In states where abortion is banned, children and families already face an uphill battle

Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

THE CONVERSATION
Thu, September 15, 2022 

Of the 10 most child-friendly states, only one has attempted to ban abortion.

  Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Some proponents of abortion bans and restrictions say they are concerned about “supporting not just life,” but what they call “quality of life worth living,” saying they want to promote laws and policies that help families. Three authors from Brigham Young University, for instance, have noted that the overturning of Roe v. Wade provides a “genuine opportunity for pro-lifers to work with people of diverse political persuasions to seek a more just and compassionate world. This world would be not only pro-life, but also pro-child, pro-parent and pro-family.”

U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is one of three Republicans in the Senate who have sponsored a bill called the Family Security Act, billed as a “pro-family, pro-life and pro-marriage plan” that would provide a monthly cash benefit starting at pregnancy and continuing through the child turning 17.

But so far, these are minority voices in the anti-abortion movement.

As a law professor who studies reproductive care, policies that affect families and political partisanship, I have been following the relationship between abortion restrictions and family well-being for decades. It turns out that states taking the strictest stands against abortion tend to have among the worst statistics on child and family well-being in the nation.

Unintended pregnancy and infant mortality

Take Mississippi, the state that enacted the abortion restriction law that was at the center of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down federal protection for the right to get an abortion.

In 2019, Mississippi had the highest rate of unintended pregnancy, defined as the percentage of women who recently gave birth but whose pregnancies were either unwanted or happened at an unwanted time. In Mississippi, 47% of women who recently had a child did not want to become pregnant or wanted to become pregnant later in life.

By contrast, Vermont had the nation’s lowest rate of unintended pregnancy in 2019, with just 20% of women who recently had a child saying they would have preferred not to get pregnant or wanted to do so at some point in the future. That state already protects abortion rights. If Vermont’s upcoming referendum on abortion passes, the state’s constitution will protect “an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy.”

Mississippi also has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. Five of the other nine states with the highest infant mortality also have abortion bans. At the other end of the spectrum, of the 10 states with the lowest infant mortality rates, only one – Iowa – has a law restricting abortions, although a court has prevented its enforcement.

Childhood poverty and teen birth rates

Mississippi has the highest rate of child poverty in the country. Six of the other 10 states with the country’s highest child poverty levels also have abortion bans in effect: Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Mississippi also had the highest teen birth rate in the country, and eight of the other nine states with the highest teen birth rates also ban abortions or have a ban blocked.

In all 10 states with the lowest teen birth rates, abortion is legal and likely to be protected for the foreseeable future.

A pregnant activist calls for abortion rights in Chicago on June 25, 2022. 

Vincent D. Johnson/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Supporting families

The well-being of children also depends on the availability of support for their parents.

For instance, 11 states plus the District of Columbia legally require employers to offer workers paid time off after the birth or adoption of a child. None of those jurisdictions bans abortions.

Another federal effort to support families came in the Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010, with sweeping changes to the nation’s health insurance marketplace. One provision allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility to more adults, with financial support from the federal government. If Medicaid were expanded, reproductive-aged women would be among the groups to experience the largest coverage gains.

As of August 2022, 12 states had not adopted the expansion: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Eight of those states have either a full ban on abortion or a ban after six weeks – before many people realize they are pregnant.

Two of those states, South Carolina and Wyoming, have abortion laws that are tied up in the courts, and Florida bans abortions after 15 weeks.

In a June 2022 Brookings Institution study of the states that are considered most child-friendly – measured by state expenditures per child and children’s overall well-being – the authors found that among the top 10, only Wyoming was even trying to ban abortion. For the 10 states Brookings rated least child-friendly, nine either had a trigger ban or other abortion restriction.

The overall pattern is clear: A strong social safety net and other anti-poverty programs are more likely to be available in states that also support abortion access, while actual measures of child and family well-being are often worse in states that restrict abortions.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia.

Read more:

When abortion at a clinic is not available, 1 in 3 pregnant people say they will do something on their own to end the pregnancy

Kansas vote for abortion rights highlights disconnect between majority opinion on abortion laws and restrictive state laws being passed after Supreme Court decision

Law will punish doctors for saving
women's lives via abortion | Opinion

Chloe Akers
Thu, September 15, 2022
Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel

The Tennessee trigger ban on abortion makes it a crime to terminate a pregnancy for any reason. There are no exceptions to the law − not for rape, incest or even in cases where the life of the mother is in danger. Instead, the law contains only a narrow affirmative defense.

As United States District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill recently explained, “An affirmative defense is an excuse, not an exception. The difference is not academic. The affirmative defense admits that the physician committed a crime but asserts that the crime was justified and is therefore legally blameless. And it can only be raised after the physician has already faced indictment, arrest, pretrial detention, and trial for every abortion they perform.”

As it stands, physicians in Tennessee now face the possibility of prosecution every time they perform an abortion. And while the law does offer a narrow affirmative defense, this defense is available only if proven to a jury after arrest, during an expensive and burdensome trial.

Contrary to a recent suggestion by Stacy Dunn, president of Tennessee Right to Life, the impact of this law has nothing to do with its actual prosecution. Instead, the impact of this law, like all laws for that matter, turns on the possibility of prosecution.

Demonstrators hold signs and chant together in support of abortion rights as they march along Gay St. in downtown Knoxville during the Bans Off Our Bodies March on Tuesday, July 5, 2022.

