Legislator's Life Review
Senator Jesse Bjorkman
Senate District D
House Districts 7 & 8
Soldotna & Nikiski
Legislator's Life Review
Senator Jesse Bjorkman
Senate District D
House Districts 7 & 8
Soldotna & Nikiski
5
Abortion Funding
Votes
1,068
Abortions Funded
By Abortion Funding Votes
957
Abortions While In Office
0
Pro-Life Bills
31
Abortion Funding
Votes
5,267
Abortions Funded
By Abortion Funding Votes
13,604
Abortions While In Office
0
Pro-Life Bills Sponsored
Yes
Join Pro-Abortion Coalitions
Yes
Vote With & For Democrats
Yes
Elect Abortion Advocates to Power
YES
Give Planned Parenthood Control of the State Checkbook
ACTION ON LIFE
OPPOSED
Life At Conception Act
HB 205
Not Supported
Prohibit Abortion; Privacy
HB 215
Yes
Contraceptives Coverage
HB 17
Unrestricted
Abortion Funding
The Dirty Secret
Of The Blank Check
When 29 of 33 Republicans elected Democrats to Control the House and Senate Finance Committees, they cast the deciding votes to pay for 1,418 babies to be killed by abortion and countless children to be poisoned by cross-sex hormones and irreversibly damaged by gender destroying surgeries.
Those 29 Republican votes gave Planned Parenthood and the transgender industry control over the State’s Checkbook – the State’s Operating Budget.
Those 29 Republicans wrote Planned Parenthood a blank check for abortion, cross-sex hormone poisoning, and surgical mutilation of children.
Those 29 Republicans are responsible for the budget that paid Planned Parenthood and the transgender industry to kill thousands of babies and irreversibly damage countless young Alaskans.
Why would Republicans – anybody, for that matter – vote for such horrendous evil? One word:
POWER.
Learn more HERE.
FOOTNOTES
VOTING WITH & FOR DEMOCRATS
19 House Republicans joined a Majority Caucus with 4 Democrats (two of those members are registered Independents*, but in Alaska, Independent is code for Democrat**).
Forming a bi-partisan veterans’ bridge naming coalition – or caucus – seems innocent enough. How much trouble can such a group make if they’re just naming bridges?
But when forming a Majority Coalition or Caucus, serious issues like abortion are decided well before a bill is heard in its first committee. Abortion funding is agreed upon well before the Finance Committee members have been appointed or elected.
The Bush Caucus – a historically liberal and pro-abortion caucus is made up of the four non-Republican Majority members: Edgmon, Baker, Foster, and Planned Parenthood endorsed McCormick.
Since the Majority Coalition/Caucus is dependent on the Bush Caucus (the Majority requires 21 members), those 4 Democrats wield tremendous power, explaining Planned Parenthood’s near total control of the House Finance Committee and the death of every pro-life bill – only one of which received a single hearing.
By Caucusing with 4 Pro-Abortion Democrats, Republicans traded every pro-life bill and de-funding action for political position, power, and prestige.
House Republicans that caucused with pro-abortion Democrats: Allard, Carpenter, Coulombe, Cronk, C. Johnson, D. Johnson, McCabe, McKay, Prax, Rauscher, Ruffridge, Saddler, Shaw, Stapp, Sumner, Tilton, Tomaszewski, Vance, Wright
Senate Republicans that caucused with pro-abortion Democrats:
*Independent Thomas Baker was a registered Republican at the time of his 2023 appointment to the Legislature. He has since changed his party affiliation for reelection.
** Bryce Edgmon was a lifelong Democrat until 2019 when he changed party affiliation the night before a coalition of Democrats and Republicans elected him House Speaker, on condition of voting for an Independent.
Abortion Funding Votes
Legislators vote dozens or even hundreds of times in the passage of each budget. Only those votes that advance an abortion funding budget are counted here.
funded abortions
Represents the number of abortions funded by the budgets the Representative voted for. In cases where the Representative did not vote to advance an abortion funding budget, those budgets, votes, and related abortions are not included.
