Tag: abortion

Supreme Court Greenlights States to Cut Off Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood in Major Win for Pro-Life Advocates

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday paved the way for states to block Medicaid funding from going to abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

The high court’s decision, which comes after years of legal wrangling, affirms the authority of individual states to determine how taxpayer dollars are allocated — and who gets excluded.

In a landmark 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that individual Medicaid recipients do not have the right to sue states under federal law for excluding abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.

The Court’s decision, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, reversed a ruling from the Fourth Circuit and solidified the state of South Carolina’s authority to remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid network—without fear of federal lawsuits from individual patients or abortion activists cloaking themselves in civil rights statutes.

This case arose after South Carolina decided in 2018 to terminate Planned Parenthood’s participation in its Medicaid program, citing a state law that bans the use of public funds for abortion.

Abortion advocates predictably sued under 42 U.S.C. §1983, claiming the state violated a supposed “right” under the Medicaid Act’s “any-qualified-provider” provision.

Justice Gorsuch clarified that this provision does not confer individually enforceable federal rights. It is a directive to states, not a free pass for left-wing groups to weaponize the courts every time a state takes a stand for life.

“The decision whether to let private plaintiffs enforce a new statutory right poses delicate questions of public policy. New rights for some mean new duties for others. And private enforcement actions, meritorious or not, can force governments to direct money away from public services and spend it instead on litigation,” Gorsuch wrote.

He continued, “The job of resolving how best to weigh those competing costs and benefits belongs to the people’s elected representatives, not unelected judges charged with applying the law as they find it.” 

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Ohio Republicans Introduce ‘Prenatal Equal Protection Act’ to Abolish Abortion in the State

Ohio State Representatives Levi Dean and Johnathan Newman have filed a bill to abolish abortion in the state by granting pre-born babies equal protection under the law.

The Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, House Bill 370, points to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws’ to protect the life of preborn persons.”

“This bill recognizes that we are a country and state governed by laws, and that our laws must be constitutional,” Rep. Newman said in a press release. “Article I, Section 22 of Ohio’s Constitution, which was adopted by popular vote in 2023, has created an obvious conflict between the Ohio Constitution and U.S. Constitution.”

“We have a mandate from God to protect human life, which is of higher authority than any constitution,” Newman said. “Proverbs 24:11 commands us to ‘rescue those who are being carried off to death.’ Proverbs 17:15 says it is an ‘abomination’ to God for those who are guilty of doing harm to be called innocent.”

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Federal Employee Charged With Capital Murder For Slipping Abortion Pills Into Girlfriend’s Coffee

A 38-year-old Texas resident and federal employee was arrested and charged for killing his preborn child by feeding his girlfriend abortion-inducing drugs without her knowledge.

The Austin-American Statesman reported that Justin Anthony Banta was arrested June 6 and charged with capital murder and evidence tampering. In September 2024, he allegedly snuck abortion pills into his girlfriend’s drink at a coffee shop at about six weeks of pregnancy after she rebuffed his offer to buy “Plan C” for her, saying she wanted the baby.

The girlfriend, who remains anonymous, told police that she began experiencing severe fatigue and bleeding the next day, requiring an emergency room visit, and ultimately lost her baby on October 19.

Police confiscated Banta’s phone during the course of the investigation, accusing him of tampering with it remotely to delete evidence, allegedly using his skills as an IT staffer for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Sheriff Authier expressed his gratitude to the owners and staff of the coffee shop … for their full cooperation, along with the efforts of Parker County Sheriff’s Office investigators, the Texas Rangers, Benbrook Police, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Digital Forensic and Technical Services, the U.S. Secret Service, the Regional Organized Crime Information Center (ROCIC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for their support and resources throughout this extensive investigation,” the Parker County Sheriff’s Office said.

In Texas, capital murder is punishable at a minimum of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, though it is possible prosecutors could seek the death penalty.

