Life Advocacy Briefing

Question of the Week

WHO BENEFITS from a “rape/incest” loophole in an abortion ban? Easy answer: the perpetrator, whose identity is harder to prove when the clearest evidence of his crime has been disposed of.

Confirmed!

THOUGH SENATE DEMOCRATS MOUNTED A MEDIA FURY over the nomination of Emil Bove as Circuit Judge in the 3^rd Appellate Circuit, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) persisted in putting forward his bid last Tuesday evening and secured his confirmation on a vote of 50-49. We publish the roll call at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Besides having expressed his acknowledgment that the Dobbs ruling is a standard for rulings on abortion cases, Mr. Bove was a prominent member of the Trump defense team in recent trials of the then-former-President in New York City, making him a fever-pitch target for Pres. Trump’s enemies.  

We congratulate Judge Bove, who will serve in the circuit overseeing appeals from cases in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands.

Spigot Back On for Planned Parenthood

A U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE IN BOSTON has ordered the US government to continue funding – at taxpayer expense – all Planned Parenthood shops nationwide as recipients of federal Medicaid. The order comes despite Congress and the President having put into law – via the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed July 3 and signed by the President on July 4, 2025 – a provision excluding the nation’s leading abortion purveyor.

Judge Indira Talwani on July 21 ordered the Trump Administration to fund “a limited number of Planned Parenthood facilities,” reports Zachary Mettler for The Daily Citizen. But on July 28, she enhanced her injunction, expanding the order to direct “‘that Medicaid funding continues to be disbursed in the customary manner and timeframes to’” a certain listing of Planned Parenthood shops “‘and all other Members of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.’”

The Obama-appointed judge claimed the funding ban “violates Planned Parenthood Federation and its members’ First Amendment right of association and serves as an unconstitutional ‘bill of attainder.’ Bills of attainder,” explains Mr. Mettler, “are legislative actions that target individuals or groups for alleged crimes without due process and are prohibited under Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution” – a provision which is obviously not intended to apply to choices concerning the spending of the public purse.

“Judge Talwani’s legal reasoning is as preposterous,” opines Mr. Mettler, “as it is nonsensical. No group has a Constitutional right to receive taxpayer dollars in contravention of federal law. Congress has every right to stop funding any organization for any reason whatsoever. Under the Constitution,” he continues, “Congress has the ‘power of the purse,’ meaning one of its core powers is the distribution and allocation of taxpayer dollars.”

Indeed. Mr. Mettler goes on to note: “Article I of the Constitution enumerates Congress’s legislative powers. Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution states, ‘No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law.’” 

The report quotes Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America: “‘Every day this order stands, Planned Parenthood continues to rake in millions of our tax dollars, fueling thousands of unborn lives ended daily and putting women at unacceptable risk of serious harm and even death.’”

A LifeSiteNews report by Matt Lamb quotes Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, calling Judge Talwani’s “‘handling of the Planned Parenthood funding case … a textbook case of judicial overreach.’”

But it may be some time before the order can be overturned, and because of machinations in the Senate, the ban lasts only one year before needing to be voted on again. The Trump Administration has appealed Judge Talwani’s limited July 21 order and is expected now to appeal the subsequent order. But the appeals will go first to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which, notes Mr. Mettler, “is one of the most liberal federal appeals courts in the country. All five sitting circuit judges were appointed by Democrat Presidents,” he writes. What is more, “One of the court’s five judges, Julie Rikelman, previously worked for decades as a pro-abortion lawyer. She was a Blackmun Fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights, served as the group’s senior litigation director for over a decade and” – get this – “represented the Mississippi abortion clinic in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” losing the case by which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Facts Matter

WE THANK SEN. JIM BANKS (R-IN) – and the pro-life citizens of his state should thank him, too – for raising an important, though little noticed, question in the confirmation hearing for the nomination of Susan Monarez for director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC).

He brought to her attention the refusal of several states to report abortion statistics to the CDC and noted that such accounting is critical to policymaking across government on the legal status of abortion and its attendant questions.

For many years, Life Advocacy Resource Project has counseled pro-life candidates to use such data to inform voters of the real consequences of abortion policies in their states. The abortion lobby, in recent years, has grasped the conscience-prodding utility in such statistics, which invariably demonstrate that abortion is the leading cause of death. (We believe, thankfully, that is no longer true in states like Texas, which has an effective law driving down the abortion death toll. It is certainly true nearly everywhere else – especially in states which refuse to report.) Consequently, the abortion lobby has been demanding that states stop cooperating with the CDC’s data collection requests.

Unfortunately, Dr. Monarez’s response shows a lack of awareness of this evidentiary blackout, but she did indicate her commitment to data collection and pledged to work with Sen. Banks on the specific issue he raised. And she has now been confirmed. For now, we see this as progress.

