In May of 2018, a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) was called into the operating room to assist with a “surgery.” Upon arrival, she discoveredthat the “surgery” she had been called in to help with was in fact an abortion and that she had been lied to. Although she was on the hospital’s list of conscientious objectors who had made clear to the hospital that they were morally opposed to abortion and there were other nurses available who were not on the list, UVMMC staff refused to call in a replacement and she was faced with losing her job and possibly her license if she refused to participate.
In response to this clear violation of conscience rights, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in 2019 against the hospital, signaling their support for the religious freedom of healthcare workers. That changed in late July when the Biden administration quietly dropped the lawsuit, leaving the nurse with no further recourse.
If all goes as planned, the US military presence at Kabul International Airport will end on August 31, 2021. U.S. citizens and Afghan nationals who are eligible for transport out of the country have until that time (if they’re lucky enough to get through the Taliban cordon around the airport) to leave the country.
That’s why I'm sending out this urgent appeal. Do you know of any American citizens, for example missionaries, or Afghan citizens who are eligible for Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) to leave the country?
In this episode, Grace Evans interviews pastor Jeff Evans of the Church Ambassador Network (CAN). Pastor Jeff shares about CAN’s mission of bringing faithful pastors from around the state to visit the Capitol, meeting with legislators (regardless of party or policy), and praying for them along the lines of 1 Timothy 2:1-4. The beautiful truth is that the gospel builds bridges!
“Tying the knot sometimes means paying more in taxes,” warns the headline of an article cautioning newlyweds to be prepared for some potential surprises from the IRS when filing their taxes. But in many cases, policies that penalize marriage are more than simply an unpleasant surprise from the IRS. Marriage penalties, either in the form of increased taxes or loss of access to means-tested benefits, have harmful effects, especially on working-class families. Studies indicate that marriage penalties are associated with lower rates of marriage and higher rates of cohabitation. A 2016 report found that almost one-third of American adults knew someone who had not married for fear of losing means-tested benefits and that middle-class families with moderate education levels were the most likely to say that they knew someone who had not gotten married out of fear of losing welfare, Medicaid, or other benefits. Policies that penalize marriage are especially concerning as marriage rates have recently hit an all-time low and many couples are choosing cohabitation instead of marriage.
You have probably heard much about the so-called “infrastructure bill” over the past few weeks, culminating with its passage in the United States Senate just a couple of days ago. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for a vote. But did you know that the infrastructure bill isn’t just about highways, railroads, and broadband?
That’s right – tucked away in the bill are hidden provisions known as “SOGI language.” SOGI stands for “sexual orientation and gender identity.” The infrastructure bill, which just passed the Senate, proposes to elevate the SOGI groups to federally protected classes, even though those classes are poorly defined.
Another mask mandate? MN 4th graders are being given required “equity surveys” with questions about gender identity? Biological males competing against female Olympians? There’s so much to keep up with this week! Tune in to get the facts & stand for truth with your hosts, Grace Evans and Moses Bratrud.
Another mask mandate? MN 4th graders are being given required “equity surveys” with questions about gender identity? Biological males competing against female Olympians? There’s so much to keep up with this week! Tune in to get the facts & stand for truth with your hosts, Grace Evans and Moses Bratrud.
Columnist Tanya Gold recently lambasted a young writer who criticized proposed legislation that would have allowed abortion on demand for any reason up until birth in the U.K. In her op-ed Mercy Muroki described her experience with unplanned pregnancy in her teens and her decision not to abort. Tanya responded with her own story, insisting that for her, anything other than abortion would have been “impossible.” Chillingly, Tanya acknowledges that her abortion killed not a “clump of cells” but her baby. She writes,
How many women, do you think, walk into an abortion clinic not knowing what they are doing, and why? It’s not really a baby, say some pro-choice activists. It’s an, er, embryo. Of course, it’s a baby, and those having to make the decision know that better than anyone. I know that from my own experience. I don’t need people to tell me what I have done. It is always with me.
Tanya knows that her abortion took the life of her child. The abortion industry’s lies could not conceal that fact. In the aftermath, she is parroting the abortion industry’s talking points even as she struggles to live with what she claims was a choice she “had to make.”
“When I was 22, I had an abortion,” explains Tanya. “I was very sick, with alcoholism, and I didn’t know who the father was. I had no job, no money and no home of my own.” Reading those words, my computer screen blurred in front of me as my eyes filled with tears as I thought of how my sister’s birth mom was in almost the exact same situation when she found out she was pregnant. Battling mental illness and addiction, unsure of who the father was, aware that the child she was caring wouldbe born with disabilities, and knowing that she would not be able to raise her child, she chose life. I am forever grateful for that she didand I cannot read Tanya’s insistence that her abortion was “necessary” without thinking of how different my life would have been if my sister was not part of it.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday True North Legal, a legal initiative of Minnesota Family Council, filed an amicus brief in the upcoming United States Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which will be argued this fall, urging the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
True North Legal’s General Counsel Renee Carlson co-authored the brief with Professor Teresa Collett of the University of St. Thomas School of Law and Director of the Law School’s Prolife Center. Several allied groups joined as parties to the brief, namely former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom, The Family Leader (Iowa), the Center for Political Renewal, Family Heritage Alliance, and Nebraska Family Alliance.
