Judge Allows Pharmacies to Mail and Dispense Abortion Pills During Pandemic

Photo credit: Brett Jordan / Unsplash

In an August 19 court order, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that pharmacies can distribute abortion pills either in a pharmacy or over the mail; bypassing FDA safety regulations.

In response to a lawsuit by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang ruled that pharmacies can now distribute abortion pills to those who obtain prescriptions from a healthcare professional. Beforehand, individuals who wished to obtain abortion pills would have to see a healthcare professional in-person to receive pills.

Specifically, the new order reads (in part):

This requirement that dispensing by mail or delivery service remain “by or under the supervision of a certified healthcare provider” permits mifepristone to be sent from a drug sponsor to a certified healthcare provider in the care of a mail-order pharmacy if the pharmacy has a contractual agreement with the certified healthcare provider to receive mifepristone on behalf of the healthcare provider and then to mail the drug to a patient at the direction of that healthcare provider, so long as the drugs were specifically ordered from the drug sponsor by the certified healthcare provider and held on the provider’s behalf, and the mail-order pharmacy has no right to distribute those drugs except at the direction of the certified healthcare provider.

The FDA places mifepristone, the first part of the two-stage abortion pill regimen, under REMS regulations due to the danger it can pose to women. It has the potential to cause side-effects such as hemorrhage (which can lead to death), and the risks are increased if the pregnant mother has an undiagnosed condition such as ectopic pregnancy or is taking the pill later in her child's gestational development.

An in-person visit to a healthcare professional could ensure a woman's safety by diagnosing pregnancy conditions or identifying the unborn child's gestational age. By doing so, a healthcare professional would ensure the woman's safety during the abortion process. These changes enacted by the District Court endanger women by providing them with dangerous drugs before they have had the appropriate medical screening.

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Over 100 U.S. Legislators Ask Sec. of Treasury to End Tax Breaks for Abortion

Photo credit: Jonathan Cutrer / Flickr

Many members of Congress are taking a stand against the IRS subsidizing abortion procedures. On August 12, over 100 U.S. legislators signed a letter addressed to the Secretary of the United States Treasury Steve Mnuchin. The letter asks his department “to take swift action to issue new regulations to protect innocent human life by ending tax breaks for abortion under the guise of medical care.”

Liberty Counsel writes that the IRS changed its definition of "medical care" following the passage of Roe v. Wade to include abortion. This decision causes some IRS tax breaks to effectively subsidize abortion procedures. Abortion simply is not healthcare, and the congress members' letter to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin reflects this sentiment.

“[W]hen the deduction for medical care was first enacted in the Revenue Act of 1942, abortion was a crime in virtually every state. However, shortly after Roe v. Wade, the IRS imposed on the then-three-decades-old statute a meaning of ‘medical care’ that would have been unthinkable to the 77th Congress that enacted it,” the lawmakers wrote.

The IRS considers “medical care” to be any procedures performed “for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body.” In their letter, the legislators noted that "long-standing regulations" say that medical care should “be confined strictly to expenses incurred primarily for the prevention or alleviation of a physical or mental defect or illness.”

Since abortion is an elective procedure which the legislators say, “has nothing to do with ‘the prevention or alleviation of a physical or mental defect or illness,” their letter further notes:

“[T]he primary purpose of an abortion… is not to affect the body of the mother, but, tragically, to destroy the body of the unborn child growing within her…. An abortion is considered ‘successful’ not simply when the pregnancy is terminated (since childbirth also does this), but only when the result is a dead unborn child.”

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Federal Reports Find "Mexico City Policy" is Working

At the beginning of this week, The Departments of State and Health and Human Services (HHS), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) gave reports that "Mexico City Policy" stipulations on foreign aid have not created significant gaps in health care provision.

The administration’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance rule, often called the "Mexico City Policy," conditions U.S. global health assistance on recipients not performing or promoting abortions.

