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Pro-life groups adjust tactics in challenging electoral panorama

September 16, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
Voting booths on Election Day. / Credit: vesperstock/Shutterstock

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sep 16, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The aggressive advocacy of abortion by Democratic Party candidates up and down the ballot this year, coupled with abortion ballot measures in 10 states, is causing pro-life groups across the political spectrum to adjust their tactics as well as expand collaborative efforts. 

At the state level throughout the country, “there are things that we are excited about and others that are very troubling,” said Americans United for Life (AUL) Chief Executive Officer John Mize in an interview.

“What we find most troubling are the ballot initiatives that are very deceptive by pro-abortion forces that have caused utter confusion in a vast swath of the American public,” Mize indicated.

"Very deceptive" ballot initiatives by pro-abortion forces have caused "utter confusion in a vast swath of the American public,” says American United for Life CEO John Mize. Credit: Courtesy of Americans United for Life
“Very deceptive” ballot initiatives by pro-abortion forces have caused “utter confusion in a vast swath of the American public,” says American United for Life CEO John Mize. Credit: Courtesy of Americans United for Life

In view of the current electoral panorama, Mize said his nonpartisan organization is stepping up its partnerships with other groups as part of their common objective to defend preborn lives and defeat pro-abortion measures. For example, he said, AUL has expanded its collaborative efforts with organizations such as CareNet, Heartbeat, Lifeline, and the Vitae Foundation.

Given the magnitude of the challenge the pro-life movement faces this year, National Right to Life (NRL) spokesperson Laura Echevarría said her group also welcomes increased collaborative efforts.

“We tend to be very accepting of other groups that want to work with us on issues. And we look at that commonality and we don’t get into other issues,” Echevarría observed. 

On the left, Democrats for Life and Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) are two groups that align with most aspects of the Democratic Party’s policy agenda yet are vociferously challenging its pro-abortion stance. 

PAUU executive director Caroline Taylor Smith, a Catholic who also volunteers for Democrats for Life, told CNA her pro-life principles are compatible with progressivism. She criticized both the Democratic and Republican parties for their respective stances on abortion. 

“I am very left-leaning and progressive and agree with every progressive value except for abortion. I condemn the idea that progressives have to support child-killing. My worldview is that I’m against violence and oppression against all people. I support liberation for all people. Embryos are preborn people that should be free from violence,” she said. 

"Embryos are preborn people that should be free from violence,” says Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising executive director Caroline Taylor Smith. Credit: Screenshot/EWTN Pro-Life Weekly
“Embryos are preborn people that should be free from violence,” says Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising executive director Caroline Taylor Smith. Credit: Screenshot/EWTN Pro-Life Weekly

Smith said that an example of PAAU’s pro-life commitment was set by PAAU activist Lauren Handy, 30, who was convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for occupying the Surgi-Clinic abortuary in Washington, D.C. Handy, who identifies as a “queer Catholic,” is now serving a four-year sentence. 

Allied organizations identified by PAUU’s Smith also include Pro-Life San Francisco and Rehumanize International. 

Despite their common goals, Mize acknowledged, the groups take different approaches. For example, Mize said he is skeptical about “overly aggressive tactics” such as displaying photos of aborted babies or screaming over bullhorns at women. Such tactics, he said, “add to the trauma that a woman feels when she is making a very difficult and complex decision. There’s a better way. And that is to be incremental and focused on providing alternative options to women.”

In addition, while Mize said ALU is not opposed to PAAU’s work, he said ALU is “more apt to partner with an organization like Democrats for Life, who share a lot of the same values we do in terms of the appropriate process to advance the pro-life cause.” There are also organizations like Secular Pro-Life, Mize added.

“Unfortunately, this has become far too political and it’s really not,” Mize maintains. “It’s a moral issue that isn’t defined by the politics of the party. It’s defined by the morality and character of the person.”

Echevarría and Mize agreed that the challenges for all pro-life organizations are only multiplying. Intense political battles, both said, lie in state legislatures and ballot initiatives that threaten to overturn hard-fought limitations on abortion, such as requirements for parental notification and consent.

[…]

The Dispatch

Post-debate explainer: The truth about late-term abortions in the United States

September 13, 2024 Catholic News Agency 13
The Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania holds a “Mercy Witness for Life” rally on July 23, 2016, outside of the former site of Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s closed abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Gosnell was convicted of the first-degree murder of three infants, the involuntary manslaughter of his patient Karnamaya Mongar, and other felony counts. / Credit: Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 13, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

During Tuesday night’s presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris refused to say whether she opposes late-term abortions and denied that they happen in the United States.

However, more than a dozen states, in fact, allow on-demand abortions after the point of viability, and nine of those states permit abortions throughout the entirety of pregnancy.

What’s more, studies from pro-abortion groups and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that thousands of abortions happen late into pregnancy every year.

“Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion,” the vice president claimed. “That is not happening — it’s insulting to the women of America.”

During the debate, Trump said Harris’ vow to codify Roe v. Wade into national law would legalize late-term abortion. The now-defunct landmark Supreme Court ruling forced states to permit abortion at least until the point of fetal viability, at which point the unborn child could survive outside the womb. The exact moment of fetal viability is different for every pregnancy, but this usually occurs in the 23rd or the 24th week.

Trump said Harris would support abortion in “the seventh month, the eighth month, [and] the ninth month,” to which Harris retorted: “That’s not true.”

