Where Abortion Stands Legally Today

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As giant abortion provider Planned Parenthood celebrates its 100th anniversary this week, pro-lifers led by The Stream are commemorating #100forlife to remember all who have died due to abortion.

It comes forty-three years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade — permitting abortions during the three trimesters of pregnancy, and allowing greater regulatory power by states during the second and third trimesters. To come up with this odd, three-tier ruling, the court relied upon a tortured interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, finding in the “penumbras” of the Constitution a right to privacy fundamental to the concept of liberty.

While abortion remains legal in the U.S., the laws governing it have changed significantly in recent years. Some of those modifications are state laws that impose additional requirements before having an abortion, or restrictions on when or how an abortion may be procured. Most of the laws came as the focus of the pro-life movement expanded from abortion center protests and sidewalk counseling to include passing state and federal legislation.

The movement was emboldened to take this route by Gonzales v. Carhart in 2007, in which the Supreme Court upheld a nationwide ban on partial-birth abortions.

These laws, which added new requirements and regulations for abortions, have successfully resulted in the shutdown of abortion centers. Five states now have only one abortion facility. According to the abortion rights research organization Guttmacher Institute, in the late 1980s, there was a high of 705 centers nationwide. By 2011, that number had dropped to 583, and others have closed since.

The laws may also be contributing to a decrease in the number of abortions. The Guttmacher Institute reported a high of 1,590,750 abortions in 1988. That number has declined almost every year since then, to 1,058,490 in 2011, equivalent to the level in the mid-1970s shortly after abortion was legalized.

Significant Supreme Court Victories That Reversed the Abortion Trend
Since Roe v. Wade, there have been several Supreme Court decisions that struck down or upheld state laws regulating abortion — overall, in balance favorable to the pro-life movement. In the 1980 decision Harris v. McRae, the court upheld the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits most federal funding of abortions, except in the case of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life.

Nine years later, in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the court upheld Missouri’s ban on the use of public facilities and employees for abortions, and the state’s requirement that doctors test for fetal viability at 24 weeks.

A Supreme Court case in 1992 dealt the biggest blow to Roe v. Wade. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court backed off from the convoluted, messy Roe precedent prohibiting states from regulating abortion during the first trimester. It permitted states to implement laws requiring such things as pre-abortion counseling, waiting limits and parental consent, so long as the requirements did not impose an “undue burden” on women.

A Legal Setback in 2016

Despite years of strides, the pro-life movement suffered a significant defeat in June when the high court struck down two abortion center regulations in Texas. In Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the court invalidated laws that required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and held abortion facilities to the standards of outpatient surgical centers. The court held that the onerousness of the regulations outweighed the state’s interest in regulating health.

Will the Generally Pro-life Trend Continue?

The Supreme Court ultimately has the final say, rightly or wrongly, on abortion laws. Whether pro-life advocates will be able to continue the trend of stripping away parts of Roe v. Wade depends on the future makeup of the Court. If Democrat Hillary Clinton becomes president, she will appoint left-leaning justices who will make up a majority of the court and strike down pro-life laws. If Republican Donald Trump wins the election, he has promised to appoint mostly right-leaning justices who will have the opposite effect. (For more from the author of “Where Abortion Stands Legally Today” please click HERE)

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What One Woman Is Doing to Take Down Planned Parenthood

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While Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is celebrating its 100th anniversary Sunday, one organization is working tirelessly to put Planned Parenthood out of business.

CEO Brandi Swindell founded Stanton Healthcare in 2006. According to the Stanton Project’s website, it has branched out from a room in a doctor’s office to an international affiliate program.

Stanton Healthcare is a nonprofit medical facility that provides pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, client advocacy, and other life-affirming programs that respect the “dignity of both mother and child.”

‘Replace’ Planned Parenthood

“Planned Parenthood is coming up on their 100th anniversary and we are coming up on our 10th. We are looking to replace and outlast Planned Parenthood,” Swindell told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.

“I founded Stanton Healthcare in 2006,” said Swindell. “I had been doing pro-life work for 16 or 17 years prior and had worked on the national level and co-founded Generation Life.”

Swindell said the pro-life mission has been a driving force in her life, but a realization of the horror of abortion came during her college years.

