In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- Mosher Urges Family Policies
- Harvard’s China Ties Exposed
- Deepening Depopulation
- More French Going Childfree
- Migration Drives EU Growth
- Global Fertility Rates Fall
- Communist China
- One-Child Legacy Lingers
- Faithful Hunted in China
- UN Misdeeds
- UN Abortion Pressure Rises
- Science Gone Mad
- Human Life on Ice
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Sex-Selective Abortion Exposed
- One-Third Unborn Lives Lost
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Abortionist Admits to Dismembering
- New York’s Death Bill
- Abortion Pill Access Expanded
- WV Chemical Abortion Ban
- Good News
- Pregnancy Help Works
PRI in the Media
Mosher Urges Family Policies: In his interview on The Schilling Show, PRI President Steven Mosher explains how he and others are urging the Trump Administration to promote family-oriented policies. He highlights PRI’s mission to counter the myth of a global “people problem,” which has led to dangerously low birth rates, with Europe averaging just 1.6. Many countries, particularly in Europe, rely on immigration to sustain their populations, risking the loss of their unique cultures, languages, and histories. To highlight the deep cultural impact of immigration, Mosher notes that Muhammad is now the most common baby name in London. He argues that financial incentives alone—especially in socialist countries—have failed to reverse population decline. Instead, a cultural shift is needed. To improve this issue in the U.S., Mosher urges the Trump administration to remove all anti-natalist propaganda from executive departments and revoke the outdated 1972 Rockefeller Commission’s findings. Without such action, America could follow the same demographic decline seen in much of the world.
Harvard’s China Ties Exposed: Harvard is facing backlash for partnering with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC)—a CCP paramilitary group sanctioned for running Uyghur internment camps. As noted by PRI President Steven Mosher, China’s many abuses include forced sterilizations, forced abortion, and torture. Mr. Mosher condemned the university’s actions, stating that Universities like Harvard and Stanford prioritize Chinese money and students above exposing the CCP’s human rights abuses. Despite Harvard’s potential ties to organ harvesting, the XPCC remains under U.S. sanctions for its central role in the Uyghur genocide. Mosher urged tighter oversight, saying U.S. institutions should demand equal treatment instead of letting the CCP exploit academic exchanges.
Deepening Depopulation
More French Going Childfree: France is facing a mounting “baby bust,” with 12.2% of French people now saying they don’t want children—double the rate from 2005. Birth rates are falling, driven by shifting cultural values, financial pressures, and gender inequality. These concerns have driven France’s fertility rate down to 1.62—its lowest since WWI—dropping sharply from 2.02 in 2010. For women under 30, the average number of children they hope to have has declined from 2.5 in 2005 to 1.9 in 2024. As the culture around parenting changes, fewer couples are choosing large families, or families at all.
Migration Drives EU Growth: Europe’s population has increased in recent years, reaching around 448 million in 2024, Eurostat reports. This renewed growth—following slight declines in 2020 and 2021—is largely driven by immigration. Natural population change and birth rate remains low, with several EU countries recording more deaths than births. However, positive net migration continues to outweigh these declines, sustaining overall population growth. Northern and Western European countries lead the trend, while parts of Eastern and Southern Europe face slower growth or population loss. The report highlights migration as the main factor behind the EU’s population increase.
Global Fertility Rates Fall: The UN’s 2024 World Population Prospects report shows global population growth slowing, with numbers expected to peak around 2080 at 10.3 billion before gradually declining. By 2100, the population is projected to fall to 10.2 billion—about 6% lower than the UN had estimated a decade ago. This earlier-than-expected peak is largely driven by falling birth rates in major countries like China. Fertility rates are declining faster than anticipated, especially in high-income nations, many of which are now below replacement level. Over the next 30 years, 48 more countries—including Vietnam, Brazil, Turkey, and Iran—are expected to reach their population peaks. Meanwhile, India and Africa’s populations continue to rise rapidly. In many parts of the world, migration is expected to play an increasingly important role in offsetting population decline.