The reports say that the “vast majority” of recipients who help foreign nations by providing health assistance accepted the U.S. pro-life policy. The reports also say that in most of the few cases where partners refused to adhere to the policy, the U.S. found another health service provider to fund or other groups stepped forward to fill in the gaps.

“Only in limited instances has the Agency struggled to identify new partners or sub-awardees with comparable skill sets, networks, or capacity for outreach,” the report said.

The Trump administration's Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance applies to $8 billion in global assistance funding, while it previously only applied to $600 million in foreign aid (only involving USAID family planning assistance).

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House Judiciary and Oversight Committee Republicans Confront Authorities on Arrests of Pro-Life Advocates

SFLA student leader Erica Caporaletti being arrested
photo credit: SFLA

Republican representatives on the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight Committee have called on the Assistant Attorney General and Washington D.C. Mayor to produce documents and attend briefings regarding the arrest of pro-life advocates in front of a D.C. Planned Parenthood clinic.

On August 1, pro-life advocates with Students for Life of America (SFLA) were arrested outside of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic for chalking pro-life messages on the sidewalk in front of the building. The advocates were originally there to paint the words "Black Preborn Lives Matter" on the street in front of the clinic. This was in response to the mayor allowing the phrases "Black Lives Matter" and "Defund the Police" to remain painted on the road for an extended period of time.

SFLA claimed that it had received a permit to paint in front of the clinic, but they were confronted by police when they arrived with their temporary paint. Several advocates defied police requests by chalking pro-life messages on the sidewalk, and they were arrested as a result.

“This incident, in light of the District allowing other political messages to appear on public property, raises troubling questions about whether the District is respecting the constitutional rights of individuals in a viewpoint-neutral manner,” Representatives Jim Jordan and James Comer wrote to Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband.

“The District’s prohibition of the ‘Black Pre-Born Lives Matter’ message suggests that the District may have engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in light of the District’s allowance for other political messages on public property,” they continued. They noted that the District of Columbia only recently removed the "Defund the Police" street painting after leaving it for over two months.

Jordan and Comer asked the Justice Department to give a staff-level briefing on how the office “evaluates and addresses unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination on public property” by Sept. 1.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office was asked to “produce all documents and communications between June 1, 2020 and the present referring or relating the arrest of the individuals associated with the Students for Life of America on August 1, 2020.” Jordan and Comer say that her office must provide the documents by Aug. 24 and brief their committees by Aug. 26.

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HHS Ethics Board Announced Decisions on Fetal Tissue Research Proposals

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An independent Ethics Advisory Board working on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its decisions on August 18 regarding 14 research proposals involving the use of aborted fetal tissue.

After it was revealed last June that the HHS had contracts with Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR) and the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) to perform research on aborted fetal tissue, all ongoing contracts were canceled, and an independent board was selected to review proposals from these organizations which sought funding.

After a long process, the board came to the conclusion that only one proposal should be approved for funding. This particular project would only involve the use of existing fetal tissue (therefore not requiring any new tissue harvesting from unborn children) and would use that tissue to try to develop alternatives to fetal tissue in medical research.

The FDA terminated a similar contract with ABR in 2018. ABR is known to provide payments to Planned Parenthood so the abortion giant could harvest organs to be used in ABR's ethically-devoid research.

The ethics board’s recommendations will be sent to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Congress for final approval.

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Sixty Congress Members Ask USAID to Stop US Funding from Going to UN Abortion Projects

Photo credit: Pepi Stojanovski / Unsplash

On August 13, sixty members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Agency for International Development administrator to request that the agency take action to protect U.S. funding from being used by the U.N. to promote abortion.

The letter thanked USAID administrator John Barsa for advocating for the removal of abortion references from U.N. COVID-19 relief legislation while uring him to take additional actions against the misuse of funding.

“We agree with you that the U.N. should not use this crisis as an opportunity to advance access to abortion as an ‘essential service,’” the letter reads.

“The UN’s COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan is only the latest example of the U.N.’s brazen imposition of abortion and a fictitious international right to abortion, which violates the sovereignty of its member states and U.N. conventions that affirm the right to life.”

