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* Starting off in Alabama via the New York Times…
Alabama doctors are puzzled over whether they will have to make changes to in vitro fertilization procedures. Couples have crammed into online support groups wondering if they should transfer frozen embryos out of state. And attorneys are warning that divorce settlements that call for frozen embryos to be destroyed may now be void.
Throughout Alabama, there is widespread shock, anger and confusion over how to proceed after the state Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are people, a potentially far-reaching decision that could upend women’s reproductive health care in a state that already has one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws. […]
Interviews with physicians and attorneys in Alabama, as well as advocates on both sides of the issue nationwide, paint a confusing path forward for IVF clinics trying to interpret the ramifications of the ruling. Although physicians hope the Alabama legislature will limit the impacts of the ruling, they warn that the most dire consequence of the ruling is that some Alabama IVF clinics may be forced to suspend their operations.
“Under the current Alabama ruling, patients nor physicians nor IVF labs are going to be willing to have frozen embryos,” said Mamie McLean, a physician at one of the state’s largest fertility clinics, Alabama Fertility Specialists. “So if we are faced with two potential embryos that need to be transferred, modern practice would say transfer one and freeze one. But under this ruling, it may not be safe to freeze embryos so we will be forced to transfer two embryos … which increases the lifelong health risks to both mothers and children.”
* Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ op-ed in the Tribune…
The new battlefield over abortion rights centers on the use of in vitro fertilization. It’s a battle that is highly personal for me and my wife, Erica.
Last summer, we became the parents of twin sons Max and Theo. For this blessed event to happen, we needed reproductive health care. Erica has endometriosis, a condition that makes it difficult to conceive a child naturally. It affects an estimated 11% of women in our country, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In vitro fertilization made it possible for Erica to conceive and for us to start a family.
Now Alabama, Florida and Missouri want to take away a woman’s right to use IVF to have a child, emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 disastrous Dobbs decision that took away the constitutional right to abortion.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the “personhood” debate took center stage, with Republicans attempting to define a fertilized egg or embryo as a legal human entity. During IVF, a doctor collects eggs from a woman, sperm is used to fertilize the eggs outside the body and one fertilized egg is implanted at a time.
For Erica, a doctor collected eggs during four rounds. Five days after fertilization, we had four embryos. After testing, only one of them was viable. “Personhood” laws would consider the unviable collections of cells people, and doctors or their patients would be considered to have committed a crime by disposing of them.
* Indiana…
After [the Indiana Attorney General’s office] consistently heard from student, parents, and teachers about objectionable curricula, policies, or programs affecting children, we launched the Eyes on Education portal.
Our kids need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks, not political ideology - either left or right.
Eyes on Education is a platform for students, parents, and educators to submit and view real examples from classrooms across the state.
The Office of the Attorney General will follow up on materials submitted to the portal that may violate Indiana law using our investigative tools, including public records requests, and publish findings on the portal as well.
To view examples or submit to the portal, select the school corporation and name of the school and upload your documents.
Upon submission, someone from our office may contact you for additional information or clarification.
Submissions to the portal will be reviewed and published regularly.
* Tennessee…
Last week, Tennessee state lawmakers passed HB 878, which states “a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage.”
In Tennessee, only certain people can “solemnize” the “rite of matrimony,” including state notary publics, government officials, and religious figures, according to state code. […]
Camilla Taylor, deputy legal director for litigation for Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy group, said that the law is an effort to “roll back recent progress by the LGBTQ community.”
“Tennessee House Bill 878 would be patently unconstitutional,” Taylor said in a statement to CNN. “Public officials don’t get to assume public office and then pick and choose which members of the public to serve.”
The governor signed the bill into law yesterday.
* Moving on to the Lone Star State…
Two dozen protesters gathered near a Texas superintendent’s home on Wednesday to support a Black teen who has been suspended for most of the school year over the length of his dreadlocks.
Hairstylists, children and activists filled a neighborhood entrance in Baytown, about 26 miles east of Houston, chanting “Justice for Darryl George” and carrying signs with hashtags like #DoesMyHairOffendYou and #MyHairIsNotAThreat.
