Senator Sorenson Responds to Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”
Dante
Some of you may have recently received an email alert from a lobbyist at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition about my reluctance to sign a discharge petition that would allow a so-called late-term abortion ban to be debated on the senate floor.
I feel the need to explain to you where I stand since this email alert from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition failed to accurately report where I stand and why, which is unfortunately the sort of tactic I would expect from our liberal adversaries and not someone that’s supposedly on the same team.
If you’re as passionate about the pro-life cause as I am, then there’s something important you need to know that sadly you wouldn’t be aware of if all of your information came from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition.
What you need to know is that we are close to getting the first historic vote ever on life at conception (or personhood) in the Iowa House. Some pro life warriors in the Iowa House have been working tirelessly to make this happen with a life at conception bill I first introduced when I was in the Iowa House, and its wording is taken literally from the words of the Republican Party of Iowa platform. This vote sanctifying all life from our Creator could literally happen any day.
Sadly, you wouldn’t know that if you all you did was read email alerts from the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. For reasons known only to the leadership of that organization, which includes a Republican National Committeeman, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition has done literally nothing to help the fight for life at conception during this legislative session. In addition, the same lobbyist from that organization that sent out the incomplete email alert about my position has done nothing to help persuade my colleagues to vote for life at conception.
Let me say that again just to make sure those of you who believe in the pro life cause as much as I do hear me loud and clear—the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition has done nothing to help pass a life at conception bill.
Nothing.
Why? You’d have to ask them. I’ve tried, and don’t get an answer. Instead, they have spent all their energy attempting to stop a gruesome late-term abortionist from entering our state, an intention I support, but the bill they’re pursuing may not do that at all. All it will do is compel him to kill the baby a few days or weeks earlier than he had previously planned. Not to mention those who generate an income off of the killing of innocent life probably can’t be counted on to keep accurate records of their dirty dealings in the first place. Planned Parenthood has already announced its bringing more abortion mills to Iowa as well.
Still, I can see why some of my fellow pro-lifers are eager to try and do something to stop this late-term abortionist, as am I. This is why I am also spending my energy on passing legislation that wouldn’t just make life tougher for abortionists, but instead put them out of business altogether. I am also working on drafting an amendment that could correct some of the troubling language in HF 657 (formerly HF 5).
However, instead of helping us pass a life at conception bill, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition instead attacked my fellow pro life warriors in the Iowa House who were fighting for it, and inexcusably urged other pro-lifers to contact them and lobby those legislators to violate their moral conscience.
It appears that the leaders at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition are like too many of my Republican colleagues who didn’t get the message of the last election, which is that voters want principles and have rejected the failed policies of the left. Instead of playing the old political game the way the left would like us to, as the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition is still doing, I believe we should challenge the left head on and defeat them once and for all.
This is why last year I didn’t vote for the compromised pro-Second Amendment legislation until we forced liberals to go on the record on Constitutional Carry first, and it’s why this year I will not support a compromised “pro life” bill until we have actually fought for the core principle of the pro-life movement first–that all life is sacred from conception until natural death. The pro-life movement has neglected the inalienable right to life, and I promise you I will do everything in my power to get my colleagues on the record about who really believes in the right to life and who does not, that way you the voter can be fully informed about where your elected officials stand.
I agree that we can’t win back the victories the left has had for decades in one legislative session or one election, and that we’ll have to incrementally win several battles along the way. But when we don’t advance our principles first and surrender them before the fight has even begun, we’re not moving incrementally in the right direction, but instead increasingly moving in the wrong direction the left prefers.
This is why I agree with State Reps. Glen Massie, Kim Pearson, and Tom Shaw’s valiant fight to have their chamber vote on life at conception, which is a fight I have been proud to help them with. I will also continue to fight to make that vote happen in the senate as well, even if that means adding a life at conception amendment to HF 657. However, my conscience also tells me that if we can’t advance the most principled position we should still do as much good as we can and trust God from there, so I will vote to stop another late-term abortionist from setting up shop in Iowa, regardless of the bill’s obvious imperfections.
