Free Republic

As news stories generally go, the retirement of a longtime member of Congress typically causes barely a ripple in the pool of politics. Unless the personage was a major power player or notorious for some other reason, our system of government treats the coming and going of most elected officials with only a modicum of interest. So it is likely to be with Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who, having served seven terms in the House of Representatives and five in the Senate, announced he is retiring at the end of next year. The senator’s record in the overall...

This month — March 30th — will mark 20 years since Terri Schindler Schiavo was cruelly killed, deprived of food and water for 13 days until she finally succumbed to dehydration and starvation. It was one of the most controversial bioethics issues to arise since Roe v. Wade, in what many deemed a victory for supposed “medical choice.” Now, two decades later, a pair of bioethicists is revisiting Terri’s death, and argued that while they believe killing her was the right decision, it also ended up leading to the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The Hastings Center is...

Praying at home could be a criminal offence “depending on who passes by the window”, according to the Scottish Greens MSP behind legislation restricting protests near abortion clinics. Gillian Mackay suggested that “performative” prayer within a 200-metre radius of an abortion facility might contravene the law even if it occurred inside someone’s home. The law, which was overwhelmingly approved by Holyrood last year, was designed to curb demonstrations by anti-abortion groups outside clinics. Mackay’s comments come after remarks by JD Vance, the US vice-president, who criticised the policy this month. Vance claimed in a speech at the Munich Security Conference...

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A legislative town hall meeting hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) descended into violence on Saturday when three unmarked men forcibly removed a woman from the auditorium. Leading to her receiving a citation which has since been rescinded. The Coeur d'Alene Police confirmed Lear Asset Management was the company that employed those three men. Teresa Borrenpohl was at Coeur d'Alene High School, where Republican legislators had gathered to provide updates on the current legislative session. The KCRCC and the Coeur d'Alene Police confirmed that the KCRCC hired the private security company. According to...

A former Trump adviser has been hounded by neighbors after moving to a liberal island off Maine. Leonard Leo, a conservative lawyer, has been credited with helping to reshape the U.S. courts and Republican politics. His efforts culminated in Trump's first term with the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices, and the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.

CV NEWS FEED // Pro-life attorney Harold Cassidy explained what is at stake in a federal court case involving three Minnesota women who sued Democratic Gov. Tim Walz after they were forced into having abortions. Walz, the failed 2024 vice-presidential candidate, has come under scrutiny for signing two bills alleged to have effectively allowed coerced abortions in Minnesota. “It’s a mother’s rights case, it’s a women’s rights case,” Cassidy said on a Thursday night webinar hosted by CatholicVote. He noted that it was “brought by three women subjected to abortions they did not want, as well as two pregnancy help...

CNN commentator and former Obama advisor Van Jones admitted during a recent podcast appearance that President Trump is “smarter” than “all of his critics” and that he made the entire Democrat party and Democrat media complex “look like idiots.” These remarks came during an interview posted to political commentator Chris Cillizza’s YouTube channel on Friday. Cillizza agreed with Jones’ assessment that “we look like idiots,” commenting, “You’re totally right.” Jones’ revelation is in response to Trump defying all attempts to steal the 2024 election with a sweeping victory on November 5, winning every swing state, 312 electoral votes, the national...

Most Catholics in all seven countries want the church to allow Catholics to use birth control. In most of the countries surveyed, majorities of Catholics also say the church should allow women to become priests.Opinion is more divided on whether the church should allow priests to get married. Views on whether the church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples vary among Catholics in the countries surveyed. Ten years ago, nearly all Catholics surveyed there (98%) expressed a favorable opinion of Francis, compared with 74% today.

WASHINGTON — Democrats spent Thanksgiving eating crow — privately confessing that President Biden’s handling of the border crisis fueled voter outrage and the Republican sweep of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Lawmakers, aides and sources close to powerful Dems finally admitted after President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory over Biden’s successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, that the party’s permissive lurch on the border helped doom them in 2024. “We destroyed ourselves on the immigration issue in ways that were entirely predictable and entirely manageable,” a Democratic senator confided to The Hill under the condition of anonymity. “We utterly...

Harris, 60, replaced President Biden, 81, atop the Democratic ticket in late July and quickly surged in polling while raking in about $1 billion over a six-week period — massively out-raising Trump, 78, and providing the resources to drive home her early advantage over the Republican nominee. Her failure to seal the deal outraged Democrats, including those who worked in the Biden-Harris administration and on her campaign. “I’ve worked on five presidential campaigns. I knew this would be hard. Others acted like they knew they were going to win,” said one person who chipped in during the final stretch of...

