News
| 09/09/11 | Group Calls to Ban Pledge of Allegiance at Massachusetts Schools, Citing No Educational Value Days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11 a leader from a group in Massachusetts is calling on public schools in one town to ban students from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, saying it has no educational value and the pressure it places on children to participate makes his “skin crawl,” The Boston Globe reported. Martin Rosenthal, the co-chair of Brookline Political Action for Peace, or Brookline Pax, told the paper the pledge puts “kids in an uncomfortable situation” and doesn’t belong in schools. Martin Rosenthal calls on Brookline public schools to ban the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| 09/09/11 | 'Sexualizing' curve getting worse An organization dedicated to educating parents about television content is expressing outrage over a TV program that focuses on a three-year-old girl dressed like and imitating a prostitute from the film Pretty Woman. Melissa Henson of the Parents Television Council (PTC) believes any parent seeing a little girl barely out of diapers parading around dressed like a prostitute should be incensed. |
| 09/08/11 | Fox News Poll: Most Believe Prayer Heals, 45 Percent Believe in Creationism Nearly half of American voters believe in the Biblical account of creation, and even more think prayer can literally help people recover from medical problems. A Fox News poll released Wednesday found 77 percent of voters believe prayers can help someone heal from an injury or illness, while 20 percent don’t believe that. The remaining 3 percent are unsure. |
| 09/08/11 | 'Heartbeat bill' making way in Sunflower State Kansas could be the next state to consider "heartbeat" legislation that forbids an abortion if an unborn child's heartbeat can be detected. The measure is similar to one currently before the Indiana legislature and comparable to Ohio's H.B. 125. (See related story) Mark Gietzen of The Kansas Coalition for Life (KCFL) believes the bill would have a better chance in Kansas because Governor Sam Brownback (R) and a majority of the state legislators are pro-life. |
| 09/07/11 | Pro-Lifers: Tell Obama Admin to Protect Conscience Rights A top pro-life organization is encouraging pro-life advocates to contact the Obama administration and urge it to protect conscience rights for organizations that don’t want to be involved in promoting abortion, drugs that can cause abortions and birth control. In August, Obama officials tentatively approved a recommendation from the Institute of Medicine, opposed by pro-life groups, that called for the Obama administration to require insurance programs to include birth control — such as the morning after pill or the ella drug that causes an abortion days after conception — in the section of drugs and services insurance plans must cover under “preventative care.” The companies will likely pass the added costs on to consumers, requiring them to pay for birth control and, in some instances, drug-induced abortions of unborn children in their earliest days. |
| 09/07/11 | OPINION: Does a president's faith matter? Just a year ago, The Washington Post's "On Faith" blog scolded Americans for apparently caring too much about President Obama's religious practices and beliefs, or lack thereof. In a piece rhetorically asking the question they were more than happy to answer, "Does Your President's Faith Matter?," Post writer Elizabeth Tenety opened by citing the left's favorite constitutional clause: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States" (Art. VI, sect. 3). It was the same refrain Americans heard during the 2008 presidential campaign, when Sean Hannity went public with some revealing information about President Obama's spiritual adviser and minister of 20 years -- the racist, anti-American radical named Jeremiah Wright. |
| 09/06/11 | Obama Still Ignores Planned Parenthood Sex Trafficking Issues The Obama administration recently posted a new document to the White House web site touting its efforts to combat sex trafficking in the United States. But the document ignores Planned Parenthood — the abortion business where undercover investigations earlier this year revealed staff willing to arrange for abortions for sex traffickers. Tom Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice, authored the document, “Protecting the Rights of Women and Girls.” “Human trafficking — the equivalent of modern day slavery — is an affront to human dignity, and goes against everything our country stands for. And yet, it occurs in so many communities; workers are exploited for labor behind closed doors, hidden from the public eye. This includes horrific incidents of sex trafficking, where women and girls are forced into prostitution, often after being lured from other countries with promises of legitimate employment and better lives,” Perez says. |
| 09/06/11 | One Sperm Donor, 150 Offspring Cynthia Daily and her partner used a sperm donor to conceive a baby seven years ago, and they hoped that one day their son would get to know some of his half siblings — an extended family of sorts for modern times. DATA KEEPER Wendy Kramer, who had her son through a donor, started a registry to help families learn about a child’s half siblings. So Ms. Daily searched a Web-based registry for other children fathered by the same donor and helped to create an online group to track them. Over the years, she watched the number of children in her son’s group grow. |
| 09/01/11 | Pro-Lifers Welcome First Fetal Pain Abortion Ban Lawsuit A leading pro-life organization that is behind the innovative 20-week abortion ban based on the scientific evidence showing that unborn children feel pain during an abortion is welcoming the first lawsuit against it. Normally, pro-life organizations bemoan the repeated lawsuits the abortion industry files against pro-life legislation that stops abortions and protects women and children. Such lawsuits invariably halt the enforcement of such legislation and prevent their protective effects from limiting and reducing the number of abortions. |
