Important Takeaways:
- The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday allowing abortions for women facing medical emergencies in Idaho – for now – despite the state’s near-total ban on the procedure does nothing to lift the confusion in many states surrounding when emergency abortions are permissible, according to legal experts.
- The case is one of several around the United States over when abortion is legally available in medical emergencies under exceptions to state abortion bans.
- Doctors have said that they are unable to perform abortions that they believe are medically necessary for fear of prosecution because it is not clear what is allowed
- In Thursday’s order, the Supreme Court found it should not have agreed to hear the case in the first place because lower courts needed more time to work through factual and legal issues, and dismissed it – restoring the judge’s order blocking the law while the case proceeds.
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Important Takeaways:
- That will replace the state’s current ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
- Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will be allowed in cases of rape if the assault is reported to law enforcement within 45 days, in cases of incest reported within 140 days, and if the pregnancy endangers the life of the pregnant person. It allows abortion in the case of life-threatening fetal abnormalities.
- The law had been in effect for a few days after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it last year but was blocked by a lower court in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.
- Today the court found that there is a “rational basis” to write a law banning abortion based on the detection of a fetal heartbeat, stating, “We conclude that the fetal heartbeat statute is rationally related to the state’s legitimate interest in protecting unborn life.”
- The Midwest is still a mixed picture for abortion rights. Neighboring Iowa are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas and Illinois that still allow access to abortion beyond 20 weeks. But Missouri and the Dakotas have near-total bans and Nebraska has a 12-week ban.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with whether provisions of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban unlawfully conflict with a federal law aimed at ensuring certain standards for emergency medical care for patients, including pregnant women.
- The justices are weighing an appeal brought by Idaho officials who are contesting a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration over abortion access in emergency situations.
- The state law says that anyone who performs an abortion is subject to criminal penalties, including up to five years in prison.
- The Biden administration argues that care should include abortions in certain situations. The law applies to any hospital that receives federal funding under the Medicare program.
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Important Takeaways:
- Florida is set to become one of the most restrictive states in the nation to get an abortion next week.
- President Joe Biden visited Tampa Tuesday, calling Florida’s six-week abortion ban “one of the nation’s most extreme anti-abortion laws.”
- “It’s very dangerous situation,” Heidi Davis, a volunteer with the St. Petersburg League of Women Voters, agreed. “It’s as my shirt says, ‘Abortion is healthcare.’”
- “We need to make sure that we don’t have politicians interfering with the women’s medical decisions,” she continued.
- “It is pro-abortion through nine months, most people even if they’re pro-choice don’t agree with abortion through nine months.”
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Important Takeaways:
- In a video posted to Truth Social, Trump said the issue of abortion is about “the will of the people” and should be left up to states to decide. The 45th president touted his role in nominating the Supreme Court justices who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade in their Dobbs decision — ending 50 years of an invented constitutional right to abortion and sending the issue back to individual states and their elected representatives.
- “My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide, must be the law of the land,” Trump said.
- “This is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart or in many cases, your religion or your faith. Do what’s right for your family, and do what’s right for yourself,” he continued. “Do what’s right for your children. Do what’s right for our country, and vote–so important to vote. At the end of the day, it’s all about the will of the people.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Tucker Carlson has accused President Joe Biden’s administration of targeting a pro-life father for praying and singing outside of an abortion clinic, warning that the administration “fears” that type of activity.
- Paul Vaughn, the Tennessee father of 11 children, was arrested by the FBI in October 2022 and charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act
- Vaughn said that the FBI came to his home, “guns pointed at the door, banging on the house, yelling and screaming, ‘Open up! FBI.’”
- “Seeing that the easiest path to de-escalation was me in handcuffs, I stepped outside and put an end to the ranting and the banging and the yelling.”
- “The question is,” Tucker Carlson asked, “what exactly did he do? Was he a terrorist, a serial killer? Was he trying to invade the country? No. Paul Vaughn, had dared to pray and sing hymns in the hallway of an abortion clinic.
- “In other words, he did what the Biden administration really fears,” Carlson continued. “He prayed. And for doing that, he faces 11 years in prison.”
- Vaughn said that he believes the Biden DOJ’s intent with its “heavy-handed raid” was to “strike fear into Christians in the nation.”
