• OPEN DISCUSSION - For the first 30 minutes of the Thursday night forums we will have informal open discussion. This will allow for late arrivals, food & drink ordering, and new attendees to become acclimated.
• ANNOUNCEMENTS - Any events, news, or other items that you feel are of interest to the group can be announced at the start of Free Inquiry Forum.

TOPICS for Thursday (4/7/05) & Monday (4/11/05):

1. Some pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and morning-after pills, because these medications violate their personal moral or religious beliefs. That stance sparked an intense debate over the rights of pharmacists to refuse service on moral/religious grounds vs. a woman's right to medications her doctor has prescribed. State legislatures have begun to draft laws that would protect pharmacists from being penalized, or force them to carry out all their duties. Do the rights of pharmacists outweigh the rights of women patients in such cases?  Should laws be passed to protect the rights of women or pharmacists? 
2. In Wisconsin, a man opened fire at a church service last month, killing seven people and himself. The county district attorney, a Republican, says the answer to mass shootings around the country is to permit more law-abiding people to carry guns legally. "The problems aren't the guns, it's the guns in the wrong hands," he said. "Whether having that would have changed what happened is all speculation, but it would level the playing field." Other mass shootings have prompted legislators in Texas and Illinois to arm judges and prosecutors, while those in Nebraska and Wisconsin say they are considering allowing concealed weapons and think such shootings will help their cause. Do you agree that it's people not guns that are the problem? Do you agree that legalizing more guns would add to public safety? Or would more legal handguns result in more frequent illegal use?
3. Attorneys general in Kentucky and Indiana are trying to seize patient medical records from Planned Parenthood clinics in what they say are criminal investigations into unreported child sexual abuse and -- in Kansas -- possible illegal late-term abortions.  Planned Parenthood says these efforts are aimed at discouraging women from seeking abortions and other reproductive health care, and they are contesting these searches on privacy grounds.  Does the state have the duty to dig into medical records to find unreported cases of child sex abuse? Or can abortion clinics refuse to cooperate in what they term a fishing expedition aimed at criminalizing and shutting down their operations?
4. OPEN DISCUSSION.

Quote of the week: "...this hour's devoted to the most intense threat to your freedom in the world. It's not Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is not the most intense threat to your freedom -- it's the American Civil Liberties Union." [Bill O'Reilly - Source]

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