Point of View April 7, 2025 – Hour 2 : The Millennial Round Table

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View. And now your host for the Millennial Round Table, Chelsea Yolen. Well, welcome back to the Millennial Round Table for our second hour. If you did not listen to the first, we had Richard Lim and Petrina Mosley with us and we had an incredible discussion.

[00:00:31] So please go back. You can go to pointofview.net and watch our discussion or even watch live on Facebook at Point of View Radio where you can like and comment. So feel free to leave your comments. We do love to hear from you. We are turning now the second hour. All new panelists, we've got Ethan Watson. He is a writer, student, tutor and a contributor to Young Voices. Thanks for joining us today, Ethan. Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be on.

[00:00:58] I'm glad you're here. And correct me if I'm wrong, but are you in law school right now? I just committed. I'm going to law school this fall. So I'm very excited about that. Awesome. My my deepest congratulations and sympathies as a former law student myself. We're proud of you, Ethan. You always bring such a great voice and perspective to our show. Also joining us this hour is Alyssa Sonnenberg. She is with the Illinois Family Policy Institute or Family Institute. And I'm sure in full swing in session right now.

[00:01:28] Thanks for joining us and taking your time out of your busy season, Alyssa. Yeah, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. It's going to be a full show today. Right now we're going to turn to Elon Musk news, but not the news you're thinking of. He's been making a lot of headlines, as always, in the last week. But I found a very obscure article in the Times of India, which is how you know it's a topic that the media has been bearing because that's where I had to go to find this one.

[00:01:54] So I'm going to bring that one to the forefront and we're going to talk a little bit on his views on humanity and AI. And then we'll turn to another discussion on what they're calling the newest form of eugenics or genetic selection in the IVF process. It'll be a bit of a continuation of an ongoing discussion we like to have on the millennial roundtable on the ethics around IVF and some of the practices there, but also some, I would say, disturbing trends as well.

[00:02:20] And then we'll also discuss the justices and their hearing last week on whether or not Planned Parenthood can be defunded and why. So we'll have all these discussions and more, but we're going to dive right in on Elon Musk. This is a really the impetus of this conversation start with, as usual, all news, a tweet from Elon Musk last week, which when I saw, I immediately was just very shocked to hear him say this.

[00:02:46] But then when I went and did some digging here, which led me to the Times of India, you know, this has been a repeat concern that he's voiced before. And so it wasn't necessarily what his initial tweet didn't mean what I thought it meant. But here is the tweet. The tweet is, as I mentioned, this is Elon Musk. As I mentioned several years ago, it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital super intelligence.

[00:03:11] And when I saw that, I thought, you know, really the implication when I look up what a bootloader is, it's for any type of software. You kind of have a code that's like the number one phase one code. And then the entire software can launch off that code. And so what he's saying is that humanity is this, you know, prototype, this number one code that you need that can essentially be dissipated after that.

[00:03:35] And the implication when I went and looked at this is really a repeat statement from something he said in 2019 when he was at the World AI Conference in Shanghai in 2019. And he was debating with an AI co-founder and specialist at that time. And during the discussion, he expressed serious concerns that he echoes constantly about the unchecked growth of AI.

[00:04:00] And he warns that humanity could be playing a temporary role in its development and machine intelligence. And he continues to think there needs to be regulations on it. Now, this is a heavy topic, but it's one I don't want us to shy away from just because it involves technology. I think that Elon Musk has been very clear his solution to this idea that humans are going to be made obsolete, irrelevant or even taken over by AI. One, there's validity to those concerns. But two, his solution is a problem.

[00:04:30] And his solution is in order for humanity to compete with this super intelligence, we have to join it. And essentially, it's this post-humanist idea that we've got to integrate technology into our bodies, into our minds. He's doing this through Neuralink, where they are transplanting these links into human bodies and helping them get their memories back, for instance. So there's a lot to unpack here. We can go anywhere you all want with it. But, Alyssa, I'm going to start with you. Were you shocked by his comments? And do you have any thoughts?

[00:05:00] I honestly wasn't completely shocked by the comments that Elon Musk was making. Obviously, we know his branding. We know his mind. He loves SpaceX with Tesla. He's into these Tesla robots now. I don't know if you've seen those. I've seen some robot dogs as well that are in production. So AI and really crazy technological ideas have kind of always been part of Musk's entity, I guess you could say.