Drawing Back

THE U.S. JUSTICE DEPT. HAS ISSUED a legal memo, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “rescinding a Biden-era legal judgment that federal funds could be used to facilitate travel for abortions that federal law forbade from being directly subsidized.”

The memo explains that the Biden Regime “took the position,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “that the Hyde Amendment … only applied to money ‘directly expended for’ the ‘discrete medical procedure’ of abortion and not indirect expenses such as travel expenses.’”

The Justice Dept. has now declared it “‘appropriate’” to “‘withdraw that opinion,’” reports LifeSiteNews, finding it “‘inconsistent with the traditional tools of statutory interpretation employed by the Supreme Court and this office. … We conclude that the Hyde Amendment is best read to prohibit the use of federal funds to provide ancillary services necessary to receive an abortion.’”

Facing Reality

MAINE FAMILY PLANNING IS SUING THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. Why? It turns out the blandly named outfit is not just a counseling service; it is an abortion outfit. And that means, under the “One Big Beautiful Bill’s” provision defunding abortionists, it’s no longer eligible to benefit from US taxpayer largesse.

A nurse practitioner at the outfit, reports Matt Lamb for LifeSiteNews, “told the AP the defunding of abortion vendors is ‘cruel. Knowing how hard it is to access care [sic] in this state, not allowing these community members to access their care[sic], it’s cruel,’ Vanessa Shields-Haas told the AP,” reports Mr. Lamb. “She is apparently referring both to non-abortion offerings (i.e., wellness exams) but also abortions. We know this,” writes Mr. Lamb, “because Shields-Haas is a staunch supporter of killing preborn babies in the womb, having previously volunteered with the New Orleans Abortion Fund, and she also appears to be an abortionist.

“‘As a nurse practitioner, I will now be able to provide abortion as part of comprehensive primary care – something I could not have done in Louisiana,’ Shields-Haas … wrote in Ms. Magazine in 2020,” reports Mr. Lamb. “That,” he writes, “is why Maine Family Planning is not receiving Medicaid payments any more – they kill innocent and defenseless preborn babies in the womb.”

Apparently, the outfit also offers actual medical services to Maine families. But by tainting its practice with baby killing, it has disqualified itself from US taxpayer support. All it need do is eliminate the abortion trade from its roster of “services.”

Time to Stand Up, Mr. President

Excerpts from July 30, 2025, The Washington Stand commentary by Suzanne Bowdey

             … While the Supreme Court was right – and years overdue – in overturning the flawed Roe v. Wade ruling, the biggest mistake people made after 2022 was thinking the abortion question was solved. Far from it. If anything, Dobbs only inflamed the tensions boiling under the surface. As the headlines are starting to make quite clear, it’s only exposed the explosive divides between red and blue states. A divide, unfortunately, that empires like Planned Parenthood continue to exploit.

             As Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch explained, “The Comstock Act very clearly states that no abortion-inducing object or drug may be sent through the mail. It’s written right there in federal law. The Biden Administration looked at that, and they said, ‘You know, we will only enforce that as narrowly as possible.’” Now, years later, the country is learning the hard way, it hasn’t been enforced at all. And it’s time, Szoch and millions of other Americans argue, “for the Trump Administration to stand up and say, ‘Every Biden policy has to go, especially those ones that endanger life.’ …

             “The first thing that we’re calling for is for the FDA to completely reexamine the approval of mifepristone. Women and unborn children will not be safe from this drug until that approval is revoked,” Szoch insisted on Washington Watch Friday. … Although the new FDA chief Marty Makary says he has no current plans to change the guidelines for the abortion drug, he did promise to be open-minded and “continue [listening] to folks that say they have concerns” about the drug.

             For now, though, it shouldn’t be too much to ask that the Trump Administration – which cares deeply about ending Biden-era lawlessness in other areas – aggressively defend the Comstock Act. If this is, as the President continues to suggest, a “state issue,” then surely states’ policies on life should be respected, not undermined by activist doctors … .

             Just in the past few days, a father sued a California abortionist for mailing mifepristone to his girlfriend in Texas – in direct defiance of Lone Star Law. The case accuses the doctor of violating the Comstock Act in a first-of-a-kind “wrongful death” suit. Similar challenges are cropping up all over the country as couples grapple with the ease of taking innocent life – with or without both parents’ knowledge. Some of the more sinister stories … involve abusive husbands or boyfriends who tricked their pregnant significant others into taking mifepristone against their will, a nightmarish scenario that stronger regulations could help prevent.

