Rachel Ford is a programmer, and since 8:00 to 5:00 doesn't provide enough opportunity to bask in screen glare, she writes in her spare time. She was raised a very fundamentalist Christian, but eventually "saw the light." Rachel's personal blog is Rachel's Hobbit Hole, where she discusses everything from Tolkien to state politics.
Last year in May, Danco Laboratories, which makes the abortion-inducing drug Mifeprex (mifepristone), filed paperwork with the FDA to update the guidelines for use of the drug. Give further research on how it works, they wanted to loosen the restrictions on who could use it and when. The political implications were certainly not lacking — anti-abortion lawmakers throughout the country have passed laws to enforce strict adherence to the guidelines (which in this case were simply not accurate anymore) rather than deferring to medical experts. But to the surprise of many, the guidelines were indeed updated. Politics had nothing to do with it. Instead, the basis for the change was — wait for it — scientific progress. Read more
In one of those stories that no one could possibly have predicted, a California charter school had to temporarily close down because an unvaccinated student contracted measles overseas and returned to the classroom. In the process, other students — including some whose parents also chose to forgo immunization for their children — were exposed. Read more
It’s the height of hypocrisy for a self-styled “religious freedom” advocate to suggest targeting religious communities. But just days after Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz was talking about the need to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods,” Fox News’ Todd Starnes was arguing that Cruz was the “only hope” for religious liberty. (I guess we can official mark the “time of death” on irony’s death certificate.) Read more
What do you call it when a “family values,” anti-LGBT rights, deeply religious politician gets caught in a sordid sex scandal? At this point, I’d go with “unsurprising.” The latest bit of unsurprising news comes out of Alabama, and it involves the state’s 73-year-old (very pious) Baptist Governor Robert Bentley. Bentley, for the record, is fiercely anti-marriage equality because he thinks we need to protect the sanctity of marriage and all that. Read more
