Tag Archives: State: Mississippi

AP: It can’t meet the mandates of a 2012 state law and the governor wants to shut it down, but Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is not about to quietly retreat.

San Francisco Chronicle: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed a bill that regulates the prescription and use of abortion-inducing drugs. He signed Senate Bill 2795 on Thursday, and it becomes law July 1.

Religion Clause Blog: The complaint (full text) in M.B. v. Rankin County School District, (SD MI, filed 4/24/2013) alleges that Northwest Rankin High School held mandatory assemblies for various grade levels, led by members of the Pinelake Baptist Church.

WDAM: “Hattiesburg is a praying city,” said Dupree. “We all understand what prayer does, how powerful prayer is. Personally, prayer has done so much for my family, and people that I love. So we’ll continue to have the prayer breakfast.” The mayor also received a letter from the Alliance Defending Freedom in support of the prayer breakfast.

Baptist Press at Townhall: Casey Mattox, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a written statement, “Virginia should be congratulated for holding abortionists to the same health and safety standards as everyone else. Their resistance to such standards exposes their real attitude toward women….”

Christian News Network: However, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent Christian legal organization headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, has also sent a letternotifying Mayor DuPree that the prayer breakfast is both legal and appropriate. “You can be confident that your participation in and acknowledgement of the National Day of Prayer are constitutionally protected activities,” the letter states. “You are free to proclaim your city’s support for this event, and you are under no obligation to satisfy the demands of any disgruntled individual or civil libertarian group that may oppose such action.”

Charisma News: “Public officials should be able to recognize public prayer activities just as America’s founders did,” said Senior Counsel Austin R. Nimocks. “The mayor need not give in to the demands of activist groups that twist the true meaning of the First Amendment. He and the town of Hattiesburg are free to continue to participate in this long-revered American tradition.”

Alliance Defending Freedom has sent a letter to the mayor of Hattiesburg, Miss. to encourage him to continue the Mayor’s Annual Prayer Breakfast despite an atheist group’s false claims that the event is unconstitutional.

LifeNews: A judge has prevented a new pro-life law from being used to close the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi.

Freedom from Relgiion Foundation: The city of Hattiesburg, Miss., shouldn’t be using city resources and public tax dollars to promote a May 2 religious observance, FFRF Staff Attorney Elizabeth Cavell told Mayor Johnny L. DuPree in an April 9 letter of complaint.

Delaware Online: Fresh from the governor’s desk, a bill aimed at expanding legal opportunities for public school prayer has been signed into law even as the Lincoln County School District remains in talks with the American Civil Liberties Union over charges of unconstitutional prayers in the district.

CBN: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed a bill that allows prayers led by students over school intercoms, at graduations, or at sporting events.

Mississippi Business Journal: Gov. Phil Bryant has signed a bill that could lead to student-led prayer over school intercoms or at graduations or sporting events. The American Civil Liberties Union said the measure, which becomes law July 1, is likely to prompt a lawsuit in the school year that begins in August

Christian Post: Senate Bill 2633 – also known as “The Mississippi Student Religious Liberties Act of 2013″– prohibits public schools in the state from discrimination due to student’s expression of religious beliefs. The bill, which passed March 6, has been sent to Gov. Phil Bryant for his signature.

WDAM.com: Gov. Phil Bryant is expected to sign a bill passed by the House Wednesday that would allow some forms of student-lead prayer at school events.

WJTV.com: In a decision with a margin of more than 100 votes the Mississippi House of Representatives sends a “Prayer in School” bill to the Governor’s desk.

Religion Clause Blog: The Mississippi State Legislature has passed overwhelmingly and sent to Gov. Phil Bryant for his signatureS.B. 2633, the Mississippi Student Religious Liberties Act of 2013.

LifeNews: Under the leadership of Chairman Sam Mims, R-McComb, the Mississippi State House of Representatives passed pro-life Senate Bill 2795 by a vote of 76 to 31 yesterday.

Christian Newswire: Today, Mississippi resident and post abortive mother Anne Reed filed a Life at Conception Citizen’s Initiative, which states: “The right to life begins at conception. All human beings, at every stage of development, are unique, created in God’s image and shall have equal rights as persons under the law.”

