Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority struck down the state’s 176-year-old abortion ban on Wednesday, ruling 4-3 that it was superseded by newer state laws regulating the procedure, including statutes that criminalize abortions only after a fetus can survive outside the womb.The ruling came as no surprise given that liberal justices control the high court. One of them went so far as promising to uphold abortion rights during her campaign two years ago, and they blasted the ban during oral arguments in November. The statute Wisconsin legislators adopted in 1849, widely interpreted as a near-total ban...

Steven Furtick, the founder and lead “pastor” of Elevation Church, has become a household name among modern megachurch prosperity gospel frauds from Joel Osteen to T.D. Jakes to Carl Lentz. But beneath his polished exterior and motivational speeches lies a deeper issue—just like these others, Furtick is a false teacher, a prosperity charlatan whose primary goal is to amass personal wealth at the expense of the gospel. His strategy, like all false teachers, is to exploit the Scriptures when it suits him and conveniently ignores them when the truth becomes inconvenient. Furtick’s sermons are filled with feel-good messages of false...

A medical negligence lawsuit filed against an Illinois abortionist alleges a botched abortion so severely mishandled that half of an unborn baby’s body was left inside a woman’s, requiring emergency surgery to address life-threatening complications. The case, has sparked outrage among pro-life advocates who cite it as evidence of the dangers inherent in abortion procedures. The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe to protect her privacy, underwent an abortion on April 1 and 2, 2023, at Equity Clinic in Champaign, Illinois. Done by Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle, according to the lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Champaign County, the abortionist perforated...

A priest has refused Holy Communion to Liberal Democrat MP Chris Coghlan over his vote in favour of the UK’s assisted suicide bill on 20 June. Coghlan, who represents Dorking and Horley in Surrey, was then named from the pulpit during Mass two days later, as the country moved a step closer to legalising state assisted death. Coghlan called the priest’s actions “outrageous” and has lodged a complaint with Bishop Richard Moth, Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, over what he described as an attempt to coerce an elected lawmaker’s vote. However, Bishop Moth has been a vocal opponent of the...

As six states have passed laws requiring some type of prenatal development education in schools, and 18 have filed forms of this legislation, a social media group has chosen to attack the video that inspired it all. The far-left social media group NowThis Impact recently posted a video referring to Live Action’s “Baby Olivia” video — a computer animation of prenatal development from fertilization to birth — as “creepy” and “indoctrination.” This is ironic, as the same group supports the distribution of Planned Parenthood-backed pornographic and/or gender-ideology driven books and sex education materials to children in schools. Key Takeaways: *...

NEW YORK, June 20 (C-Fam) A UN committee of human rights experts told the Government of Guatemala that its restrictive abortion laws must change. Unlike many non-binding recommendations of UN rights bodies, the opinion in this case is binding to a limited degree. The Human Rights Committee, charged with monitoring the implementation of the UN civil rights treaty, told the small Central American nation that its abortion laws violate its human rights obligations. The opinion of the UN treaty body is doubly controversial. Not only does the opinion call for legal abortion. It attempts to redefine the technical legal term...

Abortionist Cesare Santangelo, who operates the Washington Surgi-Clinic, was spotted by pro-life activists entering the facility this week with a full cast on his right arm and unable to walk on his own. Key Takeaways: * Terrisa Bukovinac, founder of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) and co-discoverer of the “DC Five,” saw Santangelo outside of his facility, seemingly injured or temporarily disabled. * Bukovinac questioned whether Santangelo was capable of committing abortions with a cast, or if doing so would put women’s lives at further risk. * The group recorded the interaction and posted it to social media. The Details:...

The Irish Rover, a student-run Catholic newspaper at the University of Notre Dame, has won a major legal victory after the Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear a defamation case brought by Professor Tamara Kay. The court’s June 18 decision ends a multi-year legal effort by Kay to challenge the paper’s reporting on her pro-abortion activism — leaving intact lower court rulings that found the Rover’s coverage was accurate and protected under Indiana law, the Irish Rover reported. Kay sued the newspaper in 2023 over two articles she claimed were defamatory. The first, published in the fall of 2022, cited...

The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) is releasing a new book that compiles Catholic arguments for and against embryo adoption to provide moral theologians and other faithful with a comprehensive academic resource on the issue. Trent Horn of Catholic Answers and Kent Lasnoski, an associate professor of theology at Wyoming Catholic College, edited the new publication, Human Embryo Adoption, vol. 2: Catholic Arguments For and Against. “By gathering the best arguments from a variety of approaches on both sides of the debate, Human Embryo Adoption presents the positions, arguments, and replies as they currently stand and as they are poised...

The Maryland Circuit Court for Baltimore City held a second criminal trial for Patrick Brice, who was accused of physically assaulting pro-life sidewalk advocates Dick Schaefer and Mark Crosby on May 26th, 2023, outside a Planned Parenthood facility on North Howard Street in Baltimore. Brice (picted right) whose attorney did not dispute his guilt, encountered the two elderly men peacefully standing and praying outside the abortion facility. Unprovoked, Brice violently attacked both men, leaving Schaefer unconscious and Crosby with multiple fractured facial bones and temporary blindness. On February 6th, the jury found Patrick Brice guilty on two counts of misdemeanor...

Mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani wants to spend $65 million in taxpayer funds on transgender treatment — including for minors — if he’s elected to lead New York City. The Queens assemblyman, who is locked in a close race with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, says on his campaign website that the money would be funneled to public providers to help transgender New Yorkers. About $57 million would be allotted for public hospitals, community clinics, federally qualified health centers and nonprofits with another $8 million for more expanded services, the website states. Mamdani defended the spending plan as...

A family is fighting to get their daughter with Down syndrome the health care she needs, as the Canadian health care system pressures them to end her life. Key Takeaways: * Doctors have suggested Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID); in response, Veya’s mother is now trying to obtain the necessary medical records to take Veya to Chicago in the United States for lifesaving health care. * Veya has been denied a living donor liver transplant despite all of her care teams believing she is a good candidate; her family has been given little reasoning — and flimsy reasoning, at that...

On Thursday, the Supreme Court greenlit South Carolina’s efforts to remove abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from the state’s Medicaid reimbursement program. Naturally, MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera Reports freaked out over the decision, with Law Prof. Leah Litman warning the move could lead to a rise in cancer. Cabrera put the ball on the tee when she asked, “So, Leah, what do you see as the ramifications of this decision?” Litman began by painting a gloomy scene, “I think the practical implications of this decision are going to be momentous. I mean, Medicaid serves as an important, you know, source...

Dozens of members of Congress have warned that the most common method of abortion in America may not just kill unborn babies and harm their mothers, it may also pollute America’s drinking water with forever chemicals that could impact declining fertility levels. Some 25 congressional Republicans signed a letter calling on the Trump administration to determine whether the abortion pill mifepristone has an environmental impact on the U.S. water system. “[M]ifepristone is a potent progesterone blocker that disrupts hormonal balance in pregnant women to induce abortion. This raises questions about the drug’s potential endocrine-disrupting effects when present in drinking water...

A new bill introduced in Congress aims to prevent abortionists from flushing aborted baby parts in public water systems, a practice pro-life advocates call a “depraved disregard for the sanctity of life.” The Respectful Treatment of Unborn Remains Act, introduced Wednesday by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, and Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., seeks to ensure that aborted babies are treated with dignity and not flushed into sewers like medical waste. The legislation comes in response to growing concerns about the environmental and ethical implications of chemical abortions, which account for roughly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. According to a...

The offices of Rep. Kat Cammack, a Florida Republican and vocal pro-life advocate, were evacuated Wednesday after receiving what she described as “imminent death threats” from pro-abortion activists. The threats followed a Wall Street Journal article detailing Cammack’s life-threatening experience with an ectopic pregnancy, which she said was mishandled due to fearmongering by pro-abortion groups. Cammack, co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, shared in the article that in May 2024 she faced delays in receiving emergency treatment for an ectopic pregnancy, where the baby implants in the fallopian tube and usually will die. She attributed the hesitation of medical staff...

The Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that South Carolina has the right to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The pro-life state wants to be able to block taxpayer funding for the abortion business under Medicaid, but the abortion company sued to block that action. Today, the Supreme Court ruled South Carolina has the power to block funding. In the decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court said Medicaid laws do not give individuals the right to bring federal lawsuits against states. The high court’s ruling means that the state can direct Medicaid funding—funds intended to help low-income...

Thursday morning saw a flurry of decisions and updates from the Supreme Court of the United States. Many were helpfully captured in a long thread by legal expert Jonathan Turley on X, who chronicled the rapid-fire announcements. Buried in that thread was a key decision that SCOTUS made in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “We have our second opinion. It is Medina v. Planned Parenthood, an important case that has not drawn as much attention,” Turley explained. “It is written by Justice Gorsuch in a 6-3 opinion.” Turley further explained: “The Court considered whether there is...

A Chicago facility is now offering abortions in the third trimester — making Illinois one of the few places in the country where unborn children can be aborted up to approximately 34 weeks, the Chicago Tribune reported. Hope Clinic, a long-standing abortion provider based in southern Illinois, opened a second location June 2 in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. It is now the only independent facility in the Midwest to perform abortions at such a late stage in pregnancy. The organization announced its new location on Instagram with enthusiasm, noting the expansion of its services. “Hope Clinic is now open in Chicago,...

The suspect arrested in connection to the bombing at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California has died in jail. Daniel Park, 32, was found unresponsive inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles Tuesday morning. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. His cause of death is unclear. Park, of Seattle, Washington, was accused of supplying 180lbs of explosives to Guy Edward Bartkus, the bomber who died in the May 17 explosion at the American Reproductive Centers. He was taken into custody at New York's JFK Airport by the FBI and Port Authority Police on June 3 following the...