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A large cross-party group of MPs, led by Flick Drummond MP, have tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would reinstate in-person consultations with a medical professional prior to an abortion taking place at home.

The amendment (NC115) has been signed by a cross-party group of 46 MPs including former Deputy PMs Thérèse Coffey and Damian Green, former leader of the Conservative Party and cabinet minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Labour MP Rachael Maskell and Maggie Throup, health minister responsible for abortion services when at-home abortion schemes were made permanent in March 2022.

This amendment would protect women by ensuring they have an in-person consultation with a medical professional before they could take abortion pills at home. This would enable an accurate assessment, in person, of any likely health risks for a woman taking abortion pills, her gestational age and the possibility of a coerced abortion.

Women would continue to be able to have a medical abortion at home, but with the vital safeguards that come with an in-person consultation.

Widespread support for amendment

Polling published in the Daily Telegraph today shows that 71% of women support the reinstatement of in-person appointments and only 9% are in favour of the status quo. In contrast, only 16% of the public support current proposals to decriminalise abortion.

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Over 800 medical professionals have signed a letter to all 650 MPs outlining the risks of late-term at-home abortion and calling on MPs to make a law change to return to in-person consultations because of the health risks associated with taking pills without in-person oversight.

Since March 2022, the vital importance of in-person consultations has become clear

In June 2023, Carla Foster was found guilty of taking abortion pills prescribed by BPAS, Britain’s largest abortion provider, at 32-34 weeks gestation after admitting to lying about her gestational age and claiming to be 7 weeks pregnant. She described being traumatised by the face of her dead baby, whom she named Lily.

If Carla Foster had been given an in-person appointment at BPAS where her gestation could have been accurately determined, she would not have been able to obtain abortion pills and this tragic case would have been prevented.

The small recent increase in such prosecutions for illegal late-term abortions, ending the lives of viable babies, is a direct result of the ‘pills-by-post’ scheme that means women are able to obtain abortion pills without an in-person consultation to accurately assess their gestational age or possible health risks such as an ectopic pregnancy.

This has been acknowledged by pro-choice MPs and campaigners including Stella Creasy MP, abortion rights expert Dr Claire Pierson and major pro-choice leaning newspaper The Observer.

Clear solution to problems is reinstatement of in-person consultations, not ‘decriminalising’ abortion

Decriminalising abortion would make matters worse by allowing women to perform their own abortions up to birth for any reason without committing any legal offence, thus endangering their lives and likely leading to an increase in women using abortion pills to end their pregnancies at home after the 24-week abortion time limit, even up to the point of birth.

Instead, NC115 gives Parliament an opportunity to protect women and prevent these tragic cases from happening by restoring the vital safeguard of an in-person consultation with a medical professional.

Government review

A Government review published in November 2023 found the complication rate for medical abortions at 20 weeks and over is 160.33 times higher when compared to medical abortions that occurred at 2 to 9 weeks.

The complication rate for women who perform their own medical abortions outside of a clinical setting at 10 weeks or beyond in a home abortion is likely to be even higher than the rates when an abortion is happening in a clinical setting.

Such complications are far more likely without an in-person appointment where there is an opportunity to accurately assess gestation age, and would be even more likely if the current legal deterrent against late-term abortions was removed.

History of at-home abortion schemes

Telemedicine home abortions were originally introduced in March 2020 as a temporary measure during the pandemic.

In Feb 2022, the Government announced the scheme would end after running a consultation in which 70% of respondents called for an immediate end to at-home abortion schemes.

However, at-home abortion schemes were made permanently available via a backbench amendment moved in the House of Lords to the Health and Care Act in March 2022 that narrowly passed by just 27 votes in the Commons.

Given the major issues with at-home abortion schemes and the high-profile cases of women using the scheme to abort later in pregnancy, pro-choice MPs will be facing a big battle to prevent this amendment from passing and stop their own amendments from failing, as MPs see that the solution to the major problems with these schemes is in-person appointments, not making them worse by removing key deterrents against performing an abortion at any point right through to birth.

Flick Drummond MP said:

“Women using abortion pills at home without an in-person consultation are being put in danger from the serious risks associated with missed health issues, abortion coercion and the danger of self-administered late-term abortions”.  

“My amendment would reinstate in-person consultations, where medical professionals would have the opportunity to accurately assess, in-person, any likely health risks for a woman taking abortion pills, her gestational age and the possibility of a coerced abortion”.

“Women would continue to be able to have a medical abortion at home, but with the vital safeguards that come with an in-person consultation. This is a common-sense proposal that already has widespread support from across the House”.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said:

“Only two years ago, the vote to make at-home abortions permanently available passed by just 27 votes. A large number of MPs had serious concerns about the negative impact these schemes would have on women”. 

“Since then, we have seen these concerns borne out, with women such as Carla Foster performing at-home abortions well beyond the 24-week time limit, putting their health at serious risk. If Carla Foster had been given an in-person consultation, where her gestation could have been accurately determined, she would not have been able to access abortion pills and this tragic case would have been prevented”.

“The clear solution here is the urgent reinstatement of in-person appointments. This would prevent women’s lives from being put at risk from self-administered late-term abortions”.

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Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys will be available for media interviews Thursday following federal district court oral arguments in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Clark. In the case, ADF attorneys represent National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and two pregnancy care centers challenging Vermont state officials for unconstitutionally restricting the centers’ speech and provision of services.

Last May, Gov. Phil Scott signed SB 37 into law, impeding the ability of pro-life pregnancy centers to continue providing help and support to Vermont women and families. The law censors the centers’ ability to advertise their services. It also precludes the ability of centers to offer even non-medical services, information, and counseling unless provided by a licensed health care provider. ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of the pro-life pregnancy centers in July.

“Women who become unexpectedly pregnant should know they have life-affirming options available to them, from emotional support to practical resources,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “Vermont’s law, however, robs women of these options—it impedes women’s ability to receive critical services during a difficult time in their lives and suppresses the free-speech rights of faith-based pregnancy centers. Pregnancy centers should be free to serve women and offer the support they need without fear of unjust government punishment. We are urging the court to support the rights of these critical care services.”

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NIFLA is a religious nonprofit that provides pro-life pregnancy center members with legal resources and counsel, with the aim of developing a network of life-affirming ministries in every community across the nation. NIFLA has six member facilities in Vermont, including Aspire Now and Branches Pregnancy Resource Center, two faith-based pregnancy centers that have joined the lawsuit.

The Vermont law specifically targets pro-life pregnancy centers as “limited services” providers because they do not refer or perform abortions. Under the law, the state attorney general has the authority to fine pregnancy centers up to $10,000 if she believes its life-affirming messages are misleading.

The law applies only to pro-life pregnancy centers—an abortion clinic that provides identical information would not be subject to the law. Also, the law does not define “misleading,” so it is left up to the discretion of the attorney general.

Further, Vermont’s law precludes the ability of centers to offer even non-medical services, information, and counseling unless provided by a licensed health care provider. This restriction harms pregnancy centers by preventing their non-medical staff and volunteers from providing clients with any information related to pregnancy and counseling clients about their options. It also prevents non-medical pregnancy centers, like Branches, from providing women with information or counseling about pregnancy without hiring medical staff.

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Clark, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont.

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Ohio laws requiring informed consent and a waiting period before women obtain an abortion have been legally challenged by pro-abortion organizations.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit earlier this spring seeking to remove the mandatory 24-hour waiting period for women pursuing abortion, which is legally required to take place after they receive information about the procedure.

The stipulations include private appointments with physicians who inform pregnant women of various details such as the age of their developing babies, the risks of having an abortion and life-affirming alternatives. Ohio law allows elective abortion up to viability, or roughly 22 weeks gestation.

The legal period for abortion extended in November 2023, when voters approved a constitutional amendment called Issue 1 that upended the previously enacted heartbeat bill that banned abortion around six weeks gestation, becoming the fourth state to enshrine a so-called “right” to abortion in its constitution since the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a slew of pro-abortion organizations in the Buckeye State, including the Planned Parenthood facilities of Southwest Ohio and Greater Ohio, Preterm-Cleveland, Women’s Med Group Professional Corporation and Northeast Ohio Women’s Center. The plaintiffs have argued that the laws in question violate the constitutional amendment abortion protections passed last year and requested that the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas declare them unenforceable.

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“The same groups that insisted Issue 1 was about guarding women’s healthcare are using the abortion amendment to remove Ohio’s law on giving women adequate time and information so they can make a voluntary decision,” said Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Midwestern Regional Director Sue Liebel.

She also noted, per an April 3 press release, that the amendment driving the lawsuit is “like every abortion amendment [and is] a bait-and-switch campaign to legalize second- and third-trimester abortions.”

The lawsuit challenging the informed consent and 24-hour waiting period came followed a separate amended complaint was filed in Hamilton County—also by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood—which challenges the legal requirement to have a written transfer agreement (WTA) provided by every abortion facility to operate and the stipulation that public hospitals are forbidden from entering into such agreements.

According to an August 2023 report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, 33 states hold similar requirements that mandate informed consent before women obtain abortions. Twenty-nine of those states provide specific information that must be given to pregnant women. Additionally, 28 have another mandate that insists women wait, generally 24 hours, from receiving the required information and obtaining an abortion.

