Free Republic

A federal judge in Idaho has delivered an order protecting the private communications of a pro-life organization that was hit with a subpoena for that information even though it was not party to a lawsuit brought against the state by a group of abortion promoters. It was the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, the Indigenous Idaho Alliance and others who had been in court demanding access to the communications of the Right to Life of Idaho, Inc. Magistrate Judge Debora Grasham quashed, or canceled, the subpoena, determining that the abortionists’ insistence on the subpoena because it would help them overcome “inefficiency,...

Abortion medication access barriers prevent me from providing evidence-based careGrowing up, I always knew I wanted to be a doctor. But when the FDA needlessly placed an age restriction on over-the-counter levonorgestrel (Plan B) for emergency contraception, I decided I needed to become a lawyer too. I reasoned that political interference in healthcare meant my future patients might not receive the care they needed, and that as a physician-attorney, I could help advance evidence-based policy. In the 20 years since, levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception and daily oral contraceptives have become available over the counter with no age restrictions. Recent conversations, however,...

Singer Florence Welch has partnered with Planned Parenthood to advertise the abortion giant to fans who attend the next portion of the Florence + The Machine’s ongoing tour. Planned Parenthood announced the partnership on Monday and said that beginning on April, 8, more than a dozen of its affiliates will set up tables at multiple stops on the tour to talk with concertgoers about the kinds of “sexual and reproductive care” its centers provide. “Planned Parenthood health centers are a lifeline for millions of people, and they are relentlessly attacked,” Welch said in a statement. “Having access to a trusted...

While preparing to write today’s stories for NRL News Today, I ran across “Please Laugh About My Abortion With Me” which ran in 2022. And while Alison Leiby wasn’t kidding, I wondered what the audience’s response was to her one-woman “comedy.” Prior to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe, Alison Leiby tells us that “When I started performing the show at a tiny theater in Queens and at bars around the city, there were a lot of bombs and uncomfortable silences. Just saying the word ‘abortion’ can quiet a room. I saw crossed arms and scowls when I would...

(LifeSiteNews) — Planned Parenthood has released its 2024-2025 annual report, which revealed that despite a slew of fully-enforceable state abortion bans and numerous cuts to federal funding, the abortion giant has again managed to commit a record number of abortions in a nation without Roe v. Wade. The document, framed around the euphemistic theme that “care continues” despite “direct attacks on sexual and reproductive health,” reports committing 434,450 abortions and 2.27 million “birth control services.” By contrast, it lists a mere 3,038 adoption referrals. Notably, it boasts 320,390 telehealth appointments. What percentage were for abortions as opposed to other procedures...

False claims about the safety of mifepristone, the abortion pill used in roughly two-thirds of U.S. abortions, are driving legislative and investigative action in Congress, even as major medical organizations and decades of clinical evidence support the drug’s safety. The Monitor also examines how competing interpretations of what censorship and free speech mean for policy and law are contributing to recent developments, including a Supreme Court ruling, a federal lawsuit settlement, and new legal challenges with implications for how health misinformation is managed, moderated, and allowed to spread.

Another radical abortion activist is heading to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Democrat appeals court Judge Chris Taylor won election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, expanding the leftist majority on the state’s highest court to 5-2 and alarming pro-life advocates who fear further erosion of protections for unborn children. Taylor defeated fellow appeals court Judge Maria Lazar in the race for a 10-year term, receiving about 60% of the vote to Lazar’s roughly 40% with most ballots counted, according to unofficial results. Media outlets projected Taylor’s victory shortly after polls closed. The open seat resulted from the retirement of...

The radical culture war on public art. The Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, has called for the removal of a mural of Iryna Zarutska, a young Ukrainian refugee whose brutal murder was caught on video, because, according to Mayor Smiley, because of its “misguided, isolating intent”. Providence has a BLM street mural covering three blocks and a “Love is a Many Gendered Thing” mural, but Mayor Smiley urged supporting artists “whose work brings us closer together rather than divide us” and remembering Irina’s murder divides us. Unlike BLM and “Love is a Many Gendered Thing” which bring us together. In...

The Nebraska Democratic Party denounced a Democratic candidate for Senate recently that they allege to be a “Republican Party plant,” CNN reported Monday, with the candidate being exposed for having supported President Donald Trump, opposed access to reproductive health care and attended a GOP-sponsored training event. Forbes spoke with CNN for its report Monday, in which he admitted that he had voted for Trump “in multiple elections” and had attended a GOP-backed leadership summit as recently as January. Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb also provided CNN with screenshots from a now-deleted Facebook page that she said show Forbes attending...

A pedophile who murdered a 13-year-old girl after getting her pregnant has died in prison in an apparent suicide, officials said. Jarvis Butts, 43, was found dead in his cell at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Michigan on Wednesday. He was just two weeks into a 35 to 60 year sentence for the murder of Na'Ziyah Harris. Prison staff said they 'provided life-saving measures which were unsuccessful' and noted that state police are investigating Butts's death as a suicide. He pleaded guilty to murdering Harris in January 2024 after impregnating her and prosecutors said he targeted...

