Life Advocacy Briefing

Another Conservative Judge Confirmed

THE SENATE CONFIRMED ANOTHER PRO-LIFE ATTORNEY to be Judge of the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Saint Louis, Missouri. Justin Smith – now Judge Smith – is so disliked (feared?) by the abortion lobby that an entire section of the lobbying sheet on his nomination by the leftwing Alliance for Justice was labeled “Worked to Eliminate Access to Reproductive Care.” Oh my!

Here is the condemnatory paragraph describing his work: “Throughout his career, both as a private attorney at the James Otis Law Group and while working in leadership roles at the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Smith represented far-right interests and advanced efforts to cut off access to reproductive care. At James Otis Law Group, Smith represented Arizona lawmakers who tried to block the state’s democratically adopted constitutional amendment enshrining Arizonans’ fundamental right to abortion. During his tenure at the Missouri Attorney General’s office, Smith also represented Randolph County Circuit Clerk Michelle Chapman, who repeatedly misinformed a 17-year-old pregnant teen that she could not obtain an abortion without parental consent despite Missouri law’s allowance of bypassing parental consent in certain circumstances. The clerk’s actions forced this teen to seek abortion care in Illinois.” Looks good to us!

We publish the voting records on ending debate (“cloture”) and on his confirmation near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Justice

AN ILLINOIS MAN HAS BEEN SENTENCED to seven years in prison for “voluntary manslaughter of an unborn child,” reports Jonathon VanMaren for LifeSiteNews, citing NPR as source, “after inserting four abortion pills into his pregnant girlfriend without her consent.”

He was originally charged, notes Mr. VanMaren, with “three counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child and one of ‘aggravated assault of a pregnant person’ and one count of voluntary manslaughter.” His charges were apparently reduced in a plea deal.

Though Illinois has been working overtime to win the awful title of America’s abortion capital, there is a provision in law which the abortion lobby has yet to attack. Under criminal homicide law, notes Mr. VanMaren, “an unborn child is recognized as human.”

The editor of Life Advocacy Briefing admits to being gratified by this prosecution and admission of guilt, as she was, at the time, the Illinois lawmaker who sponsored Illinois’s law criminalizing “intentional homicide of an unborn child.” And, as we can see above, it’s still on the books.

Stepping Up

ALABAMA’s ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS SENT CEASE-&-DESIST LETTERS to six companies he cites, reports Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews, for “offering to ship abortion-inducing drugs into Alabama, warning them that they are breaking the law.” The warnings were sent by AG Steve Marshall, who recently lost his state’s US Senate GOP primary to US Rep. Barry Moore. Mr. Marshall’s chief counsel, Katherine Robertson, won the GOP nomination for attorney general in a June 16 run-off and appears to share the attorney general’s pro-life commitment.

The warning notices were sent to outfits in SanFrancisco, New York, Massachusetts and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“The letters inform each company,” writes Mr. Freiburger, “they are both violating state law against abortion-inducing drugs as well as protections against deceptive advertising. If they do not halt their activities,” he notes, “they face potential punishment of up to $2,000 for each violation,” which could prove substantial.

“‘Alabama’s law is clear: abortion is illegal in this state,’ said [AG] Marshall,” quoted by LifeSiteNews. “‘These companies are not only breaking the law – they are deceiving Alabama customers about the very real dangers of these drugs. That stops now. Anyone who tries to exploit Alabamians for profit while flouting our laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted by law.’

“‘The letters also raise concerns that the companies are misleading consumers … about the safety of the drugs,’ the press release adds,” quoted by Mr. Freiburger. “‘Each company assures women that abortion pills are “safe,” even though medical evidence directly contradicts the claim. For instance, a 2025 analysis of an all-payer insurance claims database identified that of 865,727 women prescribed mifepristone, 10.93% experienced serious adverse symptoms including sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging and other life-threatening complications.’” Also, loss of the lives of their developing children.

Just When You Thought They Couldn’t Get Worse

June 16, 2026, LifeSiteNews blog by Steven Mosher & Chiara McKenna [Warning: Graphic content]

             The war on unborn children continues post-Roe, only it has shifted to a different battlefield: chemical abortion. And on this front, the pro-aborts are making ever more horrifying suggestions on how pregnant women can abort themselves in their own homes. Their latest gambit is misoprostol-only abortions.

