North Carolina legislators, along with Governor Pat McCrory, intend to overrule the Gay/Transgender Agenda ordinance that passed this week 7-to-4 in the Charlotte City Council, which takes effect on April Fool's Day.
“The Charlotte City Council has gone against all common sense and has created a major public safety issue by opening all bathrooms and changing rooms to the general public. I join my conservative colleagues and Governor McCrory in exploring legislative intervention to correct this radical course." -- Tim Moore, Speaker, North Carolina House of Representatives
The Charlotte City Council expanded the city's nondiscrimination ordinance late on Monday to add protections for marital and familial status, sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity.
State House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican, said he would consider legislation to block the measure, which some critics fear would allow sexual predators to gain access to women's bathrooms.
Charlotte was one of the largest U.S. cities without a law explicitly protecting the LGBT community from discrimination, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group based in Washington. The revised law takes effect on April 1.
[Gov.] McCrory, a former mayor of Charlotte, said changing restroom rules could "create major public safety issues."
About 140 members of the public got one minute each to offer their opinions to the Charlotte City Council before Monday's vote. The council chambers were filled to capacity, and some speakers had to await their time outside.
Several hundred people stood outside in a wind-driven rain to protest, holding signs saying "No Men In Women's Restrooms" and "Keep Kids Safe."
Chris Williams, a 30-year-old father of three, passed out "No" stickers to the crowd, saying most Charlotte residents "stand with religious values."
Conservative activists have called on lawmakers to pass legislation to protect what they say are the religious rights . . .
When the ordinance goes into effect, a baker would no longer be able to refuse to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Other vendors would have to cater LGBT events, even if it is against their religious beliefs.
The city couldn’t revoke a business license if someone violated the ordinance. But it could seek an injunction that would force a business to comply.
If only the bathroom provision were removed, the other protections would stay, including those for transgender individuals.
A year ago, council members voted to remove the bathroom provision from the ordinance. But two council members, John Autry and LaWana Mayfield, voted against that version of the ordinance out of principle. They said they wouldn’t leave some members of the LGBT community behind.
As LGBT activists around the U.S. turn their attention toward expanding rights for transgender Americans, they have met growing opposition from lawmakers in conservative states who have repeatedly focused on bathrooms.
Forty-four bills that limit bathroom and locker room use or allow business owners to deny service to transgender people are currently under consideration in 16 states, according to a report released Monday by the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT advocacy group.
The City Council first deliberated over a package of LGBT protections in March 2015 . . . But in the next local election, last November, the Human Rights Campaign and other advocacy groups got involved and helped elect two new council members who supported protections for transgender people.
"I think it's just inappropriate," Republican Sen. David Curtis, who represents a district outside Charlotte, told the Lincoln Times-News. "We have rules in our society and that's just one of the rules in our society. This liberal group is trying to redefine everything about our society. Gender and marriage — just the whole liberal agenda."
"Shame on Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and the city council members" for passing the ordinance, [Billy Graham Evangelistic Association president Franklin] Graham wrote Tuesday, after the vote on the measure, which also says businesses can't discriminate against gay, lesbian or transgender customers and applies to places of public accommodation, such as bars, restaurants, stores as well as taxis.
If the ordinance were put to a vote in Charlotte, "I'm sure it would be overwhelmingly defeated by Democrats and Republicans alike," Graham wrote, praising council members Ed Driggs, Claire Fallon, Greg Phipps and Kenny Smith who voted "No."
"Are people just not thinking clearly? This law would allow pedophiles, perverts, and predators into women's bathrooms. This is wicked and it's filthy. To think that my granddaughters could go into a restroom and a man be in there exposing himself … what are we setting our children and grandchildren up for? There's not a public restroom in Charlotte that would be safe!"
Graham added that Charlotte's mayor and the supporting City Council members have perhaps "succumbed to the pressures from depraved sexual activists and are willing to put women and girls at risk like this."
Federal bureaucrats closed Washington D.C. on Friday in the face of the deadly winter weather front closing in on the city, but tens of thousands of citizens braved the weather in D.C. for the 43rd annual March for Life to denounce the deadly politics of Roe v. Wade that is responsible for killing scores of millions of unborn children. The national mainstream media was virtually absent the event and only one 2016 presidential candidate showed up — a woman!
“The establishment media and political class don’t want us to talk about what the abortion industry is doing. You saw what happened when I talked about the horrific truth of the planned parenthood videos during a Republican debate. Unlike the media, you’ve watched the videos. You’ve seen an aborted baby, it’s legs kicking, it’s heart beating while the technician describes how they would keep these babies alive to harvest their organs.” -- Carly Fiorina, Republican presidential candidate, at the March for Life
With much of the D.C. region in the midst of complete shut-down frenzy – grocery and sled stores were packed, though downtown D.C. was quiet — for what is predicted to be a historic snow storm, city officials had suggested to the March for Life organizers that they prioritize participants’ safety – what sounded like a hint to cancel. But actual snow held off for the first hour or so of the event, giving protesters a chance to rally at the foot of the Washington Monument, before the temperatures plunged and the snow began to fall as the march up to the Supreme Court began.
