The New York Times reports today that “the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether Arizona may impose tough anti-immigration measures. Among them, in a law enacted last year, is a requirement that the police there question people they stop about their immigration status.”

ABC News reports ”the case will be argued sometime this spring,” adding that, “although deeply opposed to the law, the Obama administration had asked the Supreme Court to refrain from taking up the case at this juncture.”

Kris Kobach, current Kansas secretary of state and the coauthor of S.B. 1070 and other immigration enforcement-only efforts, wrote in May 2010: “[S.B. 1070] makes it a state crime for an alien to commit certain federal immigration violations while in Arizona.”

S.B. 1070 was passed by the Arizona Legislature in the first months of 2010, and was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer in April; the measure was immediately challenged by the Obama administration.

The Times adds that the Obama administration “challenged four provisions” of S.B. 1070: “The most prominent was a requirement that state law enforcement officials determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest if officials have reason to believe that the individual might be an illegal immigrant.”

According to ABC News, “similar legislation is pending in Utah, South Carolina, Indiana, Georgia and Alabama.”

The Supreme Court of the United States Blog writes today: “The Arizona measure, and one in Alabama that goes even further, were passed by state legislatures with the specific intent of making life so difficult for undocumented aliens that they would choose to leave the state. Other states are also passing similar measures.”

“Arizona’s infamous anti-immigrant law, SB 1070,” and other similar state laws, according to the Immigration Policy Center, ”impose unfunded mandates on the police, jails, and courts; drive away workers, taxpayers, and consumers upon whom the state economy depends; and invite costly lawsuits and tourist boycotts. These are economic consequences which few states can afford at a time of gaping budget deficits.”

“Michele Bachmann is the candidate who doesn’t just give lip service to conservative principles but actively lives them out every day,” Bright said in a statement. “She is the conservative who has been consistent in her record and her rhetoric.”

Bright introduced his bill to study the creation of a new South Carolina currency earlier this session. The resolution argues that the right to print currency can flow from the state’s constitutional police powers.

Source: Sen. Lee Bright’s Facebook page.

“[M]any widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future,” the resolution reads. ”[I]n the event of hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System, for which the state is not prepared, the state’s governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos, with gravely detrimental effects upon the lives, health, and property of South Carolina’s citizens, and with consequences fatal to the preservation of good order throughout the state.”

If passed, the legislation would appoint a subcommittee to come up with a plan for an alternative currency.

“South Carolina can avoid or at least mitigate many of the economic, social, and political shocks to be expected to arise from hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System only through the timely adoption of an alternative sound currency that the state’s government and citizens may employ without delay in the event of the destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency,” according to the resolution.

It was last year that Bright played a major role in helping to pass a non-binding, but contentious, affirmation of South Carolina’s sovereignty under the U.S. Constitution to Congress.

“If at first you don’t secede, try again,” Bright joked to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal after the bill’s passage. ”I think all of our rights are under assault, but assault on the 9th and 10th amendments is the most egregious.”

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Deputy Administrator Jessica Zufolo made the announcement Monday morning during an annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in St. Louis.

In a following statement, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, “Today’s funding will provide residents of these rural communities with high speed internet connections to improve health care and educational opportunities and connect to global markets. In addition to providing much needed services to rural businesses and residents, these investments will increase jobs, not just in the near term, but through expanded opportunities in rural areas.”

The USDA provided three examples of how the funding would improve quality of life for rural residents. In Minnesota, they said, Rural Development Broadband Loan Program funds will be used to extend Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative’s existing Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) network to serve rural communities in north-central portions of the state. The program will offer service to more than 45,710 households and businesses through a company that has been operating since 1952.

In North Dakota, the funds will expand Polar Communications Mutual Aid Corporation’s broadband system throughout 18 exchanges to provide voice, video and high-speed data systems. When the project is completed, all of Polar’s subscribers will have access to broadband.

Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc., based in Indiana, will begin the process of designing and building broadband services to its 5,711 subscribers spread over 1,148 miles.

