Tag Archives: Abortion

Arizona Church Says “Don’t Abort, We’ll Adopt”

A Phoenix area church is telling women in their area who are facing an unplanned pregnancy that they will adopt their children in an attempt to stop them from killing their child via abortion.

Members of St. Stephen’s Parish say they hope the billboard will reach women who are considering abortion to make another choice.

“We’re just there to help, you know, if we can help save babies and you know, help these mothers and fathers. That’s what our goal is, you know, not to be judgmental. That’s not what this is about,” said Anne DeRose, the parish’s Respect Life Coordinator.

DeRose says the church has families that are ready to adopt but that the church will also partner with Catholic charities to find homes for every woman that is looking for adoption over abortion.

The Arizona Department of Health Services reported over 13,000 abortions in the state last year.

Supreme Court Puts Texas Abortion Law on Hold

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, has put on hold the Texas abortion law that would require clinics to meet higher standards of cleanliness and safety.  Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito were in the minority.

The ruling means the law cannot go into effect until the court decides if they will give a full hearing to the appeal on the case.

Abortion proponents say that if the law goes into effect, abortion clinics will be limited to four metropolitan areas and there will be no clinics west of San Antonio.

“This case presents a very, very dramatic impact in the type of restrictions on access to abortion clinics that we’ve seen over the past few years,” Nancy Northup, the president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told the New York Times. “If this case is not taken by the Supreme Court, it’s going to allow a continuation of the closing of clinics by these sneaky, underhanded methods.”

Texas leaders say they will be vigorously defending the law before the Court.

“H.B. 2 was a constitutional exercise of Texas’ lawmaking authority that was correctly and unanimously upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement. “Texas will continue to fight for higher-quality health care standards for women while protecting our most vulnerable — the unborn, and I’m confident the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold this law.”

Supreme Court Could Decide Texas Abortion Law’s Constitutionality

Pro-abortion groups have filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in their quest to eliminate a Texas abortion law that calls for higher safety and wellness standards for clinics that provide abortions.

The bill, signed in 2013, is HB 2.  The bill requires abortion clinics to meet the same health and cleanliness standards as other ambulatory surgical centers.  It also bans late term abortions in the state except for rape and incest.  The law also requires abortionists to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital with in 30 miles of their clinic.

“… new research and advanced technology give prematurely-born children a renewed chance at life, which should give us all pause as we argue the definition of viability,” stated then Texas Governor Rick Perry, who signed the bill.

“House Bill 2 ensures that anyone performing abortions in Texas is doing so in a facility that is safe, clean and prepared to deal with any emergencies that might occur – a reasonable, common sense expectation for those caring for the health and safety of Texans.”

Twenty abortion clinics in the state closed by May 2014 rather than meet the health and cleanliness requirements of the bill.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Texas earlier this month.

“Reviewing Texas’s statute against a backdrop of varying state regulations of abortion, Roe assessed the states’ interests in regulating abortion, acknowledging a legitimate interest in women’s health,” wrote the panel.

“It held that states may not proscribe abortion prior to viability. … After viability, generally at the end of the second trimester, states could proscribe or regulate abortion except when an abortion was necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.”

Without a Supreme Court stay, the law will go into effect July 1.

Supreme Court Allows Striking Down Of N.C. Abortion Law

A North Carolina abortion law that would have required women to see an ultrasound of their baby before having an abortion has officially been declared unconstitutional as the Supreme Court refused to hear the state’s appeal of a lower court ruling.

The Women’s Right to Know Act was passed in 2011 and immediately challenged by pro-abortion activists and groups.  The law required the abortionist to show the ultrasound to the woman and describe to her the child’s features along with offering a chance to hear the baby’s heartbeat.  The law also included a 24 hour mandatory waiting period.

The rejection by the Supremes means the Fourth Circuit’s ruling invalidates the law.

“This compelled speech, even though it is a regulation of the medical profession, is ideological in intent and in kind,” the panel wrote. “The First Amendment not only protects against prohibitions of speech, but also against regulations that compel speech. A regulation compelling speech is by its very nature content-based, because it requires the speaker to change the content of his speech or even to say something where he would otherwise be silent.”

“Moreover, the statement compelled here is ideological; it conveys a particular opinion,” it continued. “The state freely admits that the purpose … is to convince women seeking abortions to change their minds or reassess their decisions.”

Supporters of the law say that they can’t understand why abortion is the only medical procedure in the state where doctors don’t have to tell the patient what can happen during the procedure.

“In any other medical procedure, doctors would have a duty to disclose all of the relevant information, and, yet, a procedure as destructive and life-changing as abortion is held to a lower standard,” Tami Fitzgerald of the North Carolina Values Coalition told reporters.

“We’re disappointed that the Supreme Court has decided not to review a decision that denies mothers this fully informed consent about human life in the womb and the methods abortionists use to end it,” also commented Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Legal Counsel Steven Aden in a statement. “Contrary to the 4th Circuit’s decision, there is nothing ‘extreme’ about a measure that only seeks to require abortionists to employ technology they are already using for abortions. Abortionists simply don’t want to use it in a way that jeopardizes their profits and shows women the truth.”

Lindsey Graham Reintroduces Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has reintroduced in the Senate the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that would ban all abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy except in cases of rape and incest.

The bill passed the House of Representatives 242-184 last month.

“This legislation is groundbreaking yet simple at the same time. What I love most about this piece of legislation is how simple it is,” Graham said. “Do you believe that at 20 weeks in the pregnancy, five months, when medical encyclopedias are encouraging young parents to sing to their child because they can begin to recognize the voice, that this is a stage in development where you should be very excited because your child is well on their way? Does the government have a legitimate and compelling interest to protect that baby? The answer, I believe, is yes.”

