Family Watch Newswire

The Family Watch Newswire is a service of Family Watch International that highlights important news items and useful analysis on the family and family-related issues from around the world.

October 19, 2026

LIFE

MISSOURI ABORTION ACTIVISTS RAISE $26 MILLION TO FIGHT PRO-LIFE AMENDMENT 3. Using out of state money, radical pro-abortion groups have raised $25.7 million in an attempt to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment that would protect babies from abortion in Missouri. Read more here.

PRO-LIFE GROUP SUED BY WOMAN WHO SAYS SHE WAS ‘FORCED’ TO HAVE TWO CHILDREN. The pro-life organization Students for Life of America is facing a lawsuit filed by a Texas woman who claims she was ”forced” to have two children due to the group’s efforts to protect preborn babies in the state. Read more here.

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FUNDS ‘REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE’ SYMPOSIUM. The University of Minnesota’s College of Design hosted a symposium examining how architecture and design can support “reproductive health care” following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Read more here.

GENDER

FDA ORDERS SUICIDE-RISK LABELING ON THE DRUG CLASS USED AS PUBERTY BLOCKERS. On March 10, 2026, the FDA ordered makers of GnRH agonists, the drug class doctors use as puberty blockers, to add “the serious risks of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt” to their labels. The new wording went onto Lupron, Zoladex, Vantas and Trelstar between May and June. There was no press release. Read more here.

HHS ISSUES FINAL DEMAND LETTERS TO MEDICAL ORGANIZATIONS ON SEX-REJECTING PROCEDURES. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued final demand letters to leading medical organizations, inquiring whether they continue to support damaging and experimental sex-rejecting procedures on children. Read more here.

MICHIGAN VOLLEYBALL PLAYER AND HER DAD SUE SCHOOL DISTRICT OVER TRANS OPPONENT. The Thomas More Law Center filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Michigan’s Monroe Public Schools District, the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the district’s superintendent and athletic director, on behalf of 16-year-old tenth grader Briley Lechner and her father, Sean Lechner. Read more here.

MARRIAGE

UTAH HAS HIGHEST MARRIAGE RATE IN U.S. Using the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, via USAFacts, to compare marriages and divorces reported over the previous 12 months per 1,000 residents aged 15 and older, Utah had America’s highest marriage rate, and Oklahoma recorded the highest divorce rate. Read more here.

HUMAN SEXUALITY

CHRISTIAN GROUPS AND PASTORS SAY NEW CALIFORNIA LGBT HATE SPEECH LAW IS DISGUISED AS INDOCTRINATION. A new California law requiring employers to integrate “anti-hate speech” instruction into workplace harassment training is drawing criticism from conservative Christians, who say it forces employers to promote a government-approved viewpoint. Read more here.

THIS KENTUCKY BILL WILL DO THE UNIMAGINABLE. If Kentucky’s House Resolution 15, the so-called “Equality Act,” passes, the state will see a lot of cases in which confused abusers are given a virtual “pass” on their sex crimes, because HR 15 seeks to protect more than 550 sexual deviancies, including pedophilia. Read more here.

MINNESOTA STATE U. TO SPEND $70K IN STUDENT FEES ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY PROGRAMS. Minnesota State University, Mankato plans to spend $70,000 in mandatory student activity fees on its “gender and sexuality” programs during fiscal year 2027. Read more here.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

WOMAN SHARES ABORTION PILL HORROR: ‘I ALMOST DIED.’ In an interview with Live Action, a woman named Shanyce recounted the horror of her chemical abortion experience, the severe pain she was in and how, when she returned to Planned Parenthood for help, its employees “just turned me right out the door.” Read more here.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD REOPENS IN NEW ORLEANS TO PUSH ABORTIONS ON WOMEN. Planned Parenthood Great Plains is reopening its New Orleans clinic, with pro-life leaders warning that the organization plans to push abortions on women by referring them to other states and possibly arranging for illegal mail-order abortions. Read more here.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

INVESTIGATION OF 9 BANKS FINDS ‘IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE’ THAT RELIGIOUS GROUPS WERE TARGETED. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reviewed 50,000 documents sent from the nine largest national banks that it supervises, and it confirmed that religious groups were singled out for stances on abortion, LGBTQ issues, religious persecution and other social issues. Read more here.

SEX EDUCATION

ALABAMA’S NEW SEX EDUCATION LAW TAKES EFFECT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. A new Alabama law changing how sex education is taught in public schools took effect Oct. 1, requiring lessons to emphasize abstinence and giving parents more control over their children’s education. Read more here.

