IL Passes Law Violating Doctors’ Religious Convictions Against Abortion

Abortion, , ,

Ending late-term abortionsLawmakers in Illinois have passed legislation that would force pro-life doctors to do abortion referrals.

Senate Bill 1564 has been passed by the Illinois House and Senate. The bill states in no uncertain terms that when a doctor is asked to perform a procedure–such as abortion, for example–that violates his or her religious convictions, the doctor must refer the patient to a physician who will perform the procedure.

In practice, this means a pro-life doctor who considers abortion murder based on his or her deeply-held religious convictions will be forced to refer women to an abortion doctor–despite the objections the pro-life doctor may have to facilitating abortion in any way whatsoever.

Our friends at the Heritage Foundation note the new bill may run afoul of federal law.

Not only would this law violate doctors’ religious objections to abortion; it would also defy federal law.

The Coats-Snowe Amendment requires that federally funded state or local governments not discriminate against health providers because they refuse to perform abortions, provide abortion training, or make referrals for training or abortion.

The Church Amendments state that public officials are not authorized to force individuals to perform abortions or “assist” with them because those individuals receive federal health funds.

Similarly, the Weldon Amendment, a part of every federal appropriations bill since 2005, forbids funding any federal, state, or local agency that discriminates against health care providers because they do not “provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.”

Consequently, this bill could cost Illinois massive federal funding that it receives in the health care arena.

Unlike this new law in Illinois, Arkansas law generally protects physicians from being forced to perform abortions or abortion referrals.

You can read more about this story here.

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Heritage Foundation: Gender Politics Force Judge to Fight for Her Job

Marriage,

My_Trusty_GavelOur friends at the Heritage Foundation have highlighted a case unfolding in Wyoming that has a judge fighting for her job–simply because of her traditional views on marriage.

In 2014 Judge Ruth Neely was interviewed about “administrative challenges of the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Wyoming.”

Heritage Foundation writes,

The result of the interview Dec. 5, 2014, was a relatively short newspaper story, but it sparked an investigation of Neely’s fitness for office. A year and a half later, she is asking the Wyoming Supreme Court not to remove her from two separate judgeships—nor to enforce a fine of up to $40,000.

All this without a local citizen filing a complaint against the judge, who is active in her Lutheran church, and without her ever being asked to officiate at a same-sex wedding.

You can read the full story here.

Photo Credit: By Brian Turner (Flickr: My Trusty Gavel) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Most Americans Think Abortion Ought to Be Illegal in Some or All Cases

Abortion, , ,

According to recent polling by Gallup, a majority of Americans believe abortion ought to be illegal in some or all cases.

Last month Gallup found 19% of Americans believe abortion ought to be illegal under all circumstances and 50% believed abortion ought to be legal only under certain circumstances. Altogether, that represents 69% of American adults.

Additionally, Gallup found more Americans believe abortion is morally wrong than morally acceptable (47% vs. 43%, respectively).

Last year Gallup found an increasing percentage of Americans say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion.

These poll findings come as abortion in Arkansas continues to decline. The number of abortions performed in Arkansas fell by more than 500 last year.

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