The Supreme Court is blocking Arizona from enforcing restrictions on medical abortions while a series of court challenges works through lower courts.
The ruling by the Court upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the rules regulating where women can take abortion-inducing drugs. Abortion-inducing drugs would also be prohibited after the 7th week of pregnancy instead of the current restriction of the 9th week.
The liberal-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the state of putting the restrictions in place while the legal challenges are taking place. North Dakota, Ohio and Texas have similar laws to Arizona.
Abortionist Planned Parenthood says that drug conducted abortions for more than 40 percent of abortions in their abortion centers.
The Arizona restrictions were put into place following the deaths of 8 women who had taken the drugs. The FDA claims there is no connection between the drugs and the deaths.
Concerns over Ebola have shut down schools in two states.
Two public schools in Ohio are closed because staff members were on the same flight as Amber Vinson, the second nurse who contracted Ebola and flew from Ohio to Texas with a low grade fever.
An e-mail was sent to parents of children at Solon Middle School and Parkside Elementary School.
“This circumstance came to light late in the day and we have been working since then to get as much information as possible from public health authorities,” the district’s email read.
“Although we believe what the science community and public health officials are telling us about the low risk of possible transmission of the virus through indirect contact, we are nonetheless taking the unusual step of closing the dual school building for Thursday so that we can have the schools cleaned and disinfected.”
The Belton Independent School District in Texas closed all three schools because of two students who were on the flight.
“Canceling classes at the three campuses will allow us to thoroughly clean and disinfect the schools and buses that served them this week. It will also allow health officials additional time to re-assess the health risk to passengers on the plane,” said Belton Superintendent Susan Kincannon in a statement. “I’m frustrated that we didn’t learn until late tonight that the CDC was re-evaluating the health risk. The health and safety of our students is my first priority.”
A school superintendent who claims that he is a “man of faith” told a school principal and his teachers that they can no longer have a prayer chain for the sick and needy.
“I’m a man of faith who wants good for all, but I’m also a firm believer in separation of church and state,” Medina Schools Superintendent Dave Knight told The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Still, this “man of faith” Dave Knight told Principal Chad Wise of A.I. Root Middle School that he had to stop a prayer chain for community members dealing with a number of difficulties. The plan was to uplift those who were facing illness, dealing with family deaths or in the middle of neglect or abuse cases.
“Public school staff can’t use district resources, including email, to promote prayer, especially when the principal, a person in a position of influence, is involved,” “Man of Faith” Knight told reporters. “When it comes to separation of church and state, it’s very clear.”
The principal was advised a single e-mail asking for keeping a family in “thoughts and prayers” was permissible but the prayer chain was a bridge too far.
Principal Wise says he will continue the prayer chain on his own time outside of school e-mail and outside the reach of “man of faith” Knight.
Reports have been released of a Muslim man who threatened to shot up an Ohio high school because of his hatred of Israel.
Police said that a man “with a heavy accent” called Pickerington North High School Wednesday morning and said that he would be shooting students at the school with an AK-47 assault rifle. The man said he was “Mohammed Shehad” and that his actions would be in response to Israel’s actions in the Gaza strip.
The school was put into lockdown until police could determine there was no actual threat in the area of the school.
Police say that no one has been arrested and it’s likely the threat has passed but they were not taking anything for granted.
“There is no way to be absolutely certain,” Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen said.
Terrorism analyst Patrick Poole, who lives in Ohio, said radical Islam in Ohio is on the rise.
“We have had a growing problem here in the Columbus area for years that local law enforcement and the media want to continue to sweep under the carpet,” Poole said. “Not only has central Ohio been the home of the largest known al-Qaeda cell since 9/11—with several members currently in prison on terrorism charges and at least two deported—we’ve had a number of cases of homegrown jihadists come through town.”
A judge has ordered an infamous abortionist to close his clinic.
Martin Haskell, a notorious late-term abortionist, was ordered to close his Lebanon Road Surgery Center because it would not comply with state health regulations. The initial order to close the clinic was issued at the end of last year but had been delayed because of litigation.
“We are gratified to see yet another late-term abortionist shutting down,” said Mike Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life president and member of the state medical board. “As a result of this Health Department order, Martin Haskell, a strong proponent and former practitioner of the controversial and deadly partial-birth abortion procedure, will no longer be able to abort children and jeopardize women’s health in Hamilton County.”
The order to finally close the clinic was issued by Democratic state judge Jerry Metz who said all the previous orders by state officials and judges to close the clinic were legally valid.
Haskell’s wife has been attempting to keep the clinic open by appealing to Christians, saying the Bible endorses the killing of children through abortion, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
The state of Ohio has been carrying out a crackdown on abortion clinics.
Two of the clinics are at risk of losing their licenses to end babies’ lives. Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls and Capital Care Network of Toledo have been recommended to lose their licenses by the Ohio Department of Health. If the clinics do not contest the action by the ODH, they would have to close August 12th.
