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☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Governor Kristi Noem Signs Nation’s First ‘Med Ed’ Bill to Combat Abortion Misinformation

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — March 29th 2024 at 15:36

The first-of-its-kind "Med Ed" bill is designed to combat abortion misinformation and provide guidance to healthcare workers.

The post Governor Kristi Noem Signs Nation’s First ‘Med Ed’ Bill to Combat Abortion Misinformation appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Florida Supreme Court Upholds 15-Week Abortion Limit, But Voters Will Decide in November

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 1st 2024 at 19:32

The Florida Supreme Court upheld a 15-week limit on abortion while also allowing a proposed amendment to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution to appear on the ballot.

The post Florida Supreme Court Upholds 15-Week Abortion Limit, But Voters Will Decide in November appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Politics – The Daily Signal

DC Archbishop: Joe Biden Is a ‘Cafeteria Catholic’

By: Mary Margaret Olohan — April 2nd 2024 at 13:09

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., said in an interview over the weekend that President Joe Biden is a “cafeteria Catholic” who “picks and chooses” which parts of Catholicism he will adhere to.

Gregory appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday with the female Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, where he discussed the Catholic president’s open support for issues such as abortion that are in direct contradiction with Catholic Church teaching.

Biden, who describes himself—and has been described by establishment media—as a “devout Catholic,” is open about frequently attending weekly Mass. But the president heads the most pro-abortion administration in United States history; promotes transgender surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers, even for children; and celebrates transgender ideology.

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is a crime against human life, that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that homosexual acts are “contrary to the natural law” and “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”

Although Gregory said that Biden is “very sincere about his faith,” the cardinal added that Biden “picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.”

“There is a phrase that we have used in the past, a ‘cafeteria Catholic,’ [in which] you choose that which is attractive and dismiss that which is challenging,” Gregory explained.

DC’s @WashArchbishop Wilton Gregory: Joe Biden is a “cafeteria Catholic” who “picks and chooses” what parts of Catholicism to actually adhere to or ignore (like abortion). pic.twitter.com/i0Cbs226Uf

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 1, 2024

Gregory continued: “I would say there are things, especially in terms of the life issues, there are things that he chooses to ignore.”

“The issues of life begin at the very beginning. And they conclude at natural death,” the cardinal said. “And you can’t pick and choose. You’re either one who respects life in all of its dimensions, or you have to step aside and say, ‘I’m not pro-life.’”

The Archdiocese of Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal. But the cardinal’s remarks drew praise from Catholics on social media, among them The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, who described Gregory’s comments as “marvelous.”

Good to see some faithful moral leadership from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, especially at a time when the seat of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington is vacant. https://t.co/QqHcI7pKWf

— André Béliveau (@TheRealBeliveau) April 1, 2024

Gregory sparked a backlash in November 2020 when he said in an interview with a leftist Jesuit outlet, America Magazine, that he would not deny Communion to Biden at Mass.

“The kind of relationship that I hope we will have is a conversational relationship, where we can discover areas where we can cooperate that reflect the social teachings of the church, knowing full well that there are some areas where we won’t agree,” Gregory told America Magazine at the time.

His stance drew criticism from traditional Catholics, who argued that Biden’s open embrace of unrestricted abortion constituted a grave scandal.

In September 2021, however, the cardinal offered a rare rebuke of Biden’s denial that life begins at conception, telling the president: “The Catholic Church teaches, and has taught, that human life begins at conception, so the president is not demonstrating Catholic teaching.”

He added: “Our church has not changed its position on the immorality of abortion. I don’t see how we could, because we believe that every human life is sacred.”

The White House would not address Gregory’s most recent remarks. Instead, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates mocked The Daily Signal, the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation, saying, “We refer The Heritage Foundation to the Office of Public Engagement. You have reached the press office.”

The post DC Archbishop: Joe Biden Is a ‘Cafeteria Catholic’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

☑ ☆ ✇ Politics – The Daily Signal

Pro-Abortion Ballot Initiative in Florida Aims to Trick Voters With Vague Definition of ‘Health’

By: Elizabeth Troutman — April 3rd 2024 at 17:33

A ballot initiative OK’d by the Florida Supreme Court perpetuates abortion advocates’ favored strategy of using vague definitions of “health” to expand abortion on demand.

Florida voters will face a referendum measure in November that would allow abortion up to the moment of birth if deemed “necessary to protect the patient’s health” after the state Supreme Court’s decision on Monday allowing the measure on the ballot.

Amendment 4, the so-called Amendment to Limit Government Interference With Abortion, is being pushed by a pro-abortion political committee, Floridians Protecting Freedom.

The proposal’s vague definition of “health” is similar to that of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Doe v. Bolton, which defined “health” of the mother as “all factors” affecting the woman. 

The Supreme Court held in Roe v. Wade that same year that states could issue no regulations for first-trimester abortions and some regulations for second-trimester abortions, but only for the purpose of protecting the “health” of the mother. In the third trimester, when the unborn child is viable, the since-overturned Roe allowed states to make abortion illegal contingent on the existence of exceptions to protect the mother’s life and “health.”

Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known case decided on the same day as Roe, defined the “health” of the mother as “all factors” that affect the woman, including “physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age,” drastically expanding the allowable abortions legalized by Roe. 

Florida’s Amendment 4 similarly would prohibit restrictions on abortion when “necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” 

The proposal would circumvent current state law protecting unborn children with a heartbeat. On the same day the Florida court approved the ballot initiative, it upheld a state law protecting unborn children from most abortions after 15 weeks, enabling a six-week abortion ban approved last year to take effect on May 1. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the six-week ban into law last April, but it couldn’t take effect unless the 15-week ban survived legal challenges in the state Supreme Court. 

Because the text of the constitutional amendment contains no definition of “health” or “health care provider,” the measure would likely legalize abortion at any stage of the pregnancy if anyone who claims medical expertise asserts the mother would benefit from it physically, emotionally, or otherwise. 

Florida statutes define a health care provider as “a physician licensed under chapter 458, an osteopathic physician licensed under chapter 459, a podiatric physician licensed under chapter 461, or an advanced practice registered nurse registered under 464.0123.” If it receives 60% of the vote in November, the ballot initiative would allow any doctor, osteopath, podiatrist, or nurse to determine if a woman’s health could in any way benefit from ending the life of her unborn child. 

Michigan voters legalized abortion up until birth with similarly vague language in a November 2022 ballot initiative. Proposal 3 prohibited laws against abortion if a “health care professional” deemed it to be “medically needed to protect a patient’s life or physical or mental health.”

Broad and unclear definitions of health have allowed half a century of violence against the unborn after Doe v. Bolton, and have ended thousands of lives in Michigan with the passage of Proposal 3. 

In November, Florida voters will have the chance to stop another vague definition of health from turning the Sunshine State from one of the states with the most protections for the unborn to the most pro-abortion state in the South. 

The post Pro-Abortion Ballot Initiative in Florida Aims to Trick Voters With Vague Definition of ‘Health’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Exclusive – Sen. Ron Johnson: 'President Trump Recognizes' How Extreme Democrats Are on Abortion

By: Hannah Knudsen · Hannah Knudsen — April 3rd 2024 at 17:47

Former President Donald Trump recognizes how extreme Democrats are on the issue of abortion, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.

The post Exclusive – Sen. Ron Johnson: ‘President Trump Recognizes’ How Extreme Democrats Are on Abortion appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Nebraska Democrat Censured for Pro-Life Views Before Switching to Republican Party

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 4th 2024 at 15:39

The Nebraska Democrat party censured State Sen. Mike McDonnell on March 2 for his pro-life views and his refusal to comply with the transgender activist agenda, before he ultimately switched to the Republican Party on Wednesday.

The post Nebraska Democrat Censured for Pro-Life Views Before Switching to Republican Party appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Politics – The Daily Signal

Pregnancy Center Slams FBI For Failure to Arrest Pro-Abortion Firebombers

By: Mary Margaret Olohan — April 5th 2024 at 16:45

Staffers at a pro-life pregnancy resource center in Rochester, New York, are criticizing the FBI for failing to provide any kind of status update of investigations into pro-abortion vandals’ attacks on the pregnancy center.

Nearly two years after the initial June 2022 attack, CompassCare pregnancy medical center says that the FBI has put up billboards offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the criminals who firebombed the pregnancy center.

The billboard is placed about a mile away from the center, CompassCare said in a release. The group added that the billboard appeared shortly before the sentencing of a separate pro-abortion arsonist, Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, who in December pleaded guilty to attacking a pro-life organization in Madison, Wisconsin.

(Photo: CompassCare)

CompassCare says that the FBI won’t communicate with them about the billboard, first noticed by the organization on April 1, and won’t provide a status update on its investigation into the attack.

“Supporters have asked if CompassCare paid for this expensive billboard,” said the Rev. Jim Harden, CompassCare CEO, in a statement provided to The Daily Signal. “We did not. The FBI refuses to communicate.”

“The erratic nature of [Department of Justice] and FBI behavior around cases of violence against pro-life groups appears to be PR related, bolstering their reputation when under pressure to produce results by media and congressional judiciary committees,” Harden speculated.

“Perhaps they anticipate more violence against Christian pro-lifers ahead of the next big Supreme Court ruling in June and want to make it look like they care?” he questioned.

The FBI and DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this article.

CompassCare was attacked a second time in March 2023. The Daily Signal’s Virginia Allen reported at the time that surveillance footage from the attack showed an individual wearing a hoodie walk up to the front of the pregnancy center, spray paint the word “Liars” over the CompassCare sign, then walk away back down the street. 

The radical pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge took responsibility for the June 2022 firebombing of the pro-life center. Pro-abortion activists also spray-painted the words “Jane was here” on the side of the building.  

Since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade would soon thereafter be overturned, there have been at least 236 attacks on Catholic churches and at least 90 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers, according to Catholic Vote trackers.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) prohibits the intentional destruction or damage of reproductive health care facilities, theoretically protecting not only abortion clinics, but also pro-life churches and pregnancy centers.