Now that I have clarified where I stand and what I am doing to fight for life at conception, perhaps the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition that inspired this note from me in the first place should explain where they stand, and why they have done nothing to support life at conception.
As always I welcome your feedback and covet your prayers. I will keep you updated on this fight for life at conception, and promise you it is a fight I will see all the way through no matter how much I am pressured to compromise—even if the pressure is from people that are supposed to be on my side.
An Open Letter to State Senator Mike Gronstal
An Open Letter to State Senator Gronstal
from citizen McCoy
Senator Mike Gronstal,
Article 1. Section 2. of the Iowa Constitution says, ³All political power is inherent in the PEOPLE. Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the PEOPLE, and they have the right, at all times, to alter or reform the same, whenever the public good may require it.²
What part of Article 1. Section 2, do you not understand? You obviously do not comprehend that the electorate, your employers, are sick and tired of politics as usual. They made their statement in 2008 and after being duped have risen up once again in 2010 to restate their point.
The politics of the past is what the people are sick of. They are sick of party politics and the arrogance of their employees. You have either forgotten, or did not know, or you are ignoring why we hired you. Regardless it¹s time for a refresher course. You were hired to represent the PEOPLE of this great state, and not to fulfil your own particular agenda, the agenda of a special interest group or to feed your ego. Through your myopic view you have convinced yourself that you are doing what is right. Denial is not a river in Egypt.
It is understandable and reasonable for the Senate and the House to adopt rules to provide for the expediting of the workings of those two bodies. However; something is drastically wrong when those rules, made by the employees, take priority over the employers and the constitution that the
employees swore to uphold. Your excuse that these are the same rules that Republicans adopted indicates you don¹t get it. The people are sick of non constitutional rules hindering the implementation of the constitution, whether the Republicans or the Democrats adopted them. This is the party politics we are sick of. As a party you may express your difference in ideology and you rightly should debate those ideologies, for they represent your constituency. However, when you become so wrapped up in your party¹s ideology or some special interest group¹s ideology, you have missed the point that you are representing the PEOPLE of Iowa. We the PEOPLE, your employers, gave you your job and we will fire you and every other employee who is on their own power trip and have disregarded their employer.
In your defense, I agree that the constitution is for the protection, security and rights of the people and to avoid the tyranny of the majority, as you previously quoted in the Des Moines Register on January ninth. This is why we are a Republic and not a Democracy. The constitution, however, does not provide rights and privileges for behavior because rights are granted by the creator as stated in the moral law of our nation, the Declaration of Independence; ³We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these is Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (right of property). That to SECURE these (Creator given) rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.² Governments have no authority to grant rights. They have the responsibility and only the power the PEOPLE grant them.
There is no homosexual gene in the DNA code of man, so the scientific evidence reveals that homosexuality is a behavior. You are correct when you state peoples rights should not be put to a vote; however, rights are not the issue. Behavior is. So your whole premise of protecting the rights of a special interest group who struggles with their own identity, is erroneous and reflects either your refusal to consider the scientific evidence of the International Human Genome Consortium or it reflects your biases toward homosexuals.
You may remain full of self pride, and may even persuade some of your fellow Democrats to join you in being an obstructionist, or you can decide to start serving the PEOPLE of Iowa. Your choice and your fellow employees¹ choices on this issue and on other issues that will be presented to you during this session will determine how long you will be employed. The PEOPLE, your employer, will no longer put up with the petty, bickering, partisan politics of the past. It is yours and other politicians self-aggrandizement that has lead to the decline of this great nation and state.
In conclusion let me remind you of Article 1. Section 2. of the Iowa Constitution says, ³All political power is inherent in the PEOPLE. Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the PEOPLE, and they have the right, at all times, to alter or reform the same, whenever the public good may require it
Al Bregar
bobeschliman
theiowasentinel
theiowasentinel 