Life

Dec 20 2024

These Fortune 100 Companies Offer Abortion Travel Benefits

A new report released by the Ethics and Public Policy Center reveals that at least 42 of the Fortune 100 companies have publicly disclosed that their employment policies specifically include covering the costs of out-of-state travel for an abortion.

The report takes a comprehensive approach to look at publicly available information related to policies impacting the family, including abortion travel benefits, parental leave, In vitro fertilization, surrogacy and adoption.

Authors of the report, Nathanael Blake and Alexandra DeSanctis, suggest that there are probably even more companies that offer abortion benefits within health care plans, but that information is not publicly available.

Since Roe’s reversal in June of 2022, the abortion industry has lobbied aggressively for companies to support abortion benefits to their workers.

Many businesses complied with the demands of abortion activists and now offer abortion coverage as a covered employment benefit.

The authors note that while many companies were happy to go public with their pro-abortion policies, transparency was lacking for many of them when it came to providing details about family benefits like parental leave and adoption.

In fact, DeSanctis and Blake suggest that when a company incentivizes abortion without increasing support for parenting, the company is sending the message that they would rather pay for abortions than employ moms and dads.

Perhaps if employers considered the long game, they might realize that their pro-abortion policies are, at the very least, a short-sighted business model. Without today’s employees embracing parenthood and having families, how will companies hire the next generation of employees?

Companies would do better to embrace and support motherhood and fatherhood through pro-life employment policies that recognize the sanctity and value of every human life.

Companies that Pay for Abortion as an Employment Benefit:

Allstate
Alphabet/Google
Amazon
American Airlines
American Express
Apple
Bank of America
Boeing
Cardinal Health
Chevron
Cigna
Citigroup
Comcast
CVS Health
Dell
Disney
Elevance Health
Ford Motor
General Motors
Goldman Sachs Group
Hewlett Packard
IBM
Intel
Johnson & Johnson
JPMorgan Chase
Kroger
Meta (Facebook/Instagram)
Microsoft
Morgan Stanley
Nationwide
Nike
Nvidia
Oracle
Phillips 66
Procter & Gamble
Target
Tesla
Tyson Foods
UnitedHealth Group
Walgreens
Walmart
Wells Fargo

Image from Shutterstock.

Dec 19 2024

Texas Sues New York Doctor for Prescribing Abortion Meds

Last week, the Texas attorney general sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion medication to a Texas woman in violation of state law that makes abortion-inducing drugs illegal.

The lawsuit is the first of its kind to challenge shield laws that abortion-supporting states passed in an attempt to protect abortionists from the legal ramifications of prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to women in states with laws restricting abortion.

Background

Texas law protects preborn babies from abortion with a few limited exceptions. The law also includes provisions for private citizens to sue those who aid or abet an abortion.

This lawsuit involves a New York doctor who allegedly prescribed mifepristone and misoprostol, the two-pill cocktail known as “the abortion pill,” through a telehealth appointment. The abortion-inducing drugs resulted in serious medical problems for the 20-year-old Texas woman, which required medical intervention.

Legal Arguments

Texas contends that New York-based Dr. Maggie Carpenter knowingly violated Texas abortion law by providing medication to induce an abortion.

In their lawsuit, Texas argues that telehealth appointments must follow state law, even if the doctor is based outside of the state.

The lawsuit claims that the doctor’s continued “violations of Texas law places women and unborn children in Texas at risk.”

Texas is asking for $250,000 in damages and that the doctor be prohibited from violating Texas state law in the future.

Response

New York’s attorney general released a statement in response to the Texas lawsuit claiming New York “will always protect our providers from unjust attempts to punish them for doing their job, and we will never cower in the face of intimidation or threats.”

New York is one of 18 states that passed shield laws to limit the culpability of abortion providers. New York’s shield law helps abortionists by prohibiting cooperation with prosecutions and lawsuits in other states.

Implications

There are far-reaching consequences for this case when it comes to abortion law. This case highlights the growing tension between states that have moved to protect life and states that seek to expand abortion access. If Texas is successful, it would have a significant impact in curbing telehealth abortion services to states with pro-life laws on the books.

