The Intersection of Free Speech and Abortion: How Federal Courts are Influencing Doctrine to Further Anti-Abortion Goals

Maintaining the accessibility to abortion has been a longstanding battle. While funding for Crisis Pregnancy Centers is increasing, states are cutting funding for abortion clinics (Ludden, 2015) and they are closing at a rate of 1.5 each week (Redden, 2015). Since Roe v. Wade (1973), hundreds of cases have been brought to challenge its legality and limit it as much as possible. The inability to challenge Roe directly has led many conservative legislators to play abortion politics by proxy, regulating what goes on inside and outside clinics, and the federal courts’ play a pivotal role in reviewing these regulations. During the 1980s and 1990s, anti-abortion groups employed different forms of protest to discourage abortions, tax abortion providers’ resources, and disrupt the flow of information to women seeking abortions in what is known as “clinic-front activism” (Wilson, 2016). Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) have a reputation for withholding or sharing false information to women which can engender serious mental and physical health consequences (Holtzman, 2017), but federal courts have inconsistently applied the law when addressing concerns about these practices. Controversies over abortion have recently migrated into this area of free speech, and federal court rulings have been increasingly curtailing the efforts of progressive state lawmakers to combat the attempts of anti-abortion groups and states to manipulate information for women seeking abortions. The Supreme Court has served as an important partner to the anti-abortion movement, playing a pivotal role in limiting the parameters of abortion. This is being done in three ways: (1) the Supreme Court has used its discretion over its docket to deny hearing cases, which consequently permits the decisions of the lower court that favor anti-abortion coalitions to stand; (2) federal courts make rulings that are favorable to the anti-abortion movement by selectively using established doctrine to support those positions; and (3) federal courts have created favorable doctrine to defend anti-abortion positions. The abortion debate is no longer just about a woman’s right to choose, it is now a battle about who can control the types of abortion related information that women encounter. Constitutional laws governing these issues seem to be changing significantly in response to these efforts that had initially started as small-scale clinic front activism. In the realm of abortion, federal court decisions appear increasingly to favor expanding the goals of anti-abortion groups and vastly curtailing those who support abortion. It has spurred into a much larger movement that continues to constrict the rights of those seeking an abortion to this da

The Equal Rights Amendment: Why All U.S. States Have Not Ratified

Currently, enacted legislation for the equality of men and women in the United States does not exist. Despite many advancements, as of 2018, the equality of men and women is not explicitly stated in the U.S. constitution. There is a long history of discrimination against women in the U.S., and for some time now, there have been pushes toward constitutionalizing equality based on Sex. One such push came in 1923, shortly after women were granted the right to vote and The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was introduced. This amendment mandates that the “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Unfortunately, this amendment would never take effect due to the lack of votes for ratification by the states. This paper analyzes why after over 30 years since the deadline has passed, 38 states have not already ratified the amendment, and details potential reasons that Illinois and Nevada have ratified the ERA after so many years. The five factors that we analyzed are political partisanship, lack of public support, political theater, the composition of state legislatures by gender, and the effects of social movements and counter protests. This paper specifically evaluates the effects that these factors had on the sudden ratification of the ERA in Nevada and Illinois and describes our findings that it is not just one factor, but a combination of several that explains the questions surrounding the ratification of the ERA

Almost everyone in New York is raising PRICEs

Using the data from the new CUNY Corpus of New York City English, we explore a phonological analysis by Kaye (2012) that argues that the New York City English (NYCE) PALM shares an underlying \u27stem vowel\u27 with PRIZE. Kaye\u27s proposal is based on two observations: (i) the phonetic similarities of PALM and the nucleus of PRIZE and (ii) the conditioning factors that have led to the historical relexicalization of many Middle English short-o words from LOT to PALM are the same as those that have led relexicalization PRICE words to PRIZE. However, it has previously been observed that PALM is merging with LOT in NYCE. Consequently, it would be likely that if that vowel shares an underlying identity with PRIZE, PRIZE too should be merging. In fact, our data show a complex pattern. First, although PRIZE is backer than PRICE, there is considerable overlap. Also, the PRIZE nucleus tends to coincide with LOT more than PALM. Second, more younger speakers, who have a merged PALM-LOT, do not show a merged PRIZE-PRICE, but a new form of distinction, in which PRICE and PRIZE are now in a Canadian Raising pattern. In this way, NYCE loses a locally distinctive vowel configuration to match a widespread northeastern US regional pattern with a two-vowel low back system and Canadian Raising involving PRICE and PRIZE. In sum, the data show the complexity of the relationship between vowels in subsystems and that reconfigurations may involve multiple elements

The effects of service quality of university sport facilities on students’ affective and behavioral outcomes

Supportive sport facilities in universities are necessary to encourage students to be actively involved in sport. The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ perceived and expected service quality of sport facilities in universities and test the relations to satisfaction and subsequent behavioral intention. Results from the study revealed that while satisfaction played as partial mediators in the relationships between tangibles/reliability and intention, satisfaction was a full mediator in the relationship between assurance/empathy and intention

The public health safety of using human excreta from urine diverting toilets for agriculture: the Philippine experience

To determine the safety of using human excreta in agriculture, an observational study was conducted to determine the length of time necessary to eradicate parasitic ova and pathogenic bacteria in human excreta kept in the storage vaults of urine-diverting dehydration toilets in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines for ten (10) months, from August 2007 to May 2008. The study was conducted using seven (7) urine-diverting toilets. Baseline data for parasite ova and pathogenic bacteria were taken and duly recorded. Results show that microorganisms do not pose a public health threat if human excreta from UDDT vaults are used in agriculture. However, helminth eggs, particularly those of Ascaris lumbricoides, may still be infective and six months may not be sufficient to dehydrate human feces and render them safe for agricultural use. Secondary treatment is strongly recommended to render human excreta safe for agricultural use

