- [Announcer] This is CBN Newswatch.
- And thank you so much for joining us
for this edition of CBN Newswatch.
I'm Efrem Graham.
The Supreme Court will not hear a case
involving states pushing to end funding
for Planned Parenthoodthrough Medicaid programs.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch,
and Clarence Thomasvoted to hear the case,
but newly seated Justice Brett Kavanaugh
sided with liberal Justices.
Kavanaugh's decision to pass on the case
came as a surprise to some.
During his confirmationhearings earlier this year,
Democrats argued hisappointment would overturn
Roe versus Wade.
The latest appeal came fromcases in Kansas and Louisiana
to push Planned Parenthood health centers
from their state Medicaid programs.
Not hearing the case at the Supreme Court
allows lower court rulings to stand.
That means Medicaid patients have a right
to challenge a state's decisionto remove their doctors
as a qualified provider.
It would have taken fourSupreme Court Justices
to agree to hear the case.
In his dissent, Justice ClarenceThomas criticized the court
for it's, quote, particularlytroubling decision,
arguing the case itselfreally had nothing to do
with abortion.
And Martin Cannon iswith Thomas More Society
and joins us now.
So Martin, abortionactivists are considering
the Supreme Court's decisiona win for women's rights.
What's it mean for pro-life supporters?
- Well I don't know howmuch we can read into it
because, of course, the court,
the majority thatdeclined to hear the case
did not give us an opinion,
so I don't really know what's behind it.
I haven't had an opportunity
to review Justice Thomas'dissenting opinion
and, frankly, I'm notfamiliar enough with the issue
to address it intelligently.
- Do you think this is an example
of what kind of decisionswe will see from Kavanaugh
when it comes to abortion cases?
- I hope not.
I'd like to think that he'skind of a nuts and bolts guy
and that he's got arationale for his opinion
that it was not something to be reviewed.
Now, having said that,
it does have me scratchingmy head a little
because I believe there's asplit between the circuits,
the 8th Circuit and the 10th Circuit,
and rendered different rulings
on what's a real similar question,
so normally, that would be a reason
for the Supreme Court to hear it.
But I'm still gonna trust Kavanaugh,
that he's got a rationale, wemight not like the outcome,
but that it was a reasonableapplication of the law.
I really don't know.
- And you're also involvedin a case out of Iowa
for a proposed heartbeat bill.
Can you give us an update on that?
- You bet.
Last year, both Iowa housesand the governor, Kim Reynolds,
signed a law that would prohibit abortions
after the child's heartbeat is detected.
Planned Parenthoodpromptly challenged that
and the law is on hold pending an outcome
of that litigation.
Now just the other day, wehad an argument in the case
where Planned Parenthood istrying to throw the statute out
without even having a trial.
They have based that request on the idea
that the Iowa SupremeCourt very recently found
that there is a fundamentalright to abortion
under the Iowa Constitution,
which of course was newsto all kinds of people
who know that Constitution
and hadn't seen thatright in there before.
But in any event, PlannedParenthood now thinks
that the heartbeat billis a slam dunk to kill it,
but it really really isn't true.
So we argued that.
They say that it'll outlawalmost all abortions in Iowa.
Our position is it doesn'treally outlaw any of them;
it just requires that, if awoman wants to have an abortion,
she does so promptlybefore the child reaches
this very importantmilestone, having a hearbeat,
something we associate with life,
something that we associate with life
on the other end of the spectrum.
Under Iowa law, you aredead when your heart stops.
So it does make some sense
to sort of bookend life on eachend with the same threshold.
If we're gonna call death what happens
when you pass thatthreshold on the way out,
we should call life as what happens
when you pass thatthreshold on the way in.
So it's a very interesting question.
- What do you think is next
for heartbeat bills in other states?
- Well, I think that the people of America
need to understand that, ifwe lose this case in Iowa,
it is largely going to bebecause the Iowa Supreme Court
says there's a fundamentalright to abortion.
And frankly, their ruling putsIowa back beyond even Roe.
Right now, Iowa went frombeing the most pro-life state
in the country, probably, bypassing this heartbeat bill
and a few others, tobeing a mecca for abortion
on account of the stroke of the pen
of the Iowa Supreme Court.
Right now, under Iowa Supreme Court law,
you can have more right to abortion
than anyone else in the country
even has under Roe versus Wade.
So the reason I say that is because,
if we lose this case, this heartbeat case,
it is going to be becauseof our Iowa Supreme Court,
not nationwide law.
