Women against abuse

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said Satan is responsible for inducing women to have abortions by selling the procedure and whispering into their ears and “into your soul.”

The Republican, who represents Georgia’s 14th congressional district, made the comments in an interview with right-wing Catholic activist Michael Voris of the website Church Militant.

Greene’s conversation with Voris had previously made headlines when she claimed the Roman Catholic Church was controlled by Satan as she slammed the Church’s position on undocumented migrants.

During a section of the April 21 interview that focused on abortion and is now gaining attention, Greene told Voris: “Abortion is a lie that Satan sells to women. He sells it to ’em.”

“When Satan sells a sin, it’s not loud,” Greene said. “It’s whispered, softly and gently into your ears and into your soul.”

“And he tells you it’s OK,” Greene said. “And he says. ‘It’s just this one thing. You’re just gonna get it done, get it over with.’ And then he tells you a promise. He promises you all these dreams that you have in your heart.”

“And that’s how Satan sells a sin, and that’s how he sells abortion ,” she went on.

“He tells a woman that, ‘All you have to do is, you’re just gonna go to this clinic, just gonna get it over with, you know. And then you’re going to—that guy, he’s going to stay with you, that boyfriend or the guy, whoever he is. He’s gonna marry you, sweep you off your feet,'” Greene said.

Greene added that Satan may promise the woman she will now be able to finish school or “pursue that career and all your dreams are gonna come true but it’s the greatest lie.”

She said that “being a mother is what makes a woman’s dreams comes true. It is what gives you the energy inside, the reason why, the love.”

“It makes you work harder and longer than you ever could without children because you have a reason, you have your children. And children fulfil a mother,” Greene said, adding that it was the same for fathers.

The Republican congresswoman caused controversy and pushback when she told Voris “Satan’s controlling the church, the church is not doing its job” and the footage circulated online.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue said that Greene had “slandered” Roman Catholics and should apologize. She responded by demanding that Donohue apologize to her but also clarified that she was referring to the leadership of the Church and not Catholics generally.

“It’s the church leadership I was referring to when I invoked the Devil,” Greene said.

“The bishops know that, but had their loyal lapdog pretend I was being disrespectful about the faith. Just so we’re clear, bishops, when I said ‘controlled by Satan,’ I wasn’t talking about the Catholic Church. I was talking about you,” she said.

Green is an Evangelical Protestant but described herself as “a cradle Catholic” who was born into the Church but left after she realized she “could not trust the Church leadership to protect my children from pedophiles .”

She was referring to the well-documented history of alleged child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Newsweek has asked Representative Greene’s office for comment.

Happy Valley ’s Mollie Winnard was overwhelmed by Mel B’s reaction to her performance as a victim of domestic abuse in the BBC blockbuster drama.

The Coronation Street star, 25, portrays Joanna Hepworth in the Sally Wainwright series, which also stars James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce and Sarah Lancashire as Catherine Cawood.

Joanna is married to the vile and toxic Rob Hepworth (Mark Stanley) who regularly beats up his wife and controls every aspect of her life – even locking the fridge to prevent her from eating outside of his designated hours.

Mel B, who has been open about her experience of domestic violence and campaigned for women’s rights since ending her marriage with producer Stephen Belafonte, who denies the allegations, said the plot resonated with her.

Praising Mollie’s portrayal of Joanna, the 47-year-old wrote that the ‘glassy-eyed and battered’ character ‘wasn’t a woman I knew, this was a woman I was’ in The Independent .

Ahead of the gripping series final, Mollie spoke to Metro.co.uk about how honoured she was to have given a ‘truthful’ performance, saying she cried when she first learned of the pop icon’s reaction.

She said: ‘I did cry a little, I’m not gonna lie.

‘When I was younger, I actually used to have the Spice Girls ’ videotape and I’ve been a massive fan of the Spice Girls all my life.

‘To hear that kind of praise, from somebody who I’ve always kind of thought was amazing, just made everything worth it.

‘Especially because she’s already been through what Joanna has been through; the fact that I’ve therefore given a truthful portrayal, that’s all the praise I want to hear really.’

She added: ‘Mel B is such an inspirational woman for overcoming that.’

Mollie, whose character Joanna is murdered by evil pharmacist Faisal Bhatti (Amit Shah), also said she has no idea how Happy Valley ends – and is looking forward to tuning into the final like the rest of the nation on Saturday.

Of course, all the cast have been keeping very quiet about the drama’s conclusion, although Neil Ackryod actor Con O’Neill teased it was ‘ extraordinary ’ while James, 37, described it as ‘ magical ’.

Happy Valley concludes on Sunday at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE : Happy Valley fans seriously doubt Tommy is Ryan’s real father – and here’s the ‘curveball’ character they think is

MORE : Happy Valley’s Mollie Winnard clears up fan theory about why Poppy Hepworth always wears coat

Women have described in court how they were violently raped, controlled and degraded by an “evil” Metropolitan Police officer who they feared was too “powerful” to be reported for his crimes.

David Carrick was branded a “monster” who carried out a “catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences” when he appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court, where he is being sentenced for dozens of crimes against 12 women.

The 48-year-old has previously pleaded guilty to 49 charges – including 24 counts of rape – after he was unmasked as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders last month.

The court heard that Carrick held a gun to the head of one woman before repeatedly raping her and threatened to use his police baton on another victim.

