Latest news with #StudentsforLife
Miami Herald
23-05-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
Groups on either side of abortion divide flock to brain-dead Georgia woman's cause
ATLANTA - A little more than a week ago, Georgia made international news when reports were first shared about a 30-year-old pregnant woman who her family said was being kept on life support to comply with the state's abortion law. Since then, there's been an outpouring of support for Adriana Smith from across the state and country, with vigils being planned and online fundraisers being held in her name. Now the family has clarified they intend to keep her on life support until the baby is born. Smith, a registered nurse and mother of one, was declared brain-dead in February and placed on life support. The day she went to the hospital, her boyfriend found her gasping for air and making gargling sounds in her sleep, according to 11Alive, which first reported the news. April Newkirk, Smith's mother, told the television station that Smith was nine weeks pregnant at the time. Although she is legally dead, Smith has remained on life support since to facilitate the growth of the fetus, which is now about 22 weeks into gestation. Newkirk originally told 11Alive last week that doctors said Smith had to remain on life support because of Georgia's abortion laws. In a second 11Alive interview that aired on Monday, Newkirk clarified that the family only considered terminating the pregnancy if it would have saved Smith's life. Doctors told her it would not, so Smith remained on life support to allow her body to continue to grow the fetus, whom the family has named Chance. Newkirk has declined requests to be interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Right now, the journey is for baby Chance to survive - and whatever condition God allows him to come here in, we're going to love him just the same," she told 11Alive on Monday. Since news of Smith's situation made its way to national and then international news, groups on both sides of the abortion debate have taken steps to raise awareness about Georgia's laws and, in some instances, raise money for the family. Newkirk had expressed concern over the expense of keeping her daughter on life support until at least early August, when doctors plan to perform a cesarean section. It's also unknown if her grandson will be born with any disabilities, so money raised would also be used for his care. This week, Students for Life announced its goal to raise $100,000 for the family to cover medical expenses. Kristan Hawkins, president of the Virginia-based organization, said news of Smith's condition and her family's concern about medical costs gave Students for Life an opportunity to put their "thoughts into action." "It's really important for us as a movement, when these tragedies happen, to show America what it is that the pro-life movement is about, and it's about protecting both the child and the mother from the violence of abortion," Hawkins said. They plan to make a direct donation to the hospital to pay for Smith's care and any care her son may need after birth. Newkirk started her own online fundraiser, which by Thursday had raised $105,000 of its $250,000 goal since it was created a week ago. Abortion rights activists say they are waiting until they can speak with Smith's family to determine how best to help before launching any efforts, such as a fundraiser. In the meantime, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, an abortion rights group, plans to build a "Trust Black Women" altar in Smith's honor. Smith had gone to a different hospital the day before, complaining of severe headaches. Newkirk said her daughter was sent home with medication, according to 11Alive. "Today, we speak Adriana Smith's name with reverence and with rage," said Danielle Rodriguez, Georgia program coordinator at SisterSong. "Adriana was a mother, a daughter, a nurse, a Black woman who understood her body and tried to save her own life. Her voice was not enough, her knowledge was not enough, her humanity was not enough." Georgia law bans most abortions after medical professionals can detect fetal cardiac activity, which is typically around six weeks of pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant. Later abortions are allowed in limited cases, such as if there is a fetal abnormality or if the life of the mother is at risk. There also are exceptions in instances of rape or incest when a police report has been filed. For years, abortion rights advocates and providers have said Georgia's law is unclear because much of the language used is not in medical terms. For example, the law says abortions may occur if the mother is experiencing a "medical emergency," but doctors say that's difficult to interpret because there is no bright line between a person being fine and at risk of death. In a statement, hospital representatives said federal privacy laws block them from commenting about individual patients. "Emory Healthcare uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws," the hospital said in the statement. "Our top priorities continue to be the safety and well-being of the patients we serve." A statement from Attorney General Chris Carr's office said the abortion law does not require Emory Hospital to keep Smith's body alive. "There is nothing in the (abortion law) that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death. Removing life support is not an action with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy," Carr's spokesperson, Kara Murray, said in the statement. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Marchers gather for 48th annual Erie March for Life
The 48th annual Erie March for Life took place in downtown Erie Saturday morning. Marchers told us they gathered to be a voice for those human beings yet to be born and for their mothers. Gov. Shapiro's budget proposal addresses funding for childcare workers Multiple guest speakers, including Gannon University's Students for Life president, were in attendance. The march began at Perry Square, then proceeded west on 6th Street, south on Sassafras, east on 10th Street and north on State Street. Erie faithful gather for mass with Bishop Persico honoring Pope Francis The executive director said there is always a reason to choose life. 'Help is available, there are people to talk to. Get all sides of the story before you act. Our main message to the general public this is something that consumes all of us and all of us as a nation, as a state, as a community,' said Tim Broderick, executive director of People for Life. The theme of this year's march is 'live and let them live.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