Almost every state with informed consent and waiting period laws require that pre-abortion counseling include details about the process and risks of abortion procedures as well as information about fetal development. A total of 31 states are mandated to tell women how old their unborn child is before committing an abortion.

LifeNews Note: This article was originally published at Pregnancy Help News and is reprinted here with permission. 

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A pregnancy help organization based in Oregon is continuing its work while celebrating 25 years of life-affirming services for mothers in need.

Road 2 Hope Maternity Homes has served pregnant women for a quarter of a century, offering programs that help them not only choose life during unexpected pregnancies but also teaches them how to manage various aspects of life, from childrearing to relationships to work.

“Looking back at the thousands of lives, over 25 years, that may not be alive today if it weren’t for their time at this ministry is something to be very thankful for,” Road 2 Hope President and CEO Leona Bicknese told Pregnancy Help News. “We know there are hundreds of babies that were at great risk, and many of the pregnant women have said, ‘I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for you guys.’”

Bicknese explained that the ministry first opened in 1999 and, during its first “167 days of service,” two clients were served through its programs. Today, she said, “the numbers have continued to grow.” The organization, which seeks to “offer an alternative to abortion by providing housing, help, and hope to pregnant women and their children,” is motivated by the belief that defending the unborn must begin with “care and advocacy for their mothers.”

“Road 2 Hope has an established history of skillfully blending biblical counseling principles with trauma-informed care in such a way that it has irreversibly changed the lives of 1,000 moms [and] their children, which proves their commitment to care and competency,” Heartbeat International’s Director of the Maternity Housing Coalition Valerie Harkins told Pregnancy Help News.

As detailed by Bicknese in an email exchange, Road 2 Hope operates on an “in it for life” basis, intending to “glorify God” and “love others” while it “serve[s] for the long haul.” She added that the ministry works to serve “with a biblical worldview” so that it can rely on God and respond to His call to serve others.

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“There are things that we can do and perspectives we must have on the personal, relational, and organizational levels,” Bicknese explained. “I call this the P.R.O. framework. This becomes P.R.O.L.I.F.E. when we love well, ignite hope, fight the good fight (the spiritual battle), and equip with truth.”

Road 2 Hope offers a variety of services, including life skills training, personal goal setting and achievement, reuniting families in collaboration with the state’s Department of Human Services and adoption help. Notably, Road 2 Hope offers housing programs for women and babies in need of shelter.

The first part of this program, called Hope House, welcomes women to stay “for up to a year after the birth of their baby.” Following this time, Bicknese explained, “those who would benefit from extended residential support may apply for HopeForward House or HopeForward Annex where they may stay for up to two additional years.”

The time spent living at Road 2 Hope homes provides an opportunity for “mothers to continue to work on their goals,” whatever they may be, to be able to take care of their children on their own. Some opportunities available for women during their stay include finishing education, saving money, finding jobs, learning life skills, and growing in their relationships with God.

Bicknese added that “non-residential aftercare clients” may also benefit from the same programs and that women can “be a part of the Road 2 Hope family as long as they choose to be.”

“We like to count our clients by heartbeats,” Bicknese said about the work conducted by the ministry. “Right this minute, we are serving 21 heartbeats at Road 2 Hope through residential services. In addition, we served 153 families through Hope Line—this was over 300 heartbeats—and 53 families, well over 100 heartbeats, through HopeForward Aftercare.”

Looking ahead, Bicknese told Pregnancy Help News that the ministry “work[s] to be responsive to the needs of the clients we serve.” This motivation, she said, has led to the development of services beyond the housing programs, such as “an in-house addictions program” and “family reunification program.”

The ministry is currently in the process of “converting a garage into a classroom and meeting room” while also “exploring other opportunities to grow.” Even now, Road 2 Hope is “continually operating at capacity with a waiting list.” The organization “doubled in size” in 2023.

To accommodate the continuing growth, Road 2 Hope is “focused on strengthening our infrastructure” and “prepare organizationally” to be able to serve more women in need. Additionally, the ministry is working towards establishing paid positions for a deputy director and a development director.

More details about Road 2 Hope Maternity Homes and its services can be found here.

LifeNews Note: This article was originally published at Pregnancy Help News and is reprinted here with permission. 

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Liz Carr is an actress, comedian and disability rights activist produced a documentary titled; Better off Dead? that was aired on May 14 by BBC1.

Better off Dead? documentary (Link)

Carr who is best known for her role as Clarissa Mullery on the BBC series Silent Witness, interviewed Ellen Wiebe, a Vancouver doctor who has committed some of Canada’s most controversial euthanasia deaths.

Elmira Tanatarova reported for the Daily Mail on May 15 that many of the viewers of the Better off Dead? documentary were uneasy with Wiebe as she giggled when discussing the number of her euthanasia deaths. Tanatarova reports:

A Canadian doctor who has personally euthanised more than 400 people has left viewers feeling ‘uneasy’ as she ‘giggled’ while discussing the solemn topic with a disability rights campaigner in a new BBC documentary.

Speaking to Liz Carr’s programme, Better Off Dead?, Dr Ellen Wiebe, who works with Dying With Dignity, had audiences feeling uncomfortable as she laughed and smiled while discussing assisted death.

‘I love my job,’ she said in the show, which aired on Tuesday night. ‘I’ve always loved being a doctor and I delivered over a 1000 babies and I took care of families but this is the very best work I’ve ever done in the last seven years.

Wiebe tells Carr that nobody is more grateful than the patients that she has killed. Tanatarova reports some of the comments from the BBC documentary viewers:

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Enjoying her job a little too much I felt,’ one wrote.

‘She was extremely scary and oddly cheerful,’ another added. ‘But it might have been defensiveness which made her so very strange indeed.’

‘Her eagerness and her excitement over grateful patients was unsettling,’ one poster penned.

‘Really eerie,’ one comment read. ‘Her job should bring feelings of solemnity, profoundness, sadness… anything but the weird euphoric state she seems to be in.’

The Better off Dead? document gives Wiebe an opportunity to explain her experience with euthanasia. Tanatarova reports:

‘We have a law and I obey this law and there are people who are not eligible under the law,’ she explained.

‘There are situations where I might find somebody not eligible or eligible when another person won’t because of the way our law is written.’

Ellen explained that the ‘number one reason’ people look into assisted death is autonomy.

‘Everybody’s different in what they think of as autonomy and control,’ she added.

‘They desperately want control. Like, they want to say “it’s now”.

‘At the end we say “OK well I can get back here at seven o’clock is that ok?” and they’ll say yes and they’ll be so grateful that they can skip the last two days of their life.

‘And I look at it and think all you really needed was some more drugs – but you want my drugs? I’ll give them to you.’

Wiebe admits that she has killed people who only need “some more drugs” because they want euthanasia, she kills them.

When commenting on euthanasia for people with disabilities, Wiebe reportedly says:

‘I’ve certainly met people who are no more disabled than I am saying that life is not acceptable in this state,’ she explained.

‘And I would say “hm, you and I are different”. But not different in the sense of wanting to have some control.’

Carr then asks Wiebe if she would approve her for euthanasia. Tanatarova reports:

‘So Liz right now you love life and you want to live but there’s lots of nasty illnesses you might get,’ the doctor continued.

‘And if you got terminal cancer and you were having to deal with chemotherapy and radiation wouldn’t you be thrilled if you had the choice to say “I’ll go this far and no further?”‘

‘For me,’ Liz replied. ‘I’m concerned that giving the option and the right to a group of people puts another group of people at risk. But I don’t feel you see that as a worry.’

Tanatarova responds with Wiebe stating:

‘And I am so glad, so glad that I’m a Canadian and that we have this law so that people can choose that or not choose that

‘But to say that somebody has to suffer like that is simply cruel.’

Tanatarova then explains that Wiebe has been involved with some controversial deaths.

Last year, it was reported that Ellen said she helped euthanise a man who was previously deemed unsuitable for assisted suicide.

Speaking in a seminar for physicians working in assisted suicide, she told attendees about the time she treated a patient who did not qualify for the end of life service.

A MAiD assessor had rejected the unnamed man because he did not have a serious illness or ‘the capacity to make informed decisions about his own personal health.’

But the man eventually made his way to Ellen, who cleared him, flew him out to Vancouver, and euthanised him, The New Atlantic said.

Tanatarova reports on why Liz Carr produced the Better off Dead? documentary:

She told the programme: ‘On an everyday basis, disabled people are dealing with a lower expectation and people actually saying to their faces: “Gosh, surely it’s better to be dead than be you?”

‘That happens. It’s shocking. So I wanted that to be the starting point and then let’s unravel why that is and how that leads to my fear of legalising assisted suicide.’

The British actress added that ‘of course we don’t want [a person at the end of their life] to suffer’.

She continued: ‘The problem is, actually, a lot of disabled people do suffer. But what they suffer from are the barriers and the obstacles, the fact they have to fight for support, the fact there isn’t social care, the fact of attitudes, the fact of lack of access to so many things.

‘You know, we do suffer. So don’t then make it legal to end that suffering through assisted suicide, that’s the fear.’

Carr explains that she is treated differently by people who recognize her as an actress compared to those who don’t recognize her. Tanatarova reports:

She explained: ‘From my gaze, from somebody who lives in a world where, you know, if I’m recognised in the street, then people are giddy and excited and it’s wonderful.

