Former President Trump survives apparent assassination attempt at campaign rally

By / Jul 13

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated.

BUTLER, Pa. (BP) – A rally for former President Donald Trump was interrupted Saturday afternoon following what appeared to be gunshots. Trump was speaking at a campaign rally when several pops rang out. After lifting his hand to his ear, Trump ducked to the ground as the crowd behind him scattered.

Secret Service agents immediately swarmed the platform. Moments later, Trump seemed to stand and was helped off the stage while waiving to the crowd.

A statement from the Trump campaign said the former president is “fine after being checked out a local hospital.”

The Associated Press reported the shooter was killed and one rally attendee was also killed.

Within the hour, a representative from the U.S. Secret Service released a statement: “An incident occurred the evening of July 13 at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has implemented protective measures and the former President is safe. This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) posted that he was “praying for President Trump and all the attendees of the campaign rally today in Pennsylvania, and we send our gratitude to the law enforcement who responded at the scene." Johnson also noted that he had “been briefed by law enforcement and am continuing to monitor the developments. This horrific act of political violence at a peaceful campaign rally has no place in this country and should be unanimously and forcefully condemned.”

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) posted, “I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe. Political violence has no place in our country.”

“While reports show that President Trump is doing ‘fine,’ this is a horrific moment,” said Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president Brent Leatherwood. “The reality that this has taken place tonight should bring us to our knees.”

“We should all stop to pray for President Trump and that those responsible will be swiftly apprehended and brought to justice. We should pray for anyone else injured by this despicable incident,” Leatherwood said.

“We are praying for President Trump amid today’s horrible event. I praise the Lord he appears okay and that the Secret Service so heroically intervened. We need to pray for our nation and for calm hearts and minds. The Lord reigns,” said Clint Pressley, Southern Baptist Convention president, in a statement to Baptist Press.

The event follows a busy political week as the Republican National Convention finalized their 2024 campaign platform on July 9.

The Republican National Convention begins on Monday, July 15, in Milwaukee.

“In a democracy like ours, we voice our opinions, we passionately press our case, we bravely dissent, and we loudly campaign for our cause,” Leatherwood said. “But we must never cross the line to harm those we disagree with. Political violence has hurt too many individuals and taken too many lives in our history. Now is the moment for all of us to unite and bring a swift and universal condemnation to this vile act that has no place whatsoever in America.”



Supreme Court will take up state bans on gender-affirming care for minors

By / Jun 25

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday (June 24) jumped into the fight over transgender rights, agreeing to hear an appeal from the Biden administration seeking to block state bans on gender-affirming care.

The justices' action comes as Republican-led states have enacted a variety of restrictions on health care for transgender people, school sports participation, bathroom usage and drag shows. The administration and Democratic-led states have extended protections for transgender people, including a new federal regulation that seeks to protect transgender students.

The case before the high court involves a law in Tennessee that restrict puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors. The federal appeals court in Cincinnati allowed laws in Tennessee and Kentucky to take effect after they had been blocked by lower courts. (The high court did not act on a separate appeal from Kentucky.)

"Without this Court's prompt intervention, transgender youth and their families will remain in limbo, uncertain of whether and where they can access needed medical care," lawyers for the transgender teens in Tennessee told the justices.

“This Tennessee law, created to protect vulnerable children, is now being challenged by the Biden administration in their latest effort to push forward radical gender ideology,” said Brent Leatherwood, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) president.

Actor Elliot Page, the Oscar-nominated star of "Juno," "Inception" and "The Umbrella Academy," was among 57 transgender people who joined a legal filing in support of Supreme Court review.

Arguments will take place in the fall.

“The ERLC supported this law as it made its way through the Tennessee legislature. With the Court scheduling oral arguments, our team intends to file a brief defending the necessity of this law,” Leatherwood said.

“The protection of children from harmful transgender surgeries and interventions is not only an entirely appropriate action by the state, it is desperately needed in an era when culture is consumed by the fiction of gender fluidity,” he said.

Last month, South Carolina became the 25th state to adopt a law restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.

Most of the state restrictions face lawsuits. The justices had previously allowed Idaho to generally enforce its restrictions, after they had been blocked by lower courts.

At least 24 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from competing in certain women's or girls' sports competitions. At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from girls' and women's bathrooms at public schools, and in some cases other government facilities.

