Good Morning!
“In any moment of decision,” wrote Theodore Roosevelt, “the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
We applaud pro-life leaders and lawmakers willing to do the right thing:
- Graham introduces nationwide 15-week abortion ban legislation
From The Hill:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday introduced a bill that would ban abortions nationally after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The bill comes three months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion and marks the most serious effort by Republicans in Congress to pass a nationwide abortion restriction.
“I think we should have a law at the federal level that would say after 15 weeks, no abortion on demand except in cases of rape, incest and save the life of a mother. And that should be where America’s at,” Graham said during a press conference.
The proposal also comes just two months before the midterm elections. Republicans in battleground states are trying to navigate a growing voter backlash to the Supreme Court decision while also appealing to the party’s base that’s pushing for immediate action on imposing total abortion bans.
RELATED:
West Virginia Passes Near-Total Abortion Ban
From the Wall Street Journal:
West Virginia lawmakers on Tuesday passed a ban on nearly all abortions, the second state legislature to approve new restrictions since the Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional right to an abortion.
The first abortion ban passed after Roe takes effect Thursday in Indiana
From NPR:
The first new abortion ban passed by a state legislature since the overturning of Roe v. Wade this summer is set to take effect Thursday in Indiana.
Hungary decrees tighter abortion rules
From the BBC:
Hungary’s government has tightened its abortion rules, which will make the process of pursuing a termination more bureaucratic for pregnant women.
2. Seattle-Pacific University’s Students and Faculty Sue to Force it to Abandon Christian Beliefs
From the Daily Citizen:
Same-sex “marriage” was at one time sold to the American public as harmless.
“How is my gay marriage going to harm you?” was the constant refrain repeated over and over again, ultimately culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court calling it a constitutional “right” in 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges.
It was good marketing, but the question was always disingenuous. And it didn’t take long for the question to be answered.
Fast forward a few years since Obergefell, and now, Seattle-Pacific University (SPU), a Christian educational institution in Seattle, founded by and affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, is being sued by a group of its own students and faculty for adhering to biblical standards concerning marriage and human sexuality when it comes to hiring faculty.
Did you catch that? A group of students and faculty, who voluntarily chose to either study at or teach at a Christian school, want to force the school to abandon core Christian standards about marriage.
The lawsuit seeks to force the school’s board of trustees, who are called “rogue” and other bad names by the plaintiffs, to stop adhering to the Bible and start hiring LGBT-identified teachers. Previous trustees, who permitted LGBT faculty to be hired, are called “loyal” trustees in the lawsuit.
“Loyal” to what?
The lawsuit’s allegations are so over-the-top they would be funny, if they weren’t part of an effort to punish a Christian school for being, well, Christian.
RELATED:
Newsom Announces Abortion Website
From the Daily Wire:
California has started a new abortion website for residents and out-of-state women to provide more information about abortion clinics in an to attempt to make the state increasingly abortion-friendly.
In his most recent action going after Republican-led states with pro-life legislation, Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom announced the beginning of the website on Tuesday.
3. How to Defeat Gender Ideology, Protect Children and End ‘Trans America’
From the Daily Citizen:
Scores of attendees to the National Conservativism Conference in Miami, Florida, gathered recently to hear four experts speak on a panel titled “Trans America.”
What followed served as a wakeup call to Americans of all stripes, from both political parties, on how “gender ideology” has already irreversibly harmed thousands of children nationwide and will harm hundreds of thousands more if it isn’t stopped. If we don’t stop it.
First to speak was Jay W. Richards, director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family and William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
“Gender ideology is so extreme, so anti-human and anti-body and anti-biology that people tend to think that they must be misunderstanding this,” Richards said. “But this is a major and civilization-determining reality because of its effects on children” (emphasis added).
Richards explained that gender dysphoria, the clinical term for the condition where an individual who has a psychological feeling that they are in the wrong body, has been around for a long time. However, he said that historically, it has been limited to pre-pubescent boys and 40-year-old (or older) men.
Recently however, there has been a rise in what has been termed “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD). This term is used to describe adolescent and teenage boys and girls who for all their childhood, never displayed symptoms of gender dysphoria. But suddenly, paraphrasing Richards, these teenagers come home from school and declare to their parents that they think that they are the opposite sex.
How common has ROGD become?
Richards explained:
- In 2007, there was one pediatric gender clinic in the United States. There are now over 100, plus an additional 300 Planned Parenthood clinics which distribute cross-sex hormones.
- Tavistock Clinic, which until recently was the United Kingdom’s only dedicated gender identity clinic (it has since closed down) saw a 4,400% increase in youth with ROGD from 2009 to 2019.
