Tag Archives: Topic: Abortion

LifeSiteNews: The same month that Germany’s bishops have backed the use of the morning-after pill for rape victims, one of the world’s leading authorities on the drug has said doctors have a duty to inform women that it could prevent a newly-conceived embryo from implanting in the womb, causing an abortion.

NY Post: What should Albany be devoting its time to these days? Gov. Cuomo seems to think it’s abortion.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: Setting up what promises to be a contentious reckoning in the Washington state Senate, the House on Friday passed a measure requiring that most insurance carriers in the state cover abortions. House Bill 1044 is intended to ensure that insurers continue covering abortions once bureaucratic hurdles for doing so come into effect next year with the enactment of federal health care reforms. Lawmakers in the House passed the measure by a vote of 53-43, with all but two Democratic votes cast in favor and all but one Republican voting against it.

APS: Members of Edinburgh Life Society contributed to the defeat of a motion to renew their union’s existing policy to ‘Support a Woman’s Right to Choose and Affiliate to Abortion Rights’. This is a victory that will inspire pro-life student activists nationwide, a wonderful mark of the first-year anniversary for the Alliance of Pro-Life Students.

Holland Sentinel: A House panel on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation to overhaul Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, leaving out anti-abortion provisions that torpedoed an earlier effort to change the status of the state’s largest health insurer.

Damon Linker at The Week: Two-thirds of Americans want to uphold Roe v. Wade. But only 13 percent believe abortion is morally acceptable.

AP: An Illinois woman believed to be the mother of two infants found dead in the trunk of an impounded car admitted Thursday to leaving another baby girl to freeze to death along a rural roadside nearly five years earlier.

Alliance Defending Freedom at LifeSiteNews: “Is this the type of organization American taxpayers should be funding to the tune of $540 million per year?” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, a former U.S. attorney for the district of Colorado who helped author an Alliance Defending Freedom report to the U.S. House of Representatives on the fraudulent use of public funding by Planned Parenthood affiliates. “American tax dollars should be used responsibly and for the common good. Planned Parenthood is irresponsible and only promotes its own self-interest. That was clearly seen most vividly in what they did to Ayanna.”

NPR “All Things Considered” audio here.

Sioux City Journal: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says it plans to file a state lawsuit over a Wisconsin law that subjects doctors who perform medication-induced abortions to possible criminal charges.

LifeNews: On January 28, in my capacity as social media manager for a coalition of national black pro-life leaders, I set up accounts on Facebook and Twitter to promote our upcoming demonstration in Los Angeles of the NAACP Image Awards on February 1.

C-FAM: A new Guttmacher Institute report on Uganda recommends increased access to contraception and abortion as a way to improve women’s health and reduce unintended pregnancies. Yet the abortion advocacy group uses questionable data to push its priorities onto people who, it acknowledges, want children and reject abortion.

Becket Fund at LifeNews: Nine U.S. Senators and two U.S. Representatives, along with the Oklahoma Attorney General and 11 other key groups, filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the Becket Fund’s challenge to the HHS mandate on behalf of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

USA Today: Women who want a prescription for an abortion-inducing drug would be required to undergo an ultrasound before and after taking the drug if a bill that an Indiana Senate committee approved Wednesday becomes law.

Kansas City Star: A bill forbidding the use of state money, tax credits or tax exemptions for abortion drew heated debate Wednesday in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee. House Bill 2253 also would bar the state from discriminating against any health-care provider that declines involvement in abortion.

CNSNews: Republican members of Congress have weighed in on the legal battle being waged over the Obamacare mandate requiring employers to provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to employees.

Information about the Family Research Council webcast and video is here. It runs just over 61 minutes. An extensive description of the event begins: “Religious liberty in America has long been a cherished freedom. In recent decades, reaction to displaying that religion in the public sphere has grown increasingly hostile. What is being done about this slow and methodical attack on the First Freedom? Come hear from those who have battled on the front lines of this issue and have sought to protect the liberty our forefathers handed down. From prayer in schools to speaking against sin in a public place, there are numerous ways that religious liberty has been attacked. It is imperative that we make ourselves aware of the battle fronts and support those who stand as sentinels against encroachment on our first freedom. Join FRC for an informative and important discussion on religious liberty with Kellie Fiedorek, Ken Klukowski, and Adele Keim.”