‘If I’m not recognised in the street, then I’m ignored or sometimes I’m glanced at as I’m just trouble and I’m a problem and: “Oh god, have we got to get the ramp out? Ugh.” I’m just a pain.

‘So that difference shows me that oftentimes I think disabled people are just tolerated and I think that’s the same with ill people and older people, and I think all those groups would be affected by these laws.

‘As long as there’s that inequality, it is not safe to legalise… no amount of safeguards will prevent us from mistakes and abuse and coercion, that’s my belief.’

LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.

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Since the pro-life Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned the 50-year reign of Roe v. Wade, the debate on the life issue has only intensified. A new layer of the onion was revealed in late February, when Alabama lawmakers wrestled with the topic of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and whether frozen embryos were considered unborn children.

The Alabama Supreme Court ultimately ruled “that anyone who destroys a frozen embryo may be held liable under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act — a law that has historically applied to born and unborn children.” Such a decision was not free from backlash, and months later, both Democrats and Republicans continue to hash out their views on the matter. However, a recent Pew Research poll revealed some interesting insight to where both parties stand.

Released Monday, the poll reported a major takeaway: “A majority of Americans say the decision to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman; about a third say embryos are people with rights.” When asked if they agree with the statement, “Human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights,” 53% of both Republicans and those who lean Republican said it either “extremely” or “very much” aligned with their values. Additionally, 21% said it only “somewhat” aligned, and 25% said “not too” or “not at all well.”

Overall, the poll found that roughly 35% of Americans agree that human embryos are human with rights. Only 18% of Democrats and those who lean Democrat agreed with the statement, with 16% who partially agreed, and 66% who said the statement did not align well with their views.

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On Monday, Breitbart emphasized the connection between the tension that emerged from the IVF debate in Alabama to the results of the poll. They wrote, “Alabama lawmakers faced a massive pressure campaign from Republicans and Democrats following the ruling,” especially “in a highly consequential election year.” They also noted how the Democratic Party has been using the IVF debate “as part of its pro-abortion and reproductive health campaign.” In the wake of the differing Republican responses to the IVF debate, experts say the Pew poll serves as an opportunity to emphasize the weight of acknowledging that life begins at conception.

In comment to The Washington Stand, Mary Szoch, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Human Dignity, explained why these poll results are important to emphasize. “Killing an unborn child impacts so many people,” she said. “Obviously it ends the child’s life, but it also impacts the mother, the father, the baby’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents’ friends.” As Szoch says, “Basic biology tells us that an unborn baby is a human being,” and yet, “this fact is challenging for people to acknowledge because of the connection with abortion.”

According to Szoch, when facing the reality of the death of an unborn child due to abortion, people are often left wondering “if one should currently be doing more to defend life in the womb, recognizing the need for forgiveness because of the role one played in the destruction of life, or feeling the pain of a child who is missing in the family because their life was ended through abortion.” As Szoch highlighted, abortion ends life, which makes “acknowledging that an unborn child is a human being” far more consequential.

Szoch continued, “Acknowledging an unborn child is a human being has major consequences for IVF as well, where those involved have to commit to treating embryos as human beings with dignity and respect, not as pieces of property.” But then, she added, “This calls into question actions that largely make IVF cheaper — like producing extra embryos and freezing embryos for later use. These are inconvenient truths that are challenging to acknowledge — but we must remain committed to truth no matter how challenging it is.”

In light of these tough realities accentuated by the poll, Szoch concluded, “I look forward to the day when people not only recognize an unborn child is a human but also recognize that unborn children deserve protection and the right to life simply because they are human beings made in the image of God.”

LifeNews Note: Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand, where this originally appeared.

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The West Virginians for Life Political Action Committee (WVL-PAC) endorsed in 114 races in the May 14 West Virginia primary. Of the 114 races where the WVL-PAC made endorsements, there were 99 victories (87%). In the 15 cases where the WVL-PAC-endorsed candidates did not prove to be successful, at least seven winners returned pro-life surveys.

To no one’s surprise, Donald Trump is the presidential nominee coming in at 88%. Jim Justice won the U.S. Senate race by a 61% to 27% margin, which was true to polling. Incumbent U.S. Representative-1st District Carol Miller won her reelection bid 63% to 37%. Riley Moore is the nominee in the fall for U.S. Representative-2nd District.

Continuing a “changing of the guard” in the Board of Public Works, Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey will go up against pro-abortion Democrat Steve Williams in the November 5 general election. JB McCuskey won the Attorney General nomination race by 20 percentage points. The Secretary of State nominee is Kris Warner, whose nearest challenger was beaten by 50,000 votes. Pro-life Mark Hunt is the Auditor nominee. Uncontested candidate Larry Pack is the State Treasurer-elect and incumbent Kent Leonhardt moves on to defend his role as Agriculture Commissioner in November.

With the election of Supreme Court Division 1 winner Haley Bunn and Division 2 winner Charles Trump, the SCOWV make-up will change from 3-2 to 4-1 in favor of families. WVL-PAC-endorsed Elgine McArdle lost in her bid for Intermediate Court of Appeals to S. Ryan White.

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Pro-life Senate President Craig Blair lost the Republican nomination to pro-life challenger Tom Willis in the 11th Senatorial District. “Senate President Craig Blair was instrumental in the passing of numerous pieces of pro-life legislation over his years in office,” said WVFL Legislative Director Sadie Keaton. “Many lives have been saved because of his steadfast commitment to the unborn. Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Some highlights of the evening included two victories. One was pro-life challenger Chris Rose (61%) defeating incumbent Mike Maroney (39%) in Senate District 2. The other was Stanley Adkins in House District 49 defeating incumbent Heather Tully.

The following quote can be attributed to Wanda Franz, Ph.D., president of West Virginians for Life PAC: “The PAC works to support pro-life candidates from both parties. The overwhelming pro-life successes in this election are, in part, due to voters’ desires to elect legislators at both the federal and state levels, who reflect their values regarding the dignity of each human life. West Virginians for Life looks forward to seeing increased support for pro-life candidates in the general election in November.”

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Rescue has a long history in the pro-life movement, starting in the 1980s when Operation Rescue was formed and led the largest movement involving peaceful civil disobedience in American history. During those early years, thousands of men and women willingly sat in front of abortion mill doors to prevent the killing of innocent children and paid the penalty in arrest and prosecution on trespassing charges.

For the last few years, that peaceful movement has seen a revival and, just as before, abortion extremists like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are weaponizing the law to trample these peaceful and powerful demonstrations.

This week, sentencing began for nine pro-life rescuers who have remained incarcerated for nine months for participating in a peaceful rescue during October 2020.

The rescue took place at Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington D.C. – a late-term abortion clinic operated by the notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo. Some of the same rescuers facing sentencing this week also recovered 115 aborted babies from the driver of a medical waste van outside Santangelo’s facility just a few months before the rescue took place. These babies were well developed – second and possibly third trimester – and there was no little suspicion that Santangelo may have illegally murdered some of them born-alive during an abortion.

Years before, Santangelo was exposed in an undercover investigation readily admitting he would not help a child with life-saving efforts if he or she survived a late-term abortion.

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“Biden’s DOJ took very little notice of these babies’ mutilated bodies, possibly killed illegally right in the capital of our nation,” Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, commented.  “Instead, Biden has made every effort to prosecute and persecute those he clearly considers his political enemies – peaceful, pro-life citizens willing to stand firm for babies in the womb.”

Lauren Handy was the first to be sentenced this week, receiving 4 years and 9 months in prison. John Hinshaw’s sentence was also handed down, receiving 1 year and 9 months.

Five more rescuers are set to be sentenced this week, including Joan Andrews Bell, recipient of Operation Rescue’s 2023 Person of the Year Malachi Award. Another two will be sentenced later in the month. Each defendant faces up to eleven years in prison.

“We continue to pray for these courageous men and women who were willing to put their own bodies between a preborn child and the brutal death that is abortion. No matter how hard the Biden administration tries to suppress the rights of American citizens, compassionate, peaceful pro-lifers will continue to stand firm, not only for the right to life for every child in the womb, but also for the right to peacefully assemble. I can only hope and pray voters remember the DOJ’s appalling persecution of these peaceful citizens when they go to vote.”

To find out more about these and other rescuers currently incarcerated, please visit Operation Rescue’s up-to-date list of Prisoners for Christ.

In accordance with Hebrews 13:3, Operation Rescue encourages you to pray for these pro-life heroes and even send them notes of encouragement. Addresses have been provided on the webpage.

Operation Rescue will continue reporting as more sentences are handed down.

“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3)

LifeNews Note: Sarah Neely writes for Operation Rescue.

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A pro-life advocate who was sentenced yesterday to 21 months in prison for protesting abortion didn’t go down without a fight in court.

At least a verbal battle making his position clear.

John Hinshaw was given 21 months in prison for protesting outside a late-term abortion center in the nation’s capital that was responsible for killing five babies in potentially illegal late-term abortions were infanticides. While absolutely nothing has been done to hold the abortionist accountable, Hinshaw and his pro-life colleagues have been sentenced to years in federal prison for engaging in Civil Disobedience inside the abortion center.

Before his sentencing hearing yesterday, Hinshaw called out the judge for allowing these gruesome late term abortions without any investigation. He chided the Clinton-appointed judge for refusing to allow more information about why the pro-life advocates were protesting in the first place and shutting down their ability to defend their actions as a First Amendment protected peaceful demonstration against abortion.

