Homeless in Arizona

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Abortions in Arizona down 7.4% in 2012, report says

By Alia Beard Rau The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Aug 2, 2013 12:45 PM

Abortions in Arizona declined 7.4 percent in 2012, according to an annual Arizona Department of Health Services abortion report released this week.

Since Gov. Jan Brewer took office in 2009, Arizona has passed some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation. Several of those laws, some delayed for years by court battles, went into effect in late 2011 and resulted in Planned Parenthood of Arizona halting abortions at eight of its 13 clinics.

Women seeking an abortion in Arizona must first meet with a doctor at least 24 hours in advance and must agree to an ultrasound. Only a physician may now perform abortions. Parental consent for an abortion must be notarized.

A law passed last year banning most abortions after 20 gestational weeks of pregnancy, similar to the one Texas passed last month, has been halted while it moves through the courts.

According to the annual Arizona Department of Health Services report on abortion data, abortions remain up overall since 2002. But a large spike in abortions since 2010 is most likely due to a change that year in abortion reporting requirements, according to the report.

The conservative advocacy group the Center for Arizona Policy has written most of the abortion legislation in recent years.

Center spokesman Aaron Baer called it the numbers a significant win. He credited a combination of state legislation and efforts by advocates and crisis pregnancy centers with the decline.

“We’re starting to see what Arizona’s pro-life movement can accomplish,” he said.

Sen. Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, advocated against must of the legislation in recent years. She said she would like to see more analysis of the data.

“I don’t think anybody is pro abortion, but what I would like to know is the reason for seeing less abortions,” she said. “If people have what they need and they are planning pregnancies, great. But if it’s just because they can’t access (abortion services), that’s a problem.”

The data also indicates that the average age of the women receiving an abortion was 31 years old. There was an increase from 2011 in the rate of women age 18-19 getting abortions, while the rate for minors remained stagnant. The vast majority of women seeking abortions were unmarried. About 64 percent had not had a previous abortion.

Approximately 26 percent of the abortions were for Hispanic women, followed by 14.5 percent for non-Hispanic White women and less than 1 percent for African-American women.

About 68 percent of the abortions were surgical, while 32 percent were performed using medication. This was a slight decline compared with 2011 when 62 percent were surgical and 37.5 were nonsurgical.

The majority of abortions in 2012, 99 percent, were elective while less than one percent were for medical reasons. Sixty-six percent of abortions were performed at eight or fewer gestational weeks. Fewer than 1 percent were performed at or beyond 21 weeks.

Mesa parents arrested for unsanitary home

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Mesa parents arrested for unsanitary home, police say

By Matthew Longdon and Jason Sillman The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:25 PM

Two Mesa parents are behind bars accused of allowing their three children to live in an unsanitary home covered in roaches and rotten food, according to police documents.

Police arrested Kari Fredenburg, 43, and Shawn Fredenburg 43, Monday night at their home near Main Street and Recker Road.

The officer went to the home after someone reported the living conditions and found rotten food on the kitchen counters, in the fridge and all over the floor. There were roaches running around maggots on the ceiling and bathroom toilet had not been flushed and was full of mold, according to the Mesa report.

Police say the parents and the two younger children, ages 10 and 13, slept on one mattress on the floor in the living room while the oldest boy, whose age was not listed, slept on three couch cushions in the home’s only bedroom. The officer reported that there were torn-up mattresses lining the walls of the bedroom as well as animal feces. The boy told the officer he had the room all to himself because he was the oldest child, according to the report.

The parents knew of the home’s unsanitary condition and felt it was OK for the children to be there, police said.

Child Protective Services took custody of the three kids, police said. The parents are each facing three counts of child abuse, a class 4 felony.

Mississippi law requires cord blood from teen moms

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Mississippi law requires cord blood from teen moms

By Emily Wagster Pettus Associated Press Fri Aug 2, 2013 8:07 PM

JACKSON, Miss. -- If a girl younger than 16 gives birth and won’t name the father, a new Mississippi law — likely the first of its kind in the country — says authorities must collect umbilical cord blood and run DNA tests to prove paternity as a step toward prosecuting statutory rape cases.

