Notre Dame, Catholic Dioceses, Sue Obama Administration

Today 40 Catholic dioceses, and Notre Dame University sued the Obama administration for violating the first amendment by requiring religious employers to pay for their employees'sterilizations, birth control and morning after pills.

The Obama administration surely knew this was coming.  But the onslaught of plaintiffs -- the preeminent Catholic university in America and 40 Catholic dioceses -- sets this up to be a well-litigated constitutional show-down.

Notre Dame sued in federal court for the Northern District of Indiana.  Cardinal Timothy Dolan sued for his diocese in the Southern District of New York.

In all, there are 12 different suits around the country -- and counting.   That should be enough to guarantee a circuit split, and another trip for the Obama administration to the Supreme Court.

With any luck, Paul Clemente has already been retained to serve on the side of the angels.

We will be following the briefing with great interest.

Rand Paul on March for Life

Sen. Rand Paul has issued a press release on today's March for Life in Washington, to protest the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Kentuckians will recall that there was some question during the Republican primary as to the sincerity of Paul's opposition to abortion. This was an issue that Trey Grayson tried to raise with no success.

What is interesting about this press release, therefore, is that Paul doesn't rely on platitudes; he offers specific policies that he will vote for. I agree with all of them except his plan to strip federal courts of jurisdiction to hear cases involving abortion.

The reasoning of Roe is much like the reasoning of the Dredd Scott decision; the former objectifies the unborn while the latter objectified slaves. The Human Life Amendment is the necessary corollary to the 13th and 14th amendments. I hope Paul will use his considerable energy to make this amendment a reality.

Likewise, Paul is correct to co-sponsor the Life at Conception Act, which, according to Paul "declares that all unborn persons are entitled to the equal protection of our laws from the moment of conception." It took a century, but our experience with slavery taught us that a constitutional amendment is not necessarily enough without a federal statute to flesh out the rights at issue.

Paul asserts that"state governments should be allowed to pass their own pro-life laws. If they were allowed to do so, many of our state governments would pass laws that would save countless unborn lives. In fact, prior to Roe, abortion was illegal in most states."

But if states try to outlaw abortion now, while Roe remains the law, those state statutes would be unconstitutional. Certainly a state could pass a law that outlaws abortion after the ratification of the Human Rights Amendment, but why bother? The constitutional amendment would make the state law redundant.

Still, I'm glad to see that Paul's commitment to the unborn is sincere and backed up with specific plans. He's off to a strong start.

Live Action Takes On Louisville Abortion Clinic

Live Action, a youth-led pro life group, has released an undercover video in which a Louisville abortion clinic (1) ignores the apparent statutory rape of a 14 year old having sex with at 31 year old; (2) steers her to keep the abortion secret from her parents by getting a judicial by-pass of parental notification even though there is no suggestion that the parents are abusive; (3) tells her where to get funding to pay for the abortion; and (4) even lines up a lawyer to get the judicial by-pass

The video was made with a UCLA student posing as the 14-year old at EMW Women's Surgical Center on Market Street in Louisville in June 2008.

Perhaps the saddest part of the video is that the abortion worker tells the young women, "Oh, honey, we have minors in here all the time" and perform lots of "surgeries" on minors every day.

There is a second video that focuses on the bogus medical advice that EMW gave the young women, telling her that at 14 weeks, "it's not a baby" and there is no brain activity.

Really, I would prefer that the national stories about Louisville stick to the Derby and our crazy senate race. Live Action has done similar stories about abortion clinics all over the country, but it is very disheartening to think of a place on Market Street undermining the role of parents as well as the sanctity of life by doing lots of "surgeries" on minors, "every day."

H/t: Hot Air

Update: EMW told WAVE 3 that it had no duty to report statutory rape because the EMW employee was a receptionist, not a counselor.

Grayson and Johnson Team Up Against Rand Paul

Two of the candidates for the Republican Senate nomination, Trey Grayson and Bill Johnson, have taken the extraordinary measure of issuing a joint press release against rival candidate Dr. Rand Paul. They focus on the issue of abortion, and charge Paul with lying in a radio ad about whether he is pro-life:

“There’s no ‘probably’ when it comes to the issue of partial birth abortion among Kentucky pro-life activists,” said Grayson. “Whether it’s Bill Johnson or myself, Kentuckians deserve to know who can be counted on to protect life and stand up for our conservative values in the race for U.S. Senate.”

“Rand Paul denies it now, but I’ve heard him say that he supports allowing individual states to decide the issue of abortion. He describes himself as a Constitutional conservative, but he ignores the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees our rights to life, liberty and property. Life should be protected at all levels of Government, including the Federal level,” said Bill Johnson.

