Tag Archives: Law

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.

Pro-Abortionist Sympathizers In California Legislature Pass “Bully Bill”

A bill that pro-life organizations call the “bully bill” requiring pregnancy care centers to inform women about abortion and provide locations to obtain an abortion has passed the California Assembly.

AB 775, titled the “Reproductive FACT Act” was written by a Democratic assemblyman specifically targeting pregnancy care centers that do not provide abortion services or information.

“The author contends that, unfortunately, there are nearly 200 licensed and unlicensed clinics known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in California whose goal is to interfere with women’s ability to be fully informed and exercise their reproductive rights, and that CPCs pose as full-service women’s health clinics, but aim to discourage and prevent women from seeking abortions,” the bill written by Assemblyman David Chiu reads.

Chin and fellow Democrats placed in the bill language that requires any pregnancy care center to give in print to clients a statement that reads: “California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion, for eligible women. To determine whether you qualify, contact the county social services office at (telephone number).”

The Assembly voted 49-26 to pass the bill and send it to the Senate.

Republican Jim Patterson, who co-founded a pregnancy care center and adopted two children, spoke against the bill and voted against approval.

“It is an effort to force objectionable, state-mandated speech on pro-life pregnancy care centers which have freely formed in order to compassionately present alternative views—views which are rightly protected by the Constitution,” he said. “To force these centers to post and to distribute how to obtain free abortions cuts to the core of their founding purpose and their reason for being.”

“Two of my adopted children and all three of my grandchildren are the living witnesses of the profound and life-affirming options these centers provide,” Patterson continued. “Privately-funded pregnancy resource centers, and the compassionate people who volunteer at them, have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech. And it is our duty as officers of the state of California to protect that right, not to assault it.”

Chinese Teacher Ordered To Have Abortion Or Lose Job

Chinese government officials have told a five-month pregnant woman to have an abortion or she will lose her job as a teacher.

Qin Yi had been given permission to have a child from authorities in hometown of Huangshan City but because she lives in Guizhou province, those authorities were the ones who had authority on whether she could have a child.

Qin and her husband both have a child from previous marriages, so the new child is a violation of the nation’s one child per family law.

Not only was Qin ordered to have an abortion but she is being investigated by authorities on whether she transferred her location of residency in an attempt to have a child with her new husband.

The Chinese policy of one child per family has been under growing criticism around the world as being a form of genocide.

“Even if all couples were allowed two children, there is no guarantee that the CCP will cease their appalling methods of enforcement. Regardless of the number of children allowed, women who get pregnant without permission will still be dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables, and forced to abort babies that they want,” Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated to Congress about the Chinese policy.

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Chen Guangcheng said the government had “contempt for the lives of human beings.”

Kentucky Senator Filibusters Over NSA Bulk Collection Procedures

“There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer.”

With those words, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took to the Senate floor for an eleven hour unofficial filibuster to call out the dangers of the Patriot Act’s allowing the NSA to collect information about the phone calls of all Americans.

It marked the second time Paul had used the filibuster to bring attention to what he feels are the NSA’s illegal methods for collecting information on Americans.

The Patriot Act allows the government to collect “metadata” of every call made on American phones.  While the government does not collect the actual content of the calls, the government knows who is on the phone calls and can track who an American is speaking with and for how long they speak.

The sections of the Patriot Act that allow for the bulk collection of the data expires on June 1 and while Republicans leaders in the Senate want to allow it to continue, the Senate is voting on a House-passed bill that removes the NSA authorization to collect bulk data versus a system that will allow surveillance only if a judge approves a specific request.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on whether to allow the bulk collection of American’s phone records to continue before Memorial Day.

Satanic Temple Sues For Abortion “Religious Exemption”

The Satanic Temple has filed a lawsuit in Missouri with the intention of obtaining a “religious exemption” to the state’s requirement of women waiting 72 hours before obtaining an abortion.

The New York-based group had stated last summer they planned to launch a series of lawsuits in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.  They target what they consider “pro-life” parts of laws that they claim violates their beliefs.

The group sent letters to women who belong to their group that were aimed to be presented to abortion clinics when the workers mention the 72 hour rule.

“As an adherent to the principles of the Satanic Temple, my sincerely held religious beliefs are: My body is inviolable and subject to my will alone. … My inviolable body includes any fetal or embryonic tissue I carry so long as that tissue is unable to survive outside my body as an independent human being,” it reads in part.