13-04-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Faction of ‘abolitionists' wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges
WASHINGTON — As Kristan Hawkins, president of the national antiabortion group Students for Life, tours college campuses, she has grown accustomed to counterprotests from abortion rights activists. But more recently, fellow abortion opponents, who call themselves abortion 'abolitionists,' are showing up to her booths with signs, often screaming 'baby killer' at her while she speaks with students. Hawkins has had to send alerts to donors asking them to help pay for increased security. 'I'm pretty sure they protest me more than they protest Planned Parenthood,' Hawkins said. 'Believe it or not, I now know the price of a bomb dog.' Hawkins' encounters, which she related during an interview with the Associated Press, are just one example of what many people involved in the abortion debate have described as the widening influence of a movement that seeks to outlaw all abortions and enforce the ban with criminal prosecution of any women who have abortions. The movement began gaining momentum after the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade and has accelerated since Republicans won the White House and both houses of Congress in last year's election. The movement's impact also is beginning to show up in statehouses around the country. Mainstream antiabortion groups have largely shied away from legislation that would punish women for having abortions, but abortion 'abolitionists' believe the procedure should be considered homicide and punished with the full force of the law. In many states, they have been advocating for legislation to do just that. Mainstream antiabortion groups have tried to play down any divisions and instead, at various rallies this spring, have emphasized their unity behind other goals, such as defunding Planned Parenthood. Experts say the abortion 'abolitionist' movement, once considered fringe, is growing and getting louder, empowered by recent victories for abortion opponents. 'With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, now states can pass the most severe abortion bans, which has galvanized the antiabortion movement as a whole, including this part of it,' said Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. 'Certainly the fall of Roe has brought abortion 'abolitionists' one step closer to what they want — banning abortion nationwide.' In February, Hawkins posted on X saying, 'The people I fear getting shot by, most of the time,' are not abortion rights activists but abortion 'abolitionists.' Then came the replies: 'Demon,' 'Ungodly,' 'An accessory to murder,' 'Enemy of God.' Her post opened a fire hose of online barbs. Some called for her to resign and asserted that women should not have roles outside the home, let alone leading national antiabortion groups. Some conservative podcasts and online figures have hosted abortion 'abolitionists' or echoed similar disdain for the larger antiabortion movement. Ben Zeisloft, a podcaster for TheoBros, a network of Christian nationalist influencers, blamed feminism for abortion and said, 'We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion.' The comments reflect a broader uptick in misogynistic rhetoric and align with the religious doctrines motivating many in the abortion 'abolitionist' movement, said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn. She said members of the movement have been emboldened by the overturning of Roe, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion for nearly half a century, and recent actions by President Trump. Those actions include pausing some family planning grants pending investigations, pardoning antiabortion activists who blockaded clinics and signing an executive order that uses fetal personhood language similar to verbiage in state laws declaring that a fetus should have the same legal rights as a person. The laws are supported by both abortion 'abolitionists' and mainstream antiabortion groups. Trump's rhetoric on abortion has been mixed. In 2016, he backtracked after saying during his campaign there should be 'some form of punishment' for women who have abortions. He has recently pledged to protect in vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment that has been threatened by fetal personhood laws. Still, several experts said many state lawmakers have taken Trump's return to the White House as a green light to pursue more aggressive antiabortion policies. So far this year, bills introduced in at least 12 states — Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — would allow prosecutors to charge those who have abortions with homicide. In some of those states, women could be subject to the death penalty if the bills were to become law. Most of those states already ban abortions in most cases, but the restrictions have typically penalized providers rather than those seeking the procedure. This last week, Alabama lawmakers filed legislation that would consider abortion to be murder. In Georgia last month, protesters massed at the Capitol to oppose legislation that would classify abortions from the point of fertilization as homicide. The bill had nearly two dozen Republican co-sponsors. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans opposed laws making it a crime for women who get abortions that would result in either fines or prison time, according to a KFF poll conducted in September 2022, a few months after the Roe ruling. Dana Sussman, senior vice president at Pregnancy Justice, which tracks this type of legislation, said she is seeing more of those bills than ever. She said it was a 'remarkable increase' and a sign that the rhetoric of supporters is having an impact. In 2022, when one such bill passed a Louisiana state House subcommittee, it sparked national outcry, she said. That's no longer the case. 