The overall scene was dramatically smaller than normal, with usually-crowded sidewalks and lawns all along the Mall instead dotted with protesters, including nuns and priests in their garb and packs of Catholic school students holding signs and wearing hats that matched their group. Evangelical leaders made a concerted effort this year to bring their activists to what is traditionally a strongly Catholic event and several national evangelical leaders spoke from the stage to the rally.
Among those in the crowd was Richard Stith, 71, an Indiana law professor who called himself a part of a segment he dubbed “lefties for life” — Catholics whom he said support issues like the death penalty and LGBT rights as part of “a consistent ethic for life.” He said he had been a member of a group called Socialists for Life as well and always felt welcome at the march.
Tens of thousands of the movement’s faithful — made up largely of high school and college students outfitted in matching jackets, scarves or hats — took to the streets to protest on the 43rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
Event organizers also took notice [of the youthful demographic], passing out signs proclaiming the arrival of the “Pro-Life Generation.”
“A lot of us are young people — the pro-life generation — who care about life from womb to tomb,” said Victor Esposito, 20, who was with a group of students from Catholic University of America wearing red embroidered scarves.
“There’s come this recognition that as more and more science and technology comes out, we begin to recognize that life really does start at conception,” he added.
The theme of the March, “Pro-life and pro-women go hand in hand,” sought to emphasize the gender diversity of the anti-abortion-rights movement, challenging the narrative that opposition to abortion constitutes a “war on women.”
In her trademark pointed and articulate style, Fiorina launched an attack on abortion rights and the groups that promote them . . . "You can scream and throw condoms at me all day long — you cannot scare me," Fiorina said, to cheers from the crowd of activists gathered on the National Mall. "I know the value of life."
While nearly all of Fiorina's Republican opponents hold the same positions on abortion, favoring more restrictions on it and backing recent efforts by Congress to block public funding for Planned Parenthood, Fiorina has eagerly embraced the topic in a way the others haven't.
"Ideological feminism now shuts down conversation on college campuses and in the media," Fiorina said at the March for Life. "If you are a conservative who doesn't believe the litany of the Left, you are waging a war on women."
There's broad feeling among the anti-abortion movement that it needs more focus on how abortion affects women, partially to counter the "war on women" messaging that Democrats, Planned Parenthood and other supporters of abortion rights have pushed. Fiorina agrees with that goal.
Citizens of Houston, Texas, the fourth-largest city in the U.S., turned out in record numbers to defeat Prop 1, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance No. 2014-530 (HERO), by a margin of 62% to 38%. The city's lesbian mayor Annise D. Parker, along with city bureaucrats, had pulled several legal tricks in attempts to negate the citizens' uprising against the Gay Agenda ordinance previously enacted by decree.
"No one's rights should be subject to a popular vote." -- Annise Parker, outgoing mayor of Houston "The mayor has never been able to produce a shred of evidence that’s credible of any need for this ordinance, other than everybody else is doing it." -- Dave Welch, Houston Area Pastor Council
Opponents of the issue branded it "the bathroom ordinance," playing up the argument that it would allow sexual predators dressed as women to use women's restrooms. A television ad featured a little girl being cornered by a man in a restroom.
Supporters sold it as an anti-discrimination measure protecting a broad range of citizens from the elderly to veterans. The ordinance would have offered increased protections for gay and transgender people, as well as protections against discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion and other categories.
"The supporters of this proposition brought in movie stars and elites from Washington D.C. and Hollywood to try to force their twisted agenda on the good people of Texas," said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. "It didn't work and advocates of this ridiculous proposal are on notice tonight that the voters of Houston will not stand for this kind of liberal nonsense."
It was favored by the White House, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and tech giant Apple, but faced opposition from many religious leaders and Republicans.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, tweeted earlier this week against the ordinance: "HOUSTON: Vote Texas values, not @HillaryClinton values. Vote NO on City of Houston Proposition 1. No men in women's bathrooms."
The ordinance was originally passed by Houston City Council in 2014, but the Texas Supreme Court earlier this year forced it onto the ballot [following a citizen petition drive].
City Council passed the law 11-6 in May last year, but conservative foes launched an effort to force a repeal referendum that spanned more than one year of legal challenges. In July, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the city to either repeal the law or place in the ballot. By a 12-5 vote, City Council opted for the latter, officially unleashing two dueling campaigns.
