Texas wins case forcing Galveston school district to display Ten Commandments posters in classrooms
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
By Sharon Usadin
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‘Go Back to Fox!’: Pete Hegseth Torched by Critics After Defense Sec. Pentagon Creates Office of Religious Affairs
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
Radar
By Cassandra Schilling
The post ‘Go Back to Fox!’: Pete Hegseth Torched by Critics After Defense Sec. Pentagon Creates Office of Religious Affairs appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Anti-abortion states launch concerted attack on shield states
Tags:Freedom From Religion Foundation, Politics, Religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation warns that three anti-abortion states are going hammer and tongs after three other states shielding abortion rights groups and physicians.
The attorneys general of Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas have filed a suit directly before the U.S. Supreme Court contending that shield laws in California, Massachusetts and New York violate the U.S. Constitution by preventing anti-abortion states from enforcing their own bans. The three blue states are among a handful that protect providers from prosecution irrespective of the location of their patients.
“We will not allow activist states, activist providers or distributors profiting from killing babies to threaten Louisiana’s sovereignty, violate Louisiana law or endanger Louisiana women and babies,” reads the over-the-top statement from Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill. The three states suing are among the 13 that have near total bans on abortion care. Louisiana even classifies mifepristone and misoprostol, the ingredients in the abortion pill, as controlled substances.
Anti-abortion extremists are incensed that since the Dobbs decision in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, which turned abortion legality over to each state, abortion care has still been available in banned states through telehealth medicine and interstate travel. Of the 1,126,000 clinician-provided abortions in 2025, 65 percent involved medication abortion. The number of telehealth abortions increased in ban states in 2025.
The anti-abortion attorneys general argue that shield laws violate four constitutional provisions: the full faith and credit clause requiring states to respect each others’ laws, the equal sovereignty doctrine requiring Congress to treat states equally, the “dormant commerce clause” preventing states from impeding interstate commerce, and the federal common law of public nuisance, allowing states to sue over harm caused by other states. The three anti-abortion attorney generals have also sued more than 30 abortion pill providers (individuals and entities) charging them with violating federal and state laws. In addition, Louisiana is suing the Food and Drug Administration seeking to ban mifepristone despite more than 100 studies and years of FDA reviews finding it safe.
Louisiana has actually tried to extradite New York physician Dr. Maggie Carpenter for helping residents in the Bayou State obtain abortion pills, and Texas has sued her for the same reason. The Freedom From Religion Foundation gave Carpenter its Forward Award last year to recognize her courageous actions in co-founding the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine.
In her recorded acceptance speech, Carpenter warned: “This war against reproductive health will have deadly consequences for patients. It already has. This is a true life and death fight. … The depth of devastation is far reaching, more than any imagined — education, health care, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, political violence, separation of church and state, our justice system.”
Both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have refused to cooperate with extradition requests to turn over providers from their states who’ve mailed abortion pills to patients in ban states. California Attorney General Rob Bonta summed up the position of the three blue states being sued when he said, “Hell no,” adding, “We have been a safe haven for reproductive rights, and we will fight to keep it that way.”
“We’ve seen religious zealots calling for prosecuting, even executing women who have abortions,” notes FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We’ve seen calls to arrest women who try to leave their ban state to obtain a safe and legal abortion in a free state. Now this extremist attorneys general campaign is the escalation of the movement’s goal to abolish abortion throughout the United States. Make no mistake: It is a religious crusade seeking to impose the dogma of the few on the rights of the many.”
Gaylor adds, “Americans who value civil liberties have a voice. This lawsuit, intended to ban access to medication abortion, is a wake-up call to get out and vote like your rights depend on it — because they do.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With over 40,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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Celebrant Info Session (10/28/26, 6pm EST)
Tags:American Humanist, Politics, Religion
Celebrant Info Session (10/28/26, 6pm EST)
Wednesday October 28th, 6:oopm EST / 3:00pm PST, Remote
Wednesday, October 28th 2026
6:00pm EST / 3:00pm PST
Remote via Zoom
Come learn from a panel of Humanist celebrants about the work they do, and their important role in the secular ecosystem. Moderated by AHA Education Director and Humanist chaplain Kevin Jagoe.
The American Humanist Association
<span data-metadata="“>The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of Humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of Humanism, which—without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
Press Contact
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