Life Advocacy Briefing

Question of the Week

IF AMERICANS ARE DISTURBED by a Colorado history teacher’s praise of the ancient Incan empire’s practice of sacrificing children, shouldn’t we apply that same opprobrium to decriminalization of abortion? (See BreakPoint commentary near the close of this edition.)

Sinking Lower

ILLINOIS GOV. J.B. PRITZER (D) HAS SIGNED two new laws designed to plunge the formerly pro-life state deeper into the culture of death by abortion.

HB-3637 seals the state’s reputation as a sanctuary for abortionists by shielding them from prosecution in other states for facilitating abortions contrary to those states’ laws. Cross-border abortion racketeering is becoming an increasing problem with the continued legality of mifepristone marketing and the rise of internet abortion marketing. The refusal of the federal government to enforce the Logan Act, which bars shipping abortifacients through the US mail, is aiding this racket, and now Gov. Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly have set up Illinois as a hub for abortion trafficking.

“Twelve states currently ban all or most abortions,” notes Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews. “But the unregulated, no-oversight distribution of contraceptive and abortion pills across state lines has become arguably the abortion lobby’s most effective tactic for preserving abortion ‘access.’”

What is more, “HB-3709 makes abortion and contraception pills available on Illinois college campuses,” reports Mr. Freiburger. Parents and aspiring college students, beware.

Progress

A FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE HAS UPHELD the Trump Administration’s authority to deny federal Medicaid dollars, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “to the top abortion business in Maine.”

The misnamed Maine Family Planning sought an injunction against the ban on federal Medicaid dollars going to “any entity that commits abortions for reasons other than rape, incest or supposed threats to the mother’s life,” notes Mr. Freiburger – a provision of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB) governing federal spending and signed by Pres. Trump in July. MFP “runs 18 facilities,” reports Mr. Freiburger, “and stands to lose up to $1.9 million.”

Judge Lance Walker denied the MFP’s bid for an injunction, affirming the validity of the BBB’s defunding-abortion provision.

Judge Walker was appointed to the Maine District bench by Pres. Donald Trump in 2018 and became chief judge for the district in 2024.

“A federal injunction in a separate challenge brought by Planned Parenthood remains in place,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “meaning that the restriction will apply to Maine Family Planning but not other abortion businesses in the state.” We can only wonder how long that dichotomy will last.

US Rebukes UK on Free-Speech Infringement

ENGLAND’s ESTABLISHMENT OF ‘BUFFER ZONES’ around abortuaries has led to “crushing fines against peaceful pro-life activists,” reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, and now to a rebuke from the US State Department, “putting the UK on notice for infringing on the free speech of pro-life English subjects, calling it an affront to the ‘shared values’ between the two nations.

“The Telegraph reported that the State Dept. issued a statement,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “accusing one of its closest geopolitical allies of ‘egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech … .’ …

“Earlier this year, retired scientist Livia Tossici-Bolt was found guilty,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “and ordered to pay prosecution costs of $25,777.34 for holding up a sign that read ‘here to talk, if you want to’ within 150 meters of the BPAS abortion center in Bournemouth. Rose Docherty, a 75-year-old Scottish grandmother, was arrested under similar circumstances, but charges were dropped amid international outcry. …

“In May, the Trump Administration sent a State Dept. delegation to England,” reports LifeSiteNews, “to investigate the free-speech situation, including meeting with Tossici-Bolt and Docherty and other similar victims, and report back on their findings to ‘affirm the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe.’”

Game On

A SPECIAL ELECTION IS ON for Sept. 9 for the seat left vacant by the passing of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D). Though the northern Virginia seat is likely to be won by the Democratic nominee, for whom “defending reproductive freedom” is a “priority,” according to his campaign website, a Fairfax County Schools controversy has offered his GOP opponent an appeal to voters offended by the FCPS abortion advocacy.

“As a father of five school-aged children, two of whom attend high school right here in Fairfax County,” proclaims Mr. Whitson in an Aug. 13 Fairfax County Times op-ed, “I cannot sit quietly while chaos and deceit spread through our public schools. In recent weeks, alarming allegations have surfaced about FCPS staff assisting two underage girls in obtaining abortions without their parents’ knowledge or consent. One of the two victims was only 17 when the abortion was performed, allegedly without the consent of her parents in violation of state law. The other child was allegedly coerced to get the abortion by an adult staffer in a position of power, and ultimately ran from the facility before the abortion could be performed. It is also alleged that FCPS funds were used to pay for the abortion, and that other staff were aware and may have assisted.