“This cause has been a passion of mine. I was raised with an understanding of the dignity of human life. However, the realization of what abortion was really hit me in college when my roomate got pregnant and had an abortion,” Swindell said. “Through this I really understood what abortion was and that Planned Parenthood leaves a legacy of tragedy.”

In 2011, five years after opening her first office, Swindell opened another medical clinic, Stanton Healthcare Boise, next door to a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Swindell said that she faced opposition from Planned Parenthood immediately after opening Stanton Healthcare Boise.

“When we opened our doors in Boise, Planned Parenthood was not happy to see us there. We exposed their heart that they are not about true choice. Planned Parenthood claimed that we were violating HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] laws and confidentiality,” Swindell said.

hen covering this confrontation, a reporter approached Swindell and asked to hear about Stanton Healthcare’s position on confidentiality and HIPAA.

“I showed the reporter a plaque prominently displayed on our waiting room office wall that says, ‘We voluntarily comply with HIPAA regulations.’ This claim from Planned Parenthood was comical because our stance in regards to both HIPAA and confidentiality was posted for all to see,” Swindell said.

A ‘Life-Affirming’ Clinic

Looking to expand Stanton Healthcare to other areas, the very first Stanton mobile unit opened in 2013, meeting the needs of women living in rural and immigrant communities throughout the state of Idaho. Modeled after the very first Stanton mobile unit, the Stanton Alabama mobile unit will soon be serving the communities of Birmingham.

Swindell established the Stanton International Affiliate Program in 2014 with the goal to reach as many women as possible with care that respects both mother and child.

The purpose of this program is to “replace abortion businesses around the world because we believe that women deserve access to quality, coercion-free cared, and compassionate alternatives to abortion,” according to the program’s website.

Along with the training center that Stanton Healthcare is working on establishing, it will also be opening a mega-center in Idaho where women can receive first-class care.

“Our center opening up in Meridian will be the first-ever life-affirming mega-clinic. We are also working on developing a Stanton Healthcare conference center where we will be training staff from across the country and around the world,” Swindell said.

Besides offering the typical services that clinics provide, Stanton Healthcare’s Meridian location will also be offering an 18-month support program that includes “options counseling, doctor referrals, parenting classes, practical support, and encouragement. Our clients and their babies get a chance at a brighter future.”

This 18-month support program is already offered at Stanton Healthcare Boise and will be expanded to all of Stanton’s affiliate clinics around the nation.

With these services available, Stanford Healthcare’s goal, according to its website, “is to be the first choice for every abortion vulnerable woman in Idaho and beyond.”

To Swindell, Stanton Healthcare is not only about providing quality health care to all women but also protecting and preserving human rights. She said:

I am primarily pro-life because I believe in human rights. Abortion has no business being in women’s health care. Planned Parenthood has sabotaged women’s health care. I founded Stanton Healthcare because I believe that Planned Parenthood has failed us and failed women.

A New Pro-Life Generation

Swindell believes that youth especially have a critical role to play in the pro-life movement.

“Stanton Healthcare has a heart for the emerging generation. Millennials are part of the Stanton revolution,” Swindell said. “We have students coming to us from across the nation that want to be part of the Stanton mission.”

The goal of Swindell and Stanton Healthcare is to reach all women with health care that respects both mother and child.

“Our goal at Stanton Healthcare is to be where Planned Parenthood is. We are setting up next to their clinics and are building a presence in Washington, D.C., and the U.N. We are the true, authentic genuine voice in women’s health care,” Swindell said.

“Women deserve better than the cold doors of an abortion facility. Pregnancy resource centers respect the dignity of every mother and child by empowering women facing difficult situations with life-affirming options,” said Melanie Israel, a research associate for the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation. (For more from the author of “What One Woman Is Doing to Take Down Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

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As Planned Parenthood Celebrates Death, Pro-Life Groups Promote Life

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Sunday is Planned Parenthood’s 100th “birthday.” Founded by an anti-abortion woman who believed that contraception empowered women’s liberty, the organization has morphed into America’s largest abortion company, ending over 300,000 unborn babies’ lives each year.

Planned Parenthood has launched #100yearsstrong in an effort to promote its history and its work. Pro-life groups have responded with their own hashtags, fact-based analyses of Planned Parenthood’s practices and prayer. Three efforts are highlighted below.

