photo credit: Andrew Malone / Flickr |
September 9, 2020
Exposed University of New Mexico Logs Show Gruesome Details of Fetal Tissue Harvesting
Media Refuses to Run Ad for Class Action Lawsuit Against Planned Parenthood
Screenshot from Thomas More Society ad |
The class-action lawsuit is a response to the Center for Medical Progress's viral videos which came out in 2015. They featured clips from undercover conversations pro-life investigators (posing as potential buyers of fetal tissue) had with Planned Parenthood officials. The Center for Medical Progress exposed that Planned Parenthood was selling tissue from aborted children against federal laws, but Planned Parenthood has yet to face any legal repercussions for its actions. Instead, the investigators are being prosecuted for allegedly breaking California privacy laws.
In response to local affiliates refusing to show the advertisements, Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul Jonna said, “The facts contained in these short little video clips have been corroborated by reports from Congress, the select investigation panel, and the Senate Judiciary Committee. We’re not just making stuff up – these are facts documented in the public record already. These companies actually asked for further information, and they still refused to air [the] [ads].”
The streaming services Hulu, Pandora, and Premion also refused to air the advertisements normally. Hulu refused outright, Pandora requested that mentions of Planned Parenthood be removed, and Premion said it would only air the advertisements outside of primetime hours.
September 8, 2020
Study Finds Mothers who Abort First Child are More Likely to Abort Future Pregnancies.
The study analyzed the outcomes of 7.3 million pregnancies of women eligible for Medicaid who were over the age of 13 between the years of 1999 and 2014. The pregnancies analyzed were in 17 states which allow state taxes to fund abortions.
The study found that women who abort their first pregnancy are more likely to have abortions during their next pregnancy than women who give birth to their first pregnancy or experience a miscarriage. The study also found that the likelihood that a woman will have an abortion during their next pregnancy increases with each subsequent abortion they have. The study noted that this trend was particularly prominent among black mothers who aborted their first children.
The authors wrote, “low-income women who have abortions are more likely to have more overall pregnancies, including more subsequent abortions, [and this] would tend to support the body of evidence indicating that abortion is associated with greater subsequent reproductive health risks.”
The researchers also wrote, “The hope that easier access to abortion would decrease maternal mortality has been rebutted by evidence to the contrary.”
September 7, 2020
4th Circuit Blocks Enforcement of Title X "Protect Life Rule" in Maryland
In an 8-6 decision, the court upheld an April decision denying a Trump administration motion to stay an injunction against the rule.
Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the majority, saying the administration, “failed to recognize and address the ethical concerns of literally every major medical organization in the country, and it arbitrarily estimated the cost” associated with the new regulations.
“Moreover, considering the time-sensitive nature of pregnancy and access to legal abortion, this attempt to hoodwink patients creates ‘unreasonable barriers’ to ‘appropriate medical care,’ and ‘impedes timely access’ to health care services.”
Due to the conflicting rulings from the 4th and 9th circuits, a resolution from the Supreme Court is likely.
September 4, 2020
Trump Campaign says Administration would 'fully defund' Planned Parenthood in a Second Term
President Donald Trump photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
After touting his administration's pro-life efforts, the letter gave several bullet points outlining how he would continue to fight for unborn children in a second term. These claims list that he would: “continue nominating constitutionalist Supreme Court and lower court judges”; “protect unborn life through every means available”; and “defend the freedoms of religious believers and organizations.”
Earlier this week, the Trump administration received criticism from pro-life advocates after his campaign released a document listing Trump's priorities for a second term. The document did not include anything about protecting unborn children from abortion or defunding abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood. After receiving criticism, the campaign quietly added pro-life points to the president's goals over the weekend.
Alabama Abortion Clinic Under Criminal Investigation After Patient Dies
Photo credit: Operation Rescue |
Pro-life advocates reached out to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences (ADFS) to learn more about the details of the woman's death, which they believed would be public record. The ADFS surprised them with its response:
“District Attorney Hays Webb has notified the Alabama Department of Forensic Science that this case remains under criminal investigation. . . Consequently, the final reports in this case are not currently public record.”
Pro-life advocates saw the woman exiting West Alabama Women's Center on the day of her death. According to those bystanders, she seemed sickly pale and needed to be supported by a clinic worker while she walked to a car.
Fr. Terry Gensemer, the Director of the Charismatic Episcopal Church For Life, commented, “We are glad to discover that at least one state agency seems to be looking into this woman’s death. Perhaps the Department of Public Health can take a cue from the District Attorney and finally look into whether or not this abortion clinic followed proper protocol in the incident, as well as explain to citizens why a new owner is being allowed a pass on applying for a new license, which their own regulations clearly require.”
