In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- The Journey Home
- Deepening Depopulation
- Contradictory Legislation
- Voting With Your Feet
- Communist China
- Erasing Tiananmen
- UN Misdeeds
- Pushing the Trans Craze
- Science Gone Mad
- A Procreation Vacation
- A Human Rights Disaster
- Pro-Life Around the World
- A Billion for Abortion
- Rising Abortion Rate
- Pushing Poison
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Blazing a Trail
- Pro-Life Centers Provide
- Heartbeat Heard in SC
- Good News
- Mini Baby Boom
PRI in the Media
The Journey Home: Doug Keck welcomed Marcus Grodi onto EWTN Bookmark to discuss Grodi’s latest book, Guideposts for The Journey Home. This book features spiritual testimonies from five key individuals who appeared on EWTN’s The Journey Home. Among these testimonies is that of PRI President Steven Mosher, who appeared on the show in 2005 to share his conversion story. Mr. Mosher’s conversion began during his time in China when he witnessed the brutality of the one-child policy firsthand.
In his own words, “If you confront evil like that, you either have to conclude the universe is mad, there’s no rhyme or reason to anything, or you have to conclude that there must be a countervailing good, there must be a God, there must be something to balance this evil. And I didn’t want to live in an insane asylum, and so I began to seek God.”
Deepening Depopulation
Contradictory Legislation: Countries across East Asia are experiencing rapid population decline, yet this has not stopped several from expanding abortion access. Both South Korea and Japan are looking at ways the government can incentivize childbearing. Yet South Korea decriminalized all abortion in 2021 and Japan is currently considering legislation that would allow the use of the abortion pills. If these countries truly want to increase fertility rates and family size, they need to create a culture of life amongst their citizens. South Korea and Japan need to build a culture where both wanted and unwanted babies are embraced and marriage and family are exalted for the private and common good they create.
Mr. Mosher has shared in the past, “As children become more rare due to contraception, sterilization, and abortion, whole segments of society become less and less familiar with the sense of joy and hope that only babies and children can give. In this climate, contraception and abortion feed on themselves, as the increasingly selfish few further reduce their number.”
Voting With Your Feet: The United States has 124 cities with populations over 200,000. Yet many of these cities are not growing further. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates for last year, over 90% of U.S. population growth took place outside of its largest cities. In fact, one-third saw their population size decrease. American citizens are fleeing cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Where are they heading? Cities in Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas. As Bill King points out in this DailySignal piece, “the results of the census estimates for the year once again confirm that Americans are voting with their feet against the supposed utopia of dense, urban living promoted by so many urban ‘planners.’”
Communist China
Erasing Tiananmen: As the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre approaches, CCP authorities are determined to control the narrative. Chinese authorities have ordered the relatives of those who died in the massacre not to give media interviews. Guards have been placed outside a majority of their homes. Activists who took part in the pro-democracy movements in 1989 have been given restrictions under the guise of a nationwide “stability maintenance” operation. Both public mourning for the victims and discussion of the events are banned. Online references to the event are blocked, filtered, or deleted. If the CCP had its way, its destruction of Chinese lives in 1989 would be erased completely in order to ensure compliance from the public.
UN Misdeeds
Pushing the Trans Craze: The UN is out of touch with how the general population actually feels about transgender “inclusion.” This year, the UN celebrated its annual day against “homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia,” even though several European countries refused to sign an EU declaration related to the annual observance. Italy’s family minister even called the declaration “unbalanced” and criticized the celebration for denying “not only biology but also the body, which is based on the gender difference between men and women.” Issues related to “gender identity” are still highly controversial, yet UN leaders continue to push a progressive attitude on the matter. For example, the most recent diagnostic manual from the World Health Organization (WHO)–which is a UN agency–removed gender dysphoria from being classified as a mental disorder. It also placed “gender incongruence” in a new chapter on sexual health.
“The thousands of unelected, unaccountable UN bureaucrats who work at the UN represent the values of Hollywood and Manhattan, not those of the people of the rest of the world,” says Mr. Mosher. “The US should not only leave the failed WHO, it should drastically reduce, and perhaps eliminate, its contribution to the maintenance of the UN.”
Science Gone Mad
A Procreation Vacation: Couples and singles interested in using in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have a child are traveling to avoid the high costs of the process in the United States. The Tampa Bay Times interviewed several couples who traveled to clinics outside the states to have embryos created and implanted. The most popular locations are Turkey, Thailand, Mexico, and Barbados. While these couples may have good intentions in wanting to grow their family, the process of IVF is still hazardous and immoral. It is physically difficult for the mother with little chance of success. The creation of embryonic lives separates the unity of spouses and, as we reported in last week’s Insider, only about 2.3% of IVF embryos result in a live birth with only ~7% of embryos implanted at all. That leaves over 90% of embryos thrown away, experimented on, or frozen indefinitely.
A Human Rights Disaster: The surrogacy industry in the United States is the “Wild West.” Every state has its own laws on the practice, and only two states, Nebraska and Louisiana, have banned it entirely. Michigan is the latest to legalize the practice in what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer referred to as a “pro-family” move. Surrogacy involves the renting of a woman’s body to grow a child that has been bought and paid for. It is not a “pro-family” process. Neither is this type of human trafficking moral or ethical. Yet, the industry is growing for several reasons. Women are postponing having children, some to the point where they are unable to carry a child and require a surrogate. High abortion rates have also resulted in fewer babies available for adoption, which leaves couples convinced that surrogacy is their only option to become parents. Finally, an increasing number of homosexual couples and singles want children and are willing to use an immoral and unethical practice to get them.