This case could reach the United States Supreme Court and become a landmark case addressing abortion rights and state sovereignty.

The Daily Citizen will continue to follow this developing story.

Image from Getty.

Dec 19 2024

States Exclude Christian Parents From Foster Care

California law requires foster parents to affirm a child’s “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.” The mandate is being used to exclude Christians with biblical views about sexuality and relationships from the state’s foster care system.

Authored by gay-identified state Senator Scott Weiner and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2023, Senate Bill 407 is now being enforced with new guidance from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS).

Other states, including Vermont, Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts, also exclude parents from foster care if they believe in God’s male-female design for humanity.

This, despite the fact that “there are about 368,000 kids in foster care in the United States,” with “around 68,000 children moving in and out of foster homes annually” in California.

Focus on the Family’s Director for Foster Care and Adoption, Dr. Sharen Ford, decried the exclusion of Christians from caring for children in need. A nationally recognized child welfare consultant, she told the Daily Citizen:

I am gravely concerned about SB 407 as it is a way of forcing Christians to choose to bow to Ceasar by checking their faith at social services’ door or stop caring for children. Christian families have been honoring God’s call to open their hearts and homes to serve “the lonely” (Ps. 68:6, NIV).

In this new era of you must do it my way, government is throwing down the gauntlet to Christian families telling them to choose. Each family facing these potential changes will need to carefully and prayerfully ask the Lord to order their steps.

The new guidelines from CDSS state:

A Resource Family (RF) applicant and approved RF must demonstrate an ability and willingness to meet the needs of a child or a non-minor dependent (NMD) inclusive of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

CDSS explains how the legislation changed the requirements for foster care families:

The bill also requires that [Resource Family Approval] pre- and post-approval training curriculum provide a caregiver with the knowledge, skills, and ability to parent any child or NMD in foster care inclusive of their … sexual orientation [or] gender identity.”

California Family Council (CFC) reported that foster care parents are already being removed from the system in California. The Focus on the Family-allied organization received a phone call “from a foster father who, along with his wife, had provided temporary care to multiple young children over several years.”

The family policy counsel, which works for life, marriage and family in the Golden State, continued:

Despite their history of offering loving homes, their social worker denied the renewal of their foster care license because they could not commit to affirming any identity a child might choose. This was a marked departure from previous practices, where their beliefs were accommodated, and they were not assigned LGBTQ-identified children.

CFC Vice President Greg Burt stated:

Their social worker told them that under SB 407, the promise of affirmation is now a requirement for fostering any child, regardless of age.

The California Legislature also passed a measure in 2019 which requires foster care parents and workers to refer to children “by the child’s preferred name and gender pronouns.”

CFC warns such laws endanger all parents. The organization quoted Chief Counsel for the Pacific Justice Institute Kevin Snyder, who stated:

California parents may think, “This doesn’t concern me — I’m not a foster parent.” In fact, it does concern you.

There is now a very small step for the state to deem any parent as unfit to raise their own children if the family holds a view that contradicts the state’s ideology on gender and sexual orientation. This could result in a visit by Child Protective Services with tragic consequences for the home.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said Oregon also keeps Christians out of the system, as the state denied an adoption application from Jessica Bates, a widowed mother of five who wanted “to open her home to children in need.”

ADF explained:

But sadly, when Jessica applied to become certified to adopt, Oregon denied her application because Oregon requires every family to first adopt the state’s view of human identity and sexuality.

This left her with two options: abandon her beliefs or give up the possibility of adopting a child. That’s something Jessica couldn’t do – and shouldn’t have to.

ADF filed a lawsuit on her behalf against Oregon’s Department of Human Services. After losing in a lower court, she appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, where she awaits a ruling.

The legal aid organization has a similar case in Vermont, where Pastor Brian and Katy Wuoti and Pastor Bryan and Rebecca Gantt had their foster care licenses revoked “after the couples expressed their religiously inspired and widely held belief that girls cannot become boys or vice versa.”

