Tag Archives: Category: Sanctity of Life

Thomas More Society: Autocam Corporation, the lead supplier of fuel injection parts to Bosch, Delphi, Conti, and Hitachi, has joined the growing number of businesses suing the government over religious freedom violations. The lawsuit, filed on October 8 by the Thomas More Society on behalf of the privately held manufacturer of precision automotive and health components and its owners, is a direct response to the Obamacare Health & Human Services (HHS) mandate requirement that they provide group insurance coverage of abortions, sterilization, and birth control for their employees.

Politico: Republican George Allen is well aware he needs to close the gender gap with women in order to win the Virginia Senate race.

National Review: Referencing the Department of Health and Human Services abortion-drug, contraception, sterilization mandate, the president said: “I don’t think a college student in Fairfax or Charlottesville should have to choose between text books or the preventive care that she needs. That’s why we passed this law. And I am proud of it. It was the right thing to do. And we are going to keep it.”

The Hill: A slew of film and television stars are pushing back against GOP efforts to ban abortion and stop President Obama’s birth-control mandate.

Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the Tyndale Publishing challenge to the Obamacare mandate. | MP3 audio 11:19 mins

Palm Beach Post: In the proposed amendment, they also included a single sentence — “This constitution may not be interpreted to create broader rights to an abortion than those contained in the United States Constitution” — that at least with respect to abortion would strip the right to privacy guaranteed in Florida’s constitution.

LifeNews: Today, East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) and Houston Baptist University (HBU) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, asking the court for relief from the Department of Health and Human Services’ “preventative services” mandate, which forces the Christian Universities to violate their deeply held religious beliefs or pay severe fines. “Baptists in America, by virtue of their history, are particularly sensitive to coercive government actions that infringe on religious liberty,” says Eric Rassbach, Deputy General Counsel for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed suit this morning on behalf of the two universities.

A federal court has scheduled an Oct. 16 hearing to consider whether to halt enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate against a Bible publisher. The court scheduled the hearing in response to a preliminary injunction motion that Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Tyndale House Publishers filed Monday.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review: “The law does not give any religious-freedom exemption to faith-based operations like Tyndale,” Taylor, who is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, points out. “Instead, it imposes crushing fines on employers who are doing nothing more than following their consciences against abortion-inducing pills. The government is supposed to promote conscience protection, not attack it. The best solution is for Congress or the administration to respect the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by eliminating the abortion-pill mandate. But if they refuse to do their duty, we hope the courts will rule that the mandate is unlawful.”

LifeNews: It was on September 28, 2000, when we got the news. Nearly eight years after it had first been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), RU-486, the French abortion pill, had been approved.

LifeNews: The Virginia Coalition for Life, in partnership with The Radiance Foundation, has launched a bold ad campaign to challenge the abortion industry and the culture of fatherlessness that it has fostered. Throughout October in the Hampton Roads area, 21 billboards and over 100 bus and light rail posters will declare the message: “Fatherhood Begins in the Womb: TooManyAborted.com/VA.”

Life News: The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta has instructed its staff, schools and affiliated groups to stop funding the Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity because it sends funds to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Tadeusz Pacholczyk at Wall Street Journal (via Google): Why should doctors have a monopoly on undermining public trust in their profession by aiding suicides? Police and lifeguards could help out too.

AP: These women experienced far fewer unintended pregnancies as a result, reported Dr. Jeffrey Peipert of Washington University in St. Louis in a study published Thursday . . . In fact, if the program were expanded, one abortion could be prevented for every 79 to 137 women given a free contraceptive choice, Peipert’s team reported in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. | Obstetrics and Gynecology

