Illinois House Bill 370, dubiously called “The Youth Health And Safety Act,” overturned the Parental Notice of Abortion Act (PNA) when it went into effect June 1, 2022. Minors in Illinois could already obtain abortion procedures without the consent  of their parents. Now, Illinois Democrats repealed the law requiring mere notification of parents despite the fact that public polling has consistently demonstrated Illinoisians overwhelmingly support parental rights and involvement.

Additionally, The Youth Health And Safety Act states Illinois is “called to be an example for the nation in the protection of reproductive health care”. The Act also claims “it is in the public policy interest of the State” to provide non-residents abortions that are “safe and free from barriers of access.”

Planned Parenthood of Illinois is now providing on-call “abortion navigators”, who assist in travel arrangements and resources for out-of-state mothers. According to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, 7,534 nonresidents received abortions in Illinois in 2019, compared with 2,970 in 2014 and 5,528 in 2017.

Jennifer Welch, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, issued an email August 15th  to raise funds to keep Illinois a “haven state”. When all states around Illinois ban abortion, Welch says she predicts an increase of 30,000 abortion clients.

Ogden And Fry released a survey concerning abortion in Illinois within days of House Bill 370 going into effect. This survey revealed that 78% of those surveyed believe parents should be notified prior to their child receiving an abortion. However, 61.4% of both men and women reported being ‘Pro-Choice’.

The Illinois Parental Notification of Abortion Act required girls 17 and younger seeking an abortion to notify a parent or get approval from a judge to bypass the requirement. What does its repeal mean?

1. Parents or guardians will never know if their daughter has become pregnant and had an abortion unless their daughter shares the information.
2. If their daughter is having multiple abortions, the parents will not know.
3. If their daughter is being sexually abused by an older man, and the parents are not notified of the abortion, they cannot investigate as to who the father is and therefore cannot come to the aid of their daughter. This repeal enables abuse of minor girls.
4. Parents or guardians will not be able to help protect their daughters and the lives of their pre-born babies.

While the progressive abortion agenda is tightening its grip on Illinois, there are still options for conservatives to turn the tide, beginning by protecting young girls and reinstating parental rights.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to let Governor JB Pritzker and your state lawmakers know that you strongly object to the repeal of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Ask them to reinstate it as soon as they are able. We must take advantage of every opportunity to make sure that our legislators hear from us on this life-and-death policy.

Pray that hearts and minds are convicted of the truth of what abortion is and does to a human baby. Pray that voters will hold accountable those lawmakers who voted to repeal the PNA. Pray that the agenda of abortion cheerleaders would be exposed for all to see.

What would it be like to be considered “Public Enemy Number One”? The term, first used in connection with Chicago’s notorious Al Capone, is a label most of us would prefer to avoid. However, when the organization slapping on this damaging label is Planned Parenthood, the label becomes a badge of honor. Such is the case for Judie Brown! According to her son, Hugh Brown of American Life League, in the early 2000s Planned Parenthood published a list of enemies to abortion rights and Mrs. Judie Brown topped the list.

Born in the mid 1940s, Judie has spent a major portion of her adult life fighting not just for the lives of the unborn, but for respect and dignity for all of human life from conception to the grave. Fighting tirelessly alongside her for many years was her husband, Paul, and in more recent years her daughter Catherine (Daub) and her son Hugh–whose passion in the fight for ending abortion (one can only assume) was ignited in him by his mother’s example. He had this to say about her:

“My mother is my hero. She is fearless, courageous, loved by her supporters, and works tirelessly to fight what she considers the apathy within the Catholic church from the laity to the leadership. Contrary to popular belief within the church leadership, abortion is not a political issue but rather a faith issue. My mother’s passion for life stems from the Catholic values she was raised with and has embraced her whole life.”

One of Judie’s greatest contributions to life was the founding of the American Life League (ALL)  in 1979 after leaving the National Right to Life because she felt their mission didn’t go far enough to align with her Catholic beliefs. The mission of the American Life League is primarily an educational one. Some of the many ways they accomplish this are:

• STOPP (Stop Planned Parenthood) – premier program of American Life League

• Celebrate Life Publication – mailed to 60-70,000 homes every other month and also available online

• Culture of Life Studies Program (CLSP) – this branch of ALL is an effective tool for educating young people on the scriptural truths of who they are and the fight for life. Resources include a multitude of materials such as brochures, teaching models, and DVDs which they strive to get into Catholic, private, and home schools. This program was created by Judie’s daughter, Catherine Daub.

• Marian Blue Wave (celebrating its 3-year anniversary) – a movement aimed at fighting the demonic ideology of abortion by encouraging daily prayer for the closing of specific abortion facilities. For Catholic people, it encourages the praying of the rosary daily and for other denominations praying in accordance with their beliefs.

The Marian Blue Wave movement has witnessed results in terms of outreach to women in a crisis pregnancy and the closing of those facilities seeking to exploit them. The prayers offered in this movement come from as many non-Catholics as they do Catholics.

Also, key among the work done by American Life League is the research they conduct and the reports which ensue such as the just released report on Planned Parenthood facilities which reveals the abortion vendors’ increasing reliance on the “abortion pill” for revenues. The DIY abortion drug is now sold at 391 locations (an 82 percent growth over previous years), putting women and girls at serious risk as they self-abort without medical oversight.

Mr Brown had some interesting things to say about the information from this report and the evolution of the abortion pill in particular.

“What stopped me in my shoes was when I realized this pill is being manufactured by the same company that produced Zyklon B – the drug that was used in the extermination of millions of jews and political dissidents under the Nazis during World War II.”

He was even more surprised to learn from his research (and “no!” it’s not a conspiracy theory) that even before the lockdown in March of 2020, Planned Parenthood was already working on apps and websites so they could send pills for home abortions. To be clear, this was set up BEFORE the actual lockdown. Also accomplished was the signing of emergency orders allowing the interstate shipping of these pills. 

What exactly IS the procedure utilized for aborting with this pill? It is one which violates the sanctity of life even more and contains the potential for encouraging an even more calloused attitude to the ending of innocent life. While an expectant woman needs to visit a doctor, be examined, and receive the first dose under their supervision, the second dose is administered to one’s self at home.

Mr. Brown passionately continued,

“Imagine the scenario of death pills being supplied to our daughters and young women, them self-aborting, and then experiencing the emotional trauma, all alone, of expelling their baby in the toilet!

A key point from the Planned Parenthood Facilities report is that Planned Parenthood now has 133 fewer facilities than in 1973 begging the question: Is Planned Parenthood in decline? According to Mr Brown,

“not really. There is actually an uptick in abortions in spite of the decline in facilities. Much of this can be attributed to the abortion pill.”

