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It all goes back in the box
Category: Christianity
Leaders in England are getting ready to force church’s to exclude people who have not been vaccinated. 1200 church leaders sent a letter of dissent to the Prime Minister. The dissent is based on three issues:
- Medically illogical
- Morally divisive
- Theologically impossible
Many great issues are brought up in this video. It’s well worth a listen.
Amid a yearslong legal battle, a federal judge ruled this week that the city of Anchorage, Alaska’s nondiscrimination ordinance barring LGBT discrimination does not force a Christian battered women’s shelter to admit trans-identified biological males.
In an order handed down Monday, Judge Sharon Gleason of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska determined that Downtown Soup Kitchen Hope Center of Anchorage does not have the standing to sue the city over a revision to its ordinance declaring that places of public accommodation can’t discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity because the center is not a place of public accommodation.
Therefore, the faith-based homeless shelter created to serve battered women fleeing domestic abuse and homeless women, part of a ministry to the underprivileged that includes a soup kitchen, will not have to admit trans-identified males.
Gleason granted in part a motion from the city to dismiss the case due to lack of standing as the municipality contends that the statute does not apply to the Hope Center’s shelter operations. According to the ruling, the city cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this past summer in favor of a Catholic foster care agency removed from Philadelphia’s foster program over policies preventing placement of children with same-sex couples.
The municipality contended that the Supreme Court ruling “makes clear that Hope Center is not a public accommodation.”
The judge ruled that the Hope Center “may seek damages for its self-censorship based on that provision for the limited time period between the ordinance’s passage and the Municipality’s disavowal of prosecutorial intent” because “section 5.20.020 arguably
applies to Hope Center’s conduct.”
Attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative religious liberty legal nonprofit representing the center, praised the judge’s order.
“Vulnerable women deserve a safe place to stay overnight, and we’re pleased that they can sleep soundly, at least for the time being, due to the court’s order,” ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson said in a statement. “Downtown Hope Center serves everyone, but its overnight women’s shelter exists to provide a safe place for women, many of whom have survived sex trafficking, rape, or domestic violence at the hands of men.”
Anderson said that Anchorage officials have twice “targeted the center for operating according to its religious beliefs and for serving the city’s homeless population.”
She hopes that “the court’s order puts an end to this.”
“Faith-based nonprofits should be free to serve consistently with their faith without fear of unjust government punishment,” stated Ryan Tucker, director of ADF’s Center for Christian Ministries. “This is especially true for ministries that help homeless women who have suffered sexual abuse or domestic violence. Because no woman should be forced to disrobe next to a man, we are pleased the court has allowed Downtown Hope Center to continue protecting women and operating according to its religious beliefs.”
Monday’s decision stems from years of litigation that began when a trans-identified male, referred to as “Jessie Doe” in the lawsuit, filed a complaint with Anchorage’s Equal Rights Commission in 2018.
Doe alleged that Downtown Soup Kitchen Hope Center violated the Anchorage Municipal Code by refusing admission to the shelter. Doe allegedly showed up drunk and injured. The charity contends that it referred Doe to a hospital and paid for a taxi ride.
At the time, the municipal code declared it unlawful for a place of public accommodation to “refuse, withhold from or deny to a person any of its accommodations, advantages, facilities, benefits, privileges, services or goods of that place on account of … sex [or] gender identity.”
The Equal Rights Commission filed a complaint against Downtown Soup Kitchen Hope Center, accusing it of unlawful discrimination.
Later that year, the center filed a lawsuit against the city. ADF insisted in a legal brief that the shelter did not have to abide by the nondiscrimination provision because it was not a public accommodation but a religious ministry.
While a federal court sided with Downtown Soup Kitchen Hope Center in 2019 and city officials subsequently dropped their lawsuit on behalf of Doe, the city amended the municipal code earlier this year in what religious liberty advocates saw as an attempt to force the shelter to admit trans-identified males.
The Anchorage Assembly altered the definition of “public accommodation” to include facilities “of any kind, whether licensed or not, whose goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations are made available to the general public.” Previously, the definition of “public accommodation” only applied to a “business” or “professional activity.”
In a previous interview with The Christian Post, attorney Christy Allen alleged that Anchorage was “displeased” with the earlier court ruling finding that “the initial laws did not apply to Downtown Hope Center” and “they rewrote the law to basically include homeless shelters within those definitions.” The change to the definition prompted the Downtown Hope Center to file another lawsuit against the city, the claims of which Gleason addressed in her Monday ruling.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
Religious marriages are slightly less likely to end in divorce because religion tends to motivate less cohabitation, a known risk factor for divorce, a new research brief from the Institute of Family Studies suggests. But it’s not the only reason.
