Tag: abortion

NBC’s Moderator Told Trump ‘No One’ Is Calling For Late-Term Abortions. Here’s Why She’s Wrong.

NBC’s Kristen Welker claimed “no one” is arguing for legal abortion up to birth in her new interview with former President Donald Trump, but that claim is demonstrably false.

The new “Meet the Press” moderator sparred with Trump for over an hour on abortion and other issues in an interview released Sunday.

“The radical people on this are really the Democrats that say after five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months, and even after birth, you’re allowed to terminate the baby,” Trump told Welker during the interview.

“Mr. President, Democrats aren’t saying that,” Welker responded.

Moments later Trump said, “I said with Hillary Clinton when we had the debate, I made a statement, ‘rip the baby out of the womb’ in the ninth month. You’re allowed to do that, and you shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”

“Again, no one is arguing for that. That’s not a part of anyone’s platform, Mr. President,” Welker said.

Besides the untold number of abortion activists who advocate for abortion on demand up to birth, a slew of states currently allow abortion at any point in the pregnancy.

Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. all allow abortion with no gestational limits.

While high-profile Democrats often hedge on whether they support any gestational limits on abortion, some have come right out and admitted they support abortion up to the moment of birth.

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Pro-life activists convicted of ‘felony conspiracy’ for protesting in front of abortion clinics, face 11 years in prison

A federal jury today found three defendants guilty of a two-count indictment charging them with federal civil rights offenses after an occurrence on October 22, 2020 at an abortion clinic in Washington, DC. 

The news came from a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, with an announcement from US Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Assistant Director David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office.

Due to convictions of a felony conspiracy against rights as well as a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), defendants Jonathan Darnel, 41, of Arlington, Virginia, Jean Marshall, 73, of Kingston, Massachusetts, and Joan Bell, 74, of Montague, New Jersey all face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine that could go as high as $350,000.

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Alabama Says Helping With Out-of-State Abortions Is ‘Criminal Conspiracy’

Alabama’s attorney general is insisting that he has the right to prosecute people who help pregnant women obtain out-of-state abortions. In a court filing earlier this week, Steve Marshall said such actions amount to criminal conspiracy.

Marshall’s filing comes as part of a case involving the Yellowhammer Fund, a nonprofit that bills itself as an “abortion advocacy and reproductive justice organization.” The group and two women’s health centers—the West Alabama Women’s Center and the
Alabama Women’s Center—sued Marshall in July over the attorney general’s suggestion he could go after groups that help pregnant Alabamans get out-of-state abortions.

Marshall first made this suggestion last summer on a local talk radio program, The Jeff Poor Show. “If someone was promoting themselves out as a funder of abortion out of state, then that is potentially criminally actionable for us,” Marshall said, according to the Yellowhammer Fund’s complaint. “And so, one thing we will do in working with local law enforcement and prosecutors is making sure that we fully implement this law.”

“There is nothing about that law that restricts any individual from driving across state lines” and seeking an abortion, Marshall continued. But an “entity or a group that is using funds…to facilitate” out-of-state abortion travel “is something we are going to look at closely.”

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House Democrats want taxpayers to cover costs of abortion travel, lodging, ‘escorts’

House Democrats want taxpayers to pick up the tab for a host of abortion-related services, including travel, hotels, childcare, “escorts” and “doula care,” as part of a bill timed to the one-year anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson.

The Abortion Justice Act, sponsored by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts Democrat, would circumvent the Hyde Amendment’s ban on federal funds for abortion by earmarking $350 million annually for grants to “increase abortion access or support individuals who need abortion access.”

That includes covering “both the direct costs of the care and associated costs of travel, lodging, and childcare,” as well as “patient navigators,” “linguistically appropriate and culturally competent legal assistance,” “the full spectrum of doula care,” and “escorts to support abortion seekers as they access care.”

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Man Arrested for Citing Bible Verse While Protesting Pride Event — Charges Withdrawn After Video Evidence Emerges

A Christian preacher who was targeted by the law for reading from the Bible at an LGBT Pride event has been cleared of charges of disorderly conduct after a review of video evidence led prosecutors to conclude that said preacher had not behaved in violation of the law.

Evangelical preacher Damon Atkins was arrested on June 6th on allegations that he was “engaged in fighting” when he protested a pride event several days earlier in Reading, Pennysylvania.