             Even for those women who take it knowingly – believing the industry’s lies that it’s an “easier” abortion – the horrors are unlike anything they could imagine. “[The blood] – it looked like I was sitting in the middle of a crime scene. I supposed it was a crime scene. I mean, I had just murdered my child. … But this couldn’t be normal. Planned Parenthood didn’t ever tell me this could happen. …” …

             Dozens of Baptist leaders from 22 states … this week … “respectfully request[ed]” that President Trump do three things: “1) Restore and strengthen FDA safety protocols for mifepristone, including an ultrasound requirement; 2) Direct the FDA to reevaluate the drug’s approval and 3) Instruct the Dept. of Justice to enforce the Comstock Act, to protect states’ rights to uphold pro-life laws.”

             As [the Baptist] leaders … made quite clear to Trump, “Women, unborn children and the rule of law urgently need your leadership.”

So Much for ‘Leaving It to the States’

July 30, 2025, LifeSiteNews report by Matt Lamb

             An abortionist who illegally shipped abortion drugs into Texas is being protected by a New York county clerk and the entire state, prompting legal action by Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton.

             The Texas attorney general announced on Monday he would “take legal action” against Taylor Bruck, the New York acting County Clerk for Ulster County. Paxton has already secured a $100,000 judgment against abortionist Margaret Carpenter for illegally sending abortion drugs into Texas, “which resulted in the killing of an unborn child and serious medical complications for the mother,” according to a news release.

             However, Bruck is refusing to help enforce the law and instead citing a state law that shields abortionists and ensures they never face consequences. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the law to protect abortionists from prosecution when they send drugs illegally into other states.

             “Atty. Gen. Paxton has now submitted a petition seeking a writ of mandamus to ensure that Dr. Carpenter pays the penalty for breaking the law,” Paxton’s office announced.

             “Dr. Carpenter is a radical abortionist who must face justice, not get legal protection from New York liberals intent on ending the lives of as many unborn children as they can,” Paxton stated. “No matter where they reside, pro-abortion extremists who send drugs designed to kill the unborn into Texas will face the full force of our state’s pro-life laws.” Carpenter runs the “Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine.”

             As previously reported by LifeSiteNews in February, Judge Bryan Gantt of North Texas ordered Carpenter to stop sending abortion pills into the state and to pay a $100,000 fine, challenging the abortion lobby’s strategy of circumventing pro-life laws by mailing abortion pills across state lines.

             Carpenter also appears to have broken the law in Louisiana by shipping the deadly drugs into the state multiple times.

             The disputes over abortion drugs [are] the latest battle … over whether all human beings should be protected from intentional killing, as pro-lifers say, or whether only some lives are worth protecting, as abortion activists claim. … Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia have protections for illegal abortionists, according to the pro-abortion Kaiser Family Foundation.

             While abortion pills can never be “safe,” because they always intend to deliberately destroy a preborn baby, they are also dangerous for women.

             The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has repeatedly promised to investigate their approval. However, pro-life leaders have expressed frustration at the slow pace [at which] the Trump Administration has moved on this issue.

             Pro-life medical experts recently renewed their push to have Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the FDA investigate the issues following a harrowing study that found abortion drug adverse effects were much more serious than thought.

             “The data strongly suggest that mifepristone poses a far greater risk of causing harm than previously stated. In fact, the risk of serious complications may be 22 times higher than previously disclosed,” states a … letter [from the medical experts] released in early July.

Wisdom from the Great Communicator

EXCERPT #14 from Abortion & the Conscience of the Nation, 1983 treatise by then-President Ronald Reagan, published in Human Life Review, then as a hardcover book from Thomas Nelson Publishers

             The 1981 Senate hearings on the beginning of human life brought out the basic issue more clearly than ever before. The many medical and scientific witnesses who testified disagreed on many things, but not on the scientific evidence that the unborn child is alive, is a distinct individual, or is a member of the human species. They did disagree over the value question, whether to give value to a human life at its early and most vulnerable stages of existence.

Senate Voting Record

Confirmation of Emil Bove as Appellate Judge for the 3^rd Circuit – Adopted 50-49 – July 29, 2025 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Britt & Tuberville/AL, Sullivan/AK, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Moody & Scott/FL, Crapo & Risch/ID, Banks & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Marshall & Moran/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Hyde-Smith & Wicker/MS, Hawley & Schmitt/MO, Daines & Sheehy/MT, Fischer & Ricketts/NE, Budd & Tillis/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Husted & Moreno/OH, Lankford & Mullin/OK, McCormick/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Blackburn/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Curtis & Lee/UT, Capito & Justice/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Lummis/WY.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Murkowski/AK, Gallego & Kelly/AZ, Padilla & Schiff/CA, Bennet & Hickenlooper/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Blunt–Rochester & Coons/DE, Ossoff & Warnock/GA, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Collins & King(I)/ME, Alsobrooks & VanHollen/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Slotkin/MI, Klobuchar & Smith/MN, Cortez–Masto & Rosen/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Kim/NJ, Heinrich & Lujan/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Fetterman/PA, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Sanders(I) & Welch/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Hagerty/TN.