In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- Conversion on Catholic ReCon
- Stanford’s Censorship
- Headliner in Massachusetts
- Deepening Depopulation
- Low Fertility Complaints
- Vatican Defends Population Growth
- Mothers of Big Families
- Communist China
- DINKs in China
- Science Gone Mad
- Abortion Pill Reversal
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Change After 50 Years
- Life in Ireland
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Decline to Signs Spread
- Heartbeat Law Takes Effect
- Good News
- The Power of Motherhood
Have a wonderful Mother’s Day this weekend!
“The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral –a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body…
The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to Heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation…
What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this; to be a mother?”
~ Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty
PRI in the Media
Conversion on Catholic ReCon: This week, PRI President Steven Mosher appeared on Catholic ReCon with host Eddie Trask. In this interview, Mr. Mosher shared his journey to becoming a pro-life advocate and devout Catholic. Though he attended Christian services from the time that he was a small child, his conversion to the faith began in China in the late 1970s. When Mosher arrived in China he was a staunch atheist, but witnessing the brutality of the one-child policy kickstarted his conversion. From there, through work in the pro-life movement and the influence of his wife, Vera, he fully joined the Catholic Church in the early 90s. His experience with the Chinese Communist Party and knowledge of the faith both came into play in his latest book, The Devil and Communist China. This book balances the evil of Mao Zedong and Communist ideology with the truth, goodness, and beauty found in Jesus Christ.
Mr. Mosher also appeared on The Catholic Conversation, hosted by Steve and Becky Greene, to discuss the new book! Listen here.
Don’t have it yet? Request your copy of The Devil and Communist China today with a donation of $35 or more, here!
Stanford’s Censorship: In this issue of the Stanford Review, the writers look at Stanford’s history of “censorious” behavior. This behavior has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the roots go back much further than that. Stanford’s censorship goes back to 1900, but one of the most notable cases occurred in 1983. That was the year that “the University—with pressure from China—expelled PhD student Steven Mosher after he documented the forced abortions and abject poverty in rural China.” PRI President Steven Mosher was removed from the program at that time for telling the truth about the abuses occurring in China in the 1970s. In 1983, Stanford caved to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and, in true imitation of the CCP, chose to censor an honest American.
Headliner in Massachusetts: Last week, Mr. Mosher was the keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL) Mother’s Day Dinner. “The main message is going to be one of the baby bust in the United States because we are having fewer children for many, many reasons. Our birth rate is the lowest it’s ever been since the founding of the Republic,” Mr. Mosher shared before the talk. The U.S. fertility rate is currently at 1.6, which is solidly below the replacement rate of 2.1. In his talk, he offered solutions to boost this rate, including tax shelters for young couples, and even partial student loan forgiveness for couples who marry and have children.
Deepening Depopulation
Low Fertility Complaints: Countries brought their grievances over low fertility rates to this year’s UN Commission on Population and Development. Countries are realizing the error of decades-long propaganda pushing for lower birth rates. Representatives voiced concerns over the potential consequences of falling fertility rates, including anemic economic growth, labor shortages, fiscal insolvency, and other social problems. Yet, even as representatives from countries in the Middle East and Europe shared these concerns, representatives of Western countries and UN agencies continued to push for lowering populations. UN leaders even tried casting low fertility rates in a positive light, dismissing these valid concerns.
Vatican Defends Population Growth: Archbishop Caccia offered a defense of population growth in his statement for the UN Commission on Population and Development. He shared that population growth is wrongly blamed for the number of people experiencing food insecurity when the reality is that “population growth has gone hand in hand with significant increases in food production.” Fertility rate reduction is not the answer to poverty, as a growing population is “fully compatible with shared prosperity and the achievement of integral human development for all.” As Archbishop Caccia concluded, “The real challenge before us is not the growing world population, which is a great resource, but rather inequality, poverty, and lack of development.”
“I was glad to hear Archbishop Caccia proclaim that ‘a growing world population is a great resource,’” says Mr. Mosher. “And his emphasis on supporting the family is well-placed. But the solution is not massive make-work government programs or the provision of ‘free everything,’ but the rule of law and respect for private property. A government that is big enough to give you everything you want, is also big enough to take away everything you have. In a society free of corruption, war, and civil unrest, families will take care of themselves.”
Mothers of Big Families: In a new book, Catherine Pakaluk, shared her research on a small minority of U.S. women: those who willingly choose to have five or more children within a society that has chosen the opposite. Big families are not trending in the United States. The average age of first-time mothers continues to increase and the average number of children continues to decrease. Even Catholic families are shrinking and Pakaluk, herself a Catholic mother, noted that she’d never heard a homily in her Church “on the value of having children.” Due to this, Pakaluk and her colleague set out to find out why some women still have five or more children when society is clearly against them. Overall, with a group of 55 women from 10 regions with a range of education, race, religion, and ethnicity, Pakaluk stated the following:
“My subjects described their choice to have many children as a deliberate rejection of a self-regarding lifestyle in favor of a way of life intentionally limited by the demands of motherhood… They believe they have found themselves in having children… They believe their personalities and capacities have expanded.”
