(upbeat newsroom music)
(women chanting)
- [John] Abortion across America.
As some states push more extreme measures,
the Supreme Court delivers ablow to the pro-life movement.
- Everything that we did early in the day
was a complete waste of time.
- [John] Heated testimony on Capitol Hill
as the acting attorneygeneral answers questions
from the new Democratic majority
on a powerful House committee.
(camera shutter clicking repeatedly)
And we sit down with the woman tasked
with improving Medicaidand Medicare for Americans.
All this and more tonight on Faith Nation.
(upbeat music)
- Supreme Court stops apro-life law in Louisiana.
Welcome to Faith Nation, I'm John Jessup.
And I'm Jenna Browder.
The high court ruling essentiallyplaces a temporary hold
on a restrictive abortion measure
from taking effect in Louisiana,
and while the justices they
are determining whether or not they
will hear arguments ofthe law the next session.
- It comes just days afterPresident Trump spoke
about unborn children beingmade in the image of God
in a State of the Union speech.
George Thomas has the story.
- Late Thursday in whatwas a significant test
of the Supreme Court's newly strengthened
conservative majority, thejustices ruled five to four
to temporarily block aLouisiana abortion law
from taking effect today.
Chief Justice John Robertsjoined the four liberal justices
to prevent a law that wouldrequire abortion doctors
to have admitting privilegesat nearby hospitals.
(people cheering and applauding)
The ruling comes after Democrats
in New York shocked millionsof Americans by passing a law
that makes abortion legaleven up to the point of birth,
the state's governor hailing it
as the most aggressivewomen's rights achievement
in the nation.
- This administrationdefies American evolution.
We're supposed to be moving forward.
We're supposed to be advancing.
We're supposed to live and learn.
We're supposed to be growing.
- [George] Democrats in Virginia tried
to pass a similar law but failed.
The New Mexico House has passed a bill
that would make abortion legal
throughout all nine months of a pregnancy
if Roe V Wade is overturned.
If the State Senate passes it,
the Democratic governorsays she'll sign it.
In Vermont, lawmakersthere want to pass a bill
that critics say would makeabortion an absolute right
for any reason.
It's all part of an aggressive campaign
by abortion advocatesand groups like NARAL
and others who want tosignificantly expand access
to abortion in states whereDemocrats won last fall.
President Trump and GOPlawmakers are pushing back.
- To defend the dignity of every person,
I am Congress to pass legislation
to prohibit the late-term abortion
(applause and cheers erupt)of children
who can feel pain in the mother's womb.
- [George] While Trump's call for a ban
on late-term abortions isunlikely to happen in Congress,
Republican legislators inseveral states like Florida,
Kentucky, Ohio, SouthCarolina, and Tennessee
are campaigning for tougheranti-abortion measures,
like the Heartbeat Lawthat would ban abortions
after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Meanwhile, HouseRepublicans want legislation
that would require mandatory medical care
for late-term abortions where the fetus
is alive outside the mother's womb.
- I wanna ask mothers across this country
to join with us to makesure that we don't see
our maternity wards turnedinto killing fields.
- [George] And whileDemocrats in more states try
to introduce far-reachingabortion rights bills,
polls show the public isagainst such measures.
While 60% of Americans believe abortion
should be legal in the firstthree months of pregnancy,
only 28% support abortionin the second trimester.
And that number plummets to just 13%
for abortions during the third trimester.
George Thomas, CBN News.
- Well, Catherine Glenn Foster
of American's United forLife joins us now for more.
Catherine, thanks for being here.
- Thanks for having me, it's my pleasure.
- Justice Roberts, of course,
known for being a conservative.
I think this latest rulingin the Louisiana case
took a lot of people by surprise.
Is this something that we can expect
to see more of from the Supreme Court?
- One thing that wefound really interesting
at American's United for Life is
that this was a very narrow ruling,
it was a five four decision,and that Justice Kavanaugh
actually went with Justices Alito, Thomas.
We saw that the conservative block there
would have dissented and diddissent from this decision.
