#this religion prohibits(?) ultrasounds

[measlywritingblog]

If you're doing worldbuilding wednesday:

What's the religion and mythology in your WIP like? How does it affect the culture, characters, theme, and plot? If your WIP has prominent mythology and or religion in it, what are the main deities and what are some popular myths? How to the people in your WIP feel about the deities they believe in? If there's a popular religion, how widespread is it and are there any well known leaders? Any common practices and or teachings? What about people who don't follow the most common religion, what's it like for them in your WIP? etc etc etc.... (you don't have to answer all of the questions, they're just ideas for what you can share)

*if this is a double ask and I already sent you a question for WBW, feel free to ignore scatterbrained me today :P

HOO BOY WELCOME TO MY WHOLE WIP

BIG BIG BIG POST BELOW THE CUT

Big fat TL;DR at the top though:

Big powerful magic dude wrote himself as god in order to conquer humanity, and he succeeded. Most people think he's doing a good job at being their god. Those who don't are forced to convert, be space nomads, or die. Fun times! My protagonist, being an idol of worship in this religion, has a complicated relationship with this religion that defines literally every single one of her character conflicts, so that's cool.

Soooooo, as you might know if you've been following this blog for any length of time at all, my entire setting has been conquered by one guy who instituted Himself as god!

He calls Himself the "God-Father". He markets Himself as the god responsible for every world religion prior to Him coming into power. Depending on who's asking, He's the second coming of Christ, the final prophet, the awaited reincarnation, and so on. However, connecting Himself to the old world religions has become less important the longer His reign has continued. His holy book, the Holy Word, mostly mythologizes His actual life instead of attempting to tamper with older scriptures.

(Important note: this dude is very white. Very. A lot of His interpretations of non-Abrahamic religions are laughably incorrect. The bulk of the resistance against His rule, also known as "heretics", are Hindu, amongst other traditions, of course.)

The Holy Word is primarily concerned with psychics. It offers an explanation for why humans began to manifest psychic powers, and provides standards for how humans with psychic powers should carry themselves, and how they should be treated in society. It also acts as a history book, chronicling what bits of old world history that He considers important along with recording all that's happened since the founding of the religion. He revises the book about every hundred years or so, and making sure He doesn't accidentally contradict Himself is an enormous chore (that He's recently passed down to His eldest daughter.)

The most famous parable in the book tells of how the God-Father once came upon a town being oppressed by a powerful human psychic who was using her powers to control everyone. The God-Father swooped in, disposed of the dictator, and decreed that no psychic would ever use their powers to oppress their fellow man again. The lesson taken from the parable by the bulk of the population is that psychics should remain humble servants of the rest of humanity despite their power advantage. (Most remain completely oblivious to the hypocrisy of the story. The ones who do recognize the hypocrisy, but also want to keep their lives, often point out that the God-Father is different in that He's a god, not a human, so He's allowed such rule.)

The rest of the popular stories passed around depends heavily on where in the solar system you are:

On good ol' Earth, most of the stories told about Him are small, personal, and deeply reverent. They're about little miracles- Him appearing before sick children and healing them, showing up to random worship services and personally blessing them, etc. This is because Earth is His favorite planet by far, and before things got really busy for Him, He used to spend a lot of time walking about the people. (This also means that pretty much everybody has a story about their grandma or great-uncle or whatever having personally met the God-Father, only a small fraction of which are actually true.) Earth is also home to the most dividing sects of the religion. The God-Father isn't a fan of these divisions, but given how He founded this religion by absorbing all of the others, this was inevitable and He's decided to cut His losses in trying to unite them.

On Venus, the stories almost entirely center around how He almost single-handedly terraformed the planet to make it habitable. This one is actually mostly true. Venusians are quite proud to live on a colony that exists solely due to His craftsmanship.

On Mercury, the stories are much more about His wrath. Mercury has a problem with heretics, who seek refuge in the sun's scorching heat to avoid detection. Followers who do live on Mercury are much more of the "god-fearing" kind.

The people of Mars has a complicated relationship with faith, and it's evidenced by the fact that most of their stories about the God-Father are about Him having to be absent in order to protect everybody from a greater evil. A common sentiment is not that things are better now that He's here- it's that without Him, things would be much worse. The truly resentful, though, feel that He has abandoned them entirely. Mars is the home to the "missionaries", also known as the secret police who enforce belief in the religion, and this does not help the resentment problem.

Settlers of Jupiter's moons have a much more creationist bent, emphasizing how He made the planets for humanity to explore and exploit. The primary reason for expansion to Jupiter was for mining and resource exploitation. Being the richest colony other than Earth means that serious religious devotion kinda takes a back seat, in the exact opposite (and much less "troublesome") way it has on Mars.

Saturn was the old frontier for a few hundred years, and there's a very sharp divide between the large urban population of Titan and the smaller population that lives amongst the rings, harvesting water to make oxygen to supply the star-ships with. However, both populations tend to emphasize His humanity over everything else, and particularly prize a parable from the Holy Word where He goes through a period of fasting in the wilderness.