Despite the abortion lobby’s framing of abortion as a matter of “choice,” it has long turned a blind eye to abortion coercion.

Live Action’s “Aiding Abusers” series draws on news reports, eyewitness testimony, and undercover video to expose Planned Parenthood employees’ willingness to offer abortions to girls as young as 12 without reporting signs of statutory or forcible rape to law enforcement. This enables the men who brought the girls in for appointments to bring them home and continue abusing them.

In 2023, the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute released a study that interviewed 1,000 American women and found that 61 percent of women who undergo abortions do so due to pressure from “male partners, family members, other persons, financial concerns, and other circumstances.”

“Forcing a woman to have an abortion, including a minor, is illegal in all 50 states of the United States of America,” according to the Justice Foundation’s Center Against Forced Abortions, which offers a variety of information resources to help those who are being pressured into killing their babies.

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Catholics fight government surveillance in confession after wins against abortion mandate, tax

Catholic physicians and social service workers won over the Trump administration and Supreme Court, respectively, last week against their compelled participation in emergency room abortions and a state unemployment compensation program that costs more than their own church’s.

Bishops hope to make it a trifecta against a Washington state law that violates the seal of confession, threatening priests with imprisonment and fines if they don’t report suspected child abuse or neglect when “penitents” confess, but not lawyers who learn the same from clients.

Diocesan leaders filed a motion for preliminary injunction Thursday against Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, Attorney General Nicholas Brown and county prosecutors in federal court in Tacoma to block SB 5375 at least 10 days before it takes effect July 27.

The Justice Department also quickly opened a civil rights investigation into the law as a prima facie First Amendment violation after Ferguson signed it, expanding the category of mandatory reporter to “member of the clergy,” defined as any regularly licensed, accredited or ordained minister, priest, rabbi, imam, elder, or similarly positioned religious or spiritual leader.

Denial of an injunction would likely fast-track the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and, if also rejected by the historically most liberal appeals court, to SCOTUS, which has rarely struggled to reach lopsided rulings upholding religious liberty.

The high court Thursday unanimously overturned the Wisconsin Supreme Court‘s ruling that found that a local Catholic Charities bureau’s work is primarily secular and hence it can’t get a religious exemption from paying into the state unemployment compensation system.

Justices unanimously ruled for Gerald Groff two years ago after the U.S. Postal Service threatened to fire the evangelical Christian for refusing to work Sundays under an Amazon delivery agreement, junking the “de minimis cost” standard that let employers easily deny religious exemptions but only appeared in a footnote in a 1977 ruling.

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Liberals Suddenly Value Fiscal Responsibility After Budget Office Says More Births Will Increase Deficit

Liberals have a new argument for keeping federal money flowing to Planned Parenthood: defunding the organization would cost taxpayers more.

Democrats and abortion advocates are framing the defunding of one of the largest abortion providers in the country as a financial “cost” to taxpaying Americans. Citing estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), they are voicing concern that the GOP’s plan to block Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood through the GOP reconciliation bill would increase the national deficit by $300 million due to more babies being born.

“About three in four people say they oppose defunding Planned Parenthood health centers. But Republicans do not care — they need to appease their far-right, anti-choice fringe,” Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray said on May 14 about the CBO’s estimates. “Although the irony is, in this case, defunding Planned Parenthood would actually cost our country more money in the long term.”

Murray’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Planned Parenthood performed over 400,000 abortions in fiscal year 2023-24 and received more than $700 million in government reimbursements and grants, according to its latest annual report. In contrast, private contributions dropped 31% relative to the previous fiscal year, totaling $684.1 million.

The CBO declined to clarify how the deficit would increase due to the federal cuts in response to a DCNF inquiry.

However, the CBO stated in 2015 that a House bill to block federal funding to Planned Parenthood would increase spending by $130 million over the course of a decade. The reason, CBO explained, was that the bill would reduce “services that help women avert pregnancies” and that “additional births that would result from enacting such a bill would add to federal spending for Medicaid.”

