Important Takeaways:
- The 76-year-old pastor, Clive Johnston, a former president of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland, faces two charges under the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act, including allegedly seeking to “influence” individuals accessing abortion services and failing to leave the area when instructed by police, according to The Christian Institute, which is defending Johnston.
- Pastor Johnston’s sermon took place on July 7, 2024, on a patch of grass near Causeway Hospital. The location was separated from the hospital by a dual carriageway, and about a dozen people attended the service, which included hymn singing and a wooden cross as part of the gathering.
- Despite the absence of placards or any mention of abortion in his sermon, authorities deemed the service a violation of the buffer zone regulations.
- Johnston is due to appear at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where he could face fines totaling thousands of pounds.
- The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert called the prosecution “an outrageous restriction on freedom of religion and freedom of speech.”
- John 3:16, the focus of Johnston’s sermon, says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
- “The Christian Institute is backing this case because there is a vital principle at stake,” Calvert explained. “If the Gospel can be banned in this public place, where else can it be banned? The authorities do not seem to have thought through the human rights implications of their decision to prosecute.”
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Important Takeaways:
- While many already knew about the “thought crime” case against a British Army veteran, Vice President JD Vance brought it to the world’s attention again in a speech to the Munich Security Conference on February 14.
- “A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own,” Vance said.
- Smith-Connor was convicted last fall of praying within an abortion clinic “buffer zone.” When he was approached by police officers, they asked, “What is the nature of your prayer today?”
- Smith-Connor answered, “What is the nature of my prayer? I’m praying for my son,” making the charge against him what many are calling a “thought crime.” We met Smith-Connor at a church in Southampton, England, where he told us of a dream that led him into the pro-life movement, a dream in which he was butchering a baby.
- He recounted, “I was carving up this baby, as if I was carving up a Sunday roast. I didn’t have any sense of guilt or anything, and it was no feeling of anything as I was doing this. When I woke up, it was like a nightmare in reverse. I was so horrified because I had carved up this child who I knew was my son. And it horrified me that I hadn’t felt anything as I did it. And over the following days, I came to realize it related to an abortion that I’d paid for two decades earlier. That abortion hadn’t even crossed my mind. But God knew that that was sitting on my conscience. He knew that I wasn’t going to figure out for myself and that that needed to be cleansed. So, I feel that he gave me that vision, that dream, to wake me up to what had happened.”
- He began to go to abortion clinics to pray for his son and would eventually be charged with a crime for praying.
- Smith-Connor said police officers “decided from that because they knew that my son had died in an abortion, that therefore, I was in breach of the buffer zone. And they asked me to leave the area. I declined because I don’t think that prayer can ever be considered a criminal act or Illegal. I didn’t approach anyone. I didn’t speak to anyone. Didn’t even look at anyone. And in fact, if you’ve been in the clinic, you wouldn’t have seen me from the clinic because I was behind a tree, out of line of sight of the clinic entrance.”
- Lois McLatchie Miller with Alliance Defending Freedom International says the government’s use of the word “influence” has created a very broad law that can potentially be used against private conversations and even a person’s thoughts and prayers.
- Miller told us, “By using a word like ‘influence,’ it’s very unclear what the law means. What about a mother asking her daughter, ‘Are you sure?’ Is that an ‘influence’? What about a friend who’s offering support to a woman who’s considering continuing her pregnancy? Is that ‘influence’?”
- Livia Tossici-Bolt, a 63-year-old retired medical scientist from Bournemouth, England, was also convicted under the law last week for holding up a sign reading “here to talk, if you want” within an abortion clinic buffer zone and talking to women who approached her.
- In Scotland, citizens living within buffer zones were sent letters warning that they could violate the law while inside their own homes. Some think it could include praying near a window if a woman seeking an abortion walks by.
- Adam Smith-Connor said he’s grateful to Vice President JD Vance for defending him before world leaders.
- Smith-Connor is a British Army vet who risked his life in Afghanistan. This case makes him reflect on the personal price he paid for freedom and a close friend who died to protect the very rights that his government is now taking away.
- “I’ve got a profound sense of sadness for our nation. The fact that we have plummeted to such a depth so quickly is truly shocking to me. I believe in the Bible and what the Bible says, and I live that out in my life. And when the civil laws step outside of the laws of God, then I’m to follow God’s laws. And the absurdity of being put on trial for the contents of your mind, the contents of your prayers. It just has no place in a liberal, free, democratic society.”
- “And yet, here we are.”
- An appeal of Adam’s conviction has been set for July.