As a first-time mom expecting a baby this September, my social media feed has completely changed. What used to be filled with news and politics is now full of pregnancy advice, nursery ideas, and – of course – ads for diapers. However, I didn’t expect that preparing for my baby would lead me to discover something deeply disturbing about the diaper industry. Like most parents, I assumed choosing a diaper brand would come down to comfort, quality, and price. The last thing I expected was to learn that many of the most recognizable diaper brands in America have publicly aligned...

KINGSLAND, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge granted a bond of just $1 for a murder charge faced by a woman accused by police of taking pills to induce an illegal abortion. “I think that charge is extremely problematic,” Superior Court Judge Steven Blackerby said Monday during a bond hearing for Alexia Moore, according to The New York Times. “That is going to be a hard charge to convict upon.” Blackerby set a total $2,001 bond for Moore, who spent nearly three weeks jailed in coastal Camden County. In addition to $1 for the murder charge, the judge ordered $1,000...

Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion doctor who was convicted in 2013 of killing three babies who were born alive in a case that made nationwide headlines, has died. He was 85. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokesperson Maria Bivens said Gosnell died March 1 at a hospital outside the prison system. He had most recently been incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution-Smithfield, about 60 miles south of Pittsburgh. A cause of death was not disclosed. Gosnell was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder of the newborns as well as involuntary manslaughter in the drug overdose death of a patient who...

A North Austin church attended by Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D-TX) is drawing increased attention amid his U.S. Senate campaign, with church leadership citing both heightened visibility and security concerns. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, where Talarico has been a member since childhood, has recently hosted and is continuing to promote a series of events that include political organizing and activist training sessions. Pastor Jim Rigby told congregants in a Facebook post that the attention surrounding Talarico’s campaign has led to an increase in both positive engagement and “hostile press” and negative communications. “Because we have also received some hostile...

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING An abortion doctor who was serving a life sentence in prison for murdering three babies died in a Pennsylvania hospital earlier this month, prison officials announced on Monday. Dr Kermit Gosnell, whose high-profile baby murder case shocked the nation in the early 2010s, died on March 1 in a hospital outside the prison system at the age of 85. His cause of death was not made public. The abortionist's vile West Philadelphia clinic, which police said reeked of 'cat feces, formaldehyde and human urine' when they raided it in 2010, was where Gosnell killed at least three...

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is attacking pro-life Christians. She has criticized pro-life Christians and evangelicals as living in an “evangelical, conservative silo” that is “pulling us back as a country.” Meanwhile, Newsom is arguing that the term “pro-life” should be redefined to mean government-funded social programs rather than protecting unborn children from abortion. In a 2022 interview with journalist Elex Michaelson of a local Los Angeles station, Siebel Newsom promoted her documentary “Fair Play” on gender roles in the home and praised progressives for redefining the meaning of “pro-life.” “I appreciate that so many people,...

Kermit Gosnell, the infamous West Philadelphia abortion doctor who was sentenced to life in prison on murder and manslaughter convictions in 2013, has died. Gosnell, 85, died earlier this month at a hospital, the state Department of Corrections said. He was most recently being held at State Correctional Institution Smithfield in Huntingdon County, but was admitted the hospital, which corrections officials did not identify, prior to his death. The cause of Gosnell’s death — as well as the exact date — was not clear Monday afternoon. The Huntingdon County Coroner’s Office did not immediately respond to request for comment. Gosnell’s...

Today we learned of the death of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion provider whose actions led to the deaths of babies born alive and of women entrusted to his care. As the CEO of The Abortion Survivors Network, and as a woman who survived an abortion procedure myself, I cannot ignore the profound human cost behind his name. For many, Gosnell’s clinic has long symbolized a house of horrors, but for us, it is more than a symbol. It represents real children whose lives were ended after first surviving the trauma of an abortion procedure, women who were impacted, and...

[Catholic Caucus] Lay Leader Who Criticized Cardinal Cupich Phased Out of Catholic Conference BoardLoyola University Chicago law professor John Breen will leave after nearly 13 years; sources say the move follows his public criticism of plans to honor Sen. Dick Durbin.Nearly six months after publicly criticizing Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plan to give a “lifetime achievement” award to a pro-abortion-rights senator, a long-serving lay member of the Catholic Conference of Illinois (CCI) board of directors is being involuntarily phased out of his role. John Breen, a Loyola University Chicago law professor who has served on CCI’s board since 2012, will be...

UK lawmakers vote to decriminalize abortion up to birth in England, WalesThe new measure would keep the 24-weeka abortion limit for doctors but remove criminal penalties for women who carry out abortions themselves at any stage, including late-term procedures. The House of Lords has confirmed the decriminalization of abortion in England and Wales, allowing women to kill their unborn children themselves up until birth.The House of Lords voted to back the plans to decriminalize abortion for mothers up to birth, approved by the House of Commons last summer.On Wednesday, peers in the House of Lords rejected an amendment brought by...