Dec 30, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Wisconsin is losing families—families with children—to states like Texas and Florida, where there is no income tax. Last year 10,000 more Wisconsin families left the state than moved here. This isn’t an anomaly; it’s a trend—a trend with present and future implications for our economy and much more. When those families leave, there’s little likelihood of the parents returning to retire or the children coming back for work or to eventually establish their own families.
When Wisconsin’s best natural resource—its married dad-and-mom families with children—leaves the state in significant numbers, Wisconsin’s present and future are imperiled. This family structure is the only one that gives more than it takes in relationship to government “handouts.”
Our state is currently sitting on a projected $6.6 billion surplus, making significant tax cuts a plausible option. The government is taking more than they need out of people’s paychecks. Thankfully, there is agreement among Wisconsin Republicans that taxes need to be cut; but opinions differ regarding how to do so.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) wants to implement a flat income tax of 3.5 percent. Senate President Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield), however, wants to join the nine states with no income tax. If we want to keep families in Wisconsin, this is the way to go.
“I think that, if we’re going to do this (tax cuts) and we’re going to do something bold and we’re really going to attract workers to the state and bring more families to the state, (we should) go to no income tax like Florida,” said Kapenga.
Making Wisconsin more economically competitive compared to states that are getting our very best is a smart move, and with this “surplus,” now is the time to give this serious consideration. It would also set Wisconsin apart from other states in the Midwest. At a minimum, such a move might change the trend.
Republicans have enough votes to pass tax reform and a new state budget, but they would most likely not be able to garner enough votes to override a veto from Gov. Evers.
Evers has not yet said what his new state budget proposal will look like, but Kapenga believes he will ask for more money yet again.
“He is going to come to the trough,” Kapenga said. “Basically, I think he’s going to try and take taxpayer money and sift it out to the different special interest groups that he wants to take care of.”
Wisconsin families should not be forced to pay the government any more than is absolutely necessary. Hopefully, Republicans can agree on Kapenga’s plan to eliminate the income tax and convince Gov. Evers that this is the best move for Wisconsin. Families thrive when they are able to keep more of their hard-earned money, and when families flourish, so too does our state. As the family, so the state.
Dec 28, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of Members of Congress introduced a bill that would ban the Chinese-owned social media platform called TikTok nationwide.
TikTok is directly tied the Chinese Communist Party, as TikTok’s parent company ByteDance lists Chinese state media outlets in its employment history. Further, 50 former Chinese state media employees currently hold positions at TikTok, including a “content strategy manager” who had served as chief correspondent for China’s Xinhua News.
Director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies James Lewis believes the Chinese government is using information they get from TikTok to “better tailor their propaganda for a Western audience.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-CD8), and Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-CD8) are leading the charge to ban TikTok due to its communist ties.
In a press release, Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher wrote:
“TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news. It’s also an increasingly powerful media company that’s owned by ByteDance, which ultimately reports to the Chinese Communist Party—America’s foremost adversary.
Allowing the app to continue to operate in the U.S. would be like allowing the U.S.S.R. to buy up The New York Times, Washington Post, and major broadcast networks during the Cold War. No country with even a passing interest in its own security would allow this to happen, which is why it’s time to ban TikTok and any other CCP-controlled app before it’s too late.”
The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act aims to “protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern.”
China’s national intelligence law requires Chinese tech companies to give any data they collect from users to China’s government. American researchers have been voicing privacy and security concerns about the app for years.
TikTok has even engaged in illegal activity to collect users’ data. In 2019, the social media platform was fined by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for illegally “collecting and exposing locations of young children, as well as failing to delete information on underage children when instructed to do so.”
In 2020, TikTok found an iPhone system loophole and collected personal user data, including cryptocurrency wallet addresses and passwords. In 2021, TikTok was sued for transferring copious amounts of private user data to China.
Rep. Krishnamoorthi noted that the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to gain any advantage “against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance.” Therefore, it’s vital that we ban social media networks controlled by this hostile power to prevent the platform, which collects data on tens of millions of Americans every day, from being weaponized against us.
To make matters worse, the app indoctrinates children with dangerous progressive ideas. Gender ideology activists are flooding TikTok with propaganda, causing children to cave to the social contagion of transgenderism and seek gender “transition” procedures.
Rep. Gallagher and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R), joined by four of their Wisconsin colleagues- Reps. Glenn Grothman, Scott Fitzgerald, Bryan Steil, and Tom Tiffany- called on Governor Evers to ban the TikTok app on any state-owned device. To date, Governor Evers has ignored the request. Such a move is not without precedent. Governors Kristi Noem (SD), Greg Abbott (TX), Henry McMaster (SC), Larry Hogan (MD), Kevin Stitt (OK), Pete Ricketss (NE), Spencer Cox (UT), and Kay Ivey (AL) have all taken such action.
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty earlier this month issued a report that “recaps the meteoric rise of the China-based social media app…and recounts the invasive ways that the software records data from its users.” The report recommends Wisconsin heed the warnings and take actions similar to these other states.
Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann recently banned TikTok on Washington County devices. This is the first, and to date, the only Wisconsin county to have taken such action. At the federal level, however, the U.S. House Administration Arm has banned TikTok on official devices. This is a good start, but we need to do more.
This federal bill is absolutely essential, and we are hopeful that Rep. Gallagher’s colleagues will agree. Closer to home, we need Governor Evers to take the warnings seriously and, at a minimum, prohibit the app on any government-issued device; and we need more counties to follow the example of Washington County. The Chinese Communist Party is a serious threat to the United States’ security and banning the Chinese-owned social media platform is common sense. In the meantime, parents should closely monitor their children’s social media use and ensure they stay off the app.
Update:
Gov. Evers announced that he will ban TikTok on government devices.
In response, Rep. Gallagher said, “TikTok is a CCP trojan horse that can track someone’s location, monitor their keystrokes, and collect other pieces of sensitive information about them. This app belongs nowhere near any part of our government and I’m glad Governor Evers finally made the decision to ban TikTok on state devices. Now that Governor Evers has recognized the threat posed by the app, I hope he will also delete his campaign’s TikTok account.”
Dec 20, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Couples struggling with infertility are increasingly turning to artificial reproduction, namely in vitro fertilization (IVF). While this technology seems to provide hope to couples with a well-intentioned longing to start a family, the reality is that IVF exploits women and strips tiny children of their fundamental right to life.
Oxford University fertility expert Professor Imogen Goold notes that artificial reproduction clinics “are selling anxious women a false dream” and “preying on women” by charging them for a procedure that almost never works.
When it comes to Big Fertility, there is no independent overseer, and among women aged 42 to 43 who try IVF, a mere three percent will end up with a baby. “Clinics offering egg-freezing rely on women being scared and wanting to throw money at a problem. But these clinics have a vested interest in convincing women they need to buy into this process as an insurance policy, highlighting their success rates while burying their failures,” writes British doctor Max Pemberton.
The lack of success and exploitation of desperate couples is not the only problem with IVF. Most importantly, every time an IVF cycle is performed, multiple tiny children are destroyed.
In the first stages of IVF, clinicians perform a preimplantation screening of early embryos for chromosomal or genetic abnormalities. The tiny humans that are determined to be “healthy” are implanted or frozen to be used in the future. The remaining embryos are simply discarded.
Further, many of the embryos who aren’t discarded during the first stages of IVF lose their lives during the implantation phase. In fact, only seven percent of embryos created through IVF are born.
Each of these embryos is a human life formed by God. Once fertilization takes places, a human being made in the image and likeness of God is formed, regardless of where or how that life is conceived.
Approximately 12 percent of married couples suffer from infertility or struggle to sustain a pregnancy, which creates deep emotional and physical stress. These couples deserve care and support as they suffer from the immense pain associated with the unfulfilled longing for a child, and a healthy society must encourage couples to have children and build strong families. However, lab-created children are not the answer. Instead, we should provide hope to couples struggling with infertility by encouraging them to adopt. Adoption benefits and respects the rights of everyone involved.
Unfortunately, couples trying to conceive through IVF aren’t made fully aware of what the process entails. Unless they ask the right questions of the doctors, they won’t know what the problems with this procedure are. It’s up to Christians and pro-lifers to share the truth about IVF with compassion for those who are desperately trying to conceive.
Once again science and technology are ahead of our ethics. Just because we can do something, does not mean we have a moral imperative to do it. It’s never right to create human life with the intention of it being expendable.
Dec 15, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Colorado is trying to force a Christian business owner to create (and thereby, endorse) a message that she disagrees with, but Lorie Smith is fighting back. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Smith’s case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, on Monday, December 5, and we are hopeful the high court will uphold her free speech and religious liberty rights.
Smith designs websites for weddings as long as they align with her belief that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. However, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act wrongfully forces her to create websites for same-sex marriages. Smith is willing to serve customers regardless of their sexual orientation; she simply refuses to celebrate an unbiblical view of marriage, as is her right.
The hearing lasted for over two hours, and the court debated several questions regarding line-drawing. For example, was Smith’s refusal to create websites for same-sex marriages based on the message of the website or the sexual orientation of the couple? Was her refusal an expression of speech, and therefore protected by the First Amendment, or of conduct?
The left-leaning justices led the questioning of Alliance Defending Freedom’s Kristen Waggoner, who is representing Smith. The justices clearly believed Smith was denying the couple her services based on status.
Justice Elena Kagan asked Brian Fletcher, an attorney representing the state of Colorado, what could happen if the court rules in Smith’s favor. Fletcher argued that the court could allow racial discrimination if it upholds Smith’s right to free speech. He pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision in Runyon v. McCrary, a case in which a private school’s admission policy discriminated against black children. However, this comparison is irrelevant. The court’s decision in Runyon v. McCrary did not involve freedom of speech, and the skin color of a teacher’s students wouldn’t change his pro-segregation message.
Thankfully, the conservative justices seemed to lean in the opposite direction. In a debate with Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson, Justice Neil Gorsuch referenced Colorado’s treatment of Jack Phillips, who was the subject of a very similar case, as forcing him into a “re-education program.”
Waggoner argued that Smith isn’t just selling a service and engaging in conduct, but is conveying a message with her website designs. She highlighted the fact that the Supreme Court has refused to force someone to convey a message that violates his or her beliefs time and time again in the past.
She asserted that Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston should govern Smith’s case. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that Massachusetts could not require the St. Patrick’s Day parade organizers to allow an LGBTQ group to participate in the march. Similarly, the government cannot force Smith to celebrate an LGBTQ relationship.
Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson retorted by pointing to Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), in which the Supreme Court ruled that a law withholding federal funding from colleges that restricted military recruiters’ access to students did not violate the First Amendment. He argued that the FAIR ruling “regulates conduct, not speech” because it set guidelines for what the schools could do rather than what they could say.
Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back on Fletcher’s reliance on FAIR, rightfully stating that the case involved a completely different type of compulsion than the forced speech in Smith’s case.
Then Justice Amy Barrett presented several hypotheticals about other types of marriages or situations that might violate Smith’s beliefs, such as heterosexual marriages that began as adulterous relationships. Waggoner said that Smith would not create websites for those couples either, proving that her refusal is based on the message the website sends, not the status or sexual orientation of the couple.
Justice Barrett noted that Smith says on her website that she fully customizes “the look, feel, theme, message, color palettes, et cetera” of each website she designs.
Gorsuch then voiced the critical distinction of this case, saying, “So, the question isn’t who, it’s what?” Waggoner agreed. This is the question that this case hinges on, and our conservative justices seem to be on the right track.
WFA joined with other pro-religious freedom organizations to file a friend-of-the-court brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Lorie Smith. We are hopeful the conservative justices (which comprise a majority) on the court vote in favor of free speech and religious liberty, as they seem poised to.