The Wuoti’s adopted two brothers from foster care, while the Gants “became foster parents in 2016 and focused on caring for children born with drug dependencies or with fetal alcohol syndrome,” as ADF reported, adding, “The Gantts have since adopted three children.”

Dr. Ford helps raise awareness of the need for adoptive families to provide loving homes for children in the foster care system through Focus’ Wait No More program. She explained the cost to children as parents are forced to choose between following God or bowing to the state:

Families that draw the line in the sand may stop serving as foster parents. Then what will happen to these children? Who will share life with them? Who will help shape them and prepare them for the future? Who will help them heal? Who will train them up so they can become productive citizens? How will they know what it means to be in a family?

For these reasons and so many more, Christians will cry out to the Lord as Rachel did, “A voice heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Jer. 31:15, NIV).

Ford called for citizens to “not sit back and be quiet on this matter,” stating:

There’s currently a shortage of family foster homes across the nation. This policy will further exacerbate this situation.

Youth are sleeping in social services offices and supervised by casework professionals. Others are staying in hotels with rotating staff and eating takeout food. In some jurisdictions, youth are placed in juvenile detention facilities, having committed no crimes, for the sheer lack of homes for kids to be placed in.

Is this what the state wants?

The Daily Citizen is grateful for Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and California Family Council that are fighting back against these egregious, damaging policies that violate constitutional freedoms and place children at risk.

At Focus on the Family, we strongly believe that government efforts to force foster parents to affirm gender ideology or support a child’s sexual identity confusion are unconstitutional in that they violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.

Therefore, we recommend Christians consider utilizing every available legal avenue to defend their right to serve as foster parents in accordance with their faith. Focus on the Family cannot and does not give legal advice. However, we can encourage you to prayerfully consider Christian legal aid organizations for help.

Related articles and resources:

Wait No More is Focus on the Family’s foster and adoption ministry, a whole-family approach that provides free resources for foster care and adoptive families – and for churches and allies who walk alongside them. Through Wait No More’s Suitcase Bundle ministry, children in foster care are provided their own suitcase – for their belongings – as well as a teddy bear, handwritten letter and age-appropriate Bible. The suitcase bundle is a simple way to offer dignity, comfort and hope to children in scary, lonely situations.

California Bill Gives Foster Children Abortion and Transgender “Rights”

California Governor Vetoes One Transgender Bill – But Signs Alarming LGBT Laws

Christians Banned as Fathers to the Fatherless

California Family Council: Faith Under Fire: The Purge of Christian Foster Parents in California

From Foster Care to Family: How a Small Church is Making a Big Impact

Foster Care: Making a Difference During the Formative Years

When Government is Hostile to Christian Foster Parents

Image from Shutterstock.

Dec 18 2024

Kroger Refuses to Buckle to Rotten Radicals

The Kroger Company, America’s largest grocery retailer, is no longer listing the abortion drug Mifepristone on their website.

The Kroger brand includes stores such as King Soopers, Ralph’s, Dillons, Smith’s and City Market.

Prior to this week, company pharmacies were listing the drug for $7 for members of the Kroger Health Savings Club.

Prescription medication at the grocery chain is big business. In 2023, Kroger Pharmacies reported $14.5 billion in revenue.

Walmart’s Sam’s Club, along with CVS and Walgreens stores, have been making the abortion drug available for purchase.

So, what changed from last week to this week for Kroger?

It’s a bit curious.

Our friends at the Family Research Council reached out and received an email response from the company.

“The Kroger Company Family of Pharmacies do not carry Mifepristone, nor do we dispense it,” they wrote.

Only they were advertising the exact opposite. Pressed, Kroger replied:

“The Kroger Family of Pharmacies doesn’t carry Mifepristone and was listed on the Kroger Health Savings Club site in error.”

When Bernard “Barney” Kroger opened his first store in Cincinnati in 1883 with his life savings of $372, he led with a bold but simple motto:

“Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.”

The pioneering grocer was the first to have a bakery and butcher alongside other household staples. You could say he invented the modern-day supermarket.

As a teenager, Bernard was forced to work in a drug store after his father lost his job. As a member of a church-going family, the young Kroger quit, though, when it was demanded he had to work Sundays. Instead, he began selling tea door-to-door. This set-up allowed him to control his own hours and never miss church.