Businesses that serve the public, private employers, housing and city contracting are all subject to the law and face up to $5,000 in fines for violations. Religious institutions, however, are exempt. The ordinance was in effect for only three months between extensive legal challenges.
[The vote] came after an 18-month battle pitting gay rights advocates against those who believed they were defending religious liberty.
[Annise] Parker, the first lesbian mayor of a major U.S. city, had championed the ordinance, making it a personal battle about what she called “my rights.”
Conservative leaders who campaigned and spoke out against the ordinance included a coalition of pastors, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, former Houston Astro Lance Berkman and Houston Texans football owner Bob McNair.
Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values Action, a conservative group that opposed the ordinance, called the vote “a significant victory for common sense, safety, and religious freedom, not just in Houston, but for all of Texas.... This vote will impact the nation and shows, once again, that the people still support common-sense Texas values."
With the Houston vote garnering national attention, the loss for HERO supporters comes after a tumultuous year and half since the ordinance was first passed by the Houston City Council in May 2014.
Almost immediately, conservative activists and pastors began collecting signatures to petition a referendum or repeal of the ordinance. City officials later ruled that they hadn’t collected enough signatures, prompting a lawsuit from the opponents.
The ordinance had been in effect for about three months when it was put on hold as the legal challenge made its way through the courts. In April, a state district judge ruled in favor of the city, saying opponents of the ordinance had not gathered enough valid signatures.
The case went to the Texas Supreme Court, which in July told the city council it had to consider a valid referendum petition and repeal the ordinance or put it up for public vote.
In Houston, the ordinance’s proponents — including Mayor Annise D. Parker, local and national gay rights and civil rights groups and the actress Sally Field — accused opponents of using fearmongering against gay people, and far-fetched talk of bathroom attacks, to generate support for a repeal. The ordinance, they noted, says nothing specifically about whether men can use women’s restrooms.
The proponents’ defeat at the polls was a kind of personal blow to Ms. Parker, a Democrat. Houston became the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor when she won office in December 2009. Now in her third and final term, Ms. Parker had pushed hard for the ordinance and helped it gain endorsements from President Obama and corporate giants like Apple.
Opponents of the measure — including Mr. Patrick, pastors of conservative megachurches and the former Houston Astros baseball star Lance Berkman — said the ordinance had nothing to do with discrimination and was about the mayor’s gay agenda being forced on the city. They denied that they had any bias against gay people, and said the ordinance was so vague that it would make anyone who tried to keep any man from entering a women’s bathroom the subject of a city investigation and fine.
"While much of the debate focused on biological males using a woman's bathroom, many voters told us they understood this involved a lot more than bathrooms," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said after the votes were counted.
"The mayor's efforts to disenfranchise voters and subpoena pastors' sermons and private communications demonstrated this law was ultimately about silencing and even stripping away the livelihood of those who refused to yield their beliefs to this new morality."
"Houstonians' religious freedom, freedom of speech, and the right to petition their government have won the day, but much more work remains to be done to safeguard these freedoms across the nation. No person should be punished by the government because of their beliefs," Perkins said.
The ordinance would have applied to businesses that serve the public, such as restaurants and hotels, private employers, housing, city employment and city contracting. It would have allowed residents to file a complaint if they felt they had been discriminated against based on the various protected categories. Religious institutions would have been exempt. Violators would have faced fines up to $5,000.
As tens of thousands of people gathered in hundreds of cities across America to protest taxpayer dollars funding Planned Parenthood, the mainstream media covered yesterday's national day of unity as just isolated local events. Meanwhile, the latest undercover video by the Center for Medical Progress exposes Planned Parenthood's sale of intact dead babies.
“We now know that Planned Parenthood not only perpetrates over 300,000 abortions each year, but harvests the organs of the unborn children it destroys. Whether this trafficking is called a sale or the coverage of expenses, PP is compensated for this harvesting.” -- C.J. Doyle, Catholic Action League of Massachusetts
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
The demonstrations unfolded at about 320 clinics around the nation, according to organizers, with some gatherings drawing a few dozen protesters and others drawing hundreds and perhaps thousands more.
The protests kicked off at 9 a.m. Saturday and included speakers, prayer groups and chants, as well as signs distributed by organizers that said “Planned Parenthood sells baby parts.”
Though the official number of protesters was not immediately available, organizers billed the effort as the largest-ever rally against the health-care provider. Monica Miller, the director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, one of the participating groups, told USA Today that previous protests have drawn thousands of protesters, but hundreds of simultaneous protests have never taken place on the same day.
Protests were held at 14 Michigan sites of Planned Parenthood, part of nationwide protests at 290 locations. A coalition of more than 50 pro-life groups looked to create awareness of abortion and the sale of aborted materials.
