The Catacombs - Abortion

UK votes to decriminalize abortion

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 11:40:17 +0000

UK votes to decriminalize abortion
The United Kingdom Parliament voted on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

Melinda Nagy/Shutterstock

Jun 17, 2025
LONDON (LifeSiteNews) — The United Kingdom Parliament has voted to decriminalize abortion, in a move all but guaranteed to open the floodgates to unlimited abortion-on-demand.

Under the 1967 Abortion Act, abortion was legal through the first 24 weeks of pregnancy for any reason with the approval of two “registered medical practitioners” and legal up to birth if deemed necessary to prevent “grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman” or “risk to the life of the pregnant woman”; or if the child would “suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped,” including Down syndrome.

However, as previously covered by LifeSiteNews and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, pro-abortion MPs have put forth amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to gut the U.K.’s existing abortion restrictions.

New Clause 1 by Tonia Antoniazzi MP would decriminalize any role by the woman in abortion, meaning that while the various conditions would remain in place and doctors would still be liable for violations, women could take abortion pills themselves for any reason, at any point, without consequences. New Clause 20 by Stella Creasy MP would go much further, effectively removing all legal restrictions on abortion.

The Guardian reports that the MPs voted on Tuesday to approve Antoniazzi’s amendment. Another vote must be held in both the House of Commons and House of Lords, and receive royal assent, before the change becomes law.

“It is a conscience issue, therefore it is a free vote. And therefore in that sense, it’s in the same category as assisted dying,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters at the G7 summit in Canada. “But my longstanding in principle position is that women have the right to a safe and legal abortion.”

The Washington Examiner notes that “Nearly 9 in 10 abortions in England and Wales, approximately 86%, in 2022 were medication abortion, as opposed to surgical abortion,” meaning that even the less extreme of the two amendments, New Clause 1, is enough to protect the vast majority of abortions in the U.K.

Liberalizing Great Britain’s abortion laws is out of step with majority opinion in the U.K., according to multiple polls. LifeSite recently covered an Ipsos survey finding that only 34 percent want abortion legal in “all” cases and just under half of young men (46 percent) want it legal in “all” or “most” cases. SPUC highlights a Whitestone poll finding that 62 percent agree that “Having an illegal abortion should continue to be a criminal offence to protect both the unborn and vulnerable women who could be coerced into losing a baby they may have wanted, for example by an abusive partner.”

Satanic Temple to open telehealth abortion clinic in Maine on President Trump’s birthday

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:23:35 +0000

Satanic Temple to open telehealth abortion clinic in Maine on President Trump’s birthday
The telehealth center will offer abortion pills for a flat fee of $91. Patients must be physically located in Maine at the time of consultation and dispensing.

fizkes/Shutterstock

Jun 11, 2025
(LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted, not all hyperlinks from original included]) — The Satanic Temple has launched a new abortion-by-mail provider in Maine, expanding its network of telehealth providers offering chemical abortions under the name TST Health.

Set to open June 14 – President Donald Trump’s birthday – the new facility bears a deliberately provocative name, the “President’s Yuge Most Beautiful Tremendous Satanic Abortion Clinic.”

Erin Helian, TST’s executive director, described the operation as a “magnificent, regal birthday present.”

READ: Satanic Temple head: ‘More than 50% of our membership is LGBTQ’

The Maine clinic follows earlier launches in New Mexico and Virginia. It will offer abortion pills for a flat fee of $91. Patients must be physically located in Maine at the time of consultation and dispensing, but all services are conducted via telehealth.

According to TST, the clinic aims to support its “Satanic Abortion Ritual,” a ceremony intended to frame abortion as a religious act.

The ritual, guided by an “ordained minister,” includes affirmations such as “By my body, my blood. By my will, it is done.”

The Satanic Temple describes itself as a non-theistic religious organization, and is formally recognized by the IRS as a church. Its public messaging mixes shock value with advocacy for secular causes, particularly on abortion and contraception access.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, TST has argued that its abortion ritual merits protection under the First Amendment’s free exercise clause. It recently challenged Idaho’s pro-life laws in a case heard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, filed on behalf of its New Mexico-based “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.”

The case was dismissed at the district level for lack of standing.

The group says it is “heartbroken” by the closure of abortion clinics nationwide but intends to continue expanding its clinics. Maine currently has loose abortion laws that allow the lethal procedure to be performed past the point of viability when “it is necessary in the professional judgment of a physician,” a loophole that can render the viability restriction practically meaningless.

TST has not disclosed how many abortions it expects to provide in Maine, but said it hopes the new clinic will be part of a “growing network” of telehealth operations across the United States.

Satanic activity in the United States has become increasingly public and aggressive in recent years, with other groups like the Kansas-based Satanic Grotto staging “black masses” and plans to hold more protests involving Wiccans and self-described “witches,” often near state capitols.

These events often target Christian symbols and practices, and have drawn both media attention and backlash from Catholic leaders and lawmakers.

Watch: Pittsburgh pro-lifers sing ‘Salve Regina’ outside of Planned Parenthood

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:59:16 +0000

Watch: Pittsburgh pro-lifers sing ‘Salve Regina’ outside of Planned Parenthood
Pro-lifers sang the ‘Hail Holy Queen’ in Latin as part of ‘spiritual warfare’ against the abortion industry in Pittsburgh. 40 Days for Life has 660 campaigns going this spring to combat Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities.

X

Fri Mar 28, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — 40 Days for Life members kicked off their spring campaign by singing the “Salve Regina” (Hail Holy Queen) and kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament while outside of the Pittsburgh Planned Parenthood, as seen in a powerful video posted to X.

Fr. Joe Freedy, senior parochial vicar at Divine Grace Parish, led the procession, which ended with singing.

“This is the front line of #ProLife in the steel city,” the group wrote on X. “It’s spiritual warfare where we need it most — where devils sacrifice unborn children.”

The group posted the video this week, but it is from the kickoff event on Tuesday, March 4.

The group further reiterated the power of prayer in combating abortion and evil.

“A heartfelt thank you to everyone who prayed for the sanctity of life at the opening Mass & Eucharistic procession for our spring vigil campaign,” the group wrote on X. “Kneeling in front of Planned Parenthood, we prayed the Rosary and lifted our voices to Heaven.”

