All posts tagged: Abortion controversy

Florida voters will decide whether to protect abortion rights and legalize pot in November

Florida voters will decide whether to protect abortion rights and legalize pot in November

Published by skeptic

A primary election voter enters a Tampa, Florida, polling place on Aug. 23, 2022. Octavio Jones | Getty Images The Florida Supreme Court issued rulings Monday allowing the state’s voters to decide whether to protect abortion rights and legalize recreational use of marijuana, rejecting the state attorney general’s arguments that the measures should be kept off the November ballot. Abortion rights The proposed amendment would protect the right to an abortion after the state in back-to-back years passed tougher restrictions currently being challenged in court. Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody argued that the proposed amendment is deceptive and that voters won’t realize just how far it will expand access to the procedure. Faith Halstead, chants along with other protesters and activists near the Florida State Capitol where Florida State Senators voted to pass a proposed 6-week abortion ban in Tallahassee, Florida, on Monday, April 3, 2023.  The Washington Post | Getty Images The ruling could give Democrats a boost in the polls in a state that used to be a toss-up in presidential elections. While …

Abortion foes settle lawsuit against museum over pro-life hats

Abortion foes settle lawsuit against museum over pro-life hats

Published by skeptic

Patrons enter the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum for the public reopening of the museum’s west end galleries on the National Mall in Washington, U.S. October 14, 2022. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., agreed to settle a lawsuit by a group of students, parents, and chaperones from a Catholic school in South Carolina who were told by security guards to remove hats bearing an anti-abortion message during a visit there last year, a court filing Monday revealed. The federally funded museum agreed to pay the more than a dozen plaintiffs a total of $50,000 to settle the suit, according to the filing in U.S. District Court in Washington. The payment includes attorneys’ fees. The settlement also calls for the museum’s director to give the plaintiffs a tour of the facility, which is the largest of the Smithsonian Institution’s museums, and for the director to apologize to them for the guards’ actions on Jan. 20, 2023, the filing says. And the Smithsonian agreed to notify security personnel …

Biden State of Union guest is Texas abortion case mom

Biden State of Union guest is Texas abortion case mom

Published by skeptic

Kate Cox Courtesy The Center for Reproductive Rights The mother at the center of a high-profile Texas Supreme Court abortion case will attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech to Congress as a guest of the president and first lady Jill Biden, the White House said Wednesday. The Texas high court last month denied Kate Cox’s request to terminate her pregnancy in the state after the mother of two learned her fetus had a fatal diagnosis as the result of a rare chromosomal disorder. Abortions have been banned in Texas since shortly after June 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its half-century-old ruling in the case Roe v. Wade. To obtain an abortion, Cox was forced to travel out of Texas. Her lawyers had said that Cox’s own health was at significantly increased risk if she carried the fetus to term. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Bidens spoke with Cox on Sunday, and “they thanked her for her courage in sharing her story, and speaking out about the impact …