Supporters say the law is intended to chip away at Mississippi’s teen pregnancy rate, which has long been one of the highest in the U.S. But critics say that though the procedure is painless, it invades the medical privacy of the mother, father and baby.

And questions abound: At roughly $1,000 a pop, who will pay for the DNA tests in the country’s poorest state? Even after test results arrive, can prosecutors compel a potential father to submit his own DNA and possibly implicate himself in a crime? How long will the state keep the DNA on file?

Governor wants to end teen rape

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says the DNA tests could lead to prosecution of grown men who have sex with underage girls.

“It is to stop children from being raped,” said Bryant, who started his career as a deputy sheriff in the 1970s. “One of the things that go on in this state that’s always haunted me when I was a law-enforcement officer is seeing the 14- and 15-year-old girl that is raped by the neighbor next door and down the street.”

But Bear Atwood, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, said it’s an invasion of privacy to collect cord blood without consent of the mother, father and baby.

She also said that an underage girl who doesn’t want to reveal the identity of her baby’s father might skip prenatal care: “Will she decide not to have the baby in a hospital where she can have a safe, happy, healthy delivery?”

The law took effect July 1 but hasn’t been used yet.

State ranks highest in teen moms

Bryant’s staff says the idea for the law came from public meetings conducted by the governor’s teen pregnancy prevention task force — a group that focuses mostly on promoting abstinence.

Statistics put the state’s teen pregnancy rate among the highest in the country. In 2011 — the most recent year for which statistics are available — there were 50.2 live births in Mississippi per 1,000 females ages 15-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nationwide rate was 31.3.

Democratic state Rep. Adrienne Wooten voted against the bill, saying it will mostly hurt poor women and could lead to a prosecution “fishing expedition to find out who the father is.”

“I think that that is totally outside the boundaries of what we as a Legislature should be doing,” said Wooten, who, like Gipson, is an attorney. “We already have laws that deal with statutory rape.”

Five myths about libertarians

Five myths about libertarians

By Nick Gillespie, Published: August 2

Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason.com and a columnist for the Daily Beast, is a co-author of “The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America.”

The specter of libertarianism is haunting America. Advocates of sharply reducing the government’s size, scope and spending are raising big bucks from GOP donors, trying to steal the mantle of populism, being blamed for the demise of Detroit and even getting caught in the middle of a battle for the Republican Party. Yet libertarians are among the most misunderstood forces in today’s politics. Let’s clear up some of the biggest misconceptions.

1. Libertarians are a fringe band of “hippies of the right.”

In 1971, the controversial and influential author Ayn Rand denounced right-wing anarchists as “hippies of the right,” a charge still leveled against libertarians, who push for a minimal state and maximal individual freedom.

Libertarians are often dismissed as a mutant subspecies of conservatives: pot smokers who are soft on defense and support marriage equality. But depending on their views, libertarians often match up equally well with right- and left-wingers.

The earliest example of libertarian principles in partisan politics might have come in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,when Anti-Imperialist League Democrats rejected empire and war — and believed in free trade and racial equality at a time when none of that was popular. More recently, civil libertarians such as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) supported Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in his filibuster on domestic drones and government surveillance.

Libertarians are found across the political spectrum and in both major parties. In September 2012, the Reason-Rupe Poll found that about one-quarter of Americans fall into the roughly libertarian category of wanting to reduce the government’s roles in economic and social affairs. That’s in the same ballpark as what other surveys have found and more than enough to swing an election.

2. Libertarians don’t care about minorities or the poor.

As the recent discovery of neo-Confederate writings by a former senior aide to Sen. Paul shows, there sometimes is a connection between libertarians and creepy, racist elements in American politics. And given the influence of Ayn Rand among many libertarians, it’s easy to think that they care only about themselves. “I will never live for the sake of another man,” runs a characteristic line from Rand’s 1957 novel, “Atlas Shrugged.”

