Life Advocacy Briefing

Ominous Polling Result

FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL (F.R.C.) HAS RELEASED concerning results from a survey conducted by the political polling firm Cygnal, which found, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “just 20% of Republican voters were aware that abortions have increased since the 2022 Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe, while follow-up questions revealed that the information significantly affected those who were.

“‘What we found when we asked a follow-up question and we framed the FDA policy, which allows chemical abortion drugs to be mailed into states without in-person physician oversight – we asked, “Does that make you more or less likely to vote for a Republican in the midterm election?” And we found that 6% of Republican voters said that they would be less likely to vote for a Republican candidate in the November midterm election after hearing that news,’ said Cygnal senior partner and pollster John Rogers,” quoted by Mr. Freiburger.

Squeezing Planned Parenthood

CONGRESS WENT ON INDEPENDENCE DAY RECESS last week before taking any action to extend the disqualification of Planned Parenthood from Title X (Ten), which expired July 4, making the abortion outfit eligible again for family planning grants. But while the lawmakers were back home greeting constituents along parade routes, the US Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) took action, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, citing the Daily Signal as source, to disqualify Planned Parenthood’s California Central Coast and Heartland affiliates from the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP). 

The reason? “Upon review,” writes Mr. Freiburger, the HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health’s Office of Population Affairs “determined ‘some curricula normalize adolescent sexual activity and are not age appropriate, as they contain overly sexually explicit or pornographic content that is not necessary to achieve the TPP program’s statutory mission.’” Glad they noticed!

“Highlights of the offending material,” reports Mr. Freiburger, “include detailed instructions on how to use condoms and other contraception methods, discussion prompts on how to obtain condoms, discussions of being exposed to pornography at young ages and stories about teenagers having sexual activity.

“Planned Parenthood is notorious,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “for promoting ideas about underage ‘safe sex’ that are anything but. Examples include its chatbot app ‘Roo,’ intended for teens as young as 13, which suggests there’s no right age to begin sexual activity and encourages birth control; PP sexual education executive Bill Taverner, who advocates teaching children about pornography; flyers distributed to middle schoolers telling kids they don’t need parents’ permission for abortion or birth control; obscene Facebook ads apparently targeted at teenage girls; and much, much more.”

The seeming coaxing of our youth to participate in sexual activity at a young age, writes Mr. Freiburger, “is believed to come partly out of the ‘progressive’ movement’s far-left ideology and partly in order to generate more demand for Planned Parenthood’s ‘services.’”

Progress in Iowa

IOWA IS STEPPING UP AGAIN in the fight for Life in America. Having enacted a Heartbeat Law, which became effective in July 2023 and bars abortions on babies whose heartbeats can be detected, the state this spring has enacted a new law, signed in May, according to LifeSiteNews (LSN) writer Calvin Freiburger, “requir[ing] abortion-inducing drugs to only be dispensed in person in addition to informed-consent requirements, effectively banning the use of mail-order abortion pills for those abortions not covered by the Heartbeat law.”

This steady progress toward protecting and preserving developing human life is no doubt a major cause of the consolidation of Planned Parenthood’s various shops into what Mr. Freiburger calls “its last brick-and-mortar site,” located in Des Moines under the name “Susan Knapp Health Center.”

“The abortion giant’s regional affiliate,” which is called Planned Parenthood North Central States, notes Mr. Freiburger, “will also restructure to focus more on virtual delivery of its so-called ‘care.’”

Said PPNCS president and CEO Ruth Richardson, quoted by LSN, “‘We are in the hardest moment for the reproductive freedom movement in modern-day history.’” Aww.

But she added, unsurprisingly, “‘By protecting our core infrastructure now [a/k/a shutting down facilities], we will be ready to expand care again when the pendulum shifts – because it will. After seeing the resilience of our patients, communities, supporters, champions and our staff and providers, I believe we have what it takes to sustain our strength and build back.’”

Hanging Out a Shingle in New Orleans

PLANNED PARENTHOOD IS PLANTING A NEW OUTPOST in Louisiana despite the state’s ban on abortion, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews.

The outfit announced on June 24 the intention of Planned Parenthood Great Plains to operate a new shop in New Orleans by the end of the year. Though it is not scheduled, supposedly, to commit abortions, it is expected to function as a travel agency for aborting mothers seeking to travel to abortuaries in other states. “The location is slated,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “to provide contraception, sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, cross-sex hormones for the gender-confused, pregnancy testing, perimenopause and menopause treatment, vasectomy, cancer screenings and more,” in addition to its travel services to facilitate the killing of unborn children.