“We’re clearly dealing with some kind of profound social contagion and it’s affecting children and it’s coming at them from two directions,” Richards said. “It’s coming at them from schools, teachers and school counselors, and from social media.”
RELATED:
Miami-Dade School Board Rejects October As ‘LGBT History Month’ by 8-1 Vote
From the Daily Citizen:
Last week, the Miami-Dade School Board faced a room full of very concerned parents and voted 8-1 against declaring October 2022 “LGBTQ History Month.” The measure would have included teaching all area public school children the “virtues” of alternative sexualities and genders.
The only board member to vote for the recognition this year was its sponsor, Lucia Baez-Geller. Politico reported that when Baez-Geller explained at the school board meeting that, “This item does not indoctrinate students, it does not force an agenda on students,” her explanation stirred audible “groans from the audience.” Baez-Geller continued, “And, as was stated incorrectly, this item does not take away parental choice.” The parents were clearly not buying this assurance.
Politico also explained “many other speakers lined up in opposition to the proposed resolution, claiming that it undermines the rights of parents and their religious liberties” adding these parents said it “was a ‘sleazy’ way to circumvent Florida’s parental rights law.”
This is referring to Florida HB 1557, deceptively referred to by elite media outlets as the “Don’t Say Gay law,” which actually “reinforces a parent’s fundamental right to make decisions regarding the care and upbringing of his or her child in the public school setting” according to the bill’s official legislative summary. This law went into effect July 1, 2022 to great fanfare.
4. Ruling could curb assisted suicide law
From World Magazine:
For more than 30 years, Dr. Leslee Cochrane has held sacred the Hippocratic Oath. For the past 18 years, he’s held himself to a higher standard still while caring for dying patients in Southern California.
Yet the hospice physician’s highest standard comes from the Bible. He is one of 19,000 members of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. When a California physician-assisted suicide law took effect in 2016, Cochrane clung to verses from Matthew 22:39, 25:36, and 28:19. Legally, he could still refuse to take part in taking lives.
But California clouded the medical landscape in 2022. Amendments to the state’s End of Life Option Act forced objecting doctors to document suicide requests and to refer patients to physicians who would end lives. That documentation would make Cochrane a responsible party to death.
“Whether you value human life or not, you will now be forced to participate in someone ending their life or else you may be subject to losing your license,” Cochrane said. “It’s unconscionable. … I cannot imagine how that could be viewed as good for society or good for patients.”
Cochrane and CMDA sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta and other state officials in February. This month, U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha agreed with the plaintiffs in part. The Trump appointee ruled that California’s amended law cannot be applied to doctors who want no part of the assisted-suicide paper trail and referral process. Bonta is reviewing the case, and a state appeal is expected.
The ruling wasn’t a complete victory for Cochrane, CMDA, and their Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys. Aenlle-Rocha rejected other claims of violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses and the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion.
Still, the ruling favoring Cochrane’s free speech rights, if upheld, would allow him to stay out of the assisted suicide business entirely. So far, 10 states and the District of Columbia permit assisted suicides. Before 2022, California patients already didn’t need a physician to attend their suicide, only a prescription for drugs—typically barbiturates—to complete the process.
5. What a Long-Forgotten Doctor’s Connection to Alcoholics Anonymous Can Teach Us About Solving the Fentanyl Crisis
From the Daily Citizen:
Over one million Americans have died of a drug overdose since 1999 – a tragic and shocking trajectory that’s been getting significantly worse since the COVID-inspired lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. On average, over 100,000 people are now dying from drugs each year – up over 25% annually from pre-pandemic levels.
It cannot be a coincidence that as the country grows more secular, families fray and loneliness increases, that drug addiction is rising along with it.
Back at the turn of the twentieth century, there was a medical doctor named William Duncan Silkworth. Graduating from New York City’s Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1899, the newly minted physician began pioneering treatment with alcoholic patients. At the time, he believed the condition was being misdiagnosed as a vice rather than an illness, and so he set out to try and treat patients accordingly.
But according to Dr. Silkworth, the pathway to recovery didn’t just include treating the physical – but true and lasting change required a “moral psychological” approach to remaining sober.
For William Silkworth, that was code for a spiritual conversion or recommitment to Jesus Christ.
During his years as the nation’s preeminent doctor to treat alcoholics and alcoholism, Silkworth saw over 40,000 patients – including William Griffith Wilson (Bill W.), who would go on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
At the heart of addiction is a longing and yearning for something more – something that only Jesus Christ can ultimately provide. If we’re going to address and overcome the current fentanyl crisis – if users are to be delivered from the bondage of its addiction – we would be wise to understand the underlying deficits that make users want to use in the first place.