#100ForLife

Since Wednesday, The Stream has highlighted the horrors of abortion, the hope seen in those Planned Parenthood hasn’t killed and prayerful efforts for national and individual conversion. We’re grateful to our many individual partners in this effort, and the Family Research Council for working with us to spread the truth about abortion.

Our hashtag is #100ForLife. Our weapon is God.

#100YearsOfAbuse

A coalition of pro-life groups is exposing Planned Parenthood’s many examples of wrongdoing – not just to the unborn, but also their mothers, and taxpayers.

Member groups include: Alliance Defending Freedom, Americans United for Life, Civil Rights for the Unborn, Family Research Council, Life Legal Defense Foundation, March for Life, Media Research Center, Pro-Life Action League, Radiance Foundation, Students for Life of America, and Susan B. Anthony List.

Here is their group statement:

“Planned Parenthood’s 100-year anniversary is a tragic milestone for our nation and a reminder of the millions of unborn children who will never have a birthday. We mourn these children, as well as the women who have been hurt and exploited by the nation’s largest abortion chain. Planned Parenthood was founded by the notorious Margaret Sanger, who advocated for the eradication of poor and disadvantaged, whom she considered less-than-human “weeds.” And Planned Parenthood continues to call this villain their hero by naming its highest award after her.

“In the last three years alone, Planned Parenthood has committed nearly one million abortions while receiving a total of $1.5 billion from the American people, against our will. We represent the growing number of Americans who oppose Planned Parenthood’s extreme abortion agenda and seek to defund this abortion giant.

“On its 100th anniversary, Planned Parenthood is losing ground. Business is drying up as women are empowered to choose life for their babies. Last year Planned Parenthood closed 33 facilities in 18 states, and for the first time, the United States Senate sent a bill defunding Planned Parenthood to the President’s desk. Thanks to undercover investigators from the Center for Medical Progress, who exposed the ugly truth that Planned Parenthood not only aborts children, but sells those aborted babies’ organs, more people than ever are learning the truth about the scandal-ridden abortion chain. The #100YearsofAbuse campaign is the next opportunity for us to educate the public about Planned Parenthood as we work to put them out of business and ring in the pro-life century.”

Their hashtag is #100YearsOfAbuse. Content can be seen here.

A Way Out Through Prayer

The Pro-Life Action League is sponsoring over 100 prayer vigils nationwide to combat Planned Parenthood, and to save lives. As told to The Stream:

The Pro-Life Action League has organized prayer vigils at over 100 Planned Parenthood centers, at which they’ll offer prayers of mourning for Planned Parenthood’s unborn victims. Scheidler explains: “To acknowledge the humanity of these unknown, unnamed, faceless and abandoned children is a very positive thing to do. The abortion industry and their allies in government and the media want us all to forget about these kids, but we won’t.”

Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler told The Stream that in addition to prayer, his group is offering abortion industry employees a way out – to convert from dealing death to supporting life. They’ve sent “birthday” cards that include a graphic image of an abortion victim to every Planned Parenthood nationwide, and told employees that if the image bothers them, to call Scheidler.

“It would be easy to demonize people working at Planned Parenthood, aiding and abetting the nation’s largest abortion business,” Scheidler told The Stream. But, he argues, employees “are regular people, whose consciences are often deeply troubled by what goes on behind the doors of Planned Parenthood’s 631 facilities.”

Planned Parenthood’s Corporate Sponsors

Corporate watchdog 2nd Vote listed 37 corporations as “direct” donors to Planned Parenthood. The graphic comes from the Family Research Council.

(For more from the author of “As Planned Parenthood Celebrates Death, Pro-Life Groups Promote Life” please click HERE)

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Pro-Life Groups Fight Obama Administration’s ‘Parting Gift’ to Planned Parenthood

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Pro-life groups are taking action against what they call the Obama administration’s “parting gift” to Planned Parenthood.

“This is a political judgment, a parting gift,” Chuck Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said of the new rule that could make it more difficult for states to defund Planned Parenthood clinics. “It’s part of the devotion to big abortion.”

The Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed rule came in response to several states’ attempt to defund Planned Parenthood after the nation’s largest abortion provider was featured in a series of undercover videos last year.

Under the rule, states would be prohibited from blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X grant money for reasons “unrelated” to its ability to provide family planning services.

