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For Immediate Release
August, 13 2019, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Email: media@reproductivefreedomforall.org
NARAL Condemns Tennessee Lawmakers' Push to Completely Ban Abortion
Tennessee bill, which would effectively ban abortion in the state, is the latest in the unprecedented wave of extreme bans on abortion sweeping the country
WASHINGTON
In response to the Tennessee Senate Judiciary considering a draconian total ban on abortion this week, NARAL Pro-Choice America Vice President Adrienne Kimmell issued the following statement:
"Tennessee politicians are working to ban abortion outright in their state, following in the footsteps of Alabama and putting anti-choice politicians' cruelty on full display. Anti-choice lawmakers are determined to gut Roe v. Wade, despite Roe being more popular than ever with the American public. As out-of-touch lawmakers follow Donald Trump's lead to criminalize abortion, the vast majority of Americans believe that abortion is a matter of personal freedom that should be free from political interference."
On Monday and Tuesday this week, the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting for a summer session to discuss this bill to ban abortion outright in the state, after the General Assembly earlier this year tried unsuccessfully to pass a ban on abortion before many women even know they're pregnant. If lawmakers decide to move forward with the bill this week and pursue a total abortion ban, it will be up for consideration in 2020 when the legislature reconvenes. Anti-choice politicians have signaled that the intent of the bill is to challenge Roe v. Wade and other Supreme Court precedents enshrining the constitutional right to abortion.
Tennessee's bill is the latest in a wave of extreme bans on abortion restricting reproductive freedom and restricting a woman's ability to make her own decisions about pregnancy. It comes on the heels of a total abortion ban being signed into law in Alabama as well as bans in Georgia and Lousiana that make abortion illegal before many women even know they're pregnant. Overall, thirty states have introduced, passed, or signed into law bans on abortion this year alone.
New research from Avalanche--a research firm using artificial intelligence to generate deep and accurate insight into the values, emotions, and beliefs that drive behavior on key issues--confirms that a strong majority of Americans support reproductive freedom and agree that regardless of one's personal feelings about or comfort with abortion, protecting reproductive freedom is paramount. Strong supporters of reproductive freedom and abortion rights, as well as those who may personally feel conflicted about abortion, share the view that the government should not prevent a woman from making her own decision.
According to a recent HuffPost/YouGov poll, while less than a fifth of Americans strongly support Alabama's new total ban on abortion, 43% of Americans strongly disapprove of this ban. And less than a quarter of Americans support making it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion, according to the PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll.
Proposals to ban abortion are non-starters across the electorate. A recent Change Research poll showed that less than 10% of voters support banning abortion outright, and Reuters/Ipsos polling found that a strong majority of Americans, including over 80% of Democrats -- believe that abortion should remain legal in all or most cases.
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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Trump Floats 'Charges for Treason' Against Media Outlets Over Iran War Coverage
US Sen. Ed Markey warned that the Trump administration is engaged in a "blatant attempt to muzzle the free press."
Mar 16, 2026
US President Donald Trump late Sunday floated "treason" charges against media outlets that he accused of reporting false information about the Iran war as the human and economic costs of his illegal military assault continued to mount.
In a tirade posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that media outlets he accused of circulating "fake news" should "be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information." The maximum penalty for treason in the US is death.
Trump specifically called out the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal for reporting over the weekend that "five US Air Force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia." Citing two unnamed US officials, the Journal noted that "the tankers were hit during an Iranian missile strike on the Saudi base," and that the planes were "damaged but not fully destroyed and are being repaired."
The US president called the story "false reporting" without substantively refuting its content. Trump wrote that four of the refueling planes are "in service" and one "will soon be flying the skies"—none of which is inconsistent with the Journal's reporting.
Trump, who regularly uses his social media platform to circulate AI-generated videos and photos, also complained about an AI video purportedly showing the USS Abraham Lincoln on fire. The president claimed the video was "distributed by Corrupt Media Outlets," without offering any examples. AFP published a fact-check of the video last week, deeming it "fabricated footage."
Trump's latest attack on the US media came after his Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, threatened Saturday to pull the broadcasting licenses of media outlets he accused of "running hoaxes and news distortions." Carr did not provide specific examples.
The US president said Sunday that he was "thrilled to see" Carr's threat, railing against "Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic" news organizations.
Trump and other administration officials, including Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, have openly whined in recent days about what they've deemed negative coverage of the Iran assault, now in its third week with no end in sight.
Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump attacked a reporter as "a very obnoxious person" after she asked the president why he's sending 5,000 US Marines and sailors to the Middle East.
US Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) warned in a letter to Carr on Sunday that the Trump administration is engaged in a "blatant attempt to muzzle the free press" if outlets don't align their coverage of the Iran war "with Trump's preferred narrative."
"Your Saturday post follows that same logic but extends it to the coverage of an active military conflict, where the chilling effect on journalists and the damage to the public’s right to know are most severe," Markey wrote to Carr.
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Pope Leo to Iran War Architects: 'Cease Fire'
"Violence can never lead to the justice, stability, and peace that the people are waiting for,” the pope said during a prayer.
Mar 15, 2026
Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire in the Middle East on Sunday, in his most direct appeal for peace since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28.
While the pope did not mention either US President Donald Trump or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by name, he directly addressed those driving hostilities.
“On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East and all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict,” Leo said, according to The Associated Press. “Cease fire so that avenues for dialogue may be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability, and peace that the people are waiting for.”
The remarks came following his recital of the Angelus Prayer from the Vatican at 12:00 pm local time.