But at least two of the libertarian movement’s signature causes, school choice and drug legalization, are aimed at creating a better life for poor people, who disproportionately are also minorities. The primary goal of school choice — a movement essentially born out of a 1955 essay about vouchers by libertarian and Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman — is to give lower-income Americans better educational options. Friedman also persuasively argued that the drug war concentrates violence and law enforcement abuses in poor neighborhoods.

Libertarians believe that economic deregulation helps the poor because it ultimately reduces costs and barriers to start new businesses. The leading libertarian public-interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, which has argued Supreme Court cases for free speech and against eminent-domain abuse, got its start defending African American hair-braiders in Washington from licensing laws that shut down home businesses.

3. Libertarianism is a boys’ club.

While the stereotype of a libertarian as a male engineer sporting a plastic pocket protector and a slide rule once had more truth to it than most libertarians would care to admit, the movement is in many ways the creation of three female intellectuals.

As Brian Doherty details in his 2008 book, “Radicals for Capitalism,” the modern libertarian movement was hugely influenced by best-selling novelist and writer Rand; writer and critic Isabel Paterson; and author Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of “Little House on the Prairie” author Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose work she edited. The first national ticket for the Libertarian Party, in 1972, had a woman, Toni Nathan, as its vice-presidential candidate, and from its inception, the party has supported reproductive rights and full equality under the law for women.

Newer groups such as the Ladies of Liberty Alliance are growing by emphasizing the benefits of economic freedom to an expanding class of female entrepreneurs.

4. Libertarians are pro-drug, pro-abortion and anti-religion.

Charges of libertinism are, alas, exaggerated. Virtually all libertarians believe that the prohibition of any consensual activity breeds far more problems than it solves. But a key tenet is that just because something is legal doesn’t mean you have to endorse, much less practice, it. Ron Paul drew laughs during a GOP presidential primary debate in 2011 when he asked audience members if they would try heroin if it were legal.

About 30 percent of libertarians — including many libertarian-minded politicians such as Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) — are staunchly pro-life. But most believe that the best way to change behavior is through moral suasion, not versions of prohibition that don’t work.

The same goes for religion: It should be free and celebrated as long as participation is voluntary. After all, proto-libertarian Roger Williams co-founded the first Baptist congregation in America and created Providence, R.I., as a haven of religious tolerance and fully secular government at a time when that was unheard of.

5. Libertarians are destroying the Republican Party.

In 1975, Ronald Reagan saw a kinship between libertarians and his party: “If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism,” he said.

There seems to be little sense of a shared soul now, though, as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says things such as: “This strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought.” Christie was referring primarily to Rand Paul, a potential rival for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has attacked Rand Paul, Amash and other critics of the surveillance state as “wacko birds,” and defenders of the GOP establishment are worried about the party’s growing libertarian streak.

Yet Republicans acknowledged the need for a major reboot after the 2012 election, and that’s precisely what libertarian-leaning politicians are offering. Rand Paul has proposed a budget that cuts about $500 billion in annual spending, and he has called for reform of unsustainable entitlements and an end to overseas military adventurism. What’s been dubbed his “hipster outreach program” is an attempt to appeal to a wider slice of voters than middle-class whites. Republicans “need to be white, we need to be brown, we need to be black, we need to be with tattoos, without tattoos, with ponytails, without ponytails, with beards, without,” he told a New Hampshire audience in May.

That’s a message that might rankle stand-pat Republicans but is likely to appeal to younger voters who, according to a recent College Republican National Committee study, want government to be smaller and more inclusive.

gillespie@reason.com

Calif. religious-order files reveal decades of abuse

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Calif. religious-order files reveal decades of abuse

By Gillian Flaccus Associated Press Thu Aug 1, 2013 6:28 AM

LOS ANGELES — In therapy sessions, the priest confessed the shocking details he’d kept hidden for years: He had molested more than 100 boys, including his 5-year-old brother. He had sex with male prostitutes, and frequented gay strip clubs.