The nation's highest court has only rarely taken up transgender issues. In 2020, the justices ruled that a landmark civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.

In 2016, the court had agreed to take up the case of a transgender student, backed by the Obama administration, who was barred from using the boys' bathroom in his Virginia high school. But the court dropped the case after a directive advising schools to allow students to use the bathroom of their chosen gender, not biological birth, was scrapped in the early months of the Trump administration. The directive had been a key part of an appeals court ruling in favor of the student, Gavin Grimm.

In 2021, the justices declined to get involved in Grimm's case after the appeals court again ruled in his favor. At the time, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas noted they would have taken up the school board's appeal.

___

From The Associated Press. May not be republished.



ERLC urges Senate leaders to restore pro-life protections

By / Jul 30

WASHINGTON (BP)—The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission urged U.S. Senate leaders Friday (July 30) to reinstate long-standing, pro-life policies removed from spending bills by the House of Representatives.

The request from the ERLC came after the Democratic-controlled House approved appropriations bills July 28 and 29 that eliminated the Hyde Amendment and other measures that either prohibit federal funding of abortion or protect the conscience rights of pro-life, health-care workers and institutions. The spending bills without the pro-life “riders,” as they are known, are expected to face a challenge in the Senate, which is divided evenly between the two political parties.

In the letter, Daniel Patterson, the ERLC’s acting president, urged the Senate “to restore these lifesaving provisions.”

“[W]e strongly object to tax dollars being used for what we believe to be a great moral wrong,” Patterson told the Senate leadership. “These amendments save lives and protect American consciences.”

He described reinstating the pro-life protections as “courageous leadership” that acknowledges the United States “is strongest when we respect one another in the midst of our disagreements. Such an act of across-the-aisle policymaking is desperately needed.”

Messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in June approved a resolution that denounced any attempt to rescind the Hyde Amendment and urged the retention of all pro-life “riders,” a development Patterson cited in his letter. It is estimated the Hyde Amendment -- which has barred federal funds in Medicaid and other programs from paying for abortions in every year since 1976 -- has saved the lives of about 2½ million unborn children.

The House’s passage of spending measures that excluded traditional pro-life “riders” came in a 219-208 vote for a seven-bill “minibus,” as it was labeled, Thursday (July 29) and a 217-212 vote for the State Department/Foreign Operations bill July 28. The “minibus” consisted of funds for such departments as Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Agriculture and Interior.

In addition to the Hyde Amendment, other pro-life protections eliminated by the House in the appropriations legislation included the:

-- Weldon Amendment, which has barred since 2004 funding for government programs that discriminate against health-care individuals or institutions that object to abortion.

-- Helms Amendment, a rider first approved in 1973 that prohibits foreign aid funds from being used for abortion as a method of family planning.

-- Dornan Amendment, which was first adopted in 1988 and has barred in most of the years since federal funds, as well as congressionally approved local ones, from paying for elective abortions in the District of Columbia.

-- Smith Amendment, which has barred in nearly every year since 1984 federal employee health plans from paying for abortions.

The State/Foreign Operations spending bill also bans a president from restoring the Mexico City Policy, which bars organizations from receiving federal funds unless they agree not to perform or promote abortions internationally. The Trump administration expanded the policy and retitled it Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.

The ERLC cited these concerns and others in a 14-page document regarding the House appropriations bills that it sent with the letter to Senate leaders.

Chelsea Sobolik, the ERLC’s acting director of public policy, described approval of the spending bills without pro-life “riders” as “a grievous error by House Democrats.”

“With the elimination of the Hyde Amendment and other pro-life provisions, these spending bills obliterate decades of bipartisan cooperation preventing taxpayer funding of abortion,” Sobolik told Baptist Press in written comments.

In the letter, the ERLC is “calling upon Senate leadership and pro-life senators to stand strong and ensure preborn lives will not be in jeopardy and consciences will not be compromised,” she said. “The message is simple: respect precedent, restore Hyde.”

The letter was sent to Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking member of the committee.

The ERLC, which has worked for a comprehensive ban on federal funding of abortion, included the protection of pro-life “riders” in spending legislation as one of its priorities in its 2021 Public Policy Agenda. In May, it joined in a letter signed by more than 60 other pro-life advocates that asked Senate and House leaders to maintain the bans.

