Cecile Richards, the former president of abortion giant Planned Parenthood, has died at age 67.
Richards announced in 2024 that she was battling glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
“This morning our beloved Cecile passed away at home, surrounded by her family and her ever-loyal dog, Ollie,&#8221; Richards&#8217; family said in a statement released on Monday, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/obituaries/cecile-richards-planned-parenthood-president-dies-rcna188392" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to NBC News. &#8220;Our hearts are broken today but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives.&#8221;
“We are grateful to the doctors and health care workers who provided her excellent care and the friends, family, and well-wishers who have been by her side during this challenging time,” the family added.
Richards, who led Planned Parenthood from 2006 to 2018, oversaw the killing of nearly four million unborn babies, <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2025/01/20/former-planned-parenthood-president-cecile-richards-dies-of-brain-cancer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the non-profit Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
In November, pro-life leader Lila Rose said she was praying for Richards&#8217; conversion.
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&#8220;As the daughter of a staunchly pro-abortion politician, Richards has been part of the pro-abortion political machine her entire life,&#8221; Rose posted to X. &#8220;I don’t know the deepest motivations of her heart. But I know she has helped usher in indescribable evil via her corporation’s slaughter of nearly 4 million babies. During her tenure she also denied [Planned Parenthood&#8217;s] cover up of child sexual abuse, its Medicaid fraud, and its sale of baby body parts. Her work has led to incredible human suffering and destruction.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I hope and pray for Cecile Richards’ conversion. As the daughter of a staunchly pro-abortion politician, Richards has been part of the pro-abortion political machine her entire life. I don’t know the deepest motivations of her heart. But I know she has helped usher in…
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) <a href="https://twitter.com/LilaGraceRose/status/1859588299867947267?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2024</a></blockquote>
Sharing her diagnosis online, Richards wrote, “In my experience, having cancer doesn’t suddenly fill you with profound insights on life. What it does is make it really clear what’s important. And there is no more important work right now than fighting for abortion rights. … After all, as my mother used to say, ‘Why should your life be just about you?’”
Richards was awarded the Medal of Freedom by outgoing President Joe Biden in November.

Celebrities Visit Build – October 15, 2019

Former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards Has Died

Abortion

Cecile Richards

General

Planned Parenthood

Politics

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meta</a> has restored several pro-life Facebook accounts just days after attorneys sent a letter demanding the social media giant do so in the wake of Meta&#8217;s recent promise to support free speech.
The Facebook and Instagram accounts for pro-life news site <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LifeNews.com</a>, LifeNews founder Steven Ertelt, and pro-life mom Abby Covington were restored this week after being suspended for months, according to a press release provided exclusively to The Daily Wire.
The move came just a week after their legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-pro-life-accounts-demand-meta-lift-suspensions-after-free-speech-promises">sent a letter</a> to Meta calling on the platform to reverse its decision to suspend the accounts.
“Restoring pro-life speech to one of the world’s largest platforms is a major step in the right direction,” Phil Sechler, senior counsel at ADF, said in a statement.
“We’re grateful to see Steven Ertelt, Abby Covington, and LifeNews back on Meta platforms, where they will continue to use their voice to spread family-friendly and life-affirming messages. There’s no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg and Meta have plenty of work ahead to build back trust with the public, but correcting these past mistakes will go a long way to do just that,” Sechler said.
In May, Ertelt found his Facebook account had been permanently disabled after he posted a video showing a doctor performing a C-section. During the procedure, the unborn child can be seen grabbing the doctor’s finger.
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“An unborn baby can’t be just a clump of cells when he or she is grabbing the doctor’s hand,” read the video’s caption.
Facebook permanently disabled Ertelt’s account and informed him the post failed to follow its Community Standards on “child sexual exploitation,” his attorneys said.
Because LifeNews used Ertelt’s Facebook account to create the LifeNews Instagram account, the group’s Instagram account is effectively permanently suspended as well.
“These account suspensions have caused serious harm to Mr. Ertelt and LifeNews,” the ADF attorneys wrote in their letter to Meta.
In a statement Friday, Ertelt expressed hope that Facebook has turned over a new leaf on free speech.
“Facebook should not have suspended our accounts for posting a pro-life medical video,” Ertelt said. “And it should not have taken 8 months and a letter from attorneys for Facebook and Instagram to finally restore access to our accounts. But this is an example of the kind of censorship and discrimination pro-life conservatives have come to expect from Facebook over the years. With its recent changes, we hope Facebook will truly allow free speech on its platforms.&#8221;
Covington, the Christian pro-life mother of three, had her Facebook account permanently suspended after she posted about her family’s adoption journey. In her post, she described her family’s Christian faith and encouraged expecting mothers to reach out if they were thinking about putting their baby up for adoption.
“We believe children are a gift from the Lord,” she wrote. “God has given us the desire to support an expecting mother who will choose life for her baby through the gift of adoption! We love our children, and our prayer is to expand our family while providing a safe &amp; loving home.”
Covington received a barrage of hateful messages after her post was shared in a private group, prompting her to delete it. One user wrote, “I’m adopted and I’d s*** in your mouth out of spite while you were asleep if I’d been raised that way.”
Facebook then informed her that her account did not follow its Community Standards on “human exploitation,” her attorneys said. The platform disabled her Instagram account, as well as all of her Facebook accounts, including the one for her jewelry, skincare, and makeup business.
“The animus-filled messages that Mrs. Covington received from other Facebook users were understandably distressing,” the ADF attorneys wrote in their letter to Meta. “But what is most distressing to her is Facebook’s decision to permanently disable all six of her accounts, causing her significant financial and personal harm.”
The ADF attorneys accused Meta of violating its free speech standards, breaching its own terms of service, and failing to uphold its promises. They had requested the company respond to their request to reinstate the pro-life accounts by January 22.
“These situations provide a litmus test for whether Meta will live up to its public announcement or continue to censor and restrict the marketplace of ideas,” the legal team wrote.
Last week, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg released a video <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcing</a> sweeping changes to his company’s content moderation policies, promising “more speech and fewer mistakes.”
“In recent years we’ve developed increasingly complex systems to manage content across our platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content. This approach has gone too far,” Meta said.
“We want to fix that and return to that fundamental commitment to free expression,” the company said.
Meta said it will end its third-party fact-checking program and move to a Community Notes model similar to what X, formerly Twitter, does. The company also said it will be “getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate,” and it will also recommend more political content if a user has indicated they are interested.
Meta has been fiercely criticized in recent years for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meta-doubles-down-after-zuckerberg-reveals-how-facebook-censored-hunter-biden-laptop-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">censoring</a> political content such as the Hunter Biden laptop story, which broke just before the 2020 election.

