Supreme Court sides with pro-life pregnancy centers in California abortion case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a California law requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to post information on programs to obtain and free or low-cost abortion.

The 5-4 ruling in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra sent the case back to a lower court to be reconsidered, in light of the Supreme Court’s finding that “We hold that petitioners are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the FACT Act violates the First Amendment.”

Lower courts had rejected a petition to temporarily block the California law while it was being legally challenged. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the case against the law was unlikely to succeed on its merits.

The Supreme Court reversed that ruling, saying that the Ninth Circuit was wrong to treat the speech of pregnancy centers as a lesser category of free speech simply because it is “professional speech.”

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Court down to last days to decide law violating pregnancy center’s First Amendment rights

As is always the case as the Supreme Court approaches the end of its turn, important cases remain to be resolved. For pro-lifers, that is National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra.

As anyone who has read about, let alone attended oral arguments, there is no foolproof way of gauging from the justices’ questions what they are thinking. For example, “hostile” questions may be a fishing expedition to find the best answer to give to colleagues who really are hostile to someone’s argument.

That being said, the justices, from the least receptive to anything resembling a pro-life initiative, to the more sympathetic, found California’s so-called “Reproductive FACT Act” a stretch. The law requires both pregnancy help centers that offer medical services and those who don’t to “act as a ventriloquist’s dummy for a government message”—abortion—as one pro-life attorney phrased it.

If they offer medical services, they must post signage that the state offers free abortions. If they don’t, they must post signage that announces, “This facility is not licensed as a medical facility by the state of California.”

The justification for the Reproductive FACT Act, passed on strictly party-line votes in the Democrat-controlled California statehouse and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, is that pregnancy centers were allegedly misleading women. As became painfully clear at oral arguments, there is precious little evidence to support the allegation.

Nearly all the justices found ample reason to consider the question whether the requirements constituted an “undue burden.”

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Phyllis Schlafly's son Andy, speculates on effects of possible Supreme Court justice retirement

In an email Monday, Andy Schlafly, son of the late conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, shed light on speculations that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy may announce his retirement soon.

"If Kennedy retires, then that may explain why he declined to join the pro-abortion wing of the Court on the petition for cert by Planned Parenthood in the Arkansas abortion medication complications case," Schlafly wrote. "To the surprise of all, and the dismay of pro-aborts, the Supreme Court "denied cert" in that case, thereby allowing the pro-life decision by the 8th Circuit to stand.  (Planned Parenthood v. Jegley)  This is the first time in memory that the Supreme Court, which has enough votes to grant cert for Planned Parenthood, has rebuffed PP's request."

One the other hand, Schlafly said, if Justice Kennedy does not retire, his opposition to Planned Parenthood in the Jegley case could indicate the 81-year-old justice's opinion has shifted against abortion.

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Pro-abortion Vice Media wanted woman to abort so they could film it

Texas is ground zero for abortion activists. The state has passed numerous pro-life laws in recent years, including banning brutal dismemberment abortions and putting into place protections for victims of sex trafficking and the abortion industry. The state has also permanently banned taxpayer funding for abortion. And while all of these things have made the state safer for both preborn children and for women, it has also made Texas a target for pro-abortion activism — including from the media, which is supposed to be unbiased.

In 2015, Vice was considering doing a special for HBO on abortion restrictions in Texas, and a producer came up with a twisted spin: find a woman, try to convince her to have an abortion, and film it. The producer’s manager thankfully axed the story, and the producer was fired.

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Rape survivors and persons conceived in rape fight ‘exceptions’ in Iowa’s heartbeat law

Save the 1, a pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion — including the abortion of preborn children conceived in rape or incest, or those diagnosed with a fetal abnormality — is fighting to remove the “exceptions” rule added to Iowa’s new heartbeat law. They argue that the law, which outlaws abortion once a heartbeat is detected, should protect all preborn children regardless of the circumstances of their conception.

In February, the heartbeat bill without exceptions passed in the Iowa Senate, but the final bill included the exceptions in order to appease some House Republicans who refused to support the law without them.

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Judge’s ruling against ‘Red Rose Rescue’ activists at abortion facility ‘troubling’

A group of pro-life activists in Michigan who entered a West Bloomfield Township abortion facility last year in what is known as a “Red Rose Rescue” have been given a sentence in the trespass case which some are calling extremely harsh. The activists have been ordered not to come within 500 feet of any abortion facility in the entire nation, and to not have contact with one another for a period of one year — something their attorney claims was only handed down because this case centers around abortion. He says this infringes on their free speech rights.

The activists’ crime, according to the Oakland Press, was that they entered the abortion facility “where they offered roses, prayed, sang and urged patients in the waiting room not to terminate their pregnancies. They were led out by police, arrested and charged after refusing to leave the clinic when asked to.”

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Students, maintenance crew join forces to wash away pro-life campus chalk drawings

Recently, several students at Western Washington University were caught on camera using traffic cones to wash away pro-life chalkings by Students for Life at Western Washington University. One student tells a member of Students for Life that the plan is to just erase "the really s‑‑‑‑‑ ones [messages]."