Uranus and Neptune are closely kindred planets, being tied in their isolation. With space travel being half reliant on solar sails, it's easy to get to these outer planets but more difficult to return. A lot of people seeking a better life, usually from Mars, buy one way tickets. There's similar themes in their stories, emphasizing how much He sacrifices for humanity.

Finally, there's Pluto. Considered a planet and the true last colony of humanity, it really is the final frontier. It's also the front porch to the vast number of heretics that reside in ships in the Oort cloud. It's a lot like Mercury, except lacking the security that Earth is only two planets away- the followers who make their home in this remote location are "god-fearing" people, with plenty of paranoia about heretics hidden in the midst, and very strict rituals to try and root them out. These guys are the Jehovah's witnesses of this setting lol.

Speaking of heretics- anyone who doesn't believe in the religion is labeled a "heretic" and are considered criminals. "Missionaries" are the name of the secret police that hunt down heretics, using various unfair tactics like telepathy to root them out. It's almost impossible to be atheist (even in hiding!) on a settled planet, especially on Venus, Earth, or Mars, which is why most heretics, upon losing faith, try to flee to either Mercury or Pluto as fast as possible.

The bulk of heretics live on vast ships in the Oort cloud. They disguise themselves amongst the debris, and try their best to make a life out there. Because so few psychics go heretic (due to government intervention shenanigans,) these guys have to rely on actual technology to survive. It's difficult, really difficult, but they get to believe what they want.

There's a few major factions, most notably the Free Abrahamists and New Bharat, and they've been around since the God-Father's initial conquests on Earth. They've been bullied around for 800 years- every time they thought they'd outrun His empire, it would expand. They were (despite what the propaganda would tell you) the first humans since our current modern day to reach space, and they were the first settlers on Mars. For a little while, the God-Father was content to appease them, but He eventually broke His promise and forced them off-world.

(This is the reason that Mars has so many problems. When it was conquered, a lot of heretics who were tired of running were subsumed into the religion. However, that kind of sentiment doesn't disappear overnight, and has since festered. And when there's that kind of social instability, opportunists have sprung up to take advantage of it. Hence the "missionaries", trying to enforce the religion and the law, in brutally authoritarian ways that don't actually work in the long run.)

Going back to the technology- when the heretics first fled from Earth, they took a lot of old world culture and technology with them. Heretic ships are the one place in the universe where you'll find copies of the Bible and the Quran, but also medical imaging technology- unheard of in an empire where the usual solution to any health maladies is calling up one of sky daddy's clerics to blast you with magical healing energy. Heretics are the only ones with actual doctors, which they might be better off about.

(The ideal healthcare in this setting would be a mixture of actual doctoring with said healing magic, but in the religion, implying that you would need different/more treatment than what sky daddy is serving up will get you burned at the stake. Not that medical technology has been totally lost within the empire, but pain pills and first aid are about as far as allowed outside of secret government labs.)

Finally, finally, finally, to narrow down on my protagonist:

She's just about the only person in this setting who can get away with not believing everything the God-Father's religion is peddling. This is because it is mandated by said religion that she herself be worshipped, which heavily colors most of her interactions with other human beings. There's only three people in her life who don't put her on a pedestal, that being Father Himself, Hayes, and Omegon, in ascending order of hereticalness.

Everyone else can't legally say "no" to her, and constructive criticism is on thin fucking ice. This goes about as well as you can expect- as much as she uses it to her advantage to get away with things, it also causes serious problems. She becomes the commander of a military fleet at age 14 through pure nepotism, and nobody around her is willing to correct her terrible commanding strategy until she literally forces them to.

As a (frankly natural) result of this treatment, she has a bit of a god complex and draws a distinct line between herself and "humans", despite the fact that she's just as human as they are. She struggles with seeing people as NPCs, and sucks at getting to know new people better. Omegon helps keep her humble, but not nearly enough.

However, however, despite all this chafing making her resent the religion, Alphara still sees her dad as a god. Worship might be a strong word, but she still refuses to see the writing on the wall that He is not divine and is, in fact, just some guy with strong magic powers. She wants to believe in His goodness and His empire and His Plan. This is her biggest point of conflict with Omegon, who is a staunch atheist. It makes their interactions spicy!!

Oh, and Hayes is in the weird position of worshipping the God-Father but also being His closest best friend. So like, he should know better than to think that Father's actually omniscient and all-powerful, but he's in denial about it. This denial doesn't get shaken until Alphara's almost sort-of assassination, which kickstarts his heretic arc in the second book!

[supemecourttoplawyerslist]

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[fightingthesinzombies]

There is a DEFINITE fallacy here, though I am not entirely sure which one. 

Allow me to make a couple of points

1) Judaism ALLOWING abortion is not the same as mandating it.  I cant think of ANY ritual in Judaism that requires abortion as a requirement to complete it.  So the returning of Abortion to the states from the Federal Level is not a Federal Impingement on your right to believe or not believe in the personhood of the unborn.

(if I am in error, then please enlighten me as I know I do not know everything)

There is a VAST difference in a religion allowing something and that thing being mandated.  