So, while the Chief Justice did decide
to go with the court'smore liberal members,
at this point, being alittle bit coy, perhaps,
we do know that we're making progress
because we do have Justice Kavanaugh
on the conservative side on this issue.
- Yeah, this is a temporary stay
for a law that would'vetaken effect this week.
Could the court come backwith a more lasting decision
on abortion laws, andwhen would that happen?
- That could happen at any time.
This is a temporary stay.
It will automaticallyexpire at some point,
whether the case is not timely appealed,
whether the court makes a final decision
and says no, this is a constitutional law,
this is perfectly fine.
And what this law does,it's important to remember,
is ensure that doctors whoare performing abortions
have admitting privilegesat a local hospital.
It's a common sense healthand safety regulation ensuring
that, in fact, when women areharmed or injured by abortion,
that they're able to havea seamless transfer here.
So it's common sense,it's about women's health
and safety, and it's important.
So we believe that the Supreme Court
will ultimately find thatthis law is constitutional.
- Yeah, a law in New York, of course,
we've heard a lot about this one,
legalizes abortion upuntil the moment of birth.
In Virginia, they wereconsidering the same idea,
other states as well, New Mexico.
Is there a push, would you say,
in this country right now forexpanding abortion rights?
- The abortion activists whoare working in the states
along these lines, theyare Johnny Come Latelies.
They are doing everything they can
in the states that they seeas being vulnerable to this
because they see that thedemise or Roe is imminent.
But the pro-life movementhas been in the states
for decades since before Roe V Wade.
We've had nearly 500 victories
in the last several years alone
just working state by state, law by law,
to ensure that there's protections
for mothers and for unbornchildren on the books.
And so we're seeingtremendous progress there,
and so that's where we expectto continue to see progress.
That's where we want to see progress
through the Democraticprocess as opposed to simply
through the Supreme Courtand nine unelected judges.
- Yeah, but when you dosee these things happening
in New York and New Mexico and Virginia
and different places,is it not discouraging?
- It is definitely discouraging.
It's one of those thingsthat's disappointing
but not surprising.
It's the states that we know would be
on the more liberal, onthe more pro-abortion side
after Roe does fall.
And just to see them enshrining abortion
even more thoroughly into law,
enshrining it as a right in their states,
it's extremely discouraging,it's heartbreaking.
It's something that we are working
on the ground day in and dayout to fight back against.
But we're still winning, so you just try
to keep that balance sothere is still that hope even
as we see these really discouraging pushes
within some of these states.
- Yeah, 13% of Americanssupport this late-term abortion.
It is widely unpopular.
Well, Catherine GlennFoster, thank you so much.
It's great to have you.
- Thanks for having me.
- Lawmakers now have one week to come up
with a funding compromisebefore the country faces
another potential partialgovernment shutdown.
The president has remained steadfast
in his demand for moneyto build a border wall.
And, although she hasvowed no money for a wall,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also
is insisting that therewon't be another shutdown.
For more, we now turn to ourCapitol Hill correspondent,
Abigail Robertson.
Abigail, where do thenegotiations stand now?
- Well, the Washington Postreported this afternoon
that they had sources tellthem that there is two billion
in this conferencecommittee compromise bill,
but Democrats have alreadyrefuted that saying
that the negotiations are ongoing
and they do not want togo above that $1.6 billion
for a physical barrier at the wall.
Now the bill was supposedto be ready this afternoon;
that's what Speaker Pelosihad originally requested.
But the conferees asked for more time,
so we're expecting to see thatcompromise bill by Monday.
But I spoke to one of theconference committee members,
a Democrat from Texas,Congressman Henry Cuellar,
and he told me that he believes
that they will eventually find something
that can pass both the House and Senate.
Take a look.
- I fell cautiouslyoptimistic that we can do it.
We have to find a balancebetween our neighbor
to the south and, at the same time,
not only to our neighbor of south
that trade in tourism but have security.
And I feel very confidentthat if we put the technology,
the personnel, find, andI'll say this as a Democrat,
find ways to do someenhanced physical barriers,
we can get there.
Now, again, we don't know whatnumber they're working on,
what the final numberfor a physical barrier.
