Sitting at her computer one day in late December, Dr. Sarah Osmundson mustered her best argument to approve an abortion for a suffering patient.

The woman was 14 weeks pregnant when she learned her fetus was developing without a skull. This increased the likelihood of a severe buildup of amniotic fluid, which could cause her uterus to rupture and possibly kill her. Osmundson, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who helps patients navigate high-risk pregnancies, knew that outcome was uncommon, but she had seen it happen.

She drafted an email to her colleagues on the Nashville hospital’s abortion committee, arguing that the risk was significant enough to meet the slim exception to Tennessee’s strict abortion ban, which allows termination only when “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” She pleaded with her fellow doctors to spare this woman the gamble when her baby wasn’t even viable.

Then came the replies.

More: https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-doctor-decisions-hospital-committee

On the same day that Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker handed down an opinion declaring that fertilized frozen embryos are people, imperiling women’s access to in vitro fertilization treatments, he espoused support for a once-fringe philosophy that calls on evangelical Christians to reshape society based on their interpretation of the Bible.

During an online broadcast hosted by Tennessee evangelist Johnny Enlow on Friday, Parker suggested America was founded explicitly as a Christian nation and discussed his embrace of the Seven Mountains Mandate — the belief that conservative Christians are meant to rule over seven key areas of American life, including media, business, education and government.

“God created government, and the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it’s heartbreaking,” Parker said in the interview, first reported this week by Media Matters for America, a liberal nonprofit media watchdog. “That’s why he is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now.”

More: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alabama-justice-embryos-biblical-seven-mountains-rcna139969

The belief that black people are sexually lewd predates the institution of slavery in America. European travelers to Africa found scantily clad natives. This semi nudity was misinterpreted as lewdness. White Europeans, locked into the racial ethnocentrism of the 17th century, saw African polygamy and tribal dances as proof of the African's uncontrolled sexual lust. Europeans were fascinated by African sexuality. William Bosman described the black women on the coast of Guinea as "fiery" and "warm" and "so much hotter than the men." William Smith described African women as "hot constitution'd Ladies" who "are continually contriving stratagems how to gain a lover" (White, 1999, p. 29). The genesis of anti-black sexual archetypes emerged from the writings of these and other Europeans: the black male as brute and potential rapist; the black woman, as Jezebel whore.

More here: https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/jezebel/index.htm

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others. But behind tecethis mask of extreme confidence, they are not sure of their self-worth and are easily upset by the slightest criticism.

A father and stepmother have been arrested for the murder of their 5-year-old son nearly 35 years after he was killed, authorities announced.

Victor Lee Turner and Megan R. Turner (formerly known as Pamela K. Turner) were taken into custody at their Cross Hill, South Carolina, home on Wednesday and charged with the cold case murder of Justin Lee Turner, according to Berkeley County Sheriff Duane Lewis.

*snip*

In 2021, Justin's cold case file was reviewed to see if the evidence could be reevaluated using new technology, the sheriff said. Several pieces of evidence led to this week's arrests ... including that investigators were able to narrow down time of death based on contents in Justin's stomach and investigators used new forensic testing to "tie in the murder weapon that we believe was used to strangle Justin to clothing and fabric on his clothing at the time of his death."

Forensic analysis found that a ligature recovered from the Turners' home was likely the weapon used to strangle Justin, and when the Turners learned that evidence, including the ligature, was taken from the home, they allegedly "expressed concern and devised a plan to withhold/conceal potential evidence," the probable cause affidavit said. The Turners allegedly "uttered spontaneous incriminating statements to indicate responsibility in the death of the victim and intent to conceal physical evidence," the document said.

CHICAGO — As libraries across the country face threats and book bans, Illinois will become the first state in the nation to ban the practice beginning Jan. 1.

In June, Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 2789 into law. It prevents public schools and community libraries that ban books from accessing state funding.

*snip*

The American Library Association compiled more than 1,200 challenges to books nationally in 2022, nearly double the record number a year earlier. And librarians have faced violent threats.

Under the new law, Illinois public libraries must adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights to receive any state funding — which includes “materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.”

http://blockclubchicago.org/2023/12/27/illinois-ban-on-book-bans-takes-effect-jan-1/

Confederate monuments have come down in Orlando, Tampa and most recently Jacksonville as part of a nationwide reckoning with public memorials that commemorate the Confederacy. But if a bill becomes law next year, local leaders could be fined and even booted from office if they remove those monuments.

State Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, is pushing the measure to protect monuments, including memorials to the Confederacy, and punish local officials who remove them. He said his bill is retroactive and seeks to restore monuments removed by local governments after Jan. 1, 2017.

*snip*

Confederate memorials were erected to “scare and intimidate the Black community post-slavery,” said state Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville. “It is a horrible bill,” she said. “It is meant to throw red meat at a base of voters at a time when they know it is an election year.”

Nixon added about the Confederate memorials: “We should not be uplifting losers who wanted to keep my people enslaved.”

Lots more details in the article:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/28/as-cities-take-down-confederate-memorials-florida-bill-seeks-to-stop-them-and-put-the-statues-back-up/