2) The first amendment does NOT protect the right to take another person’s life in the name of religion.  No religion can legally participate in Human sacrifice for example.   As far as I know Animal sacrifice is generally not allowed as part of religious rights and practices in quite a few states so if that is prohibited and is not facing continual legal challenge abortion would certainly fall into a similar category even if it WAS prescribed in Judaism.

3) The assertion that an unborn child is alive is not just a christian belief.  The fetus, as you say, has Unique DNA, a Heartbeat, a separate Central nervous system, a Separate circulatory system. In short it has its own body AND early on can respond to Stimuli.  Additionally it DOES breathe.  Until birth oxygen is supplied by the umbilical cord, but by 24 weeks there is ‘practice breathing’ which helps the lungs develop and strengthen.

It is not Christianity that is forcing the view of the personhood of the unborn, it is Neonatal science, ultrasounds, Fetal surgery etc.  The more we learn about Human development in the womb the more we discover how much of a person is there even before birth.

Banning abortion is a violation of my First Amendment, it’s a violation of my religious freedom. I do not want Christian views imposed on me as a Jew.

[seriousbusinessforhumans]

By Geeta Pandey BBC News, Delhi

Dec 16

Reports that a pregnant Hindu woman who was forcibly separated from her Muslim husband and may then have miscarried have highlighted controversies over a new anti-conversion law in India.

Earlier this month, a video clip went viral in India.

It showed a group of men, with orange scarves draped around their necks, heckling a woman in Moradabad town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

"It's because of people like you that this law had to be enacted," one of the men scolds her.

The hecklers were from Bajrang Dal, a hardline Hindu group which supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The law they are talking about is the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance that the state recently brought in to target "love jihad" - an Islamophobic term radical Hindu groups use to imply that Muslim men prey on Hindu women to convert them to Islam through marriage.

The incident in the video took place on 5 December. The Bajrang Dal activists handed over the 22-year-old woman, her husband and his brother to the police, who then sent her to a government shelter and arrested the men. Days later, the woman, who was seven weeks pregnant, alleged she suffered a miscarriage while in custody.

Earlier this week, a court allowed her to return to her husband's home after she told the magistrate that she was an adult and had married the Muslim man by choice. Her husband and brother-in-law remain in jail. In media interviews since being released on Monday evening, she has accused the staff at the shelter of mistreating her and said that her initial complaints of stomach pain were ignored. The shelter has denied the allegations. "When my condition deteriorated, they took me to a hospital [on 11 December]. After a blood test, I was admitted and they gave me injections, after which I started bleeding."

On Monday morning, while she was still in detention, the authorities rubbished reports that she had miscarried. The reports were based on interviews with her mother-in-law. The chairperson of the Child Protection Commission, Vishesh Gupta, denied all reports of the miscarriage and went as far as to insist that "the baby is safe".......But the authorities have not yet commented on the allegations she has made since her release. They have also not given her the results of her ultrasound examinations or details of which medicines she was injected with. So, five days after she was first taken to hospital, there's still no clarity on the status of the baby, raising questions and doubts.

But reports that the young woman may have had a miscarriage have caused outrage in India, with many taking to social media to blame the authorities for it.

In India, interfaith marriages have long attracted censure, with families often opposing such unions. But the new law, which stipulates that anyone wishing to convert must seek approval from the district authorities, gives the state a direct power over the citizens' right to love and choose a spouse. It carries a jail term of up to 10 years and offences under it are non-bailable. At least four other BJP-governed states are drafting similar laws against "love jihad".

A petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court, demanding that it be scrapped.

In the short time since it was passed on 29 November, at least half a dozen cases have been reported under the controversial law. Weddings of interfaith couples, between consenting adults and even those involving parental approval, have been halted and Muslim grooms have been arrested.

"The biggest problem with a law like this is that it treats interfaith love as a criminal activity," says historian Charu Gupta. "It also refuses to believe that a woman has agency, it disregards her free will. Isn't it a woman's choice who she wants to marry? And even if she wants to convert to another religion, what is the problem?

"This law," she says, "is so wide in its range and scope, and it puts the onus on those charged under it to prove their innocence. And that is very dangerous."

(selected segments of the article)

[globalpeacefoundationindia]

A REPORT ON

Pre conception and pre natal diagnostic techniques (Prohibition of sex selection) act

“Congratulations ….. A new member is about to come in the family….. Celebrations time …. ” as soon as a couple hears this line from his spouse, their happiness has no limit. No other happiness can be compared with this. But with a sad reality of our society this news besides bringing happiness brings a question in the mind of the family members or sometimes this question is found disturbing the happiness of the coming up parents , regarding the SEX of that innocent.

In many of the families there is a demand for the male child and saying this would not be a wrong thing that they the family members are just not ready to welcome the female member. And this resulted a heinous crime that is detection of the foetus and if found that it is a female it is brutally aborted or mercilessly murdered by its own upcoming family members. It was found that this crime is growing without any control and even has touched every section of the society and this was an alarming time when our government decided to put a stop to this crime. And this was the time when on 20 September 1994 a law regarding the detection of the foetus was to be made a punishable offence not only for the family members but also or the hospitals and dignitaries involved in the pre natal diagnosis. This was on 1 January 1996 this was passed which clearly stated that any such authority should be banned from the selection or pre natal diagnosis of the foetus .

