Free Republic

The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear lawsuits from religious nonprofits who say the government didn’t go far enough when it offered to carve them out of President Obama’s birth-control rules on employers. The justices agreed to take on seven cases brought by faith-based colleges and ministries from across the country, marking the fourth time that a skirmish over all or part of Obamacare has made it to the Supreme Court. It’s also the second time the justices have agreed to referee the so-called “contraception mandate,” an outgrowth of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 that requires employers to...

November 5, 2015 (LiveActionNews) -- Some arguments used today against the pro-life movement echo the arguments used in the 19th century against the abolition movement. Here’s a list of four: Argument #1 Today: Pro-lifers are obsessed with outlawing abortion, but they don’t demonstrate any concern for children after they are born. 19th Century: Abolitionists are obsessed with outlawing slavery, but they don’t demonstrate any concern for slaves after they attain freedom. Having, by satanic promises and fair words, charmed away many of those docile and credulous creatures, they abandoned them to their own unfortunate fate… the negro is degraded, a vagabond and an...

Documents shed light on tissue procurement process for medical research... Taxpayers have paid for intact human fetal brains intended for use in medical research, at a cost of as much as $1,080 per brain, according to documents obtained through a public records request. Researchers at the University of Connecticut studying brain development for the National Institutes of Health have used federal funding for over a decade to obtain up to two fetal brains per month.

In Tuesday’s elections, voters rejected recreational marijuana, transgender rights, and illegal-immigrant sanctuaries; they reacted equivocally to gun-control arguments; and they handed a surprise victory to a Republican gubernatorial candidate who emphasized his opposition to gay marriage. Democrats have become increasingly assertive in taking liberal social positions in recent years, believing that they enjoy majority support and even seeking to turn abortion and gay rights into electoral wedges against Republicans. But Tuesday’s results—and the broader trend of recent elections that have been generally disastrous for Democrats not named Barack Obama—call that view into question. Indeed, they suggest that the left has...

Government health officials worked diligently this year to improve consumer experience on Healthcare.gov and make sure people know what they are getting for their money when they pick health insurance. But one thing is out of the government's control: whether doctors and hospitals will agree to accept patients who buy these plans. Surveys and data are limited, so it's difficult to gauge the extent of the issue, but anecdotal evidence from patients and providers show it is a struggle. Some newly insured patients wonder whether it's worth paying for coverage they can't actually use. Even when they do find a...

Gloria Steinem doesn’t have her facts straight, but don’t expect the media to call her out on it. On Tuesday, feminist activist Gloria Steinem appeared as a guest on PBS’ Tavis Smiley. During the show, Steinem praised abortion for giving her “my life” and bashed the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood’s practice of aborted baby parts. She blamed the “attack” on Planned Parenthood on everything from the “ultra-right wing” to “patriarchy” and a “long-term racist system.” Host Tavis Smiley hailed Steinem as a “feminist icon” and “renowned social activist” before asking about her newly published book, My Life on the Road....

Last night's off-year elections produced a number of noteworthy outcomes, none larger than Republican Matt Bevin's upset victory in Kentucky's gubernatorial race. Bevin ran as a hard-charging outsider conservative, warts and all. Public polls gave his opponent, Democrat Jack Conway, a modest but stable lead throughout the race's home stretch, averaging out to a three-point Conway advantage in a three-way contest. They were off by double digits. Bevin won handily:DailyKos tweet at link ... Bevin, boosted by a massive investment from national Republicans and help from his former nemisis Mitch McConnell, nationalized the race, tying Conway to President Obama at...

The fact that more than sixty percent of the Irish electorate supported an amendment to the nation's constitution recognizing same-sex "marriage" caught many people by surprise last spring. They may have been clinging to an outdated image of Ireland as a bastion of devout Catholicism. Unfortunately there are further disturbing changes that are being advanced. One is more symbolic. Many, including a former news director of the national radio and television station, are asking that the broadcasting of the Angelus be dropped. It is viewed as an anachronism in an Ireland that has "an increasingly multi-ethnic, multi-faith population," and is...

If you’re Social Justice Warrior, you’re a liar. You actively spread absurd falsehoods about the nature of men, women, sex, and culture that can’t withstand even the slightest scrutiny. You change history and conceal facts to fit preferred narratives, even when it costs human lives. You claim the best of intentions yet achieve the worst of outcomes. And through it all, you hate the very nation and political system that have granted you the liberties you so grotesquely abuse...SNIP...If you disagree — if you think that political correctness is gaining momentum — then consider a few facts. First, the top...

