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Washington D.C., Jan 24, 2025 / 19:20 pm (CNA).

Tens of thousands of pro-life people of various ages and backgrounds held handmade signs as they walked from the National Mall to the Supreme Court building on Friday, packing the streets of Washington, D.C., for the 52nd annual March for Life.

After several years of disappointment at the ballot box since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many participants and speakers expressed optimism after the historic rejection of pro-abortion ballot measures in three states last November as well as the possibilities of additional pro-life actions over the next four years under the administration of newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump. 

Powerful testimonies for life

The speakers who took the stage before the march, including activists, politicians, and individuals sharing personal stories, emphasized the inherent value of human life from conception, often citing their faith as a foundation for their pro-life stance.

All advocated for protecting the unborn, supporting women and families facing unplanned pregnancies, and highlighted the importance of providing resources and support.

Most notable among the politicians who addressed the crowds were Trump, who appeared via a prerecorded video message, and Vice President JD Vance.

Trump vowed to end the "weaponization" of law enforcement against pro-life Americans and highlighted his recent pardoning of 23 imprisoned pro-life activists. Vance, in his speech, called for a culture that celebrates life at all stages and proclaimed that the success of a nation is measured by the well-being of families.

"Let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America," Vance said to loud cheers.

"I want more happy children in our country. And I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them. And it is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world, and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are here at the March for Life."

Other politicians such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emphasized the importance of courage in defending the unborn, touting his state's victory against a pro-abortion ballot initiative. 

Other speakers stressed the importance of individual action and the need to change hearts and minds on the issue of abortion. Lila Rose emphasized the importance of personal conversations to persuade others to understand the value of life and called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood in favor of pro-life pregnancy resource centers that help women and families. Professional surfer and pro-life Christian mother Bethany Hamilton highlighted the need to support women and help them see the true value of life.

Marching for the unborn

Once the march got underway, students from Wheaton College carried the March for Life banner and led the crowd of thousands of pro-lifers down the march route on Constitution Avenue toward the Supreme Court building.

Members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) — a Catholic nonprofit group — played Catholic hymns, such as "Ave Maria" and "Hail Holy Queen," along with patriotic songs.

Members of Students for Life of America (SFLA) displayed a large banner near the front of the pack warning that "Chemical Abortion Pills Kill" unborn children and another that urges lawmakers to "Defund Planned Parenthood."

"Chemical abortion has started to become the No. 1 [means of obtaining an] … abortion," Alicia Foreman, the SFLA regional coordinator for the Carolinas, told CNA.

Foreman warned that chemical abortion pills hurt women and are dangerous to the environment. She said they are "so easy to obtain" and "easy for sex traffickers to use" and for "rapists" to obtain to kill the unborn children of their victims.

SFLA has urged state governments and the federal government to ban chemical abortion pills and for Trump to halt the delivery of the pills through the mail by enforcing the Comstock Act. However, Trump has committed to keeping abortion pills available.

"We have more work to do," Foreman said. "We've got to keep pushing."

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who offered a prayer at the beginning of the rally, told CNA in the midst of the March that he believes this year "there is a renewed hope."

"This is probably my 35th, 36th march," he said, adding that he continues to attend each year "because it's the most important human rights issue of our time."

"A society that permits the killing of its children, that society has no future," he continued. "We have to change our policies on this, and we have to win these state referendums."

The archbishop emphasized that even though Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the pro-life movement still has work to do.

"I think there's a renewed hope with the change of administration, with the freeing of the pro-life prisoners that were in jail," Naumann observed as a crowd of students passed by.

"We have our work cut out for us, we've seen that," the prelate said. "I'm from Kansas, and we were the first state to have a ballot initiative after the Dobbs decision. Unfortunately, we lost it, but at some point we're going to come back and we're going to win that."

A Catholic University of America student marching with his fellow Cardinals told CNA he was marching for babies who face a grim statistical likelihood of being aborted.

"I march for many reasons," CUA freshman Jackson Russell told CNA. "But the biggest one is that I'm autistic, and abortion attacks autistic people the most." Russell, who is studying political science, attended the march with a large group of students from the university. 

Pointing to research that has found that mothers who discover that their unborn child has autism are "more likely to get an abortion," Russell told CNA: "My people are being attacked, that's why I'm out here."

Benedictine College students who traveled from Atchison, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life were jubilant, shouting pro-life slogans and carrying a large red-and-black banner through the streets.

