In The News

If you were in the market for a Republican candidate who could actually win in a general election, Marco Rubio’s third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Monday was a sign of hope. Coming in just behind Ted Cruz and Donald Trump meant he’d done better than expected: he was having a surge, a moment, a comeback. In a Times column headlined, wishfully, “Donald Trump Isn’t Real,” David Brooks banished the pugnacious billionaire to the past tense (“Trump was unabashedly masculine, the lingua franca of pro wrestling”) and said of Ted Cruz, “His is a Tea Party wing in the G.O.P.

For the first time in history, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has punished a country for denying a citizen an abortion. Through this decision, the UN committee has deemed abortion a human right — and it should be. The ability to decide whether or not you become a parent is not a luxury, but a basic right we all deserve.

In this case, which began in 2001, a 17-year-old in Peru was denied a medically necessary abortion. The woman complained to the Human Rights Committee, which asked that Peru's government pay her reparations. She just received them.

Nearly 6 in 10 Americans — including 42.8% of gun owners — say that if they were to buy a new firearm, they would choose one equipped with technology that prevents it from being fired by an unauthorized user, a new national survey has found.

The survey suggests an openness to so-called smart guns, personalized weapons and childproof firearms. Their development has been championed in recent years by the Obama administration as well as a range of physicians’ groups and public health advocates.

Forty-three years ago, the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. The landmark case established a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. Ever since then, anti-abortion politicians and activists have tried to chip away at Roe. States have passed more than 1,000 restrictions on the procedure and the Supreme Court has ruled on several other abortion cases, each time further limiting abortion access. 

2015 wasn’t a great year for reproductive rights.

Federal and state lawmakers introduced more than 400 bills and enacted 47 new laws intended to restrict access to reproductive health care — the most in any recent year. Considerably fewer bills sought to expand access — and only three of those became laws.

The 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which a mentally troubled young man killed 26 children and educators, served as a rallying cry for gun-control advocates across the nation.

But in the three years since, many states have moved in the opposite direction, embracing the National Rifle Association's axiom that more "good guys with guns" are needed to deter mass shootings.

JAC strongly condemns the hateful comments made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

We may differ on ideas and policies, but we must be united - Republicans and Democrats - to ensuring religious freedoms for all. Racial and religious bigotry has absolutely no place in our political arena and only serves to weaken the fabric of our country.

State legislators approved nearly 50 bills restricting access to abortion over the last year, according to a report by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

A total of 16 states, mostly in the South, approved new legislation, ranging from new consent mandates to stricter protocols for abortion medications.

While not all became law — including at least 20 measures targeting Planned Parenthood — abortions rights activists are using the trend as a call to action.

Americans overwhelmingly oppose cutting off federal funds for Planned Parenthood, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds, a debate that is likely to come to a head this week between the Republican-controlled Congress and the Democratic White House.

By 58%-33%, those surveyed Wednesday through Sunday said the group's funding shouldn't be eliminated. The national poll of 1,000 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Despite the mass shootings in their own backyards, Representatives still have done nothing.

One hundred and twenty-three deaths. Twenty-two congressional districts, in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Thirteen Republicans, nine Democrats.