If the government can compel Lorie to create a message she disagrees with, it can do the same to any of us. Please pray the high court upholds our First Amendment rights.
Dec 13, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
In a tremendous victory for the religious liberty of healthcare professionals, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the Biden Administration’s transgender mandate.
In Sisters of Mercy v. Becerra, a group of Catholic hospitals, nuns, and a Catholic university that operates medical clinics for the poor, sued the Biden administration over a mandate that would have forced religious doctors and hospitals to perform mutilative gender surgeries on any patient, including children.
In May 2021, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it would expand the definition of “sex” to include “sexual orientation and gender identity” in Title VII’s provision against employment discrimination. The new rule did not contain any religious liberty protections.
In August of this year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government could not force doctors to perform gender “transition” surgeries if it contradicted their beliefs. The Court upheld a permanent injunction against the HHS rule for another group of Catholic health care providers.
This week, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s decision and protected the First Amendment rights of medical professionals. It relied heavily on the Fifth Circuit court’s ruling, noting that the Eight Circuit Court found “instructive the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in Franciscan Alliance.”
“We agree with these courts and therefore conclude that the district court correctly held that ‘intrusion upon the Catholic Plaintiffs’ exercise of religion is sufficient to show irreparable harm,’” wrote the Eighth Circuit in its decision.
While this decision does not apply to all states, it sets a crucial precedent for future religious liberty cases.
“Today’s victory sets an important precedent that religious healthcare professionals are free to practice medicine in accordance with their consciences and experienced professional judgment,” said Luke Goodrich of Becket Law. “The government’s attempt to force doctors to go against their consciences was bad for patients, bad for doctors, and bad for religious liberty.”
Extensive research shows the detrimental effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone administration, and bodily mutilation. These procedures have been linked to loss of fertility, cardiac disease, loss of bone density, and increased cancer risk.
Further, the puberty blockers that doctors give to children suffering from gender dysphoria are the same substances used to castrate sex offenders. This is not healthcare;it’s child abuse.
The good news is that the majority of Americans recognize how radical and abusive these procedures are. According to a recent Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll, almost 80% of likely voters believe that children should not be able to receive puberty blockers and permanent sex change procedures.
Our job is to continue to expose clinics that are participating in this child abuse and share the ugly truth about gender “transition” procedures. Children suffering from gender dysphoria deserve real help, not harm. Moreover, doctors should never be forced to harm children and provide a service that violates their conscience.
We are hopeful that the Eighth Circuit’s ruling will set a lasting precedent for other courts and that religious liberty for healthcare professionals will be upheld all across the country, including here in Wisconsin.
Dec 5, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Chaplains at Wisconsin Children’s Hospital preach anti-Christian ideas and parents need to push back. Children are being bombarded with radical gender ideology from every direction. Even their medical care providers are taking part, as our premier children’s hospital in Wisconsin is now hiring “trans” activists as chaplains and “spiritual care interns.”
The new hires were announced with fliers posted in the inpatient units. The posters read, “Meet Your New Chaplain: Kate Newendorp.” Newendorp’s gender ideology was made clear, as the posters declared her pronouns as “she/her/hers” and those of her fiancé, a female who identifies as “they/he.”
While the posters themselves are cause for concern, they leave out some important details. Newendorp holds social Marxist views; and she is an advocate for transgender surgeries, abortion, and the rejection of religious teaching when it contradicts her personal views.
The new “chaplain” boldly rejects biblical Christian doctrine, which clearly affirms the value of life in the womb, defines the sexes as only “male and female,” and decries same-sex relationships.
“Love Jesus. Be gay. Get ordained,” she wrote on Facebook in June. “What better way to celebrate Pride than being ordained?! Many thanks to my church and classis for being willing to stand for queer folks being included in ministry and for allowing me to follow God’s call.”
She has also twisted Scripture on Facebook by falsely proclaiming that loving one’s neighbor requires voting for Democrats. She even called abortion a “religious freedom” in a post proudly announcing her pro-choice views. Lastly, she started a GoFundMe to help her fiancé undergo a double mastectomy as part of her gender “transition.”
Unfortunately, Newendorp isn’t the only anti-Christian “chaplain” at Children’s. Fellow “chaplain” Ian Butts interrogated the hospital’s staff members who requested religious exemptions from the Covid vaccine mandate.
These are the people who are influencing our children under the guise of Christianity. Parents cannot afford to allow their children to be taught by secular society, or even many of those who claim to be “Christian.”
Parents must have tough conversations with their children about what the Bible really teaches, and how to approach these topics with Truth and love. Talk to them from early ages about how God designed them to be distinctly male or female and how His design is good.
Parents should also foster an environment at home where children feel comfortable asking questions. This also means that parents need to be well-educated on this subject. “Becoming an expert emboldens you to live out Deuteronomy 6:7, teaching the truth ‘diligently to your children … when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise,’” writes Them Before Us director Katy Faust.
A growing number of children are identifying as transgender thanks to the influence of mentors like Newendorp. Parents need to know how to steer their children in the right direction when it comes to their sexuality. There are plenty of resources, such as Them Before Us by Katy Faust that can help prepare parents to raise Godly children in a morally depraved culture. Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier provides interesting and important insights into the transgender craze as it impacts girls. Shrier is not a Christian and is not 100% opposed to the LGBTQ+ agenda, but she is alarmed by the “attack” on young girls in particular.
Further, if your children are in public schools, ask questions. Stay informed about exactly what your children are learning and get involved. Bealert to signs that your son or daughter might be struggling in this area.
Lastly, but most importantly, pray for the hearts and minds of your children daily. This is a spiritual battle, and the devil is working hard to influence them. Pray for their protection and most of all that they come to know and love Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, rather than succumbing to the evil ideas that surround them.
Dec 1, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Worldwide religious persecution is escalating. According to Open Doors, one in seven Christians worldwide suffer high or extreme levels of persecution.
While significant religious persecution is happening in nearly 80 countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, where extremist Islam is rampant, is experiencing the most violence against Christians. Last year, nearly 6,000 were killed for faith-related reasons.
Religious persecution can come from the government, radical religious groups, or the culture; and they all manifest in different ways. According to this year’s Persecutor of the Year Awards Report, persecution of Christians is more prevalent and widespread today than it ever has been before.
These realities should make American Christians more faithful in praying for the persecuted church and more zealous in protecting our religious freedom. While religious liberty is certainly under attack in our country, we still enjoy more religious liberty than most of the world, and we shouldn’t take that for granted.
Religious freedom was the impetus for the founding of our country. In 1620, the Pilgrims came to the New World for the right to live according to the dictates of their faith. Succeeding generations have fought to protect this First Freedom.
Two hundred years after the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth, President Abraham Lincoln declared that the fourth Thursday of every November would be an official holiday called Thanksgiving – an opportunity to thank God for all the blessings He has bestowed upon us. At the time of Lincoln’s declaration, the nation was deeply divided, much like it is today. The country was nearing the end of a Civil War and disagreement had turned to violence. Because of these similarities, Lincoln’s words still speak to us today.
Lincoln declared,
“In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity…peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed…and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God…It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States…to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
Lincoln was absolutely right. Despite the turmoil surrounding us, we have so much to be grateful for. Over the last year, we have seen several monumental wins for religious liberty, including Supreme Court cases Carson v. Makin, Kennedy v. Bremerton, and other local cases. While there is still more work to be done to safeguard our religious liberty, we should celebrate the fact that by law, we can still freely express our faith in the public sphere.
Always, our religious freedom should be high on the list of things we are thankful for.
Nov 17, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Stories of school districts violating parents’ rights with transgender policies continue to emerge, and WFA is helping to fight back.
The Linn-Mar Community School District, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, implemented a policy earlier this year barring the district from informing parents of a student’s transgender status unless the student provides authorization. Under the policy, students can also decide whether or not their parents attend meetings with a school counselor to receive support and implement a “Gender Support Plan.”
The Eighth Circuit Court will hear oral arguments for this case in February 2023. To defend parental rights, WFA has signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief, along with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the Baptist Convention of Iowa (BCI), and other organizations to defend parental rights.
The brief says that the Parental Preclusion Policy “permits students and schools to determine the name and pronouns that a student will use at school, to decide the gender of those that the child will sleep with on school trips, to select which restroom and locker room to use at school, and to determine which gender sports teams to join, all without parental notification or consent.”
By hiding pertinent information about students, the school district violates parents’ right to “direct the care and education of their children,” and violates their due process protections.
The U.S. Constitution “protects parental interests as fundamental,” reads the brief. “This policy’s underlying rationales – that parents do not act in their children’s best interest and schools may trump parental authority when they suspect they might disagree with parental decisions – provide no permissible justification whatsoever.”
“It is parents who are given the primary right to care for their child, not school counselors, teachers, or principals. [F]undamental parental rights, like other fundamental rights, may only be curtailed or withheld after notice and due process,” the brief continues.
The Linn-Mar Community School District is clearly prioritizing a radical ideology over parents’ fundamental rights, and WFA is proud to take a stand for parents and children’s safety.
In another recent case, former school counselor at Allen-Field Elementary School in the Milwaukee Public School District (MPS) Marissa Darlingh was fired for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech. At a feminist rally, Darlingh expressed her concern about the dangers associated with “gender identity ideology,” especially for children.
Darlingh has filed a lawsuit against the school district in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and she is being represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
“The District has blatantly violated Ms. Darlingh’s First Amendment rights. Firing her for expressing her views on such an important subject is not only inexcusable, but unconstitutional,” said WILL Deputy Counsel, Luke Berg.
The lawsuit alleges that the district violated Darlingh’s First Amendment and Due Process rights, as the termination letter cited her speech at the feminist rally as the reason for her termination. That speech was given on her own personal time outside of campus. The lawsuit seeks reinstatement to her position at the school, back-pay, and removal of the no-trespass order against her. We are hopeful that this case will affirm the First Amendment rights of all teachers.
Schools are now pushing radical gender ideology on students, hiding information about students’ gender identity from parents, and punishing those who disagree with their ideology. While the success of these lawsuits will help, we need parents and teachers to stand up and assert their rights. Parents have every right to know exactly what is going on in the classroom, and teachers have every right to condemn a radical ideology that is harming children.
Please pray for the success of these lawsuits and an end to radical indoctrination in the classrooms of government schools.
Nov 9, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
The votes for the 2022 fall midterm partisan elections are in, and overall, the outcome is as expected—not necessarily as hoped for.
The big races—US senate, governor and attorney general were all close. Unofficially, Republican incumbent Ron Johnson has prevailed over Democrat challenger Mandela Barnes who is currently serving as our state’s lieutenant governor. The margin in this race was razor thin.
In the race for governor, Republican challenger Tim Michels lost to incumbent Democrat Tony Evers, while in the attorney general race, incumbent Democrat Josh Kaul prevailed over challenger Republican Eric Toney. The AG race was even closer than the governor’s race.
In our congressional races, all incumbents won and in the only open congressional race in our state, Congressional District 3, Republican Derek Van Orden appears to have beat the Democrat opponent. This was an open seat because long-time Member of Congress Democrat Ron Kind decided to retire and not run for re-election. So now, Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, or members of the US House of Representatives, is made up of six Republicans and two Democrats.
Turning to the state legislature, Republicans held strong majorities in both the senate and the Assembly going into this election—not veto-proof, but close. As a reminder, all 99 Assembly seats were on the ballot and half of the senate districts, the odd-numbered districts.
