Tag Archives: Topic: Abortion

Today, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed an unopposed motion for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, requesting that the court enjoin the Obama administration from enforcing the HHS “contraception” mandate against Johnson Welded Products, Inc.

Becket Fund: We are encouraged by today’s hearing before the full 10th Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Kyle Duncan, General Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and counsel on the case. “Being heard before all eight judges – rather than the typical three-judge panel – signifies the importance of the case and the arguments being made. We stand firm in our belief that Hobby Lobby should have the right to opt out of a provision that infringes on their religious beliefs, and we look forward to a favorable outcome.”

Denver Post: Federal judges peppered lawyers for the federal government and Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. with questions Thursday as the two squared off over the corporation’s challenge to a part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.

LifeNews: During a House Judiciary Committee Hearing discussing the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (HR 1797) held on May 23, 2013, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) courageously displayed photos released by Operation Rescue depicting one aborted baby that was apparently killed after birth at a Houston, Texas, abortion clinic operated by Douglas Karpen.

Ed Whelan at National Review: There are two good reasons why the DOJ attorney’s argument that vindicating the RFRA rights of the business owners would violate the Establishment Clause was an “unexpected twist.” First, DOJ never made that argument in either of its Seventh Circuit briefs in the two cases. Second, there is good reason that it didn’t, for the argument is inane.

Boston Globe: A leading antiabortion group plans to use Virginia’s 2013 statewide races as a strategic proving ground ahead of next year’s midterm elections, raising the stakes in a gubernatorial contest marked by heated debate over social issues. The Susan B. Anthony List . . .

NewsObserver.com: Senate Bill 132 requires that the state’s health curriculum teach preventable causes of preterm birth including induced abortion, smoking, alcohol consumption, illicit drug use and poor prenatal care.

LifeNews: A former worker at an abortion clinic now faces charges after helping a friend to give birth and then leaving the baby to die.

USA Today: A prominent Nebraska abortion clinic is facing a new legal challenge from state officials who want to revoke the license of the clinic’s only nurse because of allegations of questionable care.

LifeNews: During a hearing on a bill that would ban late-term abortions nationwide, an expert on human embryonic development informed members of the committee that unborn babies have the capacity to feel pain as early as 8 weeks.

C-FAM: While debates over abortion laws and international norms continue, a stealthy campaign is underway to gain universal acceptance for the tools and training to do abortions, whether legal or not.

Ben Kesling And Louise Radnofsky at Wall Street Journal (access via Google): One of the cases before the Seventh Circuit was brought by K&L Contractors Inc. and its owners, who argued that the general contractor’s corporate mission mirrors that of its directors and majority owners. Cyril and Jane Korte, who own the company, are Roman Catholics. “A company is an extension” of its owners’ beliefs, said Edward White, K&L’s lawyer

LifeSiteNews: “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,” said Gregory S. Baylor, ADF senior counsel. “That’s no different for Geneva College, a Christian-run college that simply wants to abide by the very faith it espouses and teaches. “The court has done the right thing in allowing Geneva College to remain in this lawsuit together with Seneca Hardwood Lumber Co. to ensure that the government doesn’t punish people of faith for making decisions consistent with that faith.”

Religion Clause Blog: The second case argued yesterday was Grote v. Sebelius. (Audio of the full oral argument.) In the case an Indiana federal district court refused to grant a preliminary injunction to a for-profit business that manufactures vehicle safety systems and its Catholic owners who claim that their religious liberty rights are infringed by the mandate.

Steven H. Aden at American Thinker: In the wake of the Kermit Gosnell prosecution and conviction, a number of abortion advocates have attempted to argue that state-created restrictions on abortion may actually be to blame.

AP: In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is asking a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.

Washington Post: By the government’s own estimate, that means 100 million Americans might not have contraceptive coverage, said Matt Bowman, an Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer representing the Grotes in one of the two cases heard Wednesday. That could undercut the government’s argument that the need to carry out the mandate is so compelling it trumps the couple’s religious beliefs.

FRC Washington Update: Today, Grote, the family-owned auto lighting company, pled its case before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, represented by our good friends at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Of the 60-plus lawsuits filed, Grote was one of first for-profit companies to challenge the constitutionality of the mandate. With almost 500 full-time employees, the owners of Grote are fighting for the ability to operate their business in accordance with their Catholic faith–a cause Hobby Lobby certainly understands.

CNSNews at St. Louis Review: “This is the court directly under the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is helping to represent the Grote family in their suit. “So its decision on this religious freedom issue will be a precursor to whether (the health care act) can be used against religious freedom across the country.” Alliance Defending Freedom, until recently known as the Alliance Defense Fund, is a Christian legal organization founded in 1994 that advocates for the religious liberty of Americans and people around the world. According to Bowman, it is currently involved in 25 lawsuits that seek to overturn the HHS mandate.