When asked by ABC debate moderator Linsey Davis whether she would support any restrictions on abortion, Harris ducked the question and said she supports what she called the “protections” of Roe v. Wade. Harris used the word “protections” in reference to making abortion legal, not to to mean protecting the unborn.

Although ABC’s debate moderators — Davis and David Muir — intervened to “fact check” Trump on several of his arguments, neither of them corrected Harris to inform viewers where late-term abortions are legal and occur in the United States.

However, Roe v. Wade did not prohibit states from allowing abortion much later into pregnancy, some of which do permit abortion in the seventh, eighth, and ninth months.

In nine states and Washington, D.C., abortion is legal for the entirety of pregnancy, until the moment of birth, for any reason. In one state, elective abortion is legal through the second trimester, which concludes at the end of the 27th week of pregnancy. In another four states, abortion is legal through the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the unborn child has already reached viability.

States where on-demand late-term abortion is legal

The most permissive abortion laws are in Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. A woman can procure a legal abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy, until the moment of birth, for any reason. 

Minnesota, the home state of Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, has some of the most permissive pro-abortion laws in the country. Walz signed legislation in January 2023 that declared abortion “a fundamental right” and prohibited local governments from taking any action that interferes with that legal right. This provided even stronger protections for Minnesota’s laws on abortion, which permit the procedure until the moment of birth.

Virginia allows elective abortion through the second trimester of pregnancy, which ends in the 27th week. This is three or four weeks after the unborn child could survive outside the womb.

In four other states — Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and New Hampshire — abortion is legal in the 24th week of pregnancy, regardless of whether the unborn child is viable. About a dozen states allow abortion up until the point of viability, which is often determined by the physician, who may be an abortionist. More than 20 states restrict abortion earlier than viability.

How often does late-term abortion happen?

State laws vary on what data abortion clinics must record and report to the government. Most states provide some data to the federal government, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not offer a comprehensive breakdown of the exact gestational ages of preborn children at the time of an abortion.

However, the CDC does report its estimates of how many abortions occur in the 21st week of pregnancy or later. In 2019, the CDC estimated about 4,882 abortions were performed at least 21 weeks or later into pregnancy. The data is incomplete because it excludes the nine states that permit abortions at that stage of pregnancy and the District of Columbia.

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which provides estimates through voluntary surveys, reported that about 0.9% of abortions were conducted in the 21st week or later in 2023. The report estimated more than 1 million total abortions, which would mean that more than 9,000 abortions occurred in the 21st week or later.

If the Guttmacher Institute’s reporting is correct, this would mean that, on average, between 24 and 25 abortions in the 21st week or later occur every day in the United States.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Virginia Knights receive religious freedom award after spat with federal government

September 13, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
Deacon Bob Young, representing Knights of Columbus Council 694, accepts the First Liberty Institute’s Philip B. Onderdonk Jr. Religious Liberty Award award at the American Legion’s National Convention in New Orleans on Aug. 28, 2024. / Credit: Jeric Wilhelmsen/The American Legion

CNA Staff, Sep 13, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA).

A council of Knights of Columbus in Virginia has received a religious freedom award after it won a dispute earlier this year with the government over celebrating Mass at a federal cemetery.

The First Liberty Institute awarded the Knights of Columbus Council 694 its Philip B. Onderdonk Jr. Religious Liberty Award in recognition of the Petersburg council’s successful challenge to a federal rule prohibiting Mass at Poplar Grove National Cemetery. The religious freedom group assisted the knights in their challenge.

The Knights’ council has held an annual Memorial Day Mass at the Petersburg-area cemetery for decades, yet the National Park Service (NPS) had determined in 2023 that the observance was prohibited due to it being a religious service.

The Knights filed a challenge to the rule in May of this year, arguing that the prohibition violated the First Amendment as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The federal government ultimately backed down and allowed the council to hold the Mass.

First Liberty Institute senior counsel Roger Byron said in giving the award that the Knights’ “commitment to its mission and the ideal of religious liberty was made clear once again this year when it stood firmly to keep their annual Memorial Day Mass at a national public cemetery in Virginia.”

“In the face of an unconstitutional policy adopted by the National Park Service, the Knights refused to back down and stood up to defend the First Amendment,” Byron said.

“We honor the Knights’ commitment to our first freedom.”

Prior to backing down and allowing the Mass, park service officials had said the Knights could hold the observance “outside the cemetery on a patch of grass near the parking lot,” which the Knights’ filing said was “unreasonable, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.”

In their filing, the Knights said the Petersburg council “has hosted a Memorial Day Mass inside the Poplar Grove National Cemetery every year (with few exceptions)” for upwards of 60 years or more.

“[T]he location is important to us,” the Knights told NPS when filing for the Mass permit.
“It’s our religious belief that the memorial service needs to be inside the cemetery itself, not outside the cemetery somewhere. That’s why we’ve always had it there every year since at least the 1960s or before.”

The Onderdonk award has been given since 2015 to “a hero and protector of religious liberty,” First Liberty Institute says on its website.

Instead of a trophy, the recipient “receives a Henry Repeating Arms Military Service Tribute Edition .22 caliber commemorative rifle, specially engraved for the award,” the organization says.

The Knights were also recently in the news when former President Donald Trump sharply criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for her earlier aggressive questioning of judicial nominees who were members of the Knights of Columbus.

In 2018 Harris questioned three different nominees over their membership in the global Catholic organization. She said that the pro-life and pro-marriage views of the Knights conflicted with constitutional rights to abortion and same-sex marriage and questioned the nominees’ suitability for office.

[…]