The brief, which crunches data from more than 53,000 women ages 15 to 49 from the National Survey of Family Growth from 1995 to 2019, shows how age at the time of marriage is also a factor. And depending on when marriage happens for a woman, the impact of religion on divorce can have no effect.
“Without controls for age at marriage or an indicator for premarital cohabitation, women with a religious upbringing do have slightly lower likelihoods of divorce,” IFS researchers Lyman Stone and Brad Wilcox wrote.
They found that the annual divorce rate among married women with a nonreligious upbringing is around 5%. It was 4.5% for religious women.
While the difference is clearest among Catholic and Mainline Protestant women, it was less clear for Evangelical Protestant women.
“Overall, if we control for basic socioeconomic background and a woman’s educational career trajectory, the typical marriage of a woman with a religious upbringing is about 10% less likely to end in divorce within the first 15 years of marriage than the typical marriage of a woman with a non-religious upbringing,” they explained.
Researchers stated that when women go from being single directly into a marriage without cohabiting, they tend to have lower divorce rates than women with the same religious background and age but married after cohabiting.
“This was especially true for religious women who married before age 25. For women marrying after age 30, the relationship seems to flip,” the researchers explained.
However, the estimates for women marrying after 30 were seen as less reliable because researchers only observed women until age 44 in some data while observing women up to age 49 in others.
“Women who married past age 30 had fewer years of marriage included in the analysis. But particularly for youthful marriages before age 20 or in the early 20s, cohabiting before marriage appears to be a major risk factor for divorce,” Stone and Wilcox report.
While the IFS researchers couldn’t conclude how religion can foster a higher likelihood of stable marriages, they presented three possible explanations.
“Religion might induce people to ‘make lemons out of lemonade,’ it might give people institutional or community support, or it might positively alter the quality of romantic pairings,” they wrote.
The report suggests that religion contributes to marriage stability because it changes the experience of marriage and may change who women marry in important ways.
“Religion could alter the potential spouses to which women are exposed. Via church communities, religious women may be able to access a larger and more marriage-friendly pool of potential spouses,” the researchers said.
“Second, religion could alter the criteria that women have for selecting partners. Knowing that cohabitation is disfavored and desiring the companionship of a committed union, religious women might more actively pursue ‘husband material’ partners earlier in life than other women,” they added.
Researchers noted that “religion might alter the dynamics between partners in important ways.”
“Religious women might look for spouses who share values, beliefs, or practices that are important for union stability,” the report states. “Sharing these values might reduce the potential for conflict down the road.”
Suspected ISIS-linked extremists beheaded a pastor, handed his severed head to his wife and forced her to carry the head to the police station in the southern African country of Mozambique, according to reports.
The jihadist militants decapitated the pastor, a resident of Nova Zambezia area in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, last Wednesday, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said.
The killing was also reported by the Daily Mail but the pastor’s name has not been disclosed.
Zimbabwe Daily also reported on the murder, saying the pastor’s wife told police that “suspected Islamic State-linked insurgents intercepted the pastor in a field, decapitated him and then handed over his head to her and ordered her to inform the authorities.”
Earlier this month, the U.K.-based watchdog organization Human Rights Watch reported that an armed group in Cabo Delgado province called Al Sunnah wa Jama’ah, also known as Al-Shabab, had forced kidnapped women and girls to “marry” their fighters.
Other women and girls held captive had been sold to foreign fighters for between $600 and $1,800, according to the report. Some abducted foreign women and girls had been released after their families paid a ransom.
Last November, ISIS-linked militants beheaded over 50 people, including women and children, and abducted others in raids in the Miudumbe and Macomia districts of the Cabo Delgado province.
The day after the pastor’s murder, Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi claimed that the number of jihadist attacks had decreased this year after Rwanda and neighboring countries helped tackle the radical Islamic jihadist insurgency.
The oil-rich Cabo Delgado province, a coastal region on the Indian Ocean, has suffered an emergence of a jihadi movement that has displaced thousands and killed hundreds since 2017. In 2018, the terror group pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In 2019, the Islamic State confirmed the group as an affiliate and has claimed responsibility for some attacks.
The Al-Shabab group in the majority-Christian country of Mozambique is not believed to have any connection with the deadly Somalia-based terror group with the same name.
