A provision Ohio’s latest budget bill, which was recently passed, gives doctors the right to refuse service to potential patients on religious and moral grounds.
“This simply puts in statute what the practice has been anyways,” Gov. Mike DeWine (R) reportedly said. “Let’s say the doctor is against abortion, the doctor is not doing abortion. If there’s other things that maybe a doctor has a conscience problem with, it gets worked out, somebody else does those things.”
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As of Thursday, Tennessee will now require the remains of certain aborted children to be either buried or cremated. The Unborn Child Dignity Act, passed by the Tennessee legislature in April, applies to those children aborted in ambulatory surgical treatment centers, private offices, or other in-person facilities outlined in Tennessee Code. The new law wouldn’t extend to those children aborted through at-home procedures like abortifacient drugs taken orally.
Under the law, the mother of the aborted child will have the right to determine how and where the child is buried. If the woman is under 18 years of age, then she must obtain parental consent unless a court says otherwise. The mother may also waive her right to determine the child’s final disposition. Documentation, arrangement, and costs of the burial or cremation will be the responsibility of the abortion facility.
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An abortion clinic is dodging Ohio law by suggesting that pregnant mothers hide that they want to abort their unborn baby because of a Down Syndrome diagnosis.
Preterm Cleveland’s website offers a pop up message telling patients that “it is legal in Ohio to get an abortion for any reason,” but warning that “under a new Ohio law, we cannot provide an abortion if we know that the reason is in whole or in part because of a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis.”
“Preterm is open and seeing patients,” the pop up message reads. “Please call us with any questions or concerns.”
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A record number of Americans find abortion “morally acceptable” though American sentiment on the matter is sharply divided, a Gallup poll released Wednesday found.
Forty-seven percent of Americans find abortion acceptable, while 46% think abortion is wrong from a moral perspective, the poll found. The percentage of Americans who find abortion acceptable increased two points, the highest level of support Gallup has found since it began tracking the matter two decades ago.
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The Ohio Senate is set to vote on its version of the state’s two-year, $75 billion budget.
The main items in the Senate’s budget plan, which is similar to the budget on which the Ohio House voted in April, are an income tax cut, along with increased school funding.
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The Supreme Court’s decision to take up Mississippi’s petition to reinstate their landmark ban on late-term abortions has brought forth an outpouring of both giddiness and trepidation from the pro-life community. Pro-life Americans are by turns hailing the opportunity for the greatest legal victory for the unborn in decades and declaring the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a litmus test on the usefulness of the entire conservative legal movement.
I don’t want to downplay Dobb’s importance. Mississippi’s law, protecting the lives of unborn children after 15 weeks, is both one of the bravest acts on behalf of mothers and children by any American legislature and striking in its common sense and humanity. That every one of America’s 50 states is, by judicial fiat, one of the very few places on earth that allow children to be aborted on-demand this late into pregnancy, is a disgrace whose correction is long overdue.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court merely agreeing to hear Mississippi’s appeal after lower courts struck the law down, represents a victory unto itself. To get to this point, at least four justices had to have agreed that this area of the law is in need of clarification and perhaps correction. Amicus briefs from many of the country’s leading pro-life lawyers will introduce arguments at the highest level of American jurisprudence that may seed future legislation and lawsuits even if Mississippi’s law is not allowed to go into effect.
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The city of Lebanon is Ohio’s first “sanctuary city” for the unborn, after the Lebanon City Council voted to unanimously to ban abortions.
“The ordinance makes getting or assisting in an abortion a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to $2,500 in fines and up to a year in jail, according to City Attorney Mark Yurick,” Fox19 reported. “It also bans providing money or assistance to anyone seeking an abortion, even if the abortion takes place outside of the city limits.”
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President Joe Biden has funneled nearly 20 times as much taxpayer money to the abortion industry as Barack Obama had at this point in his presidency, according to an analysis by a leading pro-life organization.
In office for only four months, Biden has directed almost $500 billion in federal funding to the abortion industry through legislation and executive action, in some cases bypassing longstanding restrictions that prevented taxpayer dollars from directly paying for abortion.
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Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Lubbock, Texas on Monday after the city declared itself a “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance that seeks to outlaw abortions.
The ordinance was passed by local voters earlier this month over the opposition of City Council members who warned it would cause a costly legal fight, the Texas Tribune reported.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the abortion ban which would reportedly take effect on June 1.
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Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that Texas had passed an abortion ban protecting “every unborn child with a heartbeat.”
“The heartbeat bill is now LAW in the Lone Star State,” Abbott tweeted Wednesday. “This bill ensures the life of every unborn child with a heartbeat will be saved from the ravages of abortion.”
