By Peter Pinedo
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 3, 2024 / 04:30 am
Here’s a roundup of the latest developments in the U.S. regarding abortion and pro-life issues.
Bishop responds to court’s striking down of pro-life law
In response to a court decision this week striking down Georgia’s pro-life law protecting unborn babies starting at six weeks, Savannah Bishop Stephen Parkes highlighted the damage done by abortion and urged abortion-minded women to “go to any Catholic church” for help.
“I am very disappointed in the ruling. We as a society need to remember the sacredness of human life and thus our responsibility to protect it. We need to listen to the cries of the unborn,” Parkes told CNA on Tuesday.
He said the ruling “opens up the potential for both the loss of innocent human life and for the psychological and sometimes physical damage abortion causes the people affected by it.”
He praised Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s decision to immediately appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, saying it is “obviously a good thing.”
Kara Murray, a representative for Carr’s office, told CNA on Wednesday that the attorney general had requested an emergency block of the ruling to allow the pro-life law to continue to be enforced as the case works its way through the court.
Regardless of the legal outcome, Parkes said that “Catholics should continue doing what we’ve been doing even before the ruling, which is working to build a culture of life.”
“Laws protecting the unborn are important, but as we saw yesterday, laws aren’t necessarily permanent,” he said. “A culture of life is cultivated in the home. It is cultivated in the public square. It is cultivated when we help pregnant women, when we assist those in need, when we recognize Jesus Christ in our neighbor and offer hope and comfort.”
“For a woman feeling that an abortion is the only option,” Parkes said, “I urge you to talk to your pastor or to go to any Catholic church. I promise you; you are not alone and there are other options.”
Trump vows to veto national pro-life law
During the vice presidential debate on Tuesday night, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump posted on social media that he would veto any federal abortion ban sent to his desk.
“Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it,” Trump said in a post written in all caps.
Though Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has previously said Trump would veto any national abortion restriction sent to him, this is the first time the former president has said this himself. Trump has previously said he would not sign a national abortion restriction.
Consistent with his campaign’s messaging on abortion, Trump said in his post that “it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters.”
Trump noted that he supports exceptions for abortion in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in danger.
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He added that Democrats such as Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, support a “radical position of late-term abortion” up to the ninth month of pregnancy with “the possibility of execution of the baby after birth.”
During the debate, Vance confronted Walz about a Minnesota bill he signed as governor that removed language that had previously required doctors to “preserve the life and health of the born-alive infant” after a failed abortion. The new standard only requires doctors to “care for the infant who is born alive” but does not expressly require them to take lifesaving measures.
In response Walz claimed “that’s not what the law says.” He did not explain his understanding of the law any further but accused Vance of “trying to distort the way a law is written to try and make a point.”
Ohio reports uptick in abortions in 2023
The Ohio Health Department released a new report showing an uptick in abortions in 2023.
According to the report, the total number of abortions in Ohio in 2023 was 22,000. This is an increase from the 2022 number — 18,488 — but is relatively on par with abortion numbers in the state over the last 10 years.
This comes after the citizens of Ohio voted in October 2023 to pass a constitutional amendment repealing the state’s six-week pro-life law and enshrining a “right” to abortion. Currently, abortion is legal up to 20 weeks in pregnancy or later if needed to promote the health of the mother.
The majority — 63% — of the abortions in the state were performed on women who were fewer than nine weeks pregnant. Nearly a quarter — 23.4% — were performed on women who were between nine and 12 weeks pregnant, while 10.4% were 12 through 18 weeks, 1.4% were conducted in the 19th or 20th weeks, and 0.6% were late-term abortions at 21 weeks or beyond.
About half — 49.8% — of all 22,000 abortions in Ohio were performed on Black women while 42.2% were on white women and the remaining 8% were on other racial identities.
The single most common abortion method was surgical curettage, which accounted for 45.7% of the state’s total. The study noted that surgical abortions have been consistently declining since 2001 when this type of abortion accounted for 87% of all abortions. The abortion pill mifepristone accounted for approximately 45% of all abortions in 2023.
Overall, the state’s abortion numbers have been declining since an all-time recorded high of more than 45,000 in 1982.
California sued for censorship of pregnancy centers
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta this week for his efforts to block pregnancy centers in the state from promoting abortion pill reversal.
ADF filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and SCV Pregnancy Center, which is based in Santa Clarita, California. The law firm is arguing that Bonta’s censorship violates the pregnancy centers’ First Amendment right to free speech and constitutes “viewpoint-based discrimination.”
Abortion pill reversal is a medication meant to stop a chemical abortion after the process has already been initiated. While the chemical abortion pill mifepristone works by cutting off progesterone, essentially starving the unborn baby to death, abortion pill reversal can restore progesterone flow in the womb, reversing the effects of mifepristone.
In 2023 Bonta sued a group of pregnancy centers in California seeking to keep them from promoting what he called “false and misleading claims” about abortion pill reversal that he said endangered women.
Caleb Dalton, a senior counsel at ADF, said that “every woman should have the option to reconsider going through with an abortion, and the pro-life pregnancy centers we represent in this case truthfully inform women about that choice.”
“Attorney General Bonta and his allies at Planned Parenthood may not like it, but the truth is that many women regret their abortions, and some seek to stop the effects of chemical abortion drugs before taking the second drug in the abortion drug process,” Dalton said. “Women deserve to know all their options every step of the way.”
