To valued friends of PNCI, 

We hope that you are staying well during the coronavirus pandemic and all the changes implemented to save lives.

As governments around the world address the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives PNCI recommends the U.S. government’s Center for Disease Control’s coronavirus website with valuable resources and information Coronavirus.gov. The World Health Organization has a COVID-19 dedicated website that includes country and technical guidance, daily situation reports, and general advice.

Recently Pope Francis recognized the critical responsibility of those serving in public office during this crisis. After the announcement by the Italian government of latest measures it deemed necessary to contain and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Pope Francis stated that government authorities "must make decisions and many times they have to decide on measures that the people do not like. But it is for our own good."

He urged, “Let us keep praying together for the ill, their relatives, for parents with children at home, but most of all I would ask that you pray for authorities.”

Recognizing that government authorities can "feel alone, not understood" Pope Francis prayed, "Let us pray for our governing leaders who have to make decisions on these measures, that they feel accompanied by people's prayers."

At this time we join in this prayer and remember especially all elected and appointed government officials, lawmakers, staff, religious leaders, and organizations who consistently work to protect life at all stages of life from conception to natural death as they face new challenges to the protection of the innate dignity of life.

These challenges have increased exponentially during the COVID-19, exacerbated by pro-death activists who view the pandemic as an “opportunity” to advance access to abortion and euthanasia and to even make judgments as to whose life has greater value if medical treatment has to be rationed.

President Trump signed H.R. 748, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act into law providing a massive $2.3 trillion for financial relief for individual Americans and small business owners. Efforts by Democrats, including Speaker Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, to secure funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers by allowing them to access the small business loans were defeated during negotiations. The long-standing Hyde Amendment was included several times in the bill to protect hundreds of billions of dollars from funding elective abortion and elective abortion coverage.

In the challenge to prepare for the anticipated health needs as COVID-19 spreads, non-essential surgeries and medical procedures have been stopped to conserve personal protective equipment (PPE) needed by health professional on the front line of treating patients and to ready hospitals for the influx of coronavirus patients.

Surgical abortions have been stopped in many states in the U.S. and chemical abortion induced by abortion pills have also been stopped in a number of states. Not surprisingly, abortion groups including Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, The ACLU, among others, have swiftly challenged Executive Orders in Texas, Alabama, Ohio, Idaho, Iowa, and Oklahoma. In Texas, they sued that the executive order was a “blatant effort to exploit a public health crisis to advance an extreme, anti-abortion agenda.” 

At this point, federal judges in Alabama, Iowa, and Ohio have ruled to block the orders from going into effect. Ohio is appealing the decision.

In Texas, an immediate appeal was filed after a federal judge blocked the Executive Order. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit the overruled the decision and restored the Governor’s order. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton explained that the Executive Order applies to all health care facilities in order to ensure equipment and resources are available for fighting COVID-19 and that abortion centers were seeking special treatment. “All Texans must work together to stop the spread of COVID-19. My office will continue to defend Governor Greg Abbott’s Order to ensure that supplies and personal protective gear reach the hardworking medical professionals who need it the most during this health crisis,” said Paxton.

Abortion providers in Indiana have opted to just ignore Governor Eric Holcomb’s Executive Order halting services of all non-essential healthcare including abortion services. Whole Women’s Health attempted to justify the continuation of services that they are “only” providing medical abortions.

Representatives of over 30,000 physicians decried the call to continue elective abortion during the COVID-19 crisis issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) which falsely characterizes elective abortion as essential healthcare.

The statement by representatives of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), the American College of Pediatricians, Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons calls out the abortion industry for continuing “with business as usual” despite the directive to cease all elective medical procedures to save limited healthcare equipment.

 The pro-life statement decries the statement by ACOG “with several other traditionally pro-abortion medical organizations” that “made the preposterous claim that ‘abortion is an essential component of comprehensive health care’ for women, even though elective abortion treats no disease process.”

They point out that over 85% of practicing obstetricians and gynecologists do not perform elective abortions and state that if elective abortion was an “essential component” of women’s health care, “it would be a part of every obstetric and gynecologic practice”. During the current pandemic they explain that currently “services that do constitute essential health care for women, including routine Pap smears, mammograms, and pelvic exams, are being postponed in order to reduce everyone’s risk of exposure to COVID-19, and to conserve scarce medical resources.”

Concern is expressed that elective abortion, both surgical and drug induced, “generates more patients to be seen in already overburdened emergency rooms. Most abortion providers instruct women to go to an emergency room if they have any concerning symptoms after the abortion. Approximately 5% of women who undergo medication abortions will require evaluation in an emergency room, most commonly for hemorrhage. Surgical abortions can also result in hemorrhage. Emergency room personnel – who are already struggling to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic – will be further strained to provide care to these women.”

The organizations through their representatives “call for all elective abortions to be suspended in accordance with the current CDC recommendations pertaining to elective procedures and office visits.”

Pro-life leaders in the U.S., including Fr Frank Pavone, wrote a letter to Alex Azar, Secretary Department of Health and Human Services, asking him to ensure that abortion facilities are complying with the government directive that medical facilities only perform medically necessary procedures. The letter explains, “By ceasing both surgical and chemical abortions now, Planned Parenthood will free up much needed medical equipment and decrease the demand placed on ER’s due to complications from both medical and surgical abortion. This will protect women who will, without doubt, need follow-up care, including infection treatment and transfusions, from the nation’s emergency care centers and hospitals.”