Facebook Reports First Ever Decrease In Daily Active Users

EXCLUSIVE: Meta Restores Pro-Life Accounts Days After Legal Demand

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Facebook

Pro-Life Movement

Social Issues

U.S.

Democrats in Virginia have learned nothing from the outcome of the November elections. Even though voters overwhelmingly rejected the radical abortion ideology of Kamala Harris and other Democrats last fall, legislators in the Commonwealth continue to double down on the issue. In the opening week of the legislative session, Democrats <a href="https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-01-15/virginia-house-abortion-voting-rights-marriage-equality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted to advance</a> a constitutional amendment that would permit abortion at any point during pregnancy, for any reason, and to even remove common sense health protections for women and children, including parental consent. 
It&#8217;s a strong reminder for Virginia voters, like myself, when looking ahead to the high-stakes elections later this year. Out of all of the issues to focus on, it speaks volumes that Democrats chose expanding abortion from six months to all nine months to be one of the first votes of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Thankfully, however, we the voters have a say in bringing these out-of-touch, extreme politicians back to reality. In order for the amendment to make it to the ballot, the General Assembly must pass it again in next year’s session, meaning that we have an opportunity in November to vote out lawmakers who are pushing abortion at any time, for any reason.
That’s why we must send a clear message to reject this extremism.
This also comes at a time when the Democrat party wants to federally enshrine abortion nationwide, even though voters have clearly signaled they are not buying their brand of abortion radicalism. If Virginia legislators succeed in putting this form of abortion on the ballot, however, the Commonwealth could become one of the most radical states in the country for abortion and by far — become one of the most radical regions in the world, on par with communist countries like China and Vietnam. This goes to show just how beholden they are to their ideology, and how out of touch they are with the interests of Virginians.
Virginia already has one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country, which allows abortions for any reason up to the third trimester, well after the time a baby can survive outside of the womb. I’m currently in my eighth month of pregnancy. I’ve been seeing my baby’s face and unique movements on 3D/4D ultrasound for months now. She’s a living human being who wakes me up with her early morning kicks and who moves with approval when I consume our morning breakfast of apple juice and avocado toast. But sadly, many of the leaders in my own state, don’t recognize her life as worthy of protecting. Under Virginia’s proposed amendment, a baby in the womb, just like my little girl, could be aborted at any time, for any reason, even though she is more than likely to survive if I delivered early. 
Why are Virginia Democrats not satisfied with up to seven months’ worth of abortion-on-demand?
Sadly, it’s not just babies in the womb who will lose rights from the consequences of Virginia’s broad amendment, women will as well. This amendment also would strip health and safety regulations on abortion businesses and even take away informed consent laws.
Virginia could quickly become like Ohio and Michigan, where women are forced to endure the disastrous effects of extreme and broad abortion amendments. Right now, pro-abortion advocates are pushing to remove informed consent laws, 24-hour waiting periods, and the requirement for women to be seen by a licensed physician before obtaining an abortion — all under ballot measures the voters were deceived into approving. They’re also pushing for taxpayer-funded abortion.
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Oftentimes, we only think of abortion in terms of the rights of the child, but these measures strip away incredibly important health, financial, and informed consent laws that impact pregnant women and all taxpaying Americans.
If Virginia Democrats stay their course, all of us in the Commonwealth will be forced to endure the consequences of a broad and extreme ballot measure that allows unfettered access to abortion up to birth. That is not in line with the values of Virginians and does not belong anywhere near the top priorities of our government. Instead, legislators should focus on common sense measures that build out the state’s support network for women, children, and families.
Virginians must send a clear message to their legislators that late-term abortion for any reason is too extreme for us and our children.
* * *
Emily Erin Davis is a mom and the Vice President of Communications for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Step Up – Virginia State Capitol

