"A prince stands in the way": Liechtenstein royal blocks abortion

Greetings, all!

A few columns for you this weekend. The first is good news from Liechtenstein, a tiny country between Switzerland and Germany that protects children in the womb. Abortion activists are trying to legalize abortion there An excerpt:

As abortion activist Gabriella Alvarez-Hummel put it grimly in the Guardian, there is still one insurmountable problem: “A prince is standing in the way.”

In a column published August 3, Alvarez-Hummel writes, “It should be a done deal. But no matter what the people say: the hereditary prince has already announced that he would veto any change in the law, long before a single vote has been cast.” As she noted, Prince Alois had previously only threatened to use his royal veto a single time: In 2011, when a proposal to legalize abortion was last put to referendum.

Read the whole thing: “Ruling prince of Liechenstein vows to veto abortion referendum.”

In Canada, Bill C-9 is already having a chilling effect on free speech. An excerpt:

After a decade of Liberal government, the slow erosion of freedom of speech has escalated. The latest example of this comes from the Edmonton Police. An X post last week included a link urging people to “report online hate” with the message: “You typed it. Someone lived it. Online hate isn’t ‘just a comment.’ It hurts real people and harms real communities. Hate has no home here.”

Read the whole thing: “‘Hate speech’ law already having a chilling effect in Canada.”

Some good news from Canada for a change: “Canadian politician must pay Christian group $30k for canceling their event over pro-life views.”

At WORLD magazine, I have a series on inspiring Christian stories from American history for the 250th anniversary of the United States. The first is on the little-known relationship between the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Charles Spurgeon: “The Lion of Anacostia and the Prince of Preachers.”

Finally, my analysis of a grim scene that played out in Massachussets earlier this week. An excerpt:

There are scenes that sum up the sickness of an era, and we saw one of them unfold in the office of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey on Monday.

She was at her desk, surrounded by beaming women. There was flashing and the sound of camera shutters; the governor bent over and signed a document. She nodded as the women broke out into laughter and applause. “Thank you,” she said. She handed out the pens she used to sign the document as souvenirs so that the triumphant spectators could remember and relish the moment.

The momentous event was Governor Healy’s signing of the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, which eliminated one of the state’s last remaining abortion laws. Previously, abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy was restricted to a handful of instances, including to “preserve the life of the patient” or the patient’s “physical or mental health,” the likelihood that the child would not survive long outside the womb, or a “lethal fetal anomaly.” Now, abortion is legal until birth.

Read the whole thing: “The joy of killing babies.”