Backstep:
Honduras Makes Its Abortion Ban Permanent:
“All Human Beings Have a Right to Life”
MICAIAH BILGER, Life news
FEB 1, 2021 | 10:42AM
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS
The Honduran National Congress strengthened pro-life laws last week by amending the national constitution to declare that unborn babies have the same rights as born human beings under the law.
Breitbart reports lawmakers passed the reforms Thursday in response to growing international pressure on pro-life countries to legalize abortions.
They amended the Honduran Constitution to read: “The unborn shall be considered as born for all rights accorded within the limits established by law. It is prohibited and illegal for the mother or a third party to practice any form of interruption of life on the unborn, whose life must be respected from conception.”
They also passed legislation increasing the vote threshold to 75 percent for congress to repeal unborn babies’ constitutional right to life.
“All human beings have a right to life from the moment of conception,” said Mario Pérez, the lawmaker who sponsored the legislation.
The South (Central) American country was spurred to action after Argentina legalized abortions in December. Lawmakers said they wanted to create a “shield against abortion” in Honduras, where most people support unborn babies’ right to life.
Pro-abortion groups expressed hope that Argentina’s decision would prompt other South American countries to do the same, but now they fear – and pro-life advocates hope – the opposite will be true.
According to Breitbart, the British medical journal The Lancet described how Honduran lawmakers’ action “sparked fears” among abortion activists that other countries also may act to secure unborn babies’ rights.
After the vote last week, international pro-abortion groups and agencies, including the United Nations and European Union, slammed Honduras for protecting unborn babies.
“The move doubles down on draconian reproductive rights laws in a country with some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and sexual violence in Latin America,” according to The Lancet.
Abortion activists with the UN also criticized Honduras for even considering a measure to strengthen protections for unborn babies.
“This bill is alarming. Instead of taking a step towards fulfilling the fundamental rights of women and girls, the country is moving backwards,” they said in a statement earlier this month.
The most fundamental right is the right to life, without which all other rights are meaningless.
Other critics included Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam, according to the report.
Most Central and South American countries protect unborn babies’ right to life, but they face growing pressure from the United Nations and other international groups to legalize abortion on demand. Abortion advocacy groups, backed by some of the richest men in the world, hope the vote in Argentina will prompt neighboring countries to legalize abortions as well.
Surprisingly wrong assumptions
Legalizing abortion does not save lives or help women. Abortions destroy unborn babies’ lives and often harm mothers physically and/or psychologically. Pro-abortion groups often overestimate the number of illegal and unsafe abortions that occur in countries across the world.
Research indicates that access to basic health care, not abortion, is what really helps improve women’s lives. For example, in 2018, Michelle Oberman, a Santa Clara University law professor, told the Atlantic that she was surprised when she began doing research on abortion in El Salvador. Abortions are illegal there, and she said she expected to find hospitals full of women dying from botched abortions, but she did not. According to Oberman’s research, better medical care, along with an increased availability of abortion drugs online, are leading to fewer maternal abortion deaths.
A recent Washington Post fact check also found what pro-life advocates have been saying for years: that, in the United States, few women died from abortions in the decade prior to Roe v. Wade, and a rise in the use of antibiotics appears to be the biggest factor in the drop in maternal deaths, not legalized abortions.
Last year, medical groups representing more than 30,000 doctors in America emphasized that abortions are not “essential” or “urgent.” Common abortion complications include infections, blood clots, hemorrhaging and an incomplete abortion. Abortion risks include future preterm births, breast cancer, suicide, anxiety/depression, and death. And it is not true that abortions are safer than childbirth.
Army chaplain under investigation over Facebook posts
critical of transgender troops
By Ryan Foley, Christian Post
| Monday, February 01, 2021
U.S. Army soldiers pray on September 11, 2011, during a protestant service at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan. Ten years after the 9/11 attacks in the United States and after almost a decade of war in Afghanistan, American soldiers gathered for church services in prayer and solemn observance of the tragic day. | John Moore/Getty Images
A U.S. Army chaplain based in Texas faces an investigation after he made a social media post suggesting that transgender individuals are “mentally unfit” to serve in the military.
In a Jan. 26 tweet, the Army’s Security Force Assistance Command announced that “the recent comments posted to the Army Times Facebook page by Maj. Andrew Calvert regarding President Joe Biden's policy on transgender service members are “under investigation.”
“How is rejecting reality (biology) not evidence that a person is mentally unfit (ill), and thus making that person unqualified to serve?” asked Calvert as he commented on a Facebook post from the Army Times.
A Twitter user flagged Calvert's posts and argued that Calvert "cannot be trusted to support soldiers for another minute."
In his post, Calvert argued that there is "little difference" between those who believe in transgenderism and "those who believe and argue for a ‘flat earth' despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary."
"The motivation is different, but the argument is the same," the chaplain stated. “This person is a MedBoard for Mental Wellness waiting to happen. What a waste of military resources and funding!”
In his Facebook profile, Calvert describes himself as a “Christian, Husband, Father, Pastor, Army Chaplain.” His profile also notes that he is employed as a brigade chaplain at the 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade, located in Fort Hood, Texas.
