747 - Peace & Life: War Crimes/SCOTUS & Pregnancy Centers - December 5, 2025
- Peace & Life Connections
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
War Crimes
To our minds, “war crimes” is a tautology, like wet water and round circles. Nevertheless, some who find war acceptable at times use the term when the situation gets too extreme.
With drone strikes on Venezuelan fishing vessels, military thinking allows for those if the boats were an immediate threat – but we know they weren’t. If they were carrying illegal drugs, that calls for police work, not mass murder. We have yet to be offered any evidence they were doing even that much. Attacking innocent fisherman is worse. But attacking survivors clinging to debris, as happened on September 2, is so bad that military rules forbid it. So even among some Republicans, this extreme is given the label “war crime,” calling for investigations.
The bad news is that these kinds of things are happening constantly. The good news is that we finally have a case where the media and some politicians are paying attention.
One of the victims was 42-year-old Colombian fisherman Alejandro Andres Carranza Medina, pictured in a photo courtesy of the Carranza family. His family has filed a formal complaint that he was murdered on September 15.
December 2nd Hearing:
SCOTUS Appears to Dislike Attacks on Pregnancy Resource Centers
When Alabama tried to shut down the NAACP by demanding the group’s records, a landmark 1958 U.S. Supreme Court case decided that forced disclosing was unconstitutional. Now the New Jersey Attorney General, Matthew Platkin, is trying the same trick with First Choice, a pregnancy resource center, on pretty much the same reasoning. No complaint had been filed against First Choice.
The Court held a hearing on December 2 in First Choice v. Platkin. Several media outlets, including SCOTUS Blog, reported their impression that a majority of the court seemed sympathetic to the pregnancy centers’ case.
Even the American Civil Liberties Union, while “advocating different policy outcomes than the plaintiff,” filed an amicus on their side in the case, since “investigatory subpoenas seeking sensitive information put all advocacy at risk.”
On the eve of arguments, thousands of people attended a webcast to explain the case; CLN was listed as a Webcast Partner. They played a streaming TV ad created our member group Feminists Choosing Life of New York. You can see the ad on on FCLNY’s home page.
More good news: The Washington Post has an Opinion by the Editorial Board that judges shouldn't interfere with Congressional policy about banning Medicaid funds to abortion providers.
The Latest on the Blog
Act II of last year’s movie Wicked is now out, entitled Wicked for Good. Rachel MacNair did a review of Act I called Making a Real Person of the Witch of the West. Here’s the review for the follow-up movie (Act II of the Broadway stage play):
Rosalyn Mitchell shares her recent experience focused on what it feels like to be a consistent-lifer in a society where that means defying the left-right spectrum:
Quote of the Week
Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times, November 8, 2025
[Trump] has expressed such outrage at attacks on Christians in Nigeria that he has threatened military intervention there, and the Pentagon has obligingly prepared plans for attack. Trump’s concern for Nigerians is welcome, but here’s the awkwardness: Trump’s aid cuts are killing far more Nigerian Christians than Islamic terrorists are . . .
So if Trump cares about Christians or anyone else in Nigeria, all he needs to do is restore aid and let babies live.
