In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- Trump and Xi Face Off
- Deepening Depopulation
- Tax Breaks for Families in Malta
- Russia’s Population Decline Accelerates
- Finland Faces Record Low Births
- Communist China
- China Scrambles to Boost Births
- CCP Arrests Christian Leaders
- Science Gone Mad
- IVF Test Misjudges Embryos
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Japan Approves OTC Contraceptive
- India’s Sex-Selective Abortion Crisis
- UK Marks Grim Legacy
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- California Funds Planned Parenthood
- NJ Wants All-Trimester Abortions
- Wisconsin Abortions Resume Despite Cuts
- Good News
- Life Protected in Arkansas
PRI in the Media
Trump and Xi Face Off: PRI President Steven Mosher joined Fox Business this week to discuss President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Xi Jinping. Mr. Mosher stressed that any deal with Beijing will never be final, noting decades of evidence showing that the Chinese Communist Party cannot be trusted. He pointed to TikTok as a prime example—a CCP-controlled platform that harvests American data and spreads pro-China messaging. Mr. Mosher warned that the CCP advances its goals through propaganda, United Front infiltration, and the People’s Liberation Army. With nearly one-third of China’s private businesses operating at a loss, Xi is under immense pressure—and America should use that leverage.
Deepening Depopulation
Tax Breaks for Families in Malta: Malta has announced new tax cuts for families with two or more children in an effort to combat its record-low fertility rate, now the lowest in the European Union at just 1.06. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana called declining native births the country’s “biggest challenge.” Beginning in 2026, parents in qualifying families will pay no income tax on the first €18,500 ($21,575) of earnings each, rising to €30,000 (nearly $35,000) by 2028. The tax benefits will last until children reach age 23. Malta’s Catholic Archbishop has warned the nation faces “ethnic extinction” if it fails to revive family life.
“Malta’s policy marks a bold escalation, linked as it is directly to pronatalist goals,” says Mr. Mosher. “If financial incentives alone can spark a ‘baby boom,’ Malta’s will do it, since it basically shelters all middle income couples from almost all taxes. Malta’s total fertility rate currently stands at an extremely low 1.08 children per woman.”
Russia’s Population Decline Accelerates: Russia’s population is shrinking rapidly, with the fertility rate falling to 1.4 births per woman in 2024, a 20% decline since 2015. The country’s population has slipped from 147.6 million in 1990 to 146.1 million today. In addition, 30% of Russians are now 55 or older. President Vladimir Putin has renewed calls to boost births, offering cash benefits and reviving Soviet-era awards for large families. The government has also banned the promotion of abortion and “child-free” messaging in hopes of reversing the decline. Yet war casualties, economic uncertainty, and the exodus of young adults have left fewer potential parents.
“It seems self-evident that one of the best ways to encourage higher fertility in Russia would be to end the war in Ukraine,” says Mr. Mosher. “The loss of hundreds of thousands of young men will only drive Russia’s low birth rate, currently at 1.4 children per woman, even lower.”
Finland Faces Record Low Births: In recent years, Finland’s fertility rate has fallen to historic lows, with births dropping to less than 1.3. This is the lowest in the Nordic region. This decline comes despite generous government incentives such as paid parental leave, national healthcare, and low-cost childcare. Researchers say many young adults are delaying family life or forgoing having children altogether due to worries about economic stability, difficulty forming relationships, and cultural norms that prioritize career and education. Experts caution that financial incentives alone will not reverse the decline; cultural renewal and stronger support for marriage and family life are urgently needed.
Communist China
China Scrambles to Boost Births: China has started to directly pay maternity leave subsidies to mothers in an effort to raise its birthrate, now just 1.0 children per woman, among the lowest in the world. Beginning November 1st, 25 provinces will deposit maternity payments straight into mothers’ bank accounts, bypassing employers who often delay or withhold funds. Many women say workplace insecurity and discrimination against mothers are major reasons they delay or avoid childbirth. Analysts warn that unless China addresses deeper social and economic pressures discouraging motherhood, the nation’s demographic decline will continue.
CCP Arrests Christian Leaders: Persecution against the Shenyang Youth Fellowship, an unregistered Christian house church in Liaoning, is intensifying. Six members—including pastors, mothers, and primary breadwinners—remain in detention on vague charges of “using a xie jiao organization to undermine the enforcement of law,” a label now routinely used to suppress orthodox Christian groups that refuse CCP oversight. Several believers who were released on bail earlier this year were rearrested in late September. The Fellowship’s only “crime” is worshiping outside Party control—another sign that the CCP continues to target Christians who refuse to trade faith for state loyalty.
