In This Issue:
- PRI in the Media
- CRS in the Spotlight
- Communism’s “Useful Idiots”
- Arrested for a Documentary
- The Global Birth Dearth
- Pfizer Under Fire
- Deepening Depopulation
- Long-Term Pronatal Success
- Communist China
- A Human Egg Farm
- Record Decline in Marriage
- Science Gone Mad
- A Primer on IVF
- Pro-Life Around the World
- Euthanasia Comes to Italy
- Health Babies Aborted
- Loosened Legislation
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Maternal Mortality Falls
- Parental Consent Law Struck Down
- Abortifacient Garden
- Support from Broglio
- Good News
- Adoption Over Abortion
PRI in the Media
CRS in the Spotlight: According to recent reports, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is preparing to lay off half of its 7,000 employees due to the Trump administration’s suspension of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding. Leaders at CRS have criticized the freeze, which aims to address waste and bias in USAID programs, for affecting projects that “help the poorest of the poor all over the world.” However, CRS has a reputation for using its power and donations for purposes beyond simply helping the poor, often engaging in activities that contradict Catholic teachings. As the Lepanto Institute (LI) and PRI revealed last year, CRS has, in multiple countries, referred girls as young as 10 to abortion and contraception providers, been the “prime implementer” of projects that, through a network of partners, is designed to spread and promote contraception and condoms, and has even corrupting the good morals of young girls with its own materials.
Read our full 2024 report on CRS here: https://www.pop.org/crs/
Communism’s “Useful Idiots”: Communist regimes often rely on “useful idiots” who unknowingly help their cause by downplaying the true dangers of the ideology and the group behind it. Today, we see this play out through Left-wing writers who downplay China’s ambitions to replace the U.S. as the global leader, claiming China only seeks a place in the current world order. These writers dismiss the ideological and historical roots of communist regimes, which are based on the long-term goals of global revolution. Books such as PRI President Steven Mosher’s Bully of Asia are written off as “selective and debatable interpretations of Chinese policy statements and documents.” In downplaying the dangers of communism—in particular, the Chinese Communist Party—these writers lull the public into a false sense of security and bestow an incorrect understanding of the current situation.
Arrested for a Documentary: A Shanghai court sentenced 33-year-old Chen Pinlin to over three years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after creating a film called “Urumqi Middle Road.” The film depicted the Chinese government’s harsh COVID-19 crackdown and the subsequent “White Paper” protests, which were sparked by a deadly apartment fire in Urumqi during lockdowns. The protests, which spread to major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, voiced opposition to President Xi Jinping’s strict zero-COVID policies, including forced confinement and harsh restrictions. At the time, Mr. Mosher cautioned that the lethal consequences of Shanghai’s prolonged lockdowns would far exceed any potential COVID-related deaths, predicting fatalities from starvation, strokes, and heart attacks.
The Global Birth Dearth: PRI’s work was cited in the sources for the Catholic World Report’s primer on the “Global Birth Dearth.” This primer breaks down how the fear of overpopulation began, how we’re facing a population bust today, and where we go from here. In 1970, Paul Ehrlich predicted the following: “Sometime in the next 15 years, the end will come—and by the end, I mean an utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to support humanity.” His fear-mongering led to a shocking conclusion: “Unless we limit births, overpopulation is going to ruin humanity.” Today, as PRI has been saying for decades, leaders are admitting that reducing the world’s population was a mistake and we now face a global depopulation crisis.
Pfizer Under Fire: Live Action News shared PRI’s latest Weekly Briefing, “Pfizer Under Fire for Link Between Depo-Provera and Brain Tumors.” For decades, Depo-Provera’s safety has been questioned. Now, research has found that the main ingredient in Depo-Provera has a serious adverse effect: brain tumors. Women in the U.S. are suing Pfizer for failing to warn them of this life-altering health effect. Yet, as U.S. cases gain traction, women in developing nations continue to have contraceptives, including Depo-Provera pushed on them by foreign governments and agencies, regardless of its tumor-causing properties.
Deepening Depopulation
Long-Term Pronatal Success: Many media outlets are spreading the idea that pronatal policy has insignificant effects. But according to the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), this view is “completely and catastrophically wrong.” In IFS’s view, pronatal policies can have massive effects on national population trajectories and defeatism about pronatalism can lead to complacency by policymakers and thus even worse outcomes. France is an example of long-term, pronatal success. Eighty years of pronatal policies in France increased the country’s fertility rate, and without these policies, the population would be five to ten million smaller.
Communist China
A Human Egg Farm: A disturbing human trafficking operation has been uncovered in the Eastern European country Georgia. At least 100 women were held captive as slaves at a “human egg farm.” The women, lured by promises of high-paying surrogacy work, were instead trapped by Chinese gangsters who forcibly harvested their eggs after pumping them with hormones and anesthetizing them monthly. The women discovered they were being exploited for illegal egg trafficking, with their eggs sold on the black market, not used for surrogacy as they were told. The situation came to light after three Thai women were rescued following a ransom payment.
