Tag Archives: Category: Sanctity of Life

Ester Koch letter to the Editor at BND.com: Five U.S. senators and 72 congressmen called upon the Government Accountability Office investigating the amount of tax funding awarded to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a non-profit organization.The Alliance Defending Freedom report documents $99 million in Planned Parenthood financial waste and possible fraud

The Raw Story: The anti-choice group Alliance Defending Freedom filed the suit on the Walkers’ behalf, and they still have the prerogative to appeal the decision. Rikelman said she believes it’s likely they will. As a group with a mission to make all abortion illegal, “it seems hard to imagine that they will give up so quickly,” she said.

The Bell Towers: As the president of Secular Pro-Life, I have been asked to present the non-religious case against abortion.  But actually, you’ve probably heard it already.  Many people who hear the secular arguments against abortion simply fail to recognize them as secular, because they expect pro-life apologetics to have a religious source.  Expectations powerfully color the way we see reality.  Discard these expectations, however, and you will soon find that most arguments against abortion do not require the existence of a god.

AZ Republic: The move is a response to lobbying from Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, who says Medicaid expansion would subsidize abortions — a claim that puts in a political vise anti-abortion GOP lawmakers who back the governor’s proposal . . . Herrod first raised the abortion issue in late March in a letter to Brewer, using an opinion from a Christian legal-defense organization to argue that the draft Medicaid legislation should be amended to disqualify the non-profit women’s health provider Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving public money.

NBC Montana: The 2013 legislative session wrapped up in Montana at the start of the weekend, and now Planned Parenthood of Montana says they’re planning to sue the state over a bill passed that requires anyone under 18 to get parental consent for an abortion.

LifeNews: The legislature approved Senate Bill 371, a pro-life bill which introduces oversight into the chemical abortion industry by including chemical abortions in the definition of abortion in Indiana law.

One News Now: ADF attorney Matt Sharp is representing the sixth-grader who was prevented from handing out the pro-life flyers during non-instructional time. “They were not even just trying to prohibit it during the school day, but even before and after school,” he explains. “So if they’re standing out on the sidewalk on school grounds, they would be prohibited from doing it. Again, that’s far too great a restriction [and] something the courts have never permitted at any school.” [more]

Catherine Glenn Foster at Townhall: Some Vermont state lawmakers are pushing to pass S.77, a bill that legalizes “physician-assisted suicide” under the familiar guise of “choice.” Their bill is an attack on human life generally, and especially on elder adults and disabled individuals.

AFLC: Late yesterday, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s HHS “contraception” mandate.  The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Johnson Welded Products, Inc. (“JWP”), a family owned and operated company in Ohio, and its President and principal owner, Ms. Lilli Johnson, a Catholic, who opposes the HHS mandate based on her sincerely-held religious beliefs.

LIfeNews: The American Center for Law & Justice has filed its opening brief in Gilardi v. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, an appeal pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

TimesUnion.org: Amid concerns that the abortion rights plank of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Agenda hasn’t yet been nailed down as legislation, women’s groups will soon be able to show lawmakers bill language blessed by the Cuomo administration.

Hadley Arkes at Weekly Standard: With the scandal over Kermit Gosnell, this seems precisely the moment for pro-life congressmen to return to the Born-Alive Act and hold hearings: They could take evidence now about the volume of these killings, and they could restore the civil penalties that were dropped from the bill. After all, not a single Democrat, in either House, finally voted against that bill. The Democrats agreed that it was wrong to kill a child who survived an abortion, and so they should be faced with the question of how wrong they thought it was: Would it merit at least the kind of penalty that comes with a moving violation in traffic?

Connie Friedersdorf at The Atlantic: The Pennsylvania Department of Health doesn’t make it impossible to report a “horror clinic” on its website, but it isn’t easy either.

Denise Burke of AUL at Washington Times: Sadly, Big Abortion continues to equate women’s health and safety with mere access to abortion. Access to sanitary and appropriately regulated and inspected abortion facilities is simply not part of their political and self-interested calculus.

Marvin Olasky at Townhall: Today’s justices have a chance to do not only what’s right but what’s logical: If the Supreme Court affirms states rights on marriage, why not on abortion?

