Tag: Texas

Texas Church Evicted After Pastor Criticized LGBTQ Mural In City Council Meeting

Katelynn Richardson – May 18, 2022

A new mural in the city of Georgetown, Texas, is generating controversy for its support of LGBTQ ideology. Members of one church who spoke out against public subsidies for sexual politics at a city council meeting believe their subsequent eviction from the Georgetown Palace Theatre was retaliation for their speech.

The mural is part of a jointly sponsored initiative between the Georgetown Independent School District (GISD), Georgetown City Council, and the Georgetown Arts and Culture Board to display the work of one student artist a year. Under the agreement, GISD sponsors materials up to $500, and the city is responsible for hiring an artist costing up to $500, Georgetown Community Impact Newspaper reported in March.

Last year, the mural followed the theme “Everyone Deserves Kindness.” This year’s mural, designed by a student at Forbes Middle School, displays the phrase “be your own person” in rainbow text above an assortment of red poppies, with some flowers painted with the transgender, bisexual, non-binary, and other sexual pride flags.

Church Leaders Speak Up

Church on the Square Pastor Bradley J. Helgerson, along with two other church members, spoke out against the mural at an April 26 Georgetown City Council meeting. Calling the ideology expressed by the mural “an attempt to fundamentally reorder society,” Helgerson said his remarks were aimed to provide “theological context for the ideology lurking behind this artistic expression.”

“Many have been fooled into thinking that such a rebellion against reality is an act of liberation. That when we tear down every norm we will be left with a freer society, that true freedom comes when the shackles of the sacred are removed,” Helgerson said. “But the work of the LGBTQ movement is not the work of liberation, but of liberationists whose desire it is to destroy the societal order itself, precisely because of its demand for conformity.”

“In other words, it’s not a matter of open-mindedness, but of closed-heartedness to right judgment that is the problem,” the pastor said. “Therefore, their goal is to remove all judgment, all boundaries, as is testified to by the endless numbers of genders and sexual orientations they affirm.”

https://thefederalist.com

Parent dressed as Easter Bunny ‘hands out condoms’ outside elementary school

Kendall Tietz – April 19, 2022

A parent reportedly handed out Easter eggs containing condoms outside a Texas elementary school Friday, KXAN reported.

A parent at Gullett Elementary School in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) reportedly handed out Easter eggs to students that contained both candy and unopened condoms, according to a letter sent to families, KXAN reported. School administrators said they spoke to the parent about the “inappropriate nature of their activity,” which was not planned or authorized by the school.

The parent was asked to leave the school, but continued to pass out Easter eggs on a public sidewalk, AISD told KXAN.

“We are working to review our safety protocols to ensure this does not happen again,” an AISD spokesperson told KXAN. “It was an incredibly careless and inappropriate action of a parent.”

“A parent showed up at my kids’ elementary school dressed as an Easter Bunny during pickup,” parent and University of Texas professor Nathan Jensen tweeted. “He handed out eggs, mostly filled with candy. Some with unopened condoms. Not sure this is the Austin weird I signed up for.”

Jensen later tweeted that the parent was picking up her child from school and handed out the wrong eggs from a safe sex clinic she allegedly ran earlier in the day.

“A pharmacist ran a clinic in a bunny suit about safe sex,” he later tweeted in an update. “She picked up her 2nd grader in costume and handed out some candy. Got mobbed by kids, ran out of candy and called her husband. Her husband brought the wrong eggs. Chaos ensued.”

https://www.wnd.com

Biden blasts Texas for plan to protect children from surgical mutilation

Bob Unruh – March 3, 2022

Joe Biden has blasted a strategy in Texas that would protect children from bodily disfigurements through transgender surgeries, accusing the state of weaponizing child protective services to fight the agenda that claims men can become women or women can become men.

The Western Journal reported just days ago that Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to begin investigating those so-called “sex change” procedures involving minors as child abuse.

Following the science, those swaps aren’t possible, as being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level.

The governor’s ruling was based on a legal opinion from the Texas attorney general defining various sex change procedures performed on minors as unlawful. According to the letter, medical professionals are already required to report incidences of children subjected to sex change procedures under state law.

