by Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
(AgapePress) – An attorney with the American Family Association says pro-life activities can resume in a Connecticut city which had illegally targeted pro-life counselors.
Police in Bridgeport, Connecticut, have changed course in the face of a federal lawsuit and rescinded an order that infringed on the constitutional rights of peaceful sidewalk counselors and pro-life advocates. AFA Center for Law & Policy attorney Steve Crampton says police had been illegally using a court injunction and selectively enforcing a local loitering ordinance against pro-life activists.
Those activists, according to a press release from the AFA Law Center, would counsel abortion clinic clients against getting an abortion, encourage alternatives such as adoption, share their own post-abortion tragedies, and offer literature, prayer, and other forms of aid. Crampton says he hopes this move by the police department is a significant and lasting recognition of First Amendment rights.
“We're gratified that they are beginning to recognize the value of First Amendment rights, even for those who hold pro-life values and beliefs,” Crampton says. “It is grievous, really, that public funds — taxpayer money — has been used for years to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance … malicious prosecutions against gentle folks.”
Crampton says police were harassing all pro-lifers based on a 1997 injunction against a lone individual who protested outside the Summit Women's Health Center, an abortion clinic in Bridgeport. He says it is unfortunate that a federal lawsuit was necessary to restore constitutional rights that others enjoy as a matter of course.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
Study Says Majority of Unwed Moms Are Not Teens
by Ed Vitagliano
(AgapePress) – Take a quick, one-question quiz: Which age group of women — teens, 20-24, or 25 and older — has most of the out-of-wedlock babies in this country? If you answered teenage girls, you are probably in the majority — but you’re still wrong.
Contrary to what most people think, unwed teenage girls are not the ones having most of the illegitimate children in the U.S. In fact, according to a recent report from the non-profit research center Child Trends, it is women in their early 20s who earn that honor.
The study, available on the organization’s website (www.childtrends.org), said that while teens in 1999 accounted for 29% of unwed births, those in the age 20-24 bracket produced 36%. Those over 25 accounted for 34% of single-mom births.
