WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is urging five religious organizations to cancel a Sept. 25 dinner with Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in conjunction with his visit to the United Nations.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Elizabeth Cameron, a virgin who was only 16 years old at the time, was forced into a van one day in December 2005 and raped by three men. Weeks later, she learned she was pregnant.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Do military chaplains have the right to pray in Jesus' name in ceremonies outside of chapel services? The military insists they do, but U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R.-N.C., is attempting to write that guarantee into federal law.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Roman Catholic, has been invited by the archbishop of her home diocese to meet with him regarding her recent comments on abortion that contradict church teaching.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Representatives of post-abortion and pregnancy center organizations have denounced a report that asserts there is no trustworthy evidence that a lone abortion causes mental health problems in a woman.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Scientists continue to deal blows to the campaign for embryonic stem cell research, some by shifting their allegiance to a more ethical form of experimentation and some by discovering new means of creating stem cells that do not...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The freedom of conscience of pro-life doctors and other health-care providers would be protected under a new rule proposed by the Bush administration.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The California Supreme Court dealt a blow to religious freedom Aug. 18, critics said, by ruling a fertility doctor cannot refuse to provide a treatment based on a patient's homosexuality.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Massachusetts abortion doctor Rapin Osathanondh, charged with manslaughter in the death of a 22-year-old woman last year, has pleaded not guilty.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Southern Baptist ethics leader Richard Land has joined in warning President Bush his own Department of Justice is threatening to tarnish his legacy on combating human trafficking.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A clash between the Department of Justice and foes of human trafficking over how to address the global problem is on display in the conflicting pieces of legislation they support.

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Bush attended the worship service of a church registered with China's communist regime Aug. 10 and afterward promoted freedom of religion in a brief public statement.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Southern Baptist Convention's ethics entity is urging support for legislation to reaffirm the federal government's authority to regulate broadcast indecency.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The right words from President Bush in Beijing could prove extremely helpful to many Christians suffering in China, said a leading advocate for the persecuted church in that country.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A federal appeals court has provided hope that Virginia's ban on partial-birth abortion may withstand its scrutiny after all.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals has again upheld a judge's decision to block enforcement of a congressional effort to protect children from Internet pornography.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Louisiana has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling against that state's law permitting the death penalty for child rape after it was revealed the justices overlooked a similar federal measure in their ruling.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A London woman is carrying Great Britain's first baby guaranteed to be free of inherited breast cancer, but she had to eliminate several of her other embryonic offspring to do so.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Same-sex unions and religious liberty are destined to collide in this country in ways that could prove costly for the free exercise of religion, legal experts said in a Washington panel discussion.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A Kansas grand jury has decided not to file charges against the country's best-known, late-term abortion doctor after a six-month investigation.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Voters are more likely to pull the lever for a presidential candidate who supports proposed state constitutional marriage amendments -- a finding that could boost Republican John McCain and spell trouble for Democrat Barack Obama...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Government bureaucracy can't "fix" America, but the nation's people can, President Bush told 1,000-plus leaders of faith-based and community groups gathered in Washington to network with each other and hear from various government...

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Bush asked participants at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast to pray God "continues to bestow His blessings" on the United States in the final appearance of his presidency at the annual event.