A Planned Parenthood office in Bedford Heights was fined $25,000 after a March inspection of the facility.
“One of the reasons Planned Parenthood was fined is because the facility was improperly storing containers of human tissue, which brings the name of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell to mind,” Katherine McCann of Ohio Right To Life told the Christian Post. “Another was because of improper follow-up documentation for two abortion patients who were hospitalized for bleeding and a perforated uterus. How is any of this ‘healthcare’? The real war on women is being waged by Ohio’s abortion facilities.”
McCann said that the crackdown is part of actions taken by the state’s governor to hold clinics accountable for unsanitary conditions.
“Before Governor Kasich’s administration, it was a struggle to ensure that Ohio’s abortion facilities were being held to common-sense health and safety standards. That’s really what we’re talking about here, common-sense standards,” said McCann. “ODH isn’t holding these facilities to extra special standards — any inspection a clinic undergoes is in line with the Ohio Revised Code. But Ohio’s abortion industry can’t even meet these basic requirements. Thankfully, for the last four years, abortion mills haven’t been allowed to skirt the law like they used to.”
In the aftermath of Toledo, Ohio and its 400,000 residents having to go without water for almost three days because of toxins created by algae in Lake Erie, officials are now investigating to see what they can do to help keep the water supply safe.
“This is not just one community issue, this is the whole lake,” said state Rep. Dave Hall.
Intensive chemical treatments had to be made to the Toledo water system and in Lake Erie to reduce the level of algae-created toxin in the water level. While the toxin was not completely removed from the water, it was reduced to a level that is safe to drink.
Governor John Kasich, who had declared a state of emergency for three counties around Toledo as many communities had pulled water from the Toledo system, said that he would launch an investigation to see if the problem was really the algae blooms or if there were significant problems within the Toledo water system itself.
Some residents said they’re waiting to use the tap.
“I’m waiting for two or three days,” Aretha Howard, of Toledo, told FoxNews. “I have a pregnant daughter at home. She can’t drink this water.”
Residents of Ohio’s fourth-largest city endured a weekend when the water coming from their taps was nothing but toxic trouble.
Officials with Toledo, Ohio announced early Saturday morning that the 400,000 residents of the city needed to avoid drinking, bathing or cooking with the water because of the amount of toxin in the water from an algae bloom in Lake Erie. The city obtains its water from a pipe two and a half miles into the lake.
Mayor D. Michael Collins announced the ban just after 3 a.m. Saturday. He said an algae bloom that normally does not move into the area of the water intake at this time of year was pulled in because of high winds and waves. A satellite image of the lake showed the algae bloom centered right around the water intake.
The Ohio National Guard brought filtration systems and large shipments of bottled water into Toledo for residents. Governor John Kasich declared a state of emergency that ended Monday morning when the water was determined to have a safe level of algae related toxin.
Water plant operators along western Lake Erie have been concerned about the amounts of phosphorus going into the lake for years. They have been able to compensate for blooms in past years but this year’s early blooming was unexpected.
The city was dealing with reports of price gouging. One Toledo television station found a discount store selling bottled water at twice the normal price.
A woman wearing a Burger King uniform shirt verbally and physically assaulted members of the pro-life organization Created Equal who were conducting an awareness event in Columbus, Ohio.
Victoria Duran was caught on video physically attacking a teenage boy who was an intern of the Created Equal group. She also used profanity filled rants and kicked down signs that were erected showing the development of a baby at 12 weeks.
“We understand the risk we take each time we go into the marketplace of ideas with a message as counter-cultural as showing the victims of abortion,” Created Equal Executive Director Mark Harrington told LifeNews, adding that “despite the threat we will not shrink back from representing the victims.”
Police arrived on the scene and removed Duran from a public bus to talk; she held out her arms telling the police “take me.”
Duran was questioned by a reporter from KSYX-TV who said she assaulted the pro-life group members and Duran responded by saying shoving them was not assault.
Police disagree and have charged Duran with assault and criminal damaging.
The Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in favor of a pro-life group that wanted to challenge an Ohio law that put them at risk for a lawsuit if someone felt their political ads were “false.”
The Susan B. Anthony List had sued a now-former Democratic U.S. Congressman who had claimed the group lied about him in a campaign ad that said he supported taxpayer funded abortion because of his support of the Affordable Care Act. While the Congressman dropped his complaint against the group under the Ohio law, the group sued to say the law was unconstitutional.
The group said that the lawsuit by former Rep. Steve Driehaus also violated the group’s freedom of speech. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the group had no standing to pursue a lawsuit because the suit against them had been dropped after the election was over.
The ACLU, a very anti-life legal group, surprised observers by backing SBA List in the case.
“Speech is rarely black and white,” an ACLU spokesman said. “If the government silences one side of the debate, the public is less informed and others might be fearful of criticizing elected officials. The answer to unpopular speech is not less, but more speech.”
Anti-life groups said the case is about the “right to lie” despite the fact the SBA List has shown the Affordable Care Act includes multiple abortion funding provisions.