Even if it is twobillion, that's still far
below the five billion thatPresident Trump has requested.
- Now, Abby, in the leadup to the last shutdown,
Nancy Pelosi and PresidentTrump were directly involved.
Why aren't they as involvedin this round of negotiations?
- Well, lawmakers from both sides
of the aisle have asked them to stand down
from being a part of these negotiations.
And, for the most part, they have.
They've been letting theconference committee do their work
without having a lot of comments or tweets
about what's going on.
But I don't expect, once thisbill is finally released,
hopefully on Monday, Idon't expect either one
of them to stay quiet for much longer.
- Well, Abby, somefederal workers went weeks
without being paidduring the last shutdown.
And I understand some who were set
to receive back pay stillhaven't seen that money.
Is that right?
- Mm-hmm, yes.
What we're hearing is that it's a mess.
There are some federal workers
who have not been paid yet ortheir amounts have been wrong,
especially those who worked overtime.
There's been a lot of troublewith getting them the amounts
that they're owed for the overtime.
I spoke with someone this afternoon,
and she told me that she gother two back pay paychecks,
and they were short about $400.
And then in her paycheck today,they had that $400 included,
but then they had overpaid her.
And she said that this was the case
for many of her coworkersthat she works with.
So it really, right now,seems like it's a mess.
And, again, the shutdownwas pretty unexpected,
so they were not ready.
The National Finance Center wasnot quite prepared for this.
It's 35 days, and they had just a few days
to give about 800,000 federalworkers their back pay
and their paychecks,and it's not surprising
that there's many errorsand, not to mention,
there's a lot of anxietyfrom these federal employees
who aren't sure if they're gonna have
to deal with another shutdownby the end of next week.
So there's definitely a lot of confusion,
and hopefully they'llget it sorted out soon.
- That's right, a lot of tough times
for both the federalworkers and contractors.
Abigail Robertson onCapitol Hill, thanks Abby.
- Mm-hmm.
- Well, there was considerabletension today on Capitol Hill
as acting AttorneyGeneral Matthew Whitaker
faced tough questions beforethe House Judiciary Committee.
CBN White House CorrespondentBen Kennedy joins us now
for more on that story.
Ben, a lot of the testimony today,
it centered around theRussia investigation.
- Yeah, Jen, and no doubt you're right.
Acting Attorney GeneralMatthew Whitaker made it clear
that he did not discuss the Russia probe
with President Trump.
With that being said, itdid not stop lawmakers
from asking about it over and over again.
- Have you communicatedany information you learned
in that briefing to President Trump?
- [Ben] Democrats took aim at Whitaker,
hoping to get insightinto the Russia probe.
- Sorry--- It's a yes or no question.
Have you communicated anything you learned
in that briefing about theinvestigation to President Trump?
Yes or no?
- I do not intend today to talk
about my private conversations
with the President of the United States.
But to answer yourquestion, I have not talked
to the President of the United States
about the Special Counsel's investigation.
- [Ben] The questioning centered
around Whitaker's conversations
with White House officials, the president,
and his role in the Mueller investigation.
- Did Rod Rosenstein give theSpecial Counsel the authority
to investigate specific Americans?
- So yes, under the SpecialCounsel regulations,
that's the whole purpose.
- [Ben] The showdown evengot a bit heated at times.
- In your capacities asacting Attorney General,
have you ever been askedto approve any requests
or action to be takenby the Special Counsel?
- Mr. Chairman, I see thatyou're five minutes is up.
- Mr. Attorney General,we're not joking here,
and your humor is not acceptable.
- [Ben] The House Intel Committee
is also launching an investigation
into the president, his family,
his finances, and possible Russia ties.
The Commander in Chieflashed out on Twitter,
calling it presidential harassment.
When Whitaker was appointed acting AG,
Democrats called for him to recuse himself
from the Mueller probe becausehe criticized it in the past.
He tried to make clear his decision not
to step away has caused any issues.
- I have not interfered in any way
with the Special Counsel's investigation.
- Very good, thank you.
My time is expired.
