Free Republic

Minnesota becomes the fourth state to take advantage of the policy and it joins Illinois, Michigan and Rhode Island. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson approved Minnesota's request. "Prenatal care is crucial to the health of both mother and child, and this change will allow Minnesota to offer prenatal care to thousands of additional pregnant mothers and their unborn children," Secretary Thompson said. "Vital services during pregnancy can be a life-long determinant of health and we should do everything possible to make this care available to everyone." The state expects to enroll more than 3,700 pregnant women under...

Racism in Texas Politics? Exclusive commentary by Beverly Nuckols Aug 7, 2003 From the Op-Ed pages of the Houston Chronicle on August 6, 2003: To paraphrase one of the greatest civil rights activists of the 20th century, "We are sick and tired of being sick and tired." Fannie Lou Hamer uttered these infamous words during her crusade in the 1960s and 1970s to encourage political participation and the right to vote by African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities. “We and our fellow senators are in Albuquerque, N.M., because the same important issue faces the citizens and state of Texas." These words...

This morning the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported this in their article, "Dewhurst: Senators face "legal options": http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/legislature/6469676.htm While Republicans in Austin were accusing the absent Democrats of shirking their duty, one senator in Albuquerque pointed out that the GOP used a similar tactic a decade ago to kill a measure on judicial redistricting. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, recalled that in 1993, Senate Democrats were pushing a resolution to have state judges elected from Texas House districts rather than running in countywide elections. At the time, the House had a solid Democratic majority while Republicans were winning countywide elections in...

Van de Putte says she expects redistricting measure to pass By Guillermo X. Garcia Express-News Austin Bureau Web Posted : 08/04/2003 12:00 AM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The organizer of the Senate Democratic walkout said Sunday that she expects a third special session on congressional redistricting will be called and that the politically divisive measure eventually will become law. Democratic Texas Sens. Frank Madla (from left), Leticia Van de Putte, Eddie Lucio and Judith Zaffirini and her son Carlos Jr. say a prayer before Mass. They were at Risen Savior Catholic Church in Albuquerque, N.M., on Sunday. Jerry Lara/Express-News Sen. Judith...

53% of Texans oppose Democrat walkout Jul 30, 2003 A scientific non-partisan statewide poll conducted by Austin television station KVUE shows a strong majority of Texans are opposed to the latest Democrat walkout. Fifty-three percent of Texans said Democrat senators did the wrong thing by walking out on the legislative session and fleeing to New Mexico. Only 37% said Democrats did the right thing. 10% were unsure. Independent polling firm Survey USA surveyed 500 Texans across the state. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4%. Perhaps most interesting is the number of Hispanics and African Americans – often...

Go to the page above, find "Texas Talkback" in the box at the right. The link to "TT" is a java script link and I can't post it in the heading. Here it is, though: javascript:popsize('/cgi-bin/survey.cgi?survey=2531&step=answerSurvey', 600, 450) You have to register with the DMN, I think, but it's free. Please go to the site and let everyone know how you feel about the dems obstruction of the Texas Legislature's business. The Texas Constitution says that the Legislature, not the courts should draw these maps. The Senators and Legislators are supposed to represent us in Austin, not NM or OK....

South Texas Republicans The Van To Van de Putte Be Part Of An Historic Trip To New Mexico! July 30, 2002 Dear Beverly, Eleven Democrat State Senators have fled the Great State of Texas and have shutdown the Chamber in order to protect their fellow liberal Democrat Congressmen and to prevent the passage of a redistricting plan that respects the will of Texas voters. Instead of doing the job they were hired to do, Democrats are relaxing in a New Mexico hotel within distance of two casinos and numerous plush golf courses. On Saturday, August 2nd, Joe Solis, Political Liaison...

Texas House Passes Redistricting Plan, Democrats Remain in New Mexico LAST UPDATE: 7/29/2003 6:28:48 PM Posted By: Jim Forsyth (AUSTIN) -- It took the Texas House fifteen minutes this afternoon to pass a Republican backed Congressional redistricting plan, and same proposal which was approved by the House during the first special session which ended abruptly yesterday. The plan now goes to the state Senate, which remains in recess pending the return of eleven of it's twelve Democratic members from self imposed exile in New Mexico. When House Speaker Tom Craddick graveled the chamber to session this morning, it was unable...

Texas Alliance for Life Legislative Update May 28, 2003 TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES GIVES FINAL APPROVAL TO PRENATAL PROTECTION ACT! This evening at about 7:30 PM, in a tremendous victory for the grass roots pro-life movement in Texas, the Texas House of Representatives gave final approval to the Prenatal Protection Act, SB 319. The vote on final passage was 112-15. The Prenatal Protection Act extends personhood to the unborn child from conception through birth, makes it a crime to kill an unborn child against the mother’s wishes, and allows parents to sue for the wrongful death of their unborn child....

Texas Alliance for Life Legislative Alert May 21, 2003 WOMEN’S RIGHT TO KNOW ACT Today the Texas Senate gave its final approval to the pro-life Women’s Right to Know Act, HB 15. This is a major victory as for the first time the new law will ensure that women will have more information about abortion and compassionate alternatives to abortion 24 hours before the procedure. The next step for this bill is for the Texas House to approve a minor change. After that, pro-life Governor Rick Perry is expected to sign the bill into law. LAST CHANCE FOR PRENATAL PROTECTION...

