Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Introduced in U.S. House

Partial-birth abortion ban gets Congressional push House Republicans are again pushing for a total ban on partial-birth abortion, the Associated Press reports.

“It’s time for Congress to act and place this bill in front of the president so that we can finally end this national tragedy,” says Rep. Steve Chabot, sponsor of H.R. 760. “While I expect that some of the Senate’s most zealous pro-abortion advocates will again attempt to block this legislation, I am confident that we will finally be able to pass this ban into law.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner says House Republican leaders hope to have the bill passed before the Easter break.

But “some lawmakers hoped to counter the bill with legislation introduced Thursday that would ban the late-term abortions except when they are performed to protect the mother’s life,” the AP reports. Supporters of this bill say such an exception will make it more likely to stand up to a Supreme Court challenge (the court struck down a Nebraska ban on the procedure in 2000). But prolife organizations criticized this alternative bill a counterfeit when it was introduced in earlier conferences.

Yesterday, the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee, which The Roanoke Times notes is “historically hostile to anti-abortion measures,” approved a partial-birth abortion ban and a parental consent bill. “This year’s legislative agenda contains 10 years worth of prolife legislation rolled into one,” Delegate Richard H. Black told The Washington Times.

More life ethics news:

Nurse nabbed in abortion clinic shooting | Brenda Kaye Phillips, 44, of Murphy, was charged with one misdemeanor count of damage to property for shooting at the Femcare Women’s Clinic early Thursday (Associated Press)
School pulls Granholm lunch from auction | Mercy Catholic parents protest her pro-choice stance (The Detroit News)
Panel approves ban on cloning | Legislation to ban human cloning for any purpose, including medical research, was approved yesterday on a party-line vote by the House Judiciary Committee (The Washington Times)
Advances make ban on human cloning hot issue in Congress | But because of sharp divisions within Congress and even within the parties over how sweeping a cloning ban should be, the legislation may not become law, even though virtually everyone supports some sort of a cloning prohibition (Chicago Tribune)
Life can win | The nation’s most permissive cloning bill gets pulled (Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review Online)

Pat Robertson has prostate cancer Broadcaster Pat Robertson announced yesterday on his 700 Clubbroadcast that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will undergo surgery Monday to remove his prostate gland.

“Hopefully, I will be back up and around in two weeks and all will be well, but I would appreciate everybody’s prayer,” he said.

A press release on his website says that “after extensive tests, it has been determined that the cancer does not appear to have metastasized beyond the prostate.”

Several media outlets note that Robertson has long been on a health kick, and one of his most recent campaigns is for “Pat’s Age-Defying Protein Pancake,” which he designed to “help protect against breast, uterine, and prostate cancer.”

He has also written on the effects of prostate surgery.

Church and state:

Pledge bill sails through House | Opponents of Senate Bill 105 have argued forcing school children to utter the pledge phrase “under God” promotes religion in violation of the principle of the separation of church and state. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
Also: Bill wants pledge to start each school day | Religious schools would be exempt from the requirement if administrators felt it violated their religious doctrine (Sioux City [Iowa] Journal)
Controversy brews over Senate prayers | For some lawmakers, the state’s staggering budget deficit seemed to have taken a back seat recently to a brewing controversy over injecting the name of Jesus in the state Senate’s daily opening prayers (The Gazette, Frederick County, Md.)
U.S. Department of Justice appeals ruling on cross | In a move that will keep the Mojave Cross up for at least a few more months, the U.S. Department of Justice appealed the ruling that declared the cross unconstitutional because it is on government-owned land (San Bernardino County Sun)
S.C. high court: Jurors aren’t required to swear oath to God | The court ruled unanimously yesterday that Circuit Judge Marc Westbrook was wrong to dismiss a Lee County juror who said he couldn’t agree to the phrase “so help you God” when taking his oath (Associated Press)

Banned Bible club approved at Colorado school:

Boulder Valley School District clubs policy revamped | Decision helps clear way for recently rejected Bible club (The Boulder Daily Camera)
Also: Board OKs school Bible club | Monarch students force policy change in Boulder Valley (Denver Rocky Mountain News)
Also: District eases limits on school clubs (The Denver Post)

Discrimination:

Religion and jails | The Orange County Jail shouldn’t have rewarded inmates for religious attendance (Editorial, The Orlando Sentinel)
Veterans cemetery aide fired for invoking God | Patrick Cubbage insists that he was operating within the federal rules for honor guards and is challenging his dismissal (The Washington Times)

Persecution and religious freedom:

Turks edge toward faith freedom | Turkey gradually seems to adjust its religious freedoms to European norms as it tries to win acceptance into the European Union, a top Roman Catholic expert says (UPI)
Report: China detains underground priest | The Rev. Dong Yingmu, 37, was picked up in Baoding, a city in the central province of Hubei with a large underground church, said Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (Associated Press)
Zimbabwe police free bishop | Bishop Trevor Manhanga and four human rights activists were arrested when police armed with batons stormed into a meeting aimed at discussing the role of the church in Zimbabwe’s crisis (BBC)

Politics and law:

