Ranking Member Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, speaks about the development of a preborn baby during a Senate Committee on Health hearing titled “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America” on Capitol Hill on June 4, 2024, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 5, 2024 / 13:50 pm (CNA).
A Senate hearing orchestrated by Democratic lawmakers Tuesday scrutinized pro-life laws that emerged throughout the country after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade amid charges from Republicans that the panel was convened with the November elections in mind.
The Health, Education, and Labor Committee hearing, held on June 4, just five months before the 2024 elections, invited four pro-abortion witnesses and two pro-life witnesses. The hearing, titled “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms,” was chaired by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
“Today we take a close accounting of the trauma Republicans are inflicting on women and families across our country and the damage they are doing to basic reproductive health care through their horrific anti-abortion crusade,” Murray said at the hearing. “The issue here is simple, and it cuts to the core of American values: freedom.”
The pro-abortion witnesses included Madysyn Anderson, a woman who traveled out of state to obtain an abortion she could not have in Texas, and Nisha Verma, an abortionist who serves as a fellow at the Physicians for Reproductive Health.
With much of the committee hearing focused on anecdotal examples of women trying to obtain abortions in pro-life states, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, the ranking member of the committee, characterized the meeting as “partisan politics being played out in a committee hearing.”
“It’s an election year in which a Democratic incumbent president [Joe Biden] is running behind,” Cassidy said. “So a decision has been made to raise abortion to a high profile, to change the setting, to invite a lot of folks, to put us on TV.”
Cassidy, who displayed a diagram showing the development of a preborn baby from the 10th week of pregnancy through the 41st week, accused Democrats of attempting to “normalize a decision to abort a child,” which is a procedure “in which the intent is to end a life.”
“I’m a doctor,” Cassidy said during the hearing. “I see that you have to take care of that mama … but you have to recognize that there is another life there as well. This is not just a collection of cells. This is a child that, if delivered, will live, and maybe this one, too, and that one as well. So let’s have a national dialogue.”
Melissa Ohden, a woman who survived a late-term abortion procedure when her mother was 19 years old and pregnant, was one of the pro-life panelists invited to testify at the hearing. Ohden said: “The nightmare here is not abortion bans” but rather “the nightmare is that abortion continues to be aggressively promoted so that it is seen as the only option.”
“Consider how different women’s and children’s lives, families, [and] our society could be if just as much money was spent to provide financial assistance, housing, education, and employment support, child care, medical, and mental health care,” Ohden continued. “This would lead to a new era of women’s empowerment that ends the generational trauma of abortion.”
During the hearing, lawmakers and panelists engaged in brief back-and-forths about the safety and efficacy of abortion pill drugs as well as the abortion pill reversal drug. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a lawsuit challenging the approval and deregulation of mifepristone, which is commonly used in chemical abortions.
The abortion pill reversal drug, which is meant to counter the effects of mifepristone, has come under scrutiny from Democrats, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed a lawsuit that accuses pro-life pregnancy centers of making misleading claims about the drug.
As abortion remains a divisive and polarizing topic in American politics, some Republican lawmakers are trying to pivot to pro-life policies intended to promote life that are unrelated to abortion heading into the 2024 elections. Just last week, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Sen. Katie Britt introduced the More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (MOMS) Act, which would seek to support women during and after pregnancy.
The proposal would increase access to resources and assistance for prenatal, postpartum, and early childhood development, according to a press release.
[…]
Now that he’s been laicized, he’s no longer the institutional Church’s problem. Let the government pursue the charges with him as it would with any other person. But, given how he’s managed to weasel out of any and all criminal complications, nothing will happen.
Francis is never one to abide by canon law, nor does anyone besides Vigano protest when he violates it. What’s to stop him from tossing one of his laicized pals a boatload of money for legal fees. Mercy for evil doers, none for victims.
I recall that James Grein accused both McCarrick, and Bernardin of Chicago, with assaulting him at the lake in Wisconsin.
It seems likely that this may be the same case.
Voilà!
It’s only taken 46 years, but the Catholic Church has finally stumbled upon the way to handle its pervy predatory priest problem:
Turn them over to the civil authorities who will throw their ***es into prison.
Nitpick of the day, it’s Lake Geneva. I don’t see how things that are so obviously wrong can take so long to drag on and on. Wasn’t there supposed to be a report or something?
A sad end to an old man who thus far refuses to repent! Schemes and deception are unsuitable for a man proclaiming Jesus Christ.
Protestant Brian Young:
How do you know that McCarrick has refused to repent? Have you read his mind? What do you know about his confession status and the status of his soul? Did God reveal to you that McCarrick has refused to repent?
Schemes and deceptions are indeed unsuitable for anyone who proclaims Jesus Christ. These include writing things in Catholic comboxes designed to undermine the Catholic Faith and encourage Catholics to give up some of their cherished doctrinal beliefs.
Now what kind of a Christian would ever do such things while also absurdly proclaiming that he offers his deceptive words in a “spirit of godliness and edification”?
Dear dear, how fragile the catholic faith according to your prognostications. Was under the mistaken impression “that the gates of hell would not prevail against it”! Yet, according to you, I am wrong at every step. Why, you seem offended that we breath the same air!
Are you at the door extending your warm, felicitous greetings to one and all? Would the Lord Jesus pass your discerning muster? Yet don’t feel lonely for I encountered others of your ilk.
To the credit of the Catholic Church, I’ve met outstanding men and women of God, people who give fine testimony to what jesus Christ has done in their lives. Hope runs eternal, you are in my prayers.
Pardon me for not responding directly to your point. A recent article at CWR mentioned that “Uncle Ted” said of his accuser. “That is not true”! That is not repentance for the person who brought these charges against him is one of many who have strong cases! However, you are correct in every matter. No need for confession from your esteemed perspective.
Woe is me, poor sinner that I am, a constant struggle and unfailing repentance. The Lord is faithful and knows the predicament of man whatever his besetting sins are.
What is sad is that there are numerous predators in that church and many people who know who they are but are afraid or unwilling to call them out. God knows both groups and will deliver them a just and eternal punishment.
What what are you referencing when you write: “in that church (sic)”?
Is this Brian Young the Protestant or a different Brian altogether attacking “that church”?
In any case, the predator problem continues to sadly afflict all denominations, and the Catholic Church is not by any stretch the leader of the pack in housing and protecting a higher percentage of predators than any other denomination as many anti-Catholics would have everyone believe. As a matter of fact, the Catholic Church is a leader in implementing beneficial reforms to significantly reduce the incidences of abuse and cover-up, though of course more work needs to be done to eradicate the problem altogether.
It has been mentioned before, but for anyone who desires to get a better handle on the past and current status of the sexual abuse crisis, get a copy of Bill Donohue’s “The Truth About Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and Causes” (2021).
Also check out the following articles that demonstrate the ongoing lie that the sexual abuse problem is primarily a Catholic Church problem:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/do-the-right-thing/201808/separating-facts-about-clergy-abuse-fiction
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/may-web-only/southern-baptist-abuse-apocalypse-russell-moore.html
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2013-10/evangelicals-worse-catholics-sexual-abuse