Family Watch Newswire

September 18, 2026

RIGHT TO LIFE IS ‘MOST FOUNDATIONAL OF ALL RIGHTS,’ NEW ‘DECLARATION FOR LIFE’ PROCLAIMS. More than 50,000 Americans from across the country signed a new “Declaration for Life” within hours of its public release that calls on them and their fellow citizens “to stand for life” and for Congress “to ban the chemical abortion drug mifepristone.” Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL PRO-LIFE COALITION GROWING. With the addition of Mauritania, Argentina and the Dominican Republic, the international coalition of pro-life and pro-family governments continues to expand in its sixth year, as membership has grown to 43 nations. Read more here.

LATTER-DAY SAINT LEADERS ASK MEMBERS TO ‘VOICE THEIR OPPOSITION’ IN IDAHO ABORTION VOTE. Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints oppose an Idaho ballot initiative that would establish a right to abortion in the state, and they encouraged church members to “voice their opposition” to the proposed law in a letter that will be read from the pulpit during worship services for the next two Sundays. Read more here.

STUDY: DOCTORS DON’T SCREEN FOR ABORTION COERCION — AND IT HURTS WOMEN. The study, published in the Journal of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, found that physicians rarely screen for coercion and pressure to abort, even though it is the highest predictive risk factor for negative outcomes. Read more here.

OREGON ABORTIONS IN 2025 REACHED HIGHEST RATE SINCE 2009. Oregon Health Authority published its finalized abortion numbers for 2025 earlier this month, reporting 10,495 abortions had been performed last year – the most since 2009. Read more here.

‘FALSE’: NEW STUDY CHALLENGES CLAIM THAT LAWS RESTRICTING TRANSGENDER MEDICINE INCREASE TEEN SUICIDE. The medical watchdog group Do No Harm has published a study countering the claim that laws restricting sex-rejecting procedures, often euphemistically described as “gender-affirming care,” lead to increased suicide rates among young people with gender dysphoria. Read more here.

TWO MAJOR HEALTH-CARE SYSTEMS REACH AGREEMENT WITH DOJ TO END ‘GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE’ FOR MINORS. Two of the nation’s largest health-care systems — New York University Langone Hospitals (NYU) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) — will no longer provide “gender-affirming care” to minors as part of an agreement with the Department of Justice. Read more here.

BILL INTRODUCED IN COLOMBIAN CONGRESS TO CURB GENDER IDEOLOGY IN SCHOOLS. On the morning of September 15, a bill titled “Sex Education with a Biological Approach” was formally introduced in the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, as an attempt to ban gender ideology in schools across the South American nation. Read more here.

DO NO HARM STANDS WITH PARENTS IN SUPREME COURT CASE CHALLENGING WASHINGTON LAWS AIMED AT ‘TRANSITIONING’ GENDER-CONFUSED RUNAWAY MINORS. Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in International Partners for Ethical Care v. Ferguson, which asks whether parents may challenge Washington state laws that shift decision-making authority over “gender transitions” from parents to children and the state. Read more here.

NORTH DAKOTA FREE TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM HARMFUL ‘TRANSITION PROCEDURES.’ The North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled to uphold state law protecting children from medical “transition” procedures, in the case of T.D. v. Wrigley. Read more here.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT PROBES DISTRICT ACCUSED OF ‘TRANSING’ TEEN TAKEN FROM CATHOLIC PARENTS. The Trump-McMahon Department of Education is now investigating a Massachusetts school district that secretly “gender transitioned” a teenage girl, ultimately leading state authorities to remove the girl from her parents and deny them custody for the last couple of years. Read more here.

ASU’S ‘EMPOWERMENT LAB’ TEACHES PARENTS TO HELP TEENS ‘TRANSITION.’ Arizona State University is sponsoring an “Empowerment Lab” with a class that teaches parents how to help their gender dysphoric teens go through medical “transition.” The lab is dedicated to “Empowering trans and nonbinary voices in psychology” through “community-based research.” Read more here.