According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), the Cabo Delgado province had suffered from at least 776 “organized violence events” since 2017, and as of January 2021, 2,578 “fatalities from organized violence” and 1,305 “fatalities from civilian targeting.”
The United Nations estimates more than 745,000 people are internally displaced in Mozambique due to Islamic extremism since 2017.
Mozambique also ranks as the 45th worst country for Christian persecution on Open Doors USA’s 2021 World Watch List. This 2021 report is the first time the country has been listed on Open Doors’ annual list.
Extremist attacks have killed many Christians, and terrorists have burned churches and schools in the country.
By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter 
Throughout the extensive history of the Church, there have been numerous events of lasting significance.
Each week brings anniversaries of impressive milestones, unforgettable tragedies, amazing triumphs, memorable births, notable deaths and everything in between.
Some of the events drawn from over 2,000 years of history might be familiar, while other happenings might be previously unknown by most people.
This week — Dec. 19 through Dec. 25 — marks the anniversary of the Methodist Church’s “Christmas Conference,” the election of Pope Pius IV, and the conversion of a pioneering Iriah preacher to Methodism.
By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter
A group of church leaders in Jerusalem have issued a joint statement calling for greater protection for Christians living in the Middle East, as well as a special cultural heritage zone for Christians in Jerusalem.
In a statement issued earlier this week, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem spoke with concern about the rising trend of violence against Christians in the Holy Land.
“Since 2012 there have been countless incidents of physical and verbal assaults against priests and other clergy, attacks on Christian churches, with holy sites regularly vandalized and desecrated, and ongoing intimidation of local Christians who simply seek to worship freely and go about their daily lives,” they stated.
“These tactics are being used by such radical groups in a systematic attempt to drive the Christian community out of Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land.”
The church leaders went on to note that while they appreciated the Israeli government’s commitment “to uphold a safe and secure home for Christians in the Holy Land,” they believed that this commitment was being undermined by “local politicians, officials and law enforcement agencies to curb the activities of radical groups.”
“The principle that the spiritual and cultural character of Jerusalem’s distinct and historic quarters should be protected is already recognized in Israeli law with respect to the Jewish Quarter,” continued the church leaders.
“Yet radical groups continue to acquire strategic property in the Christian Quarter, with the aim of diminishing the Christian presence, often using underhanded dealings and intimidation tactics to evict residents from their homes, dramatically decreasing the Christian presence, and further disrupting the historic pilgrim routes between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.”
The church leadership called on political authorities in Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories to dialogue with them, to deal with the radical groups, and to work on the “creation of a special Christian cultural and heritage zone to safeguard the integrity of the Christian Quarter in Old City Jerusalem.”
The World Council of Churches’ acting General Secretary, the Rev. Ioan Sauca, issued a statement on Thursday in support of the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem.
“Recognizing the gravity of the threat accelerating the already tragically steep decline in the Christian presence, the WCC strongly supports the church leaders’ call for an urgent dialogue with the political authorities of Israel, Palestine and Jordan with a view to addressing the challenges posed by radical groups and to protecting and supporting the Christian community,” Sauca said.
“The Christians of the Holy Land must be respected and valued as part of both the heritage and future of the region, and assured the same rights as others and protections appropriate to a threatened minority, for which the political authorities of the region are both legally and morally responsible.”
The statement comes as Israel faces allegations of discrimination for not easing a travel ban for Christian pilgrims seeking to visit the country during the Christmas season.
Recently, Israel eased a restriction on travel due to the omicron variant of COVID-19 for Jewish individuals seeking the “Birthright” program, however, they maintained the ban for non-Jewish Christian pilgrims.
“Racist discrimination should never be accepted in any way,” said Wadie Abunassar, a spokesman and adviser to churches in the Holy Land, as reported by The Associated Press. “I urge the Israeli authorities to treat all those who want to visit the country equally without any discrimination between religion.”
The Texas Attorney General’s office is investigating two pharmaceutical companies for their promotion of well-established drugs as puberty blockers despite the fact that they have not received approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
The Office of Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that it was investigating Endo Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie Inc. under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
“These pharmaceutical companies allegedly advertised and promoted hormone (puberty) blockers for unapproved uses without disclosing the potential risks associated with these drugs to children and their parents,” Paxton said in a statement.
