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NEW YORK (AP) -- Janet Jackson's latest escapade: motherhood....
CORCORAN, Calif. (AP) -- A California prison official says cult killer Charles Manson is alive following reports that he was hospitalized....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Falling in line with tradition, Bill and Hillary Clinton plan to attend Donald Trump's inauguration. It's a decision that will put Hillary Clinton on the inaugural platform as her bitter rival from the 2016 campaign assumes the office she long sought....
NEW YORK (AP) -- His inauguration less than three weeks away, President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday raised new doubts about the nation's intelligence community, tweeting fresh criticism at the same officials who will help inform his most sensitive decisions once he takes office....
Vatican City, Jan 3, 2017 / 02:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Widely shared quotes attributed to Pope Francis, in which he advocates for a merging of the religions of Christianity and Islam, have been debunked by the Vatican as fake.One of the quotes falsely attributed to Francis states: “Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Jehovah, Allah. These are all names employed to describe an entity that is distinctly the same across the world. For centuries, blood has been needlessly shed because of the desire to segregate our faiths.”Another false quote states: “We can accomplish miraculous things in the world by merging our faiths, and the time for such a movement is now.”Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told the Associated Press that the quotes are “invented.”Various versions of this story can be found on different websites and blogs at least as early as 2015.It is not the first time quotes have been falsely attributed to the Holy Father.A widely-circulated meme that originat...
Vatican City, Jan 3, 2017 / 02:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Widely shared quotes attributed to Pope Francis, in which he advocates for a merging of the religions of Christianity and Islam, have been debunked by the Vatican as fake.
One of the quotes falsely attributed to Francis states: “Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Jehovah, Allah. These are all names employed to describe an entity that is distinctly the same across the world. For centuries, blood has been needlessly shed because of the desire to segregate our faiths.”
Another false quote states: “We can accomplish miraculous things in the world by merging our faiths, and the time for such a movement is now.”
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told the Associated Press that the quotes are “invented.”
Various versions of this story can be found on different websites and blogs at least as early as 2015.
It is not the first time quotes have been falsely attributed to the Holy Father.
A widely-circulated meme that originated around December 2014 falsely quotes Francis saying that belief in God “is not necessary” to be a good person. The quote has not been corroborated by any official text or statement of Pope Francis.
On another occasion, during World Youth Day 2013 in Brazil, a poem falsely attributed to Pope Francis went viral on social media. The original source of the poem can not be verified, but the first English version of the poem appeared online as early as 2010, three years before Francis’ election to the petrine ministry.
Washington D.C., Jan 3, 2017 / 03:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that women who get abortions show no signs of increased mental health problems after having an abortion – and that in fact, it's women who are denied an abortion that suffer more greatly.But pro-life organizations and other researchers have responded that the study doesn't show the whole picture, and that these findings don't mean that women don't regret their abortions. They also counter that similar studies involving an exorbitantly higher number of women have shown the opposite results, and that everything needs to be taken into account.“I confess I'm not that surprised at what it uncovered, and it's important for abortion opponents to neither instantly vilify the study nor to fear what it can tell us,” Mark Regnerus, associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin told CNA.&ldquo...
Washington D.C., Jan 3, 2017 / 03:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that women who get abortions show no signs of increased mental health problems after having an abortion – and that in fact, it's women who are denied an abortion that suffer more greatly.
But pro-life organizations and other researchers have responded that the study doesn't show the whole picture, and that these findings don't mean that women don't regret their abortions. They also counter that similar studies involving an exorbitantly higher number of women have shown the opposite results, and that everything needs to be taken into account.
“I confess I'm not that surprised at what it uncovered, and it's important for abortion opponents to neither instantly vilify the study nor to fear what it can tell us,” Mark Regnerus, associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin told CNA.
“A sober assessment is in order.”
The study, called the “Turnaway Study” was conducted by researchers from University of California – San Francisco and tracked 956 women from 21 states for more than five years. The women – all of whom had sought abortion – were interviewed once a week after seeking out an abortion, and then every six months for that five year period.
