Life – Family Council

Voluntary Sterilization on the Rise Post-Dobbs: Guest Column

May 28, 2024John StonestreetLifeAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Last month, medical researchers published a paper analyzing data on “permanent contraceptive procedures” among 18- to 30-year-olds. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the landmark Dobbs case, the number of both men and women aged 18 to 30 who pursue sterilization—of their own accord, for no medically necessary reason—is on the rise. And more women are pursuing these procedures than men. In the month immediately following the Dobbs decision, the number of young women who got tubal ligations jumped by over 20%. Since then, the number of additional women getting tubal ligations each month has almost doubled.

And yet, “sterilization regret” is also on the rise. According to one study, women who undergo tubal ligations before age 30 are eight times more likely to undergo a reversal or pursue in vitro fertilization.

The legacy of Roe v. Wade was to reduce sex to entertainment and see kids as a burden. To build a better future after Roe, we must help the next generation discover the beauty of life.

Guest Post: There’s No Crisis in Aging

May 16, 2022John StonestreetLifeLife

Recently, Stanford Center on Longevity announced a project called the “New Map of Life.” “In the United States,” the authors write, “as many as half of today’s 5-year-olds can expect to live to the age of 100, and this once unattainable milestone may become the norm for newborns by 2050.”

The problem, the authors admit, is that we don’t know what to do with an extra 30 years: The “narrative of an ‘aging society’ seems to convey only a crisis.”

Reaching this 100-years-of-life milestone is, as one researcher put it, a “[breathtaking] package of human potential the world has never seen, unprecedented numbers of people with unprecedented capabilities, and significant desire to give back and leave the world better.”

Scripture agrees, calling old age “a crown of glory.” But that’s not because of how long it lasts or what is accomplished. It’s because there’s a “why” behind it all. As Stanford looks for technological and sociological benefits to longer lives, Christians can point to the Source of meaning for all of life, who faced and defeated death.

The more time we have to do that, the better.

Kenyans Erased for Lucrative Baby Business

Jun 14, 2021John StonestreetBioethics, Life, SurrogacyCommercial Surrogacy, Life, Surrogacy

*John Stonestreet, Radio Host and Director of the Colson Center*

Recently, a reporter who went undercover to investigate the growing international commercial surrogacy industry in Kenya found that Kenya has no real laws on the books governing surrogacy. Some would-be parents, including wealthy international couples, fudge the rules to get what they want. In some cases, couples have convinced the surrogate to illegally list their names on the child’s birth certificate – which legally erases the mother from the child’s life, forever.

With one-third of Kenyans living in poverty, and the cost of surrogacy less than a third of what it cost in the United States, the situation is ripe for exploitation, corruption, and violence.

And there is no official count of the number of babies born by surrogacy in Kenya. Every one is born into a tragic situation. Even if it were just one, it’s awful. Neither babies nor poor women are bodies for sale. And every child has a right to their own mother and father.