The California Board of Registered Nursing has given a green light—for the third time—to a class teaching nurses how to reverse drug-induced abortions.

The board’s decision, coming just months after it decided to cut the class, surprised leaders of Heartbeat International, the Ohio-based nonprofit organization that offers the continuing education credit.

“We thought it would be more paperwork involved and more of a protracted process,” Heartbeat spokesman Jay Hobbs told me. “In the end, really what we saw was them … conceding that this is a science-based approach to medicine, that there’s just no good grounds to stop nurses from learning about that.”

The abortion pill reversal process, developed by Drs. Matthew Harrison and George Delgado, uses injections of progesterone to counteract the effect of mifepristone, the first of a drug duo used in chemical abortions. Mifepristone blocks the pregnancy-sustaining hormone progesterone, ending the baby’s life. The second drug, misoprostol, induces contractions that expel the baby.

After taking the first drug, more than 400 women have called the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline and successfully saved their babies’ lives, according to Heartbeat.

The pro-life organization offers 33 other continuing education credits for nurses and received approval from California officials in 2012 for the course on abortion pill…

Iranian security forces killed nine protesters Monday night, bringing the death toll from recent unrest to at least 21. The rallies began Dec. 28 over the country’s weak economy and rising food prices. But experts remain uncertain whether the demonstrations—Iran’s biggest since 2009—will bring lasting change.

Protesters in the capital city of Tehran and elsewhere have called for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down amid overall criticism of the country’s Islamic leadership. Authorities have arrested more than 400 protesters, and the head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court warned they could face the death penalty.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier said, “People have the right to criticize,” but he vowed to crack down on those who instigated violence and destroyed public property. The Iranian government also blocked access to Instagram and the Telegram messaging app, which authorities said helped spread information on the protests.

The economy has improved under Rouhani, who reached a deal with world powers that lifted some sanctions against Iran in January 2016. But unemployment remains high, especially among youth; living costs have risen; and the country recently experienced a spike in food prices. The latest unrest follows months of smaller-scale protests over unpaid wages and the collapse of unauthorized lending companies.

“There is a crisis of…

The tax system overhaul passed just before Christmas hit an unexpected bump just hours after House lawmakers finished celebrating their historic vote. Several items ran afoul of Senate procedural rules and had to be pulled from the bill before final approval. One of those directly affected homeschooling families.

Under the bill, lawmakers expanded 529 educational savings accounts to include private K-12 schooling. They also attempted to include homeschool expenses, a tax benefit the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has lobbied for since 2000.

“We were an inch away from victory,” said William Estrada, HSLDA’s director of federal relations.

Although a procedural hiccup ultimately killed the provision, the vote put every single Democrat in the Senate on record of opposing a tax break for homeschoolers, Estrada said. That squelches hope for getting the measure passed anytime in the near future. Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., plans to submit a bill in the House, something he’s done every year, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has offered to sponsor a measure in the upper chamber. But getting something passed will be a “tough row to hoe,” Estrada said, mostly because of the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

While homeschoolers eagerly anticipated the tax advantages 529 plans offer, not all school choice advocates support expanding the accounts to cover K-12 education. The benefits only…