Created in 1970, Title X provides grants to health organizations for family planning services such as birth control and sterilizations. The manner in which states distribute federal Title X funds varies, but grants are typically allocated to health agencies and private networks. Sometimes, it is up to the state to allocate the grant money, and other times, private entities can decide.

After the Center for Medical Progress released several undercover videos last year that raised questions about whether Planned Parenthood illegally profits off the sale of tissue from aborted babies, states—including Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin—moved to block the group from being eligible to receive family planning funds.

Planned Parenthood denied the allegations, and was cleared in multiple investigations.

In justifying the new rule that it released in September, the Obama administration claims the state effort to defund Planned Parenthood has decreased the number of Title X providers from 48 to 36, and also decreased the total number of Title X clients served.

In response, groups like the Charlotte Lozier Institute, Susan B. Anthony List, Family Research Council, and Alliance Defending Freedom are filing comments with HHS opposing the proposal.

“The question isn’t whether states should fund Planned Parenthood,” Steven H. Aden, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal. “All of them do, to my knowledge. The question is whether the states should be permitted by the Obama administration to shepherd limited public health dollars in a way that most effectively delivers primary and secondary health care to women.

“What the proposed rule does is define success under Title X solely on the ability to provide the most contraceptives to the most women. That’s Planned Parenthood’s business model and unfortunately, that’s this administration’s idea of women’s health care. But Title X is much broader than that.”

A summary of the proposed rule, as described by the Department of Health and Human Services, states:

Since 2011, 13 states have taken actions to restrict participation by certain types of providers as subrecipients in the Title X program based on factors unrelated to the providers’ ability to provide the services required under Title X effectively. In at least several instances, this has led to disruption of services or reduction of services where a public entity, such as a state health department, holds a Title X grant and makes 21 subawards to subrecipients for the provision of services. In response to these actions, this proposed rule requires that any Title X recipient subawarding funds for the provision of Title X services not prohibit a potential subrecipient from participating for reasons unrelated to its ability to provide services effectively.

“Explain to me why a woman going to a federally qualified health center that has the Title X grant is gaining access because the grant just went away and went to the Planned Parenthood 5 miles away. That’s what they’re saying,” Donovan said.

Federally qualified health centers provide comprehensive health care to millions of uninsured, working poor, and jobless Americans each year. In addition to providing obstetrician-gynecologist services, federally qualified health centers offer a variety of primary and secondary services. For this reason, Donovan argues women are better off visiting one of these centers to obtain comprehensive health care.

“It certainly is a pro-life issue because Planned Parenthood is so identified with abortion,” he said, “but it’s also much more than that.”

The Daily Signal contacted the National Association of Community Health Centers, which represents 1,200 health centers across the U.S., but the organization declined to comment.

Donovan said he can’t explain why community health centers wouldn’t want to speak out about the grant money they stand to lose but said he “would hope we hear more complaints by them.”

Groups like the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists all came out in support of the Obama administration’s proposal, arguing the rule is “consistent in their efforts to ensure effective and accessible reproductive health care for all populations.” (For more from the author of “Pro-Life Groups Fight Obama Administration’s ‘Parting Gift’ to Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

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James Robison: Unwanted and Nearly Aborted but God Takes Him Beyond His Dreams

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In 1943, James Robison’s mother was a single 40-year-old whose job was caring for a sick, elderly man. One day, the elderly man’s alcoholic son forced himself on James’ mother and raped her — and James was conceived. James’ mother went to a doctor to get an abortion for this child, this product of rape. The doctor, however, refused to perform an abortion and sent James’ mother on her way.

Shortly after his birth on October 9, 1943, James’ mother — not believing she could care for an infant — put an ad in the paper advertising for a Christian couple to raise her newborn son.

The Reverend and Mrs. H.D. Hale from Pasadena, Texas responded to the ad and for the next five years raised him as their own. He knew them as Mommy and Daddy, and when his mother unexpectedly showed up one day to take him back, he was confused and didn’t want to go. James’ mother did not have a solid plan for raising her son, or even getting him back home. They ended up hitchhiking 175 miles to Austin, and James spent the next 10 years bouncing from place to place with his mother, living in poverty, not feeling like he had a home anywhere. Constant moving and poverty left James feeling like an outsider, and as a result, he was an extremely shy, insecure kid.

