The 3 - September 30, 2018

This week's edition of The 3, spotlighting three news stories impacting the Christian community, includes good news out of a Federal agency, which cancelled a contract with a provider of fetal tissue from aborted babies.  Also, administrators at a Christian university had moved to change policy toward same-sex relationships, only to have the school's trustees reverse the decision.  And, a Louisiana law that requiring that abortion doctors adhere to certain standards was upheld by a Federal appeals court.

3 - Department of Health and Human Services end contract with company involved in trafficking of body parts from aborted babies

After hearing from a number of pro-life leaders and organizations, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced that the contract with a company, Advanced Bioscience Resources, to provide the Food and Drug Administration with fetal tissue from aborted babies has been cancelled, according to a press release from Liberty Counsel.

It reports that:

National and state pro-life leaders recently sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar urging the government to end the taxpayer-funded use of aborted fetal tissue for research. The letter read, in part: “We were shocked and dismayed at the news report that the FDA has signed a contract to purchase ‘fresh’ aborted fetal organs from ABR, for the purpose of creating humanized mice with human immune systems.

In a statement, HHS said that it "...was not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements. As a result, that contract has been terminated, and HHS is now conducting an audit of all acquisitions involving human fetal tissue to ensure conformity with procurement and human fetal tissue research laws and regulations."

2 - Christian college modifies policy to remove language banning same-sex relationships

It was recently announced that a Christian school, Asuza Pacific University, was changing policy in order to allow same-sex relationships, according to Faithwire, which quoted Bill Fiala, associate dean of students at APU: “The change that happened with the code of conduct is still in alignment with our identity as a Christian institution. The language changed, but the spirit didn’t. Our spirit is still a conservative, evangelical perspective on human sexuality.”

The article says that:

The updated policy still requires all students to abstain from sexual behavior, but now no longer “singles out” those in the LGBTQ community, barring them from entering into romantic relationships.

This apparently came about after a campus gay group described in the story as "underground," a group called Haven, with assistance from an LGBTQ advocacy group called Brave Commons, has entered into talks with campus administrators.  The Faithwire story stated:

Those conversations, Fiala said, resulted in the university’s decision to change its rules regarding same-sex couples on campus.

The college’s SGA passed a resolution last year, asking APU administrators to create something more formal — like Haven — for the campus’ LGBTQ community.

But, wait, not so fast now - the Board of Trustees has now stepped in to reinstate the original language.  The student website ZU News reported:

Azusa Pacific University reinstated the original language in their code of conduct, reaffirming their “biblical understanding of the marriage covenant as between one man and one woman.”

Earlier in the 2018-19 school year, the APU administration board removed language from their student code of conduct prohibiting public LGBTQ+ relationships.

The Board of Trustees sent an email on Sept. 28 alerting the community of their decision to restore the code of conduct to its previous state.

“Last week, reports circulated about a change in the undergraduate student standards of conduct,” the email stated. “That action concerning romanticized relationships was never approved by the board and the original wording has been reinstated.”

1 - Federal appeals court rules in favor of Louisiana law mandating that abortion doctors have admitting privileges

A law was passed in 2014 in the state of Louisiana that, according to LifeNews.com, "requires abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges in case patients experience emergency complications." The article notes that, "Soon after it became law, the Louisiana abortion facility Hope Medical Group for Women and the Center for Reproductive Rights challenged it in court."

The website reports that this past week:

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said there is “no evidence” that the law will burden women’s access to abortion, rejecting abortion activists’ claim, according to The Hill.

The article points out that while this law is similar to a Texas bill that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled against two summers ago, "...the Fifth Circuit panel said the Louisiana law is different because it “does not impose a substantial burden on a large fraction of women.”