On Monday an Owen County judge heard oral arguments over Senate Bill 1 in response to the first of two lawsuits filed by the ACLU of Indiana to block the new abortion law. As I mentioned last week, the ACLU had hoped to get a hearing and an injunction (blocking implementation) before the law went into effect last Thursday.

Incidentally, several people called the AFA-IN office asking why some abortion clinics have seemed to remain open. I may have mistakenly said all abortion clinics were to close on the 15th. To be more accurate, abortion clinics can choose to remain open if they offer other services, however, they can no longer perform abortions under the new law.

At the hearing, the ACLU argued that there is a right to privacy that would prohibit the prohibition of elective (non-essential) abortions. (I understand that one can legitimately say all abortions are non-essential, but by this, I simply mean for reasons other than rape, incest, or the life of the mother.) The ACLU lobbied the court to return to the laws Indiana had before SB 1 was enacted.

The ACLU argued, (notice the irony of this, which I underlined) that “the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” should include abortion.

Arguing in defense of the law was Solicitor General Tom Fisher of the Indiana Attorney General’s office which is tasked with defending state laws. Fisher argued that there is no right to privacy mentioned in our state constitution and that an abortion ban was in place in 1851 when our constitution was drafted. Fisher argued that abortion advocates are making an argument based upon “a novel, unwritten, historically unsupported right to abortion.” He also warned that the ACLU’s line of thinking would open the state to a broad, new inability to regulate all sorts of things.

The judge took the arguments into consideration and will make a ruling on whether to temporarily put the law on hold for further legal debate. I think the judge could possibly make a full ruling, ending the case, or stopping the law altogether in her courtroom, (though an appeal could happen after her final ruling.) A second lawsuit from the ACLU making a religious freedom claim for abortion will be heard in court on October 14th.

Open Southern Border Has Deadly Consequences for Hoosiers

The Marion County Coroner has released some disturbing news about the new leading cause of death in Indianapolis.

Usually, the leading cause of death the coroner observes is heart disease, but now after an annual review, the leading cause of death in Indianapolis is drug overdoses. Last year, 799 people in Indianapolis died from accidental drug overdoses. If suicide by drug overdoses is included the number jumps to 826 deaths. Blunt force trauma and gunshot deaths are also high on the list but below drug and heart disease deaths. (Last year there were 271 murders in Indianapolis.)

Most of these drug deaths (78%) are due to the highly lethal drug fentanyl which is coming into our nation mostly through our southern border. Fentanyl is often included in other drugs without the user’s knowledge. So far this year, there have been 548 drug deaths in Indianapolis, exceeding last year’s number by the end of July.

Indiana Ranks High in Debt

Indiana ranks as the 12th highest state in the nation for student loan debt. The average student loan debt per Hoosier with a loan is $32,000. Nine percent (9%) of those loans are 90+ days past due. There are 926,500 Hoosiers with student loans.

A Dire Warning for America

Noah Webster wrote a letter to fellow founding father James Madison on October 16, 1829, in which he noted: “The Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government … I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable, in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence.”

Judeo-Christian principles have played a beneficial role throughout US history from the revolution to the abolition of slavery to our historic charity throughout the world and numerous other matters.

What might America look like if that influence disappeared? It is something to contemplate as there are many answers. Fyodor Dostoevsky author of Crime and Punishment once warned, that without God all things are possible, and crime is inevitable. I believe that without the restraining moral influence of faith, society would suffer greatly. I think we see many signs of this today.

Pew Research has a new survey revealing the decline of Christianity in America. They project these trend numbers out 50 years and predict a 50% decline in the number of Americans who identify as Christian. They also warn that such a decline will not only have negative societal consequences it will also erode religious freedom itself.

While most of the readers of this email won’t be around in 50 years. It is our children and grandchildren who will live in a very different America from the troubled one we observe even now.

You can read about this here.

Power Shift at the Statehouse?

When the Indiana General Assembly begins in January, the House will have a new leader at the top of the most powerful committee in the legislature. Representative Jeff Thompson has been selected to be the new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Thompson is a strong social and fiscal conservative. I have known Rep. Thompson for many years and have worked with him on several issues. I have great admiration for him. I believe this is a good choice for Hoosiers.

In Their Own Words:

“Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts — the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.” – Alexis de Tocqueville