GulfLive.com (AP): The House has sent a bill to Gov. Phil Bryant that could legalize student prayer before school audiences.

WDAM.com: The controversy over a transgender student at South Panola High School continues and this time, students are protesting.

Jackson Free Press: Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is scheduled for an April 18 license revocation hearing before the state Department of Health, and officials say a decision could come days or weeks later.

LifeSiteNews: Mississippi’s last abortion facility received notice on Friday that the state health department intends to revoke its license. If the clinic closes, that would make Mississippi the first state without a single abortion clinic.

Clarion Ledger (videos): Three anti-abortion demonstrators were hospitalized this morning after a hired security guard at the state’s only abortion clinic sprayed them with pepper spray. Jackson Police Officer Colendula Green said simple assault charges are pending against the security guard.

MLive.com: The Jackson City Council still has plans to look at potential ordinances that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and one to regulate medical marijuana, officials said.

San Francisco Chronicle: Lincoln County schools officials say they are working with the American Civil Liberties Union to address a prayer controversy at the West Lincoln Attendance Center.

LifeNews: The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, failed to meet a Friday deadline for compliance with a new law that requires abortionists to maintain local hospital privileges.

National Review: In Mississippi, there’s only one abortion clinic remaining — and because of a law passed earlier this year that is designed to protect women’s health, it may soon close.

LifeSiteNews: A Mississippi judge has handed down two suspended six-month jail terms and $5,000 in fines for Kristina Garza, a pro-life activist who was arrested in March for handing out literature in front of Murrah High School in Jackson.

San Francisco Chronicle: Attorneys for Mississippi’s only abortion clinic are again asking a federal judge to block a state law that threatens to eventually close the facility, though a closing is not expected any time soon.

WLOX.com (includes video): Groups of pro-life activists spent the morning passing out anti-abortion information to Jackson high school students.

Religion Clause Blog: In Opulent Life Church v. City of Holly Springs, Mississippi, (ND MS, Nov. 1, 2012), in a case on remand from the 5th Circuit (see prior posting) a Mississippi federal district court granted a TRO and a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a total zoning ban on religious congregations in the area where plaintiff church’s property is located.

The Mississippi Press: The American Civil Liberties Union demanded Wednesday that a south Mississippi school stop holding prayers and promoting religious activities at games and other events.

The Mississippi Press: A state lottery could be debated in the Mississippi Legislature next year if the issue gets past the House Gaming Committee, headed by a Gulf Coast lawmaker.

Sacramento Bee: The American Civil Liberties Union says the Mississippi Department of Public Safety discriminates against men who want to use a marriage certificate to change their names the way women can.

Hattiesburg American: Several Pine Belt school districts have decided not to have prayer before home football games this season following their receipt of a letter from a Wisconsin group warning that the practice is illegal. The Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, Wis., sent the letter to 151 Mississippi public school superintendents last September.

The New American: The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which has gained its reputation (and a tidy living for its employees) by suing school districts and municipalities over public prayer, has chosen schools in Mississippi and Tennessee as its latest targets. According to the Mississippi Press website, the Wisconsin-based atheist group has threatened all 151 Mississippi school superintendents with lawsuits if they allow prayer over public address systems during school football games.

GulfLive.com: The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has issued a warning to Mississippi’s 151 school superintendents regarding prayers before tonight’s season-opening high school football games, according to several news organizations and social media sites.

Brian Perry at Madison County Journal: In 2008, former Democratic Governor Ronnie Musgrove was running for the U.S. Senate and opposed gay-marriage even as the Mississippi Democratic Party shifted its platform position on marriage. Mississippi Democrats removed their platform plank that said, “Marriage: We believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.” The new platform was silent on marriage. But Musgrove was not silent. At one campaign stop in the Democratic Delta he said, “I’m very conservative. I am pro-life, anti-gay marriage. And again, that’s my personal belief, but I think it’s also very representative of Mississippi.” Musgrove was correct; his position was very representative of Mississippi. So, will marriage estrange Mississippi Democrats from their national party and candidates?