Christian Post: In addition to Klukowski, the other two guest speakers were Adele Keim, legal counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Kellie Fiedorek, litigation counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom . . . Fiedorek spoke to those gathered about the various legal suits coming up against Christian businessmen by gay rights groups. These included a photographer sued for refusing to take photos at a gay union ceremony and a baker sued for refusing to provide a cake for a gay union reception.

Douglas Dispatch (Howard Fischer Media): Steven Aden, an attorney with the privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom that is helping the state defend the law, said blocking the law “would frustrate the public’s interest, expressed through its elected representatives, in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not directly or indirectly support abortions.” Aden also is arguing the state has sovereign rights in determining who can participate in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program. He said it is irrelevant that most of the funds for the program come from the federal government.

TodaysTHV.com: The Arkansas Legislature on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill banning most abortions at 20 weeks into a pregnancy.

The Daily Caller: The pro-abortion organization NARAL Pro-Choice America hired a consulting firm linked to President Barack Obama to conduct extensive video interviews with young pro-life activists in their homes more than a year ago, without informing the pro-life activists that the videos were intended for NARAL’s use.

Reuters: The Alabama House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday that would tighten regulations for abortion clinics in a move critics say could force many in the state to close.

Daniel Philpott at Public Discourse: Preserving the freedom to witness to the truths one believes, not merely avoiding cooperation with evil, is what’s primarily at stake in the HHS mandate debate.

WorldNetDaily: Attorney Harold J. Cassidy called the decision of the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals “a fabulous victory for the women of the state of South Dakota.” . . . Commenting on the decision, Steven H. Aden of the Alliance Defending Freedom said “a woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line.” “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it would not try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risk of suicide that accompanies abortion,” he said. “The 8th Circuit has done the right thing in upholding a reasonable law that protects the well-being of women by making sure that the truth is not hidden from them.” [more]

Matt Bowman Letter to NY Times: A corporation is simply a group of people acting together. The Supreme Court has ruled many times that corporations can exercise religion. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, protects “any” exercise of religion. That protection applies when families earn a living in business.

Washington Times: The Obama administration’s rule must be finalized by Aug. 1. “We haven’t had to file anything new, because nothing has really changed,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing several religious nonprofits and religiously devout corporate owners who have sued over the mandate. He said the lawsuits will continue and likely pick up by August if the exemption is not broadened to cover all religious employers.

One News Now: According to Casey, the teen’s case is not unusual, adding that Texas girls being forced into an abortion can contact the Texas Center for Defense of Life for help. Alliance Defending Freedom makes itself available for such matters across the U.S.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review: “Plaintiff Stephen W. Briscoe is a believing and practicing Evangelical Christian,” the brief in the case filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom in federal district court in Colorado explains. Briscoe runs several assisted-living centers and skilled nursing facilities for seniors and “sincerely holds religious beliefs that God mandates respect for the sanctity of each human life and that abortion and abortion-inducing drugs result in the wrongful taking of a human life. Mr. Briscoe seeks to run his businesses in accord with his sincerely held religious beliefs,” the brief reads. Briscoe, who became the first business owner to join over 130 plaintiffs suing over the HHS mandate since the latest insufficient “accommodation” was issued, talked to National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.

Christian Institute: An influential group of NHS experts is urging the Scottish Government to allow the morning-after pill to be handed out in schools.

WoodTV.com: A member of the state Senate Health Policy Committee says she will ask for a hearing to investigate why the former chairman of the state Board of Medicine closed out a complaint against a Muskegon abortion doctor despite their past professional relationship.

LifeSiteNews: Despite the Obama administration urging states to run their own markets for those without health insurance to purchase subsidized plans, the majority have opted to leave the job to the federal government. Twenty-six states opted to let the deadline for forming state insurance exchanges pass on Friday, leaving the Obama administration to handle the details – and the costs – itself.

LifeSiteNews: A judge has granted an injunction to the pregnant Houston teenager who sued her parents to stop them from forcing her to have an abortion. Attorneys with the Texas Center for Defense of Life (TCDL), who represented the girl, were granted a long-term injunction by the 308th Family District Court of Harris County, prohibiting the girl’s parents from coercing her to have an abortion for the entire duration of her pregnancy.

LifeSiteNews: If the U.S. Catholic bishops cannot rely on the president to protect religious liberty, they will instead lobby Congress. That’s the message of a letter written to Congress by Archbishop William E. Lori lobbying for two legal provisions on behalf of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

LifeNews: The North Dakota state Senate on Monday approved two pro-life bills – including one that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Senators voted 30-17 to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on scientific information showing unborn children feel pain at least at that point in pregnancy.