So other states shouldget on the bandwagon,
pass their heartbeat bills,
and get something on theway to the US Supreme Court.
If enough states pass heartbeat bills,
it will get consideredby the Supreme Court,
and I do believe that Roe versus Wade
and Casey, its progeny,are on borrowed time.
- All right.- So other states
need to do this.
- All right, thank you so much, sir.
Much appreciate of your time.
Movement could soon come
on a major criminal justice reform bill.
Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell says
the Senate will take it up.
He told members they should be prepared
to stay in session theweek following Christmas.
It would be the largestsentencing overhaul in decades
and it has bipartisan support.
There has been a priorityfor President Trump
and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
He's worked behind the scenes
for the last two years on this bill.
Want to turn now to the President's search
for a new Chief of Staff
after news his leadingchoice doesn't want the job.
The Vice President's Chiefof Staff, Nick Ayers,
has respectfully declined the offer.
The President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner,
may also have an influence
on who becomes thePresident's next choice.
- The President will make the right choice
for Chief of Staff whenhe's ready and, hopefully,
he'll choose somebody he'sgot great chemistry with,
great relationship with,
who will help him navigatethe next couple of years.
- In other news, tensionsbetween leading Democrats
and the President were thickin an afternoon meeting
on the budget and border security.
The President doubleddown on his position,
telling Democrats if wedon't have border security,
we'll shut down the government.
Democratic leaders NancyPelosi and Chuck Schumer
asked the President for another solution.
Schumer told him the governmentshouldn't come to a halt
over this dispute.
Google CEO Sundar Pichaianswered questions
from Republican lawmakersabout potential bias
against conservative viewswith the internet search giant.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
says Google's business practices
may have been influenced by politics.
Meanwhile, the committee'stop Democrat, Jerrold Nadler,
called the notion of bias a delusion.
The hearing also addressedthe company's data breach
and censorship demands from China.
The social media site Tumblr has announced
it will begin enforcing asitewide pornography ban
beginning December 17th.
The blogging and social sharingplatform made the decision
after it was removed from the App Store
for having graphic depictions
of child sexual abuse on its site.
In a statement, TumblrCEO Jeff D'Onofrio said:
We spent considerable timeweighing the pros and cons
of expression in the communitythat includes adult content.
In doing so, it became clearthat, without this content,
we have the opportunity to create a place
where more people feelcomfortable expressing themselves.
Tumblr has published a list of guidelines
to help users better understand
what will and won't be allowed.
Dawn Hawkins is Vice President
of the National Centeron Sexual Exploitation
and joins us now.
So Dawn, what are somechanges Tumblr is making
with its site to ban pornography?
- Yeah, well after beingcaught with child pornography
on its site and Apple kickingthem out of Apple's App Store,
Tumblr agreed to get rid ofall pornographic content,
content that depicts genitalsor frontal female nudity.
- Comcast also recently made changes
to combat illicit content.
Can you tell us about those?
- Comcast has tightenedits parental controls,
made it much more family friendly,
easier for parents toblock pornographic content.
They've buried a lot of the pornography
that they were selling,
filtered the types of themesthat they were selling.
They've made their mobileapp free from pornography,
created a kids' zone
that's completely free from pornography.
And they're developing awhole suite of family tools
that will roll outearly next year as well.
And this is just really showing this trend
of many major corporationsthat are developing policies
to combat pornography
because we're really experiencinga public health crisis.
So not only Comcast and Tumblr,
but Starbucks also justagreed to filter their Wi-Fi
at all of their US chainsaround the country.
- Now with more companies
enforcing stricter internet safety,
do you think we'll see anend to porn altogether?
- No, the reality is that
we are experiencing public health impacts
from pornography, especiallyas early exposure among youth
and the easy access.
It would be very difficult toban pornography altogether,
but we need to be muchmore aware of the harms
and the impact it's having on individuals,
families, and society,and it's very helpful
to see that it's not just onparents' shoulders any longer
to protect their familiesand kids from exposure,
but corporations andgovernments are also stepping up
to address the public health concerns.
11 states have declared pornography
a public health concern as well,
so many more are waking up to the harm.
- How do all these bans helpfight even more extreme issues
like human trafficking,especially children?
- Well pornography is alsolinked to increased demand
for child sexual abuseand for sex trafficking.
Many individuals who watchpornography regularly
seek to act out what they're viewing,
thereby increasing demand forthese other societal ills.
