The most recent report on abortion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out and, as usual, it’s grim.
The number of abortions rose from 620,327 in 2020 to 625,978 in 2021. The key drivers in this depressing increase are a greater use of dangerous chemical abortion pills and weakened safety protocols governing the use of such pills.
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Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) said Thursday that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was “an extraordinary religious leader” who “led us to be more faithful followers of Jesus Christ and His Church on earth.”
Smith, who co-chairs the House’s Pro-Life Caucus, and serves as the ranking member of both the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights & International Organizations, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said Benedict was “a powerful defender of the weakest and most vulnerable, including unborn children and their mothers, and ever faithful in both living and promoting the good news of the Gospel.”
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Pennsylvania state Rep. David Zimmerman (R-East Earl) this week proposed a measure enabling prosecution of those who kill or injure an unborn child while committing a non-homicidal crime against the mother.
Current law only allows murder charges for killing an unborn human when the perpetrator is also charged with murdering that child’s mother. Criminal acts against an expecting mother causing a pre-born child’s death that Zimmerman’s legislation would cover include assault, fatal drug delivery and reckless endangerment, according to a memorandum to Pennsylvania House members.
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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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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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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 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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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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House Democrats voted against a motion to recognize unborn babies as “vulnerable populations” Friday.
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