“I stand here for Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to accept the punishment rightly hers,’ and condemned the judge’s ‘great guilt of pride, indifference, and intolerance,” he said.

During this unjust imprisonment we were gifted with another baby granddaughter, Charlotte Millie, a fiesty little girl who came early – 32 weeks gestation. I know this court only considers her a “would-be child” at that age. At 32 weeks gestation, she was at the same age as Phoenix, Harriet, Holly, Christopher X, and Angel, the Washington five slain by Santangelo. They are named today in honor of their eternal dignity. What makes my granddaughter a treasure and these five trash?? How is this allowed? HOW IS THIS ALLOWED???? It is allowed by courts covering up the crimes of Santangelo.

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Today, I am told is an opportunity for me to say I’m sorry and so I am sorry. Sorry for having failed in the vocation bestowed upon me the day I became a father. The vocation of protecting children. I have failed this miserably, and so I apologize to this court as I believe my failure contributes to the failure of this court to fulfill its vocation to protect the innocent. And this failure of the court thus contributes to my failure.

So all the years of court-protected slaughter have led us here, where I stand convicted, though guiltless. SENT, as I am, to take upon myself the guilt of this court. I stand here for Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to accept the punishment rightly hers. The Latin term for this is spem in alium. And as I open my arms to plead the mercy of this court on Kollar-Kotelly, I ask the One True Judge, whom she and I will be seeing very soon, to accept my act of love toward her as expiation of her great guilt of pride, indifference, and intolerance.

“My wife knows that she carries our children from their beginning through eternity. But she knows that I cannot share this same bond because I am a man. There’s a special maternal bond between child and mother.”

“My granddaughter was born at 32 weeks gestation.”

“How is it that my granddaughter is a treasure, and the others are trash? There is a reason why today’s gospel reading is to lay down one’s life for his friends. This is not a coincidence.”

“I am sorry that I have failed in my vocation as a father to protect children. I am sorry to this court that it has failed in its vocation to protect its nation’s children. I am sorry to the bereaved mothers who have lost their children to abortion. We are a nation of bereaved mothers. I am sorry to this generation that it has lost a third of its own to abortion. I am sorry that it’s lost its members to pornography. I stand convicted, though guiltless. I take on the guilt of this judge. Accept my love for you, judge, as expiation for your guilt.”

The post Pro-Life Advocate Sentenced to Prison Slams Judge for Ignoring Babies Killed in Abortions: “How Can You Allow This?” appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The Biden administration has thrown yet another pro-life American in prison for protesting abortion.

Thanks to Joe Biden’s politicized Justice Department, pro-life advocate Herb Geraghty has been sentenced to 34 months in prison under the FACE Act just for engaging in a peaceful protest inside an abortion center.

Like fellow pro-life advocate Lauren Handy, Darnel was found guilty on all counts the Biden administration brought against them for allegedly violating the FACE law.

In a previous interview, Darnel called it an “honor” to be arrested for saving babies from abortions.

“FACE is a crime, but it shouldn’t be a crime because abortion shouldn’t be tolerated,” he said in an interview with Catholic News Agency (CNA). “Except for the unjust execution of Christ, abortion is the worst thing that’s ever happened in the history of the world.”

Darnel said he lives in “a nation that murders kids” and attributed his 14-year “quasi-full time” pro-life work to his evangelical Christian faith. “How can I say I love Christ and not respond with extreme zeal, extreme action, and drastic measures to this holocaust?”

Those pro-lifers on trial conducted a rescue at the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by the notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo who was busted by a LiveAction undercover investigator for admitting that he would not help a child with life-saving efforts if he or she survived a late-term abortion. He emphatically stated that a nearby hospital’s efforts to save the life of a child he was trying to abort was “the stupidest thing they could have done.”

Lauren Handy, Herb Geraghty, Darnel and others cited those videos as the reason for the rescue and protest at the abortion business because of the concern babies might be left to die. They chained themselves to the entrance of the abortion center in an attempt to stop abortions.

The rescuers were given 115 aborted babies by the driver of a medical waste van outside Santangelo’s late-term abortion facility. The babies were well-developed – second and possibly third trimester. Their remains are still in a vault at the D.C. medical examiner’s office.

In October 2020, about two months after the remains were obtained, the nine pro-lifers blocked the entrance of the abortion facility and protesting abortion. Darnel filmed the protest he participated in alongside Handy and the other convicted activists.

However, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton nominee, would not allow the video to be used as evidence. She also prohibited the defendants from arguing their actions were protected by the First Amendment or were committed in defense of a third person, unborn children.

“This is a clear abuse of power and a sign that the Biden administration is using the Department of Justice to attack political targets—particularly those of us who believe in the right to life for all human beings,” Geraghty, a member of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, told The Daily Signal late last year.

Yesterday, another pro-life advocate who participated in the protest, John Hinshaw, was sentenced for 21 months and will get credit for 9 months served. And pro-life advocate Will Goodman was sentenced to 27 months in prison for his role in the 2020 protest.

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If the pro-life advocates were environmental activists or a leftist supporting Hamas, their sit-in at an abortion business would have earned her a misdemeanor charge and maybe a small fine. But because she is a pro-life advocate protesting abortion, the Biden administration used the FACE Act to prosecute her for supposedly blocking access to abortion.

Even though the law, which abrogates the free speech rights of pro-life Americans, has rarely been used, the Biden administration pushed for putting several pro-life advocates in prison for over a decade for protesting abortion. Biden officials misused the law to push for the highest penalties, reserved for violent criminal behavior, to prosecute peaceful pro-life Americans who merely exercised their free speech rights.

Handy, a Catholic, is a well-known pro-life voice on the political left. She was the primary organizer and leader of the peaceful protest sponsored by  Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising that led to the ongoing court cases.

In a statement before the ruling, Handy shed some perspective on being jailed for her pro-life activism.

“It has been close to 9 months since I was abruptly ripped from my community. This has led me to think long and hard on what to say about my sentencing today in federal court. Some drafts were angry and righteous while most were just a tearstained longing for my loved ones back home. Yes, this time has been challenging but I refuse to be jaded. Why? Because life goes on… even in jail. So I might as well continue to love and cry and scream and dance. That is joy. The feeling of being fully alive without shame. Which is something no court can take from me. So today, I am at peace with myself and my future. I will go into court with my head held high and my heart open.”

PAAU condemned the ruling today, telling LifeNews that Handy has been wrongly sentenced to 4 years &  9 months in federal prison for an act of peaceful civil disobedience to prevent federal crimes such as partial birth abortion and infanticide.

The condemnation of the ruling was swift.

“Today’s outrageous 57-month sentence for a progressive pro-life activist is a stark reminder: Biden’s DOJ is fully weaponized against pro-life American citizens, and they are using the FACE Act to do it,” Rep. Chip Roy said in a statement. “House Republicans should defund the DOJ weaponization, repeal the FACE Act, and stand up for the freedoms that we campaign on.”

Caroline Smith, Executive Director of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising said, “The abortion industry wants to scare, intimidate, fear-monger, and isolate us. But what they don’t know is we have a radical hope that goes beyond the concrete walls of both prisons and abortuaries. I believe the oppression that the DOJ is expressing right now will absolutely backfire on them in the near future. Oppression always backfires, especially when your motivation is blood money. Abortion is murder, and fetuses are people, and nothing will stop Rescue.”

PAAU Founder Terrisa Bukovinac said “Today the Biden Administration and Merrick Garland’s DOJ have reached a new level of tyranny. There is no other social justice movement in our nation who’s activists are subject to years in federal prison for nonviolent resistance. This blatant viewpoint discrimination has incalculable consequences for babies, their parents, those who defend them, and for peaceful activists across movements worldwide. I continue to stand by Lauren and the other 8 defendants who risked their freedoms to stand in defense of the least of us.”

A total of 10 pro-life advocate face the federal criminal charges after they were arrested and indicted for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) in 2020 at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC. That’s a late-term abortion facility suspected of breaking federal law by performing partial birth abortions and illegally allowing babies born aluive after failed abortions to die.

The defendants – often called “rescuers” by fellow members of the pro-life movement – partook in a 2020 peaceful protest against a notorious Washington, D.C. abortuary that performed late-term abortions.

Last year, all nine were found guilty of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. They each face a sentence of up to 11 years in federal prison. The FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act prohibits individuals from attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere (by use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction) with anyone obtaining or performing an abortion.

The indictment in the case says that on Oct. 22, 2020, 10 individuals “conspired with one another and with others known and unknown to obstruct access” to the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, D.C.

“It was the purpose of the conspiracy to create a blockade to stop the clinic from providing and patients from obtaining reproductive health services,” the indictment alleges. The indictment says the defendants used “deception” to gain access to the clinic, used “force” to enter, and barricaded themselves inside with “ropes and chains.”

A video of the rescue shows the pro-life advocates praying and singing inside the abortion facility and refusing to leave so abortions could end the lives of unborn children.

Stephen Crampton, senior counsel for the nonprofit legal firm Thomas More Society, says the cases are clearly political persecution.

“They waited a year and a half to file this action,” Crampton said. “If indeed this was some sort of dire offense and the defendants ought to be incarcerated, why in the world, does the government wait a year and a half to file the charges?”

