November 7, 2012
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 their 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.