St. Mary's Church

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St. Louis, Mo., Jan 27, 2023 / 11:10 am (CNA).

Japan’s health minister announced Jan. 20 that the government is launching an investigation into reports that a Japanese social service agency has been recommending sterilization to disabled people for years.

According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, at least eight couples have undergone sterilization at the behest of Asunaro Social Welfare Service Corp., which runs a group care facility on the island of Hokkaido for people with intellectual disabilities. 

Local authorities uncovered this week that the social welfare corporation had been recommending that couples living on its premises who hoped to live together or marry get sterilized by way of therapies such as vasectomies for men and birth control rings for women. 

The corporation had been doing so for over two decades, the authorities found; the corporation has insisted that it only recommended the sterilizations and never forced them on any of the residents. 

Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s minister of health, labor, and welfare, issued a notice last week asking local authorities to immediately notify the ministry if they learn of an organization making sterilization a condition for people with disabilities to use its services. The notice was made public Jan. 23. 

Kato also announced that his ministry is planning to conduct research, starting in fiscal year 2023, into the marriages, pregnancies, childbirths, and child-rearing of people with disabilities to understand their realities better, Asahi Shimbun reported. 

“It is extremely important to implement appropriate support based on the wishes of persons with disabilities, including marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing,” Kato said.

According to UCA News, a Catholic news site focusing on Asia, Japan’s care homes for disabled people do not have provisions for child care and are designed for couples only, and do not address the needs of people under 18 years old.

Japan, for nearly half a century, had eugenics laws on the books that led to thousands of people with disabilities being sterilized. The laws took effect in 1948 and were not repealed until the 1990s. A Japanese district court just this week ordered settlements to be paid to a man and a woman who were both sterilized decades ago under the laws. 

In July 2016, an attacker entered a care home in Japan for persons with mental disabilities in Sagamihara, some 20 miles northwest of Yokohama, and stabbed 19 people to death. The dead ranged in age from 19 to 70, and another 25 people were wounded. 

Shortly after that attack, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the care center, turned himself in to local police and was arrested. Uematsu had written a letter to Japan’s Parliament in February advocating for euthanasia of persons with disabilities, saying it would be better if they were euthanized and “disappeared.”

The statue, called “Christ in Death,” portrays Jesus’ corpse laying on a burial shroud with a crown of thorns laid alongside his lower legs. / Paul Braun/Diocese of Fargo

Denver, Colo., Jan 27, 2023 / 08:08 am (CNA).

A woman was arrested after allegedly causing serious damage to a statue of Jesus at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo, North Dakota, on Monday evening, possibly while she was under the influence of drugs.

“We were saddened to see the damage done to a very old statue at our cathedral, and we hope the person responsible gets the help they need,” Paul Braun, communications director for the Diocese of Fargo, told CNA Jan. 26. “We are praying for that person as well.”

The statue, called “Christ in Death,” portrays Jesus’ corpse laying on a burial shroud with a crown of thorns laid alongside his lower legs. Photos provided to CNA show damage to the statue’s head and feet and damage to one hand, as well as damage to the crown of thorns and the base of the statue.

Fargo police officers said they saw 35-year-old Brittany Marie Reynolds leaving the cathedral at about 6:24 p.m. They detained her after she allegedly attempted to flee. She was not wearing a shirt, a bra, or shoes. She was unable to answer basic questions and appeared to be under the influence of drugs, the Fargo newspaper The Forum reported, citing court documents.

Police entered the cathedral and found that a large statue of Jesus had been smashed on the floor. Church surveillance footage reportedly shows the half-dressed Reynolds in the church. She flipped over a potted plant before destroying the statue.

Reynolds was arrested and served a warrant for allegedly acting aggressively toward hospital staff.

Monsignor Joseph Goering told police he did not know the monetary value of the statue. Officers said a similar statue they found online was appraised at $11,500.

Braun told CNA an expert in art restoration is examining the damaged statue to determine whether it should be repaired or replaced.

Reynolds faces a felony charge of criminal mischief, which could result in a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, The Forum reported.

There have been previous incidents of vandalism at the cathedral and other area churches. In April 2021, a statue of Jesus in front of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo was defaced with black paint on its face. An unknown person removed the paint several days later. In 2018, a statue of the Virgin Mary was decapitated at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in south Fargo.

The Religious Freedom Institute honored outgoing president Tom Farr, who will be succeeded by Eric Patterson, on Jan. 24, 2023. / Religious Freedom Institute

Washington D.C., Jan 27, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Religious Freedom Institute (RFI), one of the world’s leading religious liberty organizations, announced on Tuesday the retirement of Tom Farr as president and the appointment of his successor, Eric Patterson.

