Florida state Sens. Evelyn Lynn, R-Daytona Beach, and Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville (Photo: flsenate.gov/Office of Senate President)

Two state lawmakers — one Democrat, one Republican — have come together to file legislation that would require pregnancy resource centers, or crisis pregnancy centers, to protect the private medical information of women who visit them.

The Pregnancy Confidentiality Act was filed by state Rep. Lori Berman, D-Delray Beach, and Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Daytona Beach.

These centers, commonly known as CPCs, are religious-based centers that dissuaded women from having abortions. In Florida, some CPCs receive state funds: Last year the state’s pregnancy resource services received $2 million in taxpayer money — a fixed amount it has received each of the past six years — while other health centers saw deep cuts to their state funding.

As Marcos Restrepo here at The Florida Independent wrote in October of 2010, despite their state funding, the centers have received little oversight and regulation from state agencies in the past. Berman and Lynn’s legislation would reverse the trend by creating a regulation.

The Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates wrote in a press release today that Lynn and Berman’s bills focus on “protecting privacy of Floridian’s who utilize facilities in the ‘pregnancy resource center’ industry often referred to as ‘crisis pregnancy centers.’”

According to the release:

These centers are currently not regulated medical facilities and are not mandated to keep information provided private and confidential.

…

“Crisis pregnancy centers” are non-medical facilities that often provide free pregnancy testing and ultrasounds and counsel pregnant women against abortion and emergency birth control services. Many receive government funding and often advertise themselves in a way that suggests that they offer comprehensive reproductive health services by trained doctors and nurses, even when that is not the case.

This bill will ensure that women and men who are given a medical diagnosis or information at a “crisis pregnancy center” will have their personal and medical information protected, despite the fact that these are not medical facilities.

A state senator recently filed legislation that would commend “the compassionate work of the volunteers and staff at Florida’s pregnancy resource centers.” The bill would celebrate CPCs providing ”important support and resources for women who choose childbirth over abortion.”

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

Mother Jones reports that presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has received an endorsement from former Rep. Fred Grandy, R-Iowa, an anti-Islam activist.

Via Tim Murphy at Mother Jones:

Since leaving the House, Grandy has reinvented himself as an anti-Islam activist, delivering dire warnings of the threat of what he calls “galloping Shariah” law. At a tea party event in Maryland in October, Grandy warned that Occupy Wall Street was being propped up by the Council American Islamic Relations—which, according to Grandy, is in turn a front for the Muslim Brotherhood. Is #OWS part of an Islamist plot to take over the United States? In the eyes of Gingrich’s newest endorser it is.

Grandy’s pet issue is the perceived creep of Islamic law into American courts—in October, he wrote that there had been “attempts in 23 states to use shariah law either in trial or appellate cases.” After losing his job as a talk radio host in March (in part because his wife, who co-hosted the show, had warned that the government had been infiltrated by “Shariah-compliant” officials), Grandy embarked on a ”Shariah Awareness Tour,” culminating in a  appearance at the national Constitution or Sharia Conference in Nashville last month.

Grandy is not the only anti-Islam activist claiming the Muslim brotherhood is behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. Tom Trento, a Florida-based activist and ally of U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner, claimed his team found what it considered evidence that Occupy Orlando is part of a “move by a Muslim activist to take over control of ‘Occupy Orlando,’ in the ‘spirit of the Arab Spring.’”

Florida Rep. Daphen Campbell, D-Miami Shores (Photo: myfloridahouse.gov/Meredith Geddings)

Florida Rep. Daphne Campbell, D-Miami Shores, has been inadvertently caught up in the ongoing controversy over the decision by home improvement giant Lowe’s to pull advertising from the TLC show All-American Muslim, a decision made due to pressure from the Tampa-based Florida Family Association.

After the move by Lowe’s, hackers associated with the group Anonymous targeted the website of the Florida Family Association, which had petitioned its supporters to call on companies that advertise during All-American Muslim to pull out of their advertising contracts.

