In today’s News:
Supreme Court again delays on abortion law
Pro-life advocates are hopeful the Supreme Court will review an abortion law in Mississippi, even though the court once again delayed its decision on whether to hear the case. Lynn Fitch, the state’s attorney general, has asked the court to review its law, which bans abortion after 15 weeks of gestation and has been challenged by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The state’s only abortion clinic offers abortions until the 16th week of a pregnancy. Mississippi’s previous governor, Phil Bryant, signed the ban into law in 2018, but it was subject to immediate legal appeal and blocked by a District Court. In 2019, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the law to be unconstitutional. Fifteen weeks is considered prior to fetal viability outside the womb. The Supreme Court had been expected to announce whether it would heat the case on Friday. The Court was due to conference regarding the law on Nov. 13, but instead announced on Monday that it had again delayed a decision. This is the fifth time since Sept. 22 that the conference has been rescheduled. No reason for the delay, or new date, was given.
Abortion security guard removed
According to pro-life organization Abortion on Trial, a security guard has been removed from his position at a New Mexico abortion facility owned by Franz Theard, an abortionist currently under investigation for abandoning a patient who suffered two concurrent botched abortions under his care. Bertram Wiles, employed by Securitas Security Services USA Inc. as a security guard, was placed at Hilltop Women’s Reproductive Clinic in New Mexico. In video which Wiles posted himself, which has since been removed, he was seen harassing pro-life women across from the abortion business. Though portions of the video used voiceovers, other portions showed him directly sexually harassing women. He is also accused of following one woman to her job and leaving his card on her car. Wiles has since scrubbed his social media accounts, which included multiple similar videos that included sexual remarks directed toward young women, racial slurs towards Latina women, and vulgar language directed at pro-lifers.
Forty percent of the world’s believers subject to persecution
Dictators are the worst persecutors of believers. This uncontroversial finding was verified for the first time in The Pew Research Center’s 11th Annual Study surveying restrictions on freedom of religion in 198 nations. He median level of government violations reached an all-time high in 2018, as 56 nations suffer “high” or “very high” levels of official restriction. The number of nations suffering “high” or “very high” levels of social hostilities toward religion dropped slightly to 53. However, the prior year the median level recorded an all-time high. Considered together, 40 percent of the world faces significant hindrance in worshiping God freely.