Protester Barb Yagley of Troy, campaign director for 40-Days for Life, was at a protest in Ferndale.
“The short-term goal here really is to educate the American public about what abortion actually does to the child that’s within the womb and that it’s not just a blob of tissue, and to ask Planned Parenthood to reform themselves,” Yagley said.
A push to defund Planned Parenthood is underway in Lansing as state Senator Patrick Colbeck of Canton is sponsoring a bill to cut off taxpayer funding.
Tens of thousands of pro-life advocates across the country — perhaps as many as 50-75,000 people in all — protested at Planned Parenthood abortion clinics across the country today. They protested to raise national attention to the massive scandal at Planned Parenthood, where its staff and officials have been caught selling aborted babies and their body parts.
The protests took place in over 350 cities in 47 states and 5 countries — with hundreds of people in many cities and over 6,000 in the Twin Cities in Minnesota alone.
Organizers of the protests say they are the outgrowth of recently released Planned Parenthood expose videos showing the abortion company trafficking in aborted baby body parts and showing a complete disregard for women and unborn children.
While the videos have focused on the Planned Parenthood abortion business, the biotech firm StemExpress, which buys and resells aborted baby body parts from the abortion giant . . .
In the video, Cate Dyer, the CEO of StemExpress, is shown in a lunch meeting with undercover operatives posing as representatives of a biotech firm. Dyer is laughing about how StemExpress purchases fully intact aborted babies from Planned Parenthood. She laughs about how shippers of the aborted babies would give a warning to lab workers to expect such a baby.
“Oh yeah, if you have intact cases — which we’ve done a lot — we sometimes ship those back to our lab in its entirety,” she says.
“Tell the lab its coming,” she laughs about the intact unborn babies. “You know, open the box and go ‘Oh my God,'” Dyer adds.
The controversy over videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of body parts from aborted fetuses drew hundreds of people to a protest outside of the group’s Aurora clinic this morning.
Protest organizer Eric Scheidler said he saw people protesting he hadn’t seen in years, and said was easily the largest protest outside of the Aurora clinic since it opened in 2007.
The protesters ranged in age from their teens to their 80s. Living Hope Bible Church of Roselle Associate Pastor Mike Tiberi said the videos showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing the sale of body parts left by abortions make him more determined than ever to see abortion stopped.
Hundreds of abortion opponents protested outside the Boston Planned Parenthood clinic Saturday, bearing crucifixes and graphic images and calling for an end to government funding for the organization.
The Boston demonstration was one of approximately 300 organized across the country. The protests come after pro-life advocates released footage of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting of fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood defended itself from what protest organizers say is the largest coordinated day of protest against the group.
Pro-life advocates want an end to public funding for Planned Parenthood. In 2014, the group received over $528.4 million in government dollars.
A crowd of some 200 anti-abortion activists demonstrated outside the offices of Planned Parenthood in San Diego on Saturday morning, calling for the elimination of federal funding to the nonprofit health care organization.
The protest near downtown was one of 320 similar gatherings staged outside Planned Parenthood offices across the country, according to organizers. In San Diego, protesters lined the sidewalks at the corner of First Avenue and Grape Street, chanting and holding signs.
A similar protest in Escondido also drew about 200 participants Saturday, according to police, while another rally of about 100 people was staged in Vista.
Saturday’s peaceful rally in San Diego drew a range of participants, including students from local colleges, as well as members of church groups from around the county. Several protesters brought children and infants.
The event’s organizer, Silas McClufor with Advocates for Justice, said they counted more than 500 men, women and children standing outside the city’s Planned Parenthood facility.
“Planned Parenthood is lying to women and not giving information that they are using the body parts of the aborted babies. They are not telling mothers they are selling these for a profit and we cannot stand for this. Planned Parenthood does not honor women and it doesn’t have respect for human life in the womb,” McClufor explained.
“Multiple times in multiple videos, [Planned Parenthood] is seen discussing how to get higher compensation for this fetal tissue. And in fact, a flyer given to Planned Parenthood by StemExpress states that sale of tissue will benefit them financially,” Dr. Francis, who is also a board member with the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said.
More than 1,000 abortion opponents protested in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Mt. Auburn as part of a nationwide protest against the organization Saturday morning.
The protests were organized by a coalition of anti-abortion groups, including American Life League and Stop Planned Parenthood International, in 47 states and more than 300 cities to call for cutting off Planned Parenthood's federal funding and putting a stop to abortions.
The protest had multiple speakers including Cincinnati City Councilman Charles Winburn and Ohio State Senator Joe Uecker. Local clergy, including Revered Chuck Hickey of the Trinity Presbyterian Church, led the protesters in prayer.