- Now when talking about border security,
Whitaker did say there is a connection
between drugs at the southernborder and the opioid crisis,
and Whitaker is also thefirst cabinet official
to appear before this Congress this year.
John, Jenna?
- Certainly a testy exchange.
Now, even as of yesterday,it was still a question
if Whitaker would even appear to testify.
Talk a little about what madehim go before the panel today.
- Yeah, John, it was unclear if Whitaker
would even show up until late Thursday.
Now, he did agree only afterthe Judiciary Committee
dropped the threat of a subpoena.
- All right, White HouseCorrespondent Ben Kennedy.
Thanks, Ben.- Thanks.
- Well, coming up, how this woman
is making it her mission to make Medicaid
and Medicare better for all Americans.
(upbeat music)
The US government says America spends
about $3.5 trillion on healthcare.
That's more than $10,000per American according
to the latest figures.
And that number continuesto rise each year.
It's an issue President Trump highlighted
in his State of theUnion address this week.
- The next major priority for me
and for all of us shouldbe to lower the cost
of healthcare and prescription drugs
and to protect patients withpre-existing conditions.
(chamber applauds and cheers)
- And as lawmakers debatethe future of healthcare,
the woman in charge ofMedicaid and Medicare
is trying to improve the services
under the laws still in place.
- Here again is Abigail Robertson
with a report on new updatesthat could affect you.
- After President Trumpnominated Seema Verma
as the Administrator forMedicare and Medicaid Services,
she knew moving from the private
to public sector would be a challenge.
Yet she wanted to help her country
and even made the decision to commute
each week between Indiana and DC
to oversee multi-billion-dollarprograms utilized
by 130 million Americans.
- Saw some of the things thatwere going on in healthcare
and realized that our country was going
in the wrong direction on healthcare.
- [Abigail] One of the firstthings she wanted to tackle:
patient confusion.
- You don't have theinformation that you need
in terms of how much arethings going to cost,
you don't know about the quality,
and you don't have your medical records.
I think there's a lot of confusion.
- [Abigail] Verma wants to give patients
the necessary informationto make the best decisions
about their healthcarethrough an initiative
called the Blue Button2.0, or My Healthy Data.
- The federal governmentspent some $36 billion
on investing in doctors and hospitals
having electronic medical records,
and I think that's exciting.
But what happened in that is
that all the information is siloed.
It stayed in your doctor's office.
So before, it was a filing cabinet,
and, right now, it's an electronic silo
right inside the computer.
- [Abigail] Verma told CBN News
how a personal emergency brought her face
to face with this issue.
- I get on the phone with the paramedics,
and they said yourhusband's not breathing.
Is he on any medications?
What's his healthcare background?
- [Abigail] Information Verma didn't have.
- It was a very difficult moment,
just there's so much going on,
the panic of not being with my kids
and wondering what was going on with him.
For the medical professionalsthat were treating him,
they didn't have theinformation that they needed
to be able to diagnose him.
- [Abigail] While her husband recovered,
they still had to jump throughhoops to get his information.
- When I left the hospital,they gave me essentially a CDROM
and they said, here's hishealthcare information.
- [Abigail] In today'stech world, however,
many computers won'teven read CDROMs anymore.
- I think the big issue was that a lot
of the information wasn'teven on what they gave me.
And so there's all thisinformation about him
that's trapped at the hospital.
- [Abigail] Verma says this lack
of access is especiallydifficult for patients
who move or see multiplehealthcare providers.
- We're working on an initiative
to make it very clear to providers
that that data and thatinformation belongs to the patient.
It is theirs, and we wanna make sure that
when we leave the providers,they have that information.
- [Abigail] Under Verma,
the Centers for Medicare andMedicaid Services, or CMS,
is requiring providersto share this information
with patients or face penalties.
Verma believes that willnot only save time and money
but could lead researchersto find breakthroughs.
- 'Cause it's really going to give rise
to the type of innovation that we've seen
in the American healthcare system,
but I think it's going to bringit to a much higher level.
- What has the response been from some
of the patients who are trying this?
- Well, I think peopleare excited about it.
We hear stories all the time.
I remember talking to some of our staff,
saying I'm going to a new doctor,
and the doctor asked for allof my healthcare information.
