Planned Parenthood and two smaller regional abortion providers are once again able to bill Medicaid for non-abortion services, following nearly a year of being cut off from federal funding. The defunding had been put in place through President Trump’s 2025 tax policy, but that provision has since expired and Congress has not yet acted to renew it. Pro-life advocates are urging lawmakers to reinstate the funding ban as quickly as possible. Kelsey Pritchard of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America stated that lawmakers “should do everything in their power to do it again.”
A new Gallup survey reveals that LGBT identification in the United States has more than doubled since 2012, with young women leading the trend. Among Gen Z women — those between the ages of 18 and 29 — 29 percent identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender in 2023, compared to just 11 percent of Gen Z men in the same age group. Researchers point to Hollywood’s promotion of LGBT themes, the legalization of same-sex marriage, and elements of the Me Too movement as possible factors driving the shift among younger women.
The recent release of a jailed pastor by Chinese authorities has drawn renewed attention to the ongoing persecution of Christians in China. The pastor leads one of the country’s largest unregistered, or underground, house churches — congregations that refuse to comply with a government requirement that Christians worship only in state-approved churches. China’s ruling Communist Party, which officially holds an atheist position, considers organized religion a potential challenge to its authority. Under President Xi Jinping, officials have pushed a campaign to “Sinicize” religion, demanding that faith communities pledge loyalty to the party. Despite these pressures, underground churches continue to grow rapidly.
Egyptian officials have announced the unearthing of a remarkably well-preserved city from the Byzantine era, found in the country’s western desert. The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry reports that the site contains numerous structures and inscriptions that reflect the deep influence Christianity held over the region during the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. A basilica church from the 300s sits at the top of the settlement, looking out over its main thoroughfares, with the ruins of two watchtowers standing nearby to guard the city’s edges. Archaeologists have also identified a home belonging to a man named Tisous, who served as a church deacon during that period.
