The 90-day public consultation for Title IX regulation revisions closed Monday. What is the Biden presidency aiming to accomplish?
Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in school programs, notably sports. The simple phrase has become a regulatory headache.
Redefining Sex and Pregnancy
The Biden presidency proposed a rewrite of guidelines carrying out the statute is a staggering 700 pages.
The Heritage Center partners raised the alarm regarding how the planned rule changes would damage women’s sports, weaken due process, enforce woke sexual dogma, and more.
Though what about pregnancy? The Biden administration seeks to redefine pregnancy to encompass childbirth, nursing, and “pregnancy termination” – that is abortion.
Abortion today is a different issue that comes under “gender bias,” but under the Biden administration’s move, abortion would be considered an aspect of childbirth.
A group of Democrat Senators urged the Biden administration to add even stronger LGBTQ and abortion mandates to its proposed Title IX rule in a public comment issued Monday. https://t.co/GSQ7a83JI5
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) September 13, 2022
Title IX provides an “abortion neutrality” provision that neither requires nor prohibits abortion funding. A lawful abortion cannot be used as grounds for discrimination.
Abortion altered substantially. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization reversed Roe v. Wade on June 24.
Abortion isn’t a constitutional right. The American people and their representatives now control abortion policy.
Top-down national standards governed state abortion law while Roe v. Wade was in force. This simplified Title IX’s interpretation. Now, states have enacted or are enacting new abortion-protection policies.
The Title IX rule modification would create a “grey zone” by neither mandating nor barring abortion access in institutions. Schools may “opt-in” to using Title IX for abortion education, recommendations, or access.
This could involve connecting students with abortion facilities, not reporting a pregnancy or abortion to a child’s parents, or pushing unsafe abortion medications.
Biden’s Title IX Rule Change Would Redefine Pregnancy to Include Abortion https://t.co/KJJbbSh57R pic.twitter.com/Kko8W2lfhw
— ForthRight Strategy (@ForthRightStrat) September 14, 2022
State Laws
What about if a K-12 school or university receives Title IX funding, yet is in a pro-life state? The Education Department doesn’t say how federal and state laws may conflict.
It’s not hypothetical. Regardless of state law, abortion on demand is a Biden administration priority. The VA just announced an interim final rule on abortion services. This rule violates state and federal pro-life laws.
The proposed Title IX rule’s acceptance and seeming promotion of abortion, along with the Dobbs decision, could encourage institutions to “opt-in” to promoting abortion.
If the Biden administration uses the VA to push its pro-abortion agenda, the DOE may utilize Title IX to defy state law. Title IX doesn’t allow the Biden administration to change state abortion laws. Congress did not pass Title IX in 1972 to promote abortion.
Title IX shields women from stigma if they have an abortion, but it does not promote or require abortion to remove “barriers.” This was true in 1972 and still is now.
What now? Thousands of public comments condemning the Biden administration’s Title IX rule amendments will take months to examine and respond to.
Will the administration stop undermining Title IX? We’ll see.
This article appeared in The Political Globe and has been published here with permission.