In the Senate, one noteworthy race resulted in a seat flipping from Democrat to Republican. In Senate District 25 in the northern part of the state Republican Romaine Quinn prevailed in an open race. The seat had been held by Democrat Janet Bewley who decided not to run again this cycle. In Senate District 31, Republican David Estenson narrowly lost to Democrat incumbent Jeff Smith. In other open Senate races, Republican Rob Hutton won in Senate District 5 and Republican Rachael Cabral-Guevera won in District 19—both of those seats had been held by Republicans. So, at this point, even with just the one Republican pick up in the state Senate, it appears there will be a veto-proof majority in the state senate with 22 Republicans and 11 Democrats.
In the Assembly, incumbents held on, with one or two seats flipped from Democrat to Republican (one race is still too close to call). The Republicans basically maintained their strong majority, but it does not appear they will get to the 66 needed for a veto-proof majority.
With Evers returning to the governor’s office, Republicans would have liked veto-proof majorities in both houses so that they could override the governor’s vetoes. You might recall that this past session, Governor Evers vetoed 126 bills that were put on his desk by the Republican-controlled state legislature. Those bills included pro-life bills, election-reform bills, school choice bills, and many more. We now enter a second 4-year period, which is two legislative sessions, with a divided government which will mean more of the same since the legislature won’t be able to override Evers’ vetoes.
At the federal level, races in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and a few other states, including Wisconsin, loomed very large going into election day. Pollsters and pundits were saying in the days leading up to the election that it looked very favorable for Republicans to gain control of the Senate. Both Democrats and Republicans needed to win 5 seats in order to maintain or gain the majority. Across the country there were tight, close races, but right now without all the races yet being called, it appears that the US Senate will once again be 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans—with a new face or two in that body, but essentially the same scenario we have had. Johnson’s win here in Wisconsin was critical to maintaining the 50-50 split.
This outcome in the US Senate is going to mean some more tense moments as the Senate looks at the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, the potential codification of abortion, bills that deal with special protections for the LGBTQ agenda, and so forth. On the bills that require the 60-vote threshold, Democrats and liberal outside groups will be very heavily lobbying the Republican senators to peel 10 of them off so they can get the votes they need on these bills and more. From our perspective, this means citizens need to stay very engaged and willing to let their senators know their opinion on these highly-charged, very important issues.
We should take a quick look at the US House of Representatives as well. That body had a Democrat majority for the past two years, but that appears to have changed as a result of yesterday’s election. Republicans now have a narrow majority over the Democrats with the New York Times estimating that the Republicans will have 224 of the 435 seats and the Democrats holding 211. Talk about narrow margins! Wisconsin contributed to this majority by flipping Congressional District 3 from blue to red.
Of course, this does mean leadership will change from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to likely Kevin McCarthy. Now, with the Republicans in control of the House and the Democrats in control of the Senate, there’s going to be, at least presumably, some gridlock with the House probably passing more conservative bills than the senate will be willing to take up.
We must remember that in all things, God is sovereign. Scripture says the powers that be are ordained of God, which means we as believers must view even election results through that lens. That doesn’t mean we don’t assess how outcomes happened, what strategies and tactics worked and which ones didn’t. It doesn’t mean we don’t look for ways to do things better if need be to produce different results if that’s what we think is right. But it does mean at some point, we accept the outcome of elections, as at a minimum, God-permitted. We should look for lessons to be learned from whatever the outcome is.
As always, many thanks for all of your work in this election cycle and for your continued support.
Thank you for whatever you did to help determine the consequences of this election. Whether you voted, used your influence to encourage others to join you, worked the polls, were an election observer, took people to the polls who couldn’t otherwise get there, or prayed—it’s all important. And you deserve great gratitude for what you’ve done.
There will be very real consequences from this election, and we need to be ready for those, both the positive and the negative ones. We do our best to honor God with our vote and we engage elected officials now as they begin making policy. We let them know our opinion on bills, but we ultimately accept the outcome as from God, Who could have changed the outcome of any race if He had chosen to do so. We rejoice in victories, and we accept losses, and most importantly, we push forward with hope in King Jesus and in God’s Word and with courage and determination in our mission of advancing Christian values in Wisconsin—because we love God, and we love our neighbor.
Stay tuned for more information on all that our organizations did in this election. We think you will be very encouraged!
Nov 5, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
With the midterm election just a few days away, we are in the midst of intense spiritual warfare. Politics is always a spiritual business, as it involves truth and ethics. But with so much at stake during this election, the forces of darkness threatening to steal our children’s innocence, destroy the family unit, annihilate another generator of Wisconsin’s unborn future, and remove our God-given rights are working overtime.
“It was Lucifer’s attempt to displace Christ from the Throne of Heaven that got him expelled (Isaiah 14:12). Lucifer is still seeking thrones for himself, and weak, spiritually naïve human beings seeking power easily become instruments of his quest,” writes Wallace B. Henley of the Christian Post.
As Christians, we can fight back against the Devil’s attempt to seek political thrones for himself by honoring God with our vote. This means that the candidates we vote for should stand for biblical principles. They should be unwavering in their protection of parental rights, the sanctity of life, children’s innocence, and religious liberty.
There may not always be a candidate whose views align perfectly with God’s teaching, but there will likely be an option that is clearly the most ethical. Part of honoring God with our vote is preventing the evil ideas of the left from coming into fruition by voting for the most ethical candidate, even if we don’t agree with him/her on everything.
Further, if we are going to make significant headway against the evil in our country, we need churches and pastors to directly address the political issues that the Bible takes a clear stance on—in particular, abortion, marriage, and human sexuality.
Pro-abortion advocates and government leaders are working tirelessly to ensure a future of abortion on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy. Unfortunately, many Christians fail to recognize abortion as the grave offense against God that it is, and abortion extremists are taking advantage of that.
Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outrageously claim that abortion and the Christian faith are compatible, while California Governor Gavin Newsom is using Bible verses to advertise for abortion across the country.
The church needs to step up and set the record straight on abortion, marriage, human sexuality, and children’s rights including the right to life. Pastors dare not any longer ignore these biblical issues that have been politicized, as the left shows no signs of stopping in their mission to dismantle the traditional family, immerse young children in inappropriate material, abort the unborn, and elevate adult desires above children’s rights.
This is not to say that churches should become political power houses. Our interest is rather in making sure God’s people are informed so they can then appropriately engage with the government God has given us in this great country—a Republic, which requires the participation of its citizens. Our dual citizenship—in Heaven and on Earth—requires that we be good citizens of both places. Good citizens vote knowledgeably and responsibly—and honor God in doing so.
Most importantly, as good citizens of both heaven and earth, we must pray for this election. Pray that the most Christ-centered leaders are elected and that they lead our country toward virtue and Truth.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12
Nov 2, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
The midterm elections are less than a week away, and we need every Christian in Wisconsin to make their voice heard. With a growing crime rate, high inflation, poor educational outcomes, and continuous attacks on parental rights, so much is at stake. By electing the right leaders, and voting out those who have demonstrated their incompetence, we can change the trajectory of our state.
First and foremost, Gov. Evers needs to be replaced. WFA has compiled a “refrigerator list” of all that he’s done that Christians should oppose. It includes the following:
- Issued Executive Order that Pride flag be flown over Capitol in June each year.
- Vetoed every pro-life bill he’s been given (twice.)
- Vetoed every election reform bill he’s been given.
- Vetoed every vaccine discrimination bill he’s been given.
- Issued an illegal extension of his 60-day COVID-related Emergency Declaration and Executive Order.
- Issued executive orders requiring gender-specific pronouns or gender-specific family terms (such as mother, father, sister, brother, etc.) not be used within the executive branch (EO #121).
- Issued proclamation for so-called “Pride Month.”
- Vetoed a classroom transparency bill that would require schools to share curriculum, lessons plans and assignments with parents, so they know what their kids were being taught.
- Vetoed a bill that would have stopped CRT from being taught in public schools.
- Supports/pushes legalization of recreational marijuana.
- Vetoed every bill related to protecting religious freedom during COVID.
- Vetoed a bill that would have expanded school choice (AB 59).
- Vetoed a bill that would have eliminated personal property tax (AB 191).
- Vetoed a series of bills that would have directed COVID-19 relief money in specific amounts to specific entities.
- Approved, unilaterally, sports betting (online on casino property) in Wisconsin.
- Approved, unilaterally, the first off-reservation casino in WI (Beloit) .
- Issued proclamation for Transgender Day of Remembrance (Nov. 2021).
- Proposed largest spending budget in state’s history.
- Failed to send National Guard into Kenosha during Jacob Blake riots; engulfed city in riots & civil unrest for 3 days. Resulting in loss of 3 lives, $11M in destruction in a poor, multi-racial commercial area.
- Gave Planned Parenthood of WI $2.4 million of taxpayer money from the COVID relief funds.
If Evers remains in office, he will continue to advance his radical pro-abortion, anti-family, and anti-Christian agenda. He has vetoed numerous bills that were popular among Wisconsinites and would have greatly benefited our state. Some of those bills would have protected children from radical indoctrination, ensured the integrity of our elections, and protected the unborn.
Further, Evers’ prolonged school lockdowns and his silence while teachers’ unions kept schools closed d to a sharp decline in students’ scores. Wisconsin families deserve better.
Tim Michels is challenging Evers, and he has vowed to support and even expand school choice, protect the unborn, back the blue, and protect the integrity of our elections.
This is more than a matter of personal preference; these issues carry tremendous moral weight, meaning our votes do as well. For Christians, voting for a candidate with a progressive, anti-family agenda like Evers does not seem to us to be a viable option. We have a duty to elect a governor who will uphold our God-given rights, support life, and honor the will of the people. Michels, from our perspective, is the only moral choice.
Like Evers, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul failed to do his job and has pandered to his political allies instead of defending Wisconsin law. In June, Kaul and Evers filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court alleging Wisconsin’s law that criminalizes most abortions is not enforceable. Kaul maintained that laws that Republicans have passed mostly over the last fifty years negate the 1849 law.
“Unfortunately, this kind of political pandering and unwillingness of Evers and Kaul to do their job has come with the highest cost: loss of life. From the Kenosha riots in 2020, to the Waukesha parade attack in 2021, to Milwaukee’s murder rate sitting at 5 times the national average, and now the life of the unborn. Not enforcing our laws has real life consequences to Wisconsin citizens’ safety and security – true law enforcement should be the top priority,” said WFA President Julaine Appling.
Last week, during a debate with Republican challenger Eric Toney, Kaul doubled down on his decision to file that lawsuit, while Toney pledged to enforce the law. “We needed an attorney general, that’s not going to pick and choose when to enforce the rule of law, even if they disagree,” Toney said. He is absolutely right. We need an attorney general who will prioritize the rule of law over his own personal political interests.
Further, like Evers, Kaul has vowed to fight for abortion access, support public schools to the exclusion of school choice, expand gun control, and much more. Toney, on the other hand, supports the Parental Bill of Rights and wants to enforce Wisconsin’s abortion ban. For Christians, the most ethical choice is clear.
Lastly, Republican Ron Johnson is challenging Democrat Mandela Barnes for Wisconsin’s US Senate seat, and the right choice seems clear again. Unlike Barnes, Johnson wants to empower parents to take control of their children’s education, secure our borders, fight inflation, and protect the unborn.
God calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:39). One of the best ways to do that is to care for the spiritual and temporal lives of our neighbors by voting for candidates who will protect the unborn, support God’s plan for marriage and family, and protect children from immoral influences.
To learn more about each of the candidates and where they stand on the most important issues, visit this link. Get informed, spread the word to friends and family, and cast a vote that aligns with biblical principles. Every vote matters and can make a difference. Too much is at stake to stay home.
Oct 28, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
This week, WFA held a “Lunch With a Purpose” webinar with Dr. Wayne Grudem, who serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona.
Participants engaged in an excellent discussion on politics according to the Bible, and we trust that it was helpful for all who attended. For those who weren’t able to attend, a recording of the webinar is available on our website and may be accessed HERE.