USDA is providing $478.6 million in funding to companies that meet eligibility requirements. Companies slated to receive funding, by state, are:

Colorado

• Eastern Slope Rural Telephone Association, Inc.–$18,725,000 will be used to upgrade the existing fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) network, capable of providing modern broadband services to subscribers in 10 exchanges.

Idaho and Utah

• Albion Telephone Company–$17,075,000 in loan funds will be used to install 453 miles of buried fiber optic cables throughout the proposed FTTP system, providing nearly 60 percent of subscribers with FTTP.

Illinois

• McNabb Telephone Company–$3,700,000 in loan funds will be used to make system improvements, including constructing new FTTP facilities. A total of 115 miles of buried fiber optic cable will be deployed to improve service to subscribers.
• Shawnee Telephone Company–$30,286,000 in loan funds will be used to construct FTTP facilities, allowing Shawnee to provide voice and data services at speeds of up to 100 Mbps to both residences and businesses.
• McDonough Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$15,728,000 in funds will be used to upgrade the rural areas with FTTH technology. Approximately 766 miles of buried fiber cable will be deployed to provide over half of the subscribers with access to improved broadband service. McDonough has been serving its rural subscribers for over 60 years.
• Wabash Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$21,867,000 will be used to install 777 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will enhance service to 70 percent of Wabash’s subscribers.

Indiana

• Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$29,139,000 in loan funds have been awarded to Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative Inc., (PSC) which provides telecommunications services to nearly 6,000 subscribers over approximately 1,150 square miles in southern Indiana. This loan will enable PSC to start the process of designing and building FTTP to enhance broadband services across the service area.

Iowa

• Mediapolis Telephone Company–$13,401,000 in loan funds will be used to make system upgrades to the transport system and the network architecture from the existing copper Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) to FTTP broadband systems.
• Griswold Cooperative Telephone Company–$12,747,000 in loan funds will be used to complete a system-wide FTTP network, enhancing broadband service to all subscribers.
• La Porte City Telephone Company–$9,867,000 in loan funds will be used to make system improvements, including installation of a FTTP broadband network that will serve all of the borrower’s subscribers. A total of 297 miles of buried fiber optic cable will be deployed, enabling downstream data rates of up to 20 Mbps.

Kansas

• The S & T Telephone Cooperative Association–$29,814,000 will be used to implement a full FTTH design to allow the migration to 10-20 Mbps broadband speeds to all subscribers and to provide IPTV in the near future.

Minnesota

• Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative–$19,749,000 in Rural Development Broadband Loan Program funds will be used to extend Paul Bunyan’s existing FTTH network to serve the exchanges of Park Rapids Rural and Trout Lake in North Central Minnesota. With this extension of their network, Paul Bunyan will be able to provide advanced telecommunications services to over 45,710 establishments (households and businesses) across all service areas. Paul Bunyan has been operating since 1952 and has been a telecommunications borrower with the Rural Utilities Service since 1953.

Nebraska

• The Hemingford Co-operative Telephone Company–$10,280,000 will be used to upgrade the outside plant with optic cable, fiber optic drops and FTTP equipment. These funds will add 377 fiber miles of fiber optic cable.

New Mexico

• Roosevelt County Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$12,358,000 will be used to deploy new equipment and install FTTP equipment to enhance the broadband network.

North Dakota

• BEK Communications Cooperative–$26,746,000 in loan funds will be used to expand a FTTH broadband system. Upon completion of this RUS-funded project, 100 percent of BEK’s subscribers will be served by fiber.
• SRT Communications, Inc.–$24,832,000 in loan funds will be used to install 2,143 miles of buried fiber optic cable and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will be constructed in areas outside of towns in twelve of the borrower’s twenty-six exchanges. The service areas in the towns will continue to be offered DSL at speeds of at least 55 Mbps with its relatively new copper plant.
• Polar Communications Mutual Aid Corporation–$32,939,000 in loan funds will be used to expand the Borrower’s FTTP broadband system throughout the borrower’s eighteen exchanges. The upgraded system will help meet current and future requirements for delivery of voice, video and high speed data to subscribers. Upon completion of this RUS-funded project, 100 percent of Polar’s subscribers will be served with broadband via various technologies.

