March 17, 2021

Autopsy Report Shows Uterus Perforation During Abortion Caused Alabama Woman's Death

May 7, 2020 image showing April Lowery being helped to her car
from West Alabama Women's Center shortly before her death
photo credit: Operation Rescue
A recently-released autopsy report shows how 29-year-old April Lowery died after a botched abortion in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

On May 7, 2020, Lowery was helped out of West Alabama Women's Center to a private vehicle, which then transported her to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. There, she was pronounced dead.

CEC for Life obtained the autopsy report on behalf of a coalition of pro-life groups that have been fighting for its release over the past eight months.

That autopsy report reads:

"There is a perforation of the left portion of the cervix, below the internal cervical os.  The perforation extends into the broad ligament with maceration of the lower uterine segment and vasculature of the broad ligament. This is associated with massive hemoperitoneum (approximately 1-1/2 liters). The uterus contains an intact fetus."

This means that during the abortion procedure, the metal instruments used by the abortionist tore a hole in Lowery's womb, resulting in severe damage to blood vessels. This led to approximately 51 ounces of internal bleeding, which caused Lowery's death.

Abortion does not only kill unborn children. It poses serious health risks to women as well. It preys upon women in difficult emotional and financial situations, and it can result in trauma or even death. Lowery's autopsy also showed scars on her wrist, which suggested a past suicide attempt.

To read more details about the abortion clinic and the circumstances that lead to Lowery's death, click here to read Operation Rescue's article.

ACLU and Abortion Businesses Challenge Ohio "Unborn Child Dignity Act" in Court

The ACLU is partnering with abortionists to sue the state of Ohio over a law that would require abortionists to bury or cremate the bodies of unborn children, rather than treat them as medical waste.

At the end of 2020, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law the Unborn Child Dignity Act. This law, which is scheduled to go into effect on April 6, would require abortion businesses to give women the ability to choose whether their child is cremated or buried after abortion. If the mother does not decide, then the abortion businesses must choose. Abortion businesses that don't follow these rules would be guilty of first-degree misdemeanors.

The pro-abortion litigants call the law "frivolous and medically unnecessary," but the actions of abortion businesses don't back up this claim. In 2015, an investigation by then-Attorney General Mike DeWine found that three Planned Parenthood facilities disposed of the bodies of aborted babies by dumping them in landfills.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Alison Hatheway denied the abortion clinics' request for a temporary restraining order against the law since it doesn't go into effect until next month. More arguments will be heard before the law is scheduled to take effect.

Click here to read more.

March 16, 2021

19 State AGs File Brief in Support of Trump's Protect Life Rule

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost
On March 8, nineteen state attorneys general filed a brief with the Supreme Court in defense of the Trump administration's Protect Life Rule.

The Supreme Court announced last month that it will take up a case to resolve conflicting appeals court rulings over the constitutionality of the Protect Life Rule. That rule prevented Title X grants from funding or subsidizing abortions.

While the Biden administration has voiced that it plans to get rid of Trump's pro-life regulations, this case is still important. If the pro-abortion states suing the federal government win, then future pro-life administrations may have a much harder time enacting similar regulations.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who signed the brief, said, “Using Title X dollars to fund or promote abortion is against the law, and I’m intervening to stop it, no matter what the president’s personal agenda may be.”

In addition to Yost from Ohio, attorneys general for Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia also signed the brief.

Click here to read more.

March 15, 2021

Poll Results Show 72% of Illinoisans Favor Parental Notice of Abortion Law

At a virtual press conference this morning, the grassroots coalition Parents for the Protection of Girls unveiled public opinion poll results showing that 72% of Illinois voters believe that a parent or guardian should be notified if a minor girl is seeking an abortion.

“Nearly three-quarters of the people in the state of Illinois are opposed to repealing our parental notice law,” said Mary FioRito, who served as moderator of the press conference.

The poll was conducted by The Tarrance Group, covering 600 Illinois registered voters during March 7-10, 2021. The margin of error is +/- 4.1%. (See attached summary results.)

FioRito is an attorney and mother of three teenage girls, and a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame.