Elizabeth Peterson, a junior year honors student at Benedictine, told CNA: "I'm marching because I think that babies have as much right to life as anyone else does, and that includes unborn children." 

"Unless there is equal justice for everyone," she said, "there is really equal justice for none."

Peterson, who has attended the March for Life five times, said she was "so proud" to have traveled to the march this year with Benedictine, which she described as "a very pro-life school, [and] very Catholic." 

"Everyone just feels really happy this year," she said. "I don't know what it is, but everyone just feels really excited."

Peterson also said it was "cool to see the vice president speak," adding: "I think just the mindset has shifted a little bit."

Members of the secular pro-life group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) held signs in front of the United States Supreme Court — the finishing point of the March for Life — urging Congress to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

The FACE Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, increased penalties for people who are convicted of obstructing access to abortion clinics or pro-life pregnancy centers — but has almost exclusively been used to convict peaceful pro-life demonstrators over the past four years.

Last night, Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists who were convicted by President Joe Biden's Department of Justice, including PAAU Director of Activism Lauren Handy, a Catholic who had been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for her role in a protest.

"I am just so thankful that my friends are out [of prison] and that Trump pardoned them," Avie Sark, a content creator for PAAU, told CNA. "Our friends were put in prison because of the FACE Act." 

Sark said the FACE Act is "used to criminalize and prosecute peaceful pro-life protesters," but that "after the death of Roe, hundreds of pregnancy centers [were attacked and] … little to nothing was done about it." 

PAAU member Elise Ketch told CNA the FACE Act seeks to prevent protests in which pro-life activists are "putting our bodies between the oppressor — which is the abortionist — and the oppressed — which is the baby." 

"I want to bring back rescue, which is the protests where we [hold a] sit-in at clinics," Ketch said.

Tyler Arnold, Madalaine Elhabbal, and Francesca Pollio Fenton contributed to this story. 

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Vatican City, Jan 24, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

In his message for the 59th World Day of Social Communications on Friday, Pope Francis encouraged journalists to build communion in the world through sharing stories of goodness and hope.

"I dream of a communication that does not peddle illusions or fears but is able to give reasons for hope," the pope said. "I encourage you to discover and make known the many stories of goodness hidden in the folds of the news, imitating those gold-prospectors who tirelessly sift the sand in search of a tiny nugget. It is good to seek out such seeds of hope and make them known."

The Church celebrates the World Day of Social Communications every year on Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists and writers.

In 2025, the World Day of Social Communications is also taking place during three days of events in Rome for a Jubilee of the World of Communications, part of the yearlong Church-wide Jubilee of Hope.

In his message, Pope Francis urged those who work in media and communications to "tell stories steeped in hope," especially during these "troubled times," and pointed to the special graces available during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope as a support to this work.

The pontiff said a good communicator "ensures that those who listen, read, or watch can be involved, can draw close, can get in touch with the best part of themselves and enter with these attitudes into the stories told."

By sharing stories of goodness and hope, media professionals help the world to be a little less closed off and a little less indifferent to others, he noted. 

"May you always find those glimmers of goodness that inspire us to hope. This kind of communication can help to build communion, to make us feel less alone, to rediscover the importance of walking together," he said.

Francis also had advice for journalists' prayer lives.

"In the face of the astonishing achievements of technology, I encourage you to care for your heart, your interior life," he said.

Some practical ways to do that, he advised, are to "be meek and never forget the faces of other people; speak to the hearts of the women and men whom you serve in carrying out your work."

"To do this, though, we must be healed of our 'diseases' of self-promotion and self-absorption, and avoid the risk of shouting over others in order to make our voices heard," he warned.

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CNA Staff, Jan 24, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent abortion- and pro-life-related news:

U.S. government reproductive rights website shut down 

A federal government website promoting abortion has been taken down following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Reproductiverights.gov, launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, went offline around the time of the inauguration on Jan. 20. Based on archived pages, the site was available just days before Trump's inauguration. 

The website formerly detailed information about accessing abortion and birth control via insurance providers. 

Pro-life physicians support challenge to FDA abortion pill safeguards 

A coalition of pro-life physicians shared its support of a recent decision granting three states access to challenge the FDA's chemical abortion policies.

A federal judge in Texas ruled on Jan. 17  that three other states — Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri — can join a case challenging online prescriptions of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Dr. Christina Francis, board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), criticized the FDA's lack of safeguards in a statement shared with CNA.