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Trump DOJ stings conservatives with positions on abortion pill regulation, vaccine trial integrity

The Trump Justice Department is continuing its predecessor’s legal arguments against lawsuits by red states against abortion pills by mail and a whistleblower’s case against the drugmaker Pfizer, creating two unexpected setbacks for causes championed by conservatives.

The Food and Drug Administration is at the center of both disputes.

Idaho, Missouri and Kansas argue the FDA’s deregulation of the abortion pill mifepristone violated those states’ abortion restrictions. Meanwhile, the clinical trial whistleblower Brook Jackson’s lawsuit alleges fraudulent data was used to grant emergency use authorization to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The government first stayed out of the False Claims Act case filed four years ago by Jackson, who oversaw Pfizer’s outsourced Phase 3 trials in Texas, even though it had the power to dismiss because Jackson is a “relator” suing on the federal government’s behalf.

It then supported Pfizer’s motion to dismiss, arguing the FDA would have approved the vaccine even if 3% of data were fraudulent, as Jackson claims from her test sites.

The FDA unsuccessfully asked a court for 55 years to fully release its Pfizer vaccine approval documents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted three years ago hiding the vast majority of its COVID data in part to protect the reputation of vaccines.

“We’re simply asking DOJ to step aside and let us handle Pfizer,” Jackson wrote on X in explaining the Trump DOJ’s continuation of its predecessor’s posture. “We don’t need their help—we just need them out of the way.”

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Police could search homes and phones after pregnancy loss

Police have been issued guidance on how to search women’s homes for abortion drugs and check their phones for menstrual cycle tracking apps after unexpected pregnancy loss.

New guidance from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on “child death investigation” advises officers to search for “drugs that can terminate pregnancy” in cases involving stillbirths. The NPCC, which sets strategic direction for policing across the country UK, also suggests a woman’s digital devices could be seized to help investigators “establish a woman’s knowledge and intention in relation to the pregnancy”. That could include checking a woman’s internet searches, messages to friends and family, and health apps, “such as menstrual cycle and fertility trackers”, it states.

Details are also provided for how police could bypass legal requirements for a court order to obtain medical records about a woman’s abortion from NHS providers.

Abortion law in the UK is based on the Offences Against the Person Act from 1861. In recent years, an increasing number of women have been investigated and prosecuted under this law. The Abortion Act of 1967 allows women to end their pregnancies under medical supervision up to 24 weeks, or beyond in certain circumstances, such as if the life of the mother is at risk or if the foetus has a serious abnormality.

The guidance replaces a 2014 document that did not mention investigating stillbirths, but had one mention of investigating women who may have had an illegal abortion. The new guidance, published in January and developed by a sub-group of the NPCC’s Homicide Working Group alongside the College of Policing, National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police, covers the scenario over several pages.

The lead authors were Ch Supt Liz Hughes of Avon and Somerset police force; Det Supt Jon Holmes of Lancashire; DCS David Ashton of Durham; Ch Supt Fiona Bitters of Hampshire and Isle of Wight; Sonya Baylis, of the National Crime Agency; and DS Robert Simmons of Suffolk.

Dr Ranee Thakar, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said: “The new guidance is shocking. Women in these circumstances have a right to compassionate care and to have their dignity and privacy respected, not to have their homes, phones, ­computers and health apps searched, or be arrested and interrogated.”

Leading abortion providers, legal experts and medical professionals have told The Observer they were not consulted over the NPCC guidance and called for it to be amended.

Katie Saxon at BPAS, the leading abortion provider, said the organisation was aware of an increase in police investigating women who had had abortions in recent years, “but to see it in black and white after years of criticisms of the way this outdated law is enforced is harrowing”.

She added: “This [NPCC] guidance was written at the same time as unprecedented threats to global abortion rights and while parliament was set to consider decriminalising women abortion. To write it without public conversation or discussion with experts shows just how detached from reality the NPCC is.”

