State Rep Van De Wege Shows Stunning Ignorance in Meetings with Constituents on 'More Dead Babies' Act

We recently caught up with River Sussman, who runs two pregnancy medical clinics on the Olympic Peninsula. Mrs. Sussman has been working desperately to try to convince her state representative Kevin Van De Wege to end his co-sponsorship of House Bill 1366, the bill being pushed by the abortion industry to destroy crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs).

Rep. Van De Wege is new to state politics, having been a fireman before. But he seems quickly to have gone from saving babies from burning buildings to delivering them up to be killed by the abortion industry that helped land him his new job.

Mrs. Sussman met with him recently in his office in Olympia, along with 35 other CPC supporters from his district who crossed the Puget Sound for the occasion. Not only had he not read the 5-page bill before he signed on as a co-sponsor; he hadn't even read it before their meeting.

One of the points Mrs. Sussman raised was the fact that not only were the penalties described in the bill without any sort of precedent for the infractions outlined, but the abortion industry itself was not subject to anywhere close to this kind of oversight. In fact, the abortion industry is either unregulated or "self-regulated".

Van De Wege's response: "That's not true."

Mrs. Sussman repeatedly tried to educate the legislator on this point, but he kept repeating his false "facts" back to her.

It seems that Rep. Van De Wege's enablers in the abortion lobby who sold him on this bill set him up for humiliation. They've been going around to legislators asking them: "Did you know that these clinics aren't licensed?" The fact is that their own clinics, which murder unborn babies, are also not licensed. In fact, in Washington State, we don't license buildings. We license individuals. Only doctors need licenses. This is deliberate sleight-of-hand by the abortion lobby.

Call these Legislators TODAY

The "More Dead Babies Act" introduced last week in the Washington State Legislature can be stopped, but you need to speak up. It is currently before the Health Committees in both the House and the Senate. The best way to stop it is to kill kill it in either committee.

The Democrats -- also known as the political arm of the abortion industry -- control both branches, and so have majorities on both committees. In the House, the breakdown is 7-4; in the Senate, 5-4. Assuming we have all the Republican onside, that means we need 1 Democrat on the Senate committee and 2 on the House to see the light.

House
Starting with the House, 6 of the 7 Democrats are co-sponsors. The non co-sponsor is Troy Kelley. Rep. Kelley is from Pierce County and beat pro-life attorney Steve O'Ban with under 53% of the vote, so there's a good chance we can get a no vote out of him. Call him at (360) 786-7890.

Of the remaining co-sponsors, there are two worth focusing on. The first is Kevin Van De Wege. Rep. Van De Wege is from Jefferson County, is a liberal Democrat, and has reportedly been hostile to pregnancy center staff who have tried to educate. He also co-sponsored the bill last year. All that bodes ill, but he is the only other Dem on the committee besides Kelley who wasn't endorsed by NARAL/Planned Parenthood. Call him at 360.786.7916.

The other one to try to talk sense to is Tami Green. While she received $2,800 from NARAL last election, was endorsed by the abortion lobby, and is a co-chair of the Health Committee, on the other hand she only won re-election by 1,200 odd votes (51.5%), also in the same district as Kelly, not-too-liberal Pierce County. There's a chance she might be able to understand the political calculus if you call her at 360.786.7958.

Senate
On the Senate side, unfortunately all of the Democrats on the Health & Long-Term Care are co-sponsors. The best two to contact may be Ed Murray and Craig Pridemore. Murray's a surprising one: he's a radical homosexual activist, but last time around he voted the right way and even indicated to pregnancy center advocates that he would be a hypocrite if supported "minority rights" for homosexuals, and then turned around and persecuted Christians.

He needs to be reminded of his own words. Call him at 360.786.7628.

Finally, Pridemore represents an urban Vancouver district. While he won re-election quite comfortably, it's possible that he's sufficiently far from the Seattle sanity vacuum that he could be capable of seeing sense and doing the right thing. Call Pridemore at 360.786.7696.

It's best if you're from their district, but since these folks are on the all-important Health Committees, they represent everyone in the state in a sense. Imagine what kind of impact 10,000 calls on this bill would have?

If you've never called your legislator before, now is a great time to start. Do not be afraid. They work for you. If you don't like confrontation, just tell them you are deeply troubled by the bill to shut down crisis pregnancy centers ("HB 1366" in the House) and you want them to vote it down.