And so we know that, if wewant to curb child sexual abuse
or if we want to curb sex trafficking,
addressing one of theroot factors, pornography,
is a tremendous step incombating those societal harms.
- Critics argue that this ban
signals the end of user generated content
on social media platforms.
How do you respond to that?
- Well, many other platformsdon't allow pornography.
Facebook has been really good at it.
Instagram tries to take pornography off.
Not that those places arecompletely safe from it,
but almost every othersocial media platform
says no to hardcorepornography except Tumblr.
For many years, Tumblr andTwitter have defended it
and allowed it, and sothis is a welcome change,
especially as we knowthat it's contributing
to increased demand forchild sexual abuse images,
of course sex trafficking.
It's breaking up families.
It's infecting young men andincreasing sexual dysfunction.
It's hurting relationships.
I mean the list of harms goes on.
And so times are changing as companies
and mainstream public iswaking up to the harms.
- All right, Dawn Hawkinswith the National Center,
thank you so much.
We much appreciate your time.
Members of the Israeli police and army
are still searching fora Palestinian gunman
who shot seven Israelisin a drive-by shooting
in the town of Ofra Monday.
The shooting seriouslyinjured a pregnant woman
and her baby.
Both are in critical conditionafter the baby was delivered
as a result of that attack.
Chaim Silverstein isthe father of the woman.
He is also the founder of Keep Jerusalem
and he talked with our Scott Ross
about the future of Jerusalem.
- Do you see a good future ahead or no?
- Zechariah 14 talks about
what's happening hereon the Mount of Olives.
There will be an earthquake here.
There will be a war.
There'll be all kinds of unnatural things
that are happening here.
- That's yet to happen.
- That's yet to happen in the future,
but Zechariah ends the prophesy by saying
and Jerusalem will dwell secure.
The question is how we will get there.
The thing that is guaranteedto bring peace to Jerusalem
is keeping Jerusalem unitedand the Israeli sovereignty.
And that certainly is the prelude
to, hopefully, the incredible event
that we hope and pray will happen later,
which will be ultimate peace,
both to Jerusalem and the world.
- Silverstein and hiswife are keeping vigil
for their daughter andgrandchild and asking for prayers
for both of their recoveries.
After the break, howa serious brain injury
is not only affecting football players,
but military veterans as well.
- God Almighty is a God of blessing.
He always wants to bless his people,
but how do you get that blessing
and what principleswill unlock that secret?
- [Announcer] In Miraculous Blessings,
Pat Robertson shows youhow to open the floodgates
of God's awesome blessings in your life.
- In order to have a blessing,you've got to be blessable.
- [Announcer] Discoverwhat the Bible has to say
about God's covenant of blessing,
the laws of blessing, andwhat are the hindrances
to the blessings of God.
- The words of Jesus, they are as valid
as the law of gravity, andif we follow those laws,
we will be blessed.
- [Announcer] You'llsee amazing true stories
of everyday peoplewhose lives were rescued
and transformed by God'smiraculous blessings.
- But even the doctors acknowledged
that this had to be a miracle.
- [Announcer] Call1-800-700-7000 or visit CBN.com
to become a CBN partner andget Miraculous Blessings today.
- Hello, I'm Terry Meeuwsen.
Did you know there are morethan 148 million orphans
in the world today?
148 million.
But it was three littlegirls that taught me
about the plight of orphans.
My husband and I spent nearly a month
immersed in the daily activitiesof the Ukrainian orphanage
as we waited to adopt three sisters.
I saw firsthand the utterloneliness, the pain of rejection,
and the overwhelming desire to be loved.
That experience changedme forever, and out of it
grew a ministry from my heartcalled Orphan's Promise.
Today, we're helping orphansand vulnerable children
in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Thousands of childrenare now in safe homes,
they're being educated, andthey're learning life skills.
I'm asking you to join with me
and become family to these children.
Will you call the numberon your screen right now?
Because every child deservesa chance to be happy.
- Welcome back.
The Centers for Disease Control announced
2018 has been a recordnumber of mysterious
paralyzing illnesses in children.
Medical experts say it is still not clear
what's causing the childrento lose the ability
to move their face, neck,back, and arms or legs.
The condition is called acuteflaccid myelitis, or AFM.
Symptoms occur about a weekafter a child had a fever
and respiratory illness.
The condition has been linked to polio,
but investigators ruled that out.
No one has died from thatrare disease this year,
but it was blamed for one death last year
and it may have caused others.
