We Mourn the Death of Stephen Mendelsohn

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC).*

The amazing genius and focused disability activist, Stephen Mendelsohn, age 63 [pictured right], worked tirelessly to oppose assisted suicide as a member of Second Thoughts Connecticut and as a member of the EPC - USA board, has died.

According to a media report Stephen Mendelsohn died when he was hit by a car on Sunday evening (June 1).

Mendelsohn was an incredible researcher. He would read through legislative texts and uncover specific language variations that may not have been noticed immediately. Also, the interventions that he wrote opposing assisted suicide bills often used new talking points and ways to oppose killing by assisted suicide.

Allen West: A Rendezvous with Destiny

The title of this missive comes from the motto of the 101st Airborne Division, the famed “Screaming Eagles.” The motto comes from a speech given on August 16, 1942, as the 101st Airborne Division was activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. Its first Commanding General, Major General William C. Lee, noted that the Division had no history, but that it had a “rendezvous with destiny.” The General also said that the new Division would habitually be called into action when the need was “immediate and extreme” and that it would fall on its enemies like a thunderbolt from the skies.

The Explosion of Myocarditis: Dr. McCullough's Vaccine Testimony

https://www.theblaze.com/shows/pat-gray-unleashed/vaccine-myocarditis-mccullough

Blaze TV Staff, 05/25/25.

In a Senate hearing this week about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Peter McCullough detailed his experience as a cardiologist — and after the shots, it’s not a good one.

“The topic today is myocarditis or heart damage from the COVID-19 vaccines. I’m a cardiologist. I know the topic well. I’ve examined thousands of patients with this problem — thousands. Before the pandemic, I had two patients ever with this problem,” McCullough testified.

“There’s 1,065 papers in the peer-reviewed literature on COVID vaccine myocarditis, so let me summarize them for you,” McCullough continued. “The first author is Verma and colleagues. New England Journal of Medicine. Forty-two-year-old man comes into Washington University Hospital with vaccine myocarditis.”

“The infection is ruled out; it’s the vaccine. He’s in the hospital. This is one of the best hospitals in the United States. He died three days after taking Moderna. They can’t save him in the hospital,” he explains.

McCullough went on to tell of another, younger man who died within eight hours of being in the hospital after his COVID-19 shot.

“I can tell you, I’m a cardiologist — that doesn’t even happen with heart attacks. He dies within eight hours. I examined all of the slides,” he says, “It looked like somebody took a blowtorch to that heart, it was so completely fried with inflammation.”

Choctaw Nation Honors Code Talkers Who Helped Turn the Tide in WWI

In 1917, a Choctaw Indian named Joseph Oklahombi walked 21 miles from his home in Wright City, Oklahoma, to Idabel, the McCurtain County seat, to enlist in the U.S. Army.

Oklahombi enlisted at a time when most Native Americans were not considered U.S. citizens—that didn’t happen until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

The U.S. government wanted him to forget his history, his culture, and his native language, but that didn’t prevent him from fighting for his homeland in World War I.

Shortly after he enlisted, Oklahombi and 19 other Choctaw men became part of an effort that used their language to help win the war for the Allies.

They became code talkers—Native American soldiers who used tribal languages to confound enemy intelligence.

News ‘Victory for Girls and Free Speech:’ Supreme Court Sides With Lawmaker Censured for Defending Women’s Sports

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, May 20, 2025. 

The [US] Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Maine lawmaker who was censured for defending women’s sports from male intrusion.

“This Supreme Court decision is a victory for girls and free speech, and a defeat for woke gender advocates who want to deny biological reality,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told The Daily Signal. “It is outrageous that a state legislator was ever censured for speaking the truth – there are only two genders, and it is unfair and unsafe for biological men to compete in women’s sports.”

Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, filed a federal lawsuit against Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau for censuring her after she sounded the alarm on a biological male student beating his female competitors at the Maine State Class B Championship in pole vault for girls.

Fecteau asked her to apologize for the post, and after she refused, censured her.

Maine Rep Who Was Censured for Posting About Transgender Athlete Sues House Speaker

Moira Gleason | March 12, 2025

When a lawmaker in Maine posted a photo of a male high school athlete winning a girls pole vault state championship, her House colleagues silenced her. Now, she’s taking legal action. 

Less than two weeks after Maine Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, posted the photo on Facebook, the Maine House of Representatives voted 75-70 to censure her for posting the photo of the minor, meaning she can no longer speak or vote in the Legislature until she apologizes.  