A current effort to repeal Illinois’ parental notice of abortion law is afoot in the Illinois Legislature, with identical pieces of legislation in House Bill 1797 and Senate Bill 2190. Action on either bill is expected during the spring session.

Jon Jones, the father of a teenage girl who also serves as a worship pastor at Christian Life Center, located in the Chicago suburbs of Tinley Park and Blue Island, spoke about the current law as supporting all families.

“I understand that not every child comes from a home like ours,” Jones said. “And the needs of those children must be met – as they are in this law with the provided exemptions to notification – but it is also important to weigh the needs of loving families and ensure the government not do more to denigrate them.”

Laura Lederer, an attorney who has studied human trafficking for more than 20 years and has co-authored the preeminent study on the connection between human trafficking, health care providers, and abortion, “The Health Consequences of Sex Trafficking and Their Implications for Identifying Victims in Healthcare Facilities,” outlined how parental notice can raise a red flag on potential trafficking situations when victims seek health care.

“Illinois’ current law on parental notice of abortion offers a key opportunity to recognize and free a trafficking victim from a lifetime of slavery,” Lederer said.

Dr. Brook Bello, a human trafficking survivor who holds a doctorate in pastoral clinical counseling and is the founder of the anti-trafficking organization More Too Life, recounted her grim experience of being trafficked as a minor. She stressed that parental notice laws can rescue young girls trapped in a trafficking situation.

“If my mother had had to be notified, she might have been able to find me,” Bello said.

Dr. Jacque Pfeifer, a doctoral-level psychologist with 28 years of experience in the mental health field, spoke of brain development and how a teenager’s brain is not fully formed until they hit their mid-20s, leading to impulsive decisions.

“The majority of teens are not prepared to make long-term decisions due to their lack of mental capacity to reflect, synthesize, integrate, and project thinking into the future,” Pfeifer said. “Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging research shows that adolescents use the rear part of the metallization network called the temporal sulcus in contrast to adults who use the prefrontal cortex.”

Free, unlimited access to the virtual press conference may be accessed at the following link for 90 days.

https://livestream.com/blueroomstream/events/9572544

More information on Parents for the Protection of Girls: www.saveparentalnotification.com

House Committee Hearing for Parental Notification Repeal Set for Tuesday at 3:00 PM


This afternoon, the House Human Services Committee scheduled a hearing for HB 1797. It will be heard in that committee tomorrow, March 16, at 3:00 pm.

If passed into law, this bill would repeal the Parental Notification of Abortion Act.

We would ask that you please contact your legislator if they are on this committee, and file a witness slip in opposition to this pro-abortion legislation.

The Parental Notification of Abortion Act requires abortionists to notify a parent or guardian of a minor who plans to have an abortion. Not only does this help to involve parents in this life-changing decision, but it also helps to expose crimes of rape and abuse. In many situations, a minor could be pressured to hide the circumstances of her pregnancy otherwise.

The law is already lenient. A minor's parents are only notified. The minor is not required to obtain consent from her parents to follow-through on her intent to have an abortion. Current law further allows minors to avoid the parental notification requirement altogether if she makes her case to a judge. The intent behind this exception is that some girls fear they would be abused by their parents if they are notified about their intent to have abortions. However, this exception only enables abusive parents rather than helping their victims. After having an abortion, these girls will go right back home to the parents whom they fear.

By exposing abuse and allowing parents to have conversations with their daughters about abortion and the tough situations they are facing (possibly involving rape that would otherwise simply be covered up) the Parental Notification of Abortion Act does a great service.

Click here to file a witness slip opposing HB 1793.

If your legislator is on the House Human Services Committee, please contact them and tell them to oppose the repeal of the Parental Notification of Abortion Act. Click here to see the list of legislators on the committee. You can click on their names to see contact information.

US Congress to Vote on Retroactively Changing Ratification Deadline of 1972 Equal Rights Amendment


The US House of Representatives will take up a measure this week in an attempt to force the failed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into the Constitution decades after its ratification deadline passed.