Specifically, the letter calls on Barsa to enforce the Siljander Amendment, a provision applied to international provisions since 1981 which bars the use of U.S. funds to provide or promote abortion.

“United States leaders and diplomats should insist that U.S.-supported international agreements and multilateral assistance do not include abortion under the guise of sexual and reproductive health,” they said. “This insistence is necessary to enforce the Siljander Amendment. This oversight is especially necessary for UN organizations that receive billions of dollars in US funding that are subject to the Siljander Amendment.”

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Abby Johnson and Nick Sandmann to Speak at Republican National Convention

Abby Johnson
Photo credit: American Life League / Flickr

Among others, pro-life advocates Abby Johnson and Nick Sandmann are scheduled to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention next week.

The Trump campaign told Breitbart News that Sandman's appearance will demonstrate the dangers of "cancel culture." They wouldn't be wrong with that assessment. A pro-life student from Covington Catholic High School, Nick Sandmann was shown repeatedly in the national news, talk shows, and social media after a clip from the January 2019 March for Life rally in Washington D.C. went viral.

He was shown standing and smiling at a Native American man who approached his class while beating on his drum and chanting. Sandmann's expression was viewed as a disrespectful smirk by many, but the truth was that he was simply trying to defuse a complex situation. The clip initially shared online was designed to make people believe that the students were mocking the Native American man, but that simply wasn't the truth.

When several news outlets continued to spread false information about him and his classmates after eyewitnesses and additional video evidence vindicated their story, Nick filed lawsuits against them. In January 2020, CNN and Sandmann settled a $275 million lawsuit.

Abby Johnson is a former clinic director from Planned Parenthood who left the organization and joined the pro-life movement in 2009. Now she leads a non-profit organization called And Then There Were None, which helps workers leave the abortion industry. Her story was turned into the successful film Unplanned, despite initial dishonest treatment by social media and the entertainment industry.

Three days after Unplanned hit movie theaters nationwide, the film's Twitter account was suspended for unknown reasons. After it was reinstated, the account had lost followers and some Twitter users reported that they were unable to follow the account for a short time.

As a final injustice, Unplanned was scrubbed from the Hallmark Channel's showing of the Movieguide award show. Lead actress Ashley Bratcher had given a speech at the in-person event, but all mentions of the film and her address were completely scrubbed from the show when it initially aired on television. Hallmark issued an apology and had the show re-edited to include Unplanned, but the initial censorship of her message didn't go unnoticed.

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Austin Texas City Council Redirects Police Funding to Abortion

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Following a unanimous vote by the all-Democrat city council of Austin, Texas, the city's 2021 budget will cut $150 million from the Austin Police Department, and increase the funding for "abortion access" to $250,000.

A Texas law passed by the state's legislature prohibits state or local governments from using taxpayer funding to support abortion procedures by giving money directly to abortion providers and their affiliates. The City of Austin, Texas has gotten around these limitations, however, by using taxpayer funding to pay for abortion-related expenses. These include transportation, lodging, childcare, and legal services. Pro-lifers have filed lawsuits against the city for skirting the rules, but they remain pending in county courts.

"Abortion does nothing to improve the safety, wellness, or goodness of our communities," Texas Right to Life said in its response. "A procedure that always ends in the death of a preborn child and leaves women spiritually, mentally, and oftentimes physically scarred cannot be said to promote safety and care."

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Nebraska Gov. Signs Law Banning Dismemberment Abortions

Georgia Gov. Pete Ricketts
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr

On Saturday, August 16, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signed Legislative Bill 814, a bill banning the dismemberment of living unborn children.

While this bill was being discussed, Gov. Ricketts called for an end to “this horrendous form of abortion.”

The bill had to overcome a filibuster before finally being passed by a 33-8 vote.

During a dismemberment abortion, an abortionist tears the limbs from an unborn child's body one-by-one to reduce the child's size. This is because the child has developed too much to be easily removed from the mother's body otherwise. This practice, like all abortion, is extremely inhumane and must be ended.

