Are the conscience rights of pharmacists being trampled? In the State of Washington, the answer is yes. Next FOT

The Stormans Family -- Ralph's Thriftway

Black is white, and white is black. The Little Sisters of the Poor are criminals and the perverts who want to shower in the school locker room with your daughters are heroes. Conscience is free until you want to act on it; unless, of course, you have a malformed conscience that says black is white.

That extreme is being carried out by the government in the State of Washington where the Stormans family, owners and operators of Ralph’s Thriftway, a grocery and pharmacy in Olympia, are being told by state officials and the Federal Courts that they must stock and sell the Plan B abortion drug for face the legal consequences.

Of course the Stormans are not alone; cases like this dot the political and judicial landscape around the nation. This case is currently pending before the Supreme Court and we should hear any day now whether the court will hear the case or allow the Ninth Circuit ruling to stand which compels the Stormans to comply with the Washington law and provide abortion inducing drugs.

Tuesday on FOT we are going to visit with a Catholic reporter who has been covering this story and others like it, Loredana Vuoto, a religious freedom advocate  with extensive communications and media experience and currently a religious freedom reporter with EWTNNEWS/Catholic News Agency. Her latest story on the Stormans controversy can be found here.

Vuoto’s writings have appeared in World Tribune, National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, Human Events, Crisis Magazine, and Townhall.com. She  received her B.A. in English literature from McGill University, an M.A. in communications from Concordia University, and a Master of Theological Studies from the Pope John Paul II Institute at Catholic University of America.

In addition we’ll be joined by our research associate and movie reviewer Stephanie Crowley for a review of the movie “God is Not Dead 2.”

So join Deacon Mike Manno and Gina Noll for an informative half-hour of news, reviews and talk Tuesday at 9 a.m. (CDT) on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM; 88.5 & 94.5 FM; and streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com. The program will re-broadcast at 9 p.m.

Faith On Trial is brought to you by our loyal sponsors and underwriters:  Attorney Rick McConville, Coppola, McConville, Coppola, Carroll, Hockenberg & Scalise PC 2100 Westown Parkway, West Des Moines, 515-453-1055; Confluence Brewing Company – off the Bike Trail just south of Grey’s Lake, 1235 Thomas Beck Road where there is live entertainment in the tap room every Thursday, and Rob denHartog, Wealth Management Advisor at Northwestern Mutual Life, NW corner of 128^th Street and Hickman Rd, 515-210-4472.

Did the Planned Parenthood videos violate the law? California AG raided journalist's house; discussion next on FOT

The office of the pro-abortion California attorney general, Kamala Harris, a Democrat who is

Kamala Harras

running for U.S. Senate and is endorsed by the pro-abortion National Organization for Women, raided the home of the undercover investigator who exposed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of aborted babies’ body parts.

David Daleiden, the head of the Center for Medical Progress, has been a target of abortion activists and their political friends ever since he released the first undercover video last summer showing a top Planned Parenthood official discussing the sale of aborted babies’ body parts. Since then, CMP has released a dozen undercover videos of the abortion giant’s employees and partner research groups, exposing their horrendous baby body parts trade. However, pro-abortion politicians have been ignoring the evidence of wrong-doing at Planned Parenthood and attacking CMP instead.

Matthew Heffron

Tuesday on we will discuss this with Attorney Matthew Heffron from the Thomas More Society who is assisting with Mr. Daleiden’s defense.

Last week, the Center for Medical Progress released a new video showing evidence that the abortion group misled women on its consent forms, claiming that aborted babies’ body parts helped find cures for Alzheimer’s, cancer and AIDs. Even one of the abortion group’s key supporters says it mislead women to obtain their consent.

Faith On Trial is broadcast every Tuesday at 9 a.m. on Iowa Catholic Radio 1150 AM and 88.4 & 94.5 and streams on IowaCatholicRadio.com. The program is rebroadcast at 9 p.m. 

