Category: Procedures & Services

Historic abortion ban repeal one signature away from becoming law after it passes House

The NM Political Report

Susan Dunlap

The bill that would repeal a state statute that criminalizes abortion care in New Mexico is now headed to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk after the House of Representatives passed it on a 40 to 30 vote.

This is a priority bill for Lujan Grisham and she has indicated that she would sign it into law. 

The House of Representatives took up SB 10 instead of HB 7, which are mirror bills. SB 10 already passed the state Senate by a vote of 25 to 17 on February 12, and was amended to clarify the bill’s title. Each chamber must pass identical legislation before it can be sent to the governor.

Just as during the Senate floor debate, Republicans in the House attempted to amend the bill and argued for hours over keeping the section of the law that is considered by some healthcare workers as a refusal clause. But the New Mexico Medical Society and other physician groups support the law’s full repeal and the lead sponsor of the House bill, Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, a Democrat from Mesilla, argued that there are already provisions in place to protect healthcare workers who object to providing care. . . [Full text]

Portugal’s euthanasia law goes for constitutional review

AP News

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s president on Thursday asked the country’s Constitutional Court to evaluate a recent law passed by parliament that allows euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill and gravely injured people.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in a statement the legislation appears “excessively imprecise,” potentially creating a situation of “legal uncertainty.” . . . [Full Text]

Catholic Employers Have Opportunity for Protection From HHS Abortion and Transgender Mandates

The Catholic Benefits Association’s legal victories allow present and future nonprofit and for-profit members to provide employee benefits in line with their well-formed Catholic consciences.

National Catholic Register

Peter Jesserer Smith

Catholic employers that belong to the Catholic Benefits Association, from dioceses to nonprofit and for-profit small businesses, can secure employee benefits free from government mandates that violate their religious beliefs, thanks to a recent legal decision in federal court. 

“We have a very unique and comprehensive ruling,” Douglas Wilson, CEO of the Catholic Benefits Association, told the Register. “Anybody who becomes a member of CBA now will be protected,” he said.

The CBA case is part of a set of ongoing legal actions in North Dakota and Texas against the Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate, implemented in 2016 and revised in 2020, that required doctors to perform gender-transition surgeries or refer patients for them — despite objections they would have to the procedure — and would require insurance coverage for gender-transition surgeries. . . [Full text]

How Surrogacy Arrangements Fail Children

Public Discourse

Seow Hon Tan

Surrogacy ad
Ad for surrogate mothers, Burbank, California, USA. Cory Doctorow, Flickr

Surrogacy arrangements are in the spotlight again. Recently, Chinese actress Zheng Shuang was accused by her former partner of abandoning two babies conceived through surrogacy in the United States. Apparently, she wanted the surrogates to undergo abortion when she broke up with him. But abortion was not feasible, as the surrogates were in the third trimester of pregnancy.

Surrogacy supporters tend to emphasize how much children are desired and valued by commissioning parents. . .

It is surprising that the best interests of the child have been so neglected in debates over the ethics of surrogacy. After all, adoption and custody decisions focus on the best interests of the child. The truth is, surrogacy undermines the human flourishing of surrogates and children. In this essay, I will lay out a few reasons why such separation is not in the best interests of the child, focusing particularly on what we can learn from relevant scientific data. These reasons suggest that lawmakers should not legalize surrogacy. . . [Full text]

MAID for mental illness opens dangerous doors

Hamilton Spectator

K. Sonu Gaind, Sephora Tang

Last week the Canadian Senate voted to recommend a “sunset clause” on the exclusion of mental illness as a sole eligibility criterion for medical assistance in dying (MAID).

If ratified by the House of Commons, within 18 months people suffering solely from a mental illness will be able to request MAID. Some argue that prohibiting access to MAID for mental illness is unconstitutional and discriminatory. Unfortunately that claim is based on a superficial notion that anything being treated differently reflects undue discrimination. In reality, significant differences exist between illnesses that are mental in nature and those that are physical, such that removal of this prohibition would be more than merely discriminatory, it will be fatal for those who most need protection and care within a protective legal framework. . . [Full text]