Below are a list of resources that were mentioned in the webinar:
- Politics According to the Bible by Dr. Grudem is available from Amazon HERE.
- A copy of the booklet “Why Christians Should Seek to Influence Government for Good” by Dr. Grudem is available from Wisconsin Family Council (888-378-7395), or you can access a pdf download for free HERE.
- A copy of the booklet “Christians and Politics: Five Wrong Views” by Dr, Grudem is available online HERE.
- Election resources for your church are available on Wisconsin Family Council’s website HERE.
- Wisconsin Family Council’s Voter Information Publication can be found HERE.
We encourage everyone to take a look at these materials to gain a better understanding of why it’s so important for Christians to engage in government. It’s vital that we know why participating in politics is so important not only so that we do so ourselves, but so we can encourage our friends and family to do the same.
Government is God’s idea, not man’s. He calls us to engage in the political sphere as a way of caring for the spiritual and temporal lives of our neighbors. Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39). This means we must seek laws and elect leaders who will protect the unborn, support marriage and the family, and protect children from immoral influences.
Further, politics and morality are inseparable. Every law is based on some kind of moral compass, whether that compass comes from the false god of self or the One True God.
Dr. Grudem notes, “The Bible says that a government official is ‘God’s servant for your good’ (Rom. 13:4), but how can government officials effectively serve God if no one is allowed to tell them what they believe God expects of them? The Bible says that government officials are sent ‘to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good’ (1 Peter 2:14), but how can they do that if no spokesmen from any of the world’s religions are allowed to give them counsel on what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’?” Society can only thrive when our laws are based on God’s unchanging law.
Ultimately, without Christian influence, our government will have no clear moral compass, and Christians are obligated to exercise this influence.
The midterm election is just over a week away. Let’s respond to our calling and head to the polls. Don’t forget to do your research, know what each of the candidates stands for, cast an informed vote grounded in biblical principles, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Oct 27, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
The left is on a mission to immerse young children in inappropriate sexual material and radical gender ideology. Unfortunately, if a child is in public school, the chances of him or him being subject to this indoctrination are alarmingly high. Countless stories of schools encouraging students to take a false sense of control over their gender and transition socially without parental consent continue to emerge.
One father named Wendell Perez received a harrowing phone call from the Florida elementary school that his daughter attends thanks to the radical gender ideology that the school promotes. School officials informed Perez that his 12-year-old daughter had attempted to commit suicide in the girls’ bathroom. The reasoning she gave was that was in distress because she wanted to be a boy, with a male name and pronouns.
Wendell was in disbelief. He had never seen any signs of gender dysphoria or discomfort in his daughter. Further, the family is Catholic, and they intentionally instilled their children with a biblical worldview and scientific understanding of gender.
However, when Wendell and his wife rushed to the school, they discovered that school officials had been having secret meetings with their daughter and discussing her confusion about her gender.
Teachers had even begun treating their daughter as a boy without their knowledge or consent. Staff told Wendell that he was not informed of these meetings due to “confidentiality issues.”
This is just one of dozens of stories in which teachers are secretly addressing students by opposite-sex pronouns, promoting an ideology that leaves children in severe distress and often leads them to pursue harmful gender “transition” procedures.
No parent should ever have to receive the traumatic phone call that Wendell did. For the sake of children’s safety, all parents should know exactly what their child is learning and what personal information teachers are discussing with their child.
Thankfully, Wendell is now suing his daughter’s school district in Florida for undermining his and his wife’s right to direct their daughter’s upbringing.
Although this father’s battle is happening in Florida, Wisconsin families are fighting these same issues in at least three school districts. The Eau Claire, Kettle Moraine, and Madison districts have each been caught violating parental rights in the name of radical gender ideology during the past year. (Read HERE for more on those specific cases.)
Like Wendell, many parents are frustrated with their lack of input and knowledge about what their children are learning at school. A recent Fox News poll revealed that 70% of parents said that they did not have enough say in what their children learned in school.
Further, when asked about “overly accommodating transgender policies” for transgender students, 60% of parents said that these policies were a problem.
This is excellent news, especially in light of the fact that the midterm elections are right around the corner. Parents are waking up, and hopefully they will take their frustration to the polls.
Beyond voting for candidates that will protect their rights, parents must also educate themselves and become active in their local schools. They should demand transparency and regular parental review of classroom materials. Lastly, parents should know their rights and their options. If a school refuses to respect their basic values, parents should consider alternatives.
Parental rights are indispensable for a thriving society, as parents are best equipped to guide and protect their children. The left has waged a war on these rights, but we are reaching a turning point as parents begin to recognize the abuse that is happening to their children.
We have an opportunity to reclaim parental rights on November 8th – let’s not waste it. Don’t forget to educate yourself about the candidates by visiting Wisconsin Family Action’s voter guide. Be sure to spread the word to your friends and family and vote for leaders who understand that children belong to parents alone.
Oct 17, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Christian cake shop owner Jack Phillips and graphic designer Lorie Smith are fighting for their First Amendment rights in court. Hopefully their cases will reaffirm the right of every American to live or run a business according to their deeply held beliefs without fear or retribution.
In 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court heard Phillips’ case after a couple sued the baker for refusing to bake them a cake celebrating their same-sex wedding. The court ruled in Phillips’ favor and found that the state of Colorado had discriminated against him.
However, before the court gave its ruling, another complaint was filed against Phillips, this time for refusing to bake a cake celebrating a gender transition.
On the same day that the Supreme Court announced it would hear Phillips’ original case, Colorado lawyer Autumn Scardina called Phillips’ bakery to ask for a cake celebrating his transition from male to female. Scardina admitted that he only wanted to “challenge the veracity” of Phillips’ claim that he would serve LGBT people. Phillips’ family told Scardina they could not make the cake because the message it conveyed contradicted their personal beliefs.
Phillips has frequently served LGBT customers. He is not discriminating against the customers themselves. He simply refuses to make cakes with messages that contradict his religious beliefs such as Halloween cakes, sexually explicit cakes, and demeaning cakes, as is his God-given right.
A district court ruled against Phillips in this case, but Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys appealed the decision to the Colorado Court of Appeals.
ADF Senior Counsel Jake Warner says, “No one should be forced to express a message that violates their beliefs and conscience. Activists and state laws have threatened artists like Jack and graphic artist Lorie Smith because they can’t express messages on marriage and gender that violate their core beliefs. In this case, an activist attorney demanded that Jack create expressive cakes to test him and ‘correct the errors’ of his thinking. The attorney even promised to sue Jack again if the case is dismissed for any reason. Free speech is for everyone. The Constitution protects the freedom of every American to express ideas even if the government disagrees with those ideas.”
Warner is absolutely right. Phillips is completely within his rights to refuse to serve a same-sex wedding or bake a cake with an anti-Christian message. Hopefully, the Colorado Court of Appeals makes a decision informed by the Constitution.
In Jack’s first case, the US Supreme Court granted Phillips a partial victory, but failed to address the heart of the issue: Does the Constitution protect freedom of speech and the freedom not to speak, as well as religious freedom, or does the LGBTQ agenda trump those rights?
The good news is that the high court has a case this session similar to Jack’s, giving them another opportunity to get this issue right. Lorie Smith, a Christian graphic designer, is challenging the same law that brought Phillips to the Supreme Court.
Smith designs websites for weddings as long as they align with her belief that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. However, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act forces her to create websites for same-sex marriages.
This is an opportunity for the Supreme Court to affirm every artist and business owner’s right to refuse to send a message they don’t agree with. Let’s pray the court gets it right this time.
Even WFA has been denied graphic design services more than once because of who we are and what we believe- even by vendors who say they are Christians. While we could sue, we never have, because as Christians, we really do believe business owners should have the right to refuse any business they wish.
At the core of human dignity is our right to live in accordance with our deeply held beliefs. No one has the right to an artist’s services. Only the artist has the right to determine which services he or she will provide. While this First Amendment right is under severe and constant attack, Phillips and Smith’s cases give us a chance to realign the law with the Constitution and prevent more unwarranted complaints against Christian business owners.
Oct 12, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Thanks to online trends and social contagion, rates of transgender affiliation are soaring while a growing number of clinics are harming children with dangerous, experimental procedures. However, several conservative activists are speaking out and demonstrating that sharing the truth can make a real difference.
Last month, Daily Wire host Matt Walsh posted a twitter thread revealing Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) dangerous so-called “gender-affirming” practices. “My team and I have been investigating the transgender clinic at Vanderbilt here in Nashville. Vanderbilt drugs, chemically castrates, and performs double mastectomies on minors. But it gets worse…” wrote Walsh.
A Daily Wire report stated that Walsh uncovered video and archived webpages from VUMC describing a doctor’s promotion of transgender therapies and surgeries in addition to threats against medical professionals who have moral objections to these procedures. In videos shared by Walsh, a VUMC doctor is seen bragging about how lucrative cross-sex hormones, puberty blocking therapies, and mutilation surgeries are because they require “a lot of follow-ups.” Particular surgeries were described in dollar signs.
Shortly after the report was published, the University put a pause on its child mutilation procedures. “HUGE NEWS: following our report, Vanderbilt has agreed to pause all gender transition surgeries on minors. The fight is far from over but this will save children from mutilation and abuse. An incredibly important victory. Praise God,” tweeted Walsh.
The left wants to keep their radical practices in the dark, and they are threatened when the truth is exposed. Like Walsh, Chris Rufo, Libs of Tiktok and other conservative activists, we must continue to speak out against the child abuse being committed by a growing number of clinics to save children from permanent damage. With enough public backlash, these clinics will be forced to stop their “gender affirming” procedures as Vanderbilt has.
While alarming stories of gender affirmative clinics are emerging from other states, Wisconsin children are also at risk of succumbing to the lies and consequences of gender ideology. Here in Wisconsin, the Pediatric Adolescent Transgender Health Clinic (PATH Clinic) at the University of Wisconsin Health “work[s] with gender expansive children and teens.” We don’t know exactly what the clinic’s “gender affirmative” approach entails, but we do know that these programs act as a gateway to mutilation and sterilization. Our job is to call them out for abusing children and demand that they provide those suffering from gender dysphoria with real help, not harm.
We should also focus on highlighting the stories of detransitioners who are speaking out against the abuse they endured and detailing the irreversible physical and emotional damage they now live with.
A new film from the Center for Bioethics and Culture shares the testimonies of three women who received different forms of “gender-affirming” services and procedures only to find that the “treatments” that were supposed to alleviate their confusion only caused them more harm.
“I wasn’t functioning at all. I wasn’t holding down a job. I wasn’t going to school. I just felt like a monster. Once I stopped the testosterone, the symptoms all went away and I started feeling like myself again,” said one detransitioner named Helena.
The three girls, and many others like them, are addressing other children who are suffering from gender dysphoria and urging them to avoid puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and any kind of “gender affirming” care. Their transparency acts as a beacon of hope in a culture that’s become obsessed with placing children in charge of their gender.
Mangling healthy bodies should never be the solution to a mental health crisis. In fact, it’s only exacerbating the crisis. By sharing the truth about the danger that many clinics are subjecting children to and sharing the hopeful stories of detransitioners, we can make a real difference and put an end to child abuse disguised as healthcare.
Oct 6, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
A new leader abroad is representing the rise of conservatism in Europe, and she provides an excellent example of unwavering commitment to Christian values for our leaders here in the United States.
Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Italy’s conservative party Brothers of Italy, was recently elected Prime Minister of Italy, making history as the first female leader of the country. Even more impressively, she is standing firm for biblical values and the nuclear family.
Meloni’s leadership is desperately needed in Europe, as the EU’s progressive social and economic agenda is spreading much like the left’s in the United States. Despite tremendous backlash from her adversaries, Meloni has consistently and unapologetically spoken the truth.