The admissions of the Rev. Ruben Martinez are included among nearly 2,000 pages of secret files unsealed Wednesday that were kept on priests, brothers and nuns who belonged to religious orders but were accused of child molestation while working within the Los Angeles archdiocese.

The papers, which were released under the terms of a $660 million settlement agreement reached in 2007, are the first glimpse at what religious orders knew about the men and women they posted in Roman Catholic schools and parishes in the Los Angeles area. The archdiocese itself released thousands of pages under court order this year for its own priests who were accused of sexual abuse, but the full picture of the problem remained elusive without the orders’ records. Several dozen more files are expected to be released by the fall.

The documents cover five different religious orders that employed 10 priests or religious brothers and two nuns who were all accused in civil lawsuits of molesting children. Among them, the accused had 21 alleged victims between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Some of the files released Wednesday, including those of the nuns, don’t mention sexual abuse at all, and others appear to have large gaps in time and missing documents. The release included documents from the Oblates, the Marianists, the Benedictines and two orders for religious sisters.

That the files don’t reflect some of the alleged abuse doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, said Ray Boucher, lead attorney for some abuse victims. “Much of this went unreported. You’re talking about kids that were terrorized and frightened in so many different ways, with no place and no one to turn to.”

At more than 500 pages, Martinez’s file is among the most complete, and it paints a devastating picture of a troubled and repressed child who later joined the priesthood to satisfy a domineering and devout father.

The Los Angeles archdiocese settled eight lawsuits over Martinez’s actions in 2007, but had little documentation on him in its own files even though the priest worked in its parishes for years in the 1970s and 1980s.

However, his order file includes graphic details described in therapy notes and psychiatric evaluations. It also reveals the years of effort — and tens of thousands of dollars — the Oblates spent trying to cure him of his self-admitted pedophilia as it shuttled him between programs, including inpatient treatment.

In 1965, Martinez took his final vows for a religious order called the U.S. Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a nearly 200-year-old Catholic organization with roots in France. In 1969, he was ordained as a priest and assigned by his order to a small parish in Brawley, California.

In a 1993 psychiatric report — one of several such evaluations done between 1991 and 2005 by various treatment programs — the priest admitted to molesting children beginning in 1970, when he began playing “giddy up” games with young boys on his lap. In the documents, Martinez says he stopped “direct sexual contact” with boys after a mother complained to a pastor in 1982 and that he stopped touching boys altogether after another complaint in 1986.

It’s unclear whether his religious order or the archdiocese was aware of those complaints, but around the same time as the first complaint, Martinez began weekly therapy sessions. He entered a counseling program for people with sexual compulsions after the second complaint in 1986.

In 1991, he received five months of inpatient psychological treatment from a center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico that specialized in treating troubled priests.

Upon his release, Martinez was assigned to a tiny parish in the remote town of Westmorland, California, in the far southeastern corner of the state. While there, he would drive miles to San Diego to pick up male prostitutes, according to his file.

He was removed from parish ministry in 1993, enrolled in a sex offender program and sent to live and work at the order’s California headquarters in Oakland after another complaint surfaced from his past. For the rest of his career, he filled administrative roles.

Calls to the U.S. Province of the Oblates and emails to two attorneys representing Martinez and the three other Oblate priests whose files were released were not returned. Attorneys for the Benedictines and Marianists and a representative from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus also did not return calls.

Carolina Guevara, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles archdiocese, did not address the current file release specifically but said religious orders are expected to make sure the priests they present for ministry in the archdiocese don’t have any history of sex abuse.

Martinez, now 72, has a most recent address at the Oblate Mission House in Oakland, California. No one answered the door there and a call was not returned on Wednesday. A receptionist at a Missouri retreat home for troubled priests — another possible place where Martinez could be living — would not say if he was there.

