RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Biden administration has been so busy trying to placate the far Left and cater to every intersectional interest group that it has blatantly ignored the interests of parents along the way.

The day after Roe v. Wade was struck down, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a press release recommending a website called AbortionFinder.org that helps women and, importantly, girls find abortion providers. In describing how the site works, the homepage says, “Select whether you are 15 years or younger, 16 years old, 17 years old or 18 years or older.” Moreover, the website reads, “Some states require people under 18 to involve a parent or guardian when getting an abortion. If you need to avoid involving a parent or guardian, contact the If/When/How Judicial Bypass Helpline for information about getting a judicial bypass.”

The Biden administration is thus endorsing a website that seeks to ensure that girls younger than 18 can get an abortion without consulting their parents first. No matter what a parent’s stance on abortion is, most would want to be informed and involved if their daughters were making such a life-changing decision.

Through Dr. Rachel Levine, meanwhile, assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Biden administration has been encouraging the use of puberty blockers and gender-reassignment surgery for young people who are questioning their gender identity. Levine, who is transgender and reportedly has had sex-reassignment surgery, said on Monday, “Gender-affirming care is life-saving, medically necessary, age-appropriate, and a critical tool for health-care providers,” while discussing pediatricians and kids. This, despite evidence that the suicide rate among people who undergo sex-reassignment surgery ten to 15 years down the road actually increases to 20 times that of a control population.

The Biden administration has been singularly focused on the issue of transgender rights at the expense of the rights of others. On day one of his administration, the president issued an executive order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” Biden argued that his executive order is consistent with Bostock v. Clayton County, which found that the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity. On June 23, Biden’s Department of Education issued multiple proposals, including changing Title IX regulations — which advocates worry lays the groundwork to broadly allow transgender women to play in women’s sports, though the administration says that issue will be debated as part of a separate rulemaking process. It is doubtful that the parents of female athletes take comfort in the administration’s approach.

Further enraging parents, Attorney General Merrick Garland notoriously directed the FBI to investigate parents attending school-board meetings whom the National School Boards Association likened to “domestic terrorists.” Parents in Virginia (a state Biden won by ten points) were so fed up with their kids’ being indoctrinated by critical race theory in their public schools that they voted in a Republican, Glenn Youngkin, last November. The administration also flouted parents’ concerns when it continued to support masking kids in schools despite the minimal risk Covid posed to children and evidence suggesting masking harmed learning and social-development processes. Teachers’ unions advocated for schools to remain closed throughout the pandemic, and at one point, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was caught taking advice on school re-openings from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a union that happens to be one of Biden’s big donors.

The Associated Press recently reported that more than 1 million voters have switched to the Republican Party since 2021. The shift is most significant in the suburbs, where voters were a major factor contributing to Joe Biden’s victory. Now, however, they are turning toward the GOP. Many more Americans have switched to the Republican Party than the Democratic Party in suburban counties spanning Georgia, Iowa, Washington state, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, and Virginia, among others. The Democrats’ gain has been more modest; they have picked up 630,000 voters who changed their registration since 2021.

The Biden administration has made clear that it is heavily influenced by lobbying from left-wing activist groups and that it will put the progressive agenda ahead of policies supported by parents. This seems to be an obvious political miscalculation. If parents continue to see this administration catering to far-left interest groups, often to the detriment of their own children, they will find it difficult to vote for Biden’s party this fall, or in 2024.