Category: Warning

California adopts bills allowing males in female prisons, fund for hormones and trans surgery grants

Brandon Showalter – September 28, 2020

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two new transgender bills, including one that allows biological males who identify as female to be placed in women’s prisons, and another that establishes a fund using state revenue for gender-transition drugs and surgeries.

Newsom signed a law Saturday that requires the Golden state to let inmates who identify as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex be housed on the basis of “gender identity” instead of biological sex.

The phrase “gender identity” has been used in public policy to describe a transgender-identifying person’s internal feelings about their sex but is not informed by chromosomes.

The California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation is not prohibited from denying an inmate’s request to be placed in an opposite-sex facility solely because of anatomy, sexual orientation or “a factor present” among the other inmates at the facility.

Critics say female inmates are an already vulnerable population and the presence of males in their spaces, regardless of how they identify, is a violation of their privacy and safety.

“Allowing men to identify into being incarcerated with women, and this is unlikely to be used by women to get into men’s prisons, constitutes a depraved indifference to the safety and dignity of women held in custody by the State of California,” said Natasha Chart, board chair of the Women’s Liberation Front, in an email to The Christian Post Monday.

“This would count as a violation of women’s rights under the Geneva Conventions for prisoners of war, and is likely being used to divert attention from the state’s failure to prevent torture and other interpersonal violence in men’s prisons.”

https://www.christianpost.com

Netherlands legalizes child euthanasia despite opposition from Christian parties

RT – October 14, 2020

The Dutch government will allow doctors to euthanize terminally ill children as young as one year old, making the Netherlands the second country in the world to permit the practice.

Health Minister Hugo de Jonge announced the change in a letter to Parliament on Tuesday, calling the decision necessary to help “a small group of terminally ill children who are suffering hopelessly and unbearably.” 

The decision does not amend any laws, but exempts doctors from prosecution for ending a child’s life in certain conditions and with parental consent. Children between the ages of one and 12 will now be eligible for assisted suicide, whereas previously only newborn infants and teenagers could be euthanized.

Regardless of their age, candidates for euthanasia in the Netherlands must have “unbearable and endless suffering,” and must request death “earnestly and with full conviction.” Two doctors must approve the procedure.

The Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2001, and was the first country in the world to do so. In 2014, Belgium became the first to legalize child euthanasia.

The Dutch government’s decision was opposed by the country’s two main Christian parties, the Christian Democrat Appeal (CDA) and ChristenUnie. De Jong himself is a member of the CDA, but supported the move based on a recently published study that showed strong support for the practice from doctors.

https://www.rt.com

SCOTUS Blocks Restrictions on Federal Abortion Pill Delivery

Tauren Dyson – October 8, 2020

A Supreme Court ruling will temporarily prevent the enforcement of FDA restrictions that require women to pick up an abortion pill from the doctor during the coronavirus pandemic and will instead allow the medication to be mailed, according to NPR.

The decision lets women continue to get an abortion pill by mail after the high court pushed the case back down to a Maryland federal court for further review.

Three months ago, a federal judge in Maryland decided healthcare providers can have mifepristone mailed to patients. The drug was approved by the FDA in combination with misoprostol to terminate an early pregnancy.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists challenged the FDA regulation since the agency has eased similar restrictions for medications such as opioids.

“It is a relief that for the next few weeks the Trump administration cannot force abortion patients to needlessly risk contracting a life-threatening disease as a condition of obtaining care,” said Julia Kaye, lead counsel for ACOG. “When President Trump is trying to rush through a third Supreme Court justice with the express goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, the court’s delayed ruling in this case gives little comfort that the right to abortion is secure.”

The Supreme Court asked for the Maryland federal judge to reevaluate the rule within 40 days, keeping the high court from acting any more on the issue until after the election.

https://www.newsmax.com

A new congressional report proves that the institutions of marriage and family are being systematically destroyed in America

– October 6, 2020

The numbers that I am about to share with you are extremely sobering, and they should be a massive wake up call for all of us.  Yesterday, I wrote an article about how our society is breaking down everywhere we look, and nowhere is this more evident than in our marriages and in our families.  But without strong marriages and strong families, no society can thrive for long.  Recently, the Social Capital Project of the Joint Economic Committee Republicans released a report entitled “The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home”, but you probably never heard about it until now because it was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media.  I have never seen a congressional report document the collapse of marriage and family in American society to such an extent, and to be honest it is quite surprising to see such a quality piece of work come out of Washington.

