Pavica Vojnovic, 40 Days for Life group in Pforzheim, Germany.
Following the draconian precedents of Canada and the UK, which have passed legislation prohibiting expressing any sort of protest or demonstration around abortion clinics (In Canada, first-time offenses can land you one year in jail), Germany’s Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus has introduced a draft bill that follows suit, creating a massive buffer zone around these murder mills.
According to a press release by the Alliance Defense Fund International, “a new bill plans to introduce vaguely defined censorship zones, banning behavior that could be perceived as “confusing” or “disturbing” within 100 Meters (300 feet) of abortion organizations with fines up to 5,000€. ($6300 USD)
That which could be covered as “disturbing” could include anything from a couple holding a sign letting women know they will adopt their baby, handing out tracts, telling women about a free nearby crisis pregnancy center, wearing a shirt with anti-abortion messaging, or even praying all by their lonesome.
Dr. Felix Böllmann, German lawyer and Director of European Advocacy for ADF International, noted:
“The right to peacefully pray is protected by international and national law. No matter one’s opinion on abortion, everyone suffers when we start to censor the right to speak freely, pray, or engage in consensual conversations. The federal government wants to ban something but doesn’t know what or why. This law doesn’t ban “confusion”, it creates more of it – both for citizens trying to understand the law and police officers who will have to enforce any vague new prohibitions,”
Former President Donald Trump railed against Republican lawmakers for their poor showing during the 2022 mid-term elections, claiming yesterday that they “poorly handled” the abortion issue. He claimed that by passing strict pro-life laws which did not allow for exceptions for rape and incest, they alienated voters and cost the party seats.
Trump made the comments on Truth Social while also criticizing voters who spent years fighting against abortion, and then as soon as they scored a significant victory in the overturning of Roe v Wade, “just plain disappeared” and did not show up to continue the pressure with their vote.
Trump has had a very schizophrenic view of abortion over the years, but his desire for exceptions is something he’s reiterated before, writing in 2019.
Former AND Campaign chief strategist Michael Wear, a progressive Democrat activist who was President Obama’s campaign strategist and who has been featured on The Gospel Coalition and written for the ERLC, has written an article titled “This is How To End Abortion Politics as We’ve Known It”
In the post, he suggests that in light of the toxicity from Roe v. Wade being overturned (after 50 years and with 63 million babies dead) a compromise is in order to keep the Republic from killing each other, noting: “What would be healthier for our politics is for Congress to ask the extremes to accept something they don’t like, as a change from the current tact of asking the majority in the middle to choose between two extremes.”
The law hasn’t been overturned for two weeks, and already Wear is suggesting a “sustainable compromise” on the ability of states to make baby butchery the law of the land again, proposing:
“… a federal ban on abortion post-viability with exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest (the ceiling); the legalization of abortion up to a certain early-stage in a pregnancy (somewhere, perhaps, between eight-fifteen weeks, depending on the makeup of the coalition to support such a bill; the floor); the codification of the Hyde Amendment; the codification of robust conscience clause protections; a prohibition of federal laws overriding state restrictions on abortion as proposed by the WHPA; and a mandate that states ensure reasonable access to a safe abortion provider.”
Put another way, the leader of the supposedly pro-life organization wants to make it impossible for any state to abolish abortion. Instead, every state must make baby-murder legal for cases of rape and incest up to birth and between 9 and 15 weeks for everyone else. He’s proposing this to “provide a framework that makes the post-Dobbs, post-Roe landscape sustainable, objectionable to activists on both sides, but too delicate to upset.”
Call us crazy, but we don’t want a compromise that is objectionable to us. We want a landscape where those who are trying to kill the babies are perpetually wailing and gnashing their teeth on account of being unable to execute their grotesque, Mephistophelean plots. We want a landscape where every day they weep bitter, resentful tears that they can’t kill the babies, and Wear here is seeking to codify child-butchery for all the citizenry? Is this a joke?
