Written by Patience Griswold

The so-called “Abortion Care Network” (ACN) recently reported that independent abortion facilities are closing at an “alarming rate.” In the past five years, 113 independent abortion facilities have closed, including 34 since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past decade, the number of independent abortion facilities has declined by 30 percent. The rate at which these clinics are closing is not what is alarming. What is alarming is that they ever opened in the first place and that, far too often, we are numb to the daily massacre committed by the abortion industry.

It’s well past time for these clinics to close. Abortion is a grave injustice that has plagued the United States for too long, and the sooner these clinics close the doors, the better. Although Planned Parenthood continues to commit over a third of abortions in the United States, ACN reports that independent abortion facilities commit 58% of all abortions.

Meanwhile, 40 Days for Life recently celebrated the 20,00th baby saved thanks to their campaign! For 14 years, the group has held a 40-day, around-the-clock vigil outside of abortion facilities praying for the women entering and offering them hope and resources to choose life, and their annual vigil has saved an average of over 1400 babies per year! The pro-life movement is making strides, not just in passing life-saving legislation but also in changing hearts and minds about abortion and offering real care and support to women.

The abortion industry preys on fear. The impact of organizations like 40 Days for Life and other pro-life sidewalk counseling ministries shows that women do not need abortion and that, when shown the reality of abortion and offered life-affirming support, many abortion-minded women choose life.

Time and again, the pro-life movement consistently demonstrates true compassion for women and families. And time and again, the abortion industry has proven that their concern is not the wellbeing of women, as they claim, but their own bottom line. Here in Minnesota, abortion activists recently called for an end to the Positive Alternatives to Abortion program, which provides grants to organizations that offer women support and resources to choose life, including pregnancy resource centers, as well as organizations that offer housing and financial assistance, and help with adoption placement, family, pregnancy, and parental counseling, and post-abortion care. If the abortion movement truly cared about women, they would not consistently target organizations that offer compassionate care and resources to expecting mothers and their families.

Women don’t need abortion. They need the support, compassion, and resources that the pro-life movement consistently offers them. The growing number of abortion facilities closing their doors for good is excellent news for women, babies, families, and a society that has been numb to the reality of abortion for far too long.

This article was originally published at MFC.org.

Written by Patience Griswold

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul recently joined 18 other attorneys general in asking a federal court to remove religious freedom protections for colleges and universities. In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, the attorneys general urge the court to rule against Christian colleges and universities in the case Hunter v. U.S. Department of Education. The lawsuit is seeking to strip religious colleges and universities of funding for holding to Biblical beliefs on marriage and sexuality.

As Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, put it, this lawsuit “is a deliberate effort by a major means of coercion to bring an end to institutions of Christian conviction, that operate as colleges and universities and seminaries.”

Although the case focuses on Christian colleges and universities, initially, the only defendant in the case was the Department of Education. By suing the Department of Education, the lawsuit would have been able to target religious institutions without giving them an opportunity to speak in their own defense. This was especially concerning given the federal government’s reluctance to come to the defense of religious freedom.

In June, the Department of Justice initially promised to defend the religious freedom of the schools in question but quickly walked that back when LGBT activists complained. Within 24-hours, the Department of Justice amended their filing to say that they would offer an “adequate” defense of religious freedom, in contrast with their earlier statement promising a “vigorous” defense. It also removed its initial statement that the Department of Education and religious colleges and universities “share the same ultimate objective, … namely, to uphold the Religious Exemption as it is currently applied.” Given the Justice Department’s unwillingness to commit to meaningful religious freedom protections, the importance of allowing the schools to step in and come to their own defense was clear.

Thankfully, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, as well as three Christian colleges represented by Alliance Defending Freedom have been allowed to intervene and will be representing the concerns of religious colleges and universities in the case.

As defenders of religious freedom have stepped up to protect the right of Christian schools to practice and teach in accordance with their beliefs, those who would like to see strict limits placed on religious freedom have also intervened. 19 state attorneys general, including Illinois Attorney General Kwame Rauol filed a brief urging the court to remove religious freedom protections, arguing that a 2020 rule clarifying the religious freedom protection in place for colleges and universities is too expansive because it includes protections for religious practices, as well as beliefs.

