Sixteen health care groups and doctors sued the Trump administration Tuesday to block a rule that enables health workers to refuse to perform abortion or sex reassignment surgery.
The 183-page lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Santa Clara County, California, argues the rule sends a message to health care providers around the country that they should limit or stop providing abortion care and sex reassignment or risk losing vital government funding.
This, the advocates behind the suit argue, will make abortion and transgender services even less available in rural areas where state laws make it increasingly difficult to access that care.
Trump’s rule, released in early May, states its aim is to protect “providers, individuals, and other health care entities from having to provide, participate in, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for, services such as abortion, sterilization, or assisted suicide,” if they have a moral or religious objection to those procedures.
. . . “This rule is yet another example of the Trump administration turning religious freedom into a weapon to discriminate,” Genevieve Scott, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights told BuzzFeed News. “The rule encourages religious and moral views to overwhelm the medical needs of a patient … which has enormous consequences for the patient including the possibility of death.”
. . . Among the groups and doctors suing over the rule are several LGBT community centers and health groups, Medical Students For Choice, gynecological centers, and Santa Clara County, in conjunction with CRR, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and Lambda Legal, a legal defense fund focusing on LGBT issues. They’re not the only ones suing, however. Last week two dozen states, counties, and cities sued the Trump administration over the rule as well, in a federal court in Manhattan, arguing that the rule aimed to “coerce” states into limiting access to abortion, assisted suicide, and transgender health services.
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| Oran Smith |
Oran Smith, who once edited a neo-Confederate magazine called Southern Partisan, will not become executive director of South Carolina’s Commission on Higher Education, it was announced Thursday.
The body that oversees the Palmetto State’s colleges and universities announced Thursday that commissioners have chosen Rusty Monhollon to be the commission’s next leader instead. Monhollon is currently an administrator with the Missouri Department of Higher Education.
Smith’s bid to lead the commission sparked controversy after The State reported he spent a decade editing a magazine called Southern Partisan, from 1989 to 1999. The Southern Poverty Law Center credits the magazine with jump-starting the “neo-Confederate” movement.
The magazine published articles that defended the South’s secession from the union and cited biblical justifications for slavery. One author published in its pages went on to promote a “white genocide” conspiracy theory that was cited by the Charleston church shooter who killed nine people in a racially-motivated slaying.
Smith told The State in an interview that his interest in the Civil War was historical, and his views changed after the killings in Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church. He even wrote on op-ed in The State calling for the Confederate flag to be removed from the State House grounds.
Last week, right-wing pastors George and Terri Pearsons led their congregation at Eagle Mountain International Church in Fort Worth, Texas, in prayer, calling on God to unleash an “emergency intervention” to stop passage of the Equality Act (H.R. 5) in Congress. Terri Pearsons, who is the daughter of megachurch pastor Kenneth Copeland, declared that those in Congress who support the Equality Act are “haters of God” and “haters of all that’s good” and are under the control of Satan.
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| Ken Cuccinelli |
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| Pete Buttigieg |
Host Perry Atkinson couldn’t believe that America has reached a point where people have “accepted the commonality” of having “an openly gay man” being married and running for president, demanding to know why Christians don’t “have the fortitude to stand up” and decry Buttigieg’s campaign.
“Excuse me for what I am about to say,” Addison responded. “We are talking about a man who engages in violent sexual acts with a person he claims to love. Now that’s ugly.”
“Let’s just stop for a second here and let’s realize that our defenses have been eroded,” she added. “We have been fed a narrative for so long that now we have unrighteousness that we accept … A man who marries a man and says that this could potentially be the First Gentlemen of the United States and we’re supposed to talk about his policies? I don’t think so. I don’t think so. Do you understand the type of judgment that will be brought upon our country?”
“When we no longer fear God,” Addison said, “this is what we get.”