LifeSiteNews: In his weekly column for Catholic Philly, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput takes aim at the nation’s primary national media for their “failure” and “allergic disinterest” in covering the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

Miami Herald: The American Medical Association has written a letter to the Pentagon stating that “force feeding of detainees violates core ethical values of the medical profession.”

The HIll: House Republicans and Democrats have joined together to re-introduce a bill that would expand the religious conscience exemptions under ObamaCare. Under the Equitable Access to Care and Health (EACH) Act, individuals would have the option of being exempted from the Affordable Healthcare Act’s mandate to buy health insurance.

LifeSiteNews: Public schools should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,” said Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. “The law on this is extremely clear: free speech cannot be censored simply because it expresses a certain viewpoint that administrators don’t favor. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech for all students, regardless of their religious or political beliefs.”

AP: The U.S. military’s highest court has reversed a Marine’s conviction for a suicide attempt. | U.S. v. Caldwell

Washington Times: New undercover videos of abortion professionals explaining late-term abortions, coupled with states passing strict abortion laws and a horror-show abortion criminal case, are keeping abortion at the top of the news — an unexpected development after the nation re-elected its most vocal pro-choice president.

LifeNews: That figure comes from a new Polling Company survey that the firm conducted for the National Right to Life Committee. It found that a substantial majority of registered voters say that they are familiar with Planned Parenthood and a majority has a favorable impression of the abortion giant

Elise Italiano at Public Discourse: President Obama’s recent address to Planned Parenthood’s National Conference sweepingly mischaracterized abortion restrictions and pro-life views as culturally inaccurate and outdated.

AP: The government is moving the morning-after pill over the counter but only those 15 and older can buy it – an attempt to find middle ground just days before a court-imposed deadline to lift all age restrictions on the emergency contraceptive.

LifeNews: The House Judiciary Committee, after declining to hear from expert witnesses who asked to testify, rubber-stamped the House Human Services language to restore Oregon-Style doctor-prescribed suicide to, and then voted 8-3 to move, S.77 out for a full vote of the House of Representatives.

AP: A defense lawyer asked a jury Monday to transcend both the politics and unpleasant reality of abortion when it weighs murder charges against a doctor charged with killing a patient and four babies.

UPI: “Unless there is a material disruption, students have the absolute right to distribute materials at school,” said Matt Sharp, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based legal advocacy organization representing Zinos. “There was no evidence of disruption at the school at all.”

Marshall Independent (AP): “Unless there is a material disruption, students have the absolute right to distribute materials at school,” said Matt Sharp, an attorney with the organization. “There was no evidence of disruption at the school at all.”

Duluth News Tribune: “Unless there is a material disruption, students have the absolute right to distribute materials at school,” said Matt Sharp, an attorney with the organization. “There was no evidence of disruption at the school at all.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “This is a small family business. Many of the employees are part of the family,” said Matt Bowman, attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based firm representing Seneca. “Yet the government is forcing them to violate their religious beliefs [as] a price of doing business in America.”

WorldNetDaily: However, the lawsuit brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom said that’s exactly backwards. “Public schools should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. “The law on this is extremely clear: free speech cannot be censored simply because it expresses a certain viewpoint that administrators don’t favor. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech for all students, regardless of their religious or political beliefs.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Public schools should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,” Matt Sharp, legal council for the alliance, said in a statement announcing the suit. “The law on this is extremely clear: Free speech cannot be censored simply because it expresses a certain viewpoint that administrators don’t favor.”

LifeNews: “Public schools should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,” said Legal Counsel Matt Sharp. “The law on this is extremely clear: free speech cannot be censored simply because it expresses a certain viewpoint that administrators don’t favor. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech for all students, regardless of their religious or political beliefs.”

 Religion Clause Blog: The complaint (full text) in A.Z. v. Nova Classical Academy, (D MN, filed 4/25/2013), recounts that a school administrator told plaintiff and her friends that they could not pass out the flyers because some students find them offensive . . . Alliance Defending Freedom issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

LifeNews: A Washington, D.C.-based abortion practitioner caught on video promoting infanticide has given an interview in which he backtracks from doing so and lashes out at pro-life advocates.