GENERAL INTEREST

THERAPY MAY FUEL FAMILY ESTRANGEMENT AND CUTOFF CULTURE, EXPERTS SAY. Nearly four in 10 Americans are currently estranged from at least one close family member, and while therapy can be helpful in facilitating communication and mending relationships, some believe it could contribute to “cutoff culture.” Read more here.

OPINION & ANALYSIS

THE GAY-PARENTING RESEARCH THEY HOPE YOU NEVER SEE, by Jennifer Roback Morse. “They said the kids would be fine. Here’s the gay-parenting research that got buried. A peer-reviewed study reported that children with married same-sex parents had more than four times the odds of reported emotional difficulties as kids with a married mom and dad. There’s a lot of mischief being done very quietly in the weeds of what seems like respectable scientific studies. Oh, wait. You never heard that? Yeah, I know you never heard that.” Read more here.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD’S LEGACY OF EUGENICS: FROM RACIAL CLEANSING TO MODERN-DAY ABORTION MILLS, by Nicholas DeSimone. “This weekend marks 110 years since Margaret Sanger opened her first birth control facility in Brooklyn on October 16, 1916. That facility marked the beginning of her movement, but beneath the glossy facade lies a century-long history of eugenics, racism, and systemic killing. Planned Parenthood’s modern image coexists with a documented history involving eugenics and well-established efforts to drive genocidal levels of abortion among vulnerable, low-income populations.” Read more here.

MEDICINE’S CONSCIENCE, by Dianna Kenny. “The lesson of history is not that new ideas should be feared, but that they should remain open to the same dispassionate scrutiny that ultimately distinguishes scientific progress from medical fashions. Few contemporary areas of medicine test these principles more profoundly than the care of children and adolescents experiencing gender-related distress. During the past decade, youth gender medicine has become one of the fastest-growing, most ethically contested and most socially charged areas of clinical practice.” Read more here.

ABORTION ABOLITIONIST FIGHTS BACK AGAINST A COLLEGE’S SO-CALLED ‘FREE SPEECH ZONES,’ by Jennifer Oliver O’Connell. “Since 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned through the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a movement known as abortion abolitionists has gained momentum and become progressively louder in the expression of its views. Like Operation Rescue in the late ’80s, the individuals who identify with this movement have recently come into the crosshairs of law enforcement and are being arrested and jailed for their peaceful protests.” Read more here.

YES, LGBT IDENTITY REALLY IS IN FREE FALL AMONG AMERICAN TEENS, by Glenn T. Stanton. “What goes up so quickly will eventually come down just as fast. This is precisely what has happened with gay and trans identity among American teens after our national LGBT social acid trip. Gallup has carefully tracked how dramatically LGBT identity shot up for all ages in the U.S. over the last decade or more. It really rocketed in 2020. In 2012, only 3.5% of Americans identified with any of the experimental sex and gender alphabet soup letters. By 2020, 5.6% did. By 2024, it reached an eye-popping 9.3% of Americans.” Read more here.

INSIDE BIDEN’S DOJ: HOW LGBTQ ACTIVIST GROUPS HELPED SET THE AGENDA FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION, by Tyler O’Neil. “Newly released documents reveal the extent to which LGBTQ activist groups helped set the agenda for the Justice Department under President Joe Biden. The DOJ Civil Rights Division’s LGBTQI+ Working Group convened quarterly stakeholder meetings with organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Women’s Law Center, and others while the department challenged state laws regarding transgender medicine, bathrooms, and women’s sports.” Read more here.

UNHINGED LIBS WENT BANANAS OVER THESE T-SHIRTS AT GAME 1 OF THE WNBA FINALS, by Matt Vespa. “These people are insufferable babies who wallow in adolescent tantrums. We live in the real world. It goes beyond conservative and liberal; this is normal versus abnormal. It’s sentient beings versus the lizard people. It also shows how the insulated bubble world of the Left creates monsters, people who think that if you don’t conform to their view, you’re either evil, ignorant, or unworthy of living.” Read more here.

POLYGAMY IS BACK, by Nathanael Blake. “Polygamy is back on the menu, boys. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During the debates over same-sex marriage we were assured that the slope wasn’t slippery and that suggestions that polygamy might be next were a form of ridiculous alarmism propagated by homophobic bigots and repressed religious weirdos. Once again, the people dismissed as prejudiced prudes are being proven right.” Read more here.