New York Times pro-life columnist Ross Douthat pitched an interesting idea this week:

WHAT happens to a modern society when abortion is restricted? This question is at the heart of the debate over Texas’s new abortion law, which bans abortions after 20 weeks and issues health regulations that could thin the ranks of state abortion clinics, making even first-trimester abortions harder to obtain….

Jivin J pointed to a New York Times article that fawned over “overnight sensation” Wendy Davis, a Democrat Texas state senator who is a big fan of late-term abortions.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg, according to Culture and Media Institute:

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• RH Reality Check has yet another post in which a child who was born alive and left to die in a dumpster is described as a “fetus.” Their Senior Legal Analyst Jessica Mason Pieklo has this description of local authorities prosecuting a woman who lied about her pregnancy after she left her child (born around 30 weeks gestation and breathing, according to the coroner) to die in a dumpster:
  

  The State of Indiana is prosecuting another woman for a failed pregnancy, this time charging a woman with felony neglect after a fetus was found in a dumpster. Prosecutors had originally considered charging the woman with feticide, like in the case of Bei Bei Shuai. Either way, the state has made it clear any pregnancy that does not result in a successful live birth will be viewed first and foremost as a probable crime, which is a terrifying reality for women in the state.

  However, this wasn’t a failed pregnancy and the reason the state didn’t charge her with feticide is because the child wasn’t a fetus. The evidence clearly suggests that Purvi Patel ordered abortion drugs online, took them, gave birth at her home, and then disposed of her 30-week child (who was born alive) in a dumpster. Pregnancies that don’t result in successful live births will only be viewed possible crimes if the mothers lie about their pregnancies and gestational ages, and toss their living children into dumpsters.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island vetoed a Choose Life license plate bill because he claims it violates the separation of church and state:
  

  Chafee wrote to lawmakers in his veto message that the function of a license plate is “to register and identify a motor vehicle.”

  “It is my belief that state participation in the transmission of funds to this organization would violate the separation of church and state, one of the fundamental principles upon which our state was founded,” he wrote.

So today’s the big day, the culmination of recent pro-life efforts in Texas to ban abortions after 20 weeks and enact stricter abortion industry regulations. From the Associated Press:

Of course, we can never really wake up to blue skies as long as the dark cloud of abortion hangs over us.

Nevertheless, yesterday brought lots of good news for the pro-life movement from many sides.

Don’t mess with Texas pro-lifers

First, last night the Texas House provisionally passed (formal ceremonial vote today) pro-life bills a pro-abortion mob previously blocked on June 25. The tally, 98-49, was four votes higher for our side than the vote taken after pro-abortion Rep. Wendy Davis’s filibuster. Sweet.

At the time of the vote, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards was inexplicably rallying in Houston, as if she forgot the state capital is Austin. Cecile turned from festive to angry after the vote, tweeting, “Tonight the TX House passed a bill that will take women back decades–and we’re not going,” adding this photo to scare us. She apparently missed the memo instructing late-term abortion supporters to wear orange. Click to enlarge…

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• At National Review, Michael J. New says that despite the media’s attempts to paint the views of Wendy Davis and abortion proponents as mainstream, they aren’t:
  

  The results of the National Journal poll indicate that 50 percent of women support the 20-week abortion ban. Similarly, individuals under 30 supported the ban by a 52-39 margin. Unfortunately, the media typically gives little attention to the demographic breakdown of abortion surveys. After all, they do not want to disrupt their narrative that young people and women support legal abortion.

One can assume I am also not the only woman in America who is really tiring of the Wendys of the world claiming to represent “women’s rights” in their quest to mainstream a medical procedure — elective late-term abortion — that most of the civilized world finds barbaric and abhorrent. In many European countries, you […]