Free Republic

A three-judge panel in New Orleans ruled that a Texas law requiring minors to obtain parental consent to obtain birth control does not conflict with the goals of the federally-funded Title X program, which has given teens birth control confidentially. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas law requiring parental consent to obtain contraception for minors. The decision from a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in New Orleans largely affirms a 2022 ruling from U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, that ended one of the only avenues for Texas teens to confidentially obtain birth control,...

According to leaked documents, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health is pushing hormonal and surgical transitions for minors. Getty Images Newly leaked files from the world’s leading transgender health-care organization reveal it is pushing hormonal and surgical transitions for minors, including stomach-wrenching experimental procedures designed to create sexless bodies that resemble department-store mannequins. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health documents demonstrate it’s controlled by gender ideologues who push aside concerns about whether children and adolescents can consent to medical treatments that WPATH members privately acknowledge often have devastating and permanent side effects. Yet the US government, American doctors...

Lawyers suing a billionaire accused of sexually abusing at least 47 teenage girls want to interrogate him even though he is bedridden and can barely speak. Robert Miller, 80, is known as 'Canada's Jeffrey Epstein' after the women claimed he paid them for sex when they were as young as 11. The Future Electronics founder is in end-stage Parkinson's disease and his alleged victims fear he could die before being confronted with the crimes. Miller allegedly used staff at his firm to find the girls through modeling ads and other ruses, and even enlisted the alleged victims to find more...

A Maine judiciary committee is moving to create a 'safe haven' for teens seeking sex changes and protection from their parents but critics have slammed the bill as 'state-sanctioned kidnapping.' The 'Act to Safeguard Gender Affirming Health Care' would enable certain out-of-state teens to access hormone blockers or surgery without their parents' consent regardless of their own state's laws.

A Maryland suburb of the nation’s capital this week extended voting rights to 16-year-olds for local elections—expanding on a national push endorsed by Democrat politicians and donors such as billionaire George Soros. The Town Council of Cheverly—about 15 minutes outside Washington, D.C.—voted unanimously Thursday to amend the town charter to allow younger teens to participate in town elections. Cheverly, with a population of just over 6,100, joins the Maryland suburbs of Greenbelt, Hyattsville, Riverdale Park, and Takoma Park in allowing teens to vote at the same age they get their driver’s license. Another Maryland jurisdiction, Glenarden, lowered the voting age...

Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, signed an “emergency” executive order Friday banning transgender surgeries for minors, one week after he vetoed a bill that would have had a similar effect. The bill would also have banned cross-sex hormones and so-called puberty blockers for children, measures DeWine’s executive order apparently omits. The bill would also have addressed fairness in women’s sports, an issue DeWine’s order also does not address. DeWine vetoed House Bill 68, the Enact Ohio Saving Adolescents from Experimentation Act, last week. The bill would bar physicians from performing gender-reassignment surgery on a minor and from prescribing cross-sex hormones...

On Thursday, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez launched a major legal offensive in an attempt to address the online risks faced by minors. The lawsuit targeted Meta Platforms, Inc., its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and associated entities such as Instagram, LLC and Facebook Holdings, LLC. This bold action seeks to prevent the exploitation of children on social media platforms. “Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Attorney General Torrez said in a statement. “As a career...

U.S. District Court Judge John F. Heil has ruled that an Oklahoma state law banning sex-change procedures on children was constitutional and therefore could be enforced.The ruling on Oct. 5, 2023, came as a result of a motion for injunctive relief to restrain the state from implementing the law.Five young people identifying as transgender and in some degree of transition, their parents or legal guardians, and a health care provider are the plaintiffs in the case.The defendant is Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican.In an email to The Epoch Times, Mr. Gentner's press secretary, Leslie Berger, stated: "The Attorney...

Texas cannot enforce a new law banning drag performances that take place in front of minors, according to a federal judge who declared the legislation unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled Tuesday that Senate Bill 12, signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in June, "impermissibly infringes on the First Amendment and chills free speech." The legislation, slated to go into effect on Sept. 1, prohibits venues from allowing individuals under 18 to attend "sexually oriented" events and performances. Businesses that violated the law would face fines of $10,000 per violation. Hittner, a Reagan appointee, argued that the...

Tim Ballard, the former Homeland Security agent whose experience rescuing child sex trafficking victims inspired the film "Sound of Freedom," accused the U.S. government of helping to facilitate cartel-led child trafficking rings in the United States by releasing young migrants who crossed the southern border into their care. "It is shameful that I have to say this, but I spent 12 years working for the U.S. government to rescue children. Now, thanks to these policies, I have to rescue children from the U.S. Government," Ballard said Tuesday on "The Story." "This is dangerous," he warned. "This is a crisis." Moments...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transgender youth in North Carolina lost access Wednesday to gender-affirming medical treatments after the Republican-led General Assembly overrode the governor’s vetoes of that legislation and other bills touching on gender in sports and LGBTQ+ instruction in the classroom. GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate enacted — over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s opposition — a bill barring medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18, with limited exceptions. The law takes effect immediately. But minors who had begun treatment before Aug. 1 may continue receiving that care if...

