State Signs Nation’s Toughest Abortion Law

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By NPR. In his State of the State Address in 2014, Gov. Phil Bryant announced a goal: “to end abortion in Mississippi.”

Bryant has now signed a law that makes his state the most difficult state in the country to get an abortion. It is called the Gestational Age Act, and it bans abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, except in the case of a medical emergency or a severe fetal abnormality. The law does not make exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The Mississippi House passed the measure on March 8, and Bryant signed it into law on Monday.

The Associated Press reports that Mississippi’s only clinic that does abortions has sued the state in response to the legislation. In 2012, that same clinic, The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, filed a lawsuit challenging a different bill Bryant signed into law. That bill enacted stricter requirements for abortion facilities, including a requirement that all physicians associated with an abortion facility have the right to admit patients to a local hospital. It was eventually blocked by a federal district court in 2013.

After signing this latest bill, Bryant wrote on Twitter, “I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child, and this bill will help us achieve that goal.”

(Read more from “State Signs Nation’s Toughest Abortion Law” HERE)

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State Bans Abortion After 15 Weeks

By WND. Mississippi’s governor signed the most restrictive abortion law in the nation Monday, banning the procedure after 15 weeks while providing no exemptions for rape or incest.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said he wants his state to be the “safest place in America for an unborn child.”

Within hours of signing the bill the state’s sole abortion clinic filed a lawsuit.

The new measure does provide exemptions if the pregnant woman’s life or “major bodily function” is threatened, or if the unborn child could not survive outside the womb.

Prior to passage of the law, Mississippi was among 17 states that banned abortion after 20 weeks. (Read more from “State Bans Abortion After 15 Weeks” HERE)

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Look What’s Back in the Media Spotlight

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Scientology is all over the media, again, with the debut of the church’s first TV network launching and the airing of an explosive documentary examining the mysterious disappearance of the wife of the group’s supreme leader.

The church launched its TV network on DirecTV, Apple TV and Roku last week, and “Scientology’s Vanished Queen” came out days ago.

The documentary explores the possible whereabouts of Michele “Shelly” Miscavige, wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige. She vanished in bizarre circumstances 11 years ago. It also looks at the mysterious death of longtime member Lisa McPherson in 1995. . .

McPherson joined the church in her late teens, and, when she was 35 when she suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism after undergoing a 17-day Scientology auditing process designed to treat her psychological instability. Two weeks earlier she had been checked into a psychiatric ward after having been discovered naked and disoriented after a car crash in Clearwater, Florida.

According to the documentary, David Miscavige spent $30 million fighting a wrongful-death suit brought against the church by McPherson’s family and the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. The church denied all claims of wrongdoing against McPherson. (Read more from “Look What’s Back in the Media Spotlight” HERE)

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Popular Textbook in Public Schools Was Written by an Abortion Activist

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. . .LifeNews recently discovered heavy pro-abortion biases in a best-selling American government textbook. Digging a little deeper, we learned that the lead author of the textbook, “American Government: Roots and Reform” (Pearson) by Karen J. O’Connor and Larry J. Sabato, is an abortion advocate . . .

A member of the U-46 School Board near Chicago, [a parent] raised concerns about the textbook in December after discovering biased sections about abortion and other political issues. She cast the sole vote against it.

LifeNews, which reviewed sections of the new AP edition of the textbook, now in its 13th edition, found several deeply concerning passages. And while many educators do put aside their bias to teach students, it appears that lead author Karen O’Connor did not . . .

One example is the very first paragraph of the introduction to students:

“Why is learning about history important to the study of politics today? And how are the ideas of the Framers relevant for understanding modern political issues such as health care, immigration, and abortion rights? … As students of the American political process, it can be challenging to identify what is really important and how government truly affects your lives.”

(Read more from “Popular Textbook in Public Schools Was Written by an Abortion Activist” HERE)

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Father of Parkland Victim Hits Walkout Students With Bombshell Message

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As students across the nation organized a school walkout this week to commemorate the passage of one month since a deadly shooting left 17 dead at a Florida high school, the father of one victim offered his advice to the young demonstrators determined to reduce gun violence.

“Instead of walking out of school on March 14, encourage students to walk up,” Ryan Petty tweeted earlier this week.

His daughter, Alaina, was among those killed when a gunman opened fire on the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last month.

According to the grieving father, a walkout will provide participants with an opportunity to exercise their bodies and their constitutional rights. However, he suggested a more significant reaction would include reaching out to their peers in kindness and acceptance.

Petty encouraged students to “walk up to the kid who sits a lone (sic) and invite him to sit with your group” and similarly approach others in need of positive interaction.