“Medications Supprelin LA and Lupron Depot are approved to treat children with Central Precocious Property (CPP), when the puberty process begins prematurely. And Vantas, along with other forms of Lupron, has been prescribed for palliative treatment of prostate cancer. These drugs are now being used to treat gender dysphoria even though they are not approved for such use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”
The Attorney General’s Office cites the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act as the source of Paxton’s authority to investigate the pharmaceutical companies, explaining that the law gives the attorney general the power to “investigate false, misleading, and deceptive conduct by businesses in Texas.” In addition to sending out a tweet declaring that “I will not allow pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of #Texas children,” Paxton detailed some of the concerns pertaining to the experimental use of puberty blockers for children and teenagers.
“The manufacture, sale, prescription, and use of puberty blockers on young teens and minors is dangerous and reckless,” Paxton said. “These drugs were approved for very different purposes and can have detrimental and even irreversible side effects.”
Earlier this year, the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden elaborated on some of the “detrimental and even irreversible side effects” of puberty blockers when announcing that it would no longer prescribe the drugs for experimental use on children younger than 16 who are struggling with gender dysphoria. In a statement, the hospital warned that “these treatments are potentially fraught with extensive and irreversible adverse consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk, and thrombosis.”
The American College of Pediatricians lists additional side effects of puberty blockers, which include “mood disorders, seizures, [and] cognitive impairment.”
In response to concerns about the side effects of puberty blockers, Arkansas became the first U.S. state to ban doctors from prescribing experimental puberty blockers, hormonal drugs and performing gender reassignment surgeries on children and teenagers with gender dysphoria by passing the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act.
President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice condemned the SAFE Act, filing a statement in an ACLU lawsuit against the Arkansas law declaring that “federal law bars the state of Arkansas from singling out [trans-identified] minors for specifically and discriminatorily denying their access to medically necessary care based solely on their sex assigned at birth.” The Biden administration contended that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
A federal judge ultimately agreed with the Biden administration, striking down the SAFE Act shortly before it was set to take effect.
Shortly thereafter, Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate whether prescribing puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria or subjecting them to other experimental procedures constituted child abuse. The agency found that performing such procedures and prescribing such drugs to minors did constitute child abuse.
In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Dr. Paul Hruz of Washington University of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, expressed concern that using Lupron as a puberty blocker could affect children’s bone density. A study published earlier this year reached a similar conclusion, indicating that puberty blockers led to “reduced growth” in both height and bone strength among minors who took them.
Additionally, informed consent documents that a hospital in California asked children seeking to take puberty blockers and their parents state that “If your child starts puberty blockers in the earliest stages of puberty, and then goes on to gender-affirming hormones, they will not develop sperm or eggs. This means that they will not have biological children.”
A trans-identified doctor has also raised questions about the consequences of puberty blockers. Dr. Marci Bowers, who performed elective cosmetic surgeries on prominent trans-identified reality star Jazz Jennings, told Wall Street Journal contributor Abigail Shrier in an exclusive interview that “if you’ve never had an orgasm pre-surgery and then your puberty’s blocked, it’s very difficult to achieve that afterwards.”
“I worry about their reproductive rights later. I worry about their sexual health later and their ability to find intimacy,” Bowers added.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Editor
In a society rife with division and destructive content, Denzel Washington is on a mission to highlight stories that exemplify true sacrifice, faith and heroism.
“In this day and age, you know, it’s tough,” the Academy Award-winner told The Christian Post. “There’s so many negative influences out there; social media, obviously, all the obvious ones, but the enemy is the enemy. So we are affected by what’s outside of us, but it magnifies or accelerates what’s really inside of us.”
It was this passion for creating worthwhile content — and the belief that what we consume matters — that prompted Washington, a devout Christian who describes himself as “a God-fearing man” to direct “A Journal for Jordan,” opening Christmas Day.
Starring Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams, “A Journal for Jordan” dramatizes the love story of Dana Canedy, a former New York Times reporter and editor, and Sgt. Charles Monroe King, a soldier who was killed by an improvised explosive device in Iraq. While stationed in Iraq, Monroe penned a journal full of fatherly wisdom for his and Canedy’s infant son, Jordan, who he met just once before his death.
A story of heroism, sacrifice and faith, Washington, a husband and father of four, knew Canedy’s story needed to be told cinematically.
“We’re such a divided country right now,” the 66-year-old actor said. “That was one of the main reasons I wanted to make this film, because it’s about real heroes. We are the United States, in theory, not so much in practice. But in theory.”
Canedy, who penned the memoir on which the film is based, said she knew her story was in “good hands” with Washington, screenwriter Virgil Williams and the cast.
