San Francisco, Calif., Jan 21, 2021 / 01:20 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of San Francisco on Thursday responded to the Speaker of the House accusing pro-life Trump voters of being sellouts. In a Jan. 18 […]
While many major pro-life marches across the country typically held in January are being cancelled, the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco, according to organizer Eva Muntean, appears to be going ahead. The […]
With searing images of mob violence at the U.S. Capitol fresh in memory, Joe Biden comes to the presidency as a potential healer of divisions and binder up of wounds. Yet his own prior commitments […]
Denver Newsroom, Jan 13, 2021 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- Texas will no longer provide Medicaid funds to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood, with the last funds ending in February.
“We are grateful that Texas has finally taken the steps to ful… […]
CNA Staff, Jan 13, 2021 / 03:29 pm (CNA).- Lawmakers in Kentucky on Monday sent two pro-life bills to Governor Andy Beshear’s desk, both of which are likely to become law thanks to veto-proof majorities.
House Bill 2 would allow the state attorn… […]
Washington D.C., Jan 12, 2021 / 04:48 pm (CNA).- The U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision Tuesday reversed a federal judge’s injunction that had blocked FDA rules requiring women to obtain an abortion pill from a doctor in person.
“The que… […]
CNA Staff, Jan 12, 2021 / 01:27 am (CNA).- As the United States approaches 48 years of legalized abortion nationwide, the Catholic bishops of New Jersey are asking Catholics to join in a day of fasting and prayer to support a culture of life.“As we mar… […]
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Jan 11, 2021 / 04:47 pm (CNA).- The Dominican bishops’ conference issued a statement Sunday rejecting a proposal to decriminalize abortion under certain conditions in a newly revised penal code being debated in the Dominican Congress.
“Life is the first civil right that is mentioned in our Constitution in its art. 37, which reads: ‘The right to life is inviolable from conception to death.’ Life is a right prior to all legislation. Without life there are no possibilities to enjoy any other right,” the bishops said in the Jan. 10 statement.
Despite the fact that the nation’s constitution rejects the possibility of legalizing abortion, radical feminist activists have been trying to de facto legalize it via a “decriminalization” using the penal code.
“According to our own Constitution, the State cannot apply the death penalty even to the worst offenders, since it says: ‘The death penalty may not be established, pronounced or applied, in any case.’ So, how to accept that in our country abortion is consecrated, in the so-called three causes, in which innocent creatures are killed, the nasciturus (the unborn child)?” the bishops’ document says.
In December 2020, the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, told the left-leaning Spanish newspaper El País that “I disagree, as does the majority of the population, not only in the Dominican Republic but also in the world, with free abortion, but I do think that there must be grounds that allow the interruption of the pregnancy. That has been the official position of our party.”
The Dominican congress, with the president’s support, is debating legalizing abortion in the cases pertaining to “the health of the mother,” rape, and “severe fetal malformation.”
According to the bishops’ conference, “Incorporating abortion into our legislation, in any circumstance, is a flagrant constitutional violation, and a blow to the social and democratic state of law. Approving the so-called three grounds would be a serious violation of the right to life that could only be based on a wrong interpretation of the Constitution.”
“We are shocked to know that in our society there are those who think that sacrificing innocent children under euphemistic names such as ‘a decision about one’s own body,’ ‘women’s empowerment’ or ‘sexual and reproductive rights’ can be seen as part of authentic progress.”
Regarding “therapeutic abortion,” the bishops explain that “Medical ethics indicates that in the case of complications in a pregnancy, efforts should be made to save mother and child and never see the premeditated death of one of them as an easy way out, as established in the official protocols of the Ministry of Public Health, which have been used in public hospitals in our country for many years.”
“Let us promote the approval of a Penal Code in accordance with our Constitution, one that shows to the world that Dominicans love life, and that motherhood is one of the great treasures that the Dominican woman and our Nation have.”
CNA Staff, Jan 7, 2021 / 08:01 pm (CNA).- In a setback for pro-life efforts, federal judges have upheld injunctions or imposed new injunctions against multiple Arkansas prolife laws, including bans on late-term abortion and bans on abortions that targe… […]
CNA Staff, Jan 5, 2021 / 04:59 pm (CNA).- Looking ahead at 2021, abortion advocates are hoping the incoming presidential administration will bring policy changes and new personnel who are sympathetic to their goals.
“Planned Parenthood is committed to partnering with the Biden-Harris administration to ensure sexual and reproductive health doesn’t take a backseat in health policy and when making appointments,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, in a December 31 essay in Elle.
“On day one, we want Biden to issue an executive order that demonstrates the administration’s commitment to advancing health care access and rolling back harmful policies like the Title X gag rule, which has blocked patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood health centers,” said Johnson.
The Title X “gag rule” is a Trump administration policy which prohibits the distribution of Title X funds to facilities which refer for abortion services or who provide abortion services.
Johnson called for the Biden-Harris administration to “make critical updates” to Title X, in order for more people to benefit from its funds. She did not elaborate in the essay as to what these “updates” would be.
“Finally, Planned Parenthood will continue to advocate for the appointment of diverse reproductive health champions to executive and judiciary vacancies,” said Johnson.
Johnson is hopeful that the Biden administration will repeal the Hyde Amendment “for good.” She called the Hyde Amendment, a 1977 law which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion services, “a discriminatory policy that blocks people who get their health insurance through Medicaid or other government-funded programs from accessing coverage for safe, legal abortion.”
President-elect Biden had previously supported the Hyde Amendment and voted for it numerous times throughout his time in the Senate. Over the course of a 24-hour period in June 2019, Biden changed course, following five decades of support for the policy, and announced that he was now in favor of repealing the Hyde Amendment.
Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris took credit for Biden’s abrupt about-face on the Hyde Amendment. In 2021, said Johnson, abortion advocates “must fight for policies that ensure every single person, regardless of their income or zip code, can actually access sexual and reproductive health care.”
Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, had similar sentiment as Johnson. Speaking on a podcast, Hogue was concerned that the makeup of the Supreme Court could result in Roe v. Wade being overturned.
“We’re certainly preparing with our partners in the movement for [the overturning of Roe],” said Hogue. She said that much of her organization’s work recently “has been about making sure that we have what we call ‘islands of access’–blue states that are codifying the right to abortion, making sure that we have like practice in place where women can go.”
Many states, including New York, have moved to codify a right to have an abortion into state law. Should the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision be overturned, it would be up for states to decide their own abortion policies.
Hogue stated that she would support the creation of a “women’s health czar” in the upcoming administration. “It would send such a clear message that the terrible era that Trump ushered in is over,” said Hogue.
Biden, a Catholic, has previously pledged to codify the right to abortion into federal law.
“Number one, we don’t know exactly what [Justice Amy Coney Barrett] will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to overrule Roe, and what the only thing–the only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land,” said Biden in October.
“That’s what I would do.”
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