“Some claim to involve the name of God in these deadly decisions, but God cannot be enlisted by darkness."
"The people of the Middle East for two weeks have been suffering the atrocious violence of war," he began.
He continued: “Thousands of innocent people have been killed, and many others have been forced to abandon their homes. I renew my prayerful closeness to all those who have lost their loved ones in the attacks that have struck schools, hospitals, and residential areas."
According to AP, the mentioned school strike likely referred to the US bombing of an elementary school in Minab, Iran on the first day of the war, which killed at least 175 people, the majority of whom were children.
Pope Leo also repeated concerns about the situation in Lebanon, and called for "paths of dialogue that can support the country’s authorities in implementing lasting solutions to the serious crisis underway."
Israeli attacks on that country have forced about 1 million people to abandon their homes and killed more than 800, The Guardian reported.
The pope's remarks came two days after a Israeli strikes killed 12 healthcare workers at the primary healthcare facility in Burj Qalaouiyah, Lebanon, an attack that the country's health ministry said "violated all international humanitarian laws.”
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement Saturday: "WHO condemns this tragic loss of life and emphasizes that health workers must always be protected. According to international humanitarian law, medical personnel and facilities should never be attacked or militarized."
He continued: "The intensification of conflict in Lebanon and the broader Middle East increases the likelihood of such tragedies. Urgent action is required to de-escalate the crisis and protect the health of people throughout the region."
In Iran, meanwhile, US and Israeli attacks on the city of Isfahan killed at least 15 people Sunday morning, and the total death toll for the country is around 1,400, according to Al Jazeera.
Following his remarks during the Angelus Prayer, Pope Leo also addressed the war while conducting a pastoral visit to a suburb of Rome.
“Currently, many of our brothers and sisters in the world are suffering from violent conflicts, caused by the absurd claim that problems and differences can be resolved through war,” he said, as Agence France-Presse reported.
He also criticized those who use religion to justify violence: “Some claim to involve the name of God in these deadly decisions, but God cannot be enlisted by darkness. It is peace that those who invoke him must seek.”
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Israeli Forces Kill Parents and 2 Children in West Bank, Beat Surviving Children
"Targeting an entire family in this savage manner reveals the true nature of the Israeli occupation and its policies based on killing and extermination, destruction and displacement," the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Mar 15, 2026
The Israeli Defense Forces killed a Palestinian couple and two of their children in the West Bank on Sunday, on one of the deadliest days for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in weeks.
The soldiers opened fire on a car in the village of Tammun in which 37-year-old Ali Khaled Bani Odeh, his 35-year-old wife Waad, and their four sons Mohammad, Othman, Mustafa, and Khaled were traveling. Odeh, Waad, 5-year-old Mohammad, and 7-year-old Othman were shot in the head and died, leaving behind two injured children.
"We came under direct fire, we didn't know the source. Everyone in the car was martyred, except my brother Mustafa and me," one of the surviving children, 12-year-old Khaled, told Reuters from the hospital.
He said that after the shooting was over, the Israeli soldiers pulled him out of the car and began to beat him, telling him, "We killed dogs."
"These crimes occur within a systematic policy pursued by the occupation authorities using lethal force against Palestinian civilians."
The soldiers also beat his other surviving brother, according to Al Jazeera.
The Israeli military said that it had been operating in Tammun to make arrests on "terrorist" charges and that soldiers had fired on a vehicle when it accelerated toward them, according to Reuters. It said it was reviewing the incident.
Al Jazeera journalist Nida Ibrahim said that the family had been totally shocked by the shooting.
“The extended family says the father and the mother did not know that Israeli forces were there as they were in a Palestinian car,” she said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the killing on social media as a "terrifying arbitrary execution crime that targeted an entire Palestinian family inside their vehicle."
The Israeli soldiers also prevented Red Crescent workers from reaching the family, the ministry said, leading to the families' "deliberate and cold-blooded execution."
The ministry continued: "The Ministry affirms that targeting an entire family in this savage manner reveals the true nature of the Israeli occupation and its policies based on killing and extermination, destruction and displacement, amid a systematic impunity, and it further affirms that these crimes, concurrent with the escalation of settler crimes and their organized terrorism in the occupied West Bank, are not isolated incidents, but part of a comprehensive and systematic aggression aimed at exterminating the Palestinian people and displacing them, in clear exploitation of the escalation occurring in the region."
In a statement issued on social media, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) also blamed the deaths on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice.
"This escalation in these crimes comes as a direct result of the expansion of shooting instructions in the Israeli army, the rising violence of settlers amid the prevalence of an impunity policy, and the entrenchment of ethnic cleansing amid unprecedented international silence," PCHR said.
It continued: "While the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemns the unjustified murder crimes committed by occupation forces and settlers, it affirms that these crimes occur within a systematic policy pursued by the occupation authorities using lethal force against Palestinian civilians, in flagrant violation of the principles of necessity and distinction that form fundamental pillars of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Moreover, they come as part of a pattern aimed at terrorizing citizens, intimidating them, and entrenching ethnic cleansing policies, and replicating acts of genocide, albeit in a less overt manner."
Also on Sunday, Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian man in Nablus Governorate, making him the sixth man killed by settlers since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran. Movement restrictions imposed due the war have emboldened setters to attack, knowing that ambulances will be delayed in reaching their victims, human rights advocates and healthcare workers told Reuters.
In total, Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed 25 Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, PCHR said.
In Gaza, where Israeli strikes at first declined following the beginning of the Iran war, the death toll is rising again. On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed nine police officers in Zawayda and a pregnant woman, her husband, and son in Nuseirat.
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