In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- Biden Runs on Abortion
- The Fentanyl Wars
- Opposing the CCP
- Deepening Depopulation
- Population = Prosperity
- Communist China
- Sino-Vatican Renewal
- UN Misdeeds
- An Intersex Resolution
- Science Gone Mad
- IVF Warnings
- Two Different Takes
- Pro-Life Around the World
- A Surrogacy Ban
- Closer to Criminalizing
- Vatican Weighs In
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Personhood Put on Hold
- Employers Must Accommodate
- Abortion Pill Stockpile Fails
- Good News
- Saved by St. Gianna
PRI in the Media
Biden Runs on Abortion: Joe Biden has made it clear what issue he’s running on in the upcoming election: Abortion. This is unsurprising, as Mr. Mosher points out in Chronicles Magazine, “It’s all they’ve got.” With the border broken, inflation out of control, the economy dismal, and World War III on the horizon, the public can see that Biden’s policies have been an utter failure. Pivoting the public’s attention to “reproductive health” (read: abortion) is the only way that Biden stands a chance of beating Trump. Biden’s re-election campaign will be built on stoking the anger of those who are still upset that Roe v. Wade was overturned and power returned to the states. At this time, the best way forward for the pro-life movement is to get pro-abortion advocate Joe Biden out of office in the next election. Then we have real hope of defunding Planned Parenthood and drastically reducing abortions throughout the country.
The Fentanyl Wars: Every year, over 100,000 Americans lose their lives to fentanyl. Now it has become clear that the Chinese Communist Party is directly contributing to this “genocidal chemical warfare.” The House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party issued the results of an investigation establishing that the CCP is responsible for the deliberate weaponization of fentanyl on U.S. shores. The House panel even admitted the following: “The Chinese Communist Party promotes the fentanyl crisis through government programs, protects fentanyl traffickers operating within its borders, and directly benefits from the fentanyl crisis.” Mr. Mosher joined a recent webinar hosted by The Committee on the Present Danger: China to discuss this issue.
Opposing the CCP: Mr. Mosher joined Frank Gaffney on Securing America to discuss the situation between the U.S. and China. As Gaffney states, Securing America is essentially “an owner’s manual for protecting the country we love from all enemies, foreign and domestic, for God’s glory.” One of the biggest foreign enemies that the United States needs to combat today is the Chinese Communist Party. Referencing his latest book, The Devil and Communist China, Mr. Mosher looks at the current situation with the CCP. While the majority of this new book looks at the history of the CCP, its final chapter focuses on Xi Jinping’s plan to conquer the West.
This week, Mr. Mosher also appeared on The New American, and Dan Proft – Counter Culture to discuss the new book.
Don’t have it yet? Request your copy of The Devil and Communist China today with a donation of $35 or more, here!
Deepening Depopulation
Population = Prosperity: The 2024 Simon Abundance Index was released on April 22nd to coincide with the annual celebration of Earth Day. The release of this data was strategically planned for Earth Day, which has historically been used to blame humans for harming the planet. Often the protection of the environment and preservation of resources are used as justifications to reduce the world’s population. However, as this article points out, “Humans create more than they consume, and the planet is not about to run out of anything.” The Simon Abundance Index estimates the abundance of the 50 most traded resources using time prices. According to this index, resource abundance has been increasing at a much faster rate than population since 1980. More people means more innovation and abundance in the world.
Communist China
Sino-Vatican Renewal: The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has confirmed that the Holy See intends to renew the Sino-Vatican Agreement later this year. Parolin went on to confirm that he and Pope Francis are in communication with “Chinese interlocutors” about the secretive deal. This is a concerning move, as the persecution of Christians in China continues to worsen. When the Sino-Vatican agreement initially passed, AsiaNews reported that members of the underground Catholic Church felt abandoned by the Vatican. The Vatican has been silent as the persecution continues and “bishops who refuse to join the Catholic Patriotic Association are being placed under house arrest, or disappeared, by the CCP.”
“The most striking sentence uttered by Cardinal Parolin,” says Mr. Mosher, “is that ‘the text is confidential because it has not yet been finally approved.’ In other words, the reason the agreement is still secret is that, in reality, there is no agreement. CCP has neither signed said ‘agreement,’ nor is it abiding by the terms of the secret ‘agreement.’
“Given this,” Mosher continued, “it is unclear why the Vatican continues to pretend that an agreement even exists, much less that it can be ‘extended.’ Could it be because those in the Vatican who negotiated the non-existent ‘agreement’ are ashamed to admit that they have been deceived by the organized criminal conspiracy called the Chinese Communist Party?”
UN Misdeeds
An Intersex Revolution: Dr. Jay Richards is pushing back against the UN’s new “intersex” resolution. The UN Human Rights Council is considering a resolution on people born with disorders of sexual development as an attempt to obscure the reality of biological sex. The alleged goal of the resolution is to combat discrimination and harmful practices against people born with indeterminate secondary sexual characteristics. Richards, Director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, says the resolution is a “classic operation of gender ideologues, using a noble cause — in this case, the universality of human rights” to advance their own agenda.
Science Gone Mad
IVF Warnings: Last week, Georgetown University hosted a panel of experts warning about the dangers of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). One of the panel members was Dr. John Bruchalski, a pro-life OB/GYN who used to be an abortionist. Bruchalski shared that, “IVF is embedded with eugenics.” He went on to explain that the IVF industry operates like the “Wild West,” with little to no oversight, resulting in the destruction and abuse of millions of frozen human embryos and risking the health of children born from IVF and the women involved in the process. With IVF at the forefront of the public’s mind, especially as the election nears, the dangers of IVF need to be made clear. IVF is not a pro-life practice, even if it results in the creation of a new life.
