Four months ago, Twitter blocked our friends at Focus on the Family from their platform because one of their accounts – The Daily Citizen – accurately described Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine as “a transgender woman, that is, a man who believes he is a woman.”
We quickly formed a coalition of likeminded national organizations, state Family Policy Councils, members of Congress and state legislators to launch the #AreWeNext campaign on social media.
Our original tweet garnered over 640,000 impressions!
Then we shared the news with you – and boy did you respond! More than 50,000 of you signed our petition to Twitter stating that you stood with Focus on the Family and against censorship.
I’m very happy to report that after four long months, Focus on the Family’s The Daily Citizen has been restored on Twitter! You may have seen our tweet yesterday welcoming them back.
This ordeal is an example of how your voice can make a difference – even with tech giants! There is power in numbers, and when tens of thousands of concerned citizens speak up, change can and does happen. We appreciate each of you who engaged with us to end the Twitter lockdown on Focus on the Family.
The battle against Big Tech censorship has only just begun (just this week Twitter censored a political leader for saying that men cannot get pregnant), but this proves that together we can win. If you believe in the fight against the Cancel Culture, please help making more wins possible with your gift to Family Policy Alliance.
Sincerely,
Amanda Banks
Family Policy Alliance
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
As schools closed to COVID-19, homeschooling has swept across America. I have been wondering how many parents have taken well to it and will continue homeschooling after COVID-19. I know many families who were sold on homeschooling long before the current crisis. Their children have validated them by going on to be very successful and productive.
That’s why last week I was taken aback by Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Bartholet’s statement that homeschooling should be banned! As the faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, her comments carry weight. Why would someone from such a prestigious school say something so radically wrong? For a learned educator she is woefully or willfully ignorant of the facts.
Jim Daly of Focus in the Family called her statement outrageous and noted, “the fact is that children who are schooled at home perform academically better than their public schooled counterparts by a degree of 30 percent. They also have higher SAT/ACT scores as well as better grade point averages in college… they represent a powerful force to help save and serve not only the next generation but also preserve and protect many of the ideals upon which this country was built… [including] our first freedoms …life and religious liberty.”
And we haven’t heard the last of her. She will be promoting her prejudice at a Harvard Law Symposium this summer, geared solely for those who oppose homeschooling.
Daly called out the professor’s real agenda: her opposition towards parents giving their children an education that is in keeping with their religious values. Conservative Christians were among the first to embrace homeschooling and Bartholet says, “that in itself, is reason enough to discredit homeschooling as an educational model.”
Fortunately, the law provides that parents not only have the responsibility to care for and protect their children, but the right to guide and educate them also.
It’s not a given that public schools will share your moral or spiritual values. Parents in neighboring Massachusetts are finding this out. Check out Mary Ellen Siegler’s Facebook page: Massachusetts Informed Parents. In our own state, Family Policy Alliance has found that RI School Districts were told to implement a disturbing Obama mandate, despite President Trump’s executive order overruling it. The mandate requires that teachers and counselors validate gender dysphoria without the parent’s knowledge. That same mandate would allow a minor to change the gender on his school records without parental notification.
With policies like these in place, it’s no wonder some parents prefer to educate their children at home!
If you are thinking about homeschooling post COVID-19 check out Focus on the Family for resources. You may also check the Home School Legal Defense Association, aimed at “Making homeschooling possible.”
Sincerely,
Dave Aucoin
Chairman, Board of Directors – Rhode Island
Dear Friends—
This Saturday, our public policy partner, Focus on the Family, will be hosting the largest pro-life event in Times Square history, and we are inviting you to tune in! The event—“Alive from New York”—will feature live music, inspirational speeches, abortion survivor stories, and live 4D ultrasounds.
As you know, our state and nation are at a critical juncture. The sanctity of human life is under attack as elected leaders across the country continue to push for unrestricted abortion up to the moment of birth, and in some cases, infanticide after birth. Meanwhile, in New Mexico, abortion up to birth is already legal and our Governor recently announced her plans to bring back radical legislation in 2020 to enshrine abortion up to birth access in state law.
The pro-life movement, however, is gaining historic momentum as science and technology reveal what you and I already know to be true—that an unborn child is a human being and that he/she should be protected. As people walk through Times Square and tune in for the “Alive from New York” event this Saturday, our prayer is that they will see this truth for themselves—that they will #SeeLifeClearly.
To sign up for the free live stream of “Alive from New York,” please visit AlivefromNewYork.com/livestream.
Thank you,
Vince Torres
President and Executive Director
Tomorrow, our ally, Focus on the Family, will host “Alive from NY,” an unprecedented pro-life event in New York City’s Times Square. The main focus of the event will be the live broadcast of 4D ultrasounds on numerous digital screens in Times Square.
Events like these are seen as a rallying point for pro-life activists. While it may be true that the assembled masses might be largely conservative, evangelical, Christian, Catholic or—dare we say Republican—we must be careful to not completely appropriate the issue to just those individuals. The culture in America is changing, and events like “Alive from NY” are one reason why.
We have seen our nation becoming more and more pro-life over the nearly 50 years since the Roe v Wade decision was handed down. Slowly, the tide is turning – thanks in part to a constant push to demonstrate what abortion is and to educate the nation on alternatives. Events like “Alive from NY” highlight and broadcast the humanity of a baby in the womb.
The evidence is all there in full color—hands, feet, toes, nose, eyes, ears. It is a strategy that can eventually change the minds of some of the most unlikely people who, after seeing it, cannot walk away denying that it really is a baby.
Depending what polling outlet has released it latest numbers, right now, somewhere around 47% of Americans identify as pro-life. Marist, which has been polling the pro-life issue for decades, noted in February that as many Americans identified as pro-life as pro-abortion for the first time since 2009.