September 3, 2020
Pro-Abortion Groups Sue Tennessee to Block Patients from Learning About Abortion Pill Reversal
Tennessee State Capitol photo credit: Matt Turner / Flickr |
Other parts of the omnibus law have already hit legal roadblocks, including a fetal heartbeat provision, but now the abortion lobby has taken aim at a provision that simply informs women that they have a chance to take back their decisions o abort if they have second thoughts.
Specifically, the law requires businesses dispensing abortion pills to inform women about abortion pill reversal in-person or over the phone (depending on how the pills were dispensed). Those who fail to do so would receive heavy fines and felony charges.
The abortion lawsuit claims that the law violates abortion providers' First Amendment rights by requiring them to “communicate a content-based, viewpoint-based, and/or controversial government-mandated message that they would not otherwise recite concerning an experimental medical treatment that has not been shown to be safe or effective.”
In reality, abortion pill reversal is a proven and simple treatment that has saved over 1,000 children since 2007. The first pill in the abortion pill regimen, mifepristone, blocks a pregnant mother's natural flow of a chemical called progesterone. By doing so, a mother's body no longer properly provides nutrients and oxygen to her child. Abortion pill reversal simply has a woman take additional progesterone so that the flow of nutrients is restored. Progesterone has even been used by pregnant mothers who haven't taken the abortion pill to help them with other pregnancy-related problems. If done within 24 hours of taking mifepristone, abortion pill reversal can have a good chance of saving a child's life.
20 Senators Call on FDA to Ban Abortion Pill
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
The letter, sent to FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn, reads:
“[G]iven the devastating impact this drug has had on American women and children, we must now urge the FDA to exercise its authority … and classify the abortion pill as an ‘imminent hazard to the public health’ that poses a ‘significant threat of danger’ and remove this pill from the U.S. market,”
The abortion pill was subject to the FDA's Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) restrictions until recently, when a federal judge halted the restrictions. The reasoning for the sudden ruling was that women may be unable to get elective procedures such as abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The judge believed that the REMS restrictions became a burden on abortion access when coupled with the circumstances of the virus, so they have been suspended for the duration of the pandemic.
The senators' letter responds to this situation:
“We believe that this rogue judicial activism is a gross breach of the separation of powers, undermining the FDA’s statutory authority to ensure drug safety, while recklessly endangering American women and children. The FDA must resist this opportunistic ploy to expand access to abortion under the fallacy that the REMS imposes an undue burden on women’s rights.”
The abortion pill regimen is a two-step process in which a pregnant mother first starves a child to death by taking mifepristone. After the child is dead, the woman then takes misoprostol to begin contractions and expel the deceased child from their body. This is often done at home without any medical supervision, and it can be extremely dangerous if the woman had undiagnosed pregnancy conditions such as ectopic pregnancy.
“[I]t is by now nakedly obvious that the abortion industry and its allies in the media, billionaire philanthropic circles, and special interest groups, have wanted an unregulated and demedicalized abortion pill since the moment the FDA first approved it in 2000,” the letter continues. “… We believe this deadly pill should never have been approved, yet the abortion industry was politically rewarded with an accelerated approval process normally reserved for high-risk drugs that address life-threatening illnesses like AIDS. As you are surely aware, pregnancy is not a life-threatening illness, and the abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease.”
U.S. House, Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) leads a group of 72 representatives in sending a similar letter to the FDA.
September 2, 2020
Black Leaders Write Letter to Planned Parenthood Criticizing it for the 'Systemic Racism' of Abortion
“Black women are five times more likely than white women to receive an abortion,” the letter stated. “In some cities, like New York, more Black children are aborted every year than are born alive.”
“This is no accident,” the letter continued. “79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located in or near communities of color.”
The letter points out that 36% of abortions in the U.S. end the lives of unborn children carried by black women. This is statistically disproportionate to the population of black women, which only represents 13% of America's female population.
Many Planned Parenthood locations were strategically placed while the abortion giant was under the leadership of its eugenicist founder Margaret Sanger. She believed abortion was a tool whites could use to slow the growth of the black population and was known to have relationships with KKK officials, but still had a major Planned Parenthood clinic named after her in New York City up until July of this year.
National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children Event
Trump Campaign Adds "Unborn Life" to Official List of Second Term Priorities
photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
On August 23, the Trump campaign released a 50-point list of priorities the president would have if he were to win a second term in office as the president of the United States. To the surprise of many pro-life activists, this original list did not include anything about abortion or taking action to save the lives of the unborn.
TRUMP AGENDA: Trump Campaign releases set of core priorities and goals for president’s potential second term.