The impact is astounding. The life of the unborn, in spite of the reversal of Roe v Wade, is more precarious than ever. According to Brown, Planned Parenthood, already benefiting from $500 million a year in tax dollars and charitable contributions from wealthy patrons such as Mackenzie Scott (Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife) in the amount of $270 million, has unlimited resources and the firepower of the world behind them.

Those of us who have a heart for life and want to get involved want to know, “What can we do?”

Mr. Brown offered this succinct answer:

• Outlawing abortion isn’t the answer. Whether legal or not, without truth and proper education of the facts, abortion will continue. Be a part of educating in truth!

• Pray! Pray against the demonic horror of abortion! The devil has been released. We must pray against it.

• Get involved in your community. What is your church doing or how can you get involved on the local level?

• Support the efforts of American Life League and other pro-life organizations.

Judie Brown, Planned Parenthood’s Public Enemy Number One, has done her part to make a difference for life! We can do the same!

Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do
Do not wait to shed your light afar
To the many duties ever near you now be true
Brighten the corner where you are
Charles Hutchinson Gabriel

Read the 2021 Planned Parenthood Facilities Report, released in July 2022 by American Life League here.

Across the country, Americans of all political stripes were surprised—some pleasantly, some unpleasantly—by the recent failure of conservative Kansas to restrict abortion. Perhaps conservatives would feel less dispirited if more news outlets reported on the confusing language of the referendum written by Republicans and the alleged “dirty tricks” perpetrated by unknown people or organizations. It’s likely that many voters had no idea what “yes” or “no” meant when they voted.

According to the Kansas City Star,

In the thick of Kansas’ contentious debate over abortion rights, the anonymous text messages arriving on the eve of the big referendum this week seemed clear enough. “Voting YES on the Amendment will give women a choice.” The only problem: It was a lie, transmitted by text message Monday, a day before voters were to decide a ballot amendment seen as the first test of voter sentiment after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Voters in the conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement ended up rejecting the measure.

Let’s hope the confusion caused by ineptitude and trickery that marred the Kansas vote will result in better conservative leadership and more conservative political involvement in all states.

When does human life begin? Psalm 139:13 declares, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Jeremiah 1:5 declares, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

According to Cleveland Clinic, a well-respected medical provider in the state of Ohio that has been around for over 100 years, here is what happens in the first four weeks of life:

“In these first few weeks, a primitive face will take form with large dark circles for eyes. The mouth, lower jaw and throat are developing. Blood cells are taking shape, and circulation will begin. The tiny ‘heart’ tube will beat 65 times a minute by the end of the fourth week.”

Cleveland Clinic goes on to describe how doctors formulate the age of a preborn child and note “The first trimester will span from conception to 12 weeks.”

It is a settled fact that human life begins at conception. God declares this in His Word and science affirms it as a moral truth. This truth is undeniable and has held true since the creation account in Genesis and will hold true for all of eternity.

Now that we’ve settled the question of when life begins, the next question that is often discussed is whether or not it is morally acceptable to intentionally end the life of a baby in the womb? The most common justification that people use is that abortion should be allowed for cases of babies that were conceived in rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk as a result of the child.

The rape and incest argument doesn’t stand up against even an ounce of scrutiny. It isn’t morally acceptable to end the life of a preborn child because of how they were conceived. Each human is created in the image of God and their value doesn’t decrease as a result of being conceived in an immoral or evil circumstance. Instead of punishing the preborn child for cases of rape and incest, the sole focus should be on punishing the one who committed this immoral act. Ending the life of a baby in cases of rape and incest is immoral and should never be permitted under law.

This leaves saving the life of the mother as justification for abortion. In 2009 the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) put out a statement on this justification:

“Abortion is the purposeful killing of the unborn in the termination of a pregnancy. AAPLOG opposes abortion. When extreme medical emergencies that threaten the life of the mother arise (chorioamnionitis or HELLP syndrome could be examples), AAPLOG believes in ‘treatment to save the mother’s life,’ including premature delivery if that is indicated — obviously with the patient’s informed consent. This is NOT ‘abortion to save the mother’s life.’ We are treating two patients, the mother and the baby, and every reasonable attempt to save the baby’s life would also be a part of our medical intervention. We acknowledge that, in some such instances, the baby would be too premature to survive.”

A statement called the Dublin Declaration put out by a large group of doctors clearly articulates this fundamental truth as well:

“As experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynecology, we affirm that direct abortion – the purposeful destruction of the unborn child – is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman. We hold that there is a fundamental difference between abortion, and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child. We confirm that the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women.”

These statements alone debunk the “life of the mother” as automatic justification for intentionally ending the life of the preborn child.

Abortion should not be permitted under the law regardless of circumstance as it is morally wrong. Abortion should be abolished.

Did you hear in the mainstream media about the scores of attacks, including some firebombings, of the Planned Parenthood facilities by pro-life extremists?

Did you hear about the harassment of the pro-abortion politicians and judges for their pro-choice stance?

You didn’t? Neither did I, because none of those things happened. But the mainstream media has for the most part ignored the multiple churches and pro-life facilities that have been attacked in one way or another by pro-abortion forces in the last several weeks. Indeed, if they had been mosques or abortion providers, we would hear over and over about all this.

To add insult to injury, the loving services that the crisis pregnancy centers provide is being woefully distorted by many, including Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Senator Warren said last week: “In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by three to one. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.”

Pregnancy centers “torture” women? How blind can these people be? The crisis pregnancy centers, now in the cross hairs of the left, provide loving alternatives to abortion.

Through no help of the government, they provide millions of dollars of services—at no charge to the mothers they serve.

Micaiah Bilger of lifenews.com reports that “$266 million of free medical services and resources” are provided per year by these pregnancy centers.

The attack against pro-life churches and facilities was highlighted in the Capitol recently by Congressman Jim Jordan who read a litany of the dozens of attacks since the May 2 leak of the draft of the Dobbs decision. Yet the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives just voted against a measure to condemn these attacks.

Recently I spoke on a radio segment with Jim Harden, the president of Compass Care, a ministry that helps women with crisis pregnancies. Their center in Buffalo (technically, Amherst), New York, was firebombed on June 7^th, and he told me that the perpetrators were “the pro-abortion terrorist group known as Jane’s Revenge. They’ve taken responsibility for scores of attacks on pro-life organizations since the leak of the Dobbs case.”

I asked Harden, isn’t it illegal to firebomb any building—say a candy factory, much less a charity providing loving services to those in need (although the left doesn’t view it as charity)? He answered, “An arson attack is just below murder in the criminal justice system because it carries too much potential damage and threat to life.”