“The climate activists were out there [in D.C.] gluing their hands to the streets, shutting down traffic and everything, you think there’s any chance the feds are going to prosecute those people or try to put them in prison for 11 years?” he asked.

He also told Fox News that finding a fair jury was practically impossible considering that D.C. is the “most pro-abortion city in America.”

The pro-lifers on trial conducted a rescue at the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by the notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo who was busted by a LiveAction undercover investigator for admitting that he would not help a child with life-saving efforts if he or she survived a late-term abortion. He emphatically stated that a nearby hospital’s efforts to save the life of a child he was trying to abort was “the stupidest thing they could have done.”

Lauren Handy and Herb Geraghty cited those videos as the reason for the rescue and protest at the abortion business because of the concern babies might be left to die. They chained themselves to the entrace of the abortion center in an attempt to stop abortions.

A pro-life advocate says the charges are wrong because the protests were non-violent.

Caroline Taylor Smith, executive director of PAAU told LifeNews, “This overreaching of power and authority by Biden’s DOJ is egregious and must be stopped. Nonviolent prolife actions should not be a federal crime, and peaceful people with a desire to save lives should not be jailed for over a decade. Some of these Rescuers could be facing death by incarceration. We must repeal the FACE Act now!”

Jonathan Darnel, one of the four pro-life Americans Biden is targeting in this second trial, plead not guilty to the charges.

“I am definitely not guilty of the charges leveled against me, which is rather ironic that I should find myself in this position,” Darnel told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Nevertheless, if a jury finds me guilty of FACE even erroneously, it would be an honor because the kids are worthy of protection.”

Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotely a Clinton nominee, is presiding over the hearings, which are slated to take place at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia just a few blocks from the U.S. Supreme Court. The sentencings will continue on Wednesday, May 15, with Herb (born Rosemary) Geraghty at 9:00 a.m., Jonathan Darnel at 11:00 a.m., Jean Marshall at 1:30 p.m., and Joan Andrews Bell at 3:00 p.m. On Friday, May 17, the judge is scheduled to sentence Heather Idoni at 9:30 a.m.

Kollar-Kotely was also originally going to sentence the final defendant, Paulette Harlow, on Friday. However, Harlow’s sentencing was postponed until two weeks later on Friday, May 31, at 1:30 p.m.

Last year, former President Donald Trump promised to support “political prisoners” if he’s elected president. During the Family Research Council’s “Pray, Vote, Stand Summit” in Washington, D.C., Trump vowed to get innocent Americans out of jail for standing up for their beliefs while criminals run rampant. 

“I am announcing that the moment I win the election, I will appoint a special task force to rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration,” Trump said. 

Trump referenced the convictions of pro-life advocates who now face as many as 11 years in prison for rescuing babies from abortions at a late-term abortion business in Washington D.C.

“If we stand together in this fight, we’re going to defeat Crooked Joe Biden; if he runs — will he make it to the starting gate?” Trump said.

The post Pro-Life Advocate Jonathan Darnel Thrown in Prison for 27 Months for Protesting Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The Wall Street Journal is raising concern over declining global birth rates, which experts predict will dip below the replacement rate, 2.2, for the first time in human history.

“The world is at a startling demographic milestone,” the outlet reported in a May 13 feature piece. “Sometime soon, the global fertility rate will drop below the point needed to keep population constant. It may have already happened.”

The United Nations’ most recent statistics revealed that the global fertility rate was down to 2.3 in 2021, 0.2 points lower than experts estimated that it was in 2017. The UN has not yet released data for 2022 and 2023.

In its analysis of the downward trend, WSJ cites research from 2021, which found that “state-level differences in parental abortion notification laws, unemployment, Medicaid availability, housing costs, contraceptive usage, religiosity, child-care costs and student debt could explain almost none of the decline.”

Instead, researchers stated that the global declining birth rate is likely the result of a societal change not easily quantified.

The WSJ speculated that the trend may be the result of “a societywide reorientation toward individualism that puts less emphasis on marriage and parenthood, and makes fewer or no children more acceptable.”

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Thanks to “urbanizations and the internet,” WSJ continues, even women living in small villages where traditional gender roles were once strictly observed are now “plugged into global culture,” which tells them that “fewer children and a higher quality of life are the norm.”

As CatholicVote previously reported, recent data from the National Center for Health Statistics showed that birth and fertility rates in the US have plummeted to their lowest levels since they have been recorded. Predominantly blue states have the lowest levels.

While state and federal legislators in the US have not made addressing the issue of declining birth rates an explicit priority, as WSJ observed, countries such as Hungary and Japan have created numerous financial incentives for young people to have more children.

In Hungary, for example, the WSJ notes that women under 30 who have children are exempt from paying personal income tax for the rest of their life. The country also boasts lengthy maternity leave policies and various housing and childcare subsidies.

LifeNews Note: Madalaine Elhabbal writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.

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Earlier today, a large crowd gathered at a rally outside Parliament at the start of the biggest Parliamentary battle on abortion in a generation.

MPs will soon be given the opportunity to vote on two pro-life changes to the law: one amendment tabled by Caroline Ansell MP to lower the abortion time limit from 24 weeks to 22 weeks; and another tabled by Sir Liam Fox MP that would bring the abortion time limit for babies with Down’s syndrome in line with the time limit for babies that do not have disabilities. Abortion for Down’s syndrome is currently legal right up to birth.

MPs will also likely have the opportunity to vote on two extreme abortion up to birth amendments that have been tabled by pro-abortion MPs Stella Creasy and Diana Johnson.

The rally, organised by Right To Life UK and a number of other pro-life groups from around the country, told MPs and those present that “we already have an extreme abortion law – we don’t need to make it worse”.

Report Stage of the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill begins today, and MPs are set to debate the two pro-life amendments and two extreme abortion up to birth amendments on day two of Report Stage. The date for day two has yet to be announced.

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No to abortion up to birth

At the rally, Right To Life UK spokesperson Madeline Page said “Make no mistake, contrary to the claims of those promoting these bills that they will not allow abortions later in pregnancy than our 24-week time limit, in effect, if either of these amendments passes they would likely lead to a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home, endangering the lives of many more women”.

She explained that if Diana Johnson’s amendment passes and all offences that make it illegal for a woman to perform her own abortion at any point right through to birth are removed, in reality, “self-abortions will become possible up to birth for any reason including abortions for sex-selective purposes, as women could mislead abortion providers about their gestational age”.

“As we all remember, being able to mislead abortion providers is precisely what happened in the tragic case of Carla Foster and baby Lily, whose life was ended when she was only 32 to 34 weeks old in the womb. If this amendment passes, cases like this are more likely to occur and more babies at a late gestation are likely to lose their lives”.

“If Stella Creasy’s amendment passes, key deterrents against late-term abortions will be removed. The effect will likely be very similar to the former amendment – a significant increase in the number of women performing late-term abortions at home, endangering the lives of many more women” she added.

Madeline also described the pills-by-post scheme in which a woman can procure abortion pills without ever having an in-person appointment with a medical professional as “a deeply misguided twist [in which] the state actively enables backstreet abortions”.

A contradiction at the heart of our abortion law

Madeline also pointed out that medical advances over the last 30 years mean that babies are born and increasingly able to survive before the current 24-week abortion limit, but also that the “abortion limit has been stuck at 24 weeks gestation” during this time.

She said that “the most recent annual abortion statistics for England and Wales reveal there were 755 abortions performed at 22 or 23 weeks gestation under Section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act”.

“At the same time, there were a total of 261 babies born alive at 22 and 23 weeks before the abortion limit, who survived to discharge from hospital in 2020 and 2021″.

“This means in the same hospital, on the same day, two babies at the same gestational age (22 or 23 weeks gestation) could have very different fates – one could have his or her life deliberately ended by abortion, and the other could be born prematurely and have a dedicated medical team provide the best care they can to try to save his or her life”.

Madeline concluded by urging those present to contact their MPs to support Caroline Ansell’s amendment to lower the abortion limit and saying “These unborn babies at 22 and 23 weeks deserve the protection of law just as those babies born at the same gestation are granted the protection of law outside the womb”.

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “At the moment, a baby at 22 or 23 weeks gestation could be born prematurely and have a dedicated medical team provide expert care to try to save his or her life, while another baby at the same age could have their life deliberately ended by abortion in the same hospital at the same time. This is a contradiction in UK law“.

“That’s why we need to support Caroline Ansell’s amendment to lower the abortion time limit from 24 to 22 weeks“.
“Johnson’s and Creasy’s extreme and radical abortion amendments have no place in the UK. Recent polling clearly shows that the public does not support these changes to the law and MPs must vote against them”.

LifeNews Note: Republished with permission from Right to Life UK.

The post Hundreds of People Attend Rally to Defeat UK Bill for Abortions Up to Birth appeared first on LifeNews.com.

A recent set of New York Times / Siena polls show that nearly one in five registered voters from six swing states, including many Catholics, did not vote in the 2020 presidential election.

The polls surveyed respondents from the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Of those registered voters, 18% said they did not vote in 2020. Thirty-nine percent indicated they voted for Joe Biden, while 36% said their vote was for Donald Trump.

However, the polls also asked the respondents their religious affiliation. Eighteen percent indicated that they considered themselves to be Catholics.

Out of registered voters who did not vote in the last presidential election, 15% said they were Catholics.

By contrast, 20% of Trump voters in 2020 and 18% of Biden voters that year claimed to be Catholic, per the polls.

