voice heard through our legislative alerts, and give your time and resources to our organization as well as Eagle Forum PAC!  Many of you attended our 51st Eagle Council and equipped others through the education you received. Our sincerest thanks to all who are dedicated to preserving pro-family values for generations to come. Merry Christmas!

Media Statement
 
 Utah Judge Stone Oversteps in Delaying Law Triggered by SCOTUS Abortion Ruling 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY--July 11, 2022--The Utah Eagle Forum today declared Third District Judge Andrew Stone’s temporary blockage of SB174, Utah's pro- life trigger law, as legislating from the bench without a single mention of the rights of the unborn babies. Responding to the knee jerk lawsuit by Planned Parenthood, Stone sided with them using the same reasoning as the Supreme Court of the United States did in “Roe v. Wade”, only this time he used the Utah Constitution for his unconstitutional bias opinion instead of the US Constitution.  
  
“This is an obvious example of legislating from the bench, in violation of the Utah constitution,” states Gayle Ruzicka, President of the Utah Eagle Forum. “We expected such desperate action from Planned Parenthood seeking to overcome the will of the people and rights of the unborn. But we are shocked and disappointed in this rock-hard liberal judgment and are prepared to continue fighting for full implementation of SB174, which is current law in Utah.” 
 
Ruzicka continues, “In our Republican form of government, the people elect legislators to make laws reflecting the will of the people.  In this case Judge Stone and Planned Parenthood seek to overrule the people’s vote and subjugate the law to force their agenda. That’s not the way our free government works.” 
  
The Forum believes Roe v. Wade was always an unconstitutional ruling by the Supreme Court. The right to abortion does not exist in the Constitution. The Forum affirms that we now have a Supreme Court majority that rules according to correct constitutional and moral principles.  
 
In a triumphant day for unborn babies and their mothers, the 2022 SCOTUS ruling affirmed that each state can now decide what laws will govern abortion in their state. 
 
About the Utah Eagle Forum
The Utah Eagle Forum has been a leader in the pro-life, pro-family movement and is part of the National Eagle Forum founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972. The Forum’s mission is to enable conservative and pro-family men and women to participate in the process of self-government and public policymaking so that America will continue to be a land of individual liberty, with respect for the nuclear family, public and private virtue, and private enterprise. For fifty years, Eagle Forum’s network of state organizations has led the charge to mobilize the grassroots to defend the founding principles of the United States. Since 1989, Utah Eagle Forum has been led by Gayle Ruzicka, who has committed her time as President to the defeat of Roe V. Wade

1. Vague and poorly written
ERA does not allow any distinction to be made between men and women – even when it makes sense to do so based on their biological differences.
As a result, the ERA will harm women AND their unborn children by overturning laws and programs that benefit them.

2. Harmful to unborn children
The ERA would be used to overturn all restrictions on abortion (including the partial birth abortion ban, 3rd-trimester abortion ban and parental notice of minors seeking an abortion).

3. The ERA would be used to mandate taxpayer funding of elective Medicaid abortions.
In both New Mexico and Connecticut, their state ERAs were used in the courts to overturn restrictions on abortions and mandate taxpayer funding of elective Medicaid abortions with the rationale that since abortion is unique to women, restricting abortions is a form of sex discrimination. ” (N.M. Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, 975 P.2d 841, 1998; and Doe v. Maher, 515 A.2d 134 [Conn Super. Ct. 1986]

4. The ERA would overturn laws and practices that benefit women
Workplace laws that provide special accommodations for pregnant women State labor laws and guidelines which benefit women who do heavy, manual work Government programs that support women as mothers such as the Women, Infants, and Children nutritional program (WIC)
Social Security benefits for stay-at-home mothers based on their spouse’s
income. Justice Ginsberg claims that the current gender neutral benefit language is still a violation of the equality principle because it encourages women to stay out of the workforce, and as such she would overturn the benefit.
Exemption of women from the military draft and front-line combat. Currently, women who feel they are physically able can choose to enlist in the military. The ERA, however, would require that all women be drafted and placed on front-line combat in equal ratios to men.
Laws and presumptions that support women in the areas of alimony, child support, and requirements of husbands to pay for their dependent wives’ medical bills. The ERA will also wipe out state laws that exempt a wife from having to pay her husband’s debts even if he deserts her with children to support.
All other laws that provide preferential treatment for women

5. ERA would impact the privacy and safety of women and girls
By removing gender designations for bathrooms, locker rooms, jails and hospital rooms.