During a speech at the 2019 World Congress of Families that has recently gone viral online, she declared, “Why is the family an enemy? Why is the family so frightening?… Because everything that defines us is now an enemy… And so they attack national identity, they attack religious identity, they attack gender identity, they attack family identity…”
“I cannot define myself as Italian, Christian, woman, mother. No… I must be… ‘gender x,’ ‘parent 1’… I must be a number…” she continued.
“We will defend God, country and family. Those things that disgust people so much. We will do it to defend our freedom, because we will never be slaves…”
Meloni has also condemned many of the evils that the left continues to champion such as surrogacy, same-sex marriage, abortion, and child gender transition hormone therapy.
She has even bemoaned Italy’s low birth rate, which is just 1.2 children per woman, reflecting the culture’s poor view of marriage and family. This is an issue we’re seeing in Wisconsin, as we’ve had a below replacement birth-rate since 1974.
Meloni’s commitment to the traditional family unit and Christian values is exactly what we need from our leaders here in the U.S., especially as a growing number of children are undergoing bodily mutilation at the hands of abusive doctors.
This kind of leadership is difficult to come across, as it comes at a high price now that censorship, name-calling, and persecution have become the norm in our political landscape.
The left is criticizing Meloni’s views and politics as “semi-fascist” – although this is blatantly false – simply because her political beliefs align with biblical teachings.
YouTube has censored her speech, claiming that the video “violated YouTube’s Community Guidelines.” In reality, the left-wing platform simply disagrees with Meloni’s politics and is silencing her voice as it often does to conservative speakers.
Our leaders should expect the same persecution if they follow her lead, but it can’t hinder them from fiercely marching forward in proclaiming God’s truth and boldly speaking out for children and the traditional family. Children are being mutilated, and now is not the time for spineless leadership.
Without representatives who refuse to cower to the woke mob and are steadfast in their goal of preserving traditional American values, parental rights, religious liberty, and free speech will continue to diminish.
Thankfully, we have an opportunity this fall to elect leaders who will follow Meloni’s lead and catalyze a return to a pro-family America. Over the next month, we should focus on getting informed about the candidates and encouraging fellow Christians to elect Christ-centered leaders who will guide our country toward virtue and away from the many evils pervading our culture.
We need to elect candidates who are proud to send the same message in the U.S. that Meloni is sending to Italy: “Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology, yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death.”
Sep 30, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Parents with children in Wauwatosa School District are rightfully upset. The district is doing everything it can to indoctrinate their children, starting as early as kindergarten, by exposing them to inappropriate instructional material as part of its Human Growth and Development curriculum.
The board notified parents the first week of August about proposed changes to the Human Growth and Development curriculum, which include classes on gender identity, sexual-orientation, and other sex-themed topics from kindergarten through high school.
By fourth grade, students will be expected to “have awareness of different definitions for gender, including transgender, cisgender, and non-binary,” “understand that individuals may identify beyond male and female,” and “understand the use of pronouns around gender identity.” The full guidelines can be found here.
The curriculum is possibly the most radical that we’ve seen. It exposes 5-year-olds to concepts and visuals they are in no way prepared to handle.
The push to convince children that their biological sex is a fiction and change be changed and that homosexuality is normal and even healthy is intentional and extreme. They audaciously start as young as they dare—in this instance kindergarten—and continue bombarding the students with lies wrapped in strong emotional language and pseudo-science.
Thankfully, concerned parents and other citizens have organized and done an incredible job of showing up, speaking up, and standing up, letting the school board know that the changes to the district’s sex ed program are entirely inappropriate. This organized group of parents and other concerned citizens now has an official name—Awake Tosa.
What we first noticed about the parents’ efforts and approach was how very knowledgeable they were about what Wisconsin’s law actually says about these programs. For instance, they knew that nothing in Wisconsin’s law requires a school district to have a Human Growth and Development, aka, sex-ed program. Having such a program is totally at the discretion of the school board.
This group also knew that if a school district decides to have a sex-ed program, then certain things are required, including an advisory committee comprised of representatives from certain groups of citizens, including medical professionals, members of the clergy, and parents. The law also clearly limits how many school-district-related people can be on the committee.
Importantly, a number of those involved with this effort have actually spent time looking at the proposed curriculum and related instructional materials. They knew exactly what they were talking about when they stood before the school board and voiced their concerns. Some read directly from the material and others made specific references to certain objectionable elements and noted the grade level. That kind of specificity shows the board and other district officials that people have done their homework and are not just speaking generally or without firsthand knowledge of what’s in the program. Specifics make it hard for officials to dismiss the allegations.
Finally, this group has paid close attention to what the district has been doing with scheduling meetings and other actions it was taking, including a public survey on the proposed changes. Using emails, texts, phone calls, and word-of-mouth, people concerned about what was happening informed others, letting them know, for instance, that the survey was available online and encouraging them to weigh in before the deadline. That’s a smart move. If the school district is going to solicit public input, then it’s fair game for people to let others know and urge them to use the mechanism the district is providing.
Unfortunately, the board approved the Human Growth and Development program with the onerous changes on Monday, September 26, 2022, but Awake Tosa still acts as a source of hope. They are pressing on and setting an important example that’s worthy of emulation. It’s vital that parents put pressure on school boards when they reach beyond their boundaries.
We hope Awake Tosa will remain organized and even expand. They are learning good lessons as they go along—lessons that will help them tackle other issues impacting their children. The very best way to bring about positive changes in school districts is for parents and other citizens in that district to take an active, on-going interest. One-and-done doesn’t work; it takes persistent and consistent work. And all the evidence we see right now says Wauwatosa concerned citizens understand that and will continue showing up, speaking up, and standing up for the children.
We should find solace in the fact that parents are waking up and paying attention. Hopefully, they will take their frustration to the polls this fall and elect candidates who will protect their children from radical indoctrination.
There is power in numbers, and parents really can make a difference when they band together.
Sep 27, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
President Joe Biden’s Department of Education is attempting to radically re-define “sex” in Title IX to expand the law’s protections to “transgender” individuals. Thankfully, many voices are putting up a fight.
Under Title IX, schools cannot receive federal funding if they discriminate against any student on the basis of sex. According to a press release, the DOE wants to amend Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments so that “sex” includes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
As a result, any space, program, building, bathroom, locker room, or sports team that is separated by sex would be forced to accommodate biological men who believe they are, or “identify” as, women. Schools that rightfully refuse to allow biological males into women’s bathrooms could lose their federal funding.
However, there is hope. The proposed changes have not yet taken effect, and parents, the attorneys general of several states, and organizations like Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) are working to ensure that they never do.
The DOE received over 184,000 public comments from parents concerned about their children’s safety and the erasure of women. This is a record number of parents and other concerned citizens taking a stand for the rights of their families. It shows that parents are paying attention and are willing to take action to protect their children, which is excellent news ahead of a crucial election.
Similarly, WILL submitted a comment to the Department of Education detailing three significant concerns about the proposed changes.
“First, the reinterpretation of the definition of sex within Title IX is an illegal action by an executive agency because the proposed regulations are antithetical to the intent of the law – namely, to protect and support women and girls. Second, the proposed regulations will have a chilling effect on speech, including speech motivated by sincere religious beliefs, and academic freedom. Third, the proposed regulations undermine parental rights. WILL has requested that the Department respond to each of these concerns and reject the proposed rules,” reads WILL’s comment.
Wisconsin Family Action president Julaine Appling also submitted a comment on behalf of the organization. Our comments were along the same line as WILL’s.
WILL also has model policies available to school districts, including a model policy on student pronouns that the Education Department should take a note from. “Parents have the right to determine the names and pronouns that staff use to refer to their children while at school. Staff shall not refer to or address minor students by a different name or pronouns that differ from their biological sex, during school hours, without written authorization from a parent,” begins the model policy on student pronouns.
Another model policy establishes parents’ right to review instructional materials and related documents: “Parents shall have the right to access, upon request, the instructional materials used in the education of their children. In this policy, “instructional materials” means instructional content that is provided to a student, regardless of its format, including printed or representational materials, audio-visual materials, and materials in electronic or digital formats.”
We need leaders on school boards and legislators who will enact policies like these to protect children and parents’ rights—not undermine them. We have an opportunity to do just that this fall; let’s not waste it!
In the meantime, please pray that the efforts to block the DOE’s radical proposal are effective. Women’s rights, parental rights, free speech, religious liberty, and academic freedom are on the line; but we should remain hopeful because of the many voices that are fighting back and offering a better way forward.
Sep 22, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
California Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CD 28) recently introduced the Equal Access to Reproductive Care Act, which purportedly aims to help those struggling with infertility; but in truth, it only creates a larger issue for children’s rights.
Currently in the United States, couples are eligible to receive tax benefits for fertility treatments only if they are in a heterosexual relationship since these are the only relationships capable of fertility in and of themselves. However, sexual revolutionaries view nature and biological truths as an injustice, and they are attempting to expand the definition of “infertility” to include those who cannot reproduce “either as a single individual or with a partner without medical intervention.”
In response to the legislation, Joseph Backholm in WORLD explains: “Under this definition, single people, as well as people in same-sex relationships, could be ‘infertile,’ which only makes sense in a world where men can get pregnant, and no one can define what a woman is.”
This is exactly what the Equal Access to Reproductive Care Act aims to do. In a press release, Rep. Schiff says, “our tax code is sorely outdated and makes it harder for LGBTQ+ individuals and couples to afford treatments to bring children into their families, such as IVF. This bill would rectify this iniquity by allowing LGBTQ+ couples to deduct the cost of assisted reproductive treatments as a medical expense—a privilege heterosexual couples already have.”
He went on: “Every person regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, or relationship status deserves the same opportunity to start and expand a family.”
This is an entirely adult-centered view of the relationship between parents and children.
This legislation treats a child as “an accessory that exists to meet the needs of adults,” as Backholm puts it. Children have a natural right to both a mother and father, and Schiff’s proposal completely disregards the best interest of children.
“In his view, the adults deserve the child simply because they want the child. Any disadvantage the child experiences by being commodified and denied a relationship with one or both of his or her parents is outweighed by the emotional satisfaction the adults will experience.
However, if the needs of children are primary, a child’s right to be known and loved by his or her mother and father is more important than the adult desire to have a child. After all, men cannot mother and women cannot father. Children need both mothers and fathers,” writes Backholm.
Further, this legislation encourages the use of technology to bring children into the world, which has serious moral implications. Surrogacy, for example, intentionally separates a child from one or both of his biological parents. This creates in them a “primal wound” that manifests as depression, abandonment issues, and emotional problems throughout their lives.
Artificial reproduction often disregards the physical as well as the emotional well-being of lab-created children, as only 7% of children created in a lab will be born alive. Most will perish in forgotten freezers, won’t survive “thawing,” will fail to implant, or will be discarded if they’re non-viable or the wrong sex, or be “selectively reduced” (aborted), or be donated to research. This happens largely because there are no limits on the number of embryos created for someone seeking IVF. The unused ones are then “frozen” (commonly referred to as “snowflake babies”) and then, after a time, if not used, are disposed of.
We have a medical doctor friend who is also a biological ethicist, who a number of years ago recommended that if IVF is to continue, then at a minimum, a law should be passed that limits to three the number of embryos that are created for a single IVF attempt. All three would then be required to be implanted, which means none would need to be “frozen.”
Approximately 12 percent of married couples suffer from infertility or struggle to sustain a pregnancy, which creates deep emotional, physical, and financial stress. These couples deserve care, support, and compassion as they deal with the immense pain associated with the unfulfilled longing for a child, and a healthy society must encourage couples to have children through legislation that supports parenthood.