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| Tucker Carlson |
Here’s the moment the U.S. House of Representatives passed the historic #EqualityAct -- the first time a chamber of Congress approved a comprehensive LGBTQ civil rights bill. pic.twitter.com/WQthe2Z2Ze— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) May 17, 2019
Children are not asking for their cartoon characters to be gay -- activists in the entertainment industry are forcing it on them. Now more than ever, parents have to be vigilant about the media their children consume. @cathyruse https://t.co/PVicS0HPgE— FRC (@FRCdc) May 19, 2019
It is an attack on parental rights, women's sports, but to the millions of people of faith in this country, it is an egregious attack on the freedom to believe and live according to those beliefs. It would position the government to lord over churches and other faith-based institutions, dictating potentially who they hire, how their facilities are used and even punishing them for not falling in step with a view of human sexuality that directly contradicts orthodox biblical teaching.
No institution or person of faith, be it school, church, synagogues, mosque, business, or nonprofit will escape the Orwellian reach of the Equality Act. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act will be committed to the "memory hole," and we will then experience a catastrophic loss of religious freedom in America. - Hate group leader Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) lying about the Equality Act.
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| Kay Coles James |
The group has railed against LGBTQ equality for decades, including by supporting discrimination against LGBTQ people under religious exemptions, supporting the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on LGBTQ scoutmasters, and opposing marriage equality. Just this year, the group has hosted five anti-trans panels that pushed misinformation about trans people in an attempt to sway public discourse about trans-inclusive policies like the Equality Act. Furthermore, Heritage employs several extreme anti-LGBTQ figures, including Ryan T. Anderson.
Homophobe? I don't think so. You know, I, I, I've never talked about it publicly, but I have a gay son whom I love beyond all measure. And he and his community have welcomed me, have helped me grow, have helped me to understand. There’s no hatred there. That’s my child you are talking about.
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| Michelle Cretella |
Michelle Cretella, the executive director of an anti-LGBTQ pseudo-science organization, said that the Equality Act should actually be called the “Death to Christianity Act.”
May 10 episode of Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, guest host Sarah Perry, FRC Action’s Director of Partnerships, and Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians (a right-wing group not to be confused with the professional organization, American Academy of Pediatrics), shared their opposition to the Equality Act, which would seek to add protections for sexual orientation and gender identity into existing anti-discrimination laws. The duo claimed that the proposed legislation would take children who believe they may be transgender and force doctors to “do harm to these kids.”
“I think it’s really super important for all listeners to realize this law, if it passes, if this bill becomes law, it impacts everyone. And a better name for it is the ‘Death to Christianity Act.’ OK? That’s going to be the umbrella. … Christianity, it will cease to be publicly practiced. It’ll become against the law,” Cretella said.
Pat Robertson goes full apocalyptic about the Equality Act: It will "bring the judgment of God on this nation," "the land will vomit you out," and God will "get rid of you as a nation" pic.twitter.com/xsBUFLPCnp— Brennan Suen (@brennansuen) May 14, 2019
“Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” Pence said. “Be ready.” With his wife, Karen, sitting on stage as he spoke, Pence recounted the “harsh attacks” he said they endured when she returned this year to teaching art at a Christian elementary school where she’d worked when he’d served in Congress. Unlike her previous stint, this time Karen Pence faced scrutiny after news reports pointed out that the school bans gay students and teachers.
“Throughout most of American history, it's been pretty easy to call yourself Christian,” Pence said. “It didn’t even occur to people that you might be shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible. But things are different now.”
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| FRC head Tony Perkins |
The spectacle at Wednesday's hearing wasn't lost on the liberal media either. While the rest of the country pleads with Democrats to move on from this humiliating ordeal, even commentators are saying they don't have the public's support to continue this charade. "The most straightforward procedural suggestion for addressing executive branch noncooperation is to subpoena documents and testimony and, if they aren't produced, hold the responsible individuals in contempt of Congress. This, it turns out, is not such a great idea," warns Suzanne Garment at NBC News.
