PLANO, Texas - Talking about Jesus is pretty routine for Texans running for office. But usually not Democrats.
State Rep. James Talarico is changing the script, leaning into his background in a progressive Presbyterian seminary.
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It's a playbook that has helped propel his political career. Before he was the Democrats' hope to flip a Republican Senate seat in Texas, the state lawmaker often invoked the Bible to justify progressive policy positions in the Texas Capitol. Past floor speeches and sermons on abortion, gender equity and religious pluralism helped give him the online platform that launched his Senate run.
He is now making his faith a central part of his Senate campaign, telling voters "it's time to start flipping tables" and take back faith from the religious right - a reference to the biblical story of Jesus flipping over tables in the Temple of Jerusalem to purge merchants profiting off a house of worship. Talarico boils down his core message to two commandments from the Bible: Love God and love your neighbor.

#love #progressive

By Daniel Wiessner
Aug 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ruled that Idaho's near-total abortion ban is unconstitutional because it provides exceptions when abortions are life-saving and not for broader risks to pregnant women's health.
U.S. District Judge ‌Lynn Winmill in Boise said in an 81-page ruling issued late on Thursday that the right to a health-preserving ‌abortion is protected by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees due process and equal protection under the law.
The ruling is the first by a federal judge to recognize a constitutional right to abortion in certain circumstances since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide, according to lawyers for the Idaho doctor who sued over the state laws.
LEGAL CHALLENGES TO STATE RESTRICTIONS

#judge #wiessner #district

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal judge says Idaho can't prosecute doctors who perform abortions to protect a pregnant person's health or prevent self-harm.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill made the ruling Thursday, writing that Idaho's "Defense of Life Act" and "Fetal Heartbeat Act" — which together create a near-total ban on abortion — violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. Physicians who violate the laws can lose their license and face up to five years in prison.
Both laws include narrow exceptions, including abortions done to prevent the death of a pregnant woman or in some cases of rape or incest where the pregnant person has filed a police report.
The case isn't about bodily autonomy or reproductive choice, Winmill wrote in the 81-page decision, but rather the "limit of the state's power to make a woman suffer for the sake of an unborn child."
The state can't pick and choose which life-threatening conditions justify abortion, he wrote.

#idaho

Texas state representative and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico's campaign responded after a resurfaced video of his comments on the Bible and education sparked outrage.
A clip resurfaced this week of Talarico, a Christian seminarian, speaking in a video hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund in 2025. In the clip, the host asked Talarico about his legislative battles with "Christian Nationalists," meaning people who consider America to be an inherently Christian nation.
The portion that went viral recently when Talarico blasted the "most insidious" legislation he fought to stop while serving in Texas government, claiming one bill required schools in the state to teach Bible stories as historical fact. He argued that this amounted to pushing "propaganda" on children and was not just bad for state schools, but for society overall.
"It was a new state curriculum that would teach Christian Bible stories as historical fact, as the only truth to our youngest students, and I mean kindergarten, first graders," he said. "These are kids who aren't able to think for themselves yet. They haven't formed their own worldviews."
Texas Dem Nominee James Talarico Invokes Faith To Defend Abortion Rights, 'The Bible Is Silent On Abortion'

#talarico #texas #james #abortion

EXCLUSIVE: Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico bragged in a resurfaced interview that his church had stirred controversy by housing a family of illegal immigrants who were set to be deported by ICE, laughing as he said that "Christianity is just another word for causing trouble."
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who serves as a Democratic state representative, is running against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for a Senate seat that is critical to both parties.
In a resurfaced clip of Talarico speaking on Texas Impact's "Weekly Witness" show in June 2023, he credited his faith for "why I am in politics." Asked how his faith influences his politics, Talarico pointed to examples of his church advancing progressive causes, saying, "Justice is just love out in public."
"Our church was really active in LGBTQ rights in the '90s. We caught some attention by letting an atheist join our church in the 2000s, and then in the 2010s, again stirred some controversy by housing an undocumented family, a mother and son, who were close to being deported by ICE," he said. "That was the tradition that I was brought up in. It's what led me to teach public school students on the west side of San Antonio, led me to run an education nonprofit and then led me to run for office."
Texas Dem Nominee James Talarico Invokes Faith To Defend Abortion Rights, 'The Bible Is Silent On Abortion'

#talarico #church

Massachusetts is on the way to giving doctors the final say on whether an abortion should be allowed late in pregnancy, a move expected to affect few cases but that supporters say is needed because hospitals are now turning away women they should be serving.
The state Senate adopted the measure Friday, sending it to Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, who has signed other laws strengthening abortion rights.
Under current Massachusetts law, abortion is legal for the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. It is allowed after that only if a physician using best medical judgment says it is necessary to preserve the life, physical or mental health of the woman, because of a lethal fetal anomaly or diagnosis or because the fetus wouldn't likely survive outside the uterus.
State Rep. Christine Barber said that under that framework, hospitals turned away some women for abortions late in pregnancy, even in a case where a fetus had a stroke and was determined to be unlikely to survive.
The new law would take out the list of specific reasons and say simply that it would be allowed "based on the professional judgment of the physician."

