On Thursday CBN News highlighted how pro-lifers in Arkansas are helping women who face unplanned pregnancies.
Family Council’s Charisse Dean sat down with CBN’s Paul Petitte to talk about how the State of Arkansas provides grant funding to pro-life pregnancy help organizations.
CBN also interviewed leaders from pregnancy resource centers and other pro-life organizations.
You can watch the news segment below.
News outlets report that most of the San Jose State University (SJSU) women’s volleyball team has entered the transfer portal following the school’s controversial decision to let a biological male play volleyball as a female.
This year SJSU won eight games by forfeit after other college volleyball teams refused to play against the school out of concern for fairness and for players’ safety on the court.
SJSU volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose filed a Title IX complaint alleging the university had shown the transgender player favoritism at the expense of the female athletes on the volleyball team. The school suspended Coach Batie-Smoose indefinitely shortly afterward.
Writing at The Washington Stand, Sarah Holliday notes,
The women on SJSU’s team expressed their outrage publicly. Team captain Brook Slusser told OutKick that “everyone on the team appreciated [what Batie-Smoose did], and a lot of the girls in the locker room said how happy they were that she finally was able to speak out [on a situation] that we all knew needed to be talked about.” She added, “Melissa was that person that we felt like as long as she was there, we had someone that would stand up for us. And now there’s no one there that will. … We aren’t happy, and we don’t feel safe anymore.”
In the weeks that followed, the fight turned into a legal battle. By mid-November, a dozen concerned women filed a lawsuit against the Mountain West for what they called “violations of Title IX and of their First Amendment rights.” In particular, the players and coaches took aim at the conference’s “Transgender Participation Policy” which they claimed was designed to “chill and suppress the free speech rights of women athletes.” As Macy Petty, the legislative strategist at Concerned Women for America (CWA), previously told TWS, “The dominos are falling, and they must answer for their actions.”
We have written time and again about how women’s athletics is at risk of being erased in America.
For example, female cyclists, swimmers, powerlifters, sprinters, and others have seen their sports radically changed by men who identify and compete as women.
Letting men compete in women’s sports is unfair, and in some cases it can even be dangerous.
Fortunately, educators, policymakers, and athletic organizations are taking steps to protect women’s sports.
In 2023 the North American Grappling Association clarified its competition policy, saying biological males must compete against other men, regardless of their gender identity.
Last year the professional golf league NXXT Golf announced that only biological females would be eligible to participate in the NXXT Women’s Pro Tour.
And the NAIA college athletics association recently adopted a policy that should prevent male athletes from competing in women’s sports.
Many states — including Arkansas — have enacted laws that preserve fairness in women’s sports.
In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 461 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R — Mountain View) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R — Smackover) preventing male student athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. This good law protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.
It’s worth point out that public opinion is shifting on this issue, with more Americans agreeing that athletes ought to compete according to their biological sex rather than their gender identity.
Letting men compete in women’s sports reverses 50 years of advancements for women. In light of that, it really should not come as a shock that SJSU’s female athletes are ready to transfer to other schools.
It is essential for educators, coaches, athletes, policymakers, athletic associations, and others to stand up for fairness in women’s sports. That is something Family Council is committed to doing.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
Family Council has big plans for 2025 in Arkansas. The state legislature will convene on January 13 — and our team plans to be there, working on more than a dozen legislative priorities. Here is a little of what we hope to accomplish in the coming year:
Abortion: Lawmakers are already planning legislation for the coming legislative session that will weaken Arkansas’ good abortion law. Unborn children who are conceived as a result of rape or incest have just as much right to live as any others. Unborn children who may be born less than perfect have as much right to be born as anyone else. We won’t stand by and let them destroy everything it took to make Arkansas the most pro-life state in the nation.
Homeschooling: Anti-homeschool lawmakers are already planning legislation for the coming legislative session that discriminates against homeschoolers by taking LEARNS Act funding away. Homeschoolers are currently eligible for these State funds and we intend to work to see them treated fairly.
Pregnancy Center Funding: The State of Arkansas currently provides $2 million per year in funding to help about 50 pregnancy centers across the state. These tax-funded grants help pregnancy centers provide pregnant women and girls with alternatives to abortion. We plan to work with Governor Sanders and lawmakers to keep this funding going.
Parental Rights and Religious Freedom: We have several bills ready for introduction that will strengthen parental rights in Arkansas. We have other bills that will strengthen the rights of churches, pastors, and businesses who refuse to participate in weddings or other activities that violate their religious beliefs.
Online Safety for Kids: We plan to work with lawmakers on bills that will require age identification and/or parental consent for minors to access social media and other online material.
Abortion and Marijuana Amendments: We need to fix Arkansas’’’ flawed petition initiative laws that enable the wealthy abortion and marijuana industries to pay people to circulate petitions for state constitutional amendments that deceive people. If they have their way, they will keep pushing amendments that will lead to the deaths of innocent unborn children and create more marijuana drug addicts. We and others successfully fought these efforts in 2024. If the laws aren’t fixed, we can expect these powerful forces to try to put their dangerous amendments on the ballot every two years.
These are just a few of our goals for 2025. You can learn more about what we hope to accomplish this year by clicking here.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