The group received support not just from local pro-life activists but also students from nearby Franciscan University of Steubenville, according to video posted on X.

The spring 2025 campaign is ongoing in 660 cities, according to the national 40 Days for Life – though two might end early, according to the group, because abortion facilities closed.

40 Days for Life announced:

Quote:Pro-lifers in 660 cities worldwide hit the streets this morning to begin peacefully praying for an end to abortion as part of the largest Lenten 40 Days for Life campaign ever.

It looks like at least a few of those cities won’t finish the vigil…for the best possible reason.

The Planned Parenthood abortion facilities in Bloomington and Decatur, Illinois, are scheduled to close FOREVER!

There are still several weeks left to get involved. Interested readers can find a location near them at this link.

CA Drops Prosecution Against Sandra Merritt, Who Exposed Planned Parenthood Aborted Baby Part Sales

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 10:39:22 +0000

California Drops Prosecution Against Sandra Merritt, Who Exposed Planned Parenthood Aborted Baby Part Sales

LifeNews | Jan 27, 2025

After eight years of prosecuting Sandra Merritt, the California Attorney General’s office agreed to a plea deal to end this criminal case with no prison time and no fines for her role in the undercover journalism and videos that exposed Planned Parenthood’s trade in aborted baby body parts.

Before this unprecedented case, the State of California had never criminally prosecuted undercover journalists for surreptitious recordings made in the public interest. Yet, this courageous grandmother was charged with 16 felonies and faced more than 10 years in prison for shining a light on the abortion industry’s profit from illegal organ harvesting from aborted babies.

Liberty Counsel has defended Merritt for more than a decade against California’s and Planned Parenthood’s two-pronged strategy of criminal indictments and a civil lawsuit. The negotiated plea agreement includes the state dropping all remaining felony counts.

Merritt will plead “No Contest” to only one felony charge, which, after a one-year probationary period will be reduced to a misdemeanor at sentencing, and then expunged from her record entirely. Merritt will serve no prison time, will pay no fines, and will have no other penalties imposed for revealing the truth about Planned Parenthood. The deal is essentially a complete victory for Merritt in this politically-motivated criminal case.

Merritt, along with her co-defendant, David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, produced a series of undercover videos recorded at the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF) 2014 and 2015 abortion convention and trade shows. The videos explicitly show the abortion industry’s illegal abortion practices and sales of human body parts. The recordings capture Planned Parenthood executives haggling over the prices of baby body parts, picking through bloodied arms and legs of aborted babies in a pie tray, and discussing how to alter abortion methods to avoid violating partial-birth abortion law and obtain more profitable body parts to sell.

Rather than investigate Planned Parenthood, then California Attorney General Kamala Harris met with top Planned Parenthood officials in 2016 and subsequently ordered criminal investigations into Merritt and Daleiden while the next state attorney general, Xavier Becerra, eventually charged them with violating California’s recording law.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. She did the right thing by exposing the depravity of the abortion industry. This plea agreement ends an unjust criminal case by dropping these baseless criminal charges without any prison time, fines or other penalties. Sandra deserves to be applauded and acclaimed for revealing these horrors and then enduring this selective and vindictive prosecution as a result. Murdering human babies to harvest their body parts for profit is evil and there is no excuse for Sandra’s political persecution. This is an extraordinary result for Sandra and the State of California deserves to walk away virtually empty handed.”

Trump administration halts cases against pro-lifers, strongly limits future FACE Act use

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 15:17:42 +0000

Trump administration halts cases against pro-lifers, strongly limits future FACE Act use
The Department of Justice stopped three pending Biden-era prosecutions of pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act on Friday, with strict new requirements for future invocations of the law to prevent it from being weaponized in the next four years.

President Donald Trump
Getty Images

Jan 25, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews [slightly updated - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — (Updated.) The Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) put a stop to three pending Biden-era prosecutions of pro-life activists under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act on Friday, with stringent new requirements for future invocations of the law to prevent it from being weaponized again in the next four years.

In response to this development, Dr. Monica Miller of Red Rose Rescue and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society told LifeSiteNews that her organizations are “incredibly grateful”:

Quote:We are incredibly grateful, especially grateful to God, that this pathetic lawsuit is gone. It never should have been brought in the first place. Indeed, Red Rose Rescues do not violate the FACE Act, as Red Rose Rescuers do not physically block or interfere with anyone’s freedom of movement. (Please see redroserescue.com for information on this innovative rescue strategy.) But, under the Garland/Biden DOJ, federal prosecutors were simply bending, twisting, and broadening the language of the FACE Act to make what we did fit their perverted interpretation. If we needed to go to trial our Thomas More Society attorneys felt confident we would prevail against this unjust charge. With the dismissal of this FACE case it is the total icing on the cake, on top of Trump’s pardons of the pro-life prisoners who were convicted of violating the FACE law and the extra charge of Conspiracy to Interfere with Civil Rights, resulting in draconian years-long prison terms. Now all pro-life rescuers are free at all levels in terms of the federal prosecutions.

We look forward to the repeal of the FACE act, the worst pro abortion law next to Roe v Wade.

Enacted in 1994, the FACE Act ostensibly protects access to facilities run by both pro-life and pro-abortion organizations, including abortion facilities, pro-life pregnancy centers, and churches. However, conservatives have argued that the DOJ under the Biden administration weaponized the act to prosecute pro-life activists while only a handful of pro-abortion vandals had been arrested after a string of attacks on churches and pro-life centers in the wake of the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Among the most egregious Biden prosecutions have been 23 pro-lifers prosecuted by the Biden Justice Department for entering abortion centers and refusing to leave, and who received prison time despite several of them being elderly with medical issues. Also concerning was the case of Mark Houck, a Philadelphia pro-lifer whom the DOJ prosecuted under the FACE Act after arresting in a morning FBI raid for a physical altercation with a hostile abortion supporter that local authorities had already dismissed. Houck was acquitted in January 2023; Trump pardoned the 23 others on Thursday.