[00:05:27] So it doesn't surprise me that he's very much so on the forefront of some of these concerns, what he's seeing as possibly a developer coming out of AI technology. And I have to say, I am not an AI fan. I think it's weird. It creeps me out that some things can be fake. Some things can be real.

[00:05:46] I remember hearing a story of how easy it is for scammers to take your voice and contact an elderly family member of you and pretend that you're in trouble and you need help and you need money. There are definite concerns with AI becoming bigger and bigger and more dangerous, especially when it comes to how it affects our children, how it affects their schooling, et cetera.

[00:06:13] But I'm not so sure, like you were saying, Chelsea, as to his solution that, oh, if we can't beat it, we join it. I don't think that's the right call here. That's a good point. I do want to get into that a little bit more. But, Ethan, your first thoughts? Definitely. I think with Elon Musk, he's a very complicated figure. And I think we could play a game like good Elon, bad Elon here.

[00:06:37] I think Elon is very pro-humanity in some ways, like when he talks about the survival of the human race by colonizing Mars. I think that's a very optimistic way. He's not like one of these environmentalists who say, well, it would be better if humanity just ceased to exist because it would save the planet. He breaks from the mold in that respect, so I've got to give him props there. But it is kind of concerning some of the implications of Neuralink and AI. And I think what we really need to keep in mind with AI is that it is an important tool, just like, you know, the Industrial Revolution.

[00:07:06] Like, no one would sit here and say, oh, like, the advent of the tractor was bad because now we don't plow fields by hand anymore, for example. So if AI is used properly to reduce our labor load while maintaining and enhancing the parts of us that make us human, the arts, literature, even the joys of learning new things and engaging with one another face-to-face, that's a positive good. But I'm really glad that Elon is calling attention and using his bully pulpit to get out in front of the world and say, look, there's a real danger here that AI is going to overtake us.

[00:07:35] And I don't think it's going to be a Skynet situation like in the Terminator franchise. That's what people think when they think evil artificial intelligence, right? They're going to send robots out and kill us all or something. I think it's more likely that slowly over time we'll see the parts of us that make us human, our relationships, our capacity to adapt, we'll see that eroded and chipped away by our reliance on AI. And I already catch myself doing that. Like, if I have a question now, I'm studying it for an exam or something, I just ask AI to give me the formula or help me do it, or even, you know, help my writing now and then.

[00:08:05] And so you've really got to be intentional and not use AI as a crutch to replace some of these parts that make us unique. And human. That's so well said. You know, that was my initial response as well, Ethan, was to say, you know, we have this entire tech industry constantly. When you hear them speak, talk about humans as if we're at a deficit, as if we're just, you know, last. You hear about the new superhuman or the next generation of human.

[00:08:31] And that's incredible to me because the human body and mind is so advanced, we don't even understand it yet half the time. More on this conversation when we get back after this break.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. In previous commentaries, I've talked about how the 7 million young men who are not working but also not looking for work. Generation Z behind them has 4 million who have been given the term NEETS. NEETS stands for Not in Education, Employment or Training. One article clarifies that some Gen Zers may fall into this category because they are taking care of a family member.

[00:09:22] But cautions that many have become frozen out of the increasingly tough job market where white-collar jobs are becoming seemingly out of reach. Why has this happened? One political commentator blames how society values certain forms of employment. In many cases, he says, young people have been sent off to universities for worthless degrees which have produced nothing for them at all. He concludes that they would be much better off if they apprenticed to plumbers or electricians.

[00:09:49] They would be able to look forward to a much more abundant and satisfying life. Too much time has been focused on promoting a college degree as the only reliable path to financial success. Many of the students who enter the university do not finish. Even those that graduate lack the skills they will need in the 21st century. Just as robotics changed the nature of jobs in the factories, artificial intelligence is certain to alter the white-collar job market. Besides the skills gap, there is a will gap.

[00:10:16] Many of this generation aren't as work-motivated as previous generations. The article laments that Gen Z finds doom-scrolling at home more enjoyable than navigating an economy completely different than what their teachers promised them. It is time to rethink how to prepare students for this changing economy. It is also time to challenge pastors, parents, and other leaders to encourage this generation to develop a work ethic. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my Point of View.