In a subsequent Facebook comment, Calvert argued that his position was “not extreme in the slightest.”
“The most nurturing counsel I can give to someone who is under the delusion of transgenderism (gender dysphoria) is to recommend professional counseling to assist in the healing process," Calvert reportedly wrote in the post. "To not do so, and merely pander to make-believe social whims of the moment, is not only damaging but idiocy.”
Calvert’s Facebook posts came after Biden, who took office on Jan. 20, announced the reversal of President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military.
The former president cited the “tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail” as the justification for his decision. By doing so, Trump reversed an Obama-era policy allowing openly transgender individuals to serve in the Armed Forces.
Additionally, the Security Force Assistance Command's post instructed members of the Army to “Always remember to ‘Think, Type, Post’ when it comes to engaging in conversation on social media platforms."
"We are soldiers 24/7 and that means always treating people with dignity and respect," the tweet reads.
Even if truth must be sacrificed!!!
A Christian professor has also faced consequences for his criticism of Biden’s reversal of Trump's military transgender policy.
Professor Robert Gagnon of Houston Baptist University was locked out of his Facebook account for 24 hours after referring to transgender ideology as a “religious cult” and a “pseudo-science” in a comment defending a friend’s satirical commentary about Biden’s reversal of the transgender military ban.
In addition to Calvert and Gagnon, prominent conservative organizations were also quick to criticize Biden’s executive order.
Tony Perkins, president of the socially conservative activist organization Family Research Council, asserted that by signing the executive order, Biden was “diverting precious dollars from mission-critical training to something as controversial as gender reassignment surgery.”
Perkins added that “the military cannot focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars when it is being used as a vehicle to advance the far-left agenda.”
“After considerable study, the previous administration found gender dysphoric people attempt suicide at about nine times the rate of the general population," said Lt. Gen. Tom Spoehr, the director of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense.
This is proof of the mental illness that accompanies gender dysphoria.
"Service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria are also nine times more likely to have mental health encounters with a professional."
Spoehr contends that it would be "immoral" to place individuals at higher risk from mental injury in situations "where they are likely to experience extraordinary stress."
Calvert is hardly the first Army chaplain to face the prospect of punishment for holding to biblical Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
Scott Squires, who served as an Army chaplain at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, faced the possibility of “career-ending punishment” in 2018 after telling a lesbian couple that they could not participate in a marriage retreat he was hosting because his religious beliefs taught him that marriage was a union between a man and a woman.
Ultimately, the couple was allowed to attend the retreat after another chaplain was tapped to host the event. While the U.S. Army initially recommended that Squires be charged with dereliction of duty, the chaplain was cleared of all charges a year later.
Fort Hood, Tx
The ACLU uses some nonsense and weird science to pretend trans girls are the same as real girls in sports and physique.
ACLU declares ‘transgender myths DEBUNKED,’ says trans girls don't have any ‘unfair advantage’ in women’s sports
4 Feb 2021 01:47
FILE PHOTO. © Reuters / USA Today Sports / Kirby Lee
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been AWOL from the fight over free speech on social media, has apparently kept itself busy studying science, finding that biological males don't have physical advantages over females.
The ACLU posted a series of Twitter messages on Wednesday, taking on various beliefs about transgender athletes that it called “myths.” The group said those beliefs, such as transgender girls having physiological advantages over biological girls, have been “debunked.”
“Trans athletes vary in athletic ability, just like cisgender athletes,” the ACLU tweeted. “In many states, the very same cis girls who have claimed that trans athletes have an unfair advantage have consistently performed as well as or better than transgender competitors.”
The messages, which are part of the ACLU's campaign to fight a proliferation of state laws banning participation in girls' sports by biological males, also included debunking the notion that boys and girls have different biological characteristics. “There are no set hormone ranges, body parts or chromosomes that all people of a particular sex or gender have,” the group said.
The ACLU argued that excluding transgender females from girls' sports hurts female athletes by potentially subjecting them to “gender policing” and robbing them of “caring environments where teammates are supported by each other and by coaches.” The group created and attacked a straw-man myth that “trans students need separate teams,” apparently ignoring the fact that all students can compete in sports based on their biological sex.
Uncommon Ground editor Dan Fisher said the ACLU used a series of “lies, misdirections and clever but empty phrases” to supposedly debunk basic facts, such as the physical differences between males and females.
Twitter users called the group's arguments absurd and dishonest. “A human rights organization advocating cheating is a sight to behold,” one commenter said. Festival director Jenny Dee blasted the ACLU as a “bunch of girl- and woman-hating, science-denying cowards.”
Some observers pointed out the clear physical advantages of males – “there are 300 high school boys that currently run a faster 400 meters than the women's Olympic record holder” – while others argued that if the ACLU assertions were true, there would be examples of transgender boys excelling in boys' sports.
The ACLU's Twitter campaign came the same day that Republican Senators grilled President Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of education, Miguel Cardona. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) questioned Cardona on his support for allowing biological males to compete with females in girls' sports. The nominee confirmed that he believes schools are legally responsible for providing opportunities for students, including transgender children, to participate in activities such as sports.
