Commentary

The pro-Life community welcomed a tremendous victory this past week in a ruling from the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.  We believe it is the first significant pro-Life victory from that Court in at least thirty years.

The case revolves around the Biden Administration’s attack on pro-Life states following the landmark ruling in Dobbs last year.  Despite the Supreme Court’s clear edict that abortion was not properly a matter of concern for the federal government and/or the federal court system – Joe Biden was desperate to re-establish federal control over the nation’s abortion policy.  Since Congress has never enacted a statutory framework for abortion, Biden’s DOJ didn’t have many tools in the shed.

After many long nights of searching federal code, lawyers for the DOJ hit upon the novel idea of using the Medicare Act to regulate abortion in the states.  They filed suit against Idaho in a case known as “the United States of America vs. the State of Idaho”.  Pretty ominous.  And a case of great national interest.  Some 37 states have filed briefs in this federal case – about half in support of Idaho, the remaining arguing for Idaho’s Defense of Life to be discarded because it supposedly violated the provisions of the Medicare law.

Specifically, Biden’s DOJ wanted to impose a requirement that Idaho allow for abortions in the state when the mother’s health was threatened.  This was a weak reprise of the infamous Doe v. Bolton decision imposed upon the nation during the dark decades of Roe. And most pro-Lifers recognize that the health requirements of Doe did far more damage to preborn children than Roe itself.

It was clear from the beginning that Biden’s agenda was to begin in Idaho and then use a ruling from liberal judge Lynn Winmill to restrict pro-Life policies across the nation.  Idaho has the strongest law in the nation;  and we are burdened by Judge Winmill and the historic record of the 9^th Circuit on abortion.  It was seen as an easy win.  And, in fact, Judge Winmill was happy to issue a preliminary injunction even before the Defense of Life Act took effect in August of 2022.  By his edict, hospitals in Idaho would be required to perform abortions when a mother’s health was threatened. If they failed to do so, federal Medicare monies could be withheld.

That grave injustice was partially corrected last week, when a three judge panel of the 9^th Circuit reversed Winmill’s order.  In a striking decision – the appeals court affirmed Idaho’s sovereign right to protect preborn children from being killed in the womb.  The court further made it clear that the Medicare Act’s EMTALA could not legitimately be used to impose a duty to perform abortions on Idaho hospitals and doctors.

This unprecedented victory was the direct result of the Idaho Legislature’s decision to intervene in the lawsuit.  It has taken courage and commitment – but the Leadership of our Legislature determined that they would fight Joe Biden’s radical abortion agenda; they would fight to defend Idaho’s sovereign right to set its own course.

Their courage was vindicated this week with a powerful rebuke of Biden’s abuse of power.

Glory to God.

Despite the promise of Dobbs to free the states from federal court interference with abortion policy, Idaho now faces its third federal lawsuit.  This last suit is challenging the new law passed this last session which makes it a felony to transport girls out of state to get an abortion without parental consent.

During the legislative session, Planned Parenthood threatened numerous times to file a lawsuit.  But they are not an official part of this case.  Instead, we have three new plaintiffs:  a private attorney named Lourdes Matsumoto, the Northwest Abortion Access Fund and the Indigenous Idaho Alliance.  They allege that their “constitutional right” to “help” minor children is threatened by Idaho’s abortion trafficking law.

In the course of their complaint, these folks make it clear that they have long been providing counseling, money, lodging and transportation to girls seeking abortions out of state.  They also make clear that they have provided these children with the money to pay for their abortion.  All without the slightest regard for the rights of parents to direct the health care decisions of their daughters. 

The Northwest Abortion Access Fund actually tells the court, “When transporting or facilitating transportation for minors, NWAAF does not seek or obtain parental consent.  Parents and guardians may or may not know about or approve of NWAAF’s support of these minors”.  Wow.

The parties are represented by a number of lawyers, led by Wendy Olson, a partner at Stoel Rives and a former U.S. Attorney during the Obama Administration.  She also represents St. Luke’s Hospital in its bid to gain Judge Winmill’s protection for their practice of referring patients out-of-state for abortions that are illegal in Idaho.  She is joined by a pair of lawyers who work for an outfit called “Legal Voice”.  It turns out that this group is self-described as an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

One wonders: Why would advocates for transgenders and homosexuals care about a law dealing specifically with abortion and unplanned pregnancy?

The answer may be buried in the 35-page complaint.  At various points, these activists assert that:

• “[Children] are the ones in the best position to decide whom they trust to involve in their healthcare.” (p. 12).
• Under the new law, “minors will lose their right to make critical decisions about their health, bodies and lives”.  (p. 12). 