[00:10:46] For a free booklet on a biblical view on chemical abortion, go to viewpoints.info slash chemical abortion. Viewpoints.info slash chemical abortion. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable, where Ethan, Alyssa, and I are doing our best to break down some comments made by Elon Musk about AI's development.

[00:11:14] And essentially this fear that AI is going to become a superintelligence, as he says, and essentially make humans obsolete. And his solution is transhumanism, which may surprise you. It's the same solution that you're hearing out of the World Economic Forum and many of the elite technology circles that talk about this idea of for a human to continue to compete on a basis with technology, we have to merge with it. And that sounds as sci-fi as you think.

[00:11:42] They're using technology for now artificial wombs. This is no longer just an experiment. They've done it with lambs. They've successfully, they're trying to transplant babies from their mother's wombs who maybe have a complication and put them in an external artificial womb and that child can grow and they grew successfully lambs over the last few years out of that.

[00:12:04] There's all kinds of ways that technology is being utilized to really, I don't know if reinvent is the right word, but take over roles traditionally played by humans. And even though Elon Musk is calling this out and saying this is a problem, his solution is the same and that is merged with technology. It's transhumanism.

[00:12:25] I would argue that the solution should be, which is often not the case, often too far, the government is too far behind technology and advancements until a problem is already created. But I would argue that regulation is in order. It's a deeply unregulated industry. And I think for several reasons. One, it's complex. It's difficult to understand paying experts to draft the regulations alone and who can understand this and come testify would be exorbitantly expensive.

[00:12:54] And two, you know, the technology lobby, I will start with you, Ethan, is very well funded. And so to even get regulations off the board means going up against Silicon Valley here. And so where do you see solutions or do you see any solutions lie? And feel free to take this where you'd like, Ethan. Ethan Well, this is certainly an issue that should be at the forefront of the regulatory agenda. I, you know, generally am a free market guy. I like free enterprise. I like seeing the innovations that it comes up with.

[00:13:24] But this is an area of public policy where I think there does need to be some regulation for the good of our species, frankly. And it's especially hard to get this passed because this transhumanist thing, it's not actually new. Even back in the 1800s, Nietzsche was talking about the Ubermensch, right, how we can overcome our human nature via technology. And this is a very entrenched idea, the idea of homo deus, right? Humans can become as gods, augmented by AI and other technology.

[00:13:54] And it's been around forever. And this idea that humanity is something to be transcended is so dangerous. I would counter that historical example as something even further back, which is we all remember when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, trying to become all-knowing. And it didn't really work out so well for them. And so I think we should use that as a cautionary tale. And absolutely, let's use our institutions that we have to try and combat this tendency to, you know, have humanity transcend itself.

[00:14:23] And it would just make the world such a less interesting place, right? Like if everybody has all of the knowledge of the world in their heads immediately by a neural link or something, right, where you can see where this is going, there would be no need for us to have this conversation. There would be no need for anyone to tune into a radio show like this because they already have all the knowledge, all the information that they could want. You could totally see how this will erode our social fabric. And if government exists for anything, it exists to preserve our social fabric and our society.

[00:14:49] So absolutely some measures need to be passed to regulate and monitor this at the federal level. I couldn't agree more. You know, to your point, there is nothing new under the sun. There have been variations of humanity always trying to create their own gods from the beginning of time. And that's, in fact, what I would call this. Even Elon Musk refers to AI technology as a god. And then we have other, the billionaire who's trying to remain young forever.

[00:15:16] He even alludes to AI as being, you know, the created becomes the creator. And how much more that makes us as humans, in his words, a divinity, because we were able to create this superhuman intelligence. That's demonic. I would like to call that out first and foremost. But at the end of the day, the common thread between transhumanism and I would even argue the trans movement and the LGBT movement is that humanity is not enough.

[00:15:45] I mean, they're always saying that humanity, we've got to become bigger, better, different than we were created. But what the Bible alludes to, Alyssa, is that God created us and said we are good. We are created in his image, in the image of the living God. And no technology can even begin to compete with that. Although the lie that's being sold by the enemy is that AI is some big answer in superhuman intelligence we've never had before.

[00:16:09] When, in fact, the complexity of the human brain, the human eyeball, the human emotions, our relationships, even our ability to analyze ethics, which we're doing right now on the show, no technology can accomplish any of that. And so to say that to become the better versions of ourselves, we have to really eliminate that, which makes us human, in my mind, is a form of a eugenics argument, Alyssa.

