The year of our Lord 2019 began with a declaration of war by 2012 Republicans against 2016 Republicans.

On Jan. 1 new U.S. Sen. (and 2012 presidential candidate) Mitt Romney declared in The Washington Post, “A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse. … With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.” 

Rulings this week from federal judges in California and Pennsylvania have forced an order of Catholic nuns to continue a five-year legal battle to defend its religious exemption to the federal contraceptive and abortifacient mandate. The Little Sisters of the Poor fought for freedom of conscience all the way to the U.S.

UPDATE: A federal judge in Philadelphia issued a nationwide injunction Monday against new Trump administration rules that would have allowed employers with moral or religious objections to birth control and abortifacient drugs to opt out of the Obamacare mandate requiring them to provide coverage for the drugs for free to their employees. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone said the exemptions could harm women who might lose coverage and states that would have to pick up the costs.

The European Court of Human Rights agreed last week to hear from Tom Mortier, a Belgian man who says doctors misused the country’s euthanasia law when they killed his mother in 2012.

Pro-life Kansans received a blow last week when a judge ruled in favor of abortions by teleconference, something many thought was already prohibited in their state.

Tele-abortions allow a woman to end her baby’s life without visiting an abortion center. An abortionist can video conference with a pregnant woman from a remote location and immediately prescribe her abortion-inducing drugs. The arrangement leaves women vulnerable to medical complications without a provider close by to treat them.

If the Holocaust had not happened in the mid-20th century, scholars estimate 26 to 32 million Jews would be alive worldwide today.

Ryan Bomberger isn’t unaccustomed to criticism when it comes to talking about race or abortion. As president of the pro-life Radiance Foundation, he meets hard pushback against his blunt media campaigns spotlighting the tragically high abortion rate in the African-American community.

It’s not that abortion is a minority problem: A Pew Research Center survey in 2018 reported that 60 percent of black adults and 61 percent of white adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Forty-nine percent of Hispanics agreed.