The Daily Signal - Government Pushes Gender Ideology on Judges, Texas Sues Over Voter Information, Harris Denies Religious Exemptions for Abortions | Oct. 23

Starting point is 00:00:00 The federal government is pushing gender ideology in the courtroom. I'm Elizabeth Mitchell, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Wednesday, October 23rd. The Biden-Harris administration has pushed judges to insert radical gender ideology into their courtrooms, according to a new report from the Daily Caller News Foundation. In 2023, the Department of Justice issued a $1 million grant to integrate gender ideology into juvenile justice in child welfare systems nationwide. The Justice Department is using the money to encourage judges to adopt an ideological framework that ultimately pits children against parents who do not support their self-selected identities. The grant established a resource center to train judges,

Starting point is 00:00:57 child welfare workers, and other professionals involved with the juvenile justice system on sexuality and gender identity. The National Council on Juvenile and Family Court judges partnered with the National Center for Youth with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression to create the grant-funded Pride Justice Resource Center. The Center hosts several resources for juvenile justice system professionals, which the website says are designed to support system change, family engagement, and acceptance, identifying gaps in knowledge related to LGBTQ and the intersections of multiple identities. According to a guide produced by the Pride Justice Resource Center, judges who know that a child has chosen a gender identity different from his actual sex can ensure

Starting point is 00:01:41 services like so-called gender-affirming care are offered to the child. The government considers such care a requirement for what it calls effective rehabilitation. The guide says decisions about where to place kids in foster care should be made based on the person's gender identity and where the young person feels the most safe. Texas joined Florida in suing the Biden-Harris administration on Tuesday. the administration failed to share with Texas the citizenship status of people on the state's voter rolls. A coalition of state attorneys general called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide the citizenship status information last week.

Starting point is 00:02:23 Texas's 15-page complaint says, federal and Texas law prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting, but non-U.S. citizens can nevertheless register to vote. Federal law prohibits Texas from requiring documentary proof of citizenship from people seeking to register to vote. But federal law requires the Department of Homeland Security to respond to inquiries from appropriate Texas authorities about the citizenship status of persons registered to vote. DHS has failed to comply with that duty. Vice President Kamala Harris says she doesn't support religious exemptions for Christian doctors who are opposed to performing abortions. She said this in an interview with ABC News Now's Halle Jackson. Here she is.

Starting point is 00:03:07 What concessions would be on the table? Religious exemptions, for example. Is that something that you would consider? I don't think we should be making concessions when we're talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body. To Republicans like, for example, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, who would back something like this on a Democratic agenda if, in fact, Republicans control Congress? Would you offer them an olive branch? Or is that off the table? Is that not an option for you?

Starting point is 00:03:29 I'm not going to engage in hypotheticals. Her comments have sparked outrage from Christian and Catholic leaders. For example, Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said, so she's not only pro-abortion, she is anti-religious freedom. Duly noted. Tyler O'Neill from The Daily Signal is here to discuss this issue. Tyler, what are some of the religious freedom concerns surrounding Harris's statements? Yeah, there are a lot of concerns. Thanks for having me, Elizabeth. The big issue here is that Harris is rejecting out of hand even the idea of religious exemptions for, being involved in an abortion. So this is a complete rejection of all of the federal law. And there's a lot of

Starting point is 00:04:15 federal law that protects doctors and hospitals from being forced to participate in abortions or host abortions on their property or, you know, all of these things. So it's funny. There are three major laws, the church amendments, the Coat's Snow Amendment, and the Weldon Amendment. This is a very well-established right to religious exemptions from being forced to carry out abortions. And yet, Kamala Harris is suggesting that she would oppose any sort of exemptions. Could you elaborate a little bit more on what those protections in U.S. law and the Constitution are for religious freedom? Yes. So the First Amendment, very importantly, enshrines the right of religious freedom from the get-go. It's one of the most important rights in the entire constellation of our

Starting point is 00:05:14 constitutional system. But from the 1970s up into the early 2000s, there were a whole bunch of amendments that Congress passed to funding, to pieces of legislation that fund the government. Some of these, like the church amendments, prevent the government from forcing health care institutions that receive federal dollars to make their facilities available for abortion or sterilization. They also prevent entities that receive federal funds from discriminating against health care providers who refuse to perform abortions or sterilizations. Very interestingly, the Weldon Amendment, which is passed as part of a bill funding the Department of Health and Heardons. human services stipulates that HHS appropriations may not fund any federal agency a program that discriminates against health care providers who refuse to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions, which means that if you are a health care provider, if you're a doctor

Starting point is 00:06:16 or a nurse in our country today, you are a Roman Catholic, evangelical Christian, or even just a secular American who believes that abortion involves the intentional killing of an unborn human life, you cannot be forced to kill those babies in the womb. You cannot be forced to pay for it. You cannot be forced to pay for medical coverage of it. And you also cannot be forced to, you know, if a patient comes and asks for an abortion, you can't be forced to refer that person to an abortion clinic. Excellent. Well, thanks so much for talking to us about this, Tyler. Thanks again for having. And now for our quick hits where we outline two news stories of the day.

Starting point is 00:07:01 First, the U.S. confirmed Wednesday that North Korea sent 3,000 troops to Russia out of a promised 10,000 to be deployed by December to fight the war against Ukraine. Second, Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, slammed his opponent, incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey for, quote-unquote, retaliating against McDonald's after former president Donald Trump visited one of the company's storefronts in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Casey and two other Senate Democrats wrote a letter to the CEO of McDonald's complaining about Trump's visit to the friar. Thanks for listening to this midweek episode of The Daily Signal, Top News. Be sure to tune in tomorrow morning to our interview

Starting point is 00:07:44 edition where our executive editor Rob Bluey is sitting down with Brent Bozell. Also, please make sure to subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you listen to podcasts. And please leave us a review so we know what we can do better. Thanks so much for listening. Have a wonderful evening and we'll be back with you tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Blewey and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinie, John Pop, and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit daily signal.com

The Daily Signal - Government Pushes Gender Ideology on Judges, Texas Sues Over Voter Information, Harris Denies Religious Exemptions for Abortions | Oct. 23

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