U.S. Bishops’ Pro-Life Chairman Rejects Distortion of Pregnant Workers’ Protection Law

WASHINGTON - On Monday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released proposed regulations implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, responded with the following statement:

“We supported the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act because it enhanced the protection of pregnant mothers and their preborn children, which is something that we have encouraged Congress to prioritize. The Act is pro-worker, pro-family, and pro-life. It is a total distortion to use this law as a means for advancing abortion, and the complete opposite of needed assistance for pregnant mothers.

“The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s proposed interpretation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to include accommodations for obtaining an abortion is wrong and contrary to the text, legislative history, and purpose of the Act, which is to help make it possible for working mothers to remain gainfully employed, if desired, while protecting their health and that of their preborn children. We are hopeful that the EEOC will be forced to abandon its untenable position when public comments submitted on this regulation demonstrate that its interpretation would be struck down in court.”

Nashville Murderer’s Manifesto Still Secret

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League president 

As we begin the new school year, five months after a mass murder at a Christian school in Nashville, the manifesto of the killer has still not been released to the public.  

On March 27, 2023, a 28-year-old female, Audrey Hale, who falsely claimed to be a male, shot and killed three children and three adults at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee. The transgender person had attended Covenant School and apparently expressed her disdain for it. 

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake told the media at that time, “There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school.” He was not speculating. We know that she was planning the attack “over a period of months.” More important, she left behind a manifesto that sheds light on why she did what she did. But it has not been made public. 

According to a spokesman for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, it is the FBI and the Metro Nashville Police who are stopping the manifesto from being released. Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett blames the FBI. 

What’s the reason for balking? The fear, as expressed by school officials, Covenant School parents, the media, and LGBT activists is that the public may learn the real reasons why Hale did what she did. In other words, if she made vicious anti-Christian remarks, they don’t want to deal with the fallout. 

School officials and the school’s parents understandably want this issue behind them. But no such slack can be cut the media and LGBT activists. Had Hale been a white supremacist, and the manifesto contained racist statements, is there anyone who doubts that it wouldn’t have been released by now? Anti-Christian bigotry is no less invidious. 

Metro Nashville Police Department Deputy Chief Mike Hagar has reviewed the unredacted version of the documents, as well as the redacted one, and he “does not believe” the release of the redacted papers would “impede the investigation.” Then let’s do it. 

On August 26, a white racist shot and killed three black people in Jacksonville, Florida. We know all about his bigotry. So why are we still being kept in the dark about the anti-Christian bigotry of a transgender person?

“Gender Industry” Targeting Children for Medical Mutilation

ORLANDO, FL – The Journal of the American Medical Association published a new study last week analyzing the number of people in the U.S. who underwent medical mutilation procedures––what it referred to as “gender-affirming surgeries” (GAS)––discovering that more than 48,000 people, including 3,678 patients aged 12-18 years, were surgically mutilated between 2016-2019.

The Columbia University study, “National Estimates of Gender-Affirming Surgery in the US,” stratified surgical patients into seven age groups, in which the youngest category was notably grouped ages 12-18. The study revealed that in this age group 87 percent underwent breast or chest procedures, 11 percent had genital surgery, and nearly 10 percent had facial or cosmetic interventions. For reasons not specified in the study, the researchers did not separate minors into their own 12-17 group making it impossible to know exactly how many children under age 18 were surgically mutilated. 

However, a different study by Vanderbilt University researchers in October 2022 titled, “Gender-Affirming Chest Surgeries Increase by Nearly 5x in Teens,” did stratify children into a 12-17 age group finding that 489 minors had chest surgeries in the same four-year time period. These studies clearly indicate by including ages as low as 12 that children that young are being mutilated. 

While the researchers at Columbia University also did not break down specific surgeries by age, they did reveal out of dozens of procedures that the most common ones amongst all the patients studied (48,019) were breast reconstructions (21,244), mammaplasties (4,926) hysterectomies (4,489), and “orchitectomies” (testicle removal, 3,425). Notably, the study confirmed with past research that the number of these procedures, surgeries, and interventions are increasing over time. The study stated, “A prior study examining national estimates of inpatient GAS procedures noted that the absolute number of procedures performed nearly doubled between 2000 to 2005 and from 2006 to 2011. In our analysis, the number of GAS procedures nearly tripled from 2016 to 2020.” 

