Good Morning!
Karl Marx was wrong about many things, but he was right when he observed, “Revolutions are locomotives of history.”
We begin the first full week of a post-Roe America thanks to a half-century long pro-life revolution:
1. Exclusive: Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly Speaks with Dr. Helen Alvare and Dr. Al Mohler
In light of the landmark decision of the Supreme Court on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, Professor Helen Alvaré and Dr. Al Mohler provide analysis, discuss the implications, and explain how believers need to continue to be involved in the fight to preserve life as the battle heads to the states.
Click here to listen.
RELATED:
The Magnificence of Dobbs
From Public Discourse:
The Greatest Supreme Court Decision of All Time?
Enter Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, decided by the Supreme Court Friday. Dobbs overruled Roe v. Wade’s constitutionally indefensible and morally atrocious creation of a nonexistent constitutional right to abortion of the life of a human fetus throughout pregnancy—a “constitutional right” of some human beings to kill other human beings (to describe the holding of Roe bluntly but not unfairly). Dobbs overruled Planned Parenthood v. Casey’s even more pernicious decision reaffirming Roe not on the basis that it was right but on the basis of a perverted version of the judicial doctrine of “stare decisis” and the Court’s desire to preserve its imagined image of infallibility, supremacy, and prestige.
Though we are too close to the Dobbs decision to evaluate it truly dispassionately, and though the decision’s full potential consequences have not yet been achieved (and may never be), it remains possible to make an immediate judgment:
Dobbs may be the most important, magnificent, rightly decided Supreme Court case of all time. It is as important as Brown v. Board of Education. It is as fundamental to the Constitution as Youngstown Sheet & Tube. It is as beautiful, in its own way, as Barnette. It is restorative of constitutional principle. It upholds the values of representative, democratic self-government, and the rule of law, at the same time that it supports the protection of fundamental human rights. It is literally a matter of life and death. It is potentially transformative of American society, for the better. It is a rare act of judicial courage and principle. In every way, Dobbs is a truly great decision.
2. Christian pregnancy center in Colorado vandalized and burned following Roe v. Wade reversal
From The New York Post:
A Colorado Christian crisis center for pregnant women was vandalized and set on fire Saturday morning, a day after the US Supreme Court reversed federal protection of abortions.
Police responded to a fire at Life Choices in Longmont around 3:20 a.m., and found the building ablaze with covered with graffiti messages referencing the controversial overturning of Roe v. Wade, officials said.
“If abortions aren’t safe neither are you,” one message read, accompanied by the circled “A” anarchy symbol.
3. The Justices Didn’t Lie to the Senate
From the Wall Street Journal:
Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Manchin said Friday they feel Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch deceived them on the precedent point in testimony and in their private meetings with the Justices. We weren’t in those meetings, but we’d be stunned if either Justice came close to making a pledge about Roe.
The reason is that the first rule of judging is that you can’t pre-judge a case. Judges are limited under Article III of the Constitution to hearing cases and controversies, and that means ruling on facts and law that are specific to those cases.
The claims of deceit are especially unfortunate because they suggest that the Court is no different from the political branches. This is damaging to the Court’s credibility, whether the majority leans to the left or the right. The current majority won’t last forever, perhaps not even many more years, and Democrats deriding the current Court as political won’t be pleased if Republicans make the same claim when their appointees are back in the majority.
The fury of the left’s reaction isn’t merely about guns and abortion. It reflects their grief at having lost the Court as the vehicle for achieving policy goals they can’t get through legislatures. The cultural victories they achieved by judicial fiat will now have to be won by persuading voters. We understand their frustration, but they ought to try democracy for a change. They might even win the debate over abortion.
RELATED:
Biden still opposes expanding Supreme Court despite Roe ruling
From the Washington Examiner:
President Joe Biden does not support expanding the Supreme Court despite it ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, his press secretary said over the weekend.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the comments while speaking to reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One en route to Germany for this year’s G-7 summit.
In the aftermath of the court’s latest rulings, specifically it’s decision to overturn Roe, a growing chorus of progressive Democrats have begun calling for expanding the number of justices on the bench.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called for expanding the court over the weekend, as did Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
4. Football Coach Joseph Kennedy Talks About Life After The Supreme Court Ruling
From Religion Unplugged:
Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington, is waiting for a ruling to emerge from the Supreme Court any day in his case about prayer. And he insists he is a centrist that most Americans would agree with on religious freedom issues and the Constitution.
