News
| 06/08/10 | IL clinic takes another shot at Christian pro-lifers Kevin Rilott 2A Rockford pro-life counselor feels that an Illinois abortion clinic has reached a new low in an attempt to offend Christians. The Northern Illinois Women's Center abortion clinic has gained notoriety nationwide for the signs placed in its windows that mock Christianity and Christians. In the past, the workers have displayed rubber chickens hanging from nooses, a nun in a coffin, and other taunting posters with hateful messages. |
| 06/02/10 | Obama, Proclaiming LGBT Pride Month, Pushes Repeal of Defense of Marriage Act Citing his commitment to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), President Obama on Friday issued a proclamation declaring June 2010 “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.” The president also emphasized his intention to secure “adoption rights” for same-sex couples and end both employment discrimination against LGBT individuals as well as the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) compromise that bars homosexuals from serving openly in the military. |
| 06/01/10 | Forced abortions - the sad truth An Illinois-based pro-life group says lost in the politics of the abortion debate is the surprising evidence that most -- not some -- abortions are unwanted or coerced, and many are forced. The Elliot Institute has updated a study on forced abortion in America. One aspect of the study focuses on the risks that women and girls often face when they refuse to have an abortion. Amy Sobie with the Elliot Institute says updated information confirms a previous conclusion that the number-one cause of death among pregnant women is homicide. |
| 06/01/10 | Abstinence message - teachers wrong, student right A middle-school student in Minnesota has regained his right to wear at school a T-shirt bearing an abstinence message. Officials at Hastings Middle School had initially prohibited seventh-grader Johnathon Kinney from wearing the T-shirt with the message "Virginity Rocks!" On April 26, two school teachers confronted Kinney about the shirt, informing him that it was offensive and should be covered up. School officials also warned Kinney against wearing the shirt again. |
| 05/28/10 | Academics From U.S., Canada, Other Nations Pressure G8 to Promote Abortion The heads of the U.S. National Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada joined their counterparts from Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Russia and Britain to release a statement pressuring the leaders of nations at the G8 summit to promote abortion. They want the heads of state to include access to "safe" abortion as part of the major funding initiative agenda at the upcoming meeting. |
| 05/28/10 | Poll: Abortion Morally Wrong, Embryonic Research OK, Assisted Suicide Split The latest national poll of thousands of Americans from Gallup finds people believe abortion is morally wrong, are split on assisted suicide, and believe research involving the destruction of human embryos is okay. The results show pro-lie advocates have more educational work to do on bioethics issues. The findings are from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted May 3-6. |
| 05/26/10 | Dangerous abortion scheme spreading Operation Rescue has discovered that telemed abortions (see related article) are being used in Iowa, so the state board of medicine is planning an investigation to determine if the method is legal. Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullinger says the fact that the practice is spreading elsewhere is troubling because it can be dangerous. |
| 05/26/10 | Gates will support proposed immediate 'gay' ban lift A conservative military watchdog says the supposed "compromise" worked out between President Obama and the Pentagon to repeal the law banning homosexuals serving in the military is nothing more than an attempt to pay back radical homosexual political supporters. |
| 05/21/10 | ACLU is 0 for 4 The Ten Commandments display in Grayson County, Kentucky, will stand, thwarting an effort by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to have the courts declare it unconstitutional. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a request to rehear the case, and Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel does not think the ACLU will take their argument any further. |
| 05/21/10 | Homosexual activists bullying CA therapists Political correctness could force some California psychologists and counselors out of business. According to a state therapist identified only as "Betty," in wanting to be sensitive to the cause of homosexuals the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) -- the only professional organization for marriage in the state -- has started to infringe on the religious freedom of therapists and their clients. |
