ACLU of Arkansas Supports Pro-Abortion Rule in Federal Court

Abortion, , ,

On Tuesday the ACLU of Arkansas announced it is leading a coalition of pro-abortion groups supporting a new Biden Administration rule in federal court.

In April, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin led a 17-state coalition challenging the Biden Administration’s new rule requiring employers to accommodate abortions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) of 2022.

The PWFA is a federal law that helps ensure pregnant workers receive accommodations from their employers to protect them and their unborn children. However, the Biden Administration has reinterpreted the law to justify federal rules that support abortion.

The Biden Administration’s new pro-abortion rules threaten business owners with lawsuits if they do not accommodate employees’ abortions — even if the abortions would be illegal under state law.

The lawsuit over the rules is still playing out in federal court. However, the ACLU of Arkansas is co-leading an amicus brief supporting the Biden Administration’s rules.

In a statement, the ACLU of Arkansas said,

[A] broad coalition of labor, workers’ rights, and gender justice organizations — led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Arkansas, and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC)  — filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in support of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) regulations implementing the landmark Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), including the regulations’ explicit protection for workers who have abortions.

It’s worth pointing out that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a bipartisan law that was supported by a broad coalition of organizations, including pro-life groups. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the law would advance its “goal of ensuring that no woman ever feels forced to choose between her future and the life of her child while protecting the conscience rights and religious freedoms of employers.” However, the Biden Administration is twisting this law to promote abortion.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time the Biden Administration has tried to use rules and regulations to support abortion.

After the U.S. Supreme Court released its 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision overturning Roe v. Wade, President Biden issued an executive order urging the Secretary of Health and Human Services to identify ways to use federal authority to expand abortion.

Since then, the administration has reinterpreted laws like the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to support abortion.

We believe federal courts ultimately will recognize what the Biden Administration is doing and block this pro-abortion reinterpretation of federal law.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Lowe’s Revises DEI Policies Amid Growing Public Pushback

LGBT,

Yahoo News reports home-improvement giant Lowe’s — one of America’s largest retail chains — has revised its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies amidst growing public pushback.

Lowe’s is the latest major corporation to rethink its support for pro-LGBT initiatives such as DEI policies.

In July, John Deere — the world’s largest seller of farm equipment — announced it was moving away from pro-LGBT and pro-DEI activity.

Bud Light is still suffering the repercussions of its LGBT marketing disaster last year, and Target chose to quietly reduce its Pride-themed merchandise last June following backlash from its customers.

It’s deeply troubling when multimillion dollar corporations use their wealth and influence to promote radical, pro-LGBT ideas, but it’s also encouraging when companies like Lowe’s rethink their positions and change course.

As some have said, all of this seems to show America’s “silent majority” is very real when it comes to these issues.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Photo Credit: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Chinese Organized Crime Dominates Illegal Marijuana in This California City

Marijuana,

News outlets report Chinese organized crime is dominating black market marijuana in states where marijuana is legal.

NBC’s KNTV reports the City of Antioch, California, is one of the largest concentrations of illegal marijuana grow operations in the state — and authorities say nearly all of them are “run by Chinese organized crime.”

CNN writes that “illegal pot production in Antioch provides a glimpse of a hidden world – one that mirrors a trend playing out not only in California, but in states such as Oklahoma, Oregon, New Mexico and Maine: groups of people with apparent ties to foreign countries – most notably China – producing weed in colossal volumes.”

Unfortunately, this is a story that states have seen play out time and again: Instead of weakening the black market, legalization of marijuana has actually emboldened drug cartels and made the problem worse.

Earlier this summer, NPR reported how immigrants from China were illegally crossing America’s southern border, saying that “many [of these immigrants] are taking jobs at hundreds of cannabis farms springing up across the U.S.”

A CBS News segment last year highlighted how Chinese investment is driving illegal marijuana production across the U.S.

CBN reported last October that Chinese investors with “suitcases full of cash” are buying U.S. farmland to grow black market marijuana.

And earlier this year U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, appeared on Fox News Business to discuss congressional concerns over illegal marijuana farms and about fentanyl precursors in the U.S. — both with alleged ties to China.

Right now the group Arkansans for Patient Access is working to pass an amendment drastically expanding marijuana in Arkansas.

Under this measure, marijuana users would no longer need to show they suffer from a specific medical condition listed in state law — making it easier to use marijuana recreationally.

The amendment would give free marijuana cards to immigrants and out-of-state residents who come to Arkansas to use marijuana.

The amendment would guarantee marijuana growers and sellers a monopoly over the state’s marijuana industry.

The measure also fails to limit the amount of THC in marijuana products, and it repeals restrictions designed to protect children from marijuana advertising.

All of this would lead to more marijuana in Arkansas. Family Council Action Committee has materials available for volunteers and churches regarding the marijuana amendment:

You can learn more at FamilyCouncilActionCommittee.com.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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