Bioethics Public Policy Report: May 21, 2024
STATE By State
A New York state supreme court justice ruled against a referendum for the ballot in the upcoming elections that would enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. The referendum was denied on procedural grounds, but the State plans to appeal. For further information, click here.
Catholic bishops in Montana have denounced a proposed pro-abortion amendment to the state constitution that they warn would open the door to partial-birth and late-term abortions in the State. They have urged citizens of Montana not to sign the petition to add the referendum to the ballot, and they have asked the faithful to pray for its defeat. For further information, click here.
The South Carolina General Assembly has passed a bill to prohibit “sex change” operations for minors in the State, and Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to sign the bill into law, having previously voiced his support for the bill. The bill, passed by the majority-Republican government of the State, will go immediately into effect on being signed. For further information, click here.
Florida plans to expand its Safe Haven laws to further discourage abortion in the State. Safe Haven laws permit mothers to give their children up for adoption with no questions asked up to a certain period of time in all States Under its current Safe Haven law, Florida allows the mother to give up the child within seven days of birth. However, the proposed legislation would expand the window to 30 days after birth. For further information, click here.
Voices for Life, a pro-life organization represented by the Thomas More Society, has sued the State of Indiana for violation of the Access to Public Records Act, under which law the state health department would be required to release its abortion records to the public. While the State claims that its decision not to release the records is a matter of “confidentiality,” Voices for Life has noted that the lack of detail in the State’s “reports of aggregated data” are covering up illegal activity among abortion providers that put women and children in harm’s way. For further information, click here.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing a students whose pro-life club was shut down by her high school for “being too ‘political.’” The case is now before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals after the trial court found in favor of the public school. For further information, click here.
Almost one-third of States, 16 total, have passed or will soon enact age verification laws for pornographic websites. The Free Speech Coalition (FSC), a pornography trade association, is challenging the laws in federal courts. For further information, click here.
Federal Courts
The State of Florida is suing the Biden administration for forcing insurers to provide coverage for irreversible and dangerous transgender procedures and treatments for minors. The suit is in response specifically to the Biden administration’s expansion of the Affordable Care Act, defining “sex” as including “gender identity,” among other additions. For further information, click here.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a North Carolina Catholic school that fired a male teacher for publicly announcing his intention to enter into a civil marriage with another man, in violation of the Church’s teachings on human sexuality. The decision overturns the lower court’s decision, which had found in favor of the teacher. For further information, click here.
Six pro-life activists convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act were recently sentenced by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. The convictions resulted from the activists’ involvement in a rescue operation in October 2020 at the Washington Surgi-Clinic run by Dr. Cesare Santangelo. All of the activists were given sentences of over a year, even though several of them are elderly. For further information, click here and here.
The Supreme Court denied the appeal of First Choice Women’s Resource Centers to keep its internal correspondence and donor information private after Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin subpoenaed the center in the course of investigating “possible violations” for its abortion pill reversal procedures. For further information, click here.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that parents in Maryland have no right to be informed that their children are being taught LGBT material in school, nor do they have a right to opt out of that portion of the curriculum. Particularly, the Maryland parents had objected to the showing of sexually explicit materials to their children that also encouraged transgenderism. The Fourth Circuit said that there was no cognizable injury against the free exercise of religion by not extending an opt-out option to the parents. For further information, click here.
A California public school teacher who refused to comply with the school district’s pro-LGBT policy reached a settlement with the district whereby she was awarded $360,000. The lawsuit came after the district fired her for not complying with the policy. For further information, click here.
INTERNATIONAL
A Mexican court found in favor of the Catholic Church, saying that the Church did not have to change baptismal records to reflect sex changes. For further information, click here.
OF Note
Ascension Health suffered a cyberattack that disrupted care to its patients. Specifically, the attack affected “access to some systems” in causing this disruption. For further information, click here.
Priests for Life released a news release indicating concerns over the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s targeting of Catholics after it submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on the matter. The organization received in response only heavily redacted documents and a transcript of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s testimony before the Senate in March of 2023. For further information, click here.
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The National Catholic Bioethics Center website is a significant resource for bioethics information. NCBC bioethicists are also on call for consultation twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, at 215-877-2660.
Justin Corman
Justin Corman is a guest editor at the NCBC, and a student at Ave Maria School of Law.