It is rightly said that the upgrading technologies rather than helping the needy ones it has given new ways of committing crime. The technology of IVF which was introduced to help the women who were not able to conceive the foetus naturally but rather than taking it to be boon for themselves many selfish minds have found the way to fulfill their selfish goals. They have started making unnecessary use of it by using it to select the sex of the foetus.

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to stop female foeticides and arrest the declining sex ratio in India. The act banned prenatal sex determination. Every genetic counselling centre, genetic laboratory or genetic clinic engaged in counselling or conducting pre-natal diagnostics techniques, like in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the potential of sex selection (Preimplantation genetic diagnosis) before and after

conception comes under preview of the PCPNDT Act and are banned.

The salient features of this act are as given below:

The main purpose of enacting the act is to ban the use of sex selection techniques after conception and prevent the misuse of prenatal diagnostic technique for sex selective abortions.

The important provisions in this act are as stated :

1. The Act provides for the prohibition of sex selection, before or after conception.

2. It regulates the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques, like ultrasound and amniocentesis by allowing them their use only to detect :

1. genetic abnormalities

2. metabolic disorders

3. chromosomal abnormalities

4. certain congenital malformations

5. haemoglobinopathies

6. sex linked disorders.

3. No laboratory or centre or clinic will conduct any test including ultrasonography for the purpose of determining the sex of the foetus.

4. No person, including the one who is conducting the procedure as per the law, will communicate the sex of the foetus to the pregnant woman or her relatives by words, signs or any other method.

• The Act mandates compulsory registration of all diagnostic laboratories, all genetic counselling centres, genetic laboratories, genetic clinics and ultrasound clinics.

Reasons contributing to sex selection :

This can be observed through sex ratios of children in various countries. Although biologically the sex ratio of children is around 95 girls to every 100 boys, this number generally evens out due to the higher infant mortality rate of boy infants. Scholars argue that the expected birth sex ratio in a normal population is in the range of 103 to 107 males to females at birth. However, in a number of countries of South Asia, East Asia and the Caucasus, the sex ratio of children is severely distorted. The problem is particularly severe in China and India. The preference for sons over daughters can be connected to a number of reasons. In these countries, it is argued that son preference is linked to factors including economics, religion, and culture. Having a son ensures that families are more economically secure by not having to provide dowry payments, but rather being on the receiving end of this practice.

In China, the one child policy has contributed to the sex imbalance, while the dowry system in India is responsible for a strong son preference. Furthermore, in countries where there are discriminatory practices regarding women inheriting, owning, or controlling land by law, having a son ensures that the family will not have to worry about the legal aftermath if something were to happen to them. It can also be argued that parents in these countries are aware of the potential hardship their daughter would have to endure in her lifetime, and therefore prefer to have a son in order not to see their daughter endure such difficulties. Many times this son preference results in female foeticide and pre-natal sex selection.

Survey reports:

In countries such as India, China, Indonesia and Nepal sons have been favored over daughters. According to a 2011 Gallup poll, American parents favor boys by a 40% to 28% margin. The results were similar to a survey in 1941, when Americans preferred a boy to a girl by a 38% to 24% margin. The overall preference was driven by men, of whom 49% preferred a son compared to 22% who preferred a daughter. Men's preference for sons was most pronounced among men aged 18 to 29. Women, on the other hand, showed no preference for either sex, with 33% stating that they preferred a girl and 31% responding that they favored a boy

Survey report of India :

According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0–6 age group in India went from 104.0 males per 100 females in 1981, to 105.8 in 1991, to 107.8 in 2001, to 109.4 in 2011. The ratio is significantly higher in certain states such as Punjab and Haryana (126.1 and 122.0, as of 2001)

Amendments in the act:

Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1994 (PNDT), was amended in 2003 to The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition Of Sex Selection) Act (PCPNDT Act) to improve the regulation of the technology used in sex selection.

Implications of the amendment are

1. Amendment of the act mainly covered bringing the technique of pre conception sex selection within the ambit of the act

2. Bringing ultrasound within its ambit

3. Empowering the central supervisory board, constitution of state level supervisory board

4. Provision for more stringent punishments

5. Empowering appropriate authorities with the power of civil court for search, seizure and sealing the machines and equipment of the violators

6. Regulating the sale of the ultrasound machines only to registered bodies

Punishment to the authorities undergoing such practices :

Any person who puts an advertisement for pre-natal and pre-conception sex determination facilities in the form of a notice, circular, label, wrapper or any document, or advertises through interior or other media in electronic or print form or engages in any visible representation made by means of hoarding, wall painting, signal, light, sound, smoke or gas, can be imprisoned for up to three years and fined Rs. 10,000.

A 2009 study at the University of Ulster found that having sisters, as compared to brothers, can enhance the quality of an adult's life.

- Vaishnavi Pandey

[nastywomenblr-blog]

Ya down wit the PP?

Real talk, you should be.  