Virginia Democrats Push To Enshrine Abortion After The Sixth Month

Democrats

LGBTQ

Opinion

Virginia

Republican lawmakers are again introducing legislation to protect babies born alive in botched abortions, The Daily Wire can first report.
Led by Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, lawmakers will introduce the &#8220;Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act&#8221; on Thursday. The legislation would &#8220;prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.&#8221;
It&#8217;s a piece of legislation that Republicans have introduced repeatedly in the past, arguing that it is both common sense to support it and inhumane to vote against it. Yet every year, Democrats vote against the protections for born-alive babies, arguing that the legislation is a secret attempt to restrict women&#8217;s access to so-called reproductive healthcare.
“No child should be denied medical care simply because they are ‘unwanted,'&#8221; Lankford told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Today, if an abortion procedure fails and a child is born alive, doctors can just ignore the crying baby on the table and watch them slowly die of neglect.&#8221;
&#8220;That’s not an abortion,&#8221; he added, &#8220;that’s infanticide.”
The Oklahoma senator is joined by 38 of his Republican colleagues, including Jim Banks of Indiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa,  Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Mike Lee of Utah. The legislation is also backed by a host of conservative organizations, including Concerned Women for America, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and more.
<div id="attachment_858987" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-gop-lawmakers-introduce-born-alive-abortion-survivors-protection-act/gop-senators-hold-press-conference-on-laken-riley-act" rel="attachment wp-att-858987"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-858987" class="wp-image-858987 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2192522530-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2192522530-864x576.jpg 864w, https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2192522530-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2192522530-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2192522530-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)</div>
Protections for unborn babies, limits on abortion, and federal abortion legislation are controversial topics within the Republican Party at the moment. But protections for born-alive babies have strong support from most, if not all, Republican lawmakers.
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly highlighted Democratic support for laws that allow abortionists to end the lives of babies who survive abortions. Vice President Kamala Harris — who shook her head at Trump during their presidential debate and indicated he was lying as he discussed Democratic abortion extremism — <a href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1162/vote_116_2_00058.htm">voted against</a> the Born Alive Infant Survivors Protection Act in 2020.
Given the controversial nature of abortion in the United States, it would seem that Americans should have access to quality reporting and statistics on the topic. But only eight states publicly report or respond to requests for statistics on babies who were born alive during abortion procedures, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Texas.
A Daily Wire review <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yes-democrats-support-ending-the-lives-of-babies-who-survive-abortions">found that most of these states are not transparent</a> with their reporting on whether the babies were given care after they were born alive following botched abortions. Minnesota appears to be the only state providing reasons — and Tim Walz, the state’s Democratic governor, did away with the state’s reporting requirement in May 2023.
Lankford&#8217;s legislation would require not only that abortionists &#8220;exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age,&#8221; but also that the abortionist ensures that &#8220;the child born alive is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.&#8221;
It would also mandate that health care practitioners, hospital staff, or abortion clinic staff report any knowledge of violations of this law, and states that anyone who intentionally &#8220;performs or attempts to perform an overt act that kills a child born alive&#8230;shall be punished&#8230;for intentionally killing or attempting to kill a human being.&#8221;
Mothers of babies born alive may not be prosecuted under the law.

US-POLITICS-CAPITOL

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Lawmakers Introduce Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

Donald Trump

James Lankford

Several pro-life Facebook users are demanding their accounts be restored after Meta promised this week to support free speech on its platform.
In a letter obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire, the legal counsel for <a href="https://www.lifenews.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LifeNews</a> and its founder Steven Ertelt, as well as pro-life mother Abby Covington, requested Meta &#8220;immediately&#8221; restore their disabled accounts.
&#8220;If Meta is truly committed to the free-speech principles that it recently announced, it will act swiftly to reinstate Mr. Ertelt’s, LifeNews’s, and Mrs. Covington’s accounts,&#8221; reads the letter from their legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
In May, Ertelt found his Facebook account had been permanently disabled after he posted a video showing a doctor performing a C-section. During the procedure, the unborn child can be seen grabbing the doctor&#8217;s finger.
“An unborn baby can’t be just a clump of cells when he or she is grabbing the doctor’s hand,” read the video&#8217;s caption.
Facebook permanently disabled Ertelt&#8217;s account and informed him the post failed to follow its Community Standards on &#8220;child sexual exploitation,&#8221; his attorneys said.
Because LifeNews used Ertelt’s Facebook account to create the LifeNews Instagram account, the group&#8217;s Instagram account is effectively permanently suspended as well.
&#8220;These account suspensions have caused serious harm to Mr. Ertelt and LifeNews,&#8221; the ADF attorneys wrote in their letter to Meta.
Covington, the Christian pro-life mother of three, had her Facebook account permanently suspended after she posted about her family&#8217;s adoption journey. In her post, she described her family&#8217;s Christian faith and encouraged expecting mothers to reach out if they were thinking about putting their baby up for adoption.
&#8220;We believe children are a gift from the Lord,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;God has given us the desire to support an expecting mother who will choose life for her baby through the gift of adoption! We love our children, and our prayer is to expand our family while providing a safe &amp; loving home.&#8221;
Covington received a barrage of hateful messages after her post was shared in a private group, prompting her to delete it. One user wrote, “I’m adopted and I’d s*** in your mouth out of spite while you were asleep if I’d been raised that way.”
Facebook then informed her that her account did not follow its Community Standards on &#8220;human exploitation,&#8221; her attorneys said. The platform disabled her Instagram account as well as all of her Facebook accounts, including the one for her jewelry, skincare, and makeup business.
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&#8220;The animus-filled messages that Mrs. Covington received from other Facebook users were understandably distressing,&#8221; the ADF attorneys wrote in their letter to Meta. &#8220;But what is most distressing to her is Facebook’s decision to permanently disable all six of her accounts, causing her significant financial and personal harm.&#8221;
The ADF attorneys accused Meta of violating its free speech standards, breaching its own terms of service, and failing to uphold its promises. They requested the company respond to their request to reinstate the pro-life accounts by January 22.
&#8220;These situations provide a litmus test for whether Meta will live up to its public announcement or continue to censor and restrict the marketplace of ideas,&#8221; the legal team wrote.
&#8220;Facebook needs to keep the momentum going. If Zuckerberg wants to make a real impact related to censorship, he must immediately stop the weaponization of its content standards against pro-life groups like LifeNews. No group should be silenced for expressing their political or religious views on the platform. Meta’s promise to uphold free speech starts here,&#8221; Jeremy Tedesco, ADF&#8217;s senior counsel and senior vice president of corporate engagement said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg released a video <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcing</a> sweeping changes to his company&#8217;s content moderation policies, promising &#8220;more speech and fewer mistakes.&#8221;
&#8220;In recent years we’ve developed increasingly complex systems to manage content across our platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content. This approach has gone too far,&#8221; Meta said.
&#8220;We want to fix that and return to that fundamental commitment to free expression,&#8221; the company said.
Meta said it will end its third-party fact-checking program and move to a Community Notes model similar to what X, formerly Twitter, does. The company also said it will be &#8220;getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate&#8221; and it will also recommend more political content if a user has indicated they are interested.
Meta has been fiercely criticized in recent years for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meta-doubles-down-after-zuckerberg-reveals-how-facebook-censored-hunter-biden-laptop-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">censoring</a> political content such as the Hunter Biden laptop story, which broke just before the 2020 election.
<h3><a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/1.9.2025-ADF-Letter-to-Meta.pdf">READ THE ADF&#8217;S LETTER TO META HERE</a></h3>