However, the desires of adults must never take precedent over the rights of children.
“We live in a broken world, which means the ideal is not always possible. Adoption is a beautiful example of how we can make the best of situations that are already broken. Still, making the best of difficult circumstances is very different than creating difficult circumstances on purpose, which is exactly what Rep. Schiff’s Equal Access to Reproductive Care Act would do,” concludes Backholm.
We agree. The Equal Access to Reproductive Care Act submits the rights of children to the desires of adults—even if well-intentioned—and we dare not make this the basis of policymaking.
Sep 18, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
In 2018, then-Governor Scott Walker issued a proclamation declaring September 9-15 Christian Heritage Week in Wisconsin. He opened his statement with the following: “WHEREAS; the Preamble to the Constitution of Wisconsin states that ‘We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom… domestic tranquility…do establish this Constitution.’” Walker then cited statements by Founders Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison in which each extols God or Christianity.
While we are not technically a Christian nation, we definitely have a distinctive and pervasive Christian heritage. Even though Christian Heritage Week was technically last week, it’s always time and good for families in particular to explore the truth of this heritage. Passing on this Christian heritage is each American Christian’s responsibility and honor.
Activists in today’s very secular culture would like to revise that part of our history because doing so would make it much easier to advance their liberal, progressive and destructive agenda. Christianity is a real impediment to what they want America to become—a totally humanistic, socialistic, godless mere shell of its original self; and forgetting our history is one of the best ways to ensure we have little to no Christianity in our future.
The antidote to combatting the left’s mission to transform America into a godless dystopia is for families to begin instructing their children about our rich and deeply faith-based heritage.
For instance, did you know every single state constitution makes reference to God or Providence or the Supreme Judge? While it’s true that the US Constitution doesn’t include such a reference, the language after the Articles giving the particulars of when and where the signing was done, right above the signatures, the Founders wrote, “In the year of our Lord.” We also certainly see such references in the Declaration of Independence. Even a cursory survey of the writings of many of our founders and those following our founders’ era are replete with distinctly Christian references.
Consider how many national days of prayer and fasting presidents have called. Reading those proclamations makes it very clear that the nation has a Christian heritage. Certainly, rehearsing the story of William Bradford and the 1620 voyage of The Mayflower and The Mayflower Compact beautifully relates our strong Christian foundation—one that is unique to America.
No other country was founded in the way and for the reason we were. This is what has made America so exceptional. This Christian foundation was the basis for our unique rights and liberties that uphold human dignity in a way that no other country has before, and our children need to know this.
Unless we do this family by family, our Christian heritage will quickly be forgotten. Let’s do our part in saving America by honoring our Christian roots at home.
Parents can find some excellent information that will help them teach their children about our Christian heritage here.
Sep 14, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Wisconsin schools have been undermining parents’ rights in an attempt to indoctrinate students with radical LGBTQ+ ideology. Thankfully, three similar lawsuits against Wisconsin school districts have emerged in recent months.
Most recently, the Eau Claire Area School District (ECASD) was sued for hosting gender identity trainings that instruct teachers and school staff to hide students’ gender transitions from parents.
America First Legal (AFL) and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) filed the lawsuit on behalf of several parents, arguing that the district’s policies violate their freedom of religion and parental rights.
AFL released a questionnaire used in the district’s training, revealing some of the concerning instructions given to staff. One slide used in the training states that “parents are not entitled to know their kids’ identities. That knowledge must be earned.” Teachers are told to prioritize the desires of the student over the rights of the parent.
During another training for the district’s teachers, the host, Christopher Jorgenson, told staff, “We understand and acknowledge that teachers are often put in terrible positions caught between parents and their students. But much like we wouldn’t act as stand-ins for abuse in other circumstances, we cannot let parents’ rejection of their children guide teachers’ reactions and actions and advocacy for our students.”
Eau Claire’s policies clearly violate parents’ right to raise their children. Teachers do not replace parents at school. A child’s “gender identity” is pertinent and important information that must always be discussed with parents.
“Policies like Eau Claire’s blatantly violate parents’ constitutional rights to raise their children. School staff do not replace parents while their children are at school. A gender identity transition is a major event in a child’s life; schools must defer to parents about this,” WILL Deputy Counsel Luke Berg said in a statement.
Further, AFL President Stephen Miller has accused the district of using children to advance a dangerous progressive agenda. “Eau Claire schools have adopted a monstrous plan to secretly ‘change’ the genders of children as young as 5—without parental consent—effectively subjecting them to unnatural ideological experiments contrary to their health and biology,” he said. “This includes forcing boys and girls to share bathrooms and other private spaces without their consent, a further invasion and desecration of childhood innocence and fundamental childhood wellbeing.”
Similarly, in November of last year, a group of Wisconsin parents sued the Kettle Moraine School District (KMSD) for a policy that allows minor students to “transition genders” at school, even despite the parents’ objection. Like Eau Claire, the Kettle Moraine School District is violating parents’ constitutional rights by taking a life-altering decision out of parents’ hands.
In June, the judge denied the school district’s request to dismiss the case. A hearing on the case is scheduled for April 19, 2023.
In a third case, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a lawsuit in 2020 in Dane County Circuit Court against the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) for its policies that allow children to change their gender identity at school without parental notice or consent. The policy also instructs district staff to hide information about students’ gender identity from parents.
In May, the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard the case, and in July, the Court ordered that the case go back to circuit court after some of the technicalities were decided. As a result, the case is back in Dane County Circuit Court where it will essentially start over.
Hopefully, these lawsuits will help parents take back their rights and protect their children. Children are safer and better off when parents are in control, and parents have the natural, God-given right to be the primary decision-makers in their children’s lives.
Sep 9, 2022 | News, Uncategorized, Wisconsin Family Voice
California Democrats have just passed a radical bill that poses serious threats to parental rights and children’s safety around the country.
S.B. 107 allows California courts to remove custody from parents who are opposed to their young children undergoing irreversible medical procedures, according to the National Review.
Any child can “flee” to California for this purpose, or any person “acting as a parent” can take a child to California to obtain this abusive “treatment.”
S.B. 107 just passed both chambers of the state legislature and is now in the hands of the Gov. Gavin Newsom.
If Gov. Newsom signs S.B. 107, California courts will be given “temporary emergency jurisdiction” over any child in California, regardless of which state they reside in, allowing them to receive harmful interventions without parental consent. This attempt at severe government overreach violates federal law regarding jurisdiction over custody matters and the laws of the 49 other states which need to be respected according to the “full faith and credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution.
This bill is extreme—even for California. And it has implications for every state. SB 107 would allow Wisconsin children to be essentially “kidnapped” by the state of California so that these minors can undergo bodily mutilation and sterilization before they’re old enough to understand the consequences of these actions. Further, any parent who opposes the lies being fed to their child will be met by forceful opposition made up by courts, police, and child-protective services.
Not only are legislators ignoring the basic rights of parents, but they are disregarding the clear evidence demonstrating the damage caused by gender “affirming” medical and surgical interventions on children.
The American College of Pediatricians’ found that 80 to 95 percent of children who suffer from gender dysphoria will eventually re-identify with their biological sex, if they are not pushed into trying to do the impossible—change their sex.. Further, according to a recent study by the Heritage Foundation, increased access to gender “affirming” care doesn’t improve mental health outcomes. It only increases a child’s risk for suicide.
Ultimately, gender “transition” surgeries mutilate healthy bodies, affirm dangerous lies, and lead to psychological derangement. It is undeniably abusive to allow vulnerable children to permanently damage their bodies.
We need to keep California from getting its hands on our children and blatantly undermining parents. Bringing national attention to this bill and highlighting its danger will give us a chance to persuade Gov. Newsom to veto the bill. Let’s urge our state officials to do just that and call California out for its extremism and child abuse. This is a great question to ask candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and even those running for state senate or state assembly seats:
“Will you actively work to protect Wisconsin’s parents and children from the long-arm of liberal elected officials in California—or any other state seeking to lure minor children, take them into “protective custody” for purposes of prescribing harmful drugs and/or performing dangerous surgeries in an effort to do the impossible, change their sex?”
No parent should ever face the unimaginable anger caused by the mutilation and abuse of their children, like many already have. Parents alone have the right to make medical decisions for their children, and it is far beyond the boundaries of California courts to take those deeply personal decisions into their own hands. Children belong to their parents, not the government.
Please pray that this bill is defeated along with the evil ideas behind it.
Sep 7, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the abortion industry has ruthlessly sought to sell lies about abortion, including continuing to claim this gruesome, life-taking, elective procedure is healthcare. Abortion advocates erroneously claim that restricting abortion prevents women from receiving the care that they need.[1] This is a vicious lie meant to present the intentional murder of an innocent life as “healthcare,” when in reality, abortion is never medically necessary.
Thankfully, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), which represents 7,000 pro-life medical professionals, is combatting these lies with a new point-by-point fact sheet.
Lifesite News recently reported on this document, , Myth vs. Fact: Correcting Misinformation on Maternal Medical Care, which refutes the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists’ (ACOG) claim that “providing comprehensive medical care” means “working to ensure that all patients can access the full spectrum of maternal, sexual, and reproductive health care options, including abortion.” (Emphasis added.)
AAPLOG first states that ACOG “has actively opposed doctors who do not agree with the group’s radical positions, and it refuses to represent the diversity of professional views in the OB/GYN community as a whole” while “ignoring the wealth of evidence showing significant harms to women from abortion, such as adverse mental health outcomes and an increased risk of preterm birth in future pregnancies.”
Second, it refutes the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) claim that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was an “egregious” government intrusion into the medical field by noting that abortionists “often have no previous relationship with their patients and tend to leave the medical care afterwards to other physicians who either have a prior relationship with the patient or who work in her local emergency room.” Further, the mother and child are both patients that need to be considered.
One of the most common misconceptions coming from the left is that abortion is sometimes necessary to save a mother’s life, and that restricting abortion would prevent the treatment of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. In reality, the tragic passing of a child as a side effect of treating a medical condition of the mother is not an abortion and these treatments are not classified as such. The intentional killing of an unborn child is never necessary to save the life of the mother.
AAPLOG says that “93% of practicing OB/GYNs do not perform elective abortions but have always been able to offer life-saving treatment to women and will continue to be able to do so regardless of state laws on abortion,” and that “[a]ny competent OB/GYN physician is trained to make this determination well before the threat to the mother’s life progresses to the point where death is imminent.”
Further, the treatments used for miscarriage and other complications are not prohibited by abortion restrictions. “An ectopic pregnancy requires removing an embryo to save a mother’s life so that both lives are not lost. This life-saving treatment is not prevented by any current law restricting or banning abortion,” writes the AAPLOG. A recent article by Mary Szoch, the Director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, further clarifies the course of action with an ectopic pregnancy:
“Whatever the treatment plan, in an ectopic pregnancy, the intention of the doctors is always to save the life of the mother, not to kill the child. In 90% of ectopic pregnancies…the unborn child has died prior to the discovery that the pregnancy is ectopic. In cases where the embryo is still alive, the surgery to save the mother’s life may result in the death of the child, but unlike in an abortion, the procedure itself is not intended to — and does not — directly kill the child. Importantly, the mother’s life is saved by the separation of the unborn child from the place of implantation outside the uterus — not by the death of the embryo.”
The AAPLOG fact sheet also notes that in addition to intentionally killing a child, abortion is dangerous for the mother. “The Institute of Medicine lists surgical abortion as an immutable risk factor for preterm birth,” AAPLOG says. “Women face a 35% increased risk of preterm birth in a future pregnancy after one surgical abortion and an almost 90% increase in preterm birth risk after two abortions.”
