First Things RSS Feed - Michael J. New

Staying the Course

Mon, 27 May 2019 06:00:00 -0400

On May 15, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed legislation that protects nearly all unborn children in the state.

Reversing Roe v. Wade

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 06:00:00 -0400

Reversing Roe , the recent Netflix documentary directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, is billed as a film that “lifts the lid on a decades-long political attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade .” But while the film purportedly gives a thorough overview of abortion politics since the 1960s, it leaves out several major events essential to any history of the political attempt to overturn Roe.

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The Abortion–Breast Cancer Link

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 06:00:00 -0400

Donald Trump’s recent appointment of Charmaine Yoest to a position within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) received considerable media coverage. Yoest, who once served as President of Americans United for Life (AUL), a prominent beltway pro-life group, has stated on previous occasions that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer. This position was prominently mentioned and criticized in articles run by a number of media outlets, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cosmopolitan, the Washington Post, and the New York Times .

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Optimism at CPAC’s Pro-Life Panel

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 13:55:00 -0500

This past Friday, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) hosted a panel on sanctity of life issues. Panelists included journalists Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, who have co-authored a book and produced a movie about the notorious late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, and Marcie Little of the pro-life group Save the Storks. The panel was moderated by Sean Fieler of the American Principles Project.

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Pew Poll: Most Churches Avoid Polarizing Social Issues

Thu, 11 Aug 2016 08:55:00 -0400

This week, Pew Research Center released a poll of over 4,000 individuals who had attended a religious service within the past few months. It asked respondents how often clergy had spoken out about various social and political issues. An impressive 64 percent of respondents reported that they had heard clergy speak about at least one of the six issues included in the survey. However, the survey indicates that when it comes to polarizing morality policy issues, majorities of churchgoers hear nothing. Only 40 percent of respondents stated that clergy had spoken about religious liberty. Similarly, 39 percent stated that clergy had spoken about homosexuality. Finally, only 29 percent of respondents recalled hearing about abortion.

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Trump Needs To Reach Out to Pro-Lifers

Thu, 14 Jul 2016 00:00:00 -0400

This past weekend, the National Right to Life Committee (N.R.L.C.) held its annual convention in Herndon, Virgina. During election years, the N.R.L.C. Convention is held near Washington, D.C. and typically places great emphasis on the presidential race. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee usually sends in a video greeting, which is played during one of the general sessions. Surrogates for the nominee often address the convention in person and take questions from attendees. Convention attendees are strongly encouraged to support the nominee.

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American Civil Liberties Union Seeks Texas Abortion Data

Tue, 21 Jun 2016 17:35:00 -0400

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused the Department of State Health Services in Texas of purposely withholding state abortion statistics for 2014. The Department of State Health Services has indicated that the number of abortions performed in Texas declined in 2014, but has not yet made their full report public. The ACLU is insisting that the state release the 2014 report and suggested they are willing to pursue legal action. This story has been reported by a number of news outlets including The Texas Tribune and Politico.

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The Surprising Stability of Americans’ Moral Attitudes

Fri, 10 Jun 2016 14:30:00 -0400

Social conservatives had a tough year in 2015. In June, the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges effectively legalized same-sex marriage in all fifty states. Political efforts to legalize assisted suicide also gained momentum, due in part to sympathetic press coverage of Brittany Maynard’s death the previous year. In October 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation that legalized assisted suicide in California, and similar legislation was considered in other states.

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CPAC’s Pro-Life Panel

Tue, 08 Mar 2016 16:15:00 -0500

On Friday afternoon, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) hosted a panel on pro-life issues. It was moderated by Julie Hocker of the American Conservative Union Foundation. Panelists included Congressional candidate Lenny McAllister, abortion survivor and pro-life activist Gianna Jessen, and Father Ben Johnson the U.S. Bureau Chief of LifeSiteNews. This panel discussed abortion, but also considered a wide range of sanctity of life issues including euthanasia, eugenics, and cloning. When Hocker introduced the panel, she stated that “on matters of life and death, we cannot be wrong.”

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More Words of Encouragement for Social Conservatives

Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:14:00 -0400

During the past few days a number of commentators have discussed the numerous parallels between the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Obergefell v. Hodges and the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. In neither case was the majority opinion grounded in the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, social conservatives are likely feeling a similar sense of disenfranchisement and betrayal. Social conservatives should, however, take heart. We are now in a much better situation today than we were in 1973. This is for three reasons:

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