Kennedy, a former U.S. Marine, made a habit of walking to the 50-yard line after each game to bend a knee and offer a prayer of gratitude. As more players gathered with Kennedy for his prayer over time, some players and families said they felt “compelled to participate” out of fear they would lose playing time. Eventually, the Bremerton School District began battling Kennedy over his practices involving his faith and his work. He lost his job. And he filed a lawsuit in 2016. After a series of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case in 2019 but did hear the case this year.
NFL players such as Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, Chicago Bears quarterback Nick Foles and others submitted a brief supporting Kennedy and invoking Colin Kaepernick as someone who also exercised his free speech rights. Another group of former professional players and college athletes signed their names to a brief in support of the school district, warning that religious speech like Kennedy’s was coercive.
As he waited for the ruling in early July, coach Kennedy and one of his lawyers, Stephanie Taub, spoke with ReligionUnplugged.com contributor Jovan Tripkovic.
The conversation has been edited slightly for brevity and clarity.
5. Christian bakers fined $135K for not baking gay wedding cake fundraise to relaunch business
From the Christian Post:
Aaron and Melissa Klein, a Christian couple whose bakery has been held up in the courts for years and were ordered to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, are now working on opening a new shop to “show God’s goodness to everyone.”
The Kleins, who owned Sweet Cakes by Melissa until an Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries order sought to punish them for refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2013, moved to Montana two years ago and are hoping to start a new bakery, says Melissa Klein in an online appeal for funds.
“I had said I was never going to open a bakery again, but God has seemed to change my heart with this,” she adds. “It’s been 10 years since having my shop in Oregon and I greatly miss it along with all my sweet customers.”
Klein further explains that her family needs to raise $50,000 for a down payment on a restaurant that is for sale in Montana which could be “the home of Sweet Cakes.” She adds that she is also selling cookies to raise the money.
As of early Sunday, 132 people had given nearly $14,000 to the couple.
6. Is dyslexia a gift? Disorder actually helped some of history’s greatest minds achieve success
From Study Finds:
Dyslexia has affected some of history’s greatest figures, including Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Prof. Stephen Hawking. Entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Steve Jobs – who went on to build billion-dollar companies – have also dealt with developmental dyslexia. Now, scientists have discovered people with the learning disorder actually have special skills that have enabled our species to survive.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge say these individuals are better at solving problems and adapting to challenges, so much so that they could hold the key to tackling climate change. Those with the common learning disability specialize in exploring the unknown, likely to be vital in the coming decades as space exploration takes off.
Estimates suggest that dyslexia could affect up to one in five people in the United States. It mainly causes problems with reading, writing, and spelling. Celebrities who have been afflicted range from Walt Disney and John Lennon to Jamie Oliver and Keira Knightley. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and JFK left an indelible mark on the world as presidents of the United States, regardless of their spelling ability.
7. We Need Masculine Men
From the American Conservative:
C.S. Lewis, who also dedicated many lines to understanding the heart of man, said that the gentleman must embrace two extremes: being “a man of blood and iron” and at the same time being “a demure, almost maidenlike, guest in a hall, a gentle, modest, unobtrusive man”.
With men like this, it is possible to create a better world. With men who are lost, afraid of breaking contemporary progressive identity norms, submissive to one or the other, and uncertain of their own masculinity, there is nothing that can be built that will not collapse: not a relationship, not a family, not a professional project, not a nation.
If you look at gender legislation in countries around the world, if you read the Sunday magazines, and if you take a look at the trending topics on Twitter, you will see that everywhere men are pressured to curb their masculinity, as if it were some kind of poison. The truth is that there is no reason to curb it, and that the world would be a worse place without masculine values.
- Why are young Japanese rejecting marriage?
From DW:
At 37, Sho says he is content. He has a job that pays enough for him to get by comfortably, he has friends whom he sees regularly, a range of hobbies and the time to enjoy them. The one thing he does not have is a wife, and that is just fine by him.
A report released this month by the Japanese government indicates that Sho is one of a growing number of people in their 30s who have never been married and have no intention of tying the knot. And that is a serious cause for concern in a nation that is already seeing a rapidly aging and contracting population.
According to the Cabinet Office’s 2022 gender report, 25.4% of women in their 30s and 26.5% of men in the same age group say they do not want to get married. Slightly more than 19% of men in their 20s and 14% of women similarly have no plans to wed.
