Pence Vows to Block Federal Funds for Sex Changes on Children

Former Vice President Mike Pence says if elected president he would block federal funding to healthcare providers who perform and promote surgical or chemical gender reassignments on children.

Pence over the weekend laid out his Putting America’s Families and Values Plan that endorses passage of a 15-week federal limit on abortions, advancing universal school choice, and “ending the war on traditional family values.”

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Conservative Trans Agenda Critic Matt Walsh Coming to University of Iowa, Liberals Planning to Protest

Conservative commentator and activist Matt Walsh is coming to the University of Iowa, and the far-left is already up in arms. 

Walsh, as part of his “What is a Woman?” documentary national tour will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, at the university’s Iowa Memorial Union Main Lounge, according to event host, Young Americans for Freedom.

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Iowa Suspends New DEI Policies in Higher Education, Launches Probe into Current Ones

The Board of Regents overseeing Iowa’s public universities has paused implementation of any new diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the state’s three major public universities as officials launch a review of them.

The March 14 announcement comes in the wake of a recently introduced bill in the Iowa House of Representatives that aims to halt spending on DEI initiatives in higher education.

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Iowa Republicans Advance Bill to Block Spending on ‘Woke Agenda’ in State Universities

A bill passed by an Iowa House committee and currently making its way through the state House aims to put a stop to the woke agenda in state colleges and universities by prohibiting the schools from spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and personnel working in roles associated with such ideology.

“For too long, the DEI bureaucracies at our institutions of higher education have been used to push a woke agenda on the faculty, staff and students,” Iowa state Rep. Taylor Collins told Fox News. “Under the guise of diversity and inclusion, these programs work to indoctrinate students into their preferred political ideology.”

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University of Iowa Trains Committee to Hire Faculty Based on Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Standards

The University of Iowa Office of the Provost trained its Faculty Search Committees to interview candidates through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) lenses, documents obtained by Do No Harm through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed.

A training given to the Department of Pediatrics at UI’s medical school broke down different types of implicit biases and provided a list of practices committee members could follow to limit bias in hiring decisions, which included having a diverse committee that is trained and use “accountability strategies,” spending 15-20 minutes on each candidate and evaluating through standard criteria, the documents show. Committee members were also taught to “grade” prospective candidates after an interview rather than use a ranking system and to evaluate whether they made biased decisions if “women and people of color” were not advancing.

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University Ordered to Pay Almost $2 Million After Students Win Religious Freedom Lawsuit

A federal judge ordered the University of Iowa (UI) to pay $1.9 million in fees and damages after two student groups won a series of religious discrimination lawsuits against the university. 

The Becket Fund, which represents Business Leaders in Christ, will receive $1.37 million while Intervarsity Christian Fellowship will get $533,000, Crux reports. 

Eric Baxter, a senior VP and counsel at The Becket Fund, told Campus Reform targeting students of faith “comes at a price.” 

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DOJ Says University of Iowa Violated First Amendment By De-Registering a Christian Group

by Neetu Chandak   The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday the University of Iowa violated First Amendment rights after deregistering a student Christian group. Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) stopped receiving recognition from the public university in November 2017 due to the organization’s statement of faith, which the university found “unwelcoming,” according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen Friday. BLinC was created by the students in the university’s Tippie College of Business. The purpose of the group was to provide a space for Christian students to network, hold group discussions and “keep Christ first in the fast-paced business world,” the DOJ’s statement of interest said. Leaders in the Christian group were required to sign and follow the statement of faith, which included a belief that sexual relations should only occur “between a man and a wife in the lifelong covenant of marriage,” and “every person should embrace, not reject, their God-given sex.” The university deregistered the group over the faith statement and it claimed it made LGBT people unwelcome and therefore was exclusive, a DOJ news release reported. BLinC filed a lawsuit against the university in December 2017. “The University of Iowa in this case de-registered Business Leaders in Christ because university…

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