As one of RFI’s founding members, Farr has served as president since 2016. Patterson has served as RFI’s executive vice president since 2019. 

Other leaders in the religious freedom world responded to the announcement with praise for Farr’s work and enthusiasm for Patterson’s appointment. 

“The work of RFI is so critical right now, maybe more than ever. Tom Farr’s leadership and vision have been exemplary, and I can’t think of anyone better to lead it into this next chapter than Eric Patterson,” said John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. 

RFI fights for freedom of religion in what Farr has called a world “experiencing a growing global crisis of religious freedom.”

RFI’s work ranges from fighting oppressive blasphemy laws that target Christians in majority-Muslim countries such as Pakistan to advising government agencies in the U.S. and abroad to educating students, professors, and administrators about the importance of freedom of religion.

As president, Farr called attention to this crisis, saying in 2019 that “violent religious persecution, severe government restrictions, and rising social hostilities challenge religious freedom in every region of the world.”

As president of RFI, Farr has spearheaded the organization’s research, education, and activism so that it has become a global leader in advocating for religious liberty.

The organization’s research has been used by the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, and beyond to help shape policies that promote greater freedom of religion.

Based in Washington, D.C., RFI leadership, including Farr, testify regularly before Congress on behalf of policies to increase religious freedom across the globe.

“I’ve written two religious freedom laws in the last couple of years, and in both of those bills, who did I turn to? RFI leadership. It was that expertise that they bring that is unparalleled,” said New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith.

“There has been no greater friend to those persecuted for their faith around the globe than Tom Farr,” Smith said. “Tom has testified numerous times before Congress and always came prepared with timely and actionable suggestions, which soon found their way into legislation.”

Now Patterson, who has worked with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Military, will lead the organization’s efforts as president. 

“(I) congratulate Eric Patterson as the incoming president,” wrote U.K. member of Parliament Rehman Chishti. “I know his knowledge, commitment, and excellent leadership skills will continue the outstanding work of RFI and address the many challenges people face around the world in being able to practice their faith.”

Though retiring as president, Farr will continue his work promoting religious freedom with RFI in the capacity of president emeritus. 

Archbishop Broglio blesses Sashko Lenevych, a lieutenant in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. / Ukraine Catholic University

Washington D.C., Jan 27, 2023 / 06:00 am (CNA).

This year’s Ash Wednesday collection, which will be taken at Masses across the U.S. on Feb. 22, will send aid to the Church in war-torn Ukraine and Eastern Europe, where they have helped support Catholics since the fall of communism.

In 2022, the bishops found themselves in the unusual position of having to minister to a Church heavily impacted by a major war in Ukraine.

Bishop Jeffrey Monforton, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe (CCEE), told CNA that the generosity of American Catholics in response to the war was “unprecedented.”

“When the first bombs struck Ukraine nearly a year ago, aid was already coming in from Catholics in the United States through the U.S. bishops’ Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe,” a Tuesday press release by the USCCB and CCEE said.

Where the money went in 2022

Though the USCCB has not yet issued a full report for 2022, Jennifer Healy, director of the CCEE, told CNA that $8.5 million was allocated for the Church in central and eastern Europe in 2022.

This enabled the bishops to send over $3 million (36% of the money allocated) to fund projects in Ukraine and the surrounding nations to care for refugees impacted by the violence.

According to the Tuesday press release, in the first few months of the war, the bishops expedited nearly 50 emergency grants to churches and Catholic groups in Eastern Europe to help relieve the suffering Ukrainian people. 

As Russian tanks rolled through the Ukrainian countryside and bombs leveled whole city blocks at a time, funds from the CCEE were providing vital humanitarian relief in the form of food, clothing, shelters, medical, and other basic needs, such as generators, heat pumps, and vehicles to transport aid and refugees. 

One grant funded by the collection even provided the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church satellite communications so it could coordinate efforts to give shelter, first aid, food, and spiritual ministry to Ukrainians caught in the conflict. 

American Catholic support of Ukraine 

Monforton, who has been able to travel to Eastern Europe to meet and minister to Ukrainian refugees, said that they were filled with gratitude for the support of the American faithful. 

“You can see the fear and the anxiety in the eyes of all those who are refugees,” Monforton said. “At the same time they took a moment of their time to thank us … what is evident in their lives is the solidarity of others, including us here in the United States.” 

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the USCCB, personally visited Ukraine at the end of December 2022 in an official visit to Church leaders ministering to Ukraine’s soldiers and suffering civilians. 

