March For Life
 
Today is one of my favorite days of the year – the annual March For Life.  Every year hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington, D.C. -- in January! -- to march for the sanctity of life.  That tells you something about the dedication of the pro-life movement.
 
Usually the "mainstream media" totally ignores the march.  But they couldn't ignore this year's march because President Trump made history today by becoming the first sitting United States president to address the March For Life.  Here are a few excerpts of the president's remarks:
 
"We're here for a very simple reason -- to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential.  For 47 years, Americans of all backgrounds have traveled from across the country to stand for life.  And today as president of the United States, I am truly proud to stand with you. . .
 
"All of us here today understand an eternal truth – every child is a precious and sacred gift from God.  Together we must protect, cherish and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life.  When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God's creation. . . As the Bible tells us, each person is wonderfully made. . .
 
"To all of the moms here today, we celebrate you and we declare that mothers are heroes.  Your strength, devotion and drive is what powers our nation.  And because of you our country has been blessed with amazing souls who have changed the course of human history. . .
 
"We know this:  Every life brings love into this world.  Every child brings joy to a family.  Every person is worth protecting.  And above all, we know that every human soul is divine and every human life, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of Almighty God."
 
If you missed the president's March For Life address, you can watch it here.
 
Today, the Trump Administration formally notified the state of California that it is violating federal conscience laws by mandating abortion coverage in all health insurance policies.  The state's abortion mandate was challenged by an order of Catholic nuns and Skyline Wesleyan Church.  The state has 30 days to repeal the mandate or risk losing federal funds.
 
 
 
Pro-Life America
 
A new Marist poll released this week finds overwhelming support for pro-life policies.  For example: 

• 70% of those surveyed support significant limits to abortion. 
• Only 21% support abortion on demand.
• 60% oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.
• 75% oppose the use of their tax dollars to perform abortions overseas.
• 62% believe the Supreme Court should allow states to regulate abortion.

In the coming weeks, the court will have an opportunity to do just that when it considers a challenge to a Louisiana law requiring abortionists to meet certain health and safety standards. 
 
The Louisiana law is similar to Texas law the high court struck down in 2016 in a 5-to-3 vote after Justice Scalia had passed away.  But the Supreme Court has changed significantly since then.  Justice Neil Gorsuch has replaced Scalia and Justice Brett Kavanaugh has replaced Anthony Kennedy, who was the deciding fifth vote in the Texas case.
 
 
 
The Deep State Scandal
 
Late yesterday there was breaking news that the Justice Department informed the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that it was wrong to renew the last two warrants to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.  Better late than never, I guess.
 
Many media outlets glossed over the news, often with tepid headlines that downplayed the importance of the story.  We've just been told that the Deep State effort to investigate, undermine and delegitimize a duly-elected president, by spying on an innocent American who was part of the campaign, was illegal! 
 
Every citizen should be outraged by this gross abuse of power by our intelligence agencies.  Once again, we're seeing that James Comey deserved to be fired, that all the hype about Russian collusion was an absurd hoax and that the Mueller investigation was a colossal waste of $30 million.
 
But don't hold your breath waiting for Rachel Maddow to apologize for misleading the country or accusing the president of being a Russian asset.
 
 
 
The Wuhan Virus
 
A few folks have asked me this week how concerned they should be about the coronavirus from Wuhan, China.  For now, I think the answer is that we haven't been told enough yet to know how concerned we should be. 
 
Chinese communist authorities are notorious for hiding the truth.  We don't know for certain how many people are infected and how many have died.  We don't know enough yet to know for certain if this is just another random flu or another Spanish flu, which killed 50 million people worldwide in 1918. 
 
Rising additional concern is that communist China's reaction to this outbreak seems over-the-top based on what we know so far.  To shutdown travel and isolate Wuhan, a city of 11 million people and bigger than New York City, does not seem like a reasonable reaction if just a variant of the flu is going around.  According to the latest news, Beijing has now imposed restrictions on more than 30 million people.
 
Here's another curiosity:  China announced that it is immediately constructing a new hospital -- just for the people stricken with the "Wuhan virus."  It also closed 70,000 movies theaters across the country in order to discourage crowds.  That makes sense if this is a "killer virus." 
 
On the other hand, thousands of people may have contracted the virus but never got sick enough to go to the hospital and have since recovered.  If that ends up being true, then this is just another viral flu.