AP: Faced with the threat of a federal lawsuit, Mississippi officials have relented on a ban on same-sex commitment ceremonies at a state-owned museum . . .

WLBT.com: The American Civil Liberties Union is fighting a plan to ban saggy pants in Hinds County.

Think Progress: The state-owned museum allows heterosexual couples to use the space for their ceremonies, but its director claims that it has a policy banning same-sex weddings and ceremonies. In 2009, State Attorney General Jim Hood released a letter stating that the museum can limit use of its facilities to events considered “legal” under state law. The Southern Poverty Law Center has come to the couple’s defense, arguing that the policy violates the First Amendment (with viewpoint discrimination) and the Fourteenth Amendment (with differential treatment).

AP on Yahoo: Steven Aden, an attorney for a Washington-based anti-abortion group, Alliance Defending Freedom, sat with state attorneys in court Wednesday. He said he was acting as a consultant for the state to defend the law. “All the state is doing here is to apply a common-sense rule that’s applicable to all ambulatory surgical centers,” Aden said.

LifeNews: ADF tells LifeNews.com that means those provisions can go into effect and that the door is open for other Indiana counties to enact similar legislation. “A patient’s health is more important than an abortionist’s bottom line,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden. “The county simply can’t put the health and safety of patients at risk because one man wants to perform abortions without a sensible safety precaution that applies to all out-of-town physicians, not just abortionists,” he said. “The ordinance is very clearly designed to make sure that patients receive appropriate treatment in a medical emergency that can arise after an itinerant physician has gone back home and is no longer available to care for the patient.”

Jackson Women’s Organization v. Currier is a federal lawsuit concerning the constitutionality of Mississippi House Bill 1390, signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant on April 16. The measure requires physicians associated with licensed abortion facilities to possess “admitting privileges,” which allows doctors to follow up with patients in a local hospital if complications ensue from an abortion.

AP: U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III temporarily blocked the new law that, if enforced, could shut down the state’s only abortion clinic.

Reuters: Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic opened without incident on Monday after a last-minute court ruling prevented the state from enforcing a new law that could have forced it to close.

NY Daily News: In the order, Jordan wrote: “Plaintiffs have offered evidence — including quotes from significant legislative and executive officers — that the Act’s purpose is to eliminate abortions in Mississippi. They likewise submitted evidence that no safety or health concerns motivated its passage. This evidence has not yet been rebutted.” | Center for Reproductive Rights press release

Center for Reproductive Rights: Mississippi’s latest attempt to shut down its one remaining clinic providing abortion services would effectively ban abortion in the state and is patently unconstitutional, according a new legal challenge filed in federal court today by the Center for Reproductive Rights . . . The Center filed the suit, Jackson Women’s Health Organization & Willie Parker, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc. v. Mary Currier, M.D., M.P.H. & Robert Shuler Smith, with Michelle Movahed as lead counsel, along with local counsel Robert B. McDuff in Jackson, Miss.

American Federation for Children: A new scholarship tax credit program benefiting low-income families in New Hampshire became law today, joining a recently-passed measure in Mississippi for dyslexic children as the latest in a groundswell of school choice momentum across the country.

LifeNews: “A patient’s health is more important than an abortionist’s bottom line,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden. “The county simply can’t put the health and safety of patients at risk because one man wants to perform abortions without a sensible safety precaution that applies to all out-of-town physicians, not just abortionists,” he said. “The ordinance is very clearly designed to make sure that patients receive appropriate treatment in a medical emergency that can arise after an itinerant physician has gone back home and is no longer available to care for the patient.” [more]

Houston Chronicle: First-term Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant told a group of teenagers that he believes it should be possible for public schools to have some sort of nondenominational prayer to open the day.

Clarion Ledger: A state legislator is asking authorities to investigate death threats allegedly made against him and his family related to his online comments concerning same-sex marriage. “We got several death threats on Saturday left on the answering machine,” said Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton.

LifeNews: A new state law in Mississippi helps young girls who are victimized by rape or incest who are victimized again by abortions. As undercover investigations have found Planned Parenthood an abortion facilities not always reporting cases of suspected abuse to authorities, pro-life advocates have pushed for a new law.