For starters, Americans are tired of watching Democrats beat this dead horse of Russian collusion. Most of them want to know: when will this political circus end? Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) understands -- because he's one of them. I guess it ends, he told me on Wednesday's "Washington Watch," "when the Democrats a suffer at the ballot box because it doesn't look like anything short of that is gone to deter them. The Mueller report is out there for everybody to read. It's 448 pages. It finds that there was no conspiracy, there was no coordination, there was no collusion and there was no obstruction. And, and now Attorney General Barr has testified before multiple committees... And that's the end of it. And it's time now that the Democrats and moved on and we actually get to work with the business with the country."
But there's also the legal side of this, which is that Attorney General Barr cannot release grand jury material without being held personally responsible. There's intelligence information in that report, and there are matters of national security that prevent him from complying with the Democrats' request. House liberals know that -- and yet, they're trying to punish Barr for following the law (which, I might point out, is not why Eric Holder was held in contempt). And ironically, they don't need him to publicly release the unredacted report to read it. As members of Congress, they can go to a private, classified setting and access every word. Of course, there wouldn't be any television cameras in that room for Democrats to continue their theatrics.
The Mueller report redacted four kinds of content: grand jury material, classified intelligence, matters related to ongoing investigations, and private information about “peripheral third parties.” It’s true that members of Congress cannot see the grand jury material, but they have every right to see the content redacted in the other three categories, as well as all of the underlying evidence that accompanies the report’s claims. And that’s what the subpoena asks for.
As for the grand jury material, Nadler explained that Democrats had asked Barr to work alongside them to petition a judge to turn over those documents to Congress in a closed setting, the only way the material can be released. The request therefore does not compel Barr to break the law.
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| The American Family Association is telling more lies about the Equality Act |
Female business owners, customers, and employees would then be forced to share their privacy in restrooms and dressing rooms with men who claim to be women.
Health care providers and professionals would be forced to perform gender transition procedures (sex changes) and provide medical services (hormone therapy) that would violate their moral and religious convictions.
Amusement parks, recreation centers, skating rinks, and daycare centers, etc. will be forced to employ people whose values on sexuality deviates from those of the employer.
Adoption and foster care agencies will be forced to place children into same sex households and into homes of individuals suffering from gender confusion.
College and professional sports stadiums would be required to open its restrooms to either sex.
Amusement parks, recreation centers, skating rinks, and daycare centers, etc. will be forced to employ people whose values on sexuality deviates from those of the employer.
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| Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council blames gays for military sexual assaults without having any proof. |
Perkins, who Trump appointed to sit on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, hit out at gay soldiers after a report found that reports of sexual assault in the military have risen by 38 percent since 2016.
The data from the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office found that female troops ages 17 to 24 were at the highest risk of being assaulted.
Female troops are six times more likely than men to be assaulted, and 96 percent of female respondents identified the alleged offenders as male.
However, Perkins claims that the problems are the fault of President Barack Obama, for permitting gay troops into the armed forces after the 2012 repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2012.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan said Thursday that these are "persistent challenges" for the Pentagon. "To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or for each other. This is unacceptable." As much as military leaders are trying to crack down on the problem, the reality is, there's only so much they can do. Unfortunately, most of these men and women aren't just victims of assault -- but of the sexually-charged environment that's been forced on them. Jackie Speier can complain all she wants, but in the end, she's blaming the military for a problem her party helped create. She voted to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" too, so it's a little late to be grumbling about the consequences.
Back then, Democrats like her shrugged off the possibility that repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would have any impact on the ranks and are even now trying to resurrect Obama's Operation Transgender, which President Trump has moved to overturn. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to understand that when Congress introduced even more sexual tension into the troops, it put thousands of men and women in defenseless and compromising positions. To the relief of most Americans, President Trump has done everything he can to roll back the social engineering of the Obama years. We continue to be grateful that he had the backbone to roll back the gender confusion the last administration tried to inject into the military in 2016. But on some issues -- like this one -- it's tough to put the genie back in the bottle.
