Afternoon Roundup: CBS News Correspondent Sexually Assaulted in Egypt

Maine’s newest anti-choice legislation; Mike Huckabee wants you to forget you don’t have a job or health care and that the value of your house is plummeting – because the most important issue we face is legal abortion for women; CBS News correspondent is sexually assaulted while covering Egyptian protetsts and more.

Republican, male legislators in Maine don’t want to feel left out of the full, frontal assault on women, happening around the country! A host of anti-women’s health bills have been introduced mandating governmental intrusions into the physician-patient relationship, specifically when it comes to abortion care. From imposing a 24-hour waiting period before accessing abortion care to forcing a physician to read an anti-abortion, government-written script to a woman before she receives abortion care, the invasive nature of these laws are evident.

CBS News correspondent Lara Logan became the victim of “a brutal and sustained sexual assault” while in Egypt covering the protests over the reign of President Hosni Mubarak for a “60 Minutes” segment. Though very little information has been provided, thus far, CBS News offered a statement which noted that Logan was surrounded by a crushing mob of protestors, separated from her crew and then sexually assaulted before being saved by “a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”

Todd Heywood writes for the Michigan Messenger that anti-gay activists won’t give up on attempting to repeal a U.S. District Court decision that the Matthew Shephard and James Byrd, Jr. hate-crimes law is, in fact, constitutional as stands. They’ve now filed an appeal in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Right Wing Watch examines the growing support for Personhood laws. Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council is the lastest anti-choice extremist to prop up the movement. Personhood Amendments around the country have notoriously failed to win approval from voters and even faced the disapproval of other extreme anti-choice organizations. The movement is gaining traction now with new amendments being offered in states like Georgia and Florida and more prominent supporters being welcomed into the fold.