Oklahoma

• Terral Telephone Company–$4,855,000 in loan funds will be used to convert the existing copper network to a FTTH system, and connect new subscribers. The proposed FTTH deployment includes construction of over 62 miles of fiber plant in and around Terral, and the replacement of the existing softswitch and power plant. This FTTH deployment will create nine jobs and save seven jobs.

South Carolina

• Sandhill Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$5,930,000 will be used to provide for system improvements, including purchase of a new switch.

Tennessee

• North Central Telephone Cooperative Corporation–$27,069,000 will be used to upgrade portions of North Central’s outside plant and network infrastructure by deploying a FTTP network.

Washington

• Inland Telephone Company–$24,823,000 in loan funds will be used to expand Inland’s FTTP broadband system and connect new subscribers.
• The Toledo Telephone Co., Inc.–$18,091,000 in loan funds will be used to install 292 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system, offering enhanced service to all Toledo subscribers.

Wisconsin

• Union Telephone Company–$13,308,000 in loan funds will enable Union to deploy approximately 336 miles of fiber, which will provide approximately 60 percent of Union’s subscribers with access to improved broadband services.
• Marquette-Adams Telephone Cooperative, Inc.–$19,781,000 Marquette-Adams will use loan funds to complete a system-wide FTTP network, including over 370 miles of new or modified buried fiber, providing enhanced broadband service to all subscribers.
• Vernon Telephone Cooperative–$24,143,000 in loan funds will be used to install 1,206 miles of buried fiber optic cables and related equipment throughout the proposed FTTP system. The FTTP system will offer enhanced broadband service to 90 percent of subscribers.

Wyoming and Colorado

• Dubois Telephone Exchange, Inc.–$11,391,000 in loan funds will be used to expand the FTTP system to provide video and data services over an optic network with speeds up to 100 Mbps. Included in this loan is $9,462,000 for construction and engineering in Wyoming and $1,929,000 for construction and engineering in Colorado.

According to CNN, Bachmann’s campaign manager Keith Nahigian walked through the spin room and called Dickerson a “piece of shit.”

Prior to Saturday night’s foreign policy debate in South Carolina hosted by CBS and National Journal, Bachmann spokesperson Alice Stewart was accidentally copied on an email about a post debate webshow hosted by CBS. The email said that Bachmann would not receive the same amount of attention that the frontrunners would due to her low polling numbers.

Here’s a screenshot of the email provided by the Bachmann campaign:

During the debate, campaign manager Keith Nahigian sent a message to Bachmann supporters on Facebook:

“While Michele has been onstage at tonight’s debate demonstrating strong leadership on foreign policy and national security, we received concrete evidence confirming what every conservative already knows – the liberal mainstream media elites are manipulating the Republican debates by purposely suppressing our conservative message and limiting Michele’s questions,” he said. “[W]e need to show the liberal media elite that we won’t stand for this outrageous manipulation. Help us fight this affront by sharing this with your friends.”

Nahigian followed that up with an email message to supporters accusing the media of anti-Bachmann bias (Nahigian’s emphasis).

“[W]e will NOT stand for this pathetic attempt by the liberal media to manipulate the Republican primary process by limiting Michele’s conservative message for Republican primary voters,” he wrote. “ALL AMERICANS should be offended by this blatant attempt to manipulate the nominating process. Primaries are about voters, NOT the media elites. This is OUR primary and we will fight this blatant attempt to suppress Michele’s conservative message.”

According to CNN, during the debate, Nahigian ran through the spin room where the media and campaign staffers were gathered and said, “John Dickerson should be fired. He is a piece of shit. He is a fraud and he should be fired.”

After the debate, Bachmann told CNN, “I think it’s only respectful to allow the candidates to be able to speak and not intentionally ahead of time make a decision to limit candidates’ opportunity to speak to the American people. Clearly this was an example of media bias.”

Members of the occupy movement interrupted U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s scheduled foreign policy speech in South Carolina Thursday, forcing the candidate to exit the stage.