We need you to contact your federal senators and representatives and tell them to oppose this pro-abortion measure. If ratified, the ERA could require taxpayer funding of abortion and provide legal justification to strike down pro-life legislation across the country.

The National Organization for Women says the ERA "could negate hundreds" of pro-life laws. NARAL says "the ERA would reinforce the constitutional right to abortion...[it] would require judges to strike down anti-abortion laws..." Many other pro-abortion organizations have made similar statements, which you can read here.

The ERA, which was proposed in 1972, had a seven-year ratification deadline that expired 42 years ago. Despite this, pro-abortion politicians in Congress will take up House Joint Resolution 17 this week. This resolution claims to retroactively remove the deadline from the dead amendment, thereby adding it to the constitution.

The Senate companion measure is Senate Joint Resolution 1. It could be taken up as soon as the week of March 22. If the measure passes the House of Representatives, only a filibuster by pro-life politicians could stop it. Pro-abortion senators would need a 60-vote majority to end a filibuster.

Click here to see the list of US congress members from Illinois. You can click on their names to find their contact information. Please call your legislators and tell them to oppose these ERA revival measures.

March 12, 2021

More Illinois Anti-Life Bills in Committee Next Week

photo credit: Matt Turner / Flickr
HB 1797 (repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion Act) and the five pro-life bills in the House Human Services Committee are not the only bills Illinois pro-life advocates need to be following. 

The five pro-life bills are set to be discussed in the House Human Services Committee on Tuesday, March 16 at 3:00 pm. If you are interested in those bills or would like to file witness slips in support of them, click here.

HB 1797 does not yet have a hearing date set, but Illinoisans can still contact those same legislators on the House Human Services Committee to let them know how important it is that the parental notification law is not repealed. 


The Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting on Tuesday, March 16 at 3:00 pm to discuss SB 109. This bill would amend the Health Care Surrogate Act to no longer require a witness to sign the Practitioner Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form. The POLST form is used when a patient is deciding what kinds of treatments they would approve of when the patient is unable to make decisions. It would also allow a national POLST form to be used instead of the Illinois POLST form. That form similarly does not require a signature from a witness.



Finally, SB 647 and HB 1736, otherwise known as the Reach Act, have been assigned to the Senate Executive Committee and the House Elementary & Secondary Education: School Curriculum & Policies Committee. A hearing date for this legislation in the Senate Executive Committee has not been set, but the House committee is scheduled to have a hearing on this bill on Wednesday, March 17 at 8:30 am. This bill would mandate that public schools teach comprehensive sex education in grades k-12 that neither stigmatizes abortion nor discourages sexual activity at a young age.




Judge Rules Texas can Remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid

photo credit: Bill Dickinson / Flickr
On Wednesday, a judge ruled that Texas will finally be allowed to stop giving Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood.

Texas lawmakers started their attempt to remove Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood back in 2015, but they faced legal challenges for years before this week's victory.

The most recent challenge by Planned Parenthood alleged that Texas officials did not properly give Planned Parenthood advanced notice that they would no longer be receiving Medicaid funds. While the state did give Planned Parenthood advanced notice back in 2016, they claimed that Texas was required to start that process over after a court case resolved. Judge Lora Livingston, while empathetic to the abortion corporation, ruled that this was not the case. Livingston agreed with Texas officials when she said that Planned Parenthood is “now not able to revive their administrative remedies as the deadline to seek that relief has long since passed. The merits of their claims must be determined by the federal courts.”

Texas was motivated to stop giving Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood after undercover Center for Medical Progress videos exposed the corporation's selling of body parts harvested from aborted infants.

Click here to read more.

March 11, 2021

House Passes $1.9 Trillion Spending Bill Funding Abortion

photo credit: Giorgio Trovato / Unsplash
When the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to pass H.R. 1319, otherwise known as the American Rescue Plan Act, it did so without any language banning or restricting the use of those funds to pay for abortions.

The final vote in the House was 220-211. Every Republican representative voted against the legislation, but only one Democrat (Rep. Jared Golden of Maine) stood with them. Every other Democrat voted in favor of the bill. 