Pro-Life Around the World
A Billion for Abortion: Melinda Gates has announced that she will be donating $1 billion over the next two years to promote “women’s rights.” However, a majority of these funds will go towards abortion promotion. Various organizations, including the Center for Reproductive Rights and The 19th, will benefit from this funding. Gates is already known for pushing abortion on a global scale through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation is a major donor to Planned Parenthood, providing more than $94 million over the years. Its 2024 budget is a whopping $8.6 billion, millions of which will go directly towards radical pro-abortion campaigns.
“I was hoping that Melinda, after her divorce from Bill Gates, would put her fortune to good use by engaging in authentic Catholic charity,” says Mr. Mosher. “After all, she was raised Catholic and formerly attended a Jesuit-run parish on Mercer Island in Seattle. Unfortunately, she seems to have decided to join the billionaire boys club started by her husband and Warren Buffet.”
Rising Abortion Rate: Scotland’s abortion numbers hit a new record in 2023. A total of 18,207 abortions occurred last year. This is an increase of 1,600 abortions or 9.63% in one year. The stats, released by Public Health Scotland, show that repeat abortions made up 39.92% of all abortions. There was also a 35% increase in late-term abortions (performed at 21 weeks gestation or later) compared to the previous year. This significant rise in the abortion rate occurred alongside the third full year that at-home abortion services have been allowed in the country. At the same time, Right to Life UK has been reporting on the increase in complications arising from “DIY abortions.”
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, stated, “It is a great tragedy that 18,207 lives were lost to abortion in Scotland last year, the highest number on record. Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.”
Pushing Poison: One of Canada’s top cabinet ministers recently implied that women need contraception and unlimited abortion in order to be successful in life. This isn’t a new approach by any means, but it is an outdated attempt to push contraception and abortion. During oral questions in the House of Commons, the Liberal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault, bragged about a bill that would provide free contraceptives, including abortifacient “morning after” pills. Rightly, Canada’s top pro-life group, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), has blasted Boissonnault and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for pushing women to “kill their preborn children to achieve ‘success.’”
“The Canadian Liberal government under Justin Trudeau literally believes that women need to poison their fertility and kill their preborn children to achieve ‘success.’ Women, is this truly your idea of success? Please respond,” CLC’s Director of Communications Pete Baklinski shared on X.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Blazing a Trail: Planned Parenthood claims that the abortion pills are “safe” and “effective,” but an increasing amount of evidence contradicts these claims. While the abortion drugs continue spreading across the nation, one state is standing against unregulated chemical abortions. Last week, Louisiana’s Senate and House passed SB 276. Signed by Governor Jeff Landry (R) on Friday, Louisiana will be the first U.S. state to enact legislation that classifies chemical abortion pills as “controlled substances.” The bill categorizes mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances, as well as creates punishments for coerced chemical abortions. The law will take effect October 1, 2024.
“PRI applauds this move by the Louisiana legislature, which will save many babies from an untimely death by poison pill,” says Mr. Mosher.
Pro-Life Centers Provide: According to a recent report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, there has been a significant increase in life-affirming services provided by American pro-life pregnancy resource centers from 2019 to 2022. With 2,750 such centers across the nation, the value of life-affirming pregnancy services and material support offered rose to nearly $367.9 million in 2022. This was an increase of more than $100 million from 2019. The areas that saw the biggest surge were delivered material services and baby items (194% increase) and participants in parenting and prenatal education programs (41% increase). These centers are helping women and babies on the ground in the post-Roe era.
Heartbeat Heard in SC: A South Carolina judge has handed the state a pro-life victory. Judge Daniel Coble of South Carolina’s Fifth Judicial Circuit Court upheld the state’s six-week “heartbeat” ban. Now, the Fetal Heartbeat & Protection from Abortion Act protects a majority of unborn babies after six weeks gestation. The law does allow exceptions for rape and incest up to 12 weeks and exceptions for “medical emergencies” or “fatal fetal anomalies.” However, as LifeSiteNews reminds us, “Direct abortion is always gravely immoral and never needed nor ethically justified to save a mother’s life.”
Good News
Mini Baby Boom: Birth rates around the world may be declining, but one Kansas County is doing their best to fix this. In one year, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office celebrated the birth of 15 babies to 15 different officers. The officers can all be seen grinning and holding their babies in a picture shared on the office’s Facebook page. These officers not only share similar life experience in their careers but also as they walk together in bringing new life into the world. One of the officers, Deputy Jake Bolton, shared, “As a department, it brings us closer together — especially having kids all the same age who continue to grow up together and continue to have good times.”
Quote of the Week
“Children build up the life of the family and society. The child becomes a gift to its brothers and sisters, parents and entire family. Its entire life becomes a gift for the very people who were givers of life and who cannot help but feel its presence, its sharing in their life and its contribution to the common good and to the community of the family.”
~ Pope Saint John Paul II
