The 3 - January 21, 2024

This week's edition of The 3, featuring three stories of relevance to the Christian community, highlights pro-life legislative action in the U.S. House last week, the week leading up to the March for Life in Washington, DC.  Also, last week, it was revealed that a government agency has been monitoring financial transactions including key words, including those associated with "religious texts," to try to generate suspicion. And, thousands gathered in the nation's capital last week to participate in the annual March for Life.

U.S. House passes two pro-life bills

Coinciding with the March for Life in Washington, DC, last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two bills that support women and their unborn children.  According to the website, Pregnancy Help News:

The Pregnant Students' Rights Act aims to inform pregnant students of their rights and the resources available to them at U.S. colleges and universities. The bill also amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to mandate that institutions of higher education to provide students with the following:

1. A list of the resources that exist to help pregnant students and students who are caring for a baby after birth.

2. Information about the accommodation available for pregnant and parenting students.

3. Information on how to file a complaint with the Department of Education based on Title IX and file a discrimination complaint with the institution of higher education.

Sponsor of the bill, Iowa Representative Ashley Hinson said this on the House floor, according to her website:

Higher education institutions and universities have a responsibility to empower all their students to succeed – including pregnant students.

There are many organizations that provide physical and emotional support for new and soon-to-be moms, and pregnant students should know about these resources on college campuses. They deserve to be treated with respect and surrounded with care and love.

I have visited pregnancy resource centers in Iowa and met with those who have dedicated themselves to the cause of life – many of whom have traveled to Washington to March for life this weekend.

And it has been inspiring to see the pro-life community spring into action to help expecting moms and their babies thrive.

Another bill passing the House is the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, which, according to the website, blocks the Department of Health and Human Services from finalizing the Biden Administration’s proposed rule change governing the Temporary Assistance to Need Families (TANF) program regarding payments for any pregnancy center.  How important is this?  Pregnancy Help News notes, "Numerous states fund Alternatives to Abortion programs, including Louisiana, which currently provided $1 million to pregnancy centers via TANF), Indiana, which currently provided $2.5 million through TANF, and Ohio, which provided $7.5 million between FY20 to FY21."

LifeNews.com quoted from New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, who said: “There are more than 2,700 pregnancy resource centers throughout the United States—each and every one of them an oasis of love, compassion, empathy, respect, and care for both mothers and their precious children. " He also referred to a new Marist poll that "found that 83 percent of all Americans...support—I say again support—pregnancy resource centers.”

Furthermore, two bills that protect the ongoing work of pregnancy resource centers were introduced into the House.  The Pregnancy Help News site notes: 

The Pregnancy Center Support Act would implement a 50 percent tax credit to incentivize voluntary contributions to pregnancy centers that provide life-affirming support to help pregnant mothers to choose life for their babies.

The other bill is called the Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act, which would, "annul the Biden administration proposed rule that would disallow Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program funds to pregnancy centers even when they meet one or more of TANF’s statutory purposes."

Certain search terms in financial transactions being flagged

National Religious Broadcasters issued a story this week that reported on the findings of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which, according to the NRB website, showed that certain "search terms" related to financial transactions were being used for "scrutiny by federal investigators."

Not only were terms that are associated to political opposition to the current Administration included, but according to NRB:

The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) monitors financial transactions to identify instances of money laundering for domestic and international terrorism. According to the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, this office sent materials to financial institutions recommending the use of generic terms like “MAGA” or “Trump” to identify suspicious private transactions. FinCEN also recommended monitoring private transactions for “extremism” indicators such as “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.”

Now, we recognize that not all Christians are Trump supporters or could be described as "MAGA," which stands for the former President's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again." But, as the NRB article points out, in Iowa, "According to data reported by The Washington Post, significant gains among Evangelical Christians were a key factor in former President Donald J. Trump’s sweeping Iowa caucus victory, with Trump’s share in the most predominantly Evangelical counties growing by upwards of 35 points."

So, there is significant evangelical support for Trump - but whether you, as a believer support Trump or not, this monitoring of financial transactions should be a cause for concern. And, as NRB reports, "A Fox News roundup reported a slew of negative media characterizations of Christians in response to the Iowa caucuses: that Evangelicals are racist, anti-democracy, idol-worshipping, authoritarian, inauthentic, vengeful, violent, fascist, and jihadist, among other things."

The chairman of that House subcommittee, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio wrote to Noah Bishoff, former Director of the Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of FinCEN, saying, “FinCEN urged large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression.” NRB also reported:

In a separate letter to FBI director Christopher Wray dated Jan. 17, Jordan noted that the committee and select subcommittee had also obtained documents “indicating that FBI personnel in the Office of Private Sector prepared an official report that broadly characterized certain political beliefs as indicative of domestic violent extremism.” The FBI then distributed that report to financial institutions.

Thousands brave wintry weather to take part in March for Life

The second March for Life since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade took place last Friday, and a crowd of between 50 and 100-thousand people was expected to attend. Representatives of pro-life advocacy organizations and ministries, governmental officials, and Faith Radio programmers Jim Daly of Focus on the Family and Greg Laurie of A New Beginning were on hand.   Daly and Laurie were part of the speaker lineup.

According to Nicole Hunt, writing for The Daily Citizen of Focus on the Family, the work of pregnancy resource centers was lauded as an essential key to saving babies and ministering to women; she wrote:

Jeanine Mancini, President of the March for Life, opened the rally by declaring that the pro-life movement is about helping mothers and babies flourish. According to Mancini, 60% of women who chose abortion would have chosen life if they had more support. Mancini told the crowd that these moms need to know they can do this, and we will help them.

The March for Life’s theme this year, “With Every Woman, For Every Child,” highlights the phenomenal work being done by pregnancy resource centers.

Pregnancy resource centers, Mancini said, are the “backbone of the pro-life movement.”

In 2022, pregnancy resources centers across the nation provided $358 million in resources to women and families experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. Those resource services included housing, counseling, prenatal medical care, baby supplies, diapers, clothing, formula, parenting classes, adoption support, and more. According to Mancini, 83% of Americans support pregnancy resource centers. 

And, the day after the march, there was strategy being discussed.  I came across an article at The Guardian website, which reported this:

The activists had gathered in the ballroom for the National Pro-Life Summit, the conclusion of a two-day extravaganza of anti-abortion activism in the US capital. On Friday, many had walked through the snowy streets of Washington to support the March for Life, the largest annual anti-abortion event in the United States.

But while the March for Life is a mass show of force, the National Pro-Life Summit is far more focused. It aims to arm the foot soldiers of the anti-abortion movement, high school- and college-aged activists, with the education and energy they need to effectively advocate against abortion rights – especially in an election year.

In the months since the US supreme court overturned Roe, abortion rights supporters have repeatedly defeated abortion foes in ballot referendums, even in conservative strongholds such as Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio.

This string of losses, though, has seemingly hardened the stance of summit attendees and speakers. Rather than compromising, summit speakers urged young people: Don’t give up. Do more.