The Hyde Amendment and similar bans in federal programs must be approved each year as “riders” to spending bills. Hyde includes exceptions for a threat to the mother’s life, rape and incest.

While Hyde has long been backed by a significant percentage of pro-choice advocates, Democratic opposition to the amendment has grown in recent years. President Biden supported the amendment during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate, but he reversed his position in 2019 while running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Hyde Amendment has saved the lives of more than 2.4 million unborn children since its inception, according to an estimate in July 2020 by Michael New, veteran researcher and associate scholar of the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.



Robert Aaron Long pleads guilty to Asian spa killings, sentenced to life

By / Jul 27

CANTON, Ga. (AP) — A man accused of killing eight people, most of them women of Asian descent, at Atlanta-area massage businesses pleaded guilty to murder Tuesday in four of the killings and was handed four sentences of life without parole.

Robert Aaron Long, 22, still faces the death penalty in the four other deaths, which are being prosecuted in a different county. The string of shootings at three different businesses in March ignited outrage and fueled fear among Asian Americans.

On March 16, Long shot and killed four people, three of them women and two of Asian descent, at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County, according to police accounts. A fifth person was wounded. Long then drove to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at Gold Spa before going across the street to Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman, police said. All of the Atlanta victims were of Asian descent.

In Atlanta, Long could be sentenced to death if convicted in the four deaths. There, he also faces charges of aggravated assault and domestic terrorism in addition to murder, and prosecutors have said they will seek to have the deaths classified as a hate crime.

Reached by phone, Michael Webb, the ex-husband of victim Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, said the family was “very satisfied” with the plea.

Bonnie Michels, whose husband of 24 years, Paul, was the first person killed, told the judge about the hole in her life left by his death.

“A part of me died with him that day," she said. "I am shattered.”

Elcias Rocendo Hernandez Ortiz, who was shot in the face, also addressed the court, speaking in Spanish. He said it has been very hard for his family, and he feels for the relatives of those who died.

“Honestly, this man, why didn’t he think before killing so many people? I only want justice,” he said through a translator.

The prosecutor said the defendant signed a plea agreement admitting to all charges in Cherokee County, where he was accused of malice murder, felony murder, attempt to commit murder and aggravated assault. Cherokee County Superior Court Chief Judge Ellen McElyea accepted the agreement, handing him four sentences of life without parole plus an additional 35 years.

Those killed at the Cherokee County spa were: Tan, 49; Michels, 54; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Delaina Yaun, 33. The Atlanta victims were: Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

Long said he had planned to kill himself that day and went to the massage businesses thinking that paying for sex — which he considered wrong — would push him to do it. But at some point while sitting in his car outside the first spa, he decided to kill the people inside.

After he was apprehended in south Georgia, Long told detectives of his struggles with pornography and sex. He believed he was an addict, and felt tremendous guilt and shame when he viewed porn or engaged in sexual acts at massage businesses, Wallace said.

Long said he was driven by a desire to “punish” the people who worked there.

Long is scheduled to appear again next month in Fulton County, where District Attorney Fani Willis filed notice that she intends to seek what is called a hate crime sentence enhancement, as well as the death penalty.

From The Associated Press. May not be republished.



Lifeline remains rooted to the Bible as adoption, pregnancy care culture shifts

By / Jul 26

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) – Churches are called to uphold justice for the marginalized and vulnerable, but must include the motivation for such actions. It begins with a relationship with Christ.

Herbie Newell

That focus, says Herbie Newell of Lifeline Children’s Services, is the difference in doing good for its own sake and doing good that addresses the root issues. “The Church needs to see that God has called us to do justice. But, doing justice is only part of our Gospel proclamation. Lifeline goes into the hard places for ministry while staying rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Lifeline grew out of Sav-a-Life crisis pregnancy center to address the needs of vulnerable children and families through adoption, family restoration, orphan care, education and counseling. Co-founders Wales Goebel and John Carr wanted to show the Gospel to those clients, Newell said. In addition to educating pregnant women about their options and sharing the Gospel, Christian families were also available to adopt the child should the birth mother make the choice to carry the baby to term.

“The secret sauce of what we do is found in the discipleship aspect of our ministry,” added Newell, Lifeline’s president and executive director. “It creates a generational ripple effect. When you work with one young person and provide Christian families for a child, then you provide healing for the future. 