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) - A Baptist church in Hattiesburg that is self-described as "a different kind of Baptist church" was kicked out of the Pine Belt Baptist Association. A written statement by University Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Rusty Edwards said members of the association voted to dismiss UBC from its membership on Tuesday, Oct. 20. ... The statement specifically outlined University Baptist Church's decision to openly affirm the practice of a "homosexual lifestyle" into their church. According to the statement, the church is listed as an "affirming" church on the website gaychurch.org. The Pine Belt Baptist Association said that doctrine...

FULL TITLE: Dayton Police ThreatenTo Arrest Stand True President, Bryan Kemper For Simply Standing On Public Property And Pro-abortion Activist Mock His Ten Year Old Son. On Sunday, Nov 1st, Stand True President, Bryan Kemper and two of his children joined local pro-life activists in exposing the truth at a pro-abortion rally in Dayton, OH. The rally was a celebration of years of child killing by Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities in the Dayton area. About 20 peaceful pro-life activists came to the rally to show exactly what they were celebrating and to to expose the darkness of abortion....

"On why the free market won’t develop new forms of energy fast enough: ...Without a substantial carbon tax, there’s no incentive for innovators or plant buyers to switch."

Recently the culture of death took the ambiguous term “natural death” and adapted it to fit into its roadmap to hell. For Catholics, the phrase “natural death” is best identified with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that “death is the end of earthly life,” not the death of the soul, and states, “In a sense bodily death is natural.” Catholic statements on the right to life usually include: “The Church affirms the right to life of all persons, from conception to natural death.” But as we have shown elsewhere, the word “conception” is erroneous in today’s topsy-turvy...

Here is video from CNN yesterday where GOP strategist Mary Matalin was on with Democrat Strategist husband James Carville talking about the Health Care debate. Carville was his usual nasty self, launching into an attack on Sarah Palin and conservatives in general as being "nutty" for believing in Creation and holding traditional values. But Carville's wife Mary Matalin skewered him when he finished the attack by saying: Here's a rule for your viewers going forward for Sunday: The greater the Carville level of vitriol, the more they are losing." Matalin's rule is true across the board for Democrats and the...

"This is what I mean when I say being an effective opposition party. I think being an effective opposition party means being honest with people upfront about what it is we can and cannot achieve." - Speaker Paul "Squish" Ryan Where would we be if our forebears had Ryan's fighting spirit? Great "Ryan" moments in history: "Give me Liberty, or give me whatever you want!" - Patrick "Ryan" Henry "It's too cold here and the outcome is doubtful anyway, so we should all just go home and cozy up to the fire. To hell with the revolution." - General George...

Michelle Obama has found herself embroiled in an emails scandal of her own… By Andrew Spalding Commentary by John Velisek USN (Ret), CiR staff writer “As the investigation of Hillary Clinton and her private email scandal is winding down, it’s just been discovered that Michelle Obama may have been involved in an email scandal of her own. The American Medical Association (AMA) released an obesity study last year that revealed that rates have actually changed less than they did in the previous decade. Rather than processing that information, Michelle’s reps decided to claim that obesity in children between ages 2...

Bash asked, "Will you defund Planned Parenthood?" "This is what I mean when I say being an effective opposition party. I think being an effective opposition party means being honest with people upfront about what it is we can and cannot achieve," he said. "But we also have to push issues where we can push issues, we have to speak truth to power," he added. "We have a president that isn't willing to listen, that isn't going to sign lots of our bills into law, we have a Senate that has a very difficult process when it comes to actually...

I took it for granted that a leftist like Bernie Sanders would be opposed to the death penalty. Still, I was truly shocked to see Sanders—not in some throwaway comment on the campaign trail but in prepared remarks on the Senate floor—flatly call the death penalty "murder." On his MSNBC show this morning, Al Sharpton played the Sanders clip to illustrate how Sanders is working to differentiate his policy positions from those of Hillary Clinton, who says she supports the death penalty in "rare" cases. Question: how can we begin to explain the moral compass of liberals like Sanders who...

On Feb. 24, the Citizens Committee for New York City, a civic group founded in 1975 at the apex of the city’s fiscal crisis, honored the legal giants David Boies and Ted Olson. Paul Singer, the CEO of Elliott Management, presented them with the New Yorker for New York Award. Below are Mr. Singer’s remarks. It is my honor to present tonight’s New Yorker for New York Award to Ted Olson and David Boies. Ted and David are receiving this award for their tireless work on behalf of marriage equality—the right of gay and lesbian couples to participate equally with...

My favorite criminals are those known in the literature — or at least in the movies — as “standovers,” criminals who specialize in victimizing other criminals. Examples of the type are Omar Little in The Wire, whose occupation is robbing Baltimore drug dealers, and the Joker in The Dark Knight, who loots and extorts Gotham’s mob bosses. The really bold ones who show up at large drug deals and rob both sides. The problem with the standover business model, obviously, is the same as the problem of scorched-earth banditry: It drives away exactly the sort of activity that the criminal...