Good News from U.S. States
Saying “The intentional killing of another person is wrong. And, as governor, I will not oversee the execution of any individual,” recently-elected California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order declaring a moratorium on the death penalty in the state of California. While the law authorizing capital punishment can only be repealed at the ballot box, and two attempts to do so have been narrowly defeated in recent years, there won't be executions in California for a while. The governor granted reprieves to the 737 inmates on death row. This is about a quarter of all the people on death row in the U.S. Meanwhile, in Ohio the 2016 law to keep abortion providers from getting any of the state funds for health care was caught up in a court case. Now the U.S. 6th Circuit (which covers several states and is a high court with only the U.S. Supreme Court above it) has said the law is sound and the state can decide it doesn’t want its funds for actual health care going to abortion pushers. This is likely to divert about $1.5 million from Planned Parenthood, with the money instead going to health providers who don't insist that killing unborn children is health care. The case is Planned Parenthood vs. Hodges.
Unfortunately, Gov. Newsom doesn't apply his stated principle to unborn children. And while the Ohio governor also recently stopped executions, this is only until the lethal injection protocol is improved. But any progress on one issue is likely to eventually help on all issues of opposing killing, as the principle that killing is wrong becomes better established.
Reminders: Important Upcoming Events March 29, 2019: release into theaters of the movie Unplanned, the tale of CLN Endorser Abby Johnson’s change from Planned Parenthood clinic director to pro-life activist.
June 8, 2019: The Consistent Life Network will hold its next quarterly Peace Vigil to End the Nuclear Danger, 10 am-11:30 am, outside the White House in Washington, DC.
Photo: Vigil from March 9, 2019
June 21-23, 2019: Prolife Women’s Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana. July 26-28, 2019: Democrats for Life of America Conference, Lansing, Michigan Please let us know of other events important to share with the consistent-life community: weekly@consistent-life.org
Latest CLN Blog Post: Jane Addams March is Women’s History Month, and that’s an especially good time to look at some of the historical consistent-life advocates. Jane Addams lived at a time when the term “consistent life ethic” wasn’t yet fully formed, but her advocacy against war, the death penalty, abortion, poverty, racism, discrimination against those with disabilities, and eugenics all fit together nicely under well-worded principles and effective action. Founder of Hull House, she was a pioneer in nonviolent alternatives to address poverty directly. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. We offer a book excerpt from ProLife Feminism: Yesterday & Today, along with a couple of other tidbits, in Women’s History Month: Jane Addams.
Quotation of the Week Michael Sean Winters Liberal Catholics have work to do to support consistent ethic of life National Catholic Reporter, January 18, 2019 Liberals excoriate those who deny the science about climate change, and appropriately so. We insist, rightly, that science yields important knowledge that must be respected as such, and not subjected to ideological censors. We value education, believing that ignorance is a curse akin to a plague, and in a democracy, a lethal curse. Yet, strangely, liberals seem unable to discuss what happens in a surgical abortion. They surround the procedure in euphemisms. Yet no one can truthfully deny that abortion is a violent act, gruesome even. On this issue, and this issue only, liberals are encouraged to turn away from the reality of the thing itself.
Responses/News Tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
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