“We praise Gov. Ricketts and thank him for his unwavering support,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life (NRLC). “This legislation will help protect living unborn children from the brutal death of being torn apart limb by limb.”

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Federal Appeals Court Blocks Georgia Heartbeat Law

Georgia State Capitol
Photo Credit: Wally Gobetz / Flickr

After Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed HB 481 (which bans abortion after an unborn child's heartbeat can be detected) into law during May 2019, U.S. After issuing a temporary injunction against the law, District Judge Steve Jones permanently blocked it in July of 2020. On Tuesday, August 11 lawyers for the State of Georgia announced that they will be appealing the District Court's Ruling.

The Associated Press's coverage of the announcement included a quote from the ACLU:

“The district court blocked Georgia’s abortion ban because it violates over 50 years of Supreme Court precedent and fails to trust women to make their own personal decisions,” Sean Young, legal director for the ACLU of Georgia. “This case has always been about one thing: letting her decide. Abortion care remains legal throughout the State of Georgia.”

Unborn children can produce a detectable heartbeat (explained by pro-abortion activists as "cardiac activity") after only six weeks of gestational development.

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Connecticut Mobile Pregnancy Center Wins Lawsuit Against City with Mixed Results

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The Connecticut pregnancy center Caring Families recently won a lawsuit it filed against the City of Hartford over a 2018 ordinance requiring pregnancy centers that don't offer abortion to display signage saying that they do not have licensed medical professionals on site to provide all services.

Caring Families said that the ordinance was discriminatory. The organization's mobile pregnancy center that operates within the City of Hartford does have medical personnel, and it provides ultrasounds and pregnancy tests for women without pressuring them to have abortions.

“The ordinance exempts abortion clinics, community health clinics, and all other health care facilities within Hartford, except for pregnancy centers that do not offer abortion,” wrote Denise Harle of ADF. “The ordinance therefore unlawfully discriminates against organizations such as Caring Families that do not desire to perform, assist in, or refer for abortion services.”

The resulting settlement allows Caring Families to continue operating its mobile pregnancy center without adding signage, but it leaves the discriminatory city ordinance in place. It ultimately determined that the mobile unit cannot be considered a “pregnancy services center” and allowed Caring Families to have an exception to the ordinance.

Pro-life pregnancy centers that don't provide or refer patients to abortions are legitimate pregnancy centers that provide legitimate services. They should be treated as such by all levels of government.

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Ohio Abortion Clinic Hospitalizes Woman After Causing "Uncontrollable Bleeding"

Photo Credit: Operation Rescue

Northeast Ohio Women’s Center (NEOWC) in Cuyahoga Falls, OH injured a woman during an abortion procedure on July 25, 2020. The 911 call records obtained by Operation Rescue say that the woman suffered "uncontrollable bleeding."

The NEOWC employee who called 911 asked that the ambulance park around the back of the facility since pro-life advocates were outside the facility. When the ambulance arrived, clinic employees attempted to prevent pro-lifers from photographing the incident by holding a banner in front of the patient and the ambulance, but they were unsuccessful.

Operation Rescue also checked the Ohio Department of Health’s online records for NEOWC, which show that the facility's license expired on March 31, 2019.

“Ohio has a chronic problem of allowing abortion facilities to operate on expired facility licenses. We have seen some facilities continue to do business on licenses that have been expired for years,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “The Ohio Department of Health has failed in its duty to ensure that Ohio abortion facilities have current licenses and meet all requirements. This puts women in danger, and may have contributed to the serious injury that recently hospitalized one of their abortion clients.”

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Woman Dies After Procedure at Alabama Abortion Clinic

Photo credit: Operation Rescue

On May 7, 2020, pro-life activists witnessed a woman exiting West Alabama Women’s Center (WAWC) abortion facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with the support of another person. She appeared to be unable to walk the short distance to the parking lot without outside help. Once she got to a private vehicle, she was taken to a hospital where she died the same day.