In Texas, Scott couldn't be charged for the death of his son because, as one woman put it so eloquently, in Texas the child is a "no- thing" before birth. There is no way to bring a charge in civil or criminal court for the wrongful death of an unborn child who dies in Texas against his or her mother's will. HB 246, The Prenatal Protection Act http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/tlo/textframe.cmd?LEG=78&SESS=R&CHAMBER=H&BILLTYPE=B&BILLSUFFIX=00246&VERSION=2&TYPE=A is being held up in the State Affairs Committee of the Texas Legislature because the Texas Medical Association doesn't want the unborn child to be recognized as a cause for malpractice. This...

Health - Reuters Stem Cells May Offer Hope for Multiple Sclerosis Wed Apr 16, 5:32 PM ET Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Rossella Lorenzi MILAN (Reuters Health) - Injecting adult stem cells into mice repairs damage similar to that seen in multiple sclerosis, according to Italian researchers who say their work could one day offer hope for treating the disease in humans. In Yahoo! Health photo SARS: What You Need To Know More from Yahoo! Health: • How it spreads • Prevention • The Cause Investigators at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan report in Thursday's...

Blurring the Lines Exclusive commentary by Beverly Nuckols, M.D. Mar 31, 2003 The cloning of human beings is an issue that blurs the usual lines between “pro-life” and “pro-choice.” “Embryonic stem cell research,” “therapeutic cloning,” and “somatic cell nuclear transfer technology” (SCNT) always mean “human cloning.” The Presidents’ Council on Bioethics (the experts delegated by our President to define the terms and ethics of cloning) has agreed on the following terminology: “Cloned human embryo: (a) The immediate and developing product of the initial act of cloning, accomplished by SCNT. (b) A human embryo resulting from the somatic cell nuclear transfer...

Kay Bailey Hutchison just voted for the Harkin amendment to affirm Roe V. Wade and *against* overturning it. Her office staff (sounding apologetic and harried) "cannot" tell me how she will vote on the Partial Birth Abortion bill.

A Plan as Simple as ABC By EDWARD C. GREEN CAMBRIDGE, Mass. There have been suggestions that President Bush was able to promise $10 billion in new money to fight the AIDS pandemic in part because there is now a way to spend the prevention part of this sum (about half) in a way that is acceptable to conservatives. It's true that conservatives favor this approach, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work. The initiative is based on what is called the "ABC approach." People might well wonder what this model is and what evidence supports it. Here is a...

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Other People's Body Parts Exclusive commentary by Beverly Nuckols, MD Feb 15, 2003 Even if you don't own anything else, you own your body, right? And, don’t we all agree that you have a right to the life of that body - you own the use of that body - unless you pose an imminent danger to the body of another human? Maybe, maybe not. Not if someone with the power (money, fame, media draw, platform or the ability to write laws) of Christopher Reeve, Mary Tyler Moore, or United States Senator Orrin Hatch...

February 5, 2003 Christopher Reeve Republicans WASHINGTON -- While President Bush's call for a federal ban on human cloning will bring no immediate congressional action, the New Jersey Legislature is moving at breakneck speed toward legalization. What's more, the state's Republican legislators are not impeding this rush toward passage, ignoring admonitions from the White House. When the cloning bill passed the state Senate (evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans) late last year, not a single GOP senator voted no. A committee of the Democratic-controlled state Assembly unanimously approved the bill Monday, Republicans abstaining. With the GOP offering no opposition, the...

February 3 , 2003, 10:30 a.m. State of Cloning A letter to the New Jersey governor. January 27, 2003 The Honorable James E. McGreevey Governor State of New Jersey P.O. Box 001 Statehouse Trenton, New Jersey 08625 By FAX Dear Governor McGreevey: We write to express our grave concern about legislation currently pending in New Jersey (Senate Bill 1909/Assembly Bill 2840) to authorize human cloning and the harvesting and use of body parts of cloned humans in the embryonic and fetal stages of development. This legislation, if enacted, threatens to make New Jersey a haven for unethical medical practices, including...

Abortion As Isurance (pdf file) ABSTRACT This paper views abortion access as an insurance policy that protects women from unwanted pregnancies. Within this framework, we present a theoretical model where greater access provides value in the form of insurance against unwanted births and also reduces the incentive to avoid pregnancy. This model predicts that legalized abortion should lead to a reduction in the likelihood of giving birth. It also predicts that if abortion access becomes relatively inexpensive (including both monetary and psychic costs), then pregnancies would rise and births would remain unchanged or may even rise as well. We review...

How One Clone Leads to Another WASHINGTON — The failure of the last Congress to enact a ban on human cloning casts grave doubt on our ability to govern the unethical uses of biotechnology, even when it threatens things we hold dear. The new Congress must work to break the legislative impasse. Opposition to cloning to produce children is practically unanimous in America: The vast majority of Americans oppose it. Most research scientists agree that it should be banned. Nearly every member of Congress has condemned it. Cloning not only carries high risks of bodily harm to the cloned child,...