Communist China
One-Child Legacy Lingers: China’s population is in long-term decline, dropping by over 2 million in 2023 and another 1.4 million in 2024—a shift driven by falling birth rates, rising deaths, and an aging society. Though the labor force remains sizable at 734 million in 2024, the average worker is getting older, prompting China to ramp up automation and AI to sustain productivity. Businesses face a shrinking, aging consumer base; by 2040, 28% of the population will be over 60. The decline stems largely from China’s long-standing One Child Policy, in place from 1979 to 2015, which reduced births and skewed gender ratios, limiting the number of women of childbearing age. Combined with high child-rearing costs and shifting cultural norms around marriage and family, fertility rates have plummeted—and may continue to fall as younger generations delay or reject parenthood altogether.
“China killed off its future—one child at a time—during the long-running One Child Policy,” says Mr. Mosher. “It was introduced in 1979 when I was in China, and was strictly implemented until 2015. Four hundred million abortions, combined with the killing of baby girls, has dramatically shrunk the number of women of childbearing age. The decline in the fertility rate is accelerating, choking off China’s future economic prospects. Communism always kills. Sometimes it kills quickly, in wars and purges, and sometimes it kills slowly, as it did during the One China Policy.”
Faithful Hunted in China: Despite the Vatican deal, authorities in Wenzhou, have launched a renewed crackdown on Catholic clergy and believers who refuse to join the CCP-run “Patriotic” Catholic Church—targeting conscientious objectors loyal to the Vatican. Pope Leo XIV is deliberating about the renewed 2018 Vatican-China deal, as Beijing steps up its crackdown on Catholics who object to it. Wenzhou is now witnessing threats and detentions of clergy who decline to fall in line. One local priest told Bitter Winter, “Silence is not an option,” demonstrating the risks facing those who resist the CCP.
“Wenzhou is a city with one of the largest concentrations of Catholics and other Christians in China,” says Mr. Mosher. “Its Catholics have endured decades of persecution at the hands of the Communist authorities which, sadly, has only intensified following the signing of the Sino-Vatican Agreement. They are suffering now because they are loyal to the Holy Father and refuse bishops who have chosen loyalty to the CCP over loyalty to the Pope. Hopefully Pope Leo will hear their cries.”
UN Misdeeds
UN Abortion Pressure Rises: A new database from the Center for Family & Human Rights (C-Fam) reveals a troubling trend: when pro-life countries make even small concessions on abortion, UN bodies intensify the pressure until abortion is decriminalized in all cases. The CEDAW Committee repeatedly urged Ireland to loosen its laws, pushing for decriminalization of abortion in 1999 and 2005, and in 2017, demanding repeal of the Eighth Amendment, broad legalization, and full decriminalization. CEDAW also pressured Mexico for years, and in 2021, its Supreme Court decriminalized abortion. C-Fam’s database shows that during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Ireland urged Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic to decriminalize abortion and pressured El Salvador and Malta. Mexico has similarly used the UPR to promote abortion as a “right,” targeting 17 countries so far in the ongoing fourth cycle.
Science Gone Mad
Human Life on Ice: A recent article from The Federalist raises critical concerns about the IVF industry’s lack of transparency and ethical responsibility. The piece highlights the experiences of individuals like Ericka Andersen, who, after undergoing IVF, grappled with the realization that multiple embryos were created and subsequently frozen or discarded—a process she hadn’t fully understood beforehand. Many patients embark on IVF treatments without a comprehensive understanding of the potential outcomes, including the creation and destruction of “excess” embryos. There are millions of embryos frozen in America, each possessing unique DNA, a defined gender, and even traits like eye color. But the IVF industry doesn’t focus on these embryos. It only focuses on “success rates”—measured by live births—while ignoring how IVF treats early human life as disposable.
Pro-Life Around the World
Sex-Selective Abortion Exposed: A recent exposé from the Daily Declaration spotlights troubling evidence of sex-selective abortion in New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia, with new data from Edith Cowan University showing skewed male-to-female birth ratios between 1994 and 2015. A study from Global Public Health revealed that while the global norm is about 105 boys per 100 girls at birth, higher male birth ratios among Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese migrant families suggest a gender bias. NSW MP John Ruddick is preparing to reintroduce legislation in October to ban the practice, calling the data “bullet-proof” that sex-selective abortion is happening. South Australia already prohibits abortions based solely on sex, and the pressure is mounting for NSW to follow suit. In 2021, after abortion was decriminalized in NSW, Rev. Fred Nile failed to pass a bill banning sex-selective abortion to protect unborn girls.