National Right to Life pointed out several parts of the bill that allocate federal tax dollars for purposes that would include abortion:

  • $219 billion to state, and $130 billion to local, governments “to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from” COVID-19. Because Hyde Amendment language was not used, governments can use these funds to pay for abortions in the name of “responding to or mitigating the public health emergency.”
  • $204 million for State Department expenses to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus domestically or internationally, which shall include maintaining Department of State operations.” The Helms Amendment was not applied to this spending, so these funds can be spent on abortion.
  • $500 million is appropriated for the foreign humanitarian response, again “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” The Helms Amendment wasn't applied to this spending either.

The Family Research Council went on to break down $450 billion in funds that can be used to pay for or subsidize abortions both in the US and overseas. Click here to read their full breakdown.

“Abortion is not health care and forcing taxpayers to prop up the abortion industry during a pandemic does not help the millions of Americans deeply impacted by COVID,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “Pro-abortion Democrats are more interested in funding Planned Parenthood and abortion providers than in providing real solutions for the American people.

Tobias continued, “The vast majority of Americans do not want their tax dollars to pay for abortions, yet the COVID relief reconciliation bill passed by House Democrats betrays their constituents and provides for taxpayer funding of abortion.”

Click here to read more.

Arkansas Gov. Signs Abortion Ban into Law

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) Tuesday signed a bill that would make abortion illegal in Arkansas for any reason except to save the mother's life.

Arkansas politicians understand that the bill will not hold up to the judicial precedent of Roe v. Wade, but they hope to use this law as a means to challenge that precedent. 

Gov. Hutchinson said the law “is in contradiction of binding precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is the intent of the legislation to set the stage for the Supreme Court overturning current case law.”

The law is written to take effect 90 days after the current session of the Arkansas legislature ends. By that time, pro-abortion legal teams will have filed their legal challenges. The Arkansas chapter of the ACLU has already promised that it “will be seeing the state of Arkansas in court again.”

Click here to read more.

March 10, 2021

Illinois Abortionist with History of Harming Patients Argues for Repeal of Parental Notification

Family Planning Associates abortion clinic in Chicago
photo credit: Operation Rescue
Last month, Chicago abortionist Dr. Allison Cowett wrote an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times to argue for the repeal of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. The article, written by an abortionist whose practice has caused the deaths of at least four young women, causes the notification law "dangerous." In truth, repealing the law and the practice of abortion, in general, is dangerous.

Dr. Cowett is the medical director of Family Planning Associates (FPA). The FPA-owned Albany Medical Surgical Center in Chicago is a prime example of the dangers of abortion. The facility was closed after it repeatedly failed safety inspections and caused the deaths of 13-year-old Deanna Bell, 22-year-old Maria Rodriquez, 26-year-old Maria Leho, and 16-year-old Nakia Jorden. Before then, Illinois failed to inspect the facility for 18 consecutive years. Another Chicago FPA facility hospitalized a patient as recently as New Year's Eve.

Cowett's personal record is not much better. 10 abortion patients have filed medical malpractice claims against her, and one of her patients was sent to the hospital in critical condition last April.

In her op-ed arguing for the repeal of Illinois' parental notification law, Dr. Cowett wrote,

"Most of the young women in my practice involve a parent or trusted adult in their abortion decision. And the younger the teen, the more likely she is to involve an adult. These facts are true in my office and throughout Illinois. Those who do not involve an adult do so with good reason — often because they are survivors of abuse or neglect. Some fear for their safety or the loss of shelter and food if their parents discover their pregnancy or their abortion decision. Others believe they will be forced to continue a pregnancy they did not plan and do not want."

Dr. Cowett's argument implies that minors living in abusive households should stay there rather than seek help, and it fails to inform readers that Illinois only requires parents to be informed of their daughter's decision. Parental consent is not required.

The Parental Notice of Abortion Act is good not only because it allows parents to be involved in the life-ending decision of abortion, but also because it helps to expose rape and abuse when it causes teenage pregnancies. Even minors who go through the judicial bypass system and speak with a judge so that they can avoid parental notification bring these details to light. Girls who are pressured and afraid might simply have an abortion rather than let anybody know what has happened to them.