Key Speakers At The Meta Connect Event

EXCLUSIVE: Pro-Life Accounts Demand Meta Lift Suspensions After Free Speech Promises

Pro-Life Accounts Demand Meta Lift Suspensions After Free Speech Promises

Censorship

Social Media Censorship

Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chip-roy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chip Roy</a> (R-TX) demanded answers from the University of Texas on Wednesday over a $50,000 grant it provided to Planned Parenthood to research a sex education program, a letter first shared with The Daily Wire shows. 
Roy’s <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/1.8.25-Rep-Roy-Letter-UT-Dean-Dr.-Allan-Cole-3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> was related to a <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_TP2AH000095_7521/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sub-award</a> of $49,458 given to Planned Parenthood of Illinois by the University of Texas Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work. The university provided the grant out of a $2 million award from the Department of Health and Human Services it was granted for the purpose of evaluating THRIVE, a sexual education and health organization. 
“Planned Parenthood of Illinois is a radical entity and the University of Texas’ association with it violates the conscience of millions of Texans,” Roy wrote to Dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, Allan Cole.
The University of Texas has so far received $526,145 of the promised money from the federal government and has partnered with teams in Illinois, Kansas, and Colorado to evaluate THRIVE.
THRIVE <a href="https://tfyhi.socialwork.utexas.edu/thrive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that it provides “inclusive, trauma-informed sex education to youth” and that its curriculum is “designed to meet the specific needs and concerns of teens and young adults in foster care.”
Roy said that the university’s partnership with Planned Parenthood of Illinois was unacceptable, pointing to the organization&#8217;s <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-illinois/patient-resources/gender-affirming-hormone-therapy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">boasts</a> of providing “gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) to transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive folks&#8221; as young as 16 years old. 
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“Considering that the University of Texas is second in the nation in federal research expenditures among public higher education systems, it is essential that we understand why federal grant recipients are entering into partnerships with abortion and so-called &#8216;gender-affirming care&#8217;— providing organizations and under what circumstances,&#8221; Roy wrote. 
Roy asked that Cole provide documentation on the award and the “rationale” for why Planned Parenthood was chosen. He also asked if the University of Texas had entered into any other funding agreements with any abortion providers. 
The Republican lawmaker also asked whether the sub-award was in accordance with Texas law, which stipulates that public money cannot go toward transgender procedures on children.

Members Of The House Freedom Caucus Discuss Appropriations During Capitol Hill Press Conference

EXCLUSIVE: Chip Roy Demands Answers From University Over $50k Award To Planned Parenthood

Chip Roy

Texas

Transgender

University of Texas

A Chicago museum exhibit dedicated to Planned Parenthood featured rosaries, because Christianity is in the business of &#8220;controlling the bodies&#8221; of women, the exhibit&#8217;s plaque said.
The International Museum of Surgical Science&#8217;s &#8220;Unplanned Parenthood&#8221; exhibit featured letters women wrote to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger in the 1920s asking for information about birth control.
Some of the letters were hung from crosses using rosary beads.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
NEW: Rosary beads represent Christianity &quot;controlling the bodies of birthing people&quot; in this Planned Parenthood museum exhibit
At Chicago&#39;s International Museum of Surgical Science <a href="https://t.co/n4CGmgSGcN">pic.twitter.com/n4CGmgSGcN</a>
&mdash; Mairead Elordi (@JohnsonHildy) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnsonHildy/status/1877079118769991760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The rosary beads serve as a reminder of the enduring influence of christianity [sic] in the United States, symbolizing the ways religious institutions have played in shaping societal norms and controlling the bodies of birthing people,&#8221; <a href="https://imss.org/contemporaryart/michelle-hartney-unplanned-parenthood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read</a> the plaque for the exhibit.
&#8220;Birthing people&#8221; is a gender neutral term often used in place of &#8220;women&#8221; by those who espouse gender ideology.
The letters were embroidered onto vintage wedding dress fabric by volunteers in sewing circles around the country, the plaque said. The wedding dress material symbolizes the &#8220;societal expectations placed on women in the early 1900s.&#8221;
The fabric letters were then hung from porcelain backings, &#8220;evoking the fragility of the rights of people with uteruses,&#8221; while the backings have imagery from wedding cakes, lingerie, and jewelry, &#8220;serving as a commentary on the societal pressure placed on women to embrace marriage, often masking the limitations it imposed, particularly during the times when birth control and autonomy were denied.&#8221;
Meat hooks symbolized &#8220;the patriarchy.&#8221;
&#8220;Vintage meat hooks were used as symbols of the brutality of the patriarchy and the way men have treated the bodies of people with uteruses like animals,&#8221; the plaque said.
Chicago is one of the most Catholic cities in the country, with about a <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/most-catholic-cities-in-us/2966577.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">third</a> of its residents identifying as Catholic.
One Catholic Chicago resident told The Daily Wire it was &#8220;heart-wrenchingly offensive&#8221; to think of his tax dollars going towards the display.
The museum has <a href="https://imss.org/2023/09/the-international-museum-of-surgical-science-to-offer-artist-stipends-in-2024-season-for-chicago-illinois-based-artists/?srsltid=AfmBOoqEraaOLaphC478hd7hBDoEB3NiBEP_DB-FsX8Uukmbc3T3KYW7&amp;utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> government grants, including pandemic relief money.
&#8220;Worse, the use of the Catholic rosary and Crucifixes in the exhibit is a mockery of the Lord&#8217;s Mother and all of the prayers from all those who hold life sacred from conception,&#8221; he said, &#8220;something [about] 1.3 billion Catholics universally hold to, and an issue the Church is unwavering on.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s despicable what the City is supporting. Wasting our tax dollars to mock Catholics, and the desecrate to rosary,&#8221; the Catholic Chicagoan said, adding that he encourages the city&#8217;s two million Catholics to &#8220;vote accordingly.&#8221;
The museum said in a statement to The Daily Wire that the &#8220;views, statements, and ideas expressed in this exhibition are solely those of the artist&#8221; and the museum &#8220;does not endorse or promote any political or social beliefs presented in this exhibit.&#8221;
<div>
&#8220;The International Museum of Surgical Science supports a commitment to contemporary art and artists through exhibitions and programs that use the frame of contemporary artistic practice to examine new perspectives in medical and surgical science and our relationship to the body,&#8221; Director of Museum Operations Michelle Rinard said.
&#8220;We believe in the power of the arts to build community, inspire social change and bring fresh perspective to difficult and complex issues — including issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender identity and sexual orientation. IMSS seeks applications that address these issues,&#8221; Rinard said.
</div>