- “It really is a moment for the church,” Carlson reflected. “If you’re an American Christian leader and you’re standing by without saying anything as a man faces 11 years in prison for saying prayers, I think it’s time to assess yourself.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Abortions have reached their highest level in 10 years, despite bans on the procedure in more than a dozen states.
- A report released Tuesday by reproductive health firm Guttmacher Institute showed that there were 1 million abortions in the US in 2023, the equivalent of 16 per every 1,000 women.
- That was up 10 percent from the 14.4 per 1,000 in 2020 and the highest since 2014, when the rate was 14.6 per 1,000.
- The rise is largely being driven by medical abortions, which can be ordered from pharmacies online and soon-to-be in person, though they are illegal in over a dozen states that have banned abortion.
- The findings come after Vice President Kamala Harris made history as the first vice president or president to visit an abortion clinic last week – which was hailed by pro-abortion campaigners but slammed by critics as a sign that she has ‘spent her whole career in the pocket of Big Abortion.’
- The report also found that 63 percent of abortions performed in 2023 were from medications, such as the two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprotol. In 2000, no abortions were done with this method.
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Important Takeaways:
- Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. Six out of 10 (61%) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29%) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion (1).
- Comprehensive abortion care is included in the list of essential health care services published by WHO in 2020. Abortion is a simple health care intervention that can be effectively managed by a wide range of health workers using medication or a surgical procedure.
- [Do some simple math: what’s the number in ten years’ time? 730 million abortions. What’s the number in 20 years’ time? 1.5 billion Abortions. What would history say about us? World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished, or about 3% of the 2.3 billion people that comprised the global population in 1940.]
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Important Takeaways:
- The topic of abortion is very personal to me—not just because I am a pastor, but because I myself was not planned. I was conceived as a result of a one-night stand, and could have become another abortion statistic. Thankfully, that did not happen.
- God Planned Our Lives Before Birth
- Though it took me a while to discover it, my life was planned by God:
- Psalm 139:13–16 KJV – “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
- Jeremiah 1:5 KJV – “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
- Notice that God says, I formed you in your mother’s womb. God doesn’t say, I waited until you were born to have a plan for you, because you were not yet really a human, but only a mass of tissue.
- Each child is created by God and is granted the gift of life at conception
- God has a plan for every single baby conceived, regardless of the circumstances. There is no such thing as an illegitimate child. Illegitimate parents, perhaps, but not children.
- We read Paul’s words in Galatians, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace” (1:15)
- Since the passing of Roe v. Wade in the early 1970s, an estimated 63 million+ babies have been aborted.
- The abortion industry creates revenue in excess of $4 billion in the United States alone.
- Despite the fact that Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, many states have continued this practice, under the banner of “woman’s rights.” The truth is that abortion takes the life of an innocent child in the womb. It is, plainly speaking, murder.
- I think one of the reasons abortion has persisted is because we are so desensitized to murder. Our culture today is awash in violence. Everywhere we look, we see it: on our television screens, in theaters, in music, and in video games. But it’s sin. It’s the Sixth Commandment: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).
- Our Pro-Life Role as Christians
- With all the emotion and passion about this topic, let’s do everything we can to help any woman who finds herself pregnant to make the right decisions, so she doesn’t have to struggle with the aftermath of a wrong choice.
- Let’s also do everything we can to care for families who need it. Caring for moms and children should be a priority of the Church more than ever before.
- To refrain from voting is irresponsible and bad stewardship. Scripture tells us, “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17 NKJV). We should vote for the candidates and policies that best reflect the values we find in Scripture, and that includes voting pro-life.
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Important Takeaways:
- Joe Biden Wants to Put 6 Pro-Life Americans in Prison for a Decade for Protesting Abortion
- In 2021, the US Department of Justice charged seven individuals with violating the FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances), which stipulates that individuals cannot block the entrance to abortion clinics or prevent individuals from accessing them. An additional four activists were charged with misdemeanor charges.
- If convicted in this week’s trial, the six defendants could face up to 11 years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
- One person in the Tennessee trial, Heather Idoni, a grandmother, was convicted in the Washington, D.C., trial. She was transported to Tennessee to face the charges in this week’s trial.
- Idoni, along with Zastrow and Gallagher, have been charged in a third FACE Act-related case. The three face charges for sitting in an abortion clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
- If convicted of all three, Idoni could face 33 years in federal prison. Zastrow and Gallagher could face up to 22.
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