Daniel Gump, a legal researcher and author of Criminal Abortion Laws Before the Fourteenth Amendment: A Timeline and Visual Review of Jurisprudence and Historical Milestones, says pro-abortion advocates are misrepresenting the facts surrounding a case involving Facebook having to turn over private chats between a mother and daughter to Nebraska police as part of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the girl's abortion. In a statement to The Christian Post, Gump wrote, "This is a case of someone illegally procuring a post-viability induced abortion for a minor, and three individuals then attempting to destroy and hide evidence that included human remains."

The investigation, which was launched approximately two months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, resulted in Jessica Burgess, 41, and her daughter, Celeste, 18, being charged in July "with allegedly removing, concealing, or abandoning a dead human body," concealing the death of another person and false reporting. The mother was additionally charged with "performing or attempting an abortion on a pregnancy at more than 20 weeks and performing an abortion as a non-licensed doctor." She allegedly ordered abortion pills in March to abort her teen daughter's pregnancy, with a friend of the daughter saying she saw the teen take the first abortion pill in April. The daughter claims she had a miscarriage at 23 weeks; abortion is illegal in Nebraska past 20 weeks post-fertilization. The Madison County Attorney’s Office alleges that the mother and daughter planned to bury the baby’s remains in a rural location. They allegedly buried the body three different times and also attempted to burn the body after the second exhumation. Facebook's parent company, Meta, said in a statement that the warrants they received for the chat history did not mention abortion and indicated they were related to a criminal investigation and court documents involving a stillborn baby who was burned and buried. Read more.

Trending Topics

Michael Brown warns of the dangers of falling prey to "the biased, partisan news that bombards us every day," noting that the media's manipulation does not build one's faith, bring them closer to God or produce love. Brown encourages believers to be informed and alert but says they should focus on being "nourished by the life-giving, life-sustaining, life-transforming living Word of the living God." Read more.

U.S. News

Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens has blocked a Wyoming law that would ban most abortions in the state from taking effect while a lawsuit challenging the legislation is adjudicated. Unless the state government appeals the preliminary injunction to the Wyoming Supreme Court, it will remain in effect until the litigation has been resolved. In issuing the injunction on Wednesday, Owens argued that it is not "a case about the moral propriety of Wyoming’s restrictions" but if the law is "constitutional under Wyoming law." The ruling comes as a previous order blocking the law from taking effect expired. Read more.

In this interview with The Christian Post, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott discusses his memoir, America, a Redemption Story, which relates challenges from the senator's own life to America's search for identity and potential for redemption. "I believe that all of us, within a generation or two, are just like each other. That the story of America is a story of pain, then promise, obstacles and opportunities, failures and success. That's who we are as a people. I want to remind us that the goodness of the American soul," he explains. Read more.

Conservative Christian leaders have denounced the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, seeing it as politically motivated. The Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, says the move could put the FBI and DOJ at risk of losing credibility again, writing, "Thirty years ago the FBI lost a lot of credibility over the unfortunate events that surrounded Ruby Ridge. Last night as we watched the events that unfolded at Mar-a-Lago, I couldn't help but think that the FBI and DOJ are losing credibility and the trust of the American people again." Pastor and author Jentezen Franklin and Family Research Council President and Pastor Tony Perkins were also among those to condemn the move, with Franklin warning, "The American people are not blind to political bias and injustice and they witnessed both with this unprecedented act of cowardice." Read more.

A MESSAGE FROM Alliance Defending Freedom

Do you know what’s happening in your child or grandchild’s school?

• Is your school teaching your child that he or she is an "oppressor" or is "oppressed"?
• Are they being compelled to affirm offensive concepts that violate their beliefs?
• Do you know that some schools have created "gender support plans" to socially transition children without their parent’s knowledge or consent?

Download ADF’s free Parents’ Toolkit on Critical Theory today and equip yourself to defend your rights and learn how Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory, Transgender Ideology, and Comprehensive Sexual Education threaten your child.

Global Insights

Eighteen former students of a Christian academy in Canada have filed criminal abuse complaints against the school and an associated church, alleging that they were coerced into exorcisms and suffered corporal punishment. Students claim that educators at Christian Centre Academy, which changed its name to Legacy Christian Academy in 2013, reportedly paddled students after Canada outlawed corporal punishment in schools. One former student alleges that she endured spankings and treatment akin to an "exorcism" after refusing to cite a morning prayer because she was nervous. "The teacher at the time seemed to think that that meant I had a demon, so she would keep me in at break times and rock me in her lap while she spoke in tongues," she said. Read more.

Military officials in Nigeria say they have arrested the suspected gunmen charged with carrying out a massacre at a Catholic church service in southwestern Nigeria that killed dozens on Pentecost Sunday. The June 5 attack at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church left around 40 people dead, with around 80 reportedly injured. Nigeria's Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Leo Irabor told The Associated Press that investigations remain ongoing. Read more.

Faith & Society

In this op-ed, Pastor Shane Idleman of Westside Christian Fellowship in Calif. shares why he believes it is time for people to "[f]ollow Isaiah’s lead and raise your voice like a trumpet—awake and arise! (58:1; 60:1)." Idleman draws parallels between society as described in Isaiah and society today, concluding, "Before there is a battle cry there must be a heart cry. Before we fight, we must repent." Read more.

ADF NEWS

TAMPA, Fla. – Days before Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa will open its doors to kick off the new school year—and nine days after Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit on their behalf—the Biden administration and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried informed the school Friday that they intend to approve the school’s application for funding to continue serving free meals to the 56 low-income children enrolled. ADF attorneys, representing Grant Park Christian Academy, had argued for that result in a lawsuit filed July 27 against President Joe Biden and Fried after government officials threatened to take away the children’s lunches simply because they attend a Christian school. Read more.