The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed once again to take up the Obama-era abortion/contraceptive mandate in a case that will determine if a Trump administration rule granting religious exceptions to the mandate was proper.

Lower courts ruled against the Trump administration, and the administration appealed to the high court. 

At issue are rules finalized by the Trump Department of Health and Human Services in 2018 that exempted employers “who have a religious or moral objection” to contraceptives and certain abortion-inducing drugs from being forced to cover them within Obamacare. The new rules did not apply to publicly traded companies.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, required the coverage of “preventive care,” which Obama’s HHS interpreted as covering any Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive and sterilization procedure – including those such as Plan B, which can work after fertilization, and “ella,” which can work after implantation. Pro-life groups consider the latter two drugs abortifacients. 

Pennsylvania and California filed suit in separate circuits against the Trump rules in federal court and won. The Supreme Court will hear appeals from the Pennsylvania case, Trump v. Pennsylvania, and from a separate case, Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. The two cases will be consolidated. 

The Little Sisters of the Poor, an institute…

A Denver Post columnist says he was fired due to a column in which he ridiculed the “easily triggered” and “perpetually offended” on the Left and also insisted there are only two sexes. 

Jon Caldara wrote a conservative-libertarian column for the newspaper, although his final column was published Jan. 17. In it, he criticized what he saw as the lack of transparency among state Democrats, including on the subject of state-mandated sex-education.

“[T]hey certainly don’t want education transparency when it comes to their mandate to convince your kid that there are more than two sexes, even if it’s against your wishes,” wrote Caldara, who is president of the Independence Institute, a Denver-based think tank. “Among the most controversial laws that passed last year was the comprehensive human sexuality education mandate which ripped local control away from your neighborhood school board. Now if your school district wants to teach even basic sex ed, the teacher must also teach the ‘health needs’ of LGBT individuals.

“And in the anti-free-speech style that the left now embraces, the new law bans discussions that ‘employ gender stereotypes,’ or any language the state’s new oversight board of LGBT activists consider ‘stigmatizing.’ In case you hadn’t noticed, just about everything is stigmatizing to the easily triggered, perpetually offended.”

He…

Some forty members of staff from a university in London, Ontario, Canada, have asked that their institution issue an apology for screening a pro-life movie on campus.

King’s University College has come under fire for showing the movie “Unplanned,” which tells the powerful story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned widely influential pro-life activist.

On Wednesday, professors from across a variety of academic disciplines sent a letter to Principal David Malloy complaining that the screening had caused “furor and fear” among the school community.

“The public endorsement of an anti-abortion stance at King’s University College by the Director of Campus Ministry is of great concern to the viability of our institution as we work to recruit and maintain excellent students, staff and faculty,” the letter read in part, according to CBC.

Protesters gathered outside the university during a screening of the film last week, many of them holding up posters containing slogans such as “Trust Women” and “I am a woman not a womb.”

Reverend Michael Bechard, Director of the Office of Campus Ministry, told the outlet that they chose to show the film because it is “really consistent with our general ethic of life at King’s.”

Many faculty members disagreed and urged Malloy to assure that the screening event was not congruent with the school’s…

Conservative lawmakers in South Dakota have introduced a bill this week to punish doctors who perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors.

 According to Faithwire, the bill will make it illegal for doctors to perform surgeries “for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm the minor’s perception of the minor’s sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”

Under the legislation, sex reassignment procedures performed on a child would become a Class 4 felony. The surgeries including castrations, vasectomies, hysterectomies, vaginoplasties, and mastectomies. It would also include the administration of puberty-blocking hormone drugs and the removal of any healthy or non-diseased body parts.

As child reassignment cases have recently taken center stage in media attention, namely the James Younger case in Texas, Republican State Rep. Fred Deutsch introduced the bill as a form of protection for South Dakotan children.

“An ever-increasing number of people who had so-called sex reassignment as minors now find themselves regretting the decision as they’ve matured,” he said, according to The National Review. 

“Performing irreversible sex reassignment on a minor whose brain is still developing is wrong. But we can try to prevent harm to those who may later regret it by hitting the pause button before someone pushes a child into a mistake…

Police claim that a woman in Pennsylvania intentionally drove her car into oncoming traffic while waiting to hear a calling from God. 

According to ABC News, the woman crashed into another vehicle injuring both passengers inside. Reports note, however, that the woman allegedly did not care about her victim’s conditions because she believed “God would have taken care of them.”

Nadejda Reilly, the 31-year-old Pennsylvania woman, drove around for several hours earlier this month waiting to hear from God. Eventually, the woman took matters into her own hands and decided to drive her car straight into an oncoming vehicle on Route 93 near the Weatherly area of Carbon County, Pennsylvania, Fox News reports. Reilly is reported to have walked away from the car crash without any injuries.

Bruce Baillet, the trooper who interviewed Reilly, noted that the two people in the other vehicle were sent to the hospital and treated for their injuries, but Reilly expressed no concern for them. The ages and conditions of the victims have not been reported.

According to the arrest affidavit, “Reilly related [that] God took care of her by not having her injured,” Baillet wrote. “Reilly expressed no concerns or remorse for the victims. Reilly also stated she did not care if the other people were injured because God would have taken care of them.”

Reilly remains in jail, where she has been…

Over the weekend, over 20,000 Christians from around the world gathered at the Jordan River to be baptized. 

According to CBN, the pilgrims commemorated the Feast of the Epiphany, which is a day that Orthodox Christians and Catholics remember when the three Magi visited baby Jesus.

The Jordan River is believed to be the site where John the Baptist baptized Jesus, as well as where the Israelites crossed over into the Promised Land and where Elijah ascended to heaven.

The annual pilgrimage started in January when five Christian denominations held baptismal ceremonies at the River. Coptic and Armenian Christians will continue with other events later this month.

Israel has embraced the Christian community trekking through their country to honor their faith.

“The Civil Administration put much effort in order to prepare for these important ceremonies as part of its program to preserve freedom of religion and worship for all Christian denominations,” said Jericho District Coordination and Liaison Administration head Lieutenant Colonel Eran Gross. “Thanks to the ceremonies, we see a marked rise in tourism alongside a boost to the economy, for which I am thankful. On this occasion, I would like to wish all members of the Christian community happy holidays.”

For those who cannot travel to the Jordan, Christians dunk themselves into freezing rivers all over the country, including in…

A New Jersey law requiring that public schools teach LGBT history isn’t set to go into effect until this fall, but several schools across the state are already participating in a pilot program.

Twelve schools, including those in Hackensack, Newark and Asbury Park, began teaching LGBT history this month as part of a pilot program for new LGBT-focused curriculum, NorthJersey.com reported.

The new law, signed last year by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, requires public schools to teach students about the “political, economic, and social contributions” of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people” and persons with disabilities. It applies to middle school and high school students and must be taught in all public schools beginning in the 2020-21 school year.

LGBT groups championed the new law, which made New Jersey the second state – after California – to require the teaching of gay history. (Illinois recently became the third.)

“We want students to see themselves in the stories that are told,” Ashley Chiappano, safe schools and community education manager for Garden State Equality, told NorthJersey.com. “We want to make sure they are getting accurate, appropriate and historically relevant information about the community and the strides that have been made.”

The law’s intent, supporters told the website, is for LGBT curriculum to be woven into multiple subjects. Examples…