Similar to a recent protest of Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker in Chicago, the demonstrators read and echoed sentiments on prepared pages. Eyewitness reports indicate that roughly 20 demonstrators affiliated with Occupy Charleston took part in disturbance.

A statement on the Occupy Charleston Facebook page read, “Today Occupy Charleston shut down a speech by presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Together in unison we took advantage of the moment to address the system and the people within it as to the unjust role of corporate money in politics. Michele Bachmann was not our target in this action; she is a representative of the institutional and legal corruption that has infected our country — a system of corruption that values profit over people and is driven by the financial interests of the few against the many.

Political candidates have the finances to create a spectacle to promote the interests of the 1%. This is an ability that is not afforded to the vast majority of the people. Our actions were an attempt to break that spell and to give voice to the 99% and their interests which have too long been ignored by the political establishment. This is not a Democratic or a Republican issue, this transcends petty party politics.”

After the demonstrators had left the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier where the event was being held, Bachmann returned to the stage and asked those remaining in the crowd, “Don’t you just love the First Amendment? It’s great. We have a great country and I want to thank you all for your understanding.”

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health tells The Florida Independent that budget authority was denied for a competitive grant “awarded to Florida beginning October 2010 for $175,000 yearly.”

The DP10-1017 “Demonstrating the Capacity of Comprehensive Cancer Control Programs to Implement Policy and Environmental Cancer Control Interventions” grant was a “five-year grant built on strengths of existing statewide Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council (C-CRAB) working with four regional cancer collaboratives to reduce the burden of cancer,” according to the Department of Health. The grant did not require any contributions from the state.

The grant was just one of many that has been rejected by the state. This week, health advocates in Broward County expressed their frustration with the millions of dollars Florida has turned away since the passage of the federal health care reform law.

According to a recent report by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Florida is among many states that have “missed opportunities to enact laws and policies that could not only save money and generate revenue, but also save lives.” In the report, Florida was listed as one of the seven states that fell short in all “five priority areas.” Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee are the other states that are also falling short in every category.

Two of the priority areas the report focused on had to do with the funding of prevention and detection programs in the state.

According to a Department of Health spokesperson, the state’s joint advisory councils had recently “completed the revised 2010 Florida Cancer Plan and developed an accompanying Implementation Guide.” The plans would have built “on the cancer councils’ combined agenda of identified priorities” and the rejected grant would have “accelerated prevention and risk reduction policies and efforts.”

The department says the plans for the grant included:

• Assisting Moffitt Cancer Center to convene the four goal committees to implement strategies for cancer control.
• Assessing and implement initiatives to reduce tobacco use statewide.
• Promoting national food guidelines and other measures to reduce obesity in school aged populations.
• Developing and support community health workers to improve access to care for underserved populations.
• Creating a forum to enhance the continuum of care for cancer patients through improved medical record keeping including electronic medical systems.

The Department of Health spokesperson tells the Independent that “the work of these initiatives is being continued by other programs in the Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, but in a smaller scope.”

Santorum said he often hears people say they like him, he’s a good guy and a solid conservative — but he can’t win. But the former U.S. Senator pointed out he managed to defeat a Democratic incumbent in Pennsylvania, generally considered a swing state.

“You hear the national media say ‘he can’t win,’” Santorum said. “No, he’s the only one that has won. He’s the only one that’s done it.”

Santorum said he has a track record of leading and making things happen, and asked why the media isn’t paying more attention.

“Do you think the media actually wants somebody out there leading who’s actually done exactly what’s necessary to defeat Barack Obama, to win those key swing states, to run against tough democratic incumbents, to put a kind of grassroots and comprehensive organization together to win?”

Santorum then said “we’re going to win here in Iowa,” and noted by the end of this week he will have reached out to people in all 99 counties in the state.

“I’ve done so at town hall meetings. I’ve done so in those kinds of meetings where people have the opportunity to come and kick the tires, get a chance to really see,” he said. “It’s not remotes or viral messaging or interviews by some patsy reporter. No, we get up there in front of the toughest questioners there are, and that’s the people of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.”