Chicago Tribune: Grote Industries, a Catholic-owned manufacturer of vehicle safety and lighting systems in Madison, Ind., made similar arguments before the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday, adding that the distinction between a company and its owner or controlling shareholders exists for “some purposes, but not moral purposes.” “No doubt here the Grote family is being forced to choose,” lawyer Matthew Bowman argued. If they choose to disobey the mandate, they “forfeit the benefits of doing business at all according to their morality.” | Hat tip: How Appealing

Barry Lynn at Washington Post: At the behest of the Catholic bishops and their fundamentalist Christian allies, far-right legal groups have filed a slew of cases insisting that secular corporations and other employers have a right according to the principle of religious freedom to deny contraceptive coverage to the men and women who work for them. Among those waging this crusade are the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, TV evangelist Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization founded by radio and TV preachers.

LifeNews: In a story making news this week, last August a twelve-year old girl Washington girl was raped and impregnated by a thirty-one year-old man who took her to a Washington State Planned Parenthood and forced her to have an abortion. According to reports, she told Planned Parenthood that the father was a fourteen-year old boy in an effort to protect the identity of her rapist; presumably at the recommendation of her rapist.

Mailee Smith at National Review: This week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Arizona’s law prohibiting abortion at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy – a law that was based on uncontroverted medical evidence that abortion’s risks to maternal health increase dramatically at 20 weeks gestation.

Liberty Counsel: “What we ultimately need is a Supreme Court that will understand the rule of law, and abortion has no place in this jurisprudence. It’s not a right under the Constitution. It is simply an invention of justices back in 1973,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.

LifeSiteNews: No matter the crimes of their parents, babies conceived in rape have the same right to life as the rest of us. That’s the idea behind a massive petition drive aimed at overturning Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s veto of a bill that would have allowed people who participate in ObamaCare’s state health exchange to opt out of funding abortions with their contributions to the pool.

LifeNews: The Internal Revenue Service conducted an internal probe over its targeting of pro-life and conservative groups that ended well before the 2012 presidential election, but reports show the results were hidden. The agency hasn’t officially reprimanded a single staffer over it.

Center for Reproductive Rights: Draw the Line launched in October 2012 with the goal of collecting signatures from men and women around the country for the Bill of Reproductive Rights as a way to demonstrate that the majority of Americans support safe access to healthcare for women.

Michael Norton at Life News: Guilty as charged. That was a Philadelphia jury’s verdict against abortionist Kermit Gosnell for multiple murders of babies in his Pennsylvania abortion facility. The jury also convicted Gosnell of hundreds of lesser criminal offenses. To avoid the death penalty, Gosnell agreed to serve the rest of his life in prison. This sordid chapter in the battle for the life on the unborn child is now over.

Politico: Obamacare’s birth control mandate will go before four different appeals courts over the next three weeks as private businesses that object to the policy on religious liberty grounds bring a barrage of lawsuits that opponents hope to get before the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as this fall.

ACLU Blog: Nearly 60 lawsuits have been filed across the country challenging the federal rule that employers include contraception in the insurance they provide employees. Four courts of appeals are now poised to hear arguments in these cases, and one of these many cases is likely headed to the Supreme Court.

FRC (video embedded): Join FRC as we promote Live Action’s new video series, exposing America’s late-term abortion industry. Speakers include: – Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council – Lila Rose, President, Live Action – Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) – Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.)

Washington Post: These Republicans want to move ahead despite recent court decisions that have struck down similar state laws. The GOP lawmakers also are taking on their own leadership, which has shown little desire to hold votes on contentious social issues.

LifeNews: What do established sources say about the survival rates of babies born at various stages of gestation?

Irish Times: Abortion legislation is incompatible with the core values of human rights, Prof William Binchy, legal adviser to the anti-abortion campaign, has told the Oireachtas committee. He said those values respected and protected the equal dignity and worth of every human being.

Bakersfield Californian: A draft city ordinance that would have restricted abortion in Bakersfield was placed on hold Monday when the Bakersfield City Council’s Legislative and Litigation Committee voted 3-0 to table its discussion indefinitely, and instead, ordered the drafting of a resolution that could be less restrictive. The so-called Human Life Ordinance would have placed “Restrictions on Termination of Human Life” . . .

Isaacson v. Horne, No. No. 12-16670 (9th Circuit)

Before: Mary M. Schroeder, Andrew J. Kleinfeld, and Marsha S. Berzon, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge Berzon; Concurrence by Judge Kleinfeld

Our question is whether the Constitution permits the Arizona legislature to prohibit abortion beginning at twenty weeks gestation, before the fetus is viable. We hold that it does not.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews Wednesday immediately following his oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on behalf of an Indiana-based job provider challenging the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate.

