Tag Archives: Abortion

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.”

Abortion Activist Group Rushes To Women Impregnated By Boko Haram

Pro-life groups are raising the alarm about an abortion group that has entered Nigeria with a focus on the women who have been impregnated during their captivity by Boko Haram.

Last month we reported on the rescue of nearly 700 women from the clutches of the Islamic terrorist group.  Nigerian officials said that many of the women were impregnated by the terrorists as part of their campaign.

“Boko Haram insurgents deliberately raped women with the intention of getting them pregnant so they would give birth to future insurgents as successors of their violent struggles, hence the need for a special program to break the chain anticipated by the insurgents,” Isa Gusau, spokesperson for Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, also explained.

“The sect leaders make very conscious efforts to impregnate the women; some of them, I am told, even pray before mating, offering supplications for [Allah] to make the products of what they are about doing become children that will inherit their ideology.”

Now, the United Nations Population Fund, one of the biggest worldwide groups promoting abortion in underdeveloped nations, is providing counseling to the women who have been attacked.  While the group hasn’t explicitly said they were there to provide abortions, pro-abortion groups like the Center for Health and Gender Equality promoted the presence of UNFPA saying they provide access to abortion.

“UNFPA is one of the leading international groups promoting abortion in the developing world,” explained the UK-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) in a statement this week. “SPUC fears that these emotionally vulnerable, malnourished women will be pressured into aborting their babies.”

“It is extremely worrying that some of these women may undergo abortions, which could cause them further physical and emotional trauma in their already weakened state,” Antonia Tully of SPUC added. “The deaths of their unborn babies would add to the toll of lives lost in this tragic situation.”

Nigeria sees about 760,000 abortion every year.  Many Nigerian based pro-life groups are speaking out demanding the UNFPA be blocked from aborting the children of the Boko Haram victims.

House Passes Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

The House of Representatives has passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that would ban most abortions after the 20th week of gestation.

The bill, H.R. 36, passed 242-184.  The bill’s vote came on the second anniversary of the conviction of Philadelphia late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

The bill bans abortions after 5 months of pregnancy with exceptions for rape and incest if the woman seeks counseling 48 hours prior to having the abortion.  The counseling portion of the bill was added after Republican women in the House objected to the bill’s previous requirement the woman report rape or incest to police.

The bill initially was going to be voted on January 22nd, the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  Many pro-life groups were upset that the House postponed the vote because of issues with some Republican women.

Several representatives cited Gosnell’s clinic in their statements supporting the bill.

“It seems that some members of this body want to regulate things like light bulbs and rainwater and farm dust, but leave women helpless before the doctor Gosnells of the world,” said Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa.

“Late term abortionists are driven by profit undeterred by the painful death of countless innocent lives. We must protect these women and children by passing the bill.”

Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., said that a November 2014 poll found that 60 percent of Americans support banning abortion after 20 weeks.

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.”

Pro-Life Groups Vow To Defy D.C. Hiring Mandate

Pro-life groups in the nation’s capital are vowing to defy the local government’s mandate that they cannot consider an applicant’s beliefs about abortion when hiring them.

“Despite the enactment of this unjust law, we will continue to hire employees who share our commitment to the dignity of every member of the human family. We will not abandon the purpose of our organizations in order to comply with this illegal and unjust law. We will vigorously resist any effort under RHNDA (Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act) to violate our constitutionally protected fundamental rights,” the groups said in a mutual statement.

The Act amended a D.C. discrimination law.  The law says that all employers may not consider “reproductive health decision making, including a decision to use or access a particular drug, device or medical service, because of or on the basis of an employer’s personal beliefs about such services.”

The Alliance Defending Freedom has stated they will use their resources to defend the religious rights of the groups against the government’s attempt to strip them of a part of their religious freedom.