The students began erasing the chalking on Thursday, June 7th around 7 PM PST and then Students for life re-chalked around 10:30 PM PST that same night. The following morning, maintenance crews were ordered to wash away the chalkings.

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Texas Governor promises to honor pro-life teen’s dying wish and ‘outlaw abortion’

The Governor of Texas has promised a pro-life teen dying from cancer that he will “outlaw abortion altogether in the state of Texas.”

Governor Greg Abbott, 60, called his constituent Jeremiah Thomas as the teen lay in the cancer ward of a children’s hospital. The Governor was connected to the teen through “Make a Wish,” a program that allows young people who are terminally ill to fulfill a personal dream. Many children choose to meet a personal hero, like a sports star. Thomas decided to use his "wish" to reach out to the governor and ask him to do something to end the killing of preborn babies.

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HHS allows contraceptive mandate to lapse, giving Christian colleges a victory

A federal judge ruled in favor of two Christian colleges that were suing the government regarding the Obama-era contraceptive mandate that would force them to pay for the birth control and abortions of employees. This comes after six other Christian schools won their lawsuits over the past two months.

Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, and Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, sued in October of 2013 arguing that the mandate forcing them to pay for abortion-inducing drugs and potentially abortifacient “emergency contraception” violated their religious freedoms.

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Trump admin pulls U.S. out of pro-abortion UN Human Rights Council

The United States will be exiting the United Nations Human Rights Council, Ambassador Nikki Haley confirmed Tuesday, citing the body’s record of failing and neglecting its titular mission.

“I want to make it crystal clear that this step is not a retreat from our human rights commitments,” Haley stressed. “On the contrary. We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”

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Big pro-life win for Ark. and likely the rest of U.S.

It is argued that a recent ruling in Arkansas will have huge implications for pro-life measures not only within the Natural State, but across the entire country.

On Monday, United States District Judge Kristine Baker issued a temporary restraining order against Arkansas' 2015 Abortion-Inducing Drugs Safety Act. The law requires doctors who perform drug-induced abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital – or have a contract with a doctor who does.

Family Council President Jerry Cox – whose nonprofit Arkansas-based organization fights for the sanctity of human life – explained the benefits resulting from the recent landmark decision against abortion.

"So, if a woman has complications because of a drug-induced abortion, she'll be able to get quick medical care,” Cox pointed out. “She'll be able to have her records follow her there to the hospital – and all the other things that you would want … if you wanted good health care."

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Complaints filed against 9 Indiana abortionists who failed to report suspected sexual abuse

Indiana Right to Life has just announced that five news conferences given in the state today will focus on multiple complaints filed against nine Indiana abortionists for failing to report abortions on underage patients for possible sexual abuse — 48 times. A press release from IN RTL states:

Forty-eight consumer complaints have been filed against nine Indiana abortion doctors who have allegedly failed to follow the legal reporting requirements to protect young children from sex abuse. The doctors are: Jeffrey Glazer, Caitlin Bernard, Cassandra Cashman, Carol Dellinger, Mandy Gittler, Kathleen Glover, Martin Haskell, Resad Pasic and Sarah Turner. They are employed at all licensed Indiana abortion facilities: Women’s Med Center in Indianapolis, Clinic for Women in Indianapolis, and Planned Parenthood in Indianapolis, Lafayette, Bloomington and Merrillville.

The pro-life group adds that some of the minors that went unreported “were as young as 12 and 13.”

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Appeals court reinstates California’s deadly assisted suicide law

Last month, a judge overturned California’s law legalizing assisted suicide, which had been implemented in 2015. Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ottolia ruled that the California legislature violated the state constitution by passing the law during a special session that was supposed to be dedicated to Medicare funding. A group of doctors had sued to stop the law, which was rushed through the special session after it failed to pass a regular legislative session. “That special session was called to address funding shortages caused by Medi-Cal,” Stephen G. Larson, lead counsel for the doctors who filed suit, said. “It was not called to address the issue of assisted suicide.”

Ottolia originally ruled that assisted suicide did not fall within the topic of health care funding, and gave Attorney General Xavier Becerra five days to file an emergency appeal to keep the bill alive. Becerra did file an appeal, and this weekend, a state appeals court reinstated the law. The Fourth District Court of Appeals in Riverside issued an immediate stay, meaning the law goes back into effect right away. Becerra praised the court’s decision, saying, “This ruling provides some relief to California patients, their families, and doctors who have been living in uncertainty while facing difficult health decisions. Today’s court ruling is an important step to protect and defend the End of Life Option Act for our families across the state.”

Opponents of the law will have until July 2nd to file objections to the appeals court’s decision.

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Pro-lifers sue to cut abortion exceptions from Iowa heartbeat bill

While the abortion lobby sues to invalidate Iowa’s recently-enacted ban on aborting most babies with detectable heartbeats, a pro-life group is taking legal action to strengthen its protections.  Attorneys representing the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and Iowa City’s Emma Goldman Clinic sued, and a district judge temporarily blocked the law’s enforcement a month later.

