The state of California is forcing all faith-based employers to pay for abortions.
The California Department of Managed Health Care told insurance companies in the state all abortions must be covered. Michelle Rouillard, director of DMHC, said that “abortion is a basic health care service.”
Rouillard asserts that the California constitution prohibits health plans from “discriminating against women who choose” to kill their babies via abortion.
The directive is seen as a state agent acting to penalize two Roman Catholic/Jesuit universities that said they would no longer pay for abortions in health care plans but would not stop employees from obtaining it from third parties.
The Alliance Defending Freedom and the Life Legal Defense Foundation sent rebuttal letters on Friday saying the state’s mandate is a violation of federal law. The letter says that DMHC’s action is violation of the Weldon Amendment.
The Obama administration responded to the Supreme Court’s striking down of the abortion mandate on religious employers by changing the rules to put the burden for abortion causing drugs onto insurance companies.
The HHS announced the changes on Friday for non-profit agencies.
“Under the interim final regulations, an eligible organization may notify the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in writing of its religious objection to contraception coverage,” it outlines. “HHS will then notify the insurer for an insured health plan, or the Department of Labor will notify the TPA for a self-insured plan, that the organization objects to providing contraception coverage and that the insurer or TPA is responsible for providing enrollees in the health plan separate no-cost payments for contraceptive services for as long as they remain enrolled in the health plan.”
The administration is currently considering whether to extend the plan to for-profit companies.
Those who were supporting Hobby Lobby and others who object to being forced by the government to pay for abortions via drugs say that the new rules do nothing to protect the rights of conscientious objectors.
“The government should not force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Gregory S. Baylor. “We will consult with our clients to determine how the government’s actions affect their sincere objections to the mandate.”
A major atheist leader is drawing fire from the pro-life community after he said children who have Down Syndrome should be aborted.
Richard Dawkins also said “unless you are a vegan, you are in no position to object to abortion.”
Dawkins said the justification for killing any Down Syndrome child is that they do not have human feelings when they are in the womb.
Dawkins’ comments drew many angered comments but also some very reasoned responses including from Kurt Kondrich, whose daughter inspired the Down Syndrome Prenatal Education Act in Pennsylvania.
“My 11-year old daughter has been nothing but a priceless blessing to our family and community since her birth, and she is a girl with many abilities,” he stated, noting that Chloe is active in a variety of activities, including volleyball and baseball, and loves to read. “Chloe has planted countless positive seeds, and she is a beautiful, intelligent, independent young lady who has accomplished more amazing feats in 11 years than most people do in a lifetime. She is more than capable of taking care of herself and helping others.”
Several groups said that Dawkins’ comments were in line with those of people in history who advocated eugenics and the elimination of individuals called “defective” by those in power.
Another Christian college has been exempted from the nation’s healthcare laws.
Louisiana College in Pineville filed suit in 2012 over the healthcare mandate’s requirements regarding abortion-inducing drugs. The Alliance Defending Freedom brought the suit on the school’s behalf.
“This is bigger than a preliminary injunction — they already had won that,” said Focus on the Family Judicial Analyst Bruce Hausknecht. “This is a decision ‘on the merits’ of the college’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim, which they won at the district court level. But this is big because it’s apparently the first such decision in either the nonprofit or for-profit cases that actually decides the substantive issue — not just the temporary reprieve.”
The Department of Justice tried to get the case initially dismissed but it’s now likely in light of the recent Supreme Court decision the case would not be appealed by federal prosecutors.
So far, 56 injunctions against the law have been put in place by various federal judges.
A judge has ordered an infamous abortionist to close his clinic.
Martin Haskell, a notorious late-term abortionist, was ordered to close his Lebanon Road Surgery Center because it would not comply with state health regulations. The initial order to close the clinic was issued at the end of last year but had been delayed because of litigation.
“We are gratified to see yet another late-term abortionist shutting down,” said Mike Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life president and member of the state medical board. “As a result of this Health Department order, Martin Haskell, a strong proponent and former practitioner of the controversial and deadly partial-birth abortion procedure, will no longer be able to abort children and jeopardize women’s health in Hamilton County.”
The order to finally close the clinic was issued by Democratic state judge Jerry Metz who said all the previous orders by state officials and judges to close the clinic were legally valid.
Haskell’s wife has been attempting to keep the clinic open by appealing to Christians, saying the Bible endorses the killing of children through abortion, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
The president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is calling out a man who is telling people that he is killing babies through abortion as a “ministry.”
Dr. Willie Parker, a former medical director for Planned Parenthood, has been performing abortions (including late term abortions) at a clinic in Jackson, Mississippi. He has been leading the fight against the state’s law requiring better health care standards for abortion clinics and for doctors to have admitting rights at hospitals if they perform abortions.
