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Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 / 04:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In striking down Texas’ regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed “right to abortion” over states’ interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday.

“The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,” said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics – abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers.

The court ruled that the law put an “undue burden” on a women’s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a “substantial obstacle” to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women’s health.

Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a “working arrangement” in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing “sufficient evidence” from “the record.”

The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, “provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an ‘undue burden’ on their constitutional right to do so.”

Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional “undue burden” on a woman’s “right to abortion,” the court said.

The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn’t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued.

“The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,” he stated.

Justice Clarence Thomas added that the “decision perpetuates the Court’s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights - especially the putative right to abortion.”

After the Court’s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it “was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.”

Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion.

“The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,” the Texas Catholic bishops stated.

“Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,” they said. “The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.”
 
The Court’s opinion in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned.

First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court’s “tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.”

There was “no language” about “the government’s interest in ‘preserving and promoting fetal life’” in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – but the Court didn’t invoke it in Monday’s ruling, she said.

“To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,” she told CNA.

That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women’s rights, Silecchia added.

“Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women’s health but their own profit,” Silecchia said of “the abortion industry and abortionists” who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but “it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.”

Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that “ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.”

“But,” he continued, “the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.”

Also, “the majority disregarded entirely the state's interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature's judgments about health and safety,” Garnett said.

That deference to the states shouldn’t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified.

The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics “should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,” Silecchia said.

The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell’s behavior at “terribly wrong,” but added that “(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.”

This court opinion “will make it harder” for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. “After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn’t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. “Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,” she said.

However, Silecchia insisted, “women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.” And yet the ruling will “make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.”

As to the Court’s claim that the previous “working arrangement” between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for “admitting privileges” for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court’s term “is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.”

“Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician's medical competence,” she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be “more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital” in case of a medical emergency.”

 

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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jun 27, 2016 / 05:03 pm (CNA).- Pictures of a young Argentinian nun – smiling and serene though dying from a devastating battle with cancer – have erupted on social media, with thousands sharing the images and heartfelt prayers.

Sister Cecilia Maria lived in Saints Teresa and Joseph Monastery in Santa Fe, Argentina, dedicated to prayer and the contemplative life.

She passed away early on June 22 at age 43.

After graduating as a nurse at 26 years of age, Sister Cecilia Maria made her first vows as a discalced Carmelite. In 2003, she made her final profession. Six months ago, she was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and the disease metastasized into her lungs.

In her time living at the monastery, she played the violin and was known for her sweetness and constant smile. In the final weeks of her illness, her condition worsened and she had to be hospitalized. From her bed she never stopped praying and offering up her sufferings with the certainty that her encounter with God was near.

She wrote her last wish on a piece of paper: “I was thinking about how I would like my funeral to be. First, some intense prayer and then a great celebration for everyone. Don't forget to pray but don't forget to celebrate either!”

The discalced Carmelites announced her death as follows: “Jesus! Just two lines to let you know that our dearly beloved sister gently fell asleep in the Lord, after such a painful illness, always borne with joy and her surrender to her Divine Spouse. We send you all our love, grateful for your support and prayer during this entire time, so painful yet so wonderful at the same time. We believe she flew directly to heaven, but we also ask you to not cease commending her to your prayers, so from heaven she may repay you. A big hug from her Sisters in Santa Fe.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Toby Melville, Reuters

By Jonathan Luxmoore

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- European Catholic leaders expressed concern that the decision by United Kingdom voters to leave the European Union threatened unity across the continent, but they also cautioned the EU bloc to rethink its values and priorities.

The concerns arose after voters decided June 23 to exit the EU by 52 percent to 48 percent. The decision led Prime Minister David Cameron to announce his resignation and sent shock waves through world financial markets.

In London, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said the vote must be respected and that the United Kingdom is setting out on a "new course that will be demanding on all."

"Our prayer is that all will work in this task with respect and civility, despite deep differences of opinion," he said in a statement the morning after the vote. "We pray that in this process, the most vulnerable will be supported and protected, especially those who are easy targets for unscrupulous employees and human traffickers. We pray that our nations will build on our finest traditions of generosity, of welcome for the stranger and shelter for the needy.

"We now must work hard to show ourselves to be good neighbors and resolute contributors in joint international efforts to tackle the critical problems our world today," he added.

