RELIGION HEADLINES

– A judge’s ruling will keep an abortion question on the South Dakota ballot in November. The judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a pro-life group seeking to have it removed. South Dakota is slated to be one of at least a half-dozen states that will ask its residents whether they wish to enshrine abortion in the state constitution. So far, voters have supported the side favored by abortion advocates in each of the seven ballot measures decided since Roe versus Wade was overturned in 2022.

– The New York attorney general and the New York Civil Liberties Union have filed suit against a county on Long Island over its latest attempt to ban males from playing on women’s sports teams at county facilities. The separate lawsuits were filed Monday. They came on the same day that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, signed the policy into law. An earlier executive order by him was struck down by a judge. Both challenges argue the Nassau ban violates state anti-discrimination laws.  Blakeman says the lawsuits are disappointing.

– One Southern California school district is suing Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom over a new law barring school districts from requiring that parents be notified of their child’s gender identification change. The law has elicited a mixed response from Californians.  Many, including some who support the LGBT agenda, say the new law goes too far and violates parents’ rights. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law this week. It makes California the first state to pass such a ban and comes amid a nationwide battle over transgenderism in the schools.

– Arkansas is being sued for rejecting petitions in favor of a proposed ballot measure to scale back the state’s abortion ban. Supporters want the state Supreme Court to order officials to start counting more than 100,000 signatures. The state says organizers did not comply with a law regarding documentation submitted about paid canvassers. The proposed ballot measure would not make abortion a constitutionally protected right in Arkansas, but it would limit when abortion can be banned. Several states will vote on abortion this fall.