Nathaniel Peters at Public Discourse: Donna Freitas’s new book on the hookup culture rightly encourages students to see its harms, but fails to give them moral reasons for opting out of it.

LifeNews: In a new undercover, investigative video, a staffer at an abortion clinic in Bronx, New York is shown on film telling a customer to flush the body of a baby born alive following a failed abortion down the toilet.

Townhall Culture Digest: “American tax dollars should be used responsibly and for the common good, and taxpayers deserve to know if their hard-earned tax money is being funneled to groups that are abusing it,” said Catherine Glenn Foster, litigation counsel for ADF, in a written statement.

San Francisco Chronicle: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed a bill that regulates the prescription and use of abortion-inducing drugs. He signed Senate Bill 2795 on Thursday, and it becomes law July 1.

WJLA.com: An Arizona congressman has reintroduced a bill that would ban abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Press-Citizen.com: More than 20 Iowa state senators have signed a resolution intended to outlaw abortion in the state, but even a key supporter said Friday it likely won’t get a vote.

Rush Limbaugh Transcript: He praised their nearly 100 years of service to women. This makes me ill, by the way. That a president of the United States shows up at an abortion factory, essentially, and praises their work. You know what else he said? He said the opponents of abortion want to return to the 1950s.

AL.com: Huntsville Municipal Court Judge Sybil Cleveland agreed with defense attorney Trent Garmon that Fecteau, a 71-year-old grandmother, did not intend to alarm or annoy when she sprayed “holy water” in the direction of two pro-abortion rights supporters last December.

AP: President Barack Obama vowed Friday to join Planned Parenthood in fighting against what he said are efforts by states to turn women’s health back to the 1950s, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide, and singled out the GOP-governed states of North Dakota and Mississippi for criticism.

Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal lawsuit Friday on behalf of a 6th-grade student after a Minnesota public school prohibited her from distributing pro-life fliers to her classmates during non-instructional time.

LifeNews: But there is also 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar who died, according to prosecutors, when Gosnell’s unqualified staff gave her an overdose of Demerol and other pain killers in 2009. Gosnell is charged with third degree murder in her death.

Family Leader: “The inalienable right to life of every person at any stage of development shall be recognized and protected.” Those words appear as a proposed Amendment to the Iowa Constitution.

LifeNews: “As long as we’ve got to fight to make sure women have access to quality, affordable health care, and as long as we’ve got to fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own choices about her own health, I want you to know that you’ve also got a president who’s going to be right there with you, fighting every step of the way,” said Obama. “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”

Mark Steyn at NRO: One of the most ingenious and effective strategies of the Left on any number of topics is to frame the debate and co-opt the language so effectively that it becomes all but impossible even to discuss the subject honestly.

LifeNews: Eighteen members of Congress went to the floor of the House today to do the job they said the mainstream media is not doing: talking about the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell.

R.R. Reno of First Things at Imprimis (Hillsdale College): RELIGIOUS LIBERTY is being redefined in America, or at least many would like it to be. Our secular establishment wants to reduce the autonomy of religious institutions and limit the influence of faith in the public square. The reason is not hard to grasp. In America, “religion” largely means Christianity, and today our secular culture views orthodox Christian churches as troublesome, retrograde, and reactionary forces. They’re seen as anti-science, anti-gay, and anti-women—which is to say anti-progress as the Left defines progress.

Toledo Blade: A Summit County abortion clinic that was connected with a Toledo abortion clinic that lost its transfer agreement from the University of Toledo has been shut down by the state because of deficiencies found during a February inspection, including allowing under-qualified people to administer drugs and using patients’ blood without their knowledge.

Austin American Statesman: A bill requiring abortion clinics to meet tougher licensing standards has been blocked by Democratic state senators concerned that the legislation would force most Texas clinics to close.

Washington Post: If a Peace Corps volunteer is raped and becomes pregnant as a result, she has to pay for an abortion herself, because the federal government refuses to cover the cost.

Eastern Echo: EMU Student Government denied Students for Life the $4,954 the organization requested to support the traveling exhibit, which prompted the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal ministry, to file a lawsuit March 19 against the university on behalf of Students for Life. The ADF lawsuit, Students for Life at Eastern Michigan University v. Parker, said EMU officials denied the student organization funding for mandatory student activity fees.

