Cardinal DiNardo calls for ‘reasonable’ gun control after Chicago hospital shooting

Tallahassee, Fla., Aug 3, 2019 / 04:21 pm (CNA).- The 1st District Court of Appeals in Florida has overturned a circuit court ruling which deemed a 24-hour waiting period requirement unconstitutional, sending the case back to the circuit court for further review.

Denise Harle, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, praised the ruling, saying “the appeals court was on solid ground to reverse the trial court’s decision.”

“Abortion is a life-altering decision, and no woman should be rushed or pressured into it,” she said in an Aug. 1 statement.

“The appeals court noted evidence from medical experts that the standard of care for significant, non-emergency medical procedures is that they are not and should not be done on a drop-in basis,” Harle said. “The court also described evidence of the ‘mental health effects and negative outcomes’—including suicide—associated with women who undergo abortions without adequate time to process the serious consequences and come to a place of certainty.”

Medical Students for Choice in Gainesville, Florida, along with two local abortion clinics and the American Civil Liberties Union, challenged in court a June 2015 amendment to Florida’s abortion law requiring a 24-hour waiting period between the time a patient is informed of the nature and risks of having an abortion and a physician’s completion of the procedure.

Opponents of the law argued it is an unconstitutional violation of the state’s right to privacy, and singles out abortion from other riskier medical procedures that don’t require a waiting period.

The circuit court in Jan. 2018 agreed with the plaintiffs, striking the law down as unconstitutional, with the judge writing that the state had not produced evidence that such a broadly sweeping law was the “least restrictive means” of safeguarding women’s health. The Florida Supreme Court had previously blocked the new law temporarily, while the court challenge against it proceeded.

The appeals court on Aug. 1 ruled that all doubts about issues of fact must be resolved before the law can definitively be ruled unconstitutional.

“Appellees’ summary judgment motion asserted that the 24-hour Law deviates from the accepted standard of medical care in Florida by requiring the 24-hour delay and an unnecessary visit to a physician,” the decision reads.

“But the State produced conflicting evidence from medical experts that the absence of such a decision-period after receiving information about the nature and risks of an abortion procedure and the procedure itself falls below the accepted medical standard of care.”

If the State’s experts prove correct, that the 24-hour Law brings Florida in-line with the informed consent standard of care, the judge wrote, then the law would pass muster under a Florida Supreme Court’s decision approving informed consent in the abortion context. The court sent the case back to the circuit court for further review.

The Florida bishops’ conference issued a statement supporting the law after its 2015 passage. They called it “good legislation” that “gives women one day to reflect upon the risks of abortion, one day to view the image of her unborn child’s ultrasound, and one day to consult with friends, family and faith.”

They also noted that more than two dozen other states have such waiting period laws, and that Florida “already requires waiting periods before marriage, divorce, and the purchase of a handgun.”

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CNA Staff, Nov 6, 2020 / 04:56 pm (CNA).- Catholic Relief Services is working to aid relief efforts for those impacted by Hurricane Eta, which tore through Central America this week, killing at least 100 and leaving thousands more displaced.

“Catholic Relief Services is coordinating with Caritas Nicaragua and Trocaire to provide some 600 displaced people in evacuation shelters with food, water, and supplies to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” the agency said.

The organization is also working in Guatemala, “delivering food, hygiene supplies like toothpaste and soap, and sleeping materials to families who have lost their homes in the most hard-hit areas.”

Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Honduras and northeast Nicaragua on Tuesday, with winds reaching 150 miles per hour, before moving on to pound Guatemala with heavy, causing landslides and flooding.

The storm has causes serious damage, downing power lines, uprooting trees, and ripping roofs off houses. Parts of Nicaragua and Honduras were forecast to get 25-35 inches of rain, the Associated Press reported.

Eta has weakened into a tropical depression but is expected to grow into a tropical storm, with both Cuba and western Florida in its projected path.

Catholic Relief Services said its teams on the ground reported significant destruction in Honduras, where more than 500 people have been displaced.

In Nicaragua, the damage is still being assessed, with the hardest-hit area, the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, housing Miskitu and Mayangna indigenous communities.

In northern Guatemala, heavy flooding has damaged roads, buildings, and bridges. Some 25,000 people are being moved into emergency shelters. The government has declared a state of emergency.

“The situation is more serious than we expected,” said Nicole Kast, head of Catholic Relief Services’ programming in Guatemala. “The last few weeks of heavy rains means the soil was already saturated and rivers close to overflowing. In some places we saw a month’s worth of rain in 10 hours.”

“Local infrastructure has collapsed, leading to landslides, bridges being washed away and thousands of families isolated and in need of support,” she continued. “CRS is working with our partners to try to reach the most vulnerable as quickly as possible.”

Eta is the latest major storm in one of the busiest hurricane seasons on record.

In late August, Hurricane Laura moved across Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba before pounding the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, particularly devastating Southwest Louisiana. The storm killed at least 77 people and caused more than $14 billion in damages. The Gulf Coast was hit again by Hurricane Delta six weeks later.

Earlier this week, Typhoon Goni hit parts of the Philippines, with 195 mile-per-hour winds. At least 20 people died and 10,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed.

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Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec 8, 2018 / 04:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Lawmakers in the Ohio Senate have delayed a key vote on a bill to bar abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable. Given Gov. John Kasich’s promise to veto the bill, th… […]