When he was 14 years old, James had an opportunity to move back with the Hales. It was a life-changing experience for two reasons — one, with the love and support of the Hales, James encountered Christ and asked Him to be His Lord and Savior; and two, he met Betty Freeman, whom he married in 1963. By the time he married Betty, James’ evangelistic ministry was well underway. Within a couple of years, James had over a thousand invitations to preach in 27 states.

It is estimated that during the 21 years James Robison held crusades, he preached to 20 million people and saw two million of them receive Christ.

James and Betty went on to host LIFE Today, a talk show that spans across the globe, welcoming guests from various backgrounds to discuss relevant and current faith-related issues. LIFE Outreach International helps build fresh water wells, feeds the poor and hungry in Africa and supports local missionaries. Mission Feeding, another outreach, has saved 7 million starving children.

James stopped counting after 20 million people made professions of faith through his various ministries.

James Robison is a living example of Isaiah 49:15: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” And He didn’t. He raised up a child who would’ve been aborted, who lived in poverty, who felt abandonment and the sting of rejection — and yet … He became a man of God, who sought the Lord with all of his heart, who listened to God’s call on his life to evangelize and has won millions for the kingdom of God as a result.

For newly-pregnant mothers, those who are scared they cannot take care of a baby and are considering abortion, take to heart James’ story. God took a tragic situation and made it beautiful — and incredibly fruitful for His kingdom and His purpose. God can and will take a tragic situation and make it into something precious. (For more from the author of “James Robison: Unwanted and Nearly Aborted but God Takes Him Beyond His Dreams” please click HERE)

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Will This Christian Woman Hang for Taking a Sip of Water?

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It was June 14, 2009. A Sunday. It was hot and falsa berry season was in full swing. Asia Bibi decided to pick berries in a local field in exchange for 250 rupees — enough to buy flour to feed her family for a week, she recorded in a memoir about her ordeal.

It was backbreaking work, and when Asia took a sip of water from a well, the women she was laboring with refused to drink from the same source. Asia is a Christian, and the Muslim women insisted that the well was unclean after she drank from it.

An argument ensued, and the women accused Asia of blasphemy against the Islamic prophet Muhammad — an umbrella charge in Pakistan under which anyone can be accused of crime. Asia has consistently maintained her innocence.

A trial was held, and Asia was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to hang in 2010. There have been appeals through the years, but the judgment stood. In the meantime, Asia has been kept in solitary confinement in a cell so small her arms can span wall to wall.

Thursday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan will make a final ruling on Asia’s execution. Her torturous, nearly seven-year purgatory will finally come to an end. But will her life?

The German Deutsche Welle reports that “[l]egally, the judges have very little room under the blasphemy law to overturn their 2010 decision” to execute Asia, and that the “issue is no longer only religious; it is a sensitive political matter now.”

Two prominent, politically-connected men in Pakistan have been murdered for speaking publicly in defense of Asia —Salman Tasser (the former governor of Punjab and a Muslim) and Shahbaz Bhatti (former minority affairs minister, who served as the sole Christian in Pakistan’s cabinet). And a mullah previously put forth a reward for Asia’s murder.

There are voices all over the world — from Pope Francis to the European Parliament to hundreds of thousands of people in the online community — pleading with Pakistan’s government to spare Asia’s life and allow her to go back to her husband and five children. The mayor of Paris even offered refuge for her and the family.

Congressman Joe Pitts, R-Penn. (F, 52%) introduced a resolution to make the State Department prioritize the repeal of global blasphemy laws, noting that Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt sanction “particularly severe violations of religious freedom[.]” It never was brought up for a vote on the House floor.

Perhaps intense global pressure could sway the minds of Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Perhaps the justices fear the potentially deadly repercussions for freeing a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.

If the 2010 judgment holds and Asia Bibi is hanged, she will be the first person executed by the Pakistani government for blasphemy laws.

As people around the world await to hear Asia Bibi’s fate, the least we can do is offer up a prayer for her and her family. As Asia tells the world in her memoir:

“I’m asking you for help. Please don’t forget about me. I need you.” (For more from the author of “Will This Christian Woman Hang for Taking a Sip of Water?” please click HERE)

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Group Claims YouTube Is Restricting PragerU Educational Videos

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YouTube is restricting educational videos from a well-known conservative advocacy organization, prompting the nonprofit website to petition for restoration of the content.