“It’s never been just about the child, but discipleship. If we took that out of our statement of faith, then we change everything about our ministry.”

Like other Christian adoption agencies, Lifeline has felt the pressure as culture has shifted on sexuality and marriage. When Bethany Christian Services, one of the nation’s largest evangelical adoption providers, declared earlier this year it would now serve gay parents, the announcement sparked phone calls to Lifeline’s offices.

“A lot of people wanted to know where we stood,” Newell said. “People who knew us already knew the answer, but I was asked if Lifeline was going to stay biblically-minded as opposed to adapting to the culture.”

Lifeline will remain rooted to its biblical convictions regarding the family, he said. And adopting such a change would be difficult to say the least. For any change in Lifeline’s statement of faith to take place, it would first need to be unanimously approved and submitted by its executive team. It would then be put before its national board, which also requires a unanimous vote for approval.

“If one person objects, it doesn’t change,” Newell stated. 

In 2015, Lifeline also made the decision to never accept government funding on any level – local, state or federal. Last year the organization’s board did vote to accept funding from the Payroll Protection Program, Newell said, after a lengthy discussion that included legal and pastoral advice. The final decision came after establishing that the funds went toward the organization’s staff, not its mission, and also be for one time rather than ongoing funding. It was paid back by the end of the summer, Newell said, and in the end the funds were not really necessary to continue operating as normal.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Lifeline’s ministry in other ways. An online tutoring ministry for foster children that Lifeline established in 2018 came into high demand last year after practically all schooling went digital. Although most schools have gone back to meeting in person, the online tutoring program remains popular and the need for tutors has increased.

Just as the ministry’s roots go back to discipleship and the Gospel, they also go back to educating clients on the sanctity of life. According to Lifeline, the first child placed for adoption through the agency went on to be a Journeyman missionary through the International Mission Board and eventually became a business owner in Birmingham. In another case, a young woman suffering through domestic violence made the decision for her baby to be adopted by an IMB family serving in India. That young woman became a believer and, after marrying a Christian man, would choose to adopt a child as well.

That generational impact of the Gospel drives Lifeline and likeminded ministries, Newell maintained.

“We follow the Great Commandment and Great Commission. As we serve others, we make the Gospel known and if we ever took that out, it would change our whole ministry model,” he said. 



28 abducted Baptist school students freed in Nigeria

By / Jul 26

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Armed kidnappers in Nigeria have released 28 of the more than 120 students who were abducted at the beginning of July from the Bethel Baptist High School in the northern town of Damishi.

Church officials handed those children over to their parents at the school on Sunday. But the Rev. Israel Akanji, president of the Baptist Convention, said more than 80 other children are still being held by the gunmen.

So far 34 children kidnapped from the school on July 5 have either been released or have escaped from the custody of the gunmen. It is unclear when the other children will be released. The gunmen have reportedly demanded 500,000 Naira (about $1,200) for each student.

Akanji said the church did not pay any ransoms because it is opposed to paying criminals, but he added the church was unable to stop the children’s families from taking any actions they deem fit to secure their release.

A spokesman for the Nigerian Police, Mohammed Jalige, said security forces and civilian defense forces were on a routine rescue patrol July 12 around the forests near the village of Tsohon Gaya when they found three exhausted kidnapped victims roaming in the bush. Two other students escaped on July 20 when they were ordered to fetch firewood from a nearby forest. Jalige said they were undergoing medical examinations.

Gunman called bandits have carried out a spate of mass abductions from schools in northern Nigeria this year, mainly seeking ransoms.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who won election on hopes that he would tackle Nigeria’s security challenges, has not been able to do much in addressing the growing cases of mass abductions from Nigerian schools.

From The Associated Press. May not be republished.



Biden projected as presidential winner; prayer urged

By / Nov 7

WASHINGTON (BP)—Democrat Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the closely contested 2020 presidential election by media outlets Saturday (Nov. 7), even as President Donald Trump pledged to challenge results in some battleground states.

Southern Baptist leaders responded by calling for prayer for Biden and the country.

The Associated Press and other news outlets declared a win for Biden and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, late Saturday morning after a lengthy vote-counting process in multiple states following election day, which was Tuesday (Nov. 3). 