“Let me be clear,” writes Mr. Whitson: “If these allegations are confirmed, this is not a misunderstanding, not a ‘policy gray area,’ and certainly not an isolated lapse in judgment. This is a deliberate and systematic betrayal of trust, a direct assault on parental rights, and a clear violation of Virginia law. We must have immediate transparency and full accountability without delay. These horrible incidents, if true,” he writes, “did not happen by chance. They are the inevitable results of a dangerous policy that empowers politically-biased bureaucrats over parents. The current FCPS policy says that ‘every effort shall be made to encourage and support students suspecting pregnancy to discuss their concerns with their parents or guardians.’ That’s not good enough. Every parent should know immediately if their child is facing a pregnancy. The policy must be rewritten to require staff to inform parents right away. Zero exceptions. Zero loopholes.” …

Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: We do not have space to reprint the full column; we encourage readers to check it out at https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/opinion-fairfax-county-schools-are-failing-our-children-and-families-are-paying-the-price/article_f63dfce5-efd2-4fc8-8f0f-95c5e0b0a723.html .

Giving More Thought to IVF

Excerpts from February, 2025, Making Sense of Bioethics commentary by Fr. Ted Pacholczyk

             On Feb. 18, 2025, Pres. Trump issued an executive order entitled “Expanding Access to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), in which he stated, “My Administration recognizes the importance of family formation, and as a nation, our public policy must make it easier for loving and longing mothers and fathers to have children.” The order sets in motion a review process to obtain policy recommendations for “protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.” Although it seeks the good end of fostering family building, it embraces a reckless and unethical means of pursuing that goal. …

             The use of IVF to bring new human life into the world always involves a disordered choice on the part of a couple or an individual. By allowing various third parties and employees from the infertility industry to build their children for them, parents commodify, objectify and instrumentalize both their own sexuality and the vulnerable bodies of their embryonic children. Because of IVF, an industry has arisen that, at its core, produces and markets human beings and treats persons as products. This has had the effect of establishing a subclass and dehumanizing an entire segment of humanity; those who can now be sold, exploited, manipulated or handed over to stemcell researchers for destruction. …

             Given the moral objectionability of IVF, what should the Administration do when it comes to IVF? Simply put, the opposite of what it has done thus far. It should seek to forbid the practice through statutory mechanisms or, if that is not yet politically possible, limit and circumscribe the practice by bringing it under tight regulation and oversight.

             The golden rule in the IVF industry has long been that if it makes gold, it’s got to be good and ethical. Its unique and much-touted “self-regulation” has made it into something of a laughingstock, so much so that the industry is often branded by the epithet, “the wild west of infertility.”

             Strict regulation of IVF has a strong precedent even in some of the more progressive countries in Europe. If Germany and Italy have been able to regulate IVF by passing laws that restrict the production of embryos to a maximum of three at a time, with the requirement that all three be implanted, why couldn’t the administration, at a minimum, establish similar regulations to limit the collateral damage of IVF in the US? In our country, hundreds of thousands of cryopreserved human embryos have been abandoned and condemned to perpetual stasis in liquid nitrogen. The practical effect of the Italian and German laws has been to preclude the production of supernumerary embryos during IVF and to eliminate the humanitarian tragedy of freezing and storage of the youngest human beings by clinics. …   

             Rather than governmental intrusions promoting exploitative technologies like IVF, Americans are entitled to upright approaches that beckon life into society through loving acts of marital intimacy and nurture and support it within the sanctuary of the family.

Abortion Imperialism Called Out

Aug. 22, 2025, LifeSiteNews report

             Pro-life activists called on Kenya’s Ministry of Health to investigate the illegal practices of an international group pushing abortion pills on women. The pro-life activists launched a petition through CitizenGO, urging the government of Kenya to prevent the practices of the pro-abortion group IPAS.

             “IPAS Africa Alliance is pushing dangerous abortion pills on vulnerable Kenyan girls and women under the false label of ‘health care,’” the petition states. “Pharmacies, schools and slums are being flooded with chemical abortions. With foreign money, IPAS bribes health workers, bends the law and turns pharmacies into illegal abortion shops,” it continues.

             According to the website Inside Philanthropy, IPAS is “the world’s only international NGO [non-government organization] dedicated exclusively to expanding access to abortion and contraception.”

             IPAS operates in many countries around the world, but its headquarters and board of directors are based in [you guessed it] the US. It has received funding from the Ford and Susan Thompson Buffett Foundations, as well as the MacArthur Foundation.

             The activist accused IPAS of leaving women without care after giving them abortion pills “delivered through WhatsApp or anonymous pharmacies” to circumvent regulations. [Sound familiar?] “Girls are left to bleed, suffer trauma and even risk death – without care, support or accountability. Babies are expelled in bathrooms. Women are abandoned when complications come,” the pro-lifers wrote. They stressed that IPAS is using the same methods in other countries, such as Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa. “They flood entire regions with abortion pills, especially where young women have little access to medical care. Africa is being used as a testing ground for unsafe practices.”

