The following comes from a March 26 email from pro-life leader Wynette Sills in Sacramento.

Yesterday I arrived at the Capitol hoping to see pro-life supporters visiting our legislators, but the halls were empty.  I attended the noon Mass at the Cathedral, hoping to see a church filled with familiar faces, but there were only about eight people wearing red. I optimistically thought everyone must be over at the Capitol getting ready for the historic vote.  However, when I entered the room, there was a sea of suicide supporters, outnumbering us by about 250 suicide supporters to only about 50 pro-life supporters.  SB 128 to legalize Physician Assisted Suicide passed on a party-line vote, with 6 Democrats supporting suicide and 2 Republicans supporting life.  You can watch the proceedings by clicking on this link.   The witnesses in support of suicide were heart-wrenching, including Brittany Maynard’s mother, the young woman who committed suicide in Oregon, suffering from brain cancer.  Our hearts are filled with compassion and we want to help alleviate the pain and misery of our fellow human beings, yet assisted suicide is not the answer.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has an excellent website with information you can use to OPPOSE SB 128, in addition to the Californians Against Assisted Suicide coalition website and here is a good article Always Care, Never Kill: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Endangers the Weak, Corrupts Medicine, Compromises the Family, and Violates Human Dignity and Equality By Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D.

I am hoping that soon every church who supports life will have information about the dignity and compassion involved in end-of-life conditions with bulletin inserts, homilies, prayers of the faithful, and phone numbers of our legislators so that the citizens of California will be encouraged and equipped to be a voice for life as SB 128 now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing and vote on April 7th and then on to the full Senate floor.  Find out who your Senator is at this website– meet with them in your home district as they will be home for spring recess starting today through April 6th- Be a voice for LIFE!

Only two Senate Health Committee members defended life yesterday with their vote, Senator Jim Nielsen and Senator Janet Nguyen, both Republicans.  Please call these two Senators today using the numbers below and thank them for voting NO on SB 128. Interestingly, very pro-abortion Senator Pan from Sacramento abstained from voting. He is a pediatrician. The Democrat party did not need his vote for SB 128 to pass out of the Health Committee, as they already had the required 5 votes.  The Democratic party platform strongly endorses Assisted Suicide, along with abortion.  Yet, they are politically savvy.  Senator Pan knows he has strong pro-life representation amongst his constituents here in Sacramento and as a physician, he knows that the American Medical Association and the California Medical Association do not support Assisted Suicide.    Yet, he needs to hear from his constituents today, urging him to not merely abstain from voting, but to vote NO on SB 128 when it comes to the Senate floor.

Here are the numbers to call today:
Senator Janet Nguyen (Vice Chair) newly elected Republican from Orange County. Call her to thank her for voting NO on SB 128.  916-651-4034
Senator Jim Nielsen 
Pro-life Republican from Yuba, Sutter, Colusa, Tehama, Butte, Glenn counties.  Call to thank him for defending life!  916-651-4004
Senator Richard Pan Pro-abortion Democrat representing the Sacramento region, who abstained from voting yesterday.  Please call Dr. Pan, who is a pediatrician, thank him for abstaining, but encourage him to vote NO on SB 128 when it comes to the Senate Floor.  916-651-4006