The report points out that 514,000 marriages were registered in Japan in 2021, marking the lowest annual figure since the end of World War II in 1945 and a sharp decline from the 1.029 million weddings in 1970.
Women taking part in the survey said they are shying away from marriage because they enjoy their freedom, have fulfilling careers and do not want the burdens of the traditional housewife, such as household chores, raising children and looking after elderly parents.
9. 75% of teens not getting enough exercise, study finds
From the Washington Times:
A study coming out of the University of Georgia found that 75% of high school students in the state do not meet daily physical activity guidelines. The study surveyed over 360,000 students (48% males and 52% females) about how physically active they were as well as their school environment.
“Over time, the state has observed declining levels of physical activity among all adolescents, but the rate is higher among female middle and high school students,” the study’s lead author Janani Thapa said in a university news release.
10.Lefitists Suddenly Saying ‘Woman’ As If Everyone Knows What It Means
From the Babylon Bee:
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Democrats nationwide have been accusing the Supreme Court of taking rights from “women.” Onlookers have confirmed this to be confusing, as it seems to suggest that Democrats do in fact know what a woman is.
“Women today have less freedom than their mothers!” Nancy Pelosi took the stand today to defend “women’s rights to make their own reproductive decisions.” Onlookers found themselves befuddled by the rhetoric about the “women’s right to choose,” since Pelosi should have no way of knowing what a woman is since she is not a biologist.
Trans activists have come out in opposition to this timely recollection of what a “woman” is, decrying Pelosi’s “exclusionary and transphobic language.” One activist, Jesse Wolfshine, explained that “inclusion of trans people starts with the erasure of women.”
Eyewitnesses confirm that Mx. Wolfshine backpedaled and looked flushed when she realized she had used the word “woman,” walking back her statement: “Only after women are gone can we progress – I mean, uterused people, since that’s a woman part! I mean, that’s a birthing person’s part!”
IN CASE YOU MISSED SATURDAY’S SPECIAL EDITION:
Saturday June 25, 2022
Decades ago, March for Life founder Nellie Gray famously predicted:
“We will be here until we overturn Roe v. Wade, and believe me, we are going to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
For the past 45 years, Focus on the Family has been privileged to be part of the half-century quest to defend and protect the sanctity of pre-born life. We begin with a look at some of yesterday’s highlights:
- Focus President Jim Daly on Historic Reversal of Roe
From Jim Daly:
It was Thomas Jefferson who once observed, “God is just” and “His justice cannot sleep forever.”
After nearly a half-century and over 60 million deaths, the horrifying and tragic ruling of Roe has finally been overturned. It was bad law then – and a majority of the Supreme Court has affirmed it is bad law now. No court has the right to deprive a child of the right to live. We celebrate this milestone today and applaud the six justices who have courageously and correctly interpreted the United States Constitution.
This is a day to give thanks to God. It’s also a day to give thanks to the tens of millions who have marched in the snow and cold on the anniversary of Roe these last fifty years as faithful witnesses to the value of human life. It’s a day, as well, to give thanks to those who have committed their lives and their resources to serving mothers and protecting innocent children.
We remain dedicated to fostering and furthering a culture of life, which recognizes the dignity of each and every person. This should not be a political cause of only a few – but the cause of all who care about and support the preservation and protection of human rights.
3. Salem Radio Commentary: A Time for Thanks; A Time for Prayer (Jim Daly)
Hi, this is Jim Daly of Focus on the Family for Townhall.com.
For nearly 50 years, we’ve been saying that Roe must go, and that day has finally come.
The Supreme Court’s ruling sends the issue of abortion back to the states. Some of you live in pro-life friendly areas, and others live where the right to abortion on demand is still the law of the land. We need to continue our work to serve and help moms and help save as many babies as possible, and we need to continue working to change hearts and minds and get to a day where abortion becomes unthinkable.
But for now, let’s give thanks for all those who made this day possible, and pray for peace.
It makes no sense for people who claim to want to help women to terrorize and vandalize the very places like pregnancy resource centers that are put in place to help those women, but that’s the illogic and lunacy of radical abortion activists.
So, we pray, and we also give thanks for this consequential win for life.
I’m Jim Daly.
4. After Roe Overturned, Focus on the Family Launches Multimillion Dollar Pro-Life Ad Campaign
From The Daily Citizen:
In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this morning, Focus on the Family is immediately launching a multimillion-dollar pro-life ad campaign.