The hearing concerns a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood against H.B. 2800, the “Whole Woman’s Healthcare Funding Prioritization Act,” which closes loopholes that allowed taxpayer dollars to fund abortions and prioritizes family planning funds to health care entities that best provide comprehensive health care to women. The hearing will consider Planned Parenthood’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the law, as well as the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Susan B. Anthony List: Today, the national pro-life Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) slammed a brief filed by the Department of Justice aimed at overturning Arizona’s Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act (HB 2800). The law, co-authored by the SBA List and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), defunds abortion providers of state family planning funds. Family planning funds are prioritized away from abortion-centered businesses like Planned Parenthood to entities that provide comprehensive health care. Governor Jan Brewer signed HB 2800 into law in May. The law was challenged by Planned Parenthood and is before the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

LifeNews: The Obama administration is using the state of Arizona and claiming that its new law revoking taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business runs afoul of federal laws.

KansasCity.com: Two new polls Wednesday showed Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill leading Republican U.S. Rep. Todd Akin by six points as Akin faced a new round of questions about four-year-old comments about abortion providers.

The Citizen Link Audio report is here.

Matt Bowman on the Bob Dutko Show to discuss the suit. | MP3 audio 6:18 mins

KMaryn at the Daily Nexus: My first thought is to say that yes, atheism does benefit women. The rejection of a god or gods along with the misogynistic traditions and beliefs that are present in many religions should be beneficial to women. However, misogynistic themes that are perpetuated by religion have so thoroughly soaked into American culture that atheists are not immune to being raging sexists.

Kinder v. Geitner, No. 11-1973

A group of seven plaintiffs, including Samantha Hill and Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (acting in his personal capacity), brought this action to challenge various provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“the Act”). Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010). The district court dismissed the suit for lack of standing. Hill and Kinder appeal, and we affirm.

Washington Post: In defense of his assertion, Akin’s campaign released a statement Tuesday from Abby Johnson, a former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas who quit in 2009 and now speaks against abortion. “I can attest that when I served as director of Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, we often scared women into getting services they did not need — including abortion — so we could collect the fees. This included women who were not pregnant and women who were in the process of miscarrying,” Johnson said in the written statement.

CNSNews: First lady Michelle Obama called contraception “basic preventative care” and invoked her daughters before talking about women’s “decisions about our bodies” during a campaign fundraising event Tuesday.

“Planned Parenthood should not be experimenting with women’s lives by using abortion drugs in a way not approved by the FDA–especially when at least 14 women have died in recent years from using RU-486. Once again, Planned Parenthood has demonstrated that it is more concerned with its bottom line than with the health and safety of women.”

Religion Clause Blog: An ADF press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit explains: The publisher is subject to the mandate because Obama administration rules say for-profit corporations are categorically non-religious, even though Tyndale House is strictly a publisher of Bibles and other Christian materials and is owned by the non-profit Tyndale House Foundation.

AP: U.S. births fell for the fourth year in a row, the government reported Wednesday, with experts calling it more proof that the weak economy has continued to dampen enthusiasm for having children.

LifeNews: The ad will run on KUSA, the NBC affiliate in Denver, Colorado costing $25,000.

Pro Life Blogs: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “To say that a Bible publisher is not religious is patently absurd. Tyndale House is a prime example of how ridiculous and arbitrary the Obama administration’s mandate is. Americans today clearly agree with America’s founders: the federal government’s bureaucrats are not qualified to decide what faith is, who the faithful are, and where and how that faith may be lived out.”

Melissa Steffan at Christianity Today: “The federal government has deemed devout publishers of the Bible to be insufficiently ‘religious’ to enjoy religious freedom in America,” the complaint stated. According to a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), which is representing Tyndale, “The publisher is subject to the mandate because Obama administration rules say for-profit corporations are categorically non-religious.”

Catholic World News on Catholic Culture: “To say that a Bible publisher is not religious is patently absurd,” said Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defending Freedom. “Tyndale House is a prime example of how ridiculous and arbitrary the Obama administration’s mandate is…. The federal government’s bureaucrats are not qualified to decide what faith is, who the faithful are, and where and how that faith may be lived out.”

