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Facing violence in the real world and censorship in the virtual one, anti-abortion groups are asking state attorneys general to do more to keep them from being wiped off the mapGoogle map.

Tension over abortion rights began even before the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision on June 23 overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion that had made abortion a constitutionally protected right for nearly half a century.

In an unprecedented move, a preliminary draft of the decision was leaked, and published by Politico on May 2. It led not just to demonstrationsincluding some outside Supreme Court justices homesbut to acts of violence and vandalism against pregnancy centers that support pregnant women to encourage them to carry their babies to term. An investigation into the leak continues, Justice Neil Gorsuch said recently, adding he hoped it was finished soon.

CompassCare, an upstate New York group whose Buffalo-area center was firebombed on June 7, said it had documented a sustained pro-abortion effort successfully pressuring tech giants Google and Yelp into censoring and ostracizing them. And the effort has some law enforcement officers, notably New York State Attorney General Letitia James, plus the Biden White House, on their side.

Beginning on August 23, despite the threat of chief law enforcement (officers) in 17 different states, both Google and Yelp began the process of defaming and censoring pro-life pregnancy centers through misleading consumer warnings as well as wiping them off the map function so women who think abortion is their only choice could not find them. At the same time, Google raised Planned Parenthood to number 1 in all organic search results for keywords related to abortion, giving them millions of dollars worth of free advertising, CompassCare said in a public statement.

Big tech conspiring with the political elite to silence any who differ with their ideology is a classic fascist move, destroying anyone who gets in their way, CompassCare CEO Rev. Jim Harden said in the statement. Our only objective is to protect all people equally, both mother and child. If a benevolent goal like that is a threat to those in power, what kind of mania is driving them? This is truly the pro-abortion Kristallnacht.

To learn more about the AG antitrust legal strategy to protect a womans ability to choose the support of a pro-life pregnancy center and not just abortion, contact their offices, CompassCare said.

A lengthy timeline provided by CompassCare details when pressure was applied to the tech companies, when they complied, and how effectively anti-abortion groups were made invisible on maps and in searches. Google on Aug. 25 detailed extra layers of verification increasing the likelihood that pregnancy centers would be flagged for allegedly being misleading or inappropriate.

The attorneys general of 17 states warned Google in an open letter on July 21 that the company might, if it continued censoring anti-abortion groups, be held in violation of antitrust laws.

We, the undersigned Attorneys General, are extremely troubled by this gallingly un-American political pressure. We wish to make this very clear to Google and the other market participants that it dwarfs: if you fail to resist this political pressure, we will act swiftly to protect American consumers from this dangerous axis of corporate and government power, the letter said.

We cannot imagine a potential antitrust violation more odious to American ideals than the deployment of monopoly power to suppress the expression of a particular idea, done at the behest of government actors. Because of the fundamental American values at stake here, if you comply with this inappropriate demand to bias your search results against crisis pregnancy centers, our offices will (1) conduct thorough investigations to determine whether this suppression violates the antitrust laws of the United States and our states.

The letter, whose lead authors were Jason Miyares of Virginia and Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, was also signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

The timeline details how government and pro-abortion groups have joined forces to defame and suppress abortion opponents and those working to help women who choose not to have one. And the pressure has continued steadily since and despite the July 21 warning from the state attorneys general.

CompassCare spokesman Isaac Harden said the group and its allies had a team of 30 lawyers and legal experts with various projects in the works. But the attorneys general have the resources. It would be ideal if they pursued this cause.

Here are some excerpts:

On Nov. 4, 2021, Planned Parenthood posted on its website: Crisis pregnancy centers (also called CPCs or fake clinics) look like real health centers, but they have a shady, harmful agenda: to scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control, and sexual health. There are a lot of these CPCs in the U.S exposefakeclinics.com and The Fake Clinic Database can help you figure out which clinics in your area are crisis pregnancy centers. This statement constitutes defamation, CompassCare alleges.

On June 29, 2022, the president of NARAL, Mini Tammaraju, was quoted in a release by the New York attorney generals office: Google is the first place many people will turn to find out what care they have available to them We thank New York State Attorney General (Letitia) James for leading this effort to ensure everybody looking to access care can find that information without being misled by dangerous fake health centers. This constitutes defamation of a competitor, CompassCare alleges.

The government and the press picked up the gauntlet.

On June 13, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Pregnancy Center Investigation Bill to regulate the activities of pro-life pregnancy centers.