"For years the FDA has failed to provide basic protections for women and girls to lessen the serious health risks of abortion drugs," Francis said. "The physicians of AAPLOG believe that women deserve better care than this. Reinstating the original safeguards, including requiring in-person medical care, is a step towards protecting women from these dangerous drugs."

Virginia Senate backs abortion 

The Virginia Senate passed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to establish a right to abortion in the Virginia Constitution.

The Senate vote followed the House of Delegates, which passed its own version of the resolution. This is among the beginning steps of a long legislative process to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot in Virginia. The legislation must pass in both the House and Senate twice in two years, with an intervening election before the two sessions. Following this, the referendum can be put on the ballot for voters to decide. 

Both the Virginia Senate and House have a slim Democratic majority, while Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is a staunch Republican. 

Republicans warned that the amendment could undermine current abortion-related laws in Virginia, including Virginia's parental consent laws for minors seeking abortions. Abortion is currently legal in Virginia for the first and second trimesters of pregnancy as well as in the third trimester if the mother's life or health is at serious risk, as verified by three physicians.

The Virginia Senate also passed a resolution to repeal a now-defunct law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. 

Texas defendant pleads guilty after vandalizing pregnancy clinic 

A Texan man who vandalized two pregnancy resource clinics in May 2022 recently pleaded guilty to a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. 

Ethan Skorick, 23, vandalized two Texas pregnancy resource centers with spray paint shortly after the leak of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. The two clinics, the Loreto House and Woman to Woman, serve pregnant women in need in Denton, Texas. According to court documents, Skorick defaced the clinics with graffitied phrases including "NOT A CLINIC," "FORCED BIRTH IS MURDER," and "PRO BIRTH [does not equal] PRO LIFE." 

Skorick pleaded guilty to a violation of the FACE Act, which has been used in the past to allegedly target pro-life activists for blocking clinic entrances. The FACE Act prohibits "violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services."

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a Jan. 16 statement that the DOJ "will enforce the FACE Act to protect all providers of reproductive health services and their patients."

Birth rate in South Korea rises for first time in 9 years

South Korea has the world's lowest recorded fertility rates, but the birth rate in that country has risen for the first time in nine years.

The number of newborns from January 2024 to November 2024 rose 3% from a year earlier, according to monthly government data. South Korea's government last year encouraged young people to get married and have children. The now-impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a "national demographic crisis" and put forth a plan to create a new ministry to address low birth rates.

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Vatican City, Jan 24, 2025 / 07:10 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has appointed his personal travel agent and new cardinal, George Jacob Koovakad, to lead the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, following the death last year of Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot.

Ayuso, a Spanish-born prelate and respected expert in Islam, died on Nov. 25, 2024, after a long illness. He was 72.

The 51-year-old Koovakad, originally from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis in December.

Since late 2021, the Vatican diplomat has been the coordinator for papal travels, working in the section for general affairs of the Secretariat of State to arrange Francis' trips. He also has a doctorate in canon law. 

Koovakad, who was in the diplomatic service of the Holy See for 14 years, is part of the Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Catholic faith's Eastern-rite Churches. He was the first Syro-Malabar priest to be elevated to cardinal directly from the priesthood, according to a spokesperson for the Church.

The Vatican's Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue was created during the Second Vatican Council, as the Church took a new, formal approach to dialogue with other religions, as expressed in the document Nostra Aetate.

Interreligious dialogue has been a priority of Pope Francis' pontificate, as demonstrated by his trips to non-Christian majority countries and the "Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together," signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019.

Koovakad helped organize several of Pope Francis' religious dialogue-focused trips, including to Kazakhstan and Bahrain in 2022, to Mongolia in 2023, and to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore in September 2024.

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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2025 / 19:55 pm (CNA).

The 52nd annual March for Life will be taking place in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 24. Thousands of pro-lifers will be coming together in our nation's capitol to march in defense of the unborn.

Follow along here for live updates on the march. All times are in U.S. Eastern Standard Time:

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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2025 / 20:30 pm (CNA).

Pro-life activist Paul Vaughn received the news that President Donald Trump had pardoned him, along with 22 other pro-life demonstrators, on Thursday in the middle of a press conference with his lawyers at the Thomas More Society.

"I have a lot of thoughts," he told CNA. "It's a big ordeal, and it's been a long time going through all this."

The pardon put an end to the Biden administration's prosecution of Vaughn and his fellow pro-life activists, among whom were several elderly and infirm women who were serving time in prison for peacefully protesting abortion.