WorldNetDaily: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “To say that a Bible publisher is not religious is patently absurd. Tyndale House is a prime example of how ridiculous and arbitrary the Obama administration’s mandate is. Americans today clearly agree with America’s founders: the federal government’s bureaucrats are not qualified to decide what faith is, who the faithful are, and where and how that faith may be lived out.”

Victor Morton at the Washington Times: The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Tyndale, called the rule an unconstitutional and arbitrary threat to religious freedom. “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “To say that a Bible publisher is not religious is patently absurd. Tyndale House is a prime example of how ridiculous and arbitrary the Obama administration’s mandate is. Americans today clearly agree with America’s founders: the federal government’s bureaucrats are not qualified to decide what faith is, who the faithful are, and where and how that faith may be lived out.”

Examinder.com: In a press release from Alliance Defending Freedom, Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman stated, “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish. To say that a Bible publisher is not religious is patently absurd. Tyndale House is a prime example of how ridiculous and arbitrary the Obama administration’s mandate is. Americans today clearly agree with America’s founders: the federal government’s bureaucrats are not qualified to decide what faith is, who the faithful are, and where and how that faith may be lived out.”

Wall Street Journal: There is growing evidence suggesting that freezing an embryo after fertilization and thawing it for use in the woman’s next monthly cycle leads to higher pregnancy rates, compared with using the embryo immediately. A recent scientific review of three small randomized and controlled studies found that 50% of women got pregnant after receiving in vitro fertilization, or IVF, treatment using a recently frozen embryo. By contrast, women receiving fresh embryos had a 38% pregnancy rate.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Tyndale House Publishers filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate. Tyndale House is one of the world’s largest privately held Christian publishers of books, Bibles, and digital media.

NY Daily News: A Sunset Park abortion clinic has shut down after Catholic protesters drove away doctors and patients, according to the owner of the clinic.

LifeSiteNews: The Radiance Foundation, in partnership with the Virginia Coalition for Life, has launched a wide-scale TooManyAborted.com billboard campaign in Hampton Roads, Virginia, with the messaging: “Fatherhood Begins in the Womb.”

LifeNews: A Florida-based abortion practitioner was caught, earlier this year, running an illegal late-term abortion business in Maryland. Now, state officials have shut it down.

Orlando Sentinel: A battle among religious groups, abortion providers and conservative politicians over taxpayer support of abortions is drawing big checks this election season — despite the fact that Florida doesn’t spend tax dollars on abortion services now.

TBO.com: The culture war over a woman’s right to an abortion will play out at the polls in November as a measure billed as a ban on public funding of the procedure – which could have much more far-reaching implications – appears on Florida ballots.

The Hill: The Susan B. Anthony List has launched a new super-PAC to oppose President Obama and give the abortion debate a higher profile in the presidential election.

The Columbus Dispatch: A report released by the Ohio Department of Health yesterday doesn’t say why fewer abortions were performed last year but noted a sharp drop in use of the abortion pill, which had been an increasingly common method of terminating early pregnancies.

Cantonrep.com: The legislation banned the use of RU-486, or mifepristone, to induce abortion unless prescribed by a doctor in compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines.| Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region v. DeWine, No. 11-4062

TBO: Before the Brevard County couple split up, the genetic mother had donated an egg that was fertilized and implanted in the other woman, who gave birth in 2004. The couple separated two years later, and a trial court granted sole custody to the birth mother. An appellate court disagreed and said the women should share custody.

ABA Journal: Is the possibility of a new challenge to the health-care law on the horizon? The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked the federal government for its views on a rehearing request by a religious university that is challenging the law, SCOTUSblog reports. Liberty University asked the Supreme Court to revive its lawsuit challenging the law in a rehearing request filed in July, Law360 (sub. req.) reported at the time.

Baptist Press: In filing its appeal, the administration sent a clear message that it wants to force families to abandon their faith in order to make a living,” said Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Matt Bowman. “That’s the opposite of religious freedom.”

