Life Advocacy Briefing

Model Approach?

LEGISLATION APPEARS TO BE ON THE WAY IN INDIANA, writes Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, to “crack down on the distribution of abortion pills in the pro-life state, to counteract their undermining of Indiana’s legal protection for unborn babies.”

A key provision of SB-236 is its foundation in civil law, authorizing “wrongful death lawsuits to be brought,” Mr. Freiburger writes, “by either the mother or father of a preborn child killed via abortion-inducing drugs.” Such a law – based in civil litigation rather than criminal prosecution – is not dependent on the political proclivities of elected prosecutors.

Further, as can be seen by last week’s response of the medical profession to a massive civil award in a gender-transitioning case, using the civil law could shift the medical community more quickly toward a pro-life commitment, as civil law remedies have a strong impact on the costs and availability of malpractice insurance throughout the medical profession.  

Quoting the official legislative summary, Mr. Freiburger writes the proposal “would make anyone ‘who manufactures, distributes, mails, transports, delivers, prescribes or provides an abortion-inducing drug … jointly and severally liable for: (1) the wrongful death of an unborn child or pregnant woman from the use of an abortion-inducing drug; and (2) personal injury of an unborn child or pregnant woman from the use of an abortion-inducing drug.’”

The Senate-passed bill now goes to the Indiana House, notes Mr. Freiburger, “where Republicans hold a 40-seat advantage and where it is unlikely to have trouble reaching Republican Gov. Mike Braun’s desk for a signature.

“‘In this state, as a pro-life state, it is a public interest if someone is violating these laws,’ said Republican State Sen. Liz Brown, one of the bill’s co-authors,” quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘If there’s a prescriber, or someone grabbing these pills or these, you know, sort of the wild-wild west online of abortion pill providers, we can go after them, if we can find them.’” And they will face the potential of a lawsuit, a liability which could well hike the price of malpractice insurance to those professionals involved in the racket.

Done, for Now

Feb. 3, 2026, report by Zachary Mettler for Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen

             Planned Parenthood has dropped its lawsuit [Planned Parenthood v. Kennedy] attempting to block a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill which prohibits taxpayer dollars from going to abortion providers for one year. …

             Last year, Congressional Republicans utilized the reconciliation process to enact the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which Pres. Donald J. Trump signed into law on July 4. The bill contained a provision (Section 71113) defunding abortion providers – including Planned Parenthood – of Medicaid reimbursements to the tune of roughly $850 million.

             Before the OBBBA’s enactment, while federal taxpayer dollars couldn’t directly pay for abortions, Medicaid dollars could be used for other services, which indirectly subsidized the abortion business. In its 2024 report, Planned Parenthood reported over $2 billion in income.

             Thankfully, 50 Planned Parenthood clinics closed last year as a result of the OBBBA. Within days of its enactment, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit arguing Sec. 71113 was unconstitutional. Within hours, a federal district judge sided with the abortion giant and issued a temporary restraining order blocking the provision’s enforcement.

             The Trump Administration promptly appealed the ruling, and a three-judge panel on the 1^st US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the decision, agreeing that Congress has the constitutional authority to defund Big Abortion organizations. When Congress utilizes its tax-and-spending power, it has “‘broad discretion’ to place ‘limits on the use of such funds to ensure they are used in the manner [it] intends,’” the court explained. As a result, Planned Parenthood agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case rather than appeal it to the US Supreme Court.

             Planned Parenthood originally filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, knowing any appeal would be heard by the First Circuit – a notoriously liberal appeals court. But the abortion giant’s strategy didn’t pan out. …

March for Life Address

Today’s Life Advocacy transcript from the Jan. 23, 2026, March for Life in Washington will be the first segment of a lengthy speech by Vice President J.D. Vance; we expect to publish more next week.

             Good morning, marchers – how’re we doin’?! It’s great to be with you again. It was my very first speech as Vice President of the United States was the March for life last year, and I’m proud to be back with much better weather this time around. Now some of you may remember that in my remarks last year, I told you all that one of the things I most wanted in the United States of America was more families and more babies. So let the record show: You have a Vice President who practices what he preaches. Usha and I announced this week that we’re expecting our fourth, and it will be our third baby boy, so we’ll take whatever prayers you can give; we certainly need them.

             When I was here last year, I had one other piece of advice for this group and that was very simple – to be joyful in your advocacy, and looking out at this crowd today, it seems like you took that suggestion very well to heart. ’Cause I see joyful people, I see grandmas, I see parents, I see beautiful little kids with incredible green hats. Now did you all dress like that so that if you lost yourselves you could find everybody? OK, that’s a good plan; I’m gonna take that, I’m gonna take that advice back home.

