NASHVILLE, Tennessee, November 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A federal appeals court has ruled that the state of Tennessee may ban the eugenic abortion of babies with Down syndrome. The decision of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals also ensures that an infant cannot be aborted because of his or her race or sex.
This is a partial victory for the pro-life Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee.
In July, Lee signed an omnibus pro-life bill that banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat was detected alongside a range of other abortion restrictions and conditions.
The bill required doctors to perform an ultrasound before an abortion and forbade them from going through with the abortion if the machine picked up a heartbeat. The bill also banned abortions sought specifically because of the unborn baby’s race, sex, or prenatal diagnosis of a disability such as Down syndrome.
However, such pro-abortion organizations as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU’s Tennessee chapter, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), and Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), had already filed emergency lawsuits against the law, and once it was officially signed, U.S. District Judge William Campbell granted a temporary restraining order against it taking effect.
The pro-abortion groups argued that the new law meant that “nearly all abortions in Tennessee have been criminalized.” Campbell agreed, saying that he was “bound by the Supreme Court holdings prohibiting undue burdens on the availability of pre-viability abortions.”
Campell blocked the bill an hour after Lee signed it. However, as of Friday, November 20, the state may now prevent eugenic, racist, and sexist abortions. The ban on killing babies whose heartbeat can be detected, however, is still not in effect, as it was the subject of a separate injunction.
According to the Nashville Tennessean newspaper, Senior Judge Eugene E. Siler, Jr. and Judge Amul Roger Thapar, who are Republican appointees, judged in favor of the state, whereas Judge Eric L. Clay, a Democratic appointee, dissented.
In a statement made Friday, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General’s Office expressed appreciation for the ruling.
“We appreciate the Sixth Circuit lifting the lower court’s injunction,” said Samantha Fisher. “We look forward to defending the statute in a more normal process. We don’t think the statute is unconstitutional and the extraordinary relief of an injunction was not warranted.”
Governor Lee responded to the decision with declaration of the value of every human life.
“Every life is precious and every child has inherent human dignity,” he wrote. “Our law prohibits abortion based on the race, gender or diagnosis of Down syndrome of the child and the court’s decision will save lives. Protecting our most vulnerable Tennesseans is worth the fight.”
Lawyers for the pro-abortion lobby immediately attempted to block the ban on eugenic and sex- and race-selective abortion yet again, according to the Associated Press.
PETITION UPDATE (9/26/2020):
With President Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we are closer than we have been in decades to seeing Roe vs. Wade overturned.
We now encourage the Senate to confirm Barrett as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Judge Barrett has a fantastic track recond on sanctity of life issues, has seven children, and is a devout believer. She is the perfect remedy for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's radical pro-abortionism.
Please READ the full story here: 'BREAKING: Trump nominates Catholic mom of 7 Judge Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court'
And then, please SIGN this petition telling the High Court that it's now time to end the activist Roe vs. Wade judgment. Thank you!
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PETITION UPDATE (6/29/2020):
In a decision which has imperiled more abortion-minded women, sentenced more preborn to death, and upset pro-lifers across the nation,the United States Supreme Court decided 5-4 to strike down a Louisiana law requiring basic medical precautions in the event of abortion complications, with Chief Justice John Roberts reversing his own past decision to uphold a similar Texas law.
Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, which held that the Louisiana law was unconstitutional for the simple fact that it was “almost word-for-word identical” to the Texas one the court already struck down in 2016.
In his concurring opinion, Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged that he had “joined the dissent in Whole Woman’s Health and continue to believe that the case was wrongly decided. The question today however is not whether Whole Woman’s Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case.”
We call on the Supreme Court to stop supporting the culture of death and overturn Roe vs Wade, now.
PETITION UPDATE (1/20/2020):
Hundreds of thousands of people will gather in Washington, D.C., this coming Friday, January 24th, for the March for Life. They will be praying for an end to Roe vs Wade, as the Supreme Court will hear a crucial, abortion-related case later this year in March. United our voices can change the course of history. Sign this petition TODAY! (LEARN MORE BELOW)
PETITION UPDATE (1/3/2020):
In advance of the Supreme Court's hearing arguments in an important abortion case later this year in March, 207 U.S. Senators and Representatives have signed amicus briefs supporting a Louisiana law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital nearby an abortion center.
Some of these supporting briefs also suggest that now is the time to reconsider Roe vs Wade as sound law.
Please SIGN this petition, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Roe vs Wade.
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More than 60 million Americans have been slaughtered in their mother's wombs as a result of Roe v. Wade. This activist, unconstitutional ruling in 1973 has left countless women emotionally and psychologically scarred.
It was believed by many that Roe would be overturned in 1992 with Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Despite having eight Republican-appointed judges at the time, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold it.
Since then, major gains have been made in the fight for life, and many lives have been saved.
However, Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, leaving millions of defenseless pre-born children vulnerable to murder.
According to a 2016 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35% of aborted babies are African American, despite black women only making up six percent of the U.S. population. 19% of aborted babies are Hispanic.
We thus again call on the court to do everything they can to end Roe vs Wade.
Now is the time for pro-lifers to join together and ensure that all of God's children have a right to life.
Roe v. Wade must come to an end!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/supreme-court-strikes-down-louisiana-abortion-regulations
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/over-200-congressmen-as-us-supreme-court-to-reconsider-roe-v-wade
“Immediately following the appeals court ruling, the plaintiffs’ attorneys filed a request in lower federal court for a temporary restraining order to block the reason bans once again, but this time argued the law illegally prohibits a patient from ‘obtaining constitutionally protected pre-viability abortion care,’” AP reported.
“’(The) Sixth Circuit only addressed plaintiffs’ vagueness claims and explicitly declined to issue any ruling with respect to plaintiffs’ claims that the Reason Bans violate patients’ constitutional right to pre-viability abortion,’” the attorneys wrote.
However, the lower court did not deliver a ruling on Friday, AP noted.
Doug and Adele Darnowski of neighboring Kentucky are in the process of adopting three children with Down Syndrome. Doug Darnowski told LifeSiteNews by email that Governor Lee’s fight for babies with Down Syndrome is “both wonderful and sad.”
“[It’s] wonderful that someone has stood up for these kids, some of the most forgotten and despised, Hitler’s first targets for extermination,” Darnowski said.
“It’s sad because the push for something like this should be coming first from Catholic bishops, who in the US knuckle under the state so readily, as seen in this whole coronavirus spectacle when the Sacraments were taken away from the faithful,” he continued.
“Look at the craven way they are reacting to Joe Biden, who no one in their right mind would see as a Catholic — he has to have excommunicated himself over and over. Biden’s a pro-abortion monster, and he’d kill these kids in a heartbeat.”
With files from Calvin Freiburger.