On Monday, a hacker with the Twitter handle @ihazcAnNONz uploaded a list of the Florida Family Association’s email subscribers, a list that includes at least three accounts associated with state Rep. Campbell. Two of those email addresses were used during Campbell’s campaign for District 108.

But rather than lend her support to the Florida Family Association cause, Campbell says she had no idea she was on the subscription list and isn’t sure how she came to receive the group’s emails, according to an aide.

Lawmakers in other parts of the country have blasted Lowe’s (the only company  to publicly comment on its ad removal), arguing that the decision to pull ads from All-American Muslim is “bigoted”  and irresponsible. Some groups, like People for the American Way, have called for a boycott of the home improvement company.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy surrounding the show, it appears that advertising spots for All-American Muslim are becoming a hot commodity. Just yesterday, music and fashion mogul Russell Simmons tweeted that he had purchased the show’s remaining ad spots.

(Photo: Flickr Creative Commons/www.BackgroundNow.com)

This Saturday, 34 churches in Florida will host a viewing of “One Nation Under God,” which is being promoted as a “two-hour premiere DVD event featuring top American thinkers and political leaders who will bring the truth about God and America to people gathered in homes and churches across the nation.” The event is a thinly veiled national get-out-the-vote push for the religious right.

According to the event’s website, speakers include some big names in the Christian right: David Barton, James Dobson and Lila Rose of the anti-abortion group Live Action, to name a few. Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is listed, as well.

The website calls for people to gather their friends and family in their homes or in churches on Nov. 12 to watch the video.

“Together, you’ll learn how to view history and current events in light of God’s Word, and how to take action that aligns with His truth,” the site says. “You can make a difference – one person, one household, one neighborhood at a time! Tools, tips, and timelines for a successful party will be provided.”

John Stemberger, president of the anti-abortion and anti-gay Florida Family Policy Council, is also listed as a participant in the event. Stemberger recently attended the Florida Renewal Project’s Pastors’ Policy Briefing. The “briefing” was aimed at getting churches and religious leaders involved in elections. Media outlets were barred from the event and a reporter was even escorted away from the meeting between presidential candidates Rick Perry and Gingrich and pastors.

Right Wing Watch reported that Stemberger recently appeared on a conference call for Champion the Vote, a California-based religious voter mobilization effort. During the call, Stemberger reportedly promoted “One Nation Under God” and warned that America is being “fundamentally transformed into a different type of culture, a different country” and said that “we will lose this beautiful thing we call America”:

According to Stemberger, only Christians are capable of creating a free society. “As only the Christian presuppositions of theology created this country,” Stemberger said, “only Christians can save it and unless the church rises up, we’re done.” He went on to say that without the resurgence of the church, “our country’s going to slip away into something we don’t even recognize.”

The Texas Independent’s Mary Tuma reported that this weekend’s event is the next step in a swell of religious voter mobilization efforts leading up to 2012:

Following “The Response,” American Family Association founder Don Wildmon sent a an e-mail message to those who’d registered for the event, encouraging them to become involved in the group’s effort to register 5 million new conservative Christian voters. To achieve the goal, CTV is asking 100,000 “champions” to register 50 people in their community, as the Texas Independent recently reported.

Bill Dallas, head of United in Purpose (UiP), the group leading the CTV initiative, has created a business and carefully crafted voter mobilization model around the event by fusing repackaged media and a detailed data mining project to reach those committed unregistered Christian voters.

Dallas’ crew plans to film the meetings and edit them down to a two-hour session called “One Nation Under God.” The repackaged event will be aired on Nov. 12 and can then be purchased by “host” churches and individuals.

Dallas expects about 1,000 “house parties” and 2-300 churches to take part in the November event. The hosts are not only instructed to air the reformatted briefing but have undergone an intensive eight week voter mobilization training session with CTV that include Webinars, conference calls, newsletters and a training kit. The hosts make up CTV’s base– the ‘champions’ assigned to reach out to the thousands of potential voters.

