ACLU Renews Legal Battle Against Texas Pro-Life Law
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are continuing to oppose the Texas heartbeat law in federal court.
Watch this video to learn more.
ACLU, Planned Parenthood Continuing to Fight Texas’ Heartbeat Law in Federal Court
On Monday the ACLU announced it is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to expedite its challenge against Texas’ pro-life heartbeat law at the district court level.
Expediting the challenge would let the ACLU continue fighting the law in lower federal court.
Texas’ heartbeat law generally prohibits abortion after an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detected, and it has effectively prevented abortion in Texas since September.
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood have fought Texas’ pro-life law in federal court, but in December the U.S. Supreme Court decided to let the Texas heartbeat law remain in effect while leaving the door open for other possible challenges against it.
On Monday the ACLU issued a statement, saying, “We have brought our challenge to SB8 back to the Supreme Court. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is defying the Supreme Court’s opinion by refusing to send our case back to the district court, delaying our challenge against Texas’ extreme ban.”
BREAKING: We have brought our challenge to SB8 back to the Supreme Court.
— ACLU (@ACLU) January 3, 2022
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is defying the Supreme Court’s opinion by refusing to send our case back to the district court, delaying our challenge against Texas’ extreme ban.
On Monday the ACLU also issued a blatantly pro-abortion statement on social media, saying, “Abortion is health care. Forced pregnancy laws take away our rights and freedom.”
Abortion is health care.
— ACLU (@ACLU) January 3, 2022
Forced pregnancy laws take away our rights and freedom. pic.twitter.com/ER7wCKGVf7
Pro-abortion groups used to say that abortion ought to be “safe, legal, and rare.” Lately, however, groups like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood have dropped the word “rare” from their talking points.
The reality is most Americans do not see pro-life laws as “forced pregnancy laws” the way the ACLU seems to.
Gallup released a poll in June of 2019 showing 60% of Americans believe abortion should be either illegal or legal only under a few circumstances, and public opinion polling consistently shows Arkansans are overwhelmingly pro-life.
Americans oppose abortion on demand, and a striking number agree that abortion ought to be completely illegal. That’s part of the reason why slowly but surely we are winning the fight to end abortion.
Conway Regional Hospital Denies Allegations in Religious Discrimination Lawsuit, Asks Court to Dismiss Claims
Attorneys for Conway Regional Medical Center have asked a judge to dismiss most of the allegations raised in a religious discrimination lawsuit brought against the hospital in October.
Research and development for the COVID-19 vaccines used cells that originated from aborted babies. As a result, some pro-lifers have objections to the COVID-19 vaccines, because of the vaccines’ connection to abortion.
In September Conway Regional made headlines after the hospital announced that employees who wanted a religious exemption because of the COVID-19 vaccine’s connection to abortion would also have to sign a form attesting that the employees would not use other medicines — such as Tylenol and Tums — that have been tested on aborted fetal tissue.
In October six individuals who are past or present employees of Conway Regional filed a lawsuit against the hospital.
According to the lawsuit, all six of the plaintiffs are Christians who have religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine.
In an amended complaint filed on December 9, attorneys for the six plaintiffs provided the court with emails from Conway Regional’s CEO regarding the vaccine mandate.
The amended complaint alleges that one of the emails from Conway Regional’s CEO “equated employees who request religious exemptions from [the medical center’s] mandatory COVID vaccine policy with draft dodgers.”
Attorneys for the hospital responded to the amended complaint on Wednesday, generally denying the allegations and asking the court to dismiss all but two of the plaintiffs’ claims against Conway Regional.
Time will tell whether or not the court decides to dismiss any part of the religious discrimination lawsuit against Conway Regional Medical Center.
In September the Arkansas Legislature passed two identical laws addressing COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The laws require employers to provide certain accommodations for employees who decline to get vaccinated.
The Arkansas Attorney General’s Office also has joined multiple lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s federal vaccine mandates.
Family Council has a long history of supporting exemptions from vaccine mandates in Arkansas.
We don’t oppose immunizations, but we do believe people’s rights of conscience ought to be respected when it comes to getting vaccinated. Our laws should protect people from being forced to violate their conscience.