He also sent one of his victims a photograph of himself with a work-issue firearm, saying: “Remember I am the boss.”

Prosecutor Tom Little KC said Carrick – who was sacked by the Met Police after his guilty pleas – should face a life sentence for his crimes but the case “falls short of meriting” a whole-life order.

He said Carrick’s offences over a 17-year period increased in “frequency” and in “the level of humiliation being inflicted”.

“The reality was that it did not matter who the victim was… he would rape them, sexually abuse/assault them and humiliate them,” the prosecutor said.

Women’s rights advocates have long known that Louisiana is a lousy place to be a woman. Now, sadly, our state has earned yet another dubious distinction: It’s becoming a great place to be a domestic abuser.

From gender-based income disparities to maternal mortality rates to the rate at which men rape and murder women, Louisiana consistently ranks at or near the top all the “worst” lists. To anyone familiar with our state’s history of legal and cultural misogyny, this is old news.

More recently, however, from two seemingly disparate sources, comes great news for domestic abusers.

On Feb. 2, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a gun even if that individual is under a restraining order for domestic violence — and even if a judge determines that individual poses “a credible threat to the physical safety” of his victim or her child.

A week earlier, the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee (OPDEC) endorsed Steven Kennedy , who was convicted 10 years ago of three counts of domestic abuse — two of them involving strangulation. Kennedy, who says he has mended his ways and wants to be a “role model” for youth, is an OPDEC member and one of six candidates in the Feb. 18 special election in state House District 93 in New Orleans.

There’s a lot to unpack in those two decisions.

For starters, the 5th Circuit’s jurisdiction includes Louisiana. The court’s decision thus jeopardizes a Louisiana law that allows judges to disarm violent domestic abusers, which in turn endangers domestic abuse victims. Statistics show that an abuser’s access to guns makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed.

“Louisiana ranks 5th in the nation for domestic abuse homicides and has been in the top 10 states for such horrors since anyone has been counting,” said attorney Kim Sport, a longtime advocate for domestic-abuse victims who helped convince state legislators to enact Louisiana’s tough anti-domestic abuse laws.

Sport and several OPDEC members want the committee to rescind its endorsement of Kennedy, who most recently pleaded guilty in 2017 to disturbing the peace after being accused yet again of domestic abuse. OPDEC, which made its endorsement decision hastily (and, some members say, without a quorum), has since affirmed its support of Kennedy, and committee leaders won’t comment on the controversy. Others are not staying silent.

New Orleans state Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, an OPDEC member, called the endorsement “deeply disturbing.” OPDEC member Elizabeth Sangisetty said it sends “a very disturbing message to women.”

Kennedy insists his past does not reflect his future, but otherwise he’s not commenting. His claim that, having turned his life around, he wants to be a “role model” for young people raises an important question: How best can someone who has stumbled serve as a role model? The first step, of course, is to truly mend one’s ways. The second, it would seem, is to work in the trenches with at-risk youth who desperately need role models — and to do it for a length of time that shows a real commitment to community service, not just a box to check on the fast track to elective office.

At a minimum, OPDEC’s decision reflects the “insider’s game” aspect of both political parties’ internal machinations — and some of their leaders’ near-total disconnect from voters.

In a larger sense, the 5th Circuit decision and the OPDEC endorsement reflect the “perfect storm” aspect of the Supreme Court’s guns-for-all interpretation of the Second Amendment and society’s evolving attitude toward citizens, candidates and public officials with checkered — or even criminal — pasts.

Not too long ago, state Sen. Troy Brown of Napoleonville resigned after two arrests for domestic battery, one in 2015 involving his “side friend” (his term) and one in 2016 involving his wife. Brown resigned in 2017 amid public outrage and in the face of near-certain expulsion by his Senate colleagues.

The Feb. 18 primary will likely see an extremely low turnout — it’s the Saturday of Mardi Gras weekend in New Orleans.

That evening, as Endymion float riders and revelers celebrate the megakrewe’s annual post-parade Extravaganza, we’ll learn if domestic abusers also have reason to celebrate — and Louisiana women have yet another reason to dread living here.

Clancy DuBos is Gambit weekly’s political editor and columnist and WWL-TV’s political analyst. Contact him at [email protected] .

At the heart of democracy is the idea of impermanence—the ability to change periodically to reflect what the people say they want.

In The Shortest History of Democracy —a 229-page book packed with facts and dates and traversing the globe to find large movements and transnational trends in democracy, starting with the first popular assemblies of 2500BC Syria-Mesopotamia—author John Keane writes: “Democracy often takes reality by surprise. It stands on the side of earthly miracles. The dramatic arrest and public execution of kings and tyrants, unplanned mutiny of disgruntled citizens, unexpected resistance to military rule and cliffhanger parliamentary votes are among the dramas that catch the living by surprise and leave those who come after fascinated by how and why such breakthroughs occurred.”

The book also charts the development of democracy, from assembly to electoral democracy and finally monitory democracy. Reproduced below is the section on “The rise of monitory democracy”:

Developments in Senegal, South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere showed that in the decades after 1945, democracy was no longer a white-skinned, Western affair – as it had been, say, when Lord James Bryce wrote his classic Modern Democracies in 1921, or when a Natal-based historian of democracy spoke of election-based, parliamentary government as ‘largely the outcome of the character and historical development of Englishmen’, unsuited to ‘states where the population does not display the same talents for, or interest in, the management of public affairs’.