Faith On Trial is supported by our loyal sponsors and underwriters: Attorney Rick McConville, Coppola, McConville, Coppola, Carroll, Hockenberg & Scalise PC 2100 Westown Parkway, West Des Moines, 515-453-1055; Confluence Brewing Company – off the Bike Trail just south of Grey’s Lake, 1235 Thomas Beck Road where there is live entertainment in the tap room every Thursday, and Rob denHartog, Wealth Management Advisor at Northwestern Mutual Life, NW corner of 128^th Street and Hickman Rd, 515-210-4472.

The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all twelve:

·         In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”

·         In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.

·         In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned

20 week old fetus

Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.

·         In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”

·         In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”

·         In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”

·         In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”

·         In the eighth video: StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits Planned Parenthood sells “a lot of” fully intact aborted babies.

·         The ninth video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.

·         The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts — including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies. The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit.

·         Unreleased Videos: Unreleased videos from CMP show Deb Vanderhei of Planned Parenthood caught on tape talking about how Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliates may “want to increase revenue [from selling baby parts] but we can’t stop them…” Another video has a woman talking about the “financial incentives” of selling aborted baby body parts.

·         The 11th video: catches a Texas Planned Parenthood abortionist planning to sell the intact heads of aborted babies for research. Amna Dermish is caught on tape describing an illegal partial-birth abortion procedure to terminate living, late-term unborn babies which she hopes will yield intact fetal heads for brain harvesting.

·         The 12th video in the series shows new footage of Jennefer Russo, medical director at Planned Parenthood in Orange County, California, describing to undercover investigators how her abortion business tries to harvest intact aborted babies’ bodies for a local for-profit biotech company and changes the abortion procedure to do so.

David Daleiden, Center for Medical Progress

Is freedom of conscience and religion being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness?

Last week a bill passed by the Georgia Legislature that protected religious institutions and clergy from legal liability for refusing to perform or host a same-sex marriage ceremonies, or being forced to hire employees and ministers opposed to their viewpoint, was vetoed by Republican Governor Nathan Deal, who called the legislation “discriminatory.” And recently Virginia Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed a similar bill.

Of course this was reminiscent of last year’s veto of a Religious Freedom Restoration Act bill, passed by the Indiana Legislature, and vetoed by Republican Governor Mike Pence.

In the Georgia case numerous business organizations, including the NFL and Wells Fargo, sided with LGBT activists and urged the veto. In Indiana a similar group, including Angie’s List, sided with LGBT activists to urge a veto of that measure.

So what does this do to our freedom of conscience and religion?

Travis Weber

Our guest this week to discuss these matters is Travis Weber,  Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council, where he focuses on all manner of legal and policy issues pertaining to religious freedom. Recently he wrote this about freedom of conscience:

“As conflicts between freedom of conscience and other interests arose in the past, legal interpreters consistently gave deference to freedom of conscience. Over the past decade, however, conflicts between freedom of conscience and LGBT policies (particularly same-sex marriage and sexual-orientation nondiscrimination mandates) have grown rapidly and now threaten to undermine the status of freedom of conscience.”

You can read that piece and several of his other essays here.

Before joining FRC, Travis worked in private practice, primarily litigating federal civil rights cases. He also handled military-related legal issues and criminal defense matters. Travis holds a J.D. from Regent University School of Law, and also graduated with an LL.M. in International Law (with distinction) and a Certificate in International Human Rights Law from Georgetown University Law Center. He previously served in the U.S. Navy, piloting E-6 aircraft based out of Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

So join Deacon Mike Manno and co-host Gina Noll for a lively discussion of this and other issues including our monthlyvisit from our media critic Todd Erzen Tuesday at 9 a.m. (CDT) on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM; 88.5 & 94.5 FM and streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com

FOT is sponsored by our loyal underwriters: Attorney Rick McConville, Coppola, McConville, Coppola, Carroll, Hockenberg & Scalise PC 2100 Westown Parkway, West Des Moines, 515-453-1055; Confluence Brewing Company – off the Bike Trail just south of Grey’s Lake, 1235 Thomas Beck Road where there is live entertainment in the tap room every Thursday, and Rob denHartog, Wealth Management Advisor at Northwestern Mutual Life, NW corner of 128^th Street and Hickman Rd, 515-210-4472.