6. The ERA will not give women any more rights than they currently have.
Women already have claim to equal rights through the 14th Amendment (section 1) as well as numerous other laws in virtually all areas of American life – employment (including equal pay), education, credit eligibility, housing, public accommodations, etc.
The US Supreme Court has already applied the 14th Amendment to women’s issues (United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996)).

7. ERA won’t erase the gender wage gap.
Women are already guaranteed equal pay through the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 and can seek remediation through the EEOC. The currently quoted wage gap between men and women is a misunderstood statistic in which the average wages of all full-time working men and women are compared in one lump sum of men to women across all occupations and education levels. This doesn’t allow for an equal pay comparison. When we compare the wages of men and women within the same career, in similar positions, at the same age, the wage gap narrows to 98 cents for women compared to a dollar for men. Even when we compare within career fields, key factors such as years worked, the level of education, and time flexibility of job, etc. are not factored into the comparison (see “An Analysis of the Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women” U.S. Dept. of Labor, 2009).

8. The ERA would also transfer large amounts of legislative power from the states to Congress creating a greater imbalance of power and placing sensitive issues under the less responsive federal government.
Section 2 of the ERA requires that Congress be given the power to enact the provisions of the ERA.As a result, states would lose their legislative abilities in regards to family law (marriage, divorce, alimony, custody, adoption, and property), sex crime laws, public and private schools, insurance, prison regulations and any other areas of law impacted by gender.

9. It’s clear that ERA sponsors intended for the ERA to overturn all restrictions on abortion.
Efforts to soften the extreme nature of the ERA via amendments were rejected by the supporters of the ERA when the ERA was being drafted in Congress. Courts will look to this legislative history for legislative intent as they interpret the ERA. The sample amendment below that was rejected shows that the supporters intended the applications of the ERA to be extreme and without any protection for women or their unborn children. This amending language for the ERA was rejected by the supporters: “The provisions of this article shall not impair the validity, however, of any laws of the United States or any State which exempt women from compulsory military service, or from service in combat units of the Armed Forces; or extend protections or exemptions for wives, mothers, or widows; or impose upon fathers responsibility for the support of children; or secure privacy to men or women, or boys or girls; or make punishable as crimes rape, seduction, or other sexual offenses” (Cong. Rec., pp. S9538–S9540).

10. The accepted time limit for ratification of Constitutional amendments is 7 years.
ERA failed in 1979. Five states voted to rescind their earlier approval of ERA. Any vote for ERA today is null and void and would be an embarrassment to the state.

Transcript:
​My name is Gayle Ruzicka. I Am President of Utah Eagle Forum and also, along with so many people you see here today, a founder of this organization. The day that we got Roe v. Wade, I determined that I would never stop fighting to overturn Roe v. Wade. I want to share with you some of the things that have happened over the years as we've worked towards this goal. Back in 1991, I had just moved in the state two years before that, we passed a bill. I want to tell you about that bill because we worked hard. We spent two years traveling around the state, organizing and planning to make this happen. This bill was a bill that said that life begins at implantation of a fertilized egg.

We went on from there, in this bill, to talk about the rights of the unborn. In this bill, it said the policy of the legislature in Utah, under the Utah Constitution, which recognizes that liberty and life, founded on inherent and inalienable rights, are entitled to protection of the law and due process, and that the unborn children have an inherent and inalienable right that are entitled to protection by the State of Utah, that the State of Utah has a compelling interest in the protection of human life, including that of unborn children.