WDAM: In 1988, 15 year old Jones County resident Karen Knotts, was kidnapped, raped and murdered. The man convicted was her stepfather James Pugh. He was sentenced to life in prison, but became eligible for parole this year. Karen’s Law, a Mississippi bill named in her honor, set out increase the sentence of manslaughter from 20 years to 30 years.

HattiesburgAmericans.com: A Mississippi Senate chairman on Thursday killed a bill that could have led to a homicide criminal prosecution for anyone performing an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is found.

Clarion Ledger: Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is blocking a state Board of Health nomination because the nominee has ties to the state’s only abortion clinic, The Associated Press confirmed Tuesday.

Liberty Counsel: Yesterday, the Jackson County School Board in Mississippi unanimously passed a student speech policy, which will allow the senior class to pick a student speaker to deliver a two-minute message before and after graduation. The contents of that speech may or may not include a prayer.

Liberty Institute: Opulent Life Church has enlisted the help of Liberty Institute to protect the church from discrimination by the city of Holly Springs, MS. The church wishes to expand their current space in downtown, but due to zoning restrictions the church must get the approval of 60 percent of nearby residents and the town’s Mayor before they can expand.

LifeNews: The governor of Mississippi has signed a bill that would make the state the first in the nation to be without an active abortion business if the only one in the state can’t comply with the sensible new law he signed.

NECN.com: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said he will sign a bill Monday to put new requirements on doctors who work at the state’s only abortion clinic, effective July 1.

One News Now: Matt Sharp of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says the Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent intimidating letters to 400 districts in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky, hoping they will cave rather than stand up to the threat of a lawsuit. But his firm is encouraging the latter option. “We hope that schools will stand up for the free-speech rights of students and the right to express their religious beliefs in opportunities like this and won’t cave in to pressure,” Sharp says, “but we think that’s probably what their game plan is.” [more]

NECN (AP): The owner of Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic says she will sue the state if her business can’t comply with a regulation that will soon become law.

WLOX.com: A national organization is urging Mississippi public school districts to stop student-initiated prayer at school-sponsored events. The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently sent letters to all superintendents, raising concerns about prayers at football games and graduation.

WLOX.com: A national organization is urging Mississippi public school districts to stop student-initiated prayer at school-sponsored events. The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently sent letters to all superintendents, raising concerns about prayers at football games and graduation.

LifeNews: The Mississippi state Senate has approved a measure that abortion backers strongly oppose because it could resulting in stopping abortions at the last remaining abortion facility in the state, making it the first abortion-free state in the country.

Sun Herald: Mississippi lawmakers have passed a bill that would require any doctor performing abortions at an abortion clinic to be a board-certified OB-GYN with admitting privileges at a local hospital.

Washington Examiner: House Bill 1196 would prohibit abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detectable, unless the woman’s health is at risk.

AZ Central (AP): A resurgent Rick Santorum swept primaries in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night, upending the race for the Republican presidential nomination yet again and nudging Newt Gingrich toward the sidelines.

Sun Herald: A bill that would require doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and to be certified in obstetrics and gynecology has passed the Mississippi House.

LifeSiteNews (includes video): Two pro-life advocates who were arrested and held in jail for 24 hours while peacefully demonstrating outside a high school in Mississippi say they were told by police that they were detained simply because they were talking about abortion.

The AP reports.

Education News: For the second time in just months, an attempt to assemble information such as names and addresses on all homeschool students in one Mississippi judicial district and provide those details to judges has been defeated . . .

SunHerald.com: A Mississippi senator is proposing an anti-abortion constitutional amendment similar to one rejected by voters last November.

OneNewsNow.com: Senate Bill 2180, “An Act to Amend Section 97-5-39, Mississippi Code of 1972, to Revise the Offense of Felonious Abuse of Batter of a Child; and for Related Purposes,” submitted by Republican Senator Brice Wiggins, would make it a felony to “whip, strike, or otherwise abuse any child” in a manner that causes “bodily harm.”