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday called New Yorkers who vote for Republican House candidates “anti-American” and “anti-women” — a smear that sparked furor across the Empire State and beyond. “If you’re voting for these Republicans in New York, you are voting for someone who supports Donald Trump and you’re anti-women, you’re anti-abortion, and basically, you’re anti-American,” Hochul said on MSNBC. “You just trashed American values and what our country is all about — over and over.”

Changing Constitutions over obscure gender/family issues: A direct attack on the Irish Constitution (the attack miraculously lost) is now being followed with a similar attack on the New York State Constitution.The trick in Ireland was to say 2 Constitutional Amendments were needed to better support nontraditional families: it was all about supporting women and families, nothing more. But then, why didn’t the language specify how it would help them?The language was confusing and ambiguous, as it so often is. However, seven parties supported it and two opposed it. The Parliament voted in favor. The media were all for it. Then,...

I am a very big fan of the podcasters at the Daily Wire: Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, and Andrew Klavan. I don’t agree with them on everything, but I enjoy their intelligent takes and humor. They and I agree that JD Vance did a wonderful job during the vice-presidential debate, but they all missed how well he did on the abortion issue.When Walz was asked about abortion, he launched easily into the shtick that it’s all about women’s healthcare while boasting about what a wonderful state Minnesota is for abortion. He had to lie, of course, about the...

For almost three decades Calvin College professor Pete Tigchelaar (left) has had a three-month-old fetus, encased in plastic, that he uses in his human biology classes.He's always thought of the tiny fetus as a good educational tool. But he's not thought of it as a lifesaver.Last year, however, that changed when a student in one of his biology classes privately inquired if he still had it.Intrigued Tigchelaar said that he did and invited the young woman to his office for further conversation. There he asked why she was interested. She proceeded to tell him an amazing story, one that...

A Christmas Story PHIL DE HAAN For almost three decades Calvin College professor Pete Tigchelaar has had a three-month-old fetus, encased in plastic, that he uses in his human biology classes. He's always thought of the tiny fetus as a good educational tool. But he's not thought of it as a lifesaver. Last year, however, that changed when a student in one of his biology classes privately inquired if he still had it. Intrigued Tigchelaar said that he did and invited the young woman to his office for further conversation. There he asked why she was interested. She proceeded to...

@realDonaldTrump EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT, BECAUSE IT IS UP TO THE STATES TO DECIDE BASED ON THE WILL OF THEIR VOTERS (THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!). LIKE RONALD REAGAN BEFORE ME, I FULLY SUPPORT THE THREE EXCEPTIONS FOR RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER. I DO NOT SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS RADICAL POSITION OF LATE TERM ABORTION LIKE, AS AN EXAMPLE, IN THE 7TH, 8TH, OR 9TH MONTH OR, IN CASE THERE IS ANY QUESTION, THE POSSIBILITY OF EXECUTION OF THE BABY AFTER BIRTH....

The former star of the hit 1970's TV show Wonder Woman has revealed that she will be endorsing her sister's opponents in in the race for Arizona's House of Representatives. Lynda Carter, 72, known for her star-spangled superhero role, has shocked fans by publicly backing her sibling's rivals in the upcoming race. Carter took to social media to endorse Democrats Karen Gresham and Kelli Butler over her flesh-and-blood, Republican sister Pamela Carter, for the District 4 seats. 'As a native Arizonan, I am proud to endorse @KelliButlerAZ and @KarenGreshamAZ for the two LD4 seats in Arizona's State House,' she announced...

One piece of PBS’s coverage of the last night of the Democratic National Convention unwittingly confirmed media labeling bias on PBS and other “mainstream “outlets. First, Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart hailed the Democrat’s vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz for using the supposedly less frightening and more convincing term “gun safety legislation” instead of “gun violence laws” (a term the PBS News Hour also uses). Anchor Geoff Bennett expanded that "language" argument to encompass abortion. Anchor Geoff Bennett, 9:50 p.m. (ET): We have seen Democrats do that on abortion, talking less about abortion rights and more about reproductive freedom. To what...

As an unashamedly pro-life Christian who believes “life begins at conception,” New York Times journalist David French has announced that, “I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 and — ironically enough — I’m doing it in part to try to save conservatism.” With all respect to Mr. French, with whom I’ve dialogued privately about this, I find his position both indefensible and bizarre.

Never before seen footage showing a Planned Parenthood employee appearing to discuss the sale of aborted babies’ body parts was released Tuesday, years after now-Vice President Kamala Harris seized the footage as Attorney General of California. The five-minute video shows a conversation between a person identified as Dr. Stacy De-Lin, Planned Parenthood New York City Medical Director for Abortion Services, and an undercover reporter with the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). During their conversation, De-Lin seems to acknowledge that Planned Parenthood would sell the livers of aborted babies. In one clip, De-Lin is told by a CMP investigator that she...