Weekly News: 1/18/20 – 1/24/20

Benjamin Watson, who plays for the New England Patriots, will be executive producing a movie called Divided Hearts of America, which will feature Ben Carson and Alveda King. The project is currently in post-production and includes interviews with a diverse group of Americans. Watson wants to “unveil the truth about abortion, the laws, the history and where our country is headed.”  He also stated, “I believe in the sanctity of life, be it in the womb or on your deathbed. That’s my conviction. But with the film, I’ll engage those who disagree and hear their reasoning. The No. 1 thing I’m looking for is empathy on both sides.”

The ACLU sued Ohio over a law that would prohibit doctors from performing abortions on unborn babies with Down Syndrome. The federal government backed Ohio saying, “Nothing in Ohio’s law creates a substantial obstacle to women obtaining an abortion, and nothing in the Constitution or Supreme Court precedent requires States to authorize medical providers to participate in abortions the providers know are based on Down syndrome.” Pregnant women who have the abortions will face no criminal liabilities, but the doctors who perform them will have their medical license pulled and will face a fourth-degree felony.

The current governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, has announced that he and fellow Republicans will pursue passing pro-life legislation. This announcement follows on the heels of the fetal heartbeat bill that failed to pass in the Senate last year. The new aim is to include new restrictions and a severability clause. For instance, if the courts strike down heartbeat legislation, bans would then kick in at later weeks (10, 12, etc.)- based on the bans that were upheld in other states. So far, legislation includes: a fetal heartbeat law, requiring abortion seeking mothers to be shown ultrasounds, and bans on abortion based on race, sex, fetal abnormalities, and Down Syndrome.

In 2014, California enacted a requirement that private insurers must cover abortions. The Office of Civil Rights, which is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that it would be taking action against California for enforcing the state rule. Although it isn’t clear what the Trump administration will do, director of the Office of Civil Rights, Roger Severino stated, “If states receive federal funds from HHS and other agencies, they cannot discriminate against health plans that decline to cover or pay for abortions — period, full stop.”

A Kentucky Senate panel (the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee) just recently approved a bill that would require life-saving care to be provided to babies, who were born alive, after a failed abortion. The ACLU of Kentucky spoke out against the bill, saying that it perpetuates “myths and lies about abortion care.” If doctors or healthcare workers violated the bill, they would face a felony with 1-5 years in prison. The bill will now head to the Senate.

Democrats in New York are trying to push a bill that would create an abortion access fund for the state. If the bill passes, taxpayers would be able to donate to the fund when filling out their personal income tax returns; the money would then go to organizations like Planned Parenthood. Senator Alessandra Biaggi, one of the supporters of the bill stated, “Far too many low income New Yorkers, young people, people of color and undocumented immigrants, face financial and logistical barriers to accessing abortion care.”

Former abortionist, Kathi Aultman, recently wrote an article discussing her time as an abortionist and her transition to being pro-life. She admitted at the beginning of the article that she has, “killed more people than Ted Bundy… Coming to terms with the fact that I was a professional mass murderer was devastating, but it compelled me to speak the truth.” Aultman goes on to talk about how she first became an abortionist and how she eventually stopped doing abortions. One of the things that she emphasizes in the article was the lack of safety in the abortion industry. Despite what abortion advocates like to say, abortion isn’t safe even though it’s legal. Aultman continued on by saying, “One of the reasons we are told these safety standards aren’t needed is because abortion is so safe, but we don’t know the true percent of women who experience complications. Only 28 states require abortion providers to report post-abortion complications, and states are not required to submit abortion data to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Abortion clinics don’t want this information to come out, and providers have taken states to court to try to avoid reporting.”

To learn more about the issue of safety and the abortion industry, visit our website: safeandlegal.com

Operation Rescue has recently released information about a 911 call that happened at a Planned Parenthood in Flossmoor, Illinois in late 2019. According to 911 records, a call was made about a woman who was hemorrhaging after an abortion. Instead of someone directly calling from the Planned Parenthood to 911, a call was placed “through a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) to call the Intrado Emergency Call Relay Center, which, in turn, placed the call to the 911 exchange.  It took a minute and a half for the call relay center to pass the actual Planned Parenthood caller through to the 911 operator.” So far, this has been the second medical emergency at this facility.

The Republican candidate for governor, Dan Forest, has drawn some criticism after a remark that he made during a speech at a church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Speaking to black ministers, Forest stated, “There’s no doubt that, when Planned Parenthood was created, it was created to destroy the entire black race… How the black community can’t come together and see that and understand that and fight against it, I don’t know. And how the white community can’t come together and see that and fight against it, I don’t know either.” Some people were thankful that he spoke up, while others like Susanna Birdsong, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood’s South Atlantic region stated, “It is unfortunate that Mr. Forest chose to push his extreme political agenda on a day that should unite us in celebrating the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who devoted his life to the fight for equality and racial justice.”