A Study of the Affordance of Haptic Stimuli in a Simulated Haunted House

The present study investigates the affordance of vibrotactile signals in a simulated haunted house. Participants experienced a virtuals´eance using a head-mounted display, sound, and haptic stimuli on the palm and thighs.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

To Protect and to Preserve: Novel Preservation Strategies for Extracellular Vesicles

Extracellular vesicles (EVs)-based therapeutics are based on the premise that EVs shed by stem cells exert similar therapeutic effects and these have been proposed as an alternative to cell therapies. EV-mediated delivery is an effective and efficient system of cell-to-cell communication which can confer therapeutic benefits to their target cells. EVs have been shown to promote tissue repair and regeneration in various animal models such as, wound healing, cardiac ischemia, diabetes, lung fibrosis, kidney injury, and many others. Given the unique attributes of EVs, considerable thought must be given to the preservation, formulation and cold chain strategies in order to effectively translate exciting preclinical observations to clinical and commercial success. This review summarizes current understanding around EV preservation, challenges in maintaining EV quality, and also bioengineering advances aimed at enhancing the long-term stability of EVs

Kesan tembakan jarak dekat ke atas bahan binaan kapal nelayan resak, seraya dan balau

Kes tembakan senjata api jarak dekat ke atas kapal nelayan di Malaysia semakin meningkat setiap tahun. Cabaran yang dihadapi oleh agensi penguatkuasaan adalah untuk membuktikan bagaimana jenayah tembakan dilakukan. Bagi menyelesaikan masalah ini model sudut tembakkan dan pantulan dalam ruang kecil perlu dibina. Kajian ini mengkaji kesan tembakan pistol CZ 75 SP-01 Shadow separa automatik buatan Republic Czech bersama peluru 9 mm FMJ 7.45 gm ke atas tiga jenis kayu yang selalu digunakan untuk membuat kapal nelayan. Faktor jarak tembakan (1, 3, 5 dan 10 m), sudut tembakan (15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° dan 90°), sudut pantulan, dan jenis bahan binaan rumah kapal nelayan (Resak, Seraya dan Balau) dikaji. Keputusan kajian menunjukkan hanya 114 daripada 432 tembakan menghasilkan pantulan. Tembakkan ke atas kayu Resak menghasilkan beberapa pantulan peluru pada sudut tembakan 15° dan 30° dan jarak 1 m. Model persamaan menghubungkan sudut pantulan dan tembakkan berjaya dihasilkan. Kayu Seraya pula menghasilkan beberapa pantulan pada sudut tembakkan 15° dan jarak 1m sahaja dan ujian statistik menunjukkan bahawa model persamaan tidak boleh dibina. Bagi kayu Balau pula, model persamaan berjaya dihasilkan. Ia menghubungkan sudut pantulan dan jarak tembakkan. Ujian Validasi ke atas model kayu Resak dan Balau, menunjukkan model Resak mempunyai kejituan sebanyak 90%. Model kayu Balau pula tidak berjaya menghasilkan sebarang keputusan yang betul dan dengan itu tidak boleh dipercayai. Kesimpulannya, ketiga-tiga faktor yang dikaji tidak mencukupi untuk menerangkan kejadian pantulan peluru apabila tembakan dilakukan pada jarak dekat dalam ruang yang tertutup

EURECCA colorectal: multidisciplinary mission statement on better care for patients with colon and rectal cancer in Europe

Background: Care for patients with colon and rectal cancer has improved in the last twenty years however still considerable variation exists in cancer management and outcome between European countries. Therefore, EURECCA, which is the acronym of European Registration of cancer care, is aiming at defining core treatment strategies and developing a European audit structure in order to improve the quality of care for all patients with colon and rectal cancer. In December 2012 the first multidisciplinary consensus conference about colon and rectum was held looking for multidisciplinary consensus. The expert panel consisted of representatives of European scientific organisations involved in cancer care of patients with colon and rectal cancer and representatives of national colorectal registries. Methods: The expert panel had delegates of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO), European Society of Pathology (ESP), European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), European Society of Radiology (ESR), European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP), European CanCer Organisation (ECCO), European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS) and the European Colorectal Cancer Patient Organisation (EuropaColon), as well as delegates from national registries or audits. Experts commented and voted on the two web-based online voting rounds before the meeting (between 4th and 25th October and between the 20th November and 3rd December 2012) as well as one online round after the meeting (4th-20th March 2013) and were invited to lecture on the subjects during the meeting (13th-15th December 2012). The sentences in the consensus document were available during the meeting and a televoting round during the conference by all participants was performed. All sentences that were voted on are available on the EURECCA website www.canceraudit.eu. The consensus document was divided in sections describing evidence based algorithms of diagnostics, pathology, surgery, medical oncology, radiotherapy, and follow-up where applicable for treatment of colon cancer, rectal cancer and stage IV separately. Consensus was achieved using the Delphi method. Results: The total number of the voted sentences was 465. All chapters were voted on by at least 75% of the experts. Of the 465 sentences, 84% achieved large consensus, 6% achieved moderate consensus, and 7% resulted in minimum consensus. Only 3% was disagreed by more than 50% of the members. Conclusions: It is feasible to achieve European Consensus on key diagnostic and treatment issues using the Delphi method. This consensus embodies the expertise of professionals from all disciplines involved in the care for patients with colon and rectal cancer. Diagnostic and treatment algorithms were developed to implement the current evidence and to define core treatment guidance for multidisciplinary team management of colon and rectal cancer throughout Europe