Ritchie Herron, a British man who says he was pressured into having surgery to remove his genitals and has since suffered irreparable damage, is suing the NHS clinic where he sought help for gender dysphoria. In an interview with The Daily Mail, Herron said the vaginoplasty he underwent at the behest of the NHS gender clinic in Newcastle, England, was "the biggest mistake of his life" and now he experiences painful physiological complications, including numbness, incontinence, and infertility. Herron asserts he repeatedly turned down suggestions that he undergo gender surgery and relayed his concerns to the NHS clinic's staff but after twice refusing surgery, the staff said they would discharge him from the service, which he also believed meant the therapy he had been receiving, due to rejecting their referral for surgery. Herron's story gained traction on Twitter earlier this month when he shared his harrowing ordeal under the pseudonym TullipR on Twitter. In an email interview with The Christian Post, Herron explained he has "had an outpouring of support and empathy, a great deal of compassion" since sharing his story. Read more.

Major retailers such as CVS, RiteAid and Walmart are reportedly rationing the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B due to an apparent spike in demand as states begin enacting abortion bans after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 opinion that legalized abortion nationwide. The Wall Street Journal reports that CVS is limiting purchases of Plan B to three. The Journal reports that pills available at Walmart this week are limited to four or six. In a statement to The Christian Post, Walmart explained that "[m]any of our products have online purchase limits in place. During times of fluctuating demand, these limits may change." Read more.

A Presbyterian Church (USA) committee has passed a resolution declaring Israel an apartheid state at its General Assembly Tuesday. Amendment INT-02, titled "On Recognition That Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People," passed on a 28-3 committee vote Tuesday afternoon. The committee's recommendation to the General Assembly—which was discussed extensively at the annual meeting—was ultimately approved with an amended version recognizing that the "government of" Israel’s laws, policies and practices regarding the Palestinian people "fulfill the international legal definition of apartheid." Read more.

Sheila Qualls, the executive director of nonprofit TakeCharge, pens an open letter to her sons on the topics of truth and racism. "Regardless of the poor behavior of a few, all white people aren’t 'the enemy.' Don’t let anyone try to convince you they are. For the few times I've felt discrimination, I can tell you of hundreds of times when white people behaved lovingly, fairly, and sacrificially for me. Know history, but don’t let it cripple you. A victim mentality will limit you economically and emotionally," she writes. Read more.

Professor, author and historian Carl Trueman writes about Tom Hanks' recent statement that if the movie "Philadelphia" were made today, it would no longer be appropriate for him, as a straight man, to play the gay lead. "Hanks clearly feels for the suffering of gay men with AIDS and does not want to trivialize or exploit that suffering in any way. And he feels this because he, like them, is a human being and thus empathetic to their plight. Yet in declaring that it is inappropriate for a straight actor to play a gay man on screen, he negates the importance of the shared humanity that makes him empathetic in the first place," Trueman says. Read more.

What happens on campus does not stay on campus.

After years of being taught that any speech they don’t like is "hateful" and must be silenced, a generation of college students has now graduated. Many are working to restrict your right to freedom of speech. And some have even moved into positions of power and influence, spreading their values of intimidation and censorship far beyond the walls of our nation’s universities. Read More

One day after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a majority opinion saying there is no constitutional right to abortion and upheld Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban, 34 senators signed a letter calling on Biden to "take immediate action" and use the "full force of the federal government to protect access to abortion in the United States." Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., led the letter. The letter condemned states' "trigger laws" aimed at banning abortion in the wake of the ruling, with the senators declaring, "Nevertheless, the dramatic escalation of attacks on abortion access—spearheaded by right-wing justices, lawmakers, and activists—demands comprehensive and creative strategies from every corner of the federal government." Read more.

The Democrat-led California legislature passed an amendment Monday that will put the issue of whether to codify abortion rights in the state constitution to voters in November following last week's historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down Roe v. Wade. Under Senate Constitutional Amendment 10, authored by Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins of San Diego, voters will decide if they should enshrine California's "reproductive rights," which includes "[the] fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and [the] fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives." Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and NARAL Pro-Choice California are the primary co-sponsors of SCA 10, which passed both houses with a two-thirds majority vote, allowing the amendment to qualify for the November ballot. Read more.

During his June 26 sermon at Pastor Greg Laurie's Harvest Church in California, ex-mob boss Michael Franzese preached about the importance of having a "healthy" fear of Hell and eternal damnation. A former second-generation member of the Colombo Italian-American Mafia crime family in New York, Franzese previously lived his life on the wrong side of the law in an influential role that gave him control over a "crew of soldiers." He, along with his father, Sonny Franzese, stole money and engaged in other criminal activities. While serving eight years in prison, a guard gave Franzese a Bible, enabling him to learn about Jesus. "I dove into my Bible. I prayed every day. It was my closest time with the Lord because I had no choice. That was it. … And thank God, I turned to Him and nowhere else. … But you know what happened in that hole? I developed a healthy fear of Hell," he explained to the congregation.

Franzese also discussed how Jesus communicated his messaging, noting, "Jesus was direct when He had to be, but He had a knack for communicating with gentleness. Today, our culture seems to celebrate men who speak their mind and pull no punches as if being a bully is an admirable trait. On the contrary, Jesus Himself said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.'" Read more.