The letter includes, “While we are in a hectic race to save lives, Planned Parenthood and other powers in the abortion industry remain insistent on taking the lives of innocent unborn children. While surgery centers postpone elective and diagnostic procedures, abortion centers are churning out surgical and chemical abortions and putting women, especially the poor, at risk. Their continued operation depletes sorely needed personal protective equipment and leads to complications that will further overwhelm already overextended emergency rooms.”

Pro-life leaders asked that government officials ensure that emergency response funds are not diverted to the abortion industry; urge the abortion industry to cease operations and join healthcare providers in donating their PPE and other equipment to coronavirus response; ensure that telemedicine abortion is not expanded during the crisis and maintain FDA limits on dispensing of chemical abortion; continue actions to stop illegal mail-order sale of chemical abortion; and promote medically accurate and supportive information for women “that counters the inaccurate and exploitative messaging coming from an abortion industry all too happy to use the current pandemic to scare women and families into abortion”.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a bulletin to ensure that entities covered by civil rights authorities keep in mind their obligations under laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in HHS-funded programs, including in the provision of health care services during COVID-19.

The OCR announced that it is “particularly focused on ensuring that covered entities do not unlawfully discriminate against people with disabilities when making decisions about their treatment during the COVID-19 health care emergency.”

US disability advocates, including parents of children with Down syndrome, have been especially disturbed by guidelines published by the state of Alabama which state that “persons with severe mental retardation, advanced dementia or severe traumatic brain injury may be poor candidates for ventilator support” and that “persons with severe or profound mental retardation, moderate to severe dementia, or catastrophic neurological complications such as persistent vegetative state are unlikely candidates for ventilator support.”

OCR Director Roger Severino explained the rational for the bulletin: “Our civil rights laws protect the equal dignity of every human life from ruthless utilitarianism. HHS is committed to leaving no one behind during an emergency, and helping health care providers meet that goal. Persons with disabilities, with limited English skills, and older persons should not be put at the end of the line for health care during emergencies.” 

A bipartisan bicameral letter to protect individuals with disabilities during the pandemic was led in the House by congressional pro-life caucus co-chair Rep. Chris Smith (R) and Rep. Jim Langevin (D) and signed by twenty-seven members of the House of Representatives and five Senators. They called upon Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar and U.S. Attorney General William Barr to expeditiously issue guidance to states that they cannot authorize or promote any form of disability discrimination that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Our nation cannot leave behind Americans with disabilities or pre-existing conditions during this crisis. The Department of Health and Human Services should immediately clarify that states may not respond to the coronavirus emergency by denying individuals life-sustaining treatments solely on the basis of disability. As a nation, we have to stick together, and this includes the disability community and their families,” said Rep Smith.

Read more here.

The normal two week session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), attended by tens of thousands of women from around the world, was reduced to a one-day procedural meeting attended only by New York-based delegations and NGOs due to the coronavirus. The 64th CSW was slated to mark the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing with pro-abortion activists seeking to use the event to advance universal access to abortion.   Instead, the Political Declaration adopted by delegations omitted any reference to “sexual and reproductive health”. In response, Countdown 2030, a coalition of pro-abortion NGOs based in Europe, including IPPF, issued a statement explaining that it was disappointed that “sexual and reproductive rights are non-existent, so much so, that they are not even cited in the statement.”  

It credits the exclusion of the broad term used to advance abortion to “pressure from various countries led by the United States.”

An alternative Beijing +25 Feminist Declaration demonstrates the radical pro-abortion agenda NGOs sought to advance at CSW including to “decriminalize, destigmatize and increase access to abortion for all people who can become pregnant, including by expanding their capacity to self-manage abortion, guaranteeing the right to accurate and quality information on abortion, and eliminating barriers to abortion, including by limiting the ability of health care providers to refuse services on the grounds of conscience.”

Argentinian President Alberto Fernández’s plans to legalize abortion have stalled amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Fernández had announced earlier this year that legalizing abortion would be the top priority of his new administration and had plans to introduce legislation the last week of March. As attention has rightfully shifted to combatting COVID-19, abortion activists remain focused on it coming to fruition. “Argentina has influence over public opinion in the region,” said Catalina Martínez Coral, the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “If the bill in Argentina passes, it will influence other countries to start thinking about this.” Abortion groups continue to campaign, specifically Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Catholics for the Right to Choose), which seeks to remove religion from the issue of abortion.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled against the right to conscientious objection in a case that could apply to the entire medical profession. Ruling in the case of Grimmark and Steen v. Sweden, a panel of three judges decided against Swedish midwives who petitioned to have their conscience rights protected. The Swedish midwives had been told they must participate in abortions despite their opposition to it. Instead, the judges ruled that abortion is an ordinary medical act and not subject to personal preference or conviction. The decision was issued as a “decision of inadmissibility”, which is considered final. The ruling is the latest in a global push to eradicate conscience rights and is of great concern since the ruling sets a precedence that can be applied to all medical professionals.