The 3 - November 13, 2022

This week's edition of The 3 looks back at the mid-term elections and how the life issue factored into the results.  Also, a Christian organization who won a lawsuit against the city of Boston has now received a financial settlement. Plus, a Vermont middle school coach and his high school-aged daughter have been punished as the result of "misgendering" a student, a male identifying as female who was allowed to use the girls' locker room. 

Role of abortion in mid-term elections

After the Dobbs decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, the decision on abortion would be left to the states.  So, in all 50 states in the mid-terms, where state legislators and chief executives across the land were facing electoral contests, you might expect that the candidates' viewpoint on abortion would play a role.  Add to that five states where constitutional amendments were on the ballot, and you certainly had the makings of a potential campaign issue.

How much?  Hard to say. The Christian Post analyzed the role of the issue, and cited exit polling that showed that 27% of voters said that abortion was the most important issue for them, with about 3/4 indicating that they may have adopted a position in favor of abortion.  There was also reported evidence that younger women, perhaps motivated by the Dobbs decision, voted in favor of a pro-abortion position.

But, as The Washington Stand reported, pro-life governors in state after state did well in the election contests. The article quoted Brent Keilen, vice president of FRC Action, an arm of Family Research Council, who said, “You have to play offense to move the ball down the field and score. The same holds true in public policy. The candidates who were proactive on the life issue, defined their pro-life positions, and defined the extreme ideologies they were running against — in most cases legal abortion for any reason up until the moment of birth — did very well at the ballot box. This held true in even traditionally competitive states like Georgia, Florida, Ohio, and Iowa.”

That article, as well as a piece on LifeNews.com, elaborated on pro-life victories; some examples included:

In Texas, pro-life Governor Greg Abbot signed what became America’s first aboriton ban and it successfully saved babies from abortions even befor the Suipreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. bet O’Rourke campaigned almost exclusively on abortion and spend tens of millions to defeat Abbott. He lost by 11%.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill to ban abortions after 15 weeks and championed it during the debate with Charlie Crist. DeSantis blew away Crist on election night, winning by 19%.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed his state’s heartbeat law protecting babies from abortions at 6 weeks and he won easily. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a similar law and handily beat Stacey Abrams 53-45. And in Oklahoma there was significant concern that Governor Kevin Stitt would be unseated because he signed an abortion ban, but he trounced his pro-abortion opponent by 14%.

The article also noted that the outcome of the votes on the five amendments was against the pro-life position. Joy Stockbauer, a policy analyst with the Center for Human Dignity for FRC, stated, "The simple truth is that many voters either abstain or fail to vote their true values because of deceptive wording,” adding, “The millions of dollars poured into ballot initiatives by the abortion industry muddied the waters and misrepresented what the ballot initiatives actually meant. Fundamentally, in a nation that values the dignity of every person, whether or not a human being lives or dies should not be left to a popular vote.”

Religious freedom victory in Boston yields financial compensation

I have reported to you and commented on the three major religious freedom victories emerging out of the previous session of the U.S. Supreme Court.  One of them involved a Christian organization, Camp Constitution, that desired to fly a Christian flag at Boston's City Hall to celebrate a special observance. The city officials chose not to allow this, even though it had not turned down any organization before.

So, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Camp Constitution, which is directed by Harold Shutleff; recently, a financial consideration to back the decision was announced. The Daily Citizen reported:

Once the high court spoke, it was up to the lower courts to issue the necessary injunctions and deal with an award of attorney’s fees in Shurtleff’s favor. Shurtleff and the city then reached an agreement on attorney’s fees and stipulated to a dismissal of the case.

Shurtleff’s attorneys celebrated the win in a press release.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We are pleased that after five years of litigation and a unanimous victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, we joined with Hal Shurtleff to finally let freedom fly in Boston, the Cradle of Liberty...

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family and writer of the Daily Citizen piece, said...

...when a government entity gets worried it will commit an “establishment of religion” violation by permitting religious speech that might be attributed to the government, and then prohibits such speech – like denying the use of a Christian flag – it sometimes goes too far and commits a free speech violation.

That’s why, once Boston lost its argument that its flag-raising program was “government speech,” not private speech, it was destined to lose the case. And to pay Harold Shurtleff’s attorney’s fees.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Shurtleff’s case and subsequent payment of attorney’s fees will send a strong message to government officials everywhere: Think twice before you discriminate against religious speech. It could cost you.

Father and daughter - coach and student - both suspended for "misgendering" male student who used female facilities

In Vermont, Travis Allen and his 14-year-old daughter Blake have both faced punishment for identifying a biological male in a girls' locker room as, well, a male.  CBN News reported that:

In September, a 14-year-old male student who identifies as female and plays on the Randolph Union High School girls' volleyball team entered the locker room while the girls were changing.

"A male was in our locker room when volleyball girls were trying to get changed," Blake told the Daily Signal. "And after I asked him to leave, he didn't, and later looked over at girls with their shirts off. And it made many people uncomfortable and feel violated. And I left as soon as I could in a panic."

Blake made comments about the fact that the student was male, and CBN reported that, "The school began an investigation into Blake's comments and decided to punish her, claiming the student-athlete violated the school's Harassment, Hazing, and Bullying policy."  

Then, her father, formerly a coach at a middle school in the district, "expressed his views about the incident on a local news station's Facebook page." The article says:

A user identifying as the "mother of the trans student in question" claimed Blake "made up the story for attention," and that the "truth will prevail."

Travis defended his daughter saying, "The truth is your son watched my daughter and multiple other girls change in the locker room. While he got a free show, they got violated."

The district superintendent determined that by writing that comment, the father had "misgendered a transgender student" and suspended Travis from his job as the middle school girls' soccer coach without pay for the rest of the season.

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a lawsuit against the school district on behalf of Travis and Blake, according to the article.  Blake had been suspended, but that was "lifted" after the lawsuit was filed.