CTE is a brain injury
associated with repeated hits to the head.
Its victims can become violent
and even point to signs of murder
as so depressed, some of them,
that they take their own lives.
Most people associate thiscondition with football,
but new studies show theyare actually finding it
in brains of military veteransexposed to explosions,
but who had not suffered a concussion.
Dr. Bennet Omalu wasone of the first doctors
to raise awareness about it.
He says hits to the head damage the area
of the brain responsible fordecision making and judgment.
- CTE can only be confirmed after death,
and while there is not yet a cure,
scientists are developing a test
to diagnose it in the living,
which could then lead to treatment.
CBN medical correspondent,Lorie Johnson, is here.
So Lorie, we dived into yourinterview with Dr. Omalu.
Let's talk about that first story first
where these illnesses come from,
this new paralyzing illness.
- That's right.
And this is so scary for parents.
And, you know, even one childhood death,
one childhood illness,
especially a very serious onelike this, is frightening,
but let's put it into perspective.
The chance of your child getting this
is less than one in one million.
Nevertheless, let's talk about it.
They think that it'sbeing caused by a virus,
probably the enterovirus.
They're not sure,
but they think that that'swhat's causing this.
A lot of kids get enterovirusand then recover from it,
but some of them, itlooks like this goes on.
We know that this isaffecting the grey matter
in the spinal cord, whichcontrols our muscle movements,
so parents, be on the lookout
if your child suddenly loses the ability
to move his or her arms or legs.
But again, it's probablycaused by another virus
so one way to prevent against it
is to make sure yourchild doesn't get a virus
in the first place, andthe best way to do that
is handwashing.
We talk about it all the time.
- Yes, absolutely- Handwashing.
It's so boring.
Make sure that your kids
are keeping his or her hands clean,
keeping dirty hands out of the nose
and the ears and other places
where those germs can enter the body,
and then keeping theirimmune system strong
by avoiding sugar and gettingall those wonderful nutrients
that we find in vegetablesand getting plenty of sleep.
- [Efrem] Oh, yes.
- Yeah.- Now we know
that you interviewed Dr. Omalu.
Besides football players and soldiers,
researchers believe CTEis affecting other people?
- That's right.
The researchers believe thata lot of people have CTE
and don't realize it.
We know that the symptoms arethings like rapid mood swings,
violent, aggressive behavior,depression, suicide,
and these are symptoms that look like PTSD
and we know that someloving family members
donated the brains of former soldiers
to the CTE Brain Center
and the investigatorslooked at their brains
and found CTE and thought,wow, this is weird,
these are not football players.
They had PTSD symptoms, butit turned out to be CTE,
so now we're thinking that bomb blasts
in the absence ofconcussion can cause this,
but also, we know that hits to the head,
the youngest person to ever have CTE
was an autistic child, age 17,
and he sadly would often beathis head up against the wall,
so we know that hits to the head
in the home can cause CTE and, sadly,
this is pointing the arrowstowards domestic violence,
kids and adults who are beingrepeatedly hit in the head,
and then also shaken too
because we know that thebrain being battered around
inside the skull can also cause CTE.
So again, domestic violence,a very serious issue.
If you are being hit in the head
or any other place for thatmatter, you can get help
from the NationalDomestic Violence Hotline,
and that number is on our website.
And just one more thing,I interviewed Dr. Omalu,
he had so many wonderfulthings to say about CTE,
about football, domestic violence,and that entire interview
is going to be on myHealthy Living program
tonight at 9:30 easternon the CBN News Channel,
and you can watch that.
If you don't have it in your area,
just go to our website, CBNNews.com.
- You got it and they all find it.
Thank you so much, Lorie.
- My pleasure.- Much appreciated.
Still ahead, hope in themidst of persecution.
See how this group of believers
is looking to the earlychurch to stand strong.
- [Announcer] Parents,the Superbook Bible App
is a great way to get yourchild reading the Bible.
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- [Announcer] Life.
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- We had four jobs that didn't go right.
But we didn't waver in our faith.
- That's when God put on my heart
that we needed to do the well.
- [Husband] Within a couple of days,
we got an insurance refund check
that we had no idea was coming.
- And here we are.
This year, it's just booming (chuckles).
- You go out and help other people
and you get rewarded for it.
- [Announcer] Get PatRobertson's latest teaching,
Miraculous Blessings.
