1.WRAL: NC Democrats seek to add abortion rights to state law

“Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the NC Values Coalition, a group that opposes abortion rights, called the bills ‘political theater,’ since no official decision in the Dobbs case has been issued yet.

‘It shows the hand of what Democrats will do if they stay in office," Fitzgerald said of the proposal. "We have 76 babies a day that lose their lives in North Carolina because of abortion. This issue is about saving the lives of unborn babies who are unique individuals and have human rights.’

Fitzgerald added: ‘We believe that life begins at conception, and we believe that viability is just an arbitrary cutoff date to make people feel better about abortion. They [unborn babies] are not part of their mother. They're separate from their mother even though they're being carried by her.’

She also pointed out that legislative leaders have said they don't intend to take up any abortion bills this session.”

To learn more, check out our press statement on House Bill 1119.

2. CAROLINA JOURNAL: N.C. Appeals Court judges weigh next steps for lawsuit challenging Opportunity Scholarships

“A procedural decision from the N.C. Court of Appeals could help decide the future of the state’s Opportunity Scholarship Program. The court’s decision could affect thousands of N.C. families who use scholarships to send their children to private schools.

An appellate panel heard oral arguments Wednesday about whether a lawsuit challenging the OSP should proceed before a single Wake County judge or a three-judge panel. The decision hinges on the type of constitutional challenge the suit represents. Do the plaintiffs challenge the law creating the OSP or the way that law has been implemented? In legal terms, it’s the difference between a ‘facial’ constitutional challenge or an ‘as-applied’ challenge.”

3. FOX NEWS: Supreme Court doesn't rule in case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, extending wait for blockbuster decision

“The Supreme Court Monday did not issue a ruling in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, prolonging for at least one more week the wait for its opinion which is expected to overturn the right to an abortion. Last month, Politico published a leaked draft opinion which indicated the Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established a federal right to an abortion. The justices released decisions in multiple cases Monday, but Dobbs was not among them. There's now approximately a month left in the court's current term. A ruling in Dobbs is expected to come by either late June or early July.“

The ramifications from the leak continue to make themselves felt across our country. Earlier this week, The Sun reported of a foiled plot of a man looking to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh over the leaked abortion draft. He was armed, equipped with kidnapping tools, and apprehended near Justice Kavanaugh’s home.

The leak has also been felt across our state. The Charlotte Observer reports of one example where pro-abortion activists vandalized a local pregnancy center, noting when the center’s director “got to the door of her clinic in Asheville, North Carolina, on the morning of June 7, she found threatening messages sprayed in red paint on three sides of the building and the sidewalk as well as broken windows and shattered glass. Painted on the property were the messages, 'If abortions aren’t safe, neither are you!' and 'No forced birth,' as well as an anarchist symbol, according to a news release from the Asheville Police Department."

 

4. POLITICO: The Doctor Prescribing Abortions from Overseas

“Within a few weeks, if Roe v. Wade is overturned as expected, a Dutch doctor named Rebecca Gomperts may quickly become the most controversial abortion provider in America — even though she isn’t in America. Gomperts and her organization, Aid Access, is already the only provider openly providing telehealth abortion in the 19 states that currently restrict access to such services; if you go the website of Plan C, a group providing information about abortion pills by mail, Aid Access is the sole provider listed for many of them.”

 

5. NC VALUES: 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Thank your NC Senator for passing Parents’ Bill of Rights.

Last week’s Friday Five included a broken link to the story below. We wanted to include it again with the corrected link incase you wanted the opportunity to thank your NC Senator for passing a Parents’ Bill of Rights:

A couple days after Senator Berger held a press event announcing their intent to pass the Parents' Bill of Rights (HB 775), the Senate did just that and passed it. Essentially, the bill protects a parent's right to direct the upbringing, education, and healthcare— mental and physical—of their own children. With the pandemic, parents had the opportunity to see what was actually being taught and have voiced their desire for continued access to classroom curriculum and materials. This bill strengthens the relationship between schools and parents so both can have improved communication, and can work together for the students’ best interest.

Just because a parent sends their child to public school doesn’t mean they lose their fundamental right to know and have a say in what their child is being taught. If you appreciate the stance taken by NC Senators who voted for the Parents’ Bill of Rights (HB 775), would you consider taking a minute to use this easy click-to-contact tool to tell them thank you?

LORD, we cry out to you as Father. You are a model of the love, mercy, and authority of the perfect parent. We thank you for modeling for us what every parent should strive for, and for creating this wonderful institution called family. 

LORD, we thank you for creating us with a basic nature designed to not be alone. You made us to desire the intimacy of relationships, and it is here where we experience joys indescribable: the joys of marriage, the joys of having children; the joys of seeing our children have children. What a blessing and mercy you gave us in the family! In it we find our first teachers, our first guardians, and our first authorities. 

LORD, we recognize how deeply you love your children, and how deeply it pains you when they go astray. Alongside our adoration and thanksgiving, we pray in confession—as individuals and as members of larger communities—over any sins we may have committed that undermine your beloved institution. Forgive us when we endanger your institution through selfishness and arrogance. Forgive our communities and nation for attempting to redefine some of the most basic and deepest parts of being human—being made male and female, having lifelong marriage vows and responsibilities, and having parental rights over educating one's children. 

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:12-17)