They gathered near the home of Barbers Hill Independent School District Superintendent Greg Poole, one day before a judge is set to hear arguments to determine whether the district can continue to punish George for refusing to change his hairstyle. George and his family have refused to cut his hair, setting off a months long battle between the family and the school district. […]
Janaie Roberts, a loctician, set up a salon chair during the demonstration and styled protesters’ dreadlocks in a show of support. “I’m an advocate for natural hair. This is how we express ourselves, so it’s not fair for us to be held back,” she said. “Just like we have freedom of speech, we have the freedom to be ourselves.” […]
George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been in in-school suspension or at an off-site disciplinary program for most of the school year. His ordeal started in August, when school officials said that George’s hair, which he wears in neatly twisted dreadlocks away from his face and neck, violates a district dress code regulating the length of boys’ hair.
UPDATE Texas Judge rules in favor of the school district. NBC…
After just a few hours of testimony in Anahuac, state District Judge Chap Cain III ruled in favor of the school district, saying its ongoing discipline of George over the length of his hair is legal under the CROWN Act. For most of the school year, George has either served in-school suspension at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu or spent time at an off-site disciplinary program.
“We appreciate the court giving clarity to the meaning of the CROWN Act,” said Sara Leon, an attorney for the school district.
The school district did not offer any witnesses to testify before the ruling, instead only submitting evidence that included an affidavit from the district’s superintendent defending the dress code policy.
End of update.
Sen. Mike Simmons’ Jett Hawkins Law took effect in 2022. The law prevents school boards, public and charter schools from banning hairstyles historically associated with any race or ethnicity.
…Adding… From Sen. Simmons….
“It’s well past time for the state of Texas to let go of the past and respect Darryl George, a 17 year old Black youth who is wearing his hair authentically and doesn’t need harassment from school officials. That harassment is also now against Texas own laws under the new CROWN Act, so I hope the trial underway delivers justice to Darryl and millions of Texans of African descent and respects the intent of the CROWN Act. It’s time to turn the page in this dark and ugly chapter, just like we did in Illinois in 2021 when we passed the landmark Jett Hawkins Act.”
* More from Texas…
When disabled Texans used to visit abortion clinics, staffers would remember them. They may have needed in-clinic accommodations or American Sign Language Interpreters, and they appeared infrequently. Still, they came.
But more than a year since performing abortions became illegal in the state of Texas, disabled people have become a “missing population” at the clinics still providing abortions out of state, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion provider.
“We’re not seeing them traveling over the border,” Miller said. “They just represent a group of people that are falling through the cracks.”
Other than the internal statistics of some abortion providers, abortion fund groups that help pay for the procedure or its transportation costs, and advocacy groups, there’s no central data tracking how many disabled Texans have sought abortions.
* Texas…
This year 35 states will participate in a $2.5 billion federal nutrition program that will help low-income parents buy groceries for their children when free school meals are unavailable during the summer months.
But Texas, which has 3.8 million children eligible for the program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has opted not to join this national effort. If it had, qualifying families would have received $120 per child through a pre-loaded card for the three summer months. The USDA calculated that Texas is passing on a total of $450 million in federal tax dollars that would have gone to eligible families here.
The reason for the pass is simple, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. When the USDA notified HHSC officials of their new Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT program on Dec. 29, that gave the nation’s second largest state only six months to get it up and running and that’s not enough time, said Tiffany Young, a spokesperson for the state agency.
Although the summer program would involve two other agencies as well – the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Department of Agriculture – HHSC would have to bear the brunt of the work because they would have to coordinate and direct the distribution of the preloaded cards to qualifying families.
* Florida…
Newsmax has joined the legions of conservative media outlets and figures who have trashed a pair of Florida GOP bills that ostensibly aim to curb so-called “liberal media” by loosening the definition of defamation.
“Newsmax strongly opposes both bills and any proposed law that makes it easy to sue media companies,” Chris Ruddy, Newsmax’s CEO, said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Free speech and a free press are the most fundamental of our constitutional rights and must be zealously safeguarded.” (Newsmax maintains a headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, and Ruddy is a West Palm Beach native and a friend of former President Donald Trump.)