South Bend Tribune: Indiana lawmakers are talking about rewriting the definition of an abortion clinic to include facilities that perform the procedure surgically and by prescribing a pill, a conflict that arose from a wrinkle in the wording of a state law.

Religion Clause Blog: In O’Brien v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (ED MO, Sept. 28, 2012), Judge Carol E. Jackson (a President George H. W. Bush appointee) first held that she need not decide whether O’Brien Industrial Holdings (“OIH”), a secular limited liability company, is capable of exercising religion within the meaning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment because, even if it is, the contraception coverage mandate does not infringe religious exercise rights.

Biola U. Chimes: Alliance Defending Freedom’s . . . [Greg] Baylor, lead counsel on the case, said Biolans should care about the far-reaching effects of the decision — regardless of the outcome . . . Baylor participated in a panel two weeks ago that provided information to students and faculty on Biola’s decision to sue the government over the Health and Human Services mandate that would require organizations to provide for abortion-inducing drugs under Obamacare . . . With more than 25 different lawsuits filed against the government regarding the HHS mandate, the message is clear: People are unhappy, Baylor said. “I think the sheer volume of the cases is part of message that this is an egregious violation of freedom,” Baylor said. Biola’s lawsuit is one of many and it doesn’t have much to set it apart in any particular way, but the prestige of Biola’s name matters, Baylor said.

AP: Federal courts refused to allow Nebraska’s 2010 law to go into effect and the state attorney general decided against defending the measure.

Thomas More Law Center: The Government attorney, on the other hand, argued that because Weingartz was a secular corporation it had no constitutional right to free exercise of religion or free speech. The Government also contended that the organization Legatus lacked standing, as the group was a non-profit company potentially eligible for a one year safe-harbor from the law.

SCOTUS Blog reports.

LifeNews: Over the weekend, two dozen pro-life advocates were arrested at the White House for praying and holding pro-life signs protesting President Obama’s pro-abortion HHS mandate.

LifeSiteNews: Missouri’s U.S. Senate hopeful Todd Akin confirmed Friday that he was once arrested for his involvement in a peaceful process outside an abortion clinic.

Gary Bauer at Human Events: But so far it has no plans to support Akin financially. “We have no plans to do so,” John Cornyn, chairman of the NRSC, said last week when he was asked by The Courier-Journal whether he’d be putting money into the Akin-McCaskill race. “I just think that this is not a winnable race.” But it clearly is a winnable race. Social conservatives are making the election of Todd Akin to the Senate a top priority. It’s time for the Republican Party to do the same.

The Hill: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Sunday that he doesn’t think the GOP should back Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s campaign, despite emerging support from several Republican senators.

Michael New at National Review: Last month, an article by Brian Fung on the Atlantic Monthly website sent the media spin machine into overdrive. It provided data from the Massachusetts Department of Health which showed that abortion per capita in Massachusetts decreased after Romneycare took effect in 2007.

Sacramento Bee (AP): A Kansas doctor who lost her license over abortion referrals is fighting efforts by state regulators to force her to post a bond to cover nearly $93,000 in costs as she appeals to the courts.

Kentucky Post: A Lexington lawmaker has drafted legislation that would prevent insurance plans made available to Kentuckians under federal health care reforms from paying for abortions.

Pottsmer.com: A federal judge has denied a civil rights group’s bid to join the government’s defense against a western Pennsylvania Christian college’s challenge to regulations requiring employers to offer birth control coverage

NRL News: “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The Obama administration claims ‘unwavering’ support for religious freedom, but this appeal demonstrates that the only thing unwavering is the administration’s tenacious opposition to that freedom.” “The cost of religious freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that would cripple their business and potentially destroy jobs if the administration ultimately has its way,” Bowman said. “In filing its appeal today, the administration sent a clear message that it wants to force families to abandon their faith in order to earn a living. That’s the opposite of religious freedom.”

