RELIGION HEADLINES MON 3-23

(SRN NEWS)-

(  )  A federal judge in Oregon says the Trump administration overreached by issuing a declaration that sex-change operations for children are unsafe and ineffective.  Judge Mustafa Kasubhai (kah-shoob-HIGH) states that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not go through the proper administrative procedures when issuing the declaration in December. That declaration also warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide such operations.  A coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia sued HHS last year, claiming that Secretary Kennedy failed to follow proper procedure.

(  )  More Democrats are openly running on faith.  Candidates include James Talarico, a Texas seminarian running for Senate, and several ordained ministers running in Iowa for Congress.  Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear also leans into faith with a new book amid speculation he will run for president in 2028.  Experts say many Democrats often avoid religious talk because polls show that atheists, agnostics and non-religious people are amongst the party’s most vigorous supporters.  The vast majority of people who identify as Evangelicals vote Republican and have become a key constituency for President Trump.

(  )  The Trump administration has launched investigations into 13 states that require state-regulated health insurance plans to cover abortion.  The probes are the latest in a long-running dispute between the political parties on how to interpret a provision that’s included in federal spending laws each year.  It bars states from discriminating against health entities that don’t provide, cover or refer for abortion.  When Democrat Joe Biden was president, the Department of Health and Human Services said the provision didn’t pertain to employers or other health care sponsors. The Trump administration says it does.

(  )  A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an illegal abortion.  If state prosecutors decide to move forward, it would be one of the first instances of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy in Georgia since it passed a law banning most abortions.  The arrest warrant says police determined the woman had been pregnant beyond six weeks “based on the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe.”  The baby survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital.