A Massachusetts budget amendment allowing abortion up until the point of birth has now passed both the House and the Senate.
The amendment legalizes abortion up through the 24th week of development in cases of fetal anomalies, removes the requirement that 16 year-olds receive parental consent to have an abortion, and removes the requirement that abortionists save a born child's life if the child was born during a botched abortion.
Per that last change, the new legal language would only require that “life-supporting equipment” be present at abortion facilities. Abortionists would no longer be under any legal obligation to use it to save the life of a born child.
The margins of the budget's passage could overcome a veto by pro-abortion Governor Charlie Baker, but even he has expressed frustration with the fact that a policy like this was passed as a budget amendment.
“I do share some of the unhappiness that was raised by a number of members of the Republican Party — that putting policy in the budget was something that both leaders in the House and Senate said they would not do,” said Gov. Baker. “And it’s pretty hard to argue that this isn’t a major policy initiative that is now in the budget.”
He has also stated that he has “concerns about eliminating the parental-notification requirement” and about “changing the terms and conditions associated with late-term abortions in Massachusetts.”
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that Texas and Louisiana can exclude Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving Medicaid funding. This decision vacated an earlier preliminary injunction which prevented the states from cutting off Medicaid funding from the abortion business.
In Judge Priscilla Owen's opinion for the 11-5 majority, he wrote "Medicaid beneficiaries have an 'absolute right' … to receive services from a provider whom the State has determined is “qualified,” but beneficiaries have no right under the statute to challenge a State’s determination that a provider is unqualified."
The ruling also applies to Mississippi, which is within the 5th Circuit's jurisdiction.
This case started when Texas made its original decision to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding back in 2016. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a statement that a series of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress “plainly showed Planned Parenthood admitting to morally bankrupt and unlawful conduct, including violations of federal law by manipulating the timing and methods of abortions to obtain fetal tissue for their own research.”
David Daleiden, who led the undercover investigation referenced, said that the 5th Circuit's ruling validates the CMP videos, which pro-abortion advocates say are "deceptively-edited". "The full federal 5th Circuit's decision this week confirms that our undercover footage is accurate and reliable evidence of serious criminality in the abortion industry and fetal trafficking enterprises, and it affirms the broad authority that state and federal administrators have to defund entities like Planned Parenthood for illegally selling the body parts of aborted infants."
Despite all the complications that came with 2020, we still have plenty to be thankful for; especially LIFE! The Illinois Federation for Right to Life wishes everyone a happy Thanksgiving!
A Nebraska law banning the gruesome practice of dismemberment abortions has taken effect, surprisingly without any legal challenges from pro-abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood.
Nebraska Legislative Bill 814, which passed in August, bans dilation and evacuation (D&E) as a method of abortion. D&E abortions involve an abortionist inserting a type of seaweed called laminaria into the pregnant mother's cervix to cause it to dilate. One or two days later, the abortionist will use tools to further expand the opening before beginning the "evacuation" part of the abortion. Amniotic fluid will be vacuumed out of the mother's uterus, and then the abortionist will use a clamping tool with sharp teeth to reach inside the uterus and tear individual limbs off of the unborn child until only the head is left. An abortionist will use his clamp to crush the head and remove it piece by piece. This method is used during the second trimester, at which point the unborn child's head is too large to remove otherwise.
“Planned Parenthood is proud to provide our patients with high-quality, nonjudgmental reproductive health care, and that will not change with this new law,” said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Emily Bisek.
Carhart told the Omaha World-Herald that the law is "going to make no difference in what we offer to the populace. We will be able to provide the same quality and level of services we have for many years."
Contradicting Carhart's statement, his business's website shows that he does use D&E as a method of 2nd-trimester abortion.
Churches in the state of California have challenged the state regarding its mandate that employers include abortion in their health care plans, even if they believe abortion conflicts with their religious beliefs. Last Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the first arguments in that case.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing three Christian churches challenging the mandate. ADF argues that internal emails between Planned Parenthood and the state show that the abortion business pushed the state to enforce its abortion coverage mandate against religious organizations. Religious groups were not originally included in the 2014 mandate.
Pro-life groups filed legal motions against the mandate, arguing that the Weldon Amendment, a 2005 law barring the federal government from funding state and local governments which force health care entities to cover abortions. The Obama administration rejected the motion, claiming that the Weldon Amendment had not been violated.
In January of this year, the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services ruled that California did violate the Weldon Amendment; threatening to enforce it by withholding federal funding unless the state stopped mandating groups to provide abortion coverage against their conscientious beliefs.
So far, the state has refused to comply with the demand.
Last Friday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Tennessee can legally ban the discriminatory practice of aborting children solely because they were diagnosed with Down Syndrome or the parents disliked the child's race or sex.
The court ruled 2-1 that the bans on discriminatory abortions could take effect while the court hears arguments regarding other aspects of Tennessee's pro-life legislation, which was signed into law by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in July.
The ruling strikes a devastating blow against the legal challenge issued by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, but there will still be arguments about the heartbeat aspect of the law.
