The Social Conservative Review: March 13, 2014

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Dear Friends:

The director of FRC's Center for Human Dignity, Arina Grossu, was in New York this week for the U.N.'s Conference on Women. At event in a packed room, co-sponsored by our friends at the Catholic Family Association and REAL Women of Canada, Arina gave a convincing presentation on lowering maternal mortality around the world and how the UN should not focus on abortion legalization or "reproductive rights" but on real medical solutions to lower the risk of maternal mortality.

Abortion remains one of our great national shames, and is extending well beyond surgical procedures. As Arina wrote earlier this week in The Daily Caller, "Early medical abortions are on the rise ... Using gestational data from the CDC, Guttmacher estimated that 36 percent of abortions up to nine weeks' gestation in 2011 were early medication procedures compared to 26 percent in 2008."

But there's good news, too: Last week, the Alabama state legislature passed four bills designed to curtail abortion, including "a fetal heartbeat bill, which would ban abortion when the fetal heartbeat is detected at about six weeks."

The fight for life continues. The unborn deserve the protection of law. Their mothers deserve better than the exploitation of the abortion industry. Whether at the U.N. or in the states, FRC is working with our pro-life allies to achieve those great goals. Thanks for standing with us as we stand with the most vulnerable of us all.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. Download (at no charge) Senior Fellow Peter Sprigg's new study, "Understanding Windsor: What the Supreme Court Ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act Did - and Did Not - Say" here.

Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life
Abortion

• "Fetal homicide laws and the logical inconsistency of abortion," The Daily Caller
• "Stricter standards force abortion clinics to close; pro-lifers cheer shrinking numbers," The Washington Times
• "Abortion and the Black Woman," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
• "The Culture of Dishonesty: Abortion, Divorce, and Obamacare," The Public Discourse

Euthanasia/End of Life Issues

• "Lessons to be learned as Belgium King signs measure legalizing child euthanasia," National Right to Life News
• "Will Belgium's Legalized Child Euthanasia Trigger Death Tourism?," Forbes
• "Quebec euthanasia bill dies as government calls April election," LifeSiteNews.com

Stem Cells and Biotechnology

• "Stem Cell Center advancing treatments, officials say," Lawrence Journal-World
• "Pushing Polyamorous Genetic-Related Babies," National Review Online
• "Confusions About Totipotency: Stem Cells Are Not Embryos," The Public Discourse

Marriage & Family
Common Core

• "Common Core and the War on Self-Deception," EducationNext
• "Don't fix it if it ain't broke!," Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• "The Politics of Common Core," U.S. News and World Report

Family Life

• "Obama fumbles the key to saving minority youth; Intact families depend on a commitment to selfless love," The Washington Times
• "The path to responsibility can start with a broom and a paycheck," The Wall Street Journal
• "VIDEO: Why adoptive parents sometimes feel alone," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
• "Progressivism's War on Winners," Ethics and Public Policy Center
• "Women Lose Most When Parenthood Isn't Valued," Family Studies

Human Sexuality

• "Obama Proposes Eliminating Funding for Abstinence Education in 2015 Budget," CNSNews.com
• "The 'STD Hotspots' Of America: Which States Are Most Affected By Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, And AIDS?," Medical Today

Homosexuality and Same-Sex "Marriage"

• "The South's Stunning Embrace of Gay Marriage," The Atlantic
• "Against Heterosexuality," First Things
• "LGBT Groups Rethinking Strategies After International Setbacks," C-FAM
• "How Are Younger Evangelicals Responding to Homosexuality?," Religion Today
• "The "Poverty" of Homosexual Orientation," Crisis Magazine
• "Gender, Discrimination, and Marriage," The Public Discourse

Pornography

• "1 Key to Breaking Free From Pornography's Stronghold," Charisma News
• "Virginia Bishop to Fathers: Reject Pornography; Protect Yourself and Your Family," National Catholic Register
• "Why Parents Worry About Technology, But Struggle to Limit Its Use," Family Studies

Human trafficking

• "US Lawmakers Explore Efforts to Stop Child Sex Trafficking," Voice of America
• "Tech heavyweights take on human trafficking with big data," UpStart
• "In-Depth Report Details Economics of Sex Trade," New York Times
• "8 Facts About the U.S. Sex Economy," The Atlantic

Religious Liberty

• "Catholic Businessman Puts His Faith on the Line, Battling the HHS Mandate," National Catholic Register
• "HHS Mandate: Does This Sound Like Freedom?," The Acton Institute
• "Bill to Make the Fine $0 for Violating the Individual Mandate Passes by 90 Votes," The Weekly Standard
• "On Religious Liberty, America Is Becoming Illiberal," The American Conservative
• "What's at Stake at the Bakery: How Property Rights Got Sexy," The Public Discourse

Religion in Public Life

• "Why 73% of Donations Go to Religious Organizations," Humane Pursuits
• "The Bible in American Life," The Acton Institute
• "God and Sexuality at Bowdoin," The American Spectator
• "What It Means to Be Made in God's Image," Institute for Faith, Work and Economics
• "Above the laws," WORLD Magazine

International Religious Liberty

• "Religious freedom essential for global human rights, panel says," Catholic News Agency
• "Moore, others urge Religious Liberty Promotion," BRNow.org
• "Syrian rebels force Christians to pay 'protection' tax," WORLD Magazine
• "The Rise of the New Persecuted Church," Relevant Magazine

Other important articles

• "Growth, Marriages, and Redistribution," Religion Today
• "Restructuring the Department of Defense: Fiscal responsibility and strategy, too?," The Center for Vision and Values
• "Surviving Obama," CarolineGlick.com
• "The Impact of Politics on Military Justice," Commentary Magazine
• "D.C. Circuit Sidesteps Origination Clause Challenge to Obamacare," The FedSoc Blog
• "Big Government Will Help You Eat Right," Reason.com
• "What a progressive used to be," MercatorNet

Book Reviews

• "Digging Up a New Past," Claremont Review of Books
• "March's New & Notable Books," Challies.com
• "God in the Whirlwind," The Gospel Coalition
• "Richard Epstein: In Defense of the Classical Liberal Constitution," The FedSoc Blog
• "A Rational Defense of the Humanities," The Public Discourse
• "Book preview: Things That Go Bump In The Church," The Cripplegate