The brief makes the case that the harms to women and families caused by current abortion law, beginning with Roe v. Wade in 1973, have not been fully addressed by the Court. It points to the relationship between statutory rape and abortion, in which abortion gives rapists, handlers, and others who hold a position of power over young women a way to cover up their crimes. As the brief states, “Roe and its progeny are the catalyst to these social atrocities, protecting men who would otherwise be criminally charged. Roe has turned statutory rape laws designed to protect young women into a license to cover up crimes against them.“
Join Moses Bratrud and Grace Evans for the 2nd episode of Minnesota Family Council's Family Beacon podcast. We called an abortion clinic - listen to the podcast to hear how that went!
Make sure you subscribe for new episodes every Friday, so you can cut through the noise, get the facts, and stand for TRUTH in our culture.
Parents and school board members in Russell County, Virginia rejected the Virginia Department of Education’s radical transgender policies in a unanimous vote last Friday.The policies were enacted by the VDOE after the Virginia legislature passed a bill mandating the change.However, as the Family Foundation of Virginia has pointed out,the policies required by the legislature present an unconstitutional attack on freedom of religion, free speech, parental rights, and the privacy and safety of students. The Family Foundation is also part of a lawsuit challenging the VDOE’s unconstitutional policies.
VDOE’s model policy would allow students to access restrooms and locker rooms on the basis of their “gender identity” rather than their biological sex, require students, teachers, and staff to refer to students using their “preferred pronouns,” disregarding any religious objections they may have, and event encourages schools to conceal information from the parents of students who are struggling with gender dysphoria and help students “transition” behind their parents’ backs. At a Russell County Board of Education meeting last month, parents pointed out that these policies are not rooted in science but are “a mandatory promotion of a sexualized agenda.”
Whole Women’s Health was one of the largest providers of abortion in Minnesota, at least until 2020. For at least six months in 2020, the state of Minnesota’s abortion report showed that Whole Women’s Health committed zero abortions.
Eagle-eyed pro-life activists, including Pro-Life Action Ministry’s Brian Gibson, quickly realized that couldn’t be true. After all, pro-life activists were outside Whole Women’s Health every day last year - they knew women had entered the premises to receive abortions.
Abortion reporting is taken seriously in Minnesota, with the potential of financial penalties for a late or inaccurate report. So did Whole Women’s Health fail to report accurate numbers? Or did the state garble the report?
I wanted to get information straight from the source, so I called Whole Women’s Heath. After a long day, I was finally able to get Jackie Dilworth, Director of Marketing and Communications for the abortion chain, to pick up the phone.
Below is our response to the Star Tribune’s recent claims on critical race theory in Minnesota schools. The article in question remains unaltered as of this writing.
To the editor,
Critical race theory is controversial because it makes race and racial oppression the central fact of American identity, threatening to divide Americans by color just as profoundly as Jim Crow-era legislation once did. This is the root of its deep unpopularity in the American electorate, and the reason why GOP operatives are making it a “wedge issue” in advance of the 2022 elections.
Moreover, critical race theory is not only found in academia. It has made its way even to local schools. How then can Star Tribune’s Briana Bierschbach state in the July 18th issue of the paper that “Critical race theory is not being taught in Minnesota's K-12 classrooms?” (“GOP teeing up critical race theory for midterms in Minnesota, across the nation”, July 17, 2021) The paper must clarify or retract this statement to avoid creating a false impression in its readers.
It’s a big day here at Minnesota Family Council! We know you want to stay informed on the big issues relating to life, family, and religious freedom, and that’s why we’re rolling out the new Family Beacon podcast, with new episodes every Friday, so you can cut through the noise, get the facts, and stand for TRUTH in our culture.
Directed by MFC’s Director of Communications, Moses Bratrud, the podcast stars pro-life student activist Grace Evans alongside Moses, going through the week’s big issues and applying a biblical understanding that our culture often lacks.
21 state attorneys general are calling out the Biden administration’s pro-LGBT policiesfor threatening religious freedom, freedom of speech, and privacy rights. In a letter sent to the administration last week, the attorneys general address the recent guidance issued by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission and the Department of Education expanding the definition of “sex” to include gender identity and sexual orientation in compliance with a January executive order from President Biden. The letter points out that States and individuals were not given any opportunity to submit feedback through the public comment process as the EEOC and Education Department finalized policies in response to a presidential executive order earlier this year. Instead, the guidance was issued unilaterally by the respective agencies.