The group’s suit on behalf of a woman called “Mary” says she went to a Planned Parenthood facility for an abortion and was denied in violation of her Constitutional rights.

“I personally would have liked to have the procedure done as soon as possible,” “Mary,” who is stated to be 12 weeks pregnant, told reporters. “But with all the difficulties, how hard it is do this, it’s been put off for several weeks. If you’re right on the edge of the state you’ve got to go 500 miles just to get to St. Louis, and you have to make arrangements.”

The group claims the action violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“We have theocrats pushing an agenda through legislation, and it’s time we show that other people have different values and are just as deserving as protections,” Satanic Temple leader Doug Mesner, who also goes by the name Lucien Greaves, told the Daily Beast. “We’re not making Christians get abortions if they feel it’s wrong. They put a burden on us.”

Missouri Considering Bill To Protect Religious Student Groups

After Vanderbilt University and others punished Christian organizations and stripped them of their rights to be official student groups if they did not allow non-members of their faith to obtain leadership positions, Missouri legislators are considering action that would protect student groups.

House Bill 104 passed the Missouri House in March and is being considered in the Senate.  The “Student Freedom of Association Act” was introduced by Representative Elijah Haahr who represents a part of Springfield, MO.

“No public institution of higher learning shall [deny] a religious student association any benefit available to any other student association, or discriminate against a religious student association with respect to such benefit, based on that association’s requirement that its leaders or members adhere to the association’s sincerely held religious beliefs, comply with the association’s sincere religious observance requirements,” reads the bill in part.

“No public institution of higher learning shall substantially burden a student’s exercise of religion unless the institution can demonstrate that application of the burden to the student is in furtherance of a compelling interest of the public institution of higher learning and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling interest.”

The bill is in response to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in 2010 that allowed a public university to stop funding religious groups if they violate any university “anti-discrimination” policy by requiring the religious group’s leadership to be members of their faith.

Opponents of religious freedom are mobilizing against the potential law.

“HB 104 would give religious student groups unprecedented exemptions regarding anti-discrimination policies,” stated Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Like the harmful so-called ‘religious freedom’ bills we’ve seen in the news recently, this bill cloaks discrimination under the guise of religious freedom. This bill has already passed the House, so this is the last chance for you to stop the bill in the Missouri legislature.”

Police Officers In Baltimore Charged

Every officer connected to the arrest of Freddie Gray in Baltimore has now been charged with crimes by the city’s state’s attorney.

State’a Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Friday that Freddie Gray’s death was a homicide, that his arrest was illegal and that she was charging every officer involved with crimes ranging from murder to “misconduct in office.”

“The findings of our comprehensive, thorough and independent investigation, coupled with the medical examiner’s determination that Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide,” Mosby said, “has led us to believe that we have probable cause to file criminal charges.”

“To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘no justice, no peace’. Your peace is sincerely needed, as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man.” Mosby added.

The announcement of charges was expected to take longer than less than 24 hours from the delivery of the police department’s report on the incident.  The city is still under a nighttime curfew from Monday’s riots.

“Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury as a result of being handcuffed, shackled by his feet and unrestrained inside of the BPD wagon,” Mosby said.

President Obama responded to the news of charges by saying that the legal process should run its course.

“What I think the people of Baltimore want more than anything else is the truth,” Obama said.

The Fraternal Order of Police challenged the actions of prosecutor and said that an independent prosecutor needs to be assigned to the case because of potential bias.

Vermont Man Sues Over Being Forced To Fund Abortion

A Vermont man is suing the state over being forced to buy insurance that includes a surcharge to fund abortion coverage.

Alan Howe, 63, filed suit against the state and federal government after the discovery that all health care plans in Vermont required a dollar per month to cover abortions.

“No one actually discloses to you that you are paying this separate abortion fee because they just roll it into the general premium, but everyone in Vermont is being required to pay this separate abortion fee in order to enroll in a plan,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Casey Mattox told reporters.

“That’s the case in Vermont and a few other states,” he outlined to OneNewsNow. “And people aren’t even aware that that’s the case that they’re being forced to pay for abortions in violation of their conscience.”

An attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice told a judge that the Obama administration had asked insurance providers to waive the surcharge for Mr. Howe but that all insurance companies refused to provide a waiver.

U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss is expected to make a decision in the next 30 days while negotiations are continuing to get the abortion requirement removed.  All states must offer at least one plan without abortion coverage by 2017.