He told our listeners that so far there have been no leads from the police or the FBI as to suspects. He said that friends in nearby offices were able to provide office space so that Compass Care could continue to serve the mothers in need. They did not miss a day serving, despite the firebombing.

In a follow-up call this week, he told me there have now been, all over the nation, “over 100 attacks where prolife people gather, with no arrests to date.”

His organization is dedicated to rebuilding the facility, which had to be gutted, costing $300,000-$400,000.

Crisis pregnancy centers are doing the Lord’s work, but today it is “open season” on them, thanks in part to the Marxist organization, “Jane’s Revenge.”

Meanwhile, there has been an on-going harassment against pro-life justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. These were illegal acts when the pro-death party was trying to intimidate them to change their opinion.

Now the left is even going after pro-life individuals at home.

Writer Alicia Powe notes, “An attorney who founded the Thomas More Society, a conservative Catholic law firm, was attacked as abortion activists threw smoke bombs and firecrackers at his house following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. The insurgents surrounded the home of pro-life lawyer Thomas Brejcha, in Evanston, Illinois.”

I’ve interviewed Tom Brejcha through the years. He once said of the pro-life cause in general: “This is a spiritual battle. This is not just a legal battle. And prayer is the ultimate resource. We need divine intervention…This is God’s work to protect the dignity and value of every human being.”

Is this the America the left is bringing to us, where the full force of government is on the side of death? This is indeed a spiritual battle. Our founders said that our first right granted by the Creator is the “right to life.” But the left seems more committed to death than life.

This article was originally published at JerryNewcombe.com.

You know you’re living in the dark, deceitful, and depraved Upside Down when a U.S. Senator—a woman no less—says what inveterate liar Elizabeth Warren recently said:

Crisis pregnancy centers … are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help. … We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.

Nope, crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) do not “exist to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help.” Crisis pregnancy centers exist to help women who believe the only one way to deal with a crisis pregnancy is to terminate the life of their child. Crisis pregnancy centers exist to shine light into the shadowy, deceptive “reproductive health services” propaganda leftists like Warren spew.

CPCs offer ultrasounds in order to provide women with objective, conclusive proof that a human is growing inside them—not a nothing as the left deceitfully suggests. Crisis pregnancy centers offer resources like diapers, maternity clothes, and parenting classes to help young mothers and fathers feel less overwhelmed.

It’s ironic that Warren—the fake Native American—would bring up fooling people. It’s doubly ironic that the fake Native American would bring up “fooling people” in the context of abortion.

The human slaughter lobby has made an art of trying to fool people. They used to call the human fetus “a blob of tissue” and a “clump of cells.” Well, to be fair, I suppose all humans at any stage of development, born or soon-to-be-born, could be deemed blobs of tissue or clumps of cells, but we human blobs and clumps are special kinds of blobs and clumps. And when each of us was in our mother’s wombs, we were blobs and clumps composed of rapidly dividing and differentiating cells with a complex design.

When the blobs and clumps tomfoolery was exposed and became unsustainable, the Warrens of the world began referring to human fetuses as tumor-analogues and parasites. Then leftists admitted that fetuses growing in women’s bodies are human, but they’re not—in the view of leftists—persons.

Deceivers like Warren are trying to fool people into believing that some people who become pregnant are not women, hence Warren’s deceitful term “pregnant person.” All pregnant persons are women. So committed to deception is Warren that she won’t admit that a human in a woman’s womb is a person but will pretend that some men are pregnant “persons.”

Warren tries to fool people when she refers to “pregnancy termination.” That, obviously, is a euphemism, for human termination—the leftist final solution to a crisis pregnancy.

Of Warren’s many grotesque deceptions, perhaps the worst is describing what takes place in a CPC as torturing pregnant persons. While Warren supports, celebrates, and promotes procedures that dismember the bodies and crush the skulls of tiny, innocent humans in their mothers’ wombs, she calls efforts to persuade mothers not to do this “torture.”

The social justice warrior and human rights activist Warren does what all cultural regressives do when faced with speech they hate: She has called for the cancellation of all CPCs in the entire country.

Not yet able to shut down all CPCs, ironist Warren and some U.S. Senate collaborators (Bob Menendez, Mazie Hirono, Brian Schatz, Cory Booker, Tina Smith, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Patty Murray, Jeff Merkley, Richard Blumenthal, Diane Feinstein, Ron Wyden, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ed Markey, and Mark Warner) have an interim plan. They have sponsored a bill to punish CPCs.

One of the ironic reasons they offer for the bill is that “CPCs target under-resourced neighborhoods and communities of color, including Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and immigrant communities.” The bill doesn’t, however, mention the reason CPCs are located in those neighborhoods. They are located there because Planned Parenthood clinics—founded by racist, eugenicist Margaret Sanger—has long targeted impoverished communities of color.

The bill, titled the “Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act” (SAD Act) would “direct the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting disinformation in the advertising of abortion services.”

The bill accuses CPCs of “routinely … disseminating inaccurate, misleading, and stigmatizing information about the risks of abortion and contraception, and using illegitimate or false citations to imply that deceptive claims are supported by legitimate medical sources.”

Maybe while they’re at it, the FTC could require abortion clinics to advertise that they routinely kill humans.

Elsewhere in the bill, Warren and her fellow abortion cheerleaders refer to the purported use of “misleading statements” by CPCs. Non-profit CPCs that are found to include “misleading” information—as defined by leftists—will be fined up to $100,000 or “50 percent of the revenues earned by the ultimate parent entity” of the non-profit charity.

Warren and her collaborators are trying to transform the FTC into their much longed-for Ministry of Truth/Disinformation Board.

While Warren blathers on about “reproductive rights,” she says nothing about the right of humans in the womb merely to exist. After all, no woman has to raise a child she finds inconvenient or burdensome, or a child who interferes with a mother’s plans for living an authentic life, or a child whose life the mother believes is unworthy of life.

In the conflict between a woman’s “reproductive rights” and a living human’s right to continued existence, it should be obvious that the right to exist is a right of a higher moral order. In fact, it’s the right upon which all other rights depend.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your U.S. Representative and Illinois’ U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth to urge them to vote against S. 4469, the SAD Act. Pro-life crisis pregnancy centers help women through stressful, emotional trials. They not only provide free spiritual/emotional/health care for women, but food, clothes and whatever help is needed. Some CPCs help women find jobs, child care, provide living arrangements and vehicles. They do that so that women don’t feel forced by circumstances or abortion cheerleaders to abort a baby.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/SEN-Warren-Wants-to-Ban-All-Crisis-Pregnancy-Centers.mp3

Written by Luke Mueller

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) began a crusade against pregnancy resource centers. In doing so, she made it clear that her goal is not to help women in trouble. Instead, she intends to control them by ensuring that abortion clinics are the only option for women in crisis pregnancy situations.