Barney would credit his believing mother with instilling in him a deep sense of self-discipline, which enabled him to manage and expand his burgeoning company. What might have come of Barney’s career if his mother hadn’t objected to him working on the Sabbath?

As a Christian, Kroger would never have authorized his grocery chain selling the abortion pill. Nor does selling such a drug designed to kill square with the company’s motto of never selling anything you don’t want for yourself.

Since Roe’s reversal in 2022, abortion zealots have been harassing and haranguing companies like Kroger to carry Mifepristone and badgering and bullying insurance companies to cover the deadly pills.

Kroger’s decision is the right, good and moral one, and should also be good for business. For those of us who don’t want to give our hard-earned money to companies that support abortion, we appear to have a friend in the mega grocer.

Don’t fall for the pretty packaging and empty rhetoric of retailers that champion radical policies that claim lives and harm women’s health. No company that supports abortion is family friendly.

Kroger’s new slogan, “Fresh for everyone,” is supposed to underscore the company’s many healthy offerings. But it’s also refreshing to see a major corporation refuse to buckle to the rotten forces undermining the sanctity and beauty of every life.

Image from Shutterstock.

Dec 17 2024

Largest Pro-Natalist Conference Comes to Austin in 2025

Most well-educated people get a very important point about the future of the world quite wrong. They strongly believe the most pressing problem facing humanity is too many people, when the exact opposite is our future’s greatest threat.

Leading demographers, writing recently in the British medical journal The Lancet, warn the world’s total fertility rate more than halved from 1950 to the present.

They explain, “Fertility rates declined in all countries and territories since 1950,” and replacement levels of 2.1 births per woman have only been sustained in 94 countries and territories throughout the world in 2021. That number is expected to drop to only 49 by 2050, plummeting to only 6 in 2100. That means that in 2050, only 24% of the world will be at minimal replacement level. That percentage will drop to only 3% at the end of this century.

The truth is, future global fertility rates are expected to decline to 1.8 lifetime births per woman in 2050 and 1.6 in 2100.

Sustained fertility declines have even been measured in 44 of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa which have traditionally had robust population growth. These scholars warn, “Future fertility rates will continue to decline worldwide and will remain low even under successful implementation of pro-natal policies.”

Data like this is the strongest and most reliable scientific indicator of the end of humanity as we have. No nation can sustain itself with globally tanking natality numbers.

But these sober truths are not keeping the 2025 Natal Conference (NatalCon) from coming to Austin, Texas March 28-29. This organization correctly believes “The future belongs to those who show up.” And those who show up to the future start out as next year’s babies. And next year’s babies begin with pro-creative husbands and wives today.

This important conference’s 2025 speakers are noted researcher Pat Fagan, scholar and author Catherine Pakaluk, Bryan Caplan, Michael Anton from the Claremont Institute, demographer Lyman Stone, family scholar Scott Yenor, Gale Pooley, and Kevin Dolan, founder of NatalCon.

Politico derisively described NatalCon’s work as “the far right’s campaign to explode the population.”

No, their effort is simply to make sure humanity can sustain itself into the next century and beyond. But as the scholars who authored the recent Lancet study warn us, it is going to take a lot more aggressive efforts than conferences like this to make sure we all produce enough new humans to keep the human race going.

You can learn more about this conference at natalism.org.

Image from Shutterstock.

Related articles and resources:

Why Americans Over and Under 50 Say They Don’t Have Kids

Pro-Life and Pro-Family Policies are Essential for Conservatives

Death of the West? U.S. Fertility Rate Falls to Record Low.

Why Women Are Not Having the Babies They Say They Want

No, The World Does Not Have Too Many People. It Has Too Few.

Brad Wilcox Exhorts Young People to ‘Get Married’

China’s Population Drops by 2 Million in 2023 Due to Record Low Birth Rate

Evangelicals Can Heed This One Trend from Mormons and Muslims

Discarding Genesis 1, U.S. Population Set to Decline This Century Amid World Population Collapse