Liberals are trying to use the controversy over a state court decision about IVF to jam through expansive legislation with massive consequences. On Feb. 16‚ the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered persons under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. This bold‚ and yet legally limited‚ ruling sparked a national debate about the legal status of embryonic children. It also fueled unfounded attacks that Republican lawmakers‚ or anyone who does not voice opposition to the Alabama decision‚ wants to prohibit in vitro fertilization. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Still‚ this has not stopped Sen. Tammy Duckworth‚ D-Ill.; Sen. Patty Murray‚ D-Wash.; and Rep. Susan Wild‚ D-Pa.‚ from using this opportunity to paint their Access to Family Building Act as the political solution. But ignore the rhetoric: Far from merely protecting IVF‚ this act would establish a statutory right for any adult to access any assisted reproductive technologies to create a child. This would allow‚ for instance‚ a child abuser to use reproductive technologies to have a child. Duckworth announced that she will push Wednesday for a unanimous consent vote—which allows bills to be passed quickly‚ without going through the normal review process—while the Senate is in session. Her goal is to manipulate Republicans concerned with political optics into giving their support for a bill that would harm‚ not help‚ families struggling with infertility. But this bill would have significant repercussions. The act “pre-empt[s] any state effort to limit such access‚” including commonsense regulations. This means that Louisiana’s embryo protection act‚ Colorado’s ban on anonymous gamete donation‚ or Nebraska’s law that renders surrogacy-for-pay legally unenforceable would all be on the chopping block. Moreover‚ the act’s broad language would legalize embryo cloning and “designer babies” with CRISPR‚ a gene editing technology. Both options are unpopular with voters in the United States. If this was not bad enough‚ the act exempts itself from the bipartisan Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. This is the first time an act tries to sidestep RFRA. If passed‚ it would be detrimental to religious and pro-life organizations. Without religious freedom protections‚ the act could require that churches or pro-life clinics provide IVF health insurance coverage or access to reproductive technology in their facilities. It is one thing to support access to IVF. It is another thing to remove all legal and ethical regulations that govern the practice of IVF and reproductive technologies. Parents and their children should be protected from an unregulated and unaccountable fertility industry‚ not left vulnerable to its abuses. This is not the first time that Duckworth has tried to use unanimous consent to force an unpopular and legally problematic bill through the Senate. Last year‚ she tried this same move with the failed Right to Build Families Act. The idea that any adult—biologically related or not—has a fundamental right to build a child through assisted reproductive technologies was unpopular among Republicans and Democrats. Thankfully‚ Sen. Cindy Smith-Hyde‚ R-Miss.‚ blocked her request for unanimous consent and the act did not progress further. Although the Access to Family Building Act uses softer language‚ the intent is still the same: Any adult‚ including child abusers‚ would have the right to build a child through assisted reproductive technology. As for churches or other pro-life groups‚ they would be forced to provide the same access to employers or patients‚ even against their religious beliefs. Lawmakers should not feel pressured to go along with a bad faith move to require a unanimous consent vote on the Access to Family Building Act. This act removes all commonsense regulations from IVF and reproductive technologies and makes parents and their embryonic children vulnerable to careless treatment in the fertility industry. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.  The post IVF Legislation Would Open Door to Child Abusers Creating Kids appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A Democratic congresswoman from Pennsylvania has canceled her scheduled Saturday address to an Islamic organization‚ some of whose leaders celebrated Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 rape and slaughter of more than 1‚200 Israelis‚ after she received harsh‚ bipartisan criticism. Rep. Summer Lee‚ D-Pa.‚ announced her change of heart Tuesday on X‚ formerly known as Twitter‚ claiming that she hadn’t been aware of “speakers’ previous comments.” But this isn’t the first time Lee has engaged with the individuals connected to the Council on American-Islamic Relations‚ whose banquet she had been set to address. We should all take care to ensure that every community we serve is equally safe‚ seen‚ and valued. pic.twitter.com/uqGvVyXzxq— Summer Lee (@SummerForPA) February 27‚ 2024 CAIR invited Lee to address its Philadelphia chapter’s annual banquet after at least two of its officials donated to the freshman lawmaker’s campaign. Nihad Awad‚ one of her donors and the executive director of CAIR‚ said in a November speech that the rape and violent killings of Israelis at the hands of Hamas made him “happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land.”  