University of Wisconsin Lets Student Government Deny Status and Funding to Pro-Life Group

Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Monday to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on behalf of a student organization that had been unconstitutionally denied official recognition by the school’s student government before an administrator intervened. The letter requests that the school modify its unconstitutional policies that authorized the student government to discriminate against the conservative group.

Earlier this fall, Emily Strangfeld along with other students organized a Turning Point USA chapter at UW-Stevens Point. TPUSA is a national organization whose mission is to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. Although the fledgling chapter satisfied the six application requirements for recognition, the school’s student senate voted to deny recognition without explanation. Although an administrator rightly reversed the student senate’s decision, the school’s underlying policies give the campus senate and the administrator unlimited authority to deny recognition, and thereby funding, to any group opposed by the student government.

continue at LifeSite

7th lawsuit filed against University of Wisconsin systems over flawed interpretation of church-state relationship

The University of Wisconsin seems to have a problem with free speech issues, especially when they intersect with religious faith.

That’s according to a legal organization that has had to sue the school seven times over alleged violations of the Constitution’s protection for free speech.

“Consider sharing this blog on social media to spread the word about the poor climate for free speech at the University of Wisconsin and to shed light on university policies that suppress free speech,” Sarah Kramer of the Alliance Defending Freedom wrote recently.

The latest case involves two students at the school’s Eau Claire branch “who are being denied credit for mandatory community service simply because their activities involved religion.”

The student, Alexandra Liebl, sought to obtain service-learning credit for the 30 hours she spent volunteering with a second-grade religious education class at a local Roman Catholic church.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/11/7th-lawsuit-filed-against-university-over-same-faith-fight/#HrP20ciW8fDLDVZW.99

This does seem like an odd one but if you go read the article UW Systems have lost these battles repeatedly all the way up to SCOTUS.

Public records request reveals University of Wisconsin and Planned Parenthood lied about baby parts

MADISON, Wis. – An Alliance Defending Freedom public records request has revealed that Planned Parenthood’s Wisconsin affiliate provided researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with the hearts and brains of unborn babies up to 18 weeks old and within five minutes of being aborted despite the fact that both UW and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin have denied any such exchange.

The revelation comes on the heels of the state Senate’s passage Wednesday of a bill that will significantly restrict tax funding for Planned Parenthood if the governor signs the measure, and comes in the midst of discussion in the Assembly on a bill that would ban research at UW on recently aborted babies.

“Planned Parenthood has once again demonstrated its willingness to cover up its role in the gruesome baby parts trade,” said ADF Senior Counsel Matt Bowman. “Both Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and UW-Madison publicly denied they had any arrangement to supply baby parts from women undergoing abortion to researchers conducting gruesome experiments, but the documents we obtained prove they were not telling the truth.”

News of the baby parts exchange between Planned Parenthood and UW first broke on the ADF “Freedom Matters” podcast last Friday. The documents ADF obtained through its state records request include forms and letters from the university and its researchers clearly indicating their arrangement with Planned Parenthood to obtain the baby parts, which were used in medical research that resulted in published studies on fetal hearts and fetal brains in 2014.

continue at Alliance

Also: Four University of Wisconsin Leaders who Advocate for Abortion

HT Pro-Life Wis

Bumbling Madison City Council Backtracks on Buffer Zone

via Pro-Life Wisconsin

Published in the Wisconsin State Journal on Thursday March 6 and set to go into effect on Friday March 7, the City of Madison buffer zone ordinance is now in a state of limbo.  The Madison Vigil for Life federal lawsuit, seeking an emergency injunction against the new law, was filed by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys the day after the Madison Common Council passed the ordinance on February 25.  Although a temporary restraining order was denied by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley, Alderwoman Lisa Subeck (the sponsor of the ordinance and former NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin director) filed a “motion for reconsideration” at the March 4th city council meeting.  This motion to reconsider, to be voted on at the March 18 council meeting, suspends the effect of the ordinance.

