TRUMPET NOTES: December 15, 2021

Supreme Court Lets Texas Heartbeat Law Stand

On Dec. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to strike down a 2021 Texas law that generally prohibits abortion after an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detected. The law has effectively prevented abortion in Texas since September. Multiple pro-life organizations and leaders praised the court’s decision to let the Texas law stand.

By dismissing the Biden-Harris administration’s attack on preborn children — and the attacks of many others — the Court has sent a clear signal that life is winning. But this is only the beginning. In 2022, the Court is expected to rule on a case that has the potential to unravel the dark reign of Roe v. Wade. Even as we await that decision, and as other challenges to the Texas law work through the legal system, we are already working for a nation after Roe.

Last week legislators in Arkansas filed multiple pieces of pro-life legislation similar to Texas’ heartbeat law. However, after approving tax cuts, the General Assembly voted on Dec. 9 to end the special legislative session. Arkansas lawmakers adjourned the day before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision — without taking up a Texas-type abortion law. (familycouncil.org)

PP Security Guard Assaults Pro-Life Advocates

A Planned Parenthood (PP) security guard is accused of assaulting an elderly pro-life advocate and falsely imprisoning another Nov. 26 outside one of its New Mexico abortion facilities. Last week, attorneys with Abortion on Trial filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dora Montoya, a pro-life sidewalk counselor, alleging battery and false imprisonment by the security guard, identified in the lawsuit as Ricky James Vigil.

On Nov. 26, Montoya was praying on the public sidewalk outside the PP in Albuquerque when a pro-abortion protester approached her and began yelling, according to the legal complaint shared with LifeNews. According to the police report, Montoya said she put her hands out at one point to show the abortion activist, Sarah, that she was holding a rosary and praying. Sarah told police that Montoya touched her; but, according to police, “Sarah did not believe Dora was trying to harm her.” Montoya said she never touched Sarah, and other witnesses at the scene confirmed this to Abortion on Trial (AOT).

However, Vigil told police that he saw Montoya assault Sarah and decided to intervene. According to the lawsuit, Vigil left the PP property and moved onto the public sidewalk to handcuff and detain Montoya.

AOT also posted a video of the Nov. 26 incident on its Facebook page, showing Montoya being handcuffed and the 85-year-old man falling to the ground as the security guard pushes her into the PP parking lot. In the video, the security guard also can be heard cursing at the elderly man. Montoya’s lawyers said Vigil illegally detained her for about an hour until police and her attorneys arrived.

The pro-life legal group said Montoya and the other pro-lifers at the scene were peaceful, and they did their best to de-escalate the situation. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains also is named in the lawsuit. AOT attorneys said the abortion chain is responsible for its employees’ actions on the job. (lifenews.com)

House Passes Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act on Dec. 8. The ban blocks imports from the Xianjiang province of China where more than 12 million Uyghur are being held. The people, who are primarily Muslim, are being forced into slaved labor and to undergo population control efforts. Factories in the province create components for U.S. companies such as Apple and Nike.

Earlier in the week, the Biden Administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing because of the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights atrocities against the Uyghur. Britain and Australia announced Dec. 8 that they would join the diplomatic boycott.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R/Fla.) sponsored the act in the Senate, where it passed in July. He reacted to the House, calling for the Biden Administration to take further measures. (baptistpress.com)

China Pays American Social Media Influencers to Hype Olympics

China’s government is paying social media influencers in the U.S. to promote the Beijing Olympics and distract from diplomatic boycotts over its human rights violations, according to disclosures filed with the Department of Justice.

The Chinese consulate is paying Vippi, a New Jersey based public relations firm, $300,000 to have influencers on Instagram, TikTok and Twitch promote the Beijing Olympics, according to the disclosures. The influencers will also be required to promote U.S.-China cooperation on issues including energy and climate change.

Vippi will be required to pay eight social media users of various “tiers” of popularity to create 24 posts. Under the agreement, 70% of paid content from influencers should focus on the Beijing Olympics as well as its history and culture. Another 20% of content should focus on China-U.S. cooperation, and 10% should consist of sharing media directly from the Chinese Consulate, according to the disclosures.