The post included photos of the male athlete from both a boys pole vault competition a couple of years ago and the girls pole vault championship this year. “Two years ago, John tied for 5th place in boys pole vault,” Libby said in the post. “Tonight, ‘Katie’ won 1st place in the girls Maine State Class B Championship.” ...

Libby told The Daily Signal she will not apologize for the post. She filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat, for the censure, claiming it violates her First Amendment right of free speech as well as her equal protection rights and the guarantee clause of Article IV of the Constitution, which protects the basic rights of political participation within state governments. 

‘Medical aid in dying’ Bill Fails in Nevada Legislature

 By McKenna Ross 

Las Vegas Review-Journal (TNS), Updated May 16, 2025 

A proposal to give some terminally ill patients in Nevada access to life-ending medications failed to move forward in the Legislature on Friday.

Assembly Bill 346 — which would have set up a legal framework for competent and willing terminally ill patients to self-administer life-ending drugs — has had an uncertain future all session despite bipartisan support. A similar bill made it to the governor’s desk in 2023 but was vetoed.

Gov. Joe Lombardo [pictured here] said in April he would not sign the bill this session, either. In his veto message, the Republican governor attributed his discomfort in signing the bill to medical advancements and the lack of similar policies in most other states.

Still, the bill passed out of theAssembly, 23-19, on April 17. It did not receive a hearing in the state Senate. Friday is the second house passage deadline, when bills without exemptions must be referred out of committee to be considered for a floor vote next week.

The bill had a hearing scheduled on Friday, but it was canceled. Assembly member Joe Dalia, D-Henderson, said he and co-sponsor Danielle Gallant, R-Las Vegas, kept the bill moving forward after the governor’s statement because they hoped to amend it to reach something favorable to the governor. But they realized they would not have that done in time for Friday’s deadline, he said.

Utah Becomes First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water

Utah became the first state to ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water after Gov. Spencer Cox [pictured right] signed the law late Thursday night. The ban will take effect on May 7.

Rep. Stephanie Gricius, who sponsored the bill, said in an email to The Defender that she was thrilled the governor signed it. She said:

“The proper role of government is to provide safe, clean drinking water, not mass medicate the public. While we have banned it from being added to our water systems, we have also increased access to fluoride tablets through the pharmacies so any Utahn who wishes to take it may. But it will now be a decision each individual can make for themselves.”

The new law bans water fluoridation, but also gives pharmacists new authority to prescribe fluoride supplement pills. Typically, such pills can be prescribed only by a dentist or physician.  

“What Utah has accomplished is historic, a huge step forward,” said Rick North, board member of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), which won a landmark ruling in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the agency’s failure to appropriately regulate the chemical.

What About Providing Aid in Living?

Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted to pass legislation (A136/S138), the Medical Aid in Dying Act, to legalize state-sanctioned suicide [and euthanasia] for those diagnosed with a terminal illness. We strongly urge the New York State Senate to reject this legislation and we urge you to contact your state senators and ask them to vote against this legislation. Click here to contact your state senator.  

Proceeding down this path would be both a moral and practical failure, violating the sanctity of life and leading to a further erosion in the health and well-being of society’s most vulnerable.

At a time that New York State is struggling to address the spiraling numbers of “deaths of despair” resulting from alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicides, this legislation is a giant step in the wrong direction. 

New York Talking Points, Including Commentary by Dawn Eskew & Margaret Dore

Dear Angela & Senator Palumbo, 

In attachments are the talking points I referred to you in our conversation this morning. I can not stress enough to urge everyone on our side to stay clear away from bringing up religion, moral theology, prolife, and things like that.

The problem is the proposed Bill is a Bad Policy Bill, and the reasons pointed out should be our mantra.

One can be for the concept, but not these bills. (2025 #A136 & #S138).

I will be dropping off to your office , as discussed, our brochure which contains all of the short bullet points.

Most Sincerely, 

Dawn C . Eskew1.631.487.7578

-------------------------------------------

My friend Margaret Dore [pictured above], who is copied here, provided me with four publications, which may be of help.  Please see below.

1)

Margaret Dore Featured by Hope Australia

Vote No! on S. 136: New York Should Not Be Considering Assisted Suicide When So Many People Struggle to Live.

By Lisa Blumberg (pictured right)  and Not Dead Yet.

It is disturbing that at a time when the healthcare system is so broken and so many people struggle to get the care and practical support, they need that New York would want to try repeatedly pass legislation which would legalize doctor assisted suicide. The state has shown good judgment in rejecting the idea before and should reject it now.