On Friday, multiple media outlets obtained a copy of a memo from Kathleen Wolfe, a supervisory official at DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRD). Citing President Donald Trump’s “promise of ending the weaponization of the federal government,” it directs that “future abortion-related FACE Act prosecutions and civil actions will be permitted only in extraordinary circumstances, or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors, such as death, serious bodily harm, or serious property damage.” In the absence of such factors, incidents will be left to state or local law to adjudicate.

“Additionally, until further notice, no new abortion-related FACE Act actions criminal or civil – will be permitted without authorization from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division,” it says.

It also instructs prosecutors to “immediately dismiss, with prejudice,” three pending cases against pro-life activist Cal Zastrow, Matthew Connolly, and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society.

“If needed, further case-specific guidance will follow for cases in which a criminal conviction has already been obtained but in which a sentence has not yet been imposed, or in which the appeals are not yet completed, that did not present significant aggravating factors,” the memo adds.

“In all three of these cases, our attorneys have led the defense of pro-life advocates targeted by Biden’s DOJ – which had sought crushing penalties, fines, and injunctions against them, to stop them from sharing their pro-life message,” Thomas More Society executive vice president and head of litigation Peter Breen responded. “These cases should have never been brought and we are thankful to the Trump administration for righting that wrong.”

“While this handful of cases are now slated for dismissal, there is no shortage of ongoing attacks on life-affirming ministries across the country as pro-abortion states double down on anti-life policies and lawfare,” he added. “As these legal battles multiply in pro-abortion states, we will tirelessly continue to defend the entire pro-life movement.”

The Trump administration’s actions give relief to those already targeted and ensure no new federal cases will arise in the next four years, but the danger remains of a future Democrat administration using the FACE Act just as President Joe Biden did. To solve the issue, Republicans in Congress reintroduced this week a bill to simply repeal the FACE Act.

The FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025 is expected to easily pass the U.S. House of Representatives and be signed by Trump if given a chance, but before reaching the president’s desk, it will still face a challenge in the Senate, which has a Republican majority with 53 seats but requires 60 votes to pass most types of legislation.

[See also: Mike Lee introduces Senate version of House bill to repeal FACE Act]

Trump separates taxpayer dollars and abortions

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 13:06:44 +0000

Trump reinstates Mexico City Policy, separates taxpayer dollars and abortions

The president on Friday signed an executive order reinstating the policy

Fox News [adapted] | January 24, 2025

An executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday will overturn two Biden memorandums and reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which forbids using taxpayer dollars to fund nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

The Mexico City Policy, initiated by the Reagan administration, has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since its creation.

During the Biden administration, the Pentagon paid for service members to travel over state lines for abortions, and Veterans Affairs medical centers were allowed to offer abortion counseling and abortion procedures for service members and their beneficiaries, Fox News Digital previously reported.

The administration also provided abortion access to migrants detained at the border, offering transport of unaccompanied pregnant children to states without abortion restrictions.

The White House said that, for nearly five decades, Congress annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, "reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice."

"However, the previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs," the White House wrote in a statement. "It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion."

Biden's Presidential Memorandum, Protecting Women's Health at Home and Abroad, was signed Jan. 28, 2021, and alleged the policy's restrictions negatively affected women’s reproductive health and undermined U.S. partnerships in global health efforts.

Trump's order rescinds two Biden executive actions that promoted access to abortions and included abortion in the definition of "reproductive healthcare."

The language in the new order clarified the memorandum is "not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person."

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) told Fox News Digital the policy "will decrease abortion access in countries around the world."

"This far-reaching policy defunds health organizations in other countries that provide abortion services or information, even for victims of sexual assault," CRR said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. "Many of these critical organizations will likely shutter as a result or be forced to stop providing or even talking about abortion services."

CRR representatives also referenced the administration's Geneva Consensus Declaration Friday night, which is a joint initiative to "secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society; and to work together across the UN system to realize these values," according to a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The CRR called the declaration "an anti-reproductive rights and anti-LGBTQ political statement" that "intentionally misrepresents itself as an official international agreement, and attempts to undermine the broad legal basis for reproductive rights as human rights."

"The reinstatement of President Trump’s Global Gag Rule (GGR) and rejoining of the Geneva Consensus are direct assaults on the health and human rights of millions of people around the world," said Rachana Desai Martin, CRR chief government and external relations officer.

"We saw the devastating impact of the GGR during the last Trump administration when contraception and vital reproductive services were cut off," Martin added. "There was a spike in pregnancy-related deaths, reproductive coercion and gender inequality worldwide. Many clinics and health programs shuttered, leaving vulnerable populations with nowhere to get birth control, pregnancy care and other vital health services."

Live Action, a global human rights movement dedicated to ending abortion, posted on X after the order was signed.

"The Mexico City policy which ensures American tax dollars do not fund killing children internationally through abortion has been reinstated by President Trump!" the post said.

Fox News Digital requested comment from Planned Parenthood and Physicians for Reproductive Health but did not immediately receive a response.

President Trump pardons pro-life prisoners

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 13:02:00 +0000

President Trump pardons pro-life prisoners
U.S. President Donald Trump has officially pardoned the 23 pro-lifers imprisoned by the Biden DOJ for their attempts to save unborn babies, calling his signing of the pardons a 'great honor.'

President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order pardoning imprisoned pro-lifers.
Screenshot

Jan 23, 2025
Editor’s note: This article was updated once it was confirmed that Trump had indeed pardoned the pro-life prisoners.

(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump has pardoned the pro-lifers imprisoned during Joe Biden’s presidency.

On Thursday afternoon, U.S. President Donald Trump officially pardoned the 23 pro-lifers imprisoned by the Biden DOJ for their attempts to save unborn babies.

Prior to signing the pardons, Trump commented that none of the 23 pro-lifers should have been “prosecuted,” adding that signing the pardons is a “great honor.”

The now-pardoned pro-lifers are: Joan Bell, Coleman Boyd, Joel Curry, Jonathan Darnel, Eva Edl, Chester Gallagher, Rosemary “Herb” Geraghty, William Goodman, Dennis Green, Lauren Handy, Paulette Harlow, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, Jean Marshall, Father Fidelis Moscinski, Justin Phillips, Paul Place, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, and Calvin, Eva, and James Zastrow.