State-controlled Chinese media, including China Daily and Xinhua already spends millions of dollars attempting to influence American audiences, according to the Washington Free Beacon, which initially reported on the incident.

In addition to the suspected Uyghur genocide, China received international backlash for the brief disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai, who had accused a Chinese Communist Party official of sexual assault. While her location has since been confirmed, experts said her safety is impossible to confirm. (lifenews.com)

California Gov. Wants New Law Banning Guns

Emboldened after surviving his recall election, California Governor Gavin Newsom is trying to one up Texas by making an anti-gun law that is modeled after their SB8 anti-abortion law. He wants to allow private citizens in California to sue anyone selling or manufacturing “assault weapons.”

On CNN Newsroom with Fredericka Whitfield, the host brought on California Democrat congresswoman Jackie Speier to praise the governor and bash the Supreme Court’s decision in the SB8 case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson. Her Democrat guest bashed the Supreme Court for taking away the “personal private” right to take another human being’s life in abortion. (lifenews.com)

Members of Congress Demand Google Stop Censoring

Increasingly alarmed by online censorship, Republicans in U.S. Congress delivered a letter in-person Tuesday to the CEO of Google, demanding that his company stop censoring ads for the life-saving abortion pill reversal procedure.

The Daily Signal website reports the lawmakers’ letter criticizes the internet giant for its continued and “unjust” censorship of ads by the pro-life organization Live Action.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, of Montana, delivered the letter, signed by 23 Republican lawmakers, Dec. 7 to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, according to the report. This is the second time lawmakers urged the company to stop censoring pro-life voices since Google first banned the ads in September.

Censorship by Google means a near blackout of that information online. Google, which owns YouTube and other companies, is one of the most powerful entities in the world, and political leaders in the United States and Europe have been investigating whether Google is a monopoly that is violating anti-trust laws.

In October, Google officials justified their censorship of Live Action by citing the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a pro-abortion group that tries to discredit the abortion pill reversal procedure.

Responding Dec. 7, the Republican lawmakers asked Google if it consulted with pro-abortion groups or gave any consideration to scientists and doctors who disagree with ACOG about the abortion pill reversal procedure before banning the ads. Studies and medical experts confirm the abortion pill reversal protocol is safe and effective. It works very similarly to a hormonal treatment that has been used for years to help prevent miscarriages, and it is credited with saving more than 2,500 babies’ lives.

The censorship is happening at a critical time when abortion activists are pushing to expand abortion pills. Earlier this year, the Biden administration began allowing abortion groups to sell abortion drugs through the mail without ever seeing the woman in person. Drug-induced abortions have been increasing over the past decade, and pro-life advocates fear the numbers will grow even more as a result of the Biden administration’s actions. It is one of the reasons why pro-life advocates are working hard to inform mothers about the abortion pill reversal treatment, which can reverse the effects of the life-ending drug and save their baby’s life.

Meanwhile, Google is still allowing abortion businesses to advertise, including next-day abortions and abortions by mail, Rose said. The abortion pill has killed at least 24 women and 3.7 million unborn babies in the U.S. alone.

Anyone who has taken the first abortion pill and wishes to stop the abortion is urged to immediately visit www.abortionpillreversal.com or call the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline at (877) 558-0333. (lifenews.com)

Male Swimmer Breaks Women’s Records

To hear the National Collegiate Athletic Association tell the story, an average swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania became a nationally ranked superstar overnight. Check the receipts, and we learn Will Thomas only started breaking records and winning meets by comically huge margins when he began going by “Lia” Thomas this past year.

Similar incidents are increasingly happening in various sports at all levels, but swimming offers an especially clear picture of what it means when we allow men to compete against women. Success in swimming is heavily dependent on physiology. The length of the body, the body’s center of gravity and even the placement of a person’s belly button can mean the difference between an average swimmer and a major competitor. A man can identify however he wants, and can even take dangerous hormone supplements, but his belly button isn’t going anywhere.

This sort of let’s-all-pretend-we-don’t-know-what’s-happening groupthink isn’t good for college sports or for women’s rights. It’s not good for Lia Thomas, his teammates or his competitors. No matter how fast he swims, no man really breaks a women’s record. (familycouncil.org)