According to information gathered by Operation Rescue, the abortion clinic did not attempt to call 911.

The Alabama Department of Public Health says that it will not investigate the incident since the patient was not picked up by an ambulance crew.

Thomas Payne, the 81-year-old abortionist who worked at WAWC when this patient died, retired at the end of July. A medical board is investigating whether his actions contributed to the woman's death, but the results of this investigation will not affect WAWC since Payne has already been replaced.

Ellie Hermann, a registered nurse who often stands outside of WAWC to provide counseling and abortion alternatives, said, “One or two women per month are rushed from here to DCH Regional Medical, usually in passenger cars driven by employees of the clinic. Imagine just being dropped off at the curb in an unstable condition, possibly hemorrhaging or groggy from medication — how can the ADPH pretend that kind of care deserves a license?”

Pro-life advocates are calling on the Alabama Department of Public Health to reconsider its stance and investigate or inspect WAWC.

“We have reported on abortion-related maternal deaths far too often.  Each one represents an avoidable double tragedy – the loss of a mother and the loss of a baby.  This has a ripple effect of grief on the family, friends, and community,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.  “Abortion is not safe, no matter what the Abortion Cartel says, and the state ignoring patient deaths only makes abortion businesses more dangerous, because they become emboldened with the understanding that there will never be consequences, even when a woman dies.  Those attitudes are unacceptable and must change to prevent endangering human lives.”

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YouTube Temporarily Removes Pro-Life Abortion Procedure Explanation Video

Photo credit: Rego Korosi / Flickr

On Friday, August 7, YouTube (which is owned by Google) removed a 4-year old video describing different abortion procedures. The video posted by the pro-life organization Live Action, which quickly went to Twitter to criticize the removal. The video has since been reinstated, but not before adding fuel to the already-roaring argument about tech companies censoring conservative ideas.

"@YouTube just DELETED one of our Abortion Procedures videos, which had over 1.8 million views, claiming it violated 'Community Guidelines,'" Live Action President Lila Rose said on Twitter. "The video has been live since 2016, includes medically accurate animations of abortion & is narrated by a former abortionist."

The temporarily-removed video is a compilation of three other videos on Live Action's YouTube channel, but none of those original videos were removed in this incident. The videos describe abortion procedures that abortionists would use on unborn children during each trimester of development, and they are narrated by former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino.

Live Action says that these videos have also faced suppression by YouTube before when a tech writer for Slate complained that searching "abortion" on the video-sharing website placed Live Action's medically accurate pro-life content near the top of search results. Google responded by altering its search algorithm, and now simply searching the word "abortion" on YouTube doesn't display Live Action videos at all. This seems to be deliberate suppression since Live Action's videos have over a million more views than the top eight search results, which include a video by Planned Parenthood.

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Joe Biden Chooses Pro-Abortion Senator Kamala Harris as Running Mate

Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA)
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On Tuesday, presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced that Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) would be his vice-presidential running mate. Senator Harris is unapologetically pro-abortion and has a 0% pro-life voting record with National Right to Life.

“Sen. Harris supports a policy of abortion on demand at any time, any where, and under any circumstances,” said National Right to Life President Carol Tobias. “Sadly, both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris see the lives of precious unborn babies as expendable. Joe Biden could not have picked a more extreme pro-abortion running mate.”

Senator Harris opposes the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban the abortion of unborn children after 20 weeks of gestational development. These children can feel the pain caused by dismemberment procedures abortionists use against children that have reached that stage of development.

Senator Harris also co-sponsored the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which would bypass states' rights and the court system by requiring states to get specific permission from the Justice Department to pass pro-life laws.

Pro-life undercover journalist David Daleiden told Fox News that he is currently suing Senator Harris for “conspir[ing] to violate his civil rights through a purportedly bogus prosecution” during her time as California's Attorney General. After he and the Center for Medical Progress released several undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing their procedures for harvesting tissue from aborted children (including how they alter procedures to obtain more intact tissue), the State of California prosecuted his team rather than Planned Parenthood.

