Trump’s announcement on abortion: Ramifications if he becomes president – news round-up

Anti-abortion advocates are reading between the lines What to know about Trump’s abortion announcement The easiest way for Trump to move the needle on abortion policy during a second term is through executive action — a topic he did not address Monday. Anti-abortion advocates told POLITICO they don’t view Trump’s declaration that abortion should be … Read more

The Alabama Embryo Opinion Is About More Than Christian Nationalism

These are not blue-blazer Southern Baptists. This is the demon-mapping, prophecy-believing, spiritual-warfare, end-times-army, take-the-U.S.-Capitol-for-the-heavenly-Kingdom crowd—a movement that has its own history, its own superstars, and an agenda that goes beyond saving souls, or drawing upon faith to influence policy, as Americans of many religions do. Read more at The Atlantic  

Trump’s pick for chair of the Republican Party opposes “the destruction of human embryos”

The position of the North Carolina GOP under Whatley on embryos mirrors a recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court. On February 16, Alabama’s highest court ruled that frozen embryos are “children” — entitled to the same legal protections as an infant or a third grader. This was based on a religious conviction of when … Read more

Alabama justice’s ties with far-right Christian movement raise concern

Tom Parker, a Republican who joined the court in 2005, wrote a concurring opinion that quoted at length from sources such as the Book of Genesis, the Ten Commandments and Christian thinkers of centuries ago, such as Thomas Aquinas. But comments he has made in other media have raised questions about his seeming espousal of … Read more

What Alabama’s IVF ruling reveals about the ascendant Christian nationalist movement

“He framed it entirely assuming that the state of Alabama is a theocracy, and that that is a legitimate way of evaluating laws and policies,” said Julie Ingersoll, a University of North Florida professor who studies religion and culture. “It looks like he decided to just dismiss the history of first amendment religious freedom jurisprudence … Read more

Republicans block bill that would protect IVF

‘A Quandary’: Republicans Hesitant To Back Federal Protections For IVF On the one hand, Republicans maintain that they support the continued use of IVF, calling it both pro-family and pro-life. But on the other hand, many in the GOP agree with the central premise of the ruling that found that frozen embryos are children with … Read more

Speaker Johnson Says He Supports IVF. His Past Might Imply Otherwise.

Johnson’s name appears smack-dab in the middle of a list of 125 House Republicans co-sponsoring the Life at Conception Act, which was introduced in January 2023 as an anti-abortion bill after failing to pass earlier sessions of Congress. The bill’s language does not include any exceptions for IVF. Read more at HuffPost  

The Right Is Cracking Down on Abortion and IVF. Is ‘Recreational Sex’ Next?

The plans are already beginning to take shape. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, Republicans have floated enforcing the Comstock Act, a zombie law from the 19th century, to criminalize the inter-state shipping of abortion medication. The outdated law also includes broad prohibitions on the mailing of materials considered “obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy, or … Read more

Doctors shocked and angry as Alabama ruling throws IVF care into turmoil

“We’re legislating malpractice – we’re saying, ‘You don’t use your normal medical principles, all the training you went through, all your experience’ – we’re just tossing it out to this arbitrary idea that doesn’t have a biological basis,” said Chen. Read more at The Guardian