In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- The Infamous One-Child Policy
- Deepening Depopulation
- The “John Paul II” Effect
- Communist China
- Front Groups Uncovered
- Pro-Natalist Push Grows Stronger
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Pulling Out of Population Control
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Defund Planned Parenthood
- Medina v. Planned Parenthood
- Virginia Rejects Buffer Zones
- Cheaper than Birth
- Good News
- Let There Be Light
PRI in the Media
The Infamous One-Child Policy: Bitter Winter has released the second installment in their series, “The Rise and Fall of China’s One-Child Policy.” This article includes PRI President Steven Mosher’s own role in exposing the brutal one-child policy. In his 1983 book Broken Earth: The Rural Chinese, Mr. Mosher revealed that in Guangdong, many pregnant women who exceeded the birth quota were forcibly confined to brigade headquarters, sometimes for weeks, and pressured to consent to abortions, including third-trimester Caesarean abortions. The content of his book could have served as his doctoral dissertation. Yet he was unjustly expelled from the PhD program after publishing his findings in Taiwan. Stanford claimed ethical concerns about putting his informants at risk, but it later emerged that the university was pressured by China, which threatened to cut academic ties.
Deepening Depopulation
The “John Paul II” Effect: A new study suggests that Pope John Paul II’s visits to Latin America between 1979 and 1996 contributed to a significant increase in fertility rates. During his visits to 16 countries, Pope John Paul II emphasized the importance of marriage and family, reinforcing these values. These messages caused a measurable rise in these countries’ birth rates, resulting in an estimated quarter-million additional births. These results were not limited to his Catholic audience. The study revealed that the pope’s influence was particularly strong in non-Catholic, wealthy, and highly educated households, as well as in nations that had secularized more recently.
“I can personally attest to the tremendous impact that Saint Pope John Paul II had on his visits to Latin America,” says Mr. Mosher. “I was one of the speakers at the Second Meeting of the Holy Father with the Families of the World, also known as the Second World Meeting of Families. It took place on October 4-5, 1997, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The theme was ‘The Family: Gift and Commitment, Hope for Humanity,’ and it generated tremendous excitement in the country and the region. The Pope was magnificent in preaching on the importance of Life and Family. It followed the inaugural meeting in Rome in 1994 and was part of a series of gatherings organized by the Catholic Church to celebrate and support family life that was such an important part of his pontificate. I am not surprised that his speeches were so impactful on couples that nine months later they were picking out baptismal names.”
Communist China
Front Groups Uncovered: An investigative report has uncovered that several Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked organizations are operating from a single building in St. Paul, Minnesota, engaging in activities aimed at undermining U.S. interests. These groups, including the Overseas Chinese Service Center of Minnesota, are involved in lobbying American politicians, supporting Chinese Americans loyal to the CCP, and hosting Chinese officials. The building’s occupants are linked to the CCP’s “united front,” a network that conducts intelligence operations, influences narratives about China, and targets CCP critics.
“Communist China has opened at least a dozen, probably many more, unofficial ‘consulates’ in the U.S. where Chinese agents work to compromise state and local politicians, organize Chinese immigrants to support China, and harass dissidents,” says Mr. Mosher. “These organizations, along with China’s four formal consulates in the U.S., need to be shut down immediately. China ought not to be allowed one more diplomat in the U.S. than we have in China.”
Pro-Natalist Push Grows Stronger: Over the past decade, Chinese authorities have started prioritizing increasing the nation’s birth rates. In 2021, the CCP’s comprehensive pro-natalist strategy included “improving policies supportive of childbirth.” Today, the 2025 work report specifically instructs officials to come up with “policies to promote childbirth.” This shift signals a move away from supporting individual choices about childbearing to pursuing state-mandated goals of increasing the birth rate. As the CCP grows more desperate to increase the birth rate, fears that Chinese women will be coerced and used as instruments to achieve this goal continue to rise.
Pro-Life Around the World
Pulling Out of Population Control: President Trump’s actions have significantly reduced U.S. involvement in global population control. He reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which prevents federal funds from supporting overseas abortion procedures, and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which had funded international family planning organizations like the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the Population Council. Trump’s administration also cut funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization involved in supporting coercive population control policies like China’s one-child policy. Given that population control is inherently eugenic and violates human rights, no country’s government should be supporting it.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Defund Planned Parenthood: The Trump administration is withholding tens of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood facilities, according to an exclusive POLITICO report. Nine Planned Parenthood state affiliates that receive federal funding through the Title X family planning program were notified that their funding is temporarily withheld due to potential violations of federal civil rights law and Trump’s executive orders, including bans on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Additionally, funding is being withheld because Planned Parenthood is accused of encouraging illegal immigrants to seek care.
Medina v. Planned Parenthood: South Carolina has the chance to defund Planned Parenthood. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which centers on whether states have the right to deny Medicaid funding to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. South Carolina, under Gov. Henry McMaster’s direction, sought to redirect Medicaid funds away from Planned Parenthood and toward healthcare facilities that offer more comprehensive care. Planned Parenthood opposed this move and sued to block it. As South Carolina’s legal representative John Bursch argued, the state should have the right to respect the majority of Americans’ opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions and selectively fund healthcare providers.
“Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund facilities that profit off abortion and distribute dangerous gender-transition drugs to minors,” said John Bursch. “State officials should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood—a multi-billion-dollar activist organization—is not a real healthcare provider and is not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid.”
Virginia Rejects Buffer Zones: Governor Glenn Youngkin has preserved pro-lifers’ right to free speech for a little while longer. Youngkin recently vetoed Senate Bill 1324, which aimed to establish buffer zones around Virginia healthcare facilities, citing concerns over free speech. The bill, which was primarily aimed at restricting pro-life advocates outside abortion clinics, would have banned various activities, potentially even prayer, near these facilities, with violations punishable as a Class 3 misdemeanor. Youngkin argued that the bill violated Virginians’ constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, warning that it could criminalize basic expressions like carrying a sign or standing in certain areas, marking it as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
Cheaper than Birth: During a recent House Health & Human Services Committee meeting, Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie argued in favor of state-funded abortion services by claiming that abortions are less expensive for the state than births. McCluskie claimed that abortion services would ultimately save the state money, as the costs of abortions are lower than the long-term financial burden of raising a child. In defending Senate Bill 25-183, which would provide state-funded abortion care, she argued that the savings from “averted births” would outweigh the costs of abortion services, painting abortion as a one-time expense compared to the lifelong costs of raising a child. McCluskie’s illogical calculation betrays her callous disregard for human life.
“The claim that it is cheaper to kill babies than allow them to live is sickening,” says Mr. Mosher. “What kind of cost-benefit analysis so casually throws away human lives in this fashion? Not to men that it is shortsighted, even in an economic sense. Over the course of their lifetimes, babies born in the U.S. will produce far more than they will cost. The Present Future Value of a child born in the U.S. is many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Every abortion makes us poorer.”
Good News
Let There Be Light: Researchers at the University of Waikato in New Zealand are investigating how light from the outside world reaches the womb. Their findings so far have revealed that a pregnant woman’s skin allows light to illuminate the uterus, “to the degree of a full moon in clear conditions!” Professor Vincent Reid, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist, and his team have studied how third-trimester babies react to red dot patterns, finding that they are more likely to track patterns resembling a human face, similar to newborns. This study further confirms the humanity of unborn children, along with the multitude of studies we have on when and how their other senses develop in the womb.
Quote of the Week
“Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church’s very heart; it cannot but affect her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God, and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in all the world and to every creature.”
~ Saint Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae
