Abortion ban

During a portion of an interview with CNN aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of “OutFront,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) responded to a question on whether abortion will overtake issues like inflation that have hurt Democrats in the minds of voters and help Democrats in the 2022 elections by acknowledging that inflation has harmed people, but that when “you take away someone’s ability to make their healthcare decision. That only compounds the pain that families are going to feel.” Whitmer stated, “The most important economic decision a woman makes in her lifetime is when and whether to have a child, and this court decision threatens to rip that away from every woman in the country. And it’s going to be up to governors, and that’s why this fight’s so important.” CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny then asked, “Does this issue, do you think, overtake other issues, other challenges, headwinds that your party was facing?” Whitmer responded, “Inflation’s taken a … [Read more...] about Whitmer: Restricting Abortion ‘Only Compounds the Pain’ from Inflation

Who bears responsibility for government-sanctioned forced birth? How about the anti-abortion legislators in 26 states who have either banned abortion entirely or made it so onerous for women to end a pregnancy that we are entering a new medieval era of state-imposed reproduction with all the hardship that comes from bringing an unintended child into the world. Conservative politicians who worked so hard to overturn Roe v Wade blithely say women can give up their newborns for adoption, no questions asked, and they’ll put more money into foster care. More wishful thinking than realistic policy, these fixes don’t come anywhere near meeting the needs. We already have a foster care system that is near the breaking point with more than 400,000 kids waiting to be placed or reunited with their parents, many of them with special needs. If we’re going to have forced births, it is not unreasonable to ask the government to cover the costs. We can call it forced socialism with the burden … [Read more...] about You Want Forced Births? Then We Want Forced Socialism

The Supreme Court’s ruling to gut nationwide rights to abortion last week has highlighted the importance of access to birth control, which already proves difficult for many women of color due to discrimination, stigma and systemic barriers in the health care system. While the decision does not directly impact access to contraception, legal experts say that states and municipalities that are aiming to ban abortion at the point of conception may also challenge contraceptives like Plan B and intrauterine devices. Some state legislators have already taken steps to restrict birth control, such as in Tennessee, when earlier this year Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, denounced Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 case that ensured birth control access to individuals who were unmarried. “The hardest burden is going to largely fall on Black women who already have insurmountable challenges just getting health care in this country,” Jennifer Driver, senior director of reproductive … [Read more...] about Black women are underserved when it comes to birth control access. The Roe decision could make that worse.

The supposed “land of the free” is the latest of a growing list of countries who have infantilised women, as no longer having the right to control their own bodies, thanks to the overturning of Roe v Wade . This once-landmark decision making it clear that the US constitution protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose an abortion has been eschewed in favour of individual states deciding their own abortion laws. As a barrister, I am sometimes criticised for supposedly “not respecting” the integrity of the rule of law. Well, it is my view that the criminalisation of abortion shows that we are not all accountable to the same laws. The law is made by men, for men: to control, dominate and subjugate women. The law has no place regulating our bodies. Yet thanks to Roe v Wade , women are now seen as little more than “living wombs”. This week, 13 US states made abortion illegal – and that figure is predicted to rise to 26 out of the 50 states. The ruling … [Read more...] about Women are now seen as little more than ‘living wombs’

Scientists have discovered an entirely new class of super-reactive chemical compounds in the Earth ’s atmosphere that they say may affect both human health and global climate . The study, published in the journal Science , documented for the first time the formation of so-called trioxides – extremely oxidising chemical compounds with three oxygen atoms attached to each other. “This is what we have now accomplished. The type of compounds we discovered are unique in their structure. And, because they are extremely oxidising, they most likely bring a host of effects that we have yet to uncover,” study senior author Henrik Grum Kjærgaard from the University of Copenhagen said in a statement. In the new study, scientists have shown that hydrotrioxides, as they are known, are a completely new class of chemical compounds that form under atmospheric conditions. Hydrotrioxides are a kind of hydrogen polyoxide, with water – containing two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen … [Read more...] about Study finds ‘millions of tons’ of extremely reactive chemical in Earth’s atmosphere

