HHS ANNOUNCES CREATION OF "CONSCIENCE & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DIVISION" TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

 

 New Conscience and Religious Freedom Division Announcement

 HHS ANNOUNCES CREATION OF 

"CONSCIENCE & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DIVISION" TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS 

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: http://christiannews.net/2018/01/19/hhs-announces-creation-of-conscience-and-religious-freedom-division-to-protect-rights-of-medical-professionals/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

 WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 

announced on Thursday the creation of a new division in its Office for Civil Rights 

(OCR) focused on protecting the right of conscience and religious freedom.

“The Conscience and Religious Freedom Division has been established to restore federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom,” the department said in a statement.
“The creation of the new division will provide HHS with the focus it needs to more vigorously and effectively enforce existing laws protecting the rights of conscience and religious freedom, the first freedom protected in the Bill of Rights,” it added.
The protections most likely pertain to those who have objections to participating in abortions and those who have religious convictions about “gender reassignment” treatments and procedures. The division would enforce existing laws, such as the Church, Coats-Snowe and Weldon Amendments.

As previously reported, in August 2016, a number of states, as well as the Christian Medical and Dental Association, filed suit against HHS under the Obama administration after it released a rule that was perceived as requiring any doctor who accepts Medicare or Medicaid to provide “transgender” related services regardless of their religious objections. Services would include hormone replacement, mastectomies and hysterectomies.
A federal judge halted the enforcement of the rule, writing, “Plaintiffs will be forced to either violate their religious beliefs or maintain their current policies which seem to be in direct conflict with the rule and risk the severe consequences of enforcement.”
Roger Severino, the director of OCR, stated on Thursday that his office would investigate any complaint surrounding the violation of the conscience rights of medical professionals. He advised that there had been 34 complaints submitted since the election, and that the creation of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division was the result of last May’s executive order from President Trump.

“Federal law protects the freedom of Americans and their organizations to exercise religion and participate fully in civic life without undue interference by the federal government. The executive branch will honor and enforce those protections,” the order read in part.
Abortion advocacy groups and others decried the news, asserting that the move was a step backward for the nation and that it legalized discrimination.
“This announcement marks the Trump administration’s latest step toward turning the Department of Health and Human Services into a place where backwards ideology rules, and science, ethics, and concern for the well-being of all Americans are non-existent,” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement.
“This administration has taken a very expansive view of religious liberty,” Louise Melling of the ACLU also told NPR. “It understands religious liberty to override anti-discrimination principles.”
However, during an event on Thursday announcing the new HHS division, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, opined that the protection of religious freedom was a step in the right direction, noting that under the Obama administration, people of faith were expected to conform to the government’s views.
“This department’s silent refusal to defend our rights sent a very clear message: Now is not the time for freedom. It is time for you to conform,'” he said, speaking of the HHS under Obama. “What a difference one year makes.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-OK, also noted that the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion is misunderstood as some wrongly believe it only pertains to worshiping in a church building.
“It’s the ability to have a faith and live your faith wherever you are,” he explained. “If you have a faith and you can only practice it in your certain place of worship, you don’t have real religious freedom.”
“Laws protecting religious freedom and conscience rights are just empty words on paper if they aren’t enforced,” Severino also said in the press release. “No one should be forced to choose between helping sick people and living by one’s deepest moral or religious convictions, and the new division will help guarantee that victims of unlawful discrimination find justice.”
“For too long, governments big and small have treated conscience claims with hostility instead of protection, but change is coming and it begins here and now.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS REINSTATED MEXICO CITY POLICY, ALLOWING STATES TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS REINSTATED MEXICO CITY POLICY, ALLOWING STATES TO DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD

SEE: http://the-trumpet-online.com/planned-parenthood-taps-sex-change-therapy-minors-new-revenue-source/

 

 Trump Becomes First President To Speak At A March For Life Rally in 45 Years
Alex Jones presents video footage of President Trump speaking in Washington D.C. at the 45th annual March For Life Rally, fulfilling yet another one of his many campaign promises.

