CNA Newsroom, Sep 20, 2024 / 16:53 pm
Here’s a roundup of pro-life-related news in the U.S. this week.
Football coach asks Harris: What ‘faith’ allows for abortion?
Tony Dungy, a Super Bowl-winning Hall of Fame football coach and a pro-life evangelical Christian, responded on social media to a pro-abortion statement from Vice President Kamala Harris in which Harris said: “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree: The government, and certainly Donald Trump, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”
“Exactly what ‘faith’ are you talking about when you say you don’t have to abandon it to support abortion?” Dungy asked.
“Are you talking about the Christian faith that says all babies are made in the image of God (Gen 1:26), that God places them in the womb (Jer 1:5) and that we should not take any life unjustly (Luke 18:20)?” Dungy wrote.
“Are you talking about that faith or some nebulous, general ‘faith’ that says we’re good enough and smart enough to make our own decisions? What ‘faith’ are you talking about?” he said.
Florida tells doctors they can perform abortions to save a mother’s life
Florida state health officials reiterated to doctors that Florida’s laws protecting unborn babies after six weeks’ gestation allow for doctors to perform abortions to save the life of the mother, a declaration that comes as abortion advocates claim pro-life laws threaten women’s lives.
A Sept. 19 “provider alert” from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Health stated that “abortion is permissible at any stage of pregnancy in Florida to save the life and health of the mother.”
Exceptions also exist up to 15 weeks for pregnancies resulting from rape, incest, or human trafficking, the department said.
Florida’s exceptions allow treatment — “including abortions” — for women who experience premature rupture of membranes and ectopic or molar pregnancies, the department said, noting further that “a miscarriage is not an abortion.”
Failing to provide that “life-saving treatment” could constitute medical malpractice, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Abortion is currently illegal after six weeks of pregnancy with limited exceptions in Florida; a coalition of physicians is speaking out against a proposed expansion of abortion and urging voters to reject it.
Senate Republicans block unrestricted IVF insurance mandate
Senate Republicans blocked a bill on Tuesday that would have forced insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) and would have created an unrestricted right to the procedure, though many in the party continue to support other efforts to expand IVF.
Under the proposal, employers — including religious employers — would have been forced to provide health insurance plans that cover IVF. The bill would have banned states from passing laws that limit the destruction of human embryonic life caused by IVF procedures. It would have also prevented states from limiting IVF to married couples.
The proposed law would have also banned states from restricting the number of eggs doctors could retrieve from the woman, from preventing the fertilization of multiple human eggs, or from limiting the number of human embryos created to be frozen for future use.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had come out strongly against the legislation, saying that the solution to infertility “can never be a medical process that involves the creation of countless preborn children and results in most of them being frozen or discarded and destroyed.”
The Catholic Church teaches that while couples struggling to have children can use certain fertility treatments, the use of IVF is “morally unacceptable” as it uses artificial means to achieve pregnancy outside of sex and it creates excess human embryos during the IVF process that are routinely destroyed or indefinitely frozen.
Illinois voters urged to vote against IVF question
Illinois Right to Life, a pro-life group, is urging state residents to vote against a question on their November ballot related to IVF.
The advisory question, known as the “Assisted Reproductive Health Referendum Act,” which was approved for the Illinois ballot in May, asks Illinoisians if “all medically appropriate assisted reproductive treatments, including, but not limited to, in vitro fertilization” should be “covered by any health insurance plan in Illinois that provides coverage for pregnancy benefits, without limitation on the number of treatments.”
In Illinois, advisory questions are nonbinding and are designed to gauge public opinion and drive voter turnout. The questions approved for this election cycle are an attempt by state Democrats at “boosting turnout by party faithful,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith. We provide news about the Church and the world, as seen through the teachings of the Catholic Church. When you subscribe to the CNA UPDATE, we'll send you a daily email with links to the news you need and, occasionally, breaking news.
As part of this free service you may receive occasional offers from us at EWTN News and EWTN. We won't rent or sell your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Click hereCatholic universities among dozens of schools with links to abortion industry, study finds
A study by the pro-life group Students for Life of America (SFLA) identified dozens of U.S. Christian colleges and universities, including multiple Catholic institutions, maintaining “some type of relationship” with the abortion industry, including the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
SFLA’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement said in its 2024 Christian Schools Project report that 17 Catholic institutions were found to have some connection with Planned Parenthood or to otherwise promote the abortion provider or other abortion resources. These include Boston College, Santa Clara University in California, and St. Elizabeth University in New Jersey.
The schools’ connections to abortion included “an internship opportunity that recommended or credited work at Planned Parenthood or another local abortion vendor” as well as linking to Planned Parenthood as a “health resource,” a “class resource,” or a “volunteer opportunity.”
Of the 732 Christian schools investigated, more than 80 were found to have some sort of connection with Planned Parenthood or another abortion provider.
‘Catholics for Harris-Walz’ online meeting downplays abortion concerns among faithful
Catholic supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential candidacy hosted a national organizing call with the campaign on Wednesday night in which speakers downplayed some of the faithful’s concerns about her support for abortion.
The “Catholics for Harris-Walz National Organizing Call,” held on Sept. 18, was designed to rally Catholic support behind Harris’ campaign.
Harris supports codifying the abortion standards set by Roe v. Wade, which would prevent states from passing laws that protect unborn life prior to fetal viability. In the Sept. 12 debate with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Harris refused to say whether she supports late-term abortion in the seventh, eighth, and ninth months of pregnancy.
Sister Simone Campbell, who is a member of the religious community the Sisters of Social Service, contended on the call that polls show most Catholics supporting legal abortion.
“Our faith does not require the outlawing of abortion,” Campbell asserted in an apparent contradiction of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches.
Pro-life law did not kill Georgia woman, doctor says
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday amplified claims by several news outlets that a woman has died as the result of pro-life laws. But a doctor says that the Georgia woman, Amber Thurman, died because of the abortion pill and medical malpractice.
ProPublica’s report claimed that Georgia’s restrictions on abortion delayed access to medical care, causing the death of a woman named Amber Nicole Thurman. Thurman died at age 28 in 2022 after being hospitalized due to an infection after she took abortion pills, according to the report.
Some news reports blamed pro-life limits on abortion for Thurman’s death, but Georgia state law explicitly allows abortions when the mother’s life or physical health is at risk.
Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and a board-certified OB-GYN who has practiced for two decades, said that Thurman’s death “was caused by legal abortion drugs” as well as medical negligence.
“Amber Thurman’s tragic death, recently covered by multiple news organizations, was caused by side effects of legal abortion drugs and medical negligence, not pro-life laws,” Francis said in a Tuesday statement.
Our mission is the truth. Join us!
Your monthly donation will help our team continue reporting the truth, with fairness, integrity, and fidelity to Jesus Christ and his Church.
Donate to CNA