This opinion column originally appeared on townhall.com on 5/22/2013.

Author: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Michael Norton

Guilty as charged. That was a Philadelphia jury’s verdict against abortionist Kermit Gosnell for multiple murders of babies in his Pennsylvania abortion facility. The jury also convicted Gosnell of hundreds of lesser criminal offenses. To avoid the death penalty, Gosnell agreed to serve the rest of his life in prison. This sordid chapter in the battle for the life on the unborn child is now over.

Virtually everyone who observed, participated in, or reported on the Gosnell trial was struck by Gosnell’s unspeakable acts—acts recounted by witnesses under oath during the trial. Those horrors were the most gruesome, but not the only “horrors” from this case.

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Author: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Brett Harvey

Is the government obligated to control the way people pray in public? The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide this very question. You see, the Town of Greece, NY has been sued because, when they open their town council meetings, they refused to censor the prayers of citizens who volunteered to deliver the opening invocation. Rather, the Town allowed the volunteers to deliver the prayers in their own words and according to their faith tradition. Any resident of the town could volunteer and they were scheduled on a first come first serve basis. Although most of the people who volunteered to deliver the invocations were some flavor of Christianity, over the years a variety of faiths perspectives were offered, including Wiccan, Jewish, and Baha’i. However, this “open to all” policy didn’t satisfy the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and its clients. FULL POST

This opinion column originally appeared on christianpost.com on 5/17/2013.

Author: Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Paul Coleman

The United Kingdom's multitude of "equality" provisions will protect nearly anyone born with a disability, although it is perfectly legal to prevent disabled people from being born, up to the point of birth (simply because they have a disability).

The U.K.'s abortion law is therefore an example of the most blatant and basic form of discrimination imaginable.

In the past decade, Europe has emphatically embraced so-called "equality" laws. Nowhere is this truer than in the U.K.

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This opinion column originally appeared in ncregister.com on 5/17/2013.

Author: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox

As the trial of Kermit Gosnell exposed to the world the evil, ugly and indefensible truth of Big Abortion, Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly National Abortion Rights Action League) were quick to throw him under the bus, applauding his conviction and implausibly blaming the pro-life community for Gosnell’s house of horrors.

But that moment of sanity by America’s biggest proponents of abortion won’t stop them from defending the gruesome practice of abortion.

Ilyse Hogue, NARAL’s president, deflected blame onto “anti-choice politicians,” claiming that their efforts to increase health-and-safety standards across the abortion industry will only “drive more women to back-alley butchers like Kermit Gosnell.” FULL POST

Author: Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster

I’m thinking of getting my nails done this weekend. And I know that when I walk in, I will not be confronted with blood, urine, feces, and flea-infested animals.

What makes me so confident that I won’t get a disease from the beauty parlor?

As the Kermit Gosnell Grand Jury reported, “even nail salons…are monitored more closely for client safety” than abortion businesses.

When states do finally start to inspect abortionists, they find horrors like those in Gosnell’s operation. He was no back-alley abortionist wielding a coat hanger; he murdered living, breathing babies and women out in the open, and stored their bodies in jars, milk jugs, and cat food containers. He never bothered to hire licensed medical staff, relying instead on his beautician wife. His instruments were rusty and broken, and his hallways were so narrow that EMTs couldn’t get through to save his victims. FULL POST

Author: Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel Rory Gray

Some preschoolers in Montana got quite a shock late last year when they were told that the state’s department of education had cut tuition aid that they were promised under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) because they attend religious schools. You see, these particular students struggle with learning disabilities. So the federal government helps to ensure that they receive early schooling that prepares them to succeed in kindergarten. Because Montana does not provide a public preschool program, disabled students in that state attend private preschools or none at all. The family of one particular preschooler, N.W., who has hearing and speech impairments chose to place her in a Christian school that shared their religious beliefs and offered their daughter individualized services that had been highly successful in helping her adjust to a classroom environment. In fact, a local school district official had recognized—in writing—that N.W.’s school is a wonderful place with staff ready and willing to help students with special needs. FULL POST

Author: Alliance Defending Freedom President, CEO, and General Counsel Alan Sears

Due in large part to the legal efforts made possible through the generous gifts and prayerful support of faithful friends like you, high school and college campuses across America are seeing a new birth of religious freedom. Three victories from the last few weeks illustrate the remarkable impact you’re enabling us to make:

In Cooperstown, North Dakota, Michayla Maertens joined other students in putting up posters along the halls of Griggs County Central High School, as part of a class assignment requiring them to actively advocate for a current health-related issue by taking some specific action, like creating and displaying items at school. Michayla’s poster took on the subject of abortion, and featured a collage of pro-life messages such as “Life Not Abortion.” FULL POST

Author: Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster

In February 2010, FBI agents finally raided the abortion business of Kermit Gosnell in search of drug violations. What they found was a massacre.

There was blood on the beds, floors, and charts, and aborted babies’ bodies were stored in jars, cat food containers, and a cherry limeade bottle as a kind of macabre trophy case. Gosnell used the same single-use-only supplies over and over, spreading STDs. Flea-infested cats roamed the building, which reeked of urine, death, and decay. FULL POST