“Social issues” on The Daily Caller

When mega pastor Rick Warren asked then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, “At what point does a baby get human rights?” Obama famously stated: That’s “above my pay grade.” Liberals used to respond to this question by answering that personhood is established when the fetus is viable — meaning when the baby is able to live independently of the mother. However, as medical technology has enabled this to happen as early as 20 weeks — a time when almost all abortion advocates believe the procedure should be legal — the viability defense is no longer invoked. And now, it seems, abortion advocates — a la Obama — are opting to avoid the question altogether. Even worse, they’re using the red herring of women’s health and safety to divert attention from the real issue at hand: whether the pre-born child has the right to life. (more)

Just when you thought President Obama couldn’t tick off conservatives anymore than he already has, he goes and orders the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of the federal definition of marriage — which defines marriage for federal purposes as solely a union between a man and a woman. (more)

Last Friday, for the first time ever, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to federally defund the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. (more)

Washington (CNN) – With funding for the federal government set to expire in less than two weeks, Senate Democrats and House Republicans are in discussions to avoid a government shutdown, a Senate Democratic leadership source told CNN. (more)

A three-day-long stand-off at the Wisconsin state capitol between union supporters and those backing the Republican governor’s budget cuts just went to another level Thursday as Democratic senators apparently fled the area to prevent a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill, which would cut public employee union collective bargaining rights and require them to contribute to pensions and health care. (more)

Americans should be shocked by Live Action’s recent release of undercover videos showing potential criminal activity at Planned Parenthood clinics. The videos show Planned Parenthood employees aiding and abetting underage sex trafficking. This is an outrage. (more)

In 2007, Texas State Senator Dan Patrick proposed paying Texas women who were considering getting abortions to instead carry their babies to term and then give them up for adoption. Patrick’s bill never made it out of committee, and Patrick was ridiculed for his efforts. (more)

The singer’s new track, “Born This Way,” was intended as an anthem to diversity and acceptance. But as Jacob Bernstein reports, her core fanbase thinks it’s just a pandering piece of pop. (more)

The nation’s largest gay rights advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), has instituted its own “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy toward conservative firebrands Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle after they implicitly — but clearly — voiced support for the gay-oriented Republican group GOProud. (more)

CAIRO (AP) — Protesters enraged by Hosni Mubarak’s latest refusal to step down streamed into Cairo’s central square Friday and took positions outside key symbols of the hated regime, promising to expand their push to drive the Egyptian president out. (more)

When I heard that Jim DeMint plans to skip Thursday’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., to protest its inclusion of pro-gay marriage group GOProud, I had the same question everybody else did: “Who is Jim DeMint?” (more)

CPAC has a long history of being a showcase for conservatism’s brightest stars and most important priorities. Yet the inclusion of organizations that are working to undermine core conservative principles, even as sponsoring members of the event, has resulted in many longtime participants withdrawing from this year’s CPAC. (more)

The cloud of controversy surrounding this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference continues to swirl, with the Washington Times reporting on Tuesday that a memo featuring several high-profile signatories had been sent to the American Conservative Union specifically protesting the acceptance of Republican gay rights advocacy group GOProud as an event sponsor. Among those named were prominent conservative figures Phyllis Schlafly, Ken Blackwell, Brent Bozell, and Colin Hanna. (more)

It’s been called the “strategic” solution to controlling illegal immigration. Rather than try to seal America’s porous 2,000-mile border with Mexico, why not eliminate the “job magnet” that draws illegal aliens in the first place? (more)

In the late 1970’s, with interest rates, inflation and taxes at back-breaking levels, a broad array of politicians and interest groups with a shared conviction that excess spending, taxes and regulation must be turned around coalesced into a “conservative movement” that elected Ronald Reagan and set into motion a fundamental shift in American politics. That coalition included a lot of different interests who did not necessarily agree on all issues, but for whom the imperative to save the economy was the rightful priority of the day. (more)

A new study finds that many women with early breast cancer do not need a painful procedure that has long been routine: removal of cancerous lymph nodes from the armpit. (more)

CAIRO (AP) — The trappings of a determined protest movement — chanting, flags and raised fists — fill Tahrir Square, the hard-won enclave of those who seek a new Egypt. But some there fear an enemy in their midst. (more)

Do men get attached more easily than women? And if so, does that represent a sea change in gender behaviors? (more)

CAIRO (AP) — A young Google executive who helped ignite Egypt’s uprising energized a cheering crowd of hundreds of thousands Tuesday with his first appearance in their midst after being released from 12 days in secret detention. “We won’t give up,” he promised at one of the biggest protests yet in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. (more)

Saying he wanted to “set an example for the nation that you can in fact shrink government,” new Gov. Rick Scott unveiled an unprecedented $5 billion in budget cuts, largely from state pensions and health care for the poor. (more)