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| ILLINOIS & ABORTIONThe Illinois House passed a sweeping abortion bill more expansive than even New York’s recent abortion law. The so-called Reproductive Health Act would repeal the state’s partial-birth abortion law and forces insurance providers to cover abortion services. The bill is expected to pass the State Senate and has the support of Gov. J. B. Pritzker. READ |
| SUPREME COURT RULES ON ABORTION The Supreme Court reinstated an Indiana law requiring fetal remains to be buried or cremated. But the Supreme Court also declined to reinstate another Indiana law which banned abortions based on race, sex, or disability. READ |
| QUOTE FROM JUSTICE THOMAS Justice Clarence Thomas said that Planned Parenthood was using abortion to achieve eugenic goals. “Enshrining a constitutional right to an abortion based solely on the race, sex, or disability of an unborn child, as Planned Parenthood advocates, would constitutionalize the views of the 20th-century eugenics movement… Given the potential for abortion to become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the Court will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana’s,” wrote Justice Thomas. READ |
| SUPREME COURT VACANCY Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked at a speech in Paducah, KY, if the Republican-led Senate would fill a Supreme Court vacancy if it occurred in 2020. “Oh, we’d fill it,” McConnell said to laughter from the audience. Democrats said this contradicts his views in 2016, but Republicans defended McConnell’s statement. READ |
| MISSOURI TO BE ABORTION-FREE? The last abortion clinic in Missouri might shut down this week. CBS is reporting that Missouri’s health department is “refusing to renew” the clinic’s annual license to perform abortions. Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit in federal court to restore the license. READ |
| NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL The French Senate voted to ensure that the Notre Dame Cathedral be restored to how it was before the fire. READ |
| CHICK-FIL-A Federal transportation officials are investigating to see whether two airports have violated federal discrimination laws by refusing to allow Chick-Fil-A to open restaurants at their airport because of the religious beliefs of the owners. READ |
| EUROPEAN ELECTIONS Centrist parties were considerably weakened in the European Parliamentary elections over the weekend. Darel E. Paul writes: “Right-wing nationalists and populists have been the main beneficiaries of the grinding away of the European center.” READ |
| SOCIAL MEDIA The Trump campaign is considering joining Parler, a conservative alternative to Twitter. READ |
| McCARRICK SCANDAL A former priest-secretary to Theodore McCarrick published documents in which McCarrick allegedly admits to sharing beds with seminarians in a letter to a Vatican official. READ |
| CORPORATE VALUES A new Gillette razor ad features a father and his child, who is “transitioning” to a boy. Gillette faced a backlash over a previous campaign in January, which some people said cast all men as chauvinists. READ |
| COURT PUNTS ON TRANSGENDERISM The Supreme Court declined to review a case involving a Pennsylvania school district which opened up bathrooms to students of the opposition sex without informing students or parents. John Bursch of the Alliance Defending Freedom said: “We believe the Supreme Court should have reviewed it. But we hope the court will take up a similar case in the future to bring much needed clarity to how the lower courts should handle violations of well-established student privacy rights.” READ |
| BISHOP APPLAUDS PRO-LIFE LAW Archbishop Robert Carlson of Saint Louis said Missouri’s new pro-life law banning abortion after eight weeks is a “giant step forward for the pro-life movement.” READ |
| SAINT OF THE DAY Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat lived in France during the French Revolution. Concerned about the education of children, especially girls, and feeling a call to the religious life, she founded the Society of the Sacred Heart. The sisters worked for the education of the poor and ran boarding schools for the well-to-do. READ |
| DAILY READINGS “Heaven and earth are full of your glory.” (Ps 148:1) READ |
| BEAUTIFUL A Polish man facing terminal cancer is ordained to the priesthood in a hospital bed. SHARE |
