First Links – 7.21.10

Expert: UN study backs Church strategy on Aids

A new UN Aids study has lent credibility to faith leaders who have long argued that behavioural change is key to combating the spread of the illness, a Catholic expert on the disease has said.

Lesbian gets $35K settlement over canceled prom

A rural school district that canceled its prom rather than allow a lesbian student to attend with her girlfriend has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit the ACLU filed on her behalf.

Indiana Planned Parenthood Caught On Tape Giving Fabricated Medical Information

The youth-led pro-life group Live Action released a new undercover video today showing staff at an Indianapolis Planned Parenthood clinic using manipulative and medically inaccurate counseling to convince a young woman to have an abortion. This is the third undercover video Live Action has released showing abusive counseling practices at Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

Nigerian Lawsuit Claims Ban on Child Marriage Restricts Muslims’ Religious Freedom

In Nigeria earlier this month, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) forwarded to the Attorney General for possible prosecution its findings that Ahmed Sani Yerima, former governor of Zamfara state and a member of the Nigerian Senate, violated the Nigerian Child Rights Act of 2003 when he married a 13-year old Egyptian girl after paying a very large dowry . . . . The suit alleges that the Child Rights Act is unconstitutional because Muslim religious law permits Yerima to marry up to four wives with no restriction on age. The Sharia group’s lawyer says that a Muslim may “even marry a child in the womb of her mother.”