Abortionists have filed a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana over a law that the claim will force them to close.
HB 388 passed the Louisiana House of Representatives 88-5 and the Senate 34-3. The bill would require abortionists to obtain admitting privileges if a woman is injured during an abortion and require further medical care.
“On the date the abortion is performed or induced, a physician performing or inducing an abortion shall have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services,” the bill reads.
The lawsuit claims that there is not a sufficient amount of time from the passage of the law until it goes into effect for the clinics to obtain the approvals necessary to stay open after September 1st.
Laws similar to the Louisiana law have been upheld in most other states including Texas, where at the end of 2014 it’s predicted only 6 of 41 abortion clinics will remain open.
A Louisiana sheriff says that he is not going to cancel a planned public prayer event even if the ACLU is objecting to the event as unconstitutional.
Sheriff Julian Whittington of Bossier Parish, Louisiana is hosting the second annual “In God We Trust” rally on the Fourth of July. The event will include food, games, prayer and what the Sheriff termed “patriotic and God-lifting music.” The event is taking place on the grounds of a sheriff’s substation in Bossier, property that is owned by the city.
The ACLU is complaining that the existence of the event on the city property means they’re violating church and state and the event needs to be shut down no matter how much of a benefit it is to the city.
Sheriff Whittington said he’s not the least bit concerned about the ACLU.
“Not only am I elected to serve the people of Bossier Parish, but I live here and my family lives here. I think Bossier Parish is a better place with Christianity and Christian values involved in it,” Whittington told the Shreveport Times. “I don’t work for anybody in Washington. What they do, what they say, I couldn’t really care less.”
The ACLU says the event is telling non-Christian residents of the area that “they are less than equal and not worthy of support by their sheriff” even though Sheriff Whittington has not made any statements nor taken any actions that back up the ACLU’s assertion.
Louisiana has become the latest state to pass laws aimed at requiring abortion clinics to have safe conditions on the level of other major medical facilities.
One of those requirements is for abortionists to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of the abortion clinic.
House Bill 388 reads: “On the date the abortion is performed or induced, a physician performing or inducing an abortion shall have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services.”
The law passed the House of Representatives 88-5 after passing the Senate 34-3 earlier this month.
Governor Bobby Jindal said he’s looking forward to signing the bill.
The law reportedly will force three of the state’s five abortion clinics to close.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal believes the most important moment in his life is the moment he accepted Christ as his Savior.
The governor is scheduled to speak at Liberty University this weekend and released an advanced copy of his speech where he openly and boldly speaks of the importance of Christ in his life.
This is from the text of the governor’s address:
The short story is this, I read the words of Jesus Christ and I realized that they were true. I used to think that I had found God, but I believe it is more accurate to say that He found me. And it happened because people were brave enough to plant seeds of the Gospel in my life.
Many years later, when I became a candidate for political office, in one of my first debates, I got the question– “What is the single most important moment in your life?”
I had just endured countless hours of debate prep sessions with my political consultants and staff. That’s where you sit around and get savagely grilled by people you pay – your political consultants and staffers. I knew exactly what they hoped I would say – they would argue that I should try to appeal to female voters by offering a touching story about when I asked my wife Supriya for her hand in marriage, or about the birth of my first child. And yes, those were great moments.
But instead, I decided to do something new in politics, I told the audience the truth — that the most significant moment of my life was when I turned it over to Jesus Christ and acknowledged Him as my Savior.
My political consultants then began shifting uncomfortably in their seats…and I have to admit I enjoyed that.
Jindal goes on to talk about how despite what many in the liberal academic community claim about followers of Christ, it is not a faith that is followed by those with a lack of intelligence. Jindal is a Rhodes scholar.
A Louisiana lawmaker has abandoned his bill to make the Bible the state’s official book.
State Rep. Thomas Carmody had filed HB 503 and it had even passed through a committee hearing before he took the action to pull the bill from consideration. The bill would have made a specific Bible currently in the possession of the state the “official state book.”
