Pro-life struggle – the current state

Pro-life struggle – the current state
By Terry A. Hurlbut
Next week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government will hold a very special hearing. It will hear from pro-life activists whom the Biden Justice Department has specifically targeted during its four-year existence. The so-called Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act is the immediate issue. But the larger, unspoken issue is abortion itself – why it persists, and where the pro-life movement stands. As that hearing date approaches, another time has come for a complete assessment of that standing, and how the pro-life movement can move forward.
The FACE 2 Hearing and its pro-life witnesses
Today Mary Margaret Olohan, at The Daily Wire, reported on that scheduled hearing. Its title: Revisiting the implications of the FACE Act, Part Two. Part One took place on May 16, 2023, and resulted in this report.
The membership of the Subcommittee is remarkable in itself. It includes four of the most vociferous and vituperative pro-abortion voices in the House. They are Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), and Cori Bush (D-Mo.).
More than that, the report is actually two reports on two different versions of reality. From Republicans come the tales of selective enforcement of the FACE Act to protect abortion mills only. Attackers of “crisis pregnancy centers,” that offer pro-life counseling, have gotten a pass from this Justice Department. One witness, the Executive Director of New Life Family Services in Minneapolis, so testified. (In an ironic twist, an abortion mill in Portland, Oregon suffered an attack by pro-abortion vandals who thought the target was a pro-life center. But from Democrats comes a lurid picture of violent acts directed chiefly, if not solely, at abortion mills. They also deny the selective enforcement of the law that has, in fact, occurred.
Ten pro-life activists remain in prison, for alleged offenses dating from 2020 to the present. (A lawyer, presumably for at least some of those ten, will testify at FACE 2.) But the attacks on crisis pregnancy centers really ratcheted up after the Dobbs decision.
An unrepentant anti-life solon
At the same time, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), former Speaker of the House, is back in the news. Recall that The Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, barred Pelosi from receiving Communion in May 2022. His grounds were her continued support for abortion. This happened after the Great Leak of the Dobbs decision, but before the Supreme Court formally handed that decision down. Of course, the San Francisco Examiner (the flagship Hearst newspaper) condemned the decision, and the then-Speaker formally challenged it.
Yesterday Pelosi granted an interview to the National Catholic Reporter, one of several left-wing nominally Catholic organs. Ironically, she criticized Pope Francis for his recent accommodation of the Chinese Communist Party in its relationship with the Roman Catholic Church in China. But she also touted her defiance of Archbishop Cordileone, in receiving communion despite his ban.
The Roman Catholic Church seems split on what Christ taught and what He did not teach. Half of American Catholics seem to believe that Christ was a Socialist and a Social Justice Warrior. That half also supports abortion as “a right” of a woman who has fallen pregnant by reason of bad planning.
Mary Margaret Olohan, in an article about this interview, quoted the Archbishop on the subject of Pelosi and her defiance:
What immediately comes to my mind are the words of the prophet Ezekiel: “If the just turn away from their right conduct and do evil when I place a stumbling block before them, then they shall die. Since you did not warn them about their sin, they shall still die, and the just deeds that they performed will not be remembered on their behalf. I will, however, hold you responsible for their blood. If, on the other hand, you warn the just to avoid sin, and they do not sin, they will surely live because of the warning, and you in turn shall save your own life.”
That quote may be a slightly inaccurate quote of Ezekiel 3:20-21 in the Douay-Rheims Bible (“The Catholic Bible”). Here is the quote as it should read:
Moreover if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity: I will lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die, because thou hast not given him warning: he shall die in his sin, and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: but I will require his blood at thy hand. But if thou warn the just man, that the just may not sin, and he doth not sin: living he shall live, because thou hast warned him, and thou hast delivered thy soul.
The Greek psyche here can mean “soul” or “life.”
In the Senate (and the House)
Questions about selective enforcement of the law against pro-life activists does not limit itself to the House of Representatives. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has just served a “notice to preserve records” on FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland. In a December 3 letter to both men, the Senator accused “DOJ and FBI employees” of
destroying records and other documents in an effort to conceal the widespread misconduct that took place under the Biden administration. You must immediately stop this attempt to evade accountability, and should terminate any employees involved. Further, you must preserve all Department and Bureau documents in anticipation of congressional investigations to come.
https://x.com/HawleyMO/status/1864090592277316060
Back in the House, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), current Speaker of the House, has served notice that Planned Parenthood is about to lose federal funds. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-heads of the proposed “Department” of Government Efficiency, have already mentioned defunding Planned Parenthood.
On the other hand, Del. Charnielle Herring (D-Alexandria and Fairfax, Va.), Majority Leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, boasted of the passage, on first reading, of a Constitutional amendment permanently legalizing abortion on demand. Virginia is already an “abortion tourist trap,” as this map shows. When introducing that measure, she said:
We as politicians have decided we’re going to determine how to treat a patient and we’re not even in the room with them. We don’t do that with cancer.
Actually, internists specializing in cancer treatment often do precisely that. More to the point, the spectacle of politicians likening an unborn child to a malignant tumor is especially shameful.
Overall, abortions nationwide declined about two percent from 2021 to 2022, according to a CDC report. This even accounts for States playing “abortion tourist trap.”
Toward a proper pro-life manifesto
When the Dobbs decision came down, CNAV said then that this was the pro-life movement’s Battle of Monti La Difensa. While La Difensa was a key objective in the Appenines, its capture by the Fifth Army (spearheaded by the First Special Service Force – “The Devil’s Brigade”) did not represent final victory. That would come later, after a grueling long march that finally ended in Rome.
Today the pro-life movement is on that long march. Long-term demographics should make that march easier with every successive birth year. For example, in Michigan, abortions rose above the national average after Michigan amended its Constitution to “protect” abortion on demand. Michigan’s population is also shrinking. Democrats also lost control of Michigan’s lower house last month. Whether they will regain control at next Midterms remains to be seen.
More to the point, Archbishop Cordileone sounded an important note when he quoted Ezekiel 3:20-21. That verse holds us all responsible for giving warning to anyone having a consciousness of justice, so that such a person will have no confusion in his mind about right and wrong acts. Abortion is the stumbling block of the just in America today (and indeed worldwide, but America is at issue today).
The fastest way to stop abortion, other than a Human Life Amendment, is for someone to bring an action on behalf of an unborn child. Only when the Supreme Court reads that kind of brief, can it address abortion properly. Here’s hoping that brief comes sooner, rather than later.
Link to:
The article:
https://cnav.news/2024/12/11/foundation/constitution/pro-life-struggle-current-state/

