Yesterday marked the 51st anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, a landmark Supreme Court decision that broadened access to contraception. In a 7-2 decision, the nation’s highest court found that the Connecticut Comstock Act of 1879, which banned contraceptives, violated the Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy.
There’s no question alleged Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Dear Jr., committed his bloody act due to his belief that abortion is murder. But recently unsealed courtroom documents reveal just how much Dear idolized a violent faction of the Religious Right.
The Florida House of Representatives may soon deliberate a bill to make abortion a felony in the state. HB 865, or the “Florida for Life Act,” would make it a first-degree felony to perform an abortion or operate an abortion clinic in the state. Violations could be punished by up to 30 years in prison.
Public schools are paying religious groups to speak to students, and the presentations aren’t always as secular as they claim, Slate reported today.
According to investigative journalist Katherine Stewart, some groups bent on spreading a sectarian message in public schools have discovered an “effective” way into what should be a secular setting.
On Nov. 30, a day when many Americans were kicking off holiday shopping in earnest, a man named Robert Lewis Dear had other ideas. He burst into a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs and allegedly started shooting. Three people were killed and several injured before Dear was subdued.
A federal court has dismissed a suit claiming that a Catholic hospital’s refusal to perform abortions negatively impacted patient care.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Holmes Bell ruled against Tamesha Means, who had sued the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), arguing that Muskegon, Mich.,-based Mercy Health Partners had caused her “severe, unnecessary, and foreseeable physical and emotional pain and suffering” by adhering to USCCB policy on abortion care.
Perhaps you’ve seen the headlines about Planned Parenthood.
A new VICE documentary reveals that publicly funded, religiously motivated crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) represent a growing national problem. Hosted by Fazeelat Aslam, Misconception tackles the misleading advertising tactics used by many, if not most, CPCs to disguise their true intentions: To dissuade women from accessing legal abortion, and to proselytize anyone who comes through the door.
Ireland is having a major church-state showdown over reproductive justice. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny is pushing through the national parliament a bill that would legalize abortion for women who face life-threatening pregnancies.
The measure was proposed after a 31-year-old woman died from blood poisoning after a miscarriage. She had been denied an abortion that might have saved her life.
A week ago, I was sitting in a hotel ballroom surrounded by 3,000 Religious Right activists at the “Values Voter Summit.” Among the speakers we heard was House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
Cantor talked about several issues, among them jobs. In fact, we’ve been told over and over again that this Congress wants to get America back to work. But here’s a funny thing: We’re not actually getting legislation that has anything to do with jobs. It’s simply not on the House’s agenda.
