Congressional Democrats are reportedly planning to use their $3.5 trillion “human capital” infrastructure package to create a new federal healthcare program that would work around the leadership of pro-life red states which have rejected Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Democrats are likely to present their proposal as a way to get “needed” healthcare coverage to Americans being…Read More
The U.S. House on Thursday rejected an effort by Rep. Tom Cole to extend a ban on federal funding of abortion, though the fight over the long-standing Hyde amendment is expected to continue in the next few months. The vote was 217 to 208 against Cole’s procedural motion. The vote was entirely along partisan lines,…Read More
Pro-life leaders warn that an “egregious” bill introduced this week in Congress would override most state abortion regulations, require health care workers to perform abortions, and mandate federal funding of abortion. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), along with Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas),…Read More
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that officials in the State of Vermont violated the First Amendment by denying public tuition aid to students who attended private Catholic schools. The Wednesday ruling struck down a Vermont rule that prohibited students attending private religious schools from taking tuition aid through the State’s…Read More
The State Board of Education has voted to settle a longstanding lawsuit by requiring that public charter schools be funded on an equitable basis with their traditional public-school counterparts. The agreement provides that charter schools will now receive per-pupil funding from local property taxes based on student enrollment, just like all other public schools. Board…Read More
It was an unusual call, but, then, these are unusual times. President Trump met recently — virtually, of course — with top leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States to discuss the survival of Catholic schools. Catholic schools make up the largest system of private schools in this country and they are facing massive…Read More
The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that is allocating $33.6 million in Title X funding previously earmarked for Planned Parenthood and other entities that have withdrawn from the program. In total, 50 groups will receive family planning grants which would otherwise have gone to abortion providers. HHS said that the funding…Read More
Lawmakers in Michigan are considering ending public funding for a program that counsels pregnant women on alternatives to abortion, prompting concern from the Michigan Catholic Conference, which has been advocating for the program since its inception five years ago. The program, administered by a nonprofit called Real Alternatives, began in Pennsylvania in 1996 and has…Read More
Pro-life advocates have lamented a federal judge’s preliminary injunction against the federal Protect Life Rule, which bars family planning funds for clinics at the same location as abortion providers and for those which refer for abortion. “Abortion is not healthcare, and that’s how we evaluate these kinds of decisions,” Todd Cooper, executive director of the…Read More
The “pro-life” side won a major victory from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals today, but the biggest victor was the Constitution. Eleven of the 17 judges participating in the decision ruled that an Ohio law keeping state funds from organizations that perform nontherapeutic abortions does not run afoul of the constitutional abortion privilege…Read More