Let’s look at what pregnancy resource centers actually do. Save the Storks, a mobile resource center for pregnant women works non-stop to inform women about alternatives to abortion. They provide safe, free, and accessible healthcare to women who are in need, including ultra-sounds, counseling, STI screenings, and pregnancy tests. Organizations like these are working towards promoting life by providing alternatives to abortion. And it is organizations like these that Senator Warren wants to shut down. Warren authored a bill with Senator Menendez (D-NJ) that would financially penalize centers that she says “mislead and deceive patients seeking abortion care.” According to a NARAL undercover investigation, misleading patients means referring to the child in the womb as a “baby” and telling a pregnant woman that she is now a mother.

Warren’s plan includes using the Federal Trade Commission to act as an “abortion disinformation board” that will shut down any organization that violates its standards, according to the National Review. This Orwellian bill gives the FTC the power to press penalties up to $100,000 dollars, a huge sum for non-profit organizations.

NARAL and Senator Warren are going in the wrong direction. Instead of penalizing these life-giving organizations, we should prosecute those who blatantly attack and vandalize pro-life work. Since before the monumental Dobbs v. Jackson decision, over fifty pro-life organizations (including pregnancy resource centers) have been attacked by pro-abortion extremists.

The need for these centers has never been greater. Just this week, we saw the overturn of many pro-life bills in Minnesota, including a 24-hour waiting period, counseling requirements, and the need for parental notification. As some in Minnesota seek to create an abortion destination for out-of-state women, there is reason to fear for the safety and stability of pregnancy resource centers around the state. Right now, PRCs can get funding from the state of Minnesota for providing alternatives to women under the 2005 Positive Alternatives Act. If we do not defend the right of pregnancy resource to continue providing care for women and babies, these clinics may lose their funding and have to shut down.

We are the pro-life generation, and we stay true to what we stand for. A mother should never have the choice to kill her child, but she should have options like adoption and financial support to take away the fear and uncertainty that a crisis pregnancy may cause. As pro-lifers, we support a woman’s right to find alternatives to abortion. Senator Warren has made it clear that she does not support such a right.

This article was originally published by The Family Beacon.

On Tuesday, July 12, 2022, Northwestern University hosted a webinar entitled, Implications of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Decision. Faculty members of Northwestern participated in the webinar: Dr. Cassing Hammond (abortion practitioner), Professor Paul Gowder, Professor Heidi Kitrosser, Professor Andrew M. Koppelman, Professor Doreen Weisenhaus, and Dean Hari Osofsky (she/her) moderated the event.

The lament from these esteemed members of the once Christian Northwestern University is to be expected. I want to call attention specifically to Prof. Andrew Koppelman who claimed that the right to abortion should be protected by the 13^th amendment.

Distinguished Senior Fellow and Scalia Scholar Ed Whelan in a recent tweet noted that by his count the 1^st, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 8^th, 9^th, 13^th, 14^th, and 19^th Amendments have all been cited in support of the non-existent constitutional right to abortion. Like the astronomer Percival Lowell, who spent 15 years studying canals on Mars, progressive experts think they find abortion everywhere they look in the US Constitution.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and proclaimed in the final days of 1865. The text of this amendment has two sections.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

It is interesting to recognize in these debates that those who advocate for killing unborn children proclaim themselves to be the compassionate abolitionists. Those who want to save children from being dismembered and vacuumed out of their mother’s wombs are the evil slave owners.

According to the perverse logic of these supposed abolitionists, pregnancy is slavery. If you “force” someone to carry a child to term, that would go against the Thirteenth Amendment. Really?

Now I should point out that Prof. Koppelman did not develop his argument in this webinar. He has written a 30-page paper on the subject. His abstract states, “The Thirteenth Amendment’s purpose is to end the specific institution of antebellum slavery. A ban on abortion would do to women what slavery did to the women who were enslaved: compel them to bear children against their will.”

Let’s accept this argument for just a moment. Where does it end? What about a distressed mother who has to provide care for her ornery two-year old who whines, demands, runs away, and never sleeps when the mother desires? Forcing a mother to care for this child sounds a lot like slavery to me. Or what about a son or daughter who provides care for an aging relative who suffers from dementia or Alzheimer’s? Without any thanks, care must be provided around the clock for someone who often has no resources to compensate for the care given. That sounds a lot like slavery to me, well, at least according to this perverse logic.

Stick with me as we finish off the illogic of this argument, if something appears to be slavery, the answer is to kill.

The mother is free to kill her unborn child to prevent a forced pregnancy. The mother or father is free to kill a born child because this precious one might be a burden. A son or daughter is free to kill a parent who needs round-the-clock care all in the name of the ending of slavery.

It is abhorrent and illogical to compare slavery with pregnancy. I recognize that not all who are pregnant made that choice. There are difficult cases, but to suggest that what slaves endured is what mothers face is perverse and wicked logic.

Dan McLaughlin, a senior writer at National Review Online, has written a very similar article on this very subject that I would also highly recommend.

The overturning of Roe marks a massive, historic victory for the pro-life cause, and we should continue to thank God and rejoice. Yet this victory simply marks a new beginning in the battle for life, and in many ways, for the pro-life movement, our work has just begun. Where do we go from here?

First, we must remain vigilant in prayer, since the same prayer that brought about the overturning of Roe is the same prayer that will advance the cause of life throughout the nation. Now is not the time to let up (although it’s fine to take a brief respite to catch our corporate breath). Now is the time to be reenergized, recommitted, and redeployed.

Second, we must work in a holistic way in each state that has already passed (or is about to pass) pro-life legislation, working to ensure it is the best possible legislation. With Roe out of the way and with our goal being to eliminate elective abortions, why would we want a bill outlawing abortions after 15 weeks? Why set the bar so low?

Third, we need to establish more pregnancy crisis centers in both pro-life and pro-abortion states. The former are essential because we want to offer compassionate and holistic alternatives for the women who will no longer be able to attain abortions in their state. Before they travel to get an abortion, let them have ample access to a pro-life center nearby.

In the pro-abortion states, these pregnancy crisis centers must play a key role, since people will be flocking to these states to terminate their pregnancies. We must do whatever we can to let them know that there are alternatives, that abortion is not their only choice (and certainly not their best choice), that there are people ready to help.

