On November 18, 2022, all charges for defiant trespass were dismissed against four members of the “Red Rose Rescue” movement who staged a peaceful sit-in at a local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Trenton, NJ on December 22, 2018. The four, Father Christopher (Fidelis) Moscinksi, Will Goodman, Patrice Woodward, and Matthew Connolly, had been engaged the ministry of offering women in the waiting room a red rose and literature on alternatives to abortion.

In an unusual development in the case, Thomas More Special Counsel Christopher Ferrara successfully argued for the right to raise the defense of necessity at trial on the ground that the women about to undergo abortions had never been given information on the grave psychological consequences of abortion as shown by studies, including the increased risk of suicide, drug abuse, exacerbation of preexisting mental illness and PTSD.

Briefing and argument by attorney Ferrara persuaded the Trenton Municipal Court to allow the defense, which the State would have had to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt. “The argument here was unusual,” Ferrara observed, “in that it did not focus on defense of life but rather on the lack of informed consent to abortion, for which women have the right to sue for damages in New Jersey.”

“The dismissal of all charges against these courageous pro-life advocates brings to an end the long saga of this case,” Ferrara added. “One can only admire the willingness of these four to make an offering of their own bodies, as prisoners, to save the unborn. Repeatedly they have immolated themselves for the sake of innocent life, even at the cost of arrest and imprisonment in the tradition of civil disobedience that brought about the success of the Civil Rights movement of the Sixties. This time, however, they were spared that penalty.”

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“Christopher Ferrara and the Thomas More Society helped us continue our pro-life witness in the Trenton court,” said Father Moscinski. “Before all charges were dismissed, the judge allowed us to assert the defense of necessity at the upcoming trial. Now that will not be necessary. Ultimately, the prosecutor asked for our charges of trespass to be dismissed. We are grateful for the remarkably effective representation of Christopher Ferrara and the support of the Thomas More Society. May we see many more such victories for the cause of Life!”

Read the winning brief in State v. Goodman, et al here.

The post All Charges Dismissed Against Catholic Priest, Pro-Life Advocates Who Saved Babies From Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Instead of supporting mothers and babies in need, New Jersey leaders are dumping huge amounts of resources into expanding the billion-dollar abortion industry this winter.

On Friday, state Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced a new $5 million taxpayer-funded grant to “expand the pool of abortion providers” in New Jersey. The Democrat governors of California and New York also created abortion training grants this year.

The money, which Gov. Phil Murphy budgeted for 2023, will be used to train more students and medical workers to become abortionists. Earlier this year, the Murphy administration began allowing midwives, advanced practice nurses and physician assistants to perform abortions as well as doctors.

Platkin said Rutgers University will receive the grant money to create and implement the new “New Jersey Reproductive Training and Education Initiative.”

“As other states shut down access to abortion care following the Dobbs ruling, we are taking steps to ensure our state has a sufficient number of health professionals to provide these important services,” Platkin said in a statement. “New Jersey is committed to supporting and defending the right to choose and we will continue working to facilitate access to abortion services for those who seek them.”

ACTION ALERT: To complain about this, Contact Gov. Phil Murphy.

However, tens of thousands of doctors confirm that abortions are not health care, and unborn babies are second patients in every pregnancy.

New Jersey has one of the highest abortion rates in the country and some of the most permissive pro-abortion laws. It forces taxpayers to fund elective abortions and soon will force private health insurance plans to cover the killing practice, too. According to government statistics, more than 22,000 unborn babies are aborted every year.

Several states now allow nurse practitioners and midwives to abort unborn babies. A 2013 California study found that abortions done by non-physicians were twice as likely to have complications as those done by licensed physicians.

Research indicates most doctors are unwilling to abort unborn babies, and the number of abortionists is dwindling.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 1982, there were 2,918 abortion doctors practicing in America, but by 2011, there were only 1,720. A number of abortion clinics have closed in the past few years because abortionists retired and no one was willing to take their places, according to a 2016 Bloomberg study.

ACTION ALERT: To complain about this, Contact Gov. Phil Murphy.

The post New Jersey Will Spend $5 Million to Train Abortionists to Kill Babies appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany celebrated the birth of her baby boy on Tuesday by sharing her family’s joy on social media.

McEnany, a pro-life advocate, said she and her husband, Sean Gilmartin, are experiencing a “truly joyful time” with their newborn son, Nash, and his big sister, Blake, the Independent Journal Review reports.

“[Sean] & I are thrilled to announce the birth of our son, Nash! What a truly joyful time. God has blessed us immensely!” she wrote Thursday on Twitter, sharing photos of their family.

McEnany is a host on Fox News, and Gilmartin is a former Major League Baseball pitcher with the Tampa Bay Rays. Their daughter Blake was born in 2019, and Gilmartin said they would like to have more children.

“Not sure of the timeline, but we’re letting God decide on that one,” he said in a recent interview, according to Breitbart.

Becoming a parent is “a big perspective shift,” Gilmartin continued. “You’re no longer doing things for yourself. Obviously, that comes with getting married and then obviously when you have a child, too. It’s selfless work. You’re doing everything for the benefit of your child. Making sure they’re protected, they’re safe, they’re fed. You know, everything is geared towards making sure their safety is the number one priority.”

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McEnany’s Fox News co-host, Emily Campagno, also celebrated with the family this week, describing baby Nash as a “good and perfect gift” from God.

“The first thing that came to my mind was James 1:17, ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.’ None more so than that sweet baby boy Nash,” she said.

McEnany was a strong voice for the rights of unborn babies in the White House and she continues to be on Fox News. In April, she mourned for “the 62 million children that do not exist, that have been aborted because of Roe v. Wade” during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

The post Kayleigh McEnany Gives Birth to Baby Boy: “God Has Blessed Us” appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Hillary Clinton advocated for the killing of unborn babies in abortions again this week, claiming abortion is a “woman’s right”and restricting it is anti-democratic.

Meanwhile, she would said she would never vote for a pro-life woman for president even if that woman would become America’s first female president.

A failed Democrat presidential candidate, Clinton said she hopes more women will run for office – but only the “right kind of woman.”

“It’s important not just for women to run, but for women who do run to be committed to the women’s rights agenda, to the democracy agenda, to be on the side of making it easier to vote, to ensuring that the votes are counted correctly,” she said.

Clinton continued: “I think you’ll see women on the Republican side running this time, and they’re not women I would ever vote for, to be honest … I’m not going to vote for a woman who would take my rights away, or my daughter’s rights away, or my granddaughter’s rights away.”

Globe Echo reports Clinton, a former secretary of state, discussed the overturning of Roe v. Wade on Friday during the Women’s Voices Summit at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

She likened the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health to oppressive regimes in Sudan and Afghanistan. The June decision overturned Roe and returned the power to regulate abortion to the people. Now, 13 states are enforcing laws that ban or strictly limit abortions, and nine more are battling in court to do so.

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Although most countries have stronger legal protections for unborn babies than the U.S. did under Roe, Clinton argued that allowing Americans to decide abortion laws through their elected leaders is oppressive and undemocratic, according to the report.

“This struggle is between autocracy and democracy from our country to places we can’t even believe we’re being compared to,” she said.

However, many free countries also protect unborn babies from abortion, including Malta, Poland and much of Central and South America – something Clinton neglected to mention. These countries recognize that unborn babies are valuable human beings who also deserve rights.

To Clinton, the killing of unborn babies in abortions for any reason must be an unrestricted, taxpayer-funded “right.” In an interview Thursday with the leftist site The 19^th, she repeatedly referred to the human rights abuse as a “right.”

She said the overturning of Roe should serve as “a reminder that no political victory or defeat is permanent,” and voters must keep fighting for legalized abortion even in pro-life states like Arkansas.