Rosary Beads in Hands of Catholic Woman

Chicago Museum Hangs Pro-Birth Control Notes On Rosaries In Planned Parenthood Exhibit

Birth Control

Catholic

Catholic Church

Catholicism

Chicago

Contraception

Health Care

Margaret Sanger

Two major retailers confirmed this week that they do not sell a popular abortion pill, despite pressure from Democratic officials to do so. 
Both Kroger and Sam’s Club confirmed to The Daily Wire that they do not offer mifepristone for sale after screenshots posted online last month appeared to show the life-ending drug available for purchase. Mifepristone is now used in over half of all abortions and has been used <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-leftist-networks-flood-red-states-with-risky-abortion-pills-with-no-consequences" target="_blank" rel="noopener">across the country to bypass</a> pro-life protections in Republican-led states. 
The controversy emerged last month after pro-life organization Live Action <a href="https://www.liveaction.org/news/kroger-sams-club-third-party-vendors-abortion-pill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that both Kroger and Sam’s Club had mifepristone, which is estimated to be used in over half of abortions, advertised on their websites. 
An <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20241213171505/https://www.krogerhealthsavings.com/drug/Mifepristone?q=Mifepristone%20(Mifeprex)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">archived</a> page from December 18 on Kroger’s website shows mifepristone listed for sale. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-855077" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screen-Shot-2025-01-08-at-10.02.36-AM.png" alt="" width="2575" height="1125" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screen-Shot-2025-01-08-at-10.02.36-AM.png 2575w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screen-Shot-2025-01-08-at-10.02.36-AM-300x131.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screen-Shot-2025-01-08-at-10.02.36-AM-1024x447.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screen-Shot-2025-01-08-at-10.02.36-AM-768x336.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screen-Shot-2025-01-08-at-10.02.36-AM-1536x671.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/Screen-Shot-2025-01-08-at-10.02.36-AM-2048x895.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2575px) 100vw, 2575px" /></div>
The company later told Live Action and The Washington Stand that the listing was a mistake. The retailer confirmed to The Daily Wire that it had never sold mifepristone, and that it was reviewing the FDA&#8217;s guidelines for the drug.
“Kroger Family of Pharmacies are reviewing the FDA&#8217;s updated Mifepristone Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy drug safety program,” a company spokesman said. “We will continue to align our dispensing practices with applicable federal and state laws.” 
Another screenshot from Live Action showed that Sam’s Club appeared to also have mifepristone for sale on its website. The company, a division of Walmart, also said the posting was made in error. 
“Regarding reports about details on our website, we use a third-party vendor to aggregate medication pricing, and their tool provided incorrect information,” a company spokesman told The Daily Wire. 
The acknowledgment comes after a group of conservative and Christian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservative-investors-urge-retail-giants-not-to-sell-widely-used-abortion-drug" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shareholders organized</a> by the Alliance Defending Freedom urged Kroger, Walmart, Costco, and other retailers not to sell the life-ending drug. This campaign came after New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said that retailers should make the abortion drug available. 
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Jeremy Tedesco, the senior vice president of corporate engagement for Alliance Defending Freedom, celebrated the news, saying that it was a “great outcome” and that it could be a “really significant” change in how corporations deal with politically-charged issues. 
He told The Daily Wire that abortion activists were “trying to co-opt the companies to advance their abortion agenda, regardless of what the law says. They want these companies to make abortion pills as widely available as possible.”
Tedesco added that until recently ”only the Left shows up for these battles with the corporations” but now conservatives&#8217; push to directly engage with companies was making a difference. 
He said that conservatives should want to neutralize companies on the issue of abortion, and that the companies should just focus on providing quality products. 
“The Left’s primary goal in all of this is to make the political process irrelevant by regulating all through what corporations do and how they behave,” he said. 
Alliance Defending Freedom has yet to receive any response from the companies it wrote to.

