Northern Alabama will be without any abortion clinics as of June 27th.
Alabama Women’s Center is voluntarily shutting its doors because they cannot meet the requirements of the state’s new abortion law which goes into effect on July 1.
The Alabama Women’s Health and Safety Act, which passed in April 2013, stipulates that doctors working at abortion clinics in the state have hospital admitting privileges in the same city where they perform abortions. Also, all abortion clinics must meet the same safety standards as ambulatory surgical centers.
The standards include making sure hallways are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs and patient gurneys. Failure to meet the requirements would mean the state health department must revoke the clinic’s license.
The clinic’s owners say they hope to be able to reopen their clinic in the future at a different location that meets the state requirements for women’s health and safety.
An Alabama church spent Memorial Day planting one flag in their front yard for every soldier who died during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Grace Place Church of Enterprise, Alabama said that each of the 6,809 flags was paid for from donations from private citizens and church members who wanted to remind the community of the true and heavy cost of freedom.
“Freedom isn’t free,” Pastor Donny Thrasher told The Christian Post. “It often is paid for with the lives of our military.”
Thrasher said that churches should be leading the way in honoring the families of those men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom to worship Christ openly by making sure their loved ones left behind have their needs met. All funds raised for the flags above the actual cost was donated to a charity that provides for the widows and families of slain soldiers.
“No people in the world are as free as we are to worship without fear of reprisal,” Thrasher said. “That freedom to worship and serve our Lord and Savior is protected and paid for by our military.”
A swimmer on the University of Alabama swim team made the ultimate sacrifice saving his girlfriend during Monday’s tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa.
John Servati, 21, was taking shelter with his girlfriend when a concrete wall began to collapse on them. Servati used his strength to hold up the wall so his girlfriend could escape before it collapsed upon him.
Servati was rescued by emergency personnel but died at DCH Regional Medical Center later that night from his injuries.
“John Servati was an extraordinary young man of great character and warmth who had a tremendously giving spirit,” Alabama coach Dennis Pursley said. “During this incredibly difficult time, our thoughts and prayers go out ot his family and to all who had the good fortune to know him.”
Servati’s girlfriend suffered only superficial injuries and was treated and released from the hospital. She is currently with her family dealing with her boyfriend’s death.
Southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were slammed by a severe storm, bringing death and destruction across the South.
Drivers on Interstate 10 at the Alabama-Florida state line were forced to abandon their vehicles and walk to safety after officials shut it down due to high water.
The flooding also kept fire rescue crews from being able to respond to calls for help in the Pensacola area.
“It’s gotten to the point where we can’t send EMS and fire rescue crews out on some 911 calls because they can’t get there,” Escambia County spokesman Bill Pearson said. “We’ve had people whose homes are flooding and they’ve had to climb up to the attic.”
Alabama was hit with 11.5 inches of rain overnight. Officials were calling people living south of Interstate 10 warning them not to travel.
The Alabama Supreme Court has issued a landmark ruling for the rights of unborn children.
In an 8 to 1 decision, the Court ruled that the state’s child protection laws apply to unborn children, declaring that the court believes a child in the womb has a right to life.
The ruling came in the case of a woman who had been using cocaine while pregnant. When her child was born, the infant has cocaine in their system and the mother was charged with violation of the state’s chemical endangerment statute.
Her lawyers claimed that an unborn child was not a child under the definition of state law.
Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel applauded the court’s decision.
“In an age where some judges do not know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, or do not even care, finally the Alabama Supreme Court springs forth with a ray of light,” Staver said in a statement.
A man who calls himself a contract killer reportedly confessed to police of killing at least 40 people.
Jose Manuel Martinez, 51, told investigators that he was an enforcer for a drug cartel and carried out multiple murders at the command of the cartel leaders. Martinez is facing a trial in Alabama on a single murder charge and then a trial in California for at least nine others.
Martinez was arrested last year as he was crossing the border into Arizona.
Errek Jett, district attorney for Lawrence County, Alabama, said that he believes Martinez because he told investigators details that only the killer would be able to know.