Carmody pulled the bill after other lawmakers said it caused a “distraction” that took away from other issues that needed to be addressed by the state legislature.
Several Democratic opponents to the bill kept pointing out that it would likely be challenged in court, drawing away tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on something that did not need to be spent. However, at least one legal scholar believes the law would have been just fine.
“Judges are likely to think that this is de minimis, too minor to care about,” Professor Douglas Laycock of the Virginia School of Law told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “They don’t tell the President he can’t issue Thanksgiving proclamations or host a national prayer breakfast, and judges are likely to view this the same way.”
The state of Louisiana is moving closer to naming the Holy Bible the official state book.
A committee in the House of Representatives approved the legislation last week and the bill now moves to the entire House for discussion and floor vote. The House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs passed the bill on an 8 to 5 vote.
The bill’s sponsor says that the purpose of the measure is not an attempt to establish an official state religion.
“It’s not to the exclusion of anyone else’s sacred literature,” Republican Representative Thomas Carmody told the Christian Post. Carmody said the Bible reflects America’s history and founding principles as outlined by the Founding Fathers.
Critics of the bill say its unnecessary and makes the state open to lawsuits by anti-Christian activists. The ACLU of Louisiana has also expressed their concerns about the bill saying the official state book should related to the history of Louisiana.
Apparently a Starbucks employee thinks he can help Satan steal souls through coffee.
A Louisiana woman visited a Starbucks at the Mall of Louisiana after church and found that the employee of the store wrote Satanic symbols in caramel on her drinks. One drink had a pentagram and the other read 666.
“I unfortunately can’t give the young man’s name who served it, because I was so appalled that I could not bring myself to look at him,” Megan Pinion wrote when she posted the picture to Facebook. “I am in no way judging his beliefs of dis-meriting his beautiful artwork. I am however judging his lack of professionalism and respect for others. I am a teacher in the public school system and if I were to present a child of atheist or pagan believers with a Christian art project I could be sued in a heartbeat.”
Pinion said she was a Catholic who would love to share her beliefs daily to her students but has to follow the school’s ethics code.
Starbucks quickly apologized to Pinion for the incident and said the actions of the barista do not represent the company in any way. There was no word if the barista was disciplined for his actions.
Southern Texas is facing a rare coating of ice as temperatures continue to plummet to record lows.
“The crazy thing is that the current cold snap this week looks to be a bit more modest in the face of next week’s outbreak,” Matt Rogers of the Commodity Weather Group told Bloomberg. “The cold coming for the end of January is sufficient to make this the coldest month of the century so far and the coldest the Lower 48 has felt in at least 20 years.”
Interstate 10 from Texas to Louisiana had to be closed because ice on the highway caused multiple accidents. State police warned residents to avoid the roadways as conditions deteriorated through the day Thursday and into Friday.
At least two deaths have been attributed to the icy accidents.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency because of the storm.
Texas officials are warning residents Friday that even if the winter weather warnings have been lifted, roads and bridges can freeze and be ice covered after dark.
National Weather Service models for Tropical Storm Karen now indicate the storm will make landfall in southwestern Louisiana some time Saturday afternoon.
High wind shear and dry air from the west have been hampering the storm’s ability to strengthen and it appears unlikely the storm will reach hurricane strength by the time it makes landfall. Tropical storm warnings are in place for the Louisiana coast while Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle are under hurricane and tropical storm watches.
The National Hurricane Center says that the chances of Karen reaching hurricane status are 23%, down from 41% odds in Thursday’s afternoon forecast.
Forecasters also say it’s likely that high wind shear will weaken the storm west of the storm’s center when it makes landfall and that rainfall totals will be less than 3 inches. West of the center could see up to 8 inches of rain from the storm.
Models say the highest probability of tropical storm force winds is at Buras, Louisiana.
A Louisiana pastor was shot in the back and killed by a former deacon of the church who stood above the dying pastor to make sure he had killed him. Continue reading →