Click here to read more.

March 9, 2021

March 9 Parental Notification Repeal Update

photo credit: Randy von Liski / Flickr

HB1797, which would repeal Illinois' Parental Notification of Abortion Act, was assigned to the House Human Services Committee on Tuesday, March 9.

Below is the list of Representatives on that committee, which can also be viewed on the Illinois General Assembly website here. If your representative is on the committee, please call them and tell them to oppose the repeal of the Parental Notification of Abortion Act when it is heard in the committee.

We will update you on this website and using our email list when the bill is scheduled for a hearing. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter using the sidebar on the right if you would like to receive those updates.

Illinois House of Representatives Human Services Committee Members


Chairperson:                       Anna Moeller (D) 43rd District

Vice-Chairperson:                Lindsey LaPointe (D) 19th District

Republican Spokesperson:    Norine K. Hammond (R) 93rd District

Member:                             Jaime M. Andrade, Jr. (D) 40th District

Member:                             Kelly M. Cassidy (D) 14th District

Member:                             Lakesia Collins (D) 9th District

Member:                             Tom Demmer (R) 90th District

Member:                             Mary E. Flowers (D) 31st District

Member:                             Robyn Gabel (D) 18th District

Member:                             Amy Grant (R) 42nd District

Member:                             Jackie Haas (R) 79th District

Member:                             Charles Meier (R) 108th District

Member:                             Bob Morgan (D) 58th District

Member:                             Suzanne Ness (D) 66th District

Member:                             Tom Weber (R) 64th District

5 Pro-Life Bills Introduced in IL House Human Services Committee


Along with the dangerous HB1797, which would repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, five pro-life bills are currently sitting in the Illinois House of Representatives Human Services Committee. 

HB 683


The Ultrasound Opportunity Act (HB 683), sponsored by Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale), would require abortionists to give women seeking abortions the opportunity to view a live ultrasound of their unborn babies beforehand.


HB 338


The Born Alive Infant Protection Act (HB 338), is sponsored by Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield). It declares that a child born alive as the result of a failed abortion attempt be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law.


HB 783


HB 783, sponsored by Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg), would repeal legislation requiring taxpayer funding of abortion.


HB 791


HB 791, also sponsored by Patrick Windhorst, would amend the 2019 Reproductive Health Act to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks except in the case of a medical emergency.


HB 827


The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act (HB 827), sponsored by Adam Niemerg (R-Teutopolis) would hold abortionists criminally guilty of a Class 4 felony if they complete a partial-birth abortion that isn't medically necessary. It would also allow grandparents to sue abortionists for completing a partial-birth abortion on their daughter if she is a minor, and the grandparents did not consent to the abortion. Pregnant mothers would never be held criminally responsible for partial-birth abortions under this act.

Senate Approves $1.9 Trillion Stimulus without Hyde Protections. House to Reconcile Bill Differences.

photo credit: John Brighenti / Flickr
After the US Senate voted on Saturday to pass a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill without the protection of Hyde Amendment language, the House could vote to reconcile the differences with their own bill as soon as Tuesday, March 9.

The Senate voted 50-49 in favor of the stimulus, titled the American Rescue Plan of 2021. Among many other things, the bill includes funding for vaccine distribution and stimulus checks. The bill does not include any language that would prevent taxpayer funds from being used to fund or subsidize abortions, however. Relief bills in 2020 did include Hyde language.

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford introduced a motion to add Hyde language, but it failed to meet the 60 votes necessary.

Click here to read more.

Federal Judge Extends Injunctions Against Tennessee Pro-Life Law

A federal judge has chosen to extend an injunction preventing the state of Tennessee from enforcing a pro-life law.

Last July, Tennessee passed a law that banned abortion under several circumstances. If the unborn child's heartbeat is detectable; or the reasoning for the abortion discriminates against the child's sex, race, or prenatal diagnosis, that abortion would be banned under HB2263. It included other restrictions based on the gestational age of unborn children and required abortionists to notify women about abortion pill reversal.