It goes on again and talks more about the Utah Constitution and the protection of the unborn, giving unborn children the very same rights as children that are born. As people, as all of us in the State of Utah, that is what we need to work for. That bill passed. It was signed by the governor and passed. And you know what? It went all the way to the Supreme Court. It got cert. That is important. Very few bills ever make it all the way to the Supreme Court. This one got there. On the way, we had a lot of mishaps and people playing games with it and trying to stop it from passing, I mean, getting all the way there. But it went there. It made it. But when it got there, sad to say, one of the judges, one of the justices had retired Byron White. We needed his vote to overturn Roe, so it was struck down.

But that doesn't mean we give up. That was 1991 and I have not given up one day since then. I have worked, every year, to see that something ... we try to get something passed. We have passed lots of bills over the years and we have worked our way toward that very thing of going back to the gold standard, the standard that says life begins at conception, the standard that says the unborn child has a constitutional right to life just like you do, like all of us do, And we're going to do that. We're going to keep going and we are going to do that. That is our goal. I think everybody in this room who loves those unborn babies would agree with that, that those little babies have that right. I want you to know that I will not stop fighting, and I'm sure all of you in this room feel the same way, or you wouldn't be here today. We will not stop until we pass that same bill again, and this time, make sure it's upheld. Thank you.

​https://www.abortionfreeutah.org

We would like to thank Representative Cheryl Acton for all her hard work and courageous action in defending life.   She has had multiple Interviews (on and off camera) all day because of the injunction filed today to stop the enactment of HB136. She sent the following press release to the media: ​

The Equal Rights Amendment is not about Equal Rights—it is about ensuring abortion is legal in all nine months and taxpayer funded.​
​

​In 1982, the ERA fell three states short of ratification to be added as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, abortion activists are now afraid that Roe v. Wade is going to fall, returning the decision of legal abortion back to the States. The National Organization for Women President, Toni Van Pelt, has already admitted,  the ERA “is hugely important for reproductive rights, for birth control, for abortion…"  

To “protect” abortion, the pro-abortion lobby has decided to try to ratify the ERA in the remaining three states and then hope Congress or the courts will nullify the original time expiration. Legislators in Nevada and Illinois have already voted to ratify, there is only one state left.

You are invited!
WEDNESDAY - March 13 , 2019   10:00 am to 12:00 pm - Provo City Library  550 N. University Ave., Provo

"A NEW Look at our Inspired Constitution"
How Christian Values and Constitutional Principles Work together to Promote Happiness, Peace and Prosperity.  By Pamela Romney Openshaw

Not only is the Constitution tied to ancient Israel and Native American cultures, but every part of the U S Constitution is infused with the principles of Christianity.  Come join us as Pamela Romney Openshaw, researcher, lecturer and author, explores the Christian nature of the Constitution.  She will show how this document is founded on religious principles and how EVERY portion of this inspired document is connected to eight sets of dual Christian values, such as Agency & Accountability, Work & Self Reliance, Justice & Mercy.   

Come gain a new appreciation for our nation’s Constitution and learn what we need to do to preserve it for our day and for future generations
 
​Please plan now to attend and bring your friends and neighbors.  Get Informed--Take Action--Make a Difference

For more information contact Cathy Young 801-380-1166 or Barbara Petty 801-830-0609

Follow up info on "Science - the forced reeducation of your child" by Vince Neumeyer.  A draft of the Science and Engineering Education (SEEd ) Standards for  Kindergarten-5th grade/9th -12th  is available for public review and feedback. An online public feedback survey tool is available until  April 11, 2019 at 11:45pm."  To read the draft, find dates of public hearings and access the survey link go to:  https://www.schools.utah.gov/file/3ef9be53-f521-4e2b-9c77-e4f492747d0d . 
Everyone needs to sign the Science Standards Petition at https://sciencefreedom.org/ut-science-petition-2019.php
Other Utah Science Standards Info at: https://sciencefreedom.org/UTSEEd-2019.html
General info at ScienceFreedom.org