October 11, 2022

Welcome back. We're excited to share the latest from The Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family. 

Latest on the Fight Against Transgenderism 

California Attacks Parents’ Rights Under the Guise of Medical Care

The primary victims of this policy, of course, are the children. But it's also an egregious attack on parents' fundamental rights, which include the right to direct their child's mental and physical health care.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. A silent pandemic has spread among American youth: gender dysphoria and a radical medical experiment billed as its proper treatment.
2. Some states, such as California, are now so far gone that parents can lose custody of their daughters and sons for resisting this effort to upend natural puberty.
3. A mother in Texas who has sole custody of her daughter could find her custody stripped by a California court.

Biden USAID’s Radical Gender Policy Is Exporting Cultural Colonialism

The Biden Administration has forced its' cultural and moral beliefs on the developing world through foreign aid. It's nothing short of idealogical colonialism. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. This new gender policy at USAID is the latest manifestation of President Joe Biden’s plan to make gender ideology a central theme of government policy.

2. As a concept, “gender identity” is an artifact of gender theory, not history or science. It should not be governing our foreign policy or aid programming. 

3. This is especially tone-deaf in U.S. government dealings with countries that do not share the Biden administration’s left-wing worldview. 

Latest on Pro-Life Protections 

Michigan’s Radical Proposition 3 Ballot Measure Would Go Far Beyond Just Codifying Roe v. Wade

Proposition 3 would enshrine abortion as an absolute right in state law. That’s bad enough, but since it’s written so vaguely—probably by design—it would do a lot more than that. If voters approve this amendment, they could unwittingly be rejecting not only the right of the unborn to life, but the rights of parents to protect and direct the upbringing of their minor children.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Proposition 3 would enshrine abortion as an absolute right in state law. That’s bad enough, but since it’s written so vaguely it would do a lot more than that.
2. Anyone, including a minor, could have a right to abortion, birth control, or other reproductive surgeries like the removal of healthy breasts. 
3. Proposition 3 fails to protect minors or the rights of parents to be involved in the well-being and medical care of their children.

Stop the Attacks Against Peaceful, Pro-Life Americans

In the five months since someone leaked a draft majority opinion by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade—which the high court officially did June 24—pro-life Americans have faced a wave of violent attacks. Pro-abortion politicians from President Joe Biden on down haven’t just been silent about the attacks on pro-life organizations. They’ve helped fan the flames. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Pro-abortion politicians from President Joe Biden on down haven’t just been silent about the attacks on pro-life organizations. They’ve helped fan the flames.
2. Biden’s “unity speech” last month in Philadelphia rang hollow for many reasons, his silence on pro-abortion violence among them.
3. The Biden administration should—at the very least—call for an end to the violence. The FBI must answer for its selective enforcement of the law.

Planned Parenthood’s Overdue Annual Report Is Finally Out. Here’s What You Should Know.

Planned Parenthood’s 2020-2021 annual report is so late that some observers wondered whether it would release one at all. But after roughly nine months, the wait is over. For pro-life Americans, the numbers aren’t pretty. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. The medical and financial data reveal the abortion giant’s priorities. Spoiler alert: The number of abortions performed in one year is at an all-time high.
2. The number of abortions continue to rise, in no small part due to Planned Parenthood going all-in promoting dangerous, do-it-yourself chemical abortion pills.
3. Planned Parenthood and its allies (including the Biden administration and many in Congress) are pulling out all the stops to promote abortion on demand.

David French argues that the National Conservative movement is the biggest threat to religious liberty. Yet, he defends drag queen story hour in public schools and diversity training in corporate America. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. David French has claimed “National Conservatism Is a Direct Threat to Religious Freedom.”
2. French fails to grasp that we already live in a political culture in which government power is used to... enforce “religious viewpoint supremacy.”
3. The alternative is not theocracy or one established church, as so many critics charge. It’s rather a call to recover the robustly religious public square.

The dominant narrative around transgenderism has moved from gender dysphoria and clinical discussions of mental health disorders to cultural conversations about gender identity, personal pronouns, and affirmation. The final step in colonizing public policy and social norms is eradicating the reality of biological differences between men and women.

1. The final step in colonizing public policy and social norms is eradicating the reality of biological differences between men and women.
2. In the world of radical gender ideology, testosterone is apparently a social construct.
3. The Atlantic, like many other institutions dominated by the Left, thinks it can create the world of its choosing ex nihilo.

The redefinition of marriage, which began with no-fault divorce, has reached its latest stage in the misnamed Respect for Marriage Act. This bill redefines marriage to mean … well, anything any state chooses to recognize. Far beyond divorce, child neglect, or two same-sex persons, at least one version of this bill opens marriage to polyamorous relationships.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. It was no-fault divorce, not same-sex marriage, that first redefined marriage in the United States.
2. No-fault divorce codified the belief that children neither need nor desire to be raised by both their mother and father. Obergefell took this progression further.
3. All who value true marriage should oppose the Respect for Marriage Act, which shows anything but respect for marriage.

Dr. Jay Richards, Melanie Israel, and Emma Waters submitted a comment opposing the Health and Human Services sweeping redefinition of sex that includes "sex stereotypes; sex characteristics, including intersex traits; pregnancy or related conditions; sexual orientation; and gender identity." Additionally, this rule abandons the abortion neutrality provision and key religious liberty exemptions. 

Melanie Israel and Emma Waters will submit a comment in response to the Veterans Affairs' Interim Final Rule that is due on October 11, 2022. This interim rule violates key pro-life protections and does not honor the rich tradition of the Hyde Amendment. 

Melanie Israel Joins EWTN News Nightly to Discuss the  Record Number of Abortions in 2020-21

Planned Parenthood performed a record number of abortions in the 2020-21 year while reducing almost all of the other services they provide to women.