When mathematical analysis is applied to the polling results, it reveals that roughly 13% of self-identified registered Catholic voters admitted to not voting in 2020.

This figure does not take into account the millions of unregistered adult Catholic citizens who were not included in the Times / Siena polls of registered voters.

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In the polls, Wisconsin was the swing state with the highest proportion of Catholic respondents. Over a quarter (26%) of the state’s registered voters surveyed said they were Catholic.

Notably, the surveys also found that Wisconsin was the only state where Biden was leading Trump among registered voters – albeit by only two points.

The state with the second-highest proportion of Catholic voters was Pennsylvania, with 21% of its respondents reporting to be Catholic.

“This poll reveals that an estimated 13% of registered Catholic voters admitted to not even bothering to vote in the 2020 election,” noted former Congressman Tim Huelskamp, Ph.D., a senior advisor to CatholicVote.

“Perhaps more shocking is that an even larger number of Catholics weren’t even registered to vote,” Huelskamp continued:

And combined, an estimated 25-30% of American Catholics refused to engage in their basic moral obligation to vote in 2020. This is a tragedy for America and for the entire Catholic Church, and I call upon all laity, priests and bishops to work together to inspire all Catholics to become responsible citizens and vote in the 2024 election.

LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.

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The Biden administration has thrown yet another pro-life American in prison for protesting abortion.

Thanks to Joe Biden’s politicized Justice Department, pro-life advocate Herb Geraghty has been sentenced to 27 months in prison under the FACE Act just for engaging in a peaceful protest inside an abortion center.

Like fellow pro-life advocate Lauren Handy, Geraghty found guilty on all counts the Biden administration brought against them for allegedly violating the FACE law.

Those pro-lifers on trial conducted a rescue at the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by the notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo who was busted by a LiveAction undercover investigator for admitting that he would not help a child with life-saving efforts if he or she survived a late-term abortion. He emphatically stated that a nearby hospital’s efforts to save the life of a child he was trying to abort was “the stupidest thing they could have done.”

Lauren Handy and Herb Geraghty cited those videos as the reason for the rescue and protest at the abortion business because of the concern babies might be left to die. They chained themselves to the entrance of the abortion center in an attempt to stop abortions.

The rescuers were given 115 aborted babies by the driver of a medical waste van outside Santangelo’s late-term abortion facility. The babies were well-developed – second and possibly third trimester. Their remains are still in a vault at the D.C. medical examiner’s office.

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In October 2020, about two months after the remains were obtained, the nine pro-lifers blocked the entrance of the abortion facility and protesting abortion.

However, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton nominee, would not allow the video to be used as evidence. She also prohibited the defendants from arguing their actions were protected by the First Amendment or were committed in defense of a third person, unborn children.

“This is a clear abuse of power and a sign that the Biden administration is using the Department of Justice to attack political targets—particularly those of us who believe in the right to life for all human beings,” Geraghty, a member of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, told The Daily Signal late last year.

Yesterday, another pro-life advocate who participated in the protest, John Hinshaw, was sentenced for 21 months and will get credit for 9 months served. And pro-life advocate Will Goodman was sentenced to 27 months in prison for his role in the 2020 protest.

If the pro-life advocates were environmental activists or a leftist supporting Hamas, their sit-in at an abortion business would have earned her a misdemeanor charge and maybe a small fine. But because she is a pro-life advocate protesting abortion, the Biden administration used the FACE Act to prosecute her for supposedly blocking access to abortion.

Even though the law, which abrogates the free speech rights of pro-life Americans, has rarely been used, the Biden administration pushed for putting several pro-life advocates in prison for over a decade for protesting abortion. Biden officials misused the law to push for the highest penalties, reserved for violent criminal behavior, to prosecute peaceful pro-life Americans who merely exercised their free speech rights.

Handy, a Catholic, is a well-known pro-life voice on the political left. She was the primary organizer and leader of the peaceful protest sponsored by  Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising that led to the ongoing court cases.

In a statement before the ruling, Handy shed some perspective on being jailed for her pro-life activism.

“It has been close to 9 months since I was abruptly ripped from my community. This has led me to think long and hard on what to say about my sentencing today in federal court. Some drafts were angry and righteous while most were just a tearstained longing for my loved ones back home. Yes, this time has been challenging but I refuse to be jaded. Why? Because life goes on… even in jail. So I might as well continue to love and cry and scream and dance. That is joy. The feeling of being fully alive without shame. Which is something no court can take from me. So today, I am at peace with myself and my future. I will go into court with my head held high and my heart open.”

PAAU condemned the ruling today, telling LifeNews that Handy has been wrongly sentenced to 4 years &  9 months in federal prison for an act of peaceful civil disobedience to prevent federal crimes such as partial birth abortion and infanticide.

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The condemnation of the ruling was swift.

“Today’s outrageous 57-month sentence for a progressive pro-life activist is a stark reminder: Biden’s DOJ is fully weaponized against pro-life American citizens, and they are using the FACE Act to do it,” Rep. Chip Roy said in a statement. “House Republicans should defund the DOJ weaponization, repeal the FACE Act, and stand up for the freedoms that we campaign on.”

Caroline Smith, Executive Director of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising said, “The abortion industry wants to scare, intimidate, fear-monger, and isolate us. But what they don’t know is we have a radical hope that goes beyond the concrete walls of both prisons and abortuaries. I believe the oppression that the DOJ is expressing right now will absolutely backfire on them in the near future. Oppression always backfires, especially when your motivation is blood money. Abortion is murder, and fetuses are people, and nothing will stop Rescue.”

PAAU Founder Terrisa Bukovinac said “Today the Biden Administration and Merrick Garland’s DOJ have reached a new level of tyranny. There is no other social justice movement in our nation who’s activists are subject to years in federal prison for nonviolent resistance. This blatant viewpoint discrimination has incalculable consequences for babies, their parents, those who defend them, and for peaceful activists across movements worldwide. I continue to stand by Lauren and the other 8 defendants who risked their freedoms to stand in defense of the least of us.”

A total of 10 pro-life advocate face the federal criminal charges after they were arrested and indicted for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) in 2020 at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC. That’s a late-term abortion facility suspected of breaking federal law by performing partial birth abortions and illegally allowing babies born aluive after failed abortions to die.

The defendants – often called “rescuers” by fellow members of the pro-life movement – partook in a 2020 peaceful protest against a notorious Washington, D.C. abortuary that performed late-term abortions.

Last year, all nine were found guilty of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. They each face a sentence of up to 11 years in federal prison. The FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act prohibits individuals from attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere (by use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction) with anyone obtaining or performing an abortion.

The indictment in the case says that on Oct. 22, 2020, 10 individuals “conspired with one another and with others known and unknown to obstruct access” to the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, D.C.

“It was the purpose of the conspiracy to create a blockade to stop the clinic from providing and patients from obtaining reproductive health services,” the indictment alleges. The indictment says the defendants used “deception” to gain access to the clinic, used “force” to enter, and barricaded themselves inside with “ropes and chains.”

A video of the rescue shows the pro-life advocates praying and singing inside the abortion facility and refusing to leave so abortions could end the lives of unborn children.

Stephen Crampton, senior counsel for the nonprofit legal firm Thomas More Society, says the cases are clearly political persecution.

“They waited a year and a half to file this action,” Crampton said. “If indeed this was some sort of dire offense and the defendants ought to be incarcerated, why in the world, does the government wait a year and a half to file the charges?”

“The climate activists were out there [in D.C.] gluing their hands to the streets, shutting down traffic and everything, you think there’s any chance the feds are going to prosecute those people or try to put them in prison for 11 years?” he asked.

He also told Fox News that finding a fair jury was practically impossible considering that D.C. is the “most pro-abortion city in America.”

The pro-lifers on trial conducted a rescue at the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by the notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo who was busted by a LiveAction undercover investigator for admitting that he would not help a child with life-saving efforts if he or she survived a late-term abortion. He emphatically stated that a nearby hospital’s efforts to save the life of a child he was trying to abort was “the stupidest thing they could have done.”

Lauren Handy and Herb Geraghty cited those videos as the reason for the rescue and protest at the abortion business because of the concern babies might be left to die. They chained themselves to the entrace of the abortion center in an attempt to stop abortions.

A pro-life advocate says the charges are wrong because the protests were non-violent.

Caroline Taylor Smith, executive director of PAAU told LifeNews, “This overreaching of power and authority by Biden’s DOJ is egregious and must be stopped. Nonviolent prolife actions should not be a federal crime, and peaceful people with a desire to save lives should not be jailed for over a decade. Some of these Rescuers could be facing death by incarceration. We must repeal the FACE Act now!”

Jonathan Darnel, one of the four pro-life Americans Biden is targeting in this second trial, plead not guilty to the charges.

“I am definitely not guilty of the charges leveled against me, which is rather ironic that I should find myself in this position,” Darnel told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Nevertheless, if a jury finds me guilty of FACE even erroneously, it would be an honor because the kids are worthy of protection.”

Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotely a Clinton nominee, is presiding over the hearings, which are slated to take place at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia just a few blocks from the U.S. Supreme Court. The sentencings will continue on Wednesday, May 15, with Herb (born Rosemary) Geraghty at 9:00 a.m., Jonathan Darnel at 11:00 a.m., Jean Marshall at 1:30 p.m., and Joan Andrews Bell at 3:00 p.m. On Friday, May 17, the judge is scheduled to sentence Heather Idoni at 9:30 a.m.