Abortion tourism is becoming a major industry, thanks to the failure of the federal government to defend the right to Life even after the overturning of the disastrous Roe v. Wade. “The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute’s latest report includes full-year estimates for all abortions committed by clinicians and interstate abortion travel in 2025,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “counting 142,000 total abortions committed for women traveling across state lines last year,” besides the crisis of abortion pills being trafficked into states, like Louisiana, with abortion bans, thanks to the federal government’s refusal to enforce the Comstock Act, which bans the use of the US Postal Service for delivery of abortion drugs.

“Illinois had the biggest share at 32,000 abortions for non-residents,” notes Mr. Freiburger, “followed by 18,000 in North Carolina, 14,000 in Kansas, 10,000 in New Mexico and 9,000 in Virginia.”

Planned Parenthood Back on the Federal Spigot

July 6, 2026, report by Joseph Choi & Nathaniel Weixel for The Hill’s Healthcare Newsletter

             Planned Parenthood can resume billing for Medicaid reimbursement, one year after Republicans were able to cut its clinics off from federal funds.

             Last year, Republicans were successful in using the party-line One Big Beautiful Bill Act to achieve their long-sought goal of defunding Planned Parenthood.

             Planned Parenthood cited the defunding as the reason for the closure of multiple clinics as well as a reduction in the number of patients being screened for breast cancer or tested for sexually transmitted infections. The new funding will be a lifeline for the organization’s network of clinics and their patients. Medicaid is a significant revenue stream for Planned Parenthood, accounting for more than $800 million.

             In addition, more than half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid for their health coverage, the organization said. Medicaid is prohibited from paying for almost all abortions under the longstanding Hyde Amendment, but conservatives sought to put Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions out of business by withholding all federal funding. They argued women can receive the same non-abortion care elsewhere.

             While the ban did not completely devastate Planned Parenthood’s finances and drive it to financial ruin like many GOP lawmakers had hoped, its health centers suffered; nearly 30 out of about 600 closed nationwide.

             Anti-abortion leaders are furious that Congressional Republicans focused on other issues like defense and immigration without extending the ban before it expired. They are pressing Republicans to push through another defunding provision before the midterm elections, when the GOP could potentially lose its majority. …

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: The federal funding to which the above item refers – Medicaid funding – is a separate account from the federal source for the item at the opening of this edition. So, the Administration – through the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program – is cutting off some major Planned Parenthood affiliates by executive action at the same time that the congressionally enacted Medicaid ban has expired, reopening massive federal expenditures to the abortion octopus.]

A Vital Question

June 30, 2026, The Washington Stand report by Dan Hart for Family Research Council

             As the number of abortions induced by the abortion drug mifepristone continues to snowball, concerns are growing that the chemicals from the drug that are excreted during the abortion process are tainting the US water supply, which could cause infertility and detrimentally affect the already historically low birth rate.

             Last year, an astonishing report was published revealing that the global rate of infertility has surged 84% between 1990 and 2021. It further found that in 2021 alone, over 110 million women suffered from infertility, with about one in 10 women of reproductive age being infertile. The increase in infertility largely coincides with the rollout of the abortion pill, which was first released in Europe in the late ’80s and early ’90s and in the US in 2000. The problem may be becoming more acute, as use of the abortion drug has soared since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, as distribution of mifepristone has spread to all 50 states amid a lack of regulation. The result is that almost two-thirds of all abortions are now carried out via the abortion pill.

             In the wake of the dramatic increase, experts and state officials are pointing out that there have been no new studies in almost three decades on how mifepristone is affecting the nation’s water supply. Earlier this month, 14 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging the body to test drinking water for contaminants related to mifepristone and birth control pills.

             State lawmakers like Kansas State Rep. Ron Bryce (R) are echoing the call. “The EPA relied on studies that were done … in 1996, which is 30 years ago, to make sure that the excreted chemicals in the wastewater and the thrown-away pills … would not reach a level that would hinder US fertility rates,” Bryce, a practicing physician, pointed out during Washington Watch with Tony Perkins Monday. “Since then, that data has become obsolete, because now we have up to 63% or more of abortions are done by chemical abortions. Maybe – who knows – a million a year. And so, the levels of mifepristone in our wastewater have grown dramatically.”