A sign for Sam’s Club is seen at the entrance to the members

Major Retailers Confirm They Are Not Selling Abortion Drug Despite Democrat Pressure

Abortion Drug

Walmart

Wokeness

People are widely praising President Jimmy Carter’s Christian faith after his passing, a reaction that reveals a telling double standard in how elites treat different expressions of Christianity.
For example, a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2025/01/01/jimmy-carter-evangelical-baptist-faith/">Washington Post</a> writer declared, “For Jimmy Carter, faith was inseparable from politics and life.” The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/5060618-jimmy-carter-christian-example/">wrote</a>, &#8220;Jimmy Carter was the Christian most politicians pretend to be.” And The New York Times<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/30/us/carter-on-death.html"> profiled</a> how Carter’s faith defined his activities and outlook in public life.
By all accounts, Carter’s Christianity was a particularly pietistic expression of Mainline Protestantism. This is a faith whose doctrinal core has been hollowed out for decades by theological liberalism. It’s a modernized Christianity that sheds the most controversial and supposedly outmoded elements of biblical doctrine to placate the spirit of the age.
For example, Carter is on record celebrating same-sex marriage and defending abortion. He publicly opposed Southern Baptist conservatives as they sought to return the denomination to a more biblically faithful position, ultimately departing it altogether.
Carter’s faith resonates with liberal ideals — service, humility, and social justice. His Christianity embodied what one of my old professors called “BOMFOG” (Brotherhood of Man and Fatherhood of God). This version of Christianity wins praise. 
Of course, service, humility, seeking justice, and loving your neighbor are beautiful and vital parts of Christianity. But Christianity also addresses sin, human nature, family structure, the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, sexual morality, repentance, and absolute truth. These are the harder truths of the faith that don’t play well in progressive circles.
When conservative Christians act on their faith, public opinion and media framing shift. Suddenly, Christianity becomes a problem. When conservative Christians act in line with their beliefs on issues like life, family, or religious liberty, they are met with criticism and labeled intolerant or regressive. It’s a threat to democracy and an illiberal force in society. 
Just look at the past eight years. Evangelicals have been relentlessly vilified in the media, even by fellow Christians at elite publications. Yes, there’s some nutty behavior out there among evangelicals. But on the whole, if you take your Christian faith seriously and it becomes a threat to the cultural comfort zones of progressivism, you are persona non grata. Consider the ominous media analysis of Sen. JD Vance’s supposed “post-liberal” Catholicism. The tone makes it seem like his faith is as sinister as Darth Vader’s theme song.
The difference? Carter’s faith comforted the cultural Left. It posed no threat to the dominant liberal order.
To be fair, his faith motivated many good works for which I will not criticize him. But Carter’s Christianity ultimately allowed him to serve as a chaplain to progressive America. It represents the convergence of religious sentimentality with progressive moral values. In effect, Carter’s faith symbolizes the one form of church-state establishment that liberalism will tolerate: a Christianity stripped of its harder truths, its calls to repentance, and its moral clarity.
Biblical, orthodox Christianity, on the other hand, confronts the liberal order with truths it refuses to hear. And when those truths are voiced, orthodox faith is sidelined or castigated as intolerant. Liberalism will not accept a Christianity that proclaims Jesus Christ as the only way to God, that defends unborn human beings discarded as medical waste, or that challenges the decadent sexual deviancy now treated as routine.
The lesson? Our culture tolerates a Christian faith that aligns with its values but resists a Christian faith that challenges it. This dynamic reveals something fundamental about true Christianity: it is to do both, comfort and confront.
If your Christianity is celebrated in the highest echelons of culture, maybe that’s a sign something is amiss. That doesn’t necessarily mean compromise is present, but it should at least raise questions. On the other hand, being so hard-edged and “prophetic” that you’re unbearable to be around is also a problem. Authentic faith should embody love and truth (1 Corinthians 13:6), reasonableness (Philippians 4:5), and sober-mindedness (1 Peter 5:8).
Carter’s life invites us to examine how faith is understood and celebrated in public life. The irony is clear: society embraces a faith that serves its agenda while rejecting a faith that stands apart from it. True Christianity, however, is neither a servant of the age nor its unrelenting critic. Instead, it provides both the comfort of grace and the challenge of repentance, which our culture desperately needs.
So, let’s not selectively celebrate faith only when it fits a preferred narrative. If faith matters, it matters in full, whether it aligns with our politics or not. That’s the beauty of Christianity. It’s the one worldview that provides both comfort and confrontation, truth and grace, and it’s what we need in this moment of cultural upheaval. 
Andrew T. Walker is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Managing Editor of WORLD Opinions. He is a Fellow at The Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Former President Jimmy Carter Teaches Sunday School