She's like, I don't have time for this
to go around to every doctorasking for information.
And with this type oftool, she should be able
to aggregate all of that information.
- [Abigail] Verma tellsCBN News they have more
than 1,000 app developers working
to make this data moreuser friendly for patients.
And she believes thisprogram will continue,
no matter which partycontrols the White House.
- I think this is something that we
have heard from both sides of the aisle
about how important this is.
And it's important on somany different dimensions.
- [Abigail] Althoughhealthcare negotiations
are moving slow on Capitol Hill,
Verma is trying to make thebest of her current authority.
- From my perspective, I'm gonna focus on
what I can control.
That's one of life's lessons to focus
on the things that you can do.
We always stand readyto work with Congress
if they wanna make changesand to provide them
with the support as they consider changes.
But in the meantime, Idon't wanna stand still,
and I wanna do everything that I can
to make sure that healthcareis working for every American.
- [Abigail] That means working
toward the constant goal oflowering healthcare costs
and making sure Medicare andMedicaid are sustainable.
And what has yourexperience been like working
in the Trump administration?
- For me, it's exciting to be here
because we are with anadministration and a president
that isn't afraid ofdisrupting the status quo
on behalf of the American people.
And that's what I likeabout the administration,
is that it's all aboutit's okay to be disruptive.
The status quo isn't working
for so many different Americans.
And so the idea here is to be bold
and make changes that aregonna have a lasting impact
to improve healthcare for our country.
- Verma believes the changes happening
at CMS can have an impact felt
throughout the entire healthcare system.
Reporting from Washington,Abigail Robertson, CBN News.
(whoosh)
- [Jenna] All right, when we come back,
remembering the life of onerabbi who helped bridge the gap
between Christians andJews around the world.
(upbeat music)
Israel and the world lost a champion
of Jewish Christian relations this week.
- That's right, RabbiYechiel Eckstein, founder
of the International Fellowshipof Christians and Jews,
was laid to rest Thursday.
- John Waage brings usthe story from Jerusalem.
- [John] Hundreds came to pay tribute
to the man known as theultimate bridge builder.
Mourners included USAmbassador David Friedman
and former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat.
- He was a man whounderstood the true hardships
and challenges that exist for us
and the distress in the state of Israel,
and how to open the heartsof millions of donors
around the world.
- [John] Rabbi Eckstein started
the International Fellowshipof Christians and Jews
in 1983.
Since then, it's raised more than one
and a half billion dollarsto help Jews in Israel,
the former Sovet Union, Latin America,
and more than 58 other countries.
- I think from the very beginning,
I remember when my brother went out
to Chicago for the march in Skokie.
It's the first start, thestart of anti-Semitism
in a different way in America.
And the partners he found werethe evangelical Christians.
- [John] Eckstein's daughter Yael carries
on the family legacy as theGlobal Executive Vice President.
- There's one specific gift, Abba,
which is the greatest giftI have received from you.
It's the commitment to hold family
over everything else in the world.
- [John] Eckstein's youngerbrother Beryl told CBN News
that the more he saw his brother's work,
the more he understood and loved it.
- Wherever Yechiel went, it was a bond,
especially with Pat Robertson,
who was such an influenceon Yechiel's life.
And I think Yechiel was on his.
That love, that shared mission,
was something that I andmy whole family cherish.
- [John] Eckstein pursued three goals:
build bridges between Christians and Jews;
deepen Christian understandingof the Jewish roots
of their faith; anddevelop a practical way
to help the Jewish people and Israel.
Rabbi Eckstein is survivedby his wife Joelle,
three daughters, and eight grandchildren.
- The memory I always haveof my brother is him praying.
And whenever I was weak,he was always there
to hold my hands.
- [John] John Waage, CBN News, Jerusalem.
- And for more on thelife of Rabbi Eckstein,
you can tune into thisweek's Jerusalem Dateline.
You can find that tonight at 9:30 eastern
on the CBN News channel.
- All right, well that is going to do it
for Faith Nation tonight.
Have a great weekend.
(upbeat, bright music)