Florida officials also say they want to question Martinez in connection with gang related murders in their states.
Police say that the possibility Martinez was the killer came to light during an investigation into a series of home invasion robberies in 2012.
The virulent anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation is attacking the police chief of Birmingham, Alabama because of his participating with a group that prays in the most crime-ridden sections of town.
Chief A.C. Roper, who is an ordained minister, is assisting a group called Prayer Force United. The group consists of the chief, members of the force, area churches and local residents. The goal of the group is to bring faith-based activities to parts of the community that have been negatively impacted by crime.
The anti-Christianists are demanding that the chief no longer participate in the events unless he makes sure to remove any reference to his position as a leader in the police department. The group claims that his participation in the events and allowing a police car to roll through the area as part of the “prayer walks” in crime-infested neighborhoods is a violation of the Constitution.
The FFRF did not address the presence of the police officers providing security and safety for the prayer walkers who are residents of the city the officers are sworn to protect.
Chief Roper told reporters that he is not ashamed of his association with the group and that working with faith-based groups is part of their overall plan to deal with crime in Birmingham.
Birmingham police have stopped two Christian organizations from feeding the homeless in the city.
The police and city officials say that because of a new ordinance passed at the behest of restaurant owners to stop food trucks in the city the ministries can no longer take their trucks to hand out free hot dogs and water to those in need.
“I’m just so totally shocked that the city is turning their back on the homeless like this,” Pastor Rick Wood told WBMA-TV. “It’s like they want to chase them out of the city. And the homeless can’t help the position they’re in. They need help.”
The Lord’s House of Prayer has been feeding the poor and homeless in Birmingham every Saturday for the last six years before the police stopped them from feeding the hungry.
Birmingham’s mayor is all in favor of keeping the ministries from feeding the homeless because he says there has to be consistency to the law.
“What’s the quality of that hot dog? Where did it come from?” Mayor William Bell snapped when asked about the situation.
Don Williams of Bridge Builders Ministries said that police also stopped his group from feeding the homeless. Williams noted that there is nothing in the city’s law that addresses feeding the homeless for free from a truck, so the Mayor and police are acting beyond the bounds of the law.
A district court judge who blocked Alabama’s abortion law announced they will be holding a trial to discover the “merits” of the law.
Judge Myron Thompson, appointed by President Carter in 1980, issued a decision on the law saying that if the court finds the law was passed in an attempt to protect the lives of an unborn baby, then the law is unconstitutional.
Pro-abortion groups including Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Reproductive Health Services immediately attacked the law upon passage, which Governor Robert Bentley signed last year. The judge placed the law on hold because he said evidence had to be reviewed regarding the effects of the law.
Abortion supporters say the law’s requirement that abortionists obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital is too restrictive because most hospitals won’t give those privileges. They claim at least three of the state’s five abortion clinics would have to close if the law is allowed to go into effect.
The Alabama legislature is considering three new bills to curtail abortion in the state.
The governor of Alabama called on the people of his state who believe in Christ to lift up the state’s students in prayer.
The “Day of Prayer Over Students Across Alabama” was held on Friday, March 28th.
“Whereas Alabama students face extreme challenges, such as peer pressure to abuse drugs and alcohol, negative influences in the media, school violence and gang activities, and low self-esteem,” Governor Robert Bentley’s proclamation reads, “… Alabamians are encouraged to pray for God’s protection, guidance and peace, and for opportunities and blessings on the students of Alabama.”
The proclamation marked the 9th time the governor has made the request of his state’s citizens to cover the students as they try to learn and grow. First Priority of Alabama, who coordinates Christian clubs within schools, initiated the movement for the first statewide prayer day in 2006.
“Praying for students is not just a privilege, it’s a necessity. They face an enormous amount of peer pressure to become part of what is considered normal by the world’s standards,” Matthew Wilson, Executive Director of First Priority of Greater Birmingham, said. “Without prayer, these students will not be able to stand against the insurmountable odds they will face from childhood until they leave this world.”