 President Trump addresses March for Life Participants and Pro Life Leaders Jan 19, 2018
In the White House Rose Garden

CHINESE COMMUNISTS INFILTRATING U.S. UNIVERSITIES

 

CHINESE COMMUNISTS INFILTRATING 

U.S. UNIVERSITIES

BY ALEX NEWMAN

SEE: https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/28061-chinese-communists-infiltrating-u-s-universities;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

From FreedomProject Media:
Lawmakers and academics in the Lone Star State are on edge after the mass-murdering Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was exposed trying to buy influence and shape the narrative at the University of Texas and other American educational institutions. Indeed, operating through front groups, the regime in Beijing is now making its influence felt in education worldwide. Critics say it must be exposed and stopped.
The latest shoe to drop in the controversy over Communist Chinese infiltration of U.S. schools came last week. Under pressure from lawmakers and pro-liberty voices, the University of Texas at Austin announced that it would not be accepting funding from the CCP-linked “China-United States Exchange Foundation,” a registered foreign agent known for trying to spread the murderous regime's propaganda.
In a letter to Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), UT-Austin President Greg Fenves vowed that the school would “ensure that the receipt of outside funding does not create potential conflicts of interest or place limits on academic freedom and the robust exchange of ideas.” Fenves expressed concerns that accepting funds from the CUSEF would, indeed, limit academic freedom and ideas.
In fact, even before lawmakers got involved, the CUSEF was already under fire by university faculty for its role in promoting Communist Chinese propaganda on campus at an event in November. And the outfit is funded by “a high-ranking Chinese government official with close ties to a sprawling Chinese Communist Party apparatus that handles influence operations abroad,” according to media reports. It is led by another ChiCom operative.
To read the rest of this article, click here.

DHS SECRETARY KIRSTJEN NIELSEN SAYS HER AGENCY IS CONSIDERING CHARGES AGAINST SANCTUARY CITIES' LEADERS

 

 DHS threatens crackdown on sanctuary cities amid immigration debate
 Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) weighs in on reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen asked federal prosecutors to see if they can file criminal charges against sanctuary cities for refusing to cooperate with federal deportation efforts.

 DHS SECRETARY NIELSEN SAYS HER AGENCY 

IS CONSIDERING CHARGES AGAINST 

SANCTUARY CITIES' LEADERS 

BY WARREN MASS

SEE: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/28060-dhs-secretary-nielsen-says-her-agency-considering-charges-against-sanctuary-city-leaders; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 16, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (shown) said that DHS has asked federal prosecutors to consider the possibility of bringing criminal charges against leaders of so-called sanctuary cities. Such cities refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities by honoring detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold detainees in their custody who are in this country illegally until ICE agents can apprehend them. “The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues may be available,” Nielsen told the committee.
Nielsen’s statement reinforced what the acting ICE director, Tom Homan, said during a January 2 appearance on the Fox News Channel’s Your World With Neil Cavuto, namely, that politicians should be held “personally accountable” for crimes committed by illegal immigrants. “We’ve got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes,” Homan said.
Homan said previously in a statement to the Washington Times last July that he wanted to see local officials charged as complicit in human smuggling if they shielded illegal aliens through their sanctuary policies.

Though neither Nielsen nor Homan mentioned a specific plan for bringing criminal charges against officials in so-called sanctuary cities who refuse to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373 (the federal law that says local government officials may not interfere with communications between their entity and ICE regarding the immigration status of detainees) they might consider charging such officials with “misprision of felony.” 18 U.S. Code § 4 defines “misprision of felony” as follows:

Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

In order for an official to be charged with “misprision of felony” for failure to turn over an illegal alien, the alien must be guilty of a felony. Not all illegal aliens are felons, but some are. In addition to being charged with non-immigration-related crimes that are felonies, an alien who has been legally removed from the United States commits a felony if he reenters the country illegally one or more times.
Since the number of aliens who have illegally reentered the United States again after being deported is considerable, pursuing “misprision of felony” charges against officials in sanctuary jurisdictions should certainly be considered an option.
President Trump issued an executive order (13768, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States”) a year ago this month to deny some federal grants to so-called sanctuary cities, but U.S. District Judge William Orrick for the Northern District of California blocked the order provisionally last April. The parts of that order that Orrick objected to fell under Section 9: “Sanctuary Jurisdictions. It is the policy of the executive branch to ensure, to the fullest extent of the law, that a State, or a political subdivision of a State, shall comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373.”
8 U.S.C. 1373 states, in part:

Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.

The order went on to state the penalty for noncompliance:

In furtherance of this policy, the Attorney General and the Secretary, in their discretion and to the extent consistent with law, shall ensure that jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373 (sanctuary jurisdictions) are not eligible to receive Federal grants, except as deemed necessary for law enforcement purposes by the Attorney General or the Secretary.

Orrick issued a permanent injunction on November 20 in response to lawsuits filed by the city and county of San Francisco and Santa Clara County, in California.
“The Counties have demonstrated that the Executive Order has caused and will cause them constitutional injuries by violating the separation of powers doctrine and depriving them of their Tenth and Fifth Amendment rights,” U.S. District Judge William Orrick for the Northern District of California wrote in his order.
As we observed in our article about Orrick’s original ruling in April, while it is true that the Constitution vests spending powers in Congress, Orrick’s reliance on the 10th Amendment to justify his ruling is novel, at best. The amendment reads: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
We noted that the 10th Amendment has long been cherished by strict constitutionalists in matters involving states’ rights. However, Orrick’s statement that the amendment “requires that conditions on federal funds be unambiguous and timely made” appears to be a product of his own imagination — not the 10th Amendment. Furthermore, the Trump executive order does not authorize any spending, but merely restricts how federal funds may be used.
It would make more sense to claim that the 10th Amendment does not authorize federal grants to local jurisdictions at all — rather than to assert that it prohibits the federal government from denying those grants.
As stated previously, Trump’s executive order, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” was issued to enforce compliance with a federal law:  8 U.S.C. 1373. The Trump administration has appealed Orrick’s decision blocking that order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but there has been no ruling on that appeal as we write.

Related articles:
Illegal Alien Sues San Francisco for Violating Sanctuary City Law
 “Sanctuary Cities” Make a Mockery of Our Laws
Judge Blocks “Sanctuary Cities” Defunding Order; Trump May Take Case to Supreme Court
DHS Issues Report Listing Jurisdictions Failing to Cooperate With ICE Detainers
Will California Cut off Tax Receipts to Feds in Sanctuary Cities Dispute?
Number of Former Sanctuary Cities Reversing Policy
California Advances Bills to Become Sanctuary State
San Francisco Sues Trump to Stop Executive Order About Sanctuary Cities
 Illegal Alien Sues San Francisco for Violating Sanctuary City Law
“Sanctuary Cities” Make a Mockery of Our Laws
Texas: Gov. Abbott Bans Funds for Sanctuary Cities; Senate Bill to Demand Compliance with ICE

AMY ELLIS NUTT AT FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA: SCHOOL FORCES KIDS TO SIT THROUGH SEX CHANGE SEMINAR

 

 AMY ELLIS NUTT

 

GEORGE MASON HIGH SCHOOL

FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA: SCHOOL FORCES KIDS TO SIT THROUGH SEX CHANGE SEMINAR 

 A government high school in Virginia forced children to sit through an assembly promoting gender confusion, genital mutilation in “sex-change” surgeries, and other absurdities. Parents, students, and even teachers were shocked. Now, the school is under fire, with the powerful non-profit Family Research Council (FRC) sounding the alarm. Parents were not informed in advance, according to a horrified teacher who asked to remain anonymous. The children were apparently not given an opportunity to opt out of the indoctrination session, either, the gender ideologist's comments suggested. The program, held at George Mason High School in the Northern Virginia city of Falls Church, featured well-known gender-confusion advocate Amy Ellis Nutt. Among other absurdities, Nutt told the children that those who “assign” their “gender at birth” — doctors who examine their anatomy — might have gotten it wrong. | Article: http://bit.ly/2mOELm3