“After a review of the incident which took place on June 3, 2023, in the 800 block of Washington Street in the City of Reading, the District Attorney’s Office has withdrawn the charges of disorderly conduct filed against Damon Atkins,” the DA’s Office said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“The charges were withdrawn after the District Attorney’s Office reviewed the videos of the incident along with applicable case law.”

Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach said in a statement to the Lancaster Patriot that Atkins’ arrest was unlawful and that further pursuing the case could expose the city of Reading and its law enforcement agencies to legal action.

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MSU students are suing a professor after she required them to subscribe to a website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood

An adjunct professor at Michigan State University, Amy Wisner, is being sued by two of her students after requiring her business communications class to purchase a $99 subscription to an activist website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood.

The website, The Rebellion Community, was described in the class syllabus as “a global social learning community.”

Several students looked into the website and found posts from their professor on social media which detailed the leftwing causes that their membership fees were going to, most notably, Planned Parenthood.

MLive News reported,

Though Wisner initially told students that she would reap no benefit from the subscriptions, the lawsuit said, students found out that Wisner operated the site and had said in different contexts that its proceeds would be donated to Planned Parenthood or used to fund “an RV roadtrip around the United States to co-create communities of rebels.”

The university says that Wisner is no longer employed and the school has offered to refund the students the cost of their subscriptions.

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Pro-Lifers Pushed Too Far and Doomed 2 Abortion Bans

In the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning constitutional protections for reproductive rights, moves by conservative states to restrict abortion are running up against the limits of just how much change even many pro-life Americans want. Last week, both Nebraska and South Carolina legislators rejected bills that would have largely banned abortions. And polls find some degree of buyers’ remorse in states that restricted abortion after Dobbs, suggesting that lawmakers misread the room.

Anti-Abortion Bill Meet Unexpected Defeat

“A bill that would ban abortions in Nebraska after six weeks of pregnancy fell one vote short in the Legislature on Thursday,” Nebraska Public Media reported. The bill failed even after the introduction of a compromise amendment “which would change the legislation to ban abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, instead of the six weeks the legislation called for.”

Almost simultaneously, “the latest push to outlaw nearly all abortions in South Carolina is over for the year, as senators who oppose a ban from conception stood their ground and scuttled the bill,” according to The Post and Courier of Charleston. “And Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey made clear there’s no appetite in the Senate to make another doomed attempt in 2024 for a bill with limited exceptions to an all-out ban.”

Both Nebraska and South Carolina are solidly red states. Republicans hold clear majorities in both South Carolina’s House and Senate and Nebraska’s unicameral legislature. According to a simplistic take on post-Dobbs politics, that’s supposed to indicate a clear path for near-absolute bans targeting abortion. But the bills failed at a time when residents of some states that implemented restrictions after the Supreme Court decision show signs that they think lawmakers went too far. As it turns out, even many Americans who were unhappy with the strong protections for reproductive rights embodied in the Roe v. Wade decision overturned by Dobbs weren’t necessarily looking for total prohibition.

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Idaho Takes Aim at Interstate Travel for Abortion. Health Care Providers Are Suing.

Two doctors and a Planned Parenthood affiliate are suing Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador after the Gem State’s top cop stated that it’s illegal for doctors to refer residents to out-of-state abortion providers. This would represent a clear violation of numerous constitutional rights, they argue.

Labrador’s assertion is part of a larger attempt by Idaho Republicans to enforce the state’s strict abortion ban even outside of state lines. Abortion is totally banned in Idaho except in cases involving rape, incest, or a threat to the mother’s life, and minors in these circumstances can only obtain an abortion with a parent or guardian’s permission.

On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Brad Little signed a law creating the new crime of “abortion trafficking.” The law makes it illegal to help someone under age 18 obtain an abortion “by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state” without a parent or guardian’s permission, with violations punishable by two to five years in prison.

The new law “is somewhat strangely worded,” Reason‘s Emma Camp noted recently, “as it technically does not criminalize the act of crossing state lines to help a minor obtain an abortion without parental consent, which is what would practically be required in a state where abortion is almost entirely illegal.” But the abortion trafficking law tacitly takes aim at helping minors travel out of state for abortions, stating that the fact that “the abortion provider or the abortion-inducing drug provider is located in another state” cannot be used as an affirmative defense. So it seems an Idaho resident who helped an Idaho teenager arrange an out-of-state abortion, arrange to purchase abortion pills in another state, or travel at all within the state on the way out of state could still be charged with abortion trafficking even if the abortion itself doesn’t take place in Idaho. The law also “allows the filing of lawsuits against doctors who perform such abortions, even if the doctors live outside the state,” notes The New York Times.