The Daily Mail reported Biden’s reaction was to tear into the state’s “cynical and dangerous” plan and claim Abbott was “weaponizing child protective services against loving families.”

The comments came even as a judge ordered a halt to a single investigation that had begun involving a 16-year-old child who already apparently had been put on drugs, putting the judge in the position of potentially allowing those body mutilations to continue.

Biden, whose own administration has ordered people to wear masks, to take experimental shots, and stay home from church, claimed the state effort to protect children was “government overreach at its worst.”

https://www.wnd.com

Texas Heartbeat Law Has Saved Over 11,000 Babies From Abortion

Michael New Ph.D. – February 3, 2022

This week, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission released abortion data for September 2021, the first full month in which the Texas Heartbeat Act was in effect. The data illustrate that the new law, which protects preborn children after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, has significantly reduced the incidence of abortion in the Lone Star State.

The statistics show that 2,197 abortions were performed in Texas in September 2021,  a 51 percent reduction from September 2020. The Heartbeat Act, in other words, is preventing approximately 75 abortions from taking place in Texas every day.

Some Texas women, to be sure, are circumventing the Heartbeat Act by obtaining abortions in other states. But a survey taken by Heartbeat International in September 2021 indicates that 41 percent of pregnancy centers in Texas and surrounding states have seen an increase in clients, so clearly more Texas women are seeking assistance in carrying pregnancies to term.  Data on births by Texas women from this spring and summer will provide even clearer data on the effect of the Heartbeat Act.

Overall, these new data adds to a significant body of research showing that pro-life laws and policies protect unborn children and save lives. Research shows, for instance, that Texas governor Greg Abbott’s March 2020 executive order postponing elective surgeries reduced the number of abortions in Texas that spring. Numerous studies show that a range of incremental pro-life laws in the United States lower abortion rates. Overseas, there is evidence that pro-life laws in Poland and Ireland reduced the incidence of abortion in those countries.

The enforcement of the Texas Heartbeat Act came at a very good time. After years of decline, abortion rates in Texas, like many other states, had slowly begun to increase. In the first eight months of 2021, there were over 39,000 abortions performed in the Lone Star State, an increase of more than 11 percent from the first eight months of 2017.  While the Heartbeat Act will continue to face legal challenges, the new statistics are encouraging, because the law has undoubtedly succeeded in protecting preborn children. Other conservative states seeking to protect preborn children would do well to follow Texas’s lead.

https://www.lifenews.com

Texas Sees Massive Drop in Abortions as New Stats Show Abortion Ban Saving Thousands of Babies

Micaiah Bilger – October 29, 2021

Texas abortion facilities reported a huge drop in abortion numbers during the first 30 days when the state heartbeat law was in effect, according to new research from the University of Texas at Austin.

Though some women are getting abortions earlier and others are traveling out of state, researchers acknowledged that the law is preventing abortions. And that means babies’ lives are being saved.

The New York Times reports the University of Texas at Austin researchers found a 50-percent drop in abortions in September, compared to the same month in 2020.

Abortion facilities reported 2,164 abortions in September 2021, down from 4,313 in September 2020, according to the new research. That equates to 2,149 babies’ lives

“The last two months have been a phenomenal success for the pro-life movement,” John Seago, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, told the Times in reaction to the research. “We are the first state to be able to enforce a heartbeat bill, and lives are being saved every day because of this work.”

The heartbeat law went into effect Sept. 1, prohibiting abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable. Unique from other state pro-life laws, the Texas law allows private citizens to enforce the abortion ban by suing abortionists who violate it.

Thus far, the courts have allowed Texas to enforce the law. Twice, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to temporarily block it; however, the justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in the Biden administration’s challenge on Monday.

https://www.lifenews.com

Abortionist Celebrates Killing Babies, Tells Congress “Abortion is a Blessing, Abortion is an Act of Love”

Micaiah Bilger – September 30, 2021

Abortion is a “blessing” and an “act of love,” a Texas abortionist told lawmakers at a U.S. House hearing Thursday.

Ghazaleh Moayedi, a Texas abortionist invited by Democrats to testify at a hearing about abortion, slammed the new state heartbeat law, which prohibits abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy.