PragerU, an institution that, according to its website, “presents the most important ideas in free, five-minute videos,” is currently being restricted by YouTube. YouTube has restricted 21 of the organization’s videos.

Videos are restricted on YouTube based on vulgar language, violence and disturbing imagery, nudity and sexually suggestive content, and portrayal of harmful or dangerous activities, according to YouTube. Videos that are age-restricted “are not visible to users who are logged out, are under 18 years of age, or have restricted mode enabled,” according to YouTube.

The list of restricted videos include, “Are The Police Racist?,” “Why Don’t Feminists Fight for Muslim Women?,” “Why Did America Fight the Korean War?,” “Who’s More Pro-Choice: Europe or America?,” and “What ISIS Wants.”

“Over the last several months, PragerU and YouTube have been in communication regarding a number of PragerU videos that YouTube has listed under ‘restricted mode,’” Jared Sichel, PragerU’s communications director, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal. “That number has since grown to 21 videos. Restricted mode is something that many parents and schools use so that children don’t watch explicit adult and sexual content—not so they can’t find animated, educational videos on topics ranging from history and economics to happiness and philosophy.”

YouTube was bought by Google in 2006 and is a subsidiary company of the search engine giant. According to a PragerU press release, PragerU filed a complaint with Google executives but received a generic response.

“In response to an official complaint PragerU filed, Google specialists defended their restriction of our videos, and said, ‘We don’t censor anyone,’ although they do ‘take into consideration what the intent of the video is’ and ‘what the focus of the video is,’” the press release said.

The Daily Signal contacted YouTube about the restrictions on PragerU’s videos, but they did not respond.

Sichel said that in an effort to protest and end YouTube’s restrictions, they have launched a petition for viewers to sign.

“After months of official and back-channel communication with YouTube and Google led nowhere, PragerU released [yesterday] a petition against YouTube to stop restricting these 21 videos. That petition already has over 15,000 signatures, and it’s growing fast,” Sichel said.

“Based on our review of YouTube’s policies and user guidelines, none of our videos meet the requirements of being inappropriate, sexually explicit, or hate speech,” Elisha Krauss, director of outreach at PragerU, told The Daily Signal in an email. “Some places of employment and many libraries and schools use restricted mode to prevent vulgar and inappropriate content. So we know students and adults are being prevented from doing research and using our videos as a source.” (For more from the author of “Group Claims YouTube Is Restricting PragerU Educational Videos” please click HERE)

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Why I Serve on the Catholic Advisory Committee of the Trump/Pence Campaign

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In the first presidential debate, Hilary Clinton paraphrased words attributed to the great French writer Alexis de Tocqueville: “America is great because America is good. If America ever stops being good, it will stop being great.” Those words were probably not written by him. Nor were these words,

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers — and it was not there. … in her fertile fields and bound less forests — and it was not there … in her rich mines and her vast world commerce — and it was not there. … In her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution — and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.

I accepted the invitation to the Catholic Advisory group to Trump/Pence 2016 campaign because I believe these words are true, no matter who wrote them.

The American Founding

Our age is reeling under what Pope Benedict XVI called a “dictatorship of relativism.” Relativism says there are no objective truths. The American founders were not relativists. They declared independence with the bold words “We Hold These Truths.”

They affirmed that fundamental human rights were endowed by the Creator. The Catholic Church affirms these truths. But it just doesn’t affirm them in theory. It demands that we work to promote and defend them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (numbers 2239, 2240) says very clearly that we citizens have the duty to work for “the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom” as an act of gratitude for what we have been given. Then it says:

Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good require citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community. Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country.

As a Catholic clergyman, I take this duty seriously. I am grateful to my country and love the United States, and very concerned for her future. This election matters. It also matters to the Republican Party that it hear the Catholic voice strongly.

The Right to Life and Religious Freedom

First among the truths our nation’s founders declared is the Right to Life. This is not a right our nation now fully recognizes. Abortion is legal in the United States. Innocent children in the womb are being killed by surgical instruments, chemical weapons or suction, at any time and for any reason. Every procured abortion is a violation of the Natural Law Right to Life.