The bill requires doctors to perform an ultrasound on a woman before she can have an abortion. If the ultrasound detects a heartbeat, it would be illegal to abort that child. This portion of the law is still unenforceable due to an injunction placed against it.
After the federal court's ruling allowing part of the law to go into effect, abortion businesses applied for a temporary restraining order to block its enforcement.
On Nov. 18, Students for Life of American (SFLA) and the Frederick Douglass
Foundation (FDF) filed a lawsuit in federal court against Washington D.C.
alleging that the city discriminated against pro-life speech.
Back in August, police arrested two pro-life advocates for writing pro-life
messages in chalk on a sidewalk outside a Washington D.C. Planned Parenthood clinic. This came after the city chose not to enforce its defacement ordinance when people painted political messages on city streets during anti-racism
protests.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser commissioned part of 16th street near the White House
painted with the slogan "Black Lives Matter" in permanent paint. The phrase
"Defund the Police" was also added.
It's a sad day in America when human rights advocates are hauled away in handcuffs for writing "black preborn lives matter" in chalk on a sidewalk,
While killers 20 yards away at @PPFA are slaughtering innocent babies with impunity & applause
“The government can’t discriminate against certain viewpoints by allowing some
voices to be heard while silencing others,” said Alliance Defending Freedom
Legal Counsel Elissa Graves.
“Because of the city’s actions, Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for
Life of America weren’t able to participate in the public square as other groups have. The First Amendment prohibits the government from picking and
choosing whose speech to allow.”
In October, the Satanic Temple (TST) filed a motion before the Supreme Court to have Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused from its case challenging Missouri's 72-hour waiting period. TST claims that Barrett could not be impartial due to her religious beliefs, but the Supreme Court dismissed the motion.
TST's lawsuit attempting to overturn waiting period and informed consent laws in Missouri was dismissed in 2018 by the Eight Circuit Court, and the Supreme Court will soon decide whether it will hear the case as well.
TST now calls abortion a "religious rite" in an attempt to get around legal abortion restrictions. By making this argument, the group can claim that abortion restrictions violate religious freedoms. That argument made little headway in the Eight Circuit and is unlikely to succeed in the Supreme Court if the case is heard.
Pro-life protestors being arrested outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital photo credit: Lauren Handy / Facebook
On Tuesday, a group of pro-life protestors was arrested outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. They were advocating against abortion and fetal organ harvesting, which the hospital does in order to provide fetal tissue for the University of California San Francisco.
Lauren Handy of Red Rose Rescue was one of the pro-lifers present when the group was arrested. She wrote on Facebook later that day,
“This morning a group of us were arrested outside Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital because we refused to comply to an unlawful order of dispersement… for interrupting a business. That business? UCSF’s aborted fetal organ harvesting program on healthy babies up to 24 weeks.
We were on public property and within the rights of free speech activities (our lawyers even sent them a letter) but UCSF is so hell bent on protecting their aborted fetal organ harvesting program.
This is just the beginning! A lawsuit is in the works because we won't stand down!”
Terrisa Bukovinac is the executive director of Pro-Life San Francisco, and she was also arrested that morning. In her own Facebook post, she said, “I will not be silenced or bullied unlawfully by police and I will use my voice every chance I get to defend the unborn victims of fetal organ harvesting who cannot defend themselves.”
Bukovinac also linked to a video of the pro-life protestors being arrested. Interestingly, Facebook is preventing websites from directly embedding the video onto their websites, but the video is still viewable on Facebook's website. This soft-censorship is somewhat frustrating for websites such as IFRL's blog, but you can still watch the video by clicking here.
Pro-Life San Francisco announced it will be pursuing legal action regarding the arrest and are confident it will win in court.
“We will not allow our 1st Amendment rights to be suppressed on the very site where viable, healthy babies are either dismembered alive or born alive and dissected for experimentation,” said Pro-Life San Francisco. “We will not give up our quest in demanding Ethical Research NOW!”
Two clinic workers push a woman in a wheelchair from Hope Clinic for Women abortion facility in Granite City, IL across a busy street to a hospital emergency room photo credit: Operation Rescue
During October, pro-life bystanders witnessed two separate medical emergencies at the Hope Clinic for Women abortion business in Granite City, Illinois. In both cases, the women were in extreme distress and were transported to hospital emergency rooms.
The first of these incidents occurred on October 15, 2020. Witnesses saw a woman who appeared to be in pain being placed in an ambulance. Strangely, the ambulance went away to an unknown hospital rather than going to the one just across the street from the abortion clinic.
Two witnesses described what they saw to Operation Rescue. One of them said,
"First, at about 11:39 this morning, [October 15, 2020] we saw an ambulance drive into the front of the Hope Clinic parking lot. Then, a few minutes later, we saw a young woman being wheeled out on a gurney through the front door of the clinic. She was sitting almost upright on the gurney. She was in what looked like a knee-chest position.
From where we were standing on the sidewalk, her abdomen looked large, and her face very pale. She had no visible IV or oxygen, and nobody except the EMTs were with her."
