Maine’s Governor signed a bill into law Wednesday that will make it legal for terminally ill patients to pursue medically assisted suicide. Governor Janet Mills approved the law, named the “Death with Dignity Act,” after it narrowly passed both houses of the Maine legislature.

The bill allows Maine residents who are over 18, mentally competent and afflicted with an illness that would bring death within six months may request life-ending medication. First, they must submit one written request and two verbal requests, which are each followed by a waiting period. Then, they must get two physicians to agree that the medication would be appropriate in the patient’s situation. The doctors must also check for conditions which could impair the patient’s judgment.

Even though the law is medically-assisted suicide, the legislation says that it should not be considered “suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing, or homicide under the law.”

Governor Mills explained her support for the measure in a release from her office. She said, “It is not up to the government to decide who may die and who may live, when they shall die or how long they shall live.” She continued, “While I do not agree that the right of the individual is so absolute, I do believe it is a right that should be protected in law, along with protections for those who are unable to articulate their informed choices and those…

At least 19 Christians were killed earlier this month in Burkina Faso in Africa.

According to French news channel France 24, the Christians were killed on June 9 in the Arbinda village in Burkina Faso.

An official told reporters that several dozen “armed men” attacked the village.

The Barnabas Fund says as many as 29 people could have been killed in the attacks after more deaths were reported.

“There is no Christian anymore in this town (Arbinda),” said a Barnabas Fund source, noting that all Christians in the area had fled the town.

“It’s proven that they were looking for Christians,” the source continued. “Families who hide Christians are killed. Arbinda had now lost a total of no less than 100 people within six months.”

Some 80 pastors and 1,145 Christians in the area have fled the northern part of the country, Barnabas Fund sources said.

This isn’t the first attack in the area. In April, Islamic militants held a pastor, his son and four of church’s members at gunpoint. They demanded that they deny their Christian faith and convert. The group refused and was executed.

In May, gunmen and soldiers allegedly attacked churches in the Burkina Faso Central North Region.

“We’ve told ourselves our turn will come,” a pastor of one of the churches said in May. “Today Christians are potential targets. We’re all…

Gov. Janet Mills signed an abortion bill into law on Monday night, allowing medical professionals to perform abortions.

“Maine is defending the rights of women and taking a step toward equalizing access to care as other states are seeking to undermine, rollback, or outright eliminate these services,” the state governor said, according to Fox News.

In addition to legalizing medically assisted suicide, Maine will become the second state after California to allow non-doctors to perform the procedure in-clinic. The bill will come into law within 90 days after the Legislature adjourns in September. 

According to the New York Times, three cities in Maine will also offer publicly accessible aspiration abortions, which is abortion by suction.

Many critics of the bill are concerned about women’s health with this new law. “Expanding who is allowed to perform an abortion does not expand the safety of the procedure,” Republican state Sen. Stacey Guerin said.

And, Carroll Conley, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, told The New York Times he feared practitioners might not have enough time to train before the procedure and that more medical complications might arise. He also believed that the move was merely political, since women in Maine did not seem to have trouble accessing abortion services.

The American Civil Liberties Union, however,…

A small Texas town became a “sanctuary city of the unborn” Tuesday night when the city council passed an ordinance banning abortion within the city limits.

The city council for Waskom, Texas, unanimously passed the ordinance over the warnings of the mayor, who said the town may be sued.

The ordinance passed to cheers from the crowd, KTAL reported. It prohibits abortion clinics from opening and declares the town a “sanctuary city” for the unborn.

“We decided to take things into our own hands, and we’ve got to do something to protect our cities and to protect the unborn children,” said Mark Lee Dickson of Right To Life with East Texas.  

Waskom, with a population of about 2,000, does not have an abortion clinic. Supporters of the ordinance call it preventative, KTAL reported.

“Most likely we will end up getting sued if this passes. It could go to the Supreme Court,” Mayor Jesse Moore said during the discussion. 

Alderman Jimmy Dale Moore added, “We don’t have the possibility of millions of dollars to take it to that level. We can’t pay those types of attorney fees.” 

The ban includes exceptions for rape, incest and to save the mother’s life. Waskom is located near the Louisiana border.  

At least two other American cities – Roswell, N.M., and Riverton, Utah – voted this year to become “sanctuary cities” for the…

The Vatican released a document aimed at confronting an “educational crisis” over gender and sexuality. The report, issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education, aimed to address the “disorientation” Catholic leaders see regarding gender, sexuality, and biology. They say this confusion has destabilized “the family as an institution” and sought to “cancel out the differences between men and women” by acting as if they are “merely the product of historical and cultural conditioning.”

The document, titled “Male and Female He Created Them” said the idea of gender fluidity originated because of a “confused concept of freedom” and “momentary desires” which are emblematic of our current culture. It rejected using the terms “intersex” and “transgender” as well as affirming the “complementarity” of male and female sex organs to ensure procreation.

Critics blasted the Vatican both for the report and for the timing of the report, which came during the LGBT Pride Month celebration. New Ways Ministries, an organization of LGBT Catholics, said the document is a “harmful tool that will be used to oppress and harm not only transgender people, but lesbian, gay, bisexual people, too.” The ministry’s leader, Francis DeBernardo, said the report could lead to “self-harm, addiction, and suicide” among LGBT youth.

In a tweet, Jesuit priest and…