2019. A new year. A new legislative session, at both the federal and state levels. Please read Jacki Ragan’s story on page 5 which outlines what you can do to help turn back pro-abortion initiatives and enacted pro-life legislation. The now-Democratically controlled House of Representatives quickly reinforced our belief that pro-abortion House Democrats will do whatever they can to promote and advance the killing of unborn children. On their first day of running the House, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, they voted to repeal the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance program, an updated and expanded version of the Mexico City Policy. They also voted to restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund. All this tacked onto a bill to deal with the governmental shutdown! We can expect to see attempts to repeal the Hyde Amendment so that our tax dollars pay for abortion. Before its enactment, our tax dollars paid for at least 300,000 abortions a year. I will not be surprised to see efforts to remove any conscience protections for medical personnel who do not want to participate in abortions. And the Democrats will try to enshrine abortion as a fundamental right in new versions of the so-called Freedom of Choice Act. Whatever form FOCA takes, its goal is always to obliterate any and all protective legislation

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1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Decisions Legalized Abortion in the U.S. for theFull Nine Months of Pregnancy Prior to 1967, abortion was prohibited in all 50 states except when the mother’s life was in danger. Between 1967 and 1973, 18 states added further exceptions, mostly to allow abortion in cases of rape and incest, or for certain limited medical reasons, or on demand (New York). In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered two decisions, Roe v. Wade 1 and Doe v. Bolton 2 which, taken together, have allowed legal abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy in all 50 states. The two original decisions established legal abortion as follows: In the first three months of pregnancy, no one can interfere with a woman’s decision to abort her child. After the first three months, but before the “viability” of the unborn child, an individual state can enact laws to protect the health of the mother but cannot prohibit the abortion of the unborn child. After “viability” of the unborn child, an individual state can, if it chooses to do so, enact laws to protect the unborn child but abortion must be allowed if the life or “health” of the mother is at stake. The Supreme Court defined “health” as “the medical judgment that may be exercised in light of all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age –relevant to the well-being of the patient. All these factors may relate to health.” 2 Consequently, the broad definition of “health” has made abortion legal up to the moment of birth.

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