The bills—House Bill 757 and its Florida Senate companion, SB 1780—would lower the threshold for defamation in Florida, allowing public officials to sue journalists and media outlets if an anonymous source says something the official believes to be false. The bills passed out of a Florida House committee on Wednesday in a 14-7 vote, and it is next headed to a Florida House vote.
Whatever the right-wing legislative effort’s intentions, these conservative critics say, it would be an affront to the First Amendment and would ultimately harm right-of-center media.
* Utah…
The Utah State Board of Education could conduct a hearing on whether a school library book or other materials should be removed statewide under a compromise between state lawmakers that led to final passage of HB29 on Wednesday.
The House voted 52-18 to approve the compromise legislation.
A conference committee of Utah Senate and House of Representatives members agreed to language that gives the state school board the option of holding a hearing after three school districts or two school districts and five charter schools determine the materials are pornographic or indecent, which under HB29, triggers removal of the materials statewide.
The board could decide not to hold a hearing, which means the book or materials would be removed from collections statewide.
posted by Isabel Miller
Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 12:00 pm
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==a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage==
Do Republicans make it a goal in life to introduce legislation that promotes hate? If you are a government official you need to do your job. And if you can’t fulfill the responsibilities of your job then go find another job. I’m sick to death of people thinking they can hide behind religion on everything. Take your hateful attitudes somewhere else.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 12:26 pm
This ruling on embryos out of Alabama has got to be one of the most ridiculous rulings ever made. An embryo isn’t a “person.” This is more nonsense from anti-abortion nuts trying their best to completely insert themselves into the medical decisions of other people. What if an embryo doesn’t produce a successful baby and dies. Is that now murder? The anti- Roe v. Wade nuts didn’t really want the issue turned back to the states. They want to instill their radical views onto everyone because they think they know better than the actual person what medical decision is best from them.
Republicans sure like to talk about “rights” as long as it’s a right they agree with.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 12:29 pm
The delicious irony of Newsmax’s reaction to the Florida GOP bills developed to own the libs. “Wait, wait, don’t own them that much!”
Comment by The Truth Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 12:38 pm
All those folks who over the years have said here smugly that they are leaving the hellhole of Illinois for the greener pastures of Tennessee, Texas, or Florida, I’ll happily leave those places to you. And if you want to come back, I’ll expect only a little eating of crow. Thank goodness for my sane, blue Illinois.
Comment by Jibba Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 12:47 pm
The Alabama ruling should be a political earthquake. If abortion is a 65-35 issue nationally, IVF must be at least 85-15.
The national Democratic Party should be pressing this issue as a top messaging priority. They should also seriously assess the possibility of winning Alabama elections on a pro-IVF platform.
Comment by vern Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 1:03 pm
If an embryo is considered a person than does the “owners” get a child tax credit on them.. Just sayin..
Comment by just because Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 1:19 pm
Contrast that with JB Pritzker’s speech yesterday.
You might not agree with all of his budgeting, but it’s miles away from this lunacy.
Comment by Former Downstater Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 1:20 pm
An embryo is not a person… Well Demoralized, when does it become a person and why? When is a human life accorded the right to not be taken without penalty? At what point is it no longer ok to snuff out a life?
Comment by Captain Obvious Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 1:46 pm
“The national Democratic Party should be pressing this issue as a top messaging priority.”
Messaging and Democrats go together like Chicago Bears and winning. But agree, this messaging needs to be done. Also, the DPI/its allies/Pritzker need to really turn the tables and start campaigning for residents of regressive states to relocate to Illinois. There is already anecdotal evidence of people leaving those states to relocate in Illinois (reported via news media), because of their new laws.
Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 1:48 pm
==when does it become a person and why?==
24 weeks. An embryo can be frozen for 10+ years. In both cases, because science.
As far as life being ’snuffed out’…please explain how up to 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.
Comment by Jocko Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 2:01 pm
==At what point is it no longer ok to snuff out a life?==
As I understand the far right position on this, once you are born you are on your own. The “right to life” applies only to entities in the womb. (examples abound, from health care availability to how migrants are treated to indiscriminate killing of civilians in retaliation for an act of war/terrorism to the death penalty to “stand your ground”)
If you are serious about this question, I recommend this article, which offers a variety of timepoints. https://dnascience.plos.org/2013/10/03/when-does-a-human-life-begin-17-timepoints/
Comment by Pot calling kettle Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 2:08 pm
===…please explain how up to 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage.