Planned Parenthood faces constant legislative woes, fueled by the religious right.  Though the government is prohibited from enacting laws that interfere with practicing religion, vis-a-vis the Constitution, the religious right continuously forces their religious views on all citizens through state and federal legislation.  Do you remember when Catholics and Christians denounced the use of birth control claiming it was murder?  The irony being those preaching these sentiments to their congregations were doing so in front of drastically smaller families than ever before.  My church quietly backed away from the condemnation of birth control somewhere around the year 2000 (Backstory, I'm a recovering Catholic.  In my youth, the house rule was mass each Sunday).  At some point even Catholics had to acknowledge that their congregation was no longer made up of families with 10 plus kids each and that perhaps it was more than divine intervention causing it.

To distract from the quiet acceptance of birth control, religious groups turned their focus on abortion.  The Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 gave women access to abortion.  But not long after, women took a different approach.  In fact, abortion rates have essentially been decreasing since the early 1980s.  (4)  Some reasons for the decline could be negative - for example inadequate access to a clinic, or unnecessary barriers like viewing the ultrasound, forcing consent from the father, attending a burial service, etc. (4)  However, while abortion rates have been decreasing, births have not been increasing. (1)   The likelihood of this is affordable access to birth control, especially more effective birth control. (2) 

There are many types of birth control.  But each has a failure rate which could result in pregnancy, a mindfuck of a life-altering event for all parties.  Condoms have a failure rate of approximately 18%, oral contraceptives have a failure rate of approximately 9%, and long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), such as IUDs or implants, have a failure rate of less than 1%.  (1)   Obviously the best method is....LARCs, don't even fucking say abstinence.  I do not need to revisit the ungodly amount of studies and FAILURES of abstinence-only education.  Further, grown ass women do not need to be rich in order to have sex.  I'm sick & tired of women, especially lower & middle class women, being stranded in the ocean while rich, white men tell them they should have made better life choices while they float away on their yacht.  Sex is not a privilege for only the wealthy.  

Look, LARCs are not only highly effective because they don't require daily use, but they also remove the reliance on males.  Men have too much sexual freedom in comparison to females, and to paraphrase Juno, the proof of sex is never under his shirt.  He also doesn't have to give birth, incur thousands in medical bills, & forever be responsible for the life of a human.  Unfortunately, as my experience in family law has shown me, it is easier and frequently men that walk away entirely or come & go when it's convenient.  The responsibility falls on the woman to provide (With the added bonus of the goddamn pay gap).

Thus, it is so important all women have affordable access to birth control.  They should be in control of their own future and their own fucking bodies.  Therefore, every person with a functioning brain should support Planned Parenthood, stand up for Planned Parenthood, and ensure their doors stay open.  The Indiana/Kentucky Planned Parenthood organization (my local PP) reports annual numbers, although the categories reported vary year to year.  In 2016, my local PP provided care for over 51,000 patients, in the form of birth control, pap smears, STD screenings, referral sources, and yes abortions.  (3)  However, in 2013, the most recent self reporting of abortion numbers (since it's not federally required to track & report), there were zero abortions performed in Kentucky.  (3)  Yes zero.  They did, however, ensure patients received affordable access to various types of birth control, which ultimately helps decrease the number of abortions performed, by lowering the number of unintended pregnancies.  

At the end of the day, both sides can agree that the goal would be zero abortions needed.  Planned Parenthood can provide that number, and still stay operational.  However, an abortion decision is for a family to make with their doctor.  Only the families themselves can decide what is best for them & the child based on their current situation and trying to predict if their future circumstances will provide a healthy environment for the child.   For some who visit PP, they do decide adoption services are best for them.  But even if every abortion was converted to adoption, the Cabinet is still woefully overwhelmed with children aging out of the system each year before they ever find a home.  There is no shortage of kids to adopt.  And removing the option of abortion, do not stop abortions.

Access to affordable healthcare, especially for women, should not be at the mercy of religiously fueled legislation.  PP doors should remain open for women to make educated health decisions without going bankrupt.  Support their work and donate $5 HERE.  With the current fight among GOP asshats to repeal and replace at any cost to the average american,  access to Planned Parenthood is more important than ever.

[dinafbrownil]

Federally Funded Obria Prescribes Abstinence To Stop The Spread Of STDs

IRVINE, Calif. — Inside Obria Medical Clinics, conviction — not condoms — is summoned to stop the spread of chlamydia.

The Christian medical chain, awarded $1.7 million in federal family planning funds for the first time this year, does not offer hormonal birth control or condoms; instead, its doctors and nurses teach patients when they’re likely to be fertile and counsel them in restraint.

Reproductive health care providers have bristled over Obria’s inclusion in a federal program, known as Title X, established to help poor women avoid unwanted pregnancies. But clinics receiving money also are expected to detect, treat and prevent sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, and Obria’s prohibition against condoms means its prevention efforts — whether for single millennials or aging married couples — rest on abstinence.

In its application for federal funding, Obria pledged to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and recognized medical standards for preventing STDs. Used correctly and consistently, condoms are highly effective at preventing transmission of STDs, according to the CDC, a finding echoed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other major medical associations.