- How Americans evaluate the likelihood of dire political scenarios
From YouGov:
Two in five Americans believe a civil war is at least somewhat likely in the U.S. within the next decade, according to recent polling by the Economist and YouGov. But what exactly do Americans think a second American civil war would look like? Among 15 potential future scenarios involving instability or political violence, the one that most Americans consider likely in the next decade is that the U.S. ceases to be a global superpower (50% say this), followed by a total collapse of the U.S. economy (47%). Each of the 15 dire scenarios is considered somewhat or very likely in the next decade by at least 20% of Americans.
We arrived at the list of 15 scenarios with a follow-up question to the Economist finding on a separate poll, asking people who earlier in the poll said they think a civil war is likely to tell us in their own words what they think it means for the country to engage in one. Based on responses to this question, we developed the list of 15 specific future scenarios and included it in another poll asking how likely each is to occur in the coming years.
When asked broadly about the chances of a civil war in the next decade, without specifying what kind, 37% of Americans say one is at least somewhat likely to occur.
- Abysmal National Test Score Drops Show School Lockdowns Hurt America’s Poor The Most
From The Federalist:
For all its obsession with “equity,” the Biden administration sure has the wrong results to show for it. In fact, the first national results showing test scores before and after covid lockdowns shows how the most vulnerable kids got hit hardest by learning loss.
The results, which compared outcomes on tests taken by nine-year-olds this past spring with those taken in early 2020 (i.e., right before hysteria shut down schools), confirmed wider learning gaps between the proverbial haves and have-nots.
Overall, the test showed a five-point decline in reading scores—the largest since 1990—and an even larger, seven-point drop in math, the first one recorded in the test’s 50-year history. Those results illustrate the broad-based damage lockdowns inflicted on all student learning progress.
But dig into the details further, and a troubling pattern emerges. While most students suffered learning loss, those in greatest danger of falling through the cracks suffered most.
8. Lifemark Film Hits Over $2M in Sales Opening Weekend Signaling Value of Faith-Based Content
From CBN:
“Lifemark”, a new pro-life movie produced by Kirk Cameron and the Kendrick Brothers, hit over $2 million in sales on opening weekend and marked Fathom’s highest grossing event this year.
The film from The Kendrick Brothers, Kirk Cameron Entertainment, and Fathom Events opened Friday night for Fathom’s first-ever seven-day premiere run in 1,500 locations. Fathom told CBN News they are looking to expand the film’s offerings.
“We’re thrilled at the numbers we’re seeing for LIFEMARK this past weekend,” said Ray Nutt, CEO of Fathom Events. “They not only represent a big success for Fathom, The Kendrick Brothers, and Kirk Cameron Entertainment, but they also go to show the value that faith-based content brings to both theater owners and moviegoers alike.”
9. Ken Starr, Attorney Who Led Bill Clinton Probe, Dies at 76
From the Waco-Tribune Herald:
Kenneth Winston Starr, a former U.S. solicitor general who became the national face of the 1990s Whitewater investigation of the Clinton family years before he became president of Baylor University, died Tuesday. He was 76.
Starr had been hospitalized for months in Houston, family members and friends said.
“My beloved, brilliant, kind and loving husband has gone to be with his Savior after 17 weeks in the surgical intensive care unit at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston due to complications from surgery,” wrote his wife, Alice Starr, in a text to friends and supporters. “Ken was so very courageous, he never complained, and he continually expressed gratitude to all his nurses and doctors for their care.”
“Judge Starr was a dedicated public servant and ardent supporter of religious freedom that allows faith-based institutions such as Baylor to flourish,” Baylor President Linda Livingstone said in a statement Tuesday. “Ken and I served together as deans at Pepperdine University in the 2000s, and I appreciated him as a Constitutional law scholar and a fellow academician who believed in the transformative power of higher education.”
- Retired Nurse on Flight Saves Baby Who Stopped Breathing
From Fox News:
A retired nurse stepped in to save the life of a baby girl who stopped breathing on a flight to Orlando.
The incident happened on Thursday on Spirit Flight 1691, which took off from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Tamara Panzino, a retired nurse of more than 20 years, told FOX 35 Orlando that flight attendants announced over the loudspeaker about 30 minutes after takeoff asking if anyone was a doctor. The parents of three-month-old, Anjelé, frantically asked for help as their infant grew blue in the face and stopped breathing.
The nurse rushed to the front of the plane as other passengers fell silent.
Panzino said she gave the baby oxygen, started massaging the baby’s chest more aggressively and legs and performed chest compressions. The infant began breathing again.
FOX 35 meteorologist Ian Cassette, who was a passenger on the same flight, recorded video of other passengers applauding and flight attendants smiling as the baby’s father bounced his revived daughter up and down.