It is simply the possibility of being arrested and going to prison that keeps folks from committing crimes. The threat alone is enough. The law recognizes this as the principle of general deterrence, a concept built around the idea that criminal conduct can be prevented through fear of retribution, i.e., prison sentences. To the extent fear is quite a strong motivator, it tends to work.

Of course, the concern here is that the criminal conduct deterred by this law is not something like robbing a bank or driving drunk – instead, it’s a medical procedure sometimes necessary to treat complications of pregnancy and keep women alive. The result is that we now live in a state where the mere existence of this law puts doctors in fear of performing this procedure, regardless of the circumstances, because terminating a pregnancy is now a Class C felony, a crime that carries up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

It is also worth noting that enforcing this law, while not necessary to achieve its deterrent effect, is not a choice to be made by what Dunn refers to as “rogue prosecutors.” In Tennessee, all district attorneys have a legal duty to prosecute all violations of the state criminal statutes. In fact, earlier this summer when asked about district attorneys who would not enforce the trigger law or make it a low priority, Will Brewer, legal counsel for Tennessee Right to Life, responded, “in order to effectively do their jobs they need to make sure these laws are prosecuted to the fullest extent.”

The bottom line is this: The law Dunn’s organization worked so diligently to create, a law ironically referred to as the Human Life Protection Act, criminalizes a medical procedure without exception. Sometimes this medical procedure is necessary to save a mother’s life. While the law does not need to be enforced to be feared, enforcement is not only required, but even endorsed by Dunn’s own legal counsel.

This law does not protect life. This law threatens life.

I just hope we can change it before it actually takes a life.

Chloe Akers is a Knoxville-based criminal defense attorney in private practice.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Opinion: Law will punish doctors for saving women's lives via abortion

THE GOP WAR ON WOMENS BODILY AUTONOMY
There Are Plenty Of Reasons To Take Lindsey Graham’s Abortion Bill Seriously

Jonathan Cohn
Wed, September 14, 2022

Republican leaders in the Senate really don’t want voters paying attention to the abortion bill their colleague Lindsey Graham (S.C.) introduced Tuesday.

The bill would establish a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with a limited set of exceptions for rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother. The ban would supersede existing state laws that allow more access to abortion, but ― critically ― not those that allow less.

To put it another way: California wouldn’t get to set its own abortion policy, but Texas would. As HuffPost’s Igor Bobic has noted, this is not what Graham suggested should happen after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“I’ve been consistent,” Graham told CNN in August. “I think states should decide ... the issue of abortion.”

Graham presented the bill as a blueprint that Republicans could use for legislation if they get control of Congress in the midterms. And perhaps he thought he’d get his colleagues to rally behind it, given that his last attempt at abortion legislation, a 20-week ban he proposed in early 2021, had support from nearly the entire caucus.

But Graham got a very different response this time.

“Most of the members in my conference prefer this be dealt with at the state level,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said at his weekly press conference.

“That wasn’t a conference decision,” Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), a former Senate GOP whip, told Politico. “It was an individual senator’s decision.”

Republican leaders in the Senate haven’t seemed this eager to distance themselves from a colleague since the spring, when Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) unveiled a governing agenda that included cuts to Medicare and Social Security. The logic now is almost certainly the same as it was then: GOP leaders think Graham’s bill is a distraction at best, political poison at worst.

And they are probably right. The signs of a major Dobbs backlash are everywhere, from fundraising numbers to polls to the results of special elections. Republicans would much rather be talking about the economy ― especially this week, when a new monthly report on prices documented persistent inflation.

But there are plenty of reasons to take Graham’s bill seriously, as an indicator of what Republicans would like to do ― and a sign of what they might do if they get enough political power.

Here are a few of those reasons:

1. Graham’s bill would introduce a new, scientifically arbitrary timeline for abortion restrictions.

Graham describes his bill as a ban on “late-term” abortion. That term doesn’t come from science. It comes from abortion’s political opponents, who have typically used it to describe abortions at or (usually) beyond 20 weeks, as HuffPost’s Lydia O’Connor noted Wednesday.

Fifteen weeks of pregnancy, on the other hand, is just a few weeks into the second trimester ― well before tests can pick up many of the most serious fetal anomalies. And at 15 weeks, some women don’t even realize they’re pregnant, especially if they’re young or have poor access to medical care.

2. The limits in Graham’s bill are more extreme than his descriptions suggest.

Graham claims the bill would simply put American abortion laws on par with the laws in European countries, many of which have their own prohibitions. But this argument, a favorite of conservatives, is deeply misleading, for reasons that Adam Serwer laid out plainly in The Atlantic earlier this year.

The laws vary considerably from country to country. To the extent that restrictions exist, they typically have loosely written exceptions, including for the mental health of the mother, that make it possible to get abortions later in a pregnancy.

The exceptions in Graham’s bill, by contrast, include only rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother, and even those come with what looks like a big asterisk. Abortion rights advocates say the exceptions would be challenging to invoke because they come with strict deadlines and documentation requirements.

“When it comes to rape and incest exceptions, the substantial red tape that comes with reporting and proving an assault, along with the trauma and stigma associated with sexual violence, makes the exceptions largely unusable,” Elizabeth Nash, the principal policy associate for state issues at the Guttmacher Institute, told HuffPost.