“Pro-life organizations in our nation’s capital should not be forced to pay for abortions or hire those who oppose their pro-life beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox. “While the D.C. Council has retreated from this law’s original goal, which was to force pro-life organizations to pay for abortions in violation of their conscience, RHNDA remains an unnecessary and illegal attack on pro-life conscience that Congress must stop and that we will fight, if necessary, in the courts.”

California Bill Would Overturn Government Mandate Churches Pay For Abortions

A proposed bill in California is aiming to overturn an order of the California Department of Managed Health Care that requires all insurance companies in the state to cover abortions, effectively forcing all churches and religious groups to pay for abortions.

“Abortion is a basic health care service,” Director Michelle Rouillard wrote to the seven insurance companies that refused to offer coverage.“All health plans must treat maternity services and legal abortion neutrally.”

The action of the CDMHC was widely believed to be in response to two Roman Catholic/Jesuit universities to no longer pay for abortions.

California Assembly member Shannon Grove has presented a proposal that would overturn the mandate along with making it illegal for entities to be punished in any way for not providing abortion coverage.

“Notwithstanding any other law, a health care service plan is not required to include abortion as a covered benefit. The director shall not deny, suspend, or revoke the license of, or otherwise sanction or discriminate against, a licensee on the basis that the licensee excludes coverage for abortions pursuant to this section,” A.B. 1254 reads.

Casey Mattox of the Alliance Defending Freedom testified in support of the bill.

“Assembly Bill 1254 would simply restore the status quo ante and ensure California’s continued compliance with its obligations under the Weldon Amendment,” he stated. “It would not prohibit insurers from covering any legal health service, but religious employers would remain free, as before, to contract for insurance plans that did not require them to pay for abortions.”

“Churches and other religious employers should not be coerced by the government into violating their fundamental beliefs by being party to elective abortion,” Mattox continued. “When Congress enacted the Weldon Amendment, it sought to ensure that the government could never strong-arm pro-life employers into paying for abortion coverage. California is blatantly ignoring federal law and pushing its abortion ideology on citizens while still receiving taxpayer money.”

Hillary Clinton Says Religious Beliefs On Abortion Must Be Changed

“Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will and deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

Those were the words of Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a speech at the “Women in the World” summit in New York. Clinton shared her pro-abortion views in her speech.

“Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced,” Clinton said. “Rights have to exist in practice—not just on paper.”

Clinton specifically mentioned Hobby Lobby and claimed that Hobby Lobby’s not being forced to pay for abortion drugs took away a woman’s right to obtain those drugs on their own.

“America moves ahead when all women are guaranteed the right to make their own health care choices, not when those choices are taken away by an employer like Hobby Lobby,” she asserted.

“There are those who offer themselves as leaders … who see nothing wrong with denying women equal pay, who offer themselves as leaders who would de-fund the country’s leading provider of family planning,” Clinton said, referring to Planned Parenthood, “and want to let health insurance companies once again charge women just because of our gender.”

 

Committee Votes To Overturn Abortion “Non-Discrimination” Act

A bill to overturn a law that bans religious groups from being able to enforce their beliefs in their organization regarding abortion has advanced in a Congressional committee.

The D.C. City Council passed a bill in 2014 called the “Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act” that amended a 1977 law to prohibit pro-life organizations from discriminating against any employee who has an abortion.

The bill means that faith-based groups that believe abortion is murder would not be able to fire an employee for violating the faith of the group in regards to abortion, sex outside of marriage or adultery even if the employee signed a document they agree to live by Biblical standards.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) swiftly condemned the measure.

“The Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014 prevents religious institutions, other faith-based employers, and pro-life advocacy organizations from making employment decisions consistent with their sincerely held religious beliefs or their moral and ethical views about the sanctity of human life,” an ADF letter stated.

Senators Ted Cruz and James Langford introduced measures in the Senate to void the D.C. law and Rep. Diane Black presented one in the House.  The House measure passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee 20-16.

President Obama would have to sign the measure for it to void the D.C. law.