On June 22, the New York Times said in a story, For years, abortion rights advocates have called on Google to stop allowing crisis pregnancy centers to run misleading abortion-related ads on the search giants platform In an email, a Google spokesperson said that protecting users from harmful and misleading ads was a top priority.

On June 28 and 29, James office posted two statements pressuring Google to censor pro-life pregnancy centers, CompassCare documents:

CPCs exist solely to intercept and dissuade pregnant people from making fully informed decisions about their health care Including these organizations in a list for an individual seeking abortion services is dangerous and misleading This issue continues to persist in some New York regions, providing misleading information.

And, New Yorkers, and others traveling to the state, should trust that Google Maps will provide accurate information and direct them to real and safe care By relying on Googles search results in these cases, individuals are unknowingly directed towards dangerous situations and harmful experiences Attorney General James warned Google to immediately address the misinformation.

And censorship has taken place:

Beginning in June, pregnancy centers have had their speech rights curtailed by ordinances passed in numerous cities, beginning in June, CompassCare said. Cities including Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, Austin, and Columbus, Ohio, have deprioritized enforcement of abortion regulations, deregulating abortionists, CompassCare charges.

On July 8, the Biden administration posted an Executive Order Fact Sheet on the White House website which said, The Presidents Executive Order takes additional steps to protect people seeking reproductive health care from inaccurate information, fraudulent schemes or deceptive practices. Thats censorship, CompassCare charges.

On July 12, Senator Elizabeth Warren called for the shut down of pregnancy centers: In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination, she told a television reporter. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.

Pregnancy centers have faced more than wars of words or legal procedures. A shadowy group called Janes Revenge, which uses a website based in Italy, took credit in a communique posted June 15 for the Buffalo attack and numerous others on pregnancy centers across the country.

You have seen that we are real and that we are not merely pushing empty words. As we said, we are not one group but many. You have seen us in Madison, WI, Ft. Collins CO, Reisertown MA, Olympia WA, Des Moines IA, Lynwood WA, Washington DC, Asheville NC, Buffalo NY, Hollywood FL, Vancouver WA, Frederick MA, Denton TX, Gresham OR, Eugene OR, Portland OR among others, and we work in countless locations invisibly.

Your thirty days expired yesterday We promised increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures. Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti Eventually your insurance companies and your financial backers will realize you are a bad investment.

At least 67 pregnancy resource centers have been attacked since the Dobbs opinion leaked in May, according to CatholicVote.org.

Janes Revenge is emboldened by the inaction of our governor, our attorney general, and our majority Democrat legislature, said New York state Sen. George Borrello, a Republican, at the CompassCare centers defiant reopening on Aug. 1. Someone has to die before the progressives think its violence.

CompassCare detailed how slowly local and federal authorities are investigating the June 7 pregnancy center firebombing in Amherst, a Buffalo suburb. Amherst police that day confiscated the centers computers containing its security footage.

On July 13, more than a month later, they asked the center to sign a release allowing them to share a copy of the security footage with the FBI for forensic analysis. A center executive did so the same day. CompassCare CEO Jim Harden met with police on July 14 to view several printed screen grabs of the footage, but police refused to let him view the security footage itself.

Police didnt make their first public statement on the investigations progress until Aug. 1, nearly two months after the attack. Harden met with the FBI agent assigned to the case on Aug. 17. The agent told him the agency was considering but had not yet begun a height analysis on a suspect captured on video. On Aug. 19, Amherst police once more refused to return CompassCares security footage.

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Anti-Abortion Groups Ask State Attorneys General to Protect Them From Online Censorship - The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump called on Congress to investigate the anti-American practice of censorship rampant across Americas corporations and big tech platforms.

Trumps comments came during Turning Point USAs Student Action Summit on Saturday in Tampa, Florida.Trump said:

But Ill talk about the next critical fight we need is for your energy to be put behind the battle to restore free speech in America. There is no such thing as a democracy that does not have free speech. We dont have free speech anymore. We have canceled culture we have fake news media that reports certain news incorrectly.

He also called out corporate media for its biased coverage of political issues and for being partners with the Democrats:

And if its positive about the other side, they make it much better and if its bad about the other side, they wont even report it. We saw that in the election where they wouldnt report bad news about the other side. Its a disgrace. The media has taken a place in our culture and our history that nobody ever thought would be possible. They are no longer respected.