The Centers for Disease Control says just 1 percent of abortions take place after 20 weeks of pregnancy.  Graham says that information combined with medical proof a baby can feel pain at 20 weeks is compelling evidence to put the measure in place.

The Bill is expected to be a struggle for passage in the Democrat dominated Senate.

Court Upholds Texas Abortion Regulations

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas law H.B. 2 is constitutional because the law’s intent is increasing the safety for women who are seeking to end their child’s life via abortion.

“The State truly intends that women only receive an abortion in facilities that can provide the highest quality of care and safety—the stated legitimate purpose of H.B. 2,” the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans wrote. “Plaintiffs bore the burden of proving that H.B. 2 was enacted with an improper purpose. …  They failed to proffer competent evidence contradicting the legislature’s statement of a legitimate purpose for H.B. 2.”

The ruling means that abortion clinics in the state must meet the same standards as a surgical center and that doctors at any abortion clinic must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the decision was a “victory for life and women’s health.”

“H.B. 2 both protects the unborn and ensures Texas women are not subjected to unsafe and unhealthy conditions,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement. “Today’s decision by the Fifth Circuit validates that the people of Texas have authority to establish safe, common-sense standards of care necessary to ensure the health of women.”

Abortion providers and women’s rights groups will try to appeal the decision.

Abortion Rate Declines Nationwide

A new study from the Associated Press shows that abortions in the United States have decreased in nearly every state since 2010.

The AP report shows that abortions decreased about 12 percent.

The information came from the health departments of 45 states that compile statistic on abortions on a regular basis.  The states that do not track abortion stats are California, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Wyoming.

Americans United For Life President Charmaine Yoest praised the survey’s results.

“There’s an entire generation of women who saw a sonogram as their first baby picture,” she said. “There’s an increased awareness of the humanity of the baby before it is born.”

The survey showed increases in two states that are taking steps to make abortion more restrictive: Louisiana and Michigan.  The increases in the states appear to be coming from women who travel from other states to avoid abortion restrictions in those states.

One Michigan company that owns a chain of abortion clinics advertises to women in Indiana and Ohio to come to their clinics, mentioning in one ad that it’s “less than 60 miles from Toledo.”

The largest decrease in abortions came in Hawaii, which fell from 3,064 in 2010 to 2,147 in 2014.

Arkansas Abortion Law Struck Down

A federal appeals court has ruled an Arkansas state law banning abortion when a heartbeat is detected violates the Constitution.

The ruling upholds the decision of a lower court.

The Human Heartbeat Protection Act was passed in March 2013 and legislators had to override the veto of Democratic Governor Mike Beebe to make it law.  The Act required all women to obtain an ultrasound before an abortion and if a heartbeat was detected, it was no longer legal to obtain the abortion.

The law had first been struck down in April 2014 by judge Susan Webber Wright who claimed that Roe v. Wade required viability of the baby and not just a heartbeat.

“The Court finds as a matter of law that the 12-week abortion ban included in Act 301 prohibits pre-viability abortions and thus impermissibly infringes a woman’s 14th Amendment right to elect to terminate a pregnancy before viability,” she wrote. “The state presents no evidence that a fetus can live outside the mother’s womb at twelve weeks.”

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the viability claim of the lower court.

Arkansas state officials are considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Appeals Court Strikes Down Idaho Abortion Ban

A federal appeals court has struck down Idaho’s ban on abortions after 20 weeks.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a woman who filed a class action lawsuit against the law.  She had been facing criminal charges for an abortion after 20 weeks.

Jennie McCormack illegally obtained RU-486 in 2011 through her sister.  She then kept the baby’s dead body on her porch in a plastic bag when she was found out by authorities.  She was charged with unlawful felony abortion which a state court dismissed.  She then filed suit against Idaho’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

President Carter appointed judge Harry Pregerson stated in the ruling that 20 weeks was too restrictive.

“The twenty-week ban applies regardless of whether the fetus has attained viability,” he wrote on behalf of the panel. “The Supreme Court reaffirmed in Casey that an undue burden exists if the purpose or effect of a provision of law places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus obtains viability.”

“Because [Idaho’s law] places an arbitrary time limit on when women can obtain abortions, the statute is unconstitutional,” Pregerson declared.

Idaho officials have not yet announced if they will appeal to the Supreme Court.

West Virginia Fetal Pain Bill Banning Abortions After 20 Weeks Takes Effect

A bill that prohibits abortion in West Virginia after 20 weeks unless the health of the mother is endangered went into effect this week.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act passed both houses of the legislature and then both houses voted to override the governor’s veto.

“It is thrilling to see the unborn baby being put into the abortion debate by making an issue of their pain. Pain is something that we can all relate to,” said West Virginia For Life Program Director Mary Anne Buchanan.

“In a nationwide poll of 1,623 registered voters in November 2014, The Quinnipiac University Poll found that 60% would support a law such as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act prohibiting abortion after 20 weeks, while only 33% opposed such legislation.”

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed the bill not over the idea of banning abortion but because he didn’t think the bill would stand up to a court challenge on its Constitutionality.

“Tomblin’s veto message reflected the same concerns he sent out in a veto response to a similar bill that passed the Legislature in 2014,” reported WOWK TV.

“Despite Tomblin’s veto, this year, the GOP-led Legislature had the numbers to override any piece of legislation sent back within a reasonable time. The WV House voted to override the veto by a vote of 77-16; the Senate’s vote was 27-5.”

Buchanan noted that the law has not been challenged in nine of the 11 states where similar bills have become law.