Big Suicide Suffers Its Most Crushing Defeat Yet

We have to give Tim Appleton, Big Suicide’s man in Connecticut, credit. He’s been spinning defeat for a decade.

Here is his latest attempt:

“’It says a lot about support for medical aid in dying, both inside and outside the Capitol, that opponents had to resort to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver to defeat the legislation,’ Appleton said.”

Leave aside the fact that Appleton misrepresents public sentiment on assisted suicide and that the press can’t be bothered to investigate his claims. Contra Appleton, the same article got one big thing right:

“Monday’s vote represents an unusually definitive end for legislation.”

That is the understatement of the year.

What Big Suicide won’t tell you, and what the media will play down, is that assisted suicide suffered its biggest defeat ever in Connecticut yesterday.

Every year since 2013 we have had the pleasure of telling you that we defeated assisted suicide. But by “defeated,” we mean its own supporters pulled the bill rather than suffer a lost vote. They have openly admitted that losing a vote would set back their cause for years.

Well, this year it happened. Assisted Suicide was defeated in a bipartisan vote in the Judiciary Committee Monday. In fact, the deciding vote against it was cast by Sen. Mae Flexer (Windham), a liberal Democrat with whom FIC has clashed in the past on other matters.

This is historic, the first time assisted suicide has ever lost a vote at our state Capitol. It is precisely the devastating setback Big Suicide once admitted it feared. That the killing blow was delivered by Sen. Flexer proves what we have said all along: opposition to assisted suicide cuts across all the usual lines of party and ideology.

Our deepest congratulations and thanks to Sen. Flexer and the four Republicans who voted No: Sens. John Kissel, Enfield; Dan Champagne, Vernon; Paul Cicarella, North Haven; and Rob Sampson, Wolcott. And to Rep. Craig Fishbein (R-Wallingford) for his leadership.

We also thank our many allies in this fight: Second Thoughts Connecticut, the Connecticut Catholic Conference, Progressives Against Medically Assisted Suicide, the Patients Rights Action Fund, the Knights of Columbus, the National Hispanic Clergy Leadership Conference, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, and the American Academy of Medical Ethics/CMDA.

Big Suicide heavily targeted Connecticut this year. But we handed them their most crushing defeat yet. We owe this victory to all the names mentioned above and to many more.

Nevertheless, we cannot rest on our laurels. With just a few weeks remaining in the legislative session, three pro-abortion bills still pose a grave threat to human life in Connecticut.

Please click here to contact your legislators now.

And please know how deeply grateful we are to God and to all of you, our members. At the end of the the day, it was your faithful advocacy that brought us to victory. May it continue to be so for the three bills that remain.