Abortionists and their allies are attacking a recent pro-life law in Ohio that requires the dignified treatment of the remains of babies who have been killed by abortion. Abortionists object to these laws because they draw attention to the reality of abortion by affirming the humanity of unborn children. Because all humans are created in the image of God, the human body ought to be treated with dignity and respect, even after death, regardless of how that person died. This means that aborted babies should never be thrown away, but should be given a proper burial or cremation.
When considering the staggering human cost of abortion, one question that is sometimes overlooked is what happens to those babies after they are aborted. As one pro-lifer asked, “What do you do with 65 million bodies?” In some cases, abortionists like Kermit Gosnell and Ulrich Klopfer have hoarded the bodies of their victims as trophies, or, as the 2015 undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood revealed, body parts are illegally sold for profit. In many cases, though, the bodies of babies who have been killed in abortion are thrown away as “medical waste.” Several stateshave moved to change that, passing laws requiring that abortion victims’ remains be either buried or cremated.
The so-called Equality Act is continuing to make its way through Congress — after passing the House last month, it was heard this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has used Senate Rule 14, which allows the Act to be brought to the Senate floor without committee hearings. The Equality Act is a serious threat to the safety and privacy of women and children, the lives of unborn babies, the health and welfare of children and adultswith gender dysphoria, and the First Amendment rights of Americans everywhere.
Defenders of the Equality Act have consistently dismissed religious freedom concerns as alarmist. But the Equality Act, by specifically excluding itself from the religious freedom safeguards in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, would force faith-based foster care and adoption agenciestoeither stop practicing in accordance with their religious beliefs or close their doors altogether, would attempt to bully private religious schools into touting the LGBT agenda, and would threaten conscience protections for healthcare providers and religious hospitals. This Act would be disastrous for religious freedom.
On Tuesday the Minnesota Senate Health and Human Services Committee advanced a pro-life bill subjecting abortion facilities to licensure and inspection requirements.This bill would require any facility that commits 10 or more abortions per month to be licensed by the health commissioner in order to operate. To be licensed, the abortion facility would be required to pass an inspection at least once every two years. The bill would also allow the attorney general, a county attorney, or a woman upon whom an abortion has been performedat an unlicensed facility to seek an injunction against that facility.
There is no good reason that abortion facilities should not be subject to these licensure requirements and routine inspections. Until abortion facilities can be completely shut down, they should be subject to rigorous licensure requirements and routine inspections. Perhaps these inspections would prevent the sort of situation that caused an Alabama woman to die from a botched abortion this week. The abortion industry has consistently demonstrated their disregard for women’s health and safety. This bill would hold them to account by requiring them to comply with licensing standards
A year ago this week was when the pandemic really hit home for many Americans, spurred by rising cases and a flurry of Stay at Home orders. But March 2021 is looking a lot different, and nothing makes that more evident than an (almost) complete lifting of COVID restrictions on churches, announced today by Governor Tim Walz and taking effect on Monday, March 15.
All capacity restrictions on church services have been lifted, so churches can meet without any restrictions except for (1) mandatory use of masks, (2) capacity for social distancing, and (3) a COVID-19 preparedness plan in place. Singing is permitted, although food or drink (other than Communion) are still prohibited. Get more details here.
Throughout the pandemic, churches, denominations, and Minnesota Family Council have all placed firm but respectful pressure on Governor Walz to respect religious freedom and trust churches to gather safely. This has paid off: for the last few months, religious services have been less restricted than other similar events, because churches have First Amendment protections. In fact, churches and other places of worship are the only venues to have capacity restrictions lifted entirely at this time. Religious freedom is winning!
Dr. Thomas Steensma is a Dutch doctor who has long advocated for “treating” children with gender dysphoria by putting them on puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones. Now, roughly a decade after his much-cited study advocating for the “Dutch Protocol” was released,Dr. Steensma is concerned. “The rest of the world is blindly adopting our research,” he told a Dutch media outlet recently.
Medical experimentation on children ought to be universally rejected, but shockingly, it is quickly becoming unquestionable. Partially to blame for this development is the “Dutch Protocol” which encourages doctors to give minors with gender dysphoria puberty-blockers followed by cross-sex hormones. Steensma’s study, arguing that this was in the best interest of children, played a significant role in popularizing this approach. Recently, Steensma has begun urging caution, saying that more research is needed.