Fourth, we must step forward as the church to provide that help in every way possible. That means that, along with continuing to and pray and get the pro-life message out in front of abortion clinics, we must contribute financially to pro-life centers in our communities (including contributing to mothers and parents who choose to keep their babies), volunteer our services in these centers, and get involved in adoption or foster care or other aspects of practical help.

This is how the early church responded to the crisis of infanticide, not simply speaking out against it but also rescuing and raising the babies that they saved. (And note that, in doing so, they were breaking with prevailing custom and, in many cases, breaking the law.)

Fifth, we must continue to raise our voices and get our message out, seeking to change hearts and minds, both on a national and an interpersonal level. This is where the battle for life will be played out for years to come: on an individual level; across generational and ethnic and racial lines; through the school systems and the media and the courts.

This is also how the battle against slavery was won, not just by government fiat and not just by the agonizing losses of a bloody war. (The Civil War, to this day, remains the bloodiest war in our history – by far – in terms of American casualties.) Instead, it was also through the influence of books like Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin that hearts and minds were changed.

In the days to come, we will need a proliferation of books and movies (like Unplanned) and memes and personal testimonies and educational tools that will help change the nation’s thinking when it comes to abortion. And we will need more and more compassionate, eloquent, and compelling spokespeople for life to function as talking heads and pundits and video makers and article writers.

Sixth, we must continue to give ourselves to the Great Commission, winning the lost and making disciples, along with continuing to contend for national revival and awakening. As expressed in the title of one of my recent books, it is really a matter of Revival Or We Die.

And as our nation becomes increasingly divided over abortion, we must remember that only a spiritually-based solution will win the day and turn the tide. Even Charles Finney (1792-1875), one of America’s greatest evangelists and a staunch, outspoken opponent of slavery, understood this principle when it came to eradicating that evil from our nation.

As he wrote to the abolitionist leader Theodore Weld in 1836, “Now if Abolition can be made an appendage of a general revival of religion all is well. I fear no other form of carrying this question will save our country or the liberty or soul of the slave. One most alarming fact is that the absorbing abolitionism has drunk up the spirit of some of the most efficient revival men & is fast doing so to the rest. & many of our Abolition brethren seem satisfied with nothing less than this.

“This I have been trying to resist from the beginning as I have all along foreseen that should that take place, The church – & world ecclesiastical & state leaders will become embroiled in one common infernal squabble that will roll a wave of blood over the land. The causes now operating are in my view as certain to lead to this result as a cause is to produce its effect, unless the publick mind can be engrossed with the subject of salvation & make abolition an appendage just as we made temperance an appendage of the revival in Rochester [New York].”

Let us learn well from Finney’s warning, which turned out to be prophetic. To the extent that the pro-life movement is carried on the wave of national revival and awakening, it will succeed gloriously. May we see such a wave sweep the nation in our day!

This article was originally published at AskDrBrown.org.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” ~Ephesians 6:12

The sexual revolution/hook-up culture, feminism (post-first wave), and the anti-human abortion culture advanced by two wrongly decided U.S. Supreme Court cases have wreaked havoc in America, destroying marriage, families, and children and turning women into raging, promiscuous harpies devoid of wisdom, sexual continence, modesty, and natural maternal instincts. The harpies are everywhere now, shrieking in the streets from sea to shining sea about a mythical constitutional right to sacrifice their own babies.

In a shameful and embarrassing display of intemperance, incivility, and ignorance, Chicago’s lesbian mayor Lori Lightfoot—who has borne no children—shrieked “F**K Clarence Thomas following his correct assessment that there is no constitutional right of mothers to order the killing of their human offspring.

Lightfoot shrieked this comment at a “pride” event, because she is miffed that Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell decisions should be revisited to determine if they were wrongly decided as well.

Lightfoot, who must have slept through some law school classes, appears not to understand the argument Justice Thomas (as well as Antonin Scalia, Hugo Black, Robert Bork, and perhaps Neil Gorsuch) is making. Thomas is making a constitutional argument regarding the substantive due process doctrine. He is not making a moral argument about contraception, homo-sodomy, or homo-pseudomarriage.

In Dallas, harpies in the throes of orgiastic spasms, twerked convulsively like women in need of exorcisms. What public twerking has to do with the legal right to have their preborn babies slaughtered is anyone’s guess. My guess is that they are saying the slogan “my body, my choice” means they can do whatever they want with their bodies no matter how it affects other humans.

Dallas women TWERKING for abortions. WTF

“Shakin dat a** so we can kill our babies, proud to be a hoe and not to be a ladies” pic.twitter.com/tyTCEbDXhr

— E (@ElijahSchaffer) June 25, 2022

That seems to be the message of the topless women at the twerking festival and those who stormed a WNBA game in early June, following the release of the Dobbs draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. The bloodthirsty libertines among us use public nudity in defense of their belief that killing living preborn humans with their own unique DNA is a private act affecting only the libertines.

On Friday night, a murder of crows descended on the Arizona Capitol, screaming, pounding and kicking windows in an attack that looked remarkably like Jan. 6. Either Jan. 6 was not an insurrection or the assault on the Arizona Capitol was, and there needs to be some arrests and a selective select committee hearing conducted by a partisan panel.

Arizona Capitol pic.twitter.com/sf8UcFvByD

— Michelle Ugenti Rita (@MichelleUgenti) June 25, 2022

In the Arizona Insurrection and every other post-Dobbs/post-Roe protest, we see men—whom we’ve been long told have no right to speak about abortion—speaking about abortion. They’re not speaking freely about having their children killed. No, they’ve been neutered, censored, and instructed by harpies. America’s emasculated men commanded by harpies—not to support the babies they co-create but to support the destruction of their own progeny—dutifully scream alongside their harpies.

The childless Kamala Harris believes this is a winning argument. Instead of calling for men to marry women before they have sex with them, to remain sexually monogamous, and to support the children they procreate, Kamala Harris appeals to parents to think about what banning the slaughter of their own grandchildren will mean for their sons. To Harris, it means fewer choices for their sons.

Harris is right. Marrying women prior to sexual relations, remaining sexually monogamous, and supporting their own children does, indeed, limit the choices of men. No more hook-ups, no more profligacy, and, it is hoped, far fewer dead children.

KAMALA: "If you are a parent of sons, do think about what this means for the life of your son and what that will mean in terms of the choices he will have." pic.twitter.com/PFRBDx9bl0

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 27, 2022

Perhaps the most grotesque comment made by a public figure came from former RINO, now Democrat pundit, Anna Navarro, who defended genocide committed against the disabled because their disabilities make life difficult for others. She cited as evidence her own living relatives.

In addition, she implied that people of faith have a right to be “Catholic [as she claims to be], or Christian, or Baptist” inside the church only. Clearly, she doesn’t understand the First Amendment.

