Harrison Butker on the sideline of the AFC Championship in Baltimore on January 28, 2024. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Apr 3, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
Harrison Butker, the three-time Super Bowl-winning kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs … […]
Richard Dawkins, founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, on Dec. 4, 2014, in Sydney, Australia. / Credit: Don Arnold/Getty Images
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 3, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).
The famous British atheist Richard Dawki… […]
A sonogram picture of a fetus in the second trimester of a woman’s pregnancy. / Credit: Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Pro-abortion groups that are trying to enshrine a right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution surpassed the required number of signatures to get their initiative on the November ballot.
The ad hoc coalition of pro-abortion organizations called Arizona for Abortion Access says it has collected more than 500,000 signatures — more than 120,000 more than is required to get the proposal on the ballot. The secretary of state’s office will still need to verify the signatures before the initiative will officially be on the ballot.
The groups surpassed its goal more than three months before the state’s July 3 deadline to submit signatures.
“We are well on our way to the November ballot thanks to all of you, and we won’t let up,” the coalition posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Arizonans deserve to have a say in our own health care decisions, once and for all.”
The Arizona for Abortion Access coalition includes well-known promoters of abortion, such as Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.
Current Arizona law permits elective abortions until the 15th week of pregnancy. The proposed constitutional amendment that will likely be on the ballot would extend elective abortion through the second trimester of pregnancy and legalize many abortions until the moment of birth.
The proposed amendment, which would add a new section to the state’s constitution, would declare that “every individual has a fundamental right to abortion.” It would prohibit the state from enacting restrictions on abortion until the point of viability. Although the amendment would allow some restrictions after viability, the state could not restrict post-viability abortions when the treating physician (who is often the abortionist) claims an abortion is necessary to protect the mother’s life, physical health, or mental health.
Under the proposed amendment, viability is defined as the point when the unborn child has “a significant “likelihood of … sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.” There is, however, no week-based limit, and viability would be determined by the treating physician or abortionist.
Arizona Right to Life, which opposes the proposed amendment, has warned that the proposal has “no restriction on the inhumane procedure of partial-birth abortion” and would “override parental rights” because “the necessity for parental consent would no longer be mandated if a 12-, 13-, or 14-year-old girl seeks an abortion.”
“[This proposal] eliminates almost every pro-life legislation in Arizona,” the organization warned. “The comprehensive undoing of laws safeguarding women and the unborn in Arizona would result from the loopholes, exceptions, and qualifications present in the language.”
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Arizona was one of nearly two dozen states to enact pro-life legislation by restricting abortion at the 15th week of pregnancy.
Several states have also enacted new pro-abortion legislation since the decision and some have approved amendments to their state constitutions. Since the Supreme Court decision, every pro-life proposal that has gone before voters in a ballot initiative has failed and every pro-abortion proposal that has received a vote via ballot initiative has passed.
null / Credit: Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 3, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).
Four pro-life activists have been convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and now face prison time and thousands of dollars… […]
Gov. Kim Reynolds, R-Iowa, speaks at a campaign event for Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at The Grass Wagon on Jan. 13, 2024 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. / Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
CNA Staff, Apr 3, 2024 / 14:… […]
There is exponential growth in conversions of Muslims to Christianity in France. / Credit: Unsplash
National Catholic Register, Apr 3, 2024 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
At a time when concern is growing about the rise of Islam, which is threatening to bec… […]
Pope Francis holds a rosary and New Testament that belonged to a slain 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier as he appeals for peace during his general audience on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Apr 3, 2024 / 12:30 pm … […]
null / Credit: Shutterstock
CNA Staff, Apr 3, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).
A federal appeals court has ruled that an institution’s tax-exempt status does not qualify as “federal assistance” under federal law, reversing a lower court ruling ordering a… […]
Crédit: Jcomp vía Freepik
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 3, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).
“We are destroying ourselves little by little,” the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico said in condemnation of the recent kidnapping and murder of an 8-year-old girl, Camila… […]
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square gathered for his weekly general audience on April 3, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Apr 3, 2024 / 09:05 am (CNA).
Pope Francis during his general audience on Wednesday deplored the recent killing of humanitarian workers in the Gaza Strip, with the Holy Father renewing his appeal for an immediate cease-fire amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The pope buttressed his plea with a catechesis focused on the virtue of justice, noting that it is the building block for a well-ordered society premised upon the rule of law.
“I express deep regret for the volunteers killed while distributing food aid in Gaza,” the pope said to the 25,000 gathered in St. Peter’s Square on an overcast Wednesday morning.
Seven volunteers from the nonprofit World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli strike on Monday while traveling in a “deconflicted zone” after delivering 100 tons of food aid to a town in central Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident “tragic,” suggesting that the Israel Defense Forces “unintentionally struck innocent people in the Gaza Strip.”
Pope Francis on Wednesday reiterated his regular call for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip so that the “exhausted and suffering civilian population be allowed access to humanitarian aid.” The civilian death toll continues to mount in the beleaguered zone with reportedly nearly 33,000 deaths.
The pope also turned his attention to the ongoing war in “tormented” Ukraine. At one point Francis set down the text of his address to hold up a rosary and a copy of the New Testament that belonged to a slain 23-year-old Ukranian soldier named Oleksandr.
“This 23-year-old boy died in Avdiïvka, in the war. He left a life ahead of him,” the pope said. “I would like to have a little silence at this moment, everyone, thinking of this boy and of many others like him who died in this madness of war. War always destroys! Let us think of them and pray.”
Against the backdrop of these parallel conflicts, the pope framed his reflection on the virtue of justice, observing that it forms the basis of a well-ordered civil society that is built upon the rule of law — a principle of governance premised on the impartial application of legal norms for all citizens, institutions, and leaders.
“Without justice, there is no peace,” Pope Francis said. “Indeed, if justice is not respected, conflicts arise. Without justice, the law of the prevalence of the strong over the weak is entrenched.”
The pope stressed that justice is as a critical underpinning for the common good and the management of civil society, noting: “It is the virtue of law that seeks to regulate the relations between people equitably.”
“A world without laws,” without justice — and the corollary virtues of “benevolence, respect, gratitude, affability, and honesty” — would “be a world in which it is impossible to live,” the pope said.
“The righteous person reveres laws and respects them, knowing that they constitute a barrier protecting the defenseless from the tyranny of the powerful,” the pope expressed. “The righteous person does not think only of his own individual well-being but desires the good of society as a whole.”
The pope defined the characteristics of the “righteous person” in part as one who “desires an orderly society.”
“He desires an orderly society, where people give luster to the office they hold, and not the other way around. He abhors recommendations and does not trade favors. He loves responsibility and is exemplary in promoting legality,” the pope continued.
The pope stressed the importance of imparting the virtue of justice into young people so as to build a “culture of legality.”
“It is the way to prevent the cancer of corruption and to eliminate criminality, removing the ground from beneath it.”
© Catholic World Report