Vaughn was one of 11 pro-life activists convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for a demonstration outside of a Tennessee abortion clinic in March 2021. 

Prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought a one-year prison sentence for him, but he was ultimately sentenced to three years of supervised release in July 2024. Prior to the pardon, Vaughn's case was on appeal. 

Vaughn had been taking part in the conference about free speech and the abortion pill reversal process alongside several senior members of the religious liberty law firm when Steve Crampton, senior counsel with the Thomas More Society, interrupted the discussion.

Crampton read aloud a social media post announcing that Trump had signed pardons for the 23 convicted pro-life activists. Those gathered for the event rose to their feet and erupted in applause, while Vaughn and his legal team shook hands joyfully.

"On one side, it's great to see a president like Donald Trump who understands the injustice that has gone on," Vaughn later told CNA. "On the other side of the coin, it doesn't erase the injustice that my family and the other 22 pro-lifers have endured for the last two years at Biden's DOJ." 

"We won't get that back," he added. 

Calling the pardon "a mixed bag," Vaughn said he is both "rejoicing" with his family and co-defendants and hoping that "we do better as a nation going forward." 

"Lord willing," he said of the jailed pro-life activists who were among those that received a pardon, "[they] will be eating dinner with their families tonight and not in the federal pen, with, you know, bologna sandwiches and whatever." 

Vaughn's wife, Bethany, told CNA that while she is happy about the pardon, she hopes her husband will pursue his appeals case and ultimately win so that future prosecutions may be prevented from happening. 

A video posted on social media shows Trump signing the pardons on Thursday afternoon after telling the press: "Twenty-three people were prosecuted. They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them were elderly people." 

"It's a great honor to sign this," the president said as he signed the order. 

Last week, the Thomas More Society petitioned the incoming president to issue 21 individual pardons for pro-life advocates who were arrested for violating the FACE Act, including several who were elderly and in poor health. 

"These peaceful pro-life Americans mistreated by [President Joe] Biden include grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest — all are selfless, sincere patriots," the petition stated. 

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 23, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump issued pardons for 23 pro-life activists on Thursday, fulfilling a promise he made during the presidential campaign.

Trump signed the pardons on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House on the day before the March for Life to be held in Washington, D.C., according to the Thomas More Society.

Last week, the religious liberty law firm petitioned the incoming president to issue 21 individual pardons for pro-life advocates who were arrested for violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and "Conspiracy Against Rights" statute while peacefully engaging in protests at abortion clinics.

Several of those convicted and imprisoned were elderly and in poor health.

At least two times during his 2024 campaign for the presidency, Trump said he intended to release pro-life activists who are currently imprisoned.

"These peaceful pro-life Americans mistreated by [President Joe] Biden include grandparents, pastors, a Holocaust survivor, and a Catholic priest — all are selfless, sincere patriots," the petition from the Chicago-based law firm reads.

During Biden's four years in office, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought charges against more than 30 people who took part in pro-life demonstrations under the FACE Act, which was legislation in the 1990s to increase penalties for people who obstruct access to abortion clinics or pregnancy resource centers.

Although the FACE Act's higher sentences also apply to people who obstruct or damage pro-life pregnancy centers, Biden's DOJ only brought charges in two cases regarding attacks on those facilities despite more than 100 incidents occurring under his tenure.

"While Biden's prosecutors almost entirely ignored the firebombing and vandalism of hundreds of pro-life churches and pregnancy centers, they viciously pursued pro-life Americans," the petition adds.

The longest sentence was given last year to Lauren Handy, who received four years and nine months in prison for her role in a protest at an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C. The second longest was also given last year to Bevelyn Beatty Williams, who received three years and five months in prison for a protest inside an abortion clinic in New York City. 

Several pro-life activists in their mid-to-late 70s also received multiyear sentences for their protests.

"These 21 peaceful pro-lifers, many of whom are currently imprisoned for bravely standing up for unborn life, are upstanding citizens and pillars of their communities," Steve Crampton, who works as senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.

This is a developing story. 

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CNA Staff, Jan 23, 2025 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

As a series of massive and destructive wildfires in the Los Angeles area continue to burn, a new fire that sparked Wednesday north of the city, near Castaic Lake reservoir, has quickly burned more than 10,000 acres and as of Thursday is only about one-quarter contained. 

The Hughes Fire has forced the evacuation of 31,000 people and more than 14,000 structures are threatened, according to Los Angeles County's Coordinated Joint Information Center.

