Tag: U.S. Supreme Court

UN General Assembly moves closer to adopting resolution declaring abortion a ‘human right’

Samantha Kamman – August 24, 2022

Delegates at the United Nations General Assembly are finalizing negotiations on a resolution that would require all U.N. agencies to declare abortion a human right, reportedly due to pressure from the European Union and the Biden administration.

The resolution contains language about abortion that has reportedly been rejected in other resolutions over the past decade. As the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) earlier reported, it’s being considered for adoption by the end of the month.

According to C-Fam, the resolution declares that governments should secure “access to safe abortion” as a matter of policy and “ensure the promotion and protection of the human rights of all women and their sexual and reproductive health.”

Western countries backing the resolution reportedly forced the inclusion of this language. Although a Japanese diplomat leading the negotiations stated that delegations could not alter the language on abortion, it remained despite repeat objections, according to C-Fam.

The resolution’s language does not outright declare abortion an international human right and includes the caveat “where such services are permitted by law.”

“The European Union and the U.S. government are trying to undermine the long-standing consensus of the General Assembly that abortion is an issue that should be decided at the national level without external interference from the United Nations,” Stefano Gennarini, vice president for legal studies at C-Fam, said in an emailed statement to The Christian Post on Monday.

Gennarini said that both had done this “intermittently” for over 30 years, but he believes they have made it a priority now due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June.

https://www.christianpost.com

Planned Parenthood is Spending So Much Money Lobbying Congress for Abortions It Just Set a New Record

Micaiah Bilger – August 11, 2022

The billion-dollar abortion chain Planned Parenthood appears desperate. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, and the November election does not look good for pro-abortion Democrats.

A new report from Open Secrets, which tracks lobbying and election spending, reports the abortion chain’s political arm, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, has spent an “unprecedented” amount of money on lobbying this year.

In the second quarter of the year, the pro-abortion group reported spending a record $569,000 on lobbying U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would force taxpayers to fund abortions for the military and force states to legalize the killing of unborn babies for basically any reason up to birth, according to the analysis.

Other lobbying efforts included the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court and legislation that would punish pro-life pregnancy resource centers for supposedly “misleading” advertising, the analysis found

According to Open Secrets:

Planned Parenthood Action Fund spent over $739,000 in the first half of 2022 on federal lobbying on issues including abortion access, with about $170,000 spent in the year’s first quarter. This comes after the organization reported a 4,000% increase in donations after the Supreme Court released its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization majority opinion in June.

The analysis pointed out that pro-life organizations also spent more on lobbying in the second quarter this year, but pro-abortion groups “consistently spend more money on federal lobbying” than pro-life groups.

https://www.lifenews.com

Supremes rule on state discrimination against religious schools

Bob Unruh – June 21, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled the state of Maine cannot discriminate against religious schools by excluding them from a state program that lets parents use vouchers to pay tuition for their children.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 6-3 majority opinion that explained Maine’s tuition program, which blocked the funds from being used at religious schools, cannot stand.

The ruling echoes a similar ruling from just a few years ago involving religious schools in Montana.

In the Maine case, a family argued that by excluding religious schools from the voucher program, the state was actively discriminating against religion.

Michael Bindas, an attorney for the nonprofit legal group Institute for Justice, argued the case on behalf of the plaintiffs.

“Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” Roberts wrote in the case of Carson v. Maykin.

“Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”

Christopher Taub, the chief deputy attorney general for Maine, had claimed that the state shouldn’t be funding anything that instills religious beliefs, and that providing money for secular private schools does not do that, but that money going to religious schools does.

The state of Maine provides such vouchers to families of students who live where is no local public school to attend – but insisted that the vouchers not be used at religious or “sectarian” schools.

Roberts, during oral arguments, wondered openly about the state’s demands.

“You’re discriminating among religions based on their beliefs,” he said.

https://www.wnd.com

Texas Sees Massive Drop in Abortions as New Stats Show Abortion Ban Saving Thousands of Babies

Micaiah Bilger – October 29, 2021

Texas abortion facilities reported a huge drop in abortion numbers during the first 30 days when the state heartbeat law was in effect, according to new research from the University of Texas at Austin.

Though some women are getting abortions earlier and others are traveling out of state, researchers acknowledged that the law is preventing abortions. And that means babies’ lives are being saved.

The New York Times reports the University of Texas at Austin researchers found a 50-percent drop in abortions in September, compared to the same month in 2020.

Abortion facilities reported 2,164 abortions in September 2021, down from 4,313 in September 2020, according to the new research. That equates to 2,149 babies’ lives

“The last two months have been a phenomenal success for the pro-life movement,” John Seago, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, told the Times in reaction to the research. “We are the first state to be able to enforce a heartbeat bill, and lives are being saved every day because of this work.”

