Explainer: Pro-life leaders ask FDA to remove abortion pill from the market

On Tuesday, July 28, a group of 22 pro-life leaders—including ERLC President Russell Moore—sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging the agency to categorize the abortion pill mifepristone, sold under the brand name Mifeprex, as an “imminent hazard to the public health.”

The letter is in response to the a ruling earlier this month by a federal judge that suspended a rule requiring women during the COVID-19 pandemic to visit a hospital, clinic, or medical office to obtain the abortion pill.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland concluded that the “in-person requirements” for patients seeking medication abortion care impose a “substantial obstacle” to abortion patients and are likely unconstitutional under current laws pertaining to abortion.

Moore said the FDA has “a responsibility to protect the American people from the marketing of dangerous drugs and products. This pill is lethal to preborn children and also potentially perilous for their mothers too. The FDA should reject this drug, and we should all work to support children and their mothers in ways that affirm life, not violence.”

This Week at the ERLC

Elizabeth Graham was quoted in a Baptist Press article about Planned Parenthood’s disavowing of Margaret Sanger’s eugenics legacy.

Russell Moore and Jeff Pickering will be part of a virtual forum today about engaging the public square on topics ranging from religious liberty to abortion jurisprudence to civil rights law. Join Faith and Law's virtual forum at 12 p.m. EST.

Travis Wussow was quoted in a WORLD article about international adoptees.

Russell Moore was quoted in a Washington Post article about a pastor who resigned after participating in a birthday celebration for KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was also quoted in an article at The Gospel Coalition about adoption.

What You Need to Read

With an unsteady market and personal economic uncertainty, it can be easy to chop regular donations out of one’s budget, but think twice before slashing these kinds of line items. It’s important to remember how we, as Christians, can love our neighbors well through the organizations that are intimately aware of specific community and individual needs. The choices we make today will have long-term effects on families for years to come.

In reality, there’s not much difference between a bickering and resentful family and a bickering and resentful society. In fact, you would have to work hard to convince me the two are not a byproduct of one another. We’re living in a time promulgated with self-derived truth. We find our version of events, enter into the fray, and are unwilling to yield and unable to find solutions.

The Scriptures call the people of God to be good citizens (1 Pet. 2:13-17). In the United States, one of the clearest responsibilities of citizenship is participating in the political process through which we elect our nation’s leaders. For some Christians, that simply means that on or ahead of election day, they will make their way to a polling place to punch a ballot. For others, participating in the political process is more involved.

News From Capitol Hill

As Congress and the administration negotiate the fourth phase of coronavirus relief legislation, the ERLC continues to advocate for churches and charities and the need to protect vulnerable populations through specific provisions in the legislative package.

Russell Moore sent a letter to Congressional leadership early on in these discussions detailing the need for a Universal Charitable Deduction (UCD) because it would propel American generosity to churches and charitable nonprofits during this crisis. Moore also highlighted ways Congress could provide help to families who access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), individuals who will soon age out of foster care, and incarcerated men and women uniquely affected by the pandemic.

“Churches and charities are themselves ravaged by the public health and economic crisis we are facing even as they are also at the forefront of helping the vulnerable, the sick and the poor. Government should do everything possible to remove obstacles to the thriving of civil society. This next step should remove such obstacles from these organizations helping the most at-risk populations. The recommendations in this letter can do that." – Russell Moore

On Capitol Hill earlier this summer, a significant bipartisan group of 30 senators, in a letter led by James Lankford (R–Okla.) and Angus King (I–Maine), called for many of these same provisions for nonprofit organizations, including the UCD, to be included in this next legislative package.

At the White House this week, First Lady Melania Trump renewed her child welfare efforts by making foster care a top priority, supporting many of the same policy issues called for in the ERLC’s letter on Phase IV relief. Specifically, Mrs. Trump called on leaders to extend the age to which a child ages out of foster care from 18 to 21. It is critical that we provide flexibility on discharges in order to provide greater security for youth in their current living arrangements during the COVID-19 crisis.

Featured Podcasts

This was a unique summer for the ERLC interns as the program moved online. The students who would have been in the Washington office joined Jeff Pickering and Brooke Kramer on the Capitol Conversations podcast to reflect on their experience. The group discusses their favorite projects, memorable meetings through Zoom, and what it’s like to be a college student during a global pandemic. Listen here.

On this episode of Signposts, Russell Moore talks to New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to discuss his latest book, The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success. Douthat’s column appears weekly, and he co-hosts the Times Op-Ed podcast, “The Argument.” He previously served as a senior editor at The Atlantic. Listen here.

From The Public Square

Pastors sign letter urging Democrats to adopt pro-life stance
Biblical Recorder

More than 100 Christian leaders signed a letter sent July 24 to the Democratic National Committee calling for the organization to shed "abortion extremism" and embrace pro-life policies.

Concentration camps and forced labor: China’s repression of the Uighurs, explained
Jen Kirby, Vox

There is more and more evidence of China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Hundreds of Sick Canadians Euthanized over Loneliness
Wesley J. Smith, National Review Online

The country’s 2019 MAID [medical assistance in dying] Annual Report found that 13.7 percent of the 5,631 Canadians killed by doctors asked to be lethally injected because of “isolation or loneliness.”

Trump administration will allow DACA renewals as it works to end program
Matthew Choi, Politico

DACA recipients can continue to renew their status as Trump looks for new ways to end the program.