But President Joe Biden’s DOJ charged only pro-life activists with FACE Act violations in 2022, and has since charged only five individuals with violating the FACE Act by targeting pregnancy centers.

In February, conservative leaders called on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to pass the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2023 “as soon as possible.”

“In the aftermath of additional pro-life activists being convicted by the Biden administration under the FACE Act for peacefully protesting outside an abortion business, we respectfully urge you to take immediate legislative action to protect peaceful pro-life activists from the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Justice and an unconstitutional law,” the leaders said in a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal.

“The Biden administration has weaponized the FACE Act against peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors and activists who want to save lives and change hearts and minds,” Advancing American Freedom Executive Director Paul Teller told The Daily Signal at the time.

Virginia Allen contributed to this report.

The post Pregnancy Center Slams FBI For Failure to Arrest Pro-Abortion Firebombers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

☑ ☆ ✇ Politics – The Daily Signal

Trump Makes His Position on Abortion Clear: ‘States Will Determine’

By: Virginia Allen — April 8th 2024 at 08:32

Former President Donald Trump says each state should follow “the will of the people” and pass state-specific laws on abortion.   

“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in a video posted Monday morning on Truth Social.  

Trump’s position on abortion has previously been unclear looking toward the 2024 presidential election, despite the fact that the former president appointed three Supreme Court justices who ultimately made it possible to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022 by a majority vote.  

“I want to thank the six justices: Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch,” Trump said. He called them “incredible people, for having the courage to allow this long-term, hard-fought battle to finally end.”

Trump appointed Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.

“This 50-year battle over Roe v. Wade took it out of the federal hands and brought it into the hearts, minds, and vote of the people at each state,” Trump added. “Now it’s up to the states to do the right thing.” 

Further clarifying his view on abortion, he said he supports “exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.”

“You must follow your heart on this issue, but remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and in fact to save our country, which is currently and very sadly a nation in decline,” he added.

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement Monday morning.  

“Unborn children and their mothers deserve national protections and national advocacy from the brutality of the abortion industry. The Dobbs decision clearly allows both states and Congress to act,” Dannenfelser said, referring to the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ultimately used by the high to overturn Roe v. Wade.  

“Saying the issue is ‘back to the states’ cedes the national debate to the Democrats who are working relentlessly to enact legislation mandating abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy,” Dannenfelser said. “If successful, they will wipe out states’ rights.”

Trump criticized Democrats’ abortion positions in his remarks, saying: “Democrats are the radical ones in this position, because they support abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month. The concept of having an abortion in the later months and even execution after birth—and that’s exactly what it is, the baby is born, the baby is executed after birth—is unacceptable, and almost everyone agrees with that.” 

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, praised Trump for “celebrating ‘the ultimate joy in life’—children and family” in his comments.

“That kind of love and support for the bedrock of society, the family, will be a welcome change in the White House,” Hawkins said. However, she added, “We clearly have some work to do to educate the Trump administration to come on the many ways that abortion has been made federal.”  

CatholicVote President Brian Burch also responded to Trump’s abortion video, arguing that the “federal government cannot abandon women and children exploited by abortion. Leaving abortion policy to the states is not sufficient.”

“President Trump’s latest statement also reflects the electoral minefield created by Democrat abortion fanaticism,” Burch said. “The fact remains that pro-life voters need to win elections to protect mothers and children. Further, Democrats are now preparing a billion-dollar election-year barrage with radical abortion as its centerpiece. While Trump did not commit to any specific pro-life policies, he notably will not stand in the way of states that have acted to protect innocent children from the violent abortion industry.” 

Trump began the video, which runs 4 minutes and 23 seconds, by expressing his support for the family and the creation of families through in vitro fertilization, or IVF.  

“Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, and healthy American families,” Trump said. “We want to make it easier for mothers and families to have babies, not harder. That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.” 

“Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, including the vast majority of Republicans, conservatives, Christians, and pro-life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby,” the former president said.  

The post Trump Makes His Position on Abortion Clear: ‘States Will Determine’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Donald Trump Reveals Abortion Position, Says States Should Decide

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 8th 2024 at 09:26

President Donald Trump officially announced his position on abortion on Monday, ending months-long speculation about how he would handle the issue should he be elected in November.

The post Donald Trump Reveals Abortion Position, Says States Should Decide appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Exclusive – Trump Campaign Crushes Biden for Fake Abortion Hoax: ‘Desperate to Spread Misinformation’

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 8th 2024 at 13:13

Biden's campaign devolved into another anti-Trump hoax after the former president released a video revealing his abortion position.

The post Exclusive – Trump Campaign Crushes Biden for Fake Abortion Hoax: ‘Desperate to Spread Misinformation’ appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Politics – The Daily Signal

Citing Pro-Life Views, Nebraska State Senator Switches Parties

By: S.A. McCarthy — April 8th 2024 at 15:51

A Nebraska state legislator is transitioning from blue to red after his own party censured him for having a pro-life stance. Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell officially left the Democratic Party last week after 40 years and became a Republican.

In a written statement explaining his decision, McDonnell wrote: “I have asked the Democratic Party to respect my religious based pro-life position. Instead over the last year they have decided to punish me for being pro-life.”

