In This Issue:
- A Message from PRI’s President
- Happy Thanksgiving!
- Deepening Depopulation
- Ohio on the Decline
- Communist China
- China-Funded Biolab
- UN Misdeeds
- Rights of the Unborn
- United States Divides UN
- Pro-life Around the World
- Trustees Push Back
- More Lives Saved
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Abortion Pill Approval
- FACE Act Strikes Again
- Good News
- Priest Delivers Twins
A Message from the President
We pray that you enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving with your family!
“America is unique among nations for having set aside a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God. A day to recollect the many ways He has blessed our nation and its people throughout history. This tradition began with the pilgrims and has continued down to the present.
“Chief among the gifts God gave us, after life itself and our faith, is the family, consisting of a father and a mother and their natural or adopted children. How appropriate that on the day of Thanksgiving we gather as families to celebrate.
“We are also so grateful for you. Your support and prayers have girded us for battle as we fight—for the right to life of unborn children on every continent, in every state, for the right of every man, woman, and child to be able to live free from coercive abortion and sterilization, and for the right of every people to be free from the population control programs that destroy lives and families.”
~PRI President Steven Mosher
Deepening Depopulation
Ohio on the Decline: Like half the states in the United States, Ohio’s birth rate is on the decline. Some want to claim that this is due to “greater prosperity,” but realistically this is the result of couples feeling unable to afford children. While the average U.S. birth rate increased slightly after the pandemic, Ohio’s continued to decrease, as it has since 2007. The big picture is a nationwide trend of decreasing birth rates, which could potentially be irreversible. As Axios concludes, this signals the difficulty of starting and growing a family in the U.S. today.
Communist China
China-Funded Biolab: U.S. lawmakers have shared that a black-market Chinese biolab in California received more than $1.3 million in unexplained payments from banks in China while in operation. The illegal biolab had thousands of vials and other containers, some labeled with potentially deadly infectious agents on site, including HIV and Ebola. Last week, local officials and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party discussed this concerning discovery. The Committee also issued a 42-page report criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal agencies for not fully investigating the site or helping dispose of the hazardous substances. The owner and founder of the lab, Jia Bei “Jesse” Zhu, was arrested. But, as of now, no further action has been taken.
“The evidence shows that a Chinese Communist Party operative was running a secret bioweapons lab in the central California town of Reedley,” says Mr. Mosher. “The lab was found to contain dozens of pathogens, including Ebola, which have an 80-90% fatality rate. In my view, at a time of the CCP’s choosing, these would have been released. Was this intended to disrupt the 2024 election, or to be used in the event of a U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan or the South China Sea? The Biden administration seems totally uninterested in uncovering the real story. They refused to investigate the lab, destroyed the biosamples without testing them, and have generally downplayed and covered up the very existence of the lab. Americans need to ask themselves why.”
UN Misdeeds
Rights of the Unborn: Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia defended the rights of unborn children at a recent UN gathering. His defense occurred at the Third Committee of the UNGA during Item 69, the promotion and protection of the rights of children. Archbishop Caccia highlighted the need for protection from abortion, especially in cases involving “prenatal sex selection and eugenic abortion” and “victimizing girls and children with disabilities.” As Caccia points out, 73 million babies are lost annually to abortion. This staggering figure illustrates how necessary it continues to be to publicly defend the unborn.
United States Divides UN: Traditional countries had to fight off a U.S. attempt to impose homosexual and transgender policies in a UN resolution. Countries accused the Biden administration of being “divisive” and “confrontational.” This accusation came after U.S. diplomats added “sexual orientation and gender identity” as human rights categories in a resolution on free and fair elections. Countries voted twice to remove the terms, failing the first and succeeding the second. The initial failure served as evidence that there is no global consensus on these issues. But traditional countries will continue to fight the ideology that progressive countries want to spread everywhere.