'Now, because they are normalizing this idea, what was shocking then is no longer shocking,' Sussman said. Dusty Deevers, a Republican state senator who co-sponsored the bill in Oklahoma, said he ran his campaign on a platform of abolishing abortion. He said he feels a sense of duty to his constituents and his Christian faith to pursue this type of legislation. The bill died in Oklahoma after some local antiabortion organizations spoke out against it. Deevers, who also has advocated against contraception, expressed frustration with mainstream antiabortion groups. 'Politics and compromise have corrupted their mission,' he said, adding that he was encouraged that his bill received a hearing. 'This is how change happens. When we're dealing with controversial issues, change may not happen quickly. … It's not the result we wanted, but it is progress.' The North Dakota Legislature voted down a similar bill after a staff member from the national antiabortion group SBA Pro-Life America testified against it and read from a 2022 letter signed by more than 70 national and state antiabortion groups that urged state lawmakers not to pass bills punishing women for abortions. 'We're all trying to get to the same goal,' said North Dakota Rep. Matt Ruby. 'I think there are some 'abolitionists' who've forgotten that and, in their anger, are trying to tear other organizations down. But that does nothing for the movement.' Hawkins, from Students for Life, said there are three camps within the antiabortion movement: one that seeks to prosecute abortion patients, one that would never want to prosecute patients, and one somewhere in between. The in-between group opposes prosecution now but acknowledges that this might change as 'culture and laws shift.' Hawkins said she is in the third category, while maintaining that abortion 'abolitionists' today are not representative of the broader antiabortion movement. 'If you want more pro-abortion Democrats to win future elections, then keep talking about putting women in jail, by all means,' Hawkins said. Fernando writes for the Associated Press.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
An emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Kristan Hawkins, president of the national anti-abortion group Students for Life, tours college campuses, she has grown accustomed to counterprotests from abortion rights activists. But more recently, fellow abortion opponents, who call themselves abortion abolitionists, are showing up to her booths with signs, often screaming 'baby killer' at her while she speaks with students. Hawkins has had to send alerts to donors asking them to help pay for increased security. 'I'm pretty sure they protest me more than they protest Planned Parenthood,' Hawkins said. 'Believe it or not, I now know the price of a bomb dog." Hawkins' encounters, which she related during an interview with The Associated Press, are just one example of what many people involved in the abortion debate have described as the widening influence of a movement that seeks to outlaw all abortions and enforce the ban with criminal prosecution of any women who have abortions. It began gaining momentum after the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling overturning Roe v Wade and has accelerated since Republicans won full political control in Washington in last year's elections. The movement's impact also is beginning to show up in statehouses around the country. Mainstream anti-abortion groups have largely shied away from legislation that would punish women for having abortions, but abortion abolitionists believe abortion should be considered homicide and punished with the full force of the law. In many states, they have been advocating for legislation to do just that. A split within the anti-abortion movement Mainstream anti-abortion groups have tried to play down any divisions and instead, at various rallies this spring, have emphasized their unity behind other goals, such as defunding Planned Parenthood. Experts say the abortion abolitionist movement, once considered fringe, is growing and getting louder, empowered by recent victories for abortion opponents. 'With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, now states can pass the most severe abortion bans, which has galvanized the anti-abortion movement as a whole, including this part of it,' said Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. 'Certainly the fall of Roe has brought abortion abolitionists one step closer to what they want – banning abortion nationwide.' In February, Hawkins posted on X, saying 'the people I fear getting shot by, most of the time,' are not abortion rights activists but abortion abolitionists. Then came the replies: 'Demon,' 'Ungodly,' 'An accessory to murder," "Enemy of God." Her post opened a fire hose of online barbs from abortion abolitionists. Some called for her to resign and asserted that women should not have roles outside the home, let alone leading national anti-abortion groups. Some conservative podcasts and online figures have hosted abortion abolitionists or echoed similar disdain for the larger anti-abortion movement. Ben Zeisloft, a podcaster for TheoBros, a network of Christian nationalist influencers, blamed feminism for abortion and said, 'We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion.' The comments reflect a broader uptick in misogynistic rhetoric and align with the religious doctrines motivating many in the abortion abolitionist movement, said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. She said members of the movement have been emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion for half a century, and recent actions by Republican President Donald Trump. More state bills seek to criminalize women who get abortions Those actions include pausing some family planning grants pending investigations, pardoning anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinics and signing an executive order that uses fetal personhood language similar to