Anglican Archbishops Justin Welby of Canterbury and John Sentamu of York said in a joint statement that citizens must "re-imagine both what it means to be the United Kingdom in an interdependent world and what values and virtues should shape and guide our relationships with others."

They called for society to remain "hospitable and compassionate, builders of bridges and not barriers" while expressing concern that some immigrants and residents on non-British ethnicity "will feel a deep sense of insecurity."

The leaders called for citizens to embrace diversity across the U.K. and affirm "the unique contribution of each and every one."

The president of the Polish bishops' conference was similarly diplomatic. Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan told the country's Catholic information agency, KAI, that while the conference respects the voters' decision, "we can't forget unity is better than division, and that European solidarity is an achievement of many generations."

"For Christians, the building of unity between peoples, societies and nations is a key summons, ordained by Christ himself," he said. "We're convinced this Christ-like unity is the true source of hope for Europe and the world."

Cautioning that the EU's "methods of functioning" included "many worrying features," the archbishop said he remained hopeful "the union of European nations, built on Christ" would still prevail in a "civilization of love."

However, retired Archbishop Henryk Muszynski of Gniezno, the former primate of Poland, criticized the outcome, warning that the EU's "purely declaratory notion of solidarity" would have to be "rethought from the beginning."

"Brexit is the outcome of separatist, populist and egotistic tendencies, shown at both personal and social level, which have been discernible for a long time in Europe. I fear this decision won't serve Great Britain, Europe or the world," the prelate told KAI.

During his flight June 24 at the start of a three-day visit to Armenia, Pope Francis told journalists the referendum "expressed the will of the people," and said it imposed a "great responsibility" on everyone to "ensure the well-being and coexistence of the whole European continent."

The Brussels-based Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community marked the outcome by displaying a "Prayer for Europe" on its website, which invoked God's help "in committing ourselves to a Europe of the Spirit, founded not just on economic treaties but also on values which are human and eternal."

On June 27, the commission posted a statement from the commission's president, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who said it would organize an October 2017 congress on the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome "to provide religious impulses for the debate on the future of the European Union."

"The increasing nationalism in some countries must not become again the trigger of ideological delimitation, hostility and discord," he said. "As church, we will commit ourselves to this with full force."

In Germany, the Catholic Church's youngest ordinary, Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg, told KNA Catholic news agency the vote was a "step backwards for a united Europe," while in neighboring Austria Bishop Agidius Zsifkovics of Eisenstadt described it as "a wake-up call for a new European humanism." He said he hoped the dream of European unity would not be "buried by self-serving gravediggers."

"We must warn against the rise of provincial mentalities and group egoisms. Transnational problems and challenges cannot be solved nationally," Bishop Zsifkovics told the Kathpress news agency.

"We'll be exposed to numerous dangers if we don't work together for a Europe which cares about its children, stands fraternally by its elderly, protects those seeing its help and promotes and respects the rights of individuals."

France's Catholic La Croix daily said the four-month campaign around the referendum had unleashed "often alarming passions." The newspaper added that the vote would oblige Europeans "to revise their cliches" and force EU leaders to contain the possible "contagion" of parallel referendum demands in other member-states.

The Belgian church's Cathobel news agency suggested in an online commentary the vote had "damaged the dream of Europe" enunciated by the EU's post-World War II Catholic statesmen -- Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Paul-Henri Spaak and Alcide de Gasperi -- and would fuel "the rise of extremist party populism" visible during the refugee crisis.

"The end of an adventure also marks the beginning of a new one -- if a dream is damaged, we must give birth to a new dream," Cathobel said.

In France, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Grallet of Strasbourg said he was left with "feelings of sadness" that "what we have long fought for has been contradicted." He said he hoped the vote would "create a clarification" rather than just "destabilizing the European project."

"I've repeatedly said we should work for a future which is more European than national, but on condition this Europe is an entity we can identify with," Archbishop Grallet said in a June 24 interview on the French bishops' conference website.

"I don't know what the English will say now, how they will propose to exit and what their first moves will be," he said. "But we must be realists: we will not build Europe against its peoples, without gaining popular support and a responding properly to their anxieties. Europe may look like a beautiful project; but we should remember it's still highly fragile."

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