Despite spending the most time in the state of any candidate, Santorum got just 5 percent support in the latest Iowa Poll. That puts him in sixth place, in front of only former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who has effectively ignored the state.

Santorum made the comments at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies Straw Poll on Saturday in Des Moines. He finished with just 1 percent of the vote from Iowan attendees.

In 2012, the Palmetto Family Council hopes to see passage of a variety of introduced legislation, including bills that would allow health-care professionals or entities to refuse to participate in a procedure that “violates the health care facility’s conscience”; would bar alcohol sales on Christmas and Thanksgiving, in addition to Sundays; and would end state recognition of “common law” marriage.

PFC is opposing bills that would allow retailers to conduct wine tastings, as well as a piece of dating-violence legislation — the objection to this bill is that “dating” would be considered a “family” relationship.

Other policy changes on Palmetto’s watch list have not yet been introduced into the Legislature. One such possibility is related to donor disclosures for 501(c)4 organizations: “Palmetto Family will be on watch for legislation that requires legislative action organizations like Palmetto Family Alliance to disclose its donors and open them to intimidation.”

Another not-yet-introduced bill that would please Palmetto, would increase funding in the state for abstinence-only education.

As The American Independent has previously reported, in recent years, the Palmetto Family Council, which is affiliated with the Family Research Council, received more than $1 million in federal grants to implement projects — that at times relied on inaccurate or misleading data — related to abstinence education and marriage, and the organization used letters of recommendation from state and federal legislators to bolster its grant applications.

From 2008 to 2009, PFC received approximately $1.2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services’ Administration of Children & Families (ACF) to implement an abstinence-education social networking project, and in 2004, the organization received $50,000 from ACF to implement a marriage-counseling program. Both the Community Based Abstinence Education program and the Compassion Capital Fund, from which the respective grants derived, were George W. Bush-era grant projects that lost funding under the Obama administration. Health and Humans Services recently announced a grant pool for social values programs, but that effort is still in the application phase.

In applying for the abstinence-education grant, PFC included an endorsement letter co-signed by 15 state House representatives, including Reps. Jeff D. Duncan (R-District 15, Lauren & Newberry counties), Nathan Ballentine (R-District 71, Lexington & Richland counties), Eric Bedingfield (R-District 28, Greenville County), Chip Huggins (R-District 85, Lexington County), David R. Hiott (R-District 4, Pickens County), and another letter co-signed by eight state senators, including Sens. Michael L. Fair (R-District 6, Greenville County) and Ronnie W. Cromer (R-District 18, Lexington, Newberry & Saluda counties).

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson, Bob Inglis and James Gresham Barrett each submitted individual letters of support. (Note: Inglis and Barrett no longer serve in Congress.)

Aside from local and national political leaders, PFC received letters of recommendation from Focus on the Family and local business owners, including Matt Thompson, who owns a Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Spartanburg, S.C. Obtained by TAI via a Freedom of Information Act request, Thompson’s letter, dated May 29, 2008, read, in part:

I am familiar with the fine work that PFC does in the Midlands and our state to encourage abstinence until marriage, healthy relationships, healthy marriages, and strong family values. Strong, healthy families have always been a goal for the Chick-Fil-A’s founder and affiliates. In 2006 our founder, Truett Cathy, was recognized for his work and donations to family-friendly organizations at the Smart Marriages National Conference in Atlanta. He was presented that Smart Marriages Impact award. Even more recently, Mr. Cathy received a presidential ward [sic] for his philanthropic work in support of marriage.

Thus it is only natural that Chick-Fil-A would be in support of Palmetto Family Council’s application to expand their work in abstinence and healthy marriages in South Carolina.

Thompson told TAI he does not remember sending that letter to ACF and that usually he does not use his business’s name when giving money or support to political or religious causes.

