Planned Parenthood, in conjunction with the American Medical Association and other healthcare providers, has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Trump administration’s ban on Title X programs receiving federal funding for abortions.

The petition emerged in light of conflicting decisions from the Fourth and Ninth Circuits. The Fourth Circuit determined that Title X programs should receive funding and that the Trump administration’s rule, called “Protect Life,” was illegal. The Ninth Court, however, upheld the rule.

When Trump signed the new restrictions into law in 2019, Planned Parenthood and several other nonprofits left the Title X program in order to continue providing abortions. Nearly 1,000 Title X sites shuttered their doors as a result, while Planned Parenthood saw a 21% decrease in annual patients, according to The Christian Post.

“Restricting the information that physicians can provide to their Title X patients blocks honest, informed conversations about all health care options—an unconscionable violation that is essentially a gag rule,” said Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the AMA. “As physicians and leaders in medicine, we are fighting against the government’s intrusion in the exam room while protecting open communication between patients and physicians, which is the foundation of high-quality medical care.”

Planned…

NEW DELHI, October 6, 2020 (Morning Star News) – After beating and parading Pastor Raj Singh along with four other Christians in eastern India, Hindu extremists were tonsuring them to further ridicule them when one cut the pastor’s head.

“While shaving my head, the razor cut my skull, and blood oozed out,” Pastor Singh said of the Sept. 16 attack in Jharkhand state. “A man standing nearby pointed out the cut and asked the man shaving my head to be careful, to which he promptly answered back saying, ‘This Christian should be grateful that I am only using the razor on his head and not on his neck.’”

After shaving their heads, the mob tied garlands of old shoes and slippers around their necks and continued parading them from one area of Bherikudar village, in Simdega District, to another. The Hindu extremists told them to chant “Jai Shri Ram [Victory to god Ram]” and, when the Christians did not comply, beat them with wooden sticks, he said.

“Some of us chanted, to escape the beating from time to time,” Pastor Singh said. “Whoever did not chant was immediately beaten by sticks. They also had long wooden handles of large iron picks with which they hit us.”

Accusing them of eating and smuggling beef in the Hindu-majority country where both activities are illegal, the mob of 60 to 70 people had initially attacked seven Christians in the village, but two managed to escape, he said.

The…

Singer-songwriter Natalie Grant is one of Christian music’s most influential members.

Grant, who has been in the music scene since 1992, told Christian Headlines in an interview that while she seemingly has a sea of admirers now, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, it would take well over a decade before she would see any numerical growth in her musical ministry.

But now, after nearly 30 years in the music industry, Natalie is simply thankful that she still gets to sing for a living. “I’m just thankful to the Lord that I’m still doing this,” Grant told CH.

For Grant, who is getting ready to release her new album, No Stranger, she wants her audience to know that she is so thankful for them and she does not take them for granted. “Women artists seem to have an expiration date, so I’m thankful for God’s faithfulness,” she said.

Grant is not only thankful for her career. After receiving a thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2017, which left her singing career in jeopardy, she is thankful to be healed and alive.

“God still kept his hand on me through the ordeal.” Grant shared. Grant almost lost her voice from the thyroid cancer.

The common message that Grant wants all to know is that with God, all things are possible.

This sentiment is a common thread throughout her new album, No Stranger.

Grant shared that this album is much…

Author and pastor Greg Laurie revealed Monday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is doing OK, although he requested prayer and urged Americans to stop politicizing the pandemic.

Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in California, said he tested positive on Friday and is quarantining.

“It started with some fatigue that I was feeling, some aches and pains, and a fever. And then I found out the news I didn’t want to find out – that I actually have the coronavirus. I’ve been doing okay actually,” Laurie said in a video he released.

“I just wish at a time like this we cannot politicize something like this and [that we] show compassion to people that are struggling with this. It’s real,” he said of the coronavirus. “It really is a pandemic that has swept our nation, and even the world. … If the president of the United States can get it, obviously, anybody can get it.”

With “God’s help” and with the prayers of the church, Laurie said he expects “to get through this.”

“Another couple of symptoms I’ve experienced is [that] things don’t taste right to me. So as a result, I’ve maybe lost two pounds – a little Romans 8:28 moment there. Another symptom I’ve experienced is boredom. … I want to get out again, doing what I’m called to do. So, thank you for your interest and your concern,” Laurie said.

“It’s important as Christians, for…

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pledged Monday to make Roe v. Wade “the law of the land” through legislation if the Supreme Court overturns the 1973 decision, a move that could ensure abortion remains legal even if the high court gets involved.

Speaking at an NBC News town hall, Biden was asked about his “plans to protect women’s reproductive rights in the U.S.” in light of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court.

“We don’t know exactly what she will do, although the expectation is that she may very well move to …. overrule Roe,” Biden answered. “… The only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land. That’s what I would do.”

Biden had previously said he would move to “codify Roe” in such an instance, although Monday’s answer occurred in a more high-profile setting, less than one month before the election. 

A tweet from his campaign read, “Roe v. Wade must remain the law of the land.”

His website includes a lengthy section on abortion where he pledges to:

• Block pro-life state laws that violate Roe. “Biden will work to codify Roe v. Wade, and his  Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate Roe v. Wade,” the website says.
• Restore funding for Planned Parenthood that was pulled by the Trump administration. “As…

On the first episode of her new podcast You and Me Both with Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Pastor William J. Barber II of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, spoke about justice and racism.

According to The Christian Post, Clinton contended that “Jesus and justice are the same thing” and that Christians must understand as to “how profoundly true that simple phrase really is.”

“You know, to say that Jesus and justice are the same thing seems to me to be so obvious,” Clinton asserted. “I mean, how can you be a Bible reading person, a church attending person, and not understand how profoundly true that simple phrase really is?” Clinton asked.

She then proceeded to ask Barber, a known social justice advocate, how he is “trying to open up people’s minds and hearts to understand what Christianity should mean and what should be expected of us who claim to be followers of Jesus.”

Barber reposnded assrting that there must first be an admission that there have been many things in Western and American culture’s that have negatively impacted theology. Barber cited, the “genocide of First Nations people and the enslavement of African Americans,” and seeing women oppressed and excluded as events that negatively impacted theology.

Barber then recalled what one of his professors told him as to what it means to be…