Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information.
House Hate-Crimes Bill May Target Pro-Life Servicemen and Women
Senate Republicans have called a hearing Thursday to discuss proposed hate- crimes legislation. The contentious language would elevate some victims of violent crimes over others.
The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed a hate-crimes bill, and is trying to take the concept one step further.
Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings has added language that would ban the recruitment, enlistment or retention of military personnel affiliated with "hate groups." Just a month ago, the Department of Homeland Security issued a study listing pro-life advocates as potential national security threats.
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Tennessee Ends Planned Parenthood Funding
Tennessee lawmakers have decided about $1.1 million normally allocated for Planned Parenthood will now go to local health organizations.
Both houses of the Legislature overwhelmingly approved House Bill 1756, proposed by Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Brentwood, which removes a clause in existing law naming Planned Parenthood as the primary provider of family-planning services in the state.
The bill also adds language giving priority for funding to local community health centers. Planned Parenthood would be eligible for some of the money, but only after local organizations' needs are filled.
Tennessee Right to Life President Brian Harris praised legislators for their actions.
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Distribution of morning-after pill prohibited in Chile
The National Comptroller's Office of Chile, which oversees a wide range of government activities, issued a decree on June 16 prohibiting the distribution of the morning-after pill by all municipalities and by any private or public organization.
The decree states that municipalities are legally forbidden from implementing any policies or programs that imply the use or distribution under any title of the morning-after pill. It also ordered all public health care facilities to refrain from making the drug available through their services.
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Court Upholds VA Partial-Birth Abortion Ban - Judge Says Future Generations Will "Shudder"
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled Wednesday to uphold the constitutionality of Virginia's partial-birth abortion ban. The full court reversed a previous decision by a three-judge panel that determined the ban was unconstitutional.
In the opinion issued Wednesday, the 4th Circuit concluded that "little or no evidence" exists to suggest the ban would prevent other types of abortions from being performed without subjecting doctors to criminal liability.
The court wrote, "To hold the Virginia Act facially unconstitutional for all circumstances based on the possible rare circumstance presented ... is not appropriate under any standard for facial challenges. Moreover, the Virginia Act ... provides sufficient clarity as to what conduct is prohibited to enable a doctor of reasonable intelligence to avoid criminal liability under it, and therefore the Virginia Act is constitutional."
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Louisiana Passes Conscience Clause Bill for ALL Health Care Workers
The LA Healthcare Workers Conscience Act, HB-517, passed late this afternoon, LARTL is reporting. Despite efforts to dilute the inevitability of the bill by pro-abortion pols, pro-life legislators fought off the attack against rights of conscience for ALL health care workers. The bill had been amended days ago so that it only applied to public employees, but Sen. Amedee was able to strip that line from the bill today.
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Another 'Supreme Court' Abortion Case Developing
Two years after the Supreme Court last ruled on abortion restrictions, a new test case is likely on its way to the Court, perhaps reaching there by next Fall. Responding to an order by the Justices to take a new look at a Virginia abortion ban, the Fourth Circuit Court on Wednesday upheld the law. The en banc Court divided, 6-5, in sustaining the law against claims that it would criminalize the most common method of abortions performed in the second trimester.
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