Author: Ring of Fire Staff

Texas Governor Rick Perry signed off on a bill Tuesday that would ban abortions past 20 weeks, checking off another item on his list for his radical anti-abortion campaign. The Preborn Pain Bill, which was introduced and lobbied to the Texas government by state Sen. Glenn Hegar and Rep. Jodie Laudenberg, was proposed to eliminate the pain a baby supposedly suffers during an abortion after 20 weeks. “The state has a responsibility to prevent the needless suffering of our most vulnerable citizens, and these bills introduced by Sen. Hegar and Rep. Laudenberg are a vital step toward meeting that...

North Carolina is considering a new bill that would require teachers to tell young school children that abortion causes preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies. The proposed legislation, SB 132, would mandate that anti-abortion propaganda be implemented in elementary and middle school public health curriculum. According to the bill, in order to facilitate implementation of the act, the Department of Public Health & Human Services will need to provide “sample educational materials with the most current information available about the preventable causes of preterm birth, including induced abortion as a cause of preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies.” The “most current...

In another attempt by House Republicans to oppress the neediest of families, Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) and House Republicans hope to infringe the privacy of these Americans with a bill they proposed last week.  Their proposed bill, the Welfare Integrity Act of 2013, requires low-income parents provided relief under the program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to surrender to random drug testing. TANF is a program that helps move recipients into work by aiding families with dependent children. The program temporarily assists unfortunate parents with children by granting them welfare for living essentials such as rent, heat and...

Obama has a history of appointing business leaders that come from companies with questionable labor practices. And his recent nomination of Sylvia Matthews Burwell, president of the Walmart Foundation, as the director of the Office of Management and Budget seems in keeping with this legacy. Should the nomination carry, Burwell will take a position that has substantial influence on policy, the office itself having the power to block federal regulations. This begs the question: will her appointment have the potential for a conflict of influence on federal policy? Walmart has attempted to influence the OMB throughout Obama’s administration, including...