Leave it to state Sen. Dennis Baxley to mix racist rhetoric with anti-abortion zealotry.

Jeer: Baxley, R-Ocala, for using white supremacist taking points to argue that Florida should follow other states in banning abortion.

In a recent interview with the public radio show “The Florida Roundup,” Baxley suggested that abortion is paving the way for the end of Western civilization by causing Europeans to be replaced by immigrants.

"When you get a birth rate less than 2 percent, that society is disappearing. And it’s being replaced by folks that come behind them and immigrate, don’t wish to assimilate into that society and they do believe in having children,” he said. “So you see that there are long-range impacts to your society when the answer is to exterminate.”

After being criticized by abortion-rights advocates for his racist comments, Baxley told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he didn’t think there was anything wrong with what he said. In addition to echoing the disgusting “replacement theory” spouted by white supremacists, Baxley has his facts wrong.

As the Sun-Sentinel pointed out, researchers have actually found that factors such as greater access to contraception and more woman in the workforce, not abortion, are largely responsible for falling birth rates. In fact, birth rates as well as abortion rates have been dropping in the United States.

We would expect better than this kind of ignorant rhetoric from a state senator, even one with Baxley’s history of defending the Confederacy and monuments to it.

Cheer: The Alachua County Commission, for banning the harmful practice of conversion therapy on minors.

Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to ban the pseudo-scientific practice, which is intended to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity through psychological treatment. Mainstream medical groups such as the American Psychiatric Association have found it doesn’t work and instead harms the health and well-being of LGBTQ people, causing issues such as anxiety and depression.

The state of Maine recently banned the practice and the city of Gainesville did so last year, joining 16 other states and at least 50 municipalities that have such bans. LGBTQ youth shouldn’t be treated like they have a disorder that needs to be cured, and hopefully the practice continues to be banned across the country.

Cheer: Gainesville Vineyard church, for starting a food pantry, tutoring and other services at the old Boys and Girls Club building in the Lincoln Estates neighborhood.

The church brought the club building last July and has spent $250,000 restoring it, according to Lead Pastor Michael Raburn. The food pantry is aimed at addressing a deficiency of healthy food options in east Gainesville, where there is only one grocery store.

The church has raised about $3,800 toward a $8,000 goal on a GoFundMe page (http://bit.ly/eastsidefoodpantry) for the pantry, which is planned to open in the fall. Tutoring is also planned there for students at nearby Williams Elementary along with a legal clinic, adult education classes and other initiatives.

These kinds of efforts by churches and other institutions in east Gainesville to improve the lives of residents and reduce disparities are deserving of support.