“You need to think about what’s best for her,” said the doctor as he pointed toward Cara Murtaugh’s three-year-old daughter, Aria, arguing that having a sibling with special needs might not be in Aria’s “best interest.” The past year has proven otherwise. In a recent Instagram post, Cara contrasted the doctor’s cynical, hopeless words with footage of Aria holding her baby brother Samuel as the two of them smiled and laughed. “Someone’s never been more wrong,” she said in another post.
Stories of doctors pressuring parents to abort children with disabilities are far too common. It is especially horrifying when a doctor insists that aborting a child is in the “best interest” of his or her siblings. By saying that aborting Samuel would be in Aria’s best interest, the doctor was arguing that Samuel needed to die in order to give Aria a more idyllic, carefree childhood. This is truly horrifying reasoning, and yet this is the logic of the abortion industry.
Marijuana is often presented as “harmless” but time and again this has been shown not to be the case. Most recently, a study from Stanford University found a correlation between marijuana legalization and increased self-harm, thoughts of suicide, and suicide attempts, especially in young men.
The study found that rates of self-harm and suicide attempts were higher in states that legalized recreational marijuana, and especially in states that commercialize the drug. “Advertising works,” Humphreys commented, pointing out that commercialization leads to increased use as the drug becomes easier to buy and more alluring, especially to young people. Humphreys acknowledged that cause and effect can be difficult to prove in any study, but given the significant correlation between recreational marijuana legalization and increased self-harm and suicide attempts, he said that the study’s findings should be taken into consideration when debating whether or not recreational marijuana should be legalized.
This week Arkansas made history by becoming the first state to protect children with gender dysphoria from puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mutilating sex-reassignment surgeries. On Monday, Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill, arguing that it abandons conservative principles of limited government. Thankfully, the legislature overrode his veto on Tuesday afternoon.
By claiming that this bill goes against conservative principles, Hutchinson disregards the seriousness of so-called “gender-affirming treatments” for children with gender dysphoria, which prevent the normal development that happens during puberty. These “treatments,” which often dismiss underlying mental health concerns, are experimental, and have dangerous side effects, leaving children chemically castrated. Chemical interventions are frequently followed by mutilating surgeries to create the appearance of opposite-sex genitalia, and double mastectomies have been performed on girls as young as 13.
“Limited government” does not mean that the government should allow experimentation on children, or that we cannot unequivocally say that it is wrong to tell a child that he or she was born in the wrong body. And “limited government” certainly does not mean that the government gets to abdicate its responsibility to protect children from abusive practices at the hands of adults.
Jack Phillips’s legal battles began in 2012 when he declined a request for a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding ceremony. After six years of legal battles, the Supreme Court granted him a narrow victory, ruling that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had treated him unfairly. A week ago, he was back in court, once again facing harassment from LGBT activists for acting in accordance with his religious convictions.
The day that the Supreme Court agreed to hear his case in 2017, Phillips received a request from Autumn Scardina, a man who identifies as a woman, for a cake celebrating Scardina’s gender “transition.” Phillips refused. Phillips has declined many other requests over the years, including cakes promoting racism, cakes with atheist messages, and cakes celebrating divorce. In other words, he has consistently stood for his beliefs and his principles, refusing to use his skills to create or promote messages that go against his beliefs.
33 students and former students of Christian colleges and Universities are suing the Department of Education in an effort to strong-arm religious schools into accepting and promoting the LGBT agenda. Although the Department of Education is technically the plaintiff, the real targets are religious colleges and universities. The complaintlists 25religious colleges and universities and has serious implications for all religious schoolsthat receive federal funds. The students, all of whom identify as LGBT, are alleging discrimination because the religious colleges and universities that they attended or applied for prohibited sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman and did not allow pro-LGBT student groups that were at odds with the school’s religious beliefs to be established on campus.
Most, but not all, of these colleges and universities are Christian schools and all of them maintainthese policies based on their deeply held and clearly stated religious beliefs concerning human sexuality. There is no reason whatsoever that these policies should have come as a surprise to these students. Each of these colleges and universities have made their stance on sexuality public for years. The students filing this lawsuit could easily have chosen to attend one of the myriads of schools that embrace the LGBT agenda. Demanding that religious colleges and universities either submit to the LGBT agenda or lose their funding is nothing other than a bully tactic to silence any and all disagreement.
Along with other pro-family organizations, Minnesota Family Council has released a letter urging South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) to withdraw her veto on South Dakota’s crucial legislation protecting women’s sports from biologically male athletes. Read the letter and see all signatories below:
Dear Governor Noem,
March 29, 2021
You recently announced your intent to form a “coalition to defend Title IX” in conjunction with your surprising decision to use a “style-and-form veto” on HB 1217, a bill that would ensure South Dakotan K- 12 and collegiate female athletes have a level playing field in their sports and that they have recourse against unfair policies that force them to compete against biological males.
We are already part of a large coalition defending female athletes across the country, and we are inviting you to join with us by supporting legislation that protects all women—kindergarten to college— and provides them with a legal remedy when their rights are violated, as HB 1217 does.
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.