Christian Post: “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said in a statement. “The Obama administration claims ‘unwavering’ support for religious freedom, but this appeal demonstrates that the only thing unwavering is the administration’s tenacious opposition to that freedom.”

WSJ: The American Civil Liberties Union, along with the Public Patent Foundation, again asked the Supreme Court to invalidate patents for two genes that are associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, saying the patents restrict scientific research and access to medical care.

Alan Keyes at Renew America: Whatever it says in the GOP platform (which agrees with Akin on this point), the GOP’s elitist-faction leaders are determined to make it plain that they mean to tag principled pro-life politicians like Todd Akin as “far right” extremists. To pander to those who push the oxymoronic notion of “abortion rights,” they will purge from the GOP’s leadership ranks anyone who adheres consistently to the doctrine of God-endowed unalienable rights (including first of all, the right to life) on which America’s constitutional republic is founded.

Citizen Link: “The cost of religious freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that would cripple their business and potentially destroy jobs if the administration ultimately had its way,” Bowman said.

LifeNews: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys obtained the first-ever order against the mandate on behalf of Hercules Industries and the Catholic family that owns it. The administration opposed the order, arguing, contrary to the U.S. Constitution, that people of faith forfeit their religious liberty once they engage in business . . . “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The Obama administration claims ‘unwavering’ support for religious freedom, but this appeal demonstrates that the only thing unwavering is the administration’s tenacious opposition to that freedom.”

7DVT.com: Their attorney is Michael DePrimo, a First Amendment lawyer based in Hamden, Conn. He formerly worked as special assistant to the president of the American Family Association, a Christian group that rails against abortion, pornography and same-sex marriage. In a 2004 article for American Family Association Journal, DePrimo wrote that acceptance of same-sex marriage “may well signal the beginning of the end of Western civilization.” . . . DePrimo fought the Massachusetts case with financial backing from the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal firm dedicated to defending “family values.” He’s taken the Burlington case pro bono and wouldn’t speculate about whether the ADF, now called the Alliance Defending Freedom, might bankroll it. DePrimo says his clients are peaceful people who have the right to engage in “sidewalk counseling” with women and couples entering Planned Parenthood. “Planned Parenthood does not want pro-life speech to reach their patrons,” DePrimo says by phone from Connecticut. “That’s what this ordinance is really about. That’s not what it says, but that’s the real purpose behind it.”

LifeSiteNews: The cost of religious freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that would cripple their business and potentially destroy jobs if the administration ultimately has its way,” said Matt Bowman, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom. “In filing its appeal today, the administration sent a clear message that it wants to force families to abandon their faith in order to earn a living. That’s the opposite of religious freedom.”

Washington Post (AP): Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Wednesday certified abortion clinic regulations that were altered earlier this month at his urging to include strict building standards that abortion-rights supporters say are aimed at closing down the centers.

LifeSiteNews: The bishop of Springfield, Illinois has issued a hard-hitting letter in his diocesan paper, slamming the Democratic Party platform’s support for abortion and gay ‘marriage’ and urging Catholics to bring their consciences to the ballot box.

CNSNews: The National Catholic Bioethics Center has published an analysis saying that it will be immoral for a Catholic who owns a private business to purchase health insurance for his or her workers under Obamacare

AP: The shuttered Wichita abortion clinic formerly operated by the late Dr. George Tiller has been bought by an abortion-rights group that intends to reopen it . . .

BNA.com: As expected, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the case challenging the patent eligibility of claims on isolated DNA (Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics Inc., U.S., docket number not available, review sought 9/25/12). The petition asks three questions . . .

Thomas More Law Center: This Friday, September 28, 2012, Federal District Judge Robert H. Cleland, of the Eastern District of Michigan, will hear oral arguments in Thomas More Law Center’s motion for Preliminary Injunction to stop implementation of the HHS mandate. The oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9:30am, in Courtroom #712, at the U.S. Courthouse in Detroit, Michigan.