In This Issue:
- Deepening Depopulation
- Turkey’s Birth Rate Plummets
- UK Fertility Crisis Tied to Abortion
- Married Moms Working More
- Lithuania’s Push to Raise Birthrate
- Communist China
- Congress Confronts China’s Crackdown
- UN Misdeeds
- UN Expands Global Censorship Push
- Science Gone Mad
- Federal Report Slams ‘Gender Medicine’
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Monaco Rejects Abortion Expansion
- Euthanasia Deaths Surge in Australia
- Failed Healthcare Pushes MAiD
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- North Dakota Abortion Ban Reinstated
- U.S. to Declare Abortion as Rights Abuse
- Ohio Moves to End Telehealth Abortions
- Good News
- $80M Effort to Mobilize Pro-Life Voters
Deepening Depopulation
Turkey’s Birth Rate Plummets: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned that the nation is facing a demographic “disaster” as fertility continues to fall. Turkey’s fertility rate dropped to 1.48 in 2024, while the share of elderly citizens has climbed to 10.6%. Projections show that one in four Turks will be over 65 by 2050, and four in ten by 2100. Erdoğan noted that fertility among employed women is just 1.38, urging greater family support and stronger pro-family policies as economic pressures, urbanization, delayed marriage, and cultural shifts accelerate the decline.
UK Fertility Crisis Tied to Abortion: A new report by public health consultant Kevin Duffy warns that abortion is playing a major role in England and Wales’ record-low fertility and rising lifelong childlessness. Duffy’s analysis shows that by 2045, 1 in 4 women may reach age 45 without ever giving birth, with abortion a major factor in roughly half of these cases. In 2022 alone, women under 25 had 190,970 conceptions, nearly 48% ending in abortion. With the national fertility rate at just 1.41—the lowest on record—Duffy notes that women are rarely told that being childless at 30 carries a 50% chance of remaining childless at 45, urging greater transparency and support for young mothers.
Married Moms Working More: A new report from the Institute for Family Studies finds a major shift in U.S. work–family patterns: for the first time on record, married mothers with young children are more likely than unmarried mothers to work full time (56% vs. 54%). Employment has risen fastest among moms with children under age 5, even though only 39% of married mothers in this group want full-time work. Rising costs, now cited by 70% of families, along with inflation and opportunity costs for college-educated women, are driving the change. The report highlights a persistent gap between mothers’ preferences for part-time work and the scarcity of flexible job options.
Lithuania’s Push to Raise Birthrate: Lithuania’s president has unveiled a new set of pronatalist tax and social-policy incentives aimed at lifting the country’s collapsing fertility rate, now just 1.18 children per woman. His goal is to raise fertility to 1.5 after several years of steep decline. Proposed measures include a five-year income-tax exemption for each child in families with two or more children, employer tax incentives, expanded parental-leave support, tuition refunds after childbirth, and rent-to-own housing. Lithuania’s working-age population has fallen from 2.34 million in 1998 to 1.89 million in 2024, and 52% of citizens view the demographic crisis as “bad” or “very bad.”
Communist China
Congress Confronts China’s Crackdown: A recent U.S. congressional hearing spotlighted China’s escalating crackdown on religious freedom, with witnesses detailing repression against Christian, Muslim, and Tibetan Buddhist communities. Testimony highlighted the case of Beijing Zion Church, whose pastor, Ezra Jin, and 27 other leaders were detained on October 10 after refusing to install government surveillance. Pastor Jin’s daughter described years of mounting restrictions and forced closures as the church shifted to hybrid worship. Experts, including Ambassador Sam Brownback and Dr. Bob Fu, urged stronger international pressure and targeted sanctions to counter China’s growing campaign against independent religious belief.
UN Misdeeds
UN Expands Global Censorship Push: A new UN General Assembly resolution has expanded the organization’s global censorship framework, empowering UN bodies to police so-called “disinformation” and “hate speech”—labels increasingly used to suppress debate on abortion, transgender issues, migration, and other controversial social issues. The measure passed 169–3, with only the U.S., Argentina, and Paraguay opposing. The resolution endorses the UN’s sweeping “Information Integrity” principles, which encourage direct and indirect censorship across tech platforms. This framework gives the UN and EU broad authority to silence dissenting viewpoints, including pro-life and pro-family positions.