Record Decline in Marriage: Marriage rates in China dropped by 20% last year, marking the largest decline on record, despite government efforts to encourage young couples to marry and have children to address the country’s declining population. High childcare and education costs, along with slow economic growth and job insecurity, have led to reduced interest in marriage and starting families. In 2023, over 6.1 million couples married, down from 7.68 million the previous year, and significantly lower than the 13.47 million marriages in 2013. Demographer Yi Fuxian called the decline “unprecedented,” noting the decrease was even greater than during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Science Gone Mad
A Primer on IVF: The Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has released a three-page “Catholic Primer on In Vitro Fertilization.” The primer answers eight key questions, including “What is IVF?”, “Why is IVF wrong?”, and “Are there any acceptable medical treatments for couples facing infertility?”
For even more information on IVF, read PRI’s fact sheet here: https://www.pop.org/in-vitro-fertilization-the-process-risks-consequences-explained/
Pro-Life Around the World
Euthanasia Comes to Italy: Tuscany has become the first region in Italy to approve a right-to-die law, regulating assisted suicide in the absence of national legislation. The law, passed by a 27-13 majority, outlines how requests for assisted suicide should be handled, including the formation of a medical panel to review applications within 30 days. If approved, the regional health service must provide the necessary medication and staff within 10 days, unless the patient prefers their own doctor. The law allows doctors to refuse participation on moral or ethical grounds. Before the law was passed, the Catholic charity Pro Vita Famiglia criticized Tuscany for facilitating assisted death, accurately calling it a way to “get rid of sick, fragile, old and lonely people.”
Healthy Babies Aborted: Two couples have shared with the BBC that they went through with abortions after the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust incorrectly informed them their unborn babies had serious genetic conditions. These incorrect results resulted in the couples choosing to abort their babies. The trust is currently under investigation for the largest maternity inquiry in NHS history but maintains that its fetal medicine teams aim to provide “compassionate and professional” care. These events highlight two major issues in society today: 1) The reliance on genetic testing, which is known to be imperfect, and 2) The eugenic mindset that leads some couples to choose abortion rather than embrace their child regardless of the possibility of a disability.
Loosened Legislation: A New South Wales Health review of abortion legislation has recommended the government relax the rules on who is able to dispense the abortion pills. This change would enable at least 900 additional healthcare providers, consisting of midwives and nurse practitioners, to prescribe MS-2 Step, a medication for terminating pregnancies up to 63 days after a menstrual period. This proposal follows a similar move made in Queensland, Western Australia. It would drastically increase the availability of chemical abortions in New South Wales.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Maternal Mortality Falls: The Center for Disease Control has released a report showing that maternal mortality has fallen in the year after states passed pro-life legislation. Between 2022 and 2023, the U.S. maternal mortality rate decreased by 16.6%, reaching its lowest point since 2018, at 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births. This decline follows a rise in the mortality rate from 2018 to 2021, with a sharp drop between 2021 and 2022. In response, Michael J. New, a scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, argued that the data demonstrates that pro-abortion advocates are wrong when they claim that pro-life legislation harms women. He pointed out that maternal and infant mortality rates have improved since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, despite predictions to the contrary.
Parental Consent Law Struck Down: The Montana Supreme Court recently struck down the state’s parental consent law for minors seeking an abortion, claiming that it violated the state’s constitutional right to privacy and equal protection. The law, passed in 2013, required parental consent or a judicial waiver for a minor to obtain an abortion. The court outright rejected the state’s arguments that the law protected minors and their families, instead concluding that the law infringed on minors’ fundamental right to privacy and did not adequately protect them. This decision reinforces the Montana Supreme Court’s broad interpretation of the state constitutional right to privacy, which “affords significantly broader protections than the federal constitution.”
Abortifacient Garden: Barnard College is currently running an exhibit titled “Trigger Planting 2.0,” which features dried herbs and an outdoor garden with plants historically used to induce abortions. This exhibit was allegedly set up as a tribute to the “changing conditions of reproductive rights in the United States.” In addition to this exhibit, information sessions have been given on “self-managed abortion” and the “abortion pill.” The event has raised concerns that young women will be misled into believing that they can use herbal abortifacients on their own, many of which are toxic and pose serious health risks.
Support from Broglio: Archbishop Timothy Broglio has expressed strong support for the termination of tax-funded abortion travel for service members. He issued the following statement regarding Trump’s decision:
“The very good news that President Trump has signed an executive order to return to enforcement of the Hyde Amendment in the military is welcomed by all who strive to protect unborn children. I have long been concerned about the use of tax-payers’ contributions to finance the taking of innocent life and also the violation of conscience for senior officers who were required to approve such funding. I hope that the authorization for abortion in the medical centers of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs will also be canceled soon. I am grateful for the President’s decision.”
Good News
Adoption Over Abortion: Users searching for abortion information on the CDC’s website are now receiving a suggestion to search for “adoption,” in addition to receiving the abortion-related search results. This change follows a recent issue where over a dozen federal agency websites, including the CDC’s, went offline. Abortion providers interviewed by The Hill described the change as a “clear attempt” to shift the way discussions about pregnancy are framed. This would be a positive change for the CDC, as it would provide vulnerable, pregnant women with information about all their options, particularly those that don’t involve taking the life of their unborn child.
Quote of the Week
“So please go forth, not with frustration, but with joy. We are joyful to march for life. We are joyful to know that that picture on an ultrasound, that is a picture of a baby with hopes and dreams and potential to come.”
~ Vice President J. D. Vance, March for Life 2025