His post mentioned “the kid who sits quietly in the corner of the room” and “the kid who causes disturbances in class” as the types of children who could be helped by a compassionate classmate.

In general, Petty stressed the pursuit of unity over division as a key step toward realizing the ultimate goal of a safer society.

“Walk up to your teachers and thank them; walk up to someone who has different views than you and get to know them — you may be surprised at how much you have in common,” he wrote.

The post ended with a call to action Petty framed as a meaningful way to memorialize the lives lost last month in Parkland.

“Build on that foundation instead of casting stones,” he wrote. “I challenge students to find 14 students and 3 adults to walk up to and say something nice in honor of those who died in FL on the 14 of March. But you can start practicing now!”

In an interview with WBUR, Petty shared a few other ideas he believes could help secure the nation’s schools.

“We’re going to take these soft targets — the schools are soft targets. We’ve got to change that,” he said. “We’ve got to keep guns out of the hands of people that want to hurt themselves and hurt other people. And I think, in this case, in particular, there were signs that the shooter wanted to hurt other people.”

While many of the students to emerge as activists in the wake of the Feb. 14 massacre have focused their attention on gun control as a method to prevent school shootings, others have also echoed Petty’s advocacy of kindness.

During Wednesday’s walkout at a high school in Washington state, the lone demonstrator to address the student body expressed a similar theme.

“You should say that you love your neighbor,” Angelica Mansfield told her peers. “You should be there for them, sit with them at lunch, tell them that you’re their friend, that you’re going to be there for them whenever they need you.” (For more from the author of “Father of Parkland Victim Hits Walkout Students With Bombshell Message” please click HERE)

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Students Trash Walmart During Gun Walkout

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By Fox 5. Chicago police are trying to identify the dozens of students from Simeon Career Academy who they say took part in a vandalism spree while they were supposed to be protesting guns.

Shoppers and store employees were stunned by the destruction Wednesday morning at the Walmart in Chatham Market on the South Side.

Chicago police say it started when students at neighboring Simeon Career Academy were allowed to leave the school for 17 minutes to take part in the nationwide walkout to protest guns.

Police say between 40 and 60 of those students crossed the street and trashed parts of the store, knocking over product displays, yanking items off shelves, breaking packages and stealing small items like chips and candy . . .

Some of the students that FOX 32 talked to at Simeon say they’re angry that a walkout intended to promote peace instead led to vandalism and violence. (Read more from “Students Trash Walmart During Gun Walkout” HERE)

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Ohio Student Suspended for Refusing to Leave Classroom During Gun Control Walkout

By IJR. A high school student in Hilliard, Ohio, didn’t want to pick sides in the contentious gun debate surrounding Wednesday’s “National Walkout,” so he stayed in class instead of joining the largely anti-gun protest or an alternative “study hall.”

Hilliard Davidson High School senior Jacob Shoemaker was then reportedly slapped with a suspension.

The student argued that divisive politics have no place in America’s schools and he refused to take sides in the debate, according to the Associated Press.

Shoemaker’s suspension citation was posted online, possibly by a friend, and the story quickly went viral. (Read more from “Ohio Student Suspended for Refusing to Leave Classroom During Gun Control Walkout” HERE)

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Woman Says She Was Fired for Having Concealed Carry Permit

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A woman identifying as a Virginia social worker took to social media Friday evening to vent about being fired from her job for being a concealed carry permit holder.

Storm Durham, a former Virginia Department Social Services employee who describes herself as a “22 year old blonde who is 5’2 and about 140 pounds who loves everything Disney, pink, and basic,” asserts that she was escorted out of her office by three Roanoke, Va., police officers after she was canned. She was, according to a post on Facebook, not even allowed to use the bathroom due to “serious safety concerns to the building.”

“I was fired today due to having a concealed carry permit,” Durham wrote on Facebook. “Was my gun on me? No. Has it ever been on me during my job, or visits, or anything related to work? No. When I told them that it has never been on me during work, what did they say? ‘How do we know that.’”

“I got my concealed carry because I am woman, and y’all have seen the news, it’s kind of crazy,” she said on a Facebook Live video. In her post, she described herself as a “survivor or sexual assault.”

“I have a concealed carry permit. I own guns. I hunt. I target shoot. I represent Women hunters and outdoorswomen,” she wrote on Facebook. “Does that make me a criminal? Does that make me a safety risk to others? A big enough safety risk to be escorted by three Roanoke City Police officers? So scary and threatening that I need to be treated like a criminal? To be humiliated and looked down upon for owning a gun? For legally having a gun, registering that gun, and having the appropriate documentation for that gun?” (Read more from “Woman Says She Was Fired for Having Concealed Carry Permit” HERE)

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Christian Booted From Class on Christianity…for Opposing Transgenderism

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A religious studies major was barred from Christianity class at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for saying during class that there are only two genders.