After the pardons were signed, LifeSiteNews spoke with imprisoned pro-lifer Joan Andrews’ husband, Chris Bell, who said that he believes his wife is still in federal custody at a prison facility near Philadelphia. He was uncertain when she would be released.

Chris said that during his last phone conversation with Joan earlier in the day that she was pleading for the pro-life movement to maintain unity.

“We shouldn’t complain about each other and our tactics,” said Chris, quoting his wife. “We need to be working together to end the holocaust.”

“IVF is a huge killer and destroyer of human life,” continued Chris, “and we pray fervently that this nation stops promoting conception outside the womb.”

LifeSiteNews also spoke to Robert Dunn, attorney for Heather Idoni, who called today’s pardons “tremendous.”

“I’ve tried hundreds of cases throughout my career,” Dunn told LifeSiteNews, “That trial in Washington, D.C., was the most unfair trial I’ve ever been a part of.”

“We were not allowed to do our job,” he explained.

Dunn said that he has been concerned about the older pro-life women suffering from health problems who were convicted and imprisoned under the FACE Act. He wanted to get them out of prison and back to their homes before their health problems worsened.

“Sometimes you have to wait a long time for justice,” he continued. “The Israelites had to wait forty years.”

“Eventually we all get justice,” said Dunn, adding, “If we don’t get it here, we’re going to get it on Judgement Day.”

Also celebrating was Thomas More Society’s Martin Cannon, attorney for Lauren Handy.

“This is a motley crew of people. These are conservatives and liberals and atheists and Christians. You just can’t believe the mix!” declared Cannon. “These are amazing people!”

“They don’t agree on much, but they all agree on one thing: These are babies we’re talking about,” said Cannon, “and if all of these people can agree on that, it deserves everyone’s attention.”

“They have been willing to be the ones falling on their swords for those babies,” added Cannon, “and for that they all deserve our appreciation.”

Earlier in the day, news was shared that the pardons were forthcoming at the “Law of Life Summit” by lawyers representing the Thomas More Society.

Mary Margaret Olohan and Leif Le Mahieu of the Daily Wire reported that Trump would pardon “pro-life activists imprisoned by the Biden Justice Department within days.”

The journalists had maintained that two unnamed sources assured their outlet that the “plight” of the pro-life prisoners is “an immediate priority to Trump’s team” and they will “likely be pardoned within days.”

The news is certain to galvanize attendees at tomorrow’s March for Life, at which Trump is slated to address rally attendees via video. Vice President JD Vance is also scheduled to speak in-person at the massive event.

Earlier today, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri mentioned on X (formerly Twitter) that he had spoken to President Trump about the imprisoned pro-lifers:

“I had a great conversation this morning with [Donald Trump] about the pro-life prisoners unjustly persecuted and imprisoned by the corrupt Biden Administration,” he wrote, linking to the President’s X account. “I urged him to pardon them swiftly.”

Infamous US abortionist says he commits elective late-term abortions ‘all the time’

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 11:41:00 +0000

Infamous US abortionist says he commits elective late-term abortions ‘all the time’
‘It happens all the time, of course,’ notorious Colorado abortionist Warren Hern said when asked if women ever come to him for abortions in second trimester or third trimester because ‘they just don’t want the baby, they change their mind.’

Joanna Kulesza/The Atlantic

Nov 15, 2024
(LifeSiteNews [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — In a recent interview, a notorious late-term abortionist dropped any pretense that late term-abortions are “necessary” due to medical conditions that allegedly endanger the life of the mother.

In a talk-show discussion about what leads women to have abortions, Colorado-based abortionist Warren Hern was asked, “Do you ever get any women in their second half of the second trimester or in the third trimester that say they have no medical problems, they just don’t want the baby, they change their mind? Would you do it?”

“Well, of course, if the woman doesn’t want to be pregnant, there’s no justification for forcing her to continue the pregnancy,” answered Hern.

“Has that happened?” asked host Michael Shermer.

“It happens all the time, of course,” averred Hern. “She has a potentially fatal illness, condition that can kill her…”

“No, no, I mean, if she has no medical problems,” clarified Shermer.

“The medical problem is that she’s pregnant!” declared Hern.

“Hern’s statement – ‘the medical problem is that she’s pregnant’ – sums up the entire issue,” noted Casey Fiano-Chesser in a report for Live Action. “Abortionists are not killing preborn babies because women need them due to medical emergencies. They’re doing it, quite simply, because they can.”

Abortion, the murder of a preborn child in his or her mother’s womb, is never medically necessary nor justifiable to save a mother’s life or protect her health, as numerous medical experts have affirmed. Studies show that abortion is far more dangerous for women’s health than pregnancy. Moreover, human life begins at the moment of conception, and abortion is always a grave violation of a child’s inalienable right to life.

“Hern literally wrote the book on abortion (Abortion Practice),” according to LifeSiteNews’ Jonathon Van Maren, “and has been blunt about what he does”:

Destroying babies in the womb at 22, 25, or even 30 weeks can be hard work. “The sensations of dismemberment,” Hern has noted, “flow through the forceps like an electric current.”

While the still-thriving abortion industry employs euphemistic terms such as “fetus” in order to deny the humanity of unborn children, others are awakening to the dark truth about abortion, including late-term abortions.

Just last month, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, acknowledged that it is “murder” to abort a baby who “can survive outside the womb,” which is also the case at any stage of pregnancy.

Despite Democrats’ and their media allies’ claims to the contrary, 50,000 abortions a year happen after 15 weeks — including several thousand in the third trimester — and Democrats consistently oppose doing anything about it.

“Abortion – the destruction of an innocent unborn baby – is always gravely immoral and never needed nor justifiable, including for alleged ‘anomalies,’ for which a fatally ill child could be treated with palliative care rather than brutally murdered,” observed LifeSiteNews’ Calvin Freiburger during the waning weeks of the presidential election.

“More than 50,000 abortions a year take place after 15 weeks (almost four months into pregnancy), and approximately 10,000 take place after 20 weeks (five months),” Freiburger later noted. “Further, a 2013 report by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute admitted ‘data suggests that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment,’ and Hern’s own published data found that ‘fetal abnormalities’ ranged from just a fifth to a third of his patients – and that the most common of those ‘abnormalities’ was Down syndrome, a condition that is neither a death sentence nor even a guarantee of an unhappy life.”