Going beyond 2020, other researchers at Komodo Health, Inc., also found the same rate of increase stating that gender dysphoria tripled in minors from 2017 to 2021. In commensurate fashion, the number of gender clinics treating children in the United States has grown from zero to an estimated 200 to 300 clinics in the past 15 years. The first gender clinic for children in America was founded in 2007 at Boston Children’s Hospital where at the time doctors there did not limit candidates for puberty blockers to a “minimal age” but advised children needed to “wait for pubertal signs.” 

In 2021, the “gender surgery industry” in the United States was valued at $1.9 billion, and was estimated to be $2.1 billion in 2022, and is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2030. Despite many gender hospitals today touting “the minimum age of 18 as eligibility” to undergo these procedures, these studies and reports show that surgeons are performing them on children younger than 18 years. 

As the American medical community sees record profits from irreversibly mutilating children and adults, therapeutic counseling is largely ignored as an alternative treatment to gender dysphoria. 

Liberty Counsel has represented several licensed counselors who have used therapeutic counseling to help many people get beyond gender dysphoria. Through Liberty Counsel’s efforts, city ordinances in Florida and Iowa banning this type of counseling have been struck down or repealed preserving the free speech rights of counselors so they can help their clients to reduce or eliminate unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or gender confusion. Several clients of these counselors have testified under oath that without counseling they would have continued down a dark, irreversible path, and it was the counseling that helped them resolve their health issues to embrace their biological sex. 

Counseling for gender dysphoria, which the “gender industry” and media falsely refer to as “conversion therapy,” is actually talk therapy and is a lot like a GPS map system for mental health. The clients tell the counselor the direction in which they want to go, and the counselor helps them reach that destination. Counseling operates from the viewpoint that people do not have to be chained to gender dysphoria or unwanted desires, behaviors, or confusion. 

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The fact that children are being irreversibly mutilated is appalling. Gender ideology and greed are rotting the medical community to its core making the mutilation of children a billion-dollar industry. This insanity needs to stop, for real science shows that counseling is effective in treating gender dysphoria. Liberty Counsel has successfully defended licensed counselors who have helped people with gender dysphoria and this talk therapy is protected by the First Amendment.”

Pro-Life Advocate Lauren Handy Seeks Emergency Jail Release After FACE Act Conviction

(Washington, D.C.) Thomas More Society attorneys filed August 30 an emergency
motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking the Court to reconsider its order detaining pro-life advocate Lauren Handy while she awaits sentencing. 

Concluding that Handy’s violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was a “crime of violence,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered Handy and her four co-defendants be immediately taken into custody after the federal jury returned its verdict on August 29, 2023. In their motion, Thomas More Society Senior Counsels Martin Cannon and Steve Crampton argue that under federal law and binding precedents from the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, the FACE Act is not categorically a “crime of violence,” and should not lead to pre-sentencing detention. 

Handy and her co-defendants were found guilty of violating the FACE Act during a peaceful protest at a notorious Washington, D.C. abortion facility in October 2020. Thomas More Society attorneys plan to appeal Handy’s conviction. 

After the jury returned its verdict, an army of U.S. Marshals led Handy and her co-defendants out of the courtroom. “That is outrageous. These pro-life advocates committed no violence during their protest at the abortion facility as they kneeled and prayed, distributed pro-life literature and counseled women considering abortions,” said Crampton. “The real violence is what happens to an innocent child during an abortion procedure.”  

In a drive to prosecute FACE cases, the Biden Department of Justice charged Handy and her co-defendants with one count of “Conspiracy Against Rights” and one count of “Clinic Access Obstruction” in March 2022. The charges were filed nearly one and a half years after Handy organized the October 2020 protest at the facility operated by notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo, who has long been suspected of refusing care to infants born alive during abortions. This week, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department confirmed it is investigating  Santangelo and his facility. 

During the trial, Handy testified that she had viewed an undercover video produced by pro-life group Live Action that showed an abortionist at the facility would refuse to treat an infant who had survived an abortion attempt. She also passed out flyers at the protest that asserted that live-birth abortions were being performed at the facility. 

“Ms. Handy was there to prevent these horrific live-birth abortions, which does not violate the FACE Act,” said Cannon. “However, she has become a victim of the merciless drive by Biden’s Department of Justice to prosecute those who are trying to protect preborn human beings. To add to that injustice, she was incarcerated when the true violence continues to be committed against innocent children.” 

