A woman nurse in Texas has been ordered by President Biden’s Department of Veterans Affairs to assist in performing abortions or she will lose her job. Another woman in Birmingham, England has been arrested for silently praying outside an abortion clinic and may go to prison.

The Texan woman sued the VA in December and the English woman was arrested in December.

The Texan nurse, Stephanie Carter, is a Christian who has been working at the VA for 23 years. She sued after the VA issued its mandate on September 9. Her lawsuit says she “cannot perform, prescribe, or counsel for abortion services because of her sincerely held religious beliefs that unborn babies are created in the image of God and should be protected.”

Even though the VA is supposed to honor requests for a religious exemption, it denied Carter her request. “Once again,” her lawyer said, “the Biden administration seems ignorant of the law, or just doesn’t care.”

The English woman, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, is a Christian who was charged with four counts of breaking the Public Space Protection Order. The order prevents people from “influencing,” “advising,” “persuading,” “informing,” “occupying space,” or “expressing opinion” near an abortion facility. She did none of these things. She did not carry signs or placards and she never spoke to anyone. Her crime was to silently pray.

Vaughan-Spruce has been barred from praying outside abortion clinics and could be sentenced to two years behind bars. “My faith is a central part of who I am, so sometimes I’ll stand or walk near an abortion facility and pray about this issue. This is something I’ve done pretty much every week for around the last 20 years of my life,” she said.

These two incidents prove that the pro-abortion forces in the West not only promote violence in the womb, they use the law as a weapon to destroy the free speech and religious liberty rights of pro-life persons. This is demonic.

The due process rights of priests have long been a problem, and the latest case to demonstrate this verity proves just how serious the problem is.

In August 2019, an accuser came forward charging Fr. Robert Cedolia, a Pittsburgh priest, with sexual abuse in 1998; the alleged victim was 8-years-old at the time. The priest was accused of fondling the boy twice during a two week period, and both incidents allegedly occurred during the preparatory sessions for the boy’s first Holy Communion. Cedolia denied the accusations.

Cedolia was immediately removed from ministry and told to move off of diocesan property.

The diocesan Independent Review Board then began an investigation. Two years later, the panel found the charges against Cedolia to be without merit. During this period, the accuser never went to the cops.

However, in June 2021, once the diocese found the priest not guilty, the accuser decided to file criminal charges against him.

On November 14, 2022, Cedolia, 71, was found not guilty of all the charges.

One reason why the jury did not find the priest guilty is the fact that he was able to prove that there was only one Communion practice that year. Moreover, a video shows the interaction between the two parties, and it was routine.

In other words, the priest was immediately removed from ministry—before any evidence of wrongdoing—and it took two years before he was cleared by the diocese. Lots of questions remain.

Why did the accuser wait two years before going to the cops? Why did he wait until the diocese rendered its decision? What was he looking to get? Why did he field an attorney from Texas to do his bidding? Why did he obtain a lawyer before first filing criminal charges against the priest?

If the diocese had found Cedolia guilty, or if the panel was not entirely convinced, one way or the other, the accuser stood to rake in big bucks in a settlement. According to the priest, his accuser came forward only after he learned this could prove to be a cash cow.

“He did it for purposes of leverage—period,” said Cedolia. “End of story.” It’s hard to disagree with that assessment.

Those guilty of sexually abusing minors should have the book thrown at them. But the Catholic Church should not have due process strictures for priests that are any different than those afforded the employees of any other organization. This absurd condition is a result of the Dallas Charter, the reform document issued by the bishops’ conference in 2002.

In his book, The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse, Bill Donohue recounts how this event unfolded, questioning the ethics behind a policy that removes an accused priest from ministry on the basis of a “credible” accusation. As Father Thomas Guarino, a Seton Hall professor, put it, “almost every accusation is deemed ‘credible’ unless the accused can prove that thirty years ago (and most accusations are from decades long past) he was on a different continent when the alleged abuse occurred.”

It is not a sign of virtue that the Catholic Church treats priests as guilty until proven innocent. It is a sign of injustice.

By the way, Fr. Cedolia has yet to be reinstated. He has to await a verdict by the Vatican.

He must have the fortitude of a martyr and the patience of a saint.

December 8 was Trevor Noah’s last episode of “The Daily Show.” He will go down as one of the most vulgar and bigoted comedians in television history. We went after him many times—including going right to his bosses—and we got him to hit the pause button. But then he would start up again. Here is a small selection of his bigoted remarks.

June 27, 2016—After Noah made some humorous and inoffensive jokes about the pope’s quips aboard the papal plane, he referred to the pontiff as that “mother******.”

March 26, 2019—While commenting on the pope not wanting people to kiss his ring, Noah stated that “it’s a nice change of pace to see a priest not want to touch people.”

June 11, 2019—While commenting on the Vatican’s teachings on gender ideology, Noah stated that “the Catholic Church thinks that if you’re a girl, you’re a girl forever, and if you’re a boy, they are going to f*** you.” He then made several jokes about “pedophile priests.”

March 9, 2020—While commenting on Covid-19 restrictions, Noah stated that “it’s going to be hard to take Communion seriously when the priest has to throw wafers into people’s open mouths from across the room, the Body of Christ—from downtown!”

March 16, 2021—While commenting on the Jesuits providing reparations to African-Americans, Noah mocked the Sacrament of Baptism by calling it “waterboarding babies.” The comic went on to do a skit where he impersonates a priest offering money to a black man “for owning [his] great-grandfather.” Noah then takes on the role of the black man and replies that “I thought this was for you guys touching us when we were kids.”