“They put so much love and care into developing the story and developing the characters,” she said. “And you see that on the screen, you feel it, you can feel that it’s personal to them. And I think we’ve created something that speaks to the power of love, that reinforces the message that love lives on. It doesn’t die.”
And Washington, serious about his art, handled bringing her story to life with care in his fourth directorial effort. Before “Journal for Jordan” began filming, and then throughout production, the director made sure to gather the cast and crew in prayer.
“The first day of shooting, I put the whole crew together, and certain days, just wanting to get a spirit of unity and to understand and appreciate the responsibility we had, the lives that we were in some way responsible for telling their stories, and that it shouldn’t be taken lightly,” the actor told CP.
“It wasn’t a pressure, but it’s an honest responsibility. And I, by the grace of God, was the man for the job, I think. I wanted to do it. I wanted to be there. And I wanted to tell Charles and Dana’s story.”
“A Journal for Jordan” is not a faith-based film; it’s rated PG-13 and geared toward mature audiences due to some sexual content, drug use and language. But biblical themes, prayer and Christian principles are nevertheless woven throughout the film.
Canedy described King as a “Christian man,” adding that “glimpses of his Christianity” are seen throughout the narrative.
“I hope … Christians who go out and see the movie [will] smile and feel warm inside, particularly in the season of Jesus’ birthday,” she said. “And so it’s a perfect time to see this movie with your loved ones.”
The majority of the film focuses on Canedy’s perspective, from her whirlwind relationship with King to the struggles stemming from him being on tour during her pregnancy. Though many films highlight the plight of military members on the frontlines, few have delved into the emotional impact on families back home quite like “A Journal for Jordan.”
This CP reporter screened the film with an active member of the military who said “A Journal for Jordan” was the “most accurate depiction of the emotional journey military families go on” he’d ever seen on the big screen.
“I don’t think we can say anything better than that,” Canedy said.
The latter part of the film tells Jordan’s story, highlighting how the lessons his father left for him guide him as he grapples with his place in society and becoming a man. It emphasizes the importance of cherishing the time we have with our loved ones — and leaving a powerful example for the next generation.
In raising her son, Canedy said she’s made it a priority to carry on his father’s legacy, teaching him to keep “God at the center of his life.”
“And he does; he prays every night,” she said. Washington, she revealed, gave Jordan a prayer journal that he “values.”
“I say to him, ‘Jordan, you know how much you can feel how much I love you, you know that, right?’ And he says, ‘Yes, Mom.’ I said, ‘God loves you even more.’ And that’s the truth,” she shared.
In an increasingly divided country, Washington hopes that through “A Journal for Jordan,” real heroes are elevated and the sacrifice of both military members and their families are honored.
“Here’s a man, and there are many men and women, children, wives, husbands that have sacrificed given their lives for their country,” he emphasized.
“And we celebrate them, real heroes, real, real heroes. It’s not a depressing story. It’s an uplifting story. But it’s about real heroes, real leaders, real sacrifice, the joy in that, the love in that, the pain in that, the sacrifice in that, and through the eyes and the life that her son will lead — he’s 15 now — the future in that.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
Pro-life groups are warning against the Food and Drug Administration for permanently eliminating the in-person dispensing requirements for the abortion pills, thereby allowing women to obtain the drugs by mail and end their pregnancy without seeing a doctor first.
On Thursday, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, the director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, sent a letter to Dr. Graham Chelius of the Society of Family Planning informing him that the agency intended to modify the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation System (REMS) program for the abortion pills, referred to in the letter as Mifepristone. “The agency has determined that the Mifepristone REMS Program continues to be necessary to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh the costs,” she wrote.
“However, we have determined that it must be modified to minimize the burden on the health care delivery system of complying with the REMS and to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks,” Cavazzoni said.
“The modifications to the REMS will consist of: (1) removing the requirement that mifepristone be dispensed only in certain healthcare settings, specifically clinics, medical offices and hospitals (i.e., the ‘in-person dispensing requirement’); and (2) adding a requirement that pharmacies that dispense the drug be specially certified.”
In a chemical abortion, women are given two drugs: mifepristone or RU-486, and misoprostol. Mifepristone works by blocking the effects of the natural pregnancy hormone progesterone. Misoprostol induces contractions and a miscarriage.
The Society of Family Planning sent a letter to the FDA earlier this year arguing that the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pills “confers no benefit in terms of safety, efficacy, or acceptability of the drug mifepristone and instead creates barriers to use that negatively impact public health and equity in access to care.”