The effort aims to change hearts and minds on the issue of abortion, and promote Focus’ Option Ultrasound Program (OUP), which has saved nearly half a million preborn lives from abortion since 2004.
The ad will air on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” as well as on the Hallmark channel, the History channel, Lifetime, Newsmax, TV Land, and on Washington, D.C., local media channels among others.
You can watch the ad here.
5. What Actually Happened in ‘Dobbs’? A Short Explanation.
From The Daily Citizen:
At issue in Dobbs was the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi law prohibiting abortion (with certain limited exceptions) after 15 weeks gestation. Challenged in the federal courts, the law was struck down because of Roe and Casey. Casey in particular held that until the viability of the preborn child (currently considered to be around 24 weeks gestation), a state had essentially no defendable interest in prohibiting abortion.
In the Dobbs majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, six justices combined to uphold the constitutionality of the Mississippi 15-week law. There was a slight difference in the reasoning the court used to get there, with five justices – Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett – agreeing that Roe “was egregiously wrong from the start,” expressly overturning Roe and Casey.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito’s majority opinion stated. “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Chief Justice John Roberts, however, concurred only in the judgment that Mississippi’s law was constitutional. He did not join with the majority in concluding that Roe and Casey ought to be overruled.
“The Court’s decision to overrule Roe and Casey is a serious jolt to the legal system—regardless of how you view those cases,” Roberts wrote. “A narrower decision rejecting the misguided viability line would be markedly less unsettling, and nothing more is needed to decide this case.”
But Roberts’ reservations about overturning Roe and Casey don’t affect the constitutional bottom line. Roe and Casey have deservedly been sent to the ash heap of history by the Dobbs decision.
6. Best Quotes from Dobbs as It Historically Reverses Roe and Condemns Judicial Activism
From The Daily Citizen:
There are many profoundly important statements from the U.S. Supreme Court in their landmark Dobbs decision overturning Roe and Casey.
Daily Citizen has scoured the decision and its concurrences to pick out the most foundational pro-life statements from the highest court in America, as well as those demolishing the faulty integrity and logic of Roe v. Wade itself. The Court, in Dobbs, referred to Roe as “egregiously wrong” law numerous times and carefully details its constitutional poverty. This court proclaims, “Roe was on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided, Casey perpetuated its errors…”
The majority starts its decision with this undeniable, historical recognition,
Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. No state constitutional provision had recognized such a right. Until a few years before Roe, no federal or state court had recognized such a right. Nor had any scholarly treatise. Indeed, abortion had long been a crime in every single State.
This consensus endured until the day Roe was decided. Roe either ignored or misstated this history, and Casey declined to reconsider Roe’s faulty historical analysis.” p. 3
The majority continues,
Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided.
We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision… p. 5
Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.
It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives. “The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations, upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.” That is what the Constitution and the rule of law demand. p.6
The majority said essentially the same thing much later in their ruling,
Roe was also egregiously wrong and deeply damaging. For reasons already explained, Roe’s constitutional analysis was far outside the bounds of any reasonable interpretation of the various constitutional provisions to which it vaguely pointed.
Roe was on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided, Casey perpetuated its errors, and those errors do not concern some arcane corner of the law of little importance to the American people. Rather, wielding nothing but “raw judicial power” the Court usurped the power to address a question of profound moral and social importance that the Constitution unequivocally leaves for the people. p. 44.
7. Life Wins at the U.S. Supreme Court: Reactions from the Pro-Life Community on This Historic Day
From The Daily Citizen:
Alliance Defending Freedom, which served on the legal team defending Mississippi’s law, tweeted, “This is not just a victory for sound constitutional law. It also clears the way for Americans to restore fundamental respect for human life: welcoming children, supporting women, and nurturing families.”
Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family’s founder, wrote, “Roe was built on a lie that somewhere hidden in our Constitution there existed a law to destroy children in the womb. All of us who fought so hard to save innocent babies and to endure the exploitation of women by the abortion industry have cause to celebrate and to thank God.”
Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and defender of the pro-life cause, tweeted, “Today’s ruling is the culmination of decades of public advocacy, of unheralded acts of love and mercy, and of unrelenting prayers for justice for the unborn and their mothers. It will be remembered and celebrated as one of the most important days in the history of this country…Today is also the beginning of a new chapter in our work of building a more robust culture of life that protects babies, supports mothers, and strengthens families for the long haul….”