             The theme of this year’s March for Life, as most of you all know, is that life is a gift, and I know for me personally this year, there is so much to be thankful for. I’m grateful to my own family, for my beautiful wife Usha, and that God has given us the miracle of new life again. I’m grateful for this movement, for the truth that is on our side, and frankly I’m thankful for the technological breakthroughs that have allowed us to affirm and protect life – things like 3D ultrasounds that didn’t exist just a few short decades ago; things like the new medical technologies that have saved the lives of countless premature babies.

             But let me today say that I’m especially grateful for all of you – even the ones with Michigan hats and there are a couple of you out there – for the thousands of men and women and children, for the church groups, the school groups, the grandparents and the toddlers and everyone in between, who braved this chilly Washington afternoon. All of us, all of us in the Trump Administration, from the President on down, we thank you for your prayers, we thank you for your perseverance, and we thank you that for today we are all marching for Life.

             And I know a lot of us heard from the President just before this, so you know that he loves and cares deeply about this movement, and it’s why he has fought for the pro-life cause and why we do it in this administration, and it’s why three years ago, we cannot forget, he delivered and his Supreme Court justices delivered the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime. Because with the Dobbs decision what we did – what the President did, what the Supreme Court did – was put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life. He shattered a fifty-year culture of disposability, one that treated human life as expendable the moment that it became inconvenient, and he empowered our nation and our movement to build a culture of life from the grassroots up.

             And over the last year – I got to brag a little bit – our administration has worked very hard to lead that effort and to pick up the pieces to clean up the wreckages of five decades of bad policy on the question of Life. (It’s an amazing crowd.) Our vision, our vision is simple: We want life to thrive in the United States of America; we want Americans – every American from all walks of life – to have happy, healthy children, and we want them to raise those kids with confidence that their kids are going to do well and grow up in safety and prosperity, that they’ll have access to good jobs, great schools, safe streets and warm houses in which to raise their kids. And we want all of our American families to be able to do it with the confidence that their nation will stand with them just as they have stood with the United States of America.

             Now, you all know this very well: that building a culture of life requires persuasion, and that’s what’s so different about this moment compared to the moment that was dominated by the Supreme Court for 50 years. We’re not trying to argue to the Supreme Court anymore; we’re trying to argue to our fellow citizens that we must build up that culture of life. And as you know, that effort is gonna take a lot of time; it’s gonna take a lot of energy, and it’s gonna take a little bit of money and that’s why we’re here, because you know that we’re marching for life because we want our wonderful fellow Americans – even if they don’t [agree] with us – to know that life is worthy; it is worthy of protection. And that is why we March today.

             So let me tell you something very simple: that under this administration, again from the President of the United States, the Vice President, you have an ally in the White House. Now some of our work over the last year has been very straightforward and very easy. We started by undoing the evils we saw under the previous administration, like, for example, throwing priests and grandmothers in prison for praying outside a clinic – that’s over; we stopped it. Where the previous administration mandated taxpayer funding for abortions, including travel costs across the entire government, this administration ended it.

             Over the past year we’ve built steadily upon the victories of the President’s first term. We have secured religious freedom in the United States of America once again; that was important. We have ended the censorship of Christians, Jews and other Americans of faith who were punished simply for following their faith in public life. We’ve expanded conscience protections for healthcare workers and defended faith-based foster care and adoption. We gutted Biden-era rules and ensured that no nun, no nurse, no pharmacist and no physician has to check their faith and their values at the door of their workplace. And under the last administration, under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the power of government we know was marshalled against us, against our faith, against our families and most importantly against the most vulnerable. That stops with the Trump Administration, and it is not coming back. Just this week, just this week we took action to force Illinois into compliance with the Weldon amendment and stop making health care providers refer for abortions; that was a big one.

             And as the President knows better than anybody, if we want to convince more Americans to choose life, we must also choose policies that make family life possible. So, we’ve done that as well. With the Trump accounts, we started at the very beginning of life investing in every new American child from day-one onward. We stood with parents by boosting the child tax credit as well, because no family should be penalized for choosing to have kids; in fact, we ought to be rewarding for families for choosing to have kids. And when Usha and I were having the debate about whether we were going to have a fourth kid, I said, Honey, we’ve got an expanded child tax credit and we’ve got the Trump accounts – we got to take advantage of this stuff. We’re restoring homeownership for real families, and you may not think this is connected to the pro-life cause, but when we ensure that real families’ moms and dads instead of Wall Street have access to American homes, we help create that important culture of life. And the thing that I am perhaps the most proud of is that we have been responsible stewards of your tax dollars on this question of life. And so just yesterday this administration launched fraud investigations into Planned Parenthood affiliates for millions of dollars in PPP loans that were unlawfully received and unlawfully forgiven by the Biden Administration; you should not be able to commit fraud and use taxpayer money for abortion. It’s that simple. At many other departments we’ve reinstated a ban on the use of fetal tissue and federal research – that’s another big one.

