By World News Magazine Service
(WNS) – Despite years of legal attack from Planned Parenthood, South Dakota may continue requiring abortion doctors to inform pregnant mothers that abortion may increase their risk of suicide.
The full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling July 24 means that the last remaining contested provision of the state’s informed-consent law, passed in 2005, is constitutional.
“A woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said Steven H. Aden, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) senior counsel. “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it would not try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risk of suicide that accompanies abortion.”
Planned Parenthood sued South Dakota over the law in 2006.
DOMA’s Day of Reckoning
(WNS) – In the noisy days after the Supreme Court issued its healthcare decision, the Obama administration filed two cases with the high court challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The July 3 filings gained little attention but they, coupled with disagreement about DOMA among lower courts, mean the Supreme Court is almost certain to take at least one case on marriage this fall.
The high court may also hear arguments on California’s Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
The cases could establish whether federal courts begin to treat homosexuality as a status more like race or gender.
The Supreme Court’s new term starts in October, and even if the justices agree to take this case right away, they almost certainly won’t hear arguments until after the presidential election in November. They may not hear the case until after a January inauguration.
If Mitt Romney wins the election, he will likely reverse the DOJ’s current position on DOMA.
That wouldn’t undo any challenges to the law, but it would put the U.S. government back on the side of the law.
Pennsylvania Voter ID Law
Comes Under Scrutiny
(WNS) – In efforts to determine whether Pennsylvania’s new voter-identification law discriminates against minorities, the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation requiring the state to hand over voters’ personal information by late August.
In a letter sent July 23 to Secretary of the Commonwealth Carol Aichele, the Justice Department said it needs the information to “properly evaluate Pennsylvania’s compliance with Section 2 of the Voter Right Act.”
According to the letter, the Justice Department also wants the state to provide its voter registration list, including each registered voter’s full name, address, date of birth, and driver’s license, Social Security, or other identifying numbers, as well as their ethnicity and voting history. Proponents of voter ID laws say they prevent fraud.
The Obama administration claims such laws disenfranchise voters, including minorities who may not have a state-issued ID.
Republicans Investigate
Defense Department’s
Gay Pride Parade Decision
(WNS) – Congressional Republicans are challenging the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to explain a recent decision to let military personnel to march in uniform in a San Diego gay pride parade.
In late July, the DoD said it granted service members in San Diego a “one-time waiver” from the policy that prohibits all military personnel from wearing their uniforms in political events because parade organizers were encouraging troops to participate, and because the event was generating national attention.
Col. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said, “The Department of Defense continues to use our armed forces to promote a social agenda,” he said. “Our armed forces were not created to promote agendas. They were created to protect and defend this nation, which they have done so well since our founding.”
Obama Administration Funds Planned Parenthood — Again
(WNS) – After North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill redirecting taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood earlier this month, the Obama administration stepped in this week to fund the abortion seller’s affiliates directly, marking the fifth time the federal government has interfered with states defunding the group.
Lawmakers passed a bill July 3 redirecting $343,000 in taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood to county health departments that provide comprehensive health care for women.
The abortion facilities will now receive $426,000 from the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) instead.
“President Obama’s decision to overrule the North Carolina Legislature today marks the third time this month — and the fifth time in the last year — that he has stepped in to contract directly with the nation’s largest abortion provider,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.
The Obama administration awarded $3.2 million in federal funds to its affiliates and other family planning groups in New Jersey earlier this month, bypassing Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of a bill continuing state funding to the group. HHS also contracted directly with Planned Parenthood affiliates in Tennessee after they were defunded by the state.
GOP Lawmakers Try to Stop Obama Administration’s Rewrite
of Welfare Requirements
(WNS) – Congressional Republicans on July 19 introduced legislation to block the Obama administration’s recent decision to waive long-standing welfare work requirements.
A week earlier, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a new policy directive easing the work mandate that was written into the landmark 1996 welfare reform law.
That requirement states that all welfare recipients must be employed or prove they’re actively looking for work as a condition for their receiving aid.
But the HHS decision signaled to state agencies disbursing the funds that some of those requirements can now be bypassed.
Conservative groups from The Heritage Foundation to Focus on the Family erupted in protest over the change, arguing that it would undermine the reform law that has moved 2.8 million families off of welfare rolls.
Grossmont College Continues Discriminatory Speech Policy
(WNS) – A community college in southern California agreed this week not to punish a student who was distributing Christian fliers on campus, but won’t consider for at least six months revising a speech policy with double standards. Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District says free speech is limited on campus. Students who want to promote events must apply for permission to distribute materials and make reservations for booths.
In May, a Christian who had applied for permission to promote the National Day of Prayer was told she couldn’t distribute fliers in front of the student center.
Administrators then began formal disciplinary proceedings against her, even though non-Christian student groups had previously distributed fliers in the same place.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter to the school, pointing out how Grossmont’s policy violates the First Amendment, prompting the school to back away from the disciplinary hearing.