The second witness gave some more information:
"Her facial expression was angst, pain, despair — it’s hard to describe. There wasn’t anyone with her other than the 3 EMT’s. I didn’t see any cars leave the parking lot after the ambulance. She appeared to be alone."
Operation Rescue was unable to find 911 records for this emergency. It's possible that the clinic called a private ambulatory service rather than 911 to obtain emergency transport for the patient.
The second incident occurred on October 17. Pro-life activists witnessed two clinic employees exit Hope Clinic for Women while pushing a woman in a wheelchair marked with the clinic's initials. Rather than receiving transport from an ambulance, the woman was pushed across the street to the emergency entrance of Gateway Regional Medical Center.
This is a very unorthodox and potentially unsafe way of transporting a patient in need of emergency medical attention. The medical staff involved in an ambulance transfer can ensure that a patient maintains medical oversight during that process. Even facilities very close to hospitals will call for an ambulance to ensure that their patient is monitored.
Abortion is always unsafe for the unborn child whose life is taken in the process, but it can also pose risks to the women who have abortions. The infections and hemorrhages caused by abortions can be life-threatening.
2018 photo showing Bio-Haz employee picking up boxes of aborted baby remains. The company has since stopped providing services for Carhart's abortion facility photo credit: Operation Rescue
The infamous abortionist LeRoy Carhart, who is willing to commit abortions on unborn children during all nine months of development, lost his third contract with a biohazard waste disposal company since 2018. As a result, the dead bodies of aborted children may once again be piling up inside the abortionist's Maryland facility.
After pro-life activists bought and closed Carhart's Germantown abortion facility in 2017, he opened a new one later that year in Bethesda. The clinic, called "Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence" is one of only eight abortion clinics in the country that abort children during the third trimester. Children delivered at that stage can consistently survive outside the womb.
Due to Carhart's practice of conducting late-term abortions, five-pound corpses could quickly pile up in his place of business. Without proper disposal, these could create a dangerous health hazard for patients and employees. Over the course of just two and a half years, however, his business has lost contracts with three separate biohazard disposal companies.
Pro-life advocates called upon Biomedical Waste Services, Biohazard Recovery Systems, and (most recently) Bio-Haz when those companies had contracts with Carhart's abortion business. On Nov. 10, it was confirmed that Bio-Haz had stopped providing its services for Carhart's abortion facility.
“As far as we know, Carhart has not yet found a new medical waste disposal company, and we can only assume that once again, boxes of aborted babies are piling up inside that abortion facility,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “With a health hazard like that, it’s just a matter of time before that facility is forced to halt abortions. We are grateful for the decision of Bio-Haz to stop enabling this late-term abortion business. That one act may save countless innocent lives.”
In July, soon after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the pro-life House Bill 2263 into law, District Judge William Campbell granted a temporary restraining order against it on behalf of Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. On Tuesday, 18 states responded by filing an amicus brief in the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals to support the law.
Tennessee House Bill 2263 bans abortions except to save the mother's life after a fetal heartbeat is detected or if the abortionist knows that the mother is seeking an abortion due to the child's sex, race, or Down syndrome diagnosis.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron led the coalition of 18 states to defend Tennessee's law in a brief to the court.
"...The 18-state coalition asks the Sixth Circuit to reverse the district court’s decision and allow the law to go into effect. The coalition writes in the brief that, 'all of the amici states have a compelling interest in seeing that States retain the general power to legislate for the well-being of their most vulnerable citizens.' Many of the states within the coalition have enacted antidiscrimination laws like Tennessee’s.
'We’re currently in court fighting to protect Kentucky’s own abortion discrimination ban and fetal heartbeat law, and we have a duty to assist other states in their efforts to defend similar laws that protect the unborn,' said Attorney General Cameron. 'States have a compelling interest in enacting laws that protect our most vulnerable, and we believe that this interest is never more apparent than when we’re protecting unborn children from eugenics-based abortions.'"
Kentucky AG Cameron authored the brief. The states which joined in filing it include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
The actress Melissa McCarthy retracted a $20,000 donation that HBO Max made to Exodus Cry, an organization that works to fight sex trafficking and sexual
exploitation. The reason? It was
rumored that Exodus Cry was pro-life, even though the organization has never
taken a stance on the issue of abortion.
“It has come to our attention that our 20 Days of Kindness, which is something — a kindness up that we started to kind of shine a light on 20 great charities — had one in there that, there’s no other way to say it, we blew it,” McCarthy said in an Instagram video. “We made a mistake and we backed a charity that upon proper vetting, stands for everything that we do not.”
In its goal to end sex trafficking, Exodus Cry took a hard stance against
PornHub, the largest pornography website on the internet. The site, owned by
MindGeek, allows users to upload their own pornographic videos, which can include women and children who did not or could not give consent. PornHub can't verify whether the individuals shown in videos on the website are of legal age or gave consent, and it shows. Women and children who are the victims of sex-trafficking have been known to appear on PornHub videos.
Melissa McCarthy was likely fed misinformation by PornHub
supporters trying to "cancel" Exodus Cry. Supporters of PornHub and MindGeek
allege that Exodus Cry opposes the website due to supposed pro-life and
anti-LGBT beliefs, but this is demonstrated to be false by the charity's
actions.