Specifically, he wants this done because “such a deal could place abortion in our politics where it is in the politics of most European nations—sometimes a second or third-tier issue, but never an issue around which their politics revolves.”
Right. Because the state-sanctioned murder of millions of babies should be a “third-tier issue.” Wear would never allow this in cases of child sex abuse, where all states must allow sexual abuse of children to be legal, but only up to six years old. He would never allow this for slavery, where people have a right to enslave people in all 50 states, but cannot own more than 8-15 at a time. He’d fully and forcefully repudiate that. But killing babies? That should be reduced to the same importance and consideration as arcane tax breaks or specific trade policies and tariffs, apparently.
Wear concludes that one of the reasons why the American public has so identified with Biden as a person is because he has “poignantly described how the issue has bedeviled him” and that “Speaker Pelosi (who has similarly wrestled with the issue of abortion throughout her career) (Editor’s Note. No she hasn’t) could transition our nation into a new era.” free of the encumbrances of this divisive issue.
Editors Note. This article originally stated that Wear is the chief strategist for the AND Campaign, based on his biography on his website, but new information indicates that he is the former chief strategist. This article has been updated accordingly.
(Montana Daily Gazette) In a vote along party lines, Montana’s Senate moved to advance four pro-life measures, three of which were reintroduced after being previously vetoed by former Governor Steve Bullock last session.
In a 31-19 vote along party lines, Senate Republicans were able to easily overwhelm the protesting Democrats. With the measures already signed off in the House last month, this all but guarantees their smooth passage when the Senate votes on the bills for a third and final time later this week.
The four bills are as follows:
House Bill 136, sponsored by Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, would ban abortion after 20 weeks (a pain-capable bill). There are no exceptions for rape and incest, only for the life of the mother.
House Bill 167, sponsored by Rep. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, is a ballot initiative requiring doctors and nurses to provide life-saving measures for any children born alive during a botched abortion.
House Bill 171, sponsored by Rep. Sharon Greef, R-Florence, requires women seeking abortion pills like ‘Plan-B’ to have an in-person visit with a health professional first, visit than a rather than through telehealth.
House Bill 140, sponsored by Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell requires health care providers to ask abortion-intending pregnant women if they want to see an ultrasound before they pull the proverbial and literal trigger.
Governor Greg Gianforte has already pledged to sign the first two bills once they hit his desk, with the outcome of the other two uncertain, but expected to be approved. This is the first time in 16 years that Montana has had a Republican governor, and pro-life legislators are anxious to flex their muscles.
No bills designed to completely abolish abortion in the state were brought forward.
In 2018, there were 1,674 abortions reported in Montana, with girls and young women between the ages of 15-19 accounting for 11%.
Editor’s Note. This article was written published at the Montana Daily Gazette and republished with permission.
“Pro-life” politicians in Oklahoma are up to their dirty tricks again, this time seeking to stop the only abortion abolition bill put forward. In an act of extraordinarily convenient and suspect timing, the 13 members of the GOP controlled Health and Human Services Committee are seeking to vote on SB495 early this morning, before the ink has had time to dry on the paper and before the growing abolitionist movement and citizens of Oklahoma have had time to make their voices heard.
Unlike all of the incremental, toothless, nibble-around-the-edges pro-life bills passed by Republicans in the state over the last 40 years and still trying to be passed to this day, SB495 is unique in that it is designed to have Oklahoma completely and decisively abolish abortion regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the practice.
Under the proposed legislation, Oklahoma would ignore that court ruling and defy the Supreme Court if and when they invariably interfered.
Despite being the most pro-life state in the country* with a Republican supermajority in the House and Senate, these professing pro-life politicians don’t want to touch abolition with a 10-foot pole. In order to accomplish this furtive task, the vote is being held extremely early under the guise of “getting to bills they never got around to the last session,” even though SB495 is not one of those, having been introduced barely a week ago.