But Obria will not advocate or provide condoms. Instead, its staff will “emphasize that avoiding sex is the only 100-percent method to prevent pregnancy and STDs” and teach patients about “high-risk behaviors” and the “risks of using ‘safe-sex’ methods,” according to the group’s application.

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Obria representatives declined a request to be interviewed for this article. But in a 2018 interview, Kathleen Bravo, CEO of the Obria Group, described the organization’s approach.

“By reducing sexual risk, you would have less women getting sick with STDs and cancer and pregnancies,” said Bravo, a devout Catholic. “In other words, teach them to not even go down that path.”

Sexual health educators, tasked with reversing four straight years of record levels of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis across the nation, regard Obria’s prohibition against condoms as reckless and dismiss its focus on abstinence as wishful thinking.

“It’s hard to fathom how a health care provider could test someone for an STI [sexually transmitted infection], have the results either be negative or positive and not provide them with information about the efficacy of condoms in STI protection,” said Philip Yaeger, executive director of Radiant Health Centers, a community provider in Irvine that receives Title X funds.

From 2013 to 2017, the number of gonorrhea cases across the country increased 67%; syphilis rose by 76%. The number of cases of gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia reached 2.3 million in 2017. About 30,000 people are newly infected with HIV each year.

Left untreated, sexually transmitted diseases can lead to infertility, cervical cancer, blindness and dementia. The number of cases of pregnant women who pass along syphilis to their babies more than doubled from 2013 to 2017 in the U.S., resulting in scores of newborn deaths and hundreds of children with severe health complications.

In Orange County, among the wide boulevards and gleaming office towers where Obria maintains its headquarters, sexually transmitted diseases are an unrelenting force: From 2013 to 2017, gonorrhea cases rose by 129%, chlamydia by 65% and syphilis by 99%.

To confront the epidemic, health educators from Radiant Health Centers set up tables with sound machines and pulsing lights in nightclub parking lots on most weekends. Over the past year, they’ve handed out 25,000 condoms and oodles of lubricant.

Tiffany Hendrix, Radiant’s director of Health Education and Prevention — who takes an unsentimental view of sexuality after becoming a teenage mother — travels from high school to high school with a model penis and vagina instructing students on how to properly use condoms.

“It doesn’t matter what our beliefs are,” Hendrix said. “It’s our job to educate a person so they can make informed decisions, like with diabetes or cholesterol.”

But the conservative Christians helping fuel the growth in religion-based medical care in the U.S. say doctrinal beliefs rightfully determine the services offered in their hospitals and clinics, even when it involves virulent sexually transmitted diseases.

“Contraception is seen as harming the gifts God gave us,” said Theresa Notare, assistant director of the Natural Family Planning Program at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “You can’t put in physical barriers like condoms or chemical substances that are going to obstruct the natural design of the ovaries.”

“There are no exceptions,” Notare said, even for STDs and HIV.

If a spouse is HIV infected, she said, withholding sex becomes a gesture of love. “The very difficult question has to be asked: Do we never have sex again? Quite frankly, because of a life-threatening disease, I would interpret it as yes.”

Catholic and evangelical Christian advocates herald President Donald Trump as an unlikely champion who, after decades of wobbly promises from Republican lawmakers and presidents, is delivering on their agenda.

The administration has worked methodically to appoint judges who oppose abortion rights; stamp out Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers; reverse Obama-era mandates on employers to include birth control in insurance coverage; and give primacy to abstinence sexual education in schools.

In loosening long-standing requirements that clinics provide the full suite of birth control options, including condoms, the Trump administration has allowed what were once makeshift anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers — which typically offered pregnancy tests and, at most, operated an ultrasound machine — to become certified medical clinics.

Over the next three years, Obria could receive $5.1 million in federal family planning funds for its California clinics. But Bravo, who operates 38 clinics in six states, has grander visions: She wants Obria to become a nationwide alternative to Planned Parenthood, launching a $240 million capital campaign to open more sites.

“We put huge amounts of money into marketing our medical clinics to make sure that women know that we’re here in their city and these are the services that we provide,” Bravo said.

But Obria’s main website and the Obria Direct app for patients do not clearly indicate the organization’s religious convictions or how its religious beliefs limit its medical offerings.

The organization’s homepage portrays a prosaic medical practice “devoted to taking care of you holistically” and providing “the support and answers you need in regards to your sexual health.” The list of services includes STD testing and treatment, HIV testing, well-woman care and health education. Embedded in a lengthy description of the failure rates and possible complications of intrauterine devices, birth control pills, condoms and patches on Obria’s “Birth Control” page are notes that “Obria Medical Clinics does not prescribe birth control” and that natural family planning “is ineffective at preventing STDs.”

Medical facilities are not required to inform patients of religious affiliations or the limits of health care options.

The number of Catholic-affiliated hospitals across the country has grown rapidly in recent years, especially as hospital systems have consolidated. Five of the top 10 hospital systems by net patient revenue are associated with the Roman Catholic Church. But more than a third of women who visit a Catholic hospital for reproductive care are unaware of the religious affiliation, according to researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of California-San Francisco.