“Exodus Cry aligns itself with many dedicated women’s rights organizations
from various backgrounds who are on the front lines combating domestic
violence, commercial sexual exploitation, and sex trafficking,” said Exodus
Cry in response to the misinformation campaign. “With regard to the issue of abortion and reproductive rights, Exodus Cry’s CEO has expressed his personal views that he believes in the protection of life in the womb. However, Exodus
Cry [as an organization] has never taken any position on those issues and any suggestion otherwise is false. We partner with, and are inclusive of,
organizations that are both for and against abortion, as we align on the common goal of putting an end to sex trafficking and all forms of commercial
sexual exploitation.”
Sex-trafficking, society's porn addiction, and abortion are inextricably linked issues. The lives of women and children (both born and unborn) are disregarded for the sake of profit and pleasure. Sex-traffickers and abortion businesses alike only stand to gain from the situation.
Melissa McCarthy, when she accepted misinformation and cancel-culture, stood on the side of sex-traffickers.
A new five-year population plan proposed by the Chinese government emphasizes eugenics by limiting the birth rates of minority populations, according to an expert.
The policy says that its goals for 2021-2025 are to “optimize its birth policy” and “improve the quality of the population.”
Columbia professor Leta Hong Fincher spoke at a virtual event held by the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) on Nov. 13. She said that the Chinese government's plans to control reproduction are part of a plan to maintain control by encouraging the growth of the dominant ethnic group, while systematically limiting the birth rate of ethnic minorities.
“We see it happening in Xinjiang with the forced sterilization of particularly Uyghur Muslim women. And the language in the plan suggests to me that the government is going to continue with that,” she said.
“You have seen a huge reduction in birth rates in Xinjiang and, on the flip side, the government is also trying to coopt and persuade Han Chinese women who are college-educated into having more babies.”
China's previous five-year plan adopted a two-child policy, up from the one-child policy that the government used previously. Families who have more children than allowed by the government faced punishments such as forced abortions.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives voted 143-14 to approve a budget proposal including an amendment to expand abortion in the state. If the "Improved Access to Healthcare" amendment is also approved by the Senate, it will create a right to abortion under state law, legalize abortion after 24 weeks gestation in cases of fetal anomalies, and allow 16-year-olds to have abortions without parental permission.
Efforts to codify or negate abortion rights in states throughout the country increased last month in response to Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court. If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court, the ability to legalize abortion will fall to the states. In a joint statement, Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka voiced their support of the legislation.
“We are very concerned that Massachusetts’ women’s reproductive rights are under threat at the national level,” the statement reads. “We are therefore committed to debate measures in the House and Senate this session that would remove barriers to women’s reproductive health options and protect the concepts enshrined in Roe v. Wade.”
The overwhelming margin in the House would easily override a veto by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. The Republican Governor is a pro-abortion Republican, but he has also stated that he does not believe the state's abortion laws should change.
Cook Children's Hospital in Texas filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of the United States on Nov. 10th to have the life support of one-year-old Tinslee Lewis removed against her family's' wishes.
The court battle regarding the hospital's ability to deny the toddler's treatment and let her die has lasted for most of Tinslee's life, but the fight has gone in her favor up to this point. In July, the Texas Second Court of Appeals ruled against the hospital. In August, the Supreme Court of Texas declined to hear Cook Children's Hospital's appeal.
Tinslee's family and the hospital are fighting over the constitutionality of Texas's "10-Day Rule," which allows a hospital to stop providing life-sustaining treatment to a patient if an ethics board approves and the hospital provides the family with 10 days to find another medical facility willing to take the patient.
Tinslee suffers from heart and lung problems that affect her ability to eat and breathe, so she relies on the hospital's machines to sustain her life.
The hospital describes Tinslee's experience as "ongoing daily agony," saying that she requires "deep sedation and paralysis" to "facilitate mechanical ventilation, decrease the pain caused by daily cares, and mitigate events that can lead to significant deterioration in her condition."
Simultaneously, Cook's Children's Hospital refuses to perform a tracheostomy, which is a standard medical procedure for any patient who is on a ventilator for an extended period of time. The hospital says it will only perform this procedure if Tinslee's mother would agree to sign a Do-Not-Resuscitate order for her daughter.
The Planned Parenthood clinic in Flossmoor, IL put a patient in grave danger after a surgical abortion last month. Two 911 calls were made by employees,
the first of which described the patient as "bleeding out."
The Pro-Life Action League obtained 911 records from medical emergency calls
made by the clinic on Oct. 9. A 25-year old woman was sedated and unconscious
after having a surgical abortion but continued to bleed profusely. To save her
from the life-threatening situation caused by the surgical abortion procedure,
the clinic called for an ambulance twice.
If the player below isn't working, click here to listen to a recording of the
calls.
On the first call, the 911 dispatcher dispatched an ambulance and told the clinic worker to call her back if anything changed. An ambulance arrived at the abortion clinic three minutes after that first call. Before it arrived,
however, a separate worker made another 911 call. She again asked for an ambulance and urgently stressed that the patient needed medical attention as soon as possible.
