Life Advocacy Briefing

At a Turning Point?

A DRAMA HAS BEEN UNFOLDING this summer in a California courtroom. The outcome – one way or the other – will be consequential. Readers’ prayers are solicited.

California’s rabidly pro-abortion attorney general, Rob Bonta (D), has been pursuing an injunction and seeking $20 million in penalties against a pro-life organization that is spearheading abortion-pill-reversal ministry. With trial testimony completed in California v. Heartbeat International and RealOptions, closing briefs from both sides are due to be filed any day now, and a “closing argument” hearing is set for Sept. 17.

Testimony in support of the life-saving ministries has documented heartwarming stories of targeted babies being brought to full-term birth after their mothers ingested mifepristone and then desperately sought to reverse the poisoning. 

Thinking some of our readers may some day be in a position to offer hope to a friend who has confided desperation in such a situation, we offer some of these stories near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing. It is with joy that we can offer hope in the maelstrom of anti-Life propaganda which has so characterized America in the late 20^th and early 21^st century.

Confirmation of a Long-Debated Reality

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. CONFIRMED last week what many of us have long believed: Tissues of aborted human babies were used in development of several vaccines – including the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella.

The revelation came in a lengthy X post Wednesday on the internet, reports LifeSiteNews (LSN), in which the Secretary said, “‘At [a] press conference today, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro accused me of promoting conspiracy theories because I told him, during an earlier telephone conversation, that some Americans had religious objections to the MMR vaccine because it contained fetal tissue. “There is no fetal tissue in the MMR,” he told me,’ Kennedy recounted … .”

But, “‘The rubella virus used in MMR-II is grown,’” said Secretary Kennedy in his X post, quoted by LSN, “‘on the cultured cell line composed of lung tissue from an aborted three-month-old female embryo … . Portions of these cells end up in each vial of MMR II,’ he noted.

“Kennedy included a clip,” notes LSN, “from a videotaped deposition of Stanley Plotkin, inventor of the MMR vaccine, taken in 2018. … During his testimony, Plotkin admitted to ‘butchering’ 76 aborted babies – all of whom were over three months old – ‘in just one of the many studies that led to the development of his vaccine,’ the HHS secretary said,” quoted by LSN. The deposition was taken by attorney Aaron Siri.

“During a December 2024 interview with Tucker Carlson,” LSN adds, “[attorney] Siri told his stunned host that some childhood vaccines have ‘literally millions of pieces from the cultured cell line of an aborted fetus in every single injection’ and that vaccines are cultivated on ‘aborted fetal tissue’ that are ‘alive.’”   

Siri jumped into the debate between RFK and Gov. Shapiro, posting on social media, notes LSN, “‘RFK Jr. is correct. The fact is that there are billions of fragments of human cellular debris and DNA from the cultured cell line of an aborted fetus in every injected dose of MMR, chicken pox and Hep A vaccines.’ Siri then,” reports LSN, “provided links to articles that chart the use of aborted fetal cell tissue in the development of vaccines.”

New Jersey Doubles Down

NEW JERSEY GOV. MIKIE SHERRILL (D) HAS SIGNED A NEW LAW, reports Zachary Mettler for Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen, which “may outlaw prayer and protests at abortion clinics [sic]. The law also,” he adds, “expands protections for ‘transgender’ medical interventions.”

Said New Jersey Right to Life executive director Marie Tasy, “‘This law is a deliberate act of defiance against the most basic human right – the right to life of every child in the womb with a beating heart.’” An attorney for Advocates for Faith & Freedom, Erin Mersino, warned, writes Mr. Mettler, “the [new] law may be used to restrict free speech and target pro-life sidewalk counselors who try to counsel women heading into abortion clinics.”

S-2260 “makes it illegal,” he writes, “for individuals to ‘injure, threaten, intimidate or physically block patients or providers … to interfere with reproductive healthcare services,’ according to the governor’s office. It allows abortion providers and women seeking abortions to take legal action against individuals who get in their way and shields healthcare providers from malpractice claims for providing abortions and other ‘reproductive health care,’” at the same time expanding the definition of “‘reproductive healthcare services,’” reports Mr. Mettler, “to include transgender medical interventions.”

Abortion is legal in New Jersey, notes Mr. Mettler, “up to the moment of birth.” The Daily Citizen writer adds, “The Sherrill Administration has … provided over $52 million to subsidize the abortion industry this year alone.”

Nuggets

• THE AMERICAN MEDICAL STUDENT ASSN. HAS SPENT THE SUMMER hosting “all-expense-paid abortion training sessions in North Carolina,” reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “for medical students who wish to ‘uphold the fundamental principles’ of so-called ‘reproductive justice.’” Four sessions began in May, the final one in mid-August. Writes Mr. Freiburger: “It advertises ‘thought-provoking, dynamic conversations, as well as issue education and hands-on clinical skill-building … . Political advocacy is billed as a prominent feature, including discussion of the ‘impact of the Dobbs decision on reproductive health access,’ ‘effective messaging communications,’ ‘networking and advocacy training,’ ‘building power and your circles of influence,’ ‘identifying and engaging reproductive freedom champions in your state,’ … and ‘values-based research and using data to make change.’” What could go wrong?

