News Articles by Samantha Gobba/WORLD

ASHEVILLE, N.C.(BP) -- When Texas legislators considered a bill earlier this year requiring medical care for babies who survive an abortion, news outlets reported the state had received no reports of such cases happening. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, called a similar effort in his state "redundant" and "not a productive use of time." And a spokesman for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said a proposed bill to protect abortion survivors, which Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed, "would criminalize doctors for a practice that simply does not exist." But a network of abortion survivors begs to differ.

SALEM, Oregon (BP) -- Oregon rolled back one of the only safeguards in the state's assisted suicide law last week. The change does away with a 15-day waiting period if a physician predicts a patient has fewer than 15 days to live. "[Removing] the waiting period makes it even easier for a bad actor to coerce or force someone to end their own lives," Liberty Pike, communications director for Oregon Right to Life, said. "And the number of reasons that somebody might want to do that are various and sundry to be sure, whether it's financial motivation, or the caregiver is tired of being involved in the process, whatever it might be."

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) -- Euthanasia and assisted suicide numbers continued to rise last year in Belgium and in Oregon, according to official reports released last month. Belgium's euthanasia rate increased last year to 2,357 deaths, up from 2,309 in 2017. While that's a small increase from the previous year, it's more than double the country's 2010 euthanasia rate of 954.

TOPEKA, Kansas (BP) -- Pro-life Kansans received a blow last week when a judge ruled in favor of abortions by teleconference, something many reportedly thought was already prohibited in their state. Tele-abortions allow a woman to end her baby's life without visiting an abortion center. An abortionist can video conference with a pregnant woman from a remote location and immediately prescribe her abortion-inducing drugs. The arrangement leaves women vulnerable to medical complications without a provider close by to treat them. Shawnee County District Judge Franklin Theis ruled Dec. 31 that a 2018 law safeguarding unborn babies from tele-abortion was invalid and the practice had been legal in Kansas since 2011, when a court order in a different case blocked a similar law. But Kansas state legislators passed another law in 2015 prohibiting tele-abortions.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- The Ohio state Senate last week came one vote short of overriding a veto by Ohio Gov. John Kasich on a bill that would have protected babies from abortion after a detectable heartbeat. Kasich, a Republican, said he vetoed the bill for the second time in two years because it would saddle the state with a costly court battle and would ultimately be declared unconstitutional. On the same day Kasich vetoed the heartbeat bill he signed a measure making "dismemberment abortion" a fourth-degree felony for abortionists.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) -- Taxpayers have been funding government research using tissue from aborted babies for years, according to a new report, and pro-life groups are calling for the practice to halt. CNS News broke the story last week that the Food and Drug Administration signed a contract with Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) to provide "human fetal tissue" to make "chimeric animals that have a human immune system." FDA contracts with ABR date back to 2012. "It's horrifying news because we hope that our FDA and our federal government are going to be doing ethical research and not contributing to the trafficking of baby body parts and abortions," David Prentice, vice president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a pro-life research group, said. "There are actually ethical alternatives to make these humanized mice. You don't have to use aborted fetal tissue to do this anymore."

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BP) -- Researchers at the University of New Mexico will no longer procure, sell, or dissect aborted baby body parts, the university announced recently. The research program led for two decades by Robin Ohls, a pediatrics professor, was halted following an internal investigation. Both the New Mexico Alliance for Life and the U.S. House of Representatives' Select Panel on Infant Lives, organized to investigate allegations of fetal tissue trade exposed in a series of undercover videos, said evidence from their own investigations pointed to the university's violation of state and federal law.

QUEENS, N.Y. (BP) -- Pro-life sidewalk counselors may continue praying, preaching and handing out literature in front of a Queens, N.Y., abortion center, a federal judge ruled on July 20. The case began last June when former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed suit, charging the counselors with harassment, physical obstruction and threats of violence against women seeking abortions at Choices Medical Clinic and the volunteers escorting them to the door. Schneiderman's office carried on with the lawsuit after his resignation in May over sexual assault allegations.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.(BP) -- While members of Congress call for an investigation of Planned Parenthood for failing to report the suspected sexual abuse of minors, pro-life activists and two U.S. congressmen from Indiana are confronting matters in their own state. Indiana Right to Life announced the filing of 48 consumer complaints against nine Indiana abortionists who allegedly failed to follow state reporting laws regarding abortions they performed on girls under the age of 16 (and as young as 12). The law requires abortionists to report such abortions to the Indiana State Department of Health and the Department of Child Services within three days of the procedure. "The doctors' failures to indicate this step was taken demonstrate that they may have violated the law, possibly deliberately, and thereby possibly allowed for the continuation of abuse," wrote U.S. Reps. Jim Banks and Todd Rokita in a letter to Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill. The two congressmen urged Hill to investigate.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday (May 29) to hear a lawsuit over a 2015 Arkansas law that requires abortionists to contract with doctors at nearby hospitals who can help women if complications arise from the use of mifepristone and misoprostol, drugs that work together to end early pregnancies. Pro-life leaders cheered the move while Planned Parenthood took its next step in challenging the law. A hearing was set for Friday in Little Rock, Ark. Meanwhile, the abortion giant has canceled appointments at its facilities in Fayetteville and Little Rock.