WASHINGTON, D.C., December 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the nation prepares for the Christmas holiday, crisis pregnancy and adoption centers are rejoicing that the sales of pro-life license plates has raised $19 million nationally. That is but one of many pro-life, pro-family developments throughout the 50 states.
North Dakota
“There is no constitutional right to an abortion” based exclusively on North Dakota law, state Solicitor General Douglas Bahr told the state Supreme Court last week. Bahr was defending a 2011 state bill on the use of abortion-inducing drugs. Justice Carol Kapsner asked Bahr about the Roe v. Wade decision and subsequent court decisions that legalized abortion nationwide. Barh replied that the plaintiff cited state constitutional law, rather than the federal court's 1973 ruling, and on that basis there is no right to abortion. Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle similarly asked Autumn Katz of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights whether she truly believed the state recognized a right to abortion prior to the High Court's landmark decision, according to the Bismark Tribune. Katz represents the state's last abortion clinic, Fargo's Red River Women’s Clinic. The facility's director, Tammi Kromenaker, accepted an award from members of the Revolutionary Communist Party in August. She also participated in their rally, which called for a Marxist revolution.
Hawaii
A controversial sex education curriculum, which the state Department of Education temporarily pulled, is returning to Hawaiian classrooms. The Pono Choices sex ed program, which was approved by the state DOE, teaches anal and oral sex to children in sixth to eighth grades (ages 11-13). After a parental backlash, the DOE put the program on hold. But the department said in a press release on December 13 that “a review of Pono Choices confirmed the curriculum is medically accurate, appropriate, and aligned with health education, state law, and DOE policy.”
Michigan
Spurred on by a massive petition drive spearheaded by Michigan Right to Life, state lawmakers recently passed a law allowing health insurance customers to know their dollars are not funding abortion. If a woman wants abortion coverage, she must now purchase a separate plan with her own money. Now, state Democrats are collecting signatures for a statewide vote to overturn the new law. Capitalizing on the “war on women” theme, foes of the pro-life consumer choice measure are calling the new law “rape insurance.” If successful, state voters would get to vote on the policy.
New Jersey
Residents of New Jersey will be able to change the sex listed on their birth certificate at will, if the state Senate approves a piece of pending legislation. Since 1984, the state has only issued new birth certificates if an operation had physically altered the citizen's reproductive anatomy. The new law would state that transgender people would not be required to undergo a sex change operation but must produce a document signed by their doctor that they are receiving hormone treatments “or that the person has an intersex condition.” The General Assembly passed State Senator Joseph Vitale's bill, S. 2786, by a 43-27 vote in June. It has since cleared a Senate committee.
Texas
More than 19,000 people wrote to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission over the state's new abortion regulations, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
A Republican candidate for judge is finding herself in the unenviable position of attempting to defend her decision to vote for Barack Obama. Melanie Flowers, a Houston attorney who is running for Harris County district court judge, also made campaign donations to another pro-abortion Democrat, Texas State Representative Ron Reynolds, who supported Wendy Davis' filibuster this summer. Flowers, who is black, said Obama's election was “a historic moment,” according to David Bellow at Texas GOP Vote.
California
Facing an economic implosion and massive public debt, California taxpayers may soon pay to support prostitutes who are beaten up on the job. The state's Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board may change an ordinance to allow prostitutes to receive pay if they are beaten by pimps or clients. The fund, established in 1965, pays hospital and medical expenses for victims of crime but specifically excludes prostitutes. “Whether someone is engaged in prostitution shouldn't have anything to do with whether they've been beaten or raped,” Kimberly Horiuchi, an ACLU attorney, told the Associated Press.
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Mississippi
Mississippi will end conjugal visits for prisoners effective January 31, 2014. State Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps announced that he had personally ended the program, which gives inmates an hour a week most weeks to have sexual relations. State Representative Richard Bennett, a Long Beach Republican, had introduced a bill to end the practice before Epps' administrative action. Bennett told The Clarion-Ledger that he came forward with the measure after learning of a baby boy who was conceived while both parents were in prison, and who is being raised by a grandparent. Bennett told the newspaper that he still wants to pass “a law to make sure it can’t start up again.” Only five additional states nationwide allow for conjugal visits.
Virginia
The city of Richmond police force has established an official liaison to the city's homosexual, lesbian, and transgender community. Maj. Odetta Johnson will reach out to the state capital's LGBT community. Police spokespeople told the Times-Dispatch that the city will investigate any putative hate crimes perpetrated because of sexual preference. The city's LGBT community told the paper that among its top concerns is seeing to it that police refer to transgender people by their preferred pronoun