(Our transcript continues next week; the Vice President’s speech is the longest March speech we have ever heard! It is a blessing to us to present it to our readers.)

House Voting Record

Motion to Recommit (Kill) – HR-6359 – Pregnant Students’ Rights Act – Failed 213-216 – Jan. 22, 2026 (Democrats in italics; new Members in ALL CAPS)

Voting “no” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Moore, Palmer, Rogers, Strong/AL; Begich/AK; Biggs, Ciscomani, Crane, Gosar, Hamadeh, Schweikert/AZ; Crawford, Hill, Westerman, Womack/AR; Calvert, Fong, Issa, Kiley, Kim, Obernolte, Valadao/CA; Boebert, Crank, Evans, Hurd/CO; Bean, Bilirakis, Buchanan, Cammack, Diaz-Balart, Donalds, Dunn, Fine, Franklin, Gimenez, Haridopolos, Lee, Luna, Mast, Mills, PATRONIS, Rutherford, Salazar, Steube, Webster/FL; Allen, Carter, Clyde, Collins, Jack, Loudermilk, McCormick, Scott/GA; Fulcher, Simpson/ID; Bost, LaHood, Miller/IL; Baird, Houchin, Messmer, Shreve, Spartz, Stutzman, Yakym/IN; Feenstra, Hinson, Miller-Meeks, Nunn/IA; Estes, Mann, Schmidt/KA; Barr, Comer, Guthrie, Massie, Rogers/KY; Higgins, Letlow, Scalise/LA; Harris/MD; Barrett, Bergman, Huizenga, James, McClain, Moolenaar, Walberg/MI; Emmer, Finstad, Fischbach, Stauber/MN; Ezell, Guest, Kelly/MS; Alford, Burlison, Graves, Onder, Smith, Wagner/MO; Downing, Zinke/MT; Bacon, Flood, Smith/NE; Amodei/NV; Kean, Smith, VanDrew/NJ; Garbarino, LaLota, Langworthy, Lawler, Malliotakis, Stefanik, Tenney/NY; Edwards, Foxx, Harrigan, Harris, Hudson, Knott, McDowell, Moore, Murphy, Rouzer/NC; Fedorchak/ND; Balderson, Carey, Davidson, Jordan, Joyce, Latta, Miller, Rulli, Taylor, Turner/OH; Bice, Brecheen, Cole, Hern, Lucas/OK; Bentz/OR; Bresnahan, Fitzpatrick, Joyce, Kelly, MacKenzie, Meuser, Perry, Reschenthaler, Smucker, Thompson/PA; Biggs, Fry, Mace, Norman, Timmons, Wilson/SC;  Johnson/SD; Burchett, DesJarlais, Fleischmann, Harshbarger, Kustoff, Ogles, Rose, VanEpps/TN; Arrington, Babin, Carter, Cloud, Crenshaw, DeLaCruz, Ellzey, Fallon, Gill, Goldman, Gonzales, Gooden, Jackson, Luttrell, McCaul, Moran, Nehls, Pfluger, Roy, Self, Sessions, VanDuyne, Weber, Williams/TX; Kennedy, Maloy, Moore, Owens/UT; Cline, Griffith, Kiggans, McGuire, Wittman/VA; Baumgartner, Newhouse/WA; Miller, Moore/WV; Fitzgerald, Grothman, Steil, Tiffany, VanOrden, Wied/WI; Hageman/WY. And House Speaker Mike Johnson/LA.