| 09/01/11 | Abortion Increases Risk of Women’s Mental Health Problems 81% A new study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry by leading American researcher Dr. Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University finds women who have an abortion face almost double the risk of mental health problems as women who have their baby. Coleman’s study is based on an analysis of 22 separate studies which, in total, examine the pregnancy experiences of 877,000 women, with 163,831 women having an abortion. The study also indicated abortion accounts for one in ten of every adverse mental health issue women face as a whole. |
| 08/31/11 | Higher health standards = fewer abortuaries in Ariz. Rather than comply with the state's standards of care, Planned Parenthood is closing seven of its abortion clinics in Arizona. The nation's biggest abortion-provider has been performing abortions at ten of its 13 Arizona locations. But that number recently dropped to three. Attorney Deborah Sheasby of the Center for Arizona Policy tells OneNewsNow that is because of a new state law that requires abortion clinics to adhere to the same standards as other surgical clinics. It also only authorizes physicians to perform abortions, a change affecting the nurse practitioners and midwives who previously offered the service due to the shortage of trained or willing physicians. |
| 08/30/11 | Cypress College Settles Free Speech Case From Pro-Lifers Officials at the California-based Cypress College have settled a free speech case pro-life advocates brought against the college. Members of the Survivors, a pro-life group for young adults, filed the suit after Cypress College squelched their free speech in 2007. Members of the team were arrested for criminal trespass but the Orange County District Attorney’s Office dismissed all charges against the pro-life advocates. The presiding judge went one step further and declared the team “factually innocent” and ordered that the record of the arrest be erased from the Department of Justice criminal records database. |
| 08/30/11 | Advice to schools: 'Don't let the ACLU bully you' The American Civil Liberties Union wants schools to deactivate filters on computers. The ACLU complains that while the filters block student access to sexually explicit material, they also prevent them from accessing sites operated by homosexual activist groups. The Alliance Defense Fund has entered the fray, writing to seven school districts urging them to reject the ACLU's demand. |
| 08/29/11 | New Poll: 55% of Americans Say Abortion Morally Wrong A new national poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports finds more than half of Americans still believe abortions are morally wrong, although the polling finds different results from most surveys when asking whether respondents are pro-life or pro-choice. Rasmussen found 55% believe abortion is morally wrong most of the time, a finding that shows little change since April 2007, when it started asking the question. Thirty percent (30%) think abortion is morally acceptable in the majority of cases, while 15% are undecided |
| 08/29/11 | Schools scratch graphic reading requirements A New Jersey school district has apologized to parents and deleted from its required summer reading list books that graphically describe homosexual and lesbian sex encounters. Norwegian Wood and Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines were on a required reading list for high school students in the Monroe Township School District. The former includes a story of lesbian sex between a 31-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl, and the latter depicts drug usage and a homosexual orgy. |
| 08/26/11 | Troubled by Growth of Christianity, Iranian Regime Destroys Bibles A Shi’ite cleric affiliated with the Iranian regime has warned about the “danger” of Christianity spreading in the Islamic republic. This come amid reports of an anti-Christianity propaganda campaign and the seizure of thousands of Bibles. According to Mohabat News, an independent Iranian Christian news agency, Ayatollah Hadi Jahangosha expressed concern about “the spread of Christianity among our youth,” citing the availability of Christian satellite television programs, books and objects. |
| 08/25/11 | Fewer Doctors Willing to Do Abortions, New Study Shows A new study provides more good news for pro-life advocates, as it shows fewer doctors are willing to perform abortions than before — creating a situation where the lower availability of abortion may be helping to reduce abortions. The new report, published today in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, finds 97 percent of physicians surveyed say they have encountered patients wanting an abortion while only 14 percent of doctors are willing to do an abortion. That’s lower than the 22 percent of doctors who said they would do an abortion in the last poll, from 2008. |
| 08/25/11 | FCC Finally Buries 'Long Dead' Fairness Doctrine Twenty-four years after it stopped enforcing the Fairness Doctrine, the Federal Communications Commission is finally abolishing the regulation that mandated broadcasters to air both sides of a political issue. “The elimination of the obsolete Fairness Doctrine regulations will remove an unnecessary distraction,” FCC Chairman Julius said in a statement Monday. “Striking this from our books ensures there can be no mistake that what has long been a dead letter remains dead. |
| 08/24/11 | Another Biden blunder? Vice President Joe Biden is being asked to explain a comment while in China that he fully understands that country's one-child policy. Speaking during a recent trip to China, while commenting on economic issues, the vice president weighed in on the wisdom of that nation's one-child policy. "You have no safety net," he stated. "Your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I'm not second-guessing -- of one child per family. The result being that you're in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable." |
| 08/24/11 | ADF: It's OK for school district employees to pray School officials in Mississippi who publicly prayed for the coming school year have been advised to disregard the threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Pascagoula School District faculty and staff gathered outside the school with other members of the community on the final Sunday in July to pray for the coming school year, which has prompted the Freedom From Religion Foundation to demand that never happen again. |