[00:16:34] Absolutely. I love how you drew it back to a biblical argument, because I don't think I could improve on anything Ethan was saying. He said that so well when it comes to the need for regulation. But when you take it back to a biblical perspective, we are made in the image of God. And what that means is not that we are like God in that we are little g gods. That's the lie that Satan tried to use in the garden when he was tempting Eve.

[00:17:00] And then when Adam fell as well, that you will be like God, because you will know good and evil. That's not what it means when we're made in his image. What it means is that we have an emotion, an intellect, and a will. We have the ability to reason. Technology does not have the ability to reason. Technology, like you were saying, Chelsea, does not have the ability to analyze ethical boards, ethical arguments. And with this AI technology, with the Neuralink specifically, there are a lot of ethical issues that we don't know about.

[00:17:28] We don't know what it's going to be like to experiment on people. What are the ethics behind that on the first participants in this experimentation? What is it going to do to our brains? Is there going to be inflammation? Is there going to be diseases that are created because of this? There are a lot of ethical quandaries to this. And like you were saying, Chelsea, our uniqueness as human beings has nothing to do with technology.

[00:17:52] It has everything to do with the fact that we are uniquely and beautifully created in the image of a divine God. Well said. Well said. Well, I'm certainly thinking when I look at it in terms of the political landscape, which I'm always doing because I work in the pro-life policy world, and I'm thinking of who are the interest groups engaged who can really do something about this. And I actually think human dignity starts with the pro-life movement. It's what we're alluding to, which is we are created in the image of God. We don't have to transcend humanity.

[00:18:21] There's no such thing, I believe, even in some form of human transcendence. It is enough to believe in Christ, and we will transcend someday into eternity. And you're going to either do that at the foot of the throne of God or you're going to do that somewhere else. And that's what real transcendence is. And so all the rest is noise and lies, but we're going to always talk about it on the show. I do want to turn now to a different form.

[00:18:42] I love what you said there, Alyssa, of the uniqueness of humanity, because our next topic really is going to dive into continuation in a different way, this ethics conversation of picking and choosing which humans are enough and which need to be, quote, unquote, improved upon. And that's through IVF. And I'm going to start by saying I'm deeply sympathetic to couples who desire to have a family, desire to be parents, desire to have children,

[00:19:09] and can't for whatever fertility issue that they're facing or whatever reason they're facing. And it's a travesty in a world where I don't think children are valued enough. For those who actually do value children and want to have them to not be able to is truly a grieving process and a really difficult thing. And so my goal in having this discussion is to start there and say it is good to want to have children, to value children, to want to parent. But to do that ethically is important.

[00:19:37] And to do that in a way that does as little of damage as possible to human embryos that are created, to do that ethically is really important. And so I'm going to be talking about a category of IVF that I would say is not safe and, you know, carefully done with the intent to safe lives. It's done with the intent to pick and choose. And this article comes on nationalreview.com and it's entitled Eugenics Gets a Modern Facelift with Investment from Peter Thiel.

[00:20:07] So when we get back after our break in just a minute, we're going to dive into this. What does that even mean, eugenics? But it's essentially this discussion that started with an article that was published in the New York Times, should human life be optimized? And I think that's going to sound reminiscent of the discussion we just had, Ethan and Alyssa, where we're talking about optimizing humans. And it's a controversial op-ed written by Anna Sussman. And essentially it has a little girl on the front of the cover and she's playing with a toy.

[00:20:35] And it says her parents selected her for her help. And hers wanted a girl and points to another toddler in this article. And they're describing this practice in the IVF world of genetic screening that goes far beyond is the baby going to be healthy or a boy or a girl. I mean, getting information down to eye color, selecting based on eye color, selecting a child based on their genetic disposition for their IQ and intelligence levels.

[00:21:03] It's an entire screening process that's had a ton of funding, a $25 billion fund that it's raised to be able to screen children for all of those types of genetic factors. And we're going to break this down when we get back after this short break.

[00:21:30] It was not that long ago that censorship appeared to be almost inevitable. Free speech was being attacked and strangled in many places. And some of us wondered if this was the end. But now many feel a new sense of hope, a chance for a fresh dawn. Let me caution you. Now is not the time to relax.

