Family & ProLife News Briefs July 2020 Pro-Life Legal Victories ... and Defeats Supreme Court: No Discrimination Supreme Court Rejects Louisiana Against Religious Schools! Abortion Restrictions In a 5-4 ruling upholding a Montana program to The Court struck down the law requiring abor- provide student scholarships for use at religious tionists to have admitting privileges at hospitals schools, the U.S. Supreme Court also in effect within 30 miles of their practice. The opinion in repudiated a 19th-century monument to anti- June Medical Services v. Russo is quite fractured Catholic bigotry known as the Blaine Amendment. and legally technical. It does not bring the pro-life The ruling reversed a 2018 Montana Court movement any closer to overthrowing Roe v. Wade decision based on the state constitution’s Blaine and Planned Parenthood v. Casey; but it does not provision barring aid to any school “controlled in likely move us further away from that end either. whole or in part by any church, sect or denomina- More litigation to that end is still required. tion.” That provision is named for Senator James The narrow 5-to-4 ruling agreed that the burdens Blaine who in the 1870s argued for an amend- it imposed upon women were greater than its ment to the U.S. Constitution to bar use of public claimed health benefits. Yet Justice Gorsuch wrote funds at religious schools. Coming at a time when of the dangers that abortionists in Louisiana immigration was rapidly increasing the Catholic pose to their patients. He noted the extraordinarily population and Catholic parochial schools were lax reviews the clinics conduct prior to hiring growing in number, the proposal was widely seen abortionists, reporting that abortion clinics had as a reflection of Protestant anxieties about rising previously allowed ophthalmologists & radiologists Catholic numbers and influence. While Blaine to perform abortions! He also pointed to the many never did become part of the federal Constitution, ethical and safety violations that Louisiana 37 states eventually adopted their own versions. abortion clinics had committed in the past. In a statement following the decision, Arch- Employing detailed geographic & doctor-specific bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of details (and even maps, printed in the opinion), the the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Commit- Court concluded that the vast majority of doctors tee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Michael C. and clinics would go out of business were the Barber of Oakland, California, chairman of the admitting-privileges law to stand, leaving many Committee on Catholic Education, said: “This women without a sufficiently-close-by abortionist. decision means that religious persons & organiza- But Gorsuch noted that one Louisiana doctor tions can, like everyone else, participate in already had such privileges, that one hospital was government programs that are open to all. This is already changing its admitting-privileges rules in good news, not only for people of faith, but for our order to make it easier for abortionists to succeed, country. A strong civil society needs the full partici- and that privileges requirements applied to other pation of religious institutions. By ensuring the types of ambulatory surgical centers (for example, rights of faith-based organizations’ freedom to colonoscopies, Lasik eye treatments) had not serve, the court also promotes the common good.” continued on p. 2 In his majority opinion, Roberts relied heavily National NFP Awareness Week on a 2017 Supreme Court decision (Trinity July 19-25, 2020, Lutheran Church v. Comer) that held that a the dates of National Lutheran church in Missouri that operated a day Natural Family Plan- school was entitled to receive funds from a state ning Awareness Week, program for upgrading playgrounds as a safety highlight the anniver- measure. That decision, Roberts said, held that sary of the papal “disqualifying otherwise eligible recipients from a encyclical Humanae public benefit ‘solely because of their religious Vitae (July 25), which character’ imposes a penalty” on religious free articulates Catholic exercise. Thus Montana’s denial of scholarships beliefs about human for use at a religious school did not pass muster. sexuality, married love [Russell Shaw, Our Sunday Visitor, 6/30/20] and responsible parenthood. Very help- This free monthly newsletter is used by dozens of ful information about churches as a bulletin insert, and has over 30,000 the benefits of NFP, how it works and its effective- readers. To receive a copy in your inbox, email ness, is available at the www.usccb.org website. editor Frank Tinari, Ph.D. at [email protected] Family & ProLife News Briefs for Catholics page 2 July 2020 Abortion Restrictions(cont. from p. 1) Rapper West Upsets Secularists diminished the number of those centers able to Kanye West announced last October that he has continue operating. Also, Gorsuch highlighted the turned a corner in his life, converting to Christianity. testimony of