Welcome to the TMS Weekly Dispatch for May 27, 2025—with the latest news and updates from the front line, to keep you in-the-know on all things Thomas More Society. We hope that you had a safe and commemorative Memorial Day. If you missed the last edition of the Dispatch, you may read it by clicking here.  

Here's a look back at the past week: 

VIRGINIA TOWN CAVES TO THOMAS MORE SOCIETY DEMAND LETTER: In last week’s Dispatch, we shared a demand letter penned by TMS Senior Counsel Steve Crampton to the town of Vinton, Virginia, requesting that the town permit a pro-life organization, Love Life, to use amplified sound on the public sidewalk while sidewalk counseling and sharing the pro-life message with abortion-minded women.  

We are pleased to share that Vinton has acquiesced to our request for the town to restore Love Life’s First Amendment rights, clarifying public right-of-way boundaries and allowing Love Life to continue using amplification devices as part of their pro-life ministry.  

TMS SENIOR COUNSEL MICHAEL MCHALE HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING ABORTION PILL REVERSAL IN THE FEDERALIST: An op-ed published last week by TMS Senior Counsel Michael McHale in The Federalist adds an important element to the national conversation surrounding the chemical abortion pill, namely, the critical need to protect Abortion Pill Reversal even as pro-abortion politicians seek to deny women of this lifesaving option.  

From Michael’s opinion piece:  

If the pro-abortion lawfare against APR succeeds, pregnancy centers that serve countless women in need — providing free ultrasounds, counseling, diapers, parenting classes, and more — could be fined, investigated, and sued into oblivion. Women will lose life-affirming options and be forced to go through with abortions they no longer want. The First Amendment will be left frayed, empowering the state to silence disfavored speech and suppress the truth about APR.

No woman should be forced to complete an abortion she no longer wants. The latest data on the dangers of the abortion pill underscores the need to protect APR and stop the ideological lawfare that seeks to deprive mothers and their babies of a second chance at life. 

Read the full article, here.  

THOMAS MORE SOCIETY STRONGLY OPPOSES PROPOSED ILLINOIS ‘ASSISTED SUICIDE’ BILL: For years, Illinois has been considering ‘assisted suicide’ legislation, and in the past legislative session, this horrific program has been proposed as Senate Bill 9 and HB 1328—both of which have stalled. Now, pro-assisted death politicians in the Illinois General Assembly are hurrying through this legislation, hoping to pass it before the end of the legislative session this weekend.  

What’s more shocking, to fast track the bill, legislators have snuck the assisted suicide language into a food preparation sanitation bill, gutting this “shell bill”—Senate Bill 1950—and adding a new amendment that transforms it into the lawmaker’s new vehicle to push through legalized assisted suicide: “Medical aid in dying is part of general medical care and complements other end-of-life options, such as comfort care, pain control, palliative care, and hospice care...”  

This amendment is not only concerning as a matter of ethics and a threat to the fundamental right to life, but it also presents dilemmas for conscience rights—especially for doctors and other healthcare providers who take the mandate “Do No Harm” seriously. In fact, the proposed law, as it is written, would require that pro-life physicians refer patients seeking assisted suicide to another professional willing to “qualify” the patient for it. As new amendment to SB 1950 states:  

If a health care professional or health care entity is unable or unwilling to carry out an individual’s request for aid in dying, the professional or entity shall, at a minimum:  

(1) inform the individual of the professional’s or entity’s inability or unwillingness;  
(2) refer the individual either to a health care professional who is able and willing to evaluate and qualify the individual or to another individual or entity to assist in seeking aid in dying, in accordance with the Health Care Right of Conscience Act... [emphasis added]

TMS attorneys continue to closely monitor this legislation, and in the case of its passage, are exploring legal avenues to challenge the law, including how best to protect pro-life healthcare providers from being forced against their conscience to participate in the killing of vulnerable patients under the guise of a false conception of “dignity” and “mercy.”

If you live in Illinois, we encourage you to make your pro-life voice heard by filing a witness slip on the Illinois General Assembly page by filling out the form here.  

‘REPEAL FACE’ BILL UNDERGOES MARKUP IN CONGRESS: Last Wednesday, lawmakers marked up House Resolution 598, the ‘FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025’, which would completely repeal the 1994 FACE Act—a federal law that was always intended to target pro-life advocates, and was weaponized by the Biden-Harris Administration to especially target pro-life Americans like TMS clients Paul Vaughn, Lauren Handy, and Mark Houck.  

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