  SEE: https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/28063-public-school-forces-kids-to-sit-through-sex-change-seminar

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

From FreedomProject Media:
A government high school in Virginia forced children to sit through an assembly promoting gender confusion, genital mutilation in “sex-change” surgeries, and other absurdities. Parents, students, and even teachers were shocked.
Now, the school is under fire, with the powerful non-profit Family Research Council (FRC) sounding the alarm.
Parents were not informed in advance, according to a horrified teacher who asked to remain anonymous. The children were apparently not given an opportunity to opt out of the indoctrination session, either, the gender ideologist's comments suggested.
The program, held at George Mason High School in the Northern Virginia city of Falls Church, featured well-known gender-confusion advocate Amy Ellis Nutt. Among other absurdities, Nutt told the children that those who “assign” their “gender at birth” — doctors who examine their anatomy — might have gotten it wrong.
“Gender is a spectrum,” claimed Nutt, a propagandist for the far-left Washington Post, a discredited megaphone for Bilderberg attendee and CIA contractor Jeff Bezos that perpetuates the lie that a globalist Insider who wanted to deny voting rights to black people gets to define the "conservative" movement.
During her bizarre speech, Nutt lectured the students on her book Becoming Nicole. According to summaries of the book, it tells the story of a biological boy who claimed to be a girl, took puberty-suppressing hormones, and then was castrated at age 17 as part of a “gender reassignment” surgery. Nutt told the children she attended the castration.
To read the rest of the article, click here.

MAINE: MUSLIM POLICE OFFICER PUT ON LEAVE, CHARGED WITH FIVE MISDEMEANORS, INCLUDING ASSAULT & BATTERY

 

 

MAINE: MUSLIM POLICE OFFICER PUT ON LEAVE, CHARGED WITH FIVE MISDEMEANORS, INCLUDING ASSAULT & BATTERY 

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/01/maine-muslim-police-officer-put-on-leave-charged-with-five-misdemeanors-including-assault-and-battery;

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Mohamed Noor, the Muslim cop in Minneapolis who shot an unarmed woman, Justine Damond, had been fast-tracked onto the force so that the Minneapolis police could showcase their “diversity.” Now it looks as if the Portland, Maine Police Department was trying to do the same thing with Zahra Munye Abu. After the shooting of Justine Damond, there should have been a searching reevaluation of the wisdom of hiring police officers based on their religion and ethnicity rather than their merit. But of course there was not. And so Muslim police officers keep being hired because they’re Muslim, not because they’re competent police officers, and here we are again.

“Portland police officer whose hiring made history is put on leave after arrest in Massachusetts,” by Matt Byrne, Press Herald, January 16, 2018 (thanks to the Geller Report):

A 24-year-old Portland police officer has been charged with five misdemeanors, including assault and battery, after being arrested Saturday night at a concert venue in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Worcester police said Zahra Munye Abu, of Portland, is also facing charges of trespassing, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
Abu caused a disturbance while attending a Ja Rule and Ashanti concert at the Palladium Nightclub on Main Street, said Worcester police Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst.
“The nightclub was hosting several live musical acts,” Hazelhurst said in an email. “She was (given) several opportunities to leave and refused. Eventually she was placed under arrest.”
Worcester police would not provide more details about the incident, and members of Abu’s family declined to comment when contacted by phone at their home.
Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said Abu has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending a review of the matter….
Abu is a high-profile member of the Portland police force because she is the first member of Maine’s Somali immigrant community to become a police officer in Maine.
She was born to Somali parents in a Kenyan refugee camp and has lived in Portland since she was 2 years old. She graduated from Deering High School in Portland and studied criminal justice and women-and-gender issues at the University of Southern Maine.
If convicted, Abu faces a maximum penalty of up to 2½ years in a county jail on the assault and battery and the resisting arrest charges. Each of the other charges include less severe maximum penalties.