I have selected nine of the most alarming quotes from the report and put them in bold below.  Following each quote from the report, I am going to share some of my own commentary…

#1 Overall, between 1962 and 2019, the percentage of women ages 15-44 who were married dropped from 71 percent to 42 percent (Figure 1).16 Furthermore, Figure 2 shows the percentage of women ages 30-34 who had never married increased from 7 percent in 1962 to 35 percent in 2019.17

Numbers for men are similar, but they were not included in the report.  We have never seen marriage rates collapse like this ever before, and most of the decline can be attributed to the fact that many young Americans simply do not see any reason to get married anymore.

These days, many would prefer to be free to run around having sex with whoever they want.  When they become dissatisfied with their current sexual partner, they just move on and find someone else.

#2 Today, around 45 percent of American children spend some time without a biological parent by late adolescence.3 That is up from around one-third of children born in the 1960s and one-fifth to one-quarter born in the 1950s.4 

Study after study has shown that children do better with two parents, and so the fact that nearly half of our children have been raised by just one parent for at least a portion of their lives is extremely alarming.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

Satanists Pitch Abortion as a Satanic ‘Ritual’ to Bypass Laws

Ricky Scaparo – October 1, 2020

(ETH) – The Satanic Temple based in Salem, Massachusetts just announced this week that it has sued an advertising company because it refused to display some billboards promoting a ritual offered by the organization to help people bypass abortion rules in some states.

TST has sued Lamar Advertising in Arkansas state court according to a report from CBN News, accusing the Louisiana-based company of religious discrimination.  The organization claims that Lamar refused to display eight billboards in Arkansas and Indiana promoting what the group is calling its “religious abortion ritual.” The group describes the ritual as a “sacramental act that confirms the right of bodily autonomy.”

The group claims that by performing the ritual, people can claim a religious exemption from mandatory waiting periods, counseling, ultrasounds, and other measures that some states require before an abortion can be performed. According to the report, The group claims that it submitted five designs to Lamar to be displayed near pro-life pregnancy centers.

In one of the images, a bowl of cake batter is shown with the text, “not a cake,” next to an image of a sperm and egg with the text “not a baby.” It’s accompanied by text saying, “Our religious abortion ritual averts many state restrictions.” Lamar reportedly rejected the billboards from the group stating that their content was “misleading and offensive,” according to the suit.

This latest report follows a recent story that was also first distributed by CBN News in August, where TST announced that it was raffling a free abortion to promote the organization’s Satanic abortion ritual while arguing that its members’ religious rights are exempt from any state laws or any regulations that might block access to abortion services during the first trimester.

This is because the organization claims that those who practice the Satanic abortion ritual are automatically exempt from being subjected to waiting periods, mandatory counseling, forced viewing of sonograms, and reading materials as required in many states.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Erdogan Tells Turkish Leaders: ‘Jerusalem is Our City’

Emily Jones – October 2, 2020

JERUSALEM, Israel – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Jerusalem belongs to his country during an address to Turkish lawmakers in Ankara on Thursday, The Times of Israel reported.

“In this city that we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across traces of the Ottoman resistance. So, Jerusalem is our city, a city from us,” he said. “Our first qibla [Islamic direction of prayer] al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are the symbolic mosques of our faith. In addition, this city is home to the holy places of Christianity and Judaism.”

The Ottoman Empire ruled Jerusalem from 1516-1917 until Great Britain took over after World War I. Erdogan is increasingly pushing the constitutionally secular country towards conservative Islam and considers Jerusalem an extension of Turkey.

Shortly after converting Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia church into a mosque in July, Erdogan set his sights on the holy city.

He said in a Facebook post that the “revival of the Hagia Sophia is a sign towards the return of freedom to the al-Aqsa mosque” in Jerusalem.

https://www1.cbn.com

Bank of England eyes sub-zero rates in face of virus, Brexit

The Canadian Press – September 17, 2020

LONDON — The Bank of England indicated Thursday that it could cut interest rates below zero for the first time in its 326-year history as it tries to shore up a U.K. economic recovery that is facing the dual headwinds of the coronavirus and Brexit.

After unanimously deciding to maintain the bank’s main interest rate at the record low of 0.1%, the nine-member rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee said it had discussed its “policy toolkit, and the effectiveness of negative policy rates in particular.”

In minutes accompanying the decision, the rate-setters said a recent wave of virus infections has “the potential to weigh further on economic activity, albeit probably on a lesser scale than seen earlier in the year.”