“If we walk away from half of our states and we say it’s too hard, or they’ve already made up their minds, we are giving up on the opportunity for reform and change,” Clinton told The 19th. “We may not have the political power right now to make those changes, but you’ve got to keep working. You can’t walk away because it’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard, or we wouldn’t have these debates about what we’re trying to achieve.”

But abortions have destroyed the rights of tens of millions of daughters and granddaughters in the U.S. Since 1973, more than 63 million unborn babies were killed in abortions under Roe. The horrific ruling forced states to legalize abortions for any reason up to viability and allowed abortions without limits up to birth. Only a few other countries in the world, such as China and North Korea, allow such extreme pro-abortion laws.

Now, states finally may protect unborn babies again, and more than a dozen already are doing so. New research estimates these pro-life laws have saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives since June.

The post Hillary Clinton: I Would Never Vote for a Pro-Life Woman as America’s First Woman President appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The Hope Clinic for Women, a late-term abortion clinic in Granite City, Illinois, made calls to 911 two days in a row. The suffering patients were transported to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a Level 1 Trauma Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The first emergency transport was on November 8, 2022, at about 12 noon, and involved a 42-year-old woman suffering from vaginal bleeding. The computer-aided dispatch transcript of the 911 call identified the emergency as high priority. According to Operation Rescue associates who were present on the sidewalk that day, Erin King and Yogendra Shah were the abortionists on duty.

The second emergency call was initiated at 6:15 p.m. on November 9, 2022. The computer-aided dispatch transcript reveals the emergency involved a female experiencing procedure complications, also noted as high priority.  According to the pro-lifers present, Erin King and, presumably, Tessa Madden were on duty that day when several “very late-term” women presented at the facility.

The nurse who called 911 from the clinic sounded disturbingly cheerful, even playful, concerning the hemorrhaging 42-year-old woman. And, in the call the next day, her behavior was even more alarming.

“By her laughter, this so-called nurse gives a clue to the degree of concern this facility’s staff had for this suffering woman who was possibly in a life-threatening situation – or any woman who enters the doors of this hopeless facility for that matter,” said Troy Newman, Operation Rescue President.

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Calls made to 911 from this clinic continue to be vague in nature compared to typical 911 call communications concerning medical emergencies. Dispatchers are generally much more thorough in their questioning to determine the patient’s condition. The term “requires a higher level of care,” used repeatedly by this facility, seems to be an all-encompassing description that identifies the patient’s condition as “high priority.”

Just since the spring of 2020, Operation Rescue has now reported on 15 calls to 911 requiring transport of women to nearby hospitals for emergent follow-up care.

“This is a dangerous, callous, late-term abortion facility where well-developed babies are killed, and the well-being of their mothers are, likewise, disregarded in the process,” said Newman. “Operation Rescue will continue to expose the truth about this hopelessly dark killing center.”

LifeNews Note: Anne Reed writes for Operation Rescue.

The post Nurse Laughs During 911 Call After Abortion Clinic Injures Woman in Botched Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Attorney General Jeff Landry of Louisiana announced on Monday the launch of a new tip line where the public can submit library books that could contain content inappropriate for children.

The “Protecting Minors” tip line opens a gateway for the public to submit books found in public libraries which “contain extremely graphic sexual content that is far from age appropriate for young audiences,” according to its website. It asks tipsters to describe “how this type of taxpayer-subsided sexualization of children” has impacted them or their families, as well as detail interactions with “librarians, teachers, school board members, district superintendents, and/or library supervisors.”

The tip line was announced during a meeting with the Slidell, Louisiana, public about the “important work [the] Cyber Crime Unit does every day to protect Louisiana children from exploitation,” the Office of the Attorney General told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a prepared statement.

The meeting also “outlined the very real risks & potential consequences of the early sexualization of children, and encouraged parents and guardians to remain not only engaged in their child’s development but also vigilant over their content consumption,” the statement read.

“Since taking office, Attorney General Jeff Landry has been committed to working with Louisiana communities to protect minors from exploitation, including early sexualization, grooming, sex trafficking, and abuse,” the statement read. “Recently, he spoke with parents and grandparents who are concerned about specific books of a sexual nature that are not age-appropriate yet remain accessible to young children within public libraries.”

The tip line “was created to give parents across the State a voice in this matter,” according to the statement.

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The tip line is similar to a tip line announced by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia in January 2022. The tip line, conducted through an email address to the governor’s office, invited parents to report “divisive content” being taught in classrooms. The email, however, was deactivated win September, VPM News reported.

The Louisiana office told the DCNF in the statement that it “remind[s] the community that local public libraries are controlled by their local governments, and the community should have a say in those standards.”

The tip line puzzled Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director for the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, who told Daily Advertiser that the AG’s announcement “puzzled” her.

“Libraries have long had policies on the books that allow any library user to raise a concern about a book,” she said. “Every book has its reader. Public libraries serve a wide range of information needs for everyone in the community. There are going to be books that people disagree with or don’t think are suitable for their kids. But they’re there because they serve the information needs of someone in the community.”

The American Library Association did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

LifeNews Note: Alexa Schwerha writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.

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Hillary Clinton joined PBS’s Amanpour and Company on Thursday to preview the Clinton Presidential Center’s upcoming summit on the status of women’s rights around the world. For the former Secretary of State, the state of women’s rights in Iran, in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and in Ukraine where Russian soldiers use rape as a weapon is analogous to Arkansas, where pro-lifers run the state government. For host Christiane Amanpour, this was a completely normal thing to say.

Amanpour began the interview by asking Clinton her thoughts on the “unfinished business” of women’s rights.

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This led Clinton to proclaim that much progress has been made, “But we are also in a period of time where there is a lot of pushback and much of the progress that has been, I think, taken for granted by too many people is under attack. Literally under attack in places like Iran or Afghanistan or Ukraine where rape is a tactic of war, or under attacks by political and cultural forces in a country like our own when it comes to women’s health care and bodily autonomy.”

Instead of halting the conversation because one of those things is not like the others, Amanpour wanted to focus on pro-lifers, “We’re going to go around the world with you in a second. But first, about — precisely what you’re talking about and where you are. Arkansas itself, I believe, rapidly moved to make a woman’s right to choose illegal in your state or your former home state and you are hosting this conference. Talk to me about the confluence of both these events. This pushback on American women’s rights at the same time as you’re trying to figure a way forward.”

After using the opportunity to promote the summit, Clinton expressed some hope over “what we’ve seen particularly since the Dobbs decision across our country is that when voters, both men and women, but led by women have a chance to vote on these draconian abortion restrictions. They do not accept them. They overturned them. They certainly want to limit the reach of the government into the most intimate, private parts of our life.”

Following some more self-promotion, Amanpour lamented that the two were even having this conversation in 2022, “But, I mean, how much persuasion can we expect when it comes to our — and I’m speaking as a woman, basic rights. Whether it’s in the United States or around the world. As you said, they are human rights. At what point should these be enshrined even in the American law and Constitution even. I mean, I’m probably exaggerating. But it’s extraordinary in 2022 that this basic right of women, half the world’s population is still at risk.”

Clinton responded by hyping the recently passed gay marriage bill, before turning to abortion-related fearmongering, “So, we’ll see what happens in states like Arkansas and so many others when we face real world problems. As we have seen already where women with miscarriages go in for medical care and are turned away. When maybe, God forbid, a woman dies because that health care is denied her.”

If those women are being denied medical care, it isn’t because of the laws. It’s because people like Clinton and Amanpour misrepresent them leading to unnecessary panic.

This segment was sponsored by viewers like you.