— Mark Cavitt (@MarkCavitt) August 24, 2020
Campaign says Trump will further discuss these plans during his acceptance speech at RNC Convention on Thursday and over coming weeks while on the campaign trail. pic.twitter.com/aGh4ax05m8
The new priorities added over the weekend are: “Continue nominating constitutionalist Supreme Court and lower court judges,” “Protect unborn life through every means available,” “Defend the freedoms of religious believers and organizations,” and “Support the exercise of Second Amendment rights.”
September 1, 2020
Nancy Pelosi Says Federal Taxes will Fund Abortion if Democrats Win the House
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
The Hyde Amendment represents 44 years of bipartisan precedent on federal spending. After being passed in 1976 and named after Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde, the Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates that the policy results in 60,000 fewer abortions each year.
Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have similarly voiced their support of ending the precedent of the Hyde Amendment, while President Trump has been vocal in his support.
According to CNA, several House Democrats, including Illinois congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, have attempted to undo Hyde's legacy by repealing or undercutting the policy within the past two years.
Surgeon Nun Speaks at RNC: The Largest Marginalized Group in the World is the Unborn
“As a physician, I can say without hesitation: Life begins at conception,” she said. “While what I have to say may be difficult for some to hear, I am saying it because I’m not just pro-life, I’m pro-eternal life. I want all of us to end up in heaven together someday.”
Later in Byrne's speech, she decried the marginalized status modern culture has thrust upon unborn children:
“...we tend to think of the marginalized as living beyond our borders, the truth is the largest marginalized group in the world can be found here in the United States,” she said. “They are the unborn.”
She argued that by fighting the politically-correct pro-abortion culture of today, pro-life advocates would be living like Jesus, who fought against the politically correct Jewish leaders throughout the Bible.
“As followers of Christ, we are called to stand up for life against the politically correct or fashionable of today,” said Byrne. “We must fight against a legislative agenda that supports and even celebrates destroying life in the womb.”
August 31, 2020
Sept. Court Date Set for Lawsuit Challenging “Missouri Stands For the Unborn Act”
HB 126 was signed into law by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on May 24, 2019. The law includes numerous pro-life measures: a parental notification rule for when a child attempts to obtain an abortion; bans against discriminatory abortions based on race, sex, or Down syndrome diagnosis; and a "trigger-clause" designed to outlaw all abortion in the state immediately if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned by the Supreme Court. The law also includes tiered bans of abortion at 14, 18, and 20 weeks gestation. To overturn those aspects of the law, a judge would need to argue that banning abortion at all three of those stages violates Roe v. Wade.
Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Howard Sachs enjoined the ban against aborting children purely because of a Down syndrome diagnosis, as well as the bans against abortion at 14, 18, and 20 weeks gestation. The state appealed Judge Sachs's ruling to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, but the hearing was heavily delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Justice John Roberts's recent concurring opinion in June Medical LLC v. Russo may have an effect on this case, but those effects are currently subject to speculation.
Planned Parenthood Adds “Abortion Patient Navigator” Staff Position
Photo credit: American Life League / Flickr |
According to Planned Parenthood, these staffers serve to “guide the patient through the abortion care system” to overcome “obstacles” to abortion. The duties of patient navigators can include pro-abortion counseling, helping minors find attorneys who will help them get around parental consent laws, and helping clients register to vote (presumably for pro-abortion candidates).
A job listing for an Abortion Navigation Program Manager for Planned Parenthood in Aurora, Illinois says that “the ultimate goal of the AB Navigation Program Manager is to relieve as much of the logistical and practical burdens from the patient as possible, such that the path to obtaining high-quality, patient-centered abortion care is as clear and smooth as possible.”
August 28, 2020
U.S. Ambassador Andrew Bremberg Criticizes UN Abortion Advocacy
The letter, labeled as the official U.S. response to the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls, called the group's remarks, “a perversion of the human rights system and the founding principles of the United Nations.”
The letter accuses the United Nations of ignoring China's policies of forced abortion, forced sterilization, and forced birth control.
“These are actual human rights abuses, implicating millions of women and girls and their health, on an industrial scale, targeting a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority,” the letter reads.
The letter further calls the UN group “self-appointed guardians” who undermine the human rights of others by treating their policy preferences as if they were rights.
“If you truly are concerned about the integrity of the United Nations human rights system,” the letter concludes, “we urge you to reconsider the approach that has led you and your colleagues to this sad point, so far from the noble purpose for which this institution was founded 75 years ago.”
