Massachusetts Democratic AG rejects petition to protect infants born alive, calling it 'highly ambiguous' and 'impossible' for voters to understand



The office of Massachusetts Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey formally rejected this week a voter petition seeking to guarantee medical treatment to infants born alive after botched abortion procedures, calling the proposal "highly ambiguous" and arguing that it's "impossible to determine" its meaning.

What are the details?

The petition would have allowed Massachusetts residents the chance to amend state law to require that "if a child is born alive, all reasonable steps, in keeping with good medical practice, shall be taken to preserve the life of the child born alive."

But in a declination letter sent on Wednesday, Healey's deputy chief, Anne Sterman, announced the attorney general was unable to certify the measure as in "proper form for submission to the people" as required by state law.

"The proposed law contains several highly ambiguous provisions, which make it impossible for us to determine, and inform potential voters of, the meaning and effect of the proposed law," Sterman wrote, going on to nitpick the proposal's language with peculiar intensity.

"Specifically, the proposed law does not define 'a child born alive' or what is required to 'preserve the life of a child born alive,' nor does it specify what 'reasonable steps' must be taken or who 'shall' take them," she added. "These ambiguities make it impossible for a voter to know what 'general rule of conduct' is proscribed by this proposed law."

"Considering the commissions and unresolvable ambiguities described above, we cannot determine with certainty what the proposed law means or would do," she concluded.

What else?

In a press release issued Wednesday, the Massachusetts Republican Party slammed Healey's decision.

Massachusetts Newborn Protection Coalition Chairwoman Bernadette Lyons, who filed the petition, said in a statement that Healey's response is "an insult to the intelligence of Massachusetts voters that they cannot comprehend what a child born alive is."

"There's nothing at all ambiguous about any of this," she argued. "How is a legal guarantee to provide life-saving medical care for babies born alive ambiguous? It cannot get any clearer than that."

Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons added that there's "absolutely no question" that the attorney general's past involvement with the abortion industry played a role in her decision.

"The attorney general's failure to put her political views aside constitutes a dereliction of her duty," he charged, adding her rejection of the ballot initiative serves as clear evidence that she is an "extension of NARAL and Planned Parenthood."

The press release included a list of campaign donations made to Healey by NARAL and Planned Parenthood amounting to nearly $10,000 since 2014.

Healey has also campaigned for abortion rights, appearing in a video with progressive lawmakers such as Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Democratic city council members Michelle Wu and Lydia Edward to promote the Act to Remove Obstacles and Expand Abortion Access.

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Facebook purging any content containing phrase 'stop the steal'



Facebook announced Monday that it will now remove any content from its platform that includes the phrase "stop the steal" as part of its enhanced enforcement following last week's siege on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

What are the details?

"We are now removing content containing the phrase 'stop the steal' under our Coordinating Harm policy from Facebook and Instagram," the company declared in a statement. "We removed the original Stop the Steal group in November and have continued to remove Pages, groups and events that violate any of our policies, including calls for violence."

The social media platform, founded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, went on to explain:

We've been allowing robust conversations related to the election outcome and that will continue. But with continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the US presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the term by those involved in Wednesday's violence in DC, we're taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration. It may take some time to scale up our enforcement of this new step but we have already moved a significant number of posts.

Facebook's latest measure is part of an ongoing, coordinated crackdown by major social media outlets against President Donald Trump and his assertions that the presidential election was stolen for President-elect Joe Biden.

Following the storming of the Capitol after a massive rally hosted by Trump, the president was banned for life from Twitter and suspended indefinitely from Facebook, Instagram, and other online platforms amid accusations that he incited the violence that left six of his supporters — including a Capitol Police officer — dead.

What about Twitter?

Also on Monday, Twitter announced "some of the steps" the company had taken since last week "to protect the conversation" following the attack that occurred last Wednesday.

"Given the violent events in Washington, DC, and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon," Twitter said in a statement. "Many of the individuals impacted by this updated enforcement action held multiple accounts, driving up the total numbers of accounts impacted."

Twitter explained further:

Since Friday, more than 70,000 accounts have been suspended as a result of our efforts, with many instances of a single individual operating numerous accounts. These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service.

As countless conservative Twitter users complained over the weekend that they were losing a significant amount of followers, Twitter had put out a statement saying that "in order to prevent spam, we regularly challenge accounts to confirm details like email and phone number. Until that info is confirmed, these accounts aren't included in follower counts."

Why lie two days ago? https://t.co/KmcyuRiH3l
— LB (@LB)1610418831.0