LifeNews Note: Alex Christy writes for Newsbusters, where this originally appeared.

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A new mandate from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration will force private health insurance plans in the state to cover elective abortions.

New Jersey already has one of the highest abortion rates in the country and some of the most permissive pro-abortion laws. However, officials in Murphy’s administration asserted that the regulation is necessary because some women can’t afford abortions, NJ Advance Media reports.

In a new report, the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance said private health insurance plans should cover elective abortions as part of reproductive health care because “state law preserves the right to terminate a pregnancy without government interference.”

Department officials said the mandate will go into effect Jan. 1, WABC-TV News 7 reports. It will apply to groups that sell insurance through the New Jersey health insurance marketplace Get Covered New Jersey, a spokeswoman for department Commissioner Marlene Caride told NJ Advance Media.

The School Employees’ Health Benefits Program and the State Health Benefits Plan, which cover public employees, also will be required to cover elective abortions by 2024, according to the report.

The Murphy administration introduced the regulation after the state legislature rejected a similar proposal last year. New Jersey already forces taxpayer to pay for elective abortions through Medicaid, and more than 22,000 unborn babies are aborted in the state every year.

New Jersey Right to Life executive director Marie Tasy told LifeNews that the governor is doing the bidding of the billion-dollar abortion chain Planned Parenthood, which has donated heavily to his political campaigns.

ACTION ALERT: To complain about the new mandate, Contact Gov. Phil Murphy.

“Announcing this regulation to include abortion on demand coverage up to the moment of birth on Thanksgiving Eve and once again fast tracking the process during the Christmas season and depriving NJ citizens of adequate public input on the matter demonstrates a display of unparalleled abortion zealotry and repugnant arrogance by Governor Murphy and his administration,” Tasy said.

She said Murphy already has forced state taxpayers to give $114 million tax dollars to Planned Parenthood since being elected.

NJ Advance Media also described the new regulation as “fast-tracked,” and noted that religious employers are not automatically exempted; instead, they must request and receive approval to be exempted from the pro-abortion mandate.

Unsurprisingly, the abortion chain Planned Parenthood praised the governor and his new mandate in a statement last week, while describing the killing of unborn babies in abortions as a “universal right.”

Earlier this year, New Jersey Right to Life warned voters about how extreme state Democrat leaders are on abortion. The pro-life group pointed to a USA Today editorial by Murphy and Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver that admits they also support late-term abortions and oppose parental consent for minors.

“They don’t care that the people of NJ don’t support such an extreme edict!” the pro-life organization responded.

Polls consistently show that a strong majority of Americans support legal protections for unborn babies, parental consent for minors, bans on taxpayer-funded abortions and other limits.

A recent Harvard poll found 72 percent of Americans, including 75 percent of women, oppose abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Another Marist poll in January similarly found 71 percent of Americans oppose abortion after the first three months of pregnancy.

Even in Democrat strongholds like California, polls show opposition to unrestricted abortions through all nine months of pregnancy. For example, a Rasmussen poll in August found only 13 percent of California voters think abortions should be legal up to birth.

ACTION ALERT: To complain about the new mandate, Contact Gov. Phil Murphy.

The post New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Mandates Abortions Up to Birth in All Health Insurance Plans appeared first on LifeNews.com.

A Planned Parenthood abortion business director claims little children are sexual people and so sex should be pushed on them starting in kindergarten.

“[We have] in our society, an assumption of asexuality of people with intellectual disabilities. It’s a myth that’s perpetuated, and really, we are all sexual beings from birth until death,” says Bill Taverner, director of Planned Parenthood’s Center for Sex Education located in New Jersey.

Taverner also promoted pornography, which he calls “useful,” and says it should be taught to older children.

Fox News reported Friday on his shocking comments:

Around the year 2012, Taverner said children of a certain age should be taught about pornography in sex education, a position he has maintained up until at least February 2021.

Taverner appeared to say during the 2012 interview that some of “erotica” was “useful.”

He said, “I think that there’s this yearning for information that young people have that… hasn’t changed. [The] delivery of how we get information is quite different. I think that the internet is a major influence on how people learn about sexuality. There’s access to erotica, pornography. That was very different for young people 30 years ago. It’s certainly not as accessible, certainly not as instantaneous. So there’s a lot of information that is useful.”

The interviewer interrupted Taverner and said, “some of it is wrong.”

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“Some of it is wrong, a lot of it is wrong,” Taverner said. “But there’s good stuff out there as well.”

The Planned Parenthood director’s views about teaching children pornography and using it in the classroom are equally disturbing.

Taverner claims sex education is a “continuous process,” and that “Young children are learning about sexuality from the attitudes their parents display… When we think of K-12 education… we may be talking about what makes a family, we may be talking about disease prevention… All of that sets the foundation for a basic understanding that is useful for further conversations when we’re talking about condoms… [and] pregnancy conversations.”

Here’s more:

‘If we talk about porn, [some think] is it going to make people want to watch it? Which is the same faulty kind of premise as if we teach about condoms,’ he said.

‘It’s going to make people want to have sex with condoms, maybe that’s not a bad thing.’

He added that porn literacy would help students clarify their values on the topic and will meet ‘people where they are.’

‘If this is what they’re doing with their cell phones and tablets and their laptops, then we need to shift our education and stop doing the banana on a condom and think that, you know, we’ve done our thing,’ he said.

‘We need to present opportunities for young people to think about, for example, their values.

‘You know, let’s do an opinion activity. Let’s do the ethics of porn. And that’s not to say that there’s a right answer.’

The abortion business is reportedly pushing this to schools, something parents should object to strenuously.

The post Planned Parenthood Director: Push Sex on 5-Year-Olds and Teach Teens Porn appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Several abortion activists disrupted the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center fundraising banquet Thursday in Washington, D.C., yelling obscenities in front of mothers and young children before being escorted out by security.

The disruption, witnessed by WORLD magazine reporter Carolina Lumetta and others, occurred just months after the pro-life organization was vandalized by pro-abortion radicals.

In videos Lumetta posted on Twitter, abortion activists dressed to look like pro-life donors began standing up at various points during the event to shout at the crowd. One pro-abortion woman stood up and began screaming obscenities as executive director Janet Durig mentioned increased security risks, according to the account.

The woman accused pro-lifers of “judging” women, saying they have “blood on your f—— hands, every last m—–f—— one of you a——-!” She also mentioned the pro-abortion terrorist group Jane’s Revenge, which appears to have vandalized the center in June, before security guards escorted her out of the banquet.

In the background another woman also could be heard screaming, “Abortion forever!” before security removed her. Then, a pro-abortion man stood up and also began screaming, according to Lumetta’s account.

“The protesters shared a table with a young mom and her toddler,” Lumetta said. “After wiping some tears, the mom went to the podium and gave a testimony about how the pregnancy center helped her keep her baby.”

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Christina Herrera, a Live Action ambassador, also attended the banquet and witnessed the disruptions. She posted videos on Twitter showing the pro-abortion activists screaming at pro-lifers before being removed from the building.

Various videos show at least three more abortion activists interrupting the banquet at different points, screaming “fascists” and accusing pro-life advocates of “killing children.”

“You’re killing children, you don’t give a s—- about the babies,” one woman said. Another man screamed: “We know you have blood on your hands. You don’t give a f— about pregnant people.”

Abortion protestors disrupt Capitol Hill Crisis Pregnancy Center’s banquet screaming “blood on your hands.” The pregnancy center, which serves pregnant mothers in need, was attacked after the Roe leak & vandalized with the words “Jane Says Revenge.” pic.twitter.com/5k8D5HDY2Y

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) December 2, 2022

Christian author Chelsea Patterson Sobolik, who also attended the banquet, said the abortion activists clearly were not listening to what the pro-lifers and mothers were saying throughout the evening.

