Sometimes we Okies look upon our neighbors to the south with a resentful eye. For pro-life Oklahomans, though, our eyes in the weeks ahead ought to be on Texas, but with all prayer, hope and friendship.
You see, two major battlefronts in the fight for life come down to what is happening in Texas.
// Key Supreme Court case
According to Americans United for Life President, Charmaine Yoest, the Supreme Court’s consideration of Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, which stems from a law regulating abortion clinics in Texas, could affect all states who have passed laws regulating abortion.
Yoest said, “The Texas case Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole presents a unique and much-needed opportunity to further educate the Court and the American public about the reality of (so-called) ‘back-alley’ abortions in America and to expose the abortion industry’s widespread and callous disregard for women’s health and safety.”
The law in question simply requires abortion clinics have the same standards as normal medical clinics and that doctors have hospital admitting privileges no more than 30 miles away.
Oklahoma has passed various common-sense laws regulating abortion like this, 16 laws in fact since 1998 alone. The fate of some of these laws, as well as Texas and other states, could rest in the decision of the nine Supreme Court justices.
The highest Court in the land has been unreliable at its best moments and downright disastrous at its worst, when it comes to the lives of the unborn. Let’s pray the hearings in March and ruling this summer go to protect life and women’s health.
// CMP on trial
Not far from the city related to the Supreme Court case, a Grand Jury investigation is taking place that could determine the future of those who exposed Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Joe Carter of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission writes, “A grand jury in Harris County, Texas (the county where Houston is located) has indicted two of the undercover videographers associated with the Center for Medical Progress, the group of citizen journalists who filmed undercover meetings with Planned Parenthood (PP) discussing the sale of fetal body parts. The grand jury had also been asked to consider charges against the local PP franchise, but did not issue an indictment.”
To be specific, “David Daleiden, the director of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), has been indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. Another CMP employee, Sandra Merritt, was indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.” We now know that the CMP are being accused of using fake driver’s licenses to do their undercover work.
We must let the legal system do its work in this case and let details emerge, but we must note the irony that PP is off the hook, even though there is evidence they are harvesting and trafficking tissue and organs from aborted babies, while the people trying to expose this heinous, grizzly practice are on trial.
Some people praise David Daleiden for taking on the abortion Goliath, Planned Parenthood. Others in the pro-choice movement want to see him arrested or at least silenced.
What we ought to do is pray that hearts would be changed, and this nation would no longer tolerate—let alone fund through tax dollars—the immoral practices of Planned Parenthood.
The weeks and months ahead will be very telling in the epic struggle for life in America, and the fate of millions of unborn children may rest in the Lone Star State. And so we pray and say, God bless Texas.