Taras Dobko, senior vice rector at the Ukrainian Catholic University, told CNA that Broglio’s visit to the war-torn country was perceived as a show of solidarity “on behalf of all American Catholics.” 

“We, Ukrainians, felt embraced through this visit with hope that the good will prevail and the suffering of our nation will not be in vain,” Dobko said. 

“Whenever peace reigns again — God willing, soon — and the time for rebuilding arrives,” Healy said, “the USCCB fund will continue to support the Church and be a strong partner in that massive effort.” 

U.S. Catholics have been helping for decades

The Ash Wednesday collection has sent more than $200 million to the Church in 28 nations in central and eastern Europe since 1991, according to Healy.

Bishop Monforton told CNA that the collection funds projects to restore the Catholic faith in the nations that suffered anti-Catholic subjugation under the former Soviet Union.

Under communism, Monforton said, religion was actively persecuted, and atheism was propagated as the law of the land. 

In Albania, one of the nations the collection supports, Monforton explained that anyone who so much as expressed belief in Christianity would be killed. 

The collection funds the rebuilding of churches, schools, and ministries to help the faithful in nations from Estonia to Albania, where decades of suppression under communist rule continue to negatively impact the culture and Church. 

Where the money went in 2021

The most recent full CCEE report available is from 2021. The 2021 report issued by the USCCB said that the Eastern European fund raised nearly $6.5 million. 

The largest portion of those funds (31.27%) was used to rebuild 79 places for Catholics to worship, teach, and carry out social ministry. 

The next largest portion (14.5%) supported 74 evangelization efforts in eastern and central Europe. 

The remaining portions of the fund were used for scholarships, Catholic education, support for seminaries, social aid, and some was used for administrative costs. 

The Houck family / Photo credit: Thomas More Society

Philadelphia, Pa., Jan 26, 2023 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

On the second day of witness testimony in the trial of Mark Houck, a pro-life father of seven charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, defense lawyers argued that the federal case against their client be dismissed.

Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Gerald Pappert himself raised that possibility, asking the prosecution at one point whether the federal law didn’t “seem to be stretched a little thin here?” 

Before the court adjourned to consider dismissal, arguments from the prosecution and defense focused on two questions. 

First, did Houck, a longtime sidewalk counselor outside of the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia, shove a volunteer clinic escort because he was trying to interfere with that escort’s provision of reproductive health services?

And second, did the clinic escort, 73-year-old Bruce Love — who was 72 at the time — instigate Houck to push him by harassing Houck’s son? 

The allegations in the case relate to two incidents that occurred at the abortion clinic on Oct. 13, 2021. The federal indictment alleges that Houck twice shoved Love, once when Love was attempting to escort clients and again during a verbal altercation with Love in front of the clinic.

The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.” 

The jury was shown a video of the latter of the two incidents that shows Love approaching Houck and his son as they were standing on the sidewalk outside the Planned Parenthood clinic. It then shows Love heading back toward the clinic while Houck points at the entrance of the building. Love then turns back one more time to approach Houck as he was making his way back to the street corner. Houck can then be seen turning and pushing Love, who then falls to the ground.

The defense argued Thursday that Love was saying degrading things to Houck’s son during the exchange, an accusation that Love denies.

Love said on the witness stand Thursday that he approached Houck twice that day to fulfill his responsibilities as a clinic escort and guide women if they wanted an escort. Part of his responsibilities, he said, is to tell the women that they don’t have to talk to “protesters” if they don’t want to. There are no women seen with Houck on the video evidence that shows the second incident. There is no video of the first incident. 

During the prosecution’s questioning of Love, Love consistently denied saying anything to Houck’s son on the day of the incident.

Love told the prosecutor that the only thing he said to Houck on the day of the incident was “Is that a threat?” Love claims that he asked the question after Houck allegedly threatened to push Love in the street.

One of the prosecutors, Sanjay Patel from the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, criminal section, in Washington, D.C., said at the conclusion of the day that Love’s testimony alleging Houck had called Love a “murderer” and a “baby killer” proves that Houck pushed Love to interfere with his provision of reproductive health services.

It was never specified when over the past several years Houck allegedly said those comments. 

Defense attorney Brian McMonagle of the law firm McMonagle, Perri, McHugh, Mischak & Davis questioned Love on the witness stand.

McMonagle asked Love: “Do you remember saying [to Houck], ‘Why don’t you go home and masturbate?’”

“How about ‘hey a**hole?’” he asked.  

He also asked Love if he remembered saying to Houck’s son, “Do you see how your dad is hurting women?” 

“‘Your dad doesn’t care about women.’ Do you remember saying that?” he asked.