Operation Rescue, a pro-life organization which tracks medical emergencies caused by abortion
clinics throughout the nation, has reported five medical emergencies caused
by the clinic since it was opened in 2018.
“This Planned Parenthood was said to be a state-of-the-art abortion facility
when it was built a couple of years ago, yet they can’t seem to keep their
abortion clients out of the emergency room,” said Troy Newman, president of
Operation Rescue. “This shows yet again that abortion is not safe and carries more risks than Planned Parenthood wants women to believe. Women
risk their health and even their lives when they walk through the doors of
an abortion facility.”
Joe Biden's recently-leaked administrative agenda shows that one of his top priorities as a president would be to overturn President Donald Trump's pro-life executive orders.
The documents, attributed to a Biden-aligned organization called the Glover Park Group, show that Biden's early executive actions related to health care include, "Revers[ing] Trump actions on abortion and reproductive health care, including reversing the Mexico City Policy, restoring funding to Planned Parenthood and contraceptive coverage under the ACA."
The Mexico City Policy prohibits federal foreign aid funding from going to organizations that promote or commit abortions.
He also instituted a rule which required family planning organizations to stop promoting abortion, committing abortions, or co-locating with organizations that commit abortions if they wanted to receive Title X funding. Planned Parenthood refused to operate by those rules and instead chose to forego that funding. States and Medicaid have stepped in to fill that gap, however. Overall government funding of the abortion giant has not suffered as a result. Given the Biden administration's desire to restore funding to Planned Parenthood, it is a safe bet that the Title X rule would be reverted as well.
Biden has also promised to end Hyde Amendment, which is supposed to prevent federal tax dollars from being used to fund abortion. This amendment has been applied to every federal appropriations bill since 1976.
Harper Rose Schultz, who was born on June 29th at the gestational age of only 22.5 weeks, was finally able to go home with her family on Nov. 4.
When she was born, Harper weighed just over 11 ounces, becoming the smallest
micro-preemie ever to be resuscitated at the Covenant Healthcare in Saginaw,
Michigan.
“She’s such a blessing and we are just so thankful,” her mother Emille Wendzik told reporters as she left the hospital with her family.
In a video released on the hospital's YouTube channel, Neonatologist Dr.
Martin Nwankwo said, "...to see her grow from where we started to going home now in reasonably good shape, it’s mind-boggling for us. We’ve never done this before. And, to be honest with you, half the hospitals in the United States
would not have attempted this."
Covenant Healthcare Communications Manager Kristin Knoll said that babies born as small as Harper only have a survival rate of 20%. That number is larger than zero, and Harper was lucky to be born at a hospital that valued her life enough to try and save it. While preemies may not be guaranteed to survive at that age, they should always be granted the chance; especially when qualified medical professionals are available to give them that chance.
On Nov. 7, Chris Nikic became the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman triathlon.
The Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. The three athletic feats must be completed within 17 hours.
“The doctors and experts said I couldn’t do anything,” Nikic told the Orlando Sentinel. “So I said, ‘Doctor! Experts! You need to stop doing this to me. You’re wrong!’”
“From the time he was born, we were told by everyone that he’d never do anything or amount to anything or be able to accomplish anything [beyond] being able to tie his own shoes,” his father Nik Nikic said. “And we believed them for the longest time.”
Chris completed the race in 16 hours, 46 minutes and nine seconds. His achievement was the culmination of years of training. His father commended his son for working so hard and said that Chris served as an example of how people with Down syndrome can still accomplish great things and live meaningful lives.
“Kids with Down syndrome, typically, when they graduate from high school, they start living a life of isolation. They don’t go on to college; they don’t get a job,” Nik said. "Any level of inclusion they had, which was minimal, falls off a cliff. But Chris now trains six, seven days a week with friends. He goes and meets them at the lake, he goes to the track and runs with them, they come to our neighborhood and he rides bikes with them. He calls them every night, and they take his phone call ... and they invite him to their homes. The greatest gift that Chris has gotten in all this is the gift of belonging.”
Those with Down syndrome can live fulfilling lives. Abortion ends real lives with real value, and aborting unborn children with disabilities is no different.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a brief with the Supreme Court asking it to take a case regarding a Health and Human Services rule preventing Title X family-planning funding from being used for abortions.
There is currently a split between the courts on the legality of the HHS rule. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Maryland blocked the rule, while a 9th Circuit decision in a separate case upheld them.
“No court can substitute its own policy views for the views of the elected branches of government,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “The Supreme Court has already recognized that the federal government has authority to prevent Title X funds from being used for abortion. The 4th Circuit chose instead to rely on the preferences of pro-abortion medical associations. The Supreme Court should take this case and affirm that HHS has the authority to issue a rule that the high court already deemed constitutional.”
Franz Theard, an abortionist who runs Women's Reproductive Clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, is now being investigated by the state.
