Even as the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the second time in favor of Texas’ heartbeat abortion ban, the offices of one of the state’s most visible pro-life organizations had to be cleared briefly last week in response to a threat from an abortion supporter.
Texas Right to Life (TRtL), based in Houston, announced on its website that it received a mysterious package shortly after receiving an emailed bomb threat on September 10.
“We immediately called police, and after an x-ray investigation, officers deemed the contents of the package were not harmful. Praise God,” the organization stated.
“Texas Right to Life will never stop working to protect Life. These attacks on our dedicated team prove that we need to work harder to stop the lies of the abortion industry.”
In addition to the bomb threat, Fox News reports that TRtL has received a barrage of disturbing threats and messages since the new law, also known as SB8, went into effect on September 1. Besides hateful verbiage and profanity, some of the threats wished death upon the entire organization, while others attacked the Christian faith that TRtL espouses.
The most disturbing ones talked about eating babies.
“Hi, is it okay to eat babies?” one voice message asked. “Once they’re born is it okay to eat them? That could solve the hunger problem.” Another message talked about “pickling” babies and eating them with “chili pepper” because, in the caller’s words, “I love Satan so much.”
Kimberly Schwartz, director of media and communication at TRtL, told Fox News that her organization understands that this is a spiritual battle.
“We’re not deterred,” she said. “We have faith in God. We believe that our work is for the kingdom of God. I think that God has been preparing us for this for a long time.”
On the same day as the bomb threat, the 5th Circuit again ruled favorably for the state of Texas in the case brought against the law by abortion sellers. A three-judge panel effectively stopped the lower district court from issuing any further rulings in the case while the 5th Circuit hears arguments from the state and private defendants as to why the federal courts have no jurisdiction over them and must dismiss the case.
“Nonetheless, for a federal court to proceed to the merits without certainty of jurisdiction ‘would threaten to grant unelected judges a general authority to conduct oversight of decisions of the elected branches of Government’ [citation omitted],” the 5th Circuit wrote. “In light of that nonnegotiable principle, we cannot allow proceedings to go forward while our court considers whether the federal judiciary has any power to entertain this novel lawsuit to begin with.”
Of course, there is also a second lawsuit seeking to overturn the Texas law, brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. It was filed on September 9, and to date no court hearings have taken place nor have any rulings been issued in that case.
Other pro-life states are watching the outcome of the Texas lawsuits very closely, hoping to duplicate the success of the Lone Star State. Each day the law remains in effect equates to babies that are being saved from abortion.
Photo from Texas Right to Life.