Last month, the Nebraska Democratic Party voted to censure McDonnell, a Catholic, over his pro-life record, contending that his stance “adversely affected the reproductive rights of Nebraskans and the rights of transgender individuals in the state.”

Douglas County Democrats also voted in January to deny party funding to McDonnell due to his votes against abortion measures and against gender-transition procedures for minors.

“The state Democratic Party voted to censure me because I am pro-life,” McDonnell wrote. “Being a Christian, a member of the Roman Catholic Church and pro-life is more important to me than being a registered Democrat. Today I am changing my party affiliation to Republican.”

In a speech addressing his decision, McDonnell explained that he registered as a Democrat in 1984 and ran for the state Legislature in 2016.

“I wanted to see how we could grow our state and reduce property taxes at the same time,” he said. “I asked the Democratic Party of Douglas County to respect that I’m pro-life, that I’m a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and my beliefs are based on that. But Douglas County Democrats, instead of respecting that, they decided to punish it. … I continued to vote pro-life.”

“This is not an easy decision,” the state senator added. “After 40 years of being a registered Democrat, having your grandfather tell you when you’re 10 years old, ‘What are we? We’re Irish, we’re Catholic, and we’re Democrats.’ That kind of stuck with me.”

Pointing to his new Republican Party colleagues, McDonnell said: “Over the last year, regardless of my decision [on] switching parties, they have been so supportive. … We had great discussions about what the Republican Party is doing, where they’re trying to go, how I potentially could fit in there. But the greatest thing about [it] is now I can participate again.”

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., a former governor of the state, responded to McDonnell’s decision by writing on X: “I am pleased to welcome Sen. Mike McDowell to the Republican team.” He added: “The extreme new Democrats are pushing commonsense officials and voters to our party.”

McDonnell is far from the only Catholic abandoning the Democratic Party due to what many consider mandatory abortion extremism.

Recent studies show that white American Catholics have been drifting away from the party for decades, but in increasing numbers over the past two decades, coalescing instead around the GOP.

A survey of Michigan voters found last month that former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee credited with appointing three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who enabled the dismantling of Roe v. Wade, holds a significant lead among Catholic voters over President Joe Biden, a Democrat and self-described Catholic.

A week ago, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, called Biden a “cafeteria Catholic” due to his rejection of the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion.

In response to McDonnell’s new party affiliation, Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb issued a written statement saying: “The Nebraska Democratic Party will continue to stand up for reproductive freedom and the human rights of the LGBTQ community.”

Kleeb added: “Our decision to censure Sen. McDonnell was never about him being a pro-life Catholic. Our decision was based on our party reaffirming our core values to protect women’s ability to make health decisions and to keep politicians out of our personal health decisions.”

Originally published by The Washington Stand

                  

The post Citing Pro-Life Views, Nebraska State Senator Switches Parties appeared first on The Daily Signal.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Pro-Life Organizations Have Mixed Reactions to Donald Trump’s Abortion Position

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 8th 2024 at 18:28

Trump says abortion laws should be left to individual states — a position accepted by some leading pro-life organizations and not others. 

The post Pro-Life Organizations Have Mixed Reactions to Donald Trump’s Abortion Position appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Politics – The Daily Signal

EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Must Defend Catholic Churches From More Expected Pro-Abortion Attacks, Leader Says

By: Mary Margaret Olohan — April 9th 2024 at 12:09

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A prominent Catholic organization is calling on the Department of Justice to defend Catholic churches from anticipated pro-abortion attacks, pointing to the disparities in the DOJ’s enforcement of a law protecting both abortion clinics and churches.

In a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal, CatholicVote President Brian Burch calls on Attorney General Merrick Garland to detail what steps the DOJ plans to take to “combat the incessant attacks against Catholic churches.”

“How much more violence needs to happen before you will act?” he asks Garland. “Why is the FACE Act being enforced against Holocaust survivors, but not [against] those who attempt to destroy churches or even kill Catholics?”

The letter references President Joe Biden’s administration’s focus on prosecuting pro-life activists through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. As recently as April 3, the DOJ announced that a federal judge found four pro-life activists guilty of violating the FACE Act—including an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, Eva Edl.

“We have had enough of the Biden administration prosecuting pro-lifers while ignoring attacks against Catholic churches across the country,” Burch told The Daily Signal on Tuesday.

“Attorney General Garland’s silence on these hate crimes is deafening,” he added. “Many more attacks are expected this year if he continues to turn a blind eye. It is well past time for the Biden administration to act.”

CatholicVote points out to the DOJ that a man in Verona, New Jersey, set a Catholic Church on fire on April 4. This was the third time since 2018 that this individual, named Elliot Bennett, 42, had “engaged in violence and vandalism against the church,” Burch said. Bennett had been charged with criminal mischief and a hate crime related to prior incidents.

“The Verona incident was the 21st attack on a Catholic church in 2024, the 247th attack since Catholic churches across the country were put under organized siege by pro-abortion domestic terrorists after the Supreme Court leak [of a pending ruling overturning Roe v. Wade] in May 2022, and the 412th attack since general civil unrest swept the nation in May 2020,” Burch wrote. “We have found evidence of arrests in only about 25% of these cases, and zero federal prosecutions.”