And on the 7th day, State Stores opened | Pennsylvania’s age-old blue laws, it seems, are finally fading away (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Faith can compromise presidency | Sociological studies on the nature of professional conduct in organizational settings suggest that leaders who rely on religious templates when making decisions are less likely to make good decisions than those who consult experienced authority (Paul R. Henggeler, Newsday)
Joe saves face | Lieberman abandons End Time Christians (Hartford Advocate)
Sharia law moves to Nigeria’s Christian south | Islamic sharia law is making inroads into the predominantly Christian south of Nigeria at a time when religion is expected to be a crucial issue in looming general elections (Independent, South Africa)

War with Iraq:

Bush team attempts to sell Iraq plan to religious foes | Important elements of the religious community remain unconvinced (The Wall Street Journal)
The pious & the war | We have absolutized “war” to the extent that it has become an abstraction of evil instead of an element in the analysis of justice (James V. Schall, S. J., National Review Online)
Mexican immigration authorities say five Iraqis detained in Tijuana are from Chaldean Christian group (Associated Press)

Sexual ethics:

Anglicans end talks over gay marriages | Sides had been trying to reconcile differences over being first diocese to bless unions (Vancouver Sun)
Gay marriages will ‘open door’ to polygamists, religious leader warns | Broader definition of marriage will open Pandora’s box, religious groups warn (The Ottawa Citizen)

Clergy sex abuse:

Canadian government, church to pay abuse victims | Presbyterians agree to payment Deal reached for residential schools (Toronto Star)
Boston priest reinstated following probe | A priest was cleared of sex abuse charges and reinstated to his duties after an investigation by the Boston Archdiocese determined an allegation he had raped a boy in the 1960s was unfounded (Associated Press)

Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism:

A cudgel called fundamentalism | If you really want to stick it to someone you disapprove of — say, President George W. Bush — then call him a fundamentalist (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)
Sizing up evangelicals | Fundamentalism persists but shows signs of moderation (Scientific American)

Christian growth:

Christianity remains dominant religion | Church of England welcomed the figures (The Times, London)
Unholy mystery of Norwich, the atheist capital of Britain | It has always been said of Norwich that there is a pub for every day of the year and a church for every week of the year. So the news that it is the least religious place in Britain was greeted with incredulity by locals, from the Bishop down (The Times, London)
Census proves the force of Christianity (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Quarter of Scots have no religious faith | The results of the 2001 census revealed a swing of some 8 percent away from organized religions (The Scotsman)

72 percent of people in England and Wales described themselves as Christian, 15 percent say they have no faith | First time U.K. census asked about religion (BBC, video)
Also: Census religion results (Sky News)

Missions and ministry:

Slowly, Africa rethinks a tradition | Some villages stop the practice of female genital mutilation as aid workers try persuasion, not coercion (The Christian Science Monitor)
Doan heading up Vietnam missionary work | Truc Doan, a South Vietnamese citizen who is spending a year studying at Concordia University, is also the head of the Lutheran Hour Ministries office, Voice of Hope, in Ho Chi Minh City, South Vietnam (Seward County (Neb.) Independent)

Prayer and spirituality:

Pupils try to keep 1662 Cranmer prayers alive | Fresh-faced “guerrillas” in a little-known religious war struck a blow for their cause yesterday – in a church in London (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Soul-searching survey: Gallup poll reveals trends in religion | Religious faith is broad but not deep, with many Americans holding strong beliefs but see little impact that religious faith has on individual lives and society (Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Interfaith relations:

Charles ‘must be defender of the faith’ | Not “defender of faith” (The Daily Telegraph, London)
‘Enemy of Islam’ is to be beatified | Marco d’Aviano is best remembered for his key role in the last Christian Crusade against Islam in the 17th century (The Times, London)

Marriages across faith, sect are on the increase | Yet problems arise when parents and family members become involved (The Daily Star, Beirut, Lebanon)

Church life:

Fired pastors ‘no longer a good fit’ | Irreconcilable differences between the ruling elders of Covenant Presbyterian Church and its pastor and assistant pastor led to their removal last month, the chief spokesman for the governing body of regional Presbyterian churches said Thursday (Scranton (Pa.) Times Tribune)
Judge cautions feuding congregants | Church members warned that they could wind up in jail on contempt of court charges if they “speak out of turn” at service. (The Birmingham News)

Crime:

Reverend Owusu Bempah refutes allegations | General Overseer of the Endtime Ministries International, a charismatic church, has refuted an allegation that he was part of a car stealing syndicate (Ghana News Agency)
Italian punched priest so he could deliver Mass | Officers managed to lift him from the pulpit and took him to the local police station (Ananova)

Other stories of interest:

Aiming that arrow | Valentine’s Day gets religion (Dave Shiflett, The Wall Street Journal)
When presidents talk of God | Can we please stop pretending that Bush’s regular invocations of the Almighty make him some sort of strange religious fanatic? (E. J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post)
Africans search for miracle AIDS cures | Each week T.B. Joshua “cures” several AIDS sufferers at his services (Reuters)

Thomas Nelson posts higher profit, to cut 30 jobs in realignment (Nashville Business Journal)

God bless Ted Turner | You might be surprised who bankrolled Gods & Generals, a film that centers on the role personal faith played in the Civil War. (Rod Dreher, National Review Online)
Religion news in brief | Clergy pay, N.T. Wright’s new position, Methodist belt-tightening, and other stories (Associated Press)