Theard is responsible for botching the same woman's abortion two separate times last month. After a woman, currently known as Jane Doe, “unexpectedly delivered remains of her deceased baby at home” following a surgical abortion, she was told to come to the abortion clinic. Theard left in his car before the woman and her husband arrived, and pro-life witnesses say that police showed up before the victim and her husband did. When clinic workers refused to let her keep the remains of her child for cremation, police arrested the woman and her husband. Doe was arrested for disturbance of the peace, and her husband was arrested for interfering with Doe's arrest.
Abortion on Trial (AOT) attorney Mike Seibel has been retained as legal representation for Doe at no cost to her. "Dr. Theard's abandonment of Jane is not only a violation of the licensing act, but is also unprofessional, unethical, and is borderline criminal conduct," he said in a post on the AOT website.
And Then There Were None, a pro-life organization made up of former abortion workers, recently highlighted the story of Mayra Rodriguez, revealing that Planned Parenthood attempted to frame her to prevent her from whistleblowing on an irresponsible abortionist.
"I was named Employee of the Year throughout all of Arizona and was ultimately installed as the Director of the busiest Planned Parenthood in the state (I actually oversaw three clinics at once)," Rodriguez wrote. "My record within the company was flawless, never once receiving a reprimand or poor performance mark, and my respect among the executives was more than I could have ever wanted."
When Rodriguez found that an abortionist almost sent a woman home with the head of her baby still inside her, she investigated the abortionist's record. She found that he had a history of complications, but Planned Parenthood was covering for him.
Before taking action, Rodriguez spoke with a co-worker about her plan to expose the abortionist, which she believes ultimately led to Planned Parenthood's retaliation.
Rodriguez was accused of multiple offenses and pressured to sign a document saying that she was at fault:
"On the document were things like patient complaints about me, reports of a poorly kept personal office, missing money and even missing instruments from the procedure rooms. For someone who had never had a reprimand in 17 years, it appeared I was a veritable whirlwind of negligence and criminal activity."
Rodriguez refused to sign. Shortly after, she was accused of having drugs in her desk and was fired. When she retaliated by suing Planned Parenthood, the jury unanimously ruled that she was wrongfully terminated. She was awarded $3 million, and now she speaks out against Planned Parenthood and abortion.
On Jan. 5, Georgia will hold two run-off elections which are likely to determine the balance of power between parties in the US Senate.
Assuming the expected outcome that Republicans will win their Senate races in Alaska and North Carolina, the Republican party would have 50 senators total. The Democrat party would have 48. While pro-life issues do not have to be purely partisan, with both pro-life Democrats and pro-abortion Republicans demonstrating this, life issues have become increasingly partisan in recent years.
If both pro-abortion Democrats win their Georgia Senate races, then both parties would have 50 Senators. Furthermore, if Joe Biden becomes president, pro-abortion Kamala Harris could become a tie-breaking vote for contentious legislation moving through the Senate.
In Georgia, candidates must participate in a run-off election if no candidate receives 50% of the vote. This was the case for both of the state's senate races. Both seats are currently held by pro-life Republican incumbents, but both are also contested by pro-abortion Democrats.
President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Oct. 30 recognizing November as National Adoption Month. In a White House press release, he praised adoption as an alternative to abortion.
“During National Adoption Month, we recognize birth families who make the difficult decision to place their children up for adoption, commend foster parents who care for children from different backgrounds, and celebrate adoptive parents who open their families to those children in need,” Trump said.
The president pointed out that he signed an Executive Order on Strengthening the Child Welfare System for America’s Children in June, which was designed to help keep American families together by prioritizing partnerships between public and private organizations. The executive order also provides resources and support for those who age out of foster care.
"My Administration believes that every human life has inherent value, and encourages adoption as an alternative to abortion. All children, born and unborn, deserve a chance to have a better, more prosperous future. I commend the selfless men and women who preserve the majesty of God’s creation by providing children with a chance at a better life.
This month, we celebrate the blessings of adoption and renew our resolve to promote a culture of respect for every human life. Countless Americans dedicate their time, energy, and resources to the adoption process, and we honor their selfless contributions as community members, faith leaders, caregivers, role models, and families. Our Nation is strengthened by the sacred institution of the family, and devoted parents who love and protect their adopted children. As a Nation, let us commit to ensuring a brighter future for all of our Nation’s children."
As part of its political spending for the 2020 elections, which was originally planned to be $45 million, Planned Parenthood partnered with celebrity musicians to get out the vote for pro-abortion candidates.
Planned Parenthood's campaign, ironically named "We Need Every Voice," called on pro-abortion fans of popular musicians to go vote. Beastie Boys, Billie Eilish, Foo Fighters, Katy Perry, Tenacious D, and many others added their names to a newspaper ad advocating for voters to vote pro-abortion. Some musicians even made songs and videos promoting abortion and voting for pro-abortion or left-leaning candidates.
“United, our voices can change the direction of this country,” reads the newspaper ad. “After the rushed confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in the midst of a pandemic, we now face a Supreme Court that puts our health and freedoms, including our right to safe and legal abortion, at extreme risk. The damage already inflicted on our country will last for generations. We can’t afford any further assaults on our reproductive freedom — our right to control our bodies. We need your voice.”