The FACE Act protects churches in the same way that it protects abortion clinics, Burch emphasized.

“And yet under your leadership, the Biden administration has refused to prosecute a single act of violence against a Catholic church despite many other cases of arson and firebombing; pro-abortion protesters blocking church entrances and disrupting Masses; and even physical assaults on priests and parishioners, among many other types of violence,” the CatholicVote leader said.

“These attacks have caused at least $25 million in quantifiable damage to churches and instilled fear into hundreds of Catholic communities,” he added.

Though the DOJ promised CatholicVote in December 2021 that it would conduct a 15-day review to ensure that appropriate resources are being deployed to protect houses of worship, this review apparently has not occurred. And according to Burch, the violence has not only continued, but “increased, unabated.”

“This problem is taking on new urgency this year,” he wrote. “Up to a dozen states will be voting on abortion-related ballot initiatives. We have seen surges of attacks against Catholic churches during voting on abortion ballot initiatives in Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio, which had signs expressing their opposition to abortion.”

Pope Francis—flanked from left by then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and then-Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio—waves from the Speaker’s Balcony at the U.S. Capitol after his speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Sept. 24, 2015. (Photo: Douglas Graham/CQ-Roll Call)

CatholicVote argues that Catholic churches and individuals have an absolute right to practice their faith, and that these attacks against churches that stand for the right to life are “textbook examples of voter intimidation and voter suppression.”

He added: “You have sued multiple states which you allege are engaging in voter suppression, comparing their laws to those of the Jim Crow era, yet you have not devoted a single minute of federal time to addressing the intimidation and suppression of Catholic voters, which bears striking similarities to the prejudice and violence against African Americans during the Jim Crow era.”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal.

Since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade would soon thereafter be overturned, there have been at least 236 attacks on Catholic churches and at least 90 attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers, according to CatholicVote trackers.

Yet the Biden DOJ charged only pro-life activists with FACE Act violations in 2022, and has since charged only five individuals with violating the FACE Act for targeting pregnancy centers.

In February, conservative leaders called on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2023 “as soon as possible.”

“In the aftermath of additional pro-life activists being convicted by the Biden administration under the FACE Act for peacefully protesting outside an abortion business, we respectfully urge you to take immediate legislative action to protect peaceful pro-life activists from the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Justice and an unconstitutional law,” the leaders said in a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal.

AG Merrick Garland arrives for a listening session on reducing gun violence at St. Agatha Catholic Church on July 22, 2021, in Chicago. (Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

“The Biden administration has weaponized the FACE Act against peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors and activists who want to save lives and change hearts and minds,” Advancing American Freedom Executive Director Paul Teller told The Daily Signal at the time.

The failure to prosecute attacks on Catholic churches under the FACE Act has drawn particular attention in light of the fact that Biden is the nation’s second Catholic president and is often described by the media as a “devout Catholic”—though the president heads the most pro-abortion administration in U.S. history; promotes transgender surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers, even for children; and celebrates transgender ideology.

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is a crime against human life, that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that homosexual acts are “contrary to the natural law” and “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”

In an Easter weekend interview, the left-leaning archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, described the president as a “cafeteria Catholic” who “picks and chooses” which parts of Catholicism to adhere to.

 “I would say there are things, especially in terms of the life issues, there are things that he chooses to ignore,” Gregory said.

“The issues of life begin at the very beginning. And they conclude at natural death,” the cardinal said. “And you can’t pick and choose. You’re either one who respects life in all of its dimensions, or you have to step aside and say, ‘I’m not pro-life.’”

The post EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Must Defend Catholic Churches From More Expected Pro-Abortion Attacks, Leader Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Arizona Supreme Court Upholds 1864 Law Limiting Nearly All Abortions

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 9th 2024 at 15:22

The court ruled that the state must abide by a 123-year-old law which bars all abortions except to save the life of the mother. 

The post Arizona Supreme Court Upholds 1864 Law Limiting Nearly All Abortions appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Donald Trump: 'The Democrats Are the Radicals on Abortion'

By: Hannah Knudsen · Hannah Knudsen — April 9th 2024 at 14:54

Democrats are the "radicals" on abortion, former President Donald Trump said after revealing his official position on the issue.

The post Donald Trump: ‘The Democrats Are the Radicals on Abortion’ appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Joe Biden Decries Arizona Supreme Court Ruling Upholding 1864 Law Limiting Nearly All Abortions

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 10th 2024 at 19:10

Biden is blaming the "extreme agenda" of Republicans for the Arizona Supreme Court ruling upholding a law that limits nearly all abortions. 

The post Joe Biden Decries Arizona Supreme Court Ruling Upholding 1864 Law Limiting Nearly All Abortions appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Kamala Harris to Promote Abortion in Arizona After State Supreme Court Ruling

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 10th 2024 at 20:33

Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to Arizona to promote the killing of the unborn following a historic ruling from the state supreme court upholding an 1864 law that bars nearly all abortions.