For religious freedom to truly exist, there must be freedom not simply to believe something, but to live and act in accordance with those beliefs. That includes the freedom of religious people to establish educational institutions that teach and practice in accordance with their beliefs. Raoul and the other attorneys general filing this brief have a thin view of religious freedom that offers very little real protection to people of faith who want to live out what they believe.

Religious organizations have a right to maintain policies and teach in a manner that is consistent with their beliefs, and students have a right to pursue a religious education. If successful, this lawsuit would threaten that by forcing any college or seminary that accepts tuition grants, student loans, or any other federal financial assistance to embrace the LGBT agenda, regardless of their religious beliefs.

It is not pro-religious freedom to force religious beliefs to the margins of society and insist that people and organizations have a right to believe certain things only if they keep quiet and do not allow their beliefs to turn into practice. By joining this amicus brief, Rauol is pitting himself against the religious freedoms of Illinoisans and Americans.

A similar article was originally published by Minnesota Family Council.

Written by Patience Griswold

In a TEDx talk called “I have one more chromosome than you. So what?” disability rights advocate Karen Gaffney commented to her audience, “Imagine that, ladies and gentlemen. Here we are… removing barriers to education, making inroads into a full and inclusive life for people like me, and we have those who say we shouldn’t even be born at all?”

Born in 1977, Gaffney grew up in a time when the neglect and mistreatment of people with Down syndrome had recently been brought to light by disability rights advocates calling for reform. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the beginning of the end of mass institutionalization, but as recently as the 1980s, babies with Down syndrome could be denied life-saving treatments and even food and water until an act of Congress prohibited this kind of discrimination.

Recent decades have seen remarkable strides in the advancement of the rights of people with disabilities. Unfortunately, ableist assumptions about the “quality of life” of people with disabilities are still far too common and have lethal effects. Currently, the majority of preborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the U.S. and in many European nations are aborted. Gaffney is one of many individuals with Down syndrome speaking out against this injustice. “I believe Down syndrome is a life worth saying yes to,” Gaffney told her Portland audience. “It is a life worth saving.”

In 2017, a geneticist in Iceland told CBS news that Down syndrome had been “basically eradicated” from the country. That year only three children were born with Down syndrome in Iceland, drawing attention to Iceland’s nearly 100 percent abortion rate of preborn babies who are diagnosed with Down syndrome. Iceland has not eliminated Down syndrome, they have eliminated people who have Down syndrome. This is eugenics.

Tragically, the U.S. is on a similar trajectory with between 67 percent and 75 percent of babies who are diagnosed with Down syndrome being aborted. Too many medical professionals encourage parents to abort and “try again” rather than equipping them with resources and support for raising a child with special needs and reminding them that they are not alone. This attitude toward people with Down syndrome has even led parents to sue for “wrongful birth” because they would have aborted their child if they had known he or she would be born with Down syndrome.

The idea that someone’s life is less valuable if they are disabled flows out of the belief that a person’s worth is not innate but is based on what he or she can do. This is not only a horrible devaluation of fellow image-bearers that reaps deadly consequences when brought to its logical conclusion, but it also shows a failure to understand what makes people valuable in the first place. No one’s value or dignity comes from their abilities or lack thereof and we must never attempt to base anyone’s worth, our own or someone else’s, on something so fragile and transient. Each of us is priceless because we are made in the image of our Creator, and that is why each life is “a life worth saying yes to.”

People with disabilities should not have to plead for elected officials, medical professionals, or society as a whole to recognize their value. The ableist eugenics of disability-based abortion must end, and discrimination against people with disabilities, born or unborn, must never be tolerated. We must proclaim the value and dignity of each and every human life, fight for the protection of the vulnerable, and help people to understand that their value comes from the fact that they are made in the image of God.

This article was originally published at MFC.org.