WASHINGTON (CNS) — The surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant is hardly affecting plans for local marches, rallies, Masses and prayer events to mark the 49th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion.

Across the country, events are planned over the next several weeks to advocate for the protection of the unborn in addition to the 49th March for Life planned for Washington Jan. 21.

Beyond public rallies and marches, bishops nationwide are planning to celebrate Masses in their dioceses in the days near the Jan. 22 anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

In the first of several local marches, Chicago Cardinal Blase J.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Several Catholic hospitals, a Catholic university and Mercy sisters who run health clinics filed a challenge to a federal mandate for performing gender transition procedures with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Dec. 15.

The groups are continuing a fight they had previously won when two lower federal courts struck down what has been described as the Affordable Care Act’s “transgender mandate,” saying it was a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The Biden administration has appealed both decisions at the 8th Circuit.

Becket, a Washington-based nonprofit religious liberty law firm that is representing some of the Catholic groups, described this case on its website as challenging a policy that threatens Catholic doctors, hospital and clinics “with multimillion-dollar penalties for sex discrimination unless they perform controversial gender-transition procedures.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The 49th annual national March for Life — with a rally on the National Mall and march to the Supreme Court Jan. 21 — will go on as scheduled this year amid a surge in the omicron variant in the nation’s capital.

Outdoor events are not affected by the District of Columbia’s vaccine mandate for indoor gatherings, but participants should expect to wear face masks. Indoor events associated with the annual march will have to comply with city COVID-19 restrictions.

The national Pro-Life Summit, sponsored by Students for Life, is also scheduled to take place Jan. 22 at Washington’s Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Archbishop William Lori, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, prayed the Supreme Court would ‘protect millions of unborn children and their mothers from this painful, life-destroying act.’

During discussion at the Supreme Court on December 1 regarding the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, considered two of the Court’s liberal justices, espoused inaccurate information about preborn children.

Justice Sotomayor compared the modern scientific understanding of when preborn babies feel pain to “fringe” science.

Sotomayor asked Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart to clarify why he believed that “advancements in medicine” make the overturning of Roe vs. Wade not only reasonable but imperative. Stewart answered, “I think it is an advancement in knowledge and concern about such things as fetal pain, what we know the child is doing and looks like and is fully human very early.”

At least five of the U.S. Supreme Court’s nine justices appear to be inclined to strike down the framework for legal abortion that was established by the court’s ‘Roe v. Wade’ decision in 1973.

The Dobbs late abortion case heard by the Supreme Court this week is the most consequential case for the pro-life movement in two generations. In this case involving Mississippi’s law to limit abortions after 15 weeks, the Court agreed to consider whether any pre-viability limits on abortion are constitutional – a question with implications for millions of lives, born and unborn, and for American democracy.

The post The Supreme Court’s Latest Case Is The Most Consequential One For The Pro-Life Movement In Generations appeared first on Susan B. Anthony List.

In the wake of the Supreme Court arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is invoking her position as a mother of five children and a “practicing Catholic” to back up her pro-abortion stance, while making the argument that if Roe v Wade is overturned, the Supreme Court will lose its “legitimacy.”

On December 1, Pelosi put out a statement affirming her pro-abortion stance:

The constitutional right to an abortion has been repeatedly affirmed, and any failure to fully strike down the Mississippi ban would seriously erode the legitimacy of the Court, as the Court itself warned in its ruling in Casey, and question its commitment to the rule of law itself.

Vaillancourt Murphy said it was “concerning” to see the Biden administration push to execute Tsarnaev, especially considering that President Joe Biden is the “first-ever president to openly oppose the death penalty” while actively serving as president.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — A U.S. court of appeals temporarily stayed the recent injunction on the Texas abortion law while it reviews the state’s request to reinstate the ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The ruling was issued the evening of Oct. 8 in one-page order by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This newest order was issued just two days after a U.S. District Court judge had temporarily blocked Texas from enforcing the abortion law.

The appeals court accepted the request of Texas state officials to temporarily set aside the ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman.

On Wednesday evening, nearly 24 hours after the Texas Heartbeat Act (SB 8) went into effect in Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a surprising 5-4 decision rejecting all emergency requests to block it.

According to a tweet from SCOTUSblog, the five Justices voting to allow the law to stand were Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan were joined by Chief Justice John Roberts in dissent.

Justice Sotomayor’s dissent in the application for injunctive relief, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, joined by Justices Kagan and Breyer, notes, “Today, the Court belatedly explains that it declined to grant relief because of procedural complexities of the State’s own invention.”