The year before Thompson’s endorsement, South Carolina had passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which PFC has taken credit for helping to pass. Chick-Fil-A founder and chairman S. Truett Cathy has received criticism from LGBT-rights groups for giving money and support to organizations that promote anti-gay messages and funding for anti-same-sex legislation — those groups include Focus on the Family, to which PFC is affiliated. An Equality Matters investigation conducted this year revealed that Chick-Fil-A’s charitable arm, WinShape Foundation, donated more than $1.1 million to organizations that included National Christian Foundation, Serving Marriages, Inc., the Alliance Defense Fund, the Georgia Family Council and the Family Research Council.

Speaking with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus indicated there would be no forgiveness for Florida’s 2012 leap-frog that tossed the calendar set by the national political parties into chaos.

“There is no discretion. There is no coming back. There is no kumbaya that’s going to happen in two months. The nominee isn’t going to be able to do a thing about it,” Priebus said.

“They’re going to lose half of their delegates and that’s a pretty serious penalty.”

The Orlando Sentinel reports that the loss of delegates is something state officials have already taken into consideration, noting that 50 of the state’s 99 delegates will be allotted as a part of a winner-take-all contest.

As Iowans involved in previous calendar squabbles can well attest, the intention of the national political party might be to penalize the states who violate calendar rules, but the final decision has typically been left in the hands of the presidential nominee — a person that doesn’t typically want to alienate any delegates from any state. In an effort to remove that conflict for the nominee — and to prevent state’s from circumventing the consequences of their actions — Preibus said that Florida will only have 50 delegates; that’s all that will be elected.

“They are not going to be able to recreate their delegate strength,” he added.

Similar penalties will also be applied to the other primary states that moved their dates forward.

“The penalty is there. The penalty is going to stick. That’s all there is to it,” he concluded.

Abortion via telemedicine in general refers to doctors who authorize the distribution of abortion-inducing drugs to women in rural areas with no access to abortion clinics. These abortions generally involve mifepristone, commonly referred to as RU-486, which is generally used in conjunction with a secondary drug misoprostol to end an early pregnancy. Both drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In a statement released Tuesday, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan expressed concern that banning discussion of or reference to abortion could have negative health impacts on women who live in rural areas who then experience “high-risk” pregnancies.

“Under Sen. DeMint’s extreme plan, if abortion came up in that doctor-patient conversation, the woman and her physician would have to go to a separate communications system,” Keenan said. “He’s calling for an abortion-only version of Skype. It is impractical, ridiculous, and, most importantly, bad for women in rural or remote areas who would not be able to discuss the full set of options with their doctor.”

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 87 percent of all U.S. counties lacked an abortion provider in 2008.

DeMint’s amendment is similar to one Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) introduced to the related related House Resolution 2112, or the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012, which passed through the House in June.

During the House floor debate, King said one his intentions was to prevent Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from accessing a $15 million line-item in the bill reserved for the development of telemedicine services.

As The American Independent’s sister site The Iowa Independent previously reported, the language of King’s amendment — “none of the funds made available by this Act may be used for mifepristone, commonly known as RU-486, for any purpose” — does not specifically target the telemedicine line-item but applies to any and all appropriations within the bill.

“We have had 14 deaths of moms that have come from this; 2,207 adverse events, 339 blood transfusions [and] 612 hospitalizations,” said King on the House floor in June, but, as The Iowa Independent noted, he offered no source for his statistics. No deaths have been reported by women who have used the Iowa pilot telemedicine program — administered by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland — to which King was referring.

On Monday, LifeNews.com, which focuses on abortion-related issues, reported the same statistics King relayed to his colleagues, citing an FDA report (PDF). The report, which was uploaded by the Family Research Council, reveals information from U.S. post-marketing reports received by the FDA and documents “adverse events” that occurred among patients who had taken mifepristone for abortions.

“Because FDA has eliminated duplicate reports, and in some cases, reclassified the adverse event terms for individual cases after reviewing the narrative details,” the report notes, “the numbers provided here may differ from the numbers of the reports that may be obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.  These events cannot with certainty be causally attributed to mifepristone because of information gaps about patient health status, clinical management of the patient, concurrent drug use and other possible medical or surgical treatments.  The estimated number of women who have used mifepristone in the US through the end of April 2011 is approximately 1.52 million women.”