A Florida-based atheist organization has left approximately 5,900 various brochures, booklets, and books on secular views at several public high schools in the Sunshine State.

The Central Florida Freethought Community performed this action Thursday, leaving the literary products on tables in 11 high schools in Orange County.

David Williamson of the CFFC said in a statement that he organized the event in response to a similar one held by a conservative Christian group that distributed Bibles in the high schools in January. more >>

The Washington Post and New York Times rejected advertising revenue last week from the American Life League that wanted to buy full-page ads revealing sexually graphic images that Planned Parenthood distributes to children as young as 10.

Both publications deemed the images in the ad as being "too graphic" and "shocking" for their adult readers even though elementary school-aged children are exposed to the same pictures at schools that use Planned Parenthood's material for their sex education programs.

The images shown in the rejected advertisements came from a Planned Parenthood-endorsed book, titled It's Perfectly Normal, and two videos, titled The G-Spot: How Pregnancy Happens, and Sextionary: Clitoral Hood that are posted on YouTube and TeenWire.com. more >>

The Food and Drug Administration announced its approval of making Plan B or the "morning after" pill available for women as young as 15 years of age without a prescription.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg said in a statement Tuesday that the FDA approved an amended application by Teva Women's Health, Inc. to begin marketing Plan B to women 15 and older sans a prescription.

"Research has shown that access to emergency contraceptive products has the potential to further decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States," said Hamburg. more >>

Among various Christian groups in the United States, evangelicals were found to be the most "Christ-like," according to the findings of a recently released study on Christians.

Overseen by the Barna Group, the results, released Tuesday, showed that 23 percent of evangelical respondents exhibited both Christ-like actions and attitudes. The 23 percent number puts evangelicals above the other categories, which included "Practicing Protestant" (16 percent), "All Christians" (14 percent), "Practicing Catholic" (14 percent), "Non Evangelical Born Again Christians" (13 percent), and "Notional" (13 percent).

The findings were derived from 1,008 telephone interviews of which 718 respondents self-identified as Christian from Nov. 11 until Nov. 18, 2012. Respondents who identified themselves as Christian were asked 20 questions, ten of which compared their responses to Jesus' actions and attitudes and ten of which compared their responses to the Pharisees of the New Testament. more >>

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the nation's largest sponsor of the Boy Scouts of America, is being criticized for endorsing a BSA proposal that would allow gay youths to join local troops while continuing to exclude gay leaders.

"While the church has not launched any campaign either to effect (sic) or prevent a policy change, we have followed the discussion and are satisfied that BSA has made a thoughtful, good-faith effort to address issues that, as they have said, remain 'among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today,'" said a statement by the church.

The BSA has been considering a change to its current ban on open homosexuals. It released a proposal earlier this month that states: "No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone." While allowing gay members, the Scouts would at the same time maintain its gay ban when it comes to leadership. The BSA's National Council is scheduled to vote on changing its membership policy on May 23. more >>

A ban on gay therapy in New York has been proposed in a bill introduced on Friday, modeled after the 2012 California law that first banned the service.

The bill seeks to ban licensed therapists from helping minors change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual.

"There are often challenges to any manner of legislation that is protecting of the LGBT community and you can't sit on your hands and wait until things get resolved somewhere else," said Sen. Deborah Glick, a New York Democrat who proposed the bill alongside fellow Democrat Sen. Michael Gianaris. more >>