Articles and Videos – Family Council

Policy Advocates Renew Calls for Planned Parenthood-Style Sex-Education Law in Arkansas

Jul 15, 2024Jerry CoxCurrent Events, Sex EducationPlanned Parenthood, Sex Ed

On Monday the media outlet Arkansas Advocate reported on a renewed push for Planned Parenthood-style comprehensive sex-education in the state.

The goal is to “improve” sex-education and reduce teen pregnancy in Arkansas.

On the surface, it may sound like a good idea. However, Arkansas has been down this road before, and we know from experience that Planned Parenthood-style sex-education is bad for Arkansas.

In the 1980s and 1990s, public officials in Arkansas promoted comprehensive sex-education, but the programs failed to have a meaningful impact on teen pregnancy and abortion in the state.

Then in 1997 the Arkansas Legislature and Governor Mike Huckabee began promoting abstinence education in Arkansas. From 1997 to 2005, Arkansas’ teen birthrate decreased 17%, and Arkansas’ teen abortion rate plummeted a staggering 48%.

Governor Huckabee’s abstinence education model was so successful in Arkansas that it drew national recognition. Family Council was pleased to support Arkansas’ good abstinence education program. The program continued into the early 2000s, but was gradually scaled back as a result of budget cuts and changes in state and federal government.

According to the CDC, teenagers who practice abstinence are healthier in nearly every way than teenagers who are sexually active.

Sexually-active teens have been found to be less healthy and to engage in riskier behavior.

In other words, abstinence is linked to healthier lifestyles overall.

Comprehensive sex-education programs often focus on contraceptives and “risk-reduction” without encouraging abstinence or teaching teenagers to avoid risky situations altogether. This leads to riskier behavior among teens. Those are just some of the reasons Family Council opposes comprehensive sex-education in Arkansas.

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

ADF Details the State of the Pro-Life Movement Two Years After Roe

Jul 15, 2024Jerry CoxAbortion, VideoAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life, Video

Two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the pro-life movement still has plenty of work to do to protect life.

Alliance Defending Freedom’s Senior Counsel Erin Hawley joined “CBN News” to discuss pro-life states’ response to the overturning of Roe, the importance of pregnancy centers and churches to the pro-life movement, and more.

Watch her interview below.

Drafting Women Denies Biology: Guest Column

Jul 15, 2024John StonestreetCurrent EventsCurrent Events

Recently, the Senate’s Committee on Armed Services advanced the National Defense Authorization Act for 2025. The proposal would “amend the Military Selective Service Act to require the registration of women for Selective Service.” If the bill became law, every daughter, upon turning 18, would be required to sign up for the military draft, just as men currently must do.

This effort illustrates the confusion behind the contemporary call for equity instead of equality. Equality is about dignity. Men and women are equal in standing, dignity, and value, despite the significant differences between them. This understanding of men and women is, in fact, grounded in Scripture. As described in the first chapter of Genesis, God made his image bearers male and female. Both are made after His likeness. Each are, before God, equal.

Equity, on the other hand, grounds dignity in sameness. It demands that men and women are seen as identical. Difference, in this view, implies inequality.

The picture of humanity described in Holy Scripture is one in which men and women share sameness as well as difference. They are, in this sense, complementary to one another. In order to fulfill their God-given purpose to fill and subdue the earth, men and women partner. Both are required. In fact, in sameness and difference, we are like the God whose image we bear. As revealed in Scripture, God is Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share the sameness of the Godhead, with difference in persons. When we presume women to be the same as men, we undermine what our natures reveal about God.

Because confusion about male and female is, in fact, a confusion about reality, it requires adjustments. For example, a 2017 Marine Corps study found that three out four women failed to meet combat standards in boot camp. Of course, there have always been women able to excel in the physical service of the military, but this is far from the norm. So, standards were changed.

In 2021, Congress delayed the implementation of the Army’s new Combat Fitness Test over the fear that 54% of women had failed to pass the requirements. In 2022, a new Combat Fitness Test was implemented with different requirements for men and women, both of which were significantly less demanding than previous ones. Women must now run two miles in under 23 minutes; men in under 22 minutes. Both must complete 10 pushups, yes 10.

The men and women who give themselves to serve and defend our country should be honored, and there are growing areas of military service not dependent on physical strength and prowess. However, in those many areas that are dependent, giving an assault rifle and a pair of boots to men or women unable to meet the physical demands is not wise or kind.

Even more, a part of God’s design for men is as protector. In the Old Testament, whenever women led in wartime, the men of Israel had failed. God still used, for example in Judges 4, Deborah the judge and Jael, a woman with a deadly nail, and both received honor over Barak. But it’s clear that Barak had first failed to lead.

This historic shift of how male and female are currently understood is a symptom of the bad ideas of our gender politics. God’s design was wise and good, grounding our dignity and yet acknowledging the real differences that exist. When that design is ignored, there are consequences, for individuals and for nations.

Right now, I’m focused on protecting my daughters from this national absurdity.

 This Breakpoint was co-authored by Michaela Estruth. If you’re a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.