“The center has been sharing stories all evening about ways they care for holistically for women, children and families,” Sobolik wrote on Twitter. “And how they seek to support them. Truly heartbreaking.”

Outside the banquet, Lumetta said a small crowd of abortion activists gathered to protest on the sidewalk. They projected a lights display on the banquet venue that read, “Respect existence or expect resistance.”

On Twitter, a person named Vincent Vertuccio bragged that he and others with the group Shut Down DC were responsible for the disruptions. Vertuccio said pro-lifers “don’t deserve a minute of peace.”

Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center serves mothers and babies in Washington, D.C. where abortions are legal for any reason up to birth. The Christian nonprofit provides free and confidential services, including pregnancy tests, counseling, prenatal and parenting classes, maternity and baby clothing and supplies, post-abortion support and more.

“Our goal is to provide compassionate care as well as complete, accurate information pertaining to pregnancy and pregnancy options,” the organization website states.

Pro-life pregnancy centers like Capitol Hill increasingly have become targets of attack by the radical left and pro-abortion politicians. Numerous centers have been vandalized since May and at least five were victims of arson or attempted arson.

Some Democrat leaders have been verbally attacking their life-saving work, too. In July, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, went so far as to claim pregnancy centers “torture” women and need to be “shut down.”

The work of pregnancy resource centers is more critical than ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June and states are beginning to protect unborn babies from abortions again. Pregnant and parenting moms in crisis need support, and pro-life organizations are working to expand resources to help more families.

According to an analysis by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, pregnancy resource centers have helped save more than 800,000 unborn babies from abortion since 2016. The research found U.S. pregnancy resource centers served about 2 million people in 2019, providing more than 730,000 pregnancy tests, nearly half a million ultrasounds, 1.3 million packs of diapers and more than 2 million baby outfits, all for free.

The post WATCH: Radical Abortion Activists Try to Shut Down Pregnancy Center Banquet appeared first on LifeNews.com.

On November 28, the Dallas Morning News admitted that Texas Democrats didn’t get the support that they had anticipated during the 2022 midterm elections.

The Democratic Party has long been in the pocket of the abortion lobby, and no candidate more so than Beto O’Rourke. In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, during these past midterms, Democratic candidates across the country had to decide whether to lean into the pro-abortion party line or attempt to sidestep this hot-button issue. In typical fashion, Beto went all in.

The return of abortion policy to the states allowed the Democratic Party to test its pro-abortion strategy like never before, and Beto was happy to oblige, running a largely abortion-focused campaign for Governor of Texas. Beto centered his campaign around the state’s conditional law, which outlawed nearly all abortions in Texas upon the overturn of Roe v. Wade. He even went so far as to say that this ban was “the most important thing” voters needed to know about Governor Greg Abbott.

But it wasn’t just talk; Beto ran campaign ads, sent fundraising emails, and gave stump speeches dripping with deceptive abortion messaging. He held a news conference to rail against the implementation of this conditional law. O’Rourke even brought former Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards on as the national finance chair of his campaign.

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Though Beto led the charge, he wasn’t alone.  As The Texas Tribune reported,

“Rochelle Garza, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, held her record as a reproductive rights attorney up against incumbent Ken Paxton’s staunch anti-abortion views. Down-ballot, more legislative candidates spoke more frankly and more often about abortion than ever before.”

The Democratic ticket in Texas would sink or swim on the abortion issue. They sank like a stone.

The Texas Tribune continued, “But statewide Democratic candidates lost, badly, on Tuesday, and the Legislature remains Republican-dominated.”

Beto O’Rourke got shellacked on Election Night. The Democratic nominee lost by a double-digit margin of 54.8% to 43.8%. Despite Beto’s $75 million dollar campaign contribution advantage over Lupe Valdez, the 2018 Democratic candidate for Governor, he still managed to receive 7,000 fewer votes than Valdez.

On the other hand, Governor Abbott has been publicly supportive of the pro-life cause and followed through with legislative action, including signing the groundbreaking Texas Heartbeat Law into effect which, even before the overturn of Roe v. Wade, prohibited abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is typically at 5 to 6 weeks gestation. The pro-abortion lobby had a meltdown. But you know what didn’t happen?  The sky didn’t fall in Texas. Women got the care they needed and babies’ lives were saved.

And according to Dr. Michael New’s research at the Charlotte Lozier Institute where he analyzed newly published Texas birth data:

“between March 2022 and July 2022, the number of births in Texas increased by more than 5,000 as compared to identical time periods from previous years. This review of newly available state birth data provides a compelling indication that the Texas Heartbeat Act has already played a vital role in saving thousands of lives in the Lone Star state.”

Texas’ Alternatives to Abortion program was and still is the safety net to serve the needs of women and children in Texas, and other states have something to learn from Texas and implement their own safety nets in this post-Roe era. The Alternatives to Abortion program was both prophetic as well as overdue in the pro-life movement. It is funded by the state of Texas to the tune of $100 million, and in the new legislative session, we hope that this amount will only increase. The Texas Alternatives to Abortion program receives a federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant and state general revenue funds to support services for pregnant women, their families, and for adoptive parents. It works with over 300 pregnancy centers in Texas, social service providers, adoption agencies, and maternity homes to help women and families in need.

And it turns out that being pro-life and saving lives is a winning strategy in Texas.

Throughout the campaign, Beto claimed that Texans were uniting in support of abortion. By that logic, not only would Abbott have gone down in defeat, but Texas Senator Bryan Hughes and Representative Shelby Slawson, who served as the Senate and House authors of the Texas Heartbeat Law, would have been thrown out by their constituents for authoring such legislation. And yet, both ran unopposed.

The Texas Democratic Party and, particularly, the man at the top of their ticket made abortion the priority, and they both failed miserably. Both sides can learn from the results. The life issue is strong in Texas and clearly won at the ballot box. Voters made it clear in Texas that they support life. In the new legislative session, we will be promoting more life-protective measures.

Texas continues to lead the way in a pro-life America.

LifeNews Note: Jonathan Saenz is President of Texas Values andArina Grossu is a Policy and Communications Advisor to Texas Values. This column originally appeared at Christian Post.

The post Democrats Said They’d Beat Republicans for Making Texas First to Ban Abortions, They Lost by a Landslide appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The Catholic bishops of Malta have joined a growing throng of opposition to a bill that could legalize the killing of unborn babies in abortions for basically any reason in the small European nation.

In a message this week, Malta Archbishop Charles Scicluna, Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Galea Curmi urged lawmakers to respect the dignity of every human being, born and unborn, Malta Today reports.

“When respect for the dignity of the baby in the womb is denied, the foundation of respect for the dignity of each human being – including that of the woman and the professional – is destroyed,” they said.

Echoing concerns from doctors, ethicists, pro-life leaders and others, the bishops said the broad “health” exception in the bill is a big problem because it will allow unborn babies to be aborted when the mother’s life is not at risk.

Malta is one of the few countries in Europe that protects unborn babies’ right to life. Abortions are legal only if the mother’s life is at risk. This fall, MPs introduced a bill to make the law even more clear that doctors may perform abortions to save a mother’s life, but many say the language is too broad and elective abortions also would be allowed.

ACTION ALERT: To oppose this pro-abortion bill, Contact lawmakers in Malta.

The bishops said the law already allows doctors to save pregnant mothers’ lives, including in situations when her unborn baby cannot be saved, so the bill is unnecessary, according to the report.

“… when they are not successful in saving both of them, they save the mother,” the bishops said. “Whenever this has happened over the years, legal problems were never created for the mothers or the doctors. There was no need for the law to be changed for the mother to be saved were she in danger of dying.”