Closer to 40-50% in the most recent research. We are literally talking about a blastocyst. If you believe that has a soul, good for you, but those of us who don’t think an undifferentiated set of cells is a human being shouldn’t be held to that particular religious view that is not in any way universal among Christians let alone other faiths.
Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 2:35 pm
does Utah law mean that I would have to go out of state to buy an assault rifle to protect my book collection
Comment by southern illinois Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 2:55 pm
=This is more nonsense from anti-abortion nuts trying their best to completely insert themselves into the medical decisions of other people. =
It’s instructive to remember these folks’ end goal, which is to eliminate birth control entirely and subjugate women to being baby factories
Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 3:17 pm
The Republican circular firing squad continues.
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 3:35 pm
Can our resident Superintendent here tell me why in the heck it is any of a school’s business to tell a student how they can and can’t wear their hair? How exactly is Darryl George’s hair impacting anything to do with learning? I’m not on the anti-school bandwagon by any means but there are time that I think schools way overstep their boundaries and this is one of those cases.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 3:39 pm
@Demoralized- to your question…it isn’t any of our business.
The ONLY caveat to this is if there is something dangerous about the hair like back when kids, like someone I know (me), used elmers glue to make giant very pointy spikes with their hair. I mean, they were like 8 inch hair spikes and I had to go shower or I couldn’t go to PE and my parents would have killed me. Totally extreme, and not what this case is.
If hair is your big worry in a school then you are doing it wrong.
=but there are time that I think schools way overstep their boundaries and this is one of those cases.=
Yep and it happens in schools every day. Just like there are bad businesses there are bad schools.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 3:55 pm
===I mean, they were like 8 inch hair spikes and I had to go shower or I couldn’t go to PE and my parents would have killed me. Totally extreme, and not what this case is.
I thought it was eggs that people used. Good to know.
All excellent points JS Mill and the notion the administration in Texas is using is that the service academies have rules for hair styles and last I checked the average public high school is not nor should it be run like the military (there are charters and magnets).
Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 4:06 pm
I had a “bowl” cut in school along with half of my friends. If only schools had been concerned then . . .
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 4:09 pm
Newsmax brings their level of accuracy to the Florida press legislation. Florida’s bill isn’t worth the electrons on the computer screen. Unless SCOTUS repeals NY Times v. Sullivan.
Comment by Anyone Remember Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 4:56 pm
To this day I am not sure how I convinced my Navy vet Dad to allow me to let my hair get down to my shoulders in 1983. It didn’t last.
Too many people in education don’t understand what hill they should die on. Using the service academies as a standard is not even creative and one of the dumbest reasons. It is high school and one in Texas. I mean how many adults there can pass the ASVAB? 25%?
Still, this is the exception and not the rule. At least around these parts.
Funny this came up today. We gave a senior that is going into the military and got a haircut yesterday, saw him this morning. He saw me with my jaw dropped. This is a very tall black student who had a spectacular afro going. I mean, I was genuinely jealous. When I lamented (to him) the loss of his hair, his response was “at least mine will grow back sir” (he said my name and not sir, but I wanted to sound a little trumpy). He laughed and headed to class. Funny kid.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 5:03 pm
I do volunteer sports photography for a local high school and one of our basketball players has very neat dreadlocks. He is a wonderful young man and his dreadlocks add nicely to his action photos on the court. So glad that the only time I spent in Texas was getting my doctorate!
Comment by former southerner Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 5:05 pm
This isn’t a very profound statement (given all the intellectuals on this board), but Texas blows. Period.
Comment by Yiddishcowboy Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 5:29 pm
== At what point is it no longer ok to snuff out a life? ==
I’m no biologist or unfrozen caveman lawyer but as a layperson just the fact that an embryo can be frozen and still useful in the future seems like proof it’s not “alive”.
Comment by harp5339 Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 6:01 pm
@Yiddishcowboy wins the day.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Feb 22, 24 @ 7:00 pm
—-He laughed and headed to class.
Love this
Comment by ArchPundit Friday, Feb 23, 24 @ 12:42 am