Update – Page 8 – Family Council

From Abortion Pill “Scumbags” to Biblical Studies, Here is a Look Back at the Week’s Headlines

Jul 10, 2026Jerry CoxCurrent EventsUpdate, Weekly Rewind

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Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

💊 Pro-Life Group Highlights Abortion Pill Horror Stories. 40 Days for Life has produced a summary of some of the horror stories surrounding mail-order abortion pills. For example, the group says a Kansas man “was sentenced to nearly a decade in prison for conspiracy to commit murder following allegations that he sprinkled a crushed abortion pill on his girlfriend’s pancakes to cause an abortion.” Keep Reading.

💰 Trump Administration Cuts Millions of Dollars to Planned Parenthood Sex-Education Programs. Late last month the Trump administration moved to eliminate millions of dollars in grant money to Planned Parenthood and other organizations teaching comprehensive sex-education to teens. Keep Reading.

🧑‍⚖️ U.S. Department of Justice Memo Directs Prosecutors to Address Fraudulent “Birth Tourism.” U.S. citizenship is guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment for “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” and courts have held that nearly everyone born within the country’s boundaries is a U.S. citizen. But testimony before members of Congress has shown that foreign nationals are using fraudulent tourist visas and international surrogacy contracts to have children born on American soil with U.S. citizenship — a practice commonly referred to as “birth tourism.” Keep Reading.

📝 Story Underscores How Commercial Surrogacy Hurts Women and Unborn Children. A recent story from the pro-life group Live Action underscores how commercial surrogacy contracts turn women and unborn children into commodities. Keep Reading.

🚌 Texas Brings the Bible to the Classroom. The Texas State Board of Education’s new reading list requirements for public school students will include Bible stories alongside literary classics likes Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. The new curriculum takes effect in 2030. Keep Reading.

From Our Friends

Faithfulness in Hong Kong. From Breakpoint.

How ‘Pride’ 2026 Showed That the LGBT Movement Is Imploding. From Daily Citizen.

Lawsuit Against Snapchat Latest in Social Media Accountability Push. From Daily Citizen.

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

Presidential Commission Issues Draft Report on Ways to Protect Religious Freedom

Jul 1, 2026Jerry CoxReligious FreedomChurch Ambassador Network, Religious Freedom, Religious Liberty, Update

As our nation prepares to mark 250 years of independence, the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission has issued a preliminary report on ways the federal government could uphold the free exercise of religion.

Religious liberty is recognized and protected under the First Amendment, and it is one of the hallmarks of our nation. But religious freedom has repeatedly come under attack in court, in government, and elsewhere.

News outlets and congressional testimony have alleged that government policies and government agencies have been weaponized against people of faith — especially conservative and Christian groups.

Last year President Trump signed an executive order establishing the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission. The commission is responsible for “producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.”

Over the past twelve months, the commission has heard testimony from Americans who are deeply concerned about protecting the free exercise of religion. In a summary of its draft report, the commission highlighted some of the ways religious freedom has been infringed, writing:

For example, elementary student Shea Encinas was bullied for standing up for his Christian faith when he was forced to read his peer a book that told him he could choose his gender—the school refused to help and doubled down on pushing gender ideology onto the students. Teacher Marisol Arroyo-Castro was told she had to remove a cross near her desk or lose her job. Jennifer Mead’s 11-year-old daughter was pressured by school authorities to believe she was a boy. Navy Seal Blake Martin lost his pension when he was just three years away from retirement eligibility because he objected to the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Eithan Haim was indicted by the Biden Department of Justice for blowing the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital’s gender mutilation surgeries for minors. Shabbos Kestenbaum was targeted on Harvard’s campus simply for being Jewish. And Lacey Smith was fired from her flight attendant position at Alaska Airlines because she answered the invitation to respectfully share her thoughts on the Equality Act. These Americans have suffered greatly for their religious beliefs.

