May 23, 2012
WASHINGTON—On Monday the Supreme Court unanimously decided that children conceived through in vitro fertilization after their father’s death could not count as his children for the purpose of receiving his Social Security benefits. The court said the Social Security benefits are designed only for those who were dependents during the parent’s lifetime. (Download a PDF of the opinion.)
The case involved complex questions of who counts as a child for legal purposes in an age of donor eggs and sperm and artificial insemination (see “Postmortem conception,” March 20). Justice Sonia Sotomayor wondered in the oral arguments in March whether any children of a sperm donor would qualify for his benefits.
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- Author: Emily Belz
- Source: WORLD Magzaine
May 23, 2012
The narrow religious exemption for the Obama administration's birth control mandate is "strangling," and the administration fails to understand the "horror" Catholics feel over the exemption, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."
Dolan said he has spoken directly with President Obama regarding his concerns over the narrowness of the religious exemption, but added that he believes the Obama administration still doesn't get it.
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- Author: Napp Nazworth
- Source: Christian Post
May 23, 2012
A Birmingham, Ala., abortion business surrendered its license to the state’s Department of Public Health and ceased operations on Friday.
New Woman All Women (NWAW) Heath Care came under scrutiny in January after life advocates videoed two women being carried out of the back of the building to waiting ambulances. A review of 911 calls revealed both women had overdosed on a drug administered by the clinic.
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 23, 2012
A Christian student group at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro will be allowed to limit its membership to those who share its beliefs after the college reversed a previous decision.
In April 2011, the Make Up Your Own Mind club first sought exemption from the school’s nondiscrimination policy under its provisions for religious groups. University officials denied that request, as well as subsequent requests, ruling the club’s requirement that members agree with its statement of beliefs and its mission did not clearly make it a religious group.
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 18, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she stands with the White House in opposing a provision in the House defense authorization bill that would prohibit anyone in the military from ordering a chaplain to act against his or her "conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs" or against the religious beliefs of the denomination to which he or she belongs.
Pelosi described the conscience-protection provision as a “fraud."
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- Author: Elizabeth Harrington
- Source: CNS News
May 18, 2012
The New York State Senate passed a bill Tuesday making it illegal to view child pornography, in response to a recent court ruling that said simply looking at such content — but not printing or saving it — is legal.
The bill makes it a felony to “knowingly access with intent to view any obscene performance which includes sexual conduct by a child less than sixteen years of age.”
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 18, 2012
Pro-life pharmacists in Kansas gained further legal protections this week, after Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill allowing them to refuse to dispense drugs that may cause abortions.
The Health Care Rights of Conscience Act prevents anyone from being forced to prescribe, distribute or administer drugs they “reasonably believe” could kill a preborn child.
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 18, 2012
A national group of black clergymen is asking President Obama to reconsider his support for same-sex marriage.
In a formal letter issued on Tuesday, the Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP) wrote, “We cannot and will not remain silent while marriage, the most fundamental institution in our — and any — nation, is undermined by our own President while using Christian language and relating it to civil rights.”
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 17, 2012
As faith-based organizations fight a First Amendment battle over federal health care mandates, the economic cost of meeting this year’s national health care law requirements has led Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, to drop student health insurance in the fall.
The economic issue is clearly second to the Catholic university’s religious and moral opposition to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services mandate that all businesses provide coverage for contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-causing medications, a university official said.
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 17, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who recently had twin grandsons conceived through in vitro fertilization, has said it is okay for couples to "destroy' human embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization if they do not want to implant those human beings in a womb.
On May 4, Romney’s son Tagg announced by Twitter the birth of the twin boys, David Mitt and William Ryder, who were gestated by an unnamed surrogate mother. Tagg’s wife is Jennifer Romney and they have four other children, one of whom was also gestated by the same surrogate mother, according to The New York Times.
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- Author: Patrick Burke
- Source: CNS News
May 16, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning Wednesday. (See related story)
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- Author: Patrick Goodenough
- Source: CNS News
May 16, 2012
A new Gallup poll shows that a slight majority, 54 percent, of Americans believe that homosexuality is acceptable. Forty-two percent say that homosexuality is morally wrong.