The Catholic leaders also reminded lawmakers that they have a responsibility to protect life in Malta.

“We also make a special appeal to those who bear the great responsibility of taking a decision regarding the amendment, so that their choice will be in favour of life and not in favour of death,” they said. “We beseech our Mother Mary, Immaculate Conception, who always reminds us of life that starts from conception, to intercede for us and to help us always protect each human life with great care.”

Last week, Parliament passed the first reading of the bill, and a final vote could occur before Dec. 19, the start of Christmas break. To become law, legislation must pass three readings and then receive the president’s signature.

However, opposition to the bill is growing. Earlier this week, more than 450 doctors signed a petition calling on Parliament to amend the bill and stop Malta from opening “the door for legal abortion” on demand, Newsbook reports.

They urged Malta citizens to sign the petition, too. Written by 80 leading medical professionals, lawyers, ethicists and academics, it proposes amending the bill to ensure that Malta remains “limited to the current policy where doctors can always act to save the life of the mother, even if this results in the undesired death of the baby.”

To date, more than 21,600 people have signed the petition.

The nurses and midwives union MUMN in Malta also opposes the bill as written, and requested an urgent meeting with the prime minister this week to discuss it, according to the Times of Malta.

Prime Minister Robert Abela and Health Minister/Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne support the bill, asserting that it will not be as expansive as pro-life advocates say.

However, President George Vella, a medical doctor by profession, opposes it. He reportedly told people close to him that he would resign rather than be forced to sign a bill that legalizes the killing of unborn babies.

Malta pro-life leaders are organizing a national protest at 3 p.m. Sunday at Castille Square in Valletta.

The small island country has resisted international pressure to legalize abortion for years. Abortions are illegal in almost all cases in Poland, but Malta is the only European country that fully protects unborn babies from abortion.

Until recently, a number of European countries protected unborn babies by prohibiting abortions. However, Ireland abandoned its pro-life laws in 2018 and Northern Ireland was forced to legalize abortion 2019 by the British Parliament.

ACTION ALERT: To oppose this pro-abortion bill, Contact lawmakers in Malta.

The post Catholic Bishops Condemn Abortion: “Respect the Dignity of the Baby in the Womb” appeared first on LifeNews.com.

If pro-life Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were to run for president, a new poll shows he would defeat pro-abortion Joe Biden in a possible 2024 presidential matchup.

According to a new survey from Emerson College Polling, DeSantis has a four percentage point lead over Biden among voters in the battleground state of Georgia. DeSantis received 47 percent support, compared to Biden’s 43 percent support.

Here’s more:

A new Emerson College poll indicates that Georgian voters would support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) over President Joe Biden (D) in a hypothetical presidential race.

Gov. DeSantis has not confirmed if he’ll be making a run for the White House in 2024, but he’s already created buzz over his hypothetical candidacy while also generating a rivalry with President Donald Trump (R), who has announced that he’ll be running.

In the poll, Governor DeSantis maintained a 4-point advantage over President Biden with a score of 47% to 43%. Moreover, 6% of those polled said they wanted another candidate, and 4% said they were undecided.

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In contrast, the same poll suggests that President Biden has a 1-point advantage over President Trump with a score of 43% to 42% with 11% saying they want another candidate and 2% remaining undecided.

Meanwhile, a separate poll found that Biden and DeSantis are tied in a possible 2024 matchup. In a new Marquette Law School poll, both DeSantis and Biden secured 42 percent support from registered voters. And the Florida governors numbers are improving.

The latest Marquette University Law School national poll shows President Joe Biden remains underwater and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential stock rising.

Republican DeSantis has pulled into a tie with the Democrat incumbent in a hypothetical 2024 presidential matchup, with each receiving 42 percent support from registered voters nationwide, according to the poll of more than 1,000 adults. The survey was conducted Nov. 15-22.

DeSantis, fresh off his nearly 20-point drubbing of Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist in Florida’s gubernatorial race, has increased his support in polling since January. Biden’s support, meanwhile, has idled.

Biden bests Trump in a head-to-head matchup, though, with 44 percent to Trump’s 34 percent. Another 23% say they prefer someone else or would not vote.

DeSantis’ favorability ratings among Republicans have tracked upward in the poll, with 68 percent of respondents holding a favorable opinion, 22 percent unfavorable, and 22 percent saying they don’t know enough to give a rating. In January, 57 percent were favorable, 9 percent unfavorable, and 34 percent lacked an opinion of DeSantis.

Among Republican registered voters, Trump is seen favorably by 67 percent and unfavorably by 32 percent.

While Joe Biden is a radical pro-abortion activist, President Trump compiled a solid pro-life record as president. And Governor RonDeSantis is solidly pro-life — having signed a 15-week abortion ban and compiled a 100% pro-life voting record in Congress.

The post Ron DeSantis Would Defeat Joe Biden in Possible 2024 Matchup appeared first on LifeNews.com.

While on vacation, we tend to sleep in.

But there we were at the crack of dawn, trekking to the beach, drawn to the promise of new life.

We were to meet up with locals trained in protecting loggerhead turtles, a species officially labeled as “vulnerable.” Mama turtle had buried her 100+ eggs about 60 days previously, using back fins to methodically sculpt a deep hole in which her progeny would be well-protected. Signs indicated that the eggs had begun to hatch and babies emerge.  But not all. Some required rescuing or they would die.

The golf cart brigade that monitors the nests every morning staged an intervention. They would dig out the buried babies and set them on a path to life into the ocean. And they welcomed us to share in the experience.

Westood on the periphery, watching the team carefully dig into the deepest pockets of the nest. Anticipation was building.  Digging and more digging. Finally, the announcement—a baby was found! Cheers erupted. We crowded around, eager to glimpse the little survivor.

And then more babies. And more. We marveled at each and every teeny turtle, rejoicing in their saved lives.

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We then helped to place about three dozen babies on the beach facing the water.  We watched their painstaking crawl to their new home, a struggle necessary for developing the stamina and strength needed for ocean survival.

It was a beautiful experience. A different kind of pro-life moment, yet one that parallels the heroic efforts made every day to rescue baby humans.

Like these naturalists, trained volunteers and dedicated employees invest time and pool resources to save human babies from death by abortion, rejoicing at each and every life saved and mother supported.

“Save the baby humans” could very well be the mantra of the 2,700 pregnancy resource centers throughout our country. Countless people are alive today because of their efforts to support a mother and her child, both before birth and after.

In 2019 alone, pregnancy resource centers served roughly 2 million women, men, and youth with nearly $270 million in services at little or no cost, according to CLI.

But ironically, while those who save baby turtles are universally acclaimed for their good work, those who strive to protect helpless, vulnerable human babies are being vilified.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has grossly mischaracterized pregnancy resource centers, calling for them to be shut down across the country. Dozens of centers have been vandalized and even firebombed by abortion extremists, destroying material goods and delaying counseling services that actually empower the very women that abortion advocates claim to care about.

It’s mind-boggling that some people who regard the destruction of a turtle egg as egregiously immoral have no problem with the purposeful destruction of human life.

Since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, the same year Roe had been decided, pre-born turtles have had more legal protections than pre-born humans.

We can and should protect both.

Like baby turtles, some baby humans require rescuing or they will die.  Pregnancy resource centers provide the intervention.  They rescue innocent children, a “vulnerable species,” from a violent death by abortion. They provide the needed support for mother and baby, digging them out of their own proverbial hole, setting them on a path for life, and rejoicing in the unique gift of every single human life.

In this post-Roe world, we need to ask ourselves a question:

If we encounter pre-born humans at risk of dying, would we do less to save them than we do for pre-born turtles?

