Abortion

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday passed legislation that would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion without parental consent.

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The Obama administration’s controversial birth-control mandate saw its first legal challenge Thursday from an employer not affiliated with any religious institution.

The latest challenge comes from the owner of a Missouri-based holding company, who says it violates his religious freedom. Although several other suits have been filed, they have all come from religious-affiliated employers such as Catholic universities.

The conservative American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed the suit on behalf of Frank O’Brien, the owner of O’Brien Industrial Holdings.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops formally made its fight against President Obama's birth-control coverage mandate the church's top priority, The Washington Post reports.

Three-quarters of Americans say the Supreme Court will be influenced by politics when it rules on the constitutionality of President Obama's healthcare reform law in June, according to a new Bloomberg poll.

A separate Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that respondents had "strong opinions" about how the court should rule that "weren't grounded in a great deal of knowledge."

The federal government is spending $54 million this year in its first-ever direct attacks on the nation's tobacco addiction with a series of advertisements highlighting the grisly toll of smoking, The New York Times reports.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is still promoting — cautiously — the healthcare law he helped write, Politico reports.

Becoming a "medical home" for clinics' patients means better care but longer staff hours, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A new poll shows 53 percent of likely voters believe Limbaugh should lose his show over the controversy.

The petition aims to counter efforts by liberal groups to force the controversial talk-radio host off the Armed Forces Network.

“For most American women, the battle over contraception was settled a half-century ago,” the 12 women senators wrote. Read more...

Sen Carl Levin (D-Mich.) called Limbaugh's show "offensive" and said he was "delighted" to see advertisers drop the program.

Democrats are largely to blame for the name-calling and personal insults of the contraception debate, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) charged Friday.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has spent part of his last three shows referring to a Georgetown University law student as a “slut” with “boyfriends ... lined up around the block.” But Issa said Democrats are also complicit in the deteriorating rhetoric, accusing them of insulting people of faith.

Issa shot back Friday against Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who had asked the Oversight Committee chairman to disavow Limbaugh’s comments.

“While your letter raises important concerns about these inappropriate comments and the tone of the current debate over religious freedom and Obamacare, I am struck by your clear failure to recognize your own contributions to the denigration of this discussion and attacks on people of religious faith,” Issa said in response to Cummings.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) took the rare step Friday of criticizing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who earlier in the week called a Georgetown University law student a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

The Speaker “obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation,” a Boehner spokesman said.

A spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said, "It's not language the majority leader would condone."

Democrats and women’s groups are furious over Limbaugh’s remarks, directed at Sandra Fluke, the law student who was not allowed to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing last month about the Obama administration's birth-control mandate. 

Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said his hearing was not about the contraception policy itself, but rather about religious freedom and whether the mandate encroaches on religious employers.

Democrats have launched an aggressive fundraising and organizing push and called on Republican leaders to disavow Limbaugh’s comments.

The Republican campaign committees and candidates have also made fundraising pitches off the contraception debate.

It’s rare for the GOP establishment to distance itself from Limbaugh, a powerful voice with the party’s base who is no stranger to controversy or anger from the left. But that anger has been especially pronounced this week, and Limbaugh waded into an issue where Republicans are already fighting accusations of a "war on women."

All eyes are on the House for the next moves in a weeks-long debate over contraception and religious freedom.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was vague about how he intends to proceed on the contraception issue, just a few weeks after promising to move quickly on an Energy and Commerce Committee bill that still hasn’t been written.

"I think the American people are concerned about the government’s infringement on religious liberty," he said at a news conference. "And you know, the Senate will have its vote today, and the House will decide how we will proceed."

The Senate voted 51-48 on Thursday to kill an amendment, offered by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), that would have let employers opt out of healthcare mandates they find immoral. Blunt promised that the controversy isn’t over, but where it goes from here is uncertain.

Democrats, of course, hammered the nearly unanimous vote by Senate Republicans, saying the GOP could alienate female voters by focusing on social issues instead of the economy.

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