According to the event website, there are currently only about 100 sites — 34 of those are in Florida churches.

Watch a video promo for “One Nation Under God”:

The Associated Press reports:

Some doctors, crisis pregnancy centers and women who say they’ve had abortions want to help defend a new North Carolina law that would set more ultrasound requirements before an abortion.

The potential defendants filed a motion Tuesday in Greensboro federal court with the help of legal groups opposed to abortion. They want to intervene in the case to present evidence on why the law should be enforced in its entirety.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles put implementation of the law on hold “until she can hear more arguments.” The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit against the state in October alleging that “the new law violates the rights of health care providers and women seeking abortions.”

This week, anti-abortion groups Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and the Alliance Defense Fund have filed a motion to intervene in the ruling to defend the law.

Crisis pregnancy centers have been created to attract women facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy in order to convince them to keep the pregnancy. NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina recently released an undercover investigation into crisis pregnancy centers. The report said the centers were “a threat to public health.“

Boisclair works for the Society for Truth and Justice, an anti-abortion group whose staffers are running primary challenges around the country in order to exploit a campaign law loophole and get graphic ads aired on broadcast television, as the Minnesota Independent first reported.

In a press release titled, “Christian challenges Muslim for congressional seat,” Boisclair announced that he had launched his first ad.

“We did not pick this fight,” Boisclair said. “Islam’s war against Christianity and human liberty has raged against us for 1,400 years. We are merely responding with the truth.”

“The call to violent acts against Christians and Jews within this ‘holy’ book should alarm every American. The fact that a U.S. Congressman swore an oath on a book that calls for most of us to be persecuted is an outrage.”

The video was deemed offensive by Youtube and promptly pulled from the video hosting service. Ellison praised the move.

“I’d like to thank YouTube for removing the ad because it violated the company’s ‘policy on shocking and disgusting content,’” Ellison wrote in a statement. “The people of Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District elected me to uphold our Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion for every American. I intend to maintain the high level of civility the voters expect and deserve. And, I will continue working with our communities to organize for greater inclusion of people of all faiths and backgrounds.”

Boisclair, who currently works in Washington, DC, for the Society for Truth and Justice is one of several candidates from that organization running in primary challenges against House members in order to force local media outlets to air the candidates’ ads no matter how graphic.

The Federal Communications Act of 1934 says that all candidates for a specific office must have equal access to public airwaves.

Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist who founded the group, is also running a Democratic primary challenge against President Obama. Earlier this week, Terry began soliciting $100,000 in donations to air graphic anti-abortion ads in the 2012 Democratic primaries and caucuses.

Boisclair told the Hopkins Patch that he doesn’t yet have the money to air his anti-Islam ads, but hopes to in time for the election

Here’s Boisclair’s new ad:

In a letter to state legislators, the co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation warn policy-makers that a new school prayer bill is “patently unconstitutional.”

The Foundation is a national nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to “protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church,” the group explains in its letter.

Last week, a state education committee amended Senate Bill 98. The bill would “authorize district school boards to adopt resolutions that allow prayers of invocation or benediction at secondary school events.” The committee voted in favor of removing lines from the original bill that said “all prayers of invocation or benediction will be nonsectarian and nonproselytizing in nature.”

The Anti-Defamation League immediately spoke out against the bill, and now another group has expressed concern.

The Foundation warns state Sens. Gary Siplin, Anitere Flores and Arthenia Joyner that “the United States Constitution is clear and the Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear-prayer is not permitted in public schools.”

“Public school events must be secular to protect the freedom of conscience of all students,” the group writes. “It is settled law that public school cannot allow a student to deliver a prayer before any school-sponsored event. Senate Bill 98 is patently unconstitutional.”