On Thursday, President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion COVID-relief bill known as the “American Rescue Pan.” The bill has rightly been criticized as a “blue state bailout” and leaves out key pro-life provisions. It allocates $390 million simply to carry out the administrative costs of the legislation, while less than 9 percent of the $1.9 trillion will be going toward directly addressing COVID-19 through public health spending. One bright spot in an otherwise terrible bill is the expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC), a change that will benefit millions of families by helping them to prioritize their children.
This temporary change will expand the CTC from $2,000 annually to $3,000 per child between the ages of 6 and 17 and $3,600 per child under the age of six during the 2021 tax year. This will be a fully refundable tax credit, meaning that if the credit exceeds the amount of taxes owed, families will receive a refund.
As the Supreme Court prepares to decide the fate of religious foster care and adoption agencies in Fulton v. Philadelphia, Bethany Christian Services, the nation’s largest foster care and adoption agency, has announced that they will begin placing children with LGBT couples. This follows Bethany’s decision to avoid the legal fight for religious freedom by quietly choosing to place children with LGBT couples in states thatrefuse to work with religious agencies that hold to biblical sexual ethics. Now they have decided to make it their policy nationwide to place children with LGBT couples.
For many years, Bethany stated that they believed that “God’s design for the family is a covenant and lifelong marriage of one man and one woman.” This statement reflecting God’s design for the family was removed from their website in January. Speaking to the New York Times, Bethany’s senior vice president for public and government affairs, Nathan Bult, emphasized that Bethany’s board, which saw the departure of more than one of their more conservative members since 2018, now consists of members who have “diverse personal views on sexuality.”
Last month Planned Parenthood released their 2019-20 report.The abortion giant’s report says a lot about their priorities and those priorities are not good for anyone except the abortion industry. Between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019, Planned Parenthood committed 354,871 abortions, over 9,000 more than they committed the previous year. As we recently noted,Planned Parenthood has also expanded into the area of “gender medicine” with 200 locations providing cross-sex hormones.
The 2019-20 fiscal year was profitable for Planned Parenthood, with their report revealing over $2 billion in net assets, up from $1.9 billion the previous year. Meanwhile, their super PAC spent $45 million in the 2020 elections. As they thrive financially and spend money supporting radical pro-abortion candidates, real services provided to women continue to decrease. They provided 23,000 fewer breast screenings and pap tests than they did the previous year, and 4,700 fewer well-woman exams.
Remember when Minnesota Family Council was suspended from Twitter for a week for correctly identifying Dr. Rachel Levine as a man who identifies as a woman? This week it was Senator Rand Paul's (R-KY) turn to attract heat for asking Dr. Levine a perfectly reasonable question during his hearings to be confirmed as Deputy HHS Secretary.
SENATOR PAUL: Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one’s sex?
DR. LEVINE: Well, Senator thank you for your interest in this question. Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed. And if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Health, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine.
Not content with evading the question once, Levine refused to answer when the question was put again, repeating almost the exact same non-answer.
Wow! We're amazed that thousands of Minnesotans took action on the three action alerts we sent out on Monday. I want to give you an update on the three major threats to life, family, and religious freedom that we saw unfold this week. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called “Equality Act,” two Senate Committees held confirmation hearings for President Biden’s HHS nominee, Xavier Becerra, who is known for using his position as California Attorney General to attack the pro-life movement, and here in Minnesota, another hearing on a bill mandating “comprehensive” sex education in K-12 classrooms across the state moved that piece of legislation forward.
1. The Inequality Act
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Equality Act, which, if it passes the Senate, would make sexual orientation and gender identity a protected status under the Civil Rights Act. By equating subjective, fluid, and invisible qualities like sexual orientation and gender identity with race and ethnicity, this act presents a serious threat to religious freedom, free speech, and conscience rights. Additionally, it radically expands abortion “rights,” threatens the safety and privacy of women and children, and would destroy opportunities for female athletes.
Recent research from Gallup found that 5.6% of the US population identifies as LGBT, representing a 4.5% increase from 2017, the last year that Gallup collected data on this. Gallup Research points out that one of the reasons for this rise is that Generation Z is more likely to identify as LGBT than older generations. Currently, one in six Gen Zers identify as LGBT.
Of that one in six, 72% say that they are bisexual. Abigail Shrier has pointed out the way that LGBT-affirming curriculum in schools often reduces maleness and femaleness to rigid stereotypes, leading many students to embrace an LGBT identity because they do not feel like they fit those stereotypes. Shrier writes,
All this purported education encourages adolescents to focus relentlessly on their own gender identities and sexual orientations. It encourages students to look constantly for landmark feelings or impulses, anything that might point toward “genderfluid,” “genderqueer,” “asexual,” or “non-binary.” And it encourages the subtle formation of two camps: us and them. The imaginary divide between those who fit perfectly into cartoonish gender stereotypes and those who don’t. The dauntless young, who welcome different gender identities and sexual orientations, versus their phobic elders, who don’t.
