| HEADLINES |  |  Hundreds protest Planned Parenthood in Portland schools
Oregon Faith Report
Following the example of concerned parents and citizens in Salem and Keizer, hundreds of people in the Rose City turned out Dec. 3 to voice their objection to Planned Parenthood in their schools."They're encouraging behavior that many of us find offensive," Harold Burke-Sivers, a deacon in the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, told the Portland School Board at a study session at school district headquarters. An African-American, Burke-Sivers said Planned Parenthood's "ultimate goal is abortion" and he charged that a "black genocide" is taking place because of the organization's national strategy of targeting certain urban areas in doing abortions. |
|  Judge orders trial in Kansas abortion insurance case
ABC News
Kansas' law that restricts private health insurance coverage for abortions will go to trial to resolve whether it poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking to end pregnancies, a federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson rejected an argument by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri that the 2011 law should be summarily invalidated because the Legislature's predominant purpose in passing the act was to impede access to abortion. Instead, Robinson sided with the state in finding that the ACLU failed to provide any evidence about lawmakers' motivation. But, the judge said, a trial is necessary to determine the larger question of whether the significant costs for abortions many women must now pay for themselves create a substantial burden on the federal right to an abortion. |
|  Supreme Court declines to rule on embryonic stem
cell funding
EWTN News
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a case from two adult stem cell researchers challenging taxpayer funding of experimentation that destroys human embryos. "Today's refusals by the Supreme Court to hear
our case is not the ending of our cause," said Dr. James Sherley. "Instead, it provides a new basis for educating the world that embryos are living human beings, worthy of all the safeguards provided to other human research subjects." Researcher Theresa Deisher added that the legal fight, although unsuccessful, "brought adult stem cells to the forefront of many scientists' minds and contributed significantly to the adult stem cell progress and focus that many scientists and clinicians are following." | |