             Now this isn’t a totally new idea, but the recent push behind the process is. It is driven by the possibility that misoprostol’s “partner drug,” mifepristone, could be restricted to in-person distribution by a medical professional.

             Understand that a misoprostol-only abortion represents a new level of horror. Here’s why:

             In the current mifepristone-misoprostol abortion protocol, mifepristone is administered first. Mifepristone blocks progesterone from reaching the baby, essentially starving the baby to death. The second step is to take misoprostol, which brings on the contractions that force the now-dead child out of the uterus.

             If you take mifepristone out of the equation, what happens? Mothers will be inducing labor with misoprostol and delivering their babies alive. Their babies, born before viability, will then die outside of the womb. [Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: Read this paragraph again, and imagine the pain and horror of the mother when she sees what she has done. Now pray.]

             The abortion industry isn’t just advocating for this atrocity in theory. It is posting detailed guides encouraging women to self-administer the pill – all the while dancing circles around the actual result. Take Planned Parenthood, for example. The Planned Parenthood website promotes misoprostol-only abortions, euphemistically describing the result as “strong cramping and bleeding in your uterus that makes the pregnancy come out through your vagina.”

             This is like saying that getting in a car wreck can make your soul come out of your body.

             Of course, what actually comes out of the vagina after a misoprostol-only abortion is not a “pregnancy” but a tiny baby.

             The closest Planned Parenthood gets to admitting that a baby will be born is the following: “the pregnancy itself is very small – at 8 weeks, an embryo is about ¼ to ½ inch long. You may not see it when it comes out, especially if you’re less than 8 weeks pregnant.” Telling women that their “pregnancy” will leave their body is a circumlocution that hardly prepares them for the emotional shock of seeing their child born alive and dying. Just read some of the painful stories that women have shared about their at-home abortions.

             It isn’t surprising that the abortion industry would advertise misoprostol-only abortions. After all, death is what they live for.

             But what about Cosmopolitan Magazine, which just published “Your Complete Guide to Misoprostol-Only Abortions” in its “lifestyle” section? To be a “Cosmo Girl” now, apparently, your lifestyle has to embrace do-it-yourself abortions. How very empowering to be able to bleed out your babies in the privacy of your own bathroom.

             Cosmo’s “guide” is in some ways even more extreme than Planned Parenthood’s.

             First of all, the article tries to justify the practice by claiming that, “in lots of other places – like Argentina and Nigeria – people have long used only misoprostol to end their pregnancies.” Of course, whether or not people in other countries use misoprostol doesn’t alter the truth: the drug induces an unnatural labor that forces a live baby out of the womb [prematurely].

             Not to mention that in many countries it is Western-funded NGOs like DKT International, IPPF and others who are – in violation of local laws – pushing misoprostol-only abortions on the population.

             Cosmo’s medical advice is a study in contradiction. After first saying, “Trust yourself. You know your body and what’s normal for you,” it quickly backtracks to, “If you’re even a little concerned, check in with a medical professional.”

             How is a woman supposed to know what is normal when, for the first time in her life, she takes a powerful abortion drug? How is she supposed to “trust herself” when her uterus starts painfully contracting and the blood starts to flow?

             Like Planned Parenthood, Cosmo pretends that the baby these mothers are carrying doesn’t really exist, although it warns that “(i)f the abortion happens around 11 or 12 weeks, a/k/a toward the end of the first trimester, there’s a chance you may see a small embryo.”

             A “small embryo” that will forever loom large in the shattered imagination of the young women who see their tiny child.

             By 12 weeks, as any pregnancy app or website will tell you, a baby is over two inches long and has a fully formed body. According to the popular website “What to Expect,” by 12 weeks all of a baby’s key body structures and systems are fully developed.

             The pro-life movement must fight this new push for misoprostol-only abortions. It will not be easy. Misoprostol has a legitimate medical use in miscarriages where the baby has died of natural causes but has not yet left the uterus.

             But like any other dangerous drug, it can and should be regulated, limited to in-person distribution by a medical professional.

Something We’ve Wondered About for a Long Time

June 16, 2026, Daily Citizen report by Nicole Hunt

             Earlier this month, a coalition of 14 attorneys general wrote a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking it to add the abortion pill mifepristone and its generics to a list of water contaminants that need further investigation of potential harmful health effects on pregnant women.