LIBERAL NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR IGNORES PENSION CRISIS, WANTS MORE SPENDING, MORE GUN CONTROL

 

LIBERAL NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR IGNORES PENSION CRISIS, WANTS MORE SPENDING

BY BOB ADELMANN 

SEE: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/28053-new-jersey-governor-ignores-pension-crisis-wants-more-spending; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

While running for governor of New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy (shown) was asked what he would do about the state’s overwhelming pension crisis, and he waffled: there’s “no easy answer," he said. He added that the state would have to do something about the problem. Said Murphy, “The state has to stand up for its side of the bargain. Period. If the state doesn’t, there’s no use in having [any further] discussion.”
Murphy was inaugurated as the New Jersey’s 56th governor on Tuesday and promptly forgot all about the pension tsunami about to engulf the state. Instead he offered both a “wish list” and a “to-do list" for his supporters and Democratic legislators in attendance. His “wish list” contained the usual collection of liberal promises, while his “to-do” list is what he wants the state legislature to bring to his desk within the next 30 days.
His “wish list” was a rehash of his campaign promises — long on generalities but short on specifics — including legalizing marijuana, protecting illegal immigrants from ICE, providing free tuition at the state’s community colleges, eliminating “tax breaks” that large corporations are allegedly unfairly enjoying, investing state funds in more costly “green energy” projects, and paying for it all by raising taxes on those few millionaires still residing in one the country’s highest-tax states.
He was much more specific with his “to-do” list. He ordered the state’s liberal and heavily Democratic legislators to get off the snide and send him six bills within the next 30 days, each of which, said Murphy, “will be met with a signing ceremony.” Their marching orders from Murphy included new funding for “women’s health” and Planned Parenthood, raising the minimum wage in the state to $15 an hour, mandating “equal pay” for women, requiring employers in the state to provide paid sick leave to their employees, passing laws removing barriers to having illegals vote, and, of course, additional attacks on the state’s more than three million law-abiding gun owners.

He mentioned not a word about the state’s pension crisis, which has been brewing for years and accelerating nearly exponentially. It’s not that Murphy doesn’t know about the crisis or its extent and potential for bankrupting the state. In 2005, acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey convened a commission to study “the problem,” naming Phil Murphy as its head. In its conclusion, that study urged the state in no uncertain terms to end immediately all “pension holidays” (the skipping of payments to the state’s five pension plans for a period of time), to avoid actuarial “gimmicks” commonly used to make those liabilities appear to be smaller than they actually are, and to eliminate borrowing to pay the state’s contributions. It also recommended a series of reforms, including an end to pension “spiking” (by which employees can sweeten their final payouts as they approach retirement), and raising the age at which plan beneficiaries could retire with full benefits. That last recommendation, which was never implemented, would have raised the full-benefit retirement age from 55 to 60.
So Murphy cannot claim ignorance. He is also certain to know of the accounting chicanery that took place last year, i.e., using the state’s lottery program to help pay the state’s pension contributions. But it was chicanery taken to level of audacity rarely seen even in states as corrupt as New Jersey. Instead of demanding that the lottery’s annual $1 billion proceeds flow into the pension funds’ coffers, the legislature actually transferred the entire program into those coffers and then declared that the future value of those annual proceeds (happily and likely generously estimated at more than $13 billion) was now an asset, reducing (on paper at least) the amount of the unfunded liability.
Moody’s Analytics was not impressed: “The lottery transfer does not change the state’s weak [and] steeply rising pension contribution schedule. [Even after the transfer] there remains considerable risk that the state will be unable to afford rapidly growing pension contributions.”
Also not impressed were two senior fellows at the Manhattan Institute, who just released their study of New Jersey’s pension problems. In January, well before Murphy neatly demurred on even mentioning them, the authors concluded: “It is highly unlikely that New Jersey will generate enough new revenues to meet its pension obligations without severely hobbling the rest of the state’s budget. At the same time, allowing its pension system to continue to accumulate debt by not contributing adequately to it will push New Jersey toward a potentially catastrophic failure of its government pensions.”
At the moment, those five government pension plans have the lowest funding ratio of any state in the union, with a liability estimated to be $124 billion. Those plans are only 30-percent funded currently and declining with each passing day.
But Murphy’s term is for only four years, and if he wins reelection, his tenure ends in eight years. Those plans will likely remain in place, continuing to threaten pensioners who still think they will be getting their benefits, and threatening the state with bankruptcy if it tries to fund them properly. But Murphy will be long gone, proving once again the old adage: Politicians come and go, but the unfunded promises they make live long after them.