Paul Coleman at the Christian Post: The United Kingdom’s multitude of “equality” provisions will protect nearly anyone born with a disability, although it is perfectly legal to prevent disabled people from being born, up to the point of birth (simply because they have a disability). The U.K.’s abortion law is therefore an example of the most blatant and basic form of discrimination imaginable.

National Review: Sam Kazman and Michael Carvin have a great Forbes op-ed about their new Obamacare lawsuit, which could invalidate key portions of the law in the 33 states that did not set-up state-based health-insurance exchanges. Essentially, the lawsuit alleges that the IRS illegally rewrote the Affordable Care Act so that both the employer mandate and accompanying government subsidies applied in the 33 states that lack their own health-insurance exchanges . . . You can read the complaint here.

Washington Times: But by Monday, Mr. Jackson, the first black candidate Republicans have chosen to run statewide since 1988, was being slammed by critics for statements he’s made in the past likening Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and that gays and lesbians are “very sick people psychologically, mentally, and emotionally and they see everything through the lens of homosexuality.”

The Hill: The legislation is aimed at crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which are clinics often set up by a church or other anti-abortion groups. Democrats in Congress and other pro-abortion groups say these clinics are known to indicate they can perform abortions in order to attract pregnant women patients, and then try to convince them to carry their babies to term.

LifeNews: A man in Washington state took a 12-year-old girl to a Planned Parenthood clinic for an abortion to cover up his sexual assault on the teenage girl. The abortion business apparently did the abortion without hesitation.

LifeSiteNews: A 20-year-old man has confessed to smothering a 14-year-old girl, keeping her body in a suitcase, and trying to set her remains on fire because she would not have an abortion, police say.

John B. Londegran at Public Discourse: It is neither the impossibility of writing clear laws nor our inability to witness abortion that stops us from making it illegal. Instead it is the will to kill for convenience that drives some people to sustain the fiction that human life begins at birth.

LifeNews: The Maryland Board of Physicians has permanently revoked the license of abortionist Nicola I. Riley in a scathing 24-page order issued May 6, 2013, that prohibits her from ever again applying for licensure or reinstatement of her license.

LifeSiteNews (includes video): Operation Rescue recently sent a postcard to abortion facilities all over the country telling its workers and assistants, “Don’t go to jail for something your employer is doing or told you to do!” In the Karpen case, Operation Rescue, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and Abby Johnson’s And Then There Were None helped the women leave the abortion industry and tell their story.

LifeNews: The similarities between convicted abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell and Houston-based abortion practitioner Douglas Karpen are striking.

LifeNews: The last three late-term abortion clinics of what was once was a chain of six in Northern California is closing this week, reports Wynette Sills of 40 Days for Life Sacramento.

The Hill: Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) will offer a bill to ban late-term abortions in response to the gruesome case of Kermit Gosnell, an abortion provider recently convicted of killing three viable infants.

NC Register: As the trial of Kermit Gosnell exposed to the world the evil, ugly and indefensible truth of Big Abortion, Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly National Abortion Rights Action League) were quick to throw him under the bus, applauding his conviction and implausibly blaming the pro-life community for Gosnell’s house of horrors.

AP: A federal judge granted a request Friday to temporarily block enforcement of a new Arkansas law that bans most abortions 12 weeks into a pregnancy. | Edwards v. Beck, No. 4:13-cv-00224-SWW (E.D. Ark.)

Devex: The legislators called on heads of state gathering at both meetings in June to recognize family planning and sexual and reproductive health rights as “fundamental” to gender equality and development. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health and the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development last week gathered over 50 parliamentarians from across the world to show a united voice in making sure the powerful clubs of wealthy countries talk about family planning during their meetings next month.

LifeNews: Gigi Aguiliar, Deborah Edge, and Krystal Rodriguez came forward after receiving a postcard from Operation Rescue. The pro-life community has now connected them with attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom, who helped them contact authorities in Texas.

Life News: A number of Americans have helped plan this event including representatives from Priests for Life, the Pro-Life Secretariat of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Alliance Defending Freedom, Susan B. Anthony List, Students for Life of America, LiveAction, and Americans United for Life.

Liberty Counsel: Today the State of Arkansas defended the Human Heartbeat Protection Act against an ACLU motion for a preliminary injunction. Liberty Counsel is seeking to intervene on behalf of a crisis pregnancy center and also filed an amicus brief on behalf of the law.