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
- Who paid for those babies to be killed? The State of Alaska paid for those killings.
- Who decided (voted) to pay for those babies’ murders? Nearly every Alaskan Legislator.
- Who signed those abortion funding budgets into law? Governor Dunleavy.
ABORTION DE-FUNDING AMENDMENTS
Abortion funding has been baked into Alaska’s annual Operating Budget since 2002.
Protecting babies from being killed by taxpayer funded abortions requires a $0.00 Abortion Services amendment, which has never been adopted.
Budget amendments must adhere to the following rules according to Leg Council v Knowles (2001):
- Not administer the program;
- Not enact law or amend existing law;
- Be the minimum necessary to explain the legislature’s intent regarding how the money appropriated is to be spent;
- Be germane, that is, appropriate, to an appropriations bill; and
- Not extend beyond the life of the appropriation.
An appropriate, effective, and legally enforceable amendment sets the spending and transferring of money for abortions to $0.00:
- Medicaid Services for or Relating to Abortion: $0.00
- No funds shall be expended from or transferred into the Medicaid Services For or Relating to Abortion appropriate.
REPUBLICANS FAILED ABORTION DE-FUNDING AMENDMENT
“No money appropriated in this appropriation may be expended for an abortion that is not a mandatory service required under AS 47.07.030(a). The money appropriated for the Department of Health may be expended only for mandatory services required under Title XIX of the Social Security Act, unless a U.S. Supreme Court decision provides new precedent, and for optional services offered by the state under the state plan for medical assistance that has been approved by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.”
Republicans have included this ineffective and unenforceable for nearly 20 years – yet we continue to pay for babies to be killed. The amendment fails to set any restriction on abortion funding – and it fails the Leg Council v Knowles test.
Additionally, Republicans held a majorities in the House and Senate in 2023/2024, but they advanced and passed budgets that pay for Alaskan babies to be killed.
REPORTED ABORTIONS
Represents the number of babies killed during the Representative’s tenure in office.
The information is provided to help Alaskans recognize and understand the facts and ask the important question, since Roe v Wade has been overruled for more than two years, why has the abortion status-quo not been challenged by the Republican controlled House and Senate?
IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
- Who contracted with the abortionists to kill those babies? Neither the Governor nor any Legislator.
- Who brought those babies to the abortionists to be killed? Again, neither the Governor, nor any Legislator.
- Who killed those babies? Finally, neither the Governor, nor any Legislator killed those babies.
Abortionists kill babies, not Governors or Legislators.
However, the State of Alaska licenses physicians to kill babies by abortion while prosecuting men and women for killing babies outside of abortion businesses.
The legal hypocrisy and state sanctioned killing of babies before they are born continues because our elected representatives refuse to take the necessary action to recognize babies’ rights to live, and babies’ right to equal protection under the law.
FUNDING DESTRUCTIVE GENDER SURGERIES
Votes funding cross-sex hormone and destructive gender surgeries for children are counted.
Amendment 80 would have protected Alaskan children from irreversible and destructive state funded hormone injections and gender destroying surgeries.
Planned Parenthood endorsed Democrat CJ McCormick argued against the amendment. 36 House Members voted to kill the amendment and fund cross-sex hormone and destructive gender surgeries for children.
Planned Parenthood endorsed Democrat CJ McCormick is a member of the Bi-Partisan House Majority Caucus.
THE LIFE AT CONCEPTION ACT
The Life at Conception Act prohibits abortion from conception by guaranteeing the child’s Constitutional right to live, right to equal rights, and equal protection under the law as recognized in Article 1 of Alaska’s Constitution.
The Life at Conception Act has been introduced four times since 2017.
Sign the Petition to advance the Life at Conception Act HERE.
PROHIBITING ABORTION | RIGHT TO PRIVACY
HB 215 prohibits abortion by explicitly excluding abortion from the rights and activities protected under Alaska’s Constitutional Right to Privacy as recognized in Article 1, Section 22:
“The right of the people to privacy is recognized and shall not be infringed. The Legislature shall implement this section.”