We have no excuse. We know these children are our brothers and sisters. We offer surgery to them. We prosecute someone who takes their lives in the commission of another crime. We take 4D and 3D images of these children and send them to friends. We know what we are doing and are culpable as a Nation.

The next president could name four Justices to the United States Supreme Court. Those appointments will determine if this horrible practice continues. Even just two could shift the balance and change the law for generations. Donald Trump affirms the Right to Life and Hilary Clinton denies it.

The Constitution protects religious freedom. It requires the government to accommodate religious faith, but now we find it increasingly treated with hostility. I don’t need to go over the examples.

Just think of the baker who can’t bake a cake celebrating a same-sex “marriage” because of her deeply held religious conviction about marriage being persecuted and fined. Or the Little Sisters of the Poor. Or the growing effort to compel Christian institutions to deny sexual difference and conform to the radical gender identity agenda. There are many more examples, and the number is growing.

Our founding fathers understood that the nation they’d created couldn’t survive without a strong religious people. In 1798 John Adams proclaimed, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. … Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Our founders understood that the free exercise of religion goes beyond the freedom to worship within church buildings. They knew it included bakers baking cakes and nuns caring for the poor. Donald Trump affirms religious freedom. He will correct the abuses unleashed by the Johnson Amendment which gags the speech of the Church and support the First Amendment Defense Act. Hilary Clinton opposes both and is hostile toward the Church and religious freedom.

Marriage and Family and School Choice

The rights of children and the common good are best secured by recognizing the uniqueness of faithful monogamous marriage above all other relationships. The family is the first society, first economy, first school, first civilizing and mediating institution and first government, and the first place for the formation of virtue and character in children. This is both common sense and my Church’s teaching.

In rejecting marriage, the United States Supreme Court in its Obergefell opinion erred. In the dissent of Chief Justice Roberts, he noted “the majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedent.” He was correct.

Donald Trump will protect the rights of the Church to advocate for marriage and the family free from governmental coercion and persecution. Hilary Clinton will not.

The founders also understood the parents right and duty to direct their children’s education. So does the Catholic Church. The Catechism calls the right of parents to choose a school for their children “fundamental” and says that the government has “the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise” (number #2229).

Donald Trump supports school choice. Hilary Clinton is opposed to it.

Good Government and Economic Freedom

Finally, two other areas guided my choice to join the Catholic Advisory Group. They are matters of prudential judgement, meaning that people who hold the same principles may have different ideas about how to act upon those principles. In many cases of prudential judgment, I find myself in agreement with the Trump/Pence campaign and opposed to the Clinton/Kaine campaign.

First, I affirm the principle of subsidiarity. Governing should first occur at the lowest level and any other governing entity should defer and assist the smallest governing unit, not usurp their role.

Donald Trump will devolve government back to the state and local levels. He will recognize the necessity of supporting mediating associations, those groups like the family and churches that stand between the individual and the state, that make up what we call “civil society.” Hillary Clinton advocates increased centralization of power at the federal level and letting government over-ride mediating institutions.

Second, I believe in a truly free economy. By that I mean one that should not be controlled by either a federal bureaucracy or a corporatist class. The free economy will expand participation while promoting enterprise and awarding initiative. After reviewing the economic policies of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, I determined Trump promotes economic freedom.

Conclusion

I accepted the invitation to the Catholic Advisory Group to the campaign of Donald J. Trump to offer the kind of policy analysis I have expressed in this essay to the campaign. (For more from the author of “Why I Serve on the Catholic Advisory Committee of the Trump/Pence Campaign” please click HERE)

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Man Wearing Bill Clinton ‘Rape’ Shirt Appears Behind Hillary During Rally

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A man attending a rally for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Detroit on Monday appeared behind her wearing a T-shirt with an image of former President Bill Clinton along with the word “Rape.”

Once the man was spotted, he was escorted from the rally by security officers, falling down the stairs right behind Clinton. Some observers believed he had been pushed.

When she realized what was going on, Clinton said, “You know, I do hope somebody follows that gentleman out and stages an intervention. He clearly has not been following this election very closely.”

The Bill Clinton “Rape” image, found on T-shirts and posters, and similar words and images have been seen at various venues recently.

A man wearing a shirt bearing the slogan attended a recent campaign appearance by Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine. The man interrupted Kaine’s speech by shouting “Bill Clinton is a rapist” several times.

