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.
Twitter has slapped Minnesota Family Council with a temporary suspension for referring to Dr. Rachel Levine, President Biden’s nominee for Assistant Health Secretary, as a “man who identifies as a woman.” Although this statement is undeniably true (Dr. Levine, originally Richard, changed his name to “Rachel” in 2012), Twitter appears to believe that this tweet is hate speech.
Let’s be clear: Rachel Levine is a man who identifies as a woman. There is no process by which a man can become a woman.Thus, saying that a transgender-identified person has not changed their biological sex is not ill will but simple fact. God’s beautiful creation means that each of us is male or female, and we must affirm this truth even as we respond compassionately and with Christlike love to people going through gender dysphoria.
Last week marked the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling. While pro-lifers across the nation grieved the loss of life brought about by the ruling, pro-abortion politicians took the occasion to celebrate abortion and promise its further expansion. President Biden issued a statement reiterating his campaign promise to codify Roe v. Wade into law, and here in Minnesota, pro-abortion DFL lawmakers marked the anniversary of Roe v. Wade by introducing a bill that grants a “fundamental right to abortion.” In a statement issued on Twitter on January 22, Representative Kelly Morrison lamented the conservative majority on the Supreme Court and announced she was introducing the Protect Reproductive Options Act.
Representatives Alice Hausman and Mike Freiberg have joined Morrison as co-authors of the Protect Reproductive Options Act. In addition to establishing a “fundamental right” to abortion, the bill would prohibit “interference with reproductive decision making” in the form of regulation, including regulation of facilities or services. Planned Parenthood released a statement last week praising the bill
As we enter 2021, we’ve taken some time to look back on our most popular blog posts from 2020 here on the Family Beacon. We are so grateful for everyone who supported our work and took a stand for life, family, and religious freedom in the past year!
1. No Joke: Saint Paul City Council to Consider Counseling Ban on April 1 Without Public Comment. In the middle of a statewide Stay at Home order, the Saint Paul City Council proposed a counseling ban limiting what a licensed counselor can say to a client who is struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria. The remote nature of the meeting prevented members of the public from speaking out against this infringement on free speech and government interference in counselor-client relationships. The city council voted to adopt the plan in June.
2. Attorney General Ellison Uses a Crisis to Promote Mail-Order Abortion. After Governor Tim Walz gave the abortion industry special treatment by exempting them from lockdowns, Attorney General Keith Ellison joined 20 other attorneys general in sending a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn requesting the removal of safety regulations on the abortion pill, ignoring the known dangers of chemical abortion.
We live in a sexually broken society. Increasingly, sex is divorced from marriage, marriage is redefined, children are taught that gender identity exists apart from biological realities, and our culture struggles to even acknowledge that men and women are different. It’s a tragedy and one that requires the church to respond. Writing at The Public Discourse, Timothy O’Malleyrecently observed that at least one aspect of this sexual brokenness, “hookup culture,” is not simply about sexual excess, but is driven by fear of commitment and vulnerability, anxiety over the future, and ultimately, hopelessness. O’Malley argues that this anxiety and fear create a greater willingness to engage in casual sex. Behind much of the brokenness of the world around us is fear and despair.
O’Malley points out that, in order to respond to this, we need to commit ourselves to a high view of marriage and family. He writes,
What if religious and conservative higher education ceased speaking about marriage and family life as an accomplishment and began to treat marriage and children as that which enable human flourishing and a meaningful future?
All too often, marriage and family are treated as something extra, rather than something that is essential. God’s design for marriage, family, and sexuality is not theicing on the cake but necessary to human flourishing and part of the bedrock of a strong and stable society.
Within hours of President Joe Biden’s inauguration yesterday, he signed an executive order advancing the transgender agenda. Expanding on last summer’s Bostock decision, which redefined “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, this order requires all federal agencies to accept this definition of sex in their policies against sex discrimination. When the Supreme Court ruled on Bostock, the majority held that “bathrooms, locker rooms or anything else of that kind” were questions for another day. Yesterday’s executive order makes these questions a pressing concern for today.