LifeNews Note: Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation

The post Liberals Want to Save Unborn Turtles But Not Unborn Babies appeared first on LifeNews.com.

A major Washington, D.C. law firm reportedly fired one of its most experienced female attorneys this summer after she defended the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

In a column this week at the Wall Street Journal, lawyer Robin Keller said the firm Hogan Lovells accused her of racism and harassment simply for sharing her views during a women’s “safe space” conference.

“If this could happen to me, anyone who expresses a disfavored opinion—even on a matter of law—can expect the same treatment: immediate cancellation without concern for client interests, due process or fairness,” Keller wrote.

She said the firm organized a conference call for its female employees in early July in response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision. Everyone on the call spoke out against the ruling, so Keller said she decided to offer a different perspective.

“I noted that many jurists and commentators believed Roe had been wrongly decided,” Keller continued. “… I referred to numerous reports of disproportionately high rates of abortion in the black community, which some have called a form of genocide. I said I thought this was tragic.”

Immediately, she said other women on the call began to verbally attack her, accusing her of racism and harassment and demanding that she stop talking. Later that day, Keller said the law firm suspended her, and, a few weeks later, fired her for allegedly violating the company anti-harassment policy.

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Keller said the firm “blackballed” her after “an unblemished 44-year career,” and she believes it may do the same to others who dare to speak their opinions.

“What was shocking, at least to me, was how eagerly Hogan Lovells kowtowed to a woke faction inside its workforce,” she said. “Several women on the call—as well as male lawyers at the firm—contacted me later to offer private support for my right to express my views. Those former colleagues must now realize that they are in a hostile work environment.”

According to Hot Air, someone complained about Keller to the website Above The Law, which published a column celebrating the “welcome consequences” of expressing pro-life views and accusing her of “traumatizing” other lawyers.

In a statement to the Original Jurisdiction blog, a Hogan Lovells spokesperson insisted that the firm supports its employees sharing their personal views.

“As a firm we fully encourage our people to share their views on important issues that matter to them, but we expect our people to conduct themselves in accordance with firm policies. We value our differences, which make us stronger as a firm,” the spokesperson said.

This week, another female lawyer at a major law firm shared a similar story with the Original Jurisdiction blog. The woman’s name and that of her firm were kept private because she is in the process of leaving.

Here’s more from the blog:

After Keller’s op-ed was published, I heard from a Biglaw equity partner who’s in the process of parting ways with her firm after she refused to embrace the post-Dobbs order. …

Here’s what happened, according to this partner. After she declined to take on pro-bono work of a pro-choice bent or to get involved in other reproductive-rights initiatives post-Dobbs—saying she was too busy, not mentioning any opposition to abortion or to Dobbs—her office managing partner asked her, “Am I correct in assuming you’re pro-life?” After she didn’t deny this (because she actually is pro-life), he called her racist (because of the disproportionate impact of Dobbs on minority communities), let her know she was not going to be working with his clients, and started undermining her in various ways, large and small.

The woman said she basically is being forced out of the firm.

A growing number of pro-life Americans are reporting being fired from their jobs for sharing their views opposing the killing of unborn babies in abortions. This week, Florida Politics reported about a former hospital chaplain in Florida who is suing Orlando Health after he says he was fired for describing abortion as “immoral” in a personal Facebook post.

Pro-life doctors also have been suspended in England and South Africa for their pro-life beliefs.

The post Major Law Firm Fired Female Attorney Just Because She’s Pro-Life appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Abortions in Texas plummeted after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to new data released by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

State abortion statistics for July 2022, the first full month after Texas’ total protections for preborn children regained effect, reported 68 abortions. The same time period a year prior saw 4,879 abortions, an average of 150 per day. That means there were over twice as many lives taken each day of July 2021 than in the entire month of July 2022. From September 2021 to June 2022, the Texas Heartbeat Act decreased the number of abortions to 2,500 per month on average.

The July 2022 report also recorded the number of abortions due to a medical emergency or to protect the life of the mother. Of the 68 abortions in July, one was reported to have been done due to medical emergency and to preserve the mother’s health. The remaining 67 are listed as “neither reason,” meaning they were elective and could include social reasons, such as financial hardship or lack of family support.

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It is likely that many of these 67 elective abortions were committed while a liberal Harris County judge attempted to block enforcement of pre-Roe laws. Tragically, most abortion facilities across Texas resumed operation during the three days the judge’s order was in effect. Many of them ran at a higher-than-usual capacity to make up for lost time. They reported calling clients back to get as many of them in the doors as possible. Additionally, the abortion industry attempted to sow confusion about the legal status of Texas’ abortion ban within the two months between the reversal of Roe and the “trigger law” taking effect August 25.

Texas Right to Life Senior Legislative Associate Rebecca Parma added:

“July’s data reveal the success of our Pro-Life laws. Legal elective abortion is no more in the state of Texas, and lives are being saved at unprecedented levels. However, we must remain vigilant at all times. The abortion industry will seize every opportunity possible, legal or not, to continue waging war against preborn children.”

Texas Right to Life will not stop until every innocent human life is protected in Texas.

LifeNews Note: Kim Schwartz is the communications director for Texas Right to Life.

The post Texas Abortions Drop From 2,500 to 68 in First Month After Roe Overturned appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Three Wisconsin prosecutors fought back this week against state Attorney General Josh Kaul’s attempts to overturn a pro-life law that is saving unborn babies from abortion.

In separate filings, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski asked a judge to dismiss Kaul’s lawsuit, the AP reports.

The Wisconsin pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban went into effect in June after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its infamous 1973 ruling. Now, unborn babies are being saved from abortion all across Wisconsin.

Kaul, a pro-abortion Democrat, filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, and three abortionists later joined him. However, they have not succeeded in convincing a court to block the law thus far.

Kaul’s lawsuit names district attorneys in counties where Planned Parenthood operated abortion facilities prior to the June ruling. Two are Democrats and one is a Republican, but all three said Kaul’s lawsuit “seeks to improperly restrict prosecutorial discretion” and he does not have standing to sue, according to the report.

Urmanski, the lone Republican, also said there is no merit to Kaul’s claim that the law should not be enforced simply because it is old.

“Plaintiffs are wrong when they claim a law no longer has the consent of the governed and must be reenacted when a prior decision (here, Roe and its progeny) holding the law unconstitutional is reversed by a subsequent decision (here, Dobbs),” Urmanski told the court, The Wisconsin State Journal reports. “Even after a court has determined a statute violates the Constitution, the statute nevertheless continues to exist unless and until it is repealed by the Legislature.”

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Urmanski said the state legislature and governor should be the ones to change the law, not the court, if they don’t believe it represents the will of the people. The Wisconsin Legislature has a pro-life majority; however, Gov. Tony Evers, a pro-abortion Democrat, has vetoed several pro-life bills in recent years.

Here’s more from the State Journal:

In his [separate] motion, Chisholm also maintains Kaul doesn’t have standing to bring the action but on different grounds, notably that “plaintiffs do not have the right or interest in controlling, usurping or directing defendants prosecutorial discretion as duly elected district attorneys in the counties that they serve.”

The law prohibits the killing of unborn babies in abortions. Exceptions are allowed if the mother’s life is at risk. In his lawsuit, the state attorney general claims the 1849 abortion ban, which could not be enforced under Roe, basically was repealed when the state legislature passed new abortion regulations in 1985.

“… we’re going to continue working to move the case forward expeditiously because there are people being impacted by this ban right now,” Kaul said earlier this fall. “And we want to get resolution on these issues.”

Prior to the June ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, abortions were legal for any reason up to 20 weeks in Wisconsin, and more than 6,400 unborn babies were aborted every year.