women abandoned by their In May GQ magazine interviewed him. “When abortionists to seek follow-up care, after the you’re not in service to God, you can end up being doctors had botched their abortion procedures. in service to everything else,” he said. That is Finally, only Justice Thomas took direct aim at certainly true of many in the entertainment world. Roe and Casey. In memorable language, he Tinseltown is known for alcoholism, drugs, promis- referred to the reading of the Constitution on cuity, and high rates of depression and suicide. which it is based as “legal fiction” and the “putative Responding to a question that religion is a system right to abortion [as] a creation that should be of control, West said: “I see opportunity for creativity undone.” He wrote that it is “farcical” to imagine inside our faith.” Christianity may be restrictive, but that the legislators who created the 14th it is a healthy tonic. It is not restraint that levels Amendment’s “due process” language intended it people–it is the abandonment of it. to protect a procedure nearly completely banned Cultural elites who once embraced West are in every state and territory in the U.S. at the time it uneasy with his conversion. Some seem to have was passed. He called Roe a “demonstrably liked him better when he was offending people. The erroneous” decision. [Helen Alvaré, Commentary, secular kings & queens who comprise the entertain- National Catholic Register, 6/29/20] ment industry prefer raunch to the sacred. Kanye Risks of High-Tech Birth Control West should be welcomed, not disparaged, for In the 1960s, when birth control devices and going against the grain of the dominant culture. chemicals became prominent, the only common Given his huge following among young people, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were syphilis and maybe he can help to transform it. [Catholic League, gonorrhea. Today, at least 25 STDs are known, some The Catalyst, 6/20] which are incurable, and at least eight new pathogens Why Prolifers Resist “Legal” Abortion have been identified since 1980, including HIV. Many “A just law is a code that squares with the moral law or of these STDs, such as chlamydia and human the law of God. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas papillomavirus (HPV), greatly increase a woman’s risk Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted of cancer. None of the “contraceptives” listed in this in eternal law and natural law. Any law that degrades brochure prevent or protect against STDs or AIDS. human personality is unjust. One has a moral responsi- Yet organizations like International Planned Parent- bility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Aug- hood Federation thrust these methods upon trusting ustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.” [Letter from a teenage girls, much to the detriment of their future Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr., 4/16/1963] health. [Concerned Women for America brochure, compiled by Catherine Hurlburt cwfa.org] Brief Clips [Our Sunday Visitor, 5/17/20] ! The number of new marriages is 6.5 to every Gerber Baby Photo Contest Winner 1,000 people in the U.S., the lowest in recent years, The original “Gerber baby” was Ann Turner according to a new report from the National Center Cook, now 93. A charcoal sketch of her cherubic for Health Statistics face became the company’s official trademark. ! “Modern society is in the process of formulating Since 2010, Gerber has held a photo contest to an anti-Christian creed, and resisting this creed is select a new baby brand ambassador each year. punished by social excommunication.” Pope In 2018, the first Gerber baby with Down Emeritus Benedict XVI, quoted in a new biography Syndrome was chosen. published in German on May 4. This year, the contest winner is an adopted ! Only 20% of Christian congregations in the U.S. baby, another first. Magnolia Earl, age 1, hear sermons that mention abortion, according to a charmed the judges “with her joyful expression, recent Pew Research Center survey that analyzed playful smile and warm, engaging gaze.” Her sermons shared online, April 7 to June 1, 2019. mother, Courtney, confirmed in a statement that Magnolia brings “joy to everyone she meets” and HALO Helps Disabled & Elderly recalled speaking on the phone a year earlier with The Healthcare Advocacy & Leadership Organiza- Magnolia’s birth mother, who was in labor. “The tion promotes, protects and advocates for the rights real heroes in this story are Magnolia’s birth of the medically vulnerable through direct patient & parents,” she told the Today Show. “They chose family interactions, community education programs, her life and they sent her on an incredible & development of concrete “life-affirming health- journey.” It’s a story, and a photo, worth sharing – care” alternatives for those facing healthcare ration- kudos for Gerber for recognizing it as much. ing and unethical practices, especially those at risk [National Review, 6/1/20] of euthanasia and assisted suicide. [halovoice.org]