             For many pro-life Americans, the request raises an obvious question: Why hasn’t this been studied before?

             Mifepristone is the first medication in a two-drug regimen used to induce a chemical abortion. It works by blocking progesterone, the hormone needed for a baby to grow in the womb. Without progesterone, the baby starves to death. The second medication, misoprostol, causes the uterus to expel the dead baby.

             Guttmacher Institute reports that chemical abortions account for 63% of abortions in the US each year. At the same time, abortion pills are increasingly prescribed through telehealth visits and delivered by mail, resulting in more women self-managing abortions at home and flushing chemically tainted medical waste and human fetal tissue into America’s waterways.

             The attorneys general contend that the increase in abortion pill use and at-home chemical abortions raises important questions under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

             In their letter, they argue that “conventional wastewater treatment is not designed to remove” abortion-drug contaminants from the water supply. They maintain that this creates a potentially serious public health concern because regulators do not know the extent to which abortion-drug residues may be present in drinking water or what effects long-term exposure could have on women and developing children.

             The attorneys general further contend that “if mifepristone reaches sufficient concentration, pregnant women who unintentionally ingest the drug through the public water supply could be at greater risk of health complications.”  To address those concerns, they are asking the EPA to add mifepristone and its generic equivalents to the agency’s Contaminant Candidate List, a screening tool used to identify substances that may warrant additional study and monitoring. Placement on the list would not mean the EPA has determined the drug poses a risk to public health. Rather, it would signal that the agency believes the substance merits further investigation to determine whether regulation or additional monitoring is appropriate.

             According to the attorneys general, further study is needed to better understand any unintended effects these drugs may have on public health, including potential impacts on fertility and reproductive development. …

             The letter was authored by Missouri Attorney General (AG) Catherine Hanaway and is joined by: Alabama AG Steve Marshall, Alaska AG Cori Mills, Arkansas AG Tim Griffin, Florida AG James Uthmeier, Idaho AG Raul Labrador, Indiana AG Todd Rokita, Kansas AG Kris Kobach, Kentucky AG Russell Coleman, Louisiana AG Liz Murrill, Nebraska AG Mike Hilers, Oklahoma AG Gentner Drummond, South Carolina AG Alan Wilson and Texas AG Ken Paxton.

             The campaign is led by Students for Life Action. …

[Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: We would recommend the EPA also consider whether birth control chemicals are screened out of our water supply or whether their excretion might contribute to dropping fertility rates. Just a thought.]

Senate Voting Records

Cloture on Nomination of Justin Smith as 8^th Circuit Appellate Judge – Adopted 47-43 – June 11, 2026 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”)

Voting “yes” / pro-Life: Britt & Tuberville/AL, Murkowski & Sullivan/AK, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Scott/FL, Crapo & Risch/ID, Banks & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Marshall/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Collins/ME, Hyde-Smith & Wicker/MS, Hawley & Schmitt/MO, Daines & Sheehy/MT, Fischer & Ricketts/NE, Budd/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Husted & Moreno/OH, Armstrong & Lankford/OK, McCormick/PA, Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Curtis & Lee/UT, Capito & Justice/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Lummis/WY.

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

Not voting: Bennet/CO, Coons/DE, Moody/FL, Moran/KS, Rosen/NV, Shaheen/NH, Tillis/NC, Graham/SC, Blackburn & Hagerty/TN.

Confirmation of Justin Smith as 8^th Circuit Appellate Judge – Adopted 48-43 – June 15, 2026 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”)

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

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

Not voting: Bennet/CO, Warnock/GA, McConnell/KY, King(I)/ME, Lujan/NM, Cramer/ND, Curtis/UT, Sanders(I)/VT, Lummis/WY.

Warning 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.

             … By upholding this tragic veto, you join the network of complicity in supporting what is essentially a crime against humanity. For that little almost-born infant, struggling to live, is a member of the human family. And partial-birth abortion is a lethal assault against the very idea of human rights and destroys, along with a defenseless little baby, the moral foundation of our democracy. Because democracy isn’t after all a mere process; it assigns fundamental rights and values to each human being, the first of which is the inalienable right to life.