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Important Takeaways:
- British legacy media and establishment politicians were quick to accuse U.S. Vice President JD Vance of spreading “misinformation” after he asserted at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that people could be arrested for praying in their homes if they live within the 200-metre (656ft) protest prohibition zones surrounding abortion clinics in Scotland.
- However, in an interview with BBC Scotland’s Scotcast podcast, the legislation’s author, Gillian Mackay, appeared to confirm Vance’s warnings.
- Despite having initially branded the vice president’s comments as “nonsense” and “shocking and shameless misinformation”, the leftist lawmaker admitted that prayer within a home could fall afoul of the law.
- Asked whether someone was seen visibly praying at their window within the exclusion zone was committing an offence, the Member of the Scottish Parliament said: “That then depends on who’s passing the window.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Fifty years of anti-abortion laws in Missouri have been struck down as unconstitutional over the last two months, culminating Friday with a Jackson County judge blocking clinic licensing requirements.
- Three days later, Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists gathered outside Planned Parenthood locations across the state to say they have no intention of retreating.
- “I’m here to tell you the Missouri supermajority of Republicans will not stand for this,” said state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican and one of the architects of the legislation that made Missouri the first state to outlaw abortion in June 2022 after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
- “There will be another option to vote,” she predicted Monday, “so that people understand this is not going to continue in the state of Missouri.”
- A Planned Parenthood clinic in Kansas City on Saturday performed the first elective abortion since voters overturned Missouri’s abortion ban by passing Amendment 3 in November.
- Missouri Republicans have filed three dozen bills seeking to either repeal or rein in Amendment 3. So far, the House has prioritized a proposed constitutional amendment that would reinstate an abortion ban but create exceptions for survivors of rape and incest, as long as they report the crime to police.
- Senate Democrats have threatened to filibuster any effort to overturn the voter-approved amendment legalizing abortion.
- “This is the real agenda of Planned Parenthood, to put the destruction of human life over the safety and well-being of women,” Brian Westbrook, executive director of Coalition Life, told reporters as about half a dozen anti-abortion protesters stood behind him. “They are not fighting for women. They are fighting to remove every possible check on their harmful, deadly business.”
- Westbrook said Monday kicked off a 6-day “intense prayer and fasting vigil” outside the St. Louis clinic. Coalition Life also restarted its sidewalk counseling efforts, partnering with Women’s Care Connect, a pregnancy resource center in Maryland Heights that he said also provides “abortion pill reversal.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The United States Catholic bishops reasserted Thursday that fighting abortion is the “pre-eminent priority” for Catholic voters, since protecting human life is the first duty of the law.
- “Abortion directly attacks life itself, takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and destroys over a million lives annually in the United States,” states the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities as part of its “9 Days for Life” campaign.
- The prelates go on to note that the Declaration of Independence “boldly affirms that first among our inalienable rights is the right to life, given to us by the Creator.”
- But despite being so solemnly proclaimed, “the right to life is today threatened and often denied, particularly at the moments when life is most fragile,” they observe.
- “Our laws should — first and foremost — protect life,” they declare, and yet even with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, “many states still do not recognize children in their mothers’ wombs as persons and still claim that abortion is a right.”
- As Breitbart News reported, abortion was the leading cause of death globally in 2024, with a record 45 million unborn babies intentionally killed in the womb.
- In the course of the year, 8.2 million people died from cancer, 5 million from smoking, 1.7 million of HIV/AIDS, 1.35 million from traffic fatalities, and 1.1 million from suicide, while 45.1 million died from abortion.
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Important Takeaways:
- It would be safe to say that sexual immorality is pervasive in our society. From television shows to movies to print media and even the local park or beach, people are engaging in a level of immorality that is worsening by the year.
- When God instructed the Israelites to take possession of the land promised to them, He says this in Deuteronomy 7:1-2: “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Furthermore, in verse 5 He says: But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.”
- As we know from the Biblical record, the Israelites did not follow God’s commandment entirely. Because of their incomplete conquest of the land, worship of a false goddess named Asherah survived and subsequently plagued Israel…
- So that the Israelites would not be tempted to engage in religious syncretism, God also gave this command in Deuteronomy 16:21: “You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image [Asherah], near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God.”
- Clearly, not everybody obeyed the command. One of the most wicked acts undertaken concerning Asherah is recorded in 2 Kings 21:7 under the direction of King Manasseh who put an Asherah pole in the Temple: “He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.’”