#pregnancy #massachusetts

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Over the past several years, Missouri voters have amended the state constitution to create abortion rights, legalize marijuana and sports betting and expand Medicaid healthcare coverage for low-income adults.
None of those initiatives would have passed under a ballot measure getting decided by voters Tuesday.
Missouri's proposed Amendment 4 would make it significantly harder to amend the constitution by requiring citizen initiatives to pass in all eight of the state's diverse congressional districts instead of by a traditional, simple statewide majority. No other state has such a high standard — or has even asked voters to consider it.
"This is a first-of-its-kind," said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a national group that backs progressive ballot initiatives like the ones Missouri's Republican lawmakers are hoping to quelch.
"It would be nearly impossible for citizens to participate meaningfully in any sort of direct democracy," said Hall, who believes other states could try to copy Missouri's proposal.

#voters #initiatives #constitution #medicaid

President Donald Trump is throwing his weight behind House GOP leaders' latest gambit to pass the SAVE America Act as some fiscal hawks are skeptical of the bill's increase to federal spending while the national debt balloons to $39.5 trillion.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is spearheading an effort to pass elements of the election integrity bill through the budget reconciliation process, which would sidestep the need for Democratic support in the Senate in order to get the bill to Trump's desk.
The legislation would also add some $73 billion in national security spending as the war between the U.S. and Iran continues after multiple stalled attempts at peace talks.
Gop's $95B Defense Package Survives Critical Hurdle Amid Fiscal Hawk Revolt
"The fact that there is no payfor and no language defunding Planned Parenthood is enough for me to vote no," Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital on Monday. "I am open to a dialogue with the administration on how we can ensure that the SAVE language is solid and what we might be able to do with stopping abortions by mail."

WARSAW, July 17 (Reuters) - Poland's president vetoed two bills on Friday that would have introduced "cohabitation contracts" for couples living together, dealing a blow to same-sex couples in one of the ‌few European Union countries with limited rights for LGBT people.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office in ‌2023 pledging to deliver reforms on abortion and LGBT rights, but divisions within his broad pro-European coalition as well as nationalist President Karol Nawrocki's veto powers mean he has struggled to do so.
The bills on the "status of the closest person in a relationship and the cohabitation agreement" would have allowed two adults to enter into an agreement regulating issues such as joint property rights, access to medical information and matters concerning burial.
The bills had secured support from ‌across the governing coalition, including from the ⁠conservative PSL party which had refused to support earlier proposals which they feared would undermine the institution of marriage.
However, Nawrocki, an ally of the nationalist opposition party Law ⁠and Justice (PiS), said the bills still went too far.

By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a former high school student's free-speech challenge to an Indiana public school district's policy that barred her from displaying a flyer ‌with an anti-abortion message on school walls.
The justices turned away the former student's appeal of a lower court's decision ‌that the ****** lesville Schools district's policy did not violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protections against government abridgment of freedom of speech.
The former student, who has since graduated, is known in court papers as "E.D." due to her status as a minor when her parents Michael and Lisa Duell filed the 2021 lawsuit against the school district, which is located outside Indianapolis.
The dispute arose in connection with an anti-abortion student club called ****** lesville Students for Life, a local chapter of Students for Life of America, that E.D. formed during her freshman year at ****** lesville High ‌School.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Former Sen. Bob Packwood, a moderate Oregon Republican whose reputation as a champion of abortion and women's rights was spoiled at the end of his career by allegations of ****** ual harassment, has died. He was 93.
Packwood's death on Saturday was announced in an obituary sent to media outlets by his family. The release didn't include additional details.
Packwood was a political scrapper who first refused to quit the chamber in which he had served for 27 years, saying he didn't want to be remembered only for that controversy.
Before the #MeToo era, Packwood stood out as an example of private behavior undermining a man's public image. He had been praised by Planned Parenthood and others.
The great-grandson of a member of the 1857 Oregon Constitutional Convention, Packwood established himself as a social moderate and fiscal conservative who often voted across party lines. He considered running for president in 1980.

Chile votes for its next president and parliament on Sunday in a contest expected to favor the right as candidates play on popular fears over organized crime and immigration. On the surface, Sunday’s election offers Chileans a dramatic choice between two extremes: Jeannette Jara, 51, a card-carrying communist and former labor minister in the left-wing government, and, among other right-wing contenders, José Antonio Kast, 59, an ultraconservative lawyer and former lawmaker who opposes abortion and vows to shrink the state. In a feat of political gymnastics, the communist candidate has promoted

If you can't condemn abortion you don't understand the basic principle of "Thou shalt not kill" and have no business leading a church.

Étienne-Émile Baulieu, a French biochemist who spearheaded the development of the abortion drug mifepristone, has died at 98.

Lusa - Business News - Portugal: RTP, SIC did not broadcast anti-abortion advert

Planned Parenthood has paused abortions in Missouri after the state Supreme Court ruled a judge used the wrong standard to block abortion restrictions. The decision comes after voters approved a constitutional right to reproductive freedom last November.

The Texas Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a measure to clarify when doctors can legally perform abortions to save the life of the mother, a significant bipartisan effort to more directly define exceptions to the state’s near-total ban.