Antonia Biggs and Diana Greene Foster, two of the researchers who wrote the study, told CNA in a statement that in their study, women who were denied abortions had more mental health repercussions – like anxiety, lower self-esteem and less life satisfaction, in the short-term than women who had abortions. The study also found that by six months these rates of mental health consequences were similar. Both groups of women had “ similar levels of depressive symptoms over the entire five year period,” of the study the researchers commented.
“We found no evidence of increases in mental health problems after having an abortion,” they added.
Critics, however, say that the relatively short length of the study doesn’t account for women who come regret their abortion many years later, nor does it mean that a lack of depression or other mental health effects means that women don’t experience regret.
Ana-Maria Dumitru, director of Medical Students For Life, told CNA that other studies have come to opposite conclusions. Dumitru pointed to a study by Dr. D Paul Sullins of the Catholic University of America published earlier in 2016 followed more than 8,000 women for over 13 years.
“The Sullins study confirmed that even after controlling for over twenty possible variables, there's still a clear, significant increase in the relative risk of mental health disorders for women who have abortions.” These risks, she added were compared to both live birth and miscarriage outcomes. Other studies from New Zealand and Norway also showed similar increased risks of mental health issues for women who have abortions, she added.
Regnerus helped explain some of the design of the study to CNA. He said that while abortion is not his area of study, there were some reasonable interpretations and qualifications to be made of the findings from a social sciences perspective. He said the basic design of the study was “competent,” since the researchers were able to track nearly 1,000 women over the five-year time span, and that the findings were “illuminating.”
He added that it’s reasonable to expect that women who do not see abortion as wrong would experience abortion differently. “Some, of course, may come to think differently about their abortion weeks, months, or even years later. Others seem not to,” he said.
Regnerus also noted that “no study can do it all,” and that there are some indirect effects between abortion and emotional consequences that the study could not assess. The professor also pointed out that regret and depression “are two different things,” and the study doesn’t delve into women’s regret about their abortions “and that's fine because it's not a study of regret.”
The professor also pointed to flaws in the study that might be overlooked by most casual readers. Regnerus noted that there was “a good deal of sample selection bias – only 32 percent of women approached actually participated, leaving us to wonder if there are differences between they and the 68 percent who didn't.”
Furthermore, the study was unable to keep track of 42 percent of the original participants. Regnerus added that while these kinds of sample selection bias and challenges in collecting data are difficult to avoid in studies, particularly on a subject like abortion, they do introduce unknowns into the study.
Regnerus said that the study's focus on near-term emotions such as anxiety or self-esteem “are too tangled up in the emotions of the event, the circumstances surrounding pursuing an abortion,” and said he thought it was a “leap for the authors to draw sensible conclusions” from such data.
What was more noteworthy, he commented was the study’s tracking of depression over the five year period, which remained constant. “The ability to track the direct effect of abortion on depression longer-term,” he noted, “is this study's contribution.”
“It is unreasonable to presume that every abortion conducted in the United States – and elsewhere, for that matter – will make the woman who sought it troubled or sad over the long run,” Regnerus added.
“It does for plenty, no doubt. We hear about it. On the other hand, we hear of accounts to the contrary.”
Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life said that in her experience, even in cases where there is regret and suffering, those feelings can lead to more positive states of healing.
“Abortion takes the life of one and often wounds the life of another,” Mancini told CNA. “Some women only come to discover such deep wounds after many years, sometimes decades,” she said, pointing out again that the study only covered a five-year span.
“My personal experience in working with women who regret abortion is that when a woman honestly faces the truth of what’s happened, she suffers tremendously, but this in turn is the first step to finding real and lasting hope and healing.”