Pro-life Around the World
Trustees Push Back: Catholic trustees in Northern Ireland are pushing back against abortion education in the school system. Recent changes to the Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum mean Northern Irish schools will now include teaching children about abortion and how to access abortion services. But the Catholic Schools Trustee Service (CSTS) issued a statement in response to “abortion ideology” being taught to post-primary schoolchildren. The trustees recognize that parental rights are being undermined and pro-abortion ideology is being foisted upon minors. Other pro-life groups, including Precious Life, have responded similarly.
Precious Life’s response stated, “Not content with 4316 babies already killed in Northern Ireland, the Westminster Government wants even more babies killed by promoting abortion to school children.”
More Lives Saved: New research shows that the number of babies born at 22 weeks who survive to discharge from the hospital has tripled following a change in national guidelines. Researchers from the University of Leicester and Imperial College London examined the effects of 2019 guidelines from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) that recommended that if babies were born alive at 22 weeks, “survival-focused” care is appropriate following a risk assessment. Previous guidelines from 2008 had said that babies born before 23 weeks gestation should not be resuscitated. In their study published in BMJ Medicine, the researchers found a threefold increase in 2020-21 compared to 2018-19, in both the number of babies born at 22 weeks who received “survival-focused care,” as well as in the number of babies surviving to discharge from neonatal care. With improved technology and increased efforts, babies as young as 22 weeks can survive outside the womb. This puts into perspective the U.K.’s brutal abortion law, which allows abortion up to 24 weeks.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Abortion Pill Approval: Over a hundred members of Congress have urged the Supreme Court to order the FDA to revoke its abortion pill approval. They argue that the FDA’s approval process for the abortion drug had many “irregularities” and the decision to approve them has “endangered women and girls.” The last decision the Supreme Court made in regard to the abortion pill came in August when the Court invalidated the FDA’s post-2016 rule changes to mifepristone. This will reimpose pre-2016 restrictions on abortion drugs such as a ban on mailing them or administering via telemedicine, without an in-person doctor’s visit. Now, seventeen senators and 92 representatives have signed an amicus brief written by Americans United for Life that aligns with the Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) request petition that the Supreme Court also invalidate the FDA’s 2000 mifepristone approval.
FACE Act Strikes Again: An elderly woman could face up to 11 years in prison after she was found guilty of participating in a pro-life blockade of a Washington, D.C. abortion clinic in 2020. Paulette Harlow of Kingston, Massachusetts, 75, was convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and was found guilty of conspiracy against rights. She and nine other pro-life activists have been charged with crimes related to the Oct. 22, 2020, sit-in in which they blocked access to the clinic’s abortion services. Due to Harlow’s significant health issues, the judge allowed her to remain under house arrest until her sentencing hearing on March 19, 2024. The penalties for her conviction could land her with a sentence of a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
“The FACE Act has been abused again and again under this administration by Lisa Monaco of the Department of (In)Justice,” says Mr. Mosher. “Mark Houck is another who was wrongly arrested and tried under this statute. He was found innocent and is now suing the government for 3.7 million. After what he and his family went through–including the loss of three of their unborn children to miscarriages after the trauma of his pre-dawn arrest by 20 armed FBI agents–he should add another zero to the amount he is suing for.”
Good News
Priest Delivers Twins: Last week, a young priest helped two little lives come into the world. Father Jesús Mariscal, the parochial vicar at St. Paul Cathedral in Yakima, Washington, was out for a walk when he heard a homeless woman crying for help. The woman was in active labor and Fr. Mariscal, guided by a 911 operator, delivered her twins on the Cathedral’s grounds. Two small baby boys were born. Fr. Mariscal helped the second one breathe after difficulties with the amniotic sac and umbilical cord. Though the boys were born early, at just 30 weeks, they are doing well. Fr. Mariscal was able to visit them in the hospital, and he continues to ponder what God was trying to tell him through this beautiful experience with new life.
Quote of the Week
“A society that promotes the protection of the child promotes the well-being of the family.”
~ Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, source