The Left spent Barack Obama's entire presidency sexualizing the military, beginning with the repeal of DADT -- and continuing with the push for open transgenderism. Almost a decade later, I guess "we told you so" isn't a message his party wants to hear.
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| TX businesses don't want this discriminatory mess. |
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| The American Family Association wants you to soothe Franklin Grahams' wounded ego. |
Last week, Rev. Franklin Graham came under fire for his support of President Donald Trump.
National Review writer David French has wrongly accused Franklin Graham of having a double standard by not being openly critical of President Trump's past while being public in his criticism of other politicians.
French cites Graham's criticism of the moral failings of former President Bill Clinton and Presidential contender and South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigie. In his biased brand of yellow journalism, French unjustly contends that by not holding President Trump to the same moral standard, Graham has lost his influence as an evangelical witness.
Certainly, no one would agree that President Trump's past is a perfect model of morality, but French has attacked and mischaracterized Mr. Graham's integrity by unjustly comparing apples to oranges. Since our current president has taken the oath of public office, he has come nowhere near the glaring moral indecencies of Clinton while he served in office. Buttigieg is an open homosexual who claims God made him "gay" and is a better Christian because of it.
Graham is unquestionably a godly man of impeccable integrity. His decades of faithfulness to the gospel and the Great Commission are what make him one of America’s most beloved men.
This character assassination by David French is unconscionable and should not go unchallenged.
I urge you to stand with us in showing our appreciation and love for Franklin Graham by signing our petition to this great man of God.
"Why have I always fought for change? That's a hard question to answer," she said. "It's like trying to explain the importance of reading, or the need to love. Growing up, I always felt like an outsider, like I didn't fit in. It wasn't because I didn't shave under my armpits -- I just didn't fit in, OK.
"The first gay man I ever met was named Christopher Flynn. He was my ballet teacher in high school and he was the first person that believed in me, that made me feel special as a dancer, as an artist and as a human being. I know this sounds trivial and superficial, but he was the first man to tell me I was beautiful."
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| Trump just stabbed the LGBTQ community in the ribs yet again. |
The Department of Health and Human Services today announced its final “conscience rule” excusing health care personnel from participating in procedures to which they have religious or moral objections.
Activists have warned that the rule could jeopardize health care for LGBTQ people, such as those seeking gender-confirmation procedures or HIV treatment and prevention services, as well as women seeking contraception or abortion.
A draft of the rule was released in January 2018 so that HHS’s Office for Civil Rights could receive comments from the public on it. Donald Trump announced the finalization of the rule during a Rose Garden speech this morning for the National Day of Prayer, and HHS published the final rule on its website.
. . . “This final rule replaces a 2011 rule that has proven inadequate, and ensures that HHS implements the full set of tools appropriate for enforcing the conscience protections passed by Congress,” says an HHS press release. “These federal laws protect providers, individuals, and other health care entities from having to provide, participate in, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for, services such as abortion, sterilization, or assisted suicide. It also includes conscience protections with respect to advance directives.” Notably, the Office for Civil Rights is run by Roger Severino, who has a history of anti-LGBTQ activism.
Civil rights advocates have feared that the new rule will allow even those marginally involved in providing health care to opt out because of religious objections, therefore making it more difficult for patients to receive care. This rule could severely affect LGBTQ people living in rural areas where there are few health care options.
“In an attempt to justify more discrimination against transgender people, HHS minimizes the very real pain exemptions like these have caused transgender people,” Gillian Branstetter, media relations manager at the National Center for Transgender Equality, told The Advocate via email.
When asked what patients without many health care options were supposed to do if their hospital or health care provider refused to perform the procedures they were seeking, Severino repeatedly avoided the question, instead saying that the US had many health care options, and that “patients want doctors who match their values.”
