Update from Micah Clark of American Family Association of Indiana.
A Pro-Life Governor?
Several pro-life leaders are disappointed with a recent decision by Governor Holcomb granting a full license to a troubled South Bend abortion clinic. On December 30th, 50 state legislators signed a letter expressing concerns about the practices of the Whole Women’s Health clinic. Nevertheless, the Governor’s office changed the clinic’s provisional license to a standard license.
The clinic had a raft of violations of medical regulations and had been operating under limited operations due to various lawsuits and Department of Health violations over the last three years. The Governor’s explanation is that under the standard license, routine inspections would go into effect. I don’t know the details of clinic licensure law or the court rulings on this clinic. However, it begs credibility that the state could not regularly inspect a troubled clinic demoted to a provisional license.
You can read more about this and see links to the letters here.
How this Can Play Out in a Classroom
I have mentioned that numerous polls show that most parents are opposed to divisive racial concepts being taught in classrooms. Several polls also find that up to a third of respondents don’t know what critical race theory is. However, when examples are given of it, they are strongly opposed to it.
Here is a real-life example of how this indoctrination played out in a Pennsylvania elementary school as publicly stated by one parent, but confirmed by multiple parents of the same 5th-grade class:
“A teacher lined the students up on the wall, asked them to step forward if their parents were married, step forward if their parents were college-educated, step forward if they own a cellphone or an iPhone, step forward if their skin color resembled a band-aid, step forward if they had an in-ground pool. . . (The teacher) made them turn around and made the white ones apologize to the black ones.”
“Do not tell me that did not happen in this district. You need to put an end to this. Kids do not see color and you are segregating them, and you are separating them. This is not OK. Do something or get out of those @*%# chairs,” the upset parent told her school board members who have denied that CRT is in the school.
This is what Indiana House Bill 1134 seeks to stop. The bill passed the House 60-37. It is now before the state Senate and needs to pass.
Another Mental Health Warning
Last week, Indianapolis media reported complaints that Democrats have regarding the first month of the Indiana legislature. State Senator Greg Taylor (D) complained about the agenda of the Republican-led statehouse with a list of bills he didn’t like and others he wished had seen action or passage. One of those issues was the failure of a bill to decriminalize marijuana.
The Senator may want to look at a new report from Scotland which decriminalized marijuana a few years ago. Since that time hospitalizations for psychotic incidents from weed have increased by 74%.
Professor Jonathan Chick, medical director of the Castle Craig Rehabilitation Clinic in the Scottish Borders, explained that his patients suffer from “dependence and psychosis.” “Often, where there has been a second or third psychotic breakdown, there has been hospital or police involvement because of incidents of self-harm or harm to others. These patients have terrifying thoughts,” he said.
“It is a paranoid psychosis where they can’t even go into the street without misinterpreting thoroughly innocuous cues as malevolent. It is a horrible experience… Sometimes the damage is permanent in which case the treatment for schizophrenia involves living and working in safer environments and medication.” Professor Chick also complained, “the eye has been taken off the ball with cannabis.”
The London Telegraph recently reported a peer-reviewed study finding that adolescents who smoke even small amounts of marijuana are over six times more likely to develop mental illness than those who do not use weed.
In America, the Harvard Medical School recently observed that 78% of psychosis patients aged between 16 and 35 that they studied had used cannabis.
Pornography in a School
There is a very simple bill now before the Indiana House that basically removes three words from the longstanding code regarding the distribution of matter harmful to a minor. Currently, schools and school libraries are exempted from the prosecution of this crime under that statute. This creates a situation where showing a child age-restricted sexual material on the street corner near the school is a crime, but it is not punishable to show that same material within the classroom. Senate Bill 17 simply removes a K12 school or library as exempted from that crime.
If warranted, after review, a county prosecutor could take such a classroom incident before a judge. Although this would likely be a rare crime in a school, it is an exemption that is not necessary and potentially harmful. Hopefully, the House Education Committee will hear and pass SB 17 which passed the Senate with 68% support.
Reaching Men on Abortion
A new survey of 1,000 men whose girlfriend or spouse had an abortion finds that in 74% of the cases the woman talked to the father about the abortion decision before going through with it.
Forty-two percent of the men surveyed said they either “strongly urged” or “suggested” their partner have an abortion when they learned the woman was pregnant. An additional 31% say they did not give their partner any advice one way or the other. Only 28% suggested (19%) or strongly urged (8%) that she not have an abortion.
Abortion is far from being just a woman’s issue. Perhaps, reaching men is a key component of reducing abortion and rebuilding a pro-family culture of life.
Just a Reminder . . .
It is easy to get frustrated with some elected leaders during this legislative session. While we need to respectfully contact them with our views, we should also pray for those in authority over us.
In Their Own Words:
“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” — Billy Graham
Pro-Life Governor? – American Family Association of Indiana