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Associated Press Writers Sarah Parvini and Lisa Leff in Oakland contributed to this report.

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On the web:

http://www.lorpb.com/Orders-Released-Files.aspx

http://www.kbla.com/Religious—Orders—Released—Files.asp

Arab atheists, though few, inch out of the shadows

Arab atheists, though few, inch out of the shadows

August 3, 2013

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press

Rafat Awad fervently preached Islam at his university, encouraging his fellow students to read the Quran and pray. But throughout, the young Palestinian-born pharmacist had gnawing doubts. The more he tried to resolve them, the more they grew.

Finally he told his parents, both devout Muslims, that he was an atheist. They brought home clerics to talk with him, trying in vain to bring him back to the faith. Finally, they gave up.

"It was the domino effect -- you hit the first pin and it keeps on going and going," said Awad, 23, who grew up in the United Arab Emirates and lives there. "I thought: It doesn't make sense anymore. I became a new person then."

An openly self-described atheist is an extreme rarity in the Arab world, where the Muslim majority is on the whole deeply conservative. It's socially tolerated to not be actively religious, to decide not to pray or carry out other acts of faith, or to have secular attitudes. But to outright declare oneself an atheist can lead to ostracism by family and friends, and if too public can draw retaliation from Islamist hard-liners or even authorities.

Still, this tiny minority has taken small steps out of the shadows. Groups on social media networks began to emerge in the mid-2000s. Now, the Arab Spring that began in early 2011 has given a further push: The heady atmosphere of "revolution" with its ideas of greater freedoms of speech and questioning of long-held taboos has encouraged this opening.

One 40-year-old Egyptian engineer, born a Muslim, told The Associated Press he had long been an atheist but kept it a deep secret. The 2011 uprising in Egypt and its calls for radical change encouraged him to look online for others like himself.

"Before the revolution, I was living a life in total solitude. I didn't know anybody who believed like me," he said. "Now we have more courage than we used to have."

His case illustrates the limits on how far an atheist can go. Like most others interviewed by The Associated Press, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, harassment or troubles with his family. His "going public" is strictly online.

Even the Internet is not entirely safe. In most Arab countries, being an atheist is not in itself illegal, but there are often laws against "insulting religion."

Last year, Egyptian Alber Saber, a Christian who identifies as an atheist, was arrested after neighbors complained he had posted an anti-Islam film on his Facebook page. Though he denied it, he was sentenced to three years in prison for blasphemy and contempt of religion. Released on bail during appeal in December, he moved to France.

Similarly, a Palestinian atheist, Waleed al-Husseini, was arrested in 2010 in the West Bank town of Qalqilya for allegedly mocking Islam on the Internet. He was held without charge for several months, and after his release also fled to France.

Still, the online space is flourishing. There are some 60 Arabic-language atheist Facebook groups -- all but five of them formed since the Arab Spring. They range from "Atheists of Yemen" with only 25 followers, to "Sudanese Atheists" with 10,344 followers.

There are pages that appear dormant, but most maintain some activity. An "Arab Atheist Broadcasting" outfit produces pro-atheism YouTube clips. There are closed groups, like an atheist dating club in Egypt.

Some draw strong negative comment. One responder, calling himself Sam, maintained that "attacking Islam has become the cheapest flight ticket to Europe," a reference to those who have fled their Muslim homelands. Writing on the website Elaph, Sam referred to Westerners who convert to Islam, saying "We Muslims take the best of them and they take the garbage from us."

It is impossible to know the number of atheists in the Arab world, given their secrecy. It is not clear whether the increasing online activity reflects that numbers have risen or simply that more are emerging from isolation. Over a dozen interviews with atheists suggest both. In any case, atheists remain a tiny minority. The Arab Spring uprisings fueled the debate in the region over the role of religion in society and politics, but even secular activists are quick to distinguish themselves from atheists.