LEFT-WING MICHIGAN HOUSE CANDIDATE LAWRENCE CALLED FOR ‘ABOLISHING THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE.’ William Lawrence, a Democratic nominee for a House race in Michigan, called for “abolishing the institution of marriage,” arguing that because it “comes from a particular religious and cultural background,” it is at odds with the “separation of church and state.” Read more here.

CALIFORNIA SHOOL DISTRICT AGREES TO RESPECT RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. The Encinitas Union School District in California has agreed to change its policies to provide notifications and opt-outs to parents and students when promoting gender ideology or any material that substantially interferes with families’ religious beliefs. Read more here.

NINTH CIRCUIT SNUBS CHURCH SEEKING TO OPT OUT OF ABORTION INSURANCE COVERAGE CASE. The Ninth Circuit Court has denied the request of a Washington church seeking an exemption from a state mandate requiring companies to offer abortion coverage in insurance plans. Read more here.

SEATTLE MAKES POLYAMOROUS AND ASEXUAL PEOPLE A PROTECTED CLASS. The Seattle City Council voted unanimously to extend legal discrimination protections to people in polyamorous relationships and people who identify as pansexual and asexual. Read more here.

FATHERS ARE NOT MOTHERS—THEY ARE UNIQUE AND IRREPLACEABLE, by Lisa Britton. “Too many people now talk as if fathers are simply second mothers. As if a family is just two interchangeable adults dividing tasks on a spreadsheet. As if the highest compliment you can give a man is that he parents ‘just like a Mom.’ … Let’s be clear: Fathers are not mothers. It’s very important in our changing times that we keep that distinction clear.” Read more here.

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SET TO CLASH, by Stefano Gennarini. “World leaders will flock to New York over the next two weeks to kick off the new session of the annual UN General Assembly. They are expected … to bring up hot-button social issues such as abortion, gender ideology, and censorship. Social issues have gained prominence in UN negotiations over the past two years because of the Trump administration.” Read more here.

HAMILTON: MASSACHUSETTS TREATS PARENTAL OPPOSITION TO GENDER TRANSITION AS CHILD ABUSE, by Chris Woodward. “Sophie Kutzko was removed from her parents’ home by the state after her parents objected to a secret social transition at her public high school. According to Fox News, the parents, who are Catholic, point to Algonquin Regional High School in Southborough, Massachusetts, for exposing their daughter to a gender ideology culture and blame a school counselor for the social transitioning of their daughter.” Read more here.

CALIFORNIA DRAGS PRO-LIFERS TO COURT FOR CRIME OF ‘OFFERING HOPE’ AND ABORTION PILL REVERSAL, by Andrea Trudden. “California Attorney General Rob Bonta wants a court to punish pro-life organizations for telling women they may have another choice after starting a chemical abortion. His case against Heartbeat International and RealOptions targets their communications about abortion pill reversal and seeks millions in penalties along with restrictions on what they can say.” Read more here.

HYDE AMENDMENT APPROACHES 50TH ANNIVERSARY HAVING SAVED ALMOST 3 MILLION BABIES, by Quinn Delamater. “‘An innocent, defenseless human life, in a caring and humane society, deserves better than to be flushed down a toilet or burned in an incinerator.’ Such are the words of Henry Hyde, the former U.S. congressman from Illinois who tirelessly championed life and introduced the Hyde Amendment in 1976. Almost 50 years later, the legislative rider faces the opportunity to be renewed again.” Read more here.

WHY WAS A MALE FLASHER ALLOWED ON A WOMEN’S PSYCHIATRIC WARD?, by Janet Murray. “Back in the day, if a male hospital patient wanted to show his willy to female patients, he had to be cunning about it. First, he’d have to get past the nursing sisters. If caught, he’d be back on the male ward – under a stern matron – before you could say: ‘Put that away, sir.’ Probably flanked by a couple of burly hospital porters. Today, a man need only say he is a woman to access a female ward – and even showing his fellow patients his crown jewels may not be enough to get him removed.” Read more here.

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