Republicans in North Carolina have selected Mark Robinson as their nominee in the swing state’s 2024 gubernatorial race. Robinson — the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, who will now face Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in the general election — has a richer history of bigoted commentary than any major-party political candidate in recent memory. He … Read more
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday declined to say whether he would vote to protect in vitro fertilization or codify Roe v. Wade into federal law if Maryland voters send him to the Senate in November. Read more at NBC News
He added that Congress would not take up the issue, leaving it up to the states. Read more at Politico
In states that banned abortion, doctors are forced to wrestle with tough decisions about high-risk pregnancy care. “I don’t want to have a patient die and be responsible for it,” one Tennessee doctor said. Read more at Talking Points Memo/ProPublica
A group connected to anti-abortion, billionaire Trump mega-donors has funneled more than half a million dollars to an Alabama supreme court judicial candidate who said “embryos were human beings whose lives begin at fertilization”. Read more at The Guardian
More than a third of states consider fetuses to be people at some point during pregnancy. Any one of them could be the next Alabama. Read more at Politico
The position of the North Carolina GOP under Whatley on embryos mirrors a recent decision by the Alabama Supreme Court. On February 16, Alabama’s highest court ruled that frozen embryos are “children” — entitled to the same legal protections as an infant or a third grader. This was based on a religious conviction of when … Read more
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra spoke to patients and providers about the chaos unleashed by a recent state court decision. Read more at 19th News
Tom Parker, a Republican who joined the court in 2005, wrote a concurring opinion that quoted at length from sources such as the Book of Genesis, the Ten Commandments and Christian thinkers of centuries ago, such as Thomas Aquinas. But comments he has made in other media have raised questions about his seeming espousal of … Read more
“He framed it entirely assuming that the state of Alabama is a theocracy, and that that is a legitimate way of evaluating laws and policies,” said Julie Ingersoll, a University of North Florida professor who studies religion and culture. “It looks like he decided to just dismiss the history of first amendment religious freedom jurisprudence … Read more
