Legal Matters

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has released a legal opinion encouraging the state to regulate abortion facilities to the extent that it currently regulates life-friendly surgical clinics and hospitals. Abortion advocacy groups are, predictably, opposed. Remember, kids: abortion is just like any other medical procedure… until people actually want to treat it that way.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, a judge has issued an injunction halting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. For all the hoopla surrounding it, this is a basic separation of powers case: a president’s attempt to legislate via executive order must fail if the legislature has already spoken on the issue. In this case, the judge ruled that the executive order funding embryonic stem cell research was in direct conflict with the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.

In San Marcos, California, the Life Legal Defense Foundation has secured a victory for sidewalk counselors’ freedom of speech and association.

[Elena] Di Ventra was issued a citation for loitering after she walked into a parking lot adjacent to an abortion center to speak with a pregnant girl and offer her life-saving information about her baby.

The parking lot is open to the public and Di Ventra immediately returned to the sidewalk after her brief conversation with the girl. Still, local police officers accused her of wandering idle about the property without an apparent reason to be present.

When the matter was brought to LLDF’s attention, Life Legal Defense Foundation staff attorney Allison Aranda contacted the San Marcos City Attorney’s Office and demanded that it drop what the pro-life legal group considered a meritless criminal charge.

The City Attorney’s Office quickly reviewed the matter and agreed to dismiss the case.

Sounds to me like there’s a deeper problem here: pro-abortion police officers who spend their time looking for excuses to arrest pro-lifers. As opposed to, you know, doing their jobs and keeping people safe. Hopefully the dismissal of charges will discourage future arrests, but I think a personnel change is what’s really needed. Still, the Life Legal Defense Foundation deserves a thumbs up.