The 3 - February 9, 2025

This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, includes proclamation and action by President Trump protecting religious liberty, and specifically the rights of Christians.  Also, a Louisiana law has been used to bring criminal charges against a New York abortionist, her company, and the mother of a pregnant minor in a case involving the distribution of the abortion pill.  And, the President signed an Executive Order intended to prevent males from participating in female sports sponsored by organizations receiving federal funding.

Trump demonstrates support for Christians

Last week, the National Prayer Breakfast was held in Washington, DC, and President Trump addressed that crowd, as well as another gathering later that morning.   The Washington Times quoted the President as saying, regarding the assassination attempt in Butler, PA: “I feel even stronger,” adding, “I believed in God, but I feel​ much more strongly about it. Something happened.”

He told the gathering: “Today we join our hearts and prayers, recommitting to putting our country first, we have to put country first, making America stronger and greater and more exceptional than ever before, and we have to make religion a much more important factor now,” Mr. Trump said. “If we do that our job is just going to be much easier.”

Later, at another gathering the Washington Hilton, according to The Washington Times, the President made comments about the establishing of a task force, saying: “The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ — which was absolutely terrible — the IRS, the FBI and other agencies..."

The article also related:

He also said work will be done to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”

Mr. Trump added, “If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country.”

The task force will work under the authority of new Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to the article, which noted, "The president said he’s reinstating from his first term the White House Faith Office..."

Trump said, "While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools and our military and our government, workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares,” he said. “We will bring our country back together as one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”

Louisiana's abortion law used to charge New York abortionist in abortion pill case

Across America, women are obtaining abortion pills and using them to take the lives of their unborn children, and recently, a New York abortionist has found herself charged with criminal behavior under Louisiana's strong abortion laws.  CBN.com reported:

Louisiana prohibits the killing of preborn children by abortion, and recent law was passed to reclassify abortion pills as controlled substances. Under the measure, if someone knowingly possesses mifepristone or misoprostol without a valid prescription, they could be fined up to $5,000 and sent to jail for one to five years. The law, however, carves out protections for pregnant women who obtain the drug without a prescription to take on their own.

The case involves a minor who obtained the pills. The article notes: "...Margaret Carpenter, Nightingale Medical, Carpenter's company, and the child's mother, who ordered the pills, were indicted Friday with charges of criminal abortion for allegedly prescribing an abortion pill online in Louisiana, which has some of the strongest pro-life laws in the country."

CBN goes on to say:

"She was a minor and ... she was excited," Prosecutor Tony Clayton told WBRZ-TV. "She had planned a reveal party. She had wanted to have this baby."

The girl was reportedly coerced to take the drug and later "suffered complications while alone," Clayton said, adding, "She called 911 and an ambulance rushed her to the hospital and they were able to save her life."

The article says:

Grand jurors at the District Court for the Parish of West Baton Rouge indicted the abortion doctor, her medical clinic, and the girl's mother.

All three were charged with criminal abortion using abortion-inducing drugs – a felony.

While Louisiana goes after this doctor, her company, and the grandmother of the baby, the abortionist has found a friend in a high place: the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul.  CBN reports:

In a video statement, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the charges "outrageous" and vowed to defend the abortionist.

"I am proud to say that I would never, under any circumstances, turn this doctor over to the state of Louisiana under any extradition request," she said.

CBN also says, "Carpenter was also sued by the Texas attorney general in December for prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to a Texas resident via telemedicine, but the case did not involve criminal charges."

President signs order protecting women's sports from male intrusion, NCAA acts

Also, last week, President Trump signed an Executive Order, entitled, "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," as reported by the website for Alliance Defending Freedom, which quoted ADF CEO, President, and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner, who said: “Schools, activist groups, so-called experts, and politicians demanded that women either celebrate the ’victories’ of males in their sports or stay silent. Those in power told girls that their discomfort with males in their locker rooms amounted to bigotry..." She added: "Trump told our daughters the truth: that men and women are physically different, those differences matter, and women deserve their own sports and spaces. Rather than standing alone in these truths, female athletes now have the U.S. government on their side..."

The Executive Order stated, in part, according to the White House website:

...it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.

Following the issuance of this order, it didn't take long before the NCAA, a large governing body over collegiate sports, weighed in. The Christian Post reported:

National Collegiate Athletics Association has unveiled a new policy prohibiting trans-identified male athletes from competing in women's sports amid the Trump administration's crackdown on gender ideology.

NCAA, a major organization that oversees collegiate athletics in the United States, announced in a statement Thursday that it is changing its participation policy for trans-identified student-athletes. The move follows President Donald Trump's new executive order vowing to cut off federal funds to schools that allow males who identify as female to participate on women's sports teams.

NCAA President Charlie Baker is quoted as saying: "...We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions," adding, "To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard."