The pro-life movement won a fantastic victory in the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo & Relentless, Inc. v. U.S. Dept. of Commerce case6 to 3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially ruled that Federal Agencies don’t get to act unilaterally as unaccountable experts. This was a massive blow to the long-standing Chevron deference, weaponized to support whatever policy an agency bureaucrat chooses to enforce. 

With the legal slaying of Chevron, more good news for preborn lives may be coming next year.  According to a new report from Vox, a Supreme Court case, Oklahoma v. Department of Health and Human Services, could further erode the federal government’s ability to abuse its power by challenging whether abortion services can be included in Title X.  

Title X was enacted 1970 under the Public Health Service (PHS) Act. Its main and sole purpose was to create federal programs targeting family planning and related preventive health services. Seeing that abortion is killing a child in the womb and destroying families and women’s health, one would think that it should be excluded. However, the Biden-Harris Administration unsurprisingly thought otherwise.  

“Taken seriously, Oklahoma’s proposed limit on federal agencies’ power would profoundly transform how many of the biggest and most consequential federal programs operate,” reported Vox. “As the Justice Department points out in its Oklahoma brief, ‘Medicare’s ‘Conditions of Participation’ for hospitals alone span some 48 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations.’ All of those rules, plus countless other federal regulations for Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs, could cease to function overnight if the justices accept Oklahoma’s more radical argument.” 

This “radical” argument is a profound defense for the preborn – that money from Medicare, Medicaid, and other “family planning” government programs, funding meant to help create more families, can’t be used for the exact opposite purposes of killing a child in the womb. With Chevron knocked off its high horse, pro-life institutions, states, and others can start challenging the pre-existing standards put in place by unchecked government entities.  

Pennsylvania Sen. Lankford discussed this with Students for Life Action (SFLAction) on the emergency webcast several months ago when we called on the GOP to be a part of Life.  

However, even before Chevron met its demise, another Reagan-era U.S. Supreme Court case, Rust v. Sullivan (1991), upheld the Reagan Administration’s prohibition of any Title X grant recipients using funding for abortion counseling. According to Vox:  

“Rust held that the federal statute governing Title X, which provides that ‘[n]one of the funds appropriated under this subchapter shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning,’ does not speak to whether Title X programs may refer patients to other medical providers who do offer abortions. Thus, the law is ‘ambiguous’ regarding such referrals, and the Court concluded that the Reagan administration could resolve this ambiguity by banning abortion-related referrals.”  

Hopefully, with this upcoming case, the ambiguity can be resolved and not be manipulated to push abortion on vulnerable women, as the Biden-Harris Administration is doing.  

Given Chevron’s recent fall, we hope Oklahoma sees a victory and that agencies can’t push them around. 

Yes, she lives a “normal” life. Still, her story started as one of the first safe-haven babies to be adopted in Illinois under the state’s safe-haven law, which says that “Every hospital must accept and provide all necessary emergency care to a relinquished infant…” 

Not only has she shared her story with SFLA, but her own story saved the life of her high school friend’s daughter, who would have been aborted if she hadn’t impressed on her the potential and miracle of life.  

Rose was born in January 2005, but that’s all she knows.  

“I don’t even know where I was born,” Rose explained. “I wasn’t born in a hospital, but I was dropped off at St. John’s Hospital when I was maybe a day old. I was covered in dried blood and wrapped in a towel when a woman dropped me off.”  

Though her adoptive parents were unable to conceive, they were patiently waiting on a list through an adoption agency to take home their first child. As a crazy coincidence, the adoption agency called regarding Rose on January 18, 2005 – the night before my mother’s birthday.  

“So many people wanted me,” said Rose. “A line that abortion supporters often use is that the baby would be better off aborted than living, but that’s not the case. So many people wanted me, and that’s the same situation for many babies who need a loving, adoptive family.” 

According to American Adoptions, there are roughly two million couples waiting to adopt a baby. That’s 36 couples waiting for every single child placed for adoption. Abortion isn’t a necessity when so many couples are waiting to love a child. Rose’s story has given her the strength and determination to advocate for life more nationally and in her community. Thanks to Rose, a baby was saved from abortion because the child’s mother chose life.  

“So many people can’t have their own children, so giving someone an opportunity to have a baby and give them a great life is the best possible option,” Rose continued by telling a personal story. “I have a friend who got pregnant in high school and wasn’t planning to. When she told me she was going to get an abortion, one thing I told her changed her mind:  

‘I could’ve been aborted. We could’ve never met.’  

Fast forward nine months later, and she and her baby are happy and healthy. My story has brought people help and allowed a baby to have an amazing life.” 

Both Rose and her brother have been loved by their adoptive parents their entire lives, but Rose always credits her birth mother for choosing life for her.  

“I’ve always been so thankful to my birth parents even though I don’t know them and know nothing about them,” expressed Rose. “I’m so thankful they gave my parents the opportunity to be parents.” 

As Rose prepares to graduate, she’s also preparing to use her story to inspire others to choose and protect life, as well as give the adoption perspective to abortion zealots’ narrative.