"Top NYT Editor Offers Stunning Defense of Coverage of Trump."
"The failure to clearly describe Trump's plan to cancel prosecutions of himself & other elements of his legal strategy as threats to the system itself, that is, as efforts to put himself above the law."
The United Methodist Church now supports LGBTQ people & reproductive rights.
Delegates to The United Methodist Church approved four changes to church law intended to remove the last remnants of restrictions aimed specifically at LGBTQ ppl. This comes after a week of slowly removing bans & enforcement measures agst. gay clergy & same-sex weddings.
United Methodists pass petition supporting abortion rights.
From crowded to quiet: Inside a clinic as Florida bans abortions after six weeks.
@19thnews reports: "At A Woman’s Choice in Jacksonville, staffers treated a surge of last-minute patients before the May 1 deadline. Now, they will have to refer most of them out of state."
The vote came after it narrowly cleared the AZ House last wk. The bill is expected to be signed by Gov Katie Hobbs.
The 1864 #law, which predates AZ’s statehood, permits #abortion only to save the patient’s life—& provides NO exceptions for survivors of #rape or #incest.
The law also states the age of consent for a “woman” is 10 yrs.
#Democrats in the #Arizona Legislature made a final push Wed to repeal the state’s long-dormant #ban on nearly all #abortions, which the state’s supreme court said can be enforced.
Voting wasn’t complete but the Senate had the 16 votes it needed to advance.
14 Dems in the Senate were joined by 2 Republican votes in favor of repealing the bill
“This is a fight for freedom, the fundamental freedom to make decisions about one’s own body & not have their government tell them what they’re supposed to do,” the VP said.
“As we know, almost 2 yrs ago, the highest court in our land, the court of Thurgood & RBG, took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America. And now, in states across our nation, extremists have proposed & passed #laws that criminalize doctors, punish women – laws that threatened doctors & nurses w/prison time, even for life, simply for providing #ReproductiveCare,” VP #KamalaHarris said.
VP #KamalaHarris then pivoted to the meat of her argument to #Florida voters: that #Trump was to blame for the #AbortionBan that just went into effect in the state, as well as others like it nationwide.
“Across our nation, we witnessed a full on assault, state by state, on #ReproductiveFreedom, & understand who is to blame: former president Donald Trump did this,” Harris said.
“Donald #Trump hand picked 3 members of the #UnitedStates#SupremeCourt because he intended for them to overturn #Roe, & as he intended, they did.”
#KamalaHarris harkened back to her grilling, as a senator on the judiciary cmte, of 2 of Trump’s #SCOTUS nominees, saying it was clear after their confirmation that the days of nationwide #abortion#access were numbered:
“& it happened just as Donald #Trump intended. Now, present day because of Donald Trump, more than 20 states have #AbortionBans, more than 20 #TrumpAbortionBans. & today, this very day at the stroke of midnight, another Trump #AbortionBan went into effect here in #Florida. As of this morning, 4 million #women in this state woke up w/fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night. This is the new reality under a Trump #abortion ban.”
"As of midnight, an archaic near-total abortion ban went into effect in Florida. Donald Trump is to blame.
The state now outlaws nearly all abortions after 6 weeks, which is essentially a complete ban since a majority of women don't even know they’re pregnant that early on."
"Trump and the GOP are doing irreparable damage by putting women in a spot where they have lost control over the right to keep their bodies from harm.
This ban has nothing to do with medical concerns. It has everything to do with our lawmakers pandering to religious ideologues who fund Republicans. Nothing more.
Trump and his MAGA cult only care about money, power, and controlling women."
The ban, which took effect on Wednesday, was part of Gov. Ron #DeSantis’s push into cultural #conservatism. But Florida #politics is rarely that simple.
"A six-week abortion ban went into effect on Wednesday in Florida, cutting off access to the procedure before many people know they’re pregnant and leveling the south-eastern United States’ last stronghold for abortion rights."
"The five right-wing Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the 2022 decision Dobbs v. Jackson built their argument on lies, one of which was a promise (pinkie swear!) that, despite the apparent radicalism of extinguishing Roe v. Wade, the court would henceforth respect precedent, leave abortion to the political arena, and not touch other decisions recognizing social and sexual rights."
"Oral arguments in Idaho case make clear that further, even more radical attacks on reproductive freedom are coming. …
Dobbs was a disastrous decision, but it wasn’t the final disaster. Contra Alito’s prevarication in Dobbs, he and his reactionary colleagues are only just starting to cook."