Today’s female (whatever “females” are) protestors are calling for a sex strike à la Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata, but whereas the women of the Greek city-states, grieving the loss of their sons in the Peloponnesian War, wanted killing to stop, today’s murderous crows pledge a sex strike to ensure the deaths of their own children.

And then there is the viral video of an “influencer” who goes by the moniker Mama Gena, real name Regena Thomashauer. She records herself dressed in tattered lingerie, screeching like a proverbial banshee. She speaks few words other than a barely intelligible obscenity, because today feelings matter more than rational discourse. And since feelings matter more than words, inarticulate animal sounds matter most of all in that they convey really, really DEEP feelings.

She needs to fix the label on the back of her top so that it doesn’t show. Small, seemingly insignificant details like that really influence how people think of you. pic.twitter.com/034yRhzktl

— Mike (@Doranimated) June 25, 2022

“Mama Gena” is a 66-year-old former actress and current snake oil saleswoman (whatever “woman” is) who promotes eroticism as empowerment. She sells workshops and two reportedly poorly written books titled Pussy: A Reclamation and The School of Womanly Arts.

She also has an Instagram account with embarrassing photos and videos of the elderly Mama Gena prancing about in lingerie. In one Instagram video, she cackles loudly in a restaurant as a “dom”—that is, a male dominatrix—hired by her daughter puts a leash and dog collar on her and leads her around the streets of New York City. To modern feminists, bondage, promiscuity, and death = freedom, respect, and choice.

Now that abortion has been returned to the states, Americans who believe that even imperfect humans have rights, that the solution to poverty is not human sacrifice, and that the desire of women to be free from burdens does not justify killing other humans, have a lot of work to do. Parents and faith leaders have a lot of work to do to change the hearts and minds of a culture and to help struggling moms. Let’s get about our Father’s business.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
~Psalm 82:3-5

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Bloodthirsty-Libertines-Prowling-Around-Roaring.mp3

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which fabricated the “right to privacy,” making abortion legal throughout the nation.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, centered around a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and has now put the battle to save pre-born human lives at the state level. It is no longer a protected “right” at the federal level. The case was decided by a 6 to 3 decision and means that the only abortion clinic in Mississippi will have to shut it’s doors when the state’s trigger law banning abortions takes effect in July.

Within the first few pages of the 213-page decision, Justice Samuel Alito stated there is no constitutional right to abortion. There is no federal protection of a civil “right” to kill pre-born babies.

Illinois Family Institute celebrates the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood that established that states cannot ban pre-viability abortions, i.e., those done before a child can survive outside the womb.

Governor J.B. Pritzker has made it abundantly clear that he intends to make the state of Illinois an abortion sanctuary. He, with the help of pro-abortion legislators, intends to force Illinois taxpayers to pay for all abortions.

Illinois Democrats have already removed all safeguards in the Land of Lincoln by repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion law.

Now they want physician assistants, nurses, and midwives along with other healthcare personnel to be legally able to commit abortions in Illinois in order to accommodate the flood of women coming across state lines. And several companies are offering to pay for women to travel to abortion states to kill their babies. Some pro-life leaders think that Illinois abortion numbers will increase by 25k to 30k a year.

In the ABC Nightly News segment below, they highlight the abortion mill in Fairview Heights and rightly point out that they are at the epicenter of this spiritual and political battle. In her report, Rachel Scott claims “the phones keep ringing. The staff are helping out-of-state patience secure transportation and hotels.” Dr. Colleen McNicholas admits that they are ground zero of this battle between life and death. She pridefully reports that they are facilitating the death of an unborn human being for women in “Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi.”

Our work to protect life is just beginning. Abortion cheerleaders are determined to make Illinois the destination point for the Midwest. Proverbs 24:11 exhorts us to “deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.” We MUST respond with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ to rescue innocent children and their mothers.

Illinois Family Institute upholds the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Please join us in the fight to protect the most innocent among us.

Today we give thanks to God for the wisdom and courage of U.S Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito,  Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett for holding that the “Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey are overruled; [and] the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

The syllabus (i.e., summary) in Dobbs v. the Jackson Women’s Health Organization outlines the major arguments addressed by the majority:

• Without any grounding in the constitutional text, history, or precedent, Roe imposed on the entire country a detailed set of rules for pregnancy divided into trimesters much like those that one might expect to find in a statute or regulation.

• Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. No state constitutional provision had recognized such a right. Until a few years before Roe, no federal or state court had recognized such a right. Nor had any scholarly treatise. Indeed, abortion had long been a crime in every single State.

• Attempts to justify abortion through appeals to a broader right to autonomy and to define one’s “concept of existence” prove too much. … Those criteria, at a high level of generality, could license fundamental rights to illicit drug use, prostitution, and the like. What sharply distinguishes the abortion right from the rights recognized in the cases on which Roe and Casey rely is something that both those decisions acknowledged: Abortion is different because it destroys what Roe termed “potential life” and what the law challenged in this case calls an “unborn human being.” None of the other decisions cited by Roe and Casey involved the critical moral question posed by abortion.

• [T]he Court cannot allow its decisions to be affected by such extraneous concerns [i.e., stare decisis/precedent]. A precedent of this Court is subject to the usual principles of stare decisis under which adherence to precedent is the norm but not an inexorable command. If the rule were otherwise, erroneous decisions like Plessy would still be the law.

Writing for the Court, Justice Alito made mincemeat of the lousy arguments proffered in Roe and Casey, but the political invertebrate Chief Justice John Roberts did what he does best. He tried to swim smack dab down the middle of this roaring river. Hard to do without a spine. The political Roberts voted with the majority but refused to overturn Roe and Casey despite numerous leftist legal scholars acknowledging for decades that Roe lacked any grounding in the U.S. Constitution.

Justice Thomas again renewed his quest to revisit “substantive due process” jurisprudence, which he argues “has harmed our country in many ways,” and, therefore, “we should eliminate it from our jurisprudence at the earliest opportunity.” He shares this view with Justices Antonin Scalia and Hugo Black as well as Robert Bork and many other legal scholars.

Thomas has long argued that because of the “erroneous” nature of substantive due process jurisprudence, “in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”

Those cases addressed, respectively, the purported constitutional right to access contraception, the purported constitutional right to engage in homosexual sodomy, and the purported constitutional right of two people of the same sex to marry.

To be clear, Thomas’ argument regarding substantive due process jurisprudence has nothing to do with his moral view of contraception, sodomy, or marriage. Rather, he is making an argument about the constitutional basis—or lack thereof—of substantive due process doctrine, which Justice Antonin Scalia too criticized:

The entire practice of using the Due Process Clause to add judicially favored rights to the limitations upon democracy set forth in the Bill of Rights (usually under the rubric of so-called “substantive due process”) is in my view judicial usurpation.