"It still surprised me that more people aren't upset about this," said Corrine Groh, who attended the protest with her two children. "They say that it's a woman's right to choose, well you made the choice to get pregnant."
At a rally Saturday morning outside Planned Parenthood in north Spokane, state Rep. Matt Shea called the group “an evil organization” committing acts on par with Nazi Germany.
Jami Cary held a sign reading “#PPSellsBabyParts,” a reference to the videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an organization opposed to abortion. . . . “I think the majority of people are apathetic about it,” said Cary, who was at the rally with her husband, Kevin, and four children. “I think, with the videos coming out, your basic human alarm clock is dinging. I think there’s more momentum now.”
Alex Barron, who traveled to Spokane from Post Falls to attend the rally sponsored by the Priest Lake-based Selkirk Pro-Life Alliance, said abortion decisions in the courts were an extension of rulings in the 19th century that defined personhood.
“I believe that this country has made the same decision that it made in Dred Scott, when it said that blacks were not human,” said Barron, a black man, referring to the 1857 Supreme Court decision that ruled slaves had no legal protections as citizens. “When that (Roe v. Wade) Supreme Court decision was made a few years ago, we did not have the same science, we did not have the same clarity, we did not have the same sonograms that we have now.”
Barron said that taxpayer dollars should not go to Planned Parenthood, but should be directed instead to other organizations that provide similar services without facilitating abortions.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Salem Planned Parenthood clinic Saturday morning to protest the organization, which offers health services, including abortions, to women.
The protest in Salem began with a service led by Father Tim Mockaitis of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Salem. After the service, Gary Carignan, 69, a member of Queen of Peace and one of the speakers at the protest, called for a 10-minute break before state Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, spoke.
[Rep. Post] cited a report by the state Division of Medical Assistance Programs that shows that the state spent more than $20 million on abortions in the past 12 years, all funded by the Oregon Health Plan.
The peaceful protest was mainly led by prayer and was without incident or violence.
Providence police blocked off Chestnut Street as several hundred protestors, led by Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, demonstrated outside. Private security and volunteers kept the building accessible to visitors.
“There is nothing about Planned Parenthood that involves parenthood at all. It involves prevention and death,” said Kathleen Kelly of Silent No More, a Christian campaign.
“All life is precious. And I don’t want to look back on my life saying that I knew this was going on and that I didn’t try to do something about it,” said Jessica Baeckel. Baeckel came to the protest with her husband and two of her four children.
Several local lawmakers have also appealed to Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to investigate Planned Parenthood, but no such investigation is underway in Rhode Island, according to a spokesperson for Kilmartin.
Although the media largely ignored hundreds of thousands of citizens on the streets across America this week, attention was paid to congressional Republicans debating how to reduce the killing of unborn children. As Americans marched, the president praised ObamaCare for forcing all citizens to pay for the slaughter.
After a brief rally at the Washington Monument, the crowd filled Constitution Avenue, stretching for several blocks as people headed for Capitol Hill.
The march was scheduled to pass in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, but as it neared the marble edifice, a small counterprotest stepped into the street and stopped the marchers. . . . The group, which numbered a few dozen, chanted, "Without these basic rights, women can't be free — abortion on demand and without apology."
Police quickly moved the abortion opponents to the curb and arrested most of the counterprotesters, restraining their arms behind them with plastic ties and carrying them off as the march members cheered. A few chanted, "Je-sus! Je-sus!" and "USA! USA!"
The march took place as congressional leaders canceled a vote, scheduled for Thursday, on an abortion bill sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz. The decision came after some members objected that the legislation was too restrictive and would hurt them with voters. Lawmakers instead approved a watered-down bill that would ban federal funding for abortions.
Franks' bill would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and provided exceptions for a woman's health and in cases of reported rape or incest involving a minor.
Tens of thousands of people who oppose abortion gathered in San Francisco Saturday for the 11th Annual Walk for Life event. The event created major gridlock in The City, with traffic backed up all the way onto the Bay Bridge.
The Walk for Life in San Francisco is one of the largest in the country. It marks the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe Vs. Wade that made abortion legal in this country. The event attracts more than 50,000 people from all over the country who come in by the busloads.
Pastor Clenard Childress was one of them. He came all the way from New Jersey. Childress said it is intellectually dishonest for a woman “to claim a right for herself and in so doing, take away the right of somebody else.”
“This is so hypocritical to me, that we are grateful that our mothers chose life, yet we want a child in the womb to be denied the access we have already gained,” he said.
Thursday is, not coincidentally, the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the day when anti-abortion activists are marching on the National Mall in the annual March for Life, featuring several Republican elected officials. H.R. 36, which bans abortion at 20 weeks on the unscientific (and so far legally irrelevant) claim that fetuses feel pain at that point, passed the House in 2013 but never got a vote in the Senate — which may change now that Republicans control it. About 1% of abortions take place after 20 weeks.