Though the committee noted that recent economic data have been a “little stronger than expected” at its last meeting in early August, it said it is unclear what that says about the future “given the risks.”

One clear concern relates to whether Britain, like others in Europe, will reimpose broad restrictions on businesses and public life after the recent flare-up in virus infections across the region. Already social gatherings are being restricted and certain areas of the U.K. are seeing localized lockdowns.

The British economy suffered one of the deepest recessions in the world this year when many sectors were effectively mothballed to help contain the pandemic. Though it recouped some ground in the summer as lockdown restrictions were eased, the economy was still around 12% smaller at the end of July than it was in February, when the pandemic started in Europe.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com

Abortions Set for Another Record High in England and Wales

– September 18, 2020

Almost 110,000 abortions were carried out on residents of England and Wales between January and June this year, the Government has revealed.

Figures released by the Department for Health and Social Care indicated there had been an increase of more than 4,000 on the same period last year.

In the whole of last year, 207,384 abortions were carried out on residents, but pro-life campaigners say 2020 looks “set to eclipse 2019’s total”.

The number of abortions rose sharply in April, 4,500 more than the previous year, after the Government introduced ‘DIY’ home abortions at the end of March.

Under the rules, women can take both pills required for an abortion at home up to ten weeks, following a conversation with a doctor.

There has been a subsequent uptake in medical abortions, rising from 72 per cent of all abortions between January and June 2019 to 82 per cent over the same period this year.

Right to Life UK’s Catherine Robinson called the findings a “national tragedy”.

She said: “Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

“This year we’ve come together as a nation and made great sacrifices to protect the vulnerable from Covid-19.

“Sadly, at the very same time as protecting one group of vulnerable people, we as society have also ended thousands of young vulnerable lives through abortion.”

https://christiannews.net

Pandemic has accelerated adoption of digital currency: ECB President

Turner Wright – September 11, 2020

The pandemic has seen consumers adopt digital payments in increasing numbers and the trend was accelerating, said the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde.

She also indicated a panel of euro-zone central bank officials is set to reveal a verdict on a European central bank digital currency (CBDC) imminently.

Speaking at an online conference hosted by Deutsche Bundesbank on Sept. 10, Lagarde, stated that EU residents had embraced digitalization, with e-commerce sales increasing roughly 20% between February and June, even as total retail sales declined 1.2%. She said the volume of online payments had experienced “double-digit growth rates” since the start of the outbreak.

“The pandemic has served as a catalyst, accelerating the transition towards a digital new normal,” Lagarde stated. “A vast majority of consumers expect to continue to use digital services as often as they do now or even more often.”

Other institutions have reached the same conclusion as data comes in regarding the economic fallout of COVID. An August report from Singapore’s DBS Bank stated that “the ongoing pandemic has added fuel to the move toward a society with less cash dependence.”

Lagarde supports the ECB developing a CBDC to address the move towards digitalization, in addition to faster and cheaper cross-border payments. Last September, when she was the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the ECB president said she would focus on ensuring EU institutions adapt to the changing financial environment by being open to crypto.

https://cointelegraph.com

Suicides Among U.S. Kids, Young Adults Jumped 57% in Past Decade

Alex Tanzi and Wei Lu – September 11, 2020

(Bloomberg) — Increasing numbers of American children and young adults died by suicide in recent years, and the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to continue the trend.

Suicide rates among youth ages 10 to 24 increased by 57% between 2007 and 2018, data released Thursday from the National Center for Health Statistics shows, rising from almost 7 per 100,000 population to nearly 11. Comparing three-year averages from 2007 to 2009 to the time period between 2016 and 2018 brought the increase down to 47%.

The U.S. suicide rate among all age groups was 14 per 100,000 in 2018.

“There are many reasons to suspect that suicide rates will increase this year too, not just because of Covid-19 but because stress and anxiety seem to be permeating every aspect of our lives,” said Shannon Monnat, co-director of the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab at Syracuse University.

The 2016 to 2018 suicide rate among those between ages 10 and 24 was highest in more rural states including Alaska, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Alaska topped that list with 31.4 young suicides per 100,000 population.

Northeastern states — including New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts — showed the lowest rates. Despite their relatively small numbers, New Jersey experienced a 39% rise, New York saw an increase of about 44%, and Massachusetts showed a jump of 64%.

Rates more than doubled in New Hampshire, and the majority of states showed an increase between 30% and 60%.

https://www.msn.com