Excluding abortion from the right to privacy provides a direct challenge to the 1997 Valley Hospital opinion in which Alaska’s Courts overstepped their bounds and exercised powers reserved exclusively for the Legislature and the People of Alaska.
ABORTION PROCEDURES / EXPANSION
HB 284 AFFIRMED abortionists’ authority to kill babies before they are born. HB 284 would have regulated the age at which babies can legally be killed and the acceptable method(s) abortionists are to use to kill the unborn child.
HB 284 recycled Pro-Abortion Senator Cathy Giessel’s infamous SB 124 and Representative Cathy Tilton’s HB 266, both titled The Abortion Procedures Act of 2018.
SB 124, HB 266, and HB 284 would have required early inductions of live babies; those surviving the forced pre-term birth would have either been left to die or if deemed developed enough by the abortionist, would have been given care.
Affirming the legal right to kill babies is not “pro-life.”
ABORTION LEGALIZATION | ULTRASOUNDS
HB 302: Introduced regulation that authorizes killing an unborn child if a fetal heartbeat is not detected.
Legalizes abortion in the case of “medical necessity.” Under current Alaska case law, 100% of abortions are “medically necessary.”
HB 302 establishes into law the abortionist’s authority to kill the child for any reason at any point in the unborn child’s life.
Affirming an abortionist’s authority to kill an unborn child is not “pro-life.”
ABORTION FUNDING ESTIMATES | 2024
Did the Representative’s vote implicitly or explicitly advance an abortion funding budget?
The numbers represented in this report approximate the number of babies’ deaths that were funded by a specific Operating Budget. Legislators are responsible for their votes that advance budgets that pay for babies to be killed.
The 534 abortions funded by HB 268 are estimated based on historical averages of the past 10 years’ abortions funded by the annual State Operating Budgets.
HB 268, the State Operating Budget, went into effect 7/1/2024 and will pay for babies to be killed by abortion in the latter part of 2024 and the first six months of 2025.
Alaska abortion reporting is released in February of every year, and reports on the number of babies killed January 1 to December 31 of every year. The 2024 report will include funding from HB 39 and HB 268.
Approximately 209 additional babies will be carried to Washington or Oregon to be killed by late term abortions at Alaskans’ expense in 2024. The State of Alaska has not released travel abortion numbers since 2018. Travel abortions are not included in the abortion funding estimates.
ABORTION FUNDING ESTIMATES | 2023
The numbers represented in this report approximate the number of babies’ deaths that were funded by a specific Operating Budget. Legislators are responsible for their votes that advance budgets that pay for babies to be killed.
The 538 abortions funded by HB 39 are estimated based on historical averages of the past 10 years’ abortions funded by the annual State Operating Budgets.
HB 39, the State Operating Budget, went into effect 7/1/2023 and paid for babies to be killed by abortion in the latter part of 2023 and the first six months of 2024.
Alaska abortion reporting is released in February of every year, and reports on the number of babies killed January 1 to December 31 of every year. The 2023 report included funding from HB 39 and HB 281.
Approximately 201 additional babies were carried to Washington or Oregon to be killed by late term abortions at Alaskans’ expense in 2023. The State of Alaska has not released travel abortion numbers since 2018. Travel abortions are not included in the abortion funding estimates.
ABORTIONS REPORTED - 2023 & 2024
2023/2024 Reported Abortions
The 1,247 abortions in 2023 were reported by the Alaska Induced Termination of Pregnancy (ITOP) report for 2023.
Alaska’s abortion statistics run from January 1 to December 31 while the Operating Budget runs from July 1 to June 30.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
SJR2 / SJR 4 / SJR 13
Alaska’s Constitution, criminal, and administrative law recognize that “all persons have a natural right to life” and that children in the womb are due “equal protection under the law” under AS 11.41.150 and AS 11.81.900.
Alaska Statute AS 11.81.900 recognizes the humanity and natural rights of unborn babies “at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”
The Sponsor of SJR 2, SJR 4, and SJR 13 has presented the amendment as a way to regulate abortion during the Roe v Wade era. Given that Roe was overruled prior to the introduction of SJR 13, there is no longer a compelling case for submitting to Roe as constitutional (it never was), and as case law to obey.