[00:21:53] It's a time to press forward, to use this fresh opportunity to proclaim and learn how to apply truth to current issues. By the fact you're here, listening right now, that tells me that you recognize the vital role Point of View plays as a voice of truth. For more than 50 years, we've informed and equipped people who have made a real difference.

[00:22:16] And when you give to Point of View today, you breathe life into what can be a new golden era for the truth. Please, take a moment right now and invest in truth. Visit pointofview.net or give it 1-800-347-5151. That's pointofview.net. Click in now or call 1-800-347-5151.

[00:22:47] Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, Chelsea Yeoman.

[00:23:13] Well, welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable, where I am joined by Ethan Watson and Alyssa Sonnenberg this hour. Don't forget to go to pointofview.net, where you can read our articles and topics today. Go back and listen last hour as well to Richard and Petrina as we discussed lots of current events and social media trends happening right now.

[00:23:32] We are going to turn our discussion today to an article really that started in the New York Times, but I thought that National Review had an outstanding op-ed that kind of laid out the ethical considerations. And it is regarding IVF, and as I mentioned in the last segment, aside from being very compassionate towards couples who are trying to have children and can't, I think it's important to still be able to talk about the ethical considerations of IVF practices, but also be aware of ongoing trends.

[00:24:02] And right now, we've been talking about the use of technology almost to dehumanize, and I'm going to put this in that type of category where technology has been invented to really screen more than screen just genetically for what a couple can expect in terms of having a girl or a boy or certain eye colors. But there is a first state-of-the-art startup company that is dedicated to advancing artificial reproductive technology,

[00:24:28] and it's a first-in-kind pre-implantation genetic testing. And what it does is it can even sequence a child's entire genome. It can sequence a child's DNA. So essentially, a couple can sort of say it's more than screening. It's saying we want our child an egg that has this amount of intelligence. They screen for predisposition for types of disease.

[00:24:53] And the person who started and founded this model, she did it because her mom suffered from – she's a young tech entrepreneur, and her mom suffered from a rare disease, which was a genetic mutation that led to her blindness. And my real concern when I read this article is what this author so aptly said. She said, well, this woman's resolution for her mother's condition wasn't to even fix her mother's retina in the womb.

[00:25:22] It would have been to actually not have her mother be her because her mother would not have been selected under this type of genetic selection. So, Alyssa, let's start with you. I know you do incredible work in the pro-life space. It's hard to talk about IVF, but I really would love for you to talk about this issue and feel free to take it. Yeah, IVF or in virtual fertilization has always raised really big ethical issues for the conservative movement.

[00:25:49] And I think particularly for Christians, because we've had a lot of conservatives come up, President Trump being one of them who has touted IVF being covered under insurance, given more coverage under insurance. And so we kind of have, even in the conservative movement, this dichotomy of what is IVF and why is it good or why is it bad. So it's important for us to go back to the basics of what IVF is actually used for and the ethical quandaries that have originally surrounded it.

[00:26:18] Because in that process, in your cycle, you usually have eight to ten embryos that are created, human lives, genetically unique DNA people that are created. IVF has always been a quality control and quantity control business to where most couples only want one baby. And so what do you do with the other eight to nine that are created? You either destroy them through abortion or you donate them to science to be experimented on,

[00:26:47] or you pay tens of thousands of dollars every month to keep them on ice. And most couples, unfortunately, choose the abortion route when it comes to those. And when it comes to selecting your embryo, it's always been eugenics in form. Where you select the gender that you want. You select the healthiest embryo possible. And so we're seeing this trend, like you're talking about, Chelsea, with this new technology of, hey, we could even kind of create the embryo the way we like it and pretend to be God

[00:27:16] and pretend like we know what's best for children when it comes to how they should be created, how they should be formed. And there are just, there are so many ethical quandaries with this, I can't even begin to tell you. Well, there are, and you're raising so many good points. You know, we're going to hone in a little bit on this, but I'm going to emphasize because, Ethan, I know, I believe you've said you have more libertarian leanings. And so we can talk about that and even sometimes disagree. You know, does the government have any business in this space?

[00:27:45] And I'm going to say just to start that at the end of the day, when we're talking about, we throw the word out there, eugenics. What that means is this concept that dates back really hundreds of years, but really gained traction in the 20s and 30s after Darwin. Think of natural selection, where he said survival of the fittest. And what that translated into culturally was a huge movement, particularly in elite and Ivy League schools.