“While pro-life laws have reduced the number of surgical abortions in the two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the abortion lobby has also been working feverishly to cancel out the deterrent effects of pro-life laws by legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, placing abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states havens for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, embedding abortion ‘rights’ in state constitutions, and, most effectively, the proliferation of abortion pills across state lines,” he added.

Video of baby trying to escape brutal dismemberment abortion goes viral

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:14:00 +0000

Video of baby trying to escape brutal dismemberment abortion goes viral
An ultrasound video of a baby trying to escape while an abortionist tears apart his body during a dismemberment abortion is going viral on social media, with many shocked to the reality of abortion.

Lila Rose
Instagram/X

Nov 13, 2024
(LifeSiteNews) — An ultrasound video of a dilation and curettage (D&C) or “dismemberment” abortion has gone viral on social media, with many shocked to see the reality of abortion.

In a November 12 post on X, Lila Rose, founder of the pro-life organization Live Action, uploaded a video of an unborn baby trying to escape as an abortionist tears his tiny body to pieces during a D&C abortion.

“This is so-called ‘choice,'” Rose commented. “Beyond heart shattering.”

In the video, the unborn baby can be seen fighting against the murderous procedure, moving back and forth in his mother’s womb as the abortionist tears off pieces of his body with forceps.

In a D&C abortion, the most common form of abortion in the second trimester, an abortionist tears an unborn baby apart limb by limb and removes his or her body parts from his mother’s womb.

As former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino previously explained about dismemberment abortions in a Live Action video, “You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see a pure white gelatinous material issue from the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces.”

“If you have a really bad day like I often did, a little face may come out and stare back at you,” he added.

Dismemberment abortion is legal in most U.S. states and in Canada.

The D&C practice was originally designed for uterine conditions or a miscarriage. An important distinction, and one often misrepresented by abortion activists, is that a D&C procedure to treat uterine conditions or remove the remains of a miscarriage is not morally wrong as it does not kill an unborn baby but offers actual medical care to a woman. On the other hand, if the D&C method is used to dismember a baby in an abortion, it is gravely wrong.

Many commenters pointed out that the ultrasound video is vital to understanding the reality of abortion, which is hidden and disguised by abortionists and activists.

“I used to be pro choice when I was younger but then I understood what abortion really was and I’ve been pro life ever since,” one user commented.

“This baby is fighting for its own life!” another wrote.

“It was safe in there in its mother’s womb…until the assassins came- and she sent them,” one user lamented. “My heart. We must end this evil.”

Satanic Temple opens Virginia center for ‘religious abortion’ rituals

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 09:21:07 +0000

Satanic Temple opens Virginia center for ‘religious abortion’ rituals
The website for the Satanic Temple’s online abortion center, named the Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic, claims the procedure is a ‘religious ritual’ while founder Lucien Greaves has called abortion a ‘sacrament.’

Oct 18, 2024
(LifeSiteNews) — The Satanic Temple of America has been campaigning hard for abortion for years. The tax-exempt religious organization, based in Salem, Massachusetts, claims not to believe in a literal Satan – and they certainly do not believe in God. But they do describe abortion as a religious “ritual” and a “sacramental act that confirms the rights of bodily autonomy.” The Satanists worship themselves.

Satan, who very much exists, no doubt approves. In fact, the Satanic Temple has been seeking to weaponize religious liberty laws to have abortion declared a “sacrament.” Lucien Greaves, the creepy founder of the Temple, has raffled a “free abortion.” In 2021, the Satanists had “Abortion Saves Lives” billboards erected in Texas.

The Satanic Temple is now taking matters into its own hands. They have launched the “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic,” named after the pro-life Supreme Court justice who penned the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which they describe as “an online clinic that provides religious medication abortion care. The clinic provides abortion medication via mail to those in New Mexico who wish to perform The Satanic Temple’s Religious Abortion Ritual.”

The website for the “clinic” includes a cruel cartoon of a woman who is identified as “Samuel Alito’s mom” saying: “If only abortion was legal when I was pregnant.” The site also assures visitors that: “Patients pay a pharmacy for the medication, but medical and religious services are free.” Greaves celebrated on X: “Happy second Satanic Abortion Clinic Opening Day!”

The Satanists have now opened their second clinic, this one in Virginia and billed as “the world’s second Satanic abortion clinic.” According to their recent announcement:

Quote:Today marks the opening of TST Health’s second telehealth abortion clinic in Virginia, serving the state and surrounding region. Just like our New Mexico clinic, our services will be free of charge, with patients only needing to cover the cost of medication through a third party at a very low price. Our dedicated staff will again be available 24/7, ensuring that patients receive the care they need, when they need it.

At TST Health, we have been fighting back against the efforts to restrict abortion access in the years following the catastrophic Dobbs decision. While many clinics have been forced to shut down, we took a bold step forward by opening the world’s first religious abortion clinic on February 14th, 2023. Since then, we have proudly offered over 100 abortions in New Mexico at no cost to patients aside from the medication. With an average cost of $91 per procedure, we provide the lowest-cost option for pregnancy terminations in the entire state. We’ve also helped cover travel and medication costs for those facing financial hardship, and we’re honored to have made a positive impact on so many lives during what can be a difficult time.

The Satanists go to great lengths to assert that abortion is their sacrament. “The Satanic Temple is the leading beacon of light in the battle for abortion access,” their website reads. “With Roe v. Wade overturned, a religious exemption will be the only available challenge to many restrictions to access. TST stands alone because we are the only entity that can assert a religious liberty claim that terminating a pregnancy is a central part of a religious ritual that encourages self-empowerment and affirms bodily autonomy.”

They continue: “This means that the imposition of waiting periods and mandatory counseling is akin to demanding a waiting period and counseling before one can be baptized or receive communion. Clearly, that would be a violation of religious liberty.”

It is no surprise to those of us who work in the pro-life movement that the primary preoccupation of Satanists is abortion. I’ve seen people yell “Hail, Satan!” as they walk into an abortion clinic, and anyone who has stood outside a clinic for any length of time can attest to a dark, oppressive energy that seems to pervade these places of death.