David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, said clinics such as Obria are essentially pulling a “bait and switch” and raised the specter of potential liability for religiously oriented clinics, funded with public dollars, should a patient be given incomplete advice and then contract an STD.

“Pretending that you’ve given adequate advice is misleading and lying,” he said.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/federally-funded-obria-prescribes-abstinence-to-stop-the-spread-of-stds/

[jamesgeiiger]

New state laws affect birth to death – and, of course, taxes

The new year marks the start of numerous new state laws affecting a broad swath of life — from birth to marriage to death and, of course, taxes. Most take effect Tuesday. A look at some of them:

ABORTION

States continue to move in different directions. A new Washington law will require contraception coverage in health insurance and, if a policy covers maternity care, also will require it to cover abortions.

A Kansas law, facing a court challenge, bans telemedicine abortions, in which patients seeking abortion pills consult with doctors through teleconferencing.

In Tennessee, a new law says if an ultrasound is performed before an abortion, the woman must be given the opportunity to learn the results.

Arizona will require increased state reporting about abortions, and providers must ask women if they were coerced into seeking the procedure or are victims of sex trafficking or sexual assault.

ASSISTED SUICIDE

Hawaii will become the sixth state, along with Washington D.C., to legalize medically assisted suicide. The law will allow doctors to fulfil requests from terminally ill patients for fatal prescription medication. Two health care providers must confirm a patient’s diagnosis, prognosis and ability to make decisions about the prescription.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A Louisiana constitutional amendment, approved by voters, will require unanimous juries in order to convict people of serious felony crimes. It reverses a Jim Crow-era practice that had allowed as few as 10 members of a 12-person jury to convict defendants in cases not involving death sentences. Oregon will now be the only state to allow convictions under split juror verdicts.

A California law will prohibit people age 15 and younger from being tried as adults for crimes.

DRUNKEN DRIVING

Utah is adopting the nation’s strictest drunken driving threshold — 0.05 per cent blood alcohol content. The state’s hospitality and ski industries have expressed concern that the new law will exacerbate Utah’s reputation as a Mormon-dominated state where it’s tough to get a drink. But proponents include the National Transportation Safety Board, which says people start to become impaired with a first drink.

An Idaho law will require first-time convicted drunken drivers to have an ignition interlock device installed on their vehicles for one year.

EQUALITY

A new Oregon law will expand equal pay requirements. The law extends an existing prohibition on sex-based pay discrimination to also include race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability and age. Pay differences must be based on seniority, merit, experience and other factors. Employees who prevail in complaints with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries can recover back pay for up to two years.

California will require corporate boards of publicly traded companies to include women by the end of 2019.

GUNS

One new Illinois law will extend the current 72-hour waiting period for purchasing handguns to all firearms; another will allow relatives or law officers to ask courts to remove guns from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others.

California, which already bars people younger than 21 from buying handguns, will extend that to long guns with a few exceptions for military members and licensed hunters. The state also will ban guns for people with certain domestic violence misdemeanours and require eight hours of training and live-fire exercises to carry concealed weapons.

IMMIGRANTS

A Tennessee law will ban local governments from having “sanctuary” policies for people living in the country illegally. It bans local government policies that restrict compliance with federal immigration detainers. The law threatens to withhold future state economic development money from those that don’t comply.

Colorado will make it easier for immigrants living in the country illegally to renew state driver’s licenses. The state has been issuing such licenses since 2014, but they had to be renewed in person every three years at one of just three state offices devoted to that purpose. The law’s Republican sponsors argued the economies of their rural districts were at stake.

MARRIAGE

The minimum marriage age in New Hampshire will rise to 16 — up from 13 for girls and 14 for boys. The new law was championed by Cassie Levesque, who was a senior in high school in 2017 when she began her two-year push to raise the marriage age as part of a Girl Scouts project. The experience led her to run for a state House seat, which she won in November. Another new law prohibits judges from signing off on marriages involving a person under the age of consent unless there is clear and convincing evidence the marriage is in the child’s best interest.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

A new Delaware law will require employers with 50 or more employees to provide sexual harassment training to current workers within the next year, or within one year of hiring new employees. Training must be offered every two years thereafter.

California employers with at least five employees will have to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to supervisors and at least one hour of training to all other employees, conducted this coming year and every two years thereafter.

Another new California law will bar confidential settlements to resolve claims of sexual assault or harassment, gender discrimination or retaliation, although it still will allow the identity of the accuser and amount paid to remain secret in some cases. A new law also will bar contracts and settlements that waive a person’s right to testify about sexual harassment or criminal conduct.

TAXES

At least a half dozen states will begin enforcing sales tax laws on some out-of-state retailers. Georgia, for example, will collect a 4 per cent sales tax on online retailers who make at least $250,000 or 200 sales a year in Georgia. The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for states to collect billions in additional sales taxes from online retailers with a ruling in June. Some states began collecting those taxes before the new year.

Missouri, which has not passed an online sales tax law, will cut its individual income tax rate by one-half of a percentage point. The tax cut will be partially offset by phasing in a reduction in the state tax break for taxes paid to the federal government.

