photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
November 18, 2021
Biden Pauses Employer Vaccine Mandate After Court Order
November 17, 2021
Baby Breaks Record as Most Premature Baby to Survive Birth
Curtis Zy-Keith Means on the day he was born |
Michelle Butler, who was carrying twins, unexpectedly went into premature labor one day. She was rushed into emergency surgery at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama on July 4. When they were born, Curtis and his sister C'Asya had only been developing in their mother's womb for 21 weeks and one day. That is one day fewer than the youngest surviving preemie.
Unfortunately, Curtis's sister did not survive. However, this is not for lack of effort from doctors, who attempted to provide her babies with care. In cases of extreme premature birth, doctors often don't attempt to provide potentially lifesaving care to babies. As attending physician Dr. Brian Sims told KATV, “We typically advise for compassionate care in situations of such extremely preterm births. This allows the parents to hold their babies and cherish what little time they may have together.”
Some US hospitals have simply refused to treat preemies at the request of parents, but that was not the case in this situation. When Dr. Sims told Butler that her babies would not survive, Butler asked that the hospital give her babies a chance. They did, and now Curtis has passed his first birthday.
"He started writing his own story the day he was born," Dr. Sims told KATV. "That story will be read and studied by many and, hopefully, will help improve care of premature infants around the world."
November 16, 2021
Man Charged with Manslaughter for Attacking a Nurse and Killing her Preborn Baby
Joseph Wuerz photo credit: Seminole County Sherrif's Department |
Tennessee Waiting-Period Law To Remain in Effect
November 15, 2021
Sen. Dick Durbin Complains about being Denied Communion for Abortion Support
November 12, 2021
DC Police Drop Charges Against Pro-Lifers for Chalking Sidewalk in 2020
Alaska Judge Temporarily Blocks Law Preventing Non-Doctors from Committing Abortions
November 11, 2021
Indiana Abortion Complications Reporting Law Goes into Effect
photo credit: J. Stephen Conn / Flickr |
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the "Complications Statute" on August 2, thereby allowing the law to go into effect three years after it passed in 2018. The law requires doctors to report complications arising from abortions. Doctors who fail to report complications could be found guilty of a misdemeanor, spend 180 days in jail, and pay a $1,000 fine.
“This complications reporting requirement is long overdue,” said Mike Fichter, president and CEO of Indiana Right to Life. “It is extremely telling that abortion businesses fought to shield these complications from being reported. Now that these reporting requirements go into effect, any abortion business refusing to comply must be denied a license renewal according to the new licensing law passed in the 2021 Indiana legislature.”
Fichter said that Indiana Right to Life will confirm with the Indiana Department of Health that abortion businesses comply with the law.
“Full compliance with the complications reporting law must be one of the many areas subject to thorough state inspections of every licensed abortion business,” said Fichter. “Complications reporting is the law, not a suggestion.”
Biden Admin's "National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality" to Promote Abortion
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
November 10, 2021
Pritzker Signs Bill Stripping Conscience Rights from Illinoisans
November 9, 2021
US Gives $5 Million for UN to Distribute Abortion Supplies Worldwide
By using UNFPA Supplies as a third party to distribute abortion-inducing items, the Biden administration is avoiding conflict with the 1973 Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. That law prohibits the use of government funds to distribute abortion-inducing items.
No prior administration in US history has funded UNFPA Supplies. This is largely due to the organization's support for abortion, its connection with China's population-controlling policies, and the UN's desire to push pro-life countries to legalize abortion.
Among other things, the UNFPA is known to distribute portable abortion devices called manual vacuum aspirator kits, and the abortion drugs misoprostol and mifepristone.
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and MSI Reproductive Health (formerly Marie Stopes International) are two of the organizations that receive materials from UNFPA.
Federal Court Blocks Biden Vaccine Mandate for Businesses
November 8, 2021
Build Back Better Reconciliation Bill would Expand Taxpayer Funding of Abortions
Judge's Injunction Blocks Biden from Firing Employees with Pending Religious Exemptions
Many pro-life advocates have applied for religious exemptions from the Biden mandate. This is because all currently available COVID-19 vaccines were developed and/or produced using lines of stem cells harvested from aborted babies.
Bill Clinton appointed District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued the restraining order after civilian and military plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Biden vaccine mandate. “None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exception is pending,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in the order.
Her ruling continued, stating that, “active duty military plaintiffs, whose religious exception requests have been denied, will not be disciplined or separated during the pendency of their appeals.” She further noted that the Biden administration has provided “no guarantee of what will happen … if their exemption requests are denied.”
The plaintiffs' attorney Michael Yoder praised the judge's decision, saying, we are one step closer to putting the Biden administration back in its place by limiting government to its enumerated powers. It’s time citizens and courts said no to tyranny. The Constitution does not need to be rewritten, it needs to be reread.”
November 5, 2021
European Abortionist Sends Abortion Pills from India to Texas Women
Gomperts founded the organizations Women on Waves and Aid Access to distribute abortion pills in places where abortion is restricted or prohibited. According to Live Action, Gomperts has used drones to drop abortion pills in Poland and attempted to use a Dutch ship to bring abortion to Guatemala. In the latter instance, she was turned away by the Guatemalan army, which pointed out that her only purpose in the country was to violate its constitution.
Gomperts and Aid Access are now focused on distributing abortion pills in Texas by having them mailed from India.
“We have nine U.S. providers who are licensed and serving 18 states, and then, if you’re in any of the other states, then Dr. Gomperts is the provider for the other states,” Christie Pitney of Aid Access told KHOU, a Houston-based television station. “We have a unique opportunity with Dr. Gomperts being in Europe that we’re able to provide telehealth abortion to all 50 states.”
“Being outside in Europe, kind of puts her in this nice gray area where she’s still able to provide that care,” Pitney continued. “It’s essential healthcare that everyone should have access to and so we’re going to continue to provide that care.”
Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Texas Heartbeat Act Case
Neither of these cases challenges the constitutionality of a law prohibiting the abortion of children whose heartbeats are detectable. Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson is a challenge to the law's unique enforcement method. In United States v. Texas, the Supreme Court is only considering whether the Biden administration even has the legal standing the sue Texas in federal court.
Whole Women's Health and the Biden administration argued that the Texas law violates the "right" to abortion established under Roe v. Wade, while Texas Solicitor General Judd E. Stone argued that neither party had the legal standing to sue the state. He argued that Texas judges, court clerks, and other officials are not responsible for enforcing the law. He argued that because the Heartbeat Act is enforced by the individuals who file lawsuits, the state of Texas is not the appropriate defendant for these challenges.
The court is more likely to address the "right" to abortion more directly when Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization is heard next month. In that case, abortion businesses are challenging a Mississippi law banning abortion at 15 weeks gestation. Mississippi's Attorney General is framing the case as a direct challenge to the Supreme Court Precedent established in cases such as Roe v. Wade.
November 4, 2021
District Court Issues Restraining Order Against Illinois Hospital Firing Employees over Vaccine Mandate
Catholic Nurse Wins Lawsuit Against Illinois County that Fired her for Refusing to Support Abortion
Sandra Rojas photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom |
November 3, 2021
March for Life Announces 2022 Theme: "Equality Begins in the Womb"
The March for Life organization announced last week that the 2022 March for Life theme will be "Equality Begins in the Womb."
March for Life issued a press release on October 27 to announce the new theme. The theme emphasizes the fact that human beings can face harsh discrimination before even being born. While in the womb, they aren't guaranteed the basic right to life. March for Life hopes to rally people to fight for that basic human right.
“From our nation’s birth, our founders recognized the dignity inherent to all people, making each one of us equal in our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” wrote Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “Because of this, Americans have fought for centuries to advance equality for every person, regardless of race, sex, or disability status. It has taken centuries, but discrimination is now acknowledged as unacceptable just about everywhere in America. Everywhere, that is, except in the womb.”
7th Circuit Denies Planned Parenthood Request to Rehear Complications Reporting Law
Planned Parenthood argued that the reporting law is "unconstitutionally vague," but the court disagreed. By refusing to rehear the case before the full court, the court upheld a decision it made in August, which overturned a permanent injunction blocking the reporting law's enforcement.
The Indiana law, which was passed in 2018, lists 25 types of complications that should be reported to the state if they occur. When the 7th Circuit originally upheld the statute in August, the opinion of the three-judge panel stated, “It is understandable by persons of ordinary intelligence and not subject to arbitrary enforcement.”