Daily Archives: January 2, 2023

Democrats in the House of Representatives blocked an amendment that would have protected religious Americans from retaliation based on their opposition to same-sex marriage, in order to jam legislation furthering the LGBT lobbys agenda through Congresss lame-duck session.

House Rules Committee ChairmanRep. James McGovern shot down Republicans last chance of defending religious liberty in the ill-named Respect for Marriage Act on Monday when he refused to even let Rep. Chip Roys amendment solidifying First Amendment protections be brought to the House floor for a vote.

McGoverns reasoning for bypassing procedural debate was rooted in the fact that Roys amendment would give the process of passing the RFMA a shelf life that could last well into the newly-elected Republican House.

Seeing as most of the Republicans in the current House oppose the RFMA on the grounds that it stomps on religious Americans right to act on their convictions about traditional marriage, McGovern and his Democrat allies werent keen on waiting around to see if the legislation would survive the new GOP-led House.

If we were to amend this and it goes back to the Senate, for all intents and purposes, its dead for the year. And many of us believe that we have a court right now that is hell-bent on trying to reverse the rights for the LGBTQ community and we do not trust them to respect marriage equality in this country, McGovern said to the rules committee on Monday. When January comes along, the gentlemans party will be in charge and you can bring one amendment after another to reverse the last 70 years of social progress, if the gentleman prefers. We will oppose you on that.

Theres no evidence of the armageddon that he describes being at the doorstep, Republican Rep. Michael Burgess retorted.

Roy, along with his Republican cosponsors Reps. Byron Donalds and Doug Lamborn, submitted the amendment for review on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to convince conservative legislators to prioritize Americans First Amendment rights. Roys amendment copied the legal protections for religious Americans that Republican Sen. Mike Leetried, but ultimately failed, to addto the Senates version of the legislation two weeks ago.

I think it would be an important amendment just to offer on the floor of the House, Roy replied to McGovern during the committee meeting. You know how it will work. Well get an hour of debate on both sides. The amendment will almost certainly get voted down, but I hope it wouldnt because I believe its important. Id like to have at least the opportunity, in the one hour of debate that I would get in this august body, to be able to make the case for religious liberty with my colleagues.

McGovern, however, refused to listen to Roys concerns. As a result, the unamended RFMA, which expands the Supreme CourtsObergefell v. Hodgesdecision to further open the door for LGBT activists to sue Americans opposed to same-sex marriage, will see a floor vote as soon as next week.

The 47 Republican legislators who voted for a previous version of the bill still have a chance to vote no to the RFMA. Even without GOP support, however, the Democrat voting bloc is expected to send the bill to the White House where President Joe Biden already signaled he plans to sign it into law.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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House Dems Kill Amendment Protecting Religious Americans

As a result of the Supreme Courts Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision returning abortion regulations back to the states, the Biden administration has worked overtime to open every back door to advance its pro-abortion agenda, including in states with recently passed abortion restrictions or even bans. To accomplish this, it has turned to federal agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs to terminate the lives of unborn children. These efforts have quickly turned into a legal disaster.

Just last week, news broke that Stephanie Carter, an Army veteran and nurse practitioner at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Texas, is suing the Department of Veterans Affairs for forcing her to handle and distribute abortion pills one of the latest mandates enacted by the Biden administration to circumvent the Dobbs decision. The Reproductive Health Services rule enacted in September immediately allowed elective abortions at VA medical clinics.

This rule does not currently allow for religious exemptions for workers like Carter, who have religious objections that conflict with this life-ending procedure. When Carter attempted to opt out of the handling and distribution of abortion pills at the Olin E. Teague Veterans Center, her supervisor refused, according to a report from Live Action. This egregious violation of religious freedom has resulted in First Liberty Institute filing a lawsuit on Carters behalf.

To make matters worse, because this VA hospital is under both federal and state jurisdiction, Carter could be held liable for providing this abortion access, as it potentially conflicts with the various abortion restrictions in Texas.

The rule thats at issue in this case, according to Danielle Runyan, an attorney of First Liberty Institute, allows for abortions to be provided to protect the life or health of the mother. Health [can be] a wide variety of things that can potentially be in conflict with the laws of the state of Texas. So not only are Ms. Carters religious liberties being violated, but she could also be held criminally and civilly liable here in Texas if she complies with the rule.

This gross violation of religious liberties is just one instance in the Biden administrations recent efforts to bring abortions to states with pro-life laws. Just two weeks after the quite literally life-altering Dobbs decision, President Joe Biden signed the executive order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services in an attempt to access any loopholes.

The Federalist staff writer Jordan Boyd explained this order will effectively funnel federal time, resources, and funds, mostly through the Department of Health and Human Services, to shield existing abortion facilities, promote unlimited abortion, and circumvent Republican state laws to help send women to abortion appointments in other states.

Additionally, the orders pledge to protect access to medication abortion is a misleading euphemism for a chemical abortion that starves, kills, and expels the dead child from a mothers womb. This is clearly the antithesis of medication and has also sparked lawsuits against the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The order is just another way for the Biden administration to push abortion into states that have legally placed restrictions on it.

Since this order was signed, HHS has further peddled this abortion agenda. In August, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure wrote a letter to each U.S. governor, encouraging them to work with CMS by applying for Medicaid 1115 waivers to provide increased access to care for women from states where reproductive rights are under attack and women may be denied medical care.

So while the Dobbs decision has promoted federalism, reverting the choice to legalize or ban abortion back to the states, the pro-abortion Biden administration led by our self-proclaimed Catholic president is working to find every last loophole to allow the killing of unborn children in these abortion-restricted areas. Lawsuits like Carters may have these mandates come tumbling down into the same ash heap Roe now lies in.

Sophia is a graduate of Le Moyne College, where she received her B.A. in English. She is pursuing a career in political journalism.

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The Biden Administration Works Overtime To Circumvent Dobbs