In a Tuesday interview with The Christian Post, Frank Newport, editor in chief for Gallup, explained that support for same-sex marriage has tended to track closely with the belief that homosexuality is acceptable.
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- Author: Napp Nazworth
- Source: Christian Post
May 16, 2012
During a fundraising event in New York City Monday, President Obama for the first time personally called for the repeal of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The law, which President Bill Clinton signed in 1996, defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman for purposes of federal laws and regulations. It also protects individual states from being forced to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 15, 2012
Black pastors across the country dwelt on President Barack Obama's stance during worship services Sunday, after Obama's May 9 announcement that he supports gay marriage.
The Rev. Emmett C. Burns Jr., a politically influential black minister, held an event Sunday at his Rising Sun Baptist Church in Baltimore, Md., to publicly withdraw support from Obama over his same-sex marriage support, CNN reported. "I love the president, but I cannot support what he has done," Burns was quoted as saying at the church. He also predicted that Obama's stance would lead to his defeat in November.
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- Author: Anugrah Kumar
- Source: Christian Post
May 15, 2012
At the end of this year, Nancy Keenan will step down from her post as president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the country’s oldest abortion-rights advocacy group.
The 60-year-old Keenan said she is leaving out of concern for the future of the pro-choice movement — and thinks she could be holding it back. In recent years, Keenan has worried about an “intensity gap” on abortion rights among millennials, which the group considers to be the generation of Americans born between 1980 and 1991. While most young, antiabortion voters see abortion as a crucial political issue, NARAL’s own internal research does not find similar passion among abortion-rights supporters. If the pro-choice movement is to successfully defend abortion rights, Keenan contends, it needs more young people in leadership roles, including hers.
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- Author: Sarah Kliff
- Source: The Washington Post
May 11, 2012
Argentina made history Wednesday by becoming the first country in the world to make sex-change operations a legal right of every citizen, mandating that public and private insurance providers cover such surgeries. The new legislation, backed by President Cristina Fernandez, who is expected to sign it, will also make it legal for a person to change his or her gender on paper without a sex change operation.
The Gender Identity Law, which passed the senate by a vote of 55-0, makes sex-change surgery as well as hormone therapy available as part of public or private health care plans. In addition, any adult in Argentina will be able to officially change his or her gender, image or birth name on an identification card without having to get approval from doctors or judges and without having to undergo physical changes beforehand.
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- Author: Luiza Oleszczuk
- Source: Christian Post
May 11, 2012
The Missouri House of Representatives gave preliminary approval to a bill this week that would bar local governments from limiting the free speech of pro-life pregnancy centers.
While Missouri cities and counties have not seen a formal effort by abortion activists to control what can be said and advertised by pregnancy centers that do not provide abortions, there is evidence such campaigns are gearing up, said Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri.
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 11, 2012
Two amendments to a defense spending bill protecting the religious liberties of military service members were passed by the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
An amendment introduced by Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., would protect military personnel — including chaplains who refuse to perform same-sex ceremonies — from being punished for expressing “their moral principles and religious beliefs” on sexuality was approved 36-25.
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- Author: Steve Fountain
- Source: CitizenLink
May 11, 2012
When President Obama announced he now supports same-sex marriage, he cited his Christian faith.
"The thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it's also the Golden Rule, you know — treat others the way you would want to be treated," he said in his interview with ABC News.
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- Author: Barbara Bradley Hagerty
- Source: NPR
May 09, 2012
President Obama, who is under mounting pressure to clarify his thinking on same-sex marriage after top aides publicly embraced it in recent days, will sit down for an interview with ABC News on Wednesday during which he is likely to be questioned about his “evolving” views on the issue, according to people familiar with the matter.
The interview, to be conducted by Robin Roberts, an anchor on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and was secured in the wake of a declaration by Mr. Obama’s vice president, Joseph R. Biden, on Sunday that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriages.
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- Author: MICHAEL BARBARO and BRIAN STELTER
- Source: The New York Times