Disillusion with the post-revolution rise of Islamists, who demand strict implementation of religious rules, has also prompted some to reassess their beliefs.

Watching the changes pushed Fadwa, an 18-year-old Tunisian woman, from detached agnostic to atheist.

"Before the revolution, people didn't see Islam as the problem, but after the revolution, they saw what political Islam was -- and what Islam is," she said.

She says she is now involved in online groups and talks to her friends at university about being an atheist. Because of her beliefs, rumors have been spread around campus that she's promiscuous, she said. But she worries worse could happen, such as being targeted as an apostate -- one who has renounced Islam.

Some Muslim theologians say that's a capital offense, but no one is known to have died in recent times for being an atheist. Other sages say atheists should only be punished if they proselytize. Others yet say ex-Muslim atheists should be tolerated, citing the Quranic verse, "There is no compulsion in religion."

Most scholars "differentiate between somebody who has an opinion, and others who disturb the peace of society" by spreading their views, said Jerusalem-based Muslim theologian Mustafa Abu Sway.

Even harder is the social cost. Declaring oneself an atheist can mean breaking from family and friends and networks that determine a Muslim's entire social life.

The online venues give those questioning their faith a space to go through what can be a traumatic process. Many describe years of depression and isolation. The atheists interviewed by AP said online access to like-minded people gave them courage. All said they were surprised to discover other ex-Muslims out there. They also said reading articles online by prominent Western atheists like Britain's Richard Dawkins pushed them along the path.

Theologian Abu Sway said he sees no possibility atheism will spread among Muslim communities. What's happening today is "a phase rather than a serious position," he said. "It could be an expression of dissatisfaction with traditional institutions. We don't have the Richard Dawkins type. We don't have our own serious contender. It's not something systematic."

Mohammed, a 26-year-old Egyptian, says his family still has no idea he considers himself an atheist, even though he has participated in some of the earliest Arab atheist forums online.

"There are people who say we should be brave and speak out. That's just talk," said Mohammed. "I could fight to say what I think, but I won't be able to stay with my family."

He said he was devout as a teenager but grew confused over questions about whether God allows free will -- a debated topic in Islamic theology. That, along with science studies, unraveled his faith, he said.

"I couldn't control my thoughts anymore. I began to be divided into two: between my brain and my faith," he said.

The Mideast was once a more tolerant place for questioning religion. In the 1960s and 1970s, secular leftists were politically dominant. It wasn't shocking to express agnosticism. There were even a few vocal atheists, including Abdullah al-Qusseimi, a Saudi writer who died in the 1990s and is revered by Arabs who quit Islam.

But the region grew more conservative starting in the 1980s, Islamists became more influential, and militants lashed out against any sign of apostasy.

Perhaps the pendulum is swinging back, said al-Husseini, the Palestinian atheist now in France.

"I think many people were afraid, but now they see there's people like them. They find courage," he said. "They exist on the Internet -- they might have fake names, but they are there."

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Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid covers the Middle East.

Priest accused of being with prostitute near cemetery

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Priest accused of being with prostitute near cemetery

Associated Press Mon Aug 5, 2013 10:53 AM

LOWELL, Mass. — A high-ranking priest with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is facing a prostitution charge.

Authorities say the Rev. Arthur Coyle was granted $500 bail after pleading not guilty Monday in Lowell to a count of sexual conduct for a fee.

Coyle is the Episcopal Vicar for the Merrimack Region, meaning he oversees several parishes in the area. He lives at the rectory of St. Rita’s parish in Lowell.

Police say the 62-year-old Coyle was arrested just after 5 p.m. Sunday after he was allegedly found with a prostitute behind a Lowell cemetery.

A call to St. Rita’s was referred to the archdiocese. An archdiocese spokesman did not immediately return a call or email for comment.

Coyle was ordained in 1977 and has been vicar since 2008.

Other articles on mixing religion and government

More artilces on mixing religion and govenrment.