The post Kamala Harris to Promote Abortion in Arizona After State Supreme Court Ruling appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Arizona Republicans Block Effort to Repeal 1864 Near-Total Abortion Ban

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 10th 2024 at 21:06

Arizona Republicans stalled an effort on Wednesday to vote on a bill that would repeal a near-total ban on abortion from 1864, which the Arizona Supreme Court ruled this week is "enforceable."

The post Arizona Republicans Block Effort to Repeal 1864 Near-Total Abortion Ban appeared first on Breitbart.

☑ ☆ ✇ Breitbart News

Democrat Arizona AG Says She Will Not Enforce 1864 Law Banning Most Abortions

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 11th 2024 at 14:43

Arizona's Democrat Attorney General says she will not enforce a law that was upheld by the state Supreme Court banning nearly all abortions. 

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Biden Campaign Launches 7-Figure Ad Buy About Abortion in Arizona

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 11th 2024 at 13:35

Biden's campaign launched the ad buy in the wake of the state Supreme Court's decision to uphold an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions.

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Thousands Rally in Poland Against Plans to Expand Abortion Laws by Liberal Government

By: Breitbart London · Breitbart London — April 14th 2024 at 11:49

Thousands marched in Warsaw to protest the liberal government's plans to loosen the predominantly Catholic nation's strict abortion laws.

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Man Sentenced to 7.5 Years for Firebombing Wisconsin Pro-Life Organization in 2022

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 16th 2024 at 16:25

A pro-abortion activist was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison last week for firebombing a Wisconsin pro-life organization in 2022.

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Poll: Most Voters Do Not Support Abortion Throughout Pregnancy

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 17th 2024 at 19:28

While many Americans identify as pro-choice, a strong majority do not think abortion should be legal past the third month of pregnancy.

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Arizona GOP Again Blocks Effort to Repeal 1864 Abortion Law but Senate Clears Path

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 17th 2024 at 21:28

Arizona House Republicans fended off another attempt on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law that limits nearly all abortions — a law that the Arizona Supreme Court recently upheld over a new 15-week abortion limit.

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EXCLUSIVE: She Survived a Death Camp. Facing Biden DOJ Charges, She Is Prepared to Die in Prison

By: Mary Margaret Olohan — April 21st 2024 at 02:01

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Eva Edl turned 10 years old in a World War II-era death camp.

She believes she may die in a United States prison.

Charged by President Joe Biden’s Justice Department with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, Edl faces up to 11 years in prison and $350,000 fines. She is about to turn 89 years old.

“When I was indicted, I began to prepare to die there,” she said thoughtfully in a phone interview with The Daily Signal. “Right now, I am ambivalent. … I’m doing the best I can to get ready. Haven’t talked to a funeral director yet.”

“I’m just being sensible,” she added. “There’s no guarantee that I survive it.”

Drawing on her brutal experiences with communism in what was then Yugoslavia, she refuses to underestimate those who have the power to oppress her, recalling how her mother couldn’t believe they were in danger until it was too late.

“We haven’t done anything wrong! Who would harm us?” she remembered her mother saying.

“Then our whole people was destroyed,” Edl said. “We hadn’t done anything wrong, as far as I know.”

As Danube Swabians, an ethnic German-speaking group, Edl and her family were rounded up in the aftermath of World War II by soldiers under the direction of Yugoslavia’s communist leader, Josip Broz, commonly known as Tito.

The cover of a book by Leopold Rohrbacher describes the eradication of the Danube Swabians. “A People Eliminated: The Extermination of Danube Swabians in Yugoslavia.” Edl says: “The two pictures on the cover are the only two photographs we have. We were not liberated by any army, which would have been able to document the atrocities. The picture of the little girl was taken in Austria after her grandmother was able to escape with her. The little girl’s name was Herta Gärtner.” (Photo: Eva Edl)

She described how she was shipped off in cattle cars to a concentration camp in Yugoslavia at age 9: “We were packed body to body, and being a small child, I could hardly breathe. We had no food, no water … .”

The camp (named Gakowa, or Gakovo, according to Edl) was “primitive,” she said, and its purpose was the extermination of the Danube Swabians. Many of those in Gakowa with Edl died from starvation or disease and were buried in mass graves.

She slept on straw. She had her one dress. Very little food.

“You couldn’t wash your clothes because all you have is that one dress,” she explained. “So, you were filthy. And then we had diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, and rats and anything you could imagine, and we had no toilet facilities to contain all that. We had an outhouse. Well, how do you have masses of people with diarrhea just go to one outhouse? So, you know what happened. And filth and disease went rampant.”

Eva Edl’s family in the summer of 1944. Eva (top right) was 9 years old at the time. (Photo: Eva Edl)

Her mother, forced to work as a slave laborer in the fields, escaped and smuggled herself into the camp in a wagon full of corn, determined to find her young daughter among the thousands of prisoners, Edl says. Soldiers poked through the load of corn with bayonets, just barely missing her mother.

Edl’s mother finally found her young daughter lying on a pile of rancid straw, starving, too weak to walk, “festering” with lice and other creatures.