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Bush announced June 26 he would lift some trade sanctions against North Korea and remove the communist regime from a list of state sponsors of terror, drawing expressions of disappointment from a Southern Baptist ethics...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 25 a child rapist may not be executed if he did not kill his victim.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. House of Representatives has eliminated language in a war supplemental spending bill that would have provided price breaks for Planned Parenthood, the country's No. 1 abortion provider.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Candidates for the White House and other offices should be free to say how their religious beliefs impact them but should not be expected to explain the specifics of their faith, Southern Baptist church-state specialist Richard...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The California State Assembly has approved legislation that critics say would provide a backdoor way to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Southern Baptist ethics leader Richard Land is calling for opposition to climate-change legislation before the U.S. Senate.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Senate has approved price breaks for the country's leading abortion provider in legislation funding American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A federal appeals court again has struck down a state ban on partial-birth abortion even after the U.S. Supreme Court directed the lower court to reconsider its ruling in light of the justices' support for a similar, federal law.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Members of the British Parliament have handily defeated attempts to block the legalization of human-animal hybrids and "savior siblings" in a series of votes that left pro-life advocates aghast.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put a hold on proposed clinical trials using embryonic stem cells in human beings.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was criticized by some for an advertisement with a supposed "floating cross," but Democratic candidate Barack Obama is going one step further in Kentucky, where a flyer paid...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The United States Supreme Court handed Congress a victory May 19 in its effort to combat child pornography after a previous effort fell short in the justices' eyes.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Through a new "We Get It!" campaign, the Southern Baptist Convention's ethics entity is partnering with other organizations to demonstrate that evangelical Christians support what they describe as a more biblical, fact-based...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- known far better for terminating motherhood than for promoting it -- nonetheless found a way to turn Mother's Day into an excuse for fundraising.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Sen. John McCain's recent global warming speech assured Americans of one thing, a skeptical scientist says -- no major presidential candidate in 2008 will challenge prevailing assumptions.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Heath Shuler is that rarest of Democrats in Congress -- the pro-lifer.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A brief, written message Heath Shuler's mother gave him before he entered high school made an impression on him that remains to this day.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Congressmen from both political parties have partnered to sponsor legislation designed to prevent children from purchasing or renting adult video games.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Congress has adopted with nearly unanimous agreement a bill to prevent insurers and employers from discriminating against Americans based on their genetic information.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Congressional members of President Bush's own party urged him not to attend the opening ceremony of this year's Olympic games in Beijing during a Capitol Hill news conference.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A bipartisan United States commission has called for designation of the same 11 countries that it recommended last year as the world's worst violators of religious liberty as it awaits a long overdue response from the State...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Richard Land is calling on Southern Baptists and others to urge Senate Democratic leaders to lift their blockade on federal appeals court nominees.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Southern Baptist ethics leader Richard Land has called on the leading presidential candidates to support legislation to combat human trafficking and to make the issue a priority in their campaign platforms.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Barack Obama's longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright sought to explain two of his more controversial statements during an April 25 interview on PBS' "Bill Moyers Journal" and also defended his association with Nation of Islam leader...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Officials of Marriott International have agreed to meet with pro-family leaders who have asked the hotel chain to stop offering pornographic movies in its rooms.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Researchers have created human-animal embryos in Great Britain for the first time.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, a coalition of evangelicals focused on the issue of global climate change, has released a 16-point public policy agenda for balancing concern about global climate change with...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 ruling April 16 upheld Kentucky's method of lethal injection, giving states nationwide the green light to lift their unofficial moratoriums on such death penalty methods.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Southern Baptist pro-life leader Richard Land is calling for passage of a measure to codify a ban on federal funding for abortion as part of an Indian health care bill.

WASHINGTON (BP)--National Right to Life has endorsed presumptive Republican nominee John McCain for president, giving him a significant boost in his effort to attract social conservatives.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Lawyers for "prosperity gospel" televangelists Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar have told U.S. senators that they will not comply with a probe into their ministries because it threatens religious freedom rights.

WASHINGTON (BP)--American children are becoming victims of human sex trafficking, according to statistics released by Shared Hope International.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Two television ministries still are refusing to comply fully with a U.S. Senate committee's probe into their financial records.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Conservative evangelical Christians continue to influence government policies, but they also are facing the challenge of responding to additional issues, pro-family leaders said in a National Press Club panel discussion.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Supreme Court agreed March 31 to review a lower court decision that some allege could cause local governments to remove Ten Commandments displays or permit a plethora of other religious monuments.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean reportedly said during a court deposition recently that he personally supports "gay marriage," a stance that if true would make him but the latest major Democratic figure to...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Oregon recorded more deaths by physician-assisted suicide in 2007 than in any year in the decade since the practice was legalized.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Bush administration has entered the fray over the conscience rights of pro-life physicians.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Two days after delivering a much-publicized speech on race, Democrat & presidential candidate Barack Obama once again found himself distancing himself from his church -- this time the congregation's publication of a pro-Hamas,...

WASHINGTON (BP)--"Idol Gives Back," the charity program of "American Idol," is not worthy of support from people who regard unborn life as sacred, a pro-life leader says.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention's ethics entity is opposed to climate-change legislation the U.S. Senate is expected to consider soon.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sought March 14 to distance himself from controversial comments made by his pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Supreme Court announced March 17 it will review a lower court's ruling that had stymied the federal government's attempt to restrict indecent language on television and radio broadcasts.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Three television ministries have refused to cooperate with a U.S. Senate committee's probe into their financial records and have been given a new deadline for providing the requested information, according to the panel's leadership.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Jonathan Merritt, a 25-year-old student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., captured widespread media attention March 10 in releasing a statement titled "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Planned Parenthood -— an organization that calls itself pro-child, pro-woman and pro-life -— has been discovered allegedly accepting racist-motivated donations.