Father Vaughn Winters, the pastor at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church in nearby Santa Clarita, told CNA by email that "yesterday was very stressful, but the immediate danger seems to be past." 

He said "a couple hundred" St. Kateri parishioners living near where the fire is spreading were forced to evacuate, as evacuation warnings bordered the city of Santa Clarita, which is about 30 miles north of Los Angeles and home to 220,000 people.

"Our parishioners from the community of Castaic near the fire were evacuated. The evacuation warning zone came near to the actual church and our parishioners in Santa Clarita, but we did not have to evacuate," the priest told CNA.

"Seeing all the plumes of smoke all day was very worrying and of course everyone has been on edge because of the terrible fires two weeks ago."

Winters said the parish is willing to extend assistance to anyone who needs it through a special fire assistance fund that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles set up in early January.

The Hughes Fire, which at its height engaged about 4,000 firefighters, is about 30 miles as the crow flies from Thomas Aquinas College (TAC), a prominent Catholic institution of higher education located in Santa Paula that has been threatened by wildfire before. 

The 2017 Thomas Fire, named for its proximity to the school, sparked in early December less than a mile from campus and burned nearly 300,000 acres, including hundreds of residences in the town of Ventura. It was the largest wildfire in state history up to that point, but the college survived the fire without the loss of any major structures.

The school in 2021 opened a concrete helipad designed to accommodate the needs of a Firehawk helicopter in an effort to assist local firefighters by giving them a location to refill the craft's water tanks. 

Christopher Weinkopf, a TAC spokesman, told CNA that "thanks be to God" the school isn't threatened by the Hughes Fire but that they were "seeing a lot of smoke on campus yesterday." 

He added that firefighters are not currently using the TAC helipad in their efforts to fight the Hughes Fire.

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Vatican City, Jan 23, 2025 / 08:45 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Thursday that Pope Francis had approved the transfer of Bishop Joseph Cai Bingrui from the Diocese of Xiamen to the Diocese of Fuzhou, both in the southeast Chinese province of Fujian.

The 59-year-old Cai took possession of the diocese on Jan. 23.

The Vatican said the bishop's candidacy was approved by Pope Francis on Jan. 15 under the terms of the "Provisional Agreement," better known as the Vatican-China deal.

Cai was consecrated bishop of Xiamen with papal and government approval in 2010 after serving as diocesan administrator from 1996.

After growing up in a Catholic family, Cai was ordained a priest in 1992.

Last week, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had erected a new diocese in China and appointed Father Anthony Ji Weizhong as its first bishop.

The pope decided last October to suppress the Diocese of Fenyang in mainland China, which was originally erected in 1946 by Pope Pius XII, and at the same time erect the new Diocese of Lüliang.

Pope Francis appointed the 51-year-old Weizhong as bishop of Lüliang on Oct. 28, 2024.

Originally signed in September 2018, the Vatican in October 2024 renewed its "Provisional Agreement" with China on the appointment of Catholic bishops for an additional four years, until at least Oct. 22, 2028.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 23, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

Every Democrat in the U.S Senate on Wednesday voted against legislation that would have required doctors to provide lifesaving health care to infants who are born after a failed abortion attempt, with the party-line opposition effectively dooming the bill.

The "Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act," which was introduced by Republican Sen. James Lankford, would have guaranteed equal protection under the law for "any infant born alive after an abortion."

The proposed legislation would have required all health care practitioners present during such a birth to "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a … health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age."

Although a majority of senators voted to advance the legislation, the bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the filibuster.

The vote was 52-47 with every voting Republican supporting the bill and every Democrat in opposition. One Republican was not available for the vote.

"I am disappointed that every Senate Democrat voted against my [bill], making something that should be common sense completely partisan for the first time," Lankford said in a post on X.

"This bill is straightforward and would save lives," he added. "I believe every life is valuable and that no one is disposable."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said before the vote that the bill "attacks women's health" and alleged it "adds more legal risk for doctors on something that is already illegal." 

He alleged the bill was part of an "extremist anti-choice resurgence." The proposed bill would not have restricted or limited access to abortions that are legal.

The measure would have imposed up to a five-year prison sentence on any health care practitioner who fails to provide equal health care for an infant who survives an abortion attempt and would have required employees to report violations to law enforcement. 

It would have also allowed the woman on whom the abortion was performed to sue a health care practitioner who violates this law.

The mother of a child who survives an abortion attempt could not be prosecuted under this law under any circumstances.

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