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Republican state Rep. Ann Clemmer on Wednesday explained that Arkansas lawmakers were "not eliminating choice at all" by overriding Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of a ban on abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy.

"I really believe that we are not eliminating choice at all," Clemmer told KUAR. "We're just saying after 12 weeks, the choice is over. You have a choice for the first 12 weeks. That's almost three months. We're talking the second trimester here -- we're talking about second trimester abortions."

Benton also insisted to the public radio station that her bill, which is the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation, would not jeopardize women's health.

"I don't think that having an abortion aids a woman's health," she said. "I don't know under what circumstances having an abortion aids a woman's health because this bill deals with women who have serious health issues, this bill deals with babies who have lethal fetal disorders and it deals with rape and incest."

The Arkansas House on Wednesday overrode Beebe's veto by a vote of 56 to 33. The state Senate have voted to override it just one day earlier.

Before the vote, Clemmer argued that Republicans should support the abortion ban because state law declared "a 12-week-old baby in utero a person … [whose] life is to be protected not only from a third party, but from a mother herself."

A federal judge on Wednesday found for the first time that a 20-week abortion ban in Idaho was unconstitutional because it put "an absolute obstacle" the the path of women seeking abortions.

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You've got to love the kids stepping up like this in support of their teachers. More student protests, this time in Idaho.

Idaho Students Stage Walkout to Oppose Teacher Layoffs, Collective Bargaining Curbs:

AMY GOODMAN: I want to move now from Indiana—well, you’re in Illinois, but usually in Indiana—to Idaho, where hundreds of high school students walked out of classes to protest a plan to lay off public school teachers and curtail their rights to collective bargaining. One of the student leaders behind the walkout was Jonny Saunders, a 17-year-old debate student at Timberline High School in Boise. Jonny has become an internet sensation after a video was posted online of him speaking at a rally in Boise last month.

JONNY SAUNDERS: I know we have a tough time parting with our money to pay for teachers, and I know the dirty word here in this state is "taxes." I know we can’t afford to pay for our children’s future. I understand that. We’re all a too little caught up in buying another car to raise our taxes. I understand that. No, no, I get it.

RALLY AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah. Let’s not send our taxes out of state.

JONNY SAUNDERS: Yeah, let’s send them somewhere else. But the thing is that we need to pay for a society that we live in. Teaching is not just another job in this society; it’s the way our future is shaped, and it’s the way the next generation is raised.

AMY GOODMAN: That was 17-year-old high school student Jonny Saunders from Boise, Idaho, joining us now by Democracy Now! video stream. Why did you lead this walkout, Jonny?

JONNY SAUNDERS: Just a clarification: I didn’t necessarily lead the walkout. The project was a different student; it was Tyler Honsinger of Boise High, who started it. I just extended the branch over to my high school, at Timberline High. But the answer to why we started or why we necessarily had a walkout is to show that students, too, indeed oppose this bill and that there’s no real student that I’ve met that supports it, except for the students of businessmen or the students of parents that necessarily support it because it benefits their industry. The general attitude of students today is that we’re kind of caught in the crosshairs, so to speak, that we are being blamed by politicking senators that we are the ones that are being abused by our teachers or something like that. And we just wanted to show that it was our free will, and we chose to oppose the bill—it wasn’t the evil teachers that were brainwashing us—that we had read the bill, and we oppose what it said.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the education system? You talked about—you spoke against merit pay, which is a very—there’s a very big movement for this all over the country—saying the plan would ultimately lead to teachers only teaching to test. Why?

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Although I'm not a fan of "random idiot" stories, but this one might be reflective of deeper societal ills right now. It's also somewhat telling that the people in the clip don't seem that surprised.

Via KOMO news in Idaho.

HAYDEN, Idaho -- While most see the holiday season as one of joy and merrymaking, at least one Hayden, Idaho, resident is taking the opportunity to spread a little hate courtesy of a noose-carrying, KKK hood-wearing snowman on their front lawn, KXLY.com reported.

Several area parents first noticed the offensive snow sculpture, located in front of a home in the 9000 block of Hillview Drive, while taking their kids to school Tuesday morning.

The sculpture depicts a snowman with a pointed hat and an outstretched right hand with a noose in it. Residents in the neighborhood say the homeowners also have an Aryan Nations flag on display.

One resident said they were “appalled at the nerve they have to threaten people in our community with their signs of hatred,” adding that this is a season of love and hope, not hate.

The homeowner who had the offensive snow sculpture in front of his home is Mark, who was profiled by KXLY back in July for posting flags ranging from an Aryan Nations flag to an SS flag at his home, drawing the ire of his neighbors. Then in October he angered residents further when, according to neighbors, he passed out bullets on Halloween.

A self-described White Separatist, Mark, who declined to give his last name during an interview in July, said Tuesday there was nothing wrong with his snowman.