3. Prohibiting abortion at all stages has long been a GOP goal ― and it still is.

McConnell and Cornyn had a lot to say about whether Graham’s bill is the caucus position and whether, ultimately, abortion rights should be an issue for the federal government or individual states. But neither disavowed Graham’s substantive position about when abortion should be legal.

And why would they? The party’s official position is that life begins at conception, that abortion is murder and that the law should treat it as such. It’s been that way for nearly 50 years and it was that way in 2016, which is the last time the GOP had an official platform. (Republicans didn’t formally approve a platform in 2020.)

Here’s what that 2016 platform said, just as a reminder: “We assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.”

4. Abortion matters to a base that leaders can’t simply ignore.

Evangelicals are arguably the single most important voting bloc inside the Republican Party. They also exert outside influence because they vote in high numbers, with extra influence in Iowa and South Carolina ― two states that play early, critical roles in determining the GOP presidential nominee. And if the polling is correct, evangelicals overwhelmingly support near-total or total bans on abortion.

In theory, leaders like McConnell have the power to set the party’s legislative priorities ― and, in so doing, to keep a bill like Graham’s from getting a vote should the GOP get control of Congress. But if those leaders had (or were willing to use) that kind of power in order to keep abortion rights off the agenda, Graham would never have made his announcement in the first place.

And remember: It’s not as if a 15-week ban is the endgame for Republicans and conservatives who focus on abortion. They see it as a compromise on their eventual goal of prohibiting the procedure at all stages of pregnancy. They’ve spent decades fighting for the chance to get these laws on the books, and thanks to the Supreme Court, they finally can. It’s hard to imagine they’re going to back off now.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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THE CHRISTIAN WAR ON WOMENS BODILY AUTONOMY

Hungarian doctors, opposition protest 'cruel' change in abortion rules


Hungarian PM Orban takes the oath of office in the Parliament in Budapest

Wed, September 14, 2022 

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian doctors and some opposition parties protested on Wednesday against a pending change in abortion rules that will require pregnant women to prove they had seen a definitive sign of life from the foetus before requesting the procedure.

Re-elected in April, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces his toughest term in power since a 2010 landslide with the forint skirting all-time lows, energy costs surging and European Union funds in limbo amid a row over democratic standards.

Orban, whose Fidesz party has amended the definition of family in the constitution to allow an effective ban on adoption by same-sex couples, is also locked in a legal battle with the EU executive over a law curtailing LGBTQ+ rights.

Interior Minister Sandor Pinter submitted an amendment to abortion rules this week requiring pregnant women to submit evidence from their healthcare provider of a definitive sign of life, widely interpreted as hearing the heartbeat of the foetus.

The changes were brought about by government decree and are set to take effect on Thursday.

The Hungarian Medical Chamber said the largely procedural changes did not go against its ethical code founded on the protection of life.

However, it said Orban's government should have launched a social dialogue before implementing them, a practice often criticised by various parts of society and business groups facing similar abrupt changes in key legislation.

The opposition Jobbik party welcomed what it called a pro-life slant of the changes, but also criticised the lack of consultation before the proposal was pushed ahead.

The liberal opposition Parbeszed party said the changes were unacceptable and urged the interior minister to withdraw the decree.

"This amendment not only restricts the right of pregnant women to terminate their pregnancies, but it creates an extremely onerous and unnecessarily cruel situation for all involved as well as doctors," it said in a statement.

Some political analysts said the move could be aimed at clipping the wings of the far-right Our Homeland party, which was elected into parliament in April and originally campaigned for the changes.

"This could be a good tool to mobilise more conservative voters or to prevent excessive gains for Our Homeland to the detriment of Fidesz," said political analyst Attila Tibor Nagy.

Women's rights group Patent has called a rally against the changes for late September.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves and Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

IT'S A FASCIST REGIME
European Parliament says Hungary is no longer a 'full democracy'


Issued on: 15/09/2022 - 

Hungary is no longer a "full democracy" and the EU needs to do everything to bring it back into line with European values, the European Parliament said Thursday.

MEPs voted 433 in favour, 123 against, to now describe Hungary -- ruled by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who maintains close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- "a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy" in "serious breach" of EU democratic norms.

The vote was largely symbolic and does not change the course of EU decision making, which requires unanimity of all 27 member states -- including Hungary -- to adopt major issues, such as sanctions on Russia.

With their vote, the EU lawmakers roundly adopted a parliamentary report that said Hungary has been backsliding on democratic and fundamental rights since 2018 through the "deliberate and systematic efforts of the Hungarian government".

The report said lack of action by EU institutions, including the commission which is tasked as "guardian" of the EU treaties enshrining democratic standards, had exacerbated the degradation.

While EU countries are treading a careful line around Hungary because of the need to win its assent on major decisions, diplomats privately are frustrated with Orban's cosy relationship with the Kremlin and his blocking of further sanctions on Moscow.

The commission has likewise been careful to avoid overt criticism, but unease over Hungary's swerve away from rule of law, particularly in failing to curb corruption, is becoming more evident.

Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday, in her State of the European Union address to the European Parliament, that the EU "must fight for our democracies".

She said her EU executive would work to protect the member states "from the external threats they face, and from the vices that corrode them from within," notably calling out corruption although not naming Hungary directly.

She pledged legislative action to step up the fight against corruption, including against "illicit enrichment, trafficking in influence and abuse of power".