A national non-profit leader, Handy founded Mercy Missions in 2017. The mutual aid organization assists families and mothers in crisis pregnancies and provides relief for the homeless. “Clearly, Ms. Handy does not pose a danger to the safety of any person or the community and is not a flight risk,” Cannon added. “Therefore, she should be released immediately.”  

Read the emergency motion filed August 30, 2023 by Thomas More Society attorneys in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Lauren Handy’s Emergency Motion for Reconsideration of Order of Detention Pending Imposition of Sentence, here [ https://tinyurl.com/52utdcjx].

CDC may have exaggerated COVID deaths by over 5000%

Newly-released data suggests that nearly 99% of the new COVID deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may primarily be attributed to other causes. Of the 324 “COVID deaths” reported in the week that ended August 19 by the CDC, fewer than 2% (1.7%) were recorded as being primarily caused by COVID.  READ

Reports: Associated Press funded by far-left groups

The Associated Press (AP) received millions of dollars from “partnerships” with far-left organizations, especially relating to its coverage of race and the “climate crisis.” The AP “last year announced a series of ‘partnerships’ to subsidize reporters covering climate change, race, and democracy. A review of the donor roster shows that the vast majority fund left-wing political causes.”  READ

Va school board tells off bidden administration

A Virginia school board has declined the Biden administration’s proposal to direct its policies regarding so-called “trans” issues. An agency of the Justice Department had emailed Roanoke School Board members that it was “aware of ongoing community tensions in Roanoke following the release of the new model policies for transgender students” after two activists were removed from a meeting for interrupting the proceedings with shouts of “protect trans kids!”  READ

 

Wisconsin supreme court chief warns of ‘coup’

The chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court has said its liberal justices are staging “an unprecedented coup” and destroying the state’s constitution ahead of a key term that could deliver decisions on election integrity measures and abortion. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler slammed the actions of the new liberal 4-3 court majority, taking aim at them for terminating a longstanding court director. READ

Pro-lifers found “Guilty” in D. C. case

In the latest effort to chill pro-life speech and activism, a federal court jury fraught with bias has delivered the Biden Department of Justice the conviction of several life advocates. The group of peaceful pro-life citizens were charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act along with a conspiracy against ‘rights’ that the United States Supreme Court has not found in the Constitution. The defendants were arrested in March 2022, a year and a half after their alleged actions outside of a Washington, DC abortion facility.  

Now that the verdict is in, pro-life advocate Lauren Handy has been found guilty in federal court in United States of America v. Lauren Handy, et al. Ms. Handy and her Thomas More Society defense team will appeal this decision, handed down today in United States District Court for the District of Columbia. 

STATEMENT FROM MARTIN CANNON, THOMAS MORE SOCIETY SENIOR COUNSEL: 

“We are, of course, disappointed with the outcome. Ms. Handy has been condemned for her efforts to protect the lives of innocent preborn human beings. We are preparing an appeal and will continue to defend those who fight for life against a Biden Department of Justice that seems intent on prosecuting those who decry abortion and present it as it is—the intentional killing of children in utero.” 

STATEMENT FROM STEVE CRAMPTON, THOMAS MORE SOCIETY SENIOR COUNSEL: 

“In an unexpected twist, the Court found that because the violation of FACE—in this case—was a crime of ‘violence,’ all five defendants must be immediately incarcerated. So, the defendants were led out of the courtroom by an army of U.S. Marshals. This is an outrage, and the one thing the defendants had really agreed upon was to remain non-violent. The real violence is what happens during the abortion procedure.” 

Read more about the Thomas More Society's defense of Lauren Handy and background on the case here: UNITED STATES v. HANDY: Defending Lauren Handy Against the Biden Department of Justice.

Pope writing second part of climate encyclical

Pope Francis is writing a second part to his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si, adding new climate-related concerns to the original document. Francis has written that Christians must “put an end to the senseless war against creation,” adding: “The unrestrained burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests are pushing temperatures higher and leading to massive droughts. Alarming water shortages increasingly affect both small rural communities and large metropolises.”  READ

Opponents try to remove Trump from 2024 ballot

Lawyer Bryant “Corky” Messner, once a Trump-backed Republican Senate candidate, is trying to disqualify the former president from appearing on the 2024 GOP primary ballot in New Hampshire. Messner argues that Trump should be barred from seeking office because he “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the” United States. Similar efforts are underway in other states as well. READ

DC Democrat attorney general targets pro-life attorney

The Democratic Attorney General of Washington D.C. is targeting Leonard Leo, a Catholic lawyer who was instrumental in setting the stage for the overthrow of Roe v. Wade. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced last week that he is investigating Leo and a few of the many conservative non-profit organizations he has worked with for alleged financial improprieties.  READ

Waterloo, Iowa Repeals Counseling Ban

WATERLOO, IA – After receiving a demand letter from Liberty Counsel, the city council in Waterloo, Iowa repealed its local ordinance last week that prevented counselors from providing minor clients with help to reduce or eliminate unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or gender confusion.