Two Different Takes: The debate over in-vitro fertilization is occurring in two countries separated by the Atlantic Ocean: France and the United States. The French government is currently considering increasing access to IVF to increase the nation’s falling birth rate. But France’s feminists are pushing back at what they see as the insertion of the government into the private lives of women. Meanwhile, IVF is in the hot seat in the United States. However, Christians, who recognize the value of the many embryos created during IVF, are the ones pushing against increasing IVF access in America. In either country, perhaps IVF would raise the birth rate, but that does not justify the immorality of the practice. The ends (a higher birth rate and more children) do not justify the means (the creation and destruction of embryos).
Pro-Life Around the World
A Surrogacy Ban: Commercial surrogacy is a huge international industry. According to one market research company, SkyQuest Technology Group, it was worth about $16 billion in 2023 and is predicted to rise to $75 billion by 2031. SkyQuest attributes the growth of the industry to “increasing infertility rates, advancements in assisted reproductive technologies, changing societal norms, and a growing acceptance of non-traditional family structures.” While surrogacy companies paint a pretty picture of their business, the reality is that they target women in impoverished countries to gestate the surrogate babies that are bought in advance. Beyond the fact that it is an immoral practice, it is also unethical as the surrogacy industry exploits vulnerable women. This is why some countries, such as Italy, are considering legislation to ban the practice.
Closer to Criminalizing: The “world’s most extreme buffer zone law” has gotten even closer to passing. The Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has published its “Stage 1” report, expressing broad support for the proposed law. The proposed “safe access zone” includes not only the abortion-providing facility but also land within 200 meters of the edge of the premises. Any anti-abortion protest, or even prayer, within the “zone” would be criminalized. According to the spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, “This legislation goes further than any buffer zone legislation in any other jurisdictions, creating a larger buffer zone than anywhere else in the world and giving the Scottish Government powers to extend these zones without limit.”
“Many women have been helped outside abortion clinics by pro-life volunteers who have provided them with practical support, which made it clear to them that they had another option other than going through with the abortion,” Robinson said.
“The proposed law change would mean that the vital practical support provided by volunteers outside abortion clinics will be removed for women and many more lives would likely be lost to abortion,” she continued.
Vatican Weighs In: Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, finally commented on the abortion policy debate occurring in Italy. Several weeks ago, the pro-life coalition under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni proposed a measure that would allow pro-life groups to be present at abortion clinics. If passed, pro-life groups would be included among the consulters to publicly funded family planning clinics, where women seeking an abortion are required to obtain a certificate attesting to the state of their pregnancy. Many assumed that the Vatican would not weigh in on this debate. However, this week Cardinal Parolin shared, “We’re in favor of life, and also of all those instruments which can help to affirm the right to life, above all for women who find themselves in difficulty.” Though not an outright declaration of support, both sides are taking this as indirect support of the pro-life measure.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Personhood Put on Hold: In March, Iowa tabled legislation that would have made it a felony to “cause the death” of an “unborn person.” Iowa is trying to avoid introducing personhood legislation, which recognizes the unborn child as having legal rights and protections. Alabama’s recent Supreme Court decision regarding IVF put personhood legislation in the spotlight for all the states. Alabama now recognizes that frozen embryos are children, which aligns with their abortion policy banning the procedure from conception. States that allow abortion during pregnancy, such as Iowa, would be in a clearly hypocritical situation if they passed personhood legislation, even to protect embryos for IVF. How could a state justify protecting fresh or frozen embryos, while allowing babies in the womb to be killed? This new development in the pro-life movement push for the rights of unborn babies will hopefully lead to a greater recognition of personhood in the womb.
Employees Must Accommodate: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has unveiled a rule to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Not only do employers have the obligation to accommodate workers’ pregnancies, but they must also accommodate abortions and the use of contraception. These accommodations include altering job duties and giving sufficient time off. Republicans in Congress have voiced their opposition to this rule, stating that the EEOC has exceeded its authority by adopting this rule. These Republicans have also suggested that the lack of religious exemption in the rule could be the basis for a legal challenge.
Abortion Pill Stockpile Fails: A San Diego County Board of Supervisors recently voted on whether to stockpile abortion pills in order to reduce “greenhouse gas emissions” of “individuals traveling to specific destinations for this medication.” Thankfully, this first-of-its-kind vote failed. The Board Supervisor, Terra Lawson-Remer, was the one responsible for bringing this item to the board in the first place. Amongst her justifications for stockpiling abortifacients, Lawson-Remer claimed that the “abortion pill” was “imperative medication” that was “often utilized” to treat other “pregnancy losses” of “childbearing individuals” such as miscarriage. However, one of the main abortion drugs, mifepristone, has only ever been approved by the FDA for the “termination of pregnancy.” Ultimately, Lawson-Remer’s vote failed, but this may only be the first of these kinds of attempts to increase abortion access.
Good News
Saved by St. Gianna: In this piece for Crisis Magazine, Austin Ruse shares the beautiful story of how his first daughter came into the world. In their first year of marriage, Ruse and his wife suffered three miscarriages. Married later in life, and struggling to carry a child to term, the couple feared that they would never have a child to raise. It was at this point that they were invited to Cardinal Burke’s house, where he blessed them with a piece of St. Gianna Molla’s wedding dress. With the intercession of pro-life Saint Gianna, the couple’s next pregnancy was successful and their beloved baby, Lucy, was born. Three years later, she was joined by a little sister, Gianna-Marie.
Quote of the Week
“Love and sacrifice are closely linked, like the sun and the light. We cannot love without suffering and we cannot suffer without love.”
~ St. Gianna Beretta Molla, source