Her EU justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, told MEPs in a debate on rule of law breaches in Hungary that the commission "shares a large number of concerns expressed by the European Parliament" regarding Budapest.

The European Parliament in 2018 launched a procedure against the risk Hungary posed to European democratic values.

In theory, the mechanism can lead to Hungary losing its right to vote in the Council of the EU, where member states adopt decisions affecting the bloc.

(AFP)

European Parliament says Hungary no longer a democracy, but ‘electoral autocracy’

Thu, September 15, 2022 

Viktor Orban

Read also: Ukraine irked by Hungary’s continued friendliness with Russia

Parliament condemned "the deliberate and systematic efforts of the Hungarian government to undermine European values". Members of the European Parliament voted for a document that recognizes that Hungary can no longer be considered a democracy. This decision was supported by 433 votes. Another 123 MEPs voted against the declaration, and 28 abstained.

The statement said that the lack of decisive action by the EU contributed to the emergence of a "hybrid regime of electoral autocracy" in Hungary. MEPs specify that elections are taking place in this country, but there is no respect for democratic norms and standards.

Read also: Foreign Minister Kuleba criticizes Hungary’s stance regarding Ukraine

“The conclusions of this report are clear and irrevocable: Hungary is not a democracy. It was more important than ever for Parliament to take this position, given the alarming pace of backsliding on the rule of law in Hungary,” said Parliamentary Rapporteur on the situation in Hungary, Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield.

MEPs call on the European Commission to make full use of all the tools at its disposal and, in particular, the regulation of funding for Hungary.

Read also: Ukraine demands that Hungary urgently correct anti-Ukrainian content in school textbook

Earlier media reported that the European Commission intends to recommend cutting the funding to the Hungarian government amid fears of large-scale corruption in the country.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine

EU lawmakers raise pressure to cut funds for Hungary over graft woes


The European Parliament in session, in Strasbourg, France

Thu, September 15, 2022
By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A large majority of European Union lawmakers voted on Thursday to condemn damage to democracy in Hungary under veteran Prime Minister Viktor Orban, stepping up pressure on the bloc to cut funding for the ex-communist country.

Citing corruption risks, the European Commission is expected to recommend later this week suspending billions earmarked for Budapest from the bloc's 1.1 trillion euro ($1.1 trillion) shared budget for 2021-27.

That would be the first such EU move under its new financial sanction dubbed "cash for democracy" and agreed two years ago precisely in response to Orban, as well as his allies in Poland, rowing back on liberal democratic tenets inside the bloc.

On Thursday, the European Parliament voted 433 in favour and 123 against to adopt a report declaring the "existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values on which the (European) Union is founded".

"The situation has deteriorated such that Hungary has become an 'electoral autocracy'" rather than a democracy, the chamber said in a statement.

In response, Orban's ruling Fidesz party said the EU parliament was more interested in bashing Hungary than tackling an economic crisis caused by surging energy costs aggravated by by Russia's war in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow.

"It is astounding that even in the current crisis the leftist majority of the European Parliament keeps busy only with attacking Hungary," Fidesz said in a statement.

"The left in Brussels wants to punish Hungary over and over again and withhold the funds due for our country."

Orban has been locked for years in acrimonious feuds with the EU, which Hungary joined in 2004, over the rights of migrants, gays and women, as well as the independence of the judiciary, media and academia.

The self-styled illiberal crusader denies, however, that Hungary is any more corrupt than other nations in the 27-nation bloc.

The European Commission has already blocked some 6 billion euros due for Budapest from the bloc's separate COVID economic stimulus package, citing insufficient anti-graft safeguards in Hungary's public procurement.

Funds worth as much as a tenth of Hungary's GDP could be at stake should other EU members approve the expected recommendation by the Commission, a prospect that has weighed on the Hungarian forint, central Europe's worst-performing currency.

Budapest has come under pressure in recent weeks to strike a deal with Brussels and unlock funding for Hungary's ailing economy, and Orban's government has promised to create a new anti-graft agency.

Member countries have three months to decide on the Commission's recommendation and they could limit the punishment if they found Budapest's actions in the meantime convincing.

($1 = 1.0021 euros)

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Additional reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Mark Heinricb and Tomasz Janowski)

HOMOPHOBIC KULTURKAMPF

Montana defies order on transgender birth certificates

By MATTHEW BROWN and AMY BETH HANSON

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Montana District Judge Michael Moses gestures during a court hearing over a state health department rule that prevents transgender people from changing their birth certificates, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, in Billings, Mont. Moses struck down the rule at the conclusion of the hearing. (AP Photos/Matthew Brown)


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Just hours after a Montana judge blocked health officials from enforcing a state rule that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate, the state on Thursday said it would defy the order.

District Court Judge Michael Moses chided attorneys for the state during a hearing in Billings for circumventing his April order that temporarily blocked a 2021 Montana law that made it harder to change birth certificates.

Moses said there was no question that state officials violated his earlier order by creating the new rule. Moses said his order reinstates a 2017 Department of Public Health and Human Services rule that allowed people to update the gender on their birth certificate by filing an affidavit with the department.

However, the state said it would disregard the ruling.

“The Department thoroughly evaluated the judge’s vague April 2022 decision and crafted our final rule to be consistent with the decision. It’s unfortunate that the judge’s ruling today does not square with his vague April decision. The 2022 final rule that the Department issued on September 9 remains in effect, and we are carefully considering next steps,” said Charlie Brereton, director of the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

ACLU attorney Malita Picasso expressed dismay with the agency’s stance and said officials should immediately start processing requests for birth certificate changes.

