Yesterday the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that the Anoka-Hennepin school district must allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms on the basis of their gender identity rather than their biological sex. Last year the parents of a student identified as N.H. alleged that the school had discriminated against their daughter, who identifies as a male, by telling her not to use the main boys’ locker room. The school provided a separate locker room for her because she was not comfortable using the girls’ locker room.
Treating a student who is struggling with gender dysphoria with compassion and dignity does not have to come at the expense of the privacy of other students, and the school demonstrated that fact by making accommodations for N.H. Unfortunately, the Appeals Court has determined that privacy for all students is discriminatory and that students should be required to share intimate spaces with members of the opposite sex.
On Wednesday, President Trump made an important announcement: “I will be signing the born alive executive order to assure that all precious babies born alive, no matter their circumstances, receive the medical care that they deserve. This is our sacrosanct moral duty.” Since 2003, at least 300 babies have been born alive after abortion, at least 143 of whom died shortly after being born. Last year in Minnesota, three babies were born alive after failed abortions and died shortly after. This Executive Order will ensure that abortion survivors receive proper, life-saving medical care, rather than being left to die.
Pro-life lawmakers in Congress have made repeated efforts to pass the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act. In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to take up a vote on the bill, and in the Senate, it has received opposition from Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, among others.
In 2015, a Virginia high school was sued for a policy maintaining single-sex restrooms and locker rooms.Three years after graduation, Gavin Grimm, a female student who announced before her sophomore year that she identified as male, is still pursuing litigationagainst the school board. The Gloucester County School board has stood their ground in defendingthe policy. Following a loss in a federal court, the school’s most recent appeal means that the case could make its way to the Supreme Court.
When Grimm first announced to school administrators that she identified as male, they allowed her to use the restroom in the nurse’s office. Grimm complained that this was stigmatizing and insistedon using the boys’ restroom. When parents expressed concern, the school adopted a policy that required students to use restrooms and locker rooms corresponded with their biological sex, while also making unisex, single-stall restrooms available to any student who wished to use them. In response, Grimm sued with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union,alleging that the school had violated Title IX and discriminated against her on the basis of sex.In 2017, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts, leading to three more years of court battles. In the case’s most recent development, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Grimm, prompting the school to appeal for a full review of the case.
September 12 is National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Babies, a day set aside to grieve the terrible toll of abortion in the United States as pro-lifers gather at gravesites and memorials for babies who have lost their lives to abortion. The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reported that in 2017, 862,320 abortions were committed in the united States, meaning that 18% of pregnancies in the U.S. that year ended in abortion. In Minnesota alone, nearly 10,000 babies lose their lives to abortion every year. Last year over 80% of those babies were killed after fetal heartbeat was detectable, and three survived the abortion procedure only to die shortly after.
By taking a day to grieve the tragedy of abortion, we recognize and remember the humanity of the babies who have been lost. In honoring their brief lives, we call attention to the horror of abortion and commit to fighting for life by reminding ourselves and our culture that each abortion is not merely a statistic but the destruction of a child’s life. Because of abortion, nearly 10,000 babies in Minnesota last year lost their lives before they had the opportunity to see the light of day.
The uncertainty and anxiety surrounding COVID-19 lockdownshas brought renewed attention to another crisis in the United States—an alarming uptick in death by suicide. Between 1999 and 2018, the national suicide rate increased by 30%, and last year it was found that 24% of Minnesota’s 11th graders had seriously considered suicide at some point. Recent months have escalated this tragic trend, with a June survey from the Center for Disease Control finding that 11% of respondents had seriously considered taking their own lives in the past 30 days.
Sadly, as our nation faces this sobering trend, the attempt to fight suicide in some is being undermined by a movement that is enabling and encouraging others to end their own lives.Physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in nine U.S. states, two of which legalized the practice in 2019. Last year Minnesota legislators held an informational hearing on a bill that would have legalized assisted suicide in our state. Despite the claims of assisted suicide proponents, assisted suicide is not compassionate. It denies real help and care to people who desperately need it,offering them the meansto end their lives, rather than providing a helping hand as they walk through suffering.
Devaluing life in this way leaves hurting people vulnerable to the lie that their lives are less valuable and runs contrary to efforts to fight the suicide epidemic that is ravaging the U.S. Unsurprisingly, overall suicide rates have been found to increase when assisted suicide is legalized. Furthermore, when assisted suicide is legalized, the so-called “right” to die often becomes a duty to die, with 64% of patients who seek to end their own lives citing fears of becoming a “burden” to their family and friends as one of their reasons for requesting assisted suicide, and insurance companies denying coverage for expensive treatment options but offering to cover assisted suicide. Earlier this year, this mindset led a bioethicist to assert that “legalizing assisted dying would avoid [a] waste of resources.” Elderly populations are especially vulnerable to assisted suicide and already have the highest suicide rates of any age group in many parts of the world.
Recent data from Pew Research indicates that roughly half of America’s Christians believe that casual sex and premarital sex are sometimes or always acceptable.According to Pew,
Half of Christians say casual sex – defined in the survey as sex between consenting adults who are not in a committed romantic relationship – is sometimes or always acceptable. Six-in-ten Catholics (62%) take this view, as do 56% of Protestants in the historically Black tradition, 54% of mainline Protestants and 36% of evangelical Protestants.
Attitudes toward premarital sex between adults who are in a committed relationship reflect a similar trend:
A majority of Christians (57%) say sex between unmarried adults in a committed relationship is sometimes or always acceptable. That includes 67% of mainline Protestants, 64% of Catholics, 57% of Protestants in the historically Black tradition and 46% of evangelical Protestants.
Unsurprisingly, these findings come at a time when American Christians areincreasingly caving to pressure from the LGBT movement. Both of these trends indicate that the American church has lost sight of the goodness of God’s design for sexuality. When Christians reject God’s design for sexuality, they reject God’s word, as well as theglorious picture of Christ and his church that marriage as God designed it offers.
The Hyde Amendment is estimatedto have saved over 2.4 million lives since 1976 by blocking federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. Research from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute shows that public funding for abortion increases abortion rates and that nearly a quarter of abortion-minded women choose life when Medicaid funds are restricted from being used for abortion. The pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute published similar findings, indicating that by blocking federal funds from paying for abortions, the Hyde Amendment saves roughly 60,000 lives per year. This lifesaving amendment has received bipartisan support for decades, and polling data shows that 60% of American voters oppose taxpayer-funded abortions.
According to reports that emerged on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who chairs the subcommittee that funds federal health programs, informed a group of lawmakers that they would not be adding the Hyde Amendment to any government funding bills next year. Speaker Pelosi hinted at this shift earlier this year when she tried to sidestep the Hyde Amendment in emergency economic stimulus packages, first in March and then again in May. Writing for National Review, John McCormack has pointed out that the Democrat party has purged most of their pro-life members, leaving very few Democrats in Congress who support the Hyde Amendment.
