In America's Heartland, Three Federal Appeals Courts to Rule Soon on Significant Abortion Cases

Josh M. Shepherd : Jan 30, 2015
Bound4Life.com

Clearly the issue of life is being openly deliberated in the public square.

Over the past seven weeks, three separate federal appeals courts have heard important cases related to abortion policy in America—all with far-reaching implications for pre-born lives. (Photo: Becket Fund for Religious Liberty)

Two of the cases have been hotly discussed in national media: the legal battle over Texas' pro-life law at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, and a challenge to Obamacare by Roman Catholic nuns at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Meanwhile, at the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, two other abortion-related cases—centered on two states' so-called Heartbeat Laws—have gone largely unreported.

The story of Catholic nuns forced to cover abortion-inducing forms of contraception is noted frequently to illustrate the Obama Administration's hostility to religious freedom.

Less often do commentators elaborate that the nuns' court case Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell is ongoing, the most recent hearing on December 8, 2014 at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

They are represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit, public-interest legal team with a strong record of winning religious liberty cases—including on behalf of Hobby Lobby Stores, in a similar challenge to the Obamacare abortion-drugs mandate.

While the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision in June 2014 applied to family-owned businesses, Little Sisters of the Poor are protesting the Obamacare mandate as a religious non-profit group. (Photo: Becket Fund for Religious Liberty)

Attorneys for Little Sisters of the Poor expect the case to be decided in their favor. Their case captured the nation's attention a year ago when, surprising many court observers, Justice Sonia Sotomayor (appointed to the court by President Obama) granted the nuns' emergency appeal to sidestep the Obamacare mandate until an appeals court ruled on the case.

A few weeks later and over 1,200 miles away in New Orleans, the latest challenge to Texas' pro-life law was heard at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals...

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