Judge Will Hold Hearing Wednesday in Case That Could Block Abortion Pill Nationwide

A federal judge in Texas has requested a hearing in a case challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion drug mifepristone.

As reported by CatholicVote, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sued the FDA in November 2022 on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the Catholic Medical Association, and others. The suit contends that:

  • The FDA’s 2000 approval of the chemical abortion cocktail violated the safety standards of due diligence laid out by Congress.
  • The FDA ignored valid evidence and stonewalled ADF’s clients for over 20 years, recklessly terminating “the necessary safeguards for women who undergo this controversial drug regimen.”
  • The FDA violated the U.S. Code § 1461 by allowing these drugs to be sent by mail.

According to Planned Parenthood, mifepristone is the first of two medications used in a chemical abortion. It blocks the hormone progesterone from reaching the woman’s uterus, breaking down the lining of the uterine wall and killing the child.

The Leak

Anonymous and unauthorized sources indicated to Washington Post reporters that U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk met with lawyers in Amarillo, TX, last Friday and scheduled the hearing for Wednesday, March 15. According to TheWashington Post:

Kacsmaryk scheduled the hearing during a call with attorneys Friday, said multiple people familiar with the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. Kacsmaryk said he would delay putting the hearing on the public docket until late Tuesday to try to minimize disruptions and possible protests, and asked the lawyers on the call not to share information about it before then, the people said.

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When a still-unidentified culprit leaked the text of the Dobbs opinion in May 2022, pro-abortion activists unleashed threats and protests targeting the homes of all six pro-life Supreme Court justices, pregnancy resource centers, and Catholic churches.

Track Record of Violence

The volume of death threats and actual vandalism prompted the Department of Homeland Security to issue a formal memo warning that protests were “likely to persist and may increase leading up to and following the issuing of the Court’s official ruling.”

One suspect was arrested outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and later charged with plotting to assassinate three members of the Supreme Court. Acts of vandalism against Catholic churches intensified following the Dobbs decision. This month, CatholicVote’s violence tracker surpassed 300 attacks since May 2020.

The Washington Post’s anonymous source alleged that “Kacsmaryk told the attorneys that he also wanted to delay publicizing the hearing because courthouse members have received threats in the wake of the lawsuit, according to the people familiar with the call.”

Other anonymous sources told reporters that “the judge and his family have faced security threats since he ascended to the federal bench in 2019, and those threats have intensified ahead of the abortion pill ruling.”

“This is playing with the safety and lives of the judge and everyone involved in the case,” remarked CatholicVote Director of Governmental Affairs Tom McClusky:

Considering the high level of violence and intimidation, tracked by CatholicVote, from pro-abortion zealots ever since the leaked Dobbs decision, Judge Kacsmaryk is wise to take steps to protect all the parties involved in this case.

Bigger than Dobbs?

Leftist activists have characterized the Texas case as “bigger than Dobbs,” claiming it could outlaw the chemical abortion drug mifepristone nationwide.

Erik Baptist, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, told CatholicVote, that he “won’t go so far to make those statements about the ramifications of this case, but we are asking the court to set aside the FDA’s approvals of these dangerous drugs for chemical abortion purposes.”

 

The case does have far-ranging implications, because ADF is requesting that the court set aside the FDA’s approval of mifepristone and misoprostol for chemical abortion purposes. “At the same time,” said Baptist, “it’s a reasonable [ask], because the FDA, from beginning to end, has failed to follow the plain requirements of the law.”

>> LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE <<

‘Reckless’ FDA

CatholicVote and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) filed an amicus brief in the ADF vs. FDA case from concerned members of Congress.

“The FDA’s reckless decisions to approve and deregulate chemical abortion drugs put the profits and political agenda of the abortion industry over the law and abundant evidence that abortion drugs present harm to women, girls, and their unborn babies,” the brief stated.

The Charlotte Lozier Institute submitted a brief detailing the lack of medical research and data in the United States surrounding chemical abortion regimens concluding:

The FDA has made an unjustifiable and unreasonable risk-benefit assessment regarding chemical abortion. The end result is over-the-counter abortion provision dissociated from the medical system entirely, except, of course, for the emergency room physicians who will be called upon to care for the myriad complications.

full list of the court’s amicus briefs can be found on ADF’s website.