If there was ever any doubt about Joe Biden's stance on abortion before this announcement, it seems entirely clear now that his current stance is pro-abortion in every sense.

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Senators Request Federal Investigations Into Planned Parenthood Controversies

Photo Credit: American Life League / Flickr

Last Friday, over two dozen U.S. senators sent letters to the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department to that they either expand or begin investigations into recent Planned Parenthood controversies.

One letter signed by 27 senators asked the DOJ to expand its investigation into Planned Parenthood's dealings with harvested fetal tissue. The other letter, signed by 28 senators, asks Treasury Department Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery Brian D. Miller to investigate how Planned Parenthood affiliates received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds meant for small businesses under the CARES Act.

"We urge you to investigate not only the extent to which Planned Parenthood was involved in the sale of fetal tissue, but also the disturbing descriptions by Planned Parenthood workers of infants born alive who were left to die or killed through organ harvesting," reads part of the letter sent to the DOJ.

This follows videos released by David Daleiden and The Center for Medical Progress which show invoices for individual fetal body parts and testimony from Planned Parenthood employees talking about their fetal harvesting policies under oath.

"Planned Parenthood's defrauding of $80 million from the PPP loan program shows criminality in the abortion industry will spread until they face justice under the law," Daleiden told Fox News. "After multiple Congressional criminal referrals, admissions on forensically authenticated undercover video and sworn deposition testimony ... the evidence demands beyond any reasonable doubt that Planned Parenthood and their business associates be held accountable for targeting vulnerable patients and selling their infant children like a commodity."

The letter U.S. senators sent to the Treasury Department asks for "a thorough investigation of all PPP loans applied for and received by any Planned Parenthood affiliate, to determine how those affiliates were able to obtain PPP loans, and if any of their applications were submitted with information that was known or should have been known to be false, and make any civil or criminal referrals that you deem necessary and proper."

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Mike Pence Becomes First Vice-President to Visit Pro-Life Pregnancy Resource Center

Vice President Mike Pence
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As Vice President Mike Pence's first stop in his "Life Wins" campaign tour, the Vice President visited A Women’s Place Medical Clinic in Florida. In doing so, he became the first vice president to visit a pro-life pregnancy resource center.

On the same day, he gave a speech at Starkey Road Baptist Church in Largo, Florida praising the pro-life movement for its work to save the lives of unborn children and support "women facing the most difficult circumstances in their lives."

"The pro-life movement doesn't just talk the talk, you walk the walk," Pence said. "And I saw a wonderful clinic and heard about all the volunteers that stepped forward along with registered nurses and healthcare professionals in places, literally, every day bustling with people ready to not just stand for life, stand with women facing the most difficult circumstances in their lives."

Pence said that the ideals of the pro-life movement are core to the founding principles of the United States.

"The Declaration of Independence reads that we hold certain truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and they are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights," Pence said. "Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those words changed history, and they also put life at the center of the American experiment. And under this president, I promise you that we are going to continue to work every day to put the right to life back at the center of American law."

The Vice President also touted the Trump administration's pro-life actions and policies, such as reinstating the Mexico City policy and appointing pro-life judges.

"One of the greatest privileges I've had as your Vice President was in my role as President of the Senate. I was able to cast the tie-breaking vote on a bill that allowed states across the country to defund Planned Parenthood, and President Donald Trump signed it into law."

Pence took most of his time during the speech to thank and encourage those in the pro-life movement who work to end the practice of abortion with their voices, votes, and deeds. While political discussion can accomplish things to the benefit of the pro-life cause, those who volunteer their time and money to aid women who might otherwise see abortion as their only option save lives regularly.

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8th Circuit Court of Appeals Remands Injunction Against Pro-Life Arkansas Laws

On Friday, August 7, a three-judge panel from the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a decision by U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker which issued injunctions against four pro-life Arkansas laws. This comes due to stipulations Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts gave in his recent concurring opinion for June Medical LLC. v. Russo. Now, the case will go back to the lower courts for reconsideration involving Justice Roberts's ideas.

