Tag Archives: Topic: Legislation

USA Today: The debate pits those who believe a person is born gay or lesbian versus those who think it is a choice.

The Florida Family Policy Council sent this letter to the Senate Children and Families Committee in connection with its consideration of domestic partnerships/

Herald Tribune: In a landmark vote that may signal a shift in legislative attitudes, a Senate committee on Monday narrowly endorsed the creation of a statewide domestic partnership registry that could extend some legal protections to same-sex couples. “We have made history in the Florida Senate,” Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, said, as the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee voted 5-4 for the registry bill (SB 196).

LifeNews: A Washington Republican state lawmaker is standing tall and single-handedly thwarting a bill in the state legislature that would force insurance companies to pay for abortions.

NY Times: Conservative hostility to the changes looming under the federal health care overhaul, formally the Affordable Care Act, and a widespread belief that a majority on the Supreme Court might be ready to overturn the Roe v. Wade precedent, the advocates said, have combined to rekindle a brush fire that mostly blazes in one direction. In addition, an influx of Republicans swept into many statehouses starting with midterm elections in 2010.

The Spokesman Review: A Republican state senator is blocking legislation that would require health insurance companies to cover abortion, denying a vote on a bill even though a majority of Washington senators expressed support.

San Francisco Chronicle: The Kansas Senate has retained language in an anti-abortion bill directing doctors to provide information to women before terminating their pregnancies about a disputed potential link between abortion and breast cancer.

Seattle Times: State Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, says a House bill requiring health-insurance plans to cover abortions has the 25 votes needed to pass the Senate. He released a letter Monday with the signatures of 25 senators, as a hearing was being held in the Senate on House Bill 1044. The legislation passed the House 53-43 in February.

Reuters: North Dakota’s only clinic that offers abortion services is vowing to challenge the state’s adoption of new restrictions that its backers say imperil its ability to operate.

AP: Rival legal teams, well-financed and highly motivated, are girding for court battles over the coming months on laws enacted in Arkansas and North Dakota that would impose the nation’s toughest bans on abortion.

Reuters: Members of the Pennsylvania legislature are pushing back against a state Supreme Court decision that made it more difficult for hospitals to prove they are nonprofit organizations deserving of tax-exempt status.

American Federation for Children: The American Federation for Children – the nation’s voice for educational choice – today applauded the efforts of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia legislature for passing legislation to raise the cap and add additional accountability and transparency measures to the Georgia Scholarship Tax Credit Program, ensuring more money reaches disadvantaged children throughout the state.

LifeSiteNews: New Jersey is the latest state to legislatively attack the right of people with unwanted same-sex attraction to choose reparative therapy. State lawmakers are debating a bill that would ban the therapy.  It’s likely that the bill will pass the Democrat-controlled legislature, but it is unclear whether Republican Governor Chris Christie will sign it.

Think Progress: The Center for Arizona Policy is using an opinion from the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal-defense organization, to argue that the draft Medicaid legislation should be amended to disqualify the non-profit women’s health provider Planned Parenthood from receiving public money. [...]

Mary K. Reinhart at AZ Republic: The Center for Arizona Policy is using an opinion from the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal-defense organization, to argue that the draft Medicaid legislation should be amended to disqualify the non-profit women’s health provider Planned Parenthood from receiving public money. (excerpt also posted on CNN and Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report)

AP: The original bill would have made it a crime for a transgendered person to use a bathroom other than his or her birth sex. The new bill instead seeks to shield businesses from civil or criminal liability if they ban people from restrooms that don’t match their birth sex.

Marine Corps Times: Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., a longstanding advocate of abortion rights, reintroduced the Military Access to Reproductive Care and Health (MARCH) for Military Women bill, which would permit physicians at military facilities to conduct abortions if female service members or Tricare beneficiaries use private funds to pay for the surgeries.

Washington Post: Health plans offered to Virginians through federal insurance exchanges could not cover most abortions under amendments that Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has proposed to two General Assembly bills.