Trump warned that if censorship continues to grow across the country, America will turn into Venezuela on steroids. He said:

If debate can be silenced, if dissent can be suppressed. If conservative ideas can be systematically shut down, then very simply, we do not have a free country anymor. Thats what happened with communism and various countries. Thats what happened with Venezuela.

Trump added that the next congress and the next president have a civic duty to be ruthless in going after this new censorship regime.

We have to, because if we do not destroy censorship, censorship will destroy America. Our country will rot from the corruption confusion, he urged.

As soon as we have the power. Congress should immediately launch a full scale investigation into the rise of totally anti American practice, Trump declared.

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Trump Calls for Investigation into Anti-American Censorship

As the new school year kicks off or is already in progress in many places its worth taking a look at the states which have enacted laws that ban books. This guide is not comprehensive, but gives an overview of the legislation currently on the books that will impact how teachers and librarians select and share reading material in classrooms and libraries.

Before diving it, it is worth noting these are all red states. It is a popular and unhelpful narrative to simply write off these laws because of where they are being enacted. In many of these states, there is significant disenfranchisement of voters in addition to laws which make voting harder than it needs to be; this ensures a certain political persuasion remains in power. These systemic barriers to voting are the same ones which need to be considered in arguments that the people who cant get these books from libraries thanks to these laws can just get them at the bookstore. We are in the business of dismantling hurdles, not leaving them where they are.

Further, as weve seen through these censorship roundups over the past year+, it does not matter where or how book bans begin. They trickle through each and every state in varying degrees, and what you see here could become models for future legislation elsewhere. Finally, writing off certain states does not help in ending book bans. Everyone, regardless of political affiliation or state of residence, deserves the right to access books, reading material, and information they want to. Fighting fire with fire helps no one.

Note that this list is not comprehensive. Ive pulled out some of the biggest laws in several states that are having an immediate impact and that will likely influence further legislation within and beyond their jurisdictions.

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Florida

At least two bills in Florida are allowing for sweeping changes to books in schools and libraries. The first, House Bill 1467, gives more space for parental input and feedback on books and materials used in schools, including listing all the titles in classrooms and libraries. Oversight in approving materials now must go through several hoops, creating a tremendous backlog in acquiring and using new, up-to-date, and timely material.

Floridas House Bill 1557, known as the Parental Rights in Education Bill or the Dont Say Gay bill, curtails discussion of gender or sexual identity in public schools. The bill, purposefully vague, has created a chilling effect on what materials may or may not be used or discussed in schools and school libraries.

Missouri

Effective this school year is Senate Bill 775 which limits reading materials in schools, public or private. Books deemed sexually explicit are illegal. Those who make them available will be charged with a class A misdemeanor, which could lead to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Oklahoma

House Bill 1775, which bans Critical Race Theory from classrooms, has been used not only to remove books by and about people of color from classrooms, but is creating loopholes for politicians to seek the removal of queer books as well. While OklahomasSenate Bill 1142never made it past the Senate, it has created a flurry of fear among educators; that bill threatened that parents who disliked a book could file a complaint and were the complaint not addressed within 30 days, there could be a $10,000 per day penalty.

Effective in November, House Bill 3702 will deeply impact the access students (and adults) have to online databases, including those which house ebooks. The bill says any vendor who is unable to certify they do not allow access to obscene materials or pornography cannot be licensed; public schools and public libraries would need to annually report to the state about compliance. Of course, the lack of specificity in the bill means that any complaint could mean revoking access to information for anyone who uses such databases.

Tennessee

If you have not yet seen the above viral TikTok of a Tennessee teacher in her classroom during unpaid time, you should. This is an example of how new educational laws are harming not just students, but educators who are preparing for the new year.

The Senate Bill 2407/House Bill 2154 is what the above teacher is referencing, wherein it is now required all teachers have a full catalog of every book available in their classrooms for parents to access. Teachers need to give those lists to their school librarian who will then compare those to approved and unapproved materials lists created bysomeoneto determine whether or not theyre appropriate for the classroom. The bill suggests that someone is a board of education, but even that is not entirely clear. What is clear is those boards are being impacted by right-wing interests eager to pursue their own agendas, rather than putting whats best for students and educators at the forefront (Related, Tennessee is the same state that plans on appointing public library boards through local politicians, further undermining professional knowledge, judgment, and ethics from those working in schools and libraries).