A poster warning about “rapist” Bill Clinton was seen outside the campus of Washington University in St. Louis before the second presidential debate. The poster showed Clinton holding a small sign bearing the names of several women he has been accused of sexually assaulting.

On Wednesday, Bill Clinton was in Canton, Ohio, giving a speech when a woman carrying a T-shirt that read “BILL CLINTON A RAPIST” walked past the members of the press. As she passed them she remarked, “Bill Clinton is a rapist.”

After the woman was removed by security, Clinton said, “I love it when people come to my rallies.”

Texas talk show host Alex Jones recently offered up to $5,000 to any listener successful in interrupting a live television broadcast by showing up in one of the T-shirts and shouting, “Bill Clinton is a rapist.”

A young man succeeded when he interrupted a segment of Fox and Friends.

Security arrived to extract the man from the area, but he was able to briefly get free. The young man could be heard saying, “Get your hands off me,” as security was able to subdue him.

Since Friday’s leak of a tape revealing Republican nominee Donald Trump made vulgar remarks about a married woman in 2005, he has increased the spotlight on Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual misconduct.

Before the presidential debate Sunday, he posted a video in which he was surrounded by women — Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broddrick — who have accused Clinton of rape or inappropriate behavior. Kathy Shelton, a rape victim whose alleged attacker was represented by a young Hillary Clinton, was also in attendance.

Trump later said during the debate, “If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words, and his was action. His was what he’s done to women. There’s never been anybody in the history politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women. So you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women.” (For more from the author of “Man Wearing Bill Clinton ‘Rape’ Shirt Appears Behind Hillary During Rally” please click HERE)

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Hillary’s Young Town Hall Questioner Sure Looks Like a Plant

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…Did Hillary Clinton use a teenage girl as a plant at her Tuesday town hall in Haverford, Pennsylvania? The question that kicked off the event, as Alex Griswold of Mediaite observed, was just a little too perfect, and aligned itself flawlessly with Clinton’s recent ads attacking Donald Trump’s alleged offensive comments about women.

The 15-year-old Brennan Leach, who had a conspicuous red bow in her hair, was selected to ask the first question. “At my school, body image is a really big issue for girls my age,” she said, reported the New York Times. “I see with my own eyes the damage Donald Trump does when he talks about women and how they look.” She went on to ask how Clinton could help girls understand “that they are so much more than just what they look like?”

YouTuber Spanglevision questioned the randomness of the girl and her question, decided to investigate further, and discovered several interesting tidbits of information. (Note: The video contains mildly offensive language).

Brennan Leach is a child actor and the daughter of Democratic Pennsylvania Senator Daylin Leach. Incidentally, Senator Leach is a Hillary Clinton endorser and campaign donor. What’s more, Brennan admitted right after the Town Hall that her father helped her write the question.

Interestingly, the camera focuses on Brennan two minutes before she asks her question and she appears very nervous. Spanglevision said this is likely a camera test letting her know she needs to be ready, but why would she need to be ready if participants were chosen at random? The host, Elizabeth Banks, “randomly” picks her out of the crowd with a pert “How about you, with the little red bow?” Brennan then reads her question. She is the only participant to use a script.

When Hillary excitedly jumps up to answer the question, she says, “Thank you!” and “I think Chelsea also wants to say something about this!” She could not know whether Chelsea would want to say something about it — unless it was pre-planned.

While the Clinton campaign denies Brennan was a plant— and anything is possible — it’s not like Clinton hasn’t pulled a stunt like this before. According to Mediaite, Hillary’s campaign was forced to apologize in 2007 for “feeding question[s] to Iowa college students to ask during a rally.” MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported in 1999 that Hillary Clinton used a “prearranged question from a friendly union leader” during her New York Senate run. And according to The Associated Press, as late as this year, Clinton conducted a “careful, behind-the-scenes effort to review introductory remarks … as well as suggesting questions that happened to be aligned with her campaign platform.”

It isn’t difficult to see how Brennan could have been used to further Hillary Clinton’s purpose. It remains to be seen if the pattern continues at Sunday night’s town hall presidential debate. Half of the questions will come from participants. How many will come with scripts? (For more from the author of “Hillary’s Young Town Hall Questioner Sure Looks Like a Plant” please click HERE)

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