In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in a historic victory for life and returned the power to legislate abortion to the people. Because of Dobbs, states may protect unborn babies from abortion for the first time in nearly 50 years. New research estimates state pro-life laws have saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives since June.

Currently, Wisconsin and 12 other states are enforcing laws that ban or strictly limit abortions. Nine additional states are battling in court to protect unborn babies from abortion.

The post Wisconsin Prosecutors Want Lawsuit Dismissed so Abortion Ban Can Keep Saving Babies appeared first on LifeNews.com.

It’s a common pro-abortion lament/call to action, so let’s begin by filling in the blank. In order to “normalize” abortion, we (meaning  both everyday women and men but especially the entertainment media) must “Shout Your Abortion,” or announce “No Mother’s Day For Me Just Yet. Thank you!” or “See More Parents Having Abortions in Film and Television.”

The latter is the thrust of a bizarre column, even by Marie Claire standards, written by Danielle Campoamor.

What is she saying? That many women who abort are the mothers of living children, which is unfortunately true. Building on that, Campoamor quotes Renee Bracey Sherman, described as the “executive director of We Testify, an organization dedicated to increasing the representation and visibility of people who have abortions”:

“The majority of people who have abortions are already parenting, but on television and film, it’s nearly always someone young, white, and wealthy who is trying to avoid parenting. But that’s a very small minority of people who have abortions. This fails those of us who have abortions because it doesn’t allow for audiences to stretch their imaginations, empathize with our fictionalized experiences, and learn something outside of the same stereotypical narrative.”

However, the larger point goes well beyond abortion advocates wanting more emphasis and more visibility on mothers having abortions. They want this weaved into the storyline so seamlessly that the viewer comes away thinking  it’s as if taking your child’s life rather than preserving it is just one of a menu of options, choices of equal moral and ethical value, it can be a “parenting decision.” Indeed, in this twisted view, it becomes almost a sacrificial act.

For example, Campoamor talked with Merritt Tierce, a television writer and showrunner:

Instead of making abortion the crux of the plot, Tierce, who is currently working on a scripted television show that takes place in a clinic that provides abortion, is hoping to normalize abortion as just another choice in a wide range of decisions people make throughout their lives. And for characters who have kids, she wants to frame abortion as what it really is: a parenting decision.

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“I think the most radical reconception that needs to happen with respect to abortion, especially parenting people who have abortions, is for people to realize that it can be a serious act of love to have an abortion,” she says. “And for people who have kids, that is the number one decision-making factor. If they feel like they can’t handle another child, what’s driving that decision is the desire to give the children they already have the best possible life.”

That would indeed be a “radical reconception.” Pro-lifers are not innocents. We all understand (since many/most/all of us have been there) that there are, always have been, and always will be pressures when you are a parent.

But to pretend that bowing to those pressures is “to give the children they already have the best possible life” is to lethally confuse what we have persuaded ourselves  is “best” for us as parents with what is best for our kids, born and unborn.

As I read Campoamor, I kept thinking of something bioethicist Wesley J. Smith has said many times in the context of “assisting” someone to commit suicide. Speaking of how we find more and more rationalizations for why more and more categories of people must be “helped” to die, Wesley remarks, “In other words, we should let the patient put him- or herself out of our misery.” (His emphasis.)

It’s not done for them but to them. Their deaths—getting them “out of the way”—are for us.

And putting a gloss on the act of killing unborn babies—it’ll be better for the living—is grotesque and reprehensible.

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.

The post Feminist Writer: Killing a Baby in an Abortion is a “Serious Act of Love” appeared first on LifeNews.com.

A Wyoming law that protects unborn babies by banning abortions will go to the state Supreme Court for consideration after a judge ruled Wednesday.

The Jackson Hole Daily reports state Judge Melissa Owens sent the case to the high court after denying a request from pro-life advocates to intervene in defense of the law.

“The people of Wyoming, through their elected representatives, have made clear that they want to protect life,” said Dave Cortman, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the pro-life advocates. “Wyoming deserves the long-awaited opportunity to affirm that life is a human right. We are hopeful that the state will prevail so it can protect the most vulnerable among us and ensure that women and families facing unplanned pregnancies have real support.”

The 2022 law at the center of the lawsuit protects unborn babies by prohibiting abortions except in cases of rape, incest and threats to the mother’s life. Two abortionists and pro-abortion groups recently challenged the pro-life legislation as unconstitutional.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office is defending the law, but its two sponsors, Reps. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, and Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, as well as Right to Life Wyoming recently asked the judge to be parties in the case so they can defend legal protections for babies in the womb.

Owens denied their request Wednesday, arguing that allowing them to participate would “unduly delay the adjudication of the rights of the parties,” according to the report.

“There are a number of cases that have denied an individual legislator’s motion to intervene, finding that their support for a piece of legislation does not rise to the level of a significant protectable interest,” she wrote in her ruling.

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Owens said the three petitioners “unquestionably” do have a personal interest in the case but no more than any other Wyoming citizen.

The judge sent the case to the Wyoming Supreme Court, which will decide whether to hear it.

Attorneys for the pro-abortion side argue that the state abortion ban is unconstitutional because it restricts a woman’s right to make choices about her medical care. They also claim the law violates women’s property rights because a woman’s uterus is her property.

In August, Owens agreed to temporarily block enforcement of the law while the lawsuit proceeds, ruling that the ban may cause irreparable harm to pregnant mothers and abortionists.

The law was supposed to go into effect this summer after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but it remains blocked.

Wyoming is one of nine states that are battling in court to legally protect unborn babies from abortion. Currently, 13 other states are enforcing pro-life laws that ban or strictly limit abortions.

In June, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in a historic victory for life and returned the power to legislate abortion to the people. Because of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, states may protect unborn babies from abortion for the first time in nearly 50 years. New research estimates state pro-life laws have saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives since June.

All pro-life laws allow abortions when the mother’s life is at risk and, in some states, cases of rape and incest. These make up a very small percent of all abortions in the U.S. Research from the Charlotte Lozier Institute found about 96 percent of abortions are for elective reasons.

The post Wyoming Fights in Court to Defend Abortion Ban That Would Save Babies From Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., called for revoking a tax exemption for a conservative group for not masking up and socially distancing during the pandemic, insisted on a slew of investigations of other conservative groups, and pressed for the Internal Revenue Service to expand its reach.

A total of 176 pages of correspondence from and to Whitehouse was obtained from the IRS by the conservative watchdog group American Accountability Foundation through the Freedom of Information Act and shared with The Daily Signal.

“It’s abundantly clear that [Whitehouse] is trying to take the 87,000 new IRS agents and put them to work investigating me and my friends because he doesn’t like their politics,” Tom Jones, president and founder of the American Accountability Foundation, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Tuesday.

The letters span from Jan. 19, 2021, the day before President Joe Biden took office, into May 2022.

‘Lois Lerner on Steroids’

Whitehouse long has been a critic of conservative, nonprofit organizations and uses an expansive definition of “dark money” groups, broadly defined as tax-exempt organizations that don’t disclose donors.

The Supreme Court, in 1958 and 2021 cases, has struck down compelled donor disclosure requirements at the state level.

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The Rhode Island Democrat, first elected in 2006, has made “dark money” a central point of Senate floor speeches and often uses up his entire five-minute question period to make related speeches during hearings of the Senate’s Judiciary and Finance committees.

“It’s Lois Lerner on steroids,” Jones said of what’s in the Whitehouse correspondence, referring to the Internal Revenue Service official in the middle of the Obama-era IRS scandal over the targeting of tea party groups.