Zahra Billoo‚ another donor and the executive director of CAIR for the San Francisco Bay Area‚ was removed from the board of the liberal Women’s March organization after making comments supporting Hamas’ rocket attacks and encouraging people to “pay attention” to “Zionist synagogues.” Two of Lee’s other donors‚ including the co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine and the executive director of American Muslims for Palestine have referred to Jews and Israelis as “organ-harvesters” and “parasites.” Students from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have introduced a petition that calls for Lee to return those donations. “We‚ the undersigned students of the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University‚ and community members‚ petition for the immediate return of campaign contributions received by your campaign from Hamas sympathizers and antisemites‚” the students wrote. They asserted that “accepting funds from such donors sends a message that you condone such actions and statements.”  Those living in Lee’s 12th Congressional District and in Pittsburgh are being encouraged to sign the petition before it’s delivered to Lee’s office “at the end of the week.” Democrats from Gov. Josh Shapiro to members of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives and state Senate had condemned Lee’s prior decision to address the banquet on Saturday. Bhavini Patel‚ one of two other women challenging Lee in the April 23 Democratic primary‚ called Lee’s planned address “appalling.”  “Summer Lee needs to cancel this appearance and apologize for agreeing to share a stage with them in the first place‚” Patel stated in a post on X. Summer Lee needs to cancel this appearance and apologize for agreeing to share a stage with them in the first place. This is appalling. https://t.co/u5ir2l86bH— Bhavini Patel (@PatelForPA) February 26‚ 2024 Pennsylvania Republicans also called out Lee’s speaking engagement plans. U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick called on Lee to resign over the scandal on Monday. Lee hasn’t responded to concerns that her actions and rhetoric might condone and encourage antisemitism‚ but does describe political opponents as antisemitic. Lee described House Majority Leader Steve Scalise‚ R-La.‚ as a “white supremacist antisemite” in October in response to his nomination at the time for House speaker. In December‚ Politico reported that Lee accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of “textbook racism” and described the organization as “an existential threat to the black community” in private Facebook posts. Lee had not responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by time of publication. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Democrat Congresswoman Cancels Speech to Islamic Group After Bipartisan Backlash appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Is America on the verge of establishing a theocracy? The Left’s recent warnings about the rise of “Christian nationalism” suggest that a powerful‚ conservative Christian cabal is pulling the strings behind the scenes to forcibly convert the entire nation‚ or something. In the past week‚ Politico’s Heidi Przybyla has been hammering the drum on this issue‚ first claiming—apparently without concrete evidence—that former Trump administration official Russell Vought has prioritized “Christian nationalism” by name in documents for a potential Trump second term‚ and then defining Christian nationalism as the doctrine that rights come from God‚ not government. “The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists—not Christians‚ by the way‚ because Christian nationalism’s very different—is that they believe that our rights as Americans‚ as all human beings‚ don’t come from any earthly authority‚ they don’t come from Congress‚ they don’t come from the Supreme Court‚ they come from God‚” Przybyla said in an appearance on MSNBC. She also complained that “it’s men” determining “what God is telling them.” Although Przybyla admitted that “so-called natural law” has done some good in the civil rights movement‚ she went on to warn against “an extremist element of conservative Christians who say that this applies specifically to issues including abortion‚ gay marriage‚” and in vitro fertilization. She later noted that conservatives are applying natural law to surrogacy and “sex education in schools” as well. ?"Christian Nationalism" isn't the real threat to the free exercise of religion in America today. The real threat is the sexual revolution ideology imposed on the people by government force‚ and Heidi Przybyla can't stand the idea of that establishment being