LifeNews: After the state House voted for the same bill earlier this month, the state Senate voted today to ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the science showing unborn children feel pain at that point.

Matt Bowman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Mt. Sinai Ends Forced Abortion-participation Policy. | MP3 audio 11:09 mins

Matt Bowman, Daniel Blomberg on World Radio (2/16)

NY Times: Bucking a trend in which states have been seeking to restrict abortion, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is putting the finishing touches on legislation that would guarantee women in New York the right to late-term abortions when their health is in danger or the fetus is not viable.

Karen Gushta at the Christian Post: In January (1/14/2013),Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor reported more than 40 cases against the contraception/abortifacient mandate are being pursued in the courts by religious organizations, for-profit businesses, and individuals. Fifteen of these lawsuits have been filed by for-profit businesses or their owners. They all claim writes Baylor,”Their religious consciences preclude them from subsidizing the use of contraceptives and/or abortifacients by participants in their health insurance plans.”

Thomas Messner at the Heritage Foundation: The nurse, Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo, is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a public interest law firm that focuses on issues including right of conscience and religious freedom.

E. Christian Brugger at Public Discourse: True doctors and abortionists are different kinds of persons because they perform different acts as they carry out different proposals: the one, a proposal to remove a non-viable child to save the mother; the other, to kill that child for the mother’s benefit.

LifeSiteNews (2/15): “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law. We will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that the new policy is followed.”

Alan Sears at American Thinker (2/15): With estimates that 500,000 to 650,000 supporters took part in the 2013 March for Life on Jan. 25, the outlook for the pro-life movement is very good.

World Mag: “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said ADF senior legal counsel Matt Bowman in a statement. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law.”

Baptist Press (2/15): “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), in a Feb. 12 written statement. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law.”

LifeNews The New Mexico Medical Board is seeking to change Board Regulations on Complaint Procedures in the wake of the high-profile case against late-term abortionist Shelley Sella, who was cleared last week on charges of gross negligence related to a botched 35-week abortion that resulted in a ruptured uterus.:

Turtle Bay and Beyond: October 18th 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered an important judgment in the area of the protection of the human embryo in the case C-34/10 Oliver Brüstle v Greenpeace e.V. In this case the judges in Luxembourg précised the legal definition of the human embryo, and relying on the respect due to human dignity, excluded from patentability all processes which would imply the destruction of human embryo, such as a processes using embryonic stem cells.

KIVITV.com: A tax break sought by an anti-abortion pregnancy center in Boise cleared the House on a near party-line vote. The measure to benefit Stanton Health Care by giving such clinics a sales tax exemption passed Tuesday on a 58-12 vote.

Michael J. New at National Review Online: Unfortunately, Kilgore fails to understand the main factors that influence attitudes toward abortion. Theological beliefs can certainly inform opinions to a certain degree. However, the best predictor of someone’s attitude toward abortion is his or her opinion on the morality of premarital sex.

LifeNews: Today is also the birthday of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), which formed on this day February 12, 1909. But unlike Lincoln, whose worldview was shaped by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass (a slave born of rape but a man defined by limitless possibility), the NAACP has allowed itself to be shaped by an ideology that seeks control, conformity, and confusion as it advocates the destruction of greatness every day.

Houston Chronicle: Houston police were searching for a 5-month-old fetus after a woman told them she took some pills and tried to give herself an abortion Tuesday morning.

The Capital Times: And it sounds like the first bill to get a warm reception from Republicans will be what’s being dubbed the “Woman’s Right to Know her Unborn Child Act,” also being termed the “ultrasound bill” by pro-choice forces.

San Francisco Chronicle: A bill that would make it more difficult for girls younger than 18 to receive an abortion without notifying their parents was one of three abortion-related measures that easily cleared a House committee on Tuesday.

LifeNews: The political arm of the Planned Parenthood abortion business has launched an attack on pro-life Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli.

KTOO.org: Legislation that would limit the circumstances in which public funds can be used to pay for abortions was introduced in the Senate on Monday, but the bill may have trouble standing up to court scrutiny.

One News Now: ADF attorney Matt Bowman tells OneNewsNow that pro-life personnel should not be forced to assist abortions. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing — to respect the freedom of conscience of employees — because these employees are protected by both federal and state law in their freedom not to assist abortions,” he explains. Bowman adds that Mt. Sinai had known of DeCarlo’s religious objections since 2004.