When male and female are reduced to cartoonish stereotypes and students are encouraged to constantly question their identity andsexuality, students are likely to fixate on the slightest indication that they might be LGBT, even if they are attracted to members of the opposite sex. Given this, it’s not surprising that nearly three-quarters of young adults who identify as LGBT describe themselves as bisexual.
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on House Resolution 5 (H.R. 5), the so-called “Equality Act,”a measure that will have disastrous consequences for women, children, people of faith – all Americans.
H.R. 5 adds the legally undefined “sexual orientation and gender identity” (SOGI) to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal non-discrimination laws. The bill redefines “sex” to no longer mean the biological “male or female.” Instead, “sex” would include sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
H.R. 5 brings the police power of the federal government against those who believe the biological truth of God's design, that "male and female He created them" (Genesis 5:2). The bill labels Christian beliefs about marriage, sexuality, and family “discriminatory.” It empowers the federal government to punish disagreement on this important issue.
This dangerous bill provides no religious exemptions. In fact, it explicitly exempts the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as a defense for violations.
In the past twelve months, COVID-19-related lockdowns and school closures have highlighted education achievement gaps throughout Minnesota and brought increased attention to the struggles facing families in failing public schools. In response to this, Minnesota lawmakers recently proposed an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution stating that all children have a “fundamental right” to a public education. Unfortunately, the proposed amendment offers no real solutions but instead threatens parental rights in Minnesota and doubles down on failed educational policies by providing legal pressure to pour more taxpayer funding into them.
Proposed by retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and Minneapolis Federal Reserve head Neel Kashkari, the Page Amendment would add a right to a public educationin the Minnesota Constitution. Currently, Minnesota’s constitution says,
The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thorough and efficient system of public schools throughout the state.
The Page Amendment would replace this with,
All children have a fundamental right to a quality public education that fully prepares them with the skills necessary for participation in the economy, our democracy, and society, as measured against uniform achievement standards set forth by the state. It is a paramount duty of the state to ensure quality public schools that fulfill this fundamental right.
Pro-abortion lawmakers in Congress recently called on the FDA to lift abortion pill safety requirements.This comes after the Supreme Court’s January decision ending months of back-and-forth over the attempt to deregulate the abortion pill amid pandemic-related lockdowns.Because of their known risks, chemical abortions are regulated under the FDA’s Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy (REMS) protocol. Among other things, this means that women cannot obtain abortion pills without an in-person examinationand the first of the two pills must be taken in the presence of a medical provider.
After the Court determined that the state did not have the authority to waive these guidelines, pandemic or no pandemic, members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee sent a letter to the FDA petitioning them to remove abortion pill safety requirements.
It is no secret that Planned Parenthood has a history of disregarding human life and dignity.While committing over 300,000 abortions per year,the abortion giant has been caught injuring women disregarding their safety, aiding sex-traffickers,and profiting off of the body parts of unborn babies who have been killed in abortions, when they are not disposing of those babies as medical waste.Planned Parenthood’s recent expansion into “gender medicine” once again demonstrates their willingness to put profits over people as they dole out harmful “treatments” to teenagers with almost no questions asked.
Abigail Shrier recently wrote that about her interactions with a former Planned Parenthood “reproductive health assistant” whose job was to screen patients and take down their health history. The former employee told Shrier, “[Planned Parenthood’s] recent roles in trans activism are abhorrent,” explaining that during her 18 months working for Planned Parenthood, an average of 1-2 girls arrived at the clinic seeking testosterone every day.
Minnesota’s students deserve better than “comprehensive” sex education (CSE) in their K-12 classrooms, and yet, there is once again a push to mandate it throughout the state. Representative Sydney Jordan recently introduced H.F. 358, a bill that would require the development and implementation of a CSE curriculum in K-12 schools. The bill is expected to pass the House Education Policy Committee during tomorrow’s hearing, though there is a chance it could be tabled.
There isn’t one set definition for CSE, but in general, CSE includes information and classroom discussion on gender identity, sexual expression, sex practices, and abortion access. Examples of CSE curriculum which have been proposed or adopted have included programs that begin sex-ed in kindergarten, lessons designed for middle-schoolers involving sexual role-playing, detailed descriptions of sexual acts, and a book called It’s Perfectly Normal, with illustrations so explicit that they were censored by Facebook.