Abortion is, in many ways, a demonic inversion of the Gospel message: Not “My body for you,” but, “I destroy your body for me.” Abortion is the perfect Satanic sacrament: the brutal killing of a child created in God’s image; the hardening of the consciences of all involved.

Catholic NY Church Plans Supreme Court Appeal On Abortion Coverage Ruling

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 09:39:23 +0000

NY Church Plans Supreme Court Appeal On Abortion Coverage Ruling

The Supreme Court of the United States in Washington on Dec. 4, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

ZH | Jul 29, 2024
Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Roman Catholic diocese is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a New York appeals court ruling that requires religious charities to provide abortion coverage in their employee health insurance packages.

Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, confirmed during an online news conference on July 25 that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, New York, is preparing a petition for certiorari, or review, to be filed in coming weeks with the nation’s highest court. The Becket organization is part of the diocese’s legal team.

The case is Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany v. Harris. Adrienne A. Harris is Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, the agency that issued the health care insurance regulation that’s in dispute.

The deadline for filing the petition for certiorari, or review, was originally Aug. 19, but on July 26, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor extended the deadline to Sept. 18.

The case has been working its way through the judicial system for years.

In 2017, the New York Department of Financial Services issued a regulation requiring that employers fund abortions through their employee health insurance plans. The regulation exempted religious entities whose “purpose” is to inculcate religious values and who “employ” and “serve” primarily coreligionists. At the same time, the regulation forced religious organizations to cover abortions if they have a broader religious mission, such as serving the poor, or if they hire or serve people regardless of their faith.

Various Roman Catholic dioceses, along with Anglican nuns and Lutheran and Baptist churches, sued.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York ruled in favor of the state in July 2020.

But in November 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily vacated that decision.

The nation’s highest court sent the case back to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York for further consideration in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2021 ruling in Fulton v. Philadelphia.

In the Fulton ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a Roman Catholic charity in Pennsylvania may refuse on First Amendment religious freedom grounds to place children with same-sex couples.

Writing for the court in that case, Chief Justice John Roberts said that Philadelphia had violated the other side’s First Amendment rights.

The religious views of the diocese-affiliated Catholic Social Services “inform its work in this system,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. The charity believes that “marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman.”

“Because the agency understands the certification of prospective foster families to be an endorsement of their relationships, it will not certify unmarried couples—regardless of their sexual orientation—or same-sex married couples.”

However, when the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York reconsidered the case in June 2022, it ruled in favor of the state, finding that the Fulton ruling didn’t apply to the case and that the abortion insurance mandate did not violate the First Amendment.

On May 21 of this year, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling of the Appellate Division.

“Under Fulton, both the regulation itself and the criteria delineating a ‘religious employer’ for the purposes of the exemption are generally applicable and do not violate the Free Exercise Clause,” the court held.

Ms. Windham said in recent years the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of employers “every single time” in three cases when they have objected to having to provide coverage for contraception or abortion medication for their employees.

Despite that, New York decided to impose an abortion coverage mandate and “go all the way in the face of these three Supreme Court decisions.” First, the state enacted the insurance regulation and then the New York State Legislature decided to codify the regulation in state law, she said.

The exemption from the mandate is narrow, Ms. Windham said.

“If you primarily serve people of your own faith, then you can have an exception, but if you open your doors to all … [to] care for anyone regardless of your faith, if you’re out there offering a cup of soup to anyone who’s hungry, regardless of what their faith background is, then you lose your religious freedom protections, you lose your exemption under the statute, and you must also pay for abortions.”

This means that a “religious test” is being imposed on religious groups that provide social services, she said.

“All of these different groups are stuck with this abortion mandate, and all of them because of the work they do, and because of the good that they try to do within their communities, are being hit by this,” Ms. Windham said.

The New York Department of Financial Services didn’t respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Video exposes the disturbing creation of the fetal cell lines used by the medical industry

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 12:56:35 +0000

Video exposes the disturbing creation of the fetal cell lines used by the medical industry
The video on the disturbing creation of fetal cell lines is the third in a series of pro-life animated shorts which reveal the ugly truth behind the abortion industry. The previous two episodes described surgical abortions and IVF.

Cartoon depiction of doctors experimenting with fetal cell lines
Choice42/YouTube

Jul 3, 2024
(LifeSiteNews) — A new pro-life video follows the short lives of the babies aborted and experimented on to create the fetal cell lines used today in the medical industry.

On July 2, pro-life organization CHOICE42 released their latest animated short video titled “It’s OK,” which details the origins of five different fetal cell lines and how they were created from the victims of abortion.

“That’s me,” the video opens, with an animated picture of an aborted baby. “I’m Ellie. Don’t feel bad. It’s okay. It was a long time ago, 1962.”

“I just thought maybe you don’t know about me,” Ellie continued. “My parents didn’t want me, anyway. The doctor worked with scientists, and they took my organs out as soon as I was aborted.”

“It had to be done right away because the organs need to be fresh,” she continued.

The video is the third in a series of pro-life animated shorts which reveal the ugly truth behind the abortion industry. The previous two episodes described surgical abortions and IVF. The new video was premiered on The Steve Deace Show on The Blaze Network.

“I first became aware that fetuses were killed and harvested for fetal cell lines during COVID,” Laura Klassen, director and founder of CHOICE42 explained.

“When I began to research and explain my findings to others, they were always telling me, ‘Well, it’s ok because…’ and went on to list their justifications,” she continued. “Some said, ‘There was only one baby used in the 60s’. Others, ‘There aren’t any more babies being aborted for this today.’ Still others, ‘The doctors just used the dead tissue post-abortion.’”

“All false and none of it is ok,” she declared. “We need to stop justifying what happened to these 5 babies (and many others) and take a closer look at what is going on in the medical research world. It’s not ok that it happened in the 60s, and it’s not ok that it’s happening now.”

The video follows the short lives of Ellie, David, Johanna, Jordan, and Bo; five babies whose organs were harvested to produce fetal cell lines.

The cell lines have since been used in various medical experiments, especially in the production of vaccines. Cell lines from both Johanna and Jordan were used in the creation of the mRNA-based COVID vaccines.