The group also writes:

The Florida Legislature cannot afford to waste time and money on unconstitutional and entirely unnecessary legislation. This recklessness reaches astounding heights when the immediate future is considered. Should the bill pass, school districts will use its provisions to authorize prayer. Lawsuits will inevitably follow and the schools will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Despite their attempt to pawn it off on student governments and school districts, the responsibility for this loss will rest with the Florida Legislature.

Last session, the Legislature sought to expand the role of religion in the state in other ways, approving a ballot initiative that would remove a ban on taxpayer funding for religious groups. Amendment 7 is set to appear on the 2012 ballot. Educators, religious leaders and civil liberties advocates filed a challenge to the amendment this past July.

You can read the Freedom From Religion Foundation letter in its entirety:

FL Sch Prayer Law Open Memo

Focus on the Family staffer Tom Minnery said the hosts of the event don’t plan to “get into theology as such” because there wouldn’t be enough time for the candidates to “solve theological questions.” Primary campaign frontrunner Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, has yet to commit to the event.

In an appearance at CitizenLink, Focus on the Family’s political media outlet, Minnery hoped Romney would come around.

“I believe Romney is having some difficulty with evangelical Christians…. At the value voters event a pastor hit upon his Mormonism, called it a cult and suggested that such a person should not be president. That’s pretty rough language and I can see how Gov Romney might be hesitant to come back into an evangelical atmosphere like this. So we will make the event very respectful.

“We’re not getting into theology as such because we are not going to solve theological questions in the short time we have. We want to get into the underlining ways in which a fervent and vibrant belief in God impacts decision-making upon a president. That’s what we’ll be getting at.”

The event is technically being sponsored by CitizenLink and The Family Leader, Focus on the Family’s Iowa policy group headed by controversial anti-gay state politico Bob Vander Plaats.

Vander Plaats, the man behind the move to oust the Iowa justices who in 2009 overturned a ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional, has also been pushing a 14-point candidate marriage pledge, which includes a promise to ban pornography in the country and describes homosexuality as a health risk. Romney refused to sign it, dismissed the exercise as “undignified and inappropriate.”

The Des Moines candidate forum is scheduled to be held November 19 at the First Federated Church. The main moderator will be Frank Luntz.

Minnery called Luntz an “exquisite asker of questions.” CitizenLink Media Director Stuart Shepard described Luntz as the Fox News pundit who uses dial meters to gauge realtime voter responses to the candidates. “He’s that guy,” said Shepard.

Luntz is also the Republican Party talking-point spinner who advised GOP candidates last year to discredit proposed Wall Street regulation by referring to it as a “bailout.” He’s also the man who advised George W. Bush to reframe “global warming” as “climate change” to make it sound less threatening.

If the CitizenLink introduction to the coming event is any measure, there aren’t likely to be a lot of tough questions posed, at least not to the non-Mormon attendees, even on the glaring social issue of sexual harassment that has dominated this week’s campaign news.

“Are you going to hit Herman Cain with tough questions about what’s been in the headlines?” Shepard asks Minnery. “No we aren’t,” Minnery replies, assuming that Cain will still be in the race in ten days. That matter will surely be covered elsewhere, he says.

“We’re wishing [Herman Cain] the best. The truth will come out and we hope it’s a truth that will not hurt his campaign.

“It’s amazing how that man has caught the imagination of so many voters. He’s bold. He’s upbeat. He has business experience that’s very solid…. It would be a deflation of a lot of enthusiasm were he to be lowered in the polls because he’s not able to respond well to these allegations.”

Shepard takes that line a step further.

“One of the fascinating things about it… We’re hearing some things about what may or may not have happened. He is saying nothing happened. We have at least one accuser who finally after a week and a half put a fact into the story. For a week there were no facts at the heart of this, there were just these hints at what may or may not have gone on…

“American people appear to have a certain cynicism about the way the mainstream media goes after these stories. Rasmussen Reports did a poll after this. [Cain's] poll numbers are up. That’s a fascinating perspective on the American people. We have just seen enough of this from the mainstream media.”