[00:28:14] So not abroad, not just in Nazi Germany, which is what we saw the results of the eugenics movement resulted in the Holocaust. But in our elite universities in America, where this idea of survival of the fittest kind of came into the human space, not just through nature or animals that they were talking about. And this idea of, quote, unquote, the unfit populations. And who were they? They were vulnerable populations. They were populations of people who had perhaps mental disorders or struggled with mental disabilities.

[00:28:45] Minorities, of course, race was top and foremost of this movement, eliminating those minorities. That's where Margaret Singer, who, by the way, I believe was partners with Charles Darwin's cousin, and they lived together, and she started the Planned Parenthood Foundation in New York City. And the precipice for that, and I'm giving a big history lesson here, but the precipice for that was her saying, if we can sell to the black population and the, quote, unquote, unfit population,

[00:29:13] sterilizing drugs and birth control, we'll be able to help eliminate them. And she said, if we can get their pastors to get on board with this in their neighborhoods and say you can call it family planning and rebrand eugenics, then we can essentially have the types of population and people that we want. It's evil and it's dark, and I'm saying that because when I look at IVF, it looks benign on the surface. We want couples to have children. And you start looking into some of these practices, and it's not benign.

[00:29:41] It leads to the eradication of certain types of humans, and these humans, after all, are vulnerable. They're embryos, and they have no choice whether they're selected or not, what their futures are. And that's really an important thing, I think, to note. So, Ethan, I said a lot there. Feel free to take it any direction you want. So it's like you took the talking point out of my mouth about the Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood thing. I love pointing that out because it is so shocking and eye-opening. Here's my take on this thing.

[00:30:10] I think there is, like, one use case for this technology, and it's extremely narrow. And it's only in cases where somehow they could tell that the child would be born and have mere hours in excruciating pain to live before passing. In that case, I do see the value in it. But as far as screening for other chronic conditions like, you know, diabetes or being born blind or even with Down syndrome or something like that, that feels extremely disturbing to me because people with all those conditions are capable of leading happy and fulfilling lives

[00:30:40] and deserve the chance to do that. And this one really hits home for me a little bit because I have a condition called syndactyly, which means that several of my toes are webbed. So this condition actually has no impact on my life. I'm not even a better swimmer for it, which you would think I am. But I'm not. But there's a chance that they could have cast out my embryo for having this, quote, unquote, disorder abnormality. And, you know, it's a part of who I am now, and I think it's just kind of a goofy little thing.

[00:31:08] But, you know, it definitely hits home for me on that front a little bit. And I think it's good, actually, for people to be born, quote, unquote, imperfect or with different advantages because part of being a human is accepting our strengths and weaknesses and getting along with people who look and act differently than us. You know, maybe it would have been nice if I was born 6'7 and naturally able to bench 300 pounds. I can't do that, by the way. But I'm actually proud of, you know, I decided that I wanted to be stronger, and so I worked and went to the gym, and I accomplished that.

[00:31:37] And that struggle to overcome the things that we don't like about ourselves and to become better in an organic way, I think is a huge part of the human condition. And I don't know why we would want to weed that out in this perverse process. That's such an interesting point. I never would have thought of, Ethan. I'm glad you raised that true about, you know, we live in such a fast-paced society, you know, where there's not a lot of delayed gratification, right? We can just eliminate obstacles, make life as easy, convenient as possible. But is that a good thing overall?

[00:32:07] No, we want a resilient society. We want a society not of snowflakes. And we talk often as millennials on this show, or now Gen Z, about the resiliency problem with those younger generations of when we, forget the helicopter parent, we just, they call them lawnmower parents, where you just remove all obstacles from your children so they have a very cushy life. But that does lead to increased anxiety and depression rates in the younger generation.

[00:32:32] And overall, the goal of all this being, you know, I could say if there's a theme for the first part of our show here, it's just to cherish humanity that has God's creation and not necessarily need, feel the need to play our own version of God and intervene and self-select this or fix that outside of sanctification, sanctification, which we're called to do biblically, which is a lot of self-work towards leaning towards God.

[00:33:01] And that happens only through repentance. That only happens through conviction. And we can't create these perfect humans. We can't merge ourselves with technology and make ourselves superhuman in a way that could be ethical. And so I wanted to highlight this again with the caveat that, you know, our heart does go out to all those parents who are struggling and our prayers go out to them. And even for people who did have an IVF experience that they felt, they look back on and said, man, that wasn't as ethically done. I had no idea what I was getting into. Or we signed these contracts. We didn't really read the fine print.