“‘I want nothing to do with your religion,’” McMonagle quoted Love as allegedly saying.

McMonagle then asked Father Jim Hutchins, chaplain for Houck’s sidewalk counseling apostolate, The King’s Men, to stand up. 

“Remember calling him a f**** ahole?” McMonagle asked Love, referring to Hutchins.

Love answered in the negative to all of the accusations. 

Hutchins told CNA at the courthouse that Love is “lying through his teeth.” 

The three witnesses who testified during the day said they saw Houck push down Love and that there was an argument or shouting happening.

One of the witnesses who was questioned, 31-year-old Steven Jeronimo, said that he didn’t remember exactly what Houck yelled but that he “did hear a mention of a kid.”

Ellen Weiss, 71, another witness whose first day as a clinic escort was on the day of the incident, also said Houck was “saying something about his son.”

Another witness, 39-year-old Tristan Dhan, said on the witness stand that he saw Houck, identified as the man who pushed Love, walking down the street with his son after the push. 

When Love was asked by the defense if Houck shouted at him to “stay away from my son,” Love said that he didn’t recall those words, but that Houck might have said that.

At the end of the day, the defense asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that Houck was defending his son from harassment and that Love was the instigator. 

Referencing the FACE Act, McMonagle said: “To give [Love] the cover of this statue is a disgrace.”  

In a back and forth with the prosecuting attorney following the defense’s motion, Judge Pappert asked, “Doesn’t that statute [FACE] seem to be stretched a little thin here?” 

The attorney, Patel, said FACE is not being stretched thin because the government has provided a case meeting every element of the act.

The judge said he would consider both arguments. The case could be dismissed as early as tomorrow, pending the judge’s decision. 

McMonagle concluded by saying that the government’s case is “absurd.”  

“That’s why you don’t see cases like this,” he added.

Cake artist Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado. / Alliance Defending Freedom.

Denver, Colo., Jan 26, 2023 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

A Colorado appellate court has ruled against a baker who appeared in court once again for declining to make a cake that contradicts his religious beliefs. 

While Jack Phillips’ successful U.S. Supreme Court case concerned his refusal to make a same-sex wedding cake, he now faces a civil lawsuit for declining to make a cake celebrating a purported gender transition of a transgender-identifying attorney.

In a Thursday decision, a Colorado Court of Appeals three-judge panel sided with Autumn Scardina, a man who identifies as a transgender woman. Scardina said Phillips and his Lakewood, Colorado, Masterpiece Cakeshop discriminated when he declined to bake a pink cake with blue frosting to celebrate Scardina’s purported gender change.

Phillips has ruled out making various kinds of cakes he says would violate his Christian religious beliefs. He is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom legal group, which will appeal the case to the Colorado Supreme Court.

“Free speech is for everyone. No one should be forced to express a message that violates their core beliefs,” Jake Warner, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel, said Jan. 26.

“Over a decade ago, Colorado officials began targeting Jack, misusing state law to force him to say things he does not believe,” Warner said. “Then an activist attorney continued that crusade. This cruelty must stop. One need not agree with Jack’s views to agree that all Americans should be free to say what they believe, even if the government disagrees with those beliefs.”

Phillips’ attorneys had appealed a 2021 trial court’s judgment in favor of Scardina, ruling that Phillips and his bakery violated state anti-discrimination law.

The Jan. 26 appellate court decision, written by Judge Thomas J. Schutz, sided with Scardina’s claim to have been denied service because of a transgender identity, in violation of the right to be free from discrimination in a place of public accommodation. 

Schutz said the defendants “contend their decision not to make a cake for Scardina was based on their firm and sincere religious beliefs and the right to be free from compelled speech that would violate those beliefs.”

However, Schutz rejected the argument that the Colorado law compelled speech in this case.

“It was only after Scardina disclosed that she was transgender and intended to use the cake to celebrate both her birthday and her transition that Masterpiece and Phillips refused to provide the cake,” said the ruling. “Thus, it was Scardina’s transgender status, and her desire to use the cake in celebration of that status, that caused Masterpiece and Phillips to refuse to provide the cake.”

According to the ruling, Scardina’s cake request differed from previous cake requests, which required an explicit message.

“We conclude that creating a pink cake with blue frosting is not inherently expressive and any message or symbolism it provides to an observer would not be attributed to the baker,” said the ruling, which concluded the state law therefore does not compel speech.

The use of the plaintiff’s transgender pronouns was also an issue in the appeal. Schutz rejected arguments that the trial court showed hostility toward the religious beliefs of Phillips and his wife, Debra.

