Transgender Swimmer Won’t Be Eligible to Compete as a Female Olympic Swimmer

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On Wednesday news outlets reported transgender swimmer Lia Thomas lost a legal challenge over eligibility requirements for competing in women’s races at elite competitions like the Olympics.

Thomas is a biological male who claims to be female.

In 2021 Thomas shattered women’s swimming records after he started competing against female swimmers as a transgender athlete. In 2022 he was even nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year. Since then, a group of current and former college athletes have filed a lawsuit against the NCAA arguing that letting Thomas compete in the 2022 national championships violated their federal rights under Title IX.

This legal decision is good news. Letting men compete in women’s sports reverses 50 years of advancements for women and effectively erases women’s athletics.

It hampers girls’ abilities to compete for athletic scholarships, and it hurts their professional opportunities as adults. In some cases, it can even be dangerous.

Female cyclists, swimmers, powerlifters, sprinters, and others have seen their sports radically changed by men who identify and compete as women.

Fortunately, steps are being taken to protect women’s sports in America.

Last year the North American Grappling Association clarified its competition policy, saying biological males must compete against other men, regardless of their gender identity.

Earlier this 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 recently the NAIA announced a policy that should prevent male athletes from competing in women’s collegiate 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 — and Family Council was pleased to support its passage.

Arkansas also is leading the charge against the Biden Administration’s new rule redefining “sex” under federal Title IX.

Public opinion polling shows everyday Americans increasingly agree that need to preserve fairness in women’s sports. It’s encouraging to see leaders willing to take a stand to do exactly that.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Abortion Drug Lawsuit Based on Standing

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On Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a federal lawsuit over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s elimination of safety measures on abortion drugs, saying the pro-life doctors who the filed suit lacked proper standing to do so.

The case — FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine — centered on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to approve the abortion drug mifepristone — also known as RU-486 — and to eliminate key safety protocols and standards for the drug.

When the FDA first approved RU-486 in 2000, a woman seeking a drug-induced abortion was required to visit the doctor three times.

By 2016 that number was reduced from three doctor visits to one doctor visit.

In 2021, the FDA removed the in-person visit with a doctor altogether — making it possible to obtain RU-486 through the mail without a medical examination or an ultrasound.

All of this puts women and unborn children at serious risk.

Over the years Arkansas’ state legislators have enacted various laws preventing abortion drugs from being delivered by mail in Arkansas and requiring abortionists to follow basic health and safety standards for abortion drugs.

Recently the Arkansas Attorney General’s office successfully sent cease-and-desist letters to abortionists from out of state who were advertising RU-486 to Arkansans.

Today’s decision does not affect Arkansas’ pro-life laws that protect women and unborn children from abortion, but it may mean the state will have to continue to work hard to prevent abortion drugs from being delivered into Arkansas illegally.

This U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling is a setback, but this is not the only pro-life case before the nation’s highest court right now.

We fully expect pro-life victories before the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming days.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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NY On Track to Protect Teens from Social Media Algorithms

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Last week the New York Legislature passed a measure to protect teens on social media.

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act prohibits social media platforms from letting children younger than 18 access addictive social media feeds without parental consent. In practice, the law is intended to help ensure children don’t receive social media content suggested to them via algorithms.

Researchers have found social media algorithms on platforms like TikTok actually serve teens what some call a steady “diet of darkness” online.

The Arkansas Attorney General’s office is suing TikTok and Meta — the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

The A.G.’s lawsuits cite evidence that social media algorithms promote objectionable content to children and harm their mental health.

Social media platforms aren’t just websites. These are multimillion dollar businesses owned and operated by adults.

The adults who operate these social media platforms should not be able to register children as users and promote content to them without — at the very least — parental consent. 

As we have said before, there’s mounting evidence that social media puts users’ personal information at risk is actually designed to push objectionable content to users. With that in mind, it’s good to see policymakers taking action to protect children online.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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