Oregon Right to Life has never fought so hard at the state capitol as it has since January in working to stop SB494, the bill touted to be a “simple update” on Oregon’s advance directive, but in reality, it would allow the starving and dehydration of mentally incapacitated patients. We have spared no expense, cut no corners, and overturned every stone in order to try to stop this bill. State agencies and powerful insurance companies, along with the right-to die movement, have been working together for three years to craft this deceiving, deadly bill. They have all been part of Democrat Senator Floyd Prozanski’s (D-Eugene)“work group.” Last year, when we heard about the group, we ask to be included and were refused. Prozanski has been working overtime with his Democrat compatriots to pass this bill.
Oregon Right to Life has alerted pro-lifers throughout the state and nation who have stepped up to the plate with outrage over the bill. They have given generously to support the lobby team, called and written their senator, and testified at hearings. Uncountable numbers of prayers have been offered up.
Personally, I have been consumed with zeal to fight this bill, and will not stop fighting until the last moment of this year’s session. The same can be said of the others on our lobby team.
Why have we, and so many Oregonians, given so much to stop this bill? Because it opens a door to a whole new classification of people who can be legally killed. Abortion has legally killed the innocent unborn since 1973. Assisted suicide, legal in Oregon and some other states, has killed adults who have wanted help in killing themselves. SB494, now opens the doors to killing conscious, non-dying adults, incapacitated because of mental illness, who have not asked to be killed. The clear motive for the killing is money. A first grader can do the math as to how much money it saves to kill a person rather than allow him to live.
This battle for the lives of innocent, conscious although incompetent patients, has a happy ending. After arriving in the House, because of excellent work of the pro-life House members, on June 16th SB494 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The committee was then closed for the 2017 session, thus killing SB494.
The death of this bill, instead of the death of patients, is a tremendous victory! It could not have been accomplished without the God’s great power using all the good people who stood up against this horrendous bill: thousands of pro-lifers across the state who wrote and emailed their senators, the pro-life senators who worked so hard against it, and the pro-life representatives in the House who used their influence to stop the bill. The battle is over for this session and lives have been spared! A huge thank you to each who joined in the fight!
Just another attempt or should I say attack from Satan to kill mankind by using non believers. God have mercy on us.
Gayle , I am a survivo, once having struggled with debilitating major depressive disorder. At the time, I wanted to die..despite having a 4 year old and 5 month old. I am blessed to having a husband who never gave up, even when treatment after treatment failed. The last resort, ECT, proved to life-saving.
What this bill allows is for someone less fortunate, without an advocate to be killed. Someone in the midst of mental illness can’t think or see clearly, and the can easily convinced that they are better off dead. They are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. My thoughts and prayers are with you today, and I will work tirelessly to prevent this from happening in NY.
I am embarrassed to be from the State of Oregon.
Not only do we hail from a state with increasing revenues but an increasing deficit because we have a legislature that cannot confront the obvious, unsustainable impact of PERS but we use this same fantasy logic in dealing with social issues. Time and time again, we lead the nation in extreme moral issues, always landing on the wrong side. We are a laughing stock of the country.
The most recent is the funding of free abortions. 90% of abortions are for convenience – not victims or rape or incest, not incidents of medical jeopardy – simply women who got pregnant and decide they really don’t want this baby. And, these are babies.
Most of the people making these decisions have no experience with abortion. And, those that do are trying to reconcile a decision they made with their conscience by claiming “it was nothing”
I have experience with abortion.
– My mother did not choose abortion. Nor did yours.
– I did choose abortion when I was a teenager and the girl I loved dearly, my future wife, became pregnant. Our parents thought this was inconvenient and “counseled” us to an abortion. It took years of counseling and recovery from addictions to overcome the effects of this decision.
– My granddaughter was $50 short of being aborted when it was discovered my 15 year-old daughter, prepped and on the abortion table, had slipped into her third trimester and the greedy abortionist would not do the abortion for the price previously quoted to her. Fortunately, she had to ask others for the money and this friend counseled her off that abortion table.
– Tragically, this granddaughter has had three abortions. This is who you are funding with this bill.
Do you have experience with abortions? Have you had to reconcile taking a baby’s life because of a selfish decision? Have you turned to addictions to help live with that realization once you have had children and it becomes absurdly obvious what you did when you had the abortion? Have you had to tell your children what you chose to do and explain to them, “it just wasn’t a good time for us to have a baby”? Have you had to watch a grandchild, a child that was $50 and one greedy abortionist away from not being born, make these choices that she will grieve for years and years?
Probably not.
You just sit in your leather chairs and ignore reality, ignore truth. You let unions kill the Port of Portland and you will let unions and unrealistic pension plans ruin the economy of Oregon. Not a surprise that you also justify making abortions free. Free is good right?
Senator SteinerHayward, your response to my email about BrighterOregon and the PERS crisis crippling our State’s economy is still ringing in my ears – “if only BrighterOregon had approached me/us earlier”. As I responded to you then, I will respond to you now – right is always right no matter when you discover it. Don’t keep making wrong choices just because you at one time believed it to be right. Do the right thing.