Celebrities often use their influence to peddle the dangerous practice of abortion to young, impressionable fans. Planned Parenthood takes advantage of that relationship to increase the profit it already makes from abortions throughout the country.
On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood dropped its lawsuit challenging several pro-life laws in Arizona. The challenged restrictions included a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions, a ban against non-doctors carrying out abortions, and laws against using telemedicine to prescribe abortion pills.
In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood Arizona claimed that these pro-life laws caused them to complete 40% fewer abortions since 2011. Further, Planned Parenthood argued that they contributed to the closure of four Arizona abortion clinics.
Arizona's 24-hour waiting period came into effect in 2009. Parts of that law were temporarily blocked by courts until 2011, but the provisions were ultimately upheld.
Planned Parenthood's 2019 lawsuit was attempting to argue that the combination of Arizona's pro-life laws, rather than any individual one, created an "undue burden" on a woman's ability to choose abortion.
Planned Parenthood provided no explanation for the sudden dismissal. The abortion giant may have internally considered how Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts's concurring opinion in June Medical Services, L.L.C. v. Russo would affect their case, or it may have dropped the lawsuit in response to Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, Louisiana voters approved Amendment #1, known as the Love Life Amendment, for the state's constitution. This legislation ensures that judges can't rule that there is an implied right to abortion in the state's constitution.
The amendment was authored with bipartisan support from State Rep. Katrina Jackson (D) and State Sen. Beth Mizell (R). It received support from both chambers of Louisiana's legislature and Gov. John Bel Edwards before it was approved by voters.
“Louisiana has overwhelmingly passed the Love Life Amendment and shown its love for mothers and babies!,” said Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of Louisiana Right to Life.
“With the passage of this amendment, our citizens have mandated that state judges can never use our Constitution to enshrine abortion or the taxpayer funding of abortion in Louisiana. We the people, through our legislators, can pass laws defending life without the intervention of judges.
“We encourage other states to pass their own version of the Love Life Amendment. For too long, activist judges around the nation have usurped the power of state legislatures and declared a right to abortion-on-demand. It’s time we changed this in every state across America.
“We look forward to the day Roe v. Wade is overturned and Louisiana can once again protect all our citizens, including those waiting to be born. Moving forward, the pro-life movement will continue to support mothers and babies and work toward a day when every child is protected by law and welcomed with love in our nation.”
A Colorado ballot measure that would have banned abortion after 22 weeks was rejected by voters on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
The measure, titled Proposition 115, would have made it illegal for a doctor to commit or attempt to commit an abortion on any child after 22 weeks. A doctor who broke this rule would have been charged with a misdemeanor and fined.
Proposition 115 author Erin Behren pointed out in October that Colorado is one of only seven states that haven't restricted abortion in any way since its legalization. “We are an extreme outlier, as 43 other states limit abortion, as does most of the rest of the world. Our citizen’s initiative was created to bring our state in line with modern medical understanding of fetal development.”
Pro-life Tennessee State Representative John DeBerry, who was forced to run as an independent after being removed from the Democratic party in May, lost his reelection campaign on Tuesday.
DeBerry, who is also a minister in the Church of Christ, has served as a civil rights advocate in Tennessee's House of Representatives since 1994, but he was criticized by the Democratic party for several of his policy positions, including his pro-life beliefs.
"The fact that I had to be removed from the ballot and run as an independent... It says a lot about where things are right now," DeBerry said on Tuesday.
In a September interview with CNA, he said that he had no regrets about holding firm to his pro-life beliefs, despite opposition from his party.
“My work in Nashville as a legislator is nothing more than an extension of my work as a child of God, as a Christian,” DeBerry told CNA.
“And I take to heart Ephesians chapter 6, ‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood’—people are not the enemy,” he said, but “there are those who make laws that are blasphemous of God’s law.”
“I have always made my focus staying in accordance to the laws of God, even when my votes are made.”
Illinois Right to Life, not to be confused with the Illinois Federation for Right to Life, was surprised to learn on Monday that Facebook denied their advertisement designed to raise money to help pregnant women experiencing financial difficulties.
The right to life group's charity effort, named Project Love, provides pregnant women in financial crises with grants to help them pay for expenses and necessities. When Illinois Right to Life attempted to fundraise for Project Love on Facebook, the tech giant responded that the fundraiser was too political and violated their policies about ads posted near election day.
Brittany Clingen Carl, Vice President of Illinois Right to Life, told The Federalist, “Helping women facing crisis pregnancies isn’t a political issue. It isn’t even a social advocacy issue. It’s simply doing the right thing by helping women and their children when they desperately need support.”
Censorship by big tech has become an increasingly prevalent issue for pro-life advocates. Sincere efforts to help women keep their children during times of financial hardship don't deserve to be treated this way.
John Barsa, the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, announced in an Oct. 30 press release that his agency is making a new effort to ensure foreign organizations receiving assistance from the United States abide by abortion-related restrictions. These restrictions should prevent these organizations from providing or promoting abortion, but they have gone largely unenforced.