That the abortion trafficking statute is meant to prevent out-of-state travel is made clear in a Wednesday letter from Little. The measure seeks “to prevent unemancipated minor girls from being taken across state lines for an abortion without the knowledge or consent of her parent or guardian,” he wrote.

And the state isn’t stopping at trying to prevent girls from going out of state for abortions.

In a March 27 letter to Idaho Rep. Brent Crane (R–Nampa), Labrador wrote that Idaho’s criminal prohibitions on abortion “preclude 1) the provision of abortion bills, 2) the promotion of abortion bills, and 3) referring women across state lines to obtain abortion services or prescribing abortion pills that will be picked up across state lines.”

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Wyoming Passes Bill Banning Sale of Abortion Pill

On March 17, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) signed a bill into law that will make it illegal to prescribe, sell or use “any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.” The abortion pills, misoprostol and mifepristone, have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

While more than a dozen states have effectively banned abortion pills with their prohibitions on all forms of abortion and 15 states currently restrict access to abortion pills, Wyoming is now the first in the country to specifically ban abortion pills. People who violate the law, which goes into effect on July 1, will be charged with a misdemeanor and punished with up to six months of incarceration and a fine of $9,000.

“These abortion bans should alarm everybody in every corner of our country,” NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju said in a statement in response to the abortion pill ban. “There’s no stone that anti-choice extremists will leave unturned as they seek to do everything they can to ensure that abortion is banned across the nation. This first-of-its-kind ban on medication abortion, as well as the total ban, are just the latest proof.”

Gov. Mark Gordon also allowed HB0152, dubbed the “Life is a Human Right Act,” to go into effect without his signature, immediately banning all abortions in the state with exceptions for rape, incest or dire risks to the pregnant patient’s life. People who violate this law will be charged with a felony, fined up to $20,000 dollars, and face a prison sentence of five years.

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21 South Carolina GOP Lawmakers Propose Death Penalty for Women Who Have Abortions

MEMBERS OF THE South Carolina State House are considering a bill that would make a woman who has an abortion in the state eligible for the death penalty. 

The “South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023” would amend the state’s code of laws, redefining “person” to include a fertilized egg at the point of conception, affording that zygote “equal protection under the homicide laws of the state” — up to and including the ultimate punishment: death.  

The bill was authored by Rep. Rob Harris, a registered nurse and member of the Freedom Caucus; it has attracted 21 co-sponsors to date. (Two former co-sponsors — Rep. Matt Leber and Rep. Kathy Landing — asked to have their names removed as sponsors of the bill. Leber and Landing could not be reached for comment.)  

Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican who represents South Carolina in the U.S. House, took to the floor on Friday to call attention to the bill, which she sees as part of a “deeply disturbing” trend. (Multiple Texas lawmakers have floated the idea of executing women who have abortions in the past. Those bills, proposed before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, failed.)

“To see this debate go to the dark places, the dark edges, where it has gone on both sides of the aisle, has been deeply disturbing to me as a woman, as a female legislator, as a mom, and as a victim of rape. I was raped as a teenager at the age of 16,” Mace said. “This debate ought to be a bipartisan debate where we balance the rights of women and we balance the right to life. But we aren’t having that conversation here in D.C. We aren’t having that conversation at home. We aren’t having that conversation with fellow state lawmakers.” 

Asked about exceptions for victims of rape, which Mace raised in her remarks on the floor, Harris told Rolling Stone, “There are other bills with exceptions, but will do little or nothing to save the lives of pre-born children.” He went on list exceptions the bill does contain, including: “a ‘duress’ defense for women who are pressured/threatened to have an abortion” and “medical care to save the mother’s life… The functional language in that scenario is whether the baby’s life is forfeited ‘unintentionally’ or ‘intentionally’.” (Asked if he saw any irony between being a member of the so-called “Freedom Caucus” while proposing such harsh restrictions on reproductive freedoms, Harris responded simply: “Murder of the pre-born is harsh.”)

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