Biden Administration Attempts Work- Arounds

The lawsuit followed upon the Biden administration’s aggressive response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The Department of Justice has taken steps to promote chemical abortions even in states like Texas that have robust abortion restrictions.

Attorney General Merrick Garland established a “reproductive rights task force” in July following the Dobbs decision. One of its express purposes is to “monitor and evaluate all state and local legislation and enforcement actions that threaten to… ban mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety.”

Late last year, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) assured the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that federal law does not prohibit sending abortion drugs by mail. The OLC memo states that “federal law does not prohibit the use of” either drug, which are both FDA approved for no other purpose than to kill and expel an unborn child from a mother.

The use of mail services to send abortion pills directly to women and the sale of mifepristone at the retail level without medical oversight are a sharp departure from past norms. While abortion promoters, including officials within the Biden administration, have endeavored to present the controversial move as safe and routine, the maneuver has been bumpy.

As CatholicVote reported in early February, even the Food and Drug Administration warned of safety concerns over mifepristone as recently as last year:

The FDA also recently voiced concerns over the safety of abortion-by-mail for mothers as demand for chemical abortion pills surged following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

LifeNews Note: Erika Ahern writes for CatholicVote.

Rosary-wearing Jill Biden promotes contraception to Kenya’s young people

Featured Image

(LifeSiteNews) — First Lady of the United States Jill Biden encouraged young Kenyans to continue spreading propaganda about contraception and “safe sex” at their churches and schools, all while wearing a Rosary around her neck.

As part of her five-day trip to Namibia and Kenya last week, Biden participated in multiple events pertaining to the “empowerment of women and youth.” On Saturday the First Lady stopped by the Shujaaz Konnect Festival in Nairobi, Kenya, where she dropped in on a watch party for “MTV Shuga,” an African drama series that aims to promote “sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

According to press pool notes compiled by Washington Post reporter Jada Yuan, the Rosary-sporting Biden commended Kenyan youth attending the festival for their willingness to learn about and discuss “safe dating and safe sex.”

 

“[I] really applaud you for wanting to learn more about [the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief] and HIV/AIDS and financial literacy and safe dating and safe sex,” she said. “You know, these are issues that really all people need to talk about them [sic]. Yet, somehow, they don’t, and the consequences of not talking about it are so dire. So, I love seeing the young people here.”

The Shujaaz Konnect Festival is organized by media company Shujaaz Inc. and the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, with the help of PEPFAR and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). PEPFAR was launched in 2003 by President George W. Bush to help people afflicted with AIDS, which is still a major cause of death in African countries.

At the “MTV Shuga” watch party itself, Biden led a discussion about what the attendees learn from the show and how they share those lessons with others. One of the participants, per the press pool notes, emphasized the importance of “using a condom” to prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes the AIDS disease.

The First Lady then asked if the show promotes other types of “prevention for safe sex” like “birth control pills,” to which another participant answered, “contraception for unintended pregnancy prevention and PrEP for HIV prevention.”

Then Biden followed up with, “Then so do you go into your neighborhoods or your churches or your schools and then do you spread the word further?” And when she received a “chorus of yeses,” she asked and got an affirmative answer about them being “ambassadors for this program.”

Kenya is a majority Christian country, with 85% of the population identifying as Christian and one-third of all Christians identifying as Catholic. LifeSiteNews recently visited Africa to report on the heroic individuals resisting the Western-led imposition of pro-abortion, pro-contraception, and pro-LGBT ideology.

Despite professing to be Catholics, the First Lady and her husband, President Joe Biden, have long been outspoken advocates of “abortion rights” and gender ideology.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration pressured the African country of Benin to remove its name from the pro-life Geneva Consensus Declaration, which declares that abortion is not a human right.

In January 2021, LifeSiteNews reported on a group of Africans who unsuccessfully pleaded with Biden in a video message not to resume funding for organizations that provide abortions. Biden repealed the so-called “Mexico City Policy,” a Trump-era policy, on his ninth day in office.