LILIANNE PLOUMEN, "SHE DECIDES" INSTEAD OF GOD~POPE FRANCIS HONORS DUTCH ABORTION ACTIVIST & RADICAL LGBT PROMOTER WITH PONTIFICAL MEDAL OF KNIGHTHOOD

 "SHE DECIDES" WHEN TO TERMINATE LIFE; AND APOSTATE GLOBALIST/SOCIALIST ANTI-CHRIST POPE GIVES BLESSING & HONOR 
TO APOSTATE LIKE HIMSELF

 

 PLOUMEN A RADICAL LGBT PROMOTER

 

POPE FRANCIS HONORS DUTCH ABORTION ACTIVIST WITH PONTIFICAL MEDAL 

OF KNIGHTHOOD 

BY Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

SEE: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/01/17/pope-francis-honors-dutch-abortion-activist-with-pontifical-medal-of-knighthood/;

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

 Pope Francis has conferred the title of “Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian 

Order of St. Gregory the Great” on Lilianne Ploumen, a Dutch politician and vocal 

agitator for abortion rights. Last year, Ploumen founded a pro-abortion 

organization called She Decides, which offers funding and support for 

international NGOs that provide, facilitate or campaign for abortion.

In an email to the Catholic Herald, Ms. Ploumen said that she was “very honoured” by the pontifical medal, which was sent via the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month.
In an interview with Dutch radio, Ploumen said she views the honor as a sign of the pope’s progressivism, as well as acknowledgement for her work in supporting abortion rights.
Ms. Ploumen said that the award came after much personal investment in contacts with the Vatican, which she defined as “lobbying.”
“Yes, because you know, the Vatican, especially under prior popes, had a rather rigid attitude when it came to the rights of girls and women,” she said.
The Order of St Gregory the Great was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831, under the patronage of Pope St Gregory I. It is bestowed on those who have distinguished themselves in public service or given support to the Church.
During the investiture ceremony, the prelate sponsoring the candidate recites a formula noting that membership in the Pontifical Order of St Gregory the Great “is conferred as a reward for services to the Holy See and the Church on gentlemen/ladies of proved loyalty who must maintain unswerving fidelity to God, the Supreme Pontiff, the Holy See and the Church.”
“Becoming a Knight/Dame does not merely mean receiving a title of honour—even though it is well deserved—but fighting evil, promoting good and defending the weak and oppressed against injustice,” the rite continues.
The approval of candidates for this high honor must be given by the pope himself.
The Vatican press office has confirmed that the honor was indeed awarded to Lilianne Ploumen, but insists that it was not meant to signal approval of her pro-abortion activities.
On Monday, Paloma García Ovejero, deputy spokesperson of the Holy See Press Office, said the medal was part of an exchange of honors between delegations after she took part in an official state visit to the Vatican last year of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima.
“The honor of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great received by Mrs. Lilianne Ploumen, former Minister of Development, in June 2017 during the visit of the Dutch Royals to the Holy Father, responds to the diplomatic practice of the exchange of honors between delegations on the occasion of official visits by Heads of State or Government in the Vatican,” García said.
“Therefore, it is not in the slightest a placet [a mark of approval] to the politics in favor of abortion and of birth control that Mrs. Ploumen promotes,” she added.
According to the National Catholic Register, abortion is just one area where Ploumen’s public advocacy departs from Catholic moral teaching.
As “a radical supporter of homosexual rights,” Register correspondent Edward Pentin states, Ploumen “urged homosexuals to disrupt Mass in a Dutch cathedral after an openly homosexual man was denied Holy Communion” in 2010.
Last September, Ploumen also gave a prominent address at the LGBT’s Core Group at the United Nations.
For his part, Pope Francis has been an outspoken critic of abortion, calling it a “very grave sin” and a “horrendous crime.”
______________________________________________________

