Recent US News

By James Tillman SACRAMENTO, California, June 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)—The IRS has released a memorandum stating that Californian registered domestic partners (RDPs), the great majority of whom are homosexual couples, must average their incomes and each report this averaged amount on their separately filed tax returns. This ruling gives homosexual couples a tax break similar to that given to married couples and even means that (according to one analysis) that under some circumstances homosexual RDPs will pay less income tax than would heterosexual married couples with the same income. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage to be only […]

Friday June 4, 2010 Colorado Abortionist works at Catholic Hospital By James Tillman DURANGO, Colorado, June 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — Dr. Richard Grossman earns his living delivering babies at the Catholic hospital Mercy Regional Medical Center (MRMC). But one day a week, he is paid to kill them at the Durango Planned Parenthood. The abortionist’s work at a Catholic hospital has elicited outrage from local pro-lifers since at least 2007. Michaela Dasteel, past director of the local pro-life organization LifeGuard, has written that a “Church that tolerates abortionists on staff in its hospitals is not a prophetic Church. It is […]

Wednesday June 2, 2010 FDA Readies Public Hearing for Next Generation Abortion Drug By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) readies a June public hearing for a new drug billed as an advanced form of “emergency contraception,” pro-life advocates are warning that ulipristal acetate is in fact the “next generation” of the abortion drug RU-486. Ulipristal acetate functions similarly to RU-486, which has been related to a number of maternal deaths both in the U.S. and abroad. Americans United for Life filed testimony with the FDA’s Advisory Committee […]

By Peter J. Smith HARTFORD, Connecticut, June 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Connecticut Superior Court judge has ruled against two doctors who argued that a state law against assisted suicide did not prohibit them from prescribing lethal drugs to consenting patients who were expected to die anyway. The Hartford Courant reports that Judge Julia Aurigemma dismissed the case brought by Ronald Levine and Gary Blick, who asserted in their lawsuit against the state that “assisted suicide” is not the same thing as “aid in dying”– a claim Aurigemma flatly rejected. “[The statute] is aimed at precisely the situation presented by the […]

LOS ANGELES, June 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — An amended complaint was filed Monday in a lawsuit against Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on behalf of an employee who claims he was demoted, silenced, harassed, and threatened with termination for discussing his beliefs about intelligent design with co-workers.  The California Institute of Technology operates JPL under a contract with NASA. In March 2009, David Coppedge – who served as a high-level “team lead” technical specialist on JPL’s Cassini mission to Saturn since 2000 – was allegedly punished on the basis of “pushing [his] religion.” According to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the public interest […]

By Peter J. Smith NEW YORK, June 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Princeton philosopher Peter Singer one of the world’s foremost contemporary utilitarian philosophers infamous for his advocacy of infanticide, would like individuals to consider this question: would sterilizing the human race to spare future generations the pain of existence be a good idea? In a blog post for the New York Times entitled “Should this be the last generation?” Singer discusses in glowing terms the thought of South African philosopher David Benatar. Singer calls Benator the “author of a fine book with an arresting title: ‘Better Never to Have Been: The […]

Thursday June 3, 2010 Notre Dame Pres Jenkins: Visit to Notre Dame was Good for Obama By Kathleen Gilbert SOUTH BEND, Indiana, June 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, University of Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins said that he thought inviting President Obama to the school’s commencement last year influenced the president for the better, and dismissed the heavy criticism over the invitation as a “scorched-earth strategy toward disagreement.” After Notre Dame invited President Obama to give the commencement address and receive an honorary law degree in May 2009, the school received […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., June 7, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A number of memos have come to the fore with information about the views of President Barack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, on abortion and assisted suicide. The memos show that Kagan opined against a federal ban on assisted suicide, and demonstrated political savvy in keeping the Clinton administration from endangering already liberal abortion laws by antagonizing a Republican-led Congress. When the Clinton Administration was faced by Oregon’s decision to legalize assisted suicide, Kagan, serving during this time as deputy director of Clinton's Domestic Policy […]

Friday June 4, 2010 Alaska Supreme Court Upholds Petitions for Parental Notification Initiative ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The Alaska Supreme Court Wednesday upheld a trial court’s finding that petitions for a parental notification initiative do not contain confusing and misleading language and are therefore valid. The decision means that the measure, which would require parents to be notified if their minor daughter seeks an abortion, will go on the ballot for voter approval during the Aug. 24 primary. Planned Parenthood had filed suit to stop the initiative, claiming that the lieutenant governor’s summary of the proposed measure […]

Friday June 4, 2010 Alaska Gov Vetoes Child Health Insurance Program over Abortion Concerns By Peter J. Smith JUNEAU, Alaska, June 4, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alaska’s governor Sean Parnell has nixed an expansion of the state’s child health insurance program (CHIP) after he discovered that the program pays for elective abortions and could end up financing more. Parnell struck out $2.9 million dollars for the program from Alaska’s eight billion dollar operating budget with a veto of SB 13, the Denali Kid Care program, which sponsors said would add 1,277 children and 225 pregnant women to the rolls of the […]