The Society of Family Planning’s letter followed the FDA’s May 7 announcement that it was reviewing the REMS and its April announcement that it was suspending the in-person requirements for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pro-life groups condemned the FDA’s move to permanently lift the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pills, also known as a chemical abortion.
Tessa Longbons, the senior research associate at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, pushed back on the idea that the abortion pills are safe and not in need of “safeguards,” such as the in-person dispensing requirement: “Peer-reviewed research confirms a 500% increase in the rate of chemical abortion-related emergency room visits.”
“The FDA claims that complications are rare, yet peer-reviewed research from the United States, Finland and Sweden confirms the abortion [pills have] a much higher complication rate than surgical abortion,” she added. “As a woman who has studied abortion trends on a state-by-state level and analyzed major studies on chemical abortion, I find today’s FDA decision to be historically bad. The FDA is putting women and girls at considerable risk through regulatory malpractice.”
Stephen Billy, Charlotte Lozier Institute’s executive director, characterized the FDA’s move as a “Christmas gift” to the abortion industry. Sue Liebel, state policy director for the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, elaborated on how “the Biden administration’s reckless move puts countless women and unborn children in danger” in a statement.
“Abortion activists’ longtime wish has been to turn every post office and pharmacy into an abortion center. They promote abortion drugs as easy, painless and private. Science says otherwise. Women who take chemical abortion pills are significantly more at risk of serious complications and more likely to require a visit to the emergency room,” she added.
Some women even die. Already-exhausted ER doctors and nurses will be forced to ‘clean up after’ an abortion industry that puts profits before safety and won’t regulate itself — all to please [President Joe] Biden’s radical base and pay back political allies.”
In a statement, Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life, asserted that “the FDA’s decision today places women at risk.” According to Tobias, “These changes do not make this abortion process safer for women. What these changes do is make the process easier for the abortion industry.”
“The FDA knows the dangers of this abortion drug combination, but in the name of political expediency, has limited the safety measure requiring an in-person doctor’s visit,” she continued. “With this move today, the FDA further expands the scale of chemical warfare on the unborn, putting the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of women at risk for the sake of a powerful, political abortion industry.”
Tobias characterized the “experiment with mail-order abortion” as a “deadly experiment with women’s lives.” She maintained that “women are at risk everywhere because abortion activists want abortions to be available at any time, anywhere, and for any reason.”
“Making this change permanent puts women at greater risk because they may not be adequately screened to make sure they have no disqualifying conditions like allergies or ectopic pregnancy and are not so far along that the drugs will not work or are more likely to result in life-threatening complications,” warned Randall O’Bannon, director of education and research at National Right to Life.
O’Bannon expressed concern that “Without that screening or monitoring, the likelihood of hemorrhage, infection, and missed ectopic pregnancy are greatly increased, and there is a greater possibility that a woman experiencing these adverse events may end up in the emergency room and could arrive too late for life-saving treatment.”
The FDA’s abandonment of the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pills comes as the U.S. Senate is considering Robert Califf, Biden’s nominee to serve as the commissioner of the FDA. Pro-life groups have also spoken out in opposition to Califf’s confirmation, citing his efforts during his previous tenure as FDA commissioner during the Obama administration to allow abortion pills to be taken as late as 10 weeks into a pregnancy.
While Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins urged senators to oppose Califf in a letter, four Republican senators have already indicated that they plan to support his confirmation. Meanwhile, Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have come out against Califf’s confirmation, although they cite reasons other than his actions on behalf of chemical abortions.
In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Sue Turner, director of Physicians for Life, said that when mifepristone first came out, the U.S. FDA had a protocol for it to be used through seven weeks or 49 days from conception.
Because many abortion clinics in the U.S. were ignoring the FDA’s protocol and using the drug in chemical abortions up to 60 days, states began passing regulations saying they had to follow the FDA’s protocol. “They didn’t want to have to follow the FDA protocol, so [then President] Obama made the FDA change it to the later date, the 60 days, to match up with what the abortion providers were doing.
“The drug was less effective,” she said, “and abortionists then had to also perform a surgical abortion, which meant that women were being charged for both chemical and surgical procedures.”
Describing the complications that arise from taking abortion pills [specifically misoprostol, the second pill] that induce a miscarriage, Turner added: “I shudder to think what happens to her and what she goes through in that process because in about 30 minutes she starts having horrific contractions. And women can die. If the cervix doesn’t open it can cause all kinds of horrible problems for her.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com