Life Legal Defense Foundation is urging the United States Supreme Court to review a First Circuit decision which severely limits free speech of pro-life advocates. In McCullen v. Coakley . . .

http://www.chieftain.com/news/region/high-court-finds-for-hospital-in-fremont-county-fetus-case/article_56dc4072-ab8a-11e2-84c6-001a4bcf887a.html

LifeNews: The Colorado Supreme Court has decided not to take an odd case in which a Catholic hospital originally claimed an unborn child is not a person.

Liberty Counsel: Today, Liberty Counsel filed its final brief in Liberty University v. Geithner before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals hears our case against ObamaCare on May 16. Liberty Counsel represents Liberty University and two private individuals in this case

LifeSiteNews: The special program will air at 9 p.m. on Sunday, May 5, according to Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life.

LifeSiteNews: One of the country’s leading pro-life priests says he has put in a request to the medical examiner in Pennsylvania to obtain the bodies of the babies that were recovered from Kermit Gosnell’s “House of Horrors,” to give them a proper burial.

LifeNews: Abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell will not testify in his murder trial and his defense attorney decided to not call a single witness on his behalf to defend him from the murder and other charges he faces.

LifeNews: President Barack Obama has backed out of giving a keynote speech at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser on Thursday night after massive pro-life pressure. As the Washington Times reports . . .

Life Site News: Bowman, the senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said: “This is a family that provides generous benefits in their business and they want to be free to live according to their faith, but this Obamacare mandate is coercing them to violate their conscience.”

Joe Wolverton, II at The New American: n a statement issued to LifeNews, the attorney from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Seneca Hardwood, explained why his organization is taking on the federal government.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman told LifeNews: All Americans, including job creators and providers, should be free to live according to their faith rather than be forced into violating their own consciences. The court has done the right thing in issuing an order against the administration’s abortion pill mandate, just as many other courts have done. For the many family-run businesses affected by the mandate, the court stated it well: “the mandate’s requirements impose a substantial burden on their exercise of religion.”

LifeNews: The judge in the Kermit Gosnell murder trial admitted today he made an error when dropping one of the charges against the abortion practitioner.

LifeNews: The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed House Bill 818 on Tuesday, supporting the Commonwealth’s longstanding policy of not using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.

LifeNews: Oregon Right to Life issued an action alert today asking pro-life people to contact their state legislators and urge opposition to a bill that attacks pregnancy centers providing women with abortion alternatives.

LifeSiteNews: Often when a baby is born alive during an abortion procedure, the child is kept in the abortion clinic until he or she dies. In rare cases, the abortionist himself takes action to kill the baby. But sometimes the baby is transferred to a hospital, where he can be given medical care. Unfortunately, it is the policy of many hospitals simply to allow these babies to die.

Ed Whelan at NRO: But as I explained of one such ruling (by the Tenth Circuit in the Hobby Lobby case), what those courts are really ruling, without understanding what they are doing, is that an employer’s refusal to provide health insurance coverage for contraceptives or abortifacients cannot be an exercise of religion. Such a ruling is patently wrong, as the only relevant question for purposes of the exercise of religion element is whether the objector is acting from a sincerely held religious conviction.

Modernhealthcare.com: Senators voted 32-2 Monday for a bill that would prohibit doctors from remotely administering the pill via video hookup, a process criticized as “telemedicine abortion.”

The Hill: A new bill from Senate Democrats would allow female servicemembers to obtain abortions at military hospitals using their own money.

LifeNews: After 40 years of legal abortion in the United States, the case for life is poignantly made by abortion survivors themselves.

USA Today: The prosecution paints a picture of an abortion clinic where live fetuses were killed and unsanitary conditions were rampant.

LifeNews: The judge in the Kermit Gosnell murder trial dropped three charges against the abortion practitioner for killing babies in a gruesome abortion method that involved snipping their necks in infanticides. One of the three charges the judge dropped includes a 28-week unborn baby who was killed in an abortion-infanticide and eventually discovered in a freezer at Gosnell’s clinic.