Additionally, SJR 2, SJR 4, and SJR 13 have been presented as means to either enact or restore legislation that establishes the rights of parents of underage minors to direct abortions of their unborn grandchildren.
Simply put, the SJRs were ill suited under Roe v Wade, and under the 2022 Dobbs v Jackson opinion, the US Supreme Court has already affirmed that there is no right to abortion in our Constitution(s), nor has there ever been one.
- Alaska’s Constitution recognizes the “natural right to life,” and the right to “equal protection under the law.
- Alaska’s laws recognize unborn babies as persons “at any stage of development.”
- The Dobbs v Jackson opinion affirms that there has never been a right to abortion in either the US or Alaska Constitution.
Therefore, the SJRs and their sponsor add confusion and the excessive burden of a constitutional amendment in an era that already does not recognize a right to abortion.
Endorsements
What partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
Likewise, what fellowship do pro-life advocates have with abortion activists?
As you can see from the top of the page, a pro-life or pro-family organization would have to pretend the past two years didn’t happen in order to endorse a single incumbent legislator.
If our elected representatives are going to fight for the rights of babies to live and children to be protected from dangerous and life-threatening ideologies, poisons, and surgeries, they must keep their affiliations and coalitions free from pro-abortion and radical homosexual and transgender activists.
The past two years have demonstrated what happens when “Pro-Life” Republicans join coalitions and caucuses controlled by Pro-Abortion activists.
28 Republicans voted to join Democrat / Planned Parenthood controlled Majority Coalitions/Caucuses.
28 Republicans voted to give Planned Parenthood control of the State’s Checkbook, giving them a blank check for all the abortions and gender destroying procedures they could force you and I to pay for.
28 Republicans voted to advance and pass an abortion funding budget.
8 Republicans voted to explicitly fund abortions in the budget.
18 House Republicans voted to explicitly fund cross-sex hormone poisoning and genital mutilation of children.
28 Republicans formed coalitions with Planned Parenthood endorsed Democrats that blocked every pro-life action, effort, and bill while advancing Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion initiatives like HB 17, vetoed by Governor Dunleavy.
As in any battle against tyranny, murder, and evil, we cannot afford have those representing us and the children we’re fighting to protect join coalitions and caucuses influenced and controlled by those advocating for killing, poisoning, and mutilating children.
As the Apostle Paul put it, “what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”2Cor6:13
Our elected representatives must not be ‘unequally yoked’ with those who oppose our efforts to protect and promote the image of God in children.
It is impossible for a pro-life or pro-family organization to endorse one of the 28 incumbent Republicans find listed above without sacrificing everything they stand for.
Alaska Right to Life’s commitment to protecting children over electing Republicans may put us at odds with some, but we ultimately are seeking the approval of just ONE.
Why do the nations rage
And the peoples meditate on a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against Yahweh and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord mocks them.
Then He speaks to them in His anger
And terrifies them in His fury, saying,
“But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
“I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth as Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’”
So now, O kings, show insight;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
Serve Yahweh with fear
And rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
issues
TEXT
Cathy Tilton
Summary on Life 2015 - 2024
Pro-Abortion Vote
Summary Text
- Point 1
- Point 2
- Point 3
Representative Tilton, Committee on Committees Report that places abortion advocates in the majority of positions, and in many key leadership positions any House Committee is not a Pro-Life or even a Republican action.
Summary Text
- Pro-Abortion Democrats control the leadership of House Finance
- Pro-Abortion Democrats have a majority on House Finance
- Pro-Abortion Democrat control of House Finance assures Alaskans will be forced to pay for babies to be killed.
Paid for By Alaska Right to Life Action
Pat Martin, Chair, Approves This Message
PO Box 201134 Anchorage, AK 99520 | RLA@AlaskaRightToLife.org
Top Contributors: Alaska Right to Life, Judy McClure, Anchorage; Dirk Moffatt, Eagle River
Not authorized, paid for, or approved by referenced or any other candidate.