verbiage in state laws declaring that a fetus should have the same legal rights as a person. The laws are supported by both abortion abolitionists and mainstream anti-abortion groups. Trump's rhetoric on abortion has been mixed. In 2016, he backtracked after saying there should be 'some form of punishment' for women who have abortions. He has recently pledged to protect in vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment that has been threatened by fetal personhood laws. Still, several experts said many state lawmakers have taken Trump's return to the White House as a green light to pursue more aggressive anti-abortion policies. So far this year, bills introduced in at least 12 states – Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas – would allow prosecutors to charge those who have abortions with homicide. In some of those states, women could be subject to the death penalty if the bills were to become law. Most of those states already ban abortions in most cases, but the restrictions have typically penalized providers, rather than those seeking the procedure. This past week, Alabama lawmakers filed legislation that would consider abortion as murder. In Georgia last month, protesters massed at the Capitol to oppose legislation that would classify abortions from the point of fertilization as homicide. The bill had nearly two dozen Republican co-sponsors. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans opposed laws making it a crime for women who get abortions that would result in either fines or prison time, according to a KFF poll conducted in September 2022, a few months after the Roe ruling. Dana Sussman, senior vice president at Pregnancy Justice, which tracks this type of legislation, said she is seeing more of those bills than ever before. Sussman said it was a 'remarkable increase' and a sign that the rhetoric of abortion abolitionists is having an impact. In 2022, when one such bill passed a Louisiana state House subcommittee, it sparked national outcry, she said. That's no longer the case. 'Now, because they are normalizing this idea, what was shocking then is no longer shocking,' Sussman said. 'This is how change happens' Dusty Deevers, a Republican state senator who co-sponsored the bill in Oklahoma, said he ran his campaign on a platform of abolishing abortion. He said he feels a sense of duty to his constituents and his Christian faith to pursue this type of legislation. The bill died in Oklahoma after some local anti-abortion organizations spoke out against it. Deevers, who also has advocated against contraception, expressed frustration with mainstream anti-abortion groups. "Politics and compromise have corrupted their mission,' he said, adding that he was encouraged that his bill received a hearing. 'This is how change happens. When we're dealing with controversial issues, change may not happen quickly … It's not the result we wanted, but it is progress.' The North Dakota Legislature voted down a similar bill after a staff member from the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America testified against it and read from a 2022 letter signed by more than 70 national and state anti-abortion groups that urged state lawmakers not to pass bills criminalizing women for abortions. 'We're all trying to get to the same goal,' said North Dakota Rep. Matt Ruby. 'I think there are some abolitionists who've forgotten that and, in their anger, are trying to tear other organizations down. But that does nothing for the movement.' Hawkins, from Students for Life, said there are three camps within the anti-abortion movement: one that seeks to prosecute abortion patients, one that would never want to prosecute patients and one somewhere in between. The in-between group opposes prosecution now but acknowledges that this might change as 'culture and laws shift.' Hawkins said she is in the third category, while maintaining that abortion abolitionists today are not representative of the broader anti-abortion movement. 'If you want more pro-abortion Democrats to win future elections, then keep talking about putting women in jail, by all means,' Hawkins said. ___ The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP's democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
An emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Kristan Hawkins, president of the national anti-abortion group Students for Life, tours college campuses, she has grown accustomed to counterprotests from abortion rights activists. But more recently, fellow abortion opponents, who call themselves abortion abolitionists, are showing up to her booths with signs, often screaming 'baby killer' at her while she speaks with students. Hawkins has had to send alerts to donors asking them to help pay for increased security. 'I'm pretty sure they protest me more than they protest Planned Parenthood,' Hawkins said. 'Believe it or not, I now know the price of a bomb dog.' Hawkins' encounters, which she related during an interview with The Associated Press, are just one example of what many people involved in the abortion debate have described as the widening influence of a movement that seeks to outlaw all abortions and enforce the ban with criminal prosecution of any women who have abortions. It began gaining momentum after the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling overturning Roe v Wade and has accelerated since Republicans won full political control in Washington in last year's elections. The movement's impact also is beginning to show up in statehouses around the country. Mainstream anti-abortion groups have largely shied away from legislation that would punish women for having abortions, but abortion abolitionists believe abortion should be considered homicide and punished with the full force of the law. In many states, they have been advocating for legislation to do just that. A split within the anti-abortion movement Mainstream anti-abortion groups have tried to play down any divisions and instead, at various rallies this spring, have emphasized their unity behind other goals, such as defunding Planned Parenthood. Experts say the abortion abolitionist movement, once considered fringe, is growing and getting louder, empowered by recent victories for abortion opponents. 