Kollar-Kotely was also originally going to sentence the final defendant, Paulette Harlow, on Friday. However, Harlow’s sentencing was postponed until two weeks later on Friday, May 31, at 1:30 p.m.

Last year, former President Donald Trump promised to support “political prisoners” if he’s elected president. During the Family Research Council’s “Pray, Vote, Stand Summit” in Washington, D.C., Trump vowed to get innocent Americans out of jail for standing up for their beliefs while criminals run rampant. 

“I am announcing that the moment I win the election, I will appoint a special task force to rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration,” Trump said. 

Trump referenced the convictions of pro-life advocates who now face as many as 11 years in prison for rescuing babies from abortions at a late-term abortion business in Washington D.C.

“If we stand together in this fight, we’re going to defeat Crooked Joe Biden; if he runs — will he make it to the starting gate?” Trump said.

The post Pro-Life Advocate Herb Geraghty Thrown in Prison for 27 Months for Protesting Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Pro-life advocate Lauren Handy has been sentenced to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervision for protesting the murder of late-term unborn children at a notorious abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.

“Handy, a Catholic, is a well-known pro-life voice on the political left. She was the primary organizer and leader of the peaceful protest that led to the ongoing court cases,” CatholicVote previously reported:

Last year, [Handy and her eight co-defendants] were found guilty of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. They each face a sentence of up to 11 years in federal prison.

US District Court for the District of Columbia Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly decided on Handy’s sentence on May 14.

Handy’s attorneys from the Thomas More Society expressed their opposition to the almost five-year-long prison sentence and stated in a news release that they would be working to appeal the decision.

Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Steve Crampton said the “57-month sentence is a miscarriage of justice, plain and simple.”

He later added, “Ms. Handy should have been shown the same mercy that she has herself shown to countless many downtrodden throughout her young life.”

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In response to the sentence, Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins slammed the Department of Justice for its bias against pro-life advocates.

“After weeks of watching students & pro-terrorist activists seize and barricade themselves inside school buildings, and years of watching progressives allow squatters to take private property, a woman faces years in prison for blocking an abortion vendor door? Justice is not blind in Biden’s America – it’s biased,” Hawkins wrote. “The chaos is the point – they want this kind of anarchy.”

Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) Founder Terrisa Bukovinac also criticized the bias against pro-life advocates: “No other social justice movement in our nation has activists subject to years in federal prison for nonviolent resistance. This blatant viewpoint discrimination has incalculable consequences for babies, their parents, those who defend them.”

Along with being accused of violating the FACE Act, the co-defendants are accused of “Conspiracy Against Rights.”

In 2020, Handy and her co-defendants discovered the bodies of five later-term aborted babies outside the Washington Surgi-Clinic, operated by late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo. After this shocking discovery, Handy organized a peaceful protest that blocked access to the clinic in October 2020.

Thomas More Society’s news release added that the discovery of these dead children, who are “known as the ‘D.C. Five,’ have underscored the truth of Ms. Handy’s concerns that abortionist Cesare Santangelo has more likely than not been violating the Born Alive Infants Protection Act by reportedly refusing to provide life-saving care to infants born alive as a result of an attempted abortion.”

On May 14, Kollar-Kotely also sentenced Handy’s 69-year-old co-defendant, John Hinshaw, to 12 months in prison. Most of the other sentences will be decided later this week.

Eight co-defendants have already served nine months in prison, and one is under house arrest. Handy’s time already served is included in the 57-month sentencing.

Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Martin Cannon said Handy and her co-defendants “conspired to be peaceful,” protesting with nonviolence.

“For her efforts to peacefully protect the lives of innocent preborn human beings, Ms. Handy deserves thanks, not a gut-wrenching prison sentence,” Cannon added. “We will vigorously pursue an appeal of Ms. Handy’s conviction and attack the root cause of this injustice, that is, the FACE Act—which we believe is unconstitutional and should never again be used to persecute peaceful pro-lifers.”

Crampton also praised Handy’s character, highlighting her commitment to pro-life work.

“As I’ve gotten to know Ms. Handy, I’ve seen up close her unwavering passion for pro-life advocacy and resolute dedication to nonviolence. The caricature of Ms. Handy that the Biden Department of Justice fabricated flies in the face of reality,” Crampton said, later concluding:

It is deeply disappointing that this Court did not see through Department of Justice’s the smoke and mirrors. But this fight is far from over, and we eagerly look forward to appealing for Ms. Handy and her co-defendants’ freedom, so that the FACE Act can never again be weaponized by the Department of Justice against its ideological opponents.

In a news release received via email, Penny Nance, the CEO and president of Concerned Women for America, called Handy’s sentence “a tragic injustice.”

Nance called for the repeal of the FACE Act, stating that “[it] is an unconstitutional breach of the states’ police power, and the Biden Administration has used it to attack political opponents most blatantly. Lauren was trying to save lives and expose this unlawful activity and has been unjustly punished. Our prayers go out to her.”

LifeNews Note: McKenna Snow writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.

The post Lauren Handy Will Appeal Bogus 57 Month Prison Sentence for Protesting Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.

In a commencement speech to students at Franciscan University, a Catholic college based in Ohio, Justice Samuel Alito urged them to defend religious liberty and free speech.

“The framers foresaw that troublous times would arise when rulers and people would become restive and the principles of constitutional liberty would be in peril unless established by irreparable law,” Alito said.

“The Constitution of the United States applies to all classes of men at all times and under all circumstances,” he added. “This same fundamental idea that there are certain principles that we cannot compromise without paying a fearsome price applies to our personal lives.”

He continued: “There are certain moral principles that are true and immutable. These principles of right and wrong are not relative or circumstantial. They are not of our making, and it is not within our power to change them even though at times we might find that convenient.”

“Our Constitution has survived and flourished because it was designed to accommodate change. We are a nation of change. When Alexis de Tocqueville toured the United States in the 1840s he marveled at the restlessness of Americans. And since Tocqueville’s day, Americans have never stopped racing towards the future,” he said.

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“The first is respect for reason and civil discourse. Our legal system is built on the premise that it is possible for fair and open-minded people to solve their problems by reasoning together by a process of rational and respectful argumentation. I hope you will take that approach in your lives,” Alito continued.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 6-3 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.”

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.

“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’”

“Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

Although technically voting with the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a concurrence saying he supports upholding the 15-week ban at issue in the case but not overturning Roe.

The post Justice Samuel Alito Tells Students to Defend Freedom of Speech and Religious Liberty appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The Texas Medical Board (TMB) is finally stepping up in attempts to clear the confusion regarding emergency medical interventions for pregnant women in Texas.

Texas outlaws elective abortion from the moment of fertilization, with the only exception for medical emergencies of a pregnant woman. Sometimes, this intervention tragically can involve ending a pregnancy before the preborn child can survive outside the womb. The death of the child is sometimes an unfortunate result of this sort of medical intervention. However, it is critical to note that unlike elective abortion, the intent of these situations is not to end the life of the child, but rather to save the mother. Because of the different intent, these procedures are considered legally and morally different. The law also clarifies that treatment for miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy are not considered an abortion, and are thereby allowed in Texas.

While the law is clear, implementation since Roe v. Wade was reversed has been problematic. Liberal media and abortion activists have caused confusion with false accusations against Pro-Life laws. They have wrongfully stated that intervention is not allowed until a woman is at death’s door, unnecessarily putting women’s lives at risk. They have also claimed that women denied abortions in cases where their preborn child was diagnosed with a life-limiting disability should have been entitled to an abortion under the medical emergency definition. Recent pro-abortion legal challenges to Texas law, including Cox v. Texas (2023) and Zurawski v. Texas (2023), seek to conflate two separate issues: risk to the mother and the child’s disability. Anti-Life activists aim to use these lawsuits to expand access to elective abortion in Texas, not just when the mother’s life is threatened.

Because of this malice, Texas Right to Life has urged the TMB to release guidelines interpreting the law for physicians. Until recently, they had refused to do so. Finally, the TMB has issued proposed rules seeking to assure doctors of the law’s language and their ability to act to save a mother’s life or major bodily function if it is threatened.

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Texas Right to Life is glad to see the TMB responding to this need. Thus far, the TMB has drafted good proposed rules that reflect the law as the Legislature intended it – to protect preborn Life while also protecting mothers’ lives and not expanding beyond the agency’s proper role.

However, Texas Right to Life is urging the TMB to make two changes to the proposed rules:

• Clarify that imminence is not required for a physician to act if he or she can foresee a threat to the pregnant woman’s life or major bodily function. She does not have to be at death’s door, actively dying for a physician to take action.
• Ensure that cases when a preborn child is given a life-limiting diagnosis are not considered within the medical emergency definition, which our law makes clear.

We are thankful to see the TMB take the first step in interpreting Texas’ straightforward Pro-Life laws to provide mothers and children the best possible care, even in difficult circumstances. Texas Right to Life will continue to monitor these rules and keep you informed as the TMB moves forward in this process. If you would like to submit your own Pro-Life comments on the TMB’s proposed rules, you can do so at the following link until June 1:

SUBMIT PRO-LIFE COMMENTS HERE.