National Right to Life President Carol Tobias responded, “This is a great day for preborn children and their mothers. The Court has correctly decided that a right to abortion is not in the Constitution, thereby allowing the people, through their elected representatives, to have a voice in this very important decision.”
President of Americans United for Life Catherine Glenn Foster emphasized how important this decision is to protect women and babies, “Today is a promise of hope for all members in the human family, but especially for mothers and those millions who will now be protected from prenatal violence.”
And Albert Mohler, an intellectual faith leader in the evangelical movement, opened his special edition broadcast covering the Supreme Court decision today by citing Psalm 118:24, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
- ‘Roe v. Wade’ Overturned Because the Pro-Life Movement Never Stopped Fighting
From The Daily Citizen:
Today’s ruling is the culmination of 49 years of work that the pro-life movement has dedicated to saving preborn lives and promoting the health of women.
Without the unending and unwaving activism of millions of pro-life supporters, today’s great victory never would have happened.
Today is a victory for the millions of pro-life supporters who have taken part in the annual March for Life, which first began the year after Roe was decided. The first march was held in Washington, D.C. on January 22, 1974, with around 20,000 supporters.
Since then, the March has continued to grow, with hundreds of thousands of people making the annual pilgrimage to D.C.
Today is a victory for Nellie Gray, the founder of the March for Life, who died back in 2012.
Today is a victory for John Wilkie, who was widely considered the founder of the pro-life movement. Wilkie was a Catholic doctor who pioneered pro-life work in the 1960s, and founded the Life Issues Institute in 1991.
Wilkie passed away in 2015, and intriguingly, and correctly, did not believe he would live to see the reversal of Roe in his lifetime. Just seven years later, Wilkie’s life work to protect the lives of preborn children has reached a culmination today.
Today is also a great day of victory for the millions of preborn children who will now be given the chance to live over the coming years and decades.
To all pro-life supporters and people of good will, today is a day of rejoicing and celebration! Congratulations, and recognize the great victory that the pro-life movement has won.
Today’s victory is yours!
9. Post Roe, Let’s Stop Talking About How Expensive Children Are. They’re Priceless.
From The Daily Citizen:
Now that Roe has rightly and officially been relegated to the dustbin of history, a request and proposal:
We need to stop talking about how costly it is to raise children.
In reality, they’re priceless.
n a post-Roe world, Christians need to redouble their efforts in many ways – including promotion of just how great children are. We need to talk about the beauty, wonder and fulfilling pleasures of family life. We really can’t talk about it enough.
By displaying and modeling the joys of parenthood, we inevitably make children look more appealing and inviting. That attraction will inevitably lead to fewer abortions. Instead of grousing and griping about how expensive and inconvenient kids can be, we should be extolling them as the blessing they really are.
“He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow,” wrote Benjamin Franklin. “But then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.”
The late justice Antonin Scalia, who was the father of nine children, once remarked, “In a big family, the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it’s not perfect, that’s okay, there are a lot more coming along.”
In a post Roe-America, there will be countless opportunities for Christians to demonstrate their love and devotion to the sanctity of life. Like most everything else, the very best way to do so, and the very first place to start, is to model the virtues and principles inherent to life’s sacredness in our marriages and families.
10. HOW TO HELP A COUPLE DEALING WITH UNPLANNED PREGNANCY
From Focus on the Family:
Here are things you can do as a couple to engage with and support the woman or couple in crisis in effective ways. Though the ideas will refer to “the couple” facing an unplanned pregnancy, if you’re engaging with the man or the woman individually, the principles still apply.
11. HOW CAN TEENS HAVE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ABORTION AND PRO-LIFE TOPICS
From Focus on the Family:
If your teen wasn’t already having conversations about abortion and the pro-life movement, they’re about to have more conversations than ever before. According to research within the past 5 years, those conversations will likely take place online more often than they occur in person.
Also, your teens might start to notice the increase in a trend predicted by many education agencies: high school dropout rate. As documented by a 2015 study looking at pre-Roe v. Wade America, “unwed pregnant teens who gave birth were 16% more likely to dop out of high school compared to those who miscarried.”
A return to this statistic could mean a few things. First, teenagers might start to notice classmates disappearing from class for an extended period of time due to abortion recovery and travel to an abortion-legal state. Secondly, if an unwed pregnant teen chooses life instead of abortion, teenagers might see a rise in the number of their peers with children at a young age.