The law, which went into effect Sept. 1, has saved as many as 2,800 unborn babies’ lives so far and spared countless mothers from the physical and emotional pain of abortion.

Moayedi, however, who makes her living aborting unborn babies, claimed that the pro-life law is “extremely dangerous” and abortion is a “blessing.”

“We need laws that elevate science and evidence and recognize the dignity and autonomy of people accessing care,” she said, adding that it is a “global fact” that “when people do not have access to abortion care, that maternal morbidity and mortality rates rise.”

Several studies refute this claim and at least one found the opposite to be true: Countries with pro-life laws have lower maternal mortality rates than countries with pro-abortion laws.

Moayedi went on to claim that killing unborn babies in abortions saves lives.

“Texas deserves better. I know firsthand that abortion saves lives,” she continued. “For the thousands of people I’ve cared for, abortion is a blessing, abortion is an act of love, abortion is freedom.”

Many women who have had abortions disagree. Countless women regret their abortions, and thousands have shared their stories of regret and healing through the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and other pro-life efforts.

And there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, more women who cannot speak out against such lies because they died along with their unborn babies in supposedly “safe, legal” abortions.

https://www.lifenews.com

DEVELOPING: Salmonella outbreak from unidentified food source has sickened people across 25 states

Ricky Scaparo – September 23, 2021

At least 127 people have been infected — and 18 hospitalized — amid an outbreak of salmonella across dozens of states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections linked to the outbreak had been detected in 25 states as of Sept. 15, with Texas alone reporting 45 of the cases.

According to News Nation, Salmonella Oranienburg, the strain observed in this outbreak, began sickening people on Aug. 3, according to the CDC. By Sept. 2, a total of 20 infections had been linked to the outbreak, which grew “rapidly” in the following weeks, sickening at least 127. Of the 48 whose medical information was made available, 18 had been hospitalized.

The CDC estimates that the actual number of sick people is “likely much higher,” as many infected individuals often recover without seeking treatment or getting tested.

It can also take up to four weeks to determine if a sick person is indeed part of the outbreak, the agency says. The CDC has yet to identify a source linked to the outbreak, though public health officials are currently interviewing to try to determine a possible food item.

“Several groups of people (‘subclusters’) at restaurants in multiple states have been identified,” the CDC wrote of the outbreak. “These subclusters are groups of people who do not know one another who ate at the same restaurant and got sick. Investigating these subclusters can sometimes help identify a food item eaten by all of the sick people that could be the source of the outbreak.”

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Feminist Calls Killing Babies in Abortions a “Sacred Ritual”

Alexa Moutevelis – Sep 10, 2021

Salon’s resident rabid pro-abortion extremist Amanda Marcotte is perhaps outdoing her usual psychotic self in her freak out over Texas protecting the lives of unborn babies. How unhinged has the radical feminazi gotten? She’s taken to embracing Satanists.

Yep, her article from Tuesday is actually titled, “The Satanists are right: Texas’ abortion ban is a direct attack on freedom of religion.” You know you’ve lost the argument and are going off the deep end when you begin with the phrase “The Satanists are right…”

She asserts the Satanic Temple “does not literally worship Satan,” but they do sue states to force them to display Satanic imagery along with Christian ones and claim “abortion is one of their sacred rituals, making the ban a major imposition on their free expression of religion.” It’s hard to get more devil-worshiping than child sacrifice. They’re actually saying the quiet part out loud.

The reason Marcotte loves the Satanic Temple so much, besides their mutual interest in shedding the blood of the innocents, is because she thinks their trolling legal maneuvers highlight her crazy conspiracy theory that “The anti-choice movement is just one part of a larger effort by Christian fundamentalists to covertly turn the U.S. into a more theocratic state.”

Yes, she seriously thinks this: “Conservatives go to great lengths to hide how much being anti-abortion is about forcing all Americans to live by the religious tenets of the white evangelical minority.”

One way we supposedly do this is by lying about science. She ludicrously writes that science hasn’t advanced in the last 50 years, arguing, “In 1973, scientists understood perfectly well how embryonic development worked and that understanding hasn’t meaningfully changed since then.” Then claims:

Indeed, the pretense for banning abortions so early — the “fetal heartbeat” — is also a lie. As actual medical scientists and doctors told NPR, there is neither a fetus nor a heart that early in pregnancy, but more “a grouping of cells that are initiating some electrical activity” that GOP legislators misleading call a “heartbeat.”