The political strategy of the 20 week ban is clear: Force Democrats to get on the record about later abortions, which poll poorly unless accompanied by information about the difficult circumstances facing women who get them. The legal strategy is also pretty clear: Justice Anthony Kennedy, once a swing vote on abortion, signaled his distaste for later abortions in the last major Supreme Court abortion case, Gonzales v. Carhart. Anti-abortion strategists are hoping to get him to sign onto a 20-week ban with vivid talk of fetal pain, thus undercutting his repeated holding that it’s unconstitutional to ban abortion before a fetus can survive outside of the womb. So far, the Supreme Court has declined to hear recent abortion cases before them, including Arizona’s 20-week ban, which was held unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
President Barack Obama lashed out at House passage Thursday of a bill that would permanently prohibit taxpayer funding for abortion. The House easily passed it after GOP leaders had to cancel a vote on another bill that would have banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, which got caught up in a fight about exemptions for rape victims.
The House vote took place on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Anti-abortion protesters had come to Washington for the annual March for Life.
More than 50 angry march participants showed up outside the office of Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.), who pulled her co-sponsorship of the 20-week ban because of the requirement that rape victims report the crime to law enforcement authorities in order to obtain an exemption.
The House did easily pass H.R. 7, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015, sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.). White House advisers said they would recommend a veto should the bill reach the president’s desk.
I am deeply committed to protecting this core constitutional right, and I believe that efforts like H.R. 7, the bill the House considered today, would intrude on women's reproductive freedom and access to health care and unnecessarily restrict the private insurance choices that consumers have today. The federal government should not be injecting itself into decisions best made between women, their families, and their doctors. I am also deeply committed to continuing our work to reduce unintended pregnancies, support maternal and child health, promote adoptions, and minimize the need for abortion.
Today, as we reflect on this critical moment in our history, may we all rededicate ourselves to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons.
Today, we mark the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Roe
v. Wade, which affirmed a woman’s freedom to make her own choices about
her body and her health. The decision supports the broader principle
that the government should not intrude on private decisions made between
a woman and her doctor. As we commemorate this day, we also redouble
our commitment to protecting these constitutional rights, including
protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her
right to reproductive freedom from efforts to undermine or overturn
them. In America, every single one of us deserves the rights, freedoms,
and opportunities to fulfill our dreams.
To read the entire statement from President Obama above, CLICK HERE.
In May, Mayor Annise Parker of Houston, Texas heralded her personal victory as the city council passed a Gay Agenda ordinance against the will of the citizens, resulting in a popular petition drive to repeal the law. In response, the city has embarked on a strong-arm intimidation strategy to muzzle the first amendment rights of Christians who advocated the petition and moral values.
“This is an attempt to chill pastors from speaking to the cultural issues of the day. The mayor would like to silence our voice. She’s a bully.” -- Pastor Steve Riggle, Grace Community Church “We’re not afraid of this bully. We’re not intimidated at all.” -- Rev. Dave Welch, executive director of the Texas Pastor Council
Houston's embattled equal rights ordinance took another legal turn this week when it surfaced that city attorneys, in an unusual step, subpoenaed sermons given by local pastors who oppose the law and are tied to the conservative Christian activists that have sued the city.
Opponents of the equal rights ordinance are hoping to force a repeal referendum when they get their day in court in January, claiming City Attorney David Feldman wrongly determined they had not gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. City attorneys issued subpoenas last month during the case's discovery phase, seeking, among other communications, "all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession."
The city attorney's office has not responded to requests for comment.
Attorneys for several Houston pastors are challenging the city’s attempts to subpoena their sermons as part of a lawsuit against the recently passed transgender-rights law, also known as the “bathroom bill.”
Opponents of the ordinance, which forbids businesses open to the public from stopping individuals from using opposite-sex bathrooms if their gender identity doesn’t match their biological sex, filed a lawsuit in August challenging the city attorney’s ruling.
Alliance Defending Freedom [ADF] senior legal counsel Erik Stanley said the pastors subject to the city’s subpoenas are not party to the lawsuit.
“City council members are supposed to be public servants, not ‘Big Brother’ overlords who will tolerate no dissent or challenge,” said Mr. Stanley in a statement. “In this case, they have embarked upon a witch-hunt, and we are asking the court to put a stop to it.”
ADF, a nationally-known law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, is representing five Houston pastors. They filed a motion in Harris County court to stop the subpoenas arguing they are “overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious.”
The pastors . . . were part of a coalition of some 400 Houston-area churches that opposed the ordinance. The churches represent a number of faith groups – from Southern Baptist to non-denominational.