——

Associated Press reporters David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri; Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Bob Christie in Phoenix; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon; Jim Anderson in Denver; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Randall Chase in Dover, Delaware; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

New state laws affect birth to death – and, of course, taxes published first on https://worldwideinvestforum.tumblr.com/

[mikemortgage]

New state laws affect birth to death – and, of course, taxes

The new year marks the start of numerous new state laws affecting a broad swath of life — from birth to marriage to death and, of course, taxes. Most take effect Tuesday. A look at some of them:

ABORTION

States continue to move in different directions. A new Washington law will require contraception coverage in health insurance and, if a policy covers maternity care, also will require it to cover abortions.

A Kansas law, facing a court challenge, bans telemedicine abortions, in which patients seeking abortion pills consult with doctors through teleconferencing.

In Tennessee, a new law says if an ultrasound is performed before an abortion, the woman must be given the opportunity to learn the results.

Arizona will require increased state reporting about abortions, and providers must ask women if they were coerced into seeking the procedure or are victims of sex trafficking or sexual assault.

ASSISTED SUICIDE

Hawaii will become the sixth state, along with Washington D.C., to legalize medically assisted suicide. The law will allow doctors to fulfil requests from terminally ill patients for fatal prescription medication. Two health care providers must confirm a patient’s diagnosis, prognosis and ability to make decisions about the prescription.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A Louisiana constitutional amendment, approved by voters, will require unanimous juries in order to convict people of serious felony crimes. It reverses a Jim Crow-era practice that had allowed as few as 10 members of a 12-person jury to convict defendants in cases not involving death sentences. Oregon will now be the only state to allow convictions under split juror verdicts.

A California law will prohibit people age 15 and younger from being tried as adults for crimes.

DRUNKEN DRIVING

Utah is adopting the nation’s strictest drunken driving threshold — 0.05 per cent blood alcohol content. The state’s hospitality and ski industries have expressed concern that the new law will exacerbate Utah’s reputation as a Mormon-dominated state where it’s tough to get a drink. But proponents include the National Transportation Safety Board, which says people start to become impaired with a first drink.

An Idaho law will require first-time convicted drunken drivers to have an ignition interlock device installed on their vehicles for one year.

EQUALITY

A new Oregon law will expand equal pay requirements. The law extends an existing prohibition on sex-based pay discrimination to also include race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability and age. Pay differences must be based on seniority, merit, experience and other factors. Employees who prevail in complaints with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries can recover back pay for up to two years.

California will require corporate boards of publicly traded companies to include women by the end of 2019.

GUNS

One new Illinois law will extend the current 72-hour waiting period for purchasing handguns to all firearms; another will allow relatives or law officers to ask courts to remove guns from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others.

California, which already bars people younger than 21 from buying handguns, will extend that to long guns with a few exceptions for military members and licensed hunters. The state also will ban guns for people with certain domestic violence misdemeanours and require eight hours of training and live-fire exercises to carry concealed weapons.

IMMIGRANTS

A Tennessee law will ban local governments from having “sanctuary” policies for people living in the country illegally. It bans local government policies that restrict compliance with federal immigration detainers. The law threatens to withhold future state economic development money from those that don’t comply.

Colorado will make it easier for immigrants living in the country illegally to renew state driver’s licenses. The state has been issuing such licenses since 2014, but they had to be renewed in person every three years at one of just three state offices devoted to that purpose. The law’s Republican sponsors argued the economies of their rural districts were at stake.

MARRIAGE

The minimum marriage age in New Hampshire will rise to 16 — up from 13 for girls and 14 for boys. The new law was championed by Cassie Levesque, who was a senior in high school in 2017 when she began her two-year push to raise the marriage age as part of a Girl Scouts project. The experience led her to run for a state House seat, which she won in November. Another new law prohibits judges from signing off on marriages involving a person under the age of consent unless there is clear and convincing evidence the marriage is in the child’s best interest.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

A new Delaware law will require employers with 50 or more employees to provide sexual harassment training to current workers within the next year, or within one year of hiring new employees. Training must be offered every two years thereafter.

California employers with at least five employees will have to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to supervisors and at least one hour of training to all other employees, conducted this coming year and every two years thereafter.

Another new California law will bar confidential settlements to resolve claims of sexual assault or harassment, gender discrimination or retaliation, although it still will allow the identity of the accuser and amount paid to remain secret in some cases. A new law also will bar contracts and settlements that waive a person’s right to testify about sexual harassment or criminal conduct.

TAXES

At least a half dozen states will begin enforcing sales tax laws on some out-of-state retailers. Georgia, for example, will collect a 4 per cent sales tax on online retailers who make at least $250,000 or 200 sales a year in Georgia. The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for states to collect billions in additional sales taxes from online retailers with a ruling in June. Some states began collecting those taxes before the new year.

Missouri, which has not passed an online sales tax law, will cut its individual income tax rate by one-half of a percentage point. The tax cut will be partially offset by phasing in a reduction in the state tax break for taxes paid to the federal government.

——

Associated Press reporters David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri; Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Bob Christie in Phoenix; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon; Jim Anderson in Denver; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Randall Chase in Dover, Delaware; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

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