Lake Ingle, a senior at the university, said he was silenced and punished by IUP Professor Alison Downie for questioning her during a Feb. 28 “Christianity 481: Self, Sin, and Salvation” lecture.

After showing a 15-minute TED Talk by transgender ex-pastor Paula Stone Williams discussing the “reality” of “mansplaining,” “sexism from men,” and “male privilege,” the professor asked the women in the class to share their thoughts. When no women in the class said anything, Ingle spoke up, challenging the professor on biology and the gender wage gap.

He told the class that the official view of biologists is that there are only two genders.

The feminist professor booted him from class and asked him not to come back. She referred him to the public university’s Academic Integrity Board (AIB). Ingle needs to complete the class to graduate at the end of the semester. (Read more from “Christian Booted From Class on Christianity…for Opposing Transgenderism” HERE)

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One Question in a Poll of College Students Crystallizes the Debate Over Free Speech

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Free speech just isn’t as cool as it used to be, according to a Gallup and the Knight Foundation study of college students’ views on the subject.

The news isn’t great for this bedrock principle in America’s higher-learning institutions. College students overwhelmingly support free speech in the abstract, but when it comes to the real world, they are accepting of restrictions on it, which is in effect, not very supportive of free speech. And the numbers have gotten worse for speech on a lot of fronts since 2016.

Almost 90 percent of students say protection of free speech is extremely or very important to American democracy, but two-thirds also believe hate speech shouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment, and 83 percent support free-speech zones on campus, to contain pre-approved protests and distribution of messages. Not exactly the open inquiry we used to love.

There is some good news. In question after question, it appears the forces that are found shouting down speakers like Christina Hoff Sommers or burning Berkeley or attacking Charles Murray at Middlebury are a very loud minority. “Nine in 10 students say violence is ‘never acceptable’” to counter speech and a solid majority of 62 percent believe shouting down speakers is “never acceptable.” This leaves too-large percentages who think violence and shouting down are fine, but the vast majority of college students are in favor of traditional forms of protest without shutting down speech. (Read more from “One Question in a Poll of College Students Crystallizes the Debate Over Free Speech” HERE)

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McCain’s Daughter Updates Public on His Future After Cancer Treatments

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Meghan McCain stated in an interview this week that there is still no time table for her father’s return to the U.S. Senate, but she’s hopeful it may be by this summer.

“I wish I had an exact date, but I just don’t,” Meghan told Phoenix talk radio station KTAR-FM on Tuesday. “I am very cautiously optimistic about the summer, yes.”

“As everyone knows especially with this cancer, you have to take it scan by scan but he is doing really good, much better than I think people anticipated,” she added. “He’s doing very well and I feel very lucky that he is doing so well.”

The 81-year-old Arizona Republican senator is fighting an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma, which was diagnosed last July.

KTAR reported that the original tumor was removed after it was discovered, but in November a second tumor returned in the same area.

During this time period the lawmaker also tore both of his Achilles’ tendons.

According to the Arizona Republic, McCain continues to undergo chemotherapy, radiation treatments and physical therapy as he remains living at his Sedona ranch about an hour and a half’s drive north of Phoenix.

McCain left Washington in mid-December due to the side effects of chemotherapy and has not returned since.

His return to Capitol Hill was expected some time in January, but the senator was not able to meet that goal, due to his weakened immune system.

McCain told Politico last month that “everybody is worried about him getting the flu.”

The typical survival period for those diagnosed with glioblastoma is between 12 to 15 months, though a small percentage can live up to five years or more.

McCain said her father is still mentally “100 percent there,” but physically the treatments have taken their toll.

The lawmaker has continued to issue statements through his office and remains active on Twitter.

The senator’s wife, Cindy McCain, shot down rumors earlier this month that her husband has plans to resign from office.

She wrote, “Contrary to popular believe @SenJohnMcCain is doing fine and has no intention of resigning!” (For more from the author of “McCain’s Daughter Updates Public on His Future After Cancer Treatments” please click HERE)

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School District Punishing Hundreds of Students Who Participated in Walkout

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A school district in South Carolina said students who walked out of class earlier this week as part of the nationwide walkouts will be cited for cutting class, the Associated Press reported.

About 530 students participated in walkouts at about 12 high schools in the Greenville County School district, the largest school district in South Carolina, spokeswoman Beth Brotherton said.

Ahead of the walkout, school officials had said they were cautioning students against taking part, according to the AP.

Students across the country walked out of their classrooms Wednesday to protest gun violence and demand change. (Read more from “School District Punishing Hundreds of Students Who Participated in Walkout” HERE)

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