Finally, AAPLOG highlights the mental and emotional burden that abortion places on women. “From 1993 to 2018, there are at least 75 studies examining the link between abortion and mental health,” the fact sheet says. “Two-thirds of those studies showed a correlation between abortion and adverse mental health outcomes.”
Ultimately, healthcare is meant to prolong human life and resolve diseases and ailments. In contrast, abortion is an assault on a woman and a death sentence to her child.
Further, pregnancy is not a disease, but a natural, biological process. Intentionally ending that process is never a necessary part of treatment for the mother. In fact, it only causes her more harm.
Pro-lifers need to be prepared to combat the lies being spewed by the left in their dishonest attempt to protect abortion access. We urge everyone to read this document. Knowing these facts equips pro-lifers to respond to the untruths and myths, which can ultimately save lives.
[1]On Friday, September 3, 2022, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, under the direction of the Biden administration, issued an “interim rule” that takes effect immediately. This rule offers pregnant women veterans an abortion if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or puts the woman’s life or health at risk. From p.3 of the “rule’: “VA is taking this action because it has determined that providing access to abortion-related medical services is needed to protect the lives and health of veterans.”
Sep 2, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
In a deeply concerning decision, a federal judge ruled that the distress someone may feel due to gender dysphoria is to be considered a disability that must be accommodated under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Williams v. Kincaid involved an imprisoned male who identifies as a female in Fairfax County, Virginia. The man wanted to be housed with the female inmates, but the prison’s policy states that “male inmates shall be classified as such if they have male genitals,” and “female inmates shall be classified as such if they have female genitals.”
The ADA itself explicitly excludes:
“(a) Homosexuality and bisexuality
For purposes of the definition of “disability” in section 12102(2)?[1] of this title, homosexuality and bisexuality are not impairments and as such are not disabilities under this chapter.”
Therefore, the court was tasked with overcoming a major hurdle to reach their illogical conclusion. Still, the majority opinion argued that gender dysphoria was not actually a gender identity disorder. “A close parallel to their logic would be that trucks are not sedans, and therefore a ‘no cars allowed’ sign does not apply to them,” writes Joshua Arnold of the Daily Signal. This case is an excellent example of why interpretation of the law based on the original meaning of the words is so important.
In a much more reasonable dissent, Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum asserted that the case was really a matter of statutory construction, and that the law’s text does not support the majority opinion. He wrote that “…linguistic drift cannot alter the meaning of words in the ADA when it was enacted. And at that time, the meaning of gender identity disorders included gender dysphoria as alleged by Williams … Under basic principles of statutory construction, Williams’ ADA claim should be dismissed … [W]hen the ADA was signed into law, gender identity disorder was understood to include what Williams alleges to be gender dysphoria.”
The ADA prohibits discrimination against disabled individuals in all areas of public life, including employment, education, transportation, and in public places. This means that if the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision is left to stand, anyone who identifies as transgender would be eligible to receive public accommodations in bathrooms, locker rooms, prisons, same-sex housing, and more. This clearly opens the door for abuse of the law and infringements upon religious liberty and privacy rights.
For example, religious institutions could be forced to hire individuals who do not share their respect for natural law and God’s design. Further, women could be forced to share bathrooms and locker rooms with biological men, which we’ve already seen has disastrous consequences.
While this ruling only directly covers states within the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the laws and ideas found within other states can certainly make their way to Wisconsin. We need to be aware of these ideas and refute them before they reach our communities.
Our rights and liberties are more important than an individual’s feelings (and individuals suffering from gender dysphoria need true help, not harmful “affirmation”), and the way that our public institutions are run needs to reflect biological realities.
Sep 1, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Lifesite news recently reported that German biologist and Nobel Prize winner Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is making headlines by asserting that common sense and basic biology disprove the absurd claims coming from the left about gender and sexuality.
“[A]ll mammals have two sexes, and man is a mammal,” said Nüsslein-Volhard, who won the Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1995 for her research in embryonic development.
“There’s the one sex that produces the eggs, has two X chromosomes. That’s called female,” she said. “And there’s the other one that makes the sperm, has an X and a Y chromosome. That’s called male.”
Nüsslein-Volhard made these comments while her country’s government pushes for legislation that would allow anyone over the age of 14 to legally change their legal “gender” without medical approval. This is complete madness, and the U.S. isn’t far behind. In fact, according to research conducted by The Washington Stand, at least 13 U.S. hospitals perform gender transition surgeries on minors.
When asked whether people can change their gender, the biologist responded, “That’s nonsense! It’s wishful thinking…There are people who want to change their gender, but they can’t do it … People retain their gender for life.”
Nüsslein-Volhard went on to warn of the dangers associated with puberty blockers and hormone therapy that the left continues to advocate for.
“The body cannot handle it well in the long run,” she said. “Every hormone you take has side effects. Taking hormones is inherently dangerous.”
This is the science—and as always it is in agreement with God’s creative design. What this biologist is saying is that basic biological principles regarding sexuality disprove transgenderism. This is a truthful message we need to keep sharing, especially with young people who are being bombarded with lies on this issue.
Thankfully, Nüsslein-Volhard isn’t the only one speaking out for common sense and God’s design.
Conservative commentator and author Matt Walsh recently released a powerful documentary titled What is a Woman? in which he debunks the left’s absurd claim that anyone can be a woman, by asking leftist professors, doctors, and activists simple questions. He demonstrates that the left’s claims about sentimentality-based gender and sexuality quickly unravel on their own when proponents are forced to think through their arguments. (Watch the trailer here; full movie available only by subscription.)
Another voice for common sense, psychiatrist and author Miriam Grossman, has been exposing the dangers and falsehoods of “progressive” gender ideology for years. In her book You’re Teaching My Child What?, Grossman uncovers the lies of sex education being taught in schools and urges readers to defend children’s innocence by shielding them from gender ideology.
Similarly, Katy Faust, founder and director of the children’s rights organization Them Before Us, discusses the importance of gender differences, especially when it comes to the roles that mothers and fathers play in a child’s life. While the left argues that men and women are the same, Faust takes a stand for natural law and argues that children have a right to both a mother and father, who provide unique and irreplaceable things due to their differences. She recently tweeted:
“Children have a right
⁃to life
⁃to their mother & father
⁃to sexual innocence (no sex/gender ideology in school)
⁃to intact bodies (not chemically/surgically mutilated)
Their rights are being attacked.”
These are crucial voices in current public debate, and we need more of them in order to protect children from the real-world consequences of gender ideology. Every doctor, public figure, and politician who still believes in natural law and basic biology should be speaking out and fighting back against the mass delusion coming from the left.
Aug 24, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
A new Institute for Family Studies research brief reaffirms the conclusion that children from stable, married families have a better chance of receiving the guidance and support they need to succeed academically and adapt confidently to the classroom environment than children from non-traditional households.
This does not mean children from non-traditional families cannot do well in school. Many do, despite the less-than-ideal parenting they may experience. But the odds of school success are more favorable for those from families headed by married dads and moms.
Parents are real difference makers in their child’s academic and overall school experience. Yes, married mothers and fathers give their child an advantage, but any parent can choose to be involved and informed when it comes to their child’s education and make a significant difference.
As children begin going back to school, parents’ involvement is more important than ever. Children attending public schools will more than likely be bombarded with progressive propaganda woven into lesson plans which may be called Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), Critical Race Theory, cultural competency, or other seemingly innocent names.
Classes may begin with “get-to-know-you” questions that force children to discuss their gender, culture, and identity so that students can “share their stories.” They may even be taught that one’s gender is a choice and that their gender pronouns will be respected at school regardless of what their parents say.
All of this increases the importance of parents preparing their children for this new school year—and that preparation goes beyond a good backpack! It includes practical actions parents can take to protect themselves and their children. A recent article in The Federalist has some excellent ideas, as does this free resource from Family Policy Alliance, one of our national partners.
A few years ago, Daniel Ryan Day wrote a blog post in which he offered ideas about how parents can intentionally prepare their children spiritually for a school year. The blog post is no longer available online, but the ideas are as timely today as they were in 2016.
While public schools very often present unique challenges for Christian families and their children, the ideas Day gives aren’t just for those whose children attend a local public school. They are for everyone, including those who are in private Christian schools and most of them even for those who home school.
First, parents need to develop a family devotion plan for the school year—and commit to sticking to it. Find the best time of day for your family. Maybe it’s before school, or maybe it’s after family dinner while everyone is together. Whenever or wherever it is, be consistent. And be age appropriate and relevant. Children today are confronted with all types of issues; use devotions to help equip them spiritually to deal with those issues and to strengthen their faith and trust in God.
Next, talk to your children every day about what happened at school. Ask questions—good questions. Don’t accept a single word response such as, “fine,” “good” or “ok.” Engage your children in conversations. Keep close tabs on what is going on at school, in the classroom, on the playground, with friends. Stay relaxed and informal but be relentless.
Third, pray every day for your children—specifically and with purpose. Pray with your children before they head out the door each morning- for protection, wisdom, patience, focus, and anything else God lays on your heart for your child. And pray throughout the day specifically for your children. We know prayer reaches the heart of God; He hears and answers. And what an example you will be giving your children!
Fourth, in spite of busy schedules, spend time together as a family. Building strong family bonds is one of the best protections children have. How often have young people been deterred from some dangerous or wrong choice by knowing their mother and father, their family, would be hurt or disappointed?
Lastly, make a point of going to church together as a family. Yes, even during a busy school year. It’s important your children understand at young ages that corporate worship and gathering together as believers for fellowship is essential. Lead by example. In addition, good friendships at church can sometimes help overcome some of the problems of not-so-good friendships at school.
As Mr. Day says, getting children ready for school is about so much more than preparing their backpack. This year Wisconsin Family Action hopes parents will spend quality time preparing the heart and soul of their children so that they know a little more about what loving and following Jesus looks like. We also hope some of the resources we’ve included will help parents know their rights and their options so they can appropriately be informed and involved this school year.
Always and by God’s good design, parents are the difference-makers in their children’s lives, including their success in their formal education. And, as always, God’s plan for marriage—one man and one woman in a lifelong, monogamous relationship—really is what’s best for children.
Aug 22, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
The so-called Inflation Reduction Act is Biden’s latest attack on religious liberty
President Joe Biden signed the egregiously named “Inflation Reduction Act” into law Tuesday, which contains many harmful provisions, including the expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion.
First, the bill extends the ACA (Affordable Care Act) premium tax credits through 2025, which had been set to expire at the end of 2022.
Andrew Guernsey, executive director of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, said, “These expansions further subsidize Obamacare exchange plans that cover abortion, giving millions of people taxpayer-funded plans that cover abortion on demand for as little as $1/month (i.e. the minimum abortion coverage surcharge under the ACA). This blatantly violates the principles of the Hyde Amendment. Many of the estimated 10 million people affected by expanded subsidies, including an estimated 3 million Americans who would drop out of, or be ineligible for, Obamacare exchange plans but for these expanded subsidies, have been driven into taxpayer-funded plans that cover elective abortion.”
No taxpayer should ever be forced to fund something as morally reprehensible as abortion. This is a clear violation of Americans’ religious liberty and conscience rights.
Further, the act allocates $80 billion to IRS enforcement. The money will be used to hire 87,000 new agents, who are expected to target religious institutions as well as pro-life organizations and donors. This is yet another attack on faith-based organizations and religious freedom by the Biden administration.
This targeting of faith-based organizations has already started: House Democrats recently sent a letter to the IRS requesting the Family Research Council be investigated for its tax-exempt status.
Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) referred to the Democrats’ move as frivolous: “I think this is a politically motivated and frivolous letter and effort. This IRS has a history of targeting conservatives and faith-based organizations. I hope they will see this for what it is and dismiss this call for any kind of investigation.”
It’s no wonder Christians and conservatives are concerned about further retaliation with a massively expanded IRS.
