Cabo Verde Hit by First Hurricane in a Century : Image of the Day

According to several reports, Fred appears to be the easternmost hurricane to form in the tropical Atlantic during the satellite era. (Extra-tropical Hurricane Vince formed briefly off Portugal in 2005.) It is also believed to be the first hurricane to hit Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) islands since 1892. The storm did not cause any casualties, nor did it make direct landfall on any of the islands, but it did cause flash flooding and extensive wind damage. As much rain was predicted to fall in one day as the islands typically receive in half a year, though totals are not yet available.

Source: Cabo Verde Hit by First Hurricane in a Century : Image of the Day

Louisiana Lays Bare Difficulty in Push to Cut Planned Parenthood Funding – The New York Times

The state has a large poor and unhealthy population, with high rates of unintended pregnancies, a shortage of health professionals and too few who will accept Medicaid, as Planned Parenthood does.

Source: Louisiana Lays Bare Difficulty in Push to Cut Planned Parenthood Funding – The New York Times

Pope Francis says Catholics can be forgiven for having abortions if they’re contrite

In a new order, Pope Francis says that during the Vatican’s upcoming Holy Year of Mercy, priests are allowed to absolve Catholics who have had an abortion of their “grave sin” as long as they really, really regret it.

The extraordinary order by Francis, which temporarily allows all priests to grant forgiveness to women who have elected to have an abortion and regret the procedure, is part of the church’s jubilee year of mercy, which begins on 8 December and runs until 20 November 2016.

Within an hour of releasing the letter, the Vatican released another statement in response to a flood of queries, emphasising that the church did not “condone abortion nor minimise its grave effects”.

The letter will be seen as further evidence that Francis, the first Latin American pope, is approaching his papacy as a liberal-minded reformer and is seeking to reach out to Catholics who believe the church – and its usually uncompromising attitudes towards abortion, homosexuality and divorce – is out of touch with modern social views.

The Pope may well see himself as a reformer, but he’s still pretty out of touch. According to statistics compiled by Catholics for Choice, in the United States, 99 percent of sexually active Catholics have used a Vatican-banned form of contraception. Only 14 percent agree with the Church’s position that abortion should be illegal. Catholic women have abortions at the exact same rate as other women. Perhaps because their own values on matters of sex, contraception, and abortion are so radically different from official Catholic teachings, four out of five Catholic voters feel no obligation to vote the way bishops recommend.

If this order gives a sense of relief to some of the millions of Catholic believers who’ve had an abortion, that’s great and I’m glad for it. But as Reina showed in her recent piece on religious advocates for reproductive rights, there are plenty of true reformers within the Catholic Church who see abortion not as shameful sin one should regret but as a matter of personal conscious and social justice — and believe faith shouldn’t be dictated by the male-dominated Church hierarchy.

Header image credit: Fabrizio Belluschi/Demotix/Corbis

Lebanon’s ‘You Stink’ Protesters Stage Sit-In, Demanding Minister’s Resignation – The New York Times

government, not used to this mode of protest, appeared not to have prepared a graceful way to react.Inside the minister’s offices, the air-conditioning was turned off and the bathrooms were locked. The police gave the protesters half an hour to vacate, and as the minutes counted down to the deadline, they could be seen on videos fanning themselves with papers. Outside, Lebanese Army armored vehicles arrived and riot police officers gathered. While it is not unusual for the army, considered the least partisan of Lebanon’s security forces, to take part in keeping civic order, protesters said it seemed like overkill.Lebanese news channels broadcast for a time from inside the ministry headquarters, as the demonstrators sought to provide a kind of national tutorial on nonviolent protest tactics.“They don’t understand that we are doing civil disobedience,” one organizer, Imad Bazzi, told a reporter when asked what they would do if police officers entered. “We will not leave. And of course we will not confront them.”

Source: Lebanon’s ‘You Stink’ Protesters Stage Sit-In, Demanding Minister’s Resignation – The New York Times

Did Hillary Really Call the GOP Terrorists? | Dame Magazine

“Marco Rubio brags about wanting to deny victims of rape and incest access to health care, to abortion,” she stated. “Jeb Bush says Planned Parenthood shouldn’t get a penny. Your governor right here in Ohio banned state funding for some rape crisis centers because they sometimes refer women to other health facilities that do provide abortions. I would like these Republican candidates to look a mom in the eye who caught her breast cancer early because she was able to get a screening for cancer. Or the teenager who didn’t get pregnant because she had access to contraception. Or anyone who’s ever been protected by an HIV test.”“Extreme views about women—we expect that from some of the terrorist groups, we expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world,” she continued. “But it’s a little hard to take from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States, yet they espouse out of date, out of touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st century America. We are going forward, we are not going back.”Now, did Clinton really “compare pro-lifers to ‘terrorists’?” You would have to stretch pretty far to say yes. So of course stretching is exactly what most of the GOP slate has decided to do.

Source: Did Hillary Really Call the GOP Terrorists? | Dame Magazine

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