“The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is committed to the well-being of all women and children, and to ensuring all of our partners are in compliance with abortion-related legal restrictions and the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) Policy,” reads USAID's press release.
The press release also says the actions USAID will take include “training, implementation, monitoring, and documentation” as well as “possible sanctions and consequences for non-compliance.”
Recipients of USAID funding also received a letter from Dr. Alma Golden, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health. It reads, “As a reminder, the statutory restrictions related to abortion apply to all U.S. foreign-assistance funds, not just health funds, including USAID-funded activities implemented by both U.S.- and non-U.S.-based partners.”
Golden's letter asks USAID recipients to report documentation of their compliance with abortion restrictions by Nov. 30.
Last week, a woman suffering from a botched abortion and her husband were both
arrested outside of Women’s Reproductive Clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Pro-life advocates present at the scene say that the resident abortionist fled
the scene before the incident occurred.
“Coalition for Life staff witnessed Dr. Theard [who runs the abortion
business] quickly exit the facility, get in his car, and flee the scene,”
Southwest Coalition for Life wrote in a Facebook post. “Minutes later, the police arrived at the clinic BEFORE the clients
arrived. The woman then arrived and entered the facility with a bag containing
the remains of her child which she intended to have cremated for burial after
receiving medical attention.”
Pro-life advocates were able to speak with the woman before police took her
and her husband away. She told them that she took the abortion pill, but it
failed. Afterward, she was convinced by clinic staff to come in for a surgical
abortion. Days after the surgical abortion, she was in severe pain and
unexpectedly delivered additional remains of her deceased child at home. The
couple then called the abortion facility, which told them to return.
The clinic allegedly took her child's remains and refused to give them back.
When the woman became upset, the police arrested her for disturbance of the
peace. Her husband attempted to reason with them, but he was tasered and
arrested for interfering with her arrest.
Coalition for Life worked with police to allow the woman to seek medical
attention for an infection caused by the botched abortion. She is now
connected with Abortion on Trial attorneys at no cost to her.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by a vote of 329-73 on September 17, 2020. The bill was then sent to the Senate, where it has not yet received a vote. Pro-life activists are concerned that the legislation, if passed, would create an opening for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to require employers to cover abortion in employer-sponsored health plans.
According to House Resolution 1107, the legislation was created "to eliminate discrimination and promote women’s health and economic security by ensuring reasonable workplace accommodations for workers whose ability to perform the functions of a job are limited by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition."
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passed from the House without a long-standing Civil Rights Act provision to exempt religious organizations from making employment decisions that conflict with their faith. An amendment to add this provision was voted down.
The bill is now being considered by the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in the Senate.
Kavya Solanki became the first child in India created purely to save a sibling's life. After the procedure was successful, ethicists fear the popularization of a new practice that views unborn children as a commodity.
Sahdev and Aparna Solanki's son, Abhijit, was born with thalassemia major. The life-threatening disorder causes blood to have less hemoglobin and blood cells than normal. As a result, the blood will not carry oxygen as effectively.
“Every 20-22 days, he needed 350ml to 400ml blood. By the age of six, he’d had 80 transfusions,” Sahdev told the BBC. “Abhijit was born after my first daughter. We were a happy family. He was 10 months old when we learnt that he was thalassaemic. We were devastated. He was weak, his immune system was compromised and he often became ill.”
The family learned that a bone marrow transplant could cure Abhijit, but they could not find a match. When Abhijit's father learned about savior siblings, they contacted fertility specialist Dr. Manish Banker, who spent six months creating and screening embryos to match Abhijit.
It is assumed, as is often the case with embryos created for IVF, that the unused embryos were destroyed.
“After Kavya’s birth, we had to wait another 16 to 18 months so that her weight could increase to 10-12kg,” Banker told the BBC. “The bone marrow transplant was done in March. Then we waited for a few months to see whether the recipient had accepted the transplant before announcing it.”
Not only does this practice potentially destroy human beings; it also creates a human being who must take on the risk of donating tissue from their body without being able to properly give consent.
The National Black Pro-Life Coalition announced last week that it filed a racial discrimination claim with the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights against Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The coalition argues that Planned Parenthood has unfairly and maliciously targeted Black women and their unborn children for almost 100 years.
The complaint argues that Planned Parenthood's roots in the eugenics movement have caused it to reproduce systemic discrimination and racism ever since Roe v. Wade. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was notorious for her “Negro Project” designed to end the black population in America, as well as her personal mission “to promote eugenic birth selection throughout the United States so that there may be more well-born and fewer ill-born children ― a stronger, healthier and more intelligent race.”
The coalition's claim argues that Planned Parenthood “has provided its services in a manner that perpetuates the systemic racism that was rife in America before 1964,” and that its “services have resulted in a disproportionate and negative impact and treatment of Blacks and increasingly Latinos.”
The National Black Pro-Life Coalition includes multiple pro-life leaders and organizations, such as Catherine Davis of the Restoration Project, Alveda King (niece of Martin Luther King Jr.), Rev. Dean Nelson of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, and others.
