MICHIGAN (LifeSiteNews) – An active donor to Planned Parenthood will hear a challenge to a pro-life law brought by the nation’s largest abortion vendor.
Judge Elizabeth Gleicher, the chief judge of Michigan’s Court of Claims, will hear a challenge to a 1931 law in the state that bans abortions.
The law remains on the books, but has not been enforced since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Planned Parenthood has brought a lawsuit to block enforcement of the law in anticipation of a possible Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson that could reverse the 1973 decision.
Judge Gleicher disclosed that in addition to her previous work as a volunteer attorney for Planned Parenthood, she still gives money to the abortion giant.
“Judge Gleicher asked me to notify all counsel of record that she makes yearly contributions to Planned Parenthood of Michigan . . . and she represented Planned Parenthood as a volunteer attorney for the ACLU in 1996-1997,” a court clerk said in a statement.
“While Judge Gleicher does not believe this warrants her recusal and is certain that she can sit on this case with requisite impartiality and objectivity, she believes that this letter of disclosure is appropriate,” the statement said.
The non-recusal has raised concerns from the state Republican Party and a liberal legal commentator.
The Surgi-Center, a Washington, D.C. abortion clinic infamous for offering late, second trimester abortions, and its owner, abortionist Cesare Santangelo, are at the center of a scandal involving possible violations of federal laws against partial-birth abortion and infanticide.
In an exclusive video interview with LifeSiteNews, Lauren Handy, the director of activism at Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), told LifeSiteNew's Editor-in-Chief, John-Henry Westen that, with the help of a whistleblower, her organization rescued and properly buried the remains of about one hundred aborted babies from Santangelo's Surgi-Center.
But, five of the deceased babies were so large and so developed that they suspected the Surgi-Center of engaging in the illegal practices of partial-birth abortion or infanticide (i.e., killing the child after birth) à la Kermit Gosnell.
The shocked pro-lifers then gave the aborted babies to the police and brought the matter to the attention of the D.C. Medical Examiner's office. But, the Medical Examiner's office has refused to take any action, saying they will not perform autopsies on the babies.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition to the Department of Justice, asking them to launch an investigation into alleged violations of federal law by Santangelo and the D.C. Surgi-Center, under either the Partial Birth Abortion Act (2003) or the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (2002). *Anyone - no matter where you reside - can sign this petition!
Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there.
Handy and eight of her fellow pro-life rescuers in PAAU are, themselves, now facing jail-time after being arrested by the FBI for conducting a traditional pro-life sit-in in October, 2020, at the very same abortion center from which the late-term deceased babies (mentioned above) were rescued.
Please note that the two events - the pro-life rescue in 2020 and the gruesome discovery of the five near-to-full-term babies in the Surgi-Center's "bio-medical waste" earlier this year - are almost one-and-a-half years apart.
Thus, Handy believes that their recent arrest is no coincidence...and, moreover, that the FBI is being used to create a smokescreen by arresting her and the other pro-lifers.
At the same time, the D.C. Medical Examiner's office does not seem interested in discovering the truth about the deaths of the five aborted babies and possible illegal partial-birth abortions or infanticide happening at the D.C. Surgi-Center.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition to the Department of Justice, asking them to launch an investigation into alleged violations of federal law by Santangelo and the D.C. Surgi-Center, under either the Partial Birth Abortion Act (2003) or the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (2002).
The DOJ press release claims that the pro-lifers: "engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade at the reproductive health care clinic to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services."
But, commenting on the arrest, Lauren Handy stated: "Media reports have stated that we ‘invaded’ the abortion center and ‘disrupted’ women from exercising their ‘reproductive rights’. No, that is not what we did."
"We entered the clinic and sought to love the women who were already there for their abortion procedures," Handy said. "We tried to offer them help so they would choose life. We non-violently defended the unborn who were about to be exterminated – the innocent, the most vulnerable, killed in horrific acts of violence and treated as so much trash."
Tireless pro-life activist Dr. Monica Miller, the director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and leader of Red Rose Rescue, told LifeSiteNews that "this is the first time any of them are facing federal charges. That the rescuers were hunted down by FBI agents is unprecedented in the history of pro-life activism."
All of this...possibly...for discovering five near-or-at-term aborted babies at Cesare Santangelo's D.C. Surgi-Center, and for seeking to give justice and dignity to the murdered babies.
The truth now needs to come out!
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition to the Department of Justice, asking them to launch an investigation into alleged violations of federal law by Santangelo and the D.C. Surgi-Center, under either the Partial Birth Abortion Act (2003) or the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (2002).
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this urgent petition!
To contribute to the legal defense of Lauren Handy and the other eight members of PAAU, please CLICK on the following link to find out more about their LifeFunder campaign (also operated by LifeSiteNews): https://www.lifefunder.com/victims
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Pro-life hero raided by FBI speaks about the aborted babies she was trying to honor' - https://rumble.com/vzsslx-exclusive-pro-life-hero-raided-by-fbi-speaks-about-the-aborted-babies-she-w.html
'Pro-lifers arrested in FBI raids, face 11 years in prison for blocking access to late-term abortion mill' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-lifers-raided-charged-and-face-11-years-in-jail-for-blocking-access-to-infamous-dc-abortion-mill/
'BREAKING: Video surfaces of FBI raid, arrest of nonviolent pro-life activists' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-video-surfaces-of-biden-fbi-raid-arrest-of-nonviolent-pro-life-activists/
'Court Docs reveal previously unknown patient death due to negligence at late-term abortion facility' - https://www.operationrescue.org/archives/court-docs-reveal-previously-unknown-patient-death-due-to-negligence-at-late-term-abortion-facility/
**Photo Credit: YouTube screenshot of pro-lifers protesting outside the Surgi-Center abortion facility, in Washington, D.C.
“How can we expect a judge to be impartial when they’re donors to planned parenthood?” Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock tweeted. “As a donor she clearly ‘supports’ the plaintiff. She should recuse herself immediately.”
George Washington University’s Jonathan Turley, an attorney and legal commentator, said he believes Gleicher should recuse herself.
“Judge Gleicher should see the obvious appearance of a conflict given her contributions and history,” Professor Turley wrote on his website. “She should recuse herself in my view.”
He also said the judge should appoint an outside counsel to defend the law, as top state officials have already said they want it overturned. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has filed a separate challenge to the law, and the attorney general has refused to defend it, falsely claiming that it will risk the lives of “millions of women.”
“This law is dangerous. This law effectively strips women of their dignity and bodily autonomy, and in some cases, of their lives,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “I will not enforce it, and neither will I defend it. I will take no part of driving women back into the dark ages and the back alleys.”
“I will not utilize the resources of my department to endanger the lives of million of women in my state,” the state’s chief law enforcement officer said, though abortion kills unborn girls and maternal deaths due to illegal abortions are known to be exaggerated.