List of All Articles with Tag 'politics'

Louisiana Republicans have refused to add exceptions for rape and incest to one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country after the US Supreme Court revoked a constitutional right to abortion access. The state’s anti-abortion Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards opposed the exclusion, but he signed the state’s anti-abortion law last year despite pleas from abortion rights advocates to veto the measure. This year, state Rep Delisha Boyd introduced a bill that would amend the law to add exceptions for pregnancies from rape or incest, but lawmakers on a state House committee voted down the proposal, effectively killing it for the remainder of the legislative session. On 10 May, the committee struck down the bill after hearing testimony from rape survivors and abortion rights advocates who shared their experience and urged lawmakers to support survivors. Lawmakers voted 10-5 on party lines to keep exemptions from rape or incest out of Louisiana’s anti-abortion law. Lawmakers also heard from anti-abortion activists and John Raymond, a former Survivor contestant and pastor accused of taping students’ mouths shut and hanging another student by his ankles. Mr Raymond, who has pleaded not guilty to the allegations, told the committee that women will “clamor to put old boyfriends behind bars in order to dispense with the inconvenience of giving birth” if the state allows rape survivors to access abortion care. In this year’s legislative session, lawmakers are considering a package of bills aimed at loosening the state’s near-total ban on legal abortion care, but most of the proposals have been shelved. During the committee hearing, Ms Boyd revealed that she was born after her mother was sexually assaulted when she was 15 years old. “My mother never recovered,” she said. “No one looked after my mother. No one looked out for me.” Republican state Rep Tony Bacala said he opposed the legislation by pointing to Ms Boyd, who was born from rape, as a good person. In a statement, the governor said he was “deeply disappointed” by the vote. “The committee’s decision to prevent this important bill from being debated by the full House is both unfortunate and contrary to the position of a vast majority of Louisianans, who support these exceptions,” he added. “I simply do not understand how we as a state can tell any victim that she must be forced by law to carry her rapist’s baby to term, regardless of the impact on her own physical or mental health, the wishes of her parents, or the medical judgment of her physician,” said the anti-abortion Democratic governor, who signed the law that bans nearly all abortions, without exceptions, last year, despite pleas from abortion rights advocates to veto the bill. “As I have said before, rape and incest exceptions protect crime victims,” he added. Roughly 3 million women in the US have experienced rape-related pregnancy during their lifetime, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Louisiana also had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation, disproportionately impacting Black women, according to the state’s Department of Health. Louisiana is among more than a dozen states, mostly in the South, that have effectively outlawed or severely restricted access to abortion care in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last year to reverse the half-century precedent for abortion access affirmed by Roe v Wade. The state also is central to a closely watched case that could determine the future of a widely used abortion drug used in more than half of all abortions in the US. The legal case over the federal government’s approval of mifepristone will return to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on 17 May, the next step in one of the biggest abortion rights cases after the fall of Roe. The Supreme Court’s decision on 21 April maintains the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug after a federal judge in Texas struck it down in a ruling that would have profound and potentially dangerous consequences for millions of Americans if allowed to go into effect. A three-judge panel at the federal appeals court in Louisiana will hear arguments in the case next week. Read More Alabama Republicans would charge abortion patients with murder under proposed legislation A Texas man sued his ex-wife’s friends for allegedly helping her with an abortion. Now they’re suing him McConnell opposes Alabama Republican's blockade of military nominees over Pentagon abortion policy

Ohio voters will decide this summer whether to make it more difficult to change the state's constitution -- only months before a potential ballot measure in November over whether to guarantee abortion rights in the state. Ohio's Republican-controlled legislature this week approved a resolution that will ask voters in August to increase the threshold needed to change the constitution from a simple majority to 60%.

A Nebraska Republican lawmaker has introduced an amendment to ban some abortions nearly two weeks after efforts to severely restrict abortion failed in the state.

By Adam Makary and Dina Sakr CAIRO Since fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15, Khartoum resident

KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Fighting in Sudan's capital escalated on Wednesday with fierce clashes and air strikes, witnesses said, as delegations of

First lady Jill Biden is reportedly unsatisfied with the substance of President Joe Biden’s diet. According to a report from Alex Thompson at Axios, Ms Biden is urging the president to eat more vegetables and fish with his re-election campaign underway and a vast number of Americans concerned about his age and fitness to serve. Per Axios, Mr Biden is not thrilled about efforts to have him eat healthier. The president’s favourite foods are said to include peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, BLT’s, pizza, and spaghetti with butter and red sauce, as well as ice cream. Whether or not Mr Biden’s diet has any significant bearing on his fitness is difficult to determine. Mr Biden works out daily with a personal trainer, and his doctors have declared that he is in fine health. The extent to which a person’s diet determines their overall health is generally difficult to determine, with a host of other environmental and genetic factors contributing. But the attention being paid to Mr Biden’s diet comes as he embarks on what will be a gruelling re-election campaign that could be complicated by perceptions about his health. According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, two-thirds of Americans believe Mr Biden is too old to serve a second term. Just as importantly, Americans at this stage see former President Donald Trump — Mr Biden’s likely opponent — as mentally sharper. The irony is that Mr Trump, who is just four years younger than Mr Biden, also dealt with consternation over the makeup of his diet when he was president. Mr Trump, who once served a national championship-winning football team a meal of McDonalds products, reportedly so disliked vegetables that his staff resorted to sneaking them into his food. Mr Trump reportedly skipped meals with some frequency, but regularly enjoyed fast food spreads including hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken, and fried fish. There is one other dietary similarity between Mr Biden and Mr Trump: neither man drinks alcohol. Mr Biden reportedly enjoys orange Gatorade, while Mr Trump is reportedly fond of Diet Coke. Read More Trump doctor says staff hid cauliflower in president’s mashed potato in failed attempt to make him lose weight Crabcakes, ribs, banana splits for S. Korea state dinner

President Joe Biden will travel to Papua New Guinea during a trip to the Indo-Pacific region this month, the White House announced Tuesday, marking the first visit of a sitting US president to the Pacific country.

By Emma Farge GENEVA Aid workers say fighting between rival military factions in Sudan is pushing poorly-funded humanitarian

The New Orleans-based appeals court panel that will oversee the next stage in the blockbuster legal challenge to the availability of medication abortion drugs is made up of three Republican appointees, including one Trump nominee who has called abortion a "moral tragedy."