Family & ProLife News Briefs – March 2023 Newsletter

Life Choices

Fallout from 50 Years of Roe

  • We were told before Roe that with legal abortion, every child would be wanted and therefore child abuse would decline. But child abuse has skyrocketed since Roe. Saint Mother Teresa said: “If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell others not to kill one another?”
  • Abortion pills are marketed as safe. But the emotional and physical ramifications will be horrendous, as documented in other nations that have used these pills.
  • Abortion has undermined the Hippocratic Oath that physicians “do no harm.” Our nation now has a scene of devastation with 64 million unborn babies dead.
  • Millions of mothers have participated in the destruction of their own preborn babies. Some have been hardened in their hearts, other have felt terrible regret. [Christian Action News, 3/23]

Child Predators Make TikTok ‘Every Parent’s Nightmare’

This was the headline of a report in the Wall Street Journal (2/16/23) in which law-enforcement officials found that the platform has become a danger zone. Pre-teens and teens “spend more time there each day than on any other social-media platform. Billions of videos are uploaded to the site each month, many starring young people singing, dancing and talking about their personal lives.” Nothing prevents young users from falsifying their birth dates when registering, so they can get access to the full platform including private talk messages with others. Investigators have found many adult males follow children’s postings.

Abortion Pill Can Be Reversed

Nationwide chemical abortions account for more than 50% of all abortions. The method involves two steps: the first abortifacient drug (mifepristone or RU- 486) is given at the clinic or taken at home, killing or weakening the baby. The second, misoprostol, is taken usually at home 24-48 hours later, to expel the baby. But the first drug doesn’t always end the baby’s life.

The hearts of some women may change during the 24-48 hour period. They may profoundly regret taking
the first abortion pill. An Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) protocol is supported by the Amer. Assoc. of Pro-Life
Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Reversal can occur with multiple doses of natural hormone progesterone. To date over 4,000 babies have been born following use of the APR protocol. There are over 350 doctors & 40 pregnancy medical centers that offer APR. Any woman questioning her decision to terminate her baby’s life after taking the first pill should consult a physician immediately at the APR Hotline: 877-558-0333. [Nat. Right to Life, The State of Abortion in the U.S., 1/2023]

To Help Women Make An Actual Choice

When a woman finds the Sisters of Life, they don’t tell her not to have an abortion. They love her back into life and make an actual choice possible. The Sisters say that many young adult women have never had a birthday party thrown for them. Birthdays are a priority for the Sisters. If you don’t know your life is special, how are
you ever going to make room for another life?

Visiting one of their convents on any given day often will involve bumping into women who were long ago pregnant and now are picking up supplies or human support. The Sisters help with housing and job skills &
immigration applications. They are mothers to mothers, free to be self- sacrificial love to women who maybe never before saw what that looks like.

Now the Associated Press instructs writers to make clear that ministries and other places that provide pro-life pregnancy support must be labeled “anti-abortion counseling centers” to describe what many of us typically call pregnancy-resource centers or crisis-pregnancy centers. Yes, they exist to provide alternatives to abortion — parenting or choosing adoption. These places help facilitate actual choice. And women are free to leave and have an abortion.

Avail (NYC), Aid for Women (Chicago), Bella (Denver), Birth Choice (Dallas), Mary’s Shelter (Virginia), Mother Teresa Home (Buffalo), Good Counsel Homes (NJ & NY) are just a few examples of centers and networks that help and house and love women and their children for life. I have no objection to you knowing that the people who run these beacons of light in a culture of death are opposed to abortion. But AP’s description is as inaccurate as it is limiting. These resources save lives and not just of unborn children. [Kathryn Jean Lopez, Our Sunday Visitor, 2/19/2023]


In a Jan. 31 video, Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of
Winona-Rochester, Minn., reacted to a new state abortion law
that has been called “the most extreme bill in the country”: I
don’t know why abortion is really debated anymore in our
country, but this strikes me as just the worst kind of
barbarism. And in the name of, I don’t know, subjectivity,
and freedom, and choice and all this, we’re accepting this
kind of brutality.”