AP called both Nevada and Pennsylvania for Biden on Saturday morning, giving the former vice president 290 electoral votes by its projections. AP had yet to project a winner in Alaska, Georgia and North Carolina. Trump, credited by AP with 214 electoral votes, led in Alaska and North Carolina, while Biden held a narrow advantage in Georgia.

In the vital contest for control of the Senate, it remained uncertain which political party would hold the majority. The Republican and Democratic caucuses both have 48 seats with two races yet to be called by AP and two others headed for run-off elections.

In a written statement after Saturday’s projection of his win, Biden said he is “honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed” in Harris and him.

“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” Biden said. “It’s time for America to unite. And to heal.”

Trump maintained his post-election message of questioning the vote count and promising court challenges. 

“The simple fact is this election is far from over,” the president said in a written statement Saturday. “Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.

“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”

In Nov. 5 remarks at the White House, Trump said he would “easily win” if legal votes are counted. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” he said.

Southern Baptist leaders reacted to Saturday’s development by calling for prayer. 

After the presidential projection was announced by various media outlets, SBC President J.D. Greear tweeted: “Join me in praying for @joebiden and our country. Pray for wisdom, justice, and truth. I pray for success in where he leads in what is righteous and right.”

Marshal Ausberry, the SBC’s first vice president and president of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC, tweeted: “Praying for our Nation; and praying that God will keep His hand on America.”

Ronnie Floyd, president of the SBC Executive Committee, said in written comments for Baptist Press: “Southern Baptists are a praying people, and I call for everyone to obey the sufficient Scripture's command to pray for our government leaders every day. Only God can heal the deep division in America and this is why we must pray. 

“As the Church, we are to always be committed to loving God with all of our hearts, loving one another even through challenging times, making every effort to walk in oneness together, and always focusing on sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the whole world.”

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, wrote in a blog post posted Saturday: “No matter how you voted, now is the time to pray for the country and for our newly elected leaders in both the White House and the Congress.

“If we seek first the kingdom of God, then we can ask God to bring about good from our leaders — to hold them accountable when they don’t and to commend them when they do, without checking first with whether praying for such is to the advantage or disadvantage of whatever our temporal ‘tribe’ might be.

“What we should pray for regarding government leaders, for all of them, is wisdom and discernment, that they might do what is right. And having prayed so, we should hope that what is just and right will be done, by all of them.”

The projection of Biden as the winner followed a presidential campaign – and a post-election wait – that revealed deep fissures among Christians, including Southern Baptists. 

Vote counts were close in such battleground states as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Claims of voter fraud and election irregularities had yet to be confirmed but led to the prospect of legal battles in various courts.

In addition to questioning the results in other states, the Trump campaign asked for a recount in Wisconsin. In Georgia, Biden led at 1 p.m. (EST) Saturday by fewer than 7,500 votes of nearly five million cast, according to AP. The Georgia secretary of state announced a recount because of the closeness of the vote.

"Election fraud is a serious matter. Baseless claims of fraud is too," Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeted Friday night. "To sort this out, we must be thorough, evidence-based, [and] follow federal [and] state laws. Clarity and certainty may take time...."

The election result as projected means Harris would be the first female, first Black American and first person of Indian descent to be U.S. vice president, according to U.S News and World Report.  

A Biden presidency would make control of the Senate critically important, especially for pro-life advocates and social conservatives. A majority would give Republicans the opportunity to block such liberal proposals by Biden and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives as overturning bans on federal funding of abortion. But success might be limited because of the narrowness of their advantage. 

The GOP, which holds a 53-47 majority in the current Senate, is deadlocked with Democrats at 48-48 as of 1 p.m. (EST) Saturday, according to AP. Republicans led races in Alaska and North Carolina, but the races for both seats in Georgia appear destined for run-off elections. If the Democrats win two of the four races yet to be called, the Senate’s party breakdown would be 50-50. Democrats would be the majority, in effect, by virtue of Harris casting the tie-breaking vote as presiding officer of the chamber.

In the House, it appears Democrats will maintain control but with a smaller majority. As of 1 p.m. (EST) Saturday, AP reported a 214-195 margin for the Democratic Party, but Republicans have a net gain of five seats so far with decisions in 26 races not yet projected. A House majority constitutes 218 seats.

In the current House, Democrats have a 232-197 advantage, with one seat held by a Libertarian Party member and five vacancies. 