Jimmy Carter And America’s Double Standard For Celebrating Christianity

Christianity

Jimmy Carter

Same-Sex Marriage

Southern Baptists

As we prepare to enter the new year, we’re taking you back to some of The Daily Wire’s best reporting from 2024. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/completely-unjustified-medical-journal-retracts-major-studies-critical-of-abortion-pill-ahead-of-supreme-court-clash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on February 5. 
Major scientific studies on the potential harm of abortion pills were retracted by their publisher, just weeks before the Supreme Court heard arguments on the availability of such drugs.
Three studies, including two on the potential harms of the abortion pill just, were retracted by Sage Publishing, an independent academic publishing company. The <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23333928231216699">retraction notice</a> states that an independent review of the studies was conducted due to a single reader’s complaint that the studies included misleading data and that the authors were affiliated with a pro-life organization, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, presenting a conflict of interest.
The authors of the studies say the retractions are a politically motivated effort to discredit research that was cited in U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s April 2023 decision to suspend approval of mifepristone, the drug used in roughly half of all abortions in the United States. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in March on the legality of restricting the abortion pill based on Kacsmaryk’s ruling, proceedings that will certainly be impacted by the retractions.
Dr. James Studnicki, a listed author on all three studies in question, told The Daily Wire that the retractions were “completely unjustified” and that the retractions were meant to discredit scientific research that challenged the pro-abortion bias engrained in academia.
Studnicki, who trained at Johns Hopkins University and has spent decades conducting scientific research, said that he and his fellow researchers were targeted “because of the visibility of our work, because of the fact that our work was having such an influence on the discussion about abortion that was occurring in the states and in the courts at the highest levels.”
One of the now-retracted <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23333928211053965">studies</a>, published November 9, 2021, found that the rate of emergency room visits following chemical abortions had spiked 500% from 2002-2015, according to Medicaid claims data. Another one of the studies, published May 20, 2022, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23333928221103107">analyzed the likelihood</a> of recurring emergency room visits for women who did not disclose to doctors that they had a chemical abortion.
These two studies were <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.370067/gov.uscourts.txnd.370067.137.0_19.pdf">cited</a> in Kacsmaryk’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-in-texas-suspends-fda-approval-of-abortion-pill-used-in-up-to-half-of-abortions">decision</a> to suspend FDA approval of mifepristone.
Additionally, the testimony of Dr. Ingrid Skop, who was an author on all three of the articles, was cited multiple times in an August <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23911247/5th-circuit-ruling-on-mifepristone-access.pdf">decision</a> from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals where the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-appeals-court-makes-decision-on-the-mailing-of-abortion-pills">court said</a> that chemical abortion drug mifepristone should not be distributed through the mail or prescribed via telemedicine.
Studnicki added that the retractions were emblematic of the politicization of science, pointing to stances on transgender and climate issues widely held by the academic establishment. He said that proponents of abortion were deeply threatened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and were now pushing to banish any research suggesting dangers with abortion out of the academy.
“I think Dobbs really accelerated this, I think there’s a sense of desperation among those in the abortion industry,” he told The Daily Wire ahead of the retraction, which was expected. “They’ve always had the literature to themselves. All of the major health associations are pro-abortion, most of the journals are pro-abortion, all the academic departments in the universities are pro-abortion.”
In previous correspondence with the authors, Sage pushed back against allegations of political bias, saying that issues identified in the articles were based on independent review by “subject experts” and methodological issues with the articles.
Sage declined to comment on the retraction, but directed The Daily Wire to an <a href="https://perspectivesblog.sagepub.com/blog/note-from-sage-on-retractions-in-health-services-research-and-managerial-epidemiology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explanation</a> of its decision.
No issues were raised with any of the studies until April 2023, the same month of Kacsmaryk’s decision, when pharmaceutical sciences professor and abortion supporter Chris Adkins <a href="https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/study-cited-texas-judge-abortion-pill-case-under-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complained</a> to Sage about the article claiming that the study showing an increase in rate of emergency room visits was full of “dishonest science” and “grossly misleading.”
The researchers were not informed of any issues with the articles until June 28, 2023, when they were informed of the complaint from the reader. They responded to the concerns on July 13, and an expression of concern was placed on the article dated July 25.
After months of back and forth with the journal, on November 13, Sage told the researchers that they would be retracting the three studies. The next day, Studnicki was kicked off the editorial board of the Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology journal, months before the retractions actually took place.
“In light of the decision to retract three research articles where you are an author, I believe that your term as an editorial board member must now come to an end. As the Editor, I appreciated your contributions to the journal,” Dr. Gregory Garrison wrote to Studnicki in an email viewed by The Daily Wire.
This message came after Garrison <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23333928221083061">had</a> previously highlighted Studnicki’s research in question in an editorial for Sage in March 2022.
On November 16, the researchers sent a letter to Sage requesting more time to respond to the retraction notice, saying that the retractions were “procedurally improper” and suggesting that the real reason for the retractions was to undermine their research ahead of the Supreme Court’s consideration of mifepristone.
“Your decision also reflects a regrettable pattern of using scientific publications as a sword against unpopular findings—regardless of their objectivity. This further undermines the public’s confidence in scientific bodies and does a disservice to your mission to ‘advance knowledge,’” the letter from the authors said.
Days after missing the initial retraction deadline, Sage responded on November 21 to the researchers giving them until November 29 to respond and denying any suggestion that the retractions were politically motivated.
“Sage rejects as spurious your insinuation that the timing of the Retraction Notice was in anyway related to a Supreme Court case,” Sage wrote in a letter viewed by The Daily Wire. “The retraction of the three articles is solely based on the results of the investigation, which was completed in good faith and which Sage had a responsibility to undertake as a COPE [Committee on Publication Ethics] member and to fulfill its responsibility as publisher of the journal. Sage’s primary goal and obligation is, as it has been for over 50 years, to maintain the highest integrity of the academic publishing process. Any suggestion that politics enters into this mission is without basis and is highly insulting.”
Sage claimed that one of the reasons for the retractions was that the researchers did not disclose conflicts of interests. The journal claimed that they were deceived by the CLI researchers and that they did not disclose “blatant conflicts.”
Studnicki, however, said that they had made clear that their work was funded by the Charlotte Lozier Institute and that they had detailed numerous times their affiliations. The institute is the research arm of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group. Both articles cited by Kacsmaryk state at the bottom, “This work was supported by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.”
Tessa Longbons, another author on the studies, said that Sage was demonstrating a double-standard with the conflict of interests claim, pointing to numerous studies published with Sage Journals where authors affiliated with pro-abortion groups did not disclose conflicts of interests.
For example, in one <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1258/JRSM.2012.12K080">article</a> published by Sage advocating for mifepristone access, no competing interests were declared despite the fact that the lead author is an abortion proponent and the other authors were members of an academic center that <a href="https://bixbycenter.ucsf.edu/news/bixby-research-confirms-abortion-safe-procedure">promotes</a> abortion. No conflict of interests were declared in another <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.2217/WHE.10.70">article</a> from Sage Journals written by a researcher with the openly pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
In its letter to the researchers, Sage said that the assertion that they hold pro-life and pro-abortion authors to a different standard was “baseless and needlessly provocative.”
The researchers responded by again pointing out the apparent double standard.
“[If] Sage now purports to have always required ideological disclosures, Sage itself has not maintained that standard it seeks now to impose on us,” the authors said. “Despite Sage’s dismissal of this point as ‘unsupported,’ a cursory search clearly demonstrates that Sage journals have published dozens of articles on abortion access and safety by researchers affiliated with organizations with very public and open positions on abortion.”
Another issue that Sage took with the studies, according to its correspondence with the authors, was that a reviewer on the article was affiliated with the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Studnicki, however, said that SAGE selects reviewers and the articles went through a double -blind process, meaning that the authors did not know who was reviewing the article and the reviewers did not know whose work they were reviewing.
“We did not select the reviewer at issue, and the reviewer’s identity is still unknown to us. In fact, this reviewer may not have been a CLI associate scholar at the time of his/her review. Likewise, because Sage practices double-blind peer review, the reviewer was equally unaware of our identities when evaluating our work,” the researchers told Sage.
Sage took issue with some of the methodological decisions made by Studnicki and other researchers. It criticized the November 2021 study because it used emergency room visits to measure complications from abortions. Using Medicaid data, the researchers had tracked emergency room visits for women who had confirmed abortions within 30 days of the visit. The researchers broke down the visits into categories, including abortion-related visits.
Some critics said an adverse reaction to an abortion should only be counted if the visit involves surgery or hospitalization, but Studnicki disagrees.
&#8220;I think that if a woman has an abortion and she starts to bleed or she starts to have serious pain or she sees some sort of discharge that is indicative of an infection, she goes to an emergency room, I think that is a serious adverse event and a complication,” he said.
Studnicki said that none of the issues raised by Sage invalidate the research. He said the concerns are just a matter of researchers deciding to measure things in different ways, and not a matter of faulty data.
Despite the retractions, Studnicki said that he and his fellow researchers will continue to produce quality work, saying that it was a badge of honor to be targeted by pro-abortion advocates.
“This is the greatest testimony to the strength of our science that one could possibly hope for. We are doing all the right things. We intend to continue to do the right things, but it’s probably going to be harder to get things published because they are trying to tarnish our reputation,” he said.