 The Holy See Press Office Botched Its Handling of the Ploumen Story

SEE: https://onepeterfive.com/the-holy-see-press-office-botched-its-handling-of-the-ploumen-story-when-can-we-have-a-vatican-run-by-grownups/

AND: https://onepeterfive.com/global-abortion-advocate-lilianne-ploumen-claims-papal-award-is-confirmation-of-her-work/ 

AND: https://onepeterfive.com/pope-francis-awards-architect-safe-abortion-fund-pontifical-honor/ 

 Pope Francis Honors Dutch Abortion Activist 

with Pontifical Medal of Knighthood

 Ploumen on bridging Trump's 

abortion funding gap | DW News

 The Dutch government plans to fund safe abortions in developing countries to cover gaps as "pro-life" Donald Trump pulls the plug. Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, talks about the goals and the financing of the fund.

 "SHE DECIDES" (NOT GOD)

The Netherlands & Belgium commit $73M to Women’s Rights & Health at GCF Hamburg

SEE ALSO:
https://torontocatholicwitness.blogspot.com/2018/01/did-lilianne-ploumen-receive-papal.html 
https://callmejorgebergoglio.blogspot.com/2018/01/francis-makes-pro-abortion-and-pro-lgbt.html

MISSOURI: PARENTS OF STUDENTS AT MIDDLE SCHOOL CONCERNED AFTER STATE SURVEY ASKS CHILDREN ABOUT THEIR "SEXUAL ORIENTATION" & "GENDER IDENTITY"

MISSOURI: PARENTS OF STUDENTS AT MIDDLE SCHOOL CONCERNED AFTER STATE SURVEY ASKS CHILDREN ABOUT THEIR "SEXUAL ORIENTATION" & "GENDER IDENTITY"

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: http://christiannews.net/2018/01/16/parents-of-students-at-middle-school-concerned-after-state-survey-asks-children-about-their-sexual-orientation-gender-identity/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

 BOURBON, Mo. — Some parents at a middle school in Missouri have expressed 

objection after a survey from the state Department of Mental Health asked 

students about their so-called “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

The Missouri Student Survey, also known as the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Survey, is sent to schools every other year to understand the issues that students face, from bullying to drug use to suicide. Children grades 6-12 complete the survey, and are informed that they may leave any questions blank that make them feel uncomfortable.
This year, the survey also asked students about whether they consider themselves to be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or “other,” and if they identify as transgender. It stated that the questions were being asked to “better understand the health and healthcare needs of people with different sexual orientations.”
“Do you consider yourself to be transgender? This is when your gender identity (how you feel) is different than how your body is (your anatomy),” one question read in part, and also allowed the answer of “prefer not to respond.”

The questions upset some parents, who spoke with local television station KMOV about the matter.
“It’s inappropriate subject matter for sixth graders to be answering questions on,” said parent Shane Burns.
“To me, anybody asking my 11-year-old daughter if she likes girls or boys and if she [identifies as] transgender, … if it’s not coming from me [as their parent], that’s just perverted,” also remarked parent Courtney West.