• A LAWSUIT HAS BEEN SETTLED in a case brought by an Indiana woman against an Illinois abortionist, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews. At issue? Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle had “left up to ‘half’ of an aborted baby inside [the mother] and a coin-sized hole in her uterus.” The abortionist’s “post-procedure examination allegedly found her uterus empty with the ‘products of conception [the baby’s remains] … visibly inspected and confirmed to be complete.’” But, notes Mr. Freiburger, the abortion-driven mother “called back the next day to report heavy cramping, was advised to take painkillers and laxatives, and after those failed to solve the problem, ultimately went to the emergency room” in Indianapolis, where physicians “found fetal remains in her right pelvis and ‘adhered’ to her intestines, which had to be surgically removed, as well as a uterine hole roughly the size of a quarter or half-dollar.” There is more, but we will spare our readers.

• A HORRID EXAMPLE – BUT TRUE-LIFE STORY – of the reality of continued marketing of mifepristone in the USA: First responders in Durham, North Carolina, in late July found, writes Suzanne Bowdey for The Washington Stand commentary, “a tiny five-pound baby float[ing] quietly in the bathroom toilet, barely alive. The team raced to do CPR on the newborn, as its 18-year-old mom – the girl who had tried to abort it – looked on. The little survivor miraculously pulled through, and the small bundle – premature at 31 weeks – is only alive today because someone in the house called 911. But for the teen parents, who were arrested on multiple charges, the nightmare is just beginning.” This is just one outcome of the refusal of the Trump Administration to enforce the 19^th century Comstock Act, which outlaws the use of the US mail to ship abortifacient substances. This young “couple” had used the Internet to order mifepristone from a source in Virginia to be shipped into a state where abortion is illegal after a baby has gestated 12 weeks. Some people call it “choice.”

• THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY IN DURHAM, NC, whose job it is to prosecute those involved in the above case, is named Satana Deberrry. According to The Washington Stand’s Suzanne Bowdey, she “was quick to defend the teenagers [in the case] and even hinted at leniency because of her personal pro-abortion views,” which run counter even to North Carolina’s rather lenient law. And then there’s the public defender assigned to the case, who, commented Joy Stockbauer of Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, “claimed that ‘in order to be living, one must be born.’ How many non-living creatures do you know of with heartbeats? Or that kick, squirm and suck their fingers?’”

• ON THE FLIP SIDE: “A London couple gave birth earlier this year to a healthy baby boy after a harrowing prenatal diagnosis,” reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, “thanks to a groundbreaking prenatal surgery conducted in the United States.” The baby was “diagnosed at 20 weeks’ gestation with a severe case of complex gastroschisis, in which the intestines develop outside of the baby’s body due to an improperly closed abdominal wall. … Prognosis varies based on a variety of factors, but the defect can be fatal. Baby Theo’s case was severe enough that the parents were informed of a clinical trial for a new, in-utero surgical procedure … . So they traveled to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where Theo became the trial’s third candidate. … The surgery was performed at 26 weeks gestation, after which Theo remained in the womb and healed while continuing to develop … . ‘He was delivered at term, at normal weight, came into this world just like any other baby,’” said the hospital’s chief surgeon, quoted by Mr. Freiburger. “‘By day three, [he was] discharged from the hospital.’ Theo is five months old and healthy.”

An Unsurprising Source

Aug. 25, 2026, LifeSiteNews report by Calvin Freiburger

             Planned Parenthood itself directed much of blue states’ legal war on lawful pro-life activists and crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), according to a newly obtained document. After the US Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade in June, 2022, restored the elected branches of government’s power to directly ban abortion, Democrat leaders at the local, state and federal levels quickly launched a wide range of strategies to preserve abortion “access” and find new ways to shield the industry. The Daily Signal reports that, one month after the ruling, Progressive State Leaders Committee policy director Brittany Jenkins forwarded to state attorneys general across the country Planned Parenthood’s 14-point response plan.

             Among the advised actions were to issue statements reassuring the public of their “commitment to protecting abortion access;” “allocate funding to cover the costs of abortion services;” “clarify ambiguities” in existing laws; and work on state-level constitutional amendments to insulate abortion, all of which blue states would go on to do.

             Particularly noteworthy, however, were bullet points pertaining to the rights of pro-lifers and services for women who make a different choice. “Work with law enforcement to protect clinics, patients and staff, including providing training for local and state law enforcement on existing state laws,” one reads. “States should utilize all state laws, including state FACE Acts, to protect healthcare facilities that provide abortion.”

             … Another bullet point reads: “Provide information to the public about CPCs and take steps to curb their misleading and deceptive practices,” citing as an example a “consumer alert” issued by California.