One-Third Unborn Lives Lost: In 2022, nearly one in every three pregnancies (29.7%) in England and Wales ended in abortion—a record high and a sharp increase from 26.5% the year before. This surge follows the 2020 introduction of at-home abortion pills. The total number of abortions reached 247,703, marking a 13% rise from 2021 and a 34% jump since 2012. Among women outside of marriage, 36% of conceptions ended in abortion, while the rate among married women climbed from 7.6% to 11.1% over the past decade. In some areas, like Liverpool and Brighton & Hove, more than 40% of pregnancies were terminated, compared to just 18.6% in East Cambridgeshire. These tragic figures reflect a troubling trend: the growing normalization of ending unborn life.
“With the legalization of abortion up to birth the number of abortions in dying England will only increase,” says Mr. Mosher. “The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) in 2023 was only 1.44 children per woman, which is the lowest since records began being kept. As regular readers of The Insider know, this rate is well below the replacement level of 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population. The Labor Party, like the Democrats, are bringing in as many immigrants as they can and for the same reason: to dominate the political process.”
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Abortionist Admits to Dismembering: An undercover video released by Live Action captures a Virginia abortionist casually describing the dismemberment of preborn children in late-term abortions, explaining how it’s “easy” to dismember the bodies of babies. This video highlights the abortion industry’s focus on dehumanizing the preborn. The abortionist refers to identifying fetal body parts like “little hands and little feet.” Far from expressing hesitation or grief, the tone is disturbingly clinical, offering a chilling glimpse into the abortion industry’s normalization of these violent procedures.
New York’s Death Bill: New York’s proposed Bill S.138, allowing physician-assisted death for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live, is anything but compassionate. Many Christians are urgently praying that Gov. Kathy Hochul will veto it, as the state would become the 11th to legalize such measures. While framed as a way to “die with dignity,” the bill reflects a dystopian shift, normalizing death as relief and shielding doctors from liability, all while implying that ingesting poison to take one’s own life is the dignified choice.
Abortion Pill Access Expanded: An Ohio judge issued a preliminary injunction pausing state rules that could have barred non-physicians—like physician assistants and nurse midwives—from dispensing abortion pills. In 2021, Ohio passed a law banning “telemedicine abortion,” but Planned Parenthood and the ACLU immediately challenged it, and courts blocked the law soon after. The “no-test” approach fails to determine certain factors like how far along the pregnancy is, the presence of an ectopic pregnancy, or other health concerns. A recent analysis of insurance data reported that 11% of women who took the abortion pill suffered serious complications like sepsis, infection, or hemorrhage, 22 times higher than the FDA’s reported rate. Separately, an Irish study showed 12% of women ended up in the ER for bleeding or infection after using the pill. This new preliminary injunction puts mothers and their babies at serious risk.
WV Chemical Abortion Ban: The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that West Virginia may enforce its ban on chemical abortion pills, marking a major win for the pro-life movement. The court upheld West Virginia’s near-total ban, rejecting claims that federal law preempts the state’s authority. This decision reinforces states’ rights to protect unborn children post-Dobbs and stands as one of the first federal appellate rulings supporting abortion-pill bans. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey praised the ruling as a victory for life and state authority, stating that West Virginia will “always be a pro-life state!” This landmark decision could encourage other states to pursue similar protective measures.
Good News
Pregnancy Help Works: For nearly 30 years, the U.K.’s Good Counsel Network (GCN) has supported pregnant mothers by offering practical aid, counseling, and emotional support. Their life-affirming support for mothers has helped prevent approximately 4,000 abortions. Operating mainly in urban areas, the Network focuses on compassionate, non-judgmental assistance tailored to each woman’s needs, providing help with housing, finances, and more. GCN also offers compassionate resources and support to mothers who choose abortion, helping them heal from the trauma afterwards. The Good Counsel Network shows how supporting pregnant women can transform the lives of both mother and child.
Quote of the Week
“We face multiple challenges in our changing world, but one factor remains constant: the timeless importance of mothers and their invaluable contribution to raising the next generation.”
~ UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