Science Gone Mad
Federal Report Slams ‘Gender Medicine’: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released a sweeping 410-page, peer-reviewed report concluding that the scientific evidence behind “gender-affirming” hormones and surgeries for minors is “very low-quality” and carries substantial risks. The review documents harms associated with hormonal interventions and surgeries, resulting in lasting physical and long-term psychological damage. HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy said the findings confirm that major medical groups misled the public by promoting dangerous, experimental interventions for children. Senior Fellow Walt Heyer added that the report validates years of warnings from experts urging stronger protections for vulnerable minors.
Pro-Life Around the World
Monaco Rejects Abortion Expansion: H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco has vetoed a bill that would have legalized abortion up to 12 weeks, reaffirming Monaco’s longstanding pro-life laws rooted in its Catholic identity. Current policy allows abortion only in rare cases—rape, danger to the mother, or severe fetal anomaly. Although the National Council approved the expansion 19–2, Prince Albert said the existing framework “respects who we are.” His decision preserves Monaco as one of Europe’s last pro-life exceptions amid growing continental pressure for abortion liberalization.
Euthanasia Deaths Surge in Australia: New data from Western Australia shows a dramatic 64% surge in euthanasia and assisted-suicide deaths in just one year, rising from 293 in 2023–24 to 480 in 2024–25, now 2.6% of all deaths in the region. Since legalization in 2021, 1,219 people have ended their lives this way, a 151% increase from the first reporting year. Of the 480 deaths last year, 94% were practitioner-administered euthanasia and only 6% were assisted suicide. Alarmingly, one-third of individuals cited feeling like a “burden on family, friends/caregivers” as a reason for seeking death.
Failed Healthcare Pushes MAiD: An Ontario family is speaking out after 84-year-old Cleo Gratton sought Canada’s assisted-suicide program (MAiD) because it was easier to access than the medical care he desperately needed. Gratton spent 12 hours in a dark, overcrowded emergency hallway with no lighting, no privacy, and an IV pole held together with tongue depressors and tape. He told his family he’d rather die by euthanasia than return. Though approved for MAiD, he died of natural causes before it was carried out. His family says his case exposes a broken system where inadequate care is pushing vulnerable patients toward state-sanctioned death.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
North Dakota Abortion Ban Reinstated: North Dakota’s near-total abortion ban has been reinstated after the state Supreme Court allowed the 2023 law to stand, ruling that challengers failed to obtain the four-fifths supermajority required to strike it down. The law makes performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, protecting nearly all unborn children while permitting exceptions to save the mother’s life and for rape or incest up to six weeks. Justice Jerod Tufte noted that North Dakota’s constitution contains no implied “right to abortion.” The state now joins 16 others with strong pro-life protections.
U.S. to Declare Abortion as Rights Abuse: The U.S. State Department will soon classify state-funded abortion, child gender transitions, euthanasia coercion, mass immigration policies, and restrictions on free speech as human rights violations in its annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices. The move reverses prior administrations’ emphasis on “LGBTQI rights” and restores focus to religious freedom and protections for vulnerable populations. Officials say the updated framework responds to “destructive ideologies” that enable abuses such as taxpayer-funded abortion and the “mutilation of children.”
Ohio Moves to End Telehealth Abortions: Ohio lawmakers have advanced HB 324, a bill that would effectively end telehealth abortions by requiring an in-person exam for any drug with “serious adverse effects” in more than 5% of patients, a standard that includes the abortion pill mifepristone. Under the bill, abortionists could no longer mail the drug or prescribe it via telemedicine, and women would receive medical supervision and clear risk disclosures. Pro-life groups praised the measure, noting research showing that roughly 11% of women experience serious complications after a chemical abortion. The bill now moves to the state Senate.
Good News
$80M Effort to Mobilize Pro-Life Voters: Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Women Speak Out PAC have launched an $80 million voter-mobilization effort ahead of the 2026 midterms—one of the largest pro-life grassroots campaigns to date. The groups plan to reach 10.5 million voters and conduct 4.5 million door-to-door visits across key Senate and House battlegrounds. SBA leaders say a strong pro-life turnout will be decisive, noting that President Trump won 91% of pro-life voters in 2024. Motivated by their goal to protect and expand pro-life majorities nationwide.
Quote of the Week
“Faithful Catholic marriage is likely sooner or later to bring with it signs of closeness to Our Lord with a wonderful unpredictability, unforeseeable depths of love but also sometimes deep challenges, which our Lord saves for those closest to him. But He always gives the strength to sustain them.”
~ Fr. Patrick Pullicino