| 08/23/11 | 'Blatant disregard for First Amendment' A pro-life organization is going back to court in order to fight against the attempt by a defeated Democratic congressman to squelch their free-speech rights. As reported earlier this month on OneNewsNow, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that former Ohio Representative Steve Driehaus's defamation suit against the Susan B. Anthony List can go to trial. The lawsuit alleges that the pro-life group cost Driehaus his job and a "loss of livelihood" by educating constituents with a billboard campaign about his vote in favor of taxpayer funding for abortion included in the Obama administration's healthcare bill. |
| 08/23/11 | HHS: Children Are ‘Sexual Beings’ The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is offering advice to parents and teens about sex education, including assurances that teens may “experiment” with homosexuality as part of “exploring their own sexuality,” and that masturbation should be of concern only “if a child seems preoccupied with it to the exclusion of other activities.” The information, located on a “Questions and Answers About Sex” link on the “Quick Guide to Healthy Living” portion of the HHS Web site, also describes children and infants as “sexual beings.” |
| 08/22/11 | 'Teacher of the Year' suspended for Facebook comment A Florida teacher has been suspended and removed from the classroom in Mount Dora, Florida, for comments made on his Facebook page against homosexual "marriage." Liberty Counsel will be representing the teacher in court. Jerry Buell's Facebook profile picThe comments by Mount Dora High School teacher Jerry Buell were posted on his Facebook page on his personal time, using his home computer. Those comments reflected the mainstream view that marriage should be between one man and one woman. According to a Liberty Counsel press release, the history and government teacher expressed his view that homosexuality is a sin and that seeing two "grooms" kissing on a news story revolted him. |
| 08/22/11 | Archbishop: New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, MSNBC Not ‘Trustworthy’ on Religion The news outlets CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and MSNBC do not “provide trustworthy information about religious faith,” said Philadelphia’s incoming Archbishop, Charles Chaput, at the Catholic World Youth Day ongoing this week in Madrid, Spain. Chaput, the former Archbishop of Denver, made his remarks in an address on religious freedom to a group of more than 10,000 young pilgrims in Madrid on Wednesday. As initially reported in First Things, Chaput told the audience that, “In the United States, our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex ‘marriage,’ and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public smears and legal threats not only against Catholics, but also against Mormons, evangelicals, and other religious believers.” |
| 08/19/11 | Obama Admin Forces More Tax Funding of Embryonic Stem Cells For those keeping track, late yesterday NIH Director Francis Collins approved four more human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines for the embryonic stem cell registry. The four newest approvals are sold by the company BioTime, Inc., which had two other hESC lines approved June 2, 2011. Details of the embryo destruction and hESC derivation (including from siblings) were published by ESI and Sydney IVF workers in 2007, around the time that ESI abandoned its schemes for therapies based on hESC. BioTime subsequenctly acquired ESI in 2010. |
| 08/19/11 | American Psychiatric Association fending for pedophiles? Several well-known researchers recently made unexpected arguments on pedophilia at an academic conference in Baltimore. Liberty Counsel Action's Matt Barber attended the conference and says he felt he was on a different planet, as the presenting professionals aimed to remove pedophilia from the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," (DSM). That would mean that pedophilia would no longer be considered a mental disorder. |
| 08/18/11 | School district, court: No change to 'Rainbow Day' One conservative says a California case involving parental rights will determine the ability for parents in the state to be actively involved in their children's education. When Castillero Middle School held a "Rainbow Day" event, parent Norina Mooney asked the San Jose Unified School District for permission to give parents the ability to make changes to the pro-lesbian, "gay," bisexual and transgender event that addresses the issue of bullying. Mooney asked school officials to place a request on the agenda that would recognize on Rainbow Day other minorities affected by bullying. Her request, however, was denied by the district superintendent and school board president. |
| 08/18/11 | Vanderbilt includes pagan holidays in calendar Pagan and Wiccan holy days, which follow the changing seasons, are now included among Vanderbilt University's list of religious holy days alongside other religious events like Ramadan and Passover. University officials say the holy days are not part of the academic calendar, but students may ask faculty for accommodations due to their religious beliefs. The Tennessean reports that the pagan days were included in a calendar sent to faculty by the Office of Religious Life. |
| 08/17/11 | OPINION: What part of 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' don't we understand? London is burning. And not just London, but other parts of Britain, such as Manchester and Birmingham. Looters and rioters have run loose for days in that great country, and now there are a few people dead, many businesses destroyed, hundreds arrested, and untold damage. Why? Most of the rioters appear to be young and disaffected, unemployed and not in school, and above all, holding to a complete entitlement mentality. They seemed to be looking for any excuse to steal and destroy. Last week's shooting by the police of a young man, allegedly involved in a drug-crime, was as good an excuse as any for the tinderbox to explode. |
| 08/17/11 | Arizona Court Rules Against Planned Parenthood on Abortion Requirements In a blow to Planned Parenthood, an Arizona appeals court has lifted an injuction that blocked abortion regulations from taking effect in the state. After hearing arguments from both sides earlier this month, the Arizona Court of Appeals on Aug. 11 overturned a Maricopa County Superior Court ruling, which found that portions of the 2009 law -- signed by Gov. Jan Brewer and challenged by Planned Parenthood of Arizona -- could cause “irreparable harm” to women. |