             [As if that’s not surreally familiar enough], The pro-life activists noted that IPAS is spreading propaganda “to normalize abortion among teens. … This must be exposed. IPAS is not only breaking Kenya’s laws, it is exploiting the most vulnerable across Africa,” the petition states.

             “This petition is our chance to say no. No to turning Kenya into a dumping ground for abortion pills. No to the abuse of our daughters. No to foreign profiteers who trade life for money.”

             As Live Action noted, a recent report showed “that nearly 11% of women (10.93%) who take the abortion pill experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging or other serious or life-threatening adverse events – meaning one in 10 women experience at least one serious complication from taking mifepristone within 45 days.”

             International pro-abortion groups have targeted traditionally pro-life and pro-family African countries for decades under the guise of providing so-called “reproductive health,” a euphemism for the killing of the unborn.

Sick but Predictable

Aug. 27, 2025, BreakPoint commentary by John Stonestreet & Glenn Sunshine

             Recently, a history teacher from Littleton, Colorado, went viral for praising the way the Incas, her favorite empire, sacrificed children. She also reprimanded “white education” for wrongly teaching generations of Americans that the practice was bad. I’m not making this up.

             After noting that human sacrifice was common within most ancient civilizations, the teacher clarified that the Incan version offered victims from the upper class because they were closer to the gods. Also, the Incas drugged children before leaving them to die of exposure on top of a mountain. Objections to this cultural practice, she continued, are primarily due to a white perspective, which focuses on the negative aspects of great civilizations while ignoring their wonderful accomplishments.

             Defending child sacrifice is the ultimate expression of cultural relativism. In this view, all cultures are equally valid, except white cultures that judge others. To paraphrase a former colleague, there is no difference between cultures that love their neighbors and cultures that eat their neighbors.

             Of course, this teacher’s innovative defense of the Incas misses a few important points. First, children as young as four were sacrificed. Even if they could consent at that age, does that make it any less horrific? But of course, they cannot. The teacher fails to mention evidence of a 4-to-5-year-old child who was tied up before being buried alive. The simplest explanation for drugging the young victims is minimizing resistance – not kindness.

             To that point, is there any scenario in which drugging a child and leaving her to die could be considered kind, even if that were the intent? Just as inconvenient to this narrative are the Incan sacrificial victims found who died from strangulation, suffocation and being stabbed in the back.

             The most important motivator for this Incan practice is that it was considered an honor for a child to be chosen for sacrifice. So children were frequently “volunteered” by parents in order to curry favor with the emperor. Children were offered when an Incan emperor died, on the birth of his heir, at times of crisis to lure the gods to their side and for other ceremonial occasions.

             Another aspect of this conversation neglected by the teacher is, what changed? Why is this kind of child sacrifice today universally viewed as abhorrent. The answer is Christianity. Believing that every human being is made in the image of God, Christians from the earliest centuries argued for the inherent dignity of the marginalized in society, especially women, slaves and children. Christians in Rome opposed the practice of infanticide, rescuing unwanted infants who were left to die and raising them as full members of the Christian community. They also opposed abortion.

             Thus the defense of children became a feature of Christian witness throughout history. For example, in the 19^th century, missionary Mary Slessor was known for rescuing twins who had been left to die. The tribal people of Nigeria believed one twin was always a child of a demon. Her actions ended that deadly practice.

             To be clear, sacrificing children continues to be one of the most consistent features of this fallen world. Today, aborted children are the victims of our wrong ideas about sexuality and the meaning of life. Most embryos created during the process of in vitro fertilization are deemed to be “excess” and left to die in freezers or medical experiments. Children are taught to be confused about who they are and thus become experiments of medication sterilization and surgical mutilation, and victims of the latest religious hysteria of adults. Christians who oppose these practices today are in good company with church history.

             As the western world detaches itself from its Christian foundations, we should expect that more children will be devalued and harmed in more ways. A consistent feature of pagan societies is for children to be in danger. …

Wisdom from the Great Communicator

EXCERPT #17 from Abortion & the Conscience of the Nation, 1983 treatise by then-President Ronald Reagan, published in Human Life Review, then as a hardcover book from Thomas Nelson Publishers

             We fought a terrible war to guarantee that one category of mankind – black people in America – could not be denied the inalienable rights with which their Creator endowed them. The great champion of the sanctity of all human life in that day, Abraham Lincoln, gave us his assessment of the Declaration’s purpose. Speaking of the framers of that noble document, he said: “This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on. … They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children and their children’s children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages.”