1. Iowa’s New Six-Week Abortion Ban Challenged, By Laura Kusisto and Shannon Najmabadi, The Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2023, Pg. A3
Abortion providers filed a challenge to a newly passed Iowa bill that would ban the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy, setting up a new legal battle just weeks after the state’s highest court stalemated over a similar law.
The providers’ lawsuit filed Wednesday said the new bill, passed in a special session a day earlier, is virtually identical to a 2018 state law that had been permanently blocked by a lower court, a decision that the Iowa Supreme Court in June allowed to remain in place after the justices deadlocked on whether to revive that law.
The justices said, however, they could reconsider the issue if the legislature enacted a new law in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision a year ago eliminating a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/iowa-lawmakers-pass-six-week-abortion-ban-14a937df
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2. The Pentagon’s Abortion War With Tommy Tuberville, The Republican Senator should lift his hold on promotions, but this fight over social policy erodes support for the military, By The Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2023, 6:22 PM, Editorial
The Senate held a hearing for America’s next top military officer on Tuesday, but from the headlines you’d think the biggest threat to U.S. security is a former Auburn football coach. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s Pentagon blockade is a kamikaze run, but the Defense Department is the aggressor on both the law and politics of abortion.
Sen. Tuberville has been holding up hundreds of military promotions for months over a Pentagon policy to offer leave and expenses for service members who travel to another state for an abortion. Utterly predictable is that Democrats would exploit the Senator’s blockade to paint Republicans as obstructionists who are compromising military readiness. The military hasn’t ceased to function, though the effects ripple as officers wait to relocate families or start a new post.
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The Defense Department reinvented its travel policy to cover abortion after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. It’s “a blatant attempt to circumvent numerous federal statutes that distance the military from abortion-related decisions,” as a March letter from Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee put it.
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Still, Sen. Tuberville should be looking for an exit from his box canyon. He can put his objections on the record with an amendment to the defense policy bill.
But the Defense Department deliberately waded into a live political fight and is mortgaging the public’s trust to make a statement on social policy. The Pentagon can’t then plead innocence when Americans conclude that the U.S. military has been co-opted for partisan purposes.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tommy-tuberville-pentagon-defense-department-abortion-travel-policy-cbaeff45
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3. Fight Over Abortion, Transgender Treatments Heats Up Ahead of Defense Spending Vote, The National Defense Authorization Act sets the military budget each year., By Peter Pinedo, National Catholic Register, July 12, 2023
With the annual military budget package soon to hit the House and Senate floors, the fight over military spending on abortion and transgender treatments is heating up in Congress.
The bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is a “must-pass” spending bill that sets the military budget each year.
This year, lawmakers have filed more than 1,500 amendments to the NDAA, according to the House Committee on Rules website.
One amendment filed by Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas would force the military to end its program of offering paid leave to service members and reimbursing them to obtain abortions.
Another amendment filed by Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., would prohibit the military from furnishing sex-reassignment surgeries and gender-hormone treatments for transgender individuals.
Since both House and Senate Armed Services committees passed their versions of the more than $800 billion NDAA, amendments will soon be debated on the House and Senate floors.
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https://www.ncregister.com/cna/fight-over-abortion-transgender-treatments-heats-up-ahead-of-defense-spending-vote
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4. Catholic Church is most credible institution in Nicaragua, CID Gallup poll finds, By Walter Sanchez Silva, Catholic News Agency, July 12, 2023, 4:15 PM
A new survey commissioned by the Nicaraguan media outlet Confidencial and conducted by market researcher CID Gallup of Costa Rica revealed that the Catholic Church is the most credible institution in Nicaragua despite the harsh persecution to which it has been subjected for some years by the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.
The survey indicated that 48% consider the Catholic Church to be the most credible institution, while the Ortega presidency has only 26% credibility.
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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254778/catholic-church-is-most-credible-institution-in-nicaragua-cid-gallup-poll-finds
__________________________________________________________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. |