The pandemic has made evident the deadly health care disparities that people of color, older people and persons with disabilities have always been subjected to. Any law which enables doctors to write lethal prescriptions at the request of people deemed to have six months or less to live, as this bill would, increases risk for devalued patients.

Despite common misconceptions, uncontrollable pain is not a primary reason that people turn to assisted suicide. Data indicates that people often request lethal prescriptions due to perceived lessening of autonomy, or feelings of being burden. As Cliff Perez, a disability rights activist, states, “these reasons are… existential or disability related and ought to be addressed with quality, multidisciplinary care, not death.” It is not so much how individuals view living with limitations caused by illness or disability, but society’s stigma and failure to provide practical supports to address such limitations.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-need-dei-in-our-state-republicans-move-to-close-government-university-dei-offices  

By Leif Le Mahieu 

The Tennessee General Assembly sent two bills cracking down on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to Republican Governor Bill Lee’s desk on Tuesday as the legislative session came to a close.

One bill would ban publicly funded universities and state and local governments from maintaining DEI offices, while the other bill would prohibit those same entities from making hiring decisions based on race. Both bills passed with overwhelming Republican support.

“DEI violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson said on Tuesday. “We don’t need DEI in our state, Mr. Speaker. We need to hire people and promote people based on their merit. Diversity is a wonderful thing and it will happen. But we’re not going to make diversity the number one objective when we’re trying to serve our constituents and hire good people to take care of our constituents. It will be based on qualifications and merit.”

Nevada Governor Will Not Sign Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Bill

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/live-updates-nevada-legislatures-first-committee-passage-deadline-2 

Today marks the Nevada Legislature’s first committee house passage deadline, which typically marks the largest round of bill deaths in the 120-day legislative session.

By the time lawmakers wrap up today, any bills not voted out of their first committee or granted an exemption from legislative deadlines end up in the legislative graveyard....

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo [pictured above] vetoed a whopping 75 bills last session, but a handful of the same concepts are making their way through the Legislature again....

AB346, the medical-aid-in-dying bill [allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia], passed unanimously [in committee] on Thursday and would allow terminally ill patients to request a self-administered medication to end their life. 

Though it breezed its way through committee, Lombardo encouraged the 2025 Legislature to disregard the bill because he would not sign it...

Barrosse: ‘Suicide Contagion’ Is Reason to Defeat Aid in Dying

https://baytobaynews.com/stories/barrosse-suicide-contagion-is-reason-to-defeat-aid-in-dying,218741

Ellen Barrosse [pictured left] is the retired CEO of Synchrogenix Information Strategies, a global pharmaceutical services company founded in Delaware.

As the Delaware legislature debates House Bill 140, a measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, the discussion typically centers on individual autonomy and end-of-life dignity. However, emerging research reveals troubling and unintended consequences: The legalization of assisted suicide is associated with increases in non-assisted suicide rates across the general population — a phenomenon known as “suicide contagion.”

At a time when Delaware and the nation are experiencing record-high suicide rates, with it ranking as the second-leading cause of death for Americans aged 1-44, research from the Southern Medical Journal on U.S. states that have legalized assisted suicide shows an increase of up to 3.3 additional non-assisted suicide deaths per 100,000 residents. For Delaware, this translates to approximately 34 additional lives lost each year. The numbers may not be the same here. Instead of 34, maybe, in Delaware, only 15-20 additional non-assisted suicides will occur. We cannot know the exact number. But, based on study after study, we know the number won’t be zero.

These aren’t just statistics — they represent our neighbors, colleagues and loved ones. Some of these individuals are young people with decades of potential ahead of them, their lives cut short not by terminal illnesses but by choices made in moments of despair.

Ten Years After a ‘Six Months to Live’ Diagnosis, Stephanie Packer travels to Delaware to Warn Against the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Stephanie Packer was told in 2012 that she had three years to live. So far, the doctors that made that prognosis are off by just 10 years.

Packer, 42, who lives in Orange County, Calif., visited Dover on March 11 to share her story with Delaware representatives who were then considering House Bill 140, which would legalize medical aid in dying, also called physician-assisted suicide. She was there to show them that there is life beyond that dire prognosis and to urge them to vote against passage of the bill.

HB 140 eventually passed the House of Representatives by a 21-17 vote with three legislators absent. It now awaits action in the Senate Executive Committee.