WASHINGTON (BP)--China has no plans to eliminate its infamous one-child, population-control policy, a top official of the communist regime said March 5.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A Senate committee has passed legislation that could serve to reduce the killing of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome or other conditions.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A House of Representatives committee has approved legislation renewing President Bush's initiative to combat AIDS in Africa after making changes in a version that had produced strong opposition from pro-life and pro-family...

WASHINGTON (BP)--A bipartisan religious liberty panel in the United States has called on Cuba's communist government to institute protections for religious expression and other human rights in the wake of Fidel Castro's departure as president.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Marriage is not merely an individualistic act between two people, a self-described "liberal Democrat" told the Family Research Council Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Basic human rights, including religious freedom, have deteriorated under Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses testified in a Capitol Hill hearing.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Senate voted Feb. 26 to prohibit federal funding for abortion as part of an Indian health care bill.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Massachusetts doctor in whose care a 22-year-old woman died after an abortion has surrendered his medical license permanently.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Forty-three pro-life and pro-family advocates have signed a letter to President Bush urging him to oppose and threaten a veto of draft legislation to reauthorize his initiative to combat AIDS in Africa.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Churches can resume hosting Super Bowl parties without opposition from the National Football League, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has informed Sen. Orin Hatch, R.-Utah.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A young, severely brain injured Delaware woman is at the center of a life-and-death court battle between her parents.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Egypt's government should "respect and enforce" two recent decisions by that nation's highest court, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

WASHINGTON (BP)--In recent years, Feb. 12 has been celebrated not just for Abraham Lincoln's birthday but for Charles Darwin's as well.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Bob Fu, a leading advocate for the persecuted church in his native China, received a Southern Baptist religious freedom award during a ceremony at the Library of Congress Feb. 7.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A bill seeking to strengthen restrictions on television indecency finally escaped a Senate committee in December but now sits idly on the Senate legislative calendar with no signs of moving anytime soon.

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Bush said in his final National Prayer Breakfast as the country's chief executive he was grateful for, and had been helped by, the prayers of Americans.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney suspended his campaign Feb. 7, saying it was time to make way for a national effort by GOP opponent John McCain.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The National Right to Life Political Action Committee says it is not endorsing any of the remaining candidates for president, although it says the leading Republican candidates are pro-life on abortion and it is opposing the...

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Bush urged a Democratic-controlled Congress Jan. 28 in his last State of the Union speech to maintain policies he has promoted and adopt recommendations he has previously offered.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Federal Communications Commission issued a $1.43 million indecency fine against 52 ABC affiliates Jan. 25 for airing nudity during an episode of "NYPD Blue" in 2003, marking the second-largest indecency fine ever proposed for...

WASHINGTON (BP)--A Republican and a Democrat in the U.S. Senate have combined their efforts once again in an attempt to prevent unethical research involving human-animal hybrid embryos.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Congress again has fallen short in an effort to override a presidential veto of the expansion of a children's health insurance program.

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Bush encouraged pro-life Americans to "take heart" and "be strong" on the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court's legalization of abortion.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The pro-life movement continues to make progress, but it faces a crucial juncture 35 years into America's devastating abortion regime.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Scientists used cells from aborted babies in recently reported research that has been hailed as a breakthrough in the ethical development of embryonic-like stem cells.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Scientists in California reportedly have cloned human embryos from adult skin cells, apparently taking a step toward producing personalized, replacement stem cells to treat diseases.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Pro-life bioethicists are rejecting recent claims by scientists that they have developed embryonic stem cells without destroying human embryos.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The number of abortions in the United States has reached its lowest level in three decades, according to a report released Jan. 17.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Supreme Court debated the constitutionality of the country's most common form of capital punishment Jan. 7, only three weeks after a state outlawed the death penalty for the first time in more than three decades.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama rode late surges to victories Jan. 3 in the Iowa caucuses, as the Republican and Democratic parties took their first steps toward nominating candidates for November's presidential election.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision would be history had the person who probably was President Reagan's first choice for the Supreme Court accepted a nomination, a political biographer says.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Presidential one dollar coins are the only U.S. coins currently being issued by the United States Mint that have the inscription "In God We Trust" along the edge, but public pressure soon may send the motto back to the front or...

WASHINGTON (BP)--A solution to the crisis in Sudan depends on the United States and the international community pressuring that country's militant Islamic regime to implement a peace treaty it agreed to, said experts at a recent Washington panel...