“It’s shocking that after this morning’s hearing the department would allege there was any lack of clarity in the court’s ruling from the bench,” Picasso said. “It was very clear that Judge Moses expressly required a reversion to the 2017 policy, and anything short of that is a continued flagrant violation of the court’s order.”

Such open defiance of judge’s order is very unusual from a government agency, said Carl Tobias, a former University of Montana Law School professor now at the University of Richmond. When officials disagree with a ruling, the typical response is to appeal to a higher court, he said.

“Appeal is what you contemplate — not that you can nullify a judge’s orders. Otherwise, people just wouldn’t obey the law,” Tobias said. “The system can’t work that way.”′

The move could leave state officials open to contempt of court charges, which in some cases can lead to jail time for offenders, Tobias said. He added that the attorneys representing the state were likely aware of the potential consequences but were “caught in the middle” between a recalcitrant agency and the judge.

The legal dispute comes as conservative lawmakers in numerous states have sought to restrict transgender rights, including with bans on transgender girls competing in girls school sports.

The Montana law said people had to have a “surgical procedure” before they could change the sex listed on their birth certificate, something Moses found to be unconstitutional because it did not specify what type of procedure was required.

Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration then created a new rule that blocked changes to birth certificates entirely, unless there was a clerical error.

“We knew from the beginning the Gianforte administration was going against the will of Montanans and the court’s orders,” said Shawn Reagor, director of equality and economic justice with the Montana Human Rights Network and a member of the transgender community.

After learning the state planned to defy the court order, Reagor said the Montana Human Rights Network “will not stand by while the Gianforte administration blatantly disregards rulings from the courts to continue a vindictive attack on the trans community.”

Moses said during Thursday morning’s hearing that his April ruling had been “clear as a bell” and compared the state’s subsequent actions to a person twice convicted of assault who tries to change their name following a third accusation to avoid a harsher punishment.

“Isn’t that exactly what happened here?” Moses asked. “I’m a bit offended the department thinks they can do anything they want.”

Only Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia have sweeping prohibitions against birth certificate changes similar to what Montana has pursued, advocates for transgender rights say. Bans in Idaho and Ohio were struck down in 2020.

A Republican lawmaker who voted in favor of the 2021 law suggested Moses was biased in favor of the plaintiffs in the case. Moses was appointed to the court by former Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat.

“Like clockwork, Judge Moses issued yet another predetermined order in favor of liberal plaintiffs without thoroughly engaging with the legal issues at hand,” Sen. Greg Hertz of Polson said in a statement.

The ACLU of Montana had asked Moses to clarify his order after the state health department enacted its new temporary rule effectively banning birth certificate changes a month after Moses handed down his temporary injunction in the case. That rule was made permanent last week.

The state argued the injunction did not prevent the health department from making rules, but Moses said under case law the injunction reinstated the 2017 rules and any other changes are on hold while the case is decided.

State officials denied that the new rule preventing birth certificate changes was adopted in bad faith. Montana Assistant Solicitor Kathleen Smithgall said the state came up with the new rule to fill a gap in regulations after the 2021 law was blocked.

“Judge Moses mischaracterized the words of his own order, the parties’ motives, and the state of the law,” said Kyler Nerison, a spokesperson for Attorney General Austin Knudsen.

Lebanese cheer as their dancers win America’s Got Talent

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB

1 of 4

This image released by NBC shows host Terry Crews, left in suit, with members of the female Lebanese dance troupe Mayyas after winning "America's Got Talent," Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. (Trae Patton/NBC via AP)


BEIRUT (AP) — The news of a Lebanese dance group winning the TV competition show America’s Got Talent brought a rare moment of joy on Thursday to many in this crisis-hit Mideast country.

Mayyas, an all-female dance troupe, dazzled the show’s judges and audience on the competition’s 17th season before winning $1 million and a headlining show at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The group paid tribute to their native country during their performances and on social media in the buildup to the finale.

The victory is a major boost for any aspiring artist. But inside Lebanon, where the political leadership is scrambling to overcome years of economic and political turmoil, there was a high-profile rush to congratulate the dance troupe.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and a handful of lawmakers congratulated Mayyas on social media, while President Michel Aoun’s office in a statement said the Lebanese head of state will award the dancers Order of Merit medallions upon their return home.

In their hypnotic winning performance in the finale, Mayyas dressed in gold-colored outfits, as they fluttered in sync on stage in a performance that brought together traditional belly-dancing and inspirations from India, the United States and the United Kingdom, where their choreographer attended years of dance workshops.

Holding white feathers, they formed a flowing snow-covered cedar tree, Lebanon’s national symbol, before they swayed together holding glowing balls like a moving constellation of stars.

Lebanese, who have been in the grip of the ongoing crises for years, found a rare moment of pride and joy in their country.

“I am among Lebanese citizens who over the past three years went through severe financial, psychological, and social crises,” Marie Ziyade, a fan of Mayyas, told The Associated Press. “I have always had hope in the people of my country, but Mayyas brought me joy.”

Lebanon’s crippling economic crisis has pushed three-quarters of its population into poverty, and resulted in a massive brain drain of young professionals leaving the country for better job opportunities abroad.