Days before the governor signed it, the bill was amended to allow exceptions for babies conceived in rape if reported within 45 days, babies conceived in incest if the incest is reported within 140 days, or fetal abnormalities deemed “incompatible with life,” all of which were grouped under the banner of “medically necessary.”  On Saturday, the pro-life group Save the 1 announced it was filing a motion as “necessary third party intervenors of right” in the case, in the hopes of getting the “medically necessary” exceptions stricken from the bill as a violation of the affected babies’ rights to life, due process, and equal protection under the law.

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VIDEO: Pro-life commercial from Herbal Essences stirs up controversy

A new pro-life ad from Herbal Essences is taking a lot of heat for trying to show how capable women are. The abortion industry would have us all believe that pregnancy and motherhood are stumbling blocks on the path to success. Nothing could be further from the truth, but abortion facilities don’t make money off of women choosing life. Pro-life organizations are constantly proving that pregnant women can be and are successful when they are given support. Women are smart enough and strong enough to overcome any apparent obstacles before them, no matter what big abortion says.

With their #PregnantWomenCan campaign, Herbal Essences declares pregnant women to be “unstoppable forces of nature” while “doing it for two” and highlights that this year pregnant women will exercise, work, run businesses, volunteer, and:

Oh yeah, they’ll create over 4 million new humans.

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Video exposes how Planned Parenthood covers up child-sex abuse and gets away with it in court

Live Action released on Thursday the latest in its series of videos detailing how Planned Parenthood has enabled numerous instances of sexual assault, this time focusing on how the abortion giant treats victims in the courtroom.

The latest video, “Prosecution,” centers around an interview with Brian Hurley, an attorney who brought two civil cases against Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio for allegedly covering up the rape of teenage girls. Hurley reveals how the organization’s chief tactic was to attempt to make lawsuits too long and costly to pursue.

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Hilarious video makes a serious point about how bad pro-abortion arguments are

A video released last week that is going viral takes the abortion lobby to task for lack of logic and magical thinking. In the video, a woman posing as an abortion activist states, “Human rights – you may think you’ve always had yours, but you would be wrong.”

She then asks and answers the obvious question, “So how did you get your human rights? From the magical birth canal of course!”

The abortion industry claims that legal abortion is justified, because preborn babies are not human beings with the Right to Life and human dignity. What the abortion industry does not answer is how that suddenly changes the second the baby is born. Instead, they obscure the facts of preborn Life and use illogic to justify taking the life of an innocent and defenseless preborn baby.



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New Gallup Poll Shows Massive Opposition to Roe v. Wade

Every year Gallup does polling on the issue of abortion. They are one of the better polling outfits, because they will ask more specific questions than most others.

For the first time since 2012, Gallup asked respondents if abortion should be legal or illegal in each trimester. The results show a massive majority of adults oppose Roe v. Wade.

There’s one big caveat, sadly: a massive majority of adults have no clue about what Roe v. Wade does. That includes Gallup itself, an otherwise credible organization!

In their analysis of their poll, Gallup gets it utterly wrong: “The wording of Roe v. Wade aligns almost perfectly with where Americans stand on late-term abortions—keep them legal to save the life of the mother and in cases of rape and incest, but not for other reasons.”

What did Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton do? Those two Supreme Court cases legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason. If you find an abortionist who will do one, and will say it’s for a “health” reason, no legal authority or court in America can stop it.

While Gallup does admit many Americans depart from Roe v. Wade about 1st trimester abortions, the above quote gets it wrong, both on what Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton did legally, but also when you consider the reasons women have abortions.

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Thomas More fights Illinois Taxpayers' Abortions

The outcome of a trial contesting state-funded abortions in Illinois is up for grabs.

The law in question expands use of tax dollars for abortions for economically disadvantaged women and state employees but attorney Peter Breen, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, argues it violates the Illinois Constitution, which calls for a balanced budget.  The government must estimate revenues on a bill and not spend above that estimate but the allegation is the Illinois General Assembly didn't do that.

The state argues the constitutional requirement is optional and the courts have no place in enforcing it.

"But the legal arguments really go toward fiscal sanity for the state of Illinois, which folks across the country know that Illinois is America's fiscal basket case," says the Thomas More attorney. "For the taxpayers of Illinois this case is very important. For people of faith, and people of life, it's very important because we can stop this funding for elective abortions here."

Taxpayers would be financing 20,000 to 30,000 more abortions each year.  A ruling from the court could be made as early as this fall.

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U.S. blocked Canada’s abortion agenda at G7 negotiations

In the lead-up to this year’s G7 summit in Quebec, Canadian officials were explicit: women and children were going to be central, and an essential component of their health and empowerment is abortion. But when the final declarations were released, all language about “reproductive rights” was removed, and, according to Devex, “the U.S. delegation…was responsible for the softer official language.”

For the first time, as G7 host, Canada established a Gender Equality Advisory Council which submitted its recommendations to integrate gender into the G7’s work. Other inputs included a statement from more than sixty feminists that included a call for an end to the “criminalization or restrictive regulation of abortion,”  which called for the withdrawal of the U.S. Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy (also called the Mexico City Policy), the provision of abortion as a component of humanitarian assistance, and funding for abortion advocacy, and government-subsidized coverage of abortion.

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