             Pregnancy centers have long provided low-income women with a wide variety of services, including ultrasounds, basic medical care, adoption referrals, parenting classes and children’s supplies that help mitigate the fears and burdens that lead some to choose abortion. For that reason, they have long been a target of left-wing rage, with attacks often focusing on claims that they deceive women, both about abortion and about their own services. But the pro-life contentions most often derided as “misinformation” are in fact true, and accusations of self-misrepresentation typically refer to little more than the fact that ads for them appear in online searches for the term “abortion.” The abortion lobby is notoriously hostile to such alternatives to abortion, from publicity campaigns to malign crisis pregnancy centers to attempts to strip medical licenses from pro-life doctors, to violence and threats against pregnancy centers that under the Biden Administration were less likely to be prosecuted than purported cases of anti-abortion violence.

             While pro-abortion politicians independently pursued many such policies in anticipation of losing Roe, the Signal notes that the memo [details] “specific actions that matched the subsequent policies of blue states.” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a consumer alert against CPCs less than a month after the memo went out; New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin did the same that December. “Eight days after the memo, Platkin announced a partnership with the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New Jersey and issued guidance to state prosecutors for enforcing clinic access laws,” the report notes.

             The top cops of Arizona, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania all followed the memo’s advice to issue guidances “clarifying” residents’ remaining legal options; and Arizona, California, New Jersey and New York all instituted pro-abortion task forces per its instructions.

             In April, the US Justice Dept. (DOJ) released an extensive report detailing how the nation’s largest abortion chain similarly coordinated with the Biden Administration at the federal level, particularly in the targeting of pro-life activists with FACE Act prosecutions.

             Thirteen states ban most abortions starting at conception; another five ban it once a fetal heartbeat can be detected (around six weeks), with additional states imposing a range of later restrictions. But the abortion lobby works feverishly to preserve abortion “access” via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors and enshrining abortion “rights” in state constitutions, whether via activist lawsuits or state constitutional amendments.

Testimony from the Rescued

Excerpts from an August, 2026, letter from Thomas More Society president, attorney Tom Brejcha

             Erika testified that her partner was “adamant” she could not have the child and was in the room when she took the [mifepristone] pill. She twice told the nurse she was not sure she wanted to proceed. Under pressure, she swallowed that first of the two pills for the abortion. That night, she refused to take the second pill. By 2 a.m. she was searching online for any way to save her baby. She found the Abortion Pill Rescue Network’s hotline, called and was connected to RealOptions. There, she testified in open court, “I felt warm and welcome.” She received an ultrasound – the first time she had seen her child – and began progesterone treatment at no cost. She was told the treatment was “not a guarantee” and was never pressured. RealOptions even arranged volunteer transportation for her. As her pregnancy continued, RealOptions staff “were always warm and reassuring,” Erika testified – they even surprised her with a take-home fetal heartbeat monitor so she could hear her baby’s heartbeat whenever she was worried. Erika gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

             Elizabeth also took the stand. She told the court she took the abortion pill at a Planned Parenthood. But before she left the clinic, her boyfriend texted saying he wanted to keep the baby. “I was desperate, borderline hysterical, and willing to try just about anything.” While still at Planned Parenthood, Elizabeth ran to the bathroom to try to throw up the deadly pill she had just swallowed. She tried twice more, pulling over on the side of the road on the way back home. She and the unborn baby’s father went online, trying to find a way to reverse the abortion pill. They found Heartbeat International’s Abortion Pill Rescue Network online. Elizabeth called the number and spoke to a nurse, who said she’d get a call back from a provider. Just 10 minutes later, a doctor from a nearby pro-life pregnancy center called and got her an appointment later that day. By that night, Elizabeth had begun the Abortion Pill Reversal treatment. Her daughter is a healthy toddler today.

             Uyen, another APR mom, also testified that she regretted her decision almost immediately after taking mifepristone in July 2024. She was overwhelmed and felt she had no one to turn to – until a friend stayed up all night researching her options and found a phone number. [She] was connected to Heartbeat, then to RealOptions, and was seen that same day. The staff explained the Abortion Pill Reversal protocol, answered every question and never pressured her. Her son was born healthy with no complications. …

             [The Attorney General] failed to find a single “victim” of APR to put on the stand – only happy moms with healthy babies [testified, brought forward by the defense].

Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: We hope our readers are as blessed as we are to read these actual accounts of desperate mothers who were rescued by Heartbeat International and the RealOptions ministry. May our lawmakers and all those in authority recognize that public persecution of such ministries, through the official actions of rabid abortion advocates, is a violation of their oath of office and an offense to the God Who formed each and every one of us – even those whose actions reject Him.

Wisdom from America’s Pro-Life President

ENJOY WITH US a new series – a morsel each week – from a message written by Pres. Ronald Reagan and published in National Right to Life News on Oct. 11, 1984: The Unborn’s Transcendent Right to Life: A Personal Letter to the Pro-Life Movement from Pres. Ronald Reagan

             As America looks forward to the second half of the 1980s and beyond, our nation faces a clear political choice. Two very different views about America – who we are and what we can become – are competing to lead our great country into the future. I think that Americans involved in the noble work of the pro-life movement will agree that the difference between those competing views is no more striking than on the tragic issue of abortion.