The polling also indicated something new – 34% of Democrats under the age of 45 (whose party notoriously defends abortion rights) identified as pro-life. These numbers were a significant shift from a similar poll just a month or so earlier.
The trend seems to be a pro-life reaction to several news-worthy events early this year in which the prospect of infanticide was seriously discussed by policymakers in a number of states across the nation. Also, New York gutted what pro-life laws it had and passed a wide-sweeping abortion access law. In a similar vein, a number of 2020 presidential hopefuls on the Democratic side have perpetuated an extreme abortion agenda in their early campaigning.
People of all political persuasions are facing the reality that we are talking about preborn humans and once you see that image, like many will tomorrow, the truth becomes undeniable.
In a number of states, it is exciting to see these shifting attitudes showing up even in public policy successes.
In New Mexico, a radical abortion bill like New York’s was expected to easily pass earlier this year. Enough Democrats opposed it on final passage in the New Mexico Senate, and the measure failed.
In Arkansas a number of Democrats joined pro-life colleagues to pass an 18-week abortion ban.
Last year, a pro-life constitutional amendment was placed on the ballot in West Virginia after more than 25% of Democratic lawmakers voted for its consideration. Then it was approved by voters in a state where Democrats hold a slight majority.
These are a few examples, but in state after state, the pro-life message is generating more bipartisan success for life.
Time after time, the battle is won by a loving and truth-filled message—one that touches a heart and eventually, over time, changes a mind.
We know the truth about life and the humanity of a baby in the womb. We know the power the ultrasound image holds. That image affects human hearts personally and has led not only to great public policy successes across the nation, but also (and most importantly) has resulted in countless lives saved. That is what makes all of the years of toil, prayers, advocacy and grassroots activism worth it!
Please plan to watch “Alive from NY” online from 2:30 to 4:30 (eastern time) tomorrow – you can find the information you need on the Focus on the Family website.
For life,
Robert Noland
Communications Manager
The Trump Administration proposed that life begins at conception. The opposition quickly declared that’s not a scientific statement, but a matter of belief.
In his Stoplight® commentary, Stuart Shepard asks a single question that brings it all into clarity. It’s a question you should ask yourself.
Thank you for sharing Stoplight with your friends.
Ask the President to nominate a Secretary of Health and Human Services who agrees that life begins at conception. It’s quick and easy to send a message through our Action Center
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves says Mississippi’s religious freedom act is unconstitutional. Christians must give up some of their freedoms to accommodate others.
Bruce Hausknecht of Focus on the Family tells us that will have a negative impact on our First Amendment rights as Christians.
President Obama is broadening his attack on biblical sexuality. In a statement this week, the president reiterated his stand on opening bathrooms to all sexes and even went further by blasting therapy efforts to help those with unwanted same-sex attractions.
“My administration is striving to better understand the needs of LGBT adults and to provide affordable, welcoming, and supportive housing to aging LGBT Americans,” the president wrote in his Presidential Proclamation for LGBT Pride Month, a declaration that has become an annual tradition. “It is also why we oppose subjecting minors to the harmful practice of conversion therapy, and why we are continuing to promote equality and foster safe and supportive learning environments for all students.”
Jeff Johnston with Focus on the Family says “conversion therapy,” as it has been dubbed by LGBT activists, is nothing more than traditional counseling methods used to help minors (and others) who seek treatment in order to live out their faith.
“Suppose there’s a teenage Christian boy in your family or church who’s struggling with homosexual sin – looking at gay pornography or involved in a sexual relationship. He’s conflicted, because he loves God and wants to follow Him, but he’s caught in sin. A Christian therapist should be allowed to help that boy live according to his faith.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Read more about freedom from homosexuality.
This message must ring loud and clear to our seniors, and those with disabilities or terminal illnesses: “We will not abandon you to assisted suicide.” And, because of you, this message is being heard at state capitols across the nation.
Through your support, CitizenLink (soon to be Family Policy Alliance), our national ally Focus on the Family and our state ally Colorado Family Action worked to stop Colorado’s Assisted Suicide bill in its tracks. CitizenLink’s state allies in Minnesota, Maryland and Hawaii also stopped Assisted Suicide bills. Christ calls us to walk with those who suffer, not abandon them without hope—because love lifts life up. Thank you for sharing this message through your support of CitizenLink and our allies.
With your help, this spring CitizenLink was also a voice for women and children at the U.S. Supreme Court. Along with allies Susan B. Anthony List and Students for Life of America, CitizenLink led a friend-of-the-court brief in Whole Woman’s Health, the most significant abortion case to reach the Court in 25 years. And that brief was drafted by the legal arm of our Pennsylvania ally. The Court is expected to release its decision in June.
The case arose when abortionists in Texas didn’t like the commonsense regulations the Texas Legislature passed, with the help of our ally, Texas Values. The law required abortion facilities to meet the same standards as other outpatient surgical facilities. CitizenLink’s brief informed the Court that abortion businesses shouldn’t get a free pass on basic health standards, simply to keep them in the market.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argued in defense of Texas’ pro-life law, said: “The amicus brief cosponsored by CitizenLink was a critical part of the overall argument presented to the Supreme Court, and I am very grateful for those that stood with my office in defense of women’s health.”
Thank you for partnering with us to tell the Court that we must protect both women and their babies!
America is about to make an important decision. In his Stoplight® commentary, Stuart Shepard asks a few questions that Donald Trump should answer.
Family Policy Alliance and our allies have written an open letter to Mr. Trump asking these questions and more. We’re still waiting for his response. You may read the letter and sign on if you’d also like to hear his answers.
“You can’t do that here!”
A police officer stopped Joe, the guy with the flag, and his friends from handing out what they wanted to hand out where they wanted to hand it out. You’ll want to know what they wanted to share with their fellow students.