Dr. Parker claims that he is doing “abortion ministry” by killing babies for women who don’t want to become mothers. He compares himself to the good Samaritan of the Bible and even had a newspaper feature championing his “abortion ministry.” He said he can’t understand why people think he might not be a Christian.
“The protesters say they’re opposed to abortion because they’re Christian,” Parker explained. “It’s hard for them to accept that I do abortions because I’m a Christian.”
Southern Baptist ERLC head Russell Moore says that people question Dr. Parker as a Christian because he’s killing babies for profit. He also says Parker’s claims that he’s like the “good Samaritan” are flawed at the core.
“That would be true, of course, if the Samaritan in Jesus’ story had euthanized the neighbor, to put him out of his misery. Of course, he didn’t. Instead, the Samaritan took the neighbor on as his own kin, nursing him back to health and caring for him, a picture that looks a lot like what many of the pro-life churches and organizations Parker dismisses are, in fact, doing for women in crisis and their babies,” said Moore.
“We can pray that this abortion doctor hears and receives that sort of mercy that transforms the direction and purpose of his life. We can pray for a ‘come to Jesus’ moment that puts him on the right side of the Jericho Road.”
The state of Ohio has been carrying out a crackdown on abortion clinics.
Two of the clinics are at risk of losing their licenses to end babies’ lives. Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls and Capital Care Network of Toledo have been recommended to lose their licenses by the Ohio Department of Health. If the clinics do not contest the action by the ODH, they would have to close August 12th.
A Planned Parenthood office in Bedford Heights was fined $25,000 after a March inspection of the facility.
“One of the reasons Planned Parenthood was fined is because the facility was improperly storing containers of human tissue, which brings the name of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell to mind,” Katherine McCann of Ohio Right To Life told the Christian Post. “Another was because of improper follow-up documentation for two abortion patients who were hospitalized for bleeding and a perforated uterus. How is any of this ‘healthcare’? The real war on women is being waged by Ohio’s abortion facilities.”
McCann said that the crackdown is part of actions taken by the state’s governor to hold clinics accountable for unsanitary conditions.
“Before Governor Kasich’s administration, it was a struggle to ensure that Ohio’s abortion facilities were being held to common-sense health and safety standards. That’s really what we’re talking about here, common-sense standards,” said McCann. “ODH isn’t holding these facilities to extra special standards — any inspection a clinic undergoes is in line with the Ohio Revised Code. But Ohio’s abortion industry can’t even meet these basic requirements. Thankfully, for the last four years, abortion mills haven’t been allowed to skirt the law like they used to.”
A major abortion facility in Austin, Texas closed last week as a result of the pro-woman legislation that was passed last year.
Whole Woman’s Health of Austin, which has been ending the lives of babies via abortion for over ten years, announced the immediate closure of the facility. The abortionists said they had to close because of House Bill 2.
“House Bill 2 … has forced us into yet another closure, this time because we’re unable to meet the standards of an ambulatory surgical center at this location,” a statement read.
The closing of the center comes two years after the center was fined $22,000 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for dumping babies killed at the facility in a landfill.
A report from the University of Texas at Austin says the number of babies in Texas who have died from abortion has fallen 13% over the last year.
A Democrat appointed federal judge has struck down an abortion law in Alabama that has passed Constitutional muster in multiple other states.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled that the law would require women to travel to obtain the end of their child’s life, and that because many of them are poor, it causes an undue burden on them to travel.
“A significant number of the women would be prevented from obtaining an abortion; others would be delayed in obtaining abortions, exposing them to greater risks of complications; and even the women who are able to obtain abortions would suffer significant harms in terms of time, financial cost, and invasion of privacy,” Thompson wrote.
Several abortionists including Planned Parenthood had sued to block the law that would have require doctors to have admitting privileges in the event they botch an abortion and cause a critical injury to a woman.
Thompson even suggested that there is no difference between abortion rights and gun rights.
A Mississippi law that would have shut down the state last abortion clinic was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court even though it had the same provisions as other states where the constitutionality was upheld.
A three judge panel with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it would mean women would need to travel to another state to kill their babies via abortion. That, the court said, would cause an “undue burden” on the women who wanted to end their child’s life.
The court also said the state is “obligated” to uphold the “right” for women to kill their babies via abortion.
The Mississippi law was modeled on a Texas law that requires all abortion clinics to have abortionists with admitting privileges at a local hospital should a complication arise during the procedure. All hospitals in the area of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization had refused to work with the abortionists.
The judge who dissented in the case said states are not required by the Constitution to provide abortion clinics, but rather to ensure the safety of anyone that wanted to operate a clinic within their state.