Mayor Parker will not explain why she wants to inspect the sermons. . . . ADF attorney Stanley suspects the mayor wants to publicly shame the ministers. He said he anticipates they will hold up their sermons for public scrutiny. In other words – the city is rummaging for evidence to “out” the pastors as anti-gay bigots.
As hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans marched on Washington D.C., the abortion-loving President Obama said of the Supreme Court's 1973 abortion ruling "we recommit ourselves to the decision’s guiding principle" -- it is right that over 56 million American babies have been murdered in the womb, so far. For background, read how Pro-lifers Crowded D.C. last year, just like in previous years, and read about the history of President Obama's abortion advocacy.
President Obama has put out his annual statement on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, praising the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that struck down anti-abortion laws.
Abortion opponents have gathered in Washington, D.C., for their annual rally against the high court decision handed down 41 years ago Wednesday.
Today, as we reflect on the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, we recommit ourselves to the decision’s guiding principle: that every woman should be able to make her own choices about her body and her health. . . . Because this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams [except for babies in the womb!].
The world’s largest antiabortion event, held on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, grows younger each year. The Mall between Seventh Street and the Washington Monument was full for a few hours with youth groups from across the eastern half of the country.
Abortion has been legal in the United States for these young people’s entire lives, and the movement’s leaders say the latest generation of activists is creating a more upbeat culture. . . .
The March for Life is the culmination each year of several days of meetings, Masses and training sessions for abortion opponents. Included was a workshop Wednesday morning for antiabortion bloggers at the Family Research Council.
"By the grace of God and because of you … we are winning," declared [New Jersey Republican Congressman Chris] Smith, whose House Bill 7, or the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," will soon be up for a vote in the House of Representatives.
"To the youth, especially, never quit or grow weary or discouraged. Your generation will end abortion."
Tom Hogan, grand marshal for the 2014 March for Life and longtime supporter of the pro-life cause, told The Christian Post about the strength of the march, despite the frigid weather.
"There is a big movement across the United States and particularly from younger people. Every year I notice in the march that the age group gets younger and younger," said Hogan. "I would say also that it seems to be that mostly at the state legislatures or state level that a lot of this is going on. I don't see it at the federal level."
Abortion is becoming an unexpectedly animating issue in the 2014 midterm elections. Republicans, through state ballot initiatives and legislation in Congress, are using it to stoke enthusiasm among core supporters. Democrats, mindful of how potent the subject has been in recent campaigns like last year’s governor’s race in Virginia, are looking to rally female voters by portraying their conservative opponents as callous on women’s issues.
Aware that their candidates at times have struck the wrong tone on issues of women’s health, Republicans in some states are now framing abortion in an economic context, arguing, for example, that the new federal health law uses public money to subsidize abortion coverage. In the House in the coming weeks, Republicans will make passing the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” one of their top priorities this year.
“I don’t think this is a niche issue anymore,” said Drew Lieberman, a vice president at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a political consultancy concern, who has advised Democratic congressional candidates and has done polling for Naral Pro-Choice America.
Citizens of the rural northern Michigan West Branch-Rose City school district are outraged that many teachers and a board member showed public support for former Rose City Middle School teacher Neal Erickson who was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy over a 3-year period. As protesting parents are pulling their children from the district, Erickson's supporters stand by their statements, including that his sentencing was harsh because the molestation was homosexual, not heterosexual.
“I’m appalled and ashamed that the [teacher] community could rally around, in this case, you. What you did was a jab in the eye with a sharp stick to every parent who trusts a teacher.” -- Circuit Court Judge Michael Baumgartner
The student body count in the West Branch-Rose City district, in northeast Michigan is down unofficially some 87 students following a tumultuous summer in which angry parents blasted seven teachers for writing letters in support of former teacher Neal Erickson. The letters urged a judge to be lenient in sentencing Erickson, who admitted to sexual misconduct with an underage, male student from 2006 to 2009. When the school board declined to take action against the teachers, many parents vowed to pull their kids out of the public schools, which have a total enrollment of just over 2,000.
Erickson, 38, was originally investigated last October once allegations that he sexually molested the then 14-year-old boy surfaced and was eventually arrested in December 2012. Erickson pleaded guilty May 8, and asked for a lenient sentence, citing "stress" and financial hardship for his family.
Although his attorney contended that the victim, who was 14 years old when the sexual incidents began, did not suffer severe psychological damage, the boy's family has said the incident left him depressed and angry.
Prosecutor LaDonna A. Schultz said Neal Haviland Erickson, of West Branch, engaged in sex acts with a male student over the age of 13, but under the age of 16. The student was enrolled at the school where Erickson taught.
According to Schultz, the three CSC charges against Erickson are for allegedly engaging in oral sex.
