The 3 - December 21, 2025

It was part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act - a one-year funding cut to Medicaid dollars going to fund abortion.  While this was far less than pro-life leaders wanted, nevertheless any reduction in funding the termination of the lives of unborn children is a life-saving plus.

Well, a group of 23 states, under the leadership of New York Attorney General Letitia James, filed a lawsuit in federal court for the government to continue to fund Planned Parenthood, according to an article at The Daily Citizen.  U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani initially ruled in favor of the states and "blocked enforcement of the provision in the states that are plaintiffs in the lawsuit."  

But, as the article states: "A panel of judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Trump administration an administrative stay on Monday, December 8, putting on hold Judge Talwani’s Dec. 2 preliminary injunction ordering the Trump administration to continue funding Planned Parenthood in 23 states."  This keeps the abortion funding blocked while the case moves forward in court.

You may remember the inhibitions on religious freedom that Canadian officials put in place during the COVID pandemic.  The hostility toward people of faith has continued to find a home in the government of Canada - LifeSite News reports: "Liberals have passed an amendment that could criminalize parts of the Bible dealing with homosexuality under Canada’s new 'hate speech' laws."  The article continued:

Following a nearly eight-hour committee review on December 9, Liberals adopted an amendment to Bill C-9, the “Combatting Hate Act,” that removed protections in the “hate speech” legislation for quoting Scripture, essentially allowing Canadians to be punished for quoting the Bible.

The article relates: "Bill C-9, as reported by LifeSiteNews, has been blasted by constitutional experts as empowering police and the government to go after those it deems to have violated a person’s 'feelings' in a 'hateful' way."  It went on to say:

The amendment would remove the “religious exemption” defense, which has historically protected individuals from conviction for willful promotion of hatred if the statements were made “in good faith” and based on a “religious subject” or a “sincerely held” interpretation of religious texts such as passages from the Bible, Quran, or Torah.

As the truth about what has been incorrectly termed "gender-affirming care," i.e. treatments and surgeries that are intended to change one's gender, has advanced, the rejection of these dangerous procedures has continued.  State after state has passed legislation banning this type of activity performed on minors, and now the U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that criminalizes it.  The Daily Signal reported recently: "The House of Representatives successfully passed a bill designed to protect children nationally from transgender procedures..., a major step forward in codifying one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises.  It related: "The bill, titled the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, passed by a 216-to-211 margin."

It was introduced by outgoing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and it "...would make performing transgender surgeries or procedures on minors a felony...
Offenders would face a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison, with fines on the table, as well."

The next day, the Department of Health and Human Services addressed the same issue, with The Daily Signal reporting:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced six moves to crack down on the “malpractice” of “sex-rejecting procedures” Thursday.

“This is not medicine; it is malpractice,” Kennedy said of the transgender medical interventions euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care.” He warned that doctors have engaged in “needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic Oath” to “first, do no harm.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Bowman, on an ADF website, is quoted as saying: "Children experiencing gender dysphoria need love, support, and medical care rooted in biological truth—not life-altering drugs and surgeries. Alliance Defending Freedom is thankful for President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s commitment to take decisive action to help protect children from harmful medical interventions. We’re also pleased the U.S. House took an important step today to further protect kids by passing a bill that would codify a ban on federal Medicaid dollars being spent on reckless medical experimentation on minors.

Those six moves announced by HHS, according to The Daily Signal, are:

HHS has moved to establish two new rules: one preventing hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid from performing these procedures on minors; and a separate one prohibiting Medicaid dollars from funding these procedures on minors.

Kennedy also signed a declaration finding that sex-rejecting procedures “do not meet professionally recognized standards of health care,” and warning that practitioners who perform these procedures on minors would be deemed outside of these standards.

The Food and Drug Administration will send manufacturers warning letters on breast binders, which are necessary for some women but are often misused in order to make girls and women appear male.

HHS is also reversing the Biden administration’s attempt to include gender dysphoria within the definition of disability.

“The Biden era amendments that designated gender dysphoria as a disability serve the financial interests of a billion-dollar industry,” Kennedy said.

The National Institutes of Health, meanwhile, has ended grants supporting transgender medicine.

Finally, the Office for Civil Rights is sending a letter to recipients of HHS funding, assuring them that health care policies that do not fund sex-rejecting procedures do not violate civil rights law.