1. Montana Senate endorses bill in effort to ban abortions, By Amy Beth Hanson, Associated Press, April 14, 2021
The Montana Senate on Tuesday endorsed a measure that would ask voters to change the state constitution to define life as beginning at conception, an effort to ban abortions.
The bill passed the House 66-33 on a party-line vote last month. Since it seeks to amend the constitution, it needs 34 votes in the Senate to reach a two-thirds majority of the Legislature. The Senate endorsed the bill 30-20 on second reading Tuesday and it will receive a third-reading vote. However, there are 31 Republicans in the Senate, not enough to reach the needed margin.
The Montana Constitution states that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The bill would change the constitution to define person as “all members of mankind at any stage of development, beginning at the stage of fertilization or conception, regardless of age, health, level of functioning or condition of dependency.”
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2021/04/montana-senate-endorses-bill-in-effort-to-ban-abortions/
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2. Vatican’s saints office says it did not ask for money for beatification, By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency, April 14, 2021, 6:10 AM
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints has denied an accusation that an official asked for money to advance the beatification cause of an Italian statesman murdered in 1978.
“What was said is not true,” Fr. Bogusław Turek, undersecretary of the saints congregation, wrote in an April 9 letter to the journalists of an Italian investigative news program which aired April 12.
In the episode, a postulator, whose work is to guide a diocese through the canonization process in Rome, accused the undersecretary of asking him for a bribe in June 2018 to advance the beatification cause of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro.
“I have never been concerned with, nor dealt with, Aldo Moro’s cause because it has not yet been presented in the Dicastery,” Turek said in the letter shared by the Vatican’s press office April 13.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247271/vaticans-saints-office-says-it-did-not-ask-for-money-for-beatification
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3. US agency says women can get abortion pill via mail, By Matthew Perrone, Associated Press, April 13, 2021, 4:55 AM
Women seeking an abortion pill will not be required to visit a doctor’s office or clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday in the latest reversal in an ongoing legal battle over the medication.
The Food and Drug Administration announced the policy change a day earlier in a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, one of several medical groups that has sued over the restriction put in place under the Trump administration.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-agency-says-women-can-get-abortion-pill-via-telemedicine/2021/04/13/bcb3cb9c-9c6b-11eb-b2f5-7d2f0182750d_story.html
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4. US court lifts hold on Ohio’s Down syndrome abortion law, By Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press, April 13, 2021, 4:18 PM
A divided federal appeals court lifted the hold Tuesday on an Ohio law that prohibits doctors from performing abortions based on a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome, a case considered nationally pivotal.
Judges of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals narrowly ruled to reverse two earlier decisions blocking enforcement of the 2017 law based on the likely success of overturning it as unconstitutional.
A majority of the court, which has moved rightward in recent years with six appointments by former President Donald Trump, said the law doesn’t impede a woman’s right to an abortion.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/us-court-lifts-hold-on-ohios-down-syndrome-abortion-law/2021/04/13/c102131e-9c77-11eb-b2f5-7d2f0182750d_story.html
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5. Abuse commission of Church in Germany defends citing Michel Foucault, By Catholic News Agency, April 13, 2021, 3:15 PM
The abuse commission of the Catholic Church in Germany has defended its citation of French philosopher Michel Foucault in a position paper drafted earlier this year.
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The document is intended to explain the “mutual relationship between prevention of sexual violence and sex education and training” and was previously presented internally during the Synodal Way in the Synodal Forum “Living in Successful Relationships.”
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Foucault, who died in 1984 at age 57, was a prominent 20th century philosopher, writer, and political activist known for his controversial theories about power, madness, and sexuality.
In his book “The History of Sexuality,” Foucault argued that sexual morality is culturally relative; he also publically claimed children under the age of 15 can give consent for sexual relations with adults.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247264/abuse-commission-of-church-in-germany-defends-citing-michel-foucault
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6. Hawaii to allow some nurses to perform abortions, By Audrey McAvoy, Associated Press, April 12, 2021, 8:47 PM
Gov. David Ige on Monday signed legislation that would make Hawaii the latest state to allow some nurses to perform abortions.
Hawaii law previously said only physicians could perform early, in-clinic abortions. But because of a doctor shortage, several smaller islands lack abortion providers which forces residents of those islands to fly to Honolulu if they need the procedure.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/hawaii-to-allow-some-nurses-to-perform-abortions/2021/04/12/ca98c296-9bf1-11eb-b2f5-7d2f0182750d_story.html
___________________________________________________________ TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
