In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- U.S. Vulnerable to China
- Deepening Depopulation
- Japan’s Future Shrinks
- Baby Crisis Hits Nordics
- Naidu’s Baby Bonus
- Population Plunge in Poland
- Communist China
- China Silences Tiananmen Grief
- China’s Birth Crisis Grows
- UN Misdeeds
- UNFPA Praised for Abortions
- Science Gone Mad
- IVF Was Just Beginning
- Embryo Editing Finds Investor
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Life Wins in Poland
- Ireland Exposes Abortion Pill
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- $1K for Newborns
- Biden’s Abortion Rule Reversed
- $13M Contraceptives Destroyed
- Good News
- Millions for Pregnancy Support
PRI in the Media
U.S. Vulnerable to China: Recently on Varney & Co., PRI President Steven Mosher emphasized that while China continues its aggressive global expansion, the U.S. has failed to sever critical dependencies. This is due to China’s leverage against the United States—their rare earths. These resources currently give China global dominance over certain elements. As China tightens its grip globally, the stakes have never been higher. Mosher stated that the United States needs to start producing these resources itself and boost domestic production. He urged that implementing these steps, in addition to placing tariffs on Chinese goods, will eliminate China’s leverage over the U.S.
Deepening Depopulation
Japan’s Future Shrinks: Japan is grappling with record low birthrates, a devastating 5.7% drop in 2024 as it continues its 16th straight year of decline. Japan, as well as many other East Asian countries, has a population that is rapidly and continually shrinking. In response to this “silent emergency,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has promised to offer a helping hand to married couples by promoting a flexible working environment so they can better balance work and parenting. But the younger generation is increasingly unwilling to marry and have children due to economic hardship and a “gender-biased corporate culture.” The current population of 124 million is estimated to drop to 87 million by 2070 and 40% of that population would be 65 or older.
Baby Crisis Hits Nordics: A recent article from Newsweek broke down why Norway, despite implementing “family-friendly policies” such as parental leave and childcare, is facing a birth rate crisis. Norway’s fertility rate in 2023 was the lowest ever recorded in the country, from 1.98 children per woman in 2009 to 1.40 in 2023. Experts say fertility rates are falling because families have no more than two children, and women typically don’t have their first child until after age 30. Although Norway has provided financial support to families, researcher Theodore Cosco explains that there are “psychological, cultural, and structural factors” also at play, which make people more reluctant to have children.
Naidu’s Baby Bonus: Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of the Indian state Andhra Pradesh, recently addressed declining fertility rates and plans to offer financial support to families. This is a major shift from their current policy which placed a two-child cap on couples. Naidu stated “the bigger families may get higher incentives.” Encouraging bigger families through support and financial aid is the Chief Minister’s plan to increase the birth rate in order to prevent a depopulation crisis in Andhra Pradesh.
Population Plunge in Poland: A new report by Statistics Poland (GUS) revealed that the fertility rate in Poland, already among the lowest in the world, hit a record low in 2024. Poland’s fertility rate was well below replacement (2.1), with the average number of children per woman being 1.099. The nation has had more people die than be born each year for 12 consecutive years and they could be nearing a population collapse. In 2024 the number of births was an alarming 47.5% lower than the number of deaths in the country.
Communist China
China Silences Tiananmen Grief: This past week was the 36th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, at which the Communist Party killed an estimated 10,000 anti-communist and pro-democracy peaceful protesters To this day the Chinese communist government continues to silence those brave voices who speak out against them. The horrors committed by the government and the memories of the voices who stood up to them, have not been forgotten. However, the Hong Kong police has banned the annual candlelight vigil and claimed that honoring the victims is illegal activity.
“I was at the Heritage Foundation when the Tiananmen Massacre happened,” says Mr. Mosher. “But I was soon on the road, meeting with some of the Chinese democracy activists who had escaped China following the crackdown. They told me that not only had 10,000 unarmed students been gunned down in the central square of the capital city, Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, but that 20,000 more of the wounded had been arrested in the days following, taken away never to be heard from again. Communism always kills. Sometimes it kills slowly, as it did over the almost four decades of the one-child policy. Other times it kills quickly, as it did on Tiananmen Square.”
China’s Birth Crisis Grows: The Chinese government is trying a new strategy to convince more women to give birth. All hospitals have been mandated to provide “pain-free childbirth,” which is a glossy rebrand of epidural anesthesia. This is not new technology, in fact, it has been around for over 100 years. So why offer it now? It’s because China’s population is plummeting, and has been estimated to lose half its population by 2100. This has the regime scrambling for solutions. For decades, China enforced brutal population policies: forced abortions, sterilizations, and the infamous one-child policy. Now, with too few babies to sustain its economy or society, Beijing is pivoting from anti-natal to pro-natal policies.
UN Misdeeds
UNFPA Praised for Abortions: At a recent UN meeting, Romania congratulated the UNFPA for playing a huge role in terminating pregnancies. Natalia Kanem, the Executive Director of UNFPA, was praised for her leadership which “ended so many pregnancies,” all over the world. This display is a horrifyingly vivid example of how desensitized the world has become toward the tragedy of abortion. Rather than recognizing the loss of innocent lives, pro-abortion advocates continue to push for and praise “family planning.”