Nour Massalkhi is among a surging number of the country’s youth who left Lebanon for better jobs and lives. Since leaving in 2019 when the economy crumbled, she says she’s felt a sense of “anger and despair” watching her native country’s rapid decline from her new home in the United Arab Emirates.

But she says Mayyas’ journey to the top on America’s Got Talent is a “small glimmer of hope” that Lebanon needs.

“Their win was only one example of the hundred other artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs that continue to persevere abroad,” Massalkhi told the AP. “Everything from the music to the choreography and down to their outfits are curated with extreme precision and honors our Lebanese roots.”

The dance group’s victory was never going to stop Lebanon’s economy from spiraling or help break months of political deadlock and tensions that have followed decades of rampant corruption, nefarious financial mismanagement and sect-based power-sharing. But it may have brought a brief moment of hope for the troubled country.

“Mayyas is a group based on merit, that brings together women who have a passion for dance and are talented at it, and coordinate together to put out creative and stunning work,” Ziyade said. “I wish our government would appoint ministers and officials the same way … we could have fixed our devastated country.”

___

More at AP Entertainment: https://apnews.com/hub/entertainment

Griner, Whelan families to meet Biden amid US-Russia talks

By ERIC TUCKER

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WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a court room ater a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 4, 2022. President Joe Biden plans to meet at the White House on Friday, Sept. 16, with family members of Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia, senior administration officials told The Associated Press. 

(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to meet at the White House on Friday with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia, the White House announced Thursday.

“He wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day, on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Thursday’s press briefing at the White House.

The separate meetings are to be the first in-person encounter between Biden and the families and are taking place amid sustained but so far unsuccessful efforts by the administration to secure the Americans’ release. The administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to get them home, but despite plans for the White House meetings, there is no sign a breakthrough is imminent.

“While I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer and we are bringing their loved ones home — that is not what we’re seeing in these negotiations at this time,” Jean-Pierre said.

She added: “The Russians should accept our offer. The Russians should accept our offer today.”

Griner has been held in Russia since February on drug-related charges. She was sentenced last month to nine years in prison after pleading guilty and has appealed the punishment. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence on espionage-related charges that he and his family say are false. The U.S. government regards both as wrongfully detained, placing their cases with the office of its top hostage negotiator.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of announcing two months ago that the administration had made a substantial proposal to Russia. Since then, U.S officials have continued to press that offer in hopes of getting serious negotiations underway, and have been following up through the same channel that produced an April prisoner swap that brought Marine veteran Trevor Reed home from Russia, said a senior administration official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in advance of Thursday’s formal announcement.

The negotiations, already strained because of tense relations between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have also been complicated by Russia’s apparent resistance to the proposal the Americans put on the table.

The Russians, who have indicated that they are open to negotiations but have chided the Americans to conduct them in private, have come back with suggestions that are not within the administration’s ability to deliver, said the administration official, declining to elaborate.

The administration has not provided specifics about its proposal, but a person familiar with the matter previously confirmed it had offered to release Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer who is imprisoned in the U.S. and who has long been sought by Moscow. It is also possible that, in the interests of symmetry, Russia might insist on having two of its citizens released from prison.

Biden spoke by phone in July with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, but both families have also requested in-person meetings. On Friday, Biden plans to speak at the White House with Cherelle Griner and with the player’s agent in one meeting and with Elizabeth Whelan in the other, according to the official.

The meetings are being done separately so as to ensure that each family has private time with the president. But the fact that they are happening on the same day shows the extent to which the two cases have become intertwined since the only deal that is presumably palatable to the U.S. is one that gets both Americans — a famous WNBA player and a Michigan man who until recently was little known to the public — home together at the same time,

In the past several months, representatives of both families have expressed frustration over what they perceived as a lack of aggressive action and coordination from the administration.

Cherelle Griner, for instance, told The Associated Press in an interview in June that she was dismayed after the failure of a phone call from her wife that was supposed to have been patched through by the American Embassy in Moscow left the couple unable to connect on their fourth anniversary.

Whelan’s relatives have sought to keep attention on his case, anxious that it has been overshadowed in the public eye by the focus on the far more prominent Griner — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA all-star. They also conveyed disappointment when Whelan, despite having been held in Russia since December 2018, was not included in a prisoner swap last April that brought home Reed.

Friday’s meetings were scheduled before news broke this week of an unconnected trip to Russia by Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has been a veteran emissary in hostage and detainee cases. Administration officials reacted coolly to that trip, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying Wednesday that dialogue with Russia outside the “established channel” risks hindering efforts to get Griner and Whelan home.

Administration officials say work on hostage and detainee cases persists regardless of whether a family receives a meeting with the president, though there is also no question such an encounter can help establish a meaningful connection.

Biden met in the Oval Office in March with Reed’s parents after the Texas couple stood with a large sign outside the White House calling for their son’s release. The following month, he returned home.

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Cruel or harmless? Pastors mixed on GOP migrant transports

By PETER SMITH

A woman, who is part of a group of immigrants that had just arrived, holds a child as they are fed outside St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Wednesday Sept. 14, 2022, in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, escalating a tactic by Republican governors to draw attention to what they consider to be the Biden administration's failed border policies. (Ray Ewing/Vineyard Gazette via AP)

As Republican governors ramp up their high-profile transports of migrants to Democratic-run jurisdictions, the practice is getting a mixed reaction from Christian faith leaders — many of whom, especially evangelicals, have supported GOP candidates by large numbers in recent elections.