Louise McCudden at the abortion provider MSI Reproductive Choices said the guidance was “fuelling a culture of hostility and suspicion towards abortion and pregnancy loss”.

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South Carolina Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds Law Banning Abortion at Point When Heartbeat Can Be Detected

The South Carolina Supreme Court has unanimously determined that the state can continue banning abortion at the point when a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

The law, which the court upheld on Wednesday, bans the procedure at approximately six weeks of pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood had challenged the law in court, arguing that the law should not apply until nine weeks of pregnancy.

According to the law, abortions cannot be performed once an ultrasound can detect “cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac.”

The Associated Press reports, “The state argued that is the moment when an ultrasound detects cardiac activity. Planned Parenthood said the words after the ‘or’ mean the ban should only start after the major parts of the heart come together and ‘repetitive rhythmic contraction’ begins, which is often around nine weeks.”

The court ultimately determined that the law must be based on the intent of the general assembly, which was clearly to ban the practice at six weeks, not nine.

“We could find not one instance during the entire 2023 legislative session in which anyone connected in any way to the General Assembly framed the Act as banning abortion after approximately nine weeks,” Associate Justice John Few wrote.

The AP report also noted, “And the Supreme Court pointed out Planned Parenthood used the phrase ‘six-week ban’ more than 300 times in previous filings, as South Carolina’s 2021 ban at cardiac activity was overturned in a 3-2 decision in 2023 and then reinstated months later after the General Assembly tweaked the law and the court’s only woman who overturned the ban had to retire because of her age.”

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One dead after bomb explodes outside reproductive center in Downtown Palm Springs, police say it appears to be an “intentional act of violence”

One person is confirmed dead after an explosion rocked the American Reproductive Centers building on North Indian Canyon Drive near East Tachevah Drive just before 11 a.m. this morning. Regional news outlets have reported several injuries, but so far that has not been confirmed.

Lt. William Hutchinson with the Palm Springs Police Department confirms it was a bomb in or near a vehicle parked at the building.

Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said in a statement, “The blast appears to be an intentional act of violence and the blast field extends for blocks with several buildings damaged-some severely. Mills confirmed the FBI is on scene.

“We’ve got a vehicle that appears to have exploded,” a Palm Springs Police Department official said moments ago. “It appears that we have a deceased person. … (E)verything’s in question whether this is an act of terrorism, or what it is.”

About two hours after the explosion, authorities expanded the safety zone, blocking off more parts of the street using SunLine Transit buses.

Matt Spencer, a resident who lives nearby at Sunset Palms apartment complex, ran outside with his dog Tippy as soon as he heard the explosion and reports he saw human remains and what was left of a car outside the building.

Spencer said he saw what looked like human remains in the middle of the road.

“In front of the building [the car] was blown clear across four lanes into the parking lot of [Desert Regional Medical Center],” Spencer said. “I could see the back of the car still on fire and the rims, that was the only thing that distinguishes it as a car.”

He also saw parts of the frame of a car and its suspension, and that it looked “completely disintegrated.”

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No proof OB/GYNs left pro-life states, despite what ‘experts’ claimed: study

Most OB/GYNs stayed put and did not move to pro-abortion states in the years following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to a new study.

Furthermore, states who moved to protect preborn life actually saw a greater growth in OB/GYNs than those who did not, according to the academic paper published in JAMA Network Open.

“In this cohort study of 60,085 OBGYNs, the number of OBGYNs did not significantly change across policy environments, increasing by 8.3% in states where abortion is banned, 10.5% in states where it is threatened, and 7.7% in states where it is protected after the Dobbs decision,” the academics reported.

“Although the Dobbs decision has increased physicians’ concerns about providing reproductive health care, there were no observed disproportionate changes in OBGYN practice location as of 2024,” the study concluded.

Authors included Becky Staiger of the University of California Berkeley, and other researchers from Stanford University, the University of Pittsburgh, Hunter College, and Middlebury College.

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