[00:33:30] You know, that does happen and encourage everybody to pay attention and know this world. We're going to get back after this short break. So don't go anywhere. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:34:01] Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable, where we are turning our discussion now to a very important case of this United States Supreme Court case term last Wednesday that was heard. And it is where justices were divided over their right, Medicaid's right, quote unquote, to choose Planned Parenthood clinics. And what this is, is a defunding case that you may have heard make a little bit of headlines. President Trump, probably not by himself or independently, but coordinated with this,

[00:34:31] did decide to defund aspects of Planned Parenthood from the federal government. So let's put some numbers on it. Planned Parenthood receives about $700 million. I'm sorry. Yes, $700 million a year from federal government and Medicaid reimbursement. And that's, of course, for their non-abortion procedures, supposedly, although in some Democrat states and liberal states, they will expend their own taxpayer dollars on abortion procedures.

[00:34:57] But this is going to be 3% of what Planned Parenthood does. So another stat to understand is 97%, over 97% of all services, quote unquote, services provided by Planned Parenthood is abortion. And so the 3% that is not abortion is what's up for grabs here. This state in South Carolina decided to, because of a lot of drama coming out of Planned Parenthood,

[00:35:23] things like, we can't say selling fetal tissue parts, but what we can say is they received lots of donations for transporting fetal tissue parts for research to research facilities. They got Medicaid fraud suits coming out of Texas and Louisiana, where they're facing $2 billion worth. That's with a B of damages for committing Medicaid fraud, among many, many other types of investigations they've faced over the years. They're a walking PR nightmare.

[00:35:50] And so the fact that North Carolina has said, we don't know that we want our Medicaid funding to go to an establishment like that. You know, the arguments before the court were, what do they have the right to do that, to revoke the funding? And the justices were decided on Wednesday. So, Ethan, we'll start with you. Were you able to track this case at all? And are you familiar with that, the Medicaid funding aspects of Planned Parenthood? What are your thoughts? Yeah, so I, you know, this case was brought to my attention when I was prepping for this show.

[00:36:17] For me, it just highlights a constant theme that you deal with Planned Parenthood. It's always the, oh, well, you know, that also provides a lot of women's health services. And I mean, I suppose that's technically true. But I think we have to keep in mind that Planned Parenthood exists to provide abortions. That's what it is. Let's be honest about what Planned Parenthood is. And, you know, the fact of the matter is Planned Parenthood doesn't exist to provide mammograms or prenatal care. You can get that at lots of places. There's only really one place you can go for the abortion in this Planned Parenthood. That's why it exists.

[00:36:47] And so let's just be honest when we're talking about the issue. That's the first thing that stands out to me. And second of all, you know, I think this just comes down to why some sort of national action is necessary on the abortion topic. Because we cannot just be content to have it in different states, let different states decide how it goes. Because we've tried that, right? But they're always trying to find ways to, oh, well, you live in South Carolina and your population isn't really in favor of abortion.

[00:37:14] But we're going to try to push and make sure that your Medicaid allocation is going to fund this. Abortion evangelizes. It's sort of a perverse religion. And it's not content just to keep to its own corners. And they're really trying to say, no, no, even if you live in a red state or even a purple state that is common sense on this issue, we want your money to go to this as well. And it just shows you how this particular institution always has to spread its tendrils, even where it's not wanted.

[00:37:43] And I say, let the people of South Carolina choose if they want their money to go towards it or not. Well said. Well said. You know, no one is entitled to federal funding and taxpayer dollars. Certainly we aren't. And we're paying our taxes. You know, so it does always surprise me. I was a bit surprised. Well, I shouldn't say that. Of course, Planned Parenthood is fighting to keep their Medicaid funding because they're facing disastrous damages and all these Medicaid fraud cases coming out of other states, which I think, by the way, should be enough cause alone for a state to look at.

[00:38:12] Their practices in other states say, wow, you've been accused of very serious Medicaid fraud allegations. And that might not be something we want to continue to funding. I would think it's well within the state's purview to decide where, you know, where and when and how they spend their budget money. And which, of course, is the issue the Supreme Court will look at. Alyssa, your thoughts on this case? Yeah, I think you and Ethan are better qualified to talk about the legal aspects of this, obviously, given your lawyer mind.