Senate Bill 2292 redefines obscene materials, ensuring that anything deemed obscene may be removed from educational institutions. This means anything that was once seen as educational is no longer considered educational if it meets the flimsy and unclear definition of obscene or pornography. It includes provisions that follow those in Oklahoma which will change access to online materials including databases and ebooks if any material contained within them are inappropriate.

Texas

Texas has been among the quickest to make creative interpretations of obscenity and has been a leader in pushing for book bans. Matt Krauses infamous request that schools remove over 850 books was followed quickly by the Texas Education Associations draft for collection development that creates space for parental input in books across the state. Now, as current Governor Greg Abbott pushes to keep his role as governor, hes unveiled a proposal for stronger parental rights across the state. It has not yet been put to the legislature, but it is part of his campaign. You can see the entire proposal here; it would give parents far more rights to determine what is an is not appropriate in schools and libraries and would certainly mimic Floridas Dont Say Gay bill.

Utah

House Bill 374, known as the Sensitive Materials in Schools bill, prohibits sensitive material in schools. The bill allows the states Attorney General to instruct education workers about what is and is not sensitive material and provides a mechanism for parents to file formal complaints about school material. The Attorney Generals guidance on this bill has been updated twice, and the most recent guidelines tells districts they need to remove material deemed sexually explicit and/or pornography (defined by nebulous state statutes) immediately.

You have the ability to track similar bills in your own state in at least two ways. The first is to subscribe to the newsletters and social media accounts of your local state representatives and the second is to do periodic searches of House and Senate bills in your state.

To search for bills in your own state, head to your state legislative tracker. It is called something different everywhere. In Illinois, for example, its the Illinois General Assembly website. This gives status updates of all legislation from introduction and first readings through it being enacted or vetoed, and its possible to search by bill number or keyword. You can also use a source like OpenStates to search for legislation in your state, as well as to seek out your local representatives.

Once you find where updates on legislation live, then you want to do a periodic search of several keywords. I would recommend doing these monthly if your state is not currently moving a bill through as fast as possible (the above states, for example, might be worth searching more frequently). Among some of the key words to search:

This will get you most of the bills being discussed. Obviously, this is not comprehensive, but if you pull words or phrases from the above-listed bills and/or through the news pieces you read about censorship, youll be able to add to this list. If your state has the option to peruse the legislative committees, look through the education committees work. This gives you both a sense of whats being worked on and will help you find further key words to search.

If you see a bill that, as you read, is clearly a censorship bill, this is when you write a letter to your representative in opposition. There are templates you can use, though writing from your heart as someone who believes in access to books for all is more than enough. In some states, when a bill is being voted on, you may be able to submit a witness slip (your approval or opposition).

You might also be able to find state-based groups tracking legislation related to censorship and education. In Illinois, for example, the Witness Slip Facebook group which is public is a tremendous resource for staying abreast of whats happening.

First, this week, Fox News posted the three-step action plan for parents in the coming school year. Ive tweeted the screen shots and am embedding below. I share this as context to what you should anticipate seeing in book censorship news for the next few months (at least). Its a reminder to anyone working in public education or libraries to not share anything in writing you do not want pulled through a Freedom of Information Request Act.

This week, I was a guest on PBSs News Hour, talking about book censorship and why school board elections are a big deal. You can watch the 7 minute segment here.

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States That Have Enacted Book Ban Laws: Book Censorship News, August 26, 2022 - Book Riot

In my earlier Times Argus commentary July 27, I criticized Publisher Steve Pappas for holding back on publishing many articles from the New York Post in October 2020, which exposed salacious and incriminating information found on Hunter Bidens laptop (clearly implicating President Joe Bidens deep corruption). This story was buried yet, for almost more than the five years prior to that, Publisher Pappas chose to publish numerous AP stories incriminating Donald Trump. These stories were all leaked sources from the DOJ, FBI (incidentally, which is a crime), and from people not authorized to speak to the press and those who demanded anonymity. But the press ran with those leaked stories and continued the narrative Donald Trump was a Russian agent. We got him this time. Where did those years of incriminating, false stories end up? We read little about that in the Times Argus. After all, the mainstream media did not want to admit they were wrong.

Why was that? In my opinion, the government was never able to convict Trump after all the years of Russia, Russia, Russia because there was not enough proof (worthy of impeachment and indictment) and the media could never admit to their loyal readers they got this story so wrong. After all, losing credibility from your readers could have serious consequences for their financial viability.