Justice Hugo Black was similarly critical of substantive due process doctrine in Griswold:

[T]here is no provision of the Constitution which either expressly or impliedly vests power in this Court to sit as a supervisory agency over acts of duly constituted legislative bodies and set aside their laws because of the Court’s belief that the legislative policies adopted are unreasonable, unwise, arbitrary, capricious or irrational. The adoption of such a loose, flexible, uncontrolled standard for holding laws unconstitutional, if ever it is finally achieved, will amount to a great unconstitutional shift of power to the courts which I believe and am constrained to say will be bad for the courts and worse for the country. Subjecting federal and state laws to such an unrestrained and unrestrainable judicial control as to the wisdom of legislative enactments would, I fear, jeopardize the separation of governmental powers that the Framers set up and at the same time threaten to take away much of the power of States to govern themselves which the Constitution plainly intended them to have.

Leftists mock Thomas for his substantive critique of substantive due process mischief. They do so because they fear losing the power of the Court to act as a supreme law-making body. Well, they did fear that while they controlled the Court.

But Thomas’ critique is not a fringe critique, and he may have at least one ally on the Court: Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Now, the arduous work of changing hearts and minds that have been corrupted by nearly fifty years of leftist propaganda becomes even more urgent.

We need to donate more money to crisis pregnancy centers, both to help mothers who are considering abortion and to repair damage from domestic terrorists like Jane’s Revenge that promises violence to organizations that seek to protect children in their mothers’ wombs.

We need to pour money into creative, compelling public service/social media campaigns and the arts in order to elicit support for protecting preborn babies.

We need to elect wise, courageous state leaders who stand boldly for the sanctity of lives that pro-abortion activists deem unworthy of life.

We need to pass fiscal and social policies that end—rather than create—poverty, and we need to create a culture that doesn’t think a solution to poverty is baby sacrifice.

And we need to educate our children in places that teach that humans in their mothers’ wombs are sacred and that neither their developmental status, nor their convenience for others, nor their imperfections grant to their mothers the moral right to have them killed.

And we need to pray ceaselessly for the least of these. We must pray that incipient human lives are able to survive the dangerous waters of their mothers’ wombs.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Nightmare-of-Roe-Ends.mp3

What’s to Come and How to Respond

Roe v. Wade has officially been overturned as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs v. Jacskon case! Today life was chosen (Deuteronomy 30:19), and the joyful celebrations of “life” can begin. We celebrate because we know that many unborn babies are that much closer to enjoying the same protection that you and I enjoy on this side of the womb – as if location should have ever mattered.

As we celebrate, we must acknowledge that the side that hates what God loves and hates God‘s creation is planning a response. We saw the extent they were willing to go two years ago during the season of riots across the country – the massive destruction of property and life in mostly Democratically-controlled communities across the country. And recently, we have seen multiple pregnancy care centers, pro-life organizations, and churches vandalized and attacked since the Scotus leak.

A recent tweet from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot should be seen as their “call to arms.”

Mayor Lightfoot said, “The Supreme Court is coming for us next. This moment has to be a call to arms.” And later also said “We will not surrender our rights without a fight…”

A call to arms is a summons to engage in active hostilities – a plan to which they have already shown their capabilities – a plan to destroy cities, people and communities. It should be identified as an insurrection.

How do we respond?

We as Christians and people who value the sanctity of life should respond by staying away during the riots. We remind ourselves that President Trump delivered on his promise to protect the unborn and allowed the left to show exactly who they are and who they represent. The best thing you can do is pray for their souls. Pray for those that will be caught up in Satan’s fury. Pray for people that will be hurt and for all lives to be protected. Ephesians 6:12 tells us exactly who we are in battle with.

We must remind ourselves that Satan is a destroyer of God’s creation – life. He is the father of abortion and the selfishness that stems from it.

Why pray for them? Because the Lord tells us to in Matthew 5:44.  Those who riot, God loves. They were created in His image. Remember, Satan does not discriminate against whom he destroys. Those that riot, create havoc, hurt, maim, lie, steal, and destroy are blind and are doing Satan‘s bidding. Pray that God would open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. Acts 26:18

So for the next couple of weeks, let’s celebrate life, but be careful to stay away from cities under Democratic rule. Pray for hearts to be changed and ask that in God’s mercy, He will thwart these wicked plans to reek havoc and even send His Spirit to call these lost souls into the Kingdom. Pray II Chronicles 7:14.

One last thing. Please remember that voting matters. President Trump ran on a campaign of protecting the child that is in the womb – this was one of his main promises to the country, to you and I. As he did in many things, he delivered on his promise by appointing pro-life Justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thank God for using President Trump for this momentous victory.

Remember that “life” won today!

A question that’s been roiling the Catholic Church for years is whether Nancy Pelosi and Dick Durbin and other Catholic politicians should be denied Communion since they support the legalized killing of children in the womb.

In 2004, then-Fr. Kevin Vann (now Bishop Vann of Orange, CA) publicly advised U.S. Senator Durbin not to present himself for Communion at his home church in Springfield due to his stance on abortion. But mostly the Church has wrestled with this question through the decades. Many wonder why there is any reluctance to deny Communion to Catholics who endorse views contrary to those of the Church.

Opponents of the denial of Communion argue that since we’re all sinners, if we deny Communion to some politicians on this issue, then we must deny Communion to others in the pews who are engaged in serious sin. That, in turn, would mean that few would be receiving Communion, which is at the heart of Mass for Catholics.

But now action has been taken by Nancy Pelosi’s archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, in San Francisco to deny her Communion, and the floodgates of opinion have opened. The action was immediately praised by other bishops and panned by celebrities.

First, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. Celebrity Whoopi Goldberg, who identifies as Catholic, proclaims on TV to the archbishop: “It’s not your job!” Except that it is Archbishop Cordileone’s job. In fact, it’s at the very heart of the “job description” for a bishop or priest. They are called to tend their flock and help people live righteously, part of which is administering or withholding the Eucharist.

Second, politicians and leaders have a special responsibility that most of us don’t have.[1] As leaders of civil government, they regularly determine life-and-death issues, chief among which is abortion—the direct killing of innocent unborn children.

Now on to the nitty-gritty of Catholic Church teaching.

The way it’s supposed to work is that the priest of the church that Nancy Pelosi attends is in charge of ministering to her. Just like any other parishioner, the local priest is her shepherd. He talks to her, hears her confessions, counsels her, and administers the sacraments to her. He gets to know the real Nancy, who is created in the image and likeness of Almighty God, all for the purpose of helping her grow in holiness.

