Are Parents Finally Protected? - 10/1/26

Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri introduces a bill to protect parents who reject gender ideology. This new bill would bar agencies that receive federal child welfare funds from penalizing parents for raising a child according to his or her sex. Under this proposed legislation, an agency could not use that parental decision as a factor in determining whether or not to investigate the family, remove the child from the parent's custody, limit parental rights, or deny... foster or adoptive placement. Agencies that break these rules would lose funding under this proposal.

Senator Eric Schmidt, who is Catholic, named his bill after Yalie Martinez, who died by suicide at age 19, three years after the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services took custody away from her mother. According to Senator Schmidt's office, authorities removed her from her mother's care because her mother refused to treat her as a boy. Martinez received testosterone treatments. While in state care. In other news, the Senate passed a college sports bill, sending it to the House. This version of the bill respects state laws barring men from women's sports.

Today is also the Feast of St. Therese, a French Carmelite nun known as the Little Flower of Jesus, who taught that holiness does not require grand deeds, but doing ordinary things with great love. She died at just age 24, but was quickly beatified and canonized, ultimately becoming... A doctor of the church. I am Josh Mercer, editor of The Loop, taking you behind the headlines. Go to zeal.co for the rest of today's loop. And while you are at it, subscribe to get the loop in your inbox every morning. Again, that is zeal.co.