The order specifically states that Bostock’s definition of sex should be applied to Title IX as well as the Fair Housing Act. This will mean that federal policy will require male athletes who identify as female to be allowed to compete on girls’ sports teams, and that women’s shelters would not be allowed to deny housing to biological men who identify as women. The Biden administration has set a course to deny athletic opportunities to our nation’s girls, as well as disregard the safety and privacy of women and children.
Earlier today, Joseph R. Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Many of our fellow citizens are celebrating, and even gleeful. Still others are mourning, worried, perhaps even fearful.
I am neither of those things. Instead, I have resolved to strive to be three things, and I would like to invite all believers to join me in those today.
I am resolved to be hopeful—not because of who sits in the White House, but because of Who sits on the throne of Heaven. All governing authorities on Earth are subject to our God as the governing Authority. If I place my hope in any political leader of any party, I will always be disappointed. If I place my hope in Christ alone, I will never be disappointed.
What’s more, His light usually shines brightest in the darkest places.
I am resolved to be faithful. I think often about the book of Daniel, and specifically this verse: “The people who know their God will stand firm and take action,” (Daniel 11:32b). Daniel is a beautiful example of a faithful servant of God who obeyed every command of his governing authority, the king – except one command. In other words, he rendered unto Caesar everything that was Caesar’s. But when the king tried to take what was God’s (Daniel’s worship), Daniel had no choice except to disobey the king in order to obey God. And God blessed him and cared for him.
It’s the New Year! My team and I are rejoicing in God’s goodness to us in many ways in the year now behind us, despite the extraordinary challenges and disruptions we’ve all faced, as we look ahead to what He has in store for us in 2021.
Many contemplate what’s ahead this year, including inevitable challenges and difficulties, with anxiety or even dread. But not us. There are definitely challenges for us, like everyone else, but we view them as opportunities to “shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life”, something the world around us desperately needs (Philippians 2:15-16).
But here’s the thing about shining as lights in a world that urgently needs that light: we shine as long as, and only as long as, we hold fast to God’s Word, “the word of life.” If we’re holding fast, we’re shining; if we’re not holding fast, we’re not shining. It’s that simple.
On Wednesday, January 6th, Congress certified Joe Biden’s election to the US Presidency. Naturally, this raises the question: What will the Biden administration look like?
To be sure, the next four years promise to be much like the Obama years. However, the national mood is much different. And, because the House will be controlled by Democrats and the Senate is split 50-50, Congressional leadership (such as Nancy Pelosi) will be likely to push for very left-leaning proposals.
What’s on the agenda of Biden and the Left? Here’s our best analysis.
The Hyde Amendment
Since 1976, the federal Hyde amendment has prevented taxpayer dollars from funding most abortions in government programs like Medicaid. It is responsible for many lives saved and taxpayer dollars prevented from funding abortion.
Since 2016, the Democrat Party has included the repeal of the Hyde Amendment in its national platform. Their goal is to implement taxpayer funding of abortion nationwide. While Joe Biden had historically been a longtime supporter of the Hyde Amendment, he flip-flopped in a 2020 election year appeal to his liberal base and he now supports its repeal – essentially advocating for publicly funded abortion.
Contrary to the abortion lobby’s claims, laws restricting abortions really do decrease abortion rates and recent research coming out of Texas confirms this. A recent study that was presented by the media and the abortionindustry as “proof” that a temporary abortion ban led to increased second-trimester abortion rates once the ban was lifted actually showed that abortion rates declined due to the ban.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Texas governor Greg Abbott issued an order putting non-essential and non-urgent medical procedures on hold, including most abortions. A recently released study argued that this move led to an increase in second-trimester abortions after the fact, citing the fact that second-trimester abortions increased by 61% once the ban was lifted. However, as Michael J. New pointed out at National Review, a closer look at the evidence tells a different story. New points out that the study shows that significantly fewer second-trimester abortions took place in February and March of 2020 than February and March of the previous year and that the total number of second-trimester abortions from February to May had decreased compared to 2019. Far from increasing abortion rates, Texas’s ban reduced the number of second trimester abortions performed in Texas in the spring of 2020. Not only that, but the number of abortions performed on Texas women in other states decreased by 8%, calling into question the claim that women will simply travel out of state to get an abortion when it is banned in their state.
Yesterday, in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court reinstated FDA regulations on the abortion pill, reversing a lower court’s decision to waive FDA regulations and allow mail-order abortions during COVID-19.
