The Catholic Church in the United States and globally, can ordinarily count on praise for its services to and teachings about the poor, and jeers for its interventions about sex, marriage and abortion. Now, it appears as though the Church can kiss even this limited approval goodbye.  The Archdiocese of Washington DC has announced that its charitable institutions will no longer be able to partner with the District of Columbia’s (DC) government due to the absence of conscience protection for religious actors in DC’s proposed “Religious Freedom [sic] and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.”  This bill would redefine marriage as the “legally recognized union of 2 people…regardless of gender.”  The bill fails to protect individual religious persons or enterprises who serve the public, from cooperating with same sex marriages. It also has the effect of requiring Catholic institutions to provide the same benefits to employees who enter a same-sex union, as those provided to an employee with an opposite-sex marriage.  The accreditations and/or licenses of Catholic educational institutions, and professionals are also at stake.

“Jon and Kate plus Eight.” “Kate plus Eight.” “Jon and the Other Kate.” If there was ever a time we wanted to shield our eyes from supermarket tabloids, this must be it.  Yet, while their story is topping the pop culture charts, it seems fitting to look more closely at it in order to acknowledge not only the emotional wreckage involved, but also the light it sheds on the travesty we call our divorce laws.

Occasionally, there is a flurry of media attention to the issue of “responsible fatherhood.”   Promise Keepers will gather thousands of men at a rally or Bill Cosby will call on Black men to get more involved. But there’s much more to the modern “fatherhood” issue than these discrete news items.  The federal government has its own fatherhood initiative, which sponsors studies and projects intended to encourage men to be stable, involved fathers. States, cities, and churches too, are participating in these efforts. Sociological and other scientific journals – including the journals Fatherhood  and Sex Roles – are monthly publishing the results of empirical studies about the role of the father, or about the relationships between fathering and child outcomes. Chances are, too, that the sociology or psychology department at your local university is participating in one or more of these.

Denise M. Burke is the Vice President & Legal Director, Americans United for Life

Over the last few decades, abortion advocates and others have launched a concerted campaign to force hospitals, healthcare institutions, health insurers, and individual healthcare providers to provide, refer for, or pay for elective abortions, abortifacient drugs, contraceptives, assisted reproductive procedures such as in vitro fertilization, and sterilizations.  Their determined effort to eviscerate the concept of individual conscience and the freedom to follow one’s religious, moral or ethical beliefs from the medical profession has resulted in the following:

The on-going court battle in Illinois over the state’s permanently-enjoined parental notification law has once again brought parental involvement laws to the forefront of the cultural and legal fight against abortion.