Some depict the actions as inhumanely exploiting vulnerable people for political ends, while others say it’s a harmless way of calling attention to the impact of immigration on states near the southern border.

“Playing political games scores points — and the hypocrisy of the current immigration system is easy to point out,” Ed Stetzer, a professor, dean and executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center in Illinois, said in a statement.

“However, it does not solve the actual problems. ... Let’s fix the system,” he added, “and stop turning people into pawns of political one-upmanship.”

But the Rev. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Dallas and a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump, who imposed restrictive immigration policies during his term, backed the transports.

“Government officials who refuse to fulfill their biblical responsibility to protect our borders should be made to feel the effects of their lawless policies,” Jeffress said via email.

“Busing illegal migrants to Washington D.C. or Martha’s Vineyard is not exactly the same as sending them to Siberia,” he continued. “Most Americans would love the opportunity to visit either destination.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew immigrants on two planes to the upscale island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on Wednesday, while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has also dispatched migrants to cities with Democratic mayors. Most recently, on Thursday, two busloads from his state disembarked near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also has adopted the policy.

The Republican governors are trying to draw attention to what they contend is failed border policy under the Biden administration.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy agency, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said such actions “seem to be more about public relations.”

“We have called long for strengthened border protections and at the same time (for) folks who are coming into this country to be treated in a way that respects the imago dei (image of God),” he said.

Most Americans, including Southern Baptists, “want a solution to our broken immigration system,” Leatherwood added. “Let’s cut down on some of these actions and instead come to the table and figure out a solution that actually respects human dignity.”

Joshua Manning, pastor of the ethnically diverse Community Baptist Church in Noel, Missouri, a town of 1,800 with a large immigrant population, agreed that the transports are the wrong way to highlight a real problem.

“You shouldn’t be loading people up and treating them as political props — that’s dehumanizing,” Manning said.

He said, however, that immigration is a tricky subject. Places that have declared themselves in support of migrants and asylum seekers may not “see the difficulties of everything that’s associated with that,” he said.

In the mostly Latino neighborhood of Corona, in New York City’s Queens borough, the large congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic church held a special service Wednesday to pray for the immigrants. In an interview, their pastor, the Rev. Manuel Rodriguez, called the transports a “horrible crime.”

“All of us are horrified about the steady violation of human rights by Gov. DeSantis and other governors who are so inhumane and unethical to keep sending human beings to places where they weren’t even informed that they’d be sent,” Rodriguez said.

“You don’t use human beings who are fleeing their homelands in fear, because of violence, hunger, persecution, because of the threat of rape ... as tools, as objects to make political points,” he said.

Pastor-led group seeks missing migrants in border desert

By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO

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Óscar Andrade prays early, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022 in the Ironwood Forest National Monument near Marana, Ariz., before searching for a missing Honduran migrant. The pastor heads a group, Capellanes del Desierto (Desert Chaplains), that provides recovery efforts for families of missing migrants. Andrade has received over 400 calls from families in Mexico and Central America whose relatives, sick, injured or exhausted, were left behind by smugglers in the borderlands. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

IRONWOOD FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT, Arizona (AP) — After strapping on knee-high snake guards and bowing his head to invoke God’s protection, Óscar Andrade marched off into a remote desert at dawn on a recent Sunday to look for a Honduran migrant. His family said he had gone missing in late July “between the two hills where the backpacks are.”

The Tucson-based Pentecostal pastor bushwhacked for three hours in heat that rose above 100 degrees (38 Celsius), detouring around a mountain lion, two rattlesnakes and at least one scorpion before taking a short break to call the aunt of another missing man. Andrade believed he found the young man’s skull the previous day.

“Much strength, my dear sister,” Andrade told her, while she repeated incredulously that the “guide” had assured her he left the young man with injured feet but alive. “Sometimes we don’t understand, but there is a reason that God allowed this. And if you need anything, we’re here.”

On the fourth search for that 25-year-old man from the Mexican state of Guerrero, the pastor and his Capellanes del Desierto (Desert Chaplains) rescue and recovery group had found his ID card in a wallet 40 feet (12 meters) away from a skull and other bones, picked clean by animals and the relentless sun in the Tohono O’odham Reservation.

Since March, Andrade has received more than 400 calls from families in Mexico and Central America whose relatives – sick, injured or exhausted – were left behind by smugglers in the borderlands.

Forensic experts estimate 80% of bodies in the desert are never found, identified or recovered. But those that are, added to massive casualties like 53 migrants trapped in an abandoned trailer in San Antonio, Texas, in June and nine migrants swept away in the Rio Grande this month, point to one of the deadliest seasons on record on the always dangerous southwest border.

Fragile economies pummeled by the pandemic in Latin America, ruthless trafficking networks that control virtually all illegal crossings, and shifting U.S. asylum policies that affect migrants of different nationality and family status in drastically different ways all contribute to the toll – as does the Southwest’s extreme heat.

Andrade, his group, and an Associated Press journalist accompanying them among towering saguaro cacti quickly came across evidence of distress on this popular smuggling route – abandoned backpacks, still full of clothes, coins and even deodorant, and half-full water jugs, several days’ walk from the closest towns.
“To be out in the desert is more difficult than to be in a church,” said the 44-year-old pastor and father of three teens, who sometimes join him and his wife, Lupita, on these missions. “Our commitment is firstly with God, and with the families.”