LifeNews Note: Ashley Leenerts writes for Texas Right to Life

The post Texas Medical Board is Making it Clear That Abortion Ban Allows Emergency Medical Care for Pregnant Women appeared first on LifeNews.com.

The mother of a baby boy who was born at just 25 weeks weighing less than a loaf of bread has said he is thriving.

Kaylie, a student, had a straightforward pregnancy until February when she started to experience swelling around her eyes and ankles. Friends and family told her this was a normal part of pregnancy, but she was in so much discomfort she couldn’t walk so decided to seek medical advice. She was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia shortly afterwards.

Kaylie had to be monitored continuously, and was told that since her blood pressure was continuing to rise, she would need to deliver her baby right away to prevent a seizure or eruption.

“They were prepping me for a c-section and I was wheeled into the OR at 4:45am”, Kaylie said. “They did the first cut at 5:11 and Weston was out by 5:15”.

Her son, baby Weston was born by Caesarean section at just 25 weeks, weighing 1lb 6.6oz.

Kaylie said “I remember when he came out he cried which was a good sign for a baby of his size”.

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“As long as he lived, we didn’t care what things there were to overcome”

Weston was taken straight to the neonatal intensive care unit. His mum said “It was agonising not seeing him because I had no idea what he looked like and I was disconnected from him no longer being in my womb and that took a big toll on me”.

Due to the fact that he was born so prematurely, in the first few weeks after Weston was born, he had weak lungs and Kaylie was told that if he survived he would be sent home on oxygen.

Kaylie said “That wasn’t a worry as long as he lived, we didn’t care what things there were to overcome”.

“When I got to hold Weston for the first time I was a little scared as he was connected to so many wires. He was sleeping on my chest and it is a feeling that is hard to describe – it was perfect”.

“He was so soft and so light, it was the most amazing moment I have ever had in my life – I didn’t want to let him go”.

“Waiting on him to come home”

Now after six weeks in hospital, Weston has made good progress even though he remains on a ventilator, with Kaylie reporting that doctors are looking at taking him off the ventilator altogether.

“Weston proved everyone wrong and is showing how strong he really is now we are just watching him grow and waiting on him to come home”.

“I will be able to hold him every day with no fears while reading him a book while an incubator no longer separates us. I want to do the things you see mothers doing on social media and right now my baby seems so far away”.

“I will no longer have to travel to see him and he’ll be right under my nose and that’s all I could ask for”.

Over 30 years since the time limit for abortion was last updated to take into account changes in survival rates

At 25 weeks, Weston was born just after the current abortion limit in England and Wales. The time limit of 24 weeks for abortions performed under section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act 1967, was introduced by section 37 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.

Prior to this change, the abortion limit had, de facto, been 28 weeks gestation set by the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, which made it illegal to “destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive”.

The introduction of a 24-week gestational limit in 1990 was significantly motivated by the results of a Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) working party report on neonatal survival rates, which noted improvements in survival rates before 28 weeks of gestation.

During the debates ahead of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 becoming law, MPs referred to medical advances that had led to improved neonatal survival rates before 28 weeks gestation and the need for a reduction from 28 weeks.

Similarly, when the question of abortion time limits was revisited in 2008, the lowering of the abortion time limit in 1990 was again linked to the increased survival rates for babies born before 28 weeks gestation.

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “We wish baby Weston all the best on his journey to recovery and hope that he will be able to go home with his mother very soon. Babies like Weston demonstrate the resilience of the human spirit, even in the very smallest babies, and show that there is no real difference between born and unborn babies”.

LifeNews Note: Republished with permission from Right to Life UK.

The post Premature Baby Born at 25 Weeks and Weighing Less Than a Loaf of Bread is Thriving Now appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee accused President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice on Tuesday of “unjustly” persecuting pro-life activists exposing the “horrors of abortion.”

“The Biden administration is using the FACE Act to give pro-life activists and senior citizens lengthy prison terms for non-violent offenses and protests—all while turning a blind eye to the violence, arson, and riots conducted on behalf of ‘approved’ leftist causes,” Lee told The Daily Signal in a Tuesday statement.

The senator added: “Unequal enforcement of the law is a violation of the law, and men and women who try to expose the horrors of abortion are being unjustly persecuted for their motivations.”

Lee’s comments come after news that pro-life activist Lauren Handy has been sentenced on DOJ charges to almost five years in prison for attempting to stop abortions of unborn babies from taking place at a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic.

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Handy will spend 57 months in prison and is the first person sentenced for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a 1994 law that supposedly protects both abortion clinics and pregnancy resource centers, but has been heavily enforced by Biden’s DOJ against pro-lifers since the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Those efforts are led by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, who recently admitted following a report from The Daily Signal that she hid an arrest and its subsequent expungement from investigators when she was confirmed to her Justice Department post.

The president’s critics have accused Biden and the DOJ of weaponizing the FACE Act against pro-lifers while failing to charge pro-abortion criminals for the hundreds of attacks on pregnancy resource centers since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating Roe would soon be overturned.

Some, among them Lee and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas,have called for the repeal of the FACE Act.

“Today’s outrageous 57-month sentence for a progressive pro-life activist is a stark reminder: Biden’s DOJ is fully weaponized against pro-life American citizens, and they are using the FACE Act to do it,” said Roy in a statement following Handy’s sentence. “House Republicans should defund the DOJ weaponization, repeal the FACE Act, and stand up for the freedoms that we campaign on.”

Handy is being represented by lawyers with the Thomas More Society, which said Tuesday that it is preparing to proceed with an appeal seeking to overturn her conviction and challenge the constitutionality of the FACE Act.

LifeNews Note: Mary Margaret Olohan writes for Daily Signal, where this article originally appeared

The post Senator Mike Lee Slams Joe Biden for “Unjustly” Persecuting Pro-Life Americans appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Last Thursday, Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) teamed up with fellow Republican Senators Kevin Cramer (ND) and Marco Rubio (FL) to unveil the More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (MOMS) Act aimed at giving pregnant women a federally-backed “clearinghouse” of resources — called Pregnancy.gov — for “expecting and postpartum moms, as well as those with young children,” and create grants for caregiving organizations helping women enter the world of parenting.

Along with expanding child support to include a woman’s pregnancy, a press release from the senators said the MOMS Act would “provide critical support to women during typically challenging phases of motherhood – prenatal, postpartum, and early childhood development – and bolster access to resources and assistance to help mothers and their children thrive.”

Not surprisingly, the far-left, abortion-loving liberal media have decided to be as focused on defeating this pro-life bill with misinformation as they were about pushing women to murder their unborn children.

In story after story, the liberal media have claimed the bill would create a database of women currently pregnant for the federal government – in some liberal dystopia/twisted fantasy – to surveil women to prevent abortions. The problem? It’s all voluntary and shy from divulging one’s location.

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The Guardian went full send with a headline beyond parody: “Katie Britt proposes federal database to collect data on pregnant people; Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering widely ridiculed State of the Union speech in March”.

Writer Léonie Chao-Fong doubled down with a disregard for biology, claiming without evidence the bill “create[s] a federal database to collect data on pregnant people” by having them “enter their personal data and contact information.”

Chao-Fong also whined: “[t]he bill specifically forbids any entity that ‘performs, induces, refers for, or counsels in favor of abortions’ from being listed in the database, which would in effect eliminate swaths of OB-GYN services and sexual health clinics across the country.”

Yes, Léonie, the point is to give women facing sudden pregnancies options beyond abortion.

NBCNews.com and longtime Rachel Maddow producer Steve Benen piled on in a story whining about the bill giving federal funds to pro-life pregnancy crisis centers and pedaled the lie about HHS becoming a surveillance agency

The tools at HuffPost did the same in a piece with the headline “Critics Rip Sen. Katie Britt For Celebrating Moms With ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Like Proposal” and hilariously then referred to women as “pregnant people”.

Yahoo! News promptly cross-posted this under the same headline.

Salon and Raw Story weren’t going to be left out either. Cue the laugh tracks for the latter’s headline: “Katie Britt shredded for ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-type proposal to ‘register’ pregnant women”.

At Salon, they melted down at women even being told groups that support women and babies exit: “The bill also outlines the creation of a database of ‘pregnancy support centers,’ or crisis centers, which critics say provide women with misleading information in an effort to keep them from having abortions.”

Someone call GLAAD on HuffPost, NBC, Raw Story, and the like for using the term “pregnant women!”

Now, for the facts. Here was a piece from the (now digital-only) Alabama newspaper conglomerate AL.com:

Britt spokesman Sean Ross said users are not required to register or log in to the site to search for resources. The website will not ask for the user’s pregnancy status or for personally identifiable information.

“These social media posts are intentionally, flagrantly false,” Ross said.

Website users could voluntarily enter their contact information if they wanted personal follow up from a staff member at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those services would also be available to friends and family members who are not pregnant if an individual was worried about sharing her information with the website. The website would invite users to take an assessment and provide consent to be contacted.

The website would not require people to take the assessment to receive more information about local resources, Ross said.

“Through the website, anyone can view the relevant resources in a given locale without disclosing any personally identifiable information to the government,” Ross said.

The headline, however, only met Britt halfway with a scoffing headline: “Claims that bill would create registry of pregnant women ‘flagrantly false,’ says staff for Alabama Sen. Katie Britt.”

LifeNews Note: Curtis Houck writes for Newsbusters, where this column originally appeared.

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