In addition to the criminal sex charges, Erickson's other charges include a count of distributing sexually explicit, visual or verbal material to a minor, a count of possessing child sexually abusive material and using a computer to commit a crime.
Police began investigating Erickson in October, Schultz said.
"It originally came in as an investigation into sexually explicit photos of a minor," she said. "They were looking into the child pornography and discovered an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student."
Records indicate Erickson was hired by West Branch-Rose City Area Schools in 1996.
Residents in a speck of a rural farm town in northern Michigan want to recall a school board member and fire several teachers who showed support for a local middle school teacher convicted of having sexual relations with an eighth-grade student.
The male [student], who is now a 21-year-old student at Western Michigan University, told police that he and the pedophile teacher had a homosexual relationship in 2006.
There were about 10 encounters. They involved oral sex, reports WSMH FOX 66. They occurred at the teacher’s house.
Prior to his sentencing, six current teachers and two retired ones penned letters to the presiding judge seeking leniency for their child-molesting colleague. The group — along with board member Michael Eagan — also sat with Erickson’s relatives during his sentencing hearing.
The letters painted a flattering picture of the convicted pedophile.
When John and Lori Janczewski attended the sentencing for former Rose City teacher Neal Erickson July 10 who pleaded guilty to first degree CSC against their son, they thought they would finally receive some closure.
But at that sentencing, they found several current West Branch-Rose City teachers, as well as a current board member [Mike Eagan], seemingly showing their support of Erickson. And it was there they also learned of 10 letters supporting him that were given to Judge Michael Baumgartner, several of which were written by current teachers in the district.
The Herald, through the Freedom of Information Act, obtained the letters of support for Erickson, written by Toni Erickson, Carol Rau, Sally Campbell, Amy Huber Eagan, Harriett Coe, Marilyn Glover, Sandi Lee, Kathryn Weber, Kathleen Sheel and Kathleen Palmer. Most asked for a reduced sentence.
“Neal made a mistake,” writes Campbell in her letter. “He allowed a mutual friendship to develop into much more. He realized his mistake and ended it years before someone anonymously sent something to the authorities which began this legal process.”
“I am asking that Neal be given the absolute minimum sentence, considering all the circumstances surrounding this case,” writes Amy Huber Eagan.
“Neal has plead (sic) guilty for his one criminal offense but he is not a predator,” writes Coe. “This was an isolated incident.”
Prior recall language against Eagan filed by John Janczewski was rejected Aug. 6 and Aug. 27.
Lori Janczewski states that her reason for wanting to recall Eagan is because of his support for the teachers who wrote the letters.
“We the people of Ogemaw County, wish to recall Mike Eagan, an elected school board official,” the recall language states. “He publicly supported the teachers who wrote letters requesting leniency for Neal Erickson, a teacher and convicted pedophile, who sexually assaulted a student.”
The West Branch-Rose City school board voted 4-2 Aug. 19 to require ethics training for the entire staff of the district, and to attempt to accommodate requests from parents who do not want their children in the teachers’ classrooms.
After the meeting, Bachelder told the Herald he voted no because he didn’t think the recommendations were “stiff enough.” Beasley did not comment.
“As a board, we have examined all sides of this issue and there are no easy answers,” he said. “We believe the letters written by the teachers may be protected under first amendment rights and that any disciplinary action will subject us to expensive, and potentially lengthy, lawsuits. Our students are our foremost concern and the board is not willing to mortgage the future education of the students of this district by becoming embroiled in a first amendment lawsuit.”
Many community members packed the auditorium at Ogemaw Heights High School for the meeting, most speaking out against the teachers, while a few spoke in their defense.
The [teachers'] letters reveal a mindset, a worldview, and a relativistic standpoint that not only endangers schoolchildren, but is also detrimental to America as a whole.
. . . In her letter to the judge on Neal's behalf, [his teacher/wife Toni] Erickson said this:
As for punishment, because I know that is something the community expects, hasn't he been punished enough? He is losing a job he has held for 17 years [during three of which he was raping a child] and losing all future career potential as a teacher.
I have seen many delightful students who have been damaged by horrible events in their lives. While I acknowledge that Neal's conduct with [a victim he found 'delightful'] was wrong, I do not believe [the 14-year-old] was damaged by Neal's action[s].
. . . English teacher Sally Campbell lauded Erickson's kindness toward his victim by his decision to plead guilty.
Fourth grade teacher Marilyn Glover described a 'sexual predator' as rapist who rapes a child more than once, and Kathleen Scheel defined sexual molestation of a child as an "inappropriate relationship."
. . . [Teacher] Scheel argued that Erickson had access to 1,000 children but raped only one, proving that "Our community's children are not at risk of Neal's presence -- he is not a predator."
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
