In this version of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, there is an update about this bill in the Alabama Legislature that protects IVF providers, but, as pro-life groups have pointed out, does not protect the life of embryos. Also, there is news out of the Southern Baptist Convention regarding a federal probe into its leadership concerning allegations of sexual abuse. And, a court has upheld a school district policy in California that protects parents' rights and prevent the teaching of an ideology that promote division.
Pro-life groups respond to new Alabama IVF bill on the grounds that it fails to protect life of embryos
After the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that embryos produced in the process of in vitro fertilization are human life, some in vitro fertilization clinics halted their procedures and the Alabama Legislature believed it was forced to act. By the way, the ruling did not ban IVF.
So, after an initial draft indicated that lawmakers were going to try to counter that ruling by declaring that these embryos were not to be considered "life," a more acceptable version emerged. Initial legislation provided limited, but not absolute protection for IVF clinics, and had a deadline for the Legislature to act to protect life. The final version approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor provide blanket immunity and no sunset provision.
Pro-life groups were warning against the language of the bill that was being considered and called for the Governor to veto the legislation, which she did not. Live Action News reported:
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law on Wednesday that gives civil and criminal immunity to in vitro fertilization doctors should they damage or destroy embryos, even without parental consent.
The story relates:
Interestingly, the law admits that the destruction of embryos is equivalent to the “death” of those embryos, which means, that legislators admit human embryos are alive before they are destroyed.
State Sen. Larry Stutts, the only senator who voted against the new law, criticized the language of the bill, arguing it is “not an IVF protection bill, it’s an IVF provider and supplier protection bill” that is “limiting the ability of the mothers that are involved in IVF to have recourse.” The Alabama Supreme Court ruling had been in favor of the parents whose embryos were destroyed. This law makes it difficult for other parents to file similar lawsuits.
Stutts, who is a medical doctor, had proposed legislation that attempted to address IVF, which passed the Senate, and that did not allow such blanket protection. Another bill passed at the same time, the version that was eventually passed.
Live Action Founder and President Lila Rose noted in a press release:
This law will have catastrophic consequences and withdraws existing legal protections for Alabama’s most vulnerable persons simply because those persons were created through IVF. This law provides dangerous civil and criminal immunity for “damage to or the death of an embryo” in the course of “providing or receiving services related to in vitro fertilization.” That means complete legal permission to destroy, by accident or intention, embryonic children created through IVF—even against the wishes of the parents.
Rose also said that this new law violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Alabama Constitution. She noted:
Live Action led a coalition of pro-life groups representing millions of Americans and thousands of Alabamians who are working both nationally and in Alabama specifically, which urged the veto of this legislation. Unfortunately, Governor Ivey ignored those pro-life voices and signed the bill.
Among the groups with representatives signing a letter issued last Monday urging a gubernatorial veto are: Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Family Research Council, Eagle Forum, Alabama Policy Institute, the Alabama Citizens Action Program, and others.
The Liberty Counsel website stated:
Despite the Court stating that an IVF embryo is a “minor child” and is no different under the law than an embryo in the womb, the new law will treat frozen IVF children differently and not allow legal consequences for their deaths.Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said that lawmakers "...missed the mark with this knee-jerk reaction. It is too bad legislators are moved more by political winds than in science and in the fundamental issues involving human life.”
Staver provided analysis on The Meeting House regarding the Alabama Supreme Court's recent decision regarding embryos. Staver is quoted on the Liberty Counsel website:
“Every human life begins as an embryo and has incalculable worth. Yet this law presents a double standard treating IVF embryos differently by removing their legal protections. The Alabama Supreme Court held that every unborn life, no matter their stage or location, is a child. As such, children who are in the frozen IVF embryo phase deserve the exact same dignity and protection as all children. The Alabama legislature should revisit this issue immediately and take a more reasoned and scientific approach that proscribes how human life must be treated in the context of IVF.”
SBC officials announce end of DOJ probe
For some time now, leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention have been attempting to find solutions to reports of sexual abuse among congregants in its churches. While there are those that believe that each local church should look into allegations and deal with them on that level, reports of abuse published in the Houston Chronicle and the report of an independent agency, Guidepost Solutions, which did not seem to uncover very much new information, have promoted the denomination to set up a task force to deal with such matters, which has given rise to a new third-party entity devoted to addressing issues relative to sex abuse.
In August 2022, according to Baptist Press, it was announced that the U.S. Department of Justice would be looking into actions of the SBC Executive Committee in its response to reports of sexual abuse. Recently, the website stated:
SBC entity leaders and SBC President Bart Barber first announced the DOJ’s intention to investigate the SBC on Aug. 12, 2022, pledging to fully cooperate with investigators.
“While we continue to grieve and lament past mistakes related to sexual abuse, current leaders across the SBC have demonstrated a firm conviction to address those issues of the past and are implementing measures to ensure they are never repeated in the future,” they said in the 2022 statement. “The fact that the SBC Executive Committee recently completed a fully transparent investigation is evidence of this commitment.”
The story was devoted primarily to announcing that the Department of Justice investigation has ended. It related:
The U.S. Department of Justice has concluded its investigation of the SBC Executive Committee, Southern Baptist leaders learned Feb. 29.
In a statement today, Jonathan Howe, interim SBC EC president/CEO, said the DOJ has told the EC’s legal counsel there is “no further action to be taken.”
However, Religion News Service stated:
That news came as a surprise to abuse survivors and advocates such as Megan Lively and Tiffany Thigpen. They reached out to Department of Justice investigators, who they say told them the investigation was ongoing. Both said they were told the lead DOJ investigator had no more questions for the Executive Committee and but that the investigation remains open.
The writer of the story, Bob Smietana, postulated:
Both sides agree that something has changed with the DOJ’s investigation. They appear to disagree about what that change means. The confusion over the status of the DOJ investigation has strained the already tense relationship between abuse survivors and leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
He referred to a subsequent story by Baptist Press, which stated:
Legal counsel for the SBC has since confirmed that the investigation into the SBC as a whole remains open and ongoing, however, the DOJ has never made a public statement about the investigation and BP’s requests for comments were not returned on March 5 and March 7.
In a statement posted on its website Thursday, the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) said, “Southern Baptists initiated the work of sexual abuse reform not in response to criminal inquiries or threats of lawsuits but due to an increasing burden and awareness that vulnerable people were suffering harm in many of our churches and institutions, which were vastly under resourced to care for and protect them.”
The article goes on to say:
In February, the ARITF announced the coming formation of the Abuse Response Commission – an independent non-profit organization to aid Southern Baptist churches in tracking credibly accused sexual abusers and creating resources to help churches prevent and respond to sexual abuse.
California school district positive upholding parental rights affirmed
In the Temecula Valley Unified School District in California, a policy was put into place that would affirm the rights of parents to be notified by school officials regarding a child's "gender transition," as well as to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the schools, and, according to a press release by Advocates for Faith and Freedom, the policy had been challenged in court, and recently, a court ruled in favor of the district's policy,
The president of the organization, Robert Tyler, is quoted as saying: "This is a win for commonsense, parents, and the safety of students," adding, "TVUSD is committed to providing a quality education free from political agendas and free from dishonest and divisive curriculum. This ruling allows TVUSD to continue implementing these sound policies."
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