“This kind of thing is going to lead to, really just the vast majority of America just wondering, who are these people that think it's OK?” Paul told Cardona. “From what planet are you from to think it's OK that boys would compete with girls in a track meet and that somehow would be fair?”
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After complaint from genderfluid author, Aussie bookstore
apologizes for hosting feminist author… in 2018
9 Feb, 2021 13:36
Melbourne-based bookstore Readings has apologized for programming radical feminist author Julie Bindel, who stands accused of transphobia. The statement came in response to an apparent complaint by a queer book author.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the bookstore apologized for “any hurt caused by highlighting the work of an author whose current stance is to divide our community,” and said it “regrets programming Julie Bindel in 2018.”
Bindel is an English feminist, a researcher and long-time campaigner for women’s rights, who makes a particular focus on protecting sex workers from abuse. She authored several books on the topic, and one of them, ‘The Pimping of Prostitution’, was the subject of her July 2018 appearance at Readings.
Gender reassignment surgery,
a modern version of ‘gay conversion therapy’.
Julie Bindel
The event drew criticism at the time from people unhappy with Bindel’s anti-prostitution stance or her views on gender reassignment surgery, which she sees as a modern version of ‘gay conversion therapy’.
Her controversial politics were widely known by the time Readings hosted her and didn’t prevent the event from happening – which even won the bookstore some praise for bravery in the face of online critics. But now the retailer evidently believes the invitation was wrong.
The statement appears to come in response to a complaint from Alison Evans, who restricted viewership of their tweets, making their words unavailable to the public. Evans, a queer young adult fiction author, is a self-described genderqueer, who “wrote” themself “into existence.”
The apology angered Bindel, who went on Twitter to demand an explanation. She described her recollection of the “packed” event at Readings and the wide representation of members of minority communities attending it.
“There were loads of feminists at that event, on account of it being about the hideous abuse of women and girls world-wide, and in particular, in Australia, NZ & across Canada, indigenous females. Many of those feminists are lesbians, on account of the fact that we have done much of the heavy lifting when it comes to countering male violence,” she said.
Please would @ReadingsBooks tell me where they fit in your vision of ‘community’? Shame on you.
A later tweet from Bindel apparently shows a screen-saved post by Evans conditioning her appearance at a scheduled Readings event on the bookstore apologizing.
Judging by the reaction to Readings’ statement, its belated cancellation attempt didn’t go over well with the public.
‘They’re silencing women who don’t agree with radical feminism’
– author claims book was censored by Facebook
9 Feb, 2021 13:47
Big Tech is trying to silence women who speak out against radical feminism, author Carrie Gress told RT, after a Catholic store claimed that Facebook had taken down ads for her book on ‘toxic femininity’.
A Catholic gift store, Guadalupe Gifts, said it was told by Facebook that it could not sell Gress’s book on its platform because the item did not comply with the social network’s “commerce policies.”
“The book’s been out for two years, so to get that kind of response at this point seems a bit ridiculous,” Gress told RT.
In a late January email to the store, cited by the news website The College Fix, Facebook said: “Listings may not promote the buying, selling, or use of adults products.”
The store said it received no further clarification from Facebook as of February 3. Facebook has not commented on the situation. Gress claimed that the ads for her book were also removed from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
Gress said it was “a gross mischaracterization” to put the adult-content label on her 2019 book, ‘The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing The Culture From Toxic Femininity.’ She explained that her book juxtaposes the virtues and the role model of the Virgin Mary with modern “radical feminism.”
“They realize that a lot of things that they’re touting are not true and are not real. And they’re trying to hide a lot of what competes with their narrative. That’s certainly what my book did,” she said about Big Tech.
Gress, who teaches at the Catholic Pontifex University and had co-founded an online women’s magazine called ‘Theology of Home,’ said that she had noticed “a pattern” of removing ads for Christian books from Facebook and Amazon.
“Of course, we hear all the time about how awful toxic masculinity is. We don’t hear anything about women. Women are sort of beyond reproach in our culture. I think that is what has triggered a lot of this,” she said.
There’s no small irony that the whole book – the first half of it at least – is really describing the way women like me, and so many women who don’t agree with radical feminism, are being silenced.
“We really need to start finding new ways to build things that can compete with Big Tech,” Gress said.
The National Catholic Register newspaper, which investigated the case and had spoken with the owner of Guadalupe Gifts, reported that there was no clear indication of “actual” censorship. The paper suggested that the book may have been misidentified by the algorithms at some point.
At the same time, the paper said that the option to buy Gress’s book on Amazon was temporarily removed – just when conservatives rushed to buy it amid the rumors of censorship, ultimately propelling the item up Amazon’s best-seller rankings.
Conservatives have long been accusing the tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Google of silencing their voices and ideas, and have argued that the major social media platforms are biased against them.
Last year, Amazon reportedly suspended paid ads for a book by journalist Abigail Shrier that explored gender dysphoria and transgenderism in young girls.
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