LifeNews: “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be forced to participate in abortions, and the new policies and procedures at Mt. Sinai reflect that,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The hospital seems to have decided to do the right thing and respect the conscience rights of its employees, who are protected by both federal and state law. We will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that the new policy is followed.”

LifeSiteNews: Fourteen abortion centers were cited as having infractions that violated inspections, yet due to the weakness of the current law, only one was fined by the state. Although many of the violations were recorded, much of the reports was blacked out. Below is a summary of the little that is actually legible . . .

LifeSiteNews: After a history of violations that produced a 76-page report from the Alabama Department of Public Health, a Birmingham abortion facility is finally calling it quits.

The Olympian: A tax break sought by an anti-abortion pregnancy center in Boise cleared the House on a near party-line vote.

Denver Post: A Senate bill that would ban sex-selection abortions and a House measure to “preserve religious freedom” died in their Democratic-controlled committee hearings Monday.

MLive.com: U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga has introduced legislation that would prohibit federal dollars allocated to the Department of Homeland Security from being used for abortions.

LifeNews: Much has been written about the emotional trauma that women go through after their abortions. But what most people don’t realize is that abortion is so inherently evil and destructive that it devastates everyone involved – the mother, the father – and the abortion provider. The doctors, nurses, and other clinic workers are human – and repeatedly seeing the bodies of aborted babies and participating in their deaths leaves emotional scars.

ABC: A pregnant 16-year-old Texas girl is suing her parents, claiming that her parents are attempting to force her to have an abortion . . . The teen, identified in the lawsuit only as R.E.K. since she is a minor, was “beside herself” when she called the center for help, her lawyer Stephen Casey told ABCNews.com. | Related report and video.

Religion Clause Blog: In Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Secretary of U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, (3rd Cir., Feb. 7, 2013), Judge Rendell in her majority opinion concluded that the Mennonite owners of a wood specialties manufacturing company had failed …

Religion Clause Blog: In Conlon v. Sebelius, (ND IL, Feb. 8, 2013), an Illinois federal district court dismissed on standing and ripeness grounds a challenge to the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage mandate brought by Catholic dioceses and related Catholic Charities organizations in Joliet and Springfield, Illinois, as well as by a Catholic high school.

Michael J. Norton on Koinonia with Tom Brown | MP3 audio 13 mins

Michael J. Norton on WAVA Radio with Don Kroah | MP3 AUDIO 15:28 mins

LifeNews: Following a new probe started by local officials, the Maryland Attorney General has opened an investigation into the late-term abortion practitioner who killed a woman last week in a botched abortion.

LifeSiteNews: Representative from several organizations spoke, including Father Frank Pavone(pictured below) of Priests for Life, Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, Day Gardner of the National Black Pro-Life Union, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America, Mallory Quigley from the Susan B. Anthony List, Michael Mortelli of the Maryland Coalition for Life, and Catherine Glenn Foster of Alliance Defending Freedom, as well as three local pastors.

LifeNews: Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, which co-authored the legislation with the SBA List, have helped state Solicitor General David Cole defend the law to date. The state is expected to appeal today’s ruling. | Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Betlach

AZ Daily Star: Steven Aden, an attorney with the privately funded Alliance Defending Freedom, which is helping the state defend the law, said blocking the law “would frustrate the public’s interest, expressed through its elected representatives, in ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not directly or indirectly support abortions.” He also argues the state has sovereign rights to decide who can participate in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, regardless of who provides most of the money. | also reported on NBC: Judge blocks Arizona from cutting off Planned Parenthood funds because of abortions | Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Betlach

One News Now: Responding to the threat of a lawsuit, Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Radiance Foundation and has gone to court asking for a judge to rule in the Foundation’s favor.

Christian Newswire: Representatives of Priests for Life, Alliance Defending Freedom, 40 Days for Life, the Family Research Council, Students for Life, Operation Rescue, Rock for Life, the Christian Defense Coalition, the National Black Pro-Life Union, the Maryland Family Alliance, the Archdiocese of Washington DC, several local churches and pastors, and many others will join the Maryland Coalition for Life on Monday.

Matt Bowman at the Daily Caller: In early 1912, the ship that “God Himself couldn’t sink” met a watery grave. And in 2012, President Obama decided to pit his titanic Obamacare against God’s people and their religious freedoms. His ship is taking on water fast.