“The trial court initially indicated it would not force parties in the case to use pronouns they found offensive,” the court’s decision continued. “However, the court noted that Ms. Phillips’ decision to avoid using feminine pronouns when referring to Ms. Scardina was relevant to the credibility of her suggestion that Scardina’s transgender status was unrelated to the decision not to make the requested cake.”

“We do not discern any suggestion of hostility in the court’s statements,” the ruling said.

Phillips has been involved in legal trouble for more than a decade in cases that implicate free speech and the place of Christians in public life as changes to anti-discrimination laws provide more avenues for lawsuits against them.

In 2018, Phillips won a six-year legal battle in the U.S. Supreme Court after he faced legal action for declining to bake a cake to celebrate a same-sex couple’s union. The court’s 7-2 decision did not rule on the free speech claims or the claims of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Rather, it found that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission proceedings against the baker “showed elements of a clear and impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs motivating his objection.”

In June 2017, the day the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Phillips’ previous case, Scardina contacted Masterpiece Cakes and requested a cake with a pink and blue design to celebrate a gender transition. The bakery declined the order from Scardina, setting in motion another legal and political dispute.

Amid the publicity surrounding his case, Phillips’ cakeshop received multiple requests for cakes celebrating Satan, using satanic symbols, requesting sexually explicit content, or promoting marijuana use, Alliance Defending Freedom’s case briefing said. Scardina had requested at least one of these satanic-themed cakes, according to the initial brief his attorneys filed on his behalf.

In an early deposition for the case, Scardina said: “I think I wanted him to make me a cake with an image of Satan smoking a joint.”

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission accepted Scardina’s complaint in June 2018, then dropped the complaint after Phillips’ countersuit resulted in an agreement with the state that left open a civil lawsuit from Scardina.

John McHugh, a lawyer representing Scardina, said Thursday that Phillips and his cakeshop “just object to the idea of Ms. Scardina wanting a birthday cake that reflects her status as a transgender woman because they object to the existence of transgender people,” the Associated Press reported.

Alliance Defending Freedom said in a statement that Phillips “works with all people and always decides whether to take a project based on what message a cake will express, not who is requesting it.”

The legal group is pursuing another case in Colorado, 303 Creative v. Elenis, representing a graphic and website designer Lorie Smith. Smith is concerned that Colorado law can compel her and her art studio to create designs that violate her beliefs about marriage.

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Washington D.C., Jan 26, 2023 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

The Catholic bishops of Minnesota urged lawmakers to vote down a bill that would codify the right to abortion, proposing instead a slate of pro-family measures that they say will reduce demand for abortions.  

Minnesota’s H.F. 1, which has a companion bill in the state Senate, passed the House Jan. 19 by a narrow 69-65 vote. Abortion already is available in Minnesota throughout pregnancy for most reasons. The present bill — known as the Protect Reproductive Options Act — would codify into law a constitutional right to “reproductive freedom,” ensuring the right to abortion in Minnesota up to birth for any reason.  

Separate bills under consideration in Minnesota would remove parental notification requirements for minors procuring abortions as well as remove state protections for babies born alive after an abortion.

The midwestern state’s Catholic bishops lamented the haste with which the bills were being advanced and implored lawmakers to “pause” and consider the broader implications. 

“When contemplating policy on any issue, we must consider all those who will be affected. In this case, that includes the mother, father, and most especially, the unborn child whose life is being taken,” Minnesota’s bishops said in a Jan. 26 statement. 

“In a post-Dobbs world in which states that allow abortion have the responsibility to both regulate the practice and protect nascent human life, we should be working to find common ground on the challenges before us in Minnesota. We stand firm that every child should be welcomed in life and protected by law.”

The bishops’ concerns about H.F. 1/S.F. 1 go beyond abortion, however. They warned that an enshrining of “reproductive freedom” in the state could open the door to additional unintended consequences, including the ability of minor children to undergo sex-transition therapies and sterilization without parental consent. Also of concern is the potential infringement on the conscience and religious liberty rights of individual and institutional medical providers who do not wish to provide these treatments, the bishops said.

The Catholic leaders offered suggestions for legislative priorities that they said would help to offer support to mothers in need, reducing the demand for abortion. They noted that the Minnesota Catholic Conference has compiled a set of pro-family policy proposals at a dedicated website under the banner of a project called Families First. 

Summarizing their proposals, “this support means, among other things, policies that fund: nutritional aid for expectant mothers; health care coverage during and after pregnancy for both mother and child; child care assistance; and adequate housing. Enacting reasonable paid family and caregiver leave laws would help people retain work and care for their newborns. Reconsidering whether our adoption policies are unreasonably burdened by excessive costs or barriers to participation is also an imperative,” the bishops said. 