challenged. pic.twitter.com/3UBwHgO0Gc— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 27‚ 2024 Shortly after Przybyla’s article about Vought‚ radical leftists have widely echoed her rhetoric and suggested that America’s future may resemble a dystopian “Handmaid’s Tale.” What’s really going on here? First‚ Przybyla’s fearmongering has nothing to do with reality. According to her definition of “Christian nationalism‚” the Declaration of Independence is a Christian nationalist document. Not only does the declaration ground Americans’ ability to declare independence from Britain in “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God‚” but it explicitly roots the “unalienable Rights” of “Life‚ Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” in an endowment from the “Creator.” It addresses its appeal “to the Supreme Judge of the world‚” with “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.” That’s not exactly subtle. Przybyla’s real problem with “Christian nationalists” isn’t the whole rights-derive-from-God thing. It’s the content of those rights and the mere whiff of a possibility that the government won’t impose her preferences for what those rights should mean. America isn’t on the verge of a Christian nationalist theocracy‚ you see. No one is seriously arguing that we should throw out the Constitution and replace it with the Bible‚ or that we should make citizens‚ candidates for office‚ or government officials recite the Nicene Creed before they may enjoy legal rights. What conservatives are seriously arguing‚ however‚ is that some rights of the sexual revolution should be curtailed in the interests of more fundamental rights. Przybyla unwittingly revealed her cards when she addressed the issues she thinks should be off-limits for these “extremist Christian nationalists.” The heart of her complaint isn’t some quibble with the Fourth Lateran Council but with the very idea that natural law should apply to abortion‚ same-sex marriage‚ surrogacy‚ in vitro fertilization‚ and sex education in schools. You see‚ Christian nationalism isn’t the real threat to the free exercise of religion in America today. The real threat is the ideology of the sexual revolution imposed on the people by government force‚ and Przybyla can’t stand the idea of that establishment being challenged. That’s why the Left has a conniption when the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and allows the states to make their own laws on abortion. According to Catholic Vote‚ vandals attacked at least 88 pregnancy centers and pro-life groups after the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in that ruling‚ and they also attacked 236 Catholic churches since the leak. The Biden administration moved to aggressively support abortion‚ even though President Joe Biden himself had been a staunch defender of the Hyde Amendment‚ which previously barred federal funds from supporting the killing of the unborn. A Department of Justice official even said the overturning of Roe increased the “urgency” of DOJ efforts to enforce a law disproportionately applied against pro-life protesters at abortion facilities. The Left demonized all the conservative justices on the Supreme Court after the ruling‚ with ProPublica launching an inquisition into Justice Clarence Thomas. The Left isn’t objecting to the Right’s imposing its worldview on Americans by force—it’s objecting to the Right’s finally getting a say on issues springing from the sexual revolution. We’re not witnessing the rise of Christian nationalism‚ but the weakening of an anti-Christian establishment. Other news items should make it clear what’s actually happening in America today. Last week‚ the Supreme Court refused to take up a case in which a person who holds traditional views on sexual morality is considered “presumptively unfit to serve on a jury in a case involving a party who is lesbian.” As Justice Samuel Alito noted‚ this case exemplifies a danger he warned about when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)‚ “that Americans who do not hide their adherence to traditional religious beliefs about homosexual conduct will be ‘labeled as bigots and treated as such’ by the government.” Oregon’s Department of Human Services treated a widowed mother of five children in this way when it denied her the right to adopt a pair of siblings from foster care. Why? Because she disagrees with Oregon’s state religion‚ the religion of LGBTQ identity. The Biden administration is also considering a rule to bar “non-affirming” parents from foster care. People who dare to dissent from the idea that a male can become female just by saying so have no business raising children in Biden’s America‚ it seems. As for sex education in schools‚ parental rights groups such as Moms for Liberty are reacting to the Left’s extreme overreach in education. They’re not “banning books‚” they’re calling for sexually explicit materials to be removed from school libraries. Many of these groups exist because parents got a sense of what their kids were “learning” in school