The scene was so horrific that it caused Edl’s mother to rush outside and vomit, although Edl did not learn this until years later. At the time, she was so weak she could barely register her mother’s presence, and she could scarcely recognize her mother, thin and emaciated as she was. But it seemed to Edl a miracle that they had been reunited—even in a concentration camp.

“I just couldn’t believe it was her,” she explained. “It took a while.”

Edl’s stories of her time in the death camp feature many brave women: her grandmother, who voluntarily chose to go to the concentration camp with her in order to protect her; her mother, who repeatedly risked death to reunite her children and get them safely to the United States; and her sister, who, forced by a soldier to dig her own grave, looked him in the eye and dared him to kill her. (He didn’t, according to Edl.)

So, it should come as no surprise that Edl, after she came to the United States in 1955 and was exposed to a human rights crisis she had never before heard of, decided that she must do whatever was in her power to save lives.

Eva Edl poses with her husband, two daughters, and son, in the spring of 1990, just after her husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. (He died six months later.) Edl says she has 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild, “seven living, three in heaven.” (Photo: Eva Edl)

Edl took an English course around 1968, and during the course, someone brought up whether or not the United States should legalize abortion. (Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision in which the Supreme Court ruled that there was a constitutional right to abortion, did not come about until 1973.)

“I didn’t know what [abortion] meant,” Edl said. She was blown away by the explanation she received. As she spoke with The Daily Signal, she reflected that an unborn baby is not a tumor, but a life. No one should have the ability to just end a baby’s life, she said.

“I tried to speak up in that subject, but I must have done a very bad job because I don’t think I convinced the person that I was speaking with. And after that, I just brought the subject up all the time because it bothered me that people would actually think of killing their own children.”

During the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, she first learned that abortions don’t take place in a secretive, underhanded fashion; rather, that unborn babies are aborted within abortion clinics, places that openly advertise their gruesome services. Edl was shocked.

Hundreds of pro-life protesters demonstrated outside the convention beginning in July 1988. In October 1988, police arrested about 400 protesters in connection to those demonstrations, The New York Times reported.

It was during that time period, after discussing the matter with her husband and getting his blessing, that Edl joined the protesters as they prayed outside an abortion clinic in Atlanta and attempted to dissuade women from going inside and aborting their babies.

“We are doing what we are condemning others for,” Edl says she told her husband at the time. “This is what people should have done for us.”

She was arrested that day with many others, led by Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry.

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry Prays outside a Boulder, Colo., abortion clinic on Oct. 7, 1990. (Photo: Glen Martin/The Denver Post/Getty Images)

Edl says the police treated them brutally, dislocating the arms of many of the protesters arrested. The pro-life activists had been warned that police were prepared to be brutal, she explained, and to avoid any appearance of accosting police, the activists crawled on their knees rather than walked.

“I was weeping the whole time,” she said. “I must have left a trail of tears … .”

She was inconsolable that America would even consider aborting its unborn.

“America, in my eyes, was this country of justice and opportunity and everything that is good,” she said. “A beacon for us, over there, that didn’t know what all that meant, because we had nothing but oppression from whoever was ruling us at the time.”

When an officer put his hand on her shoulders, she froze, as she had been instructed.

“I heard somebody say, ‘Just use your nightstick,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, Lord, here they come. They’re going to club me.’ They just put the club, the nightstick, behind my arms. They hung me on it and nearly dislocated my shoulders, and just threw me on the bus. Other people got their shoulders totally dislocated; others got their heads bashed in. Some ended up in the hospital.”

That was her first “rescue”—the term that pro-life activists use for their attempts to stop abortions from taking place at an abortion clinic. Under the FACE Act, such activity is considered a crime.

The FACE Act prohibits use of force, obstruction, or property damage intended to interfere with “reproductive health care services.” Though it theoretically protects houses of worship and pregnancy resource centers, as well as abortion clinics, the Biden administration’s Justice Department has largely used FACE to prosecute pro-life activists like Edl.

The Rev. Flip Benham of Dallas, a member of the Christian Defense Coalition, prays with Eva Edl of Aiken, S.C., alongside the Rev. Cal Zastrow as they gather in front of a Senate office building on Capitol Hill on Sept. 6, 2001. (Photo credit: Mike Theiler/AFP/Getty Images)

Since 2022, the year the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Justice Department has hit a total of 40 pro-life activists with FACE-related charges at five different rescues, or “blockades” as the DOJ calls them.

Edl describes a rescue in the following way: “We would put our bodies in front of the entrance of the abortion clinic, which I call the ‘death camp,’ so nobody could come in and kill the babies.”

Since that October 1988 incident, Edl says, she has been part of more than 50 rescues throughout the United States. She also says that she has been arrested about 50 times.

Now, she faces prison time.

“To the best of my knowledge, I am facing around 11 years in prison and $350,000 fines,” she said.

The Justice Department has thrice charged Edl with violating the FACE Act, first for an “August 2020 blockade” of a Sterling Heights, Michigan, abortion clinic; second for an April 2021 “blockade” in Saginaw, Michigan; and third for a March 2021 incident at a Nashville, Tennessee, abortion clinic. The DOJ charged eight defendants in the Sterling Heights incident and 11 defendants in the Nashville incident.