We can see then that this lawsuit is about more than abortion.  If they can get the federal courts to fundamentally alter the legal status of minor children in our society – they can begin transporting boys and girls across state lines for gender-altering treatment and surgery.  That also would be a violation of current Idaho law and an egregious assault on core parental rights.

The hubris and arrogance of the plaintiffs in this case are truly amazing.  For example, Ms. Lourdes Matsumoto, the lead plaintiff, describes herself as a private attorney who regularly works with child victims of abuse.  She claims that she offers counseling and help to children – despite not being a trained therapist.  And despite having no legal authority or responsibility to insert herself into a child’s life.  In the legal filing she claims that she is “driven by her belief in bodily autonomy for every citizen, including minors ….” (p. 17). 

This lawsuit turns out to be quite the revelation.  We learn a great deal about the existing web of nefarious organizations and individuals long involved in undermining parental authority and seducing children into making life-altering decisions without the protection of parental supervision.  No doubt such networks exist in every part of America, actively working to destroy our children and grandchildren.

We must be in earnest prayer for AG Labrador and his team of attorneys as they prepare to confront this deadly lawsuit.  Should these actors succeed in gaining judicial protection, one can easily see that a vastly expanded playground will have been created for sexual predators and criminal trafficking rings.  If the federal judiciary upholds notions of “bodily autonomy” and freedom of choice for children in making lifestyle and healthcare decisions, they will have laid the foundations for pedophilia as well.

Years ago, Hillary Clinton made the claim that it “takes a village to raise a child”.  A fairly innocuous slogan, suggesting that we all have a responsibility to ensure that children in our midst are properly educated and cared for.  But we now realize that the radicals behind this bumper sticker really mean something quite different:  They believe that the Village owns the children … and that parents are merely their surrogates.  My gosh.  What deadly evil.

The case is now known as Matsumoto v. Labrador, and is pending before Federal Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham. 

Today, we pause to reflect on a most significant anniversary, matched by few in America’s history.  Just a year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court found the integrity to announce that it was reversing the abominable precedent known as Roe v. Wade.  The Dobbs decision stands along landmark rulings like Brown in its clarion support for human dignity.

Given the gross social pressures, the courage displayed by a majority of justices cannot be undervalued.  Repeatedly over the past five decades previous Courts asserted that abortion-on-demand was a “settled” constitutional right.  It became a mantra intended more to bully the American people into accepting the court’s political whims – than an insightful exposition about what the Framers intended.  Justice Alito did a masterful and thorough job of finally coming clean with the world: The Supreme Court of the United States had failed its trust and commission miserably by trying to impose a “right” to abortion upon the American People.  There was no such thing in the Constitution – as we all plainly knew.  Nor could one fabricate one with any degree of intellectual integrity.

Alito’s rigorous honesty will serve the country and Court well in coming decades, across a host of issues and controversies.

One year ago, the states were set free to re-establish protections for preborn babies – as they had done since the founding of the Republic.  Idaho is one of the states who prepared for the day when Roe would fall of its leaden deceit.  The result has been a halt of abortions in this state.  In fact, the destruction of Roe has led to a dramatic decline in the number of abortions performed across the country – even as wicked politicians in some states curry votes by crafting new schemes to continue the slaughter. 

The Bible tells us that God gave us the Law out of love – to help us understand the difference between right and wrong.  One of the great disasters of the Roe Era is that the Supreme Court gave confused, vulnerable people a license to kill the innocent.  With this reversal, that broad permission has been rescinded.  And many people, even in blue states, have found the courage of their conscience to resist the Left’s lies – and taken ownership again of choosing life for another human being.

On this day, we must pause to reflect on the great blessings which have begun to unfold since Dobbs.  And we must take the time to thank Almighty and Merciful God for delivering us from the bondage of an irresponsible and unaccountable Supreme Court.

We must also acknowledge the immense contribution to human justice made by President Donald Trump.  It was he who finally delivered on the decades-old promise by Republican politicians to “fight for us” … to “give us a pro-Life court which would faithfully interpret the Constitution”.  Not Reagan, not Bush or even Bush Junior.  Donald Trump.  The only Republican President who actually meant what he said.  Millions will find life and redemption because of him.

There was a time, not so long ago, when politicians who supported abortion did so with a certain acknowledgment that the taking of an innocent life was wrong.  Perhaps that is best captured by the bumper sticker lyrics made famous by the Clintons: “We want to make abortion safe … and rare”.

