Welcome to the Friday Five! Every Friday we share our top five articles, stories, and quotes for you to read and share with your friends and church families.

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1. NC VALUES: Abortion Pill Joint Letter Sent to Secretary Kennedy & Commissioner Makary

The abortion pill is unsafe & ineffective. More than 10% of women who take mifepristone suffer severe adverse events, 22X what the drug’s label claims.

That’s why we joined more 100+ leaders asking U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and Commissioner of Food and Drugs Dr. Marty Makary to review the data and restore protections.

Read the letter for yourself: https://x.com/NCValues/status/1922744798051447295

2. AP: South Carolina Supreme Court Decides Heartbeat Definition Allows Six-week Abortion Ban

“The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the state can keep banning abortions around six weeks after conception by agreeing with the earliest interpretation offered of when a heartbeat starts.

The justices unanimously ruled that while the medical language in the 2023 law was vague, supporters and opponents of the law all seemed to think it banned abortions after six weeks until Planned Parenthood lost its challenge to the entire law two years ago.

The state argued that is the moment when an ultrasound detects cardiac activity. Planned Parenthood said the words after the ‘or’ mean the ban should only start after the major parts of the heart come together and “repetitive rhythmic contraction” begins, which is often around nine weeks.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-heartbeat-ban-upheld-south-carolina-68df7ce8400493fdc175ec1fc4326a1e

4. CAROLINA JOURNAL: BBQ Politics? How North Carolina’s Sauce Divide Mirrors its Voting Behavior

“It might sound like a stretch to think voting behavior and political divides in one of the South’s most consequential swing states could be explained by barbecue sauce.

But that’s exactly what we found in North Carolina.

In both barbecue sauce and politics, North Carolina’s “split personality” is rooted in centuries-old settlement patterns and evolving demographics. Barbecue here is a source of pride, and, like taste preferences nationally, voters in the Tar Heel State — or, shall we say, the Sauce State — are divided.”

Read more: https://www.carolinajournal.com/bbq-politics-how-north-carolinas-sauce-divide-mirrors-its-voting-behavior/

5. WATCH: Women’s Safety and Protection Act Video

The Women’s Safety and Protection Act (HB 791/SB 516) is a common-sense bill that defines “male,” “female,” “man,” “woman,” and “sex” by biology in North Carolina law and protects women and girls by ensuring that private spaces—such as restrooms, changing facilities, and sleeping quarters within a  prison, local confinement facility, domestic violence center, rape crisis center, juvenile detention facility, or public school, remain single-sex.

Read more: https://ncvalues.org/womens_safety_bill/

Weekly Prayer: Family

LORD, we cry out to you as Father. You are a model of the love, mercy, and authority of the perfect parent. We thank you for modeling for us what every parent should strive for, and for creating this wonderful institution called family.

LORD, we thank you for creating us with a basic nature designed to not be alone. You made us to desire the intimacy of relationships, and it is here where we experience joys indescribable: the joys of marriage, the joys of having children; the joys of seeing our children have children. What a blessing and mercy you gave us in the family! In it we find our first teachers, our first guardians, and our first authorities.

LORD, we recognize how deeply you love your children, and how deeply it pains you when they go astray. Alongside our adoration and thanksgiving, we pray in confession—as individuals and as members of larger communities—over any sins we may have committed that undermine your beloved institution. Forgive us when we endanger your institution through selfishness and arrogance. Forgive our communities and nation for attempting to redefine some of the most basic and deepest parts of being human—being made male and female, having lifelong marriage vows and responsibilities, and having parental rights over educating one’s children.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12-17)

Amen

Sincerely,

Tami & Team

NC Values