Science Gone Mad
IVF Was Just Beginning: This week, The Federalist pulled back the curtain on a dark truth long obscured by glossy marketing: IVF is just the beginning of unethical experimentation. The global assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry has quietly expanded into a profit-driven, ethically unanchored enterprise. ART has created a profitable market where embryos are frozen, discarded, or experimented upon. Embryos are treated as expendable property, and scientists are even working towards “procreation without women.” Other current projects include artificial wombs and “gene editing.” This expose warns that we are sliding toward a dystopia, where children are designed, not received; where mothers are optional; and where human dignity is subordinated to technological ambition.
“Those who have read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley or Frankenstein by Mary Shelley know what is ahead,” says Mr. Mosher. “Mad scientists tinkering with the crown jewels of creations—the human genome—to create what they believe will be supermen. The outcomes, as these novels prophetically predict, will be monstrous. IVF, which involves the selection of superior embryos for implantation, should be banned.”
Embryo Editing Finds Investor: In a chilling signal of where Big Tech wealth is heading next, MIT Technology Review reports that crypto billionaire CEO Brian Armstrong, is now backing a U.S.-based startup aiming to genetically modify human embryos using CRISPR gene-editing tools. Armstrong creating a company for “embryo-editing” and “next-gen IVF” is his next step. Using a technique called “base editing,” the company will aim to rewrite the genetic code of embryos to eliminate disease, to further research on “immortality.” While federal law currently bars the FDA from even reviewing applications for gene-edited embryos, deep-pocketed investors like Armstrong could soon pressure regulators to blur that line. Armstrong is taking strides toward a dystopia where children are not born, they are built.
Pro-Life Around the World
Life Wins in Poland: Karol Nawrocki’s election as the president of Poland has pro-abortion advocates fuming. Poland’s new president is openly “in favor of protecting life” and has guaranteed that he will not sign any legislation that advances abortion, particularly specifying that he would not reinstate any laws that permit abortion for disabilities such as Down syndrome. Thanks to this election, Poland remains one of the few European countries that protects the unborn. Last year, lawmakers attempted to pass a bill that would have permitted abortion for any reason through 12 weeks into pregnancy, but this legislation failed, due to the pro-life leaders in office.
Ireland Exposes Abortion Pill: New research from Ireland reveals that between 2019 and 2022, 12% of women who took abortion pills were rushed to the ER due to “bleeding or infection.” While an additional 16% had incomplete abortions and were given further doses of misoprostol or surgery to finish aborting the baby. This study corresponds to the findings of a 2025 U.S. analysis showing that almost 11% of women who took the abortion pill suffered “serious adverse events,” some of which were life-threatening.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
$1K for Newborns: President Trump’s new budget includes a plan to create “Trump Accounts” for newborn babies, giving the next generation financial security. An account containing a $1,000 deposit will be created for every child born over the next four years. These funds will grow with the market and be held in trust for the child. The proposal has gained praise from corporate leaders, some of whom pledged to match contributions for their employees’ children, if the bill is passed. The Trump Administration is looking to invest in the future of America, one baby at a time.
“Giving every baby an investment account at birth underlines the importance of raising the birth rates,” says Mr. Mosher. “It also makes every American with children a co-investor in the American Dream, giving them a literal stake in America’s future economic success.”
Biden’s Abortion Rule Reversed: President Trump has overturned a Biden-era policy that had redefined EMTALA (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) in 2022 to require “emergency abortions” on tax-payers’ dime at federally funded hospitals, even in states where abortion is otherwise banned. Under Biden, personal conscience and state laws were set aside creating a “moral and legal dilemma,” by forcing providers to act against their convictions. Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a joint statement announcing they are revoking the 2022 policy that was issued during the Biden administration. With Trump’s reversal, EMTALA is now restored to its original intent: to stabilize emergency patients without mandating abortion procedures.
“Whoever was in charge of the Biden White House (Biden wasn’t) wanted to force every hospital and every ER health care worker into performing abortions,” says Mr. Mosher. “It wasn’t about providing emergency care to pregnant women. It was about coercing pro-life states into violating their own pro-life, and conscience protection laws. Another pro-life move by the most pro-life American administration in American history.”
$13 Million in Contraceptives Destroyed: The State Department plans to destroy $13 million worth of contraceptives that were purchased by the Biden administration allegedly in violation of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which prohibits U.S. funds from giving to groups involved in coerced abortions or sterilizations. Taxpayers are potentially facing a $167,000 cost to dispose of these contraceptives, an expense that showcases the consequences of ethically misguided aid policies. This marks a necessary correction to prevent further violations of moral and legal norms. This move is the Trump Administration’s latest effort to stop support for organizations that are involved in “coercive reproductive practices.”
Good News
Millions for Pregnancy Support: In April, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Governor of Arkansas, signed legislation that gave $2 million in grants to pregnancy health organizations in the state. This funding can also be granted to maternity homes, adoption agencies, and any other organization that aids pregnant women and their children. The legislation specified that grant money cannot be given to any organization that provides or is affiliated with others who provide abortion, since these procedures do not provide material support to pregnant women. This is a huge step in helping mothers choose life for their babies.
Quote of the Week
“Marriage is not an ideal, but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful.”
~ Pope Leo XIV