The June Medical case involved a Louisiana law that required abortionists to maintain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The law was overturned in the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision, but Chief Justice John Roberts's opinion, in this case, did not strictly align with the more progressive justices. Justice Roberts agreed with the progressive justices that the Louisiana law's requirement was too burdensome, but he specifically took issue with the cost-benefit method of judicial review that the court system has used when reviewing pro-life legislation in recent years.

The three-judge panel from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote the following:

Here, the district court—without the benefit of Chief Justice Roberts’s separate opinion in June Medical—applied the Whole Woman’s Health cost-benefit standard to the challenged laws. In addition, the district court relied on Whole Woman’s Health’s “holding that the ‘statement that legislatures, and not courts, must resolve questions of medical uncertainty is . . . inconsistent with this Court’s case law.’’ Chief Justice Roberts, however, emphasized the “wide discretion” that courts must afford to legislatures in areas of medical uncertainty. [Internal citations omitted for clarity]

Rather than subjectively weighing the "costs" and "benefits" of pro-life legislation, judges using Justice Roberts's decision-making philosophy would simply decide whether a law put an "undue burden" on abortion access. While a purely pro-life ruling from the Supreme Court would have been preferable, and "undue burden" might still be somewhat subjective, this development might prove to support many other pro-life laws that were previously blocked by the courts.

The Arkansas legislation affected in the ruling includes the Arkansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, the Sex Discrimination by Abortion Prohibition Act, an amendment regarding the disposal of fetal remains, and an amendment concerning forensic samples from abortions performed on a minor.

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House Appropriations Package Criticized for Pro-Abortion "Poison Pills"

Photo Credit: John Brighenti / Flickr

National Right to Life criticized the passage of H.R. 7617 on July 31. Otherwise known by the lengthy name, "Defense, Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2021," this bill includes several provisions that would weaken pro-life policies and allow more taxpayer dollars to be funneled into the abortion industry.

“These poison pill provisions in H.R. 7617 seek to undermine the pro-life policies of the Trump Administration,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Sadly, those who would suffer from the pro-abortion provisions would be women and their unborn children.”

The legislation would block a Department of Health and Human Services rule meant to protect health care providers from discrimination if they refuse to participate in abortion, sterilization, or assisted suicide; override the Trump administration's final rule on Title X changes that prevent funding from going to family planning organizations that refer patients to abortion clinics or colocate with them; and allow federal funds to pay for abortions within the District of Columbia.

The more conservative Senate is unlikely to accept H.R. 7617 once it goes to a vote.

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Surrogate Child Whose Mother Refused to Abort Dies at Age 8

In 2012, Crystal Kelley was carrying a surrogate child when she and the biological parents learned that the child would have "severe medical problems." This prompted the biological parents to ask Kelley to abort, but she refused. The drama surrounding their argument became a national news story. On July 15, a full 8 years after Seraphina Harrell's birth, she died due to a combination of infection and complications from a needed surgery.

Throughout her pregnancy, Seraphina's biological parents told Kelley that they would not agree to parent the child if she did not abort, offered her $10,000 to abort the child, and even said they would change their minds and take the Seraphina after she was born just to turn around and surrender her to the state of Connecticut.

Kelley went into hiding to complete her pregnancy, and then offered the child up for adoption to a family that had already adopted several special needs children, and were well-experienced to provide for another.

During her life, Seraphina had multiple heart surgeries. She could not speak or walk, but she used a wheelchair and American Sign Language. In spite of all this, Seraphina's adoptive family attests that she had a big personality at their house.

“Seraphina’s larger than life personality only grew throughout her life, and you never had to guess what she was thinking or feeling,” her loved ones wrote in her obituary.

“She couldn’t walk by herself, but she persisted in turning everyone in the house into her personal mobility assistants. She couldn’t eat, but that never stopped her from insisting on her own plate of food to be part of the gang.”

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