Seminarian Kelli Clement says she is not pro-choice "in spite of" her faith. Rather, her faith, she says, "instructs me to be pro-choice." She calls for deeper connections between religious liberals and the broader progressive community.

Anecdotal evidence is coming in that turnout in Minnesota is massive. Minneapolis-St. Paul suburbs Eagan and Edina are both reporting severe traffic jams heading into the DFL caucus sites, and Robin Marty of Minnesota Monitor is reporting that turnout at her caucus site is three times normal.

Johansson says Obama will bring a "great woman" to the White House – Michelle Obama.

At a Barack Obama rally in Northfield, Minnesota, actress Scarlett Johansson said, "I don't want to say nasty things about Hillary Clinton. I think she has a lot of good intentions." But the Lost in Translation star said she thought Obama would bring a different capable woman into the presidency.

"When we elect Barack Obama to the White House, we will have an amazing woman in the White House: Michelle Obama," said Johansson, drawing applause at the Carleton College rally.

Johansson said she'd been "star-struck" the first time she'd met Sen. Obama, and the first words she'd said to him were, "Hi, senator, I love your wife, it's so nice to meet you."

She said the next time they met, Obama told her, "I told my wife you love her." She groaned, and jokingly said, "Oh, good, you remember that dorky thing I said."

It's remarkable how political candidates with national aspirations suddenly start bypassing anti-abortion groups' events. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty sparked speculation by his unusual absence from this year's March for Life in Washington D.C.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has authored a new bill that would specifically authorize states to use Temporary Assistance to Needy Family (TANF) funds to provide "alternative-to-abortion" services. But abortion rights advocates say the measure would funnel money to anti-abortion advocacy groups.

2007 brought Minnesota good news for comprehensive sex education, bad news on a mandatory HPV vaccine, and the sobering news that Minnesota's abortion rate had risen, but little real progress.

The image of an eleven-year-old girl with her forty-year-old fiancé has been named photo of the year by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Mike Huckabee, a leading contender for the Republican party's presidential endorsement, signed a 1998 statement urging wives to "graciously submit to their husband's sacrificial leadership."

Are abstinence-only programs to blame for the recent increase in teen births in the U.S.?

Former Rep. Henry Hyde, best known as the author of the amendment that forbade the federal government for giving medical assistance to low-income women if it would be used to pay for an abortion, died yesterday at the age of 83.