The Indy Channel: Indiana Right to Life president Mike Fichter says the group agreed with the decision to drop the ultrasound requirement because debate over it in the state Senate had taken focus away from its goal of tightening regulations on clinics that provide abortions.

The Miami Herald: Bills seeking to ban sex- and race-selective abortions and to require that babies surviving botched abortions receive medical care cleared House subcommittees on Wednesday as the hot-button issue resurfaced during a legislative session that’s been largely bereft of battles over social issues. The legislation (HB845) . . .

Business Insider: The legislation protects “sincerely held religious beliefs” from infringement unless there is “a compelling governmental interest.” The courts will still consider and rule on each matter.

AZ Central: Republican lawmakers in Arizona are backing legislation that would create one of the strongest religious freedom laws in the nation. The measure would make it more difficult for governments to place any limits on a person’s religious freedom.

LifeNews: The Unborn Civil Rights bill (SB 142) passed the House yesterday by a vote of 89-33. This bill bans ‘wrongful birth and wrongful life’ lawsuits that claim a disabled child should have been aborted.

Baptist Press: Reaction to Gov. Steve Beshear’s veto of the Kentucky legislature’s religious freedom bill came swift and strong from state Baptist leaders. “When did the cherished constitutional right of religious freedom become such a danger to our society?” asked Paul Chitwood, executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, after Beshear’s March 22 veto.

NPR audio: In North Dakota, voters will decide next year whether to approve a constitutional amendment saying life begins at conception. A number of other bills in that state await the governor’s signature including one that prohibits abortion if a fetal heartbeat is present at about six weeks. In Arkansas, a ban at 12 weeks passed earlier this month. Abortion opponents hope to get one of those laws before the U.S. Supreme Court.

LifeNews: North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed three pro-life bills this morning, including one that would ban most abortions in the state. Dalrymple acknowledged a court battle is expected and asked state legislators to set aside funds to pay for the expenses.
The governor’s office released the following statement on the bills he signed . . .

AP: More than 300 abortion-rights activists carried signs and chanted, “Veto! Veto! Veto!” in a demonstration Monday at the state Capitol protesting a package of measures that would give the state the toughest abortion restrictions in the nation.

LJ World: A House committee has scheduled a public hearing for a bill that would prohibit an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detectable. The hearing has been scheduled for 8 a.m. Tuesday before the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.

Atlanta J. Constitution: For weeks, the anti-abortion activists in the Legislature have been quiet, biding their time. This afternoon, with the session nearly down to its last 48 hours, they struck, approving a ban on abortion coverage in insurance plans offered to state employees

NJ Star Ledger: However, because this boy was also written up as a bully, it kick-started an entire bureaucratic process: There was an investigation, and a legal dispute. A hearing before an administrative law judge. Tearful testimony from L.L. The appeal of the judge’s decision and, ultimately, the backing of it by the state’s education commissioner.

WPSDLocal6.com: Gov. Steve Beshear will have to decide Friday whether to veto a bill intended to protect religious freedom in Kentucky.

Greg Baylor at Speak Up Movement: The freedom of religious student groups at America’s public universities is under constant attack. However, the Virginia legislature is the latest to fight bac

LifeNews: We are 112 Montana physicians who have joined together to support HB 505. House Bill 505 is a short and simple bill that will clarify the law of physician-assisted suicide by clearly providing that physician-assisted suicide is not legal in Montana.

LifeNews: Leading pro-life advocates in Canada are upset the Canadian Parliament will not allow members to vote on a motion to condemn the practice of sex-selection abortions.

ABC (AP): The legislation passed Wednesday by a vote of 149-137, with the crucial support of 16 Conservatives, including four cabinet ministers. Prime Minister Stephen Harper opposed the bill.

Education News: Lindsey’s legislation, House Bill 123, had already passed the state House of Representatives and seemed to be on a glide path to passage in the Senate. But the bill — which would force school boards to consider a petition from parents or teachers to change a traditional public school into a charter school — ran into problems in the Senate’s Education and Youth Committee.