             Bryce further emphasized that a study should be done on the drug’s effects on water in light of the US’s plunging fertility rate. “The childbirth rate has dropped dramatically in the US and in other Western countries,” he noted. “In about the year 2000, it was something like 70 births per 1,000 women. Now it’s down to 53. … People are not having babies like they used to. Part of that may be due to the abortion pill in the water. That’s more or less a theory. … There’s no raw scientific data we can rely on, so we really need the EPA to do their job and have some scientific data on it.” …

             Bryce, who serves as vice chairman of the Committee on Health & Human Services in the Kansas House of Representatives, went on to highlight that tests that have been done on mifepristone have produced alarming results. “A study that was done about a year ago on female frogs [found that] when they were exposed to mifepristone that is considered the level that is in our drinking water today, they had half as many babies,” he explained. “And so, we’re looking at fertility rates that are very low in the US and in the Western civilization. The genetics have not changed. The genetic pool is the same as it has been for generations. It’s either environmental factors, or it’s behavioral factors. It’s probably a combination of the two. But it’s an existential crisis – the birth rate and the fertility rate that we’re looking at. We really need to get to the bottom of the environmental factors that might be contributing to this, and it’s just obvious that we need to look at the levels of mifepristone in our water.”

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: We welcome the Family Research Council’s attention to this question, a concern which we have had for some time. We are glad to see that Mr. Hart mentioned not just mifepristone but also “birth control pills” as a possible contributing factor. We do not know whether the EPA has ever studied the effect of anti-conception chemicals in our water supply or whether such chemicals are routinely filtered out of drinking water. We do know that our policy makers should be raising that question with the regulators, even though it appears a highly controversial question to ask. The sharp decline in fertility rates is indeed an existential threat, and it is one that is difficult if not impossible to arrest, once it reaches a tipping point. We hope EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will take this question seriously, both as it pertains to mifepristone and as it concerns various birth control chemicals. We would add this question: Do water purification processes screen out the remains of dead babies who are flushed into the sanitary systems of our communities as their mothers dispose of them in the privacy of their homes under the FDA’s current system of unsupervised mifepristone administration?]

When Doctors Fight for Life

July 6, 2026, inspiration from Right to Life UK

             A premature baby who was born without a heartbeat has survived after doctors spent around an hour attempting to revive him. Baby Luca was delivered by emergency Caesarean section seven weeks before his due date, weighing just three pounds and five ounces, after they found that his heart had stopped beating. Medical staff continued working to resuscitate him for approximately an hour before successfully restoring his heartbeat.

             Three months into the pregnancy, scans showed that baby Luca had gastroschisis, a condition in which a hole in the abdominal wall allows part of the bowel to develop outside the baby’s body. The condition affects around one in every 2,000 babies and can increase the likelihood of premature birth and low birth weight. Doctors initially told his parents, Demi and Charlie, that Luca’s condition was not severe, and the pregnancy continued without further problems for several months.

             When Demi was 30 weeks pregnant, she became concerned after she could no longer feel Luca moving. She rushed to the hospital and was later transferred for further scans. After six days of observation, she was discharged.

             Demi returned two days later for additional checks. She and Charlie were told that Luca’s “bowels were fine” and that his condition “would be monitored every few weeks” at the hospital.

             Less than two weeks later, Demi again noticed that Luca was not moving. She returned to the hospital, where doctors found that his heart rate had flatlined, meaning his heart was not pumping blood. Baby Luca was subsequently delivered immediately by emergency Caesarean section without a heartbeat, and doctors worked to revive him for around an hour before their resuscitation efforts succeeded.

             His dad, Charlie, said that “Seeing him born dead was so hard. It took the doctors around an hour to work on him. It’s the longest hour I’ve ever been through.”

             Following the birth, Luca was transferred to another hospital for specialist treatment, accompanied by his father. Demi remained behind to recover from the Caesarean section. She discharged herself eight hours later, despite being advised to remain under observation for 24 hours. “There was nothing stopping me from being with my Luca,” she said. Demi’s sister drove her to the hospital, where she was reunited with Charlie and their baby boy.

             Luca underwent an operation to place his bowels inside his abdomen and later required two further procedures. He now remains in hospital, and doctors have warned his parents that his condition is still serious. However, he has since been taken off the ventilator that was supporting his breathing.

             Luca’s father Charlie said, “Me and Demi got to hold him the other day and got to do skin-to-skin contact for the first time. That was amazing. It was quite literally like holding my world in my hands,” he explained. “I’ll never forget that moment.”

             Spokesperson for Right to Life UK, Catherine Robinson, commented, “Luca’s survival is a striking example of what can be achieved when a seriously ill baby is given sustained medical care. His story underlines why medical vulnerability should never diminish a child’s right to care and protection. Every baby, before and after birth, should be treated as a patient whose life is worth fighting for, regardless of how uncertain the prognosis may initially appear. Every unborn child deserves a chance at life.”

Mr. Hyde Issues a Warning

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.

             … I’m not the least embarrassed to say that I believe one day each of us will be called upon to render an account for what we’ve done – and, maybe more importantly, what we failed to do – in our lifetime. And while I believe in a merciful God, I believe in a just God, and I would be terrified at the thought of having to explain at the final Judgment why I stood unmoved while Herod’s slaughter of the innocents was being re-enacted here in my own country.