Science Gone Mad
IVF Test Misjudges Embryos: A new study from the University of Cambridge raises serious concerns about the IVF industry’s embryo screening practices. Researchers found that the widely used PGT-A test may wrongly label healthy embryos as “abnormal.” These embryos are then discarded. The findings underscore a deeper problem: the IVF industry routinely creates more embryos than are ever allowed to live, then screens and disposes of them like medical waste. Rather than protecting life, the IVF industry treats human embryos as a science experiment, which will then most likely be frozen or discarded.
Pro-Life Around the World
Japan Approves OTC Contraceptive: Japan has approved the first over-the-counter sale of the emergency contraceptive pill Norlevo, allowing women and girls of any age to obtain it without a prescription or parental involvement. The move comes even as Japan faces one of the world’s most severe population collapses, with fertility rates near historic lows and the population rapidly aging. Japan’s leaders are urging young people to marry and have children, even while expanding access to measures that further suppress family formation. The decision highlights a striking contradiction: Japan claims to support family life, even while expanding policies that prevent it.
India’s Sex-Selective Abortion Crisis: Despite laws banning sex-selective abortion, illegal networks in India continue to operate as families seek sons over daughters. Between 1987 and 2016, an estimated 13.5 million girls were killed through sex-selective abortion, and researchers estimate that without ultrasound sex-screening, India would have roughly 63 million more women and girls alive today. Recent raids in Karnataka, Haryana, and Ahmedabad uncovered cross-state rackets arranging ultrasounds and abortions in bathhouses and private homes. Authorities say the practice persists because daughters are still viewed as economic burdens. Abortion drugs and IVF embryo screening are increasingly being used to eliminate girls before birth.
Click here to read more about sex-selective abortion in India.
UK Marks Grim Legacy: This week marks 58 years since the UK’s Abortion Act received royal assent. Since 1967, an estimated 10,880,563 unborn children have lost their lives, one every two minutes. According to the Department of Health and Social Care, England and Wales recorded 252,122 abortions in 2022—the highest number ever—coinciding with the expansion of at-home chemical abortion. Pro-life leaders are now urging Peers to support amendments to block a proposal allowing abortion up to birth and to restore in-person medical consultations to protect both mothers and their unborn children.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
California Funds Planned Parenthood: California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced over $140 million in “state investments” to fund Planned Parenthood and its network of more than 100 abortion centers. The move comes in response to President Trump ending federal taxpayer subsidies to abortion providers through the “Big Beautiful Bill.” Pro-life leaders warn that Newsom is doubling down on turning California into an abortion haven, as the state continues to ship abortion pills into pro-life states while shielding abortionists from prosecution.
NJ Wants All-Trimester Abortions: New Jersey is preparing to open its first “all-trimester” abortion facility in 2026, committing abortions past 28 weeks of gestation. The project is led by abortion activists who also plan to train more late-term abortionists and have already raised $20,000 from pro-abortion donors. New Jersey already permits abortion through all nine months and has targeted pregnancy resource centers in court. This expansion will mean more viable, pain-capable babies—able to survive outside the womb—will be killed, rather than mothers being offered real support and life-affirming alternatives.
Wisconsin Abortions Resume Despite Cuts: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has resumed scheduling abortions after a 26-day pause triggered by President Trump’s new federal law cutting Medicaid funding to abortion providers. To continue receiving Medicaid, the organization dropped its “Essential Community Provider” designation—an administrative workaround designed to circumvent the law. Planned Parenthood performed 3,727 abortions in Wisconsin last year, with roughly 60% of its patients on Medicaid. These mothers need compassionate and life-affirming support—not an industry that profits from ending the lives of their babies.
Good News
Life Protected in Arkansas: Arkansas has once again been ranked the most pro-life state in America—its sixth year in a row—according to Americans United for Life. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders celebrated the recognition alongside the Arkansas Family Council, noting that the state has enacted more than 65 pro-life laws since Roe v. Wade to defend the unborn, the elderly, the disabled, and the terminally ill. Recent legislation includes bans on race-based abortions and $5 million in support services for women facing unplanned pregnancies. Arkansas leaders say they remain committed to safeguarding life from conception to natural death.
Quote of the Week
“For if the man is the head, the woman is the heart, and as he occupies the chief place in ruling, so she may and ought to claim for herself the chief place in love.”
~ Pope Pius XI
