The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld a state law that limits abortion drugs.
The court reversed the ruling of a lower court judge last year that said the law violated the state constitution.
“Beginning tomorrow morning, there will not be any medication abortions in North Dakota,” said David Brown, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The North Dakota law says that no drugs can be used to induce abortions that are not approved for that use by the FDA. The North Dakota clinic involved in the lawsuit uses misoprostol as part of their process, which is not approved by the FDA for abortions. The drug is a treatment for stomach ulcers.
A spokeswoman for the Fargo abortionists say about 20 percent of their abortions each year are done with drugs.
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem praised the court’s decision and said the state will wait to see what the abortionists do before deciding how to proceed with the case
The Pakistani government is receiving condemnation and pressure from around the world over a death sentence given to a Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy.
Asia Bibi has been jailed for four years after a Muslim woman who was angry she drew water from the same bowl as her made false accusations that Bibi, a Christian, blasphemed the prophet Mohammed.
One Christian group said they are working to increase the international pressure on Pakistan for giving a death penalty to a woman simply because she is a Christian.
“We continue to hope because, as Christians, our faith nourishes hope. We continue to pray for Asia Bibi and for her release, so that the Lord protects and comforts her. But there are many elements that are not conducive to optimism,” Haroon Barkat, director of the Masihi Foundation, told Fides News Agency.
The Christian leaders in the nation who have been fighting for Bibi are taking the case to the nation’s Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court has stepped in to block a law that was designed to protect the health of women seeking to end the lives of their babies via abortion in Texas.
In an unsigned order from the court, they supported abortionists and those who advocate the killing of babies via abortion by suspending the October 2nd ruling of an appeals court that said that Texas law could take effect while appeals take place.
The court also put on hold a part of the law that requires doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals for abortionists near the Texas/Mexico border.
“This does not protect the health and safety of women who are undergoing abortion,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life. “”This is definitely a short-term loss, but not necessarily a long- term loss.”
Texas state attorneys say that the law is not a burden on women who want to kill their babies, because nearly 9 in 10 women still live within 150 miles of an abortionist.
One of the companies involved in the Supreme Court case striking down parts of the Affordable Care Act has finally received a permanent injunction against the law.
Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation, which has over 950 employees, said the law violated the Mennonite beliefs of their owners. The owners said abortion is “an intrinsic evil and a sin against God” and they should not be forced to pay for abortions via drug in the law.
U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg had ruled against the Hahn Family who owns the company in 2012, which sparked the case heading to the Supreme Court. Now, the same judge has issued a permanent injunction.
“[I]t is hereby ordered that Defendants are permanently enjoined from enforcing against Plaintiffs, their group health plan, and the group health insurance coverage provided in connection with that plan, the statute and regulations that require Plaintiffs to provide their employees coverage for ‘[a]ll Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity,’” the judge wrote in his order.
The Alliance Defending Freedom praised the injunction, saying that they hope other judges will not infringe on the religious freedom of Americans.
A South Carolina state senator is speaking out about the way atheistic evolution is being used as state-sanctioned gospel in schools.
Mike Fair, who represents Senate District 6 in South Carolina, has sponsored bills that have called for students in public schools to learn arguments both for and against evolution including discussions of creationism.
“The ‘truth’ must conform to Darwinism, or it is not allowed,” Fair says. “I don’t suppose it matters what your eyes see or your mind tells you.”
Fair claims that the government is illegally and unconstitutionally promoting the atheistic religion.
“Making inferences to the best factual information is not allowed if it points to a religion other than atheism,” he wrote. “Consideration that the fine tuning of our galaxy is a miracle (or made that way) is a discussion that is not allowed.”
“I believe the principles established by the Founders are being removed from the public square by a series of narrow decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court,” he continued. “I am bothered that the Supreme Court has changed the Constitution by a series of 5-4 votes clearly outside the methods duly established to properly change our Constitution.”
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.”
The Obama administration is working on a plan that will allow religious non-profit organizations that object to paying for abortion causing drugs and also signing forms to allow third-party groups to cover them to completely opt-out.
A White House spokesman said they are “developing the alternative” to the original plan that “won’t involve shifting the costs to employees.”
The Obama administration was ordered by the Supreme Court to revise the rules after a 6-3 vote by the Supreme Court that Wheaton College could not be required to cover abortion-causing drugs. The case will have trickle down impact on other cases including one involving the Little Sisters of the Poor.
The court said the rule in the healthcare law violated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
A source told the Associated Press the new rules will come out in about a month.
A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate by a pair of anti-life Senators to overrule the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case has failed.
Washington Senator Patty Murray and Utah Senator Mark Udall introduced what they called the “Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act” that would have stripped people of faith in the United States from owning and operating their own business unless they provided abortion causing drugs to their employees.
The bill failed in the Senate because the Democrats could not obtain 60 votes to bring debate to cloture and move to a full vote. The bill failed 56-43 along mostly party lines to keep the bill from advancing.
Christian organizations celebrated the fact 43 Senators still believe Americans have the right to religious freedom.
“While the Senate rightfully rejected this unjust bill, today is a reminder of the need to stand vigilant in defense of our God-given freedoms against those who would take them away,” Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Casey Mattox said.
The Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on the constitutionality of states issuing license plates with the ”Choose Life” slogan.
The Alliance Defending Freedom filed an appeal on Friday with the court on behalf of the speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Thom Tills, and the president pro tem of the North Carolina Senate, Phil Berger. The appeal comes after a three-judge panel with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the license places were unconstitutional.
The ADF says “state governments have the right to advance messages consistent with their public policies.” The Supreme Court, the ADF notes, has already affirmed that right in other cases.
The ACLU of North Carolina brought the initial suit against the plates because there were no pro-abortion license plates offered at the same time.
The “Choose Life” plates cost an extra $25, of which $15 goes to a pregnancy care fellowship that helps with pregnancy care centers in the state. If the ACLU is successful in removing the plates, thousands of women in North Carolina will be denied pregnancy care coverage because the ACLU is doing nothing to replace the funds that will be lost.
Two Democratic senators have introduced a bill they say is aimed to overrule the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision and force Christian business owners to pay for abortion drugs.
Anti-life Senators Patty Murray of Washington and Mark Udall of Colorado have created what they titled the “Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act.” Abortionists like Planned Parenthood have already praised the bill.
“After five justices decided last week that an employer’s personal views can interfere with women’s access to essential health services, we in Congress need to act quickly to right this wrong,” Murray said in a statement yesterday. “This bicameral legislation will ensure that no CEO or corporation can come between people and their guaranteed access to health care, period.”
“As the nation’s leading advocate for women’s reproductive health care, Planned Parenthood Action Fund is committed to making sure women can get the no-copay birth control benefit that we and others fought so hard to pass and protect,” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards proclaimed. “No woman should lose access to birth control because her boss doesn’t approve of it.”
None of the Senators nor any of the groups speaking out in favor of the bill have mentioned that the Court’s decision only applies to 4 of the 20 contraceptives connected to the Affordable Care Act. This means that no women working for these companies is denied contraception.