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Welcome back to Respect Life Notes! Let’s catch up on the pro-life news since February. Of course, there’s more than I can fit in a single column, but here’s a smattering of highlights.
On February 12th, the consistent life ethic group Rehumanize International published an open letter to the Trump administration to urge “the immediate reinstatement and enforcement of federal protections that prevent the detention of pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women,” claiming that these “are medical states that require care that immigration detention facilities are structurally unable to provide.” Dozens of pro-life leaders signed on, including Lila Rose of Live Action and Eric Schiedler of the Pro-Life Action League. Over 370 individuals signed as well. This aligns perfectly with the Catholic Church’s recent calls for better treatment of immigrants, as well as our commitment to protect the unborn.
The St. John's Bible Pentateuch illumination on "Choose Life."All charges brought up by former California attorney general Kamala Harris against David Daleiden and Sandra Merrit, the journalists who in 2015 released videos exposing Planned Parenthood officials for their willingness to sell aborted baby body parts, were finally dismissed on April 2nd after a decade of court battles. Daleiden and the state of California agreed to a plea deal that included no prison time, no fines, no admission of wrongdoing, and no probation. The case has been expunged, and the journalists are at last free.
Daleiden also published a new feature-length documentary on May 26th titled What Happened To Clementine? which investigates the fate of a little girl who was aborted at 5 months gestation and appears to have been born alive and dissected for organ harvesting. This film ties together Daleiden’s reporting for the last decade to the first case brought to light by a real family victimized by the abortion harvesting industry. It’s free for viewing on YouTube.
The Department of Justice released a report in April documenting the weaponization of the justice system against anti-abortion activists, in particular through prosecution of the FACE Act. The investigation found that one of Biden’s lead prosecutors specializing in the FACE Act, Sanjay Patel, was in cahoots with the National Abortion Federation the entire time. He spoke at NAF conferences and wrote endorsements for their grants. In return, NAF spied on anti-abortion activists – including secretly infiltrating their meetings – wrote up dossiers on them including personal information, and handed over this “evidence” to the DOJ and Patel to aid their persecution. Patel and others were reportedly fired after this report went public.
In another win for pro-lifers in April, the Supreme Court declared that First Choice, a pregnancy resource center in New Jersey, has standing to sue NJ’s attorney general for chilling their first amendment rights. Platkin, the AG, issued a subpoena for donor information from First Choice, which would essentially dox any anonymous donors. First Choice refused to give over these records and instead filed a lawsuit against Platkin. This went all the way up to SCOTUS, who unanimously ruled that First Choice may bring their claim to federal court. Pro-abortion states will not bully pro-life pregnancy resource centers out of existence!
Over the next few weeks we’ll be watching to see if Congress will defund Planned Parenthood for another year. We know defunding works – just this March, Planned Parenthood announced that they will not be moving forward with opening a new abortion facility in Richmond, Virginia, due to ‘financial reasons.’ Call for complete divestment to debilitate Big Abortion!
And if you’re interested in fighting third-trimester abortion within the DC city limits, then please consider joining parishioners from St. Ann’s and the Cathedral of St. Matthew every first Saturday of the month to witness the dignity of DuPont Clinic’s victims with an hour of prayer. We gather outside of St. Matthew’s at 10:30am, walk over to DuPont Clinic by 11am, and have fellowship after around 12pm.
Peace and blessings!