Voting “yes” / anti-Life: Figures, Sewell/AL; Ansari, Grijalva, Stanton/AZ; Aguilar, Barragan, Bera, Brownley, Carbajal, Chu, Cisneros, Correa, Costa, DeSaulnier, Friedman, Garamendi, Garcia, Gomez, Gray, Harder, Huffman, Jacobs, Kamlager-Dove, Khanna, Levin, Liccardo, Lieu, Lofgren, Matsui, Min, Mullin, Panetta, Pelosi, Peters, Rivas, Ruiz, Sanchez, Sherman, Simon, Swalwell, Takano, Thompson, Torres, Tran, Vargas, Waters, Whitesides/CA; Crow, DeGette, Neguse, Pettersen/CO; Courtney, DeLauro, Hayes, Himes, Larson/CT; McBride/DE; Castor, Cherfilus-McCormick, Frankel, Frost, Moskowitz, Soto, Wasserman-Schultz, Wilson/FL; Bishop, Johnson, McBath, Scott, Williams/GA; Case, Tokuda/HI; Budzinski, Casten, Davis, Foster, Garcia, Jackson, Kelly, Krishnamoorthi, Quigley, Ramirez, Schakowsky, Schneider, Sorensen, Underwood/IL; Carson, Mrvan/IN; Davids/KS; McGarvey/KY; Carter, Fields/LA; Golden, Pingree/ME; Elfreth, Hoyer, Ivey, McClain-Delaney, Mfume, Olszewski, Raskin/MD; Auchincloss, Clark, Keating, Lynch, McGovern, Moulton, Neal, Pressley, Trahan/MA; Dingell, McDonald-Rivet, Scholten, Stevens, Thanedar, Tlaib/MI; Craig, McCollum, Morrison, Omar/MN; Thompson/MS; Bell, Cleaver/MO; Horsford, Lee, Titus/NV; Goodlander, Pappas/NH; Conaway, Gottheimer, McIver, Menendez, Norcross, Pallone, Pou, Watson-Coleman/NJ; Leger-Fernandez, Stansbury, Vasquez/NM; Clarke, Espaillat, Gillen, Goldman, Jeffries, Kennedy, Latimer, Mannion, Meeks, Meng, Morelle, Nadler, Ocasio-Cortez, Riley, Ryan, Suozzi, Tonko, Torres, Velazquez/NY; Adams, Davis, Foushee, Ross/NC; Beatty, Brown, Kaptur, Landsman, Sykes/OH; Bonamici, Bynum, Dexter, Hoyle, Salinas/OR; Boyle, Dean, Deluzio, Evans, Hoolehan, Lee, Scanlon/PA; Amo, Magaziner/RI; Clyburn/SC; Cohen/TN; Casar, Castro, Crockett, Cuellar, Doggett, Escobar, Fletcher, Garcia, Gonzalez, Green, Johnson, Veasey/TX; Balint/VT; Beyer, McClellan, Scott, Subramanyam, Vindman, WALKINSHAW/VA; DelBene, Jayapal, Larsen, Perez, Randall, Schrier, Smith, Strickland/WA; Moore, Pocan/WI.

Not voting: McClintock (CA), Hunt (TX).

Senate Voting Record

Cloture Motion to Bring Forward S-3627 — Pregnant Students’ Rights Act – Failed 47-45 (needing 60) – Jan. 27, 2026 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Britt & Tuberville/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Moody & Scott/FL, Crapo/ID, Banks & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Marshall & Moran/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy/LA, Collins/ME, Hyde-Smith/MS, Hawley & Schmitt/MO, Daines & Sheehy/MT, Fischer & Ricketts/NE, Budd & Tillis/NC, Husted & Moreno/OH, Lankford & Mullin/OK, McCormick/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds/SD, Blackburn/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Curtis & Lee/UT, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Lummis/WY. And Majority Leader Thune/SD.

Voting “no” / anti-Life: Gallego & Kelly/AZ, Padilla & Schiff/CA, Bennet & Hickenlooper/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Blunt-Rochester & Coons/DE, Ossoff/GA, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, King(I)/ME, Alsobrooks & VanHollen/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Slotkin/MI, Klobuchar & Smith/MN, Cortez-Masto & Rosen/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Kim/NJ, Heinrich & Lujan/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Sanders(I) & Welch/VA, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Baldwin/WI.

Not voting: Warnock/GA, Risch/ID, Kennedy/LA, Wicker/MS, Fetterman/PA, Hagerty/TN, Capito & Justice/WV.

Wisdom from Mr. Hyde

Join us in reading a paragraph-by-paragraph reprinting of the Sept. 19, 1996, speech by Rep. Henry J. Hyde to the House of Representatives, in which he called for the House to override Pres. Clinton’s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, HR-1833. Rep. Hyde has long been seen as one of America’s all-time leading orators and a model communicator in the cause of Life.

             … What kind of people have we become, that this “procedure” is even a matter for debate? Can’t we draw the line at torture? And baby torture at that? If we can’t, what’s become of us? We’re all incensed about ethnic cleansing. What about infant cleansing?