Arkansas Mom Sues the Government

Current Events

The following blog post is by Family Council staff member Deborah Beuerman.

Robert Longley reports the Obama administration apparently does not support a woman-owned business that helps financially-struggling parents buy children’s clothing at affordable prices.

Rhea Lana Riner of Conway founded her children’s clothing consignment sale business, Rhea Lana’s, Inc, to enable parents and other family members sell children’s clothing to other families.

“At Rhea Lana’s sales, people selling items on consignment were offered the option to volunteer to assist at the event in return for a chance to shop before the sale opens to the public. During the sales, the volunteers performed general tasks such as greeting shoppers, picking up fallen price tags, reorganizing items that shoppers have handled, and assisting shoppers with carrying items to their vehicles.”

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) says that is against the law and banned Rhea Lana’s from allowing volunteers to assist at its sales. The DOL says the volunteers were actually Rhea Lana’s “employees” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and as such should have been paid and are now entitled to back pay in accordance with FLSA minimum wage provisions.

(more…)

READ MORE

Are You a CIS Male or CIS Female?

Homosexuality, ,

The title may be confusing, but you are one or the other–or maybe one of the 56 other “gender identities.”

If you have a Facebook account, and are uncertain of your gender, you can now choose from one of 58 gender identities–another check mark for gay activists, as far as their movement is concerned.

Of course, the issue is much larger than recognizing 58 different types of “gender.” Tying gender to anything other than biology complicates society and carries a number of unintended consequences, as we’ve written about in the past.

Click here to read more.

READ MORE

Abortion Decline the Result of Contraceptive Use? Not So Fast.

Abortion, , , ,

Two weeks ago, the Guttmacher Institute released a study examining why the abortion rate in America is the lowest it’s been since 1973. The study specifically examined the abortion decline from 2008-2011, which came immediately before a nationwide surge in pro-life legislation.

Guttmacher concluded,

“With abortion rates falling in almost all states, our study did not find evidence that the national decline in abortions during this period was the result of new state abortion restrictions. We also found no evidence that the decline was linked to a drop in the number of abortion providers during this period…Rather, the decline in abortions coincided with a steep national drop in overall pregnancy and birth rates. Contraceptive use improved during this period, as more women and couples were using highly effective long-acting reversible contraceptive methods, such as the IUD. Moreover, the recent recession led many women and couples to want to avoid or delay pregnancy and childbearing.”

Now, it certainly is well established that our national birth rate is not as high as it used to be, and it’s no secret contraceptive use is increasingly common. However, Guttmacher’s assertion is, more or less, that people who would have had abortions in years past are now simply avoiding pregnancy altogether.

We decided to test that hypothesis by looking at the abortion and birth rates for Arkansas. The results are not as simple as Guttmacher would have us believe. (more…)

READ MORE