Those days are gone, friend.  We have now entered a new era in America’s dark experiment with child sacrifice is being boldly defended and encouraged by Democrat political leaders in a number of states.

The state governments of California, Washington, Oregon and Minnesota have been amongst the most rabid.  Those states have entered into two separate federal lawsuits here in Idaho – seeking to undermine Idaho’s ban on abortion.  Those states have also created “safe harbor” laws for Idaho residents traveling there for abortions that would be illegal within Idaho.  They have actually appropriated tax dollars to help underwrite the medical and travel expenses of Idaho women and girls traveling to California or Washington for so-called “abortion vacations”:

“Come to California at our expense, kill your baby … and then hang around for awhile enjoying our beaches, restaurants and tourists sites.  It’ll be great.”

Washington state has actually gone even further: In the wake of a righteous ruling by a Texas federal judge threatening the legal status of RU-486, the wicked governor of our neighboring state has ordered his agencies to purchase and stockpile some 3 million doses of the abortion drug.  Given that his state only has some 7 million residents – it seems clear that Governor Inslee intends to export the drug in hopes of spreading death and mayhem to the rest of America.

Clearly, these states have moved beyond simply protecting abortion within their states.  They have become active partners with the Abortion Industry.  As a practical matter, it is now hard to distinguish the Washington State government from Planned Parenthood.  Maybe they’ve even become competitors for the blood of the innocent.

In Scripture, we read the teachings of Jesus regarding the natural shame of sin:  “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19,20).

It would seem we have entered into a new era, in which people like Governor Newsom and Governor Inslee no longer care about their deeds being exposed.  We’re not entirely sure what this means for America – but it can’t be good.

The Governor of Florida announced with great fanfare this month that he was signing a “heartbeat bill” to ban abortions in that state once a heartbeat was detected.  Of course, this is progress – given that Florida now bans abortions after fifteen weeks.  And we don’t know all the politics of the Florida Legislature.  Maybe this is the best that Desantis can do under the circumstances.

Yet, in looking at legislation, we are disturbed by the fact that it does not protect life from conception.  Florida’s old 15-week ban was done prior to Roe being overturned.  States are now free of that bondage to do what is right.  So why did Desantis not fight for babies from conception – which is the only logical, moral and legally-sound point at which life should be recognized and protected in law?

We have been unable to find any statements from Desantis in which he defended the proposition that babies don’t earn their right to live by reaching some developmental stage.  This leads us to wonder if the Governor appreciates or understands the most basic pro-Life principle: Life is to be protected because we are created in God’s image.  And it is He who grants us this great and wonderful gift.

To defend life at some arbitrary point of development undermines this principle by accepting some of the thinking and values of the Left.

We are also troubled by the Florida legislation because it provides for a number of “exceptions” – that is, it provides various licenses to kill the baby: There is the standard rape, incest and life of the mother provisions.  But it also includes a physical health exception.  This is difficult to accept because it necessarily implies that the baby’s life is worth less than another’s. Under this ethic, it is perfectly fine to trade away one person’s life for the physical comfort of another. But under what moral or Constitutional authority can a government impose this?

Those sorts of accommodations might have been necessary during the dark days when federal courts imposed a tyrannical agenda upon the people of this country.  But those days are over.  And people like Governor Desantis must help lead the nation into recovering a value system in which every life is regarded as inviolable.

In the most significant national development since the Dobbs decision, a federal district judge in Texas has issued a landmark ruling that the FDA violated the law when it gave emergency approval to RU-486 during the waning days of the Clinton Administration.

Folks who have followed the sordid history of this deadly drug and the FDA’s callous disregard for babies and women can only exclaim, “finally!” Finally, someone is holding the FDA accountable. 

This agency has repeatedly caved to political pressure over the past twenty years when it comes to its approval of this drug.  Beginning with Bill Clinton.  It rushed through emergency approval of the drug to appease Clinton and his allies at Planned Parenthood.  As the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has explained, that could only happen if the FDA took the step of treating pregnancy as some kind of disease needing an experimental “cure”.  That is a very curious and disturbing position for an agency like the FDA to take, given its primary mission of protecting the public health.

The political and moral corruption of the FDA has been on display ever since.  Over the years, it has repeatedly responded to pressure from Planned Parenthood to loosen the restrictions governing the use of RU-486.  It eliminated the requirement of a follow-up visit from physicians.  It eliminated the requirement that only doctors could prescribe the drug following an in-person examination of the pregnant woman to ensure that the drug was appropriate and safe for her to use.  It eliminated the requirement that doctors ensure emergency care access if the woman developed complications – most often, hemorrhaging. 

