(SRN NEWS) – The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s rejection of signature petitions in favor of putting an abortion initiative on the November ballot. The ruling dashes the hopes of abortion advocates to have voters decide the issue in the predominantly Republican state. Petition organizers had submitted more than 100,000 signatures. But election […]
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(SRN NEWS) – The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld the state’s rejection of signature petitions in favor of putting an abortion initiative on the November ballot. The ruling dashes the hopes of abortion advocates to have voters decide the issue in the predominantly Republican state. Petition organizers had submitted more than 100,000 signatures. But election officials said the group didn’t comply because documentation for paid signature gatherers was submitted separately and not in a single bundle. The measure aimed to scale back the Arkansas abortion ban.
The Texas Department of Public Safety will no longer allow transgender residents to change the sex on their driver’s license to align with their gender identity. That’s according to an internal agency email that also asks staff to compile the names of people seeking a gender marker change. The Texas Tribune obtained a photo of the email, which said the change takes effect immediately. Previous rules allowed changes due to clerical errors, or if an amended birth certificate or an original certified court record was presented.
The Taliban is tightening the grip of radical Islam on Afghanistan. The government now says it is mandatory for all Afghan women to conceal their faces and voices in public. That’s according to newly published laws covering aspects of everyday life from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue. The laws are set out in a 114-page document that marks the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. They empower the ministry to be at the frontline of regulating personal conduct.
Norway’s government says it wants to relax restrictions on abortion for the first time in nearly half a century to make it legal for women to terminate pregnancies up to the 18th week of gestation. Norway’s laws currently allow legal abortions up to 12 weeks, but many pregnant women ask for an abortion after the 12th week and are granted it in hospitals and clinics. The proposal needs a majority — 85 votes — in the 169-member Norwegian parliament. So far some 80 lawmakers have said they will vote in favor of it.