May 04, 2012
More Teen Girls Use Best Birth Control
Health officials say more teen girls use the best kinds of birth control. A recent survey found 60 percent of teen girls who have sex use the most effective kinds of contraception. That's up from the mid-90s, when less than half were using the best. Health officials say the trend may help explain a large decline in the U.S. teen birth rate since 1990. Read more...
Operation Rescue Says It Has Patient Records
The leader of a Kansas anti-abortion group says un-redacted abortion records it received recently aren't the first to be discovered by the confidential informant who provided them. Operation Rescue president Troy Newman told The Associated Press that the same man found similar records last summer and turned them over to the state, but it did nothing. Newman says the man two weeks ago gave his group the records of 86 female patients treated in April at a Kansas City, Kan., clinic. He says the man didn't say how he got the records but that he claimed he obtained them legally. Read more...
Kansas Senate Passes 'Conscience' Bill
A bill that would allow pharmacists to bow out of providing drugs they believe might cause an abortion cleared the state legislature. The Senate voted 23-16 to approve the bill, which is primarily intended to broaden legal protections for health-care providers who don't want to be involved in abortion procedures. Already passed by the House in March, the bill now awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, a staunch opponent of abortion. Read more...
May 02, 2012
Georgia Gov. Signs 'Fetal Pain' Abortion Bill
Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday approved new restrictions on late-term abortions in Georgia, sealing a victory for conservative leaders who championed the issue at the Capitol this year. Deal's signature makes Georgia the latest state to generally ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, cutting by about six weeks the time women in Georgia may have an elective abortion. Read more...
May 01, 2012
Appeals Judge Stops Planned Parenthood Injunction
A federal appeals judge stepped into the fight over the Texas Women's Health Program on Tuesday, saying he wanted to hear arguments on whether the state should be prevented from enforcing a law that bans Planned Parenthood from participating in the program. Less than 24 hours after a federal judge in Austin ordered Texas not to enforce a rule banning clinics associated with abortion providers from receiving state funds, Fifth Circuit Appeals Judge Jerry Smith granted Texas an emergency stay lifting the Austin court's order. Read more...
Nurse Accused in Baby Theft Denies Being 'Monster'
A Texas woman accused of kidnapping a newborn boy after fatally shooting his mother says she is not "some sort of monster" and people should not judge her until they know the facts. Verna McClain remains jailed without bond after being charged with fatally shooting 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt and snatching her 3-day-old son on April 17. The infant was later found safe. Read more...
Woman Gets 7 Years for Adoption Scam
A Missouri woman will spend 7 years behind bars after admitting to swindling 23 couples in an adoption scam, Fox 4 reports. 35-year-old Roxanne Janel Jones admitted to running a scam where she would pretend to be pregnant, contact adoption agencies and ask to be set up with couples looking to adopt. Jones then would ask the couples to provide her with living expenses such as rent, according to Fox 4. She admitted in a guilty plea that she scammed 23 couples, from Missouri, Minnesota, Georgia, California, Tennessee and Massachusetts. She also admitted to scamming five adoption agencies. Read more...
April 30, 2012
Judge Blocks Texas From Cutting Off Planned Parenthood
A federal judge stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting state funds through the Women's Health Program. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled there is sufficient evidence that a law banning Planned Parenthood from the program is unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing it until he can hear full arguments. The law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature forbids state agencies from providing funds to an organization affiliated with abortion providers. Eight Planned Parenthood clinics that do not provide abortions sued the state. Read more...
Oklahoma Court Tosses Petition on 'Personhood'
The Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out an initiative petition that would have called for a vote on "personhood" beginning at conception. The ruling cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case -- Planned Parenthood v. Casey -- which centered on Pennsylvania's attempt to challenge Roe v. Wade, which recognized a constitutional right to have an abortion. "The United States Supreme Court has spoken on this issue. The measure is clearly unconstitutional. ... The states are duty bound to follow its interpretation of the law." Read more...
Minnesota Governor Issues Second Abortion Veto
Gov. Mark Dayton has issued his second veto of an abortion bill in as many weeks. The governor issued an expected veto of a bill that would have required physicians to be physically present every time an abortion pill like RU-486 is prescribed, and again every time such a pill is swallowed. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, pitched it as a measure meant to protect women’s health in the event of side-effects from the pill. Read more...
State Denies License to Reopen Abortion Clinic
Alabama's health department said it had denied a company's application to take over a Birmingham abortion clinic that is now slated for closing over health violations, citing ties between the prospective operator and the current owner. Ochata Management, which sought state approval to run New Woman All Women Health Care, cannot operate the clinic because it is too close to the current operator, said a statement from the Alabama Department of Public Health. Read more...
Sebelius Unaware of Religious Liberty Cases
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius provided as much evidence as necessary as to why this administration has some incompetents running the show. While testifying before Congress, Sebelius was asked some direct questions about how she "balanced" concerns for religious liberty with the contraceptive mandate that is part of Obamacare. The result proves that her constitutional knowledge wouldn't fill the head of a pin. Does Sebelius know the three different tests applied to the Constitution to determine whether a piece of legislation balances principles? "I'm not a lawyer and I don't pretend to understand the nuances of the constitutional balancing tests," replied Sebelius. Read more...