On February 3, the Minnesota Senate Education Policy Committee heard SF 96, the Save Women’s Sports Bill. Under state and federal law, the legislature has a duty to protect female athletes from unfair discriminatory practices throughout the state. SF 96 does just that, resolving misguided policies regarding eligibility for K-12 athletes. Since 2014 organizations and individuals in Minnesota have aggressively asserted that male athletes have a right to play on female sports teams – which is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution as well as federal and state law, specifically protections afforded to students in Title IX. And, based on President Biden’s very first Executive Order, SF 96 is now a necessity if women’s sports are to continue.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation. This order amounts to an attack on biology that will severely affect women and girls. Let’s be clear: any and all forms of discrimination are wrong and we should work toward resolution. However, in the name of equality this executive order discriminates against nearly half of the population – women – by requiring the head of each federal agency, in consultation with the Attorney General, to “revise, suspend, or rescind such agency actions, or promulgate new agency actions, as necessary to fully implement statutes” that contradict current legal protections against sex discrimination.
On Wednesday, Senator Carrie Ruud’s bill to protect girls’ sports here in Minnesota was heard by the Education Finance and Policy Committee. The bill clarifies Title IX and existing Minnesota laws that protect opportunities for girls in sports, stating that a school that allows a male athlete to compete in women’s or girls’ athletic events is in violation of these provisions. Senator Ruud explained that she graduated from high school prior to the passage of Title IX and experienced firsthand the lack of athletic opportunities for young women. “If we continue to allow biological males to play on girls’ sports teams, we will no longer have female athletes and the very thing we fought for… in Title IX will be gone,” she said.
Beth Stelzer, founder of Save Women’s Sports, testified in support of the bill, sharing about her experience competing in USA Powerlifting, which is currently being sued because they did not allow a biological male to compete in the women’s division at the Minnesota State Bench Press Championship in 2019.“Fairness, privacy, and safety for females must be ensured and protected, and like most women, I would never have started my fitness journey if I would have to compete against males. There would have been no point. I’m sure my teenage self would have felt the same way,” Stelzer told the committee.
According to recent polling data from Marist, even though the majority of respondents described themselves as “pro-choice,” a majority of Americans support significant restrictions on abortion. As President Biden, congressional democrats, and pro-abortion lawmakers in many statespush for radical abortion laws, they are increasingly out of step with the American public. Three-quarters of the Marist’s respondents were in favor of significant restrictions on abortion, including 55% of respondents who described themselves as “pro-choice.”
Marist’s data also found that 65% of Americans oppose or strongly oppose taxpayer-funded abortions, and 77% oppose the use of U.S. tax dollars to pay for abortions in other nations. Just over a week after he took office, President Biden reversed the Mexico City Policy, which prevented the funding of abortions overseas. He and his allies in Congress have also set their sights on ending the Hyde Amendment, a pro-life rider that prevents federal funds from being spent on abortion. Based on Marist’s data, the Hyde Amendment and the Mexico City Policy are supported by the majority of Americans. Similarly, according to Marist, only 15% of Americans support abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, yet the recent push to codify Roe v. Wade would do just that. The radical pro-abortion policies being championed by President Biden and his political allies are not only unspeakable wrong, they are also incredibly unpopular.
Following up on his campaign promises to radically advance the abortion lobby’s agenda, President Biden has reversed the Mexico City Policy and rolled back the Title X Protect Life Rule. This means that U.S. taxpayer dollars will once again be used to pay for abortions in nations that receive aid from the United States, and will also be given to abortion businesses here in the U.S. via the Title X program.
The Mexico City Policy has been implementedby pro-life Presidents since the 1980sto prevent federal funding of non-government organizations (NGOs) that perform or promote abortions. Under the Trump administration, this policy was expanded so that it applied not just to USAID, but to any federal agency that distributes foreign health assistance. President Biden’s order reverses this, allowing taxpayer dollars to be used to export abortion to developing countries.
This orderalso rolls back a rule blocking Title X funds from going to abortion providers and prohibiting Title X recipients from referring patients to abortion providers. The Title X Family Planning program is intended to offer assistance to low-income and uninsured women and families. From 2013 to 2015, Planned Parenthood received $1.5 billion in federal funds through the Title X program. The Protect Life Rule prevented this from continuing and instead supported providers who do not offer or refer for abortion. Yesterday’s executive order means that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers will once again be able to receive these funds.