Dallas, Texas, Jan 3, 2017 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A federal judge has ruled against the Obama administration’s mandate that health professionals must carry out gender reassignment surgeries, even if they have medical or religious objections.“The regulation not only forces healthcare professionals to violate their medical judgment, it requires them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas said in a Dec. 31 decision granting a temporary injunction against the Obama administration.“Tragically, the regulation would force them to violate those religious beliefs and perform harmful medical transition procedures or else suffer massive financial liability,” the judge added.Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, discrimination on the basis of sex is explicitly barred for some federally funded health care programs. The Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human S...
Dallas, Texas, Jan 3, 2017 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A federal judge has ruled against the Obama administration’s mandate that health professionals must carry out gender reassignment surgeries, even if they have medical or religious objections.
“The regulation not only forces healthcare professionals to violate their medical judgment, it requires them to violate their deeply held religious beliefs,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas said in a Dec. 31 decision granting a temporary injunction against the Obama administration.
“Tragically, the regulation would force them to violate those religious beliefs and perform harmful medical transition procedures or else suffer massive financial liability,” the judge added.
Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, discrimination on the basis of sex is explicitly barred for some federally funded health care programs. The Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services ruled that the provision bans discrimination on the basis of “termination of pregnancy.” The agency also said discrimination on the basis of gender identity is a form of sex discrimination.
Critics of the mandate argue that there are many reasons that a doctor might decline to perform gender reassignment surgeries, including purely medical reasons. Doctors must be free to exercise their judgement in deciding the medically appropriate course of action.
Several studies have found that the majority of children experiencing gender dysphoria will outgrow it by adulthood.
“Only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood,” found a report by the science and technology journal The New Atlantis.
Furthermore, it added, “compared to the general population, adults who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery continue to have a higher risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes. One study found that, compared to controls, sex-reassigned individuals were about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and about 19 times more likely to die by suicide.”
Johns Hopkins University, once a pioneer in sex reassignment surgery, has since ended the practice, finding that it was actually damaging to those who undergo it.
The plaintiffs challenging the rule included the Christian Medical and Dental Association and the Franciscan Alliance, which is a hospital network founded by the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. The states of Texas, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky and Kansas also joined the suit.
Judge O’Connor sided with the plaintiffs, saying that the new law used the term “sex” to refer to “the binary, biological differences between males and females.” Before the passage of the 2010 law, he said, “no federal court or agency had concluded sex should be defined to include gender identity.”
The judge said the plaintiffs presented “concrete evidence to support their fears that they will be subject to enforcement under the Rule.”
He contended that the case was in essence a question of whether the Department of Health and Human Services can redefine the term “sex” and impose “massive new obligations” on healthcare professionals and U.S. states.
Matt Sharp, legal counsel with the religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the ruling was in line with previous court decisions against Obama administration efforts to require individuals and institutions to provide procedures and surgeries that violate their deeply held beliefs.
The decision indicated the court believes the Obama administration “has been essentially rewriting federal law,” Sharp told CNA Jan. 3.
Others had filed challenges against the same federal rule.
On Dec. 29 the Diocese of Fargo and the Catholic Benefits Association, which includes 880 Catholic hospitals, filed a lawsuit against the rule, also charging that it would force doctors and hospitals to perform abortions.
Their suit, filed in North Dakota District Court, characterized the rule as part of a “multi-agency effort to redefine the term ‘sex’ in federal anti-discrimination laws.”
“Catholic hospitals provide compassionate care to everyone, regardless of status. Patients experiencing gender dysphoria deserve no less,” said Douglas Wilson, chief executive of the Catholic Benefits Association. “The prime ethic of any healthcare provider is do no harm. These regulations do the opposite.”
The Obama administration has sought to include gender identity as a class prohibited by sex discrimination in other rules and agencies.
A May 2016 Department of Education directive that public schools should allow students to use the bathroom that matched their self-declared gender identity was blocked after 13 states sued.
Sharp noted that Judge O’Connor had previously ruled against Obama administration rules on schools and gender identity.
“When Congress spoke it was clear they had in mind the biological differences between males and females when they talked about banning sex discrimination,” Sharp told CNA.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Latest on Congress convening for a new session (all times EST):...
