1. Fetal tissue firms in undercover pro-life investigation shutter after $7.8 million settlement.
By Bradford Richardson, The Washington Times, December 13, 2017, Pg. A6
Two California biomedical firms named in an undercover video investigation of the sale of fetal tissue from abortions are shutting down after reaching a $7.8 million settlement with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
As part of the settlement, DV Biologics LLC and sister company DaVinci Biosciences LLC were ordered to cease all operations in California within 60 to 120 days and admit liability for unlawfully selling fetal tissues and cells for profit.
“This settlement seizes all profits from DV Biologics and DaVinci Biosciences, which they acquired by viewing body parts as a commodity and illegally selling fetal tissues for valuable consideration,” District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement. “These companies will never be able to operate again in Orange County or the State of California.”
Prosecutors opened the investigation into the fetal tissue companies in 2015 after undercover videos released by the pro-life Center for Medical Progress showed top Planned Parenthood executives and others in the abortion industry discussing the market for the human remains from abortions.
David Daleiden, CMP project leader, praised prosecutors for shuttering the biomedical firms and called on them to investigate Planned Parenthood’s role in the operation.
“The DaVinci companies’ admission of guilt for selling baby parts from Planned Parenthood is a ringing vindication of CMP’s citizen-journalism methods and accuracy,” Mr. Daleiden said in a statement. “In light of the news that Planned Parenthood is now under federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for the sale of fetal body parts, the next step is for Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties to be held accountable under the law for their 7-year-long aiding, abetting, and profiting in DaVinci’s criminal scheme to sell baby parts for profit.”
https://www.washingtontimes.
2. Washington Archdiocese considers next step in lawsuit over transit ad.
By Catholic News Service, December 12, 2017
The Archdiocese of Washington was weighing its options after a federal judge denied a request for an emergency injunction over the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s advertising guidelines.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson Dec. 8 denied the archdiocese’s request that WMATA be required to post an ad promoting its annual “Find the Perfect Gift” initiative for the Advent season.
Transit authority officials had denied the ad based on 2015 policies that ban ads “that promote or oppose any religion, religious practice or belief.”
“We are disappointed that the federal court denied our emergency request for an injunction to run our ‘Find the Perfect Gift’ Advent campaign,” Ed McFadden, the archdiocese’s secretary for communications, said in a statement Dec. 9.
“While this preliminary ruling that there should be no room made for us on WMATA buses is disappointing, we will continue in the coming days to pursue and defend our right to share the important message of Christmas in the public square,” the statement said.
3. Pope on Guadalupe feast: Church is mestizo, native, black.
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, December 12, 2017, 2:45 PM
Pope Francis urged Latin American and Caribbean Catholics to celebrate and defend their diversity, saying Tuesday the face of the Catholic Church is indigenous, mestizo and black.
Francis celebrated a special Mass to celebrate the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the dark-skinned virgin who appeared to an Indian peasant in the 1500s and is particularly important to Latin American Catholics, the Argentine pope included.
In his homily, Francis said indigenous peoples, women, peasants, migrants and the unemployed often aren’t treated with the dignity they deserve. He urged the region’s faithful to not only cultivate their diverse cultures but “valiantly defend them” against homogenization.
4. Birth-control coverage fight faces key hearing in California.
By Sudhin Thanawala, Associated Press, December 12, 2017, 5:19 PM
The state of California and the Trump administration will square off Tuesdaybefore a U.S. judge who will decide whether to block new rules allowing more employers to opt out of birth control coverage for women.
U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam was not expected to issue an immediate ruling on the request by California, which says the rules could result in millions of women in the state losing no-cost contraception services.
President Barack Obama’s health care law required most companies to cover birth control at no additional cost, though it included exemptions for religious organizations. The new policy by President Donald Trump’s administration marked another step in rolling back Obamacare.
Attorneys for the Trump administration said the rules are about “protecting a narrow class of sincere religious and moral objectors from being forced to facilitate practices that conflict with their beliefs.”
“This case is about religious liberty and freedom of conscience,” they wrote in a court filing.
Washington state, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania also have sued the Trump administration over the rules. The California attorney general’s office says Gilliam, whom Obama nominated to the federal court in 2014, is the first judge to hold a hearing to determine whether to block the rules while the case moves through the courts.
