Free Republic

In most states with legal abortion, pregnant people can abort for any reason they choose. In some states, this extends all the way through pregnancy, including in the ninth month. (Elective abortions that late may be very rare, but they are legally allowed.) I think that most people who abort genuinely struggle with the decision, and many are facing hard circumstances. Many feel their problems are insurmountable, and abortion is their only choice. Sometimes they are being pressured, some have been abandoned by family, friends, and the baby’s father, others are struggling financially and can’t imagine how to support another...

An abortion advocacy group has released a report claiming that the number of abortions in the United States has increased since Roe v. Wade was overturned. A pro-life researcher, however, believes the data might be wrong. The Society of Family Planning's latest #WeCount report, released earlier this month, estimates that, despite restrictions in some states, there were, on average, 86,000 abortions performed per month in the U.S. in 2023, exceeding levels reported before the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe. SFP started its #WeCount effort to assess the number of monthly abortions by state...

The Texas Supreme Court is considering whether or not to take up the case of Caroline Antoun who is seeking personhood for her frozen embryos. The embryos are currently the property of Antoun’s ex-husband, Gaby Antoun, as the IVF contract had stated he would get custody in the event of a divorce. Antoun, however, is asking that the embryos be considered persons and placed in her custody. The former couple had welcomed twins through IVF and kept three remaining embryos frozen. Antoun said she did not fully understand the gravity of the contract she had signed regarding embryo custody and...

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Friday he has signed a first-of-its-kind bill making abortion pills controlled substances into law. The law puts the abortion pill regimen -- mifepristone and misoprostol -- in the same category as opioids and other addictive medications. "Requiring an abortion inducing drug to be obtained with a prescription and criminalizing the use of an abortion drug on an unsuspecting mother is nothing short of common sense," Landry said in a statement posted on X. "This bill protects women across Louisiana and I was proud to sign this bill into law today." The law makes it illegal...

Democratic Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks took aim Wednesday at her Republican opponent, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, over his position on abortion. Alsobrooks spoke at an abortion rights rally, where she criticized Hogan's statements that abortion should be legal up to 26 weeks of pregnancy, the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. That decision was overturned in 2022, and now states can make their own laws regulating abortion, which has galvanized Democrats nationwide, who are campaigning to protect abortion access as Republicans seek to limit or ban the procedure. "I don't believe that...

The Defense Department undercounted the number of abortions that it authorized between 2016 and 2020, new data shows. Following a lawsuit from the Oversight Project, a division of The Heritage Foundation, the Department of Defense said that it had identified a total of 77 abortions performed in military medical treatment facilities (MTFs) during the four-year period between 2016 and 2020. (Heritage founded The Daily Signal in 2014.) That number includes 17 abortions that had previously not been included in the DOD’s figures. The babies aborted were either the children of a service member or of the service member’s dependents. Eighteen...

UPDATE, May 24: This story has been updated to include more information and an interview with Trust Women’s board president. Abortion services have been halted for at least a week at the Trust Women clinic in Wichita, Kansas, after doctors began withholding their labor over an unexpected leadership shakeup and the appointment of a new medical director they believe is unqualified. Ten out of 16 physicians working at the clinic have resigned, a source said. “The clinic has been operating without medical oversight for the last month,” one source said. Rewire News Group confirmed the details of the situation with...

Doors of Late-Term Abortion Business Shuttered for Foreseeable Future Amid ‘Compliance Issues’ The infamous late-term abortion mill, Trust Women, in Wichita, Kansas, has halted abortions this week after a series of scandalous events. The high-volume abortion business is no stranger to sordid, illegal activity and the gruesome murder of late-term babies. Inside sources have reported that the co-executive directors and the medical director were all fired in April. The medical director was reportedly replaced with an unqualified candidate – an emergency medicine doctor of osteopathy who founded a wellness clinic specializing in erectile dysfunction treatment, weight loss, and services such...

Thomas Kearns wants nothing more than to bring his baby girl Clementine home. He said she was 20 weeks old and tucked inside her mother’s womb when she was killed by abortion in March. Now Kearns, who had no power to save her, is on a mission to be a voice for fathers who want to protect their preborn children and to give Clementine the respect of a funeral. Fighting for her life Two months and one week ago, Kearns knew next to nothing about abortion. Now it’s all he can think about. It was just over two months ago...

This is not funny. A 16-second video featuring a woman dancing is gaining traction online. No, not because she was in a scandalous outfit or was an incredible dancer, but because she captioned the video: “my fetus dancing right before it was aborted.” Yes, these kind of people exist. The video was originally posted by a girl who goes by the user name “abortioncounselor.” Her bio on TikTok reads “that girl that gets abortions.” Her whole account is flooded with pro-abortion messaging from evil jokes to personal experiences and stories from the numerous abortions the woman has received. The woman...