- The worship of Asherah was exceedingly wicked and known for its sensuality and ritual prostitution. Although the Israelites were commanded not to have anything to do with it, the worship of Asherah was a recurring problem. Sadly, under Rehoboam, it became even worse. 1 Kings 14:22-24 records: Now Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images [Asherah] on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also perverted persons [those practicing sodomy and ritual prostitution] in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
- The Israelites were not only warned against worshipping Asherah, but also a particularly heinous false god known as Molech. In Leviticus 18:21, God warned: “And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” It was not only the people who failed to heed this command. Even King Solomon stumbled as well. In 1 Kings 11:7 we read: “Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon.” The sacrifice of children to Molech was particularly cruel. It is said that they were placed on the outstretched arms of the statue of the “god” and burned alive. Around them, worshippers played instruments in order to drown out the screams.
- The Conclusion
- Those who worship at the altar of sexual freedom soon find themselves at the altar of child sacrifice. Ideally, both altars should be brought down in unison. In other words, the church should not only be actively praying for and lobbying for the elimination of abortion services, but also teaching the full counsel of God when it comes to matters of sexual morality. May God equip us and strengthen us. Lives literally depend on it.
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Important Takeaways:
- On Tuesday, voters in Missouri narrowly passed an amendment writing abortion into the Missouri Constitution. On Wednesday, Planned Parenthood filed a sweeping lawsuit challenging virtually all of Missouri’s good, pro-life laws.
- Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider, and the organization consistently opposes policies that protect women and unborn children from abortion.
- Wednesday’s lawsuit challenges Missouri’s many pro-life measures, including the state’s good laws that:
- Prohibit abortion except to save the life of the mother
- Require abortionists to give women information about abortion’s risks, consequences, and alternatives
- Require abortionists to give women 72 hours to consider all options before an abortion
- Protect unborn children from being aborted due to their race or sex or due to being at risk for Down Syndrome
- Require abortion facilities to be licensed and inspected by the state
- Require abortionists to have hospital admitting privileges in case the woman experiences complications from abortion
- Outline how abortion data is recorded and reported to the state for statistical purposes
- Prohibit telemed abortions in Missouri
- Prevent healthcare professionals other than doctors from performing abortions
- Require abortionists to maintain various plans and agreements for handling abortion complications
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Important Takeaways:
- Tens of millions of voters in Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York and South Dakota will be asked how their state should regulate abortion.
- Most of the initiatives in those 10 states would allow abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered about 24 weeks, or later only in instances when the health of the pregnant woman is at risk.
- Pro-choice advocates hope that by having voters directly decide to enshrine abortion in states’ laws, they can bypass the ups and downs of state courts.
- But there’s another reason why some want abortion on the ballot – voter turnout.
- Democrats hope that more people who support abortion rights, who overwhelmingly vote for the party, will show up on election day because the issue is on the ballot.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a clash between a federal emergency care law and Texas’ near-total ban on abortion, declining to provide clarity over whether physicians in states with the most restrictive laws must provide abortion care in certain emergency circumstances.
- The court’s rejection of the Biden administration’s appeal leaves in place a lower court decision that blocked the federal government from enforcing guidance it issued to hospitals notifying them that they must provide emergency abortions if the health of the mother is at risk.
- The Department of Health and Human Services told health care providers in a July 2022 letter that when a state abortion law does not include an exception for the life and health of the mother, that measure is preempted by the federal emergency care law.
- The case began after Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told hospitals more than two years ago that federal law requires them to provide pregnant patients experiencing emergency medical conditions with stabilizing treatment, including abortions, regardless of state restrictions.
- In Texas, abortion is banned except when the life of the mother is at risk.
- Texas sued the Biden administration to block its mandate requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions, alleging that the secretary exceeded his authority when issuing the guidance.
- A federal district court sided with Texas and blocked the guidance, finding that hospitals cannot be forced to provide abortions in certain medical emergencies when it would violate the state’s ban.
- They urged the Supreme Court to leave the lower court’s decision in place, writing in a filing that in Texas, a health care provider can comply with both EMTALA and state law by offering stabilizing treatment without violating its ban. In limited circumstances, they said, that can include providing an abortion when it is necessary to prevent the “substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”
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Important Takeaways:
- In a ruling issued on Monday, Judge Robert McBurney said Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act, infringes on a woman’s state constitutional rights.
- When originally signed into law, the LIFE Act criminalized most abortions after an embryo generates detectable cardiac activity, typically around six weeks into a pregnancy.
- Fourteen states now bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Georgia was one of four where the bans kick in after about six weeks of pregnancy
- The new Georgia ruling, if it stands, could open up new avenues to access abortion not only for residents of the state, but for people in nearby states who currently face long trips to places like North Carolina or Illinois.
- Georgia could still appeal McBurney’s ruling. Kara Murray, communications director for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, said in a statement Monday, “We believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional, and we will immediately appeal the lower court’s decision.”
- “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement. “Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”
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