“We also contend that there is a social duty to remove unnecessary barriers to contracting marriage, having children, and being able to raise them well. By raising the family to the top of our state’s policy priorities, we can help restore the family to its proper position as the foundational building block of society where children best flourish.”

Minnesota is the latest U.S. state to make moves in its legislature to enshrine a right to abortion, though other states are considering new laws. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, has signaled support for a bill to allow late-term abortions at any time in pregnancy with a doctor’s approval. 

Other states have already passed far-reaching abortion laws in recent years. Notably Colorado, which already allowed abortion up to birth, passed a law in April 2022 that excluded any and all rights to unborn children, allowing abortion for any reason — including reasons of disability, sex, and race — up until birth.

Minnesota’s H.F. 1 has not yet been voted on in the state Senate.

Anna Lulis from Moneta, Virginia, (left) who works for the pro-life group Students for Life of America, stands beside an abortion rights demonstrator outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022, after the court's decision in the Dobbs abortion case was announced. / Katie Yoder/CNA

Denver, Colo., Jan 26, 2023 / 10:12 am (CNA).

With the Biden administration’s expansion of abortion pill distribution to neighborhood pharmacies, pro-life college students and other anti-abortion advocates are organizing campaigns against CVS, Walgreens, and other companies that have announced that they will dispense the drugs. 

“Our purpose of having these protests is so that we can let ‘Big Pharma’ companies know that it’s absolutely unacceptable to offer abortion at our neighborhood drug stores,” Caroline Wharton, Students for Life of America press strategist and staff writer, told CNA Jan. 24.

Students for Life is asking pro-life advocates to join its planned protests and advocacy actions directed at companies that have announced their intention to distribute the abortion drug mifepristone. The pro-life organization has almost 1,300 student groups on high school and college campuses, according to its website.

On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, Students for Life will hold its kickoff protest “Cancel Abortion Cartels” at Walgreens’ corporate headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois. It has called for a National Day of Protest at local pharmacies on March 4. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Jan. 3 announced it would allow any patient with a prescription to obtain mifepristone from her local retail pharmacy. Both CVS and Walgreens have said they will pursue a certification process to provide the drugs, and Rite Aid has said it will dispense the drugs at a limited number of pharmacies and through the mail.

The protests, Wharton said, aim “to let these CEOs know that they need to go back on this decision. They do not need to certify this program with the FDA and they should not be distributing these life-ending drugs.”

“I don’t want to go into a drugstore and be able to buy my chewing gum and my tights and then get a pill that ends a life. It’s just not acceptable,” Wharton told CNA.

The drug mifepristone works by cutting off nutrients necessary for a fetus to continue developing. It is paired with another drug called misoprostol, which is taken 24 hours or more later to trigger uterine contractions to expel the baby’s dead body. The drug is FDA-approved for abortions up to 10 weeks into gestation. It already accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S.

CNA sought comment from Walgreens, which repeated its intentions to distribute abortion pills.

“We intend to become a certified pharmacy under the program,” a spokesperson said Jan. 24. “We are working through the registration, necessary training of our pharmacists, as well as evaluating our pharmacy network in terms of where we normally dispense products that have extra FDA requirements and will dispense these consistent with federal and state laws.”

CVS did not respond to a request for comment.

Students for Life will “absolutely oppose” all pharmacies dispensing the abortion pill, Wharton said.  The arrival of the abortion pill at the neighborhood pharmacy “changes the battlelines for the pro-life movement,” Wharton said.

While prayers and sidewalk counseling outside abortion facilities have been a continual practice, plans to distribute the abortion pill through neighborhood pharmacies “changes the way that we’re able to work.”

“Abortion is very harmful for a community overall, so bringing it into all communities like that, I think, is very detrimental,” she said.

Students for Life is organizing letter-writing campaigns and an effort to send Valentine’s Day cards to CEOs to ask them to “urge them to stop making our pharmacies abortion facilities and distributing deadly chemical abortion pills,” its website said.

40 Days for Life, a longtime organizer of peaceful prayer and pro-life outreach campaigns at abortion clinics, will encourage protests at pharmacies during its upcoming Feb. 22-April 2 campaign.

“CVS and Walgreens have replaced Planned Parenthood as the most significant abortion chains in the Western Hemisphere,” Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days for Life, told CNA Jan. 24. “With 18,000 locations between the two, and now Rite Aid joining in, we have given the hundreds of 40 Days for Life campaign leaders not currently leading a campaign the opportunity to do so outside a pharmacy.”