The heartbeat law went into effect Sept. 1, prohibiting abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable. Unique from other state pro-life laws, the Texas law allows private citizens to enforce the abortion ban by suing abortionists who violate it.

Thus far, the courts have allowed Texas to enforce the law. Twice, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to temporarily block it; however, the justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in the Biden administration’s challenge on Monday.

https://www.lifenews.com

The $6 Trillion Man? Biden’s Budget Would Make U.S. Taxpayers Pay for Abortions in Far-Left Spending Plan

Steve Warren – May 27, 2021

President Joe Biden will send a clear message on Friday when he releases his proposed 2022 $6 trillion budget to Congress. His message? He wants U.S. taxpayers to fund abortions at a time when Republican-led states are ramping up restrictions on it and when the U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.

Several media outlets are reporting Biden’s budget would cause the highest sustained level of federal spending since World War II as the president looks to fund his ever-increasing progressive agenda investing in education, infrastructure, and fighting climate change.

Politico reports Biden is also expected to leave out the Hyde Amendment as well as any other pro-life acknowledgments in his spending proposal in a move to try to please progressives and abortion activists.

The Hyde amendment is a decades-old bipartisan policy that has been included in federal spending bills for roughly 40 years to prevent taxpayer funds from paying for abortions. Biden’s exclusion of Hyde would largely be a token confrontation due to the Democrat Party’s narrow majority in Congress, and no clear winning edge in the Senate.

As CBN News reported in 2019, in his many years as a senator, he was for it. But suddenly then-candidate Biden flip-flopped on the issue saying he wanted to get rid of the ban on taxpayer-funded abortions. This surprised many Democrats including some of the then-former vice president’s aides.

“Just as I’ve never attempted to impose my views on anyone else as to when life begins, I have never attempted to impose my view on who should pay for it if people fundamentally disagree with the position we take,” Biden said at the time. “But folks, but folks times have changed. I don’t think these guys are gonna let up.”

He shifted his position, he said, while crafting his healthcare plan, as more and more states pass laws protecting the unborn.

“I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the healthcare they need and the ability to exercise their constitutionally protected right,” he said.

https://www1.cbn.com

Arkansas Governor Signs Near-Total Abortion Ban Into Law

Newsmax – March 9, 2021

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday signed into law legislation banning nearly all abortions in the state, a sweeping measure that supporters hope will force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark Roe v. Wade decision but opponents vow to block before it takes effect later this year.

The Republican governor had expressed reservations about the bill, which only allows the procedure to save the life of the mother and does not provide exceptions for those impregnated by rape or incest. Arkansas is one of at least 14 states where legislators have proposed outright abortion bans this year.

The bans are being pushed by Republicans who want to force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide. Conservatives believe the court is more open to striking down the decision following former President Donald Trump’s three appointments to the court.

Hutchinson has signed several major abortion restrictions into law since taking office in 2015, but he had voiced concerns that this bill directly challenges Roe and the lack of rape and incest exceptions.

The legislation won’t take effect until 90 days after the majority-Republican Legislature adjourns this year’s session. That means it can’t be enforced until this summer at the earliest. Abortion rights supporters said they plan to challenge the ban in court before then.

https://www.newsmax.com

US Supreme Court Rules NY Gov. Cuomo’s ‘Severe Restrictions’ on Church Attendance Unconstitutional

– November 27, 2020

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that New York’s “very severe” limitations on church attendance in the state’s COVID red and orange zones violate the First Amendment right to the freedom of religion and is not the least restrictive means of preventing infections.

“Not only is there no evidence that the applicants have contributed to the spread of COVID–19, but there are many other less restrictive rules that could be adopted to minimize the risk to those attending religious services,” the court stated in a 5-4 opinion Wednesday evening, with new justice Amy Coney Barrett being among the majority.

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with his liberal colleagues.

In October, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order 202.68, which presented updated regulations for various public facilities, including fitness centers, hair salons, restaurants, taverns and houses of worship.

Churches in orange zones were required to be “subject to a maximum capacity limit of the lesser of 33% of maximum occupancy or 25 people, whichever is fewer.” Those in red zones were “subject to a capacity limit of 25% of maximum occupancy or 10 people, whichever is fewer.”

View the executive order here.

As a result, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and the Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization Agudath Israel of America filed suit to challenge the restrictions, arguing that they treat religious facilities more harshly than secular venues.

They contended that they have followed all health guidelines and have operated at reduced capacity without any outbreaks, and therefore, it cannot be proven that churches need more stringent regulation.

On Wednesday, following unsuccessful bids in the lower courts, the Supreme Court ruled that Cuomo’s restrictions “cannot be viewed as neutral because they single out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment” since businesses deemed “essential” could literally accommodate hundreds of occupants without penalty.

https://christiannews.net