The group didn’t find the missing 45-year-old Honduran, but planned to look again; it usually takes several trips to locate remains in this desert.

It’s one of the deadliest corridors, according to aid groups and the U.S. Border Patrol, for migrants who, fearing being rejected under a pandemic provision called Title 42, try to evade authorities instead of turning themselves in right after crossing or applying for protection legally.

From staging camps guarded by cartel scouts in areas where the border has no fencing or bollard barriers, the migrants – usually men from Mexico and Central America – walk north for more than a week. They have to cross dozens of miles of desert mountains and dry washes before reaching major highways where smugglers’ vehicles will take them to destinations across the United States.

“Once a person told me, ‘How can I believe, look where my brother is, who always did praise and worship,’” Andrade recalled during the recent search. “For God, there are no mistakes. Yes, there are painful things, like the young man from yesterday, who died because of some blisters.”

Faith often motivates volunteer organizations providing aid along the border. The Capellanes, who search for the missing at least once a week in this rough desert, pray with the grieving families as they share updates and somber news.

Being a Christian ministry also reassures families, many of whom are targeted by fake ransom requests after they turn to social media looking for their missing relative. The aunt of the young man from Guerrero, who asked the AP not to use their names because his parents haven’t been told yet of Andrade’s discovery, said she had been targeted repeatedly.

To bring the comfort of God’s word is what motivated Elda Hawkins to be one of the first volunteers to join Andrade’s group, she said at a recent church meeting. A dozen members gathered in a small Tucson church to pray for the young man, receive CPR credentials, and discuss a fundraising food drive.

“We can be a light of hope, for those about to die or for their families,” Hawkins said.

Andrade’s group doesn’t charge families for the searches, though some contribute to the cost of gas for his truck ferrying the group down rough dirt roads to where they set out on foot. It also works closely with law enforcement, notifying the Border Patrol of every search and then local authorities if it finds human remains, as it has nearly 50 times.

Even then, the migrant’s body still has a long journey home. It takes time for authorities to retrieve the remains, which are then subject to forensic analysis to determine the cause of death. Often, that’s never established; in other cases, the cause is listed as “environmental,” especially heat stroke and dehydration, said Dr. Greg Hess, chief medical examiner for Pima County.

His office, covering migrant deaths also in two adjacent border counties in southern Arizona, received 30 migrant bodies found in July alone, about half of them dead less than three weeks, said Mike Kreyche of Humane Borders, an aid group that maps border deaths.

That puts 2022 on track to match the last two years, when cases were almost double other years in the last decade recorded by the office. Along the entire US-Mexican border, since last fall Customs and Border Protection agents stopped migrants for crossing the border illegally more than 1.8 million times, historically an extraordinarily high number. The agency recorded 557 Southwest border deaths the previous year, the highest since it began tracking them in 1998.

Given how quickly a body decomposes in the desert, unless it’s found within a day of dying, identification might require expensive and time-consuming DNA analysis, Hess said.

“The desert does a good job covering up crimes,” said Mirza Monterroso, a forensic scientist and missing migrant program director for the Colibrí Center, a Tucson-based group that works with the examiner’s office.

Her database has 4,000 missing migrants – 1,300 in Pima County alone – from reports from 14 countries and 43 U.S. states. She helps coordinate DNA analysis, costing more than $1,100 per body with a bulk discount.

Consulates help cover some of those expenses, as well as the nearly $4,000 it takes to repatriate the remains, which is what most families want, said Azhar Dabdoub, who manages a Tucson funeral home. It was arranging for flights of five migrants’ bodies to Guatemala and one to El Salvador last week.

“This is what forced migration looks like at the end,” he said, standing next to dozens of just-delivered caskets. They were customized with a small viewing window so families can see something of their relative, even if just a small belonging Dabdoub tapes to the glass.

As soon as the remains Andrade just found are recovered, Monterroso will start working on confirming if they are indeed the young Mexican man’s. That might take up to a year unless there’s a lucky break, like dental records.

The young man’s aunt, who’s lived in the United States since she was 14, told the AP from her home in New York that she still hopes for a miracle. But if the remains are his, “we fought to the end to recover what little is left.”

“My nephew’s dream died at the border, but a person shouldn’t end up like this,” she said, her voice breaking. “They left him in the desert because he had injured his feet.”

A 38-year-old father of two from Mexico City nearly died the same way last week after he developed debilitating foot blisters near the Baboquivari Peak, just 14 miles (23 kilometers) north of the border in Pima County.

Without food for two days and now out of water, he called 911 and was helped down the mountain by Daniel Bolin, an agent with the Border Patrol’s search, trauma and rescue team who said this was his fifth rescue this year in the same spot. Bolin brought him Gatorade and water before walking him down the precipitous mountain ridge for an hour to an area reachable by all-terrain vehicle.

The agency performed 3,000 rescues in the Tucson sector alone over the last 12 months, and another 911 call came from the same mountain that afternoon.

About then, sitting in the back of a Border Patrol truck and facing almost certain expulsion to Mexico, the rescued man, who gave his name as Leonardo, said he lost his business during the pandemic and came to the United States to find the work he’s been unable to get for two years.

“But now I don’t think I’ll come back here. I’m too old to walk,” he said.

Asked about his future, he murmured “I don’t know” and burst into sobs, tears rolling down his sunburned face.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.