Last year in Bostock v. Clayton County the Supreme Court redefined “sex” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include gender identity and sexual orientation. Immediately after taking office, President Biden issued an executive order requiring all federal agencies to adopt the Court’s sweeping redefinition of the word “sex and to implement policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity in their definition of sex-based discrimination.
A group of activists in Arkansas vandalized the 65-foot-tall Christ of the Ozarks statue with a “God Bless Abortions” banner last week. Members of the activist art group INDECLINE disguised themselves as construction workers and used pulleys to scale the statue and hang the 40-foot banner. “In Arkansas, there is only one 65-foot statue of Jesus. There is also only one abortion clinic,” the group wrote on Instagram in a post celebrating their act of vandalism. Two days later they posted a picture of a baby wearing a “God Bless Abortions” t-shirt announcing that the shirts were availableat their online store.
INDECLINE said in a statement that, "The project, entitled ‘God Bless Abortions,’ is in direct response to the dramatic attempts being made in Arkansas and throughout the South, to ban abortion services to women in need.” Women don’t need abortion and they certainly don’t needthe abortion industry’s lies. INDECLINE’s message completely ignores the women whose lives have been upended by the horror of abortion and the babies whose lives have been lost.
Christian Counselors and Minnesotans Oppose Governor Walz Overriding Legislature on So-Called “Conversion Therapy”
ST. PAUL – Governor Walz has announced his intention to override the Minnesota legislature’s lawmaking authority by issuing a ban on so-called “conversion therapy” via executive order this morning. This is a clear example of executive overreach that will infringe dangerously on the freedom of young people in Minnesota to seek the care that is appropriate for them.
This ban is a direct attack on individual choice in health care as well as on the constitutional rights of patients, families, and therapists. The governor’s ban could prevent patients from setting their own goals when addressing sexual orientation and gender identity, something they should be free to do.
“This executive order will not end so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ since professional standards in mental health care already did that years ago. Instead, this will ban young people experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria from getting the voluntary, compassionate care they need,” said John Helmberger, CEO of Minnesota Family Council. “In legislative hearings we’ve heard the courageous testimony of many men and women who have had great, life-changing experiences with this type of counseling. At the end of the day, the Governor’s actions will hurt patients seeking to get the care they want.”
On Tuesday, the Austin, Minnesota City Council voted to remove a member of the city’s Human Rights Commission, citing concerns over his views and his involvement with groups whose missions, according to the Human Rights Commission, do not align with the Commission’s values. One of the groups in question is Minnesota Family Council. Although members of the City Council and the Human Rights Council insisted that this is “not about politics” and also nothing against Mueller personally, their interviews and statements to the pressdid not offer specific critiques but instead mentioned vague concerns about his social media involvement and his views not aligning with the Human Rights Commission.
Which views might those be? In a statement to the City Council, Mueller shed some light on the matter saying,
I have served on the Human Rights Commission and throughout the community since moving back to the area without incident or issue until recently with no change in my actions, commitment to the community or attitudes to others. What has changed is that my wife was elected to the MN House of Representatives and now people who were once colleagues and community connections we supported have begun to attack my wife and now me over political differences.
According to Minnesota’s recently released annual abortion report,9,108 babies lost their lives to abortion in our state last year. The vast majority (79%) of those abortions were committed after fetal heartbeat was detectable and 45% of Minnesota’s abortions were paid for with taxpayer funds in 2020.
The fact that over 9,000 babies lost their lives to the gruesome practice of abortion is staggering and heartbreaking. But at the same time, there is hope. These are the lowest abortion numbers on record in Minnesota and represent an 8% drop from the previous year’s abortion numbers! Not only did 2020 see the lowest number of abortions on record, it also saw the lowest abortion rate on record at 7.6%. One child losing his life to abortion is too many, and we must continue to fight for life until abortion is illegal and unthinkable. The decline in abortion rates in Minnesota over the past three years is a hopeful sign that the pro-life movement is gaining ground and that life is being valued in our state!
A Minnesota school district agreed to a $218,500 settlement with a former student who claimed that she was discriminated againstwhen her school did not allow her to access the boys’ locker room and restroom. In 2015, Helene Woods’s daughter, who had begun using masculine pronouns and adopted the name Matt, informed officials at the Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose School District that she wanted to use the boys’ restroom and locker rooms. The school refused, instead arranging for “Matt” Woods to use a single-occupancy bathroom and changing room. This, however, did not solve the situation. In 2019, Helene Woods filed a lawsuit against the District on behalf of her daughter. This week the District agreed to a settlement in the case.
In a statement, the District said that it has not admitted to any wrongdoing. Nor should it! The school district took steps to accommodate Woods when she brought up her discomfort, and did so in a manner that did not compromise the privacy of other students. However, as part of the settlement, Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose School District agreed to policy changes that allow students access to bathrooms and locker rooms and compete on sports teams that match their self-professed “gender identity” rather than their biological sex.