| 05/19/10 | Defund Planned Parenthood - Round 2 For the second year in a row, the Huelskamp Amendment has passed both houses -- and after Governor Mark Parkinson's vetoed last year's attempt, this year's bill again awaits the Democrat's signature. Bill sponsor Senator Tim Huelskamp contends that the dollars need to stop flowing into Planned Parenthood coffers. "Planned Parenthood in Kansas currently has over 107 criminal indictments against them that involve multiple felonies, and those are currently being discussed somewhere in the state Supreme Court," the sponsor reports. "But indeed, this is the type of organization that should not receive taxpayer funding, whether it's at the federal or state level." |
| 05/19/10 | FEMA Photographer Asked Church Volunteers Not to Wear Religious T-Shirts in Video on Tornado Aftermath The top officer for FEMA said one of the agency's videographers was "absolutely wrong" to ask Mississippi church volunteers not to wear religious T-shirts for a video about tornado cleanup. Angelia Lott and Pamela Wedgeworth, who are sisters, told The Associated Press that the FEMA worker videotaping the cleanup on Saturday in the small town of Ebenezer asked them to do on-camera interviews but requested that they change out of their T-shirts because of a Salvation Army logo. |
| 05/14/10 | Democratic Senators Confirm Supreme Court Pick Elena Kagan is Pro-Abortion Democrats in the Senate who are supporting President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan are confirming she is pro-abortion. With no judicial record, groups on both sides of the abortion debate are looking to other information to ascertain how she might rule on abortion cases. With pro-life groups noting Kagan has a lengthy private record supporting abortion, and pro-abortion groups giving her tentative support, some senators have come out saying she is an abortion advocate. |
| 05/14/10 | A grand jury is investigating a Philadelphia abortionist whose clinic held a gruesome secret. The abortionist is 69-year-old Kermit Gosnell, whose medical license has been suspended in two states -- Pennsylvania and Delaware. Troy Newman, who heads Operation Rescue, summarizes the abortionist's story. "The federal authorities and local [and] state authorities raided his abortion clinic [in Philadelphia] a couple of months ago and said that it looked like a -- quote -- 'shop of horrors,'" states Newman. (See earlier story) |
| 05/11/10 | Little League coach stays after prayer complaint MEDFORD, OR - Little League officials in Medford, Oregon, have voted to keep a coach who led his team in prayer and remove a board member who complained about it. Medford National Little League President Kathy Meyer told the Mail Tribune over the weekend that the board is "100 percent" behind coach Chris Palmer. |
| 05/11/10 | Elena Kagan: Government Can Ban Political Pamphlets Solicitor General Elena Kagan, nominated Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, told that court in September that Congress could constitutionally prohibit corporations from engaging in political speech such as publishing pamphlets that advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for federal office. Kagan’s argument that the government could prohibit political speech by corporations was rejected by a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in that case, and in a scathing concurrence Chief Justice John Roberts took direct aim at Kagan’s argument that the government could ban political pamphlets. |
| 05/06/10 | California kids blasted for wearing American flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo A handful of California students got an unexpected lesson at their high school this week: Don't wear your stars and stripes on Cinco de Mayo. Five Morgan Hill, California students were asked to take off their American flag bandannas and turn their T-shirts inside out after students complained, according to NBC news in San Francisco. |
| 05/06/10 | Franklin Graham: Christians Will Lose the Power to Pray Outside Church Walls ‘Maybe in My Lifetime’ Two top evangelical leaders sounded a defiant tone on the eve of National Day of Prayer -- warning that the American right to freedom of religion “is being eroded every day” and may be lost in an onslaught of secularism unless Americans “have the guts to stand up.” The Rev. Franklin Graham, who last month was officially “dis-invited” by the Army to speak at a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the Pentagon for statements he made about Islam, said he will not back down in preaching the Gospel as he sees it. |
| 05/04/10 | Court won't hear appeal on Boy Scouts land rental The Supreme Court has let stand a ruling saying the Boy Scouts cannot lease city park land in San Diego because the group is a religious organization. The high court refused to hear an appeal from San Diego-area Boy Scouts. |
| 05/04/10 | Lutheran Church to Reinstate Homosexual Pastor in Atlanta A Lutheran denomination is reinstating a gay Atlanta pastor and his partner to its clergy roster. The Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said Tuesday the Rev. Bradley Schmeling and the Rev. Darin Easler have been approved for reinstatement. |