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Abortion advocates and Democrats reacted with anger and fear to news that the Supreme Court would review a case directly challenging aspects of Roe v. Wade, warning that “reproductive rights are in danger.”
The court announced Monday that it will hear Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization beginning in October, and a decision on the case will likely come by June 2022, CNBC reported. This will be the first major abortion case in which all three of former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justice appointees participate, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who gained a seat on the court after a contentious confirmation process in October.
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Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott indicated Thursday that he will sign a heartbeat abortion bill banning abortions after the unborn baby has reached six weeks gestation.
Texas’ Heartbeat Act passed the state’s Senate Thursday. Abbott highlighted the bill’s passage in a tweet that noted the bill was “on its way to my desk for signing.” The governor also thanked Republican state lawmakers Bryan Hughes and Shelby Slawson for their leadership in introducing the legislation.
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Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday that she is a “Planned Parenthood baby,” praising the nation’s largest abortion provider for saving babies.
The New York Democrat criticized pro-life Republicans and defended Planned Parenthood during a virtual hearing Thursday where she revealed that her mother received prenatal care from Planned Parenthood.
“If we want to talk about Planned Parenthood, let’s talk about how many lives Planned Parenthood has saved and how many babies have been born because of the prenatal care provided by Planned Parenthood,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
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Republican governors across the U.S. are ramping up pro-life legislation as President Joe Biden continues to expand abortion access.
The newest pro-life laws have been signed this week in Arizona, Oklahoma, Montana, and Idaho.
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According to a bill passed Thursday by the Tennessee General Assembly, the unborn are people at the moment of conception. This was accomplished through changes to civil law, by extending wrongful death liability for the unborn all the way to conception. In effect, this legislation confers personhood the moment an egg is fertilized.
The legal change in the civil definition of personhood wasn’t presented in the caption text. It was mentioned once in a single sentence under the bill’s summary. Additionally, the name given to the bill by the sponsors – the “Prenatal Life and Liberty Act” – wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the bill’s language, caption text, or summary.
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Tennessee’s 48-hour waiting period law for abortions was restored temporarily as the state makes its appeal. The decision was made on Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman. He vacated his prior opinion while the state makes an appeal.
In response, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery issued a press release explaining that this decision recognized that Tennessee’s law is “likely constitutional,” and therefore could be enforced.
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Following Governor Bill Lee’s approval, the state of Tennessee will require surgically aborted children to be put to rest humanely, through either burial or cremation. The Unborn Child Dignity Act would only extend to “ambulatory surgical treatment centers,” private offices, or other in-person facilities describe in the Tennessee Code. Meaning, the act wouldn’t cover children aborted through at-home procedures like the pill.
State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) introduced the bill first, and it was picked up by State Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) in the House. The Senate passed the bill on Wednesday, 27-6 along party lines.
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Students for Life of America, a pro-life organization that aims to “recruit, train, and mobilize the pro-life generation to abolish abortion,” recently released a list of Christian universities with ties to Planned Parenthood.
The group announced in a press release that they investigated over 700 colleges and universities, 100 of which had ties to Planned Parenthood. According to the release, the 100 schools are related to Planned Parenthood through “advertising Planned Parenthood internships and career postings, referring students to Planned Parenthood as a resource, incorporating Planned Parenthood into medical school rotations, or hosting events for students with the abortion giant.”
“There is an unholy partnership between a number of Christian schools and the abortion industry,” said Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America in the press release, “but Students for Life is mobilizing pro-life advocates nationwide to cut ties with the nation’s number one abortion vendor.”
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The Tennessee House will determine Monday whether Tennessee abortion clinics must cremate or bury aborted fetal remains.
The sponsors on the bill are State Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) and State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma). Bowling was the first to introduce the bill.
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A Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Ohio law barring doctors from performing abortions they know are motivated by a Down syndrome diagnosis.
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Republican Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has signed the Born Alive Act into law, legislation that requires doctors to care for babies born alive in botched abortions.
Senate File 34, which passed the Wyoming House 48-11, requires doctors to use “commonly accepted means of care” for “the treatment of any infant born alive.”
“Any physician performing an abortion shall take medically appropriate and reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of an infant born alive,” the legislation said. It will go into effect in July.
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After deferring action last week on a bill banning abortion completely, the Tennessee House Health Subcommittee decided to push their decision off until 2022. The “Rule of Law Life Act” was sponsored by State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) initially, and taken up in the House by State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver (R-Lancaster).
