This Week‘s Featured Article

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The U.K. May Soon Restrict Pro-Life Speech.

The ‘buffer zone’ law currently being debated in Parliament is an assault on Britons’ fundamental freedoms. It should scare pro-lifers the world over.

Abortion activists abroad are pressing forward into a foreboding new frontier: weaponizing the law to limit what you can do, say, or even think on public streets surrounding abortion clinics. Their efforts represent a kind of censorship that violates not only the right to free expression, but also the innermost sanctum of free thought.

Despite the American movement’s historic victory in the Dobbs case, in many parts of the world, it is growing more difficult, and sometimes even dangerous, to hold pro-life views. In the United Kingdom, praying in front of an abortion clinic could soon land you in jail for up to two years. Parliament is currently debating a sweeping “buffer zone” law that would restrict speech within a certain distance of the country’s abortion clinics. In a frantic effort to shore up abortion access at the expense of basic human rights, the law would impose a broad ban on “informing,” “advising,” “influencing,” “persuading,” and even “expressing an opinion” around places where women can obtain an abortion.

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Marriage/Family

A Changing Relationship: Personal Income and Number of Kids for Women in Sweden.

While numerous children can be considered a blessing, in all cultures they cost time and resources to raise. Thus, it seems a paradox that people in the richest countries in the world where incomes are the highest have the fewest children. Even within those richer countries, the best-educated women with presumably the best income prospects typically have the fewest children (the U.S., for example).

There is also much evidence of a negative relationship between personal income and the number of children for women, driven in part by the higher fertility of women who are not in the labor force. But in Sweden this appears to be changing. Read more

Sen. Josh Hawley Tells Young Men to Stop Watching Porn ‘And Go Ask a Real Woman on a Date’.

A recent survey found a majority of men (57%) ages 30 to 49 years old have watched pornography in the last month, while 42% said they had watched it in the last week. There’s no doubt porn consumption is a scourge on American culture, particularly among young men. Read more

Marriage As a Protective Factor Against Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence From Latin America.

Research has consistently found that married women experience less intimate partner violence (IPV) than cohabiting women. However, most existing studies focus only on the incidence of IPV as a binary indicator. Another gap in previous literature is that the severity of that exposure and the different types of violence have been largely ignored. And a subject that has so far remained nearly missing from previous literature is the mechanism behind the complex relationship between marital status and IPV. A recent study—that I coauthored with Mariana Leguisamo—begins to address these issues for Latin American countries. Read more

Parenting/Parental Rights

Is rejecting “parent 1 and 2” discriminatory against gays? Albanian judge has to decide.

Albanian pastor Akil Pano will stand before the judge again later this week. He knows the courthouse quite well since his TV performance last year. He said that speaking about “parent 1” and “parent 2” instead of father and mother was “dehumanising”. This is received as hate speech against homosexuals.

It is an idea that popped up in several countries. In order to make the family more gender-neutral, it would be better if official documents would speak about “parent 1 and 2”. Read more

First Annual Childrens Emmy Awards Dominated by LGBTQ: We Want ‘Next Generation of LGBTQ+ Kids to See Themselves’.

The first annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards took place over the weekend in Los Angeles to honor TV programming geared towards children up to the age of 15. But the ceremony ended up being dominated by LGBTQ messaging and talent, including co-host JoJo Siwa — the YouTube star who identifies as “pansexual” and “queer.” Read more

San Francisco demands teachers confuse children about their gender.

With children across California decimated by learning loss after two years of lockdowns, San Francisco has decided to focus on the most important thing schools should be teaching: fringe gender ideology.

A “teaching guide for elementary grades” issued by the San Francisco Unified School District demands that teachers begin confusing children about their gender as early as kindergarten, urging teachers to tell 5-year-olds that it is “normal to explore and be curious about gender” and that “gender identity is determined by the way we feel inside or right for us.” Read more

Sanctity of Life

Nigerian government rejects Reuters report on abortion programme.

The Reuters investigation found that since 2013, a secret military programme has involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls, many of whom had been kidnapped and raped by Islamist militants.

The sources included dozens of witness accounts and documentation reviewed by Reuters.

Nigeria’s defence chief has said the military will not investigate the Reuters report, saying it was not true. Read more

Pro-lifers in Mexico demand government put an end to killings of pregnant women.

Pilar Rebollo, spokeswoman for the pro-life organization, stressed that “at this time, the widespread demand of Mexican society is the prevention of any form of violence against women, and for those who are pregnant, protection must be extended to their children in the womb.” Read more

Baby boomers are at risk of mass suicide under Canada’s euthanasia regime.

Euthanasia is the new abortion in Canada, which is to say it is the new “right” we have to commit murder under the guise of “progress.” Last year alone, over 10,000 Canadians elected to exercise this “right.”

And like with abortion, if you are against MAiD in any way, then you are looked at as a compassionless “anti-choicer” who is in favor of needless suffering. You are no different than the pro-lifer that wants to “force” a young lady to miss out on some school because you don’t support her having an abortion. Read more

Religion

Why bringing faith home beats just going to church.

Studies show that faith practices are good for people. But like any good medicine, getting the dose right matters. And a new study suggests that home-centered religious practices, combined with regularly attending religious services, yields the greatest benefit for families and individuals. Read more

The U.S. Cares About Religious Freedom Abroad, but at Home? Not So Much.

The State Department has now designated 12 “Countries of Particular Concern” and placed four more on a “Special Watch List” under the International Religious Freedom Act “for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

Yet here at home, the federal government is seeking to compel people to betray their religious beliefs. While such violations of religious freedom pale in comparison to those that China and Iran perpetrate, they are attacks on conscience nonetheless. And the hypocrisy is inescapable. Read more

VA Nurse Stands Up for Religious Freedom.

Stephanie Carter, a Texas nurse practitioner who has worked for the VA for 23 years, is standing up to the Biden administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs rule that mandates VA medical facilities provide abortion counseling and abortions. She says that both the requirement to participate in abortions, directly or indirectly, and the VA’s refusal to facilitate religious accommodations, violates her sincerely held religious beliefs. Read more

Sexuality

Under the Radar, the Detransitioner Movement Is Surging.

With the explosive phenomenon of gender dysphoria continuing to ripple across America’s youth, a related but much less highlighted trend is simultaneously occurring — a movement almost completely ignored by the mainstream media. New studies are now emerging showing that the “detransitioner” movement is far larger than what is commonly acknowledged, with detransition rates nearing 30% in some instances. Read more

The LGBT Alphabet Lobby Has Come For Its Own Women.

Imagine saying men can’t be lesbians — and facing prison time for it. One lesbian artist in Norway is in just such a predicament, facing up to three years in prison for saying men cannot become lesbians. Read more

Dr. Levine Pulls Up the Ladder behind Him.

Rachel (formerly Richard) Levine, Biden’s assistant health secretary, who aggressively advocates medicalized gender transitions for minors, said of his own transition: “I have no regrets because if I had transitioned when I was young then I wouldn’t have my children. I can’t imagine a life without my children.”

Has it occurred to him that some of the children he encourages to undergo sterilizing drugs and surgeries may later regret forgoing the possibility of parenthood? Read more