Today, by a vote of 56-43, the U.S. Senate did not take up a bill (S.2578, the so-called “Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act’) that would have overriden all federal laws  protecting the rights of conscience and freedom of religion regarding health coverage mandates.

If such a bill passes into law, it would, in effect, repeal the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” and overturn last month’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Obamacare mandate that required religious, family-owned corporations such as Hobby Lobby to include contraceptive/abortifacient coverage in employee health insurance.

The two senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand voted in favor of this bill and even co-sponsored it.

Here’s why defeating S.2578 is vitally important to prolifers.

WASHINGTON – Four months before the mid-term congressional election, Senate Democrats are pushing into the national spotlight “the most radical pro-abortion bill ever considered by Congress,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations.

Tobias was one of two non-congressional witnesses who testified against the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act” (S. 1696), at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.

“This bill is really about just one thing: it seeks to strip away from elected lawmakers the ability to provide even the most minimal protections for unborn children, at any stage of their pre-natal development,” Tobias told the committee. “Calling the bill the ‘Abortion Without Limits Until Birth Act’ would be more in line with truth-in-advertising standards.”  Continue reading →

In the “Hobby Lobby” case, the Supreme Court today struck down the Obamacare requirement that religious owners of family-owned corporations must include no-cost contraceptive/abortifacient coverage in employee health insurance.

From The Washington Post (July 8)
A Good Day for Hobby Lobby, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and Mr. Muhammed Too

From The Becket Fund, counsel for Hobby Lobby
Supreme Court Victory for Hobby Lobby and Religious Freedom

From The Hill, Helen Alvare
After Hobby Lobby, What’s Next? (the question of the Little Sisters of the Poor and nonprofit ministries)

From National Right to Life Committee
Analysis and implications of the Hobby Lobby decision. Religious employers are hardly out of the woods yet.

A great victory for Life and for America! In a unanimous decision today, the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts buffer zone law prohibiting pro-life free speech outside abortion clinics.

Mark Rienzi, professor of constitutional law at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law and lead counsel for the sidewalk counselor who brought the suit stated: “Americans have the freedom to talk to whomever they please on public sidewalks. That includes peaceful pro-lifers like Eleanor McCullen, who just wants to offer information and help to women who would like it. The Supreme Court has affirmed a critical freedom that has been an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding.”  Read more here.

And don’t miss Sean Miller’s blog about what it’s like to be a sidewalk counselor.