[00:38:41] But from the moral aspect, I am 100 percent in favor of states saying no to taxpayer funding, to Medicare benefits, all of those things. And especially for states like Illinois, where I live, blue states, abortion care is completely unregulated. And Representative Holbrook recently gave this speech on the House floor in Illinois in Springfield, and he noted that all of our abortion clinics here are completely unregulated. There are no inspections.

[00:39:10] There's no requirements for doctors who have admitting privileges in case something goes wrong. And since 2019, there is no, in fact, there's no mandate for a coroner to investigate if a woman dies during an abortion procedure. There is no regulation whatsoever. And in addition to this, we just had a crazy case come up out of Illinois where Dr. Keith Reisinger Kindle left half of the baby inside of a woman, which led to severe complications.

[00:39:36] She eventually had to go to the hospital, get the rest of the baby removed. And so this just highlights that Planned Parenthood from all aspects is completely divulged of any right to any kind of funding. They have disqualified themselves from being considered a legitimate health care facility. And, of course, they claim, oh, we do cancer screenings and we give prenatal care, all of these things. We provide ultrasounds, which, in fact, you have to pay for.

[00:40:06] But like you were saying, Chelsea, the percentage that actually goes to those things is so minute that it's not their biggest income. Their biggest income, like Ethan was saying, they exist to perform abortions. They exist to kill babies. And states have absolutely every right to say no to them. They do. And I'm going to put a few more stats up here because I do think I hear that what you're alluding to, Alyssa, that concern over, well, what affordable services do they provide to

[00:40:33] communities that are underserved, maybe even in Medicaid deserts, I'm sorry, Medicare deserts, without access to hospitals? We don't want to see people harmed. And that's kind of been a lie that we've seen out there that, you know, we as compassionate people want others to have access to affordable health care. So just to let you know, if you don't already, in the state of South Carolina alone, where, which is a decent sized state, but not huge, they already have 200 publicly funded health care clinics.

[00:41:03] And so don't necessarily believe the lie that Planned Parenthood is the only one providing Medicaid services out there. There are many, many, I think there's 10,000 total in some of the areas that are looking to defund Planned Parenthood. And if you didn't know, while I'm outing Planned Parenthood over here, allegedly, we'll just say allegedly to cover ourselves, but Planned Parenthood has pivoted in recent years. So if you're not aware, Planned Parenthood has pivoted a little bit away from abortion,

[00:41:32] although they're still, you know, very predominantly practicing abortion in the states that they can. But their biggest moneymaker in most recent years is gender transition surgeries for children. And so that is something that they've started focusing on. And they have become the second largest provider of dangerous gender transitioning drugs in the U.S. They admit to giving them to minors across the country. And then when South Carolina said they didn't want children to have access to these drugs,

[00:42:00] Planned Parenthood lobby came out in support of it. And so this is a growing, growing practice area for Planned Parenthood. If you need to know that or want to know that, you know, they're just always going, they follow the money and that's where they're going. So we should be looking out for these justices to issue an opinion on whether or not South Carolina has the right to say we're not going to put our taxpayer dollars into an institution like Planned Parenthood or not. Be looking out for that. I'll say probably end of June is when that would come out.

[00:42:28] But go ahead, Ethan, real quickly in a minute we have left, tell our viewers where they can follow you and support you. Awesome. Yeah. So you can find me on X at your Watson 13. I post all my articles and appearances there. I'm trying to grow my following. Thank you so much for having me on. Oh, we so appreciate you, Ethan, and your perspective as always. And Alyssa, where can our listeners go to find out more about your work? Yeah, you can follow Illinois Family Institute on social media. You can follow Self-Evident Podcast on social media. I work with both of them.

[00:42:58] And thank you so much for having me. Always good to have you guys. And thank you so much. Don't forget to go to pointofview.net where you can read about our topics or more. Like us on Facebook, Point of View Radio. Have a great day. The Bible tells us not to worry. And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today. Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry. God gives us a next step. He says we need to pray.

[00:43:28] But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult. And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement, a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation. Each week you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans, along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others.

[00:43:53] We'll also include a short free resource for you in each email so you can learn more about the issue at hand. Will you commit to pray for America? Go to pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner at the top of the page to subscribe. Again, that's pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner.

[00:44:20] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in America. Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.