It's hard to imagine, but until Monday a high school coach could be fired for taking a knee to pray at a football game in America. A coach was well within his constitutional rights to take a knee to protest the national anthem, but petitioning the Almighty was forbidden. All that changed thanks to a man named Joe Kennedy of Bremerton, Washington—a Marine Corps veteran, a high school football coach and a devout Christian. In 2015 Coach Joe was fired from his job as an assistant coach at the local high school after he disobeyed a school directive banning him from saying post-game prayers on the 50-yard line. Coach Joe had been offering those prayers for eight years without incident—inspired by the faith-based football film Facing the Giants . The coach was moved by the film's message to praise God regardless of what happened on the field. But the school district determined that the coach's brief prayers constituted a violation of the law—separation of God and gridiron. … [Read more...] about Football coach wins right to pray on field | Opinion

Bombshell claims about Donald Trump 's behavior in the lead-up to the January 6 U.S. Capitol riots have captured the nation's attention, with suggestions by former staff that matters may yet worsen for the former president. In the past week, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, has made a number of startling allegations in her testimony to the January 6 committee, including that the former president lunged at a Secret Service agent's throat and grabbed the steering wheel of the presidential limousine in an attempt to join his supporters at the Capitol. Trump has roundly denied the allegations in a series of statements against the Select Committee hearings. However, the tone and frequency of these, coupled with the prominence and significance of Hutchinson's claims, have made him vulnerable to copycat statements, as Newsweek has discovered. The Claim A statement purportedly published by Donald Trump, dated June 28, 2022, was … [Read more...] about Fact Check: Did Trump call Cassidy Hutchinson a “terrible employee”?

Throughout her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II has traveled in the height of luxury, whether by land, sea or air. On June 30, the British royal household published its financial report for the year 2021-2022, giving a glimpse of how the monarch and the working members of her family get from A to B and how much it all costs. In total, over the last financial year the royals spent £4.5 million ($5.4 million) on travel , including the official tours undertaken by Prince Charles , Prince William and Kate Middleton , as well as some minor working royals. But how do the British royals travel and what methods do they have at their disposal? Newsweek has the answers. Helicopters One of the main methods of domestic travel for the queen and the working members of her family is by helicopter . Over her reign, the monarch has had a number of helicopters at her disposal with husband, Prince Philip, learning to fly the aircraft himself. The queen currently relies on two … [Read more...] about How the queen and royals travel in style: from helicopters to private jets

The Delhi High Court on Thursday agreed to hear on Friday Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair ’s plea challenging his police remand in a case related to an objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity. Mr. Zubair’s plea was mentioned by advocate Vrinda Grover before a Vacation Bench of the High Court, which posted it for hearing on Friday. On Tuesday, a local court extended by four days the custodial interrogation of Mr. Zubair in the case after the Delhi police said he did not cooperate with the investigating agency. Mr. Zubair was produced before the court on the expiry of his one-day custodial interrogation. The Delhi police said the custodial interrogation of Mr. Zubair was required to gather information regarding the device from which the tweet was made. His counsel had argued that the photo which he used in the tweets came from a 1983 Hindi film by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Kissi Se Na Kehna, and that the film was not banned. Also Read … [Read more...] about Delhi High Court agrees to hear Zubair’s plea on Friday

Six of the G7 countries are members of NATO, while the seventh, Japan, is dependent on its defence on the United States. All, including Japan, can be broadly classified as the West. If the narrative in recent years has been that political and economic power has decisively shifted towards Asia and the West no longer dominates the world as it did traditionally, that recognition seems to be missing from the inordinately long communiqué that the G7 summit in Germany has issued. It is imperial in tone, carrying a sense that the G7 has the power to decide and dispense. After the 2008 financial crisis the G7 led by the US felt the need to enlist the cooperation of major economic powers outside the West to stabilise the global financial system through coordination of national policies. Besides India, China, the second largest economy, was included in a G20, which was raised from the existing Finance Minister to Summit level. Today, China is treated as an adversary, and the harshness of G7 … [Read more...] about As G7 Nations Come Together to Corner Russia, PM Modi Bats for Dialogue and Diplomacy