Last week on its website, 40 Days for Life said the CVS and Walgreens decisions are “turning their stores into abortion facilities.” The organization invited people who don’t have an abortion facility nearby to apply on its website to lead a protest in front of pharmacies that have said they will dispense abortion pills.

Leading these campaigns can “save lives through your witness and abortion pill reversal,” empower pro-life pharmacists, educate the community about the dangers of chemical abortion to women and babies, and “send a message to pharmacy executives that dealing in death is not a good business decision.”

“A dedicated abortion facility is still our first priority, but we have lost campaigns for the best reason — their abortion facility has gone out of business,” Carney told CNA. “Those locations — and many more in rural America — will now be focusing on abortion dispensing pharmacies. The complications of these dangerous abortion drugs (which often result in ER visits or follow-up appointments) and the employee conscience rights issues hitting CVS and Walgreens right now will be a legal headache for pharmacies.”

Until this month, FDA policy only allowed certified doctors, clinics, and some mail-order pharmacies to dispense mifepristone.

Critics of the drug include the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a pro-life think tank. Its July 2022 fact sheet on risks and complications of chemical abortion said that abortion pills are four times riskier than surgical abortions. The need for follow-up care can range from 3% to 10% of women when the drug is taken early in pregnancy and up to 39% of women if accidentally taken late in pregnancy, when surgery could be required.

Women could be put at risk by a lack of ultrasound tests to confirm the age and the position of the unborn child, especially if there is an ectopic pregnancy. A lack of blood test requirements could affect Rh-negative women, who need special treatment to avoid serious risks to future pregnancies.

Wharton said that easier access to the pills can make it easier for abusive men to conceal pregnancy and abuse.

“It’s going to make it easier for abusers in the community to buy these pills,” she objected. “It’s going to make it easier for a woman in a situation where she’s vulnerable to get an abortion, and she has nobody counseling her.”

Bishop Michael Pfeifer was Bishop of San Angelo, Texas, from 1985 to 2013. / Courtesy photo.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 26, 2023 / 09:00 am (CNA).

An emeritus Texas bishop is calling on his fellow Catholic bishops — and all pro-life people — to focus on creating a culture of life following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“2023 is the first full year without Roe v. Wade, but thousands of precious babies are still being killed by abortion,” Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer, OMI, bishop emeritus of San Angelo, wrote in a January pastoral statement marking 50 years since the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that previously legalized abortion nationwide.

He cautioned: “The abortion lobby is spending many millions of dollars, including your taxpayer dollars, on a comprehensive strategy to expand abortion even more this year.”

Pfeifer, who served as bishop of San Angelo from 1985 to 2013, stressed that the Church and all pro-life people still “have much work to do in promoting pro-life messages to its own members and society at large.”

Citing Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, the vice president of the U.S. Catholic bishops, Pfeifer pointed to the “many efforts at a presidential and many at a congressional level to use power to facilitate abortion.”

His comments come after President Joe Biden, a Catholic, issued a statement in support of abortion to commemorate the anniversary of the now-obsolete Roe v. Wade decision.

Biden, Pfeifer said, “needs to remember there are no abortion rights in the Constitution nor in the Commandments of God.”

In his statement, Pfeifer called on the bishops to remain unified on the pro-life issue.

“Our clear teaching has the goal of addressing the sacredness of all human life at all stages of life, and to use all the means we have guided by the Holy Spirit to overcome attacks on life and to promote and protect the life of every human being from the very beginning, and to ensure that pregnant and parenting mothers are fully supported in the care of their children before and after birth,” he said.

“This must be our strong, clear message for all pro-lifers and with political leaders at all levels,” he added. “We bishops need to be more proactive in leading these pro-life efforts and especially with our president and other elected officials.”

Pfeifer also condemned government funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, and increased access to abortion drugs. At the same time, he commended pro-life legislation, such the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act that recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Pfeifer wrote that the pro-life movement has the “God-given tools” to end abortion and build a culture of life while noting the need for the involvement of the entire community, including young people.

He outlined specific actions, such as more weekly pro-life Masses, adoration, fasting, and prayer, including, praying in front of Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics.

Pfeifer also highlighted the importance of winning hearts and minds and building a life-affirming society where abortion becomes unthinkable.

“It is urgent that we also take more courageous and unified action as bishops to encourage members of Congress and our president to pass legislation that advances the health, safety and flourishing of women, children, and families,” he wrote, “and we strongly encourage the passage of bills that support and fund families, such as the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and support for child tax credit, paid family leave, pregnancy resource centers, child care, housing and nutrition, maternal and child health, adoption, healthy relations, for environmental protections and inclusion of immigrant families in social programs.”

