Supreme Court Considers Landmark Abortion Case in Texas; Decision Expected Today
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce a decision today on a landmark case that could change the course of abortion in America.
At issue in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the “profit-motivated abortion industry has challenged a 2013 Texas law requiring it to comply with health and safety standards that are enforced against other outpatient facilities performing invasive surgical procedures,” according to the Daily Caller.
The case also calls into question a mandate that “increasingly itinerant abortion providers maintain admitting privileges at local hospitals to facilitate emergency care and the treatment of post-abortive complications,” writes Daily Caller columnist Denise Burke, Vice President of Legal Affairs for Americans United for Life.
Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.staging.ses.edu) President and Evangelical leader Dr. Richard Land, who was recently named to a new executive board to provide advisory support to Donald Trump on the issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith in America, said the case is a chance for the highest court in the land to make right a very wrong decision from more than 40 years ago.
“Abortion leaves emotional and spiritual scars on mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, extended families and society as a whole” Land said. “The ever-expanding concentric circles of death and destruction emanating from the abortion industry illustrate that ideas do have consequences. America has been awakened to the gruesome abortion industry, after the extremely unsettling undercover videos that surfaced exposing the Planned Parenthood practice of selling baby parts.
“This case could be a step in the right direction toward the reversal of the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in America,” Land continued. “Since then, nearly 60 million babies have lost their lives, and it’s time for our nation to truly mourn those deaths by preventing millions of others. These babies will never live up to their God-given potential, and it’s a shameful page in our history. We pray that the Court will uphold the Texas law, as it is not a Constitutional right for a woman to abort a baby, but instead, the Constitutional right that is stripped away is from the infants who never get the chance to experience the right to life.”
Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt is the first abortion-related case to reach the Supreme Court in 20 years. It challenges the Texas law HB2, which requires that all abortions—either surgical or medical, meaning with pills—be performed in ambulatory surgical centers, or mini-hospitals, with several requirements attached, reports NPR. “A second provision,” according to NPR, “requires doctors performing either surgical or medical abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.” Plaintiffs argue that the law “imposes restrictions that unconstitutionally limit a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.”
A year ago, a federal appeals court upheld the law. With the death of Antonin Scalia, if the Court reaches a 4-4 outcome, the lower court’s decision will stand.
Speakers at SES’s upcoming 23rd annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics will discuss issues such as the sanctity of life. Hosted by Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 13-15, the conference will welcome such top name speakers as Norman Geisler, Richard Howe, Richard Land, Josh and Sean McDowell, Hugh Ross, Jay Sekulow, Lee Strobel, Frank Turek and J. Warner Wallace, along with many others. The theme of the 2016 conference, “The Defense Never Rests,” focuses on the ongoing charge to Christians to defend their beliefs rationally, intelligently and lovingly. For registration information, visit conference.staging.ses.edu.
SES explores ethical issues through its “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program; for more information, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu. Southern Evangelical Seminary also recently unveiled a new apologetics blog at www.WhyDoYouBelieve.org, where Land and other SES voices address the most pressing issues of the day.
SES is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. Many courses focus on societal issues from a Christian worldview, delve into scientific apologetics or contemplate creation research.
Land is featured in his nationally syndicated daily radio commentary, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which airs on almost 400 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” is also podcast daily on the free SES mobile app and airs locally in the Charlotte, N.C., area every weekday. The “Bringing Every Thought Captive” television program, hosted by Land, airs on the NRB Network Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and midnight EST. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” also reaches nearly 2 million households in the Chicago area on the Total Living Network. For details about stations, times, downloads and more, click here.
Land has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor for several seminaries and has authored or edited more than 15 books. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England and his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University. Land also earned a Master of Theology (Honors Program) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the Outstanding Graduating Student. Dr. Land was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. He also received the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University in 2010. Land served previously (1988-2013) as president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families. In 2014, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the ERLC’s Research Institute, and in 2015, he was named in the top 15 of Newsmax’s “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.”
Southern Evangelical Seminary invites visitors to its web site to join the more than 20,000 people who have already downloaded the SES Apologetics App for Windows mobile devices and Android and Apple phones and tablets. Those with the app can get the very best news and information in Christian apologetics, including articles, audio, video, blogs and more from today’s most able defenders of the Christian faith—William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, Frank Turek, Hugh Ross, Gary Habermas and other well-known speakers, authors and teachers.
Southern Evangelical Seminary has been ranked as one of the top graduate programs for General Christian Apologetics by TheBestSchools.org’s “Top 10 Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics.”
For more information on SES, visit its web site at www.staging.ses.edu or its Facebook page, follow the SES Twitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH. For more information about SES’ “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu.
For information on SES or to set up an interview, Jen Retallick, Hamilton Strategies, 610.584.1096, ext. 100, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, or Deborah Hamilton, 215.815.7716 or 610.584.1096, ext. 102.
Southern Evangelical Seminary is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. The Christian college and seminary offers a wide variety of bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. Programs can be completed through residence in the Charlotte area or online. The award-winning education at SES is distinctively Christian and focused on evangelism and world-engaging defense of the Christian faith—Christian Apologetics.
