RELIGION HEADLINES

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(SRN NEWS) – The Supreme Court has declined to hear a pair of cases from pro-life advocates who say laws limiting demonstrations near clinics violate their First Amendment rights.  The high court turned down the appeals, though justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito disagreed.  Pro-lifers argue that the laws barring people from protesting should be struck down in light of the repeal of Roe versus Wade.  In fact, the high court struck down a Massachusetts law creating a 35-foot buffer zone around clinic doors in 2014.  Similar laws are in effect in Illinois and New Jersey. 

Pennsylvania’s governing body for high school sports has changed its policy that allowed boys to compete against girls in athletics to follow President Trump’s executive order.  The board of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association has removed a policy that had deferred to school principals to determine an athlete’s gender.  High school associations in some other states have signaled they may defy the president’s order, while others were taking a wait-and-see approach.  Legal challenges are expected on both sides of the issue. 

Republican lawmakers in Iowa are advancing a bill that would strip the state civil rights code of protections based on so-called “gender identity”.  The measure has so far passed two legislative hurdles in the state House Judiciary Committee.  The bill would need to pass through the full House and Senate before going to Republican Governor Kim Reynolds for her signature.  Sexual orientation and gender identity were not originally included in Iowa’s Civil Rights Act of 1965. They were added by the Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2007. 

The Republican attorney general of Texas wants the NCAA to take its transgender policy a step further and require gender testing for athletes who compete in women’s sports.  Ken Paxton wants an injunction to keep the NCAA from “falsely and deceptively claiming that only biological women may participate in female-specific competitions.”  Earlier this month, the NCAA aligned its participation policy for transgender athletes with President Trump’s new executive order by limiting competition in women’s sports to athletes who are actually biological women.