- In recent years, thechurch in the Middle East
has endured some dark days,
but some believe thelives of believers today
are reflecting the heroesand heroines of the past,
in the place where Christianity was born.
Chris Mitchell brings usthis story from Jerusalem.
- [Chris] Across the Middle East,
Christians and the church
have suffered terrible persecution,
yet there is still optimism here.
- I see the church isstanding and standing strong
with all of the diffficulties
and with all of the atrocities
and all the persecution.
- [Chris] Egyptian-bornYvette Isaac believes
that's because they'recontinuing the testimony
of the early believers.
- I really believe every day a new page
of the book of Acts is being written.
- [Chris] And Isaac wants thechurch in the West to know
what's happening here.
- There are brothers and sisters,
Christian brothers andsisters who are living there.
And if it wasn't for them,
first, we would not hear aboutChristianity in the West.
Because of the church in the Middle East,
Christianity spread all over the world.
- [Chris] Yet she saysthe pressure on Christians
has been enormous.
- [Yvette] That's where it all started,
and the enemy's focus is to destroy it.
The enemy's focus is toempty the Middle East
from Christianity, so he'sputting all of this pressure
and we have seen all kindsof pressure under the people.
- [Chris] Isaac hosts a television program
to the Middle East, and shebelieves Christian media
can play a big role to help Christians.
- The church needs to know the truth.
The Christian media needs to air
and to show the worldthe stories from there.
If we just depend on the secular media,
we will get what's theiragenda for the world to hear.
But awareness is very important.
That's why we have manyclips of Christian people
that they suffer andthey tell their stories.
- [Chris] One of the stories she tells
are the Christians whosuffered under ISIS.
- We go to Iraq and to Syriaand we go to those places
and we try to empower the girls
that they came out of captivity.
Christians in Syria and in Iraq,
they don't want to speak too much.
Probably it's a fear.
But when we go there, they open up
and they feel like they can open up
and tell us their stories.
So we share their storiesafter their permission
to the world.
- [Chris] She tells onestory of an orthodox priest
and an evangelical pastor.
- An orthodox priest toldme, when there was no water
and there were only afew drops of water left,
I would rather divide itwith the evangelical pastor
because I know, if we both live,
we're going to be more powerful together.
If I live and he dies, I'm weaker.
- [Chris] She hopes eachpart of the body of Christ
will do their part.
- What am I called to do,especially in the western world?
The western church needs to understand
the importance of theexisting of Christians
in the Middle East at this time.
- [Chris] Chris Mitchell,CBN News, Jerusalem.
- [Efrem] Coming up,
how Christian music artistLauren Daigle saw God move
when she visited a children'shospital in Florida.
- [Pat] When you give,
smiles grow bigger.
When you care,
homes are happier.
When you comfort,
the hurt goes away.
When we all come together to love,
miracles happen.
- Hello, I'm Terry Meeuwsen.
Did you know there are morethan 148 million orphans
in the world today?
148 million.
But it was three little girls
that taught me aboutthe plight of orphans.
My husband and I spent nearly a month
immersed in the daily activitiesof the Ukrainian orphanage
as we waited to adopt three sisters.
I saw firsthand the utterloneliness, the pain of rejection,
and the overwhelming desire to be loved.
That experience changedme forever, and out of it
grew a ministry from my heartcalled Orphan's Promise.
Today, we're helping orphansand vulnerable children
in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Thousands of childrenare now in safe homes,
they're being educated, andthey're learning life skills.
I'm asking you to join with me
and become family to these children.
Will you call the numberon your screen right now?
Because every child deservesa chance to be happy.
- Hello.
Is this thing on?
Hey, kids.
Do you love games?
And do you love discovering things.
(explosion)Yeah!
Well, do you?
- [Kids] Yeah!
- [Announcer] Then you're gonna love this.
It's the new, freeSuperbook Kid's Bible App.
You can play games, watch videos,
find answers to your questions,and a whole lot more.
The new Superbook Kid's Bible App.
Free downloads available oniTunes and Google Play now.
- Singer Lauren Daiglevisited several young patients
at a Florida hospitalfor children in Orlando.
Daigle posted about the encounterwith one of the patients
on her Instagram.
She says Gabriel, who hadhalf of his brain removed
when he was six months old,
lit up the entire hospital with joy
that would shake your bones.
Daigle said that night,she went home and prayed
Lord, make me more like Gabriel.
That is gonna do it for thisedition of CBN Newswatch.
Thank you so much for watching.
Have a great day.
(dramatic music)