Oh, yeah, it’s 2021 GOP legislators in Texas who suddenly came up with the idea of detecting an unborn baby’s heartbeat at 6 weeks; it’s not language that all doctors use with their expectant patients and that every pregnancy-related book or website has featured as a factoid for decades.

https://www.lifenews.com

Joe Biden Launches Campaign to Make Sure Texas Babies Will be Killed in Abortions

Steven Ertelt – September 2, 2021

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision to not block a Texas law banning abortions, Joe Biden has launched a full federal government campaign to ensure that unborn babies in Texas will be killed in abortions.

As LifeNews.com reported, pro-lifers won another victory for life when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against a request from pro-abortion groups to temporarily block enforcement of the pro-life law, meaning it will stay in effect for the time being.

Biden condemned the pro-life law on Wednesday with his own statement celebrating abortions. Today, Biden called the Supreme Court decision an “unprecedented assault” on abortion.

“By allowing a law to go into effect that empowers private citizens in Texas to sue health care providers, family members supporting a woman exercising her right to choose after six weeks, or even a friend who drives her to a hospital or clinic, it unleashes unconstitutional chaos and empowers self-anointed enforcers to have devastating impacts,” Biden said in a statement.

“For the majority to do this without a hearing, without the benefit of an opinion from a court below, and without due consideration of the issues, insults the rule of law and the rights of all Americans to seek redress from our courts,” Biden added. “Rather than use its supreme authority to ensure justice could be fairly sought, the highest Court of our land will allow millions of women in Texas in need of critical reproductive care to suffer while courts sift through procedural complexities.”

But the more worrisome portion of Biden’s comments is his pledge to mount a full federal government campaign to make sure babies are aborted.

Biden said he was asking his Gender Policy Council and White House Counsel to “launch a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision, looking specifically to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to see what steps the Federal Government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe, and what legal tools we have to insulate women and providers from the impact of Texas’ bizarre scheme of outsourced enforcement to private parties.”

The Texas law could save as many as 150 babies a day from abortion but if Biden issues a unilateral order to try to facilitate abortions elsewhere, that number could be adversely impacted. And it could have  the tax dollars of pro-life Americans at work shuttling abortion customers to abortion centers in other states — seemingly in violation of the Hyde Amendment.

https://www.lifenews.com

DEVELOPING: Outbreaks of a drug-resistant superbug fungus reported in Texas and Washington

Alexandra Larkin – July 23, 2021

Outbreaks of a drug-resistant “superbug” fungus spread among patients in hospitals and long-term care facilities in Texas and Washington, D.C., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The fungus, Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems. The CDC said evidence suggests these cases involved person-to-person transmission, which would be a first for the U.S.

The clusters in the two cities appear to be unrelated to each other, the report said. The 30-day mortality in both outbreaks combined was 30%, although other health conditions may also have played a role.

Candida auris, which was first seen in the U.S. in 2013, is “resistant to multiple anti-fungal drugs that we have, and it’s also resistant to all the things that we use to eradicate bacteria and fungal strains in the hospital,” Dr. Neeta Ogden, an internal medicine specialist, told CBS News in 2019 after health officials issued a warning about the emerging threat.

Of 101 cases of the fungus identified in Washington, D.C., from January to April 2021, three were isolated as being resistant to all three major classes of anti-fungal medications. Those cases occurred at a long-term care facility for severely ill patients.

There were 22 cases identified in Texas during the same period, with two being resistant to all three anti-fungal medications, and five resistant to two of the medications. Those seven cases were found in patients at two acute care hospitals, one long-term and one short-term; two of the patients were treated at both hospitals. The CDC did not identify the facilities, but CBS DFW reports they were both in the Dallas area.

“This is really the first time we’ve started seeing clustering of resistance” in which patients seemed to be getting the infections from other patients, said the CDC’s Dr. Meghan Lyman, an author of the report.

https://endtimeheadlines.org