AP: Civil unions for gay couples got the governor’s signature in Colorado on Thursday, punctuating a dramatic turnaround in a state where voters banned same-sex marriage in 2006 and restricted protections for gays two decades ago.

Laurence Journal-World: Anti-abortion advocates Thursday urged passage of a bill prohibiting abortions based on the sex of the unborn child.

LifeSiteNews: The Kansas House of Representatives voted 92-to-31 on Wednesday to strengthen protections for unborn babies, just one day after rejecting an amendment to the state’s late-term abortion ban that would have allowed abortions after 22 weeks in cases of rape or incest.

LifeNews: As the Senate continues the debate on the Budget Resolution, pro-life amendments will be filed and therefore may be considered as part of Vote-a-Rama Senate Democrats have planned for changes to the must-pass bill to keep government running and funded. Votes on these amendments are expected as soon as Friday.

Carly Pildis at Policymic: The bill was inspired by the case of Julea Ward, who was expelled from Eastern Michigan University for refusing to counsel LGBT students. She sued the university with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, with EMU agreeing to a settlement of $75,000.

Human Events: Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) continues in his effort to establish a full-spectrum profile of policy positions with his Life at Conception Act, rolled out on his website last week as follows . . .

Kansas City Star: The Kansas House approved legislation Wednesday to prevent abortion providers from claiming tax breaks or assisting with public school sex education classes, and Senate leaders promised their chamber will consider it quickly. The vote in the Republican-dominated House was 92-31.

AP: Arizona lawmakers have jumped in to the national debate over the rights of transgender people with a bill being debated Wednesday that would make it illegal for people to use public restrooms not associated with their birth gender.

ABC: Puerto Rico’s government is supporting an effort to overturn a ban on gay adoption in the U.S. island territory.

LifeNews: Lawmakers in the Connecticut legislature have introduced a bill to legalize assisted suicide, in what would make it the third to do so. Defeating this anti-life bill will be the highest legislative priority of the Family Institute of Connecticut Action in 2013.

Christian Post: Where is tolerance? Where is diversity? Where is equality? If you live in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, or Massachusetts and have a child who experiences unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA), soon you may not find tolerance, diversity, or equality there. That’s because activists in these states are carefully working with sympathetic members of their state legislatures to take away your parental rights and your child’s ability to receive treatment for unwanted homosexual feelings.

Brown Daily Herald: The Senate Judiciary committee will meet Thursday to hear two same-sex marriage bills, including one that would legalize same-sex marriage — the Senate version of the bill that passed the House in January.

Kansas City Star: The Kansas House has rejected a proposal to make an exception to limits on late-term abortions for pregnancies resulting from rape, incest or sexual abuse of a child. House members voted 90-31 on Tuesday against an amendment to a sweeping anti-abortion bill offered by Lawrence Democrat John Wilson.

Wall Street Journal: Catholic bishops are making their annual lobbying visit to Albany as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Senate Republicans are starting to clash over the governor’s abortion law proposal.

Sacramento Bee: A San Francisco supervisor wants to create a 25-foot buffer zone around Planned Parenthood and other clinics that are the target of anti-abortion protesters.

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

Steve Williams at Care2.com: However, neither Deberry or Hohenwald authored the bill. Conservative David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, drafted both versions of the bill with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, formally the Alliance Defense Fund, whose anti-gay agenda is well established. The ADF represented a Michigan student named Julea Ward who was expelled from a master’s degree program at Eastern Michigan University for refusing to counsel gay clients or clients who were sexually involved with someone but weren’t married. Ward received a $75,000 settlement last year. Another student, self-avowed devoted Christian Jennifer Keeton . . .

MTPRNews: A bill to remove a state law criminalizing homosexual sex continues its path through the legislature.

Christian Institute: An attempt to stop private clinics carrying out abortions in Northern Ireland was blocked on Tuesday – even though it won majority support. It was vetoed at the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Sinn Fein Party and two MLAs from the Alliance Party and the Green Party.