Pro-life Republican women made substantial gains in the House elections. All 11 pro-life incumbents won re-election, and at least 13 pro-life women were elected to the House, according to the Susan B. Anthony List. As of Nov. 4, eight other races involving GOP pro-life women had yet to be called, the organization reported.



Judge strikes down Tennessee abortion waiting-period law

By / Oct 15
DETROIT (BP) -- Pro-life advocates and the state expressed their disappointment with a federal court decision Wednesday (Oct. 14) that invalidated a Tennessee law requiring a 48-hour waiting period before an abortion. Senior federal judge Bernard Friedman ruled from Detroit, Mich., the law is unconstitutional and permanently blocked the state from enforcing a waiting period. The 2015 law “substantially burdens” women who want an abortion in Tennessee and is “gratuitously demeaning” to those who have decided to undergo the procedure, Friedman wrote. The state legislature approved the waiting period after a 2014 referendum granted power to the law-making body to act on abortion. Friedman’s ruling marked the second time in three months a federal court has prevented enforcement of a Tennessee pro-life law. In late July, federal judge William Campbell issued a preliminary injunction against a new law that prohibits an abortion when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks. The measure also bans an abortion when the doctor knows the request for the procedure is driven by the race, sex or health/disability diagnosis of a child. Elizabeth Graham, vice president of operations and life initiatives for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said,  “Tennessee leaders are trying to enact simple measures that protect life and, once more, a judge has stepped in to shield abortion from being touched. It is frustrating that reasonable attempts like this continue to be blocked. “That said, we will continue to support efforts in states like Tennessee to pass laws seeking to ensure the health and safety of women and children from a profit-seeking abortion industry and speak to the culture about the sacred dignity of life,“ she told Baptist Press in written comments. Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life, said, "Not only is this decision a slap at Tennessee's abortion-vulnerable women, it is an affront to Tennessee's voters who passed a 2014 constitutional amendment in which allowing a short waiting period was a key factor.” Samantha Fisher of the state attorney general's office told The Tennessean newspaper, "We are disappointed in the ruling that comes a full year after the trial and five years after the law was passed by our elected representatives. We are evaluating next steps, including appealing the order" to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. A majority of the 50 states have enacted laws that require pre-abortion waiting periods of either 18, 24, 48 or 72 hours. Of the 29 states that have passed such mandates, courts now have permanently blocked the laws of two, Florida and Tennessee, according to the National Right to Life Committee. In his 136-page opinion, Friedman, who received the case by special designation, said the state failed to show the 48-hour waiting period promotes its stated interests of “protecting fetal life or benefitting women’s mental and emotional health.” The law “clearly imposes an undue burden on women’s right to obtain a pre-viability abortion in Tennessee and has no countervailing benefit,” he wrote. No evidence exists that women who do not return to a clinic after the waiting period is complete for an abortion “fail to do so because [the law] causes them to change their minds about having an abortion,” Friedman wrote. He also said the mental and emotional health of women does not benefit because the waiting period “does nothing to increase the decisional certainty among women” who are considering an abortion. The abortion providers who challenged the law “have demonstrated conclusively that the statute causes increased wait times, imposes logistical and financial burdens, subjects patients to increased medical risks, and stigmatizes and demeans women,” Friedman wrote. They also have shown the law “undermines the doctor-patient relationship and imposes operational and financial burdens on abortion providers.” Friedman spent about 95 pages describing the testimony and findings of fact from the September 2019 trial. In the case of each witness for the abortion providers, the judge said he found his or her testimony “to be fully credible and gives it great weight.” He found the testimony in support of the law by Priscilla Coleman, professor of human development and family studies at Bowling Green State University (Ohio), unconvincing. Coleman said 25 to 40 percent of women are undecided when they arrive at an abortion clinic and increased information and time are beneficial to them.


Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87

By / Sep 18

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering figure who became the court’s second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87.

Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known.

Chief Justice John Roberts mourned Ginsburg’s passing. “Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice,” Roberts said in a statement.

In a video posted to his Twitter account, Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said that while he had some major policy disagreements with Justice Ginsburg, “we need to…pray for [her] family as they grieve tonight. We should pray for our country in a really divided time.”