And, most recently, the FDA decided that a doctor’s visit was no longer a requirement to ensure a patient’s safety.  Now one can simply get the drug through the mail or through a local pharmacy without a physician’s oversight. That is just plain dangerous.

Simultaneous to this disturbing history – the FDA has suppressed the reporting on complications associated with chemical abortions.  The agency has disregarded laws requiring the publishing of data on deaths and complications.  Nothing to see here.  And nothing that will be allowed to interfere with the political agenda of the Abortion Lobby.

The national abortion rights movement has been in fits since Judge Matthew Kascmaryk issued a ruling which finds the FDA exceeded its authority to approve RU-486 for use in terminating a pregnancy.  The Biden Administration and Big Pharma have declared all-out-war to get this decision overturned, even arguing that the judge’s decision should be “ignored” and defied. 

Let us pray that this ruling is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.  Not only will it lead to the saving of many lives – it will help, hopefully, to correct the abusive authority of the Food & Drug Administration.

Back in the dark days of Roe, the Abortion Industry and federal courts made broad use of a “health” exception to inflict untold carnage on babies in the womb.  Despite the scientific fact that abortion is rarely the necessary therapy to treat a woman’s health condition – the legal and medical community continue to use “health” as an excuse to kill babies in the womb.

Idaho Chooses Life has always opposed such “health exceptions” – which is really a license to kill.  Our moral objection to “health exceptions”, no matter how “narrow”, is that it undermines the fundamental principle of the pro-Life movement.  AND JUST WHAT IS THAT PRINCIPLE?  That a baby in the womb is fully human from conception.  It doesn’t mystically become a human being at some later point of development – like a heartbeat or brainwave or “viability”.  The baby is as much a human being from conception as any one of us with the ability to write or read this blog. 

It is one thing to accept that there should a legal allowance for situations – like ectopic pregnancy – when the mother’s life is at legitimate risk.  That is a life-for-a-life circumstance in which the State has no appropriate policing role.  But destroying one life to protect the health of another is a different matter altogether.  Such a license to kill necessarily means that the baby’s life is worth less than the mother’s comfort or happiness. 

One person might need an eye transplant, another a limb replacement.  But hardly anyone would argue that such a person has the right to kill another in order to obtain the desired organ.  We rightfully see that situation as evil and barbaric.  So why do some people have such an easy time holding the belief that it is okay to destroy the baby in order to protect the mother’s health?

We submit that part of the answer to that question is that we have unknowingly ingested some of the thinking and values of the Abortion Industry.  After all – we have been pounded by abortion propaganda for many decades now.  Almost on a daily basis.  And then there is the fact that this innocent life is hidden away in the womb, so that we rarely have to confront the consequences of our decisions.

The God-gift of Life must be vigorously defended from conception.  It is our duty as Christians. We must challenge our friends and neighbors to carefully consider that babies in the womb have a right to live – a right equal to that held by the rest of us.  In fact – if anything – the baby in the womb is entitled to special protections because of its inability to defend itself.

As we come to the end of another dysfunctional year – a silent invasion of our borders, unexplained increases in fatalities, economic instability, the wanton destruction of Ukraine – it is important to focus some serious time on the most extraordinary development this year:  the overturning of Roe.

For some 50 years, the pro-Life movement has beseeched the Lord to deliver us from the injustice and horror that is abortion.  Innocents slaughtered without regard, without apology.  Babies sacrificed on the Altar of Self.

Prayers, marches, letters … more prayer.  As the decades passed, hope faded for many that we would ever see the injustice corrected.  The Supreme Court over many decades repeatedly declared that abortion law was “settled”; that Roe was an inviolable precedent.  It was nearly unthinkable that the Supreme Court would ever find the humility to admit that it had been wrong. 

Still the pro-Life community persisted.  It refused to accept that abortion was a “right”.  It refused to accept an America in which the slaughter of innocents was normal or right.

In 2022, the Lord answered the prayers of the faithful.  Suddenly the Supreme Court found the integrity to admit that it had perpetrated a great fraud upon the American people.  Honestly, it is sometimes hard to really grasp that we have been freed from the bondage that was Roe. It has cast such a large and dark shadow on the land for so long.

Idaho suddenly became a national epicenter of the struggle to end abortion.  Dozens of states joined the Biden Administration in seeking to minimize the impact of our Trigger Law (The Defense of Life Act).

Amazingly, our law has largely been allowed to go into effect.  The impact has been nothing short of miraculous.  We believe that over 500 babies have already been spared death at the hands of Planned Parenthood since August 25^th.  Essentially, abortion has been stopped in Idaho.  Isn’t that amazing?