For decades, her priest (and his boss, the archbishop) have undoubtedly held many private conversations with Pelosi. Many attempts to get her to renounce killing the unborn were surely made. Indeed, Nancy says so herself. But she says she “disagrees” with the Church on this and other key issues.

So, what is an archbishop to do? He is to do exactly what Archbishop Cordileone did. Privately counsel one of his flock on a major sin. Counsel her to confess and ask for forgiveness. And urge her not to sin again. If she refuses, the priest cannot in good conscience administer the sacrament of Communion.

Catholic leaders like Pelosi and Durbin will often say that Catholic teaching provides that one’s “right of conscience” is sacred. That is true. But using that as an excuse to support abortion or gay “marriage” or any other serious sin makes a mockery of the teaching. The teaching does not give carte blanche to reject Catholic doctrine.

Catholic teaching says that a “well-formed conscience is upright and truthful” and also that a well-formed conscience can never contradict the objective moral truth contained in Sacred Scripture or taught by the Magisterium of the Church.

Public discussions of the Catholic Church’s respect for conscience often include a grave misunderstanding of how the Catholic Church views conscience. Conscience is “the sense of right and wrong, but also the obligations that follow from our understanding of what is right and wrong.”

Further, conscience must be properly formed by Scripture and the historical teachings of the Catholic Church. Catholic apologist Tom Nash writes,

[A] Catholic is obligated to form his conscience particularly with the teachings of the Church (CCC 1785) and including these basic moral rules:

• One may never do evil so that good may result from it
• The Golden Rule: “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.”
• Charity always proceeds by way of respect for one’s neighbor and his conscience: “Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience . . . you sin against Christ.” Therefore “it is right not to . . . do anything that makes your brother stumble”

Choosing abortion clearly violates all three rules. Thus, one can never have a truly certain conscience and choose abortion. … In addition, as Vatican II makes clear, conscience does not give individual Catholics arbitrary veto power over any and all Church teachings they don’t like. Rather, in evaluating decisions in their conscience, Catholics are faced with an objective, divinely given law (see Romans 2:14-16) they must obey, not one they can override or rewrite.

The archbishop obviously doesn’t believe Nancy is submitting to God. As Nancy Pelosi said, “They say to me, ‘Nancy Pelosi thinks she knows more about having babies than the pope.’ Yes I do. Are you stupid?”

The Catholic Church believes that its priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals, are established on Earth for the purpose of guiding and helping people grow in holiness. Like most clergy, Archbishop Cordileone is keenly aware of his role in trying to get Nancy Pelosi, and others in his care, to accept God’s Word. Let us pray for them all.

Ever since the unprecedented leak of an early draft of the Dobbs decision from the U.S. Supreme Court which may overturn Roe v. Wade, the “shock troops of tolerance” have been busy interrupting church services. And they have done much destruction of crisis pregnancy centers.

They claim to be “pro-choice,” but choice involves options. And these people want to make sure women make only one choice—the choice of abortion. When there’s only one choice, then “pro-choice” is an oxymoron.

Since May 2, when the draft decision was leaked, consider what has happened:

• There have been numerous disruptions of church services, usually Catholic ones. However, even Joel Osteen’s church service was interrupted by topless promoters of abortion.

• There have been illegal protests in front of the homes of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justices to intimidate them to change their opinion.

• There have been at least 59 attacks on crisis pregnancy centers, which are all funded by private donations and which do the Lord’s work to provide loving alternatives to abortion.

Many of these attacks have been done through an ad hoc organization called “Jane’s Revenge.”

The name would imply revenge on behalf of “Jane Roe” from the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court pro-abortion decision, Roe v. Wade. Jane’s Revenge declares open season on crisis pregnancy centers across the nation:

“From here forward, any anti-choice group who closes their doors, and stops operating will no longer be a target. But until you do, it’s open season, and we know where your operations are. The infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive. We will never stop, back down, slow down, or retreat.”

A friend of mine works in a crisis pregnancy center. She told me in an email over the weekend: “I worked in the Emergency Dept as a RN for 25 years with police security, but I never dreamed that working at a pro-life clinic would be a high risk job!”

And this damage is being done in the name of Jane Roe? As the record shows, Jane Roe’s identity was revealed in 1987, and her name was Norma McCorvey. It turns out McCorvey had not been raped (as claimed in the case). She had gotten pregnant from her boyfriend, and she just wanted an abortion.

ACLU attorney Sarah Weddington lied to her as she assured McCorvey she could get an abortion, but what Weddington really wanted was McCorvey’s participation in what became Roe v. Wade.

Then in the late 1990s, something amazing happened. Norma McCorvey made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and came to oppose abortion. Thus, Roe came to agree with Wade. Henry Wade had been the District Attorney of Dallas County, and Roe v. Wade challenged Texas’s pro-life law.

Norma McCorvey wrote her story in her 1997 book, Won By Love (with co-author Gary Thomas). The subtitle of that book is “Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade Speaks Out for the Unborn as She Shares Her New Conviction for Life.”

And now, in the name of Jane Roe, anarchists and ANTIFA-types are carrying out acts of vandalism and damage of pregnancy centers that simply exist to provide loving alternatives to abortion.

One man who knew McCorvey, who died in 2017, is Father Frank Pavone, the president of Priests for Life. He even baptized her and spent time sharing Scriptures and Church teaching with her.

I asked him for a comment on the former “Jane Roe” since these groups are doing damage to try and disrupt pro-life work in her name. Father Pavone told me:

“As for Norma McCorvey, hers was a life of repentance, not of revenge. She wouldn’t have needed to take ‘revenge’ on pro-life people anyway, because she was one of us. She would have abhorred the way the pro-abortion people are acting now. In fact, she didn’t like them even when she was on their side. She thought they were arrogant and disrespectful of her.”

He adds,

“The abortion supporters were handed abortion-on-demand on a silver platter by Roe v. Wade. They didn’t have to engage in the laborious, tedious process of elections, lobbying, debating, persuading and lawmaking. Instead, a ‘constitutional right’ was just created for them.

Now that it is being taken away, they whine and stomp their feet like a child.”

Where is the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in all this? When is he going to act against this intimidation? Our nation’s founders said that the Creator has endowed us with “unalienable rights”—first among these is “the right to life.”

Father Pavone has the final word: “Of course, their attacks on our churches are because when we restrict abortion, they perceive it as an attack on theirs. The abortion clinics are their churches, abortion-on-demand is their dogma, and abortion itself is their sacrament. May they be given the grace of repentance.”

This article was originally published at JerryNewcombe.com.