While Rand Paul claims to be pro-life, he has in the past voiced support for allowing states to decide the issue and has opposed federal regulation of abortion. Rand Paul in his own words:

“But he [Paul] was more evasive when it came to some social issues like abortion and gay marriage. He said he believes marriage is between a man and woman but wouldn’t say how he’d vote on such issues in the Senate, instead saying such matters should be left up to states.” (Ronnie Ellis, “Paul Touts Fundraising Success, Stakes Positions On Federal Issues,” The McCreary County [KY] Record, 10/20/09)

“And on abortion, Paul expressed discomfort with federal laws but said he “probably” would have voted for a federal ban on a procedure that has been called partial-birth abortion by its opponents.” (Joe Gerth, “Can Paul win Kentucky Senate Race?”, The Courier-Journal, 10/19/2009)

“I think we should make Roe v. Wade part of our philosophy as far as states’ rights - in believing that states should have the prerogative over this.” (Rand Paul Speaking in Jessamine County, 9/3/2009)

"I would introduce and support legislation to send Roe v. Wade back to the states." (Rand Paul Speaking in Paducah, 5/9/2009)

"Libertarian would be a good description," Rand Paul told CNN, "because libertarians believe in freedom in all aspects of your life – your economic life as well as your social life as well as your personal life." (CNN’s Political Ticker, 5/4/2009)

“Paul’s father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is a strong states’ rights advocate who wants the federal government out of people’s lives. He opposes federal drug laws and says the U.S. government should not outlaw gay marriage because only churches should be in the marriage business. During a conference call Friday, Rand Paul, a Bowling Green ophthalmologist, talked around some of those questions and others, perhaps signaling that he knows his positions on such issues might be a tough sell to Kentucky Republicans. He prefers to talk about fiscal issues, allowing him to ride a populist wave that erupted after the nation’s economy went bust, prompting federal bailouts.” (Joseph Gerth, Op-Ed, “Can Paul Win Kentucky Senate Race?” The [Louisville, KY] Courier-Journal, 10/19/09)

“[T]he Paul campaign issued the following response: . . . . ‘Reconciling Rand’s positions with Kentucky voters is easy. Kentucky is a socially conservative state which mostly upholds Christian values. If we protect states’ rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, then we protect Kentucky values from Californians or Vermonters or out-of-control Congressional Democrats and President Obama. Kentucky voters want and deserve to have their rights protected by Rand Paul’s strict constructionist understanding of the United States Constitution.’ David Adams, campaign manager.” (Joe Arnold, ABC Affiliate WHAS’s Political Blog, www.beloblog.com/WHAS_Blogs/PoliticalBlogger, Posted 10/20/09)

Middlesboro Daily News: What about instances of rape or incest or where the outcome may not be death, but severe medical problems for the mother or child. Do you think that in these cases the decision should be left to the government rather than the families? Paul: In cases of rape, trying to prevent pregnancies is obviously the best thing. The morning-after pill works successfully most of the time. Ultimately we do better if we do have better education about family planning. With partial-birth abortion, there were five women who testified that it threatened their life. It wasn’t completely true in all cases. They were non-viable babies. They were babies with awful genetic mutations that were not going to survive, and I tend to think we let nature take its course. (Lorie Settles, “US Senate Hopeful Rand Paul Visits Middlesboro,” The Middlesboro Daily News, 1/26/10).

Trey Grayson makes an excellent point about the fourteenth amendment. If Paul is, as he claims, a constitutionalist, he cannot allow a state to circumvent the fourteenth amendment's application to the states, including its protection of life.

Poll Shift: More Americans Pro Life Than Pro Choice

For the first time since pollsters have asked the question, more Americans say they are "pro-life" than "pro-choice." A new Gallup poll revealed that the margin is not all that close: 51-42 percent.

I have maintained that technology eventually would cause those who are pro-choice to rethink their position. As someone who distrusts government generally, I can understand the desire to keep reproduction private -- the government is as ill-equipped to meddle in the bedroom as it is in the marketplace. That reasoning falters the first time one hears the sound of a baby's heart beat just a couple weeks after conception. And the image of a baby sucking its thumb on a sonogram makes it hard to dismiss this as a fetus or a choice.

But this is a polling shift that occurred over the course of one year; something else is at play besides fetal heart rate monitors and sonograms. The change is as sudden as it is profound:

The new results, obtained from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50% were pro-choice and 44% pro-life. Prior to now, the highest percentage identifying as pro-life was 46%, in both August 2001 and May 2002.

Is the election of our first pro-choice president in years the cause of the shift? Or his demand that taxpayers subsidize abortions for poor people (even though the U. S. Supreme Court held that there is no constitutional right to such a subsidy)?

Gallup writes

With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans -- and, in particular, Republicans -- seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as well as conservatives.

It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has pushed the public's understanding of what it means to be "pro-choice" slightly to the left, politically. While Democrats may support that, as they generally support everything Obama is doing as president, it may be driving others in the opposite direction.

Maybe this newest poll will cause the Obama administration to moderate on the issue. I'd rather lose an issue and save lives. At the very least, it should encourage Republicans to hold fast to our beliefs and reject pressure to move to the center.