Please pause to ponder that number:  That represents a large elementary school full of laughing, learning, growing children in less than half a year.  Glory to God.

But we are a long way from victory.  The forces of darkness have been preparing for months to storm the 2023 Legislature – which convenes in just a couple of weeks.  They intend to gut, amend or otherwise destroy the progress we have made through the Trigger Law.  Many will present themselves as helpful angels of light.  Others, like Planned Parenthood, will be more direct about their agenda. You are vital to our hopes for 2023.

We have a few days here, as we close out 2022, to give thanks, to rest with our families and to count our blessings.  But the People of God must also be in prayer for the intense struggle which will take place at the Statehouse this winter.  We must gird our loins for battle.  The lives of thousands depend upon it. The soul of Idaho will be tested.

We are thrilled by the announcement by Rev. Bill Roscoe that the Boise Rescue Mission has expanded its ministry to create a special focus on pregnant moms who may need help in dealing with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy.

During the course of the Roe era, Idaho witnessed the annual slaughter of some 2,000 babies.  Our estimate is that some 98,000 preborn children lost their lives to the Abortion Industry.  With the historic implementation of our Trigger Law on August 25^th , those days are over.

Now we must meet the challenge of loving and helping those girls and women who cannot turn to Planned Parenthood to solve their immediate crisis by killing the baby.  Churches, pregnancy centers, non-profits and the State of Idaho must step up to expand the services available to meet a dramatically increased need.

The great people of the Boise Rescue Mission have grandly answered the call by creating a new “Cradle of Hope” program.  They are now ready to provide temporary shelter and care for girls and women who need a safe place to stay during their pregnancy or afterward.

We have long known that many women choose abortion because of coercion from a boyfriend or family members.  Many are threatened with homelessness if they do not get abortion.  Boise Rescue Mission has provided an answer: We will give you shelter.  If you are a mother with other children – we will help care for them as well.

This is Christ in action.  May the Lord richly bless this effort and the great people working at the Mission.

Nor are they alone.  Soon, a shelter/housing program will be available in Nampa.  The Lifeline Pregnancy Center is soon to open a home for pregnant women.  It is called “The Nesting Place”, and is another example of the Body of Christ answering the call to demonstrate, in very concrete terms, the love of our Savior.

Idaho is better than an abortion.  And these first steps in showing the world that Life is better, that we can find a better way than killing our own future, are very encouraging. 

Yesterday marked the day that industrialized slaughter of preborn babies ended in Idaho.  We are still suffering the death throes of the old regime – but make no mistake: Idaho has entered a new era with the Abortion Ban (the “Trigger Law) going into effect.  As the Abortion Industry and their allies in the Democrat Party, the state’s Media and the Medical Establishment fight a rear-guard action to persuade Idahoans that we should keep killing our own children – it may be hard to appreciate this historic moment.  That would be a shame, because August 25^th is a unique and glorious day in Idaho history.  It is the day that the War on Babies ended, at least in Idaho. It is the day that the Law provided legal protections for all babies, from conception to birth. It is the day that Idaho welcomed preborn children back into the human family.

Never again will Idaho allow abortion to be normalized as “health care”.  Never again will abortion be used as a casual birth control method. No matter the thrashing, fear mongering or propaganda efforts launched by Planned Parenthood and the Medical Establishment  – Idaho has forever turned its back on elective abortion.

A friend sent us a photo yesterday of an empty parking lot at Planned Parenthood’s Meridian office.  That is an image of silence – the day the shelling and killing stopped. The day that living began anew.

Glory to God! 

And thanks and praise to all those faithful heroes of the pro-Life movement who fought over these past five decades to bring that day of peace into being.  Many of those heroes aren’t with us any longer.  Others have faded into quiet retirement from public life.  But giants they remain, and upon their work we were able to build a path to getting the Trigger Law passed in the 2020 Session of the Idaho Legislature. May the Lord bless them all for their faithfulness and sacrifices. 

As wondrous as August 25^th is – the work of the pro-Life community has just begun.  We must diligently and patiently work to persuade our neighbors that the Abortion Ban is the correct policy for Idaho.  We must show our neighbors that Life is a better answer to our problems than Death.  We must open our hearts to those moms and babies and welcome them into our homes and communities.

And we must stand courageously, doggedly to answer the lies and attacks launched by the Death Merchants at Planned Parenthood. 

But for now – we ask that you spend time giving thanks to a gracious God.  In His kindness, He has given us a new opportunity to savor and humbly accept His great gift of Life.