Edl maintains that she never committed any violence against those at the abortion clinics. (The DOJ would not respond to requests for comment about its charges against her.) She says that her actions are completely justified, given that she is trying to save the lives of babies about to be aborted.

“Let me liken it to something,” Edl explained thoughtfully as we discussed her arrests around the country. She referred back to her time in Gakowa. “When we were rounded up to be killed, we were placed in cattle cars, and our train was headed toward the extermination camp. What if citizens of my country would have overcome their fear, and a number of them stood on those railroad tracks between the gate of the entrance to the death camp and the train? The train would have to stop. And while the guards on those trains would be busy rounding up the ones that were in front of the train, another group could have come in, pried open our cattle car and possibly set us free, but nobody did.”

She has heard stories that people stood by the roadside and wept as the cattle cars went by. “But that didn’t help us any,” she said.

“So, when we place our bodies between the woman and the clinic, we buy time to get our sidewalk counselors the opportunity to speak with women, and hopefully open their hearts with love for their babies and let their babies live,” the death camp survivor said.

“After all,” she added, “we offer them everything there is, including adoptions. I’ve offered to adopt babies on the spot … we’re standing between the killer and the victim.”

Congress passed the FACE Act in 1994, and then-President Bill Clinton signed it into law that same year. Spearheaded by the now-deceased Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., the legislation was a response to attacks on abortionists and abortion clinics. Pro-life advocates made sure that the legislation included clauses stating that it also protects churches and pregnancy resource centers.

In recent months, some conservative lawmakers and activists have called for the legislation to be repealed, arguing that it has been weaponized against pro-life activists.

They point to the large number of DOJ FACE charges against pro-life activists, noting that hundreds of churches and pregnancy resource centers have been attacked by pro-abortion vandals since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned. The DOJ has charged only five pro-abortion vandals in connection with attacks on Florida pregnancy centers and an Ohio pregnancy center.

It appears that no vandals have been charged with FACE for attacking churches.

Eva Edl, a supporter of a brain-damaged Florida woman, Terri Schiavo, prays moments before being arrested for trespassing for attempting to take water into the Woodside Hospice for Schiavo on March 23, 2005, in Pinellas Park, Florida. A federal judge the day before had rejected a request from the parents of Schiavo to reinsert her feeding tube in a different sort of right-to-life case that made national news at the time. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Edl, who has followed the FACE Act and its application since its inception, said she was arrested in Kennedy’s office when she went to talk to him about it in the 1990s.

“Instead of talking to us, he had us arrested,” she said of Kennedy.

She believes that she and her fellow pro-life activists are being targeted through the FACE Act because they “are in the way of [the Biden administration’s] agenda.” She has lived through 13 presidents in her lifetime, and she says that Biden is the worst of them.

Edl and the other defendants accused of violating the FACE Act have said that they are not allowed to show images or pictures in their trials. They are not allowed to say that they acted in order to save lives—the lives of unborn babies.

At the end of the day, however, she seems very at peace about the possible penalties. She’s getting her affairs in order. She had a bench trial in federal court in Nashville, where a federal judge found her and several others guilty of violating the FACE Act.

Edl and the other three defendants face a maximum of six months in prison, five years of supervised release, and fines of up to $10,000 in this case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.

She will be sentenced July 30, she said. And her next trial is in federal court in Detroit on Aug. 6.

“I feel very strongly, because of my background, that human life is sacred,” she said simply. “Government does not have the authority to permit what God forbids.”

“And murder is forbidden by God.”

The post EXCLUSIVE: She Survived a Death Camp. Facing Biden DOJ Charges, She Is Prepared to Die in Prison appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Gavin Newsom Proposes Law Allowing Arizonans to Get Abortions in California

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 22nd 2024 at 15:42

California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to be a "good neighbor" by allowing Arizonans to abort their babies in his state, he said during an appearance on MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki on Sunday.

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Florida Republicans Mock Joe Biden's Visit to Stump for Abortion: 'Floridians Reject' Your Policies

By: Hannah Knudsen · Hannah Knudsen — April 23rd 2024 at 14:19

Florida Republicans on Tuesday mocked President Joe Biden's visit to the state, as he traveled to Tampa to deliver a pro-abortion address.

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Arizona House Passes Bill to Scrap 1864 Near-Total Abortion Ban

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 24th 2024 at 16:00

Arizona representatives voted to repeal an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions after a few Republicans joined Democrats in passing the bill. 

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Biden Admin Bars Using Medical Records to Investigate Out-of-State Abortions

By: Katherine Hamilton · Katherine Hamilton — April 26th 2024 at 13:53

HHS finalized a rule this week that prevents medical records from being used in criminal investigations regarding women who leave their states to get an abortion. 

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Exclusive -- Arizona State Rep. Travis Grantham: Abortion Law Was Recodified in 1977 By Democrats

By: Hannah Knudsen · Hannah Knudsen — April 29th 2024 at 11:18

The controversial 1864 abortion law in Arizona was actually recodified in 1977 by a Democrat governor and a Democrat legislature, Arizona State Rep. Travis Grantham (R) revealed during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.

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