Communist China
DINKs in China: Last week’s PRI Insider addressed the growing number of “Dual Income, No Kids” (DINK) couples in the United States. But the U.S. isn’t the only place with DINKs on the rise. According to recent reports, “Amid deep economic uncertainty, a growing number of Chinese are opting for another number: zero.” One study, from the Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, estimated that DINKs accounted for about 38% of Chinese households in 2020. This is a 10% increase compared to a decade earlier. Some DINK couples claim that the choice to have no children reduces anxiety. As the CCP continues to try to incentivize family life, DINKs continue to refuse the bait.
Science Gone Mad
Abortion Pill Reversal: A new website full of resources on the abortion pill reversal has been created. APRScience is “dedicated to the presentation of Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) medical evidence. It assists clinicians and researchers seeking access to APR medical evidence.” The website has studies, analyses, and resources for anyone interested in the abortion pill reversal. The website combats the myth, spread by pro-abortion advocates, that APR is “not supported by science.” Though the medical evidence is preliminary, clinical trials, observational studies, and animal investigations have consistently shown that APR is safe and effective.
If you, or someone you know, are considering, or have very recently taken, the abortion pill, visit https://abortionpillreversal.com/.
“Last week I spoke at the annual banquet of Massachusetts Citizens Concerned for Life,” says Mr. Mosher. “It was a wonderful, well-attended event. Among the resources that MCCL has for women in crisis pregnancies is a website on the science behind Abortion Pill Reversal. Young women who, in a panic, took the deadly pill need to know that it is still not too late to save their baby. The Abortion Pill can be safely reversed without harming their unborn children. The website is https://aprscience.org/.”
For more information on the abortion pill, view our Abortion Pill Fact Sheet.
Stay tuned for an upcoming PRI fact sheet on the abortion pill reversal!
Pro-Life Around the World
Change After 50 Years: This year, Denmark updated its abortion laws for the first time in 50 years. The country has announced some major changes. Girls between 15 and 17 will now be able to get abortions without parental knowledge or consent. Abortion is also now legal through eighteen weeks gestation, compared to twelve weeks previously. Government officials, including the “gender equality minister” Marie Bjerre, are celebrating these changes. “It is about the individual woman’s freedom, about the right to decide over her own body and her own life,” Bjerre said. “It is a historic day for women’s equality.” The reality, which the officials are ignoring, is these laws will allow teenagers to choose abortion when they do not have the capacity to understand the long-term, negative consequences of the decision they are making. These laws will also lead to the death of unborn babies, including baby girls. Both of these realities call into question how these laws actually benefit women.
Life in Ireland: On Monday, thousands of Irish residents came to Dublin for the annual March for Life. The event was an inspiring show of support for the pro-life movement, a greatly needed ray of hope in light of the recent abortion statistics from the country. Since the country legalized abortion, the abortion rate has skyrocketed. Among the many pro-life leaders who gave testimonies at the March for Life was Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin and chairman of the Council for Life of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Bishop Doran reaffirmed Pope John Paul II’s point that there is no fundamental conflict between faith and science, even with the issue of abortion.
“That is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of scientific fact,” Bishop Doran stated. “Philosophers can interpret it, but they can’t change it. A human embryo is an individual member of the human species; otherwise known as a person.”
He continued, “We who seek to promote a renewed respect for the inherent dignity of every human person, certainly need to distinguish between science and fake news. We have no need to be afraid of science, but we do need to remember that science only goes part of the journey in understanding the human person.”
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Decline to Sign Spreads: This summer, pro-abortion advocates will be gathering signatures in hopes of getting abortion amendments on the November ballots. In response, pro-life leaders and organizations are mobilizing with “Decline to Sign” campaigns. For example, Arkansas’s Right to Life group is urging citizens to decline to sign an abortion-rights petition, which could allow abortion up to 18 weeks of fertilization or later for a variety of reasons. Arizona’s “It Goes Too Far” campaign asks residents to reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would restore abortion access up to fetal viability. Similar campaigns are underway in Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota as well. Pro-lifers will continue this fight until the July deadline, at which time we will know which states will be voting on abortion amendments in the fall.
Heartbeat Law Takes Effect: On May 1st, Florida’s heartbeat ban went into effect. Now, unborn babies are safe after six weeks gestation. This could save an estimated 50,000 unborn babies every year. But the pro-life fight is not over in Florida. This November, Floridians will vote on a pro-abortion ballot measure, which would add abortion as a right in the state’s constitution.
“The abortion amendment which would allow abortion throughout the second and third trimesters, eviscerate health protections for women, and remove parental consent is far too extreme for Florida,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said. “We must sound the alarm about the far-reaching implications of the abortion industry’s scheme to grow their profits at the expense of babies’ lives and the safety of women and girls.”
Good News
The Power of Motherhood: This Mother’s Day, Elizabeth Morton, an experienced nurse and midwife, is calling for everyone to celebrate the true strength and empowerment that motherhood brings. Today’s society, which pushes abortion as the only way for a woman to succeed after an unplanned pregnancy, does a great disservice to women and mothers. “We limit women’s true power and potential by pushing the notion that power can only come externally and that ending the life inside of them can help them find it,” Morton stated. Instead of urging women to work against their bodies, we should be encouraging them to work with them. We need to show women that they can embrace motherhood and still be successful.
“For this Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate the true strength and empowerment that motherhood brings, and commit to supporting mothers through pregnancy and birth, and in the wonders and challenges of bringing new life into the world,” Morton concluded.
Quote of the Week
“Every child is a gift from God and every child brings you closer to God in different ways.”
~ PRI President Steven Mosher, source