In May 2023, Waterloo’s City Council voted 6-1 to approve Ordinance 5701 banning verbal counseling meant to “change behaviors or gender expressions” in gender-confused children. However, the city council recently voted 4-3 to repeal that ordinance before facing potentially costly litigation as similar bans in other cities have been ruled unconstitutional.

Liberty Counsel’s June 30 demand letter showed that local governments in Iowa do not have the authority to regulate licensed counseling because the Iowa Legislature has given that power solely to Iowa’s Board of Behavior Science. In addition, the letter explained that Waterloo’s ban on counseling therapy (erroneously called “conversion therapy”) was “offensive to the First Amendment” because it banned counseling “based on the viewpoint of that counseling.” The ordinance also left professional counselors guessing as to how far the city would go in punishing violators since the municipal code prescribed variable fines and jail time for ordinance violations.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has recently struck down two similar city ordinances in Florida ruling that prohibiting licensed counselors from providing voluntary counseling therapy to minors seeking help with unwanted gender confusion is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Court found that the bans were both content and viewpoint based and violated the First Amendment right to free speech.

Under the laws that were struck down, a counselor could encourage a client to take life-altering hormone drugs or even undergo invasive surgery to remove healthy body parts but could not help a client who sought to overcome unwanted same-sex attractions, behavior, or confusion.

Liberty Counsel represented professional counselors in both cases. In Otto v. City of Boca Raton, the Court ordered Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton to financially compensate two counselors totaling $175,000 in damages. Boca Raton and Palm Beach County still face liability for attorney’s fees and costs. In Vazzo v. City of Tampa, the City of Tampa paid a $950,000 settlement in the case.

In the Vazzo case, Judge William F. Jung’s ruling refuted the made-up term “conversion therapy” that activists and the media frequently use. In his order he stated, “Broadly stated, the Ordinance bars therapy within the City by medical doctors and mental health professionals that seeks to assist a minor patient in a goal to change gender expression or to change sexual orientation/attraction. These two subjects are separate and distinct, but related. The cases have generically referred to these two subjects as ‘SOCE’ or sexual orientation change efforts. The Ordinance uses the term ‘conversion therapy.’ Neither term is entirely accurate.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The City of Waterloo made a wise decision to repeal their unconstitutional ordinance. The First Amendment affords counselors and clients the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice free of political censorship. With these laws out of the way, minors who are struggling with gender confusion are able get help they need from licensed counselors.”

Pope Francis Slams ‘Very Strong Reactionary Attitude’ Among U.S. Catholics

Pope Francis

ROME — Pope Francis has appealed for more changes in Catholic teaching, lamenting the “backwardism” of conservative Catholics in the United States.

“The situation is not easy in the United States where there is a very strong reactionary attitude,” the pontiff told a group of Jesuits in an interview published Monday. “It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”

Read the article: https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2023/08/28/pope-francis-slams-very-strong-reactionary-attitude-among-u-s-catholics/

Can Conservatives Get A Fair Trial In D.C.?

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – Last week I posed the question whether pro-lifers could get a fair trial in Washington, D.C. I had not planned on a follow-up column, but recent political stories have changed my mind and my focus. No longer do I ask the question about pro-lifers, but now I ask it about conservatives and Republicans in general.

And the closer I look at this, the more I have grave concerns about the state of justice in our Capitol City. The state of justice should be of concern for any American; after all, this is the land of fairness where Lady Justice wears a blindfold. But are we still sure?

Just a couple of things from recent news coverage that should shake the faith of anyone that is if it hasn’t already been shaken enough by the Merrick Garland version of judicial hide-the-ball.

Recently the Trump special prosecutor, Jack Smith, went to court to get the former president’s Twitter communications. Twitter resisted and the matter ended up on the D.C. courtroom of Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee. When the question was raised about notifying the subject of the investigation, Donald Trump, Howell ruled that the matter should be kept from Mr. Trump.