Following the controversy, Brian Witt, the principal of Bourbon High School and Middle School, sent a letter to parents to advise that he did not like the questions either, and that he has requested that the Department of Mental Health not ask such questions of his students in the future.
“School districts are not provided with the survey questions prior to giving the survey to students,” he outlined. “This year, there were two questions on sexuality included in the survey. When I was made aware of the questions, I contacted the Department of Mental Health and asked for those questions to be removed from the survey.”
Witt said that the Department agreed to remove the questions from future surveys submitted to his schools.
He also explained that parents will receive prior notice of the survey in the future, and that administrators will “be diligent in a request to review any future survey content from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.”
Read the letter in full by clicking here.
View previous Missouri Student Surveys by clicking here.

CALIFORNIA COUPLE ARRESTED AFTER TEEN DAUGHTER ESCAPES TO REPORT 12 SIBLINGS BEING HELD CAPTIVE, SOME CHAINED~HOMESCHOOLING BLAMED BY LIBERALS

 

CALIFORNIA COUPLE ARRESTED AFTER TEEN DAUGHTER ESCAPES TO REPORT 12 SIBLINGS BEING HELD CAPTIVE, SOME CHAINED 

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: http://christiannews.net/2018/01/16/california-couple-arrested-after-teen-daughter-escapes-to-report-12-siblings-being-held-captive-some-chained/; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

 PERRIS, Calif. — A California couple has been arrested and is being held on 

$9 million dollars bail each after their 17-year old daughter was able to escape 

their home and call 911 to report that she and her 12 siblings were being held 

captive, some being bound with chains.

David Turpin, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, are now facing nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment after police came to the home and found the situation just as the girl had described.
“Further investigation revealed several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings, but the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner,” the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department reported on Monday night.
It explained that officers thought all of the siblings were children due to their size and condition from malnourishment, but were shocked to learn that seven of them were actually adults, ages 18 to 29.

Capt. Greg Fellows said that the 17-year-old who called 911 from a deactivated cell phone after escaping through a window looked like a 10-year-old.
“If you can imagine being 17 years old and appearing to be a 10-year-old, being chained to a bed, malnourished and the injuries associated with that,” he remarked during a press conference on Tuesday. “I would call that torture.”
All 13 siblings were interviewed and transported to Corona Regional Medical Center, where they were examined and fed.

“It’s hard to think of them as adults when you first see them because they’re small, and it’s clear they’re malnutritioned,” CEO Mark Uffer agreed during a press conference on Tuesday.
Dr. Sophia Grant, who runs the child abuse unit for the hospital system, said that it is more than just food that the children require.
“The long-term needs of these kids are going to be the psychological and psychiatric needs due to the prolonged starvation and maltreatment,” she outlined.
The Turpins’ Facebook page was last utilized in 2016, when they posted photographs of their children at a ceremony where the couple renewed their vows. The children were dressed in matching outfits and appeared to be happy—smiling and jumping up and down. It has not yet been reported as to how long the children were mistreated by their parents.
“I can’t get into the specific details of the conversation, but it seemed that the mother was perplexed as to why we were at that residence,” Fellows said.
ABC News reached out to the parents of David Turpin, James and Betty Turpin of Virginia, who explained that they hadn’t seen the children in several years. They outlined that the Turpins homeschooled their children, who memorized passages from the Bible. The family did not attend a church.
Neighbors told reporters that if any of the children were seen outside, they appeared to be skinny and pale, and were non-social. Kimberly Milligan said that she complimented three of the children once as she saw them outside setting up a nativity scene, but they “froze” and did not respond.
“They still did not say a word,” Milligan told the Washington Post. “They were like children whose only defense was to be invisible.”
 ______________________________________________________

 Parents charged in torture allegedly held 13 siblings 'captive'

 David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were charged with torture and child endangerment in Perris, California, officials said.

  Turpins renew their vows at Elvis chapel 

on 30th anniversary

 

Homeschooling Blamed For 13 Kids Held Captive

 Bizarre, strange, unprecedented — but it didn’t take long for the media to blame homeschooling for abuse of 13 children at the hands of their parents.