“Well we have,” Minnery said. “There’s a real hunger for a candidate such as Herman Cain to prevail.”

For the record, at least four women as of Wednesday had accused Cain of harassment. Sharon Bialek, a one-time employee of the National Restaurant Association, was the first woman to go public. Two other women received settlements in response to claims Cain harassed them when he was head of the association. One of those two women, Karen Kraushaar, is a spokesperson at the Treasury Department and a Republican voter. The identity of the other woman paid by the association has yet to leak to the press. Cain called the payments made to the women by the association– reportedly tens of thousands of dollars– “agreements” not “settlements.”

That these are credible accusations and that they are beginning to credibly establish a pattern of behavior is as clear as is the fact that Cain has been struggling to tell the truth about what he knows of the allegations. It’s also worth noting that, as Shepard is surely aware, at least two of Cain’s accusers have been barred from speaking about their experience by the legal arrangements tied to the payments, which is why they have been slow to “put a fact into the story.” More facts are being put into the story by the hour.

Got a tip? Story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

While tea party organizers say it was because CAIR “disrespected” one of its speakers, CAIR members say it was because an event organizer was called out for trying to shut down an upcoming CAIR convention while he was reaching out to the group.

Shibly and Nezar Hazme of CAIR’s Florida chapter tell The Florida Independent that an organizer of the convention, Geoff Ross, had invited Shibly to attend the convention after the group had expressed disappointment over the participation of Pamela Geller.

Geller is best known for her blog Atlas Shrugs, which has been described by The New York Times as a “site that attacks Islam with a rhetoric venomous enough that PayPal at one point branded it a hate site.” The attendance of Geller, and other anti-Islam activists, caught the attention of CAIR.

Ross says he wanted to offer the opportunity to have “both sides” air their views at the convention, and protect the group’s “First Amendment rights.”

However, around the time that Ross extended the invitation to CAIR, he also emailed catering staff at Jungle Island in Miami, asking them to decline to host a CAIR fundraising banquet set for Nov. 12.

This is the email that Ross sent to the vice president of food and beverage at the hotel where CAIR’s event will take place:

It has been brought to my attention that your facility will be hosting a fund raiser for the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Saturday November 12th 2011.

I respectfully request that you cancel this event with CAIR. This is an organization that does not recognize the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. It has tried numerous times to place political pressure on U.S. politicians by trying to stop them from speaking at various freedom loving Constitutional events across Florida and the United States. This attempt by CAIR to muzzle the 1st Amendment rights of American citizens cannot go unanswered.

Please be advised sir that your facility is now being boycotted and placed off limits by members of my Tea Party Coalition across the state of Florida. This boycott of your facility will be lifted when your event with CAIR is cancelled. Thank you.

Ross admits that he did try to orchestrate a tea party boycott of the hotel in an effort to have the event shut down. However, he claims that happened before he extended the invitation for CAIR to speak.

Shibly and Nezar both say it was immediately after.

“On Oct. 29, Ross sent me an invitation to speak at their event,” Shibly says. “On the very following day, Oct. 30, unbeknownst to me, he emailed the hotel asking them not to host our event.”

Upon hearing this news, Nezar confronted Ross. In an email to Ross, he wrote:

While I am encouraged by your invitation and your commitment to our Constitution, your hypocrisy is troubling. Below is an email you sent to Jungle Island requesting they cancel our event next weekend.

Please help me understand how we can possibly believe one word you tell us.

Ross says he emailed the hotel because he was frustrated with CAIR “putting political pressure on hotels” and trying “to shut down” events that are hosted by people they disagree with. “Sharia law is what they are using to shut us down,” he says.

“If they can’t handle what they dish out,” he says, “then they should pick other tactics.”