The government’s “most sacred duty,” he wrote, “is to safeguard the lives of all Americans beginning with the most vulnerable and weakest, the unborn child.”

Pfeifer identified the threat of abortion and protecting the unborn as the “preeminient life issue.”

“This brutal daily killing of these precious sacred images of God should cause all pro-lifers, especially bishops, to fall on our knees in prayerful repentance and reparation, pleading for God’s forgiveness and mercy as we humbly admit before the Lord that we could have and should do much more to prevent the massive daily destruction of tiny, precious human lives,” he wrote.

“God created the human person in the divine image and likeness as the pinnacle of all creation,” he concluded. “Each of us including the unborn share in the image of God’s glory. Human life as a gift from God is sacred and inviolable.”

A pro-life pregnancy center in Hollywood, Florida, was defaced with pro-abortion graffiti over Memorial Day Weekend 2022. / Courtesy of Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 25, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

The Department of Justice on Tuesday indicted two suspects accused of vandalizing three pro-life pregnancy centers in Florida in June 2022 in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

The indictment against the two Floridians, 27-year-old Caleb Freestone and 23-year-old Amber Smith-Stewart, accuses them of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is also known as the FACE Act. The indictment alleges that their actions amount to a conspiracy to prevent the employees from providing services. They could face up to 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and up to $350,000 in fines.

Pro-life pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers, provide free services and resources to pregnant women, including alternatives to abortion.

LifeChoice Pregnancy Center, a pro-life pregnancy center based in Winter Haven, was spray-painted with several threatening messages including “YOUR TIME IS UP!!,” “WE’RE COMING for U,” “if abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,” and “We are everywhere.” The facility was unavailable for comment by the time of publication. Two other facilities were allegedly targeted: one in Hollywood and one in Hialeah.

The indictment alleges that the messages were threats of force to intimidate and interfere with the employees at the facilities because of the reproductive health services they provide. It alleges that the two Floridians intentionally damaged and destroyed the facility’s property because of the reproductive health services they provide. Both of those actions violate the FACE Act.

The act became law in the 1990s to establish special protections for reproductive health centers, including pro-life facilities and abortion facilities. It established certain federal penalties for threatening, damaging, and obstructing conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with a person’s right to obtain or provide reproductive care.

According to the DOJ, the FBI Tampa Field Office carried out the investigation with help from the Miami Police Department. 

Some pro-life activists were grateful for the indictment but expressed frustration about the length of time it took to indict the suspects and the lack of arrests in other attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers throughout the country.  

The indictments represent the first suspects known to have been arrested in attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers since a rash of incidents of vandalism began in 2022.

Lynda Bell, the president of Florida Right to Life, told CNA that she is pleased with the indictment. 

“It took way too long … and I know there’s way more out there [who] need to be arrested,” Bell said. 

CNA has independently tracked and confirmed nearly 60 attacks nationwide on pro-life pregnancy centers since May 2022. This includes a significant number of threatening messages through vandalism and several fires. One pro-life center in Wisconsin was firebombed. The organization also claimed that the attacks are underreported because the pro-life centers are trying to protect their clients.

Bell said those who are attacking pro-life centers should be brought to justice and expressed a concern that the attacks “have not been a priority” for the DOJ. Even though the firebombing of the Wisconsin pro-life pregnancy center took place in May, she said there have not yet been any arrests.  

“That’s unheard of with the technology our [law enforcement] has,” Bell added.  

On Jan. 11, the House of Representatives passed a resolution that condemned the recent attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers. The resolution, introduced by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), passed the chamber 222-209, with most Republicans supporting the measure and most Democrats opposing it.  

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, issued a statement expressing dissatisfaction with the DOJ for targeting pro-life Americans.

“These charges are good first steps, but the fight for equal justice is far from over,” the statement read. 

“With a new House GOP majority positioned to exercise its oversight powers, we are finally beginning to see some accountability. Yet the Justice Department continues to target the people of states that protect unborn children and their mothers. Congressional Democrats had the opportunity to condemn the violence and all but three refused, and again we have had to call on the White House to stop vilifying pro-life Americans. The pro-life movement is keeping a watchful eye on this administration and we will not be silent in the face of violence and intimidation.” 

Today, Pennsylvania resident and pro-life advocate Mark Houck appeared in court, where he faces federal charges for allegedly violating the FACE Act. The charges stem from an incident that took place during a protest at an abortion clinic. Houck was arrested a year later by the FBI in a raid of his home as his family looked on.