“It was mentioned by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, several times, that we don’t understand this process,” began Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.). “And so, for the sake of clarity, really, I’d like to show a video, a brief interview that was conducted [with] an expert in gender reassignment surgeries from Oregon’s health care system.”

Despite the promise of Dobbs to free the states from federal court interference with abortion policy, Idaho now faces its third federal lawsuit. This last suit is challenging the new law passed this last session which makes it a felony to transport girls out of state to get an abortion without parental consent. During the legislative session, Planned Parenthood threatened numerous times to file a lawsuit. But they are not an official part of this case. Instead, we have three new plaintiffs: a private attorney named Lourdes Matsumoto, the Northwest Abortion Access Fund and the Indigenous Idaho Alliance. They allege...

Sen. J.D. Vance has introduced legislation that would make gender-reassignment treatments for minors a federal crime. Mr. Vance’s bill, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, would ban gender-transition surgeries, puberty blockers, hormone treatments and other transgender-related medical care from being provided to minors. People that administer gender-change treatments to children would be charged with a federal class C felony, which carries a sentence of 10 to 25 years in prison. The bill prevents federal funding from going toward transgender surgery or treatments, including blocking Affordable Care Act insurance plans from paying for the procedures. Mr. Vance’s measure would also ban universities...

Thousands of young illegal immigrants with tuberculosis were released from U.S. government custody across one year, officials have revealed in a new report. The illegal immigrants, all under 18 years of age, were released to family members or other responsible adults despite having latent tuberculosis infection, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a recent disclosure.The dates of each release were not clear. HHS officials notified state officials from June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023, of the tuberculosis-positive youth over a web-based system operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Aurora...

Chaos erupted in the Mission District of San Francisco, where more than 100 people, mostly minors, were arrested at the annual 'Dolores Hill Bomb' skateboarding event. Hundreds took over Dolores Street to ride their skateboards - or anything with wheels - down a huge hill near Dolores Street. Officers described the event as unpermitted, non-sanctioned and one that has previously taken over streets and caused mass property damage. Footage from the Saturday event shows large crowds cheering as children and adults furiously rolled down the steep descent - some flying off their boards and hitting the pavement only to get...

A Washington state councilman accused of using racy photos to promote speaking engagements and using campaign funds for luxury personal items is facing a recall. Lynnwood City Councilman Josh Binda, 23, could lose his job after being charged with four counts of misbehavior including lying to the council. Lynnwood City is located just north of Seattle. In a post from April, Binda share a photo of him showing off a new tattoo while topless and announcing he was starting a public speaking business. 'To all the students I've inspired, talked too [sic], helped, coached, or impacted this 'Love Conquers All'...

BOOM! The National Health Service of Great Britain is striking back.The backlash against “gender-affirming care” is in full swing in Europe, with Great Britain utterly reversing course on using hormones and puberty blockers on minors.Until recently Great Britain was going full steam ahead transitioning children. But the Tavistock scandal, where the UK’s gender treatment complex resided, turned out to be an ideologically-driven and utterly corrupt mess that promoted fake science.Tavistock was closed down, and the UK began reversing course as it became clear that there simply was no scientific backing for the suppression of puberty and transitioning of children from...

The Trevor Project, whose mission is to “end suicide among LGBTQ young people,” has partnered with common household brands to develop their respective pride-themed collections and has, in some cases, received seven-figure donations from corporate sponsors. The major corporate partnerships, which include iconic clothing brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch to fast food chains like Chipotle, come despite the organization’s unsafe online practices. The youth-oriented LGBT activist group hosts an anonymous online chat forum “Trevor Space,” which allows adults to communicate with minors, National Review previously reported. The organization hosts multiple age-segregated chatrooms but has no age-verification system in place,...

OAKLAND, Calif. - Nine adolescents and teens were arrested in connection with a spree of robberies and other crimes across the East Bay, including the recent assault of a 63-year-old woman in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood, authorities said. Ranging in age from 12 to 17, the underage suspects are believed to have committed 32 robberies in Oakland, two in Piedmont and one in El Cerrito, according to the Oakland Police Department. The group consists of three girls and six boys. Enrich Your Child's Summer with TakeLessonsTakeLessons by Microsoft| Sponsored The robberies happened in the neighborhoods of Rockridge, Uptown, Trestle Glen, Grand...