The “Inflation Reduction Act” also allows the government to fix prices on some prescription drugs for the first time. Former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, along with countless other experts, warns that this provision could lead to even higher healthcare costs and fewer treatments.
To make matters worse, RNC co-chair Tommy Hicks explained that the plan “would without a doubt raise taxes on Americans. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Americans making as little as $30,000 would pay more, with over half of the estimated new tax burden in 2023 paid by Americans making under $400,000.” During an economic recession, the last thing Americans need is an increase in their taxes.
Democrats are either entirely economically illiterate or lying to the American people. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act is not at all about reducing inflation or helping struggling Americans. Experts warn that the act may even increase inflation. Its real goal is to advance Washington special interests by spending a staggering $430 billion under the guise of improving the economy.
The good news is that American voters have the opportunity to hold these self-interested bureaucrats accountable in just a little over two months. The recent primary election in Wisconsin was a success for many Wisconsin Family Action PAC-endorsed candidates and other conservatives. Now it’s time to get to work and elect leaders who will stand up against Washington’s deceptive tactics like the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
Aug 11, 2022 | Election Central, News, Uncategorized
Election #3 of 4 for 2022 is now in the books for Wisconsin. After Tuesday’s fall partisan primary, the November 8 partisan general election ballots are set. Now we have 90 days of hard-hitting, probably almost non-stop political TV, radio, digital, text, phone calls, and mail ads, all designed to convince us to vote for a particular candidate.
But today, not yet 24 hours since the close of the polls yesterday, it’s time for a bit of reflection on the primary results. If our numbers are anywhere near accurate (and we think they’re close), turnout yesterday was about 26% of registered voters, which is higher than many other similar primaries. Big races brought people out.
Democrats didn’t have any meaningful statewide primary once 3 candidates for US Senate dropped out within the last couple of weeks, each throwing their support to Mandela Barnes. As a result, Republican voters far outnumbered Democrats. So, does any of this matter?
Yes, it does matter. Essentially the lower voter turnout (compared to fall elections which usually have turnouts at 60% or more) means that a very small number of eligible voters chose who will be on the November ballot and potentially who will be our next US Senator, members of congress, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and state treasurer, as well as who will serve in our state Senate and Assembly. What that voter turnout means is that each vote was very powerful. If you voted, which we certainly hope you did, it means you made a difference—and we thank you for that.
As for the number of Democrats vs. Republican ballots cast, that doesn’t mean much at all as it relates to outcomes. But it well might matter in the long-run. In any given election, Wisconsin is purple. We can go “red” or “blue” at any moment. One intangible that definitely impacts an election in a state like ours is voter enthusiasm, which creates momentum. Without some research and comparison, we don’t know how yesterday’s Republican numbers compare with previous August primaries. If they are larger, then it could mean enthusiasm and momentum are right now with the GOP. We won’t really know that until the November election. All that said, here’s our first-blush analysis of the primary election results.
Analysis
Tim Michaels won the GOP gubernatorial primary. Does that mean his money is buying the office—or could be buying the office? Or did the voters really think he’s better suited to go up against incumbent Democrat Tony Evers? Or did his messaging resonate with voters better than Rebecca Kleefisch’s? Or was Rebecca seen as establishment and Michels as truly the outsider who had built a successful business—kind of like Donald Trump? If anyone tells you authoritatively that they know the answer, we’d be really skeptical. So many things go into how a voter decides to vote; it’s difficult to get a clear picture in any election of the motivation of voters. Some research will be done, we’re sure, on this race; and we will eventually learn more, but even that won’t be 100% definitive.
The bottom line is Michels has by most everyone’s opinion an uphill battle to beat Tony Evers. Beating an incumbent is never easy, and this election will be no exception. Michels will have to be extremely disciplined in his messaging and in his general campaigning. We hope he’s got great people around him giving him great and appropriate advice. Time will tell.
No real surprise that Roger Roth won the GOP lieutenant governor race. Roger is well-known and liked by many. He sold us out a couple of sessions ago on an important pro-life bill; so we are very guarded when it comes to Roger.
The Attorney General race is one of our very favorite wins, with Eric Toney coming out on top. Our WFA PAC endorsed Eric Toney because he has the right positions on our core issues, has the right experience, and we believe had good people around him. Toney was significantly outspent by Adam Jarchow, but Toney’s experience and straight-forward messaging resonated with voters. Jarchow lying about Toney didn’t help Jarchow’s cause. Karen Mueller did better than we thought she would, way out-performing Tim Ramthun’s gubernatorial performance, with 3.5 times more votes (152,392 v. 41,695). Mueller was heavily aligned with Ramthun. We look forward to Eric Toney beating Josh Kaul this November and bringing back not just common sense, but a true regard for the law, to the AG’s office.
A key assembly GOP race was in Assembly District 63, where long-time and powerful incumbent Robin Vos was challenged by newcomer Adam Steen. Vos is the current (and longest serving) Assembly Speaker. Wisconsin Family Action PAC endorsed Steen, and Wisconsin Family Action, Inc., ran a sophisticated and full-on targeted campaign in support of Trump-endorsed Steen. We targeted nearly 28,000 voters and contacted them about 25 times each by a variety of means and with a variety of messages. At the end of the night, Steen lost, but only by 260 votes out of nearly 10,000 total votes cast. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes, Vos “narrowly defeats” and “barely overcome[s]” in the race, which was a “stunning margin.” We agree. We are glad we engaged and don’t regret in the least the investment we made. We’ll analyze the results and see how our targeted universe performed.
Other State Senate and Assembly races happened, but nothing really shocking. What would be great is if the GOP could in November gain veto-proof majorities in the Assembly and the Senate. In the Senate the majority party would need to hold all of its current seats and pick up one seat. Before a number of recent resignations, the Assembly had 61 Republicans, just five short of a veto-proof majority. So statistically, this goal is achievable—which, if accomplished, would mean the ability to override Evers’ vetoes, should he win a second term in November.
In the Secretary of State and State Treasurer races (both non-policy-making offices), the results were not surprising with long-time Republican Assembly Representative Amy Loudenbeck winning the Secretary of State race. Jay Schroeder, who has run for nearly every office imaginable, lost once again but had a decent showing, largely because an election integrity group out of Virginia engaged in the race and sent numerous mailers out on behalf of Schroeder. Neither John Leiber nor Orlando Owens were particularly well-known, but Leiber solidly bested Owens.
Congressional primaries were similarly not shocking with GOP incumbents handily beating their GOP challengers. Ron Johnson, of course, resoundingly won his GOP US Senate primary, and is set to face Mandela Barnes, the current Lieutenant Governor, a race that has the attention of the entire nation because the balance of the US Senate is at stake.
Full election results are available here.
Aug 3, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
The pro-life movement has achieved a major victory with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. However, a new battlefield is already taking shape. Women are increasingly turning to chemical abortions, which end one life and traumatize another.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortions are no longer declining in the U.S., primarily because most abortions are now being done by chemicals rather than surgery.
Ending the life of an unborn child no longer requires a visit to an abortion clinic or even an in-person consultation with a doctor. Women can now obtain an abortion without ever leaving their home thanks to a two-drug combination approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This not only trivializes the act of abortion, but severs the vital doctor-patient relationship, leaving women isolated in a time of severe pain and distress.
During a chemical abortion, the first pill, mifepristone, blocks the natural hormone progesterone, which is necessary for pregnancy. The lack of progesterone prevents oxygen and nutrients from reaching the child, starving him or her to death.
The FDA has approved Mifepristone for use up to week 10 of pregnancy. At 10 weeks, a child has a heartbeat and his or her brain and lungs are developing. The baby has an obvious human shape.
If the child is not killed by the first pill, he or she will certainly be killed by the second. Misoprostol stimulates uterine contractions and expels the dead baby from the woman’s body.
Many women have spoken out about the horrors of chemical abortion, but the mainstream media continues to ignore them. “Within one hour I knew that everything the doctor had told me was a lie. I was bleeding so heavily, I believed I was dying. I was passing clots the size of baseballs, and I was in the worst physical pain of my life,” said one woman. Countless women are enduring this agonizing physical trauma in addition to the unimaginable trauma of losing their child and having to discard of the baby themselves.
The abortion industry and our federal agencies have failed women. They have led them to believe that inflicting deep physical and emotional damage upon themselves is the only way to achieve “freedom” or “equality.” They have also failed to properly inform women of the dangers of chemical abortion.
Abortion advocates even use the misleading term “medication abortion.” In reality, the abortion pill is poison to the female body and her growing child. It is “no more ‘medication’ than the chemicals used in lethal injections in capital punishment,” writes Isaac Book of the Daily Signal.
This past session, the Wisconsin state legislature passed a bill that would require abortion providers to tell women seeking a chemical abortion that there is a pill that can be taken after the first pill of the two-step RU-486 regimen–a pill that has a good possibility of reversing the damage and not killing the baby. It’s commonly known as “abortion pill reversal.”
The information would also be added to the Woman’s Right to Know information that abortion providers are already required to provide in Wisconsin.
However, Gov. Evers vetoed the bill. He rejected the notion that women should have as much information as possible in order to make the right decision for their health and the life of their unborn child.
Further, we are still unsure whether chemical abortions are happening with our 1849 pre-Roe ban still in effect despite a court challenge.
Even if the current ban on most abortions in Wisconsin does not include chemical abortions, we do have a law that bans telemed abortions which would prevent women from getting the chemical abortion regimen from other states via a video “visit” with a doctor. However, now many women are getting the potent, life-taking drugs from other countries, like India, thereby skirting the law.
Regardless, we must continue to spread the truth about the dangers of chemical abortions and the humanity of the unborn. Chemical abortions are an excellent example of why changing the culture and individual hearts is the only real way to end abortion. Pills will always easily be smuggled and obtained. Only through transforming hearts and sharing the truth about the humanity of the unborn can we protect each and every mother and precious unborn life created by God.
Jul 27, 2022 | News, Wisconsin Family Voice
Last week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill deceptively called the “Respect for Marriage Act” in a 267-157 vote. The bill isn’t about marriage or respect at all, but about imposing a radical view of sexual ideology.
Unfortunately, this bill had substantial support from both parties.
The bill comes in response to Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion in the Dobbs case. Thomas noted that Obergefell, the 2015 SCOTUS case that foisted “legalized” same-sex marriage on all 50 states, should be reconsidered. “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ […] we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
If the “Respect for Marriage Act” is passed by the Senate, states would no longer be able to define and recognize marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman, even if the Obergefell decision is overturned. States would be forced to recognize same-sex marriage, distorting God’s design and redefining marriage as nothing more than abstract adult desires. It would even require federal recognition of polygamy if just one state requires it.
The bill would severely damage two vital pillars of society: the nuclear family and religious liberty. It would also strip children of one of their most basic rights.
Children have a natural right to both a mother and father, and they suffer tremendously when they are deprived of one or the other – especially when that happens purposefully. Fatherlessness is already an epidemic in our country, and we are seeing serious consequences as a result.
Children don’t have the knowledge or power to vouch for themselves, and they bear the brunt of the consequences when it comes to marriage and family issues such as divorce and same-sex marriage. We cannot defend children and their rights without defending natural marriage between one man and one woman.
Thankfully, 80 national and state leaders, including WFA president Julaine Appling, have signed a letter calling on US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to back down from his support for the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act.”
We are strongly urging Sen. Johnson to vote NO on this bill. Sen. Johnson is one of five Republican US senators who have now publicly announced that they will vote YES to support this proposal that threatens the religious freedom of anyone who doesn’t support same-sex marriage.
Please contact Sen. Johnson (202-224-5323) and urge him to defend natural marriage, children rights, and religious freedom.