LifeNews: The North Dakota state Senate today approved legislation that would have the state banning most all abortions. The measure stops any abortions after the first 6 weeks of pregnancy.

Washington Blade: A Maryland state Senate committee on Thursday struck down a bill that would have banned anti-transgender discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation. The 6-5 vote in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee came slightly more than two weeks after it held a hearing on Senate Bill 44 . . .

KHASTV.com (includes Kellie in video): Thursday lawmakers got together to debate an issue that’s faced a number of Nebraska cities lately and it is now hitting a state level – workplace discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation . . . “This bill fails to protect the First Amendment freedoms. Instead, it seeks to confine religious freedom in particular to the four walls of a church or a place of worship,” said Kellie Fiedorek, Alliance Defending Freedom.

AP: One bill would ban most abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can happen as early as six weeks into pregnancy. A second bill would prevent women from having abortions based on gender selection or a genetic defect, such as Down syndrome.

WDTV.com: On Friday, the state Senate is scheduled to vote on a bill that would make a marriage voidable if either party without the other’s knowledge has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in jail.

MinnPost: From their cell phones to their emails to their Capitol hangouts, the men and women who are lobbying Republican legislators to support gay marriage are shouting, “Let freedom ring.”

Bismark Tribune: The House Human Services Committee heard nearly four hours of testimony Wednesday on four abortion-related bills.

Boston Globe: New Hampshire’s House rejected a bill Wednesday that would have required women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion.

ABC News: Abortions are becoming illegal in America at a rapid clip.

Pioneer Press: Insurance companies would have the option of whether to cover abortions as part of policies sold through Minnesota’s health exchange under compromise legislation negotiated Wednesday, March 13.

The Economist: “The new paradigm of the pro-life movement”, explained Dan Becker, president of Georgia Right-to-Life, “is all about introducing tension into the law…We have different courts ruling in different ways, which is a surefire way to challenge Roe.”

Huffington Post: That sparked what the Times called a trial of the counseling profession. Ward’s lawyers, a Phoenix-based Christian legal group called Alliance Defending Freedom, argued that if referrals to other counselors were common enough for non-religious reasons, Ward had been discriminated against for offering her religious beliefs as her reason for a referral.Hear Ward tell her story in the video below, posted on the Alliance Defending Freedom’s website . . .

Chicago Tribune: Speaker Michael Madigan today said a gay marriage bill is “12 votes short of passage” in the Illinois House, a signal that same-sex marriage could face a tough road to approval this spring.

MPR (includes audio): The bill allows churches or other religious organizations to opt out of providing wedding-related services or facilities if they oppose same-sex marriage. But opponents still raised concerns. Ken Connelly, a lawyer with the national organization Alliance Defending Freedom, told the Senate panel that the religious exemption is inadequate and will lead to persecution. “If the government declares that same-sex unions and opposite-sex unions constitute equally marriages under the law, the law will eventually punish and stigmatize those who stand by traditional marriage as discriminatory and irrational,” Connelly said.

Colorado Connection: Many of those opposed to the bill said that it discriminated against those who are opposed to same-sex civil unions for religious reasons, with an attorney for the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom equating it to “religious intolerance.”

AP: Lawmakers supported the bill 77 to 44 in the second of three votes needed for a bill to be approved. The second vote is typically the most crucial one. The third and final vote is likely to be little more than a formality and could be taken as early as next month.

LifeNews: The Oklahoma state legislature today approved a measure that would allow parents to be notified when their minor daughter is considering an abortion. Such a law would help parents steer their young daughters in a better direction.

Ruth Institute: A bill has been filed in the Iowa House that would prevent no-fault divorce between parents with minor children was debated yesterday in subcommittee. The bill, House File 338 . . .

LifeNews: They’ve scored some major victories already, but pro-life Wisconsin Republicans aren’t finished yet. The Associated Press reports that state senators Glenn Grothman and André Jacque have introduced legislation that would recognize unborn babies as human beings for the purposes of letting parents file wrongful death claims on their behalf, regardless of developmental stage.