Texas Asks Full 5th Circuit to End Injunction Against its Dismemberment Abortion Ban
After a legal battle that has lasted for three years so far, the state of Texas has called on the full 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to allow Texas to hear the case and allow the state to enforce its dismemberment abortion ban.
Last week, a three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit declined Texas's petition to allow the state to enforce the law while the court prepared its ruling. In response, Texas officials called for a rehearing "en banc," which would mean the full 17-judge panel would make a decision on the state's request to enforce its law.
Below is an excerpt from the Texas petition (internal citiations omitted for clarity):
"In November 2017, the district court below enjoined the enforcement of an important Texas abortion regulation. Texas filed a notice of appeal the same day. This appeal has been pending ever since. Though the Panel assigned to this case heard oral argument almost two years ago, it has not yet issued its decision, and it has denied Texas’s motion to stay the injunction below pending resolution of this appeal. Whether a State may enforce a duly enacted law is a question of exceptional importance. Furthermore, the Panel’s order creates an acknowledged circuit split with the Eighth Circuit’s decision in Hopkins v. Jegley. Therefore, Texas now asks the en banc Court to stay the district court’s injunction and allow Texas to enforce its law immediately."
Hopkins v. Jegley is a recent case in which several Arkansas pro-life laws were upheld, including the state's own dismemberment abortion ban.
In dismemberment abortions, often referred to by the abortion industry as "dilation and evacuation abortions," abortionists stretch a pregnant mother's cervix open by placing sterilized and absorbent seaweed called laminaria into the cervix. After it has been stretched for 24-48 hours, an abortionist will use this larger opening to reach into the mother's womb with grasping tools. These tools allow the abortionist to tear an unborn child's limbs from its body until all the pieces of the child are removed from the womb.
Dismemberment abortion is a brutal violation of human rights, but it's also a common abortion method. Unborn children that have grown into the second trimester of pregnancy are too large for other abortion methods to succeed.
August 27, 2020
Chicago Abortion Clinic Has Two Medical Emergencies within Ten Days
Photo credit:
Operation Rescue |
On July 8, 2020, an employee working for the clinic called 911 to ask for an ambulance to pick up a post-abortion woman with heavy vaginal bleeding. The strangely-cheerful employee said that the patient only needed to be hospitalized “for observation,” but excessive bleeding caused by abortion procedures can be dangerous if it isn't dealt with quickly.
“This was a serious, potentially life-threatening medical emergency that was downplayed by the caller as simply a jovial request for transport for observation,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “Thankfully, the 911 dispatcher realized it was more serious than that and got help there as quickly as possible. This shows how abortion facilities try very hard to conceal the true dangers of abortion.”
Operation Rescue also received a report from pro-life bystanders that a second ambulance left the clinic with its sirens running in a separate incident just ten days later. Operation Rescue was unable to find 911 records, however, indicating that a private ambulance may have been called to avoid creating public records of another medical emergency at the clinic.
According to Operation Rescue, nine women have required emergency medical transportation from Family Planning Associates Medical Group in the past two years.
Justice Department Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate FDA Abortion Pill Safeguards
photo credit: Ken Chan / Flickr |
On July 13, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang placed a preliminary injunction against the FDA's Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) being applied to mifepristone during the COVID-19 pandemic. The REMS safeguards normally prevent women from being able to obtain abortion pills unless they visit a medical professional in-person. Chuang, however, ruled that the risk involved with seeing a medical professional during the pandemic puts an "undue burden" on women seeking an abortion.
The Justice Department wrote in its petition to the Supreme Court,
“Given that the surgical methods of abortion remain widely available, the enforcement of longstanding safety requirements for a medication abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy does not constitute a substantial obstacle to abortion access, even if the COVID-19 pandemic has made obtaining any method of abortion in person somewhat riskier.”
The petition further argues that the district court did not have the power to make such a sweeping injunction:
“This Court has made clear that judges are not to second-guess how officials address public-health concerns in areas of uncertainty, yet the district court dismissed the FDA’s expert judgment in favor of its own view that the safety requirements are medically unnecessary. And setting the merits aside, the scope of the injunction extends well beyond the district court’s remedial authority under Article III and basic equitable principles.”
August 26, 2020
Delaware Man Arrested for Threatening Pro-Life Demonstrators with Gun
photo credit: Max Kleinen / Unsplash |
31-year-old Jerome Aniska was arguing with pro-life advocates on a public sidewalk outside the Dover, Delaware Planned Parenthood facility when witnesses say he pulled out a handgun and threatened the group. Afterward, he returned to his vehicle. When the police arrived they found the handgun and an empty holster in the vehicle.
Aniska was charged with aggravated menacing, terroristic threatening, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was released on a $26,000 bond.