Last year, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion advocates demanded that FDA safety regulations on the abortion pill be suspended, arguing that they were unduly burdensome. The abortion pill regimenis regulated under the FDA’s Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy (REMS) protocol. Under thisprotocol, a chemical abortion cannot be obtained without a physical examination, and the first of the two pills must be taken in the presence of a physician. In July, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang accepted the abortion lobby’s demands and waived the FDA’s in-person requirement, disregarding the safety of women.
As the days count down to the presidential inauguration on January 20th, the FBI believes that there are credible threats of violence in St. Paul, Washington D.C., and in state capitals around the country this weekend. The anti-government Boogaloo group has reportedly been scouting law enforcement arrangements at the Capitol in St. Paul. Security has been ramped up. National Guardsmen from Minnesota will be on patrol to keep people safe - some in St. Paul, and some in Washington D.C.
The atmosphere is, in some ways, reminiscent of last summer, when widespread riots also led to Minnesota’s National Guard being called up.
In the midst of hatred, violence, and division, where can we turn?
First and foremost, let us pray. Let us pray for peace in our nation, and peace in our hearts, and peace with our neighbors. Let us remember that “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20), that we are called to “pursue what makes for peace” (Romans 14:19), and to practice “citizenship worthy of the Gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27).
When things started looking bleak on the morning of November 4th, conservatives held tightly to one comfort: At least we have the Senate. Two long and punishing months later, even that consolation is slipping away. Pro-lifers -- despite truly incredible gains in the House -- are on the verge of two tough years in the minority in both chambers of the U.S. Congress. It isn't the script any of us would have written for the country we love. But as those of us who've lived through the long arc of this movement know: it isn't the closing chapter either.
Disappointment has been a familiar friend to a lot of Americans these last several weeks. More than anything, we just want something to go our way -- a court case, a congressional challenge, a win. With the November election, and again this week in Georgia, a win for the pro-life movement didn’t materialize. But if it doesn't, this isn't the end. Not by a long shot. Are there harsh realities in store for our country? No question about it. But it's how we respond -- as believers and as Americans -- that will ultimately decide this nation's fate. Not a new president, new House, or new Senate.
Success, Winston Churchill reminded people, is not final. Failure is not fatal. It stings -- but it should also motivate. Conservatives, remember, have been here before. The most recent time, in 2009, the political hole was much deeper. More than a decade ago, when President Barack Obama was sworn in, Democrats controlled both chambers of 27 state legislatures. Eight years later, that number was cut in half to 13. And Obama may have ushered in a 60-seat majority in the Senate and a 257-seat majority in the House, but two years later, he lost 63 of those House seats to Republicans -- and by his second term, both chambers were taken over by the GOP. In politics, nothing is forever.
In a recently approved rule package for the 117th Congress, passed along partisan lines, the House of Representatives has House adopted “gender-neutral” language in the name of “diversity and inclusion.” The document removes sex-specific terms, replacing words like “father” and “mother” with “parent,” “aunt” and “uncle” with “parent’s sibling” and so on, attempting to erase the way that the differences between the sexes shape these relationships.
The push for “gender-neutral” language matters because words are never “just” words. Words are how we communicate with and about the world around us, and it’s important that the words we use tell the truth about the world. If they don’t, then we put ourselves at odds with reality. Insisting on “gender-neutral” language implies that humans are essentially “gender-neutral.” This simply is not the case. A person’s “true self” cannot be separated from their biological sex. To be a human is to have a body and to have a body is to be either male or female. We cannot deny this without denying reality itself.
Remember and fight. That’s what Nehemiah called the remnant of Judah to do as they faced staunch opposition in their effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. More specifically…
“Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” - Nehemiah 4:14b
My team and I are determined to do both of these things – remember and fight – as we engage in the vital work of rebuilding our culture.
And like Nehemiah, we cannot do it alone. Nehemiah asked God to bless his endeavor and called on the people of Jerusalem to participate in the actual labor. And the people responded with great enthusiasm because they believed in the work.
A few of our most loyal supporters have come together to create a matching gift opportunity through the end of the year. Because of their generosity, all gifts received by January 8th will be matched, up to $60,000!