Doctors and abortion advocates argue that the babies’ organs were harvested once and using cell lines from aborted babies does not lead to more babies being experimented on.

However, the video revealed that hundreds of babies are experimented on before a cell line is obtained, with 32 babies being experimented on in Ellie’s case and a total of 293 experiments being carried out to obtain Johanna’s cell line.

The most recent cell line comes from Bo, a baby killed in 2015 to replace the depleting cell line supply. Horrifically, the aborted babies’ cell lines are still for sale today.

Even more disturbing is the fact that the babies were experimented on while they were alive and were not given pain medications as it would “ruin the cells.”

Dr. Ian Donald, the pioneer of the ultrasound scanner, who witnessed the experiments carried out on Ellie, revealed, “Experiments were being performed on near-term alive aborted babies who were not even afforded the mercy of anesthetic as they writhed and cried in agony, and when their usefulness had expired, they were executed and discarded as garbage.”

Washington governor issues directive requiring hospitals to commit ‘emergency’ abortions

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:48:34 +0000

Washington governor issues directive requiring hospitals to commit ‘emergency’ abortions
A policy statement reaffirms and clarifies the requirements under state law for hospitals to provide emergency abortion services in anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling backing conscience rights.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
shutterstock.com

un 18, 2024
OLYMPIA, Washington (LifeSiteNews) — Washington Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee has issued a directive meant to force hospitals to provide “medically necessary” abortions in anticipation of a pending Supreme Court ruling about medical conscience rights that many in the abortion lobby fear will not go their way.

“I hereby direct the Department of Health to issue a policy statement reaffirming and clarifying the requirements under state law for hospitals to provide emergency abortion services,” reads Inslee’s June 11 directive. “Further, I direct the Department of Health to take enforcement action, in accordance with applicable law, against those hospitals that do not provide such required care.”

“Ideological politicians are relentlessly interfering with the most private and crucial health care decisions a doctor and their patient will ever make, and now they’re doing so even when the life of a mother hangs in the balance,” the governor added in a press release. “Fortunately, we’ve taken numerous steps in Washington to make sure patients in Washington are not subject to these horrors. Hospitals and clinics in Washington have become a haven for patients seeking the abortion care they can no longer access in other states. We will meet every challenge to women’s right of choice with an unwavering affirmation that Washington is and will remain a pro-choice state.”

The move is meant to prepare for the outcome of a current case at the nation’s highest court regarding the Biden administration’s efforts to force emergency room doctors in Idaho to participate in abortions under the guise of “medical necessity.”

In August 2022, the administration filed a lawsuit contending that the federal Emergency Medical Treatment & Active Labor Act (EMTALA) overrides Idaho’s pro-life laws and requires emergency room doctors to commit abortions that would otherwise be illegal under state law. A lower court sided with the White House, prompting the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case and allow Idaho to continue to enforce its pro-life laws until it is resolved.

In April, Idaho Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador, along with attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the law firm Cooper & Kirk, filed their reply brief laying out the case that the administration misreads and misapplies EMTALA in numerous ways, including that the law does not require procedures that violate state law, does not mandate services a particular hospital does not offer, and in fact requires hospitals to provide care for preborn children. The justices heard oral arguments later that month.

“We want the highest standard of care for women, and we do make an exception for abortion to save the life of the mother,” including in cases of ectopic pregnancy, Esther Ripplinger, president of Human Life of Washington, told NBC News in response to Inslee’s move. “But when you say ‘health’ is threatened — that’s an interesting proposal, because now, ‘health’ can mean, ‘Oh, I’ve got a headache, I need an abortion.’… We need to be very specific about what is that emergency and what is not.”

While some emergency situations in pregnancy can necessitate treatments indirectly resulting in a child’s death, numerous medical experts attest that intentionally killing a preborn baby is never medically necessary. Regardless, every state in the union with abortion prohibitions currently in effect also permits doctors to administer life-saving, non-abortive treatment to pregnant women even if it comes at the expense of a baby’s life.

Pro-abortion activists have long sought to keep abortion debates focused on such situations to divert attention from the vast majority of abortions that are sought for far less “sympathetic” reasons. They have gotten mileage out of that approach, which has helped defeat pro-lifers in recent state ballot referendums and convinced national Republicans to take a more moderate stance on life this year.

However, data released late last month by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, covering roughly 123,000 abortions across eight states in 2021 (the last full year that Roe v. Wade mandated legal abortion nationwide), found that alleged “risks to a woman’s life or a major bodily function” constituted just 0.3 percent of women’s reasons for abortion.

Planned Parenthood Faces New Allegations Of Selling Aborted Fetal Tissue

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 09:25:04 +0000

Planned Parenthood Faces New Allegations Of Selling Aborted Fetal Tissue To UCSD

A Planned Parenthood facility in Anaheim, Calif., on September 10, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

ZH [slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included]| MAR 21, 2024
Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis mine)

Newly-released documents reveal an alleged alliance between Planned Parenthood and the University of California–San Diego to profit from the “harvesting and sale” of aborted human fetuses for research patents.

“This new evidence shows Planned Parenthood sells late-term aborted baby body parts in violation of federal law, for far more money than has ever been discussed before,” said David Daleiden, founder and president of California-based Center for Medical Progress, which filed the public records request, in a statement earlier this month. “Planned Parenthood’s national headquarters knew about and approved these sales of aborted babies for valuable consideration as part of government-funded research grants.”

The documents show Planned Parenthood transferring aborted fetal body parts to the University of California–San Diego (UCSD) explicitly for “valuable consideration” in exchange for ownership of the university’s patents and intellectual property developed experimenting with them.

Details of the alleged deal are spelled out in a redacted “Biological Materials Transfer Agreement” that grants UCSD “access” to “fetal and placental tissue,” that are the “proprietary materials” of Planned Parenthood San Diego. In return, the deal allows the nonprofit rights to “patents” and “intellectual property” developed through experiments with the “material.”

The contract, signed in 2009, was updated to reflect the nonprofit’s name change to “Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest” in 2014, with the parties specifying the terms and conditions of the original contract remained in full force and effect.