Russell Hunter, a lobbyist for Free the States and the chief architect of the modern-day abolitionist movement, believes this is their way of killing the bill early before Abolition Day, where thousands of constituents will make their voices heard in a mass rally of activism and ideological education.
He notes that all but two of the Senators voted against the previous iteration of this bill, SB13, and that of the two new faces in the legislature, one is a Democrat and the other has not been receptive to abolition overtures. With no intention of letting the bill have a hearing – they’ve chosen to step on the egg and crush the yolk before the baby dragon hatches.
The last action taken by these legislators was to kill the Abolition of Abortion Act back in 2019. Consequently, they’ve not had to deal with the outcry from their constituents about a piece of legislation regarding this subject since, particularly a very vocal segment that is rapidly gaining support from those whose paradigms shifted from regulation to abolition.
By aborting the bill before sponsor Warren Hamilton has a chance to really talk to his fellow Senators, whip support for the bill, pitch it to them, and seek to persuade them to vote for it, “pro-life” politicians are hoping it becomes a non-issue and they won’t have to endure months of sustained campaigning, emails, phone calls, rallies, mailers, and one-on-one meetings about it.
Russell Hunter explains the games pro-life legislators play to avoid voting for abolition
On top of SB495 coming up so early, the session also has 5 other abortion bills to be considered in committee, none of which advocate for the complete abolition of abortion and all of which are useless.
In particular is SB918, introduced by professing “Christ-follower” Greg Treat. This “pro-life bill” says that Oklahoma can only remove laws allowing abortion if the Supreme Court gives them permission. In contrast, SB495 has nullification written into it (from wiki: The idea that the state has the right to nullify or invalidate any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional with respect to the United States Constitution).
Treat is against nullification for preborn babies, insisting that they must abide by the edicts of the Supreme Court, but all the while supports nullification for medical Marijuana, despite federal laws against it. In his estimation, access to weed is worth fighting for, protecting the babies is not.
Perhaps worst of all, if SB495 is voted down, it would be dead for two full years. This is because the Oklahoma legislature operates in a two-year cycle and this bill and this language would not be able to be reintroduced until 2023. For this reason, there is a chance it may be pulled by its supporters in order to have time to gather support and steam and become a centerpiece for Abolition Day.
Hunter states that those caring about abolishing abortion need to stand up to these political games and let their voices be heard.
We need to make sure that…the committee knows that we do not want “defunding abortion,” we want abolishing abortion. We the people demand abolition! We want you to stand up for justice and mercy for the preborn, not just simply “well not with MY money.”
If you’re in Oklahoma this morning, please try to make it down to the Capitol building by 8:30 and join others there. If you can’t make it, Senator Hamilton asks that Oklahomans (and we ask others outside the state) to email all members of the committee asking them to vote in favor of the bill in case the bill is heard tomorrow.
Make sure you BCC all these people with a short but sweet message. A form letter/template has been provided below that should be personalized in some way that may serve as an example of content and length.
Email Subject Line : PLEASE SUPPORT SB495 to be discussed on the Senate floor
Message: Dear Senator,
I am contacting you today to graciously encourage you to put on the courage of Christ and support Senator Hamilton’s Bill SB495 Equal Justice & Equal Protection | The Abolition of Abortion In Oklahoma Act.
Please stand for the Word of God, The Constitution of the United States, and the Oklahoma Republican Party platform by sending SB495 to the Senate floor and on through the political process to establish equal protection and equal justice for all human beings beginning at conception.
Respectfully, Your name
*Oklahoma is widely considered the most pro-life state in the US. Republicans have a supermajority in both the House and Senate in Oklahoma. Of the 48 seats in the State Senate, 39 are held by Republicans and 9 by Democrats, meaning that over 80% of the senators are Republicans. In the House, the GOP clobbers the Democrats 77 to 24.
Furthermore, Oklahoma has a professing Republican pro-life Governor, a Republican pro-life Lieutenant Governor, a Republican pro-life President Pro Tem of the Senate, and a Republican pro-life majority floor leader.