A group of lawmakers has sent a letter to United States Marshals Service (USMS) Director Ronald Davis and Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters following troubling reports that several jailed pro-lifers are being denied necessary healthcare services while they are serving time in prison. The letter calls attention to the situation of pro-lifers Heather Idoni, 59, and Jean Marshall, 74. Both women have been convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights” for their involvement in blocking access to the abortion business of notorious abortionist Cesare Santangelo in October 2020. Idoni...

The Illinois House on Tuesday passed House Bill 581, The Hospital Emergency Service Act, which declares abortion to be a “stabilizing treatment” during pregnancy. The bill passed 71-36 along party lines. The bill is said to have been authored in response to the anticipated Supreme Court decision this June regarding an Idaho law that protects preborn children from abortion when their mother is facing a health complication during pregnancy. It’s important to note the distinction between ending a pregnancy via induced abortion and ending a pregnancy via induced delivery. In an induced abortion, the preborn child is intentionally and deliberately...

Update 5/24/2024: California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 233 into law on Thursday, allowing abortionists from Arizona to travel to California, evading Arizona’s pro-life laws to commit abortions on women from Arizona. “Arizona Republicans tried to turn back the clock to 1864 to impose a near-total abortion ban across their state,” Newsom said in a statement. “We refuse to stand by and acquiesce to their oppressive and dangerous attacks on women.” He added, “California stands ready to protect reproductive freedom.” Currently, Arizona protects the majority of preborn children from abortion with an exception for the life of the mother...

A New York Court of Appeals has rejected a challenge by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to a state law that requires all employers to offer “medically necessary” abortion coverage under their health insurance policies. “Medically necessary” abortions are defined as “necessary to prevent, diagnose, correct, or cure conditions in the person that cause acute suffering, endanger life, result in illness or infirmity, interfere with a person’s capacity for normal activity, or threaten some significant handicap.” Exactly what qualifies is said to be up to the discretion of the abortionist. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and other church...

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) of Arkansas has sent cease and desist letters to two mail-order abortion pill businesses, threatening lawsuits against them if they continue to market abortion pills to women in Arkansas. The OAG claimed that both New York-based Choices Women’s Medical Center, Inc. and Aid Access out of the Netherlands could be violating “the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (ADTPA) related to abortion pill marketing and sales.” “Abortions are prohibited in Arkansas except under very limited circumstances,” Attorney General Tim Griffin wrote in a press release. “As such, abortion pills may not be legally shipped...

Joe Biden successfully got another pro-life advocate thrown in prison for years today. Heather Idoni has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison despite her lawyer begging for home detention due to Heather’s serious health issues. The sentence comes after Biden officials charged her with bogus charges for allegedly violating the FACE Act. If Idoni was an environmental activist or a leftist supporting Hamas, her sit-in at an abortion business would have earned her a misdemeanor charge and maybe a small fine. But because she is a pro-life advocate protesting abortion, the Biden administration used the FACE Act to...

An eighth pro-life activist was sentenced on Wednesday under the Freedom of Access the Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and “conspiracy against rights” for an abortion clinic protest in Washington, DC, in October 2020. Heather Idoni, 59, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, with credit for the nine months she has already served since being found guilty in August 2023, the Department of Justice announced. Seven other pro-life activists were sentenced to years in federal prison last week for protesting at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC, an abortion clinic infamous for late-term abortions. Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) activist Lauren...

A sitting state Supreme Court justice fought off a spirited challenge from a candidate who campaigned on protecting abortion rights in Georgia. The Associated Press called the race for Justice Andrew Pinson at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. As of Wednesday morning, Pinson had about 55% of the vote in the head-to-head race against John Barrow, whose efforts to make the race a referendum on abortion rights turned the contest into one of most closely watched on Tuesday’s ballot in Georgia.

The cost of living defines the 2024 presidential election, with voters in battleground states favoring former President Donald Trump and prioritizing the economy over abortion — Democrat President Joe Biden’s top campaign issue — a new survey found. The Swing State Project report released on Friday, a collaboration between the Cook Political Report, GS Strategy Group (a Republican polling firm), and BSG (a Democratic polling firm), found that the state of the economy ultimately outweighs the nation’s shifting abortion landscape going into November. The project surveyed 3,969 voters in seven battleground states from May 6 to May 13. “Right now,...

The controversial Equal Rights Amendment, which was on the ballot for the November elections in New York, has been tossed by a judge on procedural grounds. The ruling is a victory for Republicans and opponents of the bill who say it was written too broadly and could trample parents’ rights when it comes to decisions like children receiving gender-affirming procedures. The ERA was a rapid response by New York Democrats to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022. The amendment passed both houses of the New York legislature in a special session just one...