Explainer: Utah passes law that would require porn filters on cellphones and tablets

On Tuesday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed House Bill 72, which calls for all smartphones and tablets sold in the state after 2022 to have active adult content filters. 

The legislation was broadly panned by civil libertarian groups and lauded by anti-pornography organizations. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) commended the Utah legislature for passing this bill which they say will aid parents in protecting their children from unwanted exposure to pornography.

This Week at the ERLC

• Chelsea Patterson Sobolik was featured in Providence Magazine speaking out against China's genocide of the Uyghur people. She was also quoted in Baptist Press commenting on the efforts of pro-abortion advocates to revive the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
   
• The ERLC partnered with Family Church to place a lifesaving ultrasound machine at Care Net Pregnancy Services of the Treasure Coast, a pro-life pregnancy resource center in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
   
• Travis Wussow was quoted in Baptist Press urging the U.S. Supreme Court to correct a federal appeals court ruling that upheld a Maine tuition-assistance program that excludes schools providing faith-based instruction. 

What You Need to Read

Catherine Parks with The abortion pill is the next frontier in the abortion debate

At-home abortions obtained via the abortion pill are the new battleground in the abortion debate in America. As more states pass laws to limit or ban surgical abortions, more women are seeking medication abortions through a pill prescribed by a health provider. Currently, these pills are available only through in-person visits to a clinic or hospital, but this could soon change.

Cody Barnhart with Three potential long-term effects of pornography addiction

The problem of porn has been crippling churches for years. The Church needs to face this new reality head on. Humankind has contended with the sins of adultery and lust ever since the Fall, but Paul never had to urge Timothy to stay off of PornHub or give up his smartphone. We’ve never had this kind of access before. And it is precisely because this is such a new problem that we cannot fail to consider what the long-term effects may be.

Andrew Bertodatti with What should we pay attention to in the news?: An interview with Jeffrey Bilbro about Reading the Times

Part of the challenge with considering how to understand and relate to what we might classify as “the news” is that it serves so many roles in our lives today. The news can give useful information about the weather or local happenings; it can provoke outrage; it can help us understand complex and ongoing events like a pandemic or climate change or economic trends; it can amuse; it can foster a sense of community among those who share particular moral convictions or cultural affinities; it can relieve boredom; and it can direct our attention toward particular people or events.

This Week in Washington, D.C.

This week, as with most weeks in D.C., our team advocated for policies both domestic and international. Here are two examples.

Chelsea Patterson Sobolik and Brooke Kramer wrote an updated explainer about how the world is responding to China’s ongoing human rights abuses. Most notably, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada announced multilateral sanctions against Chinese government officials for their manifold human rights violations against Uyghur muslims. Sobolik and Kramer write:

“The ERLC will continue to advance human rights rooted in the image of God and religious freedom for persecuted people in China, and encourage our government officials to hold China accountable to recognize human dignity and the sanctity of human life.”

Russell Moore led a coalition letter alongside a diverse group of adoption and child welfare advocates to Congressional leaders stating our support for the Adoptee Citizenship Act. This bill is needed to close a loophole that left thousands of international adoptees of U.S. families without U.S. citizenship. For more on this issue, check out this explainer. Commenting on the bill’s reintroduction earlier this year, Moore said:

"International adoptees, and those of us who are their families and friends, are grateful for the re-introduction of the bipartisan Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2021. This bill seeks to simply close a loophole to ensure that adoptees are treated fairly under U.S. law as the sons and daughters that they already are. This easy legislative fix will provide a permanent legal remedy for the thousands of children of U.S. citizens who were left in the gap of uncertainty. In a moment when it is difficult to get consensus on much in Washington, strong bipartisan support exists for this bill. Congress should act quickly on this important bill.”

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