| 04/29/10 | Army Symbol Is Religious, Should Be Changed A religious watchdog group says a cross and motto on the emblem of an Army hospital in Colorado violate the constitutional requirement for separation of church and state and should be removed. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation asked the Army this week to change the emblem of Evans Army Community Hospital at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs. |
| 04/29/10 | llinois Lawmaker's Engagement Spotlights Same-Sex Marriage Illinois lawmaker Deborah Mell is sharing some bittersweet news with her colleagues. The sweet is that she's engaged. The bitter is that Illinois doesn't recognize gay marriage. So she plans to get married in Iowa, which does. |
| 04/27/10 | Lawmaker Calls for Hearings into Pentagon’s ‘Politically Correct’ Decisions to ‘Disinvite’ Conservative Christian Leaders A conservative Republican congressman from Georgia is calling for congressional hearings to investigate actions by the U.S. military in recent weeks to cancel or rescind invitations that had been made to two prominent conservative Christian leaders -- Franklin Graham and Tony Perkins -- to speak at military prayer events. |
| 04/27/10 | Oklahoma Backs Abortion Restrictions The Oklahoma Legislature voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to override vetoes of two highly restrictive abortion measures, one making it a law that women undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before having an abortion. Though other states have passed similar measures forcing women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma’s law goes further, requiring a doctor or technician to set up the monitor where the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims. |
| 04/22/10 | Obama Claims No Abortion Litmus Test for Supreme Court, But Establishes One President Barack Obama met top Senate leaders today to discuss his upcoming Supreme Court nomination and he promised he will have no abortion litmus test. However, most of the potential nominees said to be on his short list to replace pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens also back unlimited abortions. Still, the New York Times indicated Obama wants a new high court justice who respects individual rights and women's rights -- code phrases for abortion. |
| 04/22/10 | Activists Claim Free Speech Victory As ‘Leaving Islam’ Ads Return to Buses A public transit authority in Florida has reversed a decision to take down banner advertisements on buses that offer help to Muslims wanting to leave their faith. Activists are hailing the move as a victory for free speech and religious freedom. Not only will the ten originally planned ads appear on Miami-Dade Transit buses in coming days, but an additional 20 ads will be run at no extra cost. |
| 04/20/10 | Poll Finds Most Americans Oppose Legalizing Marijuana Most Americans still oppose legalizing marijuana but larger majorities believe pot has medical benefits and the government should allow its use for that purpose, according to an Associated Press-CNBC poll released Tuesday. Respondents were skeptical that crime would spike if marijuana is decriminalized or that it would lead more people to harder drugs like heroin or cocaine. There also was a nearly even split on whether government spends too much or the right amount enforcing marijuana laws. Almost no one thinks too little is spent. |
| 04/20/10 | Atheist Group Calls on Obama to Endorse ‘National Day of Reason' Instead of 'National Day of Prayer' An atheist group is calling on President Obama to ditch the National Day of Prayer and formally recognize its own “non-theist” version called “The National Day of Reason.” Last week, a federal judge in Madison, Wis., ruled that the law designating the first Thursday in May to be the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional because, the judge said, it negatively impacts non-believers. |
| 04/13/10 | New Pre-Abortion Requirements Passed in Neb. Nebraska lawmakers on Monday gave final approval to a first-of-its-kind measure requiring women to be screened for possible mental and physical problems before having abortions. |
| 04/08/10 | Military Will Discharge Soldiers for Revealing Homosexuality Despite ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy Changes, Says Defense Dept After announcing changes to its existing “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy, the Department of Defense (DoD) told CNSNews.com that a member of the military who makes “a statement that he or she is homosexual or bisexual, or words to that effect” still “can be separated” from the armed forces. The policy changes, announced at a Mar. 25 press briefing at the Pentagon, basically make it harder to initiate an official inquiry into whether a soldier is homosexual, raise the authority level needed to discharge a soldier, and set stricter rules on evidence and confidential information used in such inquiries. |