Ginsburg, whose appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1993 was the first by a Democrat in 26 years, had become an iconic figure to many on the left in recent years. While conservative judges appointed by Republican presidents currently hold a 5-4 advantage on the nine-member court, her death has potential to radically alter the court’s makeup.

Ginsburg announced in July that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lesions on her liver, the latest of her several battles with cancer. She also fought through falls that resulted in broken ribs, insertion of a stent to clear a blocked artery and assorted other hospitalizations after she turned 75.

Ginsburg was a mother of two, an opera lover and an intellectual who watched arguments behind oversized glasses for many years, though she ditched them for more fashionable frames in her later years. At argument sessions in the ornate courtroom, she was known for digging deep into case records and for being a stickler for following the rules.

On the court, where she was known as a facile writer, her most significant majority opinions were the 1996 ruling that ordered the Virginia Military Institute to accept women or give up its state funding, and the 2015 decision that upheld independent commissions some states use to draw congressional districts.

Besides civil rights, Ginsburg took an interest in capital punishment, voting repeatedly to limit its use. During her tenure, the court declared it unconstitutional for states to execute the intellectually disabled and killers younger than 18.

In addition, she questioned the quality of lawyers for poor accused murderers. In the most divisive of cases, including the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000, she was often at odds with the court’s more conservative members — initially Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

The division remained the same after John Roberts replaced Rehnquist as chief justice, Samuel Alito took O’Connor’s seat, and, under Trump, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court, in seats that had been held by Scalia and Kennedy, respectively.

She was perhaps personally closest on the court to Scalia, her ideological opposite. When Scalia died in 2016, also an election year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to act on Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the opening. The seat remained vacant until after Trump’s presidential victory. McConnell has said he will move to confirm a Trump nominee if one is recommended prior to the election.

Joan Ruth Bader was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, the second daughter in a middle-class family. Her older sister, who gave her the lifelong nickname “Kiki,” died at age 6, so Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn’s Flatbush section as an only child. Her dream, she has said, was to be an opera singer.

Ginsburg graduated at the top of her Columbia University law school class in 1959 but could not find a law firm willing to hire her. She had “three strikes against her” — for being Jewish, female and a mother, as she put it in 2007.

She had married her husband, Martin, in 1954, the year she graduated from Cornell University. She attended Harvard University’s law school but transferred to Columbia when her husband took a law job there. Martin Ginsburg went on to become a prominent tax attorney and law professor. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010. She is survived by two children, Jane and James, and several grandchildren.



Trump administration optimistic COVID-19 vaccine will be widely available

By / Jul 31
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Once a COVID-19 vaccine is approved as safe and effective, Americans should have widespread access within a reasonable time, Dr. Anthony Fauci assured lawmakers Friday (July 31). Appearing before a House panel investigating the nation's response to the pandemic, Fauci expressed "cautious" optimism that a vaccine would be available, particularly by next year. "I believe, ultimately, over a period of time in 2021, that Americans will be able to get it," Fauci said, referring to the vaccine. There will be a priority list for who gets early vaccinations. "I don't think we will have everybody getting it immediately," Fauci explained. But "ultimately, within a reasonable time, the plans allow for any American who needs the vaccine to get it," he added. After the 2020 SBC Annual Meeting was canceled due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the development and distribution of a vaccine would provide welcome relief to those planning to attend the 2021 meeting scheduled for June 15-16 in Nashville. Preparations and planning for the event are already underway. Under direction from the White House, federal health authorities are carrying out a plan dubbed Operation Warp Speed to manufacture 300 million doses of a vaccine on a compressed timeline. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease official, said a quarter-million people have expressed interest in taking part in studies of experimental vaccines for the coronavirus. He said that 250,000 people have registered on a government website to take part in vaccine trials, which are pivotal for establishing safety and effectiveness. Not all patients who volunteer to take part in clinical trials are eligible to participate. Fauci was joined by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head Dr. Robert Redfield and Health and Human Services testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir. Giroir acknowledged that currently it's not possible for the U.S. to return all coronavirus test results to patients in two to three days. He blamed overwhelming demand across the nation. The latest government data show about 75 percent of testing results are coming back within five days, but the remainder are taking longer, Giroir told lawmakers. Fauci, Giroir and Redfield are calling on Americans to go back to public health basics such as social distancing and wearing masks. Nearly 4.5 million Americans have been infected since the start of the pandemic, and more than 150,000 have died, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.