So where are we now with the raid on Mar-a-Lago? Agree with Donald Trump or have a visceral hatred, we are now in a very similar media frenzy with this event even before anyone really knows the facts. Sound familiar? It is apparent the Department of Justice and Merrick Garland (by extension) are feeding information to the media and by doing so, are creating provocations which all are going to have the effect of damaging an already wounded DOJ and trust in the FBI. Perhaps, more importantly, American opinion of equal justice under the law will continue to erode. If you dont believe this, read all persuasions.

This DOJ behavior is questionable and the legal basis for raiding a past presidents home remains to be determined. Lets wait and see. We currently have a sewer of leaks without regard to fairness and are only two weeks into this event. Our government currently feels emboldened they can control the narrative through leaks to the media. They have obviously leaked information to the Washington Post and New York Times, a reminder of how they approached the Russia hoax: same game plan, drip, drip, drip. Intelligent, aware American citizens (and Times Argus readers) should understand this with open minds and eyes wide open. Failure to do so make haters giddy but, remember, what goes around, comes around.

Interestingly, Dave Gram (worked in Vermont journalism for 35 years) excoriated me in his Aug. 2 commentary by saying I was wrong for criticizing Publisher Pappas and said Newspaper investigations often take years to develop into publishable stories.

How is it, Gram, that Publisher Pappas can print an AP story about the Mar-a-Lago raid less than two weeks after it happened and at the end of this -page story, which said after prosecutors interviewed another witness who told them that there were likely additional classified documents still stored at Mar-a-Lago, the person said. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Dave Spaulding lives in Montpelier.

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Spaulding: Censorship at the top? | Commentary | rutlandherald.com - Rutland Herald

The alternative union movement, the Australian Medical Professionals Society (AMPS), will be organising one of the largest formal conferences to discuss the consequences of the lockdown policies on the medical profession in the country.

AMPS is part of Red Union, an umbrella organisation for several newly established trade unions servicing teachers, nurses, police officers, and doctors. Red Union was founded in response to the actions of traditional union groups during the pandemic, who mostly cooperated with state-backed vaccine mandates.

The Reclaiming Medicine conference on Sept. 10, 2022, at theAmora Hotel Riverwalk in Melbourne will feature notable speakers, including author Naomi Wolf, who wrote The Bodies of Others: The New Authoritarians, COVID-19 and the War Against the Human, and Amy Kelly, program director for the War Room/DailyClout Pfizer Documents Analysis Project.

Local experts will also be speaking, including economist Gigi Foster, who will present her cost-benefit analysis of lockdown policies, and Dr. Pierre Kory, the worlds foremost expert on using ultrasound to diagnose critically ill patients and is alsothe former chief of the Critical Care Service and Trauma and Life Support Center at the University of Wisconsin.

AMPS believes the current range of medical, medicolegal and medico-political issues brought about by the pandemic requires a greater breadth of discussion, the organisers said on its website, adding that many medical professionals felt silenced during the pandemic and were forced into abiding by the official narrative around COVID-19.

In the name of medicine, and towards maintaining a uniform official narrative, we saw unprecedented censorship of scientific debate and respectful discourse from social media providers.

In the name of medicine, medical journals published articles stating that questioning a viable hypothesis was a conspiracy theory, the group said.

AMPS said the conference would be one of the first to deal with these issues publicly.

Australian authorities have been strict in enforcing compliance around following COVID-19-related science.

TheAustralian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is the countrys peak accreditation body for health practitioners, which works with 15 other government bodies (National Boards) responsible for professions such as nurses or pharmacists.

AHPRA has taken steps to warn and suspend medical practitioners who have taken a public stance (even via social media posts) that criticised lockdown policies and the efficacy of vaccines.

Lawyer Peter Fam, who will also appear at the Reclaiming Medicine conference, said he had spoken with hundreds of doctors who were very terrified of contradicting the official COVID-19 narrative.

Generally speaking, theres only a couple of them who are willing to publicly share any of the things they share in those spaces, the Sydney-based lawyer previously told The Epoch Times.

Learn more about Reclaiming Medicineathttps://cis.eventsair.com/amps-conference-2022

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Daniel Y. Teng is based in Sydney. He focuses on national affairs including federal politics, COVID-19 response, and Australia-China relations. Got a tip? Contact him at daniel.teng@epochtimes.com.au.

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'Reclaiming Medicine': Alternative Doctors' Union to Host Conference on COVID-19 Censorship - The Epoch Times