File photo of landscaping on the University of California-San Diego Health La Jolla campus. (Courtesy of University of California-San Diego Health)

UCSD emails from 2017 refer to the contract while updating an additional contract for clinical personnel, and in emails from late 2020, the university seeks to be “especially careful” about “any rights” providers of fetal tissue “retain” in the “material.”

Despite federal laws prohibiting the exchange of aborted human fetal tissue for “valuable consideration,” the university used the fetal tissue for research leading to patents, according to Mr. Daleiden’s statement.

The University of California system generated more than $127 million in revenue for all patent inventions during the 2021-22 academic year, Mr. Daleiden claims in his statement.

Violation of such federal laws are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $500,000, according to the Center for Medical Progress.

Email threads between Planned Parenthood and UCSD also reveal plans for collaborative research meetings. In one thread, Planned Parenthood emailed UCSD to set up a quarterly meeting and agrees to discuss “payment” to its abortion training initiatives within the framework of its fetal tissue research partnership.

UCSD writes that as part of a meeting, “we will have results to share on samples recently collected, and will also likely have more to discuss re: the [REDACTED] fellowship.” Planned Parenthood replies there are “[n]o current issues with the collection program,” but they “have some questions about payment to the residency program.”

The collaboration involved Planned Parenthood’s training programs at UCSD and other taxpayer-funded universities where they allegedly supply fetal tissues for research purposes.

Documents also show UC San Diego donated $10,000 to Planned Parenthood’s national research department at a 2021 fundraiser and a registration form for “the fetal body parts harvesting in San Diego,” according to the center.

In 2015, Mr. Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress released an undercover video series showing Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the costs of fetal tissue from the alleged “harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts” and discussing modifications to abortion procedures to secure more intact organs. The videos exposed an aborted baby organ market between abortion clinics and research facilities.

A woman holds up a sign from the podium of an Orange Unified School District meeting in Orange, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The exposé revealed various for-profit companies sent tech workers into Planned Parenthood abortion clinics to harvest the organs of aborted babies and then package them for resale to research facilities.

Last year, the center reported on records, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, confirming a federal investigation by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General of the National Institute of Health’s funded fetal tissue bank at the University of Pittsburgh, which is allegedly supplied by Planned Parenthood abortion doctors, according to Mr. Daleiden’s statement.

Mr. Daleiden has urged federal investigators to widen the probe to include Planned Parenthood’s activities in San Diego “and every other location where this $1.8 billion abortion business supplies aborted babies for taxpayer-funded experiments,” and accused the organization’s leaders of participating in the “government-sponsored trafficking of late-term aborted babies.”

The Center for Medical Progress also released a video about its most recent public records findings. Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, a faith-based advocacy organization that promotes traditional family values, said in a March 18 statement that the agreement between Planned Parenthood and UC San Diego treated “innocent, vulnerable human beings just like animals.”

“Every human life is sacred from conception, and selling unborn baby parts for research is morally abhorrent,” Mr. Burt said. “This deeply revolting news reaffirms the need to pressure politicians to implement life-affirming policies and demand the laws against these crimes be enforced.”

Educational institutions and the scientific community “shouldn’t get a pass when they violate human dignity,” he said.

Planned Parenthood did not respond to requests for comment about the allegations.

France becomes world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in constitution

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:11:01 +0000

France becomes world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in constitution

Lawmakers sit on Monday prior to a vote on whether to add the freedom to have an abortion to the French constitution.

CNN [slightly adapted] | March 4, 2024

France became the world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution on Monday, the culmination of an effort that began in direct response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Lawmakers from both houses of the French Parliament voted 780 to 72 in favor of the measure, easily clearing the three-fifths majority needed to amend the French constitution.

Monday’s vote, held during a special gathering of lawmakers at the Palace of Versailles, southwest of Paris, was the final step in the legislative process. The French Senate and National Assembly each overwhelmingly approved the amendment earlier this year.

The amendment states that there is a “guaranteed freedom” to abortion in France. Some groups and lawmakers had called for stronger language to explicitly call abortion a “right.”

Lawmakers hailed the move as a history-making way for France to send a clear signal of support on reproductive rights, with abortion under threat in the United States, as well as in parts of Europe, like Hungary, where far-right parties have come to power.

Following the vote, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with the words “my body my choice.”

The Eiffel Tower lights up with the message "my body my choice" after the vote on Monday.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said before the vote that lawmakers had a “moral debt” to women who were, in the past, forced to endure illegal abortions.

“Above all, we’re sending a message to all women: your body belongs to you,” Attal said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the government would hold a formal ceremony celebrating the amendment’s passage on Friday, International Women’s Rights Day.

An embryologist is seen at work at the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine, in Reston, Virginia on June 12, 2019 - Freezing your eggs, getting pregnant after the age of 50, choosing the baby's sex: when it comes to in-vitro fertilization and other assisted reproduction procedures in the United States, would-be parents are spoilt for choice. This isn't the case in many other countries, including France, which is hoping to pass legislation that would let single women and lesbian couples benefit from these technologies for the first time.

While abortion is a highly divisive issue in US politics that often falls along party lines, in France it is widely supported. Many of the lawmakers who voted against the amendment did so not because they opposed abortion, but because they felt the measure was unnecessary, given the wide support for reproductive rights.

The measure’s passage is a clear victory for the French left, which has been pushing for years to guarantee abortion rights in the constitution. Before 2022, President Emmanuel Macron’s government argued — like the amendment’s current opponents — that the move was unnecessary.

However, in 2022, when the US Supreme Court ruled against Roe v. Wade and let states individually decide on the issue, France was pushed to act.

French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said perviously, before debate began in the National Assembly in January, that history was full of other examples where “fundamental rights” were believed to be safe but then taken away, “as we were recently reminded by the decision of the US Supreme Court.”

“We now have irrefutable proof that no democracy, not even the largest of them all, is immune,” he said.

The vote marks the 25th time the French government has amended its constitution since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958.

The Catholic Church was one of the few groups to announce its opposition to the amendment. The Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican body which focuses on issues related to bioethics, said in a statement that “in the era of universal human rights, there can be no ‘right’ to take human life.”

A conference of French bishops on Thursday also reiterated the church’s opposition to abortion ahead of the vote.