As The Tennessee Star reported in early February, the bill saw movement quickly following its introduction. It declared that the Fourteenth Amendment extends the right to life to the unborn, and that life begins at conception.
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The Arizona House passed a bill Thursday that bans abortions based on diagnosis of genetic abnormality, such as Down syndrome.
S.B. 1457 states that the rights of “an unborn child at every stage of development” must be acknowledged and prohibits abortions based on the sex, race, or genetic abnormality of the child. The bill makes exceptions for medical emergencies.
“A person who knowingly” performs such an abortion “is guilty of a class 3 felony,” according to the legislation.
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Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst is introducing a bill that would criminalize any sterilization or abortion procedure performed without informed consent from the patient.
The Iowa Republican’s legislation builds off a September 2020 whistleblower complaint that alleged mass hysterectomies were performed on immigrant women by Dr. Mahendra Amin without their consent while they were being held at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. Amin, a rural gynecologist, has denied any wrongdoing.
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Data from Planned Parenthood’s annual report shows that the organization’s abortion numbers hit a 15-year-high, according to the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List.
Between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019, Planned Parenthood performed 354,871 abortions among other services, such as STI testing and treatment, contraceptive services, cancer screenings and prevention, and other services, according to the organization’s recently-released annual report.
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Republican legislators in Tennessee want fathers to have a say in whether their children can be aborted.
SB 494, introduced Wednesday by state Sen. Mark Pody (R- District 17) would do just that.
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A new pro-life bill claims that constitutionally-protected life begins at conception, banning all abortions except in life-threatening emergencies. Dubbed the “Rule of Law Life Act,” the bill stated that the Fourteenth Amendment extends the right to life to the unborn, the legal precedents in existence allowing abortion derogate the Constitution,
The bill expands upon the previous heartbeat bill, signed into law last year and is currently being debated in the courts. It asserts that established and accepted science supports the notion of human life beginning at conception. Additionally, the bill explicitly prohibits punishing mothers for abortions committed. Only physicians who violate the proposed laws would be subject to punishments awarded for Class C felonies or Class A misdemeanors, as well as the suspension or revocation of their healthcare license.
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Planned Parenthood plans to push “bold agenda items” under the Biden administration, Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson said in an interview.
“We should be pushing bold agenda items in the name of building back better,” McGill Johnson told Business Insider, borrowing President Joe Biden’s campaign slogan.
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President Joe Biden issued executive actions Thursday to direct U.S. tax dollars to promoting abortion here and abroad, and to expand Obamacare.
The actions not only will mean federal funding for abortions in other countries, but could restore more federal funding to Planned Parenthood.
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The national March for Life in Washington D.C. looked very different on Friday compared to past years. Normally, thousands of pro-life demonstrators would march through the Capitol in the yearly march, but this year the thousands turned to social media to watch as a few hundred hand-picked representatives of the pro-life movement marched in D.C. By Friday evening, a Facebook livestream of the event had over 200,000 views.
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Just days after former President Donald Trump declared Jan. 22 as National Sanctity of Human Life Day, newly sworn-in President Joe Biden disregarded the designation and pledged to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law to prevent any changes that might occur if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
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President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have promised to undo a number of President Donald Trump’s pro-life policies.
Biden has indicated that he will reverse the Mexico City Policy, which bars foreign organizations receiving U.S. funding from providing abortions, abortion information or abortion referrals. He has also promised to restore federal funding to Planned Parenthood, to repeal the Hyde Amendment and to renew legal action against the Little Sisters of the Poor.
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Missouri has become the first state in the U.S. where abortions are no longer performed.
A total of 45 abortion facilities closed or halted abortions nationwide in 2020, including in Missouri, which is now the only state without an active abortion facility, according to a survey conducted by Operation Rescue, a pro-life activist organization.
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The United States Supreme Court reinstated a requirement Tuesday that women seeking to obtain abortion pills must pick up the pills in person from a hospital or medical office rather than receiving them by mail.
The case is the Supreme Court’s first ruling on abortion since Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court, the New York Times reported, and the three liberal justices dissented.
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Planned Parenthood is preparing its wish list for former Vice President Joe Biden’s prospective administration, but pro-life forces are gearing up for a fight.
In a Roll Call interview, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said her organization’s top goal in 2021 is abolishing the Hyde Amendment, which for 40 years has prohibited federal funding for most abortions.
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Black ministry leaders hosted a press conference at the Georgia State Capitol to warn voters about Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
The coalition stated that they represented a political spectrum of Black Christians’ concerns regarding the two Democratic candidates’ political stances and their implications ahead of the runoff election.
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Over two dozen black pastors penned an open letter to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock over his declarations of support for abortion using his pastoral background.
