New bill would protect mothers with surrogacy contracts from forced abortions
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, introduced on July 21 a bill designed to protect pregnant mothers who are surrogates from being forced to have abortions.
The ‘‘Preventing Forced Abortions Act of 2026” would prevent federal courts from forcing a woman to have abortion because of a surrogate contract; the act also requires that surrogate mothers still be compensated.
“No woman should ever be forced to murder a child because of a provision buried in a contract,” Ogles said in announcing the measure. “The Preventing Forced Abortions Act ensures that federal courts cannot enforce these coercive clauses or allow intended parents to withhold promised compensation when a surrogate mother chooses life.”
The pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America expressed support for the bill. Spokeswoman Marilyn Musgrave voiced support for the bill, saying: “Women should never be forced or coerced into having an abortion.”
Hawley calls for investigation of abortion group ‘Plan C’
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is calling on Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice to investigate Plan C, a group that has shipped abortion pills in the mail allegedly in violation of state and federal law.
In the July 17 letter, Hawley alleged that Plan C is “a left-wing dark-money operation that styles itself a ‘public health information campaign’ but functions, in practice, as the referral and logistics hub for shipping abortion drugs into states whose laws prohibit it.”
Hawley maintained that Plan C operates with abortion pill manufacturers Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro.
“Plan C coaches its users on how to evade the law. Its website instructs users to protect their ‘digital footprint’ against investigations, recommending privacy-enabled browsers, virtual private networks, and encrypted email,” Hawley wrote.
Advocacy groups go to court over sidewalk chalk free speech violation
Groups that advocate for unborn babies are going to court because their free speech rights were allegedly violated in 2020 in the nation’s capital.
The Frederick Douglass Foundation and Students for Life of America brought forward an opening brief July 16 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The federal free speech lawsuit was brought in a dispute over the right to chalk messages on the city sidewalk, as police in Washington, D.C. prevented advocates from writing messages in chalk in 2020.
Other protesters associated with the Black Lives Matter movement spray-painted messages outside the city’s Chamber of Commerce but were not apprehended, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the nonprofit free speech law firm that is taking on the case.
“Washington officials can’t censor messages they disagree with. The right to free speech is for everyone,” said attorney John Bursch.
Advocacy group offers legal resources for abortion pill reversals
Amid an ongoing lawsuit over abortion pill reversals, the Thomas More Society is launching an online hub on abortion pill reversal litigation.
The Catholic legal group is currently litigating the case People of the State of California v. Heartbeat International & RealOptions, in which California is demanding $20 million from the two pro-life groups because they offered abortion pill reversals.
The organization said its online hub “brings together everything supporters, pregnancy centers, movement partners, and the press need to follow this fight in one place.”
Judge blocks South Dakota abortion advertising ban
A U.S. district judge is temporarily blocking a South Dakota law prohibiting abortion groups from advertising abortion pills, which are largely illegal in the state.
U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler granted a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking its enforcement, saying it is likely unconstitutional after New York-based abortion group Mayday Health filed a lawsuit.
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