“The Lois Lerner stuff was a mid-level bureaucrat abusing [her] power to investigate conservative groups,” he said. “This is a U.S. senator basically trying to turn the heat up on investigations by the Internal Revenue Service.”

“So, if Sheldon Whitehouse had his way,” Jones said, “Lois Lerner would just look like a test run of what Sheldon Whitehouse has in mind.”

Jones’ nonprofit American Accountability Foundation describes itself as “a government oversight and research organization that uses investigative tools to educate the public on issues related to personnel, policy, and spending.”

Targeting Turning Point USA

In a letter dated Jan. 19, 2021, Whitehouse asked IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to revoke the tax-exempt status of Turning Point USA because the conservative organization held an event at then-President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club without masking and social distancing.

Turning Point USA’s mission is to train and develop young Americans to become conservative leaders.

“Tax-exempt status provides a substantial benefit to charitable organizations and reflects the federal government’s endorsement of an organization’s activities,” Whitehouse wrote to the IRS chief. “Organizations that knowingly put in danger minors entrusted to their care should not enjoy the benefits of tax-exempt status. Accordingly, I urge the IRS to review whether it should revoke Turning Point USA’s tax-exempt status.”

Many of the documents provided by the IRS to meet the public records request were heavily redacted, but the Whitehouse letter referencing Turning Point USA also appears in full on Whitehouse’s Senate website.

Rettig’s response to Whitehouse, dated March 28, 2021, asserts that the IRS wouldn’t tell him if it were investigating or otherwise acting against the conservative youth organization. The reply was not available before the FOIA request.

“You shared your concern about reports that the organization hosted COVID-19 super-spreader events in violation of local regulations,” Rettig told Whitehouse. “You urged the IRS to review and consider whether we should revoke its tax-exempt status.”

A portion of Rettig’s response was redacted. The letter then goes on to say: “Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code protects the privacy of tax returns and tax return information of all taxpayers. Therefore, we cannot disclose any actions we may or may not take on this information.”

Whitehouse’s concern over “dark money” groups generally is one-sided, Jones noted. He referred to the billion-dollar Arabella Advisors network of liberal nonprofit groups.

“What’s important about these letters is it makes it very clear that a U.S. senator is attempting to essentially encourage the IRS to investigate his political opponents,” Jones said. “He never mentions there is a vast group of left-wing nonprofits whose funding I envy. … You don’t hear a peep from Sheldon Whitehouse about New Venture Fund, Arabella Advisors, Sixteen Thirty, a laundry list of folks on the Left.”

‘Fall Between the Infielders’

The final letter the IRS made available was an inquiry from Whitehouse to Rettig, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Attorney General Merrick Garland about why his concerns had not been investigated.

“I have described to you flagrant and persistent instances in which 501(c)(4) organizations engage in political activity—and report that political spending to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) or its state equivalents—while telling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that they did not engage in any political activity,” Whitehouse wrote in the letter dated May 5, 2022.

The Rhode Island Democrat referenced a 2012 report by the left-leaning investigative reporting website ProPublica, which found that 32 nonprofits reporting electioneering to the Federal Election Commission and state equivalents did not also report it to the IRS.

He said a 2022 report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group, found about two dozen nonprofits doing the same.

“This fact pattern, where tax-exempt organizations’ submissions under oath to different government entities are plainly inconsistent, should present straightforward cases for the IRS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue,” Whitehouse wrote. “Such facts present prima facie cases of noncompliance with IRS rules, and predicate ‘false statement’ investigations.”

However, Whitehouse noted that Rettig responded at a Senate Finance Committee hearing in April that the IRS never has referred a single case of inconsistent statements to the Justice Department and it doesn’t appear that the Justice Department investigated such statements.

“I request that IRS and DOJ together brief my office on this matter,” Whitehouse wrote. “I request both Commissioner Rettig and Attorney General Garland to clarify the referral policy between IRS and DOJ so that well-predicated investigations do not constantly fall between the infielders.”

The documents provided by the public records request to the IRS don’t show a response to Whitehouse’s request.

The IRS, Treasury Department, and Justice Department did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal for this report.

Whitehouse’s Senate press office also did not respond Tuesday or Wednesday.

Whitehouse is “taking a spaghetti-to-the-wall approach” in going after conservative groups, hoping to see what sticks, American Accountability Foundation’s Jones said.

“It’s simply wrong, an abuse of his position,” Jones said. “Thankfully, the IRS hasn’t indulged in what Whitehouse is asking them to do, but you have to remain vigilant. He is a United States senator, close with the [Biden] White House.”

“At some point, the dam could break on this and conservative nonprofits could get a knock on their door from IRS agents because a U.S. senator wants them to investigate his political opponents.”

Rettig’s Resistance

Whitehouse joined a letter led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., along with 38 other Senate Democrats. Klobuchar’s April 27, 2021, letter to Rettig and Yellen urged executive action to reinstate disclosure requirements for some tax-exempt groups.

“We write to urge the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate disclosure requirements for certain tax-exempt organizations that engage in political activity,” the letter says. “As it stands, this policy weakens federal tax laws, campaign finance laws, and longstanding efforts to prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections.”

Rettig responded to the senators in a June 8, 2021, letter explaining that the IRS can’t help other agencies enforce campaign finance laws. The IRS commissioner wrote:

We determined it was not necessary to the efficient administration of the internal revenue laws for such tax-exempt organizations (those not described in Sections 501 (c)(3) or 527 of the Code) to report annually the names and addresses of substantial contributors; however, all tax-exempt organizations must continue to report the amounts of contributions from each substantial contributor, maintain the names and addresses of their substantial contributors in their own books and records, and provide such information upon request.

Rettig’s response letter goes on to say that unauthorized sharing of tax information could be illegal:

Congress has not authorized the IRS to enforce campaign finance laws. In addition, Section 6103 of the Code strictly limits the IRS’s ability to share tax information with other federal agencies. Accordingly, the IRS cannot disclose any names or addresses of substantial contributors to other federal agencies for non-tax investigations, including campaign finance matters, except in very narrowly prescribed circumstances. Unauthorized disclosures may lead to civil and criminal liability.

Expanding the IRS

About a year before Senate passage of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which added 87,000 new IRS agents, Whitehouse joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in a letter to Rettig about a lack of resources for the agency.

The Aug. 10, 2021, letter from the three New England senators said the IRS “needs to go after wealthy tax cheats.”

Whitehouse, Warren, and Sanders wrote:

Part of the reason for the massive tax gap is that more than a decade of politically motivated budget cuts have hampered the IRS’s ability to perform its core duties—especially enforcement focused on the ultra-rich and large corporations. … Without the necessary resources, audit rates for the very richest taxpayers, those with incomes over $10 million, are nearly 80% lower than they were a decade ago, and audits of the largest companies, those with over $20 billion in assets, declined by nearly 50%.

Rettig responded more positively to this letter about greater resources for his agency, providing detailed information about audits and tax collection in a response seven days later, on Aug. 27, 2021.

“Maintaining a flat budget will continue to deprive Americans of both the nature and quality of services they deserve, producing a continuing decline in fairness and service,” Rettig told the Democrat senators. “Adding substantial multi-year mandatory funding, however, provides an opportunity to greatly improve federal tax administration for all Americans. The gross revenue collected by the IRS is approximately $3.5 trillion per year, representing around 96% of the gross revenue of the United States.”

Rettig continued:

Investing in IRS technology, data analytics, and people will improve taxpayer services, restore base enforcement functions that have declined substantially over the last decade, improve the effectiveness of our existing enforcement workforce and programs, help us tackle key compliance priorities and emerging issues, and allow us to invest in programs essential to maintaining the broad compliance framework.

LifeNews Note: Fred Lucas writes for The Daily Signal, where this column originally appeared.

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