Warnock on Dec. 8 tweeted, “I am a pro-choice pastor.”
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The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute has released information on which coronavirus vaccines have been made using cells obtained from aborted babies.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) released a new chart Thursday examining whether eight leading COVID vaccines were either produced or tested using cells obtained through abortions. The institute’s analysis found that most of the vaccine candidates did not use cell lines derived from abortions in their production, though several used abortion-derived cell lines in laboratory testing.
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A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Tennessee can begin outlawing abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as well as prohibit the procedure if it’s based on the race or gender of the fetus.
Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee enacted the so-called “reason bans” earlier this year as part of a sweeping anti-abortion measure. The law gained national attention because it banned abortion as early as six weeks — making it one of the strictest in the country — but it included several other anti-abortion components.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Thursday “we need to consider the former vice president as the President-elect.”
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Incumbent John DeBerry lost Tennessee’s House District 90 to Democratic candidate Torrey Harris on Tuesday. DeBerry lost by nearly 55 points, or just over 11,000 votes.
Although DeBerry had served the office as a Democrat for the last 26 years, the Democratic Party removed him from the primary ballot over disagreements with his views on abortion and education.
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Louisiana voters passed an amendment to the state constitution Tuesday evening establishing that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
The New York reported Tuesday that 65% of Louisiana voters supported Amendment 1, “Love Life Amendment,” an amendment stating that nothing in the Louisiana state constitution protects the right to abortion or abortion funding. Louisiana also has a trigger law automatically banning all abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned, according to NBC News.
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President Donald J. Trump is on the verge of becoming the 16th man to be elected to the White House twice—but, everyone is telling you he is going to lose. Here are the Top 10 reasons why the polls are wrong and Trump gets four more years as the commander-in-chief. 10. Trump voters are not likely voters. Pollsters are making a big mistake when they change their screening of respondents for their turnout model from registered voters to so-called likely voters. Before Trump, this might have made sense because likely voters are, well, the people who are actually going to vote. The problem is that Trump voters are not likely at all. Pollsters ask voters if they voted in previous elections and or primaries to discern if they are likely to show up this time. The problem is that many Trump voters voted for the first time in a long time for Trump in 2016—and they have not voted since. Look for Trump voters to come out of the woodwork and the shadows giving him a huge push the polls completely missed. Go ahead and throw in all the millions of new voters the Republican National Committee has registered, including…
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In a so-called “fact check” of the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, CNN reporter Caroline Kelly presents a barrage of disinformation that hides the realities of late-term abortion and the agenda of the Biden–Harris campaign.
During the debate, Pence stated that “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris support taxpayer funding of abortion all the way up to the moment of birth, late-term abortion.” CNN, which begins each of its fact checks with the phrase “Facts First,” uses a flurry of falsehoods to undercut Pence’s factual statement.
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The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) appropriated over $56,000 to fund a sex-help texting line for teenagers. The resource, BrdsNBz, doesn’t require parental permission.
VDH sent out postcards across the state inviting anyone ages 13-19 to anonymously text a number for sex education. BrdsNBz says it provides “medically-accurate information about sexual health topics” relayed by a trained “Health Education team.” It also promises “local resources and referrals,” though it does not mention what those entail.
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that making Roe v. Wade the law of the land is the only “responsible response” to possible attempts from Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to overrule Roe.
Biden discussed the possibility that Barrett will be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court during a Monday NBC town hall.
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A federal court blocked restrictions placed by President Donald Trump’s administration on Maryland abortion clinics Thursday.
The ruling, which only applies to Maryland, blocks the administration’s restrictions on federal family planning funds for Maryland organizations that make abortion referrals or provide abortions, such as Planned Parenthood, Politico reported.
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In the face of overwhelming facts to the contrary, five prominent “fact checkers” are claiming that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t support legalizing abortion up until birth. To reach this false conclusion, these individuals repeatedly use a propaganda technique condemned by George Orwell, the author of 1984.
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Abortion rights groups on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging a newly enacted Tennessee law that would require women undergoing drug-induced abortions be informed the procedure can be reversed.
The complaint is the second legal battle targeting a sweeping anti-abortion measure Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed off on earlier this year.
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President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to reinstate a requirement that a woman must visit her health care provider to obtain abortion drugs.
“Given that surgical methods of abortion remain widely available, the enforcement of longstanding safety requirements for a medication abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy does not constitute a substantial obstacle to abortion access, even if the COVID-19 pandemic has made obtaining any method of abortion in person somewhat riskier,” acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall said, according to CNN.
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