U.S. District Judge William Campbell issued a temporary restraining order against the heartbeat and gestational age restrictions in July. He followed that up by issuing another temporary restraining order against the abortion pill reversal part of the law in September. He attempted to block the measure outlawing discriminatory abortions as well, but the Sixth Circuit ruled that the portion of the law could go into effect.

Judge Campbell's order extends his injunctions against the three provisions that he blocked already.

Stacy Dunn, president of Tennessee Right to Life, criticized the judge's ruling: “The work that pro-life Tennesseans and their duly elected officials have done to protect women and their unborn children is under attack by the abortion industry. Judge Campbell’s decision plays right into the hands of those who want to keep women in the dark about their unborn children and all the options available to them.”

Click here to read more.

March 8, 2021

Federal Judge Rules ERA Ratification Deadline Still Applies

Equal Rights Amendment Demonstration
Credit: Cornell University / Flickr
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled last Friday that votes made by state legislators in recent years cannot legally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). She ruled that the March 22, 1979 deadline set by Congress when the amendment was originally sent to the states remains valid today.

Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia had sued the Archivist of the United States in federal district court for refusing to certify the ERA as part of the Constitution. Nevada in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020 each voted to ratify the expired amendment. Contreras's ruling agreed with the defendant states that the deadline set in the Proposing Clause of the ERA resolution is legally binding.

Contreras did not rule on whether states have the right to rescind ratification before a deadline, or if Congress has the right to retroactively remove the deadline with new legislation.

The latter is exactly with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) intends to do. He announced on March 2 that the House will vote on a measure claiming to remove the expired ERA deadline. He said that the measure should see a vote during the week of March 15.

Douglas D. Johnson, senior policy advisor for National Right to Life and director of its ERA Project, said, “Democratic congressional leaders and attorneys general are part of a political-pressure campaign to intimidate the federal courts into permitting them to air-drop the long-expired ERA into the Constitution. Today, a federal judge appointed by President Obama ignored the political pressures and unflinchingly enforced the Constitution.”

Johnson continued: “The upcoming votes in Congress are another chapter in the political-pressure campaign directed at the courts. The Constitution does not empower Congress to time travel to 1972 to resuscitate a long-dead constitutional amendment.”

The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after Virginia voted to "ratify" the ERA, said that she believes the amendment should have a "new beginning. I'd like it to start over." She agreed that the deadline had passed decades ago, and there are many legal issues with a late ratification. Ginsburg noted, “how can you disregard states that said, ‘We’ve changed our minds’?” Five states have done so.

According to National Right to Life, the 1972 ERA as written could be interpreted to end state and federal laws restricting abortion in any way. Additionally, it could be construed to require state and federal programs to fund abortion.

National Right to Life released a fact sheet showing the connections between the 1972 ERA and abortion. To view or download it, click here.

March 5, 2021

Live Baby Rescued after Abandonment in Boston Trash Can

A Boston woman who heard the cry of a baby saved him by informing EMTs that were happened to be nearby.

Both the mother and the baby have since been found according to CBS, and both are being treated at a local hospital. Police are investigating the circumstances and may press charges against the mother.

Silvana Sanchez, who found the child in the trash can, told WBZ-TV, “To be honest, I was just really nervous so I didn’t want to look inside of it and be the one to find it and do all the stuff.” She continued, “You probably don’t even believe me, but it was kind of by luck that EMTs were there and he came over. They ran with the baby to the truck and took him straight to the hospital.”

Both Massachusetts and Illinois have safe haven laws that allow mothers to give their newborn children anonymously. These children can continue to live full lives, even if the mother doesn't believe they can provide for them.

In Illinois, newborns up to 30 days old can be left at a staffed police station, fire station, hospital, or emergency care facility. From there, the baby will be given medical care and can be adopted by a loving family.

Click here to read more.

New Mexico Gov. Legalizes Abortion-on-Demand

NM Gov. Lujan Grisham (D)
Last Friday, New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham (D) signed into law a bill legalizing abortion-on-demand and taking conscience protections away from doctors.