WASHINGTON (BP)--President Bush has vetoed for the second time the expansion of a children's health insurance program.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The House of Representatives approved a resolution Dec. 11 acknowledging the significance of Christmas and Christianity.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Congress will not vote to expand hate crimes protections to homosexuals and transgendered individuals as part of a military authorization bill for next year, it was announced Dec. 6.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The National Religious Broadcasters delivered a letter to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley Dec. 3, expressing concern over a probe he is conducting into the financial records of six television ministries.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Effective, international pressure on the military junta of Burma, also known as Myanmar, to change its repressive ways depends on the leadership of the United States, a bipartisan, religious liberty panel was told in a Capitol...

WASHINGTON (BP)--When Baptist pastor Roger Freeman visits Washington, D.C., this week, it will be far from a normal trip.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Both sides of a church-state legal battle found something to celebrate in a federal appeals court's opinion on a Christian ministry in an Iowa prison.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson defended his opposition to a human life amendment Nov. 25, saying he supports what is achievable -- the reforming of the judiciary and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Sen. Trent Lott, R.-Miss, surprised his Republican colleagues by announcing Nov. 26 his retirement from the Senate.

WASHINGTON (BP)--A task force of the American Psychological Association set to revise policies on the interplay of homosexuality and psychology has refused to meet with a number of counselors and religious leaders who believe same-sex attraction...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Skin cells have been converted into embryonic-like stem cells in human beings, scientists in Wisconsin and Japan revealed Nov. 20, producing a dramatic shift in favor of opponents of research that destroys embryos.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Pressure on Congress to rein in the country's leading abortion provider continues.

WASHINGTON (BP)--All living things deserve respect, but human beings are uniquely valuable in God's creation, Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land said at a recent conference on evangelicals and the environment.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The newly reported cloning of monkey embryos signals lethal consequences for tiny human beings and increased chances for the birth of a human clone, pro-life bioethicists say.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The National Right to Life Committee's Nov. 13 endorsement of Fred Thompson for president came just days after other pro-life advocates scattered their support among Republican candidates.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Pentagon officials continue to allow the sale of adult magazines on military property despite a ban on sexually explicit material, and the decision has caused alarm among pro-family organizations.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The House of Representatives comfortably approved workplace protections based on "sexual orientation" Nov. 7, handing the homosexual activist movement a groundbreaking victory.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The leading Republican on the Senate Finance Committee is investigating prominent televangelists and their financial conduct, pursuing reports of elaborate private jets, Rolls Royces and indulgent salaries.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Congress again has passed legislation to expand a popular children's health insurance program, and it again has done so without the votes required to overcome a presidential veto.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The United Nations' second World Conference on Racism will be focused on the fear of Islam, or "Islamophobia," and religious freedom experts are concerned it is simply an effort to sidetrack interest in the lack of tolerance and...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Supreme Court grappled Oct. 30 with another effort by Congress to combat child pornography.

WASHINGTON (BP)--More than 60 pro-family leaders have signed a letter to senators and representatives asking them to suspend federal funding for Planned Parenthood while a 107-count criminal complaint against the abortion provider's...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Southern Baptist church-state specialist Richard Land has been appointed to a fourth term on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Ireland has the lowest rate of breast cancer out of nine selected European countries, and it also has the lowest rate of abortion.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The House of Representatives is expected to vote in the coming days on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill opponents say could have a dramatic impact on religious freedoms by forcing Christian businesses and...

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Senate confirmed Oct. 24 another nominee to a federal appeals court after a contentious battle.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney both were able to claim victory in straw poll results at a meeting of social conservatives Oct. 19-21.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Saudi Arabian government has not progressed in its promotion of religious freedom and other basic human rights and has remained relatively unresponsive to July 2006 recommendations from the State Department, according to the...

WASHINGTON (BP)--Results of the Values Voter Summit straw poll still are being assessed about what it means regarding social conservatives' support for Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Ahí va de nuevo, están diciendo los antiabortistas acerca de la Secretaria de Estado Robin Carnahan.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The House Education and Labor Committee passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act Oct. 18, sending to the full chamber a bill that critics say will infringe on religious freedom and help normalize homosexuality.

WASHINGTON (BP)--There she goes again, pro-life advocates are saying of Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

WASHINGTON (BP)--U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, a social conservative who never could climb into the top tier of Republican presidential candidates, is dropping out of the race, sources close to him told the Associated Press Oct. 18.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The House of Representatives failed Oct. 18 to override President Bush's veto of a bill expanding a popular children's health insurance program.

WASHINGTON (BP)--The political director of one of the nation's largest abortion rights groups isn't endorsing Rudy Giuliani, but if a Republican must win the White House, he's apparently her pick.