Either hypothetical scenario carries a long list of specific and unique circumstances. But each is certainly a realistic outcome due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It’s worth noting that until America settles following Roe, what will happen is still only speculation. That’s why it’s far more important to equip your teens with tools to have conversations about abortion and the pro-life movement for the foreseeable future.
OTHER NOTABLE HEADLINES:
12. The Conservative Legal Push to Overturn Roe v. Wade Was 50 Years in the Making
From the Wall Street Journal:
The majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, first disclosed in draft version by an extraordinary leak in May, declared that Roe and later abortion-rights precedents have no basis in the Constitution. “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Even as a young lawyer, Justice Alito had looked for ways to push back on the reasoning behind Roe going back to the 1980s, when he worked in the Reagan Justice Department. In a May 1985 memo, he sketched out opportunities “to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade.”
In 2021, with Justice Barrett on the court, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch brought in a new state solicitor general to argue the case. Scott Stewart, a former law clerk to Justice Thomas who had served in the Trump Justice Department, recalibrated the state’s arguments to aim at the ultimate goal.
“Roe and Casey are egregiously wrong,” his brief for the state said. “The conclusion that abortion is a constitutional right has no basis in text, structure, history, or tradition.”
That the Supreme Court has now agreed with that statement was no accident, said Mr. Meese, hailed by Mr. Calabresi as “the unsung hero” of the conservative legal movement. It was the fruition of seeds Mr. Meese said he helped plant long ago: “We’ve got people appointed [to the Supreme Court] who are definitely constitutionally oriented lawyers.”
13. These states banned abortion today. Here’s what abortion laws will likely be in every state
From Fortune Magazine:
Multiple states already have “trigger laws” in place that automatically banned abortion access in anticipation of an eventual Supreme Court ruling on Roe. And reproductive health care is expected to become even more limited as other states put forth their own abortion bans.
Here are the states that have already banned abortion, those expected to ban abortion, as well as the states that have moved to protect it, and the states where the fate of abortion is unknown.
14. After Dobbs, pregnancy centers brace for more attacks
From World Magazine:
Jane’s Revenge last month called on pro-abortion protesters to come out on the night of the Dobbs ruling and “make your anger known,” encouraging local groups to organize and suggesting 8 p.m. as a time “for actions nationwide to begin.” Outside of the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon, a masked Jane’s Revenge protester who spoke to WORLD refused to divulge details on the group’s plans but indicated that tonight would be different and bigger, saying “the time for talk is done.”
According to a document obtained by Newsweek, the Department of Homeland Security has told the Catholic Church to be prepared for a backlash to the Dobbs decision, warning that “large groups with cells nationwide have already been discovered ‘casing’ parishes, including here in California.” Pregnancy centers contacted by WORLD said they are preparing for attacks but had not received any direct contact from DHS.
In response to the previous attacks and ongoing threats, national pregnancy center groups like Heartbeat International have been offering affiliate centers guidance on how to prepare for potential violence.
15.Why Not Prosecute Intimidation Of Supreme Court Justices?
From the Wall Street Journal:
Protests erupted Friday in Washington after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and bigger disruptions are possible. Yet so far the Justice Department has refused to enforce federal law to keep the peace at the personal homes of the Justices. That’s despite a request by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
“Hundreds of demonstrators have recently chosen to picket Supreme Court Justices at their homes in Virginia and Maryland,” the two Governors wrote last month to Attorney General Merrick Garland. As they pointed out, there’s a law that prohibits attempting to influence federal judges by picketing “near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge.” Violations are punishable by a year in prison.
“It seems clear this federal code is applicable,” the Governors wrote, given the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on Roe v. Wade. The protesters were trying to influence the final ruling. Messrs. Youngkin and Hogan cited comments such as: “If you take away our choices, we will riot.” They asked Mr. Garland to “ensure these residential areas are secure” and to “enforce the law as it is written.”
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED
Senator Joe Biden, 1974: “I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body,”
President Joe Biden, 2022: “I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision as a matter of constitutional law and application of the fundamental right to privacy and liberty and matters of family and personal autonomy.”
FRAME IT:
PROGRAMMING ALERT:
Tune in Monday for a special Focus on the Family radio broadcast featuring an interview with Jim Daly, Dr. Helen Alvare, professor at George Mason University, and Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary.