The bill repealed a 1969 law that outright banned the practice of abortion in New Mexico. After Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, however, the law became unenforceable.

Pro-life legislators in New Mexico voiced concerns, not only that this bill endorses the practice of killing unborn children, but also that physicians' consciences won't be adequately protected by the remaining legal code.

The Republican Party of New Mexico gave the following statement:

“This is a sad day for New Mexico. When Gov. Lujan Grisham penned her name to Senate Bill 10, she signed a death warrant. She, along with dozens of New Mexico Democratic lawmakers, approved the order to end the lives of thousands of unborn children. The new law is an immoral, dangerous one–a law that allows late-term abortion and offers no protections for girls, women or health professionals. It permits the murder of the unborn, endangers the health and lives of women and eliminates any conscience provision to allow a doctor to opt out if he or she opposes the procedure on moral, ethical or religious grounds.”

 Click here to read more.

Pro-abortion Legislators Call on Biden to End Amendments Blocking Abortion Spending

photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
Pro-abortion politicians on Tuesday sent a letter to President Biden to argue for the removal of pro-life protections from the federal budget.

The letter (which was co-signed by IL Sen. Tammy Duckworth and IL Rep. Janice Schakowsky) requests that Biden "eliminate the Hyde Amendment, the Weldon Amendment, the Helms Amendment, and other similar abortion coverage restrictions from your Fiscal Year 2022 budget."

The Hyde Amendment restricts the use of taxpayer funds for elective abortions in the U.S., while the Helms Amendment does the same for funds that are spent abroad. The Weldon Amendment restricts federal funding to states that discriminate against pro-life health care entities.

The Hyde and Helms amendments have been applied to Congressional spending bills since the 1970s, but recently pro-abortion lawmakers have taken a hard stance against them.

Pro-life lawmakers urging Congressional leadership not to end the amendments. Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN.) led a group of pro-life congressmen in sending another letter to House and Senate leadership.

That letter read:

“Each year since 1976, Congress has included Hyde protections in annually enacted appropriations. No president in American history has ever vetoed an appropriations bill due to its inclusion of the Hyde Amendment. Moreover, President Obama maintained the Hyde Amendment in each of his budget proposals. As recent as June 2019, former Vice President Joe Biden supported the Hyde Amendment and acknowledged that it works harmoniously with federal funding for women’s healthcare.”

It goes on to point out that the majority of Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to fund elective abortions. “Years of public polling indicate that repealing the Hyde Amendment is opposed by most of the American public. Congressional Democrats now seek to further erode public trust in government by ignoring mainstream public opinion in favor of placating the radical Left.”

The letter supporting the pro-life amendments was co-signed by IL Representatives Mike Bost, Darin LaHood, Rodney Davis, and Mary Miller.

Click here to read more.

March 4, 2021

Senate Finance Committee Votes to Advance HHS Secretary Nomination of Xavier Becerra

California Attorney General and HHS Secretary Nominee Xavier Becerra
photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee moved on Wednesday to advance the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The committee's vote was evenly split 14-14 along party lines. As a result, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer broke the tie to bring Becerra's nomination before the full Senate for a vote.

“Xavier Becerra has no health care experience but, if confirmed, would lead the Department of Health and Human Services during a pandemic,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “While Mr. Becerra lacks health care experience, he makes up for it with his proven track record of extreme abortion advocacy and hostility to pro-lifers.”

Becerra is known for going after pro-life Californians using his power as Attorney General.

  • He targeted pro-life pregnancy resource centers and forced them to advertise abortion under the Reproductive FACT Act (which has since been struck down).
  • He sued the federal government when an HHS rule granted the Little Sisters of the Poor a religious exemption from a contraception coverage mandate
  • After the Center for Medical Progress exposed Planned Parenthood for harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted babies, Becerra prosecuted the pro-life undercover journalists for their work.

“Mr. Becerra’s nomination by this administration is a favor to the abortion industry,” Tobias said. It is difficult to conclude otherwise when Mr. Becerra brings no public health experience to the position. Putting him at the head of the nation’s health care agency is a prescription for disaster.”

Click here to read more.