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Pop Singer Confesses Abortion Regret

Kaya Jones, a former singer for the Pussycat Dolls, said her past abortions still haunt her to this day. As someone with a public platform, she spoke out on Fox News, explaining “how she had her first abortion as a teen when her birth control medication failed.”

We’ve been saying for years that birth-control methods sometimes fail. When they do, women are set up for abortion. Contraception and abortion are fruits of the same tree. “The former singer also argued that abortion led to a breakdown in respect between men and women in the culture. What you’re showing men is that you
don’t value yourself or your seed or their seed, and in return they don’t value us as women because we’re willing to do these things to ourselves and to our children. Even if I become a mother tomorrow and happily married and all is well, I’m still going to regret the three children that I did not have.”

Millions of people have been harmed by the perverse dogmas of the sexual revolution – children of divorce; refugees from the hook-up culture and the LGBT subculture; people who regret their years of cohabitation; and women who regret their abortions. The Ruth Institute is one organization that helps victims of the sexual revolution recover from their experiences and become advocates for positive change. [Jennifer Roback Morse © 2023 EWTN News, Inc. Excerpt with permission from the National Catholic Register – www.ncregister.com]

During Lent, Devote an Hour a Week

During Lent, Devote an Hour a Week 40 Days for Life is an internationally coordinated 40-day campaign that aims to end abortion locally through prayer and fasting, community outreach, and a peaceful all-day vigil in front of abortion businesses.

The visible, public centerpiece of 40 Days for Life is a focused, 40-day, non-stop, round-the-clock prayer
vigil outside a single Planned Parenthood center or other abortion facility in your community. It is a peaceful and educational presence. Those who are called to stand witness during this 24-hour-a-day presence send a powerful message to the community about the tragic reality of abortion. It also serves as a call to repentance for those who work at the abortion center and those who patronize the facility. To find a local campaign near you, look up locations at https://www.40daysforlife.com/

Nazi Holocaust and Life

In Richard Hurowitz’s book In the Garden of the Righteous, we learn of many heroic acts of people who were not Jewish but willing to risk all to help save Jews from the Holocaust. The ten rescuers featured in the book were honored at Israel’s Holocaust memorial with the title Righteous Among the Nations. Religious belief and concern for humanity motivated them to act rather than stand by, as many others did, in silent complicity. The rescuers all shared the belief that every human being deserves respect. Similar arguments are made today by pro-lifers to end abortion and assisted suicide. Every human life from conception to natural death deserves respect and dignity as children of God.

Apply for Pro-Life Internship

“Before This Summer, I Never Even Considered Doing Pro-Life Work, Much Less Making It A Career. Now, Defending The Preborn Is What I Feel Called To Do With My Life.” Heidi Whaley 2020 Intern

Dear Student:

Tired of putting your heart and hard work into pro-life efforts that go largely ignored? Want to do something that ends abortion instead of just fighting it? Not sure how to be effective? CBR may be just the place for you! Our Summer 2023 Intern Program is from May 21 to August 11 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Final application deadline is March 29, 2023. (Must be 18 or older by May 21, 2023) to apply. Successful applicants will be notified of acceptance into the program by April 3rd. Visit: https://AbortionNo.org/intern

Hiding Students’ Decisions from Parents

USAID, which serves as the “world’s premier international development agency,” recently released a guide that promotes ways of integrating people who identify as LGBTQ into the American education system. The ninth principle has provoked a negative reaction from parents as it states education systems should “protect students’ privacy.”

This means that USAID is working to ensure that students have the ability and right to, as the agency says, “hide their sexual orientation or gender identity from family and close friends.” Students would not only be
encouraged to keep their “sexual orientation” to themselves, but intentionally hide it from the people they
are most connected to. “American parents are fighting every day against this outrageous principle that teachers know a child better than their parents,” said co-founders of Moms for Liberty Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich. [USAID Encourages Students to ‘Hide Their Sexual Identity’ from Parents, Abigail Olsson, The Washington Stand, 2/4/23]


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