The Hill: Only two Democrats sided with Republicans in the party-line 229-195 vote — Jim Matheson (Utah) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.). All Republicans voted in favor of repeal.

Catherine Foster at Alliance Defending Freedom: Are the so-called “clinics” that bad, that an inspection would result in their closure? If so, politicians and bureaucrats are doing women no favors by deliberately choosing not to conduct regular inspections of abortion facilities. Pro-abortion partisan politics leaving women to be herded in for abortions in a “bad gas station restroom”…sounds pretty ugly, doesn’t it?

PilotOnline.com: A bill banning private insurers from offering abortion coverage through future online marketplaces has cleared the North Carolina House.

Bangor Daily News: The thorny issue of abortion rights came to the forefront Thursday in Augusta with the introduction of three bills that sparked strong words even before they were introduced to lawmakers.

Politico: Liberty University’s challenge to the health reform law will go back before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., on Thursday, with the school focused on getting Obamacare back before the Supreme Court. Liberty’s lawsuit is the most wide ranging of the outstanding legal challenges to the health law, hitting everything from contraceptive coverage to the employer mandate.

Chicago Weekly: Ginsburg’s decades-long struggle for women’s rights is likely to prove one of the most persistent endeavors in modern American legal history, but she expressed sadness that the prevailing attitude toward such efforts to advance gender equality remains lukewarm at best: “In some places, the word ‘feminism’ is the ‘F’ word.”

Bloomberg: U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright in Little Rock in a ruling yesterday denied a request by the state’s attorney general to dismiss the lawsuit. The judge said the two doctors have standing to sue even though the law hasn’t gone into effect and they have sufficiently alleged the law infringes women’s constitutional rights.

National Religious Broadcasters Email (links to Alliance Defending Freedom press release): At the government’s own request, a federal appellate court has dismissed the Obama administration’s appeal of an order that stopped the President from enforcing his abortion pill mandate against Tyndale House Publishers.

LifeNews: While awaiting a response Abby Johnson’s ministry, And Then There Were None, offered the three whistleblowers some financial assistance, and the Alliance Defending Freedom handled their legal concerns.

AP: The 28-year-old son of a Florida fertility doctor has been charged by federal authorities with tricking his girlfriend into taking a pill used to induce labor and cause an abortion, killing the fetus she was carrying.

LifeNews: Planned Parenthood, over the years, has run some pretty shocking ad campaigns. Without a doubt, this one is the worst I’ve ever seen . . .

Todd Starnes at Fox News: IRS Told Pro-Life Group Not to Picket Planned Parenthood

Washington Examiner: IRS officials refused to grant tax exempt status to two pro-life organizations because of their position on the abortion issue, according to a non-profit law firm, which said that one group was pressured not to protest a pro-choice organization that endorsed President Obama during the last election.

LifeNews: Attorney General Eric Holder told a Congressional committee yesterday he is unsure if a federal law stopping after-birth abortions has been enforced.

Wall Street Journal: Scientists have used cloning technology to transform human skin cells into embryonic stem cells, an experiment that may revive the controversy over human cloning.

Life News: The Lt. Governor of Texas is today demanding an investigation of an abortion practitioner who is considered the second Kermit Gosnell.

Life News: Due to legal issues raised by the former clinic workers, Operation Rescue contacted attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom, which handled many of the women’s legal concerns. Once the women quit their jobs, finances became an issue. Newman contacted Abby Johnson, whose new organization And Then There Were None, which offers support to former abortion clinic workers. She agreed to help the women with some financial assistance.

NPR: “The tentacles of this type of approach to abortion are all over the country,” says Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. “He is not an outlier. You just have to do a Google search and you’ll find in the last several months many other examples” of rogue abortion providers, she said.

Jeanneane Maxon at Washington Times: It is clear the time is now to protect women and children victimized by Big Abortion by enacting common-sense clinic regulations, informed consent requirements, mandated reporting of sexual abuse, parental involvement in young girl’s abortion decisions and legal protections for born-alive infants. Americans United for Life has been championing these laws for decades, providing model legislation and protecting women from unregulated Big Abortion.

EagNews: However the superintendent and board have declared that Planned Parenthood will continue to teach our children as long as its grant from the federal government lasts.

Center for Reproductive Rights: The Center for Reproductive Rights will soon file a lawsuit challenging both HB 1456 and HB 1305 on behalf the Red River Women’s Clinic before they are scheduled to take effect on August 1, 2013. The Center filed today’s proposed supplemental complaint, MKB Management Corp d/b/a Red River Women’s Clinic, Tammi Kromenaker, Kathryn Eggleston, M.D., v. Birch Burdick and Terry Dwelle, M.D., along with law firm Turman & Lang Ltd.