Marriage/Family

China is desperate to raise its birthrate.

China’s fertility rate has sunk to 1.18 children per woman and its population has begun to decline. Deaths outnumbered births for the first time in decades. The government of Xi Jinping has finally grasped that it is facing a slow-motion crisis. Unless more children a born, there will be fewer workers and more elderly. Economic stagnation or worse is on the horizon. Millions of Chinese face the prospect of getting old before they get rich.

The New York Times reports that the latest response to the crisis is subsidized IVF. Read more

Which country has the highest fertility rate in Europe?

While many countries are scrambling, doing anything they can think of to incentivize the bearing of children, the Faroese seem to have the desire – and will – to survive.

With the highest total fertility rate in Europe (2.3+), for the last three decades they have held steady above replacement level. This is exceptional among affluent economies. Read more

Josh Hawley’s Timely Message to Young Men.

Since the dawn of the internet, pornography use has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, available now to anyone at the click of a button. It is arguably one of the greatest public health crises facing America, and yet, no conservative political leader, namely the ones who espouse family values, have even mentioned this issue, much less lifted a finger to do anything about it. That all changed last month when a young U.S. senator from Missouri boldly addressed the issue of pornography and what it truly means to be a man. Read more

Parenting/Parental Rights

3 Things a Child Crimes Investigator Won’t Let Her Own Kids Do—Tips to Avoid Groomers, Sex Predators.

Few know better what dangers are lurking out there than child crimes investigator Terra Avilla, 36, of the District Attorney’s Office in Susanville, California.

The investigator and mom of three is also a TikTok influencer, going by the handle @thegirlcop, who shares her advice to parents on social media.

In her videos which went viral, Avilla shares three tips for parents to help keep their kids safe from sex predators, which she elaborated on for The Epoch Times. Read more

Lawmakers, Let Parents Have a Say in Their Children’s Life-Changing Decisions.

State policymakers are acting to reinsert parents and family members into the critical conversations teachers are having with students and to prevent educators from letting students diagnose themselves and ask for treatment. With the “Given Name Act,” no school official can address a child by a name different than the name listed on the child’s birth certificate or another official document without express permission from parents. Likewise, educators cannot call a child by a pronoun that does not match the sex listed on a birth certificate apart from a talk with parents.

This proposal would prevent teachers from helping a young child accelerate down the path leading to irreparable changes to their bodies without involving families. We do not treat children for any other medical or therapeutic issues without parent involvement and thorough testing, so confusion about their sex should not be treated differently. Read more

Mental health ranks as top concern for parents: Study.

Mental health is the top priority for parents when they are concerned about their child’s well-being.

A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that 4 in 10 U.S. parents are extremely or very worried about their children struggling with anxiety and depression, followed by being bullied (35%). Read more

Sanctity of Life

Thousands of pro-lifers march in Paris as French Parliament considers radical pro-abortion measure.

Twenty-thousand pro-lifers marched for life on January 22 in Paris, as France faces two major legislative battles in 2023 that threaten to add “equal access to the right to abortion” to the constitution and make euthanasia fully legal. Read more

Japan to decide on abortion pill after panel’s agreement.

Japan’s health ministry will soon decide whether to make abortion pills available for the first time after the proposal cleared a major hurdle with endorsement by a government panel on Friday (Jan 27).

A ministry official told AFP that an expert panel had reviewed the proposal and “saw no problem with approving it”. Read more

A Brief History of California’s Eugenics Program (1909-2013).

“While in prison in 2005, Pulido said a doctor told her he needed to remove two ‘growths’ that could be cancer,” the Associated Press reported earlier this month. “She signed a form and had surgery. Later, something didn’t feel right. She was constantly sweating and not feeling like herself. She asked a nurse, who told her she had had a full hysterectomy, a procedure that removes the uterus and the cervix, and sometimes other parts of the reproductive system.”

“I felt like less than a woman,” Pulido told reporter Adam Beam. “We’re the only life-givers, we’re the only ones that can give life and he stole that blessing from me.”

Pulido was not alone. Other victims of this ghoulish policy shared stories with media, including Kimberly Jeffrey, who recalled resisting a tubal ligation procedure while she was sedated and strapped to an operating table. Read more

Religion

UK PM warned that conversion therapy ban ‘likely to criminalise church leaders’.

Church leaders have called on the Government to drop its highly controversial plans to ban ‘conversion therapy’.

The authors of the Greater Love Declaration wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to warn that the legislation is “likely to criminalise innocent parents, teachers and church leaders”. Read more

Joe Biden Wants to Force Christian Employers to Fund Drugs That Cause Abortions.

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a proposed rule that would no longer allow employers to seek an exemption from the Obamacare contraception mandate for moral reasons, the Catholic News Agency reports. If implemented, only religious employers could be exempted.

For most pro-lifers, the problem with the HHS mandate is that it requires employers to cover all forms of contraception, including types that can abort unborn babies early in pregnancy, in their employee health plans. For example, the owners of the craft store chain Hobby Lobby only objected to covering four of the more than 20 forms of contraception required under the mandate because those four may kill unborn babies in their earliest stage of life. The company sued the federal government and won. Read more

With Mark Houck, as with Jack Phillips, the persecution is the whole point.

On Monday, a jury acquitted a Catholic father and pro-life activist after the federal government had brought trumped-up charges against him for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances or FACE Act. The decision was the right one because the case should never have been brought in the first place. It was a clear example of this administration’s anti-religious bigotry and its willingness to stretch the law to meet its ideological ends. Read more

Sexuality

Italian Psychological Association Expressed ‘Great Concern’ Over Puberty Blocking Drugs.

Italy is the latest European country whose professional health body has warned against the use of puberty blocking drugs in children.

The Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI) penned a letter this month to the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, expressing “great concern” over the “ongoing experimentation” of drugs meant to stop puberty in children and urging “rigorous scientific discussion.” Read more

Utah Bill Barring Transgender Surgeries For Children Is Toothless.

Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed new legislation over the weekend that appeared to bar permanently deforming transgender surgeries for minors, but things aren’t always what they seem.

Despite immediately receiving praise from numerous figures critical of transgender ideology, including a detransitioner, the bill signed into law Saturday certainly isn’t perfect. In fact, it doesn’t do much of anything. Read more

Why Comprehensive Sexuality Education is Not the Answer.

For over two decades, international agencies have promoted the concept of “comprehensive sexuality education” and have sought the normative support of United Nations intergovernmental bodies, but the notion has failed to gain support from UN member states as a whole because of the controversial explicit content of these programs, as well as their challenges to parental authority and traditional sexual norms. This Definitions will explain what comprehensive sexuality education is and why it is so controversial. Read more