SW News: In the United States, former Vice-President Mike Pence has exhorted lay Catholics, priests and bishops to build a movement to restore faith and traditional values in the country. He made this appeal while addressing the annual summer conference hosted by the Napa Institute in California.

At a time when states controlled by Republicans are fighting the gender agenda at all levels, the Grand Old Party leader called for a ban at the national level on gender reassigning therapies for minors, adding that “We have to protect our kids”. Pence also slammed schools that teach white students to loathe their skin color and he also decried the gender ideology that seeks to blur the differences between men and women.

He told the attendees that they are the “answer for America, not elected officials or conservative causes”. He encouraged them to make use of the chance, be inspired and bear in mind those who went before them. “When I look at the influential men and women in this room I have to tell you, don't underestimate the importance of your voice on behalf of your faith and your values.”

Pence also used the opportunity to voice his pro-life concerns. He exhorted the laity and the clergy to add on to the iconic pro-life victories of the Donald Trump presidency. He said that the former government was able to appoint 300 conservatives in the federal courts apart from three justices in the Supreme Court of the United States that overturned Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in all states in 1973.

He also hailed the post-Roe society and vowed to choose only pro-life supporters for cabinet vacancies. Pence also used the venue to state his support for a minimum national standard curbing abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that applies to each state.

"We are at a turning point, but we have only come to the end of the beginning," he said. "Frankly, it may take us as long to restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law as it took us to overturn Roe v. Wade, but I can judge from the enthusiasm and the passion and the faith of the people here at the Napa Institute that you will not rest, you will not relent."

"Let me be clear on this. Participation in women's sports should be limited to gender at birth as a matter of fairness and common sense," he said.