The reason: Ms. Howell thought that the former president was a flight risk. Now in this political climate could any judge be so transparently stupid? Oh yes, read on.

The matter went before a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The three judges that heard the case were Cornelia Pillard, an Obama appointee, and two Biden appointed members of the court, Julianna Childs, and Florence Yu Pan. They upheld Howell’s ruling that Mr. Trump was a flight risk.

Talk about swamp creatures!

But that’s not all.

There is a new federal judge who will preside over any trial of the former president in the Capitol City. He is James Boasberg, another Obama appointee. Boasberg presided over the matter of Kevin Clinesmith as part of the FISA court. The Trump-Russia investigators were trying to get authorization from the court to do something prohibited by law. The only way they could open that door was to have a legitimate investigation of a U. S. citizen for being some type of Russian shill.

The shill, chosen by the special prosecutor, was Carter Page, a minor Trump foreign policy adviser. Page often traveled overseas on business and had an agreement with the CIA to turn over to it any useful information he acquired overseas.

When Page was contacted by the FBI about his foreign activities he told investigators that he had a relationship with the CIA and that the FBI should check with it. They did, and in answer to the question if Page was working with the CIA, the CIA responded “yes,” he was a source for the CIA.
Of course, that answer would provide a roadblock for the investigators who wanted a broader field of U.S. citizens to investigate.

No problem; that was easily fixed. Mr. Clinesmith, an attorney with the FBI, simply changed the CIA’s answer from “yes” to “no,” he was not a source for the CIA. Now the government could represent to the court that Mr. Page was a renegade international broker with possible ties to Russia and the plot to interfere with the 2016 election.

When Mr. Clinesmith’s number finally came up and he had to answer to his fraud, he was allowed to plead guilty.

Judge Boasberg took Clinesmith’s plea and, instead of sentencing the man to prison as a felon, and recommending that he be disbarred, Clinesmith was given a one-year probation. That’s it!

And, of course, this just in as reported by LifeSiteNews: “A former pro-life rescuer has signed an agreement with the federal government that requires her to fully cooperate with the pro-abortion Biden administration whenever it calls upon her for information on pro-life operations.

“The deal contains no time limit, and allows the government to resurrect FACE Act felony charges with years in prison if it deems the agreement has not been kept.”

And in a related matter, Judge Colleen Kollar-Korelly, a Clinton appointee featured in last week’s column, has just reprimanded an attorney correcting a Catholic abortion staffer who misrepresented the Catholic Church’s position on abortion. “That’s very unprofessional,” she said. “And you’ve talked back to me several times. You’re here as a defense attorney, not a Catholic theologian.”

I guess the truth of Catholic teaching is irrelevant in a D.C. court.
Any wonder why we consider D.C. a swamp? Obviously, Donald Trump will not get a fair trial there, neither will anyone who disagrees ideologically with the current Marxist regime that controls justice in America, which includes pro-lifers and those darn domestic terrorists, traditional Catholics and public-school parents.

The “How do we tell our story department?”
Most readers are aware of my radio program, Faith On Trial, on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network. The purpose of the program is to examine the effects of law and society on people of faith. In the 10 years we’ve been on we’ve had some of the most distinguished religious liberty litigators as guests, as well as professors, experts from various fields, and many others who can help listeners see the effects of government and corporate policies on regular citizens.

Now most of our guests come from the large public affairs law firms, academics, and experts attached to one “think tank” or another. But recently I’ve noticed a number of newer groups that are engaging in the fight, especially for parental rights.

Here’s the rub: As much as I would like to visit with these folks and give them some publicity on our network, many of these start-up and ad hoc groups have no easy way to be contacted.

The groups all have websites, many are very professionally done, but they do not show how to make a media contact. Many have a single e-mail, some have a form you fill out to get more information, join, or make a donation. However, what frustrates me is that the e-mails go to a mailbox that is not monitored.

I will leave a message, explaining who I am and what I want, dates, times, etc. But I never get a response.

So, here’s my free advice to those engaged in such organizations. Always list on your media announcements, and on your webpage, a number for media inquiries. Now I realize the problems with crank phone calls to the homes of local volunteers for non-woke causes. If that is your concern, at least have a media contact e-mail and make sure it is checked at least twice a day.

Just a few words of help for those struggling to break through the publicity maze.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every weekend on Faith On Trial or podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/ FBI whistleblower and Iowa Attorney General: Episode 377)