The City's "Buffer Zone" ordinance creates bubble areas 320-feet wide in diameter around every entrance of every building in Madison that happens to have a physician's office, clinic or hospital inside. In each bubble no person may "approach" within eight feet of another person to leaflet, educate, display a sign, protest or counsel passersby. The lawsuit alleges that offices used by physicians create bubbles around hundreds of locations, including the Student Government's office building on University and East Campus Mall, on State Street, on Capital Square, and on sidewalks outside UW campus' Medical Sciences buildings and the Wisconsin Primate Research Center.  According to Gwen Finnegan, director of Madison Vigil for Life, "No City can create a gag rule banning leafleting on miles of public sidewalks in places like campus, State Street and Capital Square, just to drive its brazen pro-abortion agenda against peaceful people who offer women compassionate choices outside of abortion facilities."

It is painfully clear that the Madison Common Council overreached with this massively broad ordinance that drowns the whole city in anti-free speech bubbles.  Alderwoman Subeck is obviously scaling back this ill-conceived law.  But as the City of Madison bumbles, pro-life sidewalk counselors can continue their lifesaving work unfettered by an unconstitutional restriction on free-speech.  We praise God for that!

Matt Bowman: Madison should respect free speech for faith

Imagine if Republican Gov. Scott Walker spearheaded a gag rule that banned teacher unions from approaching someone to “leaflet” or “educate” them on the public sidewalk within a block of the Square.

And imagine Gov. Walker justified his support for the law based on his belief the Capitol must be “a more comfortable place for people to approach,” and that a gag rule “balances” speech by banning “harassment” (defined as leafleting and education) all the way back to a visitor’s parking space or bus stop.

Madison would be enraged. The ACLU would file lawsuits, and every liberal group in the state would defend freedom of speech. Madison would again issue statements praising anyone who is “peacefully assembled to exercise democracy and First Amendment rights.” Except they would be hypocrites.

Madison is poised to enact this sort of gag rule on the speech of pro-life people who leaflet and educate outside abortion and health facilities. The proposal breezed through two committees last week.

The vanguards of freedom in Madison are not silent on this gag rule. They support it.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/guest/matt-bowman-madison-should-respect-free-speech-for-faith/article_325dc921-7d5a-5b5c-bf8e-e2a25014c70c.html#ixzz2takuoxrR

Go read it, he thumps them in his closing. 

HT MadCatHerald

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Pro-Life Wisconsin requests Attorney General to enforce law against UW Hospital funding of abortion training

From Pro-Life Wisconsin:

On behalf of Pro-Life Wisconsin, the Alliance Defense Fund filed a formal request on Tuesday, July 5, with the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office to confirm the illegality of and enforce the law against the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) Authority’s payment of physician-residents for abortion training at Planned Parenthood in Madison. The recently-signed state budget specifically applies current law restrictions on abortion funding to the UWHC Authority.

Our University of Wisconsin public entities should not be ground zero for training abortionists. Residents need to be instructed how to save, preserve and respect life, not how to kill preborn children at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the state's number-one abortion provider.

To view the letter to the Attorney General, click here.

Medical residents in the UW School of Medicine Ob/Gyn Department have two four-week rotations at Planned Parenthood, where they view and participate in abortions. To view the rotation schedule, click here. To view the signed contract between UW and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, click here.

Wisconsin law is crystal clear: No state agency can fund abortions. The UWHC Authority is a state agency, and it is not above the law. We look forward to Attorney General Van Hollen’s confirmation and enforcement of this critical law so that the UWHC does not stubbornly persist in their illegal and offensive abortion funding.

Laurel Rice, chair of the UWHC Authority's ob/gyn department, performs abortions at Planned Parenthood in Madison.

Background regarding UW Hospital and its ties to Planned Parenthood:

- In March 2010, an open records request done by Pro-Life Wisconsin and the Alliance Defense Fund revealed that UW Hospital was sending ob/gyn medical school residents to PPWI for abortion training.

- In April 2010, PLW and ADF filed a request for a legal opinion with the state of Wisconsin Attorney General’s office on whether it was legal for state taxpayer funds to be used to train future abortionists.

- In June 2010, the Attorney General’s office concurred that UW was violating state law and sent the matter on for a state funding audit.

- When the budget was being voted on, a budget provision was inserted defining UW Hospital as a state agency, effectively ending UW Hospital’s ability to send its residents over to PPWI.