'With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, now states can pass the most severe abortion bans, which has galvanized the anti-abortion movement as a whole, including this part of it,' said Rachel Rebouche, dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. 'Certainly the fall of Roe has brought abortion abolitionists one step closer to what they want – banning abortion nationwide.' In February, Hawkins posted on X, saying 'the people I fear getting shot by, most of the time,' are not abortion rights activists but abortion abolitionists. Then came the replies: 'Demon,' 'Ungodly,' 'An accessory to murder,' 'Enemy of God.' Her post opened a fire hose of online barbs from abortion abolitionists. Some called for her to resign and asserted that women should not have roles outside the home, let alone leading national anti-abortion groups. Some conservative podcasts and online figures have hosted abortion abolitionists or echoed similar disdain for the larger anti-abortion movement. Ben Zeisloft, a podcaster for TheoBros, a network of Christian nationalist influencers, blamed feminism for abortion and said, 'We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion.' The comments reflect a broader uptick in misogynistic rhetoric and align with the religious doctrines motivating many in the abortion abolitionist movement, said Laura Hermer, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. She said members of the movement have been emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion for half a century, and recent actions by Republican President Donald Trump. More state bills seek to criminalize women who get abortions Those actions include pausing some family planning grants pending investigations, pardoning anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinics and signing an executive order that uses fetal personhood language similar to verbiage in state laws declaring that a fetus should have the same legal rights as a person. The laws are supported by both abortion abolitionists and mainstream anti-abortion groups. Trump's rhetoric on abortion has been mixed. In 2016, he backtracked after saying there should be 'some form of punishment' for women who have abortions. He has recently pledged to protect in vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment that has been threatened by fetal personhood laws. Still, several experts said many state lawmakers have taken Trump's return to the White House as a green light to pursue more aggressive anti-abortion policies. So far this year, bills introduced in at least 12 states – Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas – would allow prosecutors to charge those who have abortions with homicide. In some of those states, women could be subject to the death penalty if the bills were to become law. Most of those states already ban abortions in most cases, but the restrictions have typically penalized providers, rather than those seeking the procedure. This past week, Alabama lawmakers filed legislation that would consider abortion as murder. In Georgia last month, protesters massed at the Capitol to oppose legislation that would classify abortions from the point of fertilization as homicide. The bill had nearly two dozen Republican co-sponsors. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans opposed laws making it a crime for women who get abortions that would result in either fines or prison time, according to a KFF poll conducted in September 2022, a few months after the Roe ruling. Dana Sussman, senior vice president at Pregnancy Justice, which tracks this type of legislation, said she is seeing more of those bills than ever before. Sussman said it was a 'remarkable increase' and a sign that the rhetoric of abortion abolitionists is having an impact. In 2022, when one such bill passed a Louisiana state House subcommittee, it sparked national outcry, she said. That's no longer the case. 'Now, because they are normalizing this idea, what was shocking then is no longer shocking,' Sussman said. 'This is how change happens' Dusty Deevers, a Republican state senator who co-sponsored the bill in Oklahoma, said he ran his campaign on a platform of abolishing abortion. He said he feels a sense of duty to his constituents and his Christian faith to pursue this type of legislation. The bill died in Oklahoma after some local anti-abortion organizations spoke out against it. Deevers, who also has advocated against contraception, expressed frustration with mainstream anti-abortion groups. 'Politics and compromise have corrupted their mission,' he said, adding that he was encouraged that his bill received a hearing. 'This is how change happens. When we're dealing with controversial issues, change may not happen quickly … It's not the result we wanted, but it is progress.' The North Dakota Legislature voted down a similar bill after a staff member from the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America testified against it and read from a 2022 letter signed by more than 70 national and state anti-abortion groups that urged state lawmakers not to pass bills criminalizing women for abortions. 'We're all trying to get to the same goal,' said North Dakota Rep. Matt Ruby. 'I think there are some abolitionists who've forgotten that and, in their anger, are trying to tear other organizations down. But that does nothing for the movement.' Hawkins, from Students for Life, said there are three camps within the anti-abortion movement: one that seeks to prosecute abortion patients, one that would never want to prosecute patients and one somewhere in between. The in-between group opposes prosecution now but acknowledges that this might change as 'culture and laws shift.' Hawkins said she is in the third category, while maintaining that abortion abolitionists today are not representative of the broader anti-abortion movement. 'If you want more pro-abortion Democrats to win future elections, then keep talking about putting women in jail, by all means,' Hawkins said. ___ The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP's democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