The FACE Hearings:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-congress-to-examine-how-biden-doj-targeted-pro-lifers?topStoryPosition=3
https://www.congress.gov/118/chrg/CHRG-118hhrg52287/CHRG-118hhrg52287.pdf

Nancy Pelosi v. the Archbishop:
https://cnav.news/2022/05/21/accountability/clergy-accountability/nancy-pelosi-excommunicated/
https://cnav.news/2022/05/24/accountability/san-francisco-examiner-editorial-board-condemns-archbishop-for-denying-pelosi-communion/
https://cnav.news/2022/05/26/accountability/speaker-pelosi-challenges-archbishops-decision-barring-her-from-receiving-communion/
https://www.ncronline.org/news/ncr-interview-nancy-pelosi-criticizes-pope-francis-over-china-pact

Senator Hawley’s letter:
https://prolifepress.com/this-top-republican-senator-just-sent-a-warning-to-the-department-of-justice-doj-that-has-pro-lifers-cheering/
https://x.com/HawleyMO/status/1864090592277316060

Defunding Planned Parenthood:
https://prolifepress.com/speaker-mike-johnson-just-enraged-the-abortion-lobby-with-his-recent-remark/
https://cnav.news/2024/12/04/accountability/executive/efficiency-experts-coming/

Abortion interactive map:
https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/abortion-state-tracking-trigger-laws-bans-restrictions-rcna36199

Michigan statistics:
https://prolifepress.com/this-governor-fought-like-hell-to-keep-abortion-legal-and-now-abortions-just-hit-a-30-year-record-in-this-rust-belt-state/

Human Life Amendments:
https://cnav.news/2023/06/22/foundation/constitution/human-life-amendment-proposals-effects/

Declarations of Truth:
https://x.com/DecTruth

Declarations of Truth Locals Community:
https://declarationsoftruth.locals.com/

Conservative News and Views:
https://cnav.news/

Clixnet Media
https://clixnet.com/