when the kids “attended class” via Zoom during the pandemic—and leftist indoctrination in racial lessons and transgender identity rightly shocked moms and dads. This isn’t some exclusively Christian movement‚ either. Muslims‚ Jews‚ Buddhists‚ atheists‚ and others have joined Christians of every denomination in supporting parental rights to opt their kids out of having to read sexually explicit books. I’ve reported exhaustively on the Southern Poverty Law Center because I see that organization as the tip of the spear in the Left’s efforts to demonize any dissent from its agenda‚ and its ties to the Biden administration horrify me. The SPLC brands mainstream conservative Christian organizations as “hate groups” in an effort to raise money and to demonize its opponents into silence. It represents the institutionalization of the effort against “Christian nationalism.” Many Americans think the Civil War was about slavery‚ and they’re not entirely wrong. Abraham Lincoln didn’t actually oppose slavery when he ran for president in 1860‚ though. He ran against the expansion of slavery into the federal territories. You see‚ the Southern Democrats had such a stranglehold on the federal government that they couldn’t imagine needing to compromise. They had also begun to think of slavery as a positive good‚ not the “necessary evil” the Founders called it. Southern Democrats couldn’t live with losing the ability to force their ideology on the rest of the country‚ and that ambition became their undoing. “Christian nationalism” is the modern equivalent of Southern Democrats’ demonizing Lincoln‚ kicking and screaming as they lose the ability to foist their beliefs on the rest of the country. If history is any guide‚ this trend does not bode well for the Left—or America’s civil tranquility. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.  The post What Is the ‘Christian Nationalism’ Fearmongering Really About? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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A California man says he's not a hero but was simply protecting his neighborhood after video showed him wrestling a burglar to the ground to wait for police to arrive. Paul Markham‚ a resident of Venice‚ told KABC-TV that the burglary suspect actually jumped into his arms while trying to leave the Dudley Market seafood restaurant a second time during the burglary. "Jumped back out the window‚ like‚ right into my arms‚" he said‚ "So‚ a little wrestling match ended over there. I locked them up‚ sat on top of them for like 20‚ 25 minutes." Video obtained by KABC showed the suspect walking away from the business with what appears to be a cash register under the suspect's arm. Markham says the suspect returned to the business and was trying to steal money from their tip jar. When the suspect tried to leave through the window‚ the suspect ended up in Markham's arms. He held the suspect down until police arrived and the owner of the business came out to help him as well. Video of the altercation recorded the suspect begging to be let go. Police said the burglary suspect identified as a transgender person. The burglary was one of seven incidents that the Los Angeles Police Department said occurred on the same night around the same area. They were able to arrest two other suspects in those burglaries and are actively investigating whether they are connected. Markham told KABC that he was not a hero and not a good Samaritan but that he was simply defending his neighborhood. "It's my neighborhood‚ man. That's it. There's no Good Samaritan‚ there's no hero‚" he added. "I live here. This is my neighborhood." He said he was left with scratches to his hands and arms from the altercation. Venice is world-renowned as a popular southern California destination‚ but residents have reported skyrocketing crime and violence owing to the deepening homeless crisis. Residents of the city made headlines when they complained that local authorities removed homeless encampments only when socialist independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont visited for a campaign stop. The average cost of a home in Venice is about $1.9 million‚ down from a high of $2.2 million in 2023‚ according to Redfin. Here's the interview with Markham: Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors‚ sign up for our newsletters‚ and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Japanese crime boss Takeshi Ebisawa is accused of attempting to traffic nuclear materials. If found guilty‚ he could face life in prison. The post U.S. Charges Yakuza Boss With Trafficking Nuclear Materials appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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Although Dick Turpin's exploits were later romanticized in plays and serial fiction‚ in reality‚ he was a ruthless criminal who terrorized England in the early 18th century. The post The True Story Of Dick Turpin‚ The Brash Highwayman Who Became An English Folk Hero appeared first on All That's Interesting.