The commission also released a list of 12 ways the federal government could strengthen religious liberty for all Americans — such as by repealing the Johnson Amendment and by directing federal agencies to “issue ‘Know Your Rights’ Posters for students, parents, public school teachers and administrators, religious leaders, religious institutions, healthcare workers, and military servicemembers.”

People should be free to live and operate according to their deeply held religious convictions. That is why it is so important for our laws — and the government agencies that enforce those laws — to protect religious liberty as much as possible.

Over the years, Arkansas has enacted a number of good laws that do exactly that.

For example, in 2015 Gov. Hutchinson signed Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law, and in 2023 lawmakers passed additional legislation to further strengthen that good law.

In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 462 protecting healthcare workers’ rights of conscience. Before 2021, Arkansas’ conscience protections were narrowly written, and they protected very few people. Act 462 helped broaden those protections for all healthcare workers.

Last year, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 400, the Religious Rights at Public Schools Act of 2025. This good law by Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) affirms public school students’ and teachers’ religious liberties.

Lawmakers also enacted Act 677 of 2025 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R — Elm Springs) and Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R — Branch) ensuring that religious organizations and religious individuals are not penalized for living out their deeply held religious convictions, and Act 970 by Sen. Kim Hammer (R — Benton) and Rep. Lee Johnson (R — Greenwood) strengthening the healthcare workers’ rights of conscience law Arkansas passed in 2021.

Family Council deeply appreciates our policymakers at the state and federal levels working diligently to protect the free exercise of religion. It’s a fundamental freedom that is truly worth protecting.

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

EFA Rules Approved, Teacher Labor Union Donates to Keep Ballot Initiative Process Wide Open, and More: New This Week

Jun 19, 2026Jerry CoxCurrent EventsUpdate, Weekly Rewind

Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

💵 Teacher Labor Union Gives Nearly $1M to Arkansas Ballot Measure Campaign. On Monday, Arkansas Ethics Commission filings revealed an out-of-state group gave nearly $1 million to a campaign to place the Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment on the November ballot. The measure would amend the Arkansas Constitution to keep the ballot initiative process wide open and prevent the state legislature from enacting safeguards against petition fraud and other offenses. Keep Reading.

🏛️ Lawmakers Approve EFA Rules Despite Homeschoolers’ Concerns. On Monday, a legislative subcommittee approved a new slate of Educational Freedom Account (EFA) rules despite strong concerns voiced by homeschoolers in the EFA program. The new rules are slated to take effect July 1. Keep Reading.

🏫 Data Shows 141 Arkansas Students Took Academic Study of the Bible Courses this Year. Data from the Arkansas Department of Education shows 141 public school students enrolled in courses to study the Bible academically this school year. Keep Reading.

💉 Poll: Most Americans Say Suicide Is Wrong — But Many Support Physician-Assisted Suicide Anyway. A new Gallup poll shows most Americans believe suicide in general is morally wrong, but opinions are split over physician-assisted suicide. Keep Reading.

💊 Ethicists Argue People Who Want to Starve Themselves to Death Should be Eligible for Assisted Suicide. Last month, three prominent bioethicists published a paper in the journal Bioethics arguing that people who try to commit suicide via self-starvation and dehydration should be eligible for “terminal sedation” — which other experts argue would be nothing more than assisted suicide. The column underscores the “slippery slope” that assisted suicide leads to. Keep Reading.

🍼 Republican Congressmen Introduce Measures to Prevent Sex-Offenders, Foreign Nationals from Acquiring Children Through Surrogacy. Earlier this month, more than a dozen GOP congressmen co-sponsored legislation preventing sex-offenders from acquiring children through surrogacy and prohibiting foreign nationals from entering into surrogacy contracts in the U.S. Keep Reading.

📉 Support for Sex-Change Procedures, Polygamy Falls Among Democrats: Gallup. Last week pollsters at Gallup released a survey showing support for sex-change procedures and polygamy has fallen significantly among Democrats over the past year. Keep Reading.