Ross claims the main reason he “kicked [CAIR] out of” the Tea Party Convention was because they “disrespected” Geller.

In an email to CAIR’s D.C. headquarters inviting the group to the event, Ross wrote:

Under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, The Counsel of American-Islamic  Relations CAIR is very welcome to speak at our State Tea Party Convention  in Daytona Beach this Sunday. The invitation stands. We will protect your rights to speak. We also have the right to protect the 1st Amendment rights of those people you disagree with. Ref: Ms. Pam Geller and Ms. Brigitte Gabriel.

If CAIR chooses to place political pressure on facilities and hotels and to get these said facilities to disinvite speakers that CAIR disagrees with (Ref: Hutton Hotel Nashville) then you are interfering with the Constitutional rights of the American people. This falls in line with Sharia Law. Companies that capitulate to your demands are actually capitulating to Sharia Law. [Emphasis mine.]

A communications person at CAIR D.C. took issue with the accusation that CAIR was responsible for Hutton Hotel severing its contract with an anti-Islam group.

The D.C. communications person responded to the email and asked, “What is your evidence that CAIR contacted the hotel in Nashville?” He added, “Please don’t cite Pam Geller’s unsubstantiated rantings.”

Ross told Sunshine State News that a “CAIR leader in Washington called Geller ‘a ranter’ and ‘a liar,” thus prompting him to disinvite CAIR.

Shibly later learned from a press release that he was no longer invited to the convention.

Ross says he has “never said anything negative about CAIR,” but was just “getting sick and tired of their tactics.”

Shibly tells the Independent that he is not surprised, but is very upset with what has happened. “Apparently free speech is only protected by the tea party if it means inciting hatred against Muslims,” he says. “Free speech used to expose such hatred is unacceptable to them.”

“It just amazes me that they claim to honor the Constitution and freedom of speech so much and criticize us for ‘infringing’ on free speech,” Shibly says, “and yet they do the exact same thing.”

The Tea Party Convention will take place at the Volusia County Ocean Center Nov. 4-6. According to the convention’s website, sponsors of the event include Freedom Works, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Craig Miller’s U.S. Senate Campaign and the Oath Keepers.

According to a summary of the bill, it would “authorize district school boards to adopt resolutions that allow prayers of invocation or benediction at secondary school events.” The Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights anti-Semitism in public policy, says the amended bill voted for yesterday is actually more problematic than the original.

According to the group’s press release:

“[The bill] blatantly authorizes sectarian and proselytizing prayers – such as prayers to Allah, Adanoi, Buddha, or Jesus at all kinds of public secondary school events,” said David Barkey, ADL’s Religious Freedom Counsel. “We are even more concerned that the bill will be used to impose majority religious beliefs on minority faiths in Florida’s public schools. And, in these difficult budgetary times, one thing we can be certain of is that this divisive and unnecessary legislation, if enacted, will cost the state, local school districts, and the taxpayer needless litigation expenses,” said Barkey.

In its testimony today at the Pre-K-12 Education Committee hearing, ADL affirmed the right of public high school students to engage in voluntary religious expression at school through private prayer in groups or alone during non-curricular time, at lunchtime and non-curricular time student religious clubs, or at after school religious clubs. ADL, however, opposed the measure because it will result in state sponsored religious endorsement or coercion, it will be divisive and harmful to students’ religious freedom rights, and due to its patent unconstitutionality, it will result in costly litigation expenses to the state, local school districts and the Florida taxpayer.

“Regrettably, some Senators continue to misunderstand the critical differences – both legal and policy-wise – between voluntary, private student prayer during non-curricular time,  and state authorized and sponsored prayer at secondary school events like graduation, football games or prom,” said Barkey.

The committee voted in favor of removing lines from the original bill that said “all prayers of invocation or benediction will be nonsectarian and nonproselytizing in nature.”

The bill was introduced by state Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando. Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, introduced the controversial new amendment.