Appeals Court Keeps Abortion Pill Mifepristone Available, But With Restrictions

Medical Journal Retracts Major Studies Critical Of Abortion Pill Ahead Of Supreme Court Clash

Roe v. Wade's Long And Brutal Legacy

Supreme Court

As we prepare to enter the new year, we’re taking you back to some of The Daily Wire’s best reporting from 2024. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-lifer-spending-thanksgiving-in-prison-grateful-for-opportunity-a-doj-sponsored-mission-trip" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on November 28. 
For only the second time in their 41-year marriage, Calvin and Trish Zastrow spent Thanksgiving apart. The first time was due to travel — this time it’s because Cal is serving a six-month prison sentence over a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021.
Zastrow was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-lifer-targeted-by-biden-admin-sentenced-to-prison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">convicted</a> earlier this year on FACE Act-related charges brought by the Biden administration after he prayed, sang hymns, and sat in front of the door to the entrance of an abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Calling from the Federal Correctional Institute Thomson in Illinois this week, Zastrow told The Daily Wire he was doing “absolutely fantastic.”
“I’m all on fire for Jesus,” he said. “I’m doing absolutely great, I’m on a big mission trip here.”
Over one month into his prison sentence, Zastrow said he has kept busy praying, reading his Bible, and teaching his fellow inmates about Christianity.
“There’s a whole lot of prodigals who are wallowing in pig mud, but they want to come back to Jesus, and so I’m here as a missionary to pull them out of that and help them get back on the Jesus road,” he said.
He said his friends and family have sent him over 50 books, mostly about Christian missionaries, and he has turned his cell into a sort of library. Zastrow said he’s been giving away a lot of copies in English and Spanish of the book “Tortured for Christ,” which is about Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor who spent years in a communist prison in Romania.
In a low-security section of the prison, Zastrow said he has seen few fights but has met a broad diversity of prisoners — from men convicted over January 6 to recruiters for ISIS and the Taliban.
He said that many of the January 6 prisoners are optimistic that they will get pardoned once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. He also referenced the discussion that Trump may pardon him, as the president-elect previously indicated that he would look at the cases of pro-lifers targeted by the Biden administration.
“I’m not getting my hopes up too high,” he said. “Plus I’m busy here. I’m busy. This prison holds almost 2,300 men and their need to hear about Jesus, their need for that is greater than my need for liberty. And so I’m here on a DOJ-sponsored mission trip.”
He said that most of the guards in the prison were unpleasant and would frequently “bark” and “scream” at the prisoners. “They can’t touch my joy, they can’t touch my soul, they can’t touch my attitude,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said he has been able to call his wife pretty much every day so far.
“We are very proud of our Cal,” Trish told The Daily Wire on Wednesday. “He’s in there ministering every day. He’s doing well. He isn’t backing down from things.”
Trish was able to visit her husband earlier this month, saying she was able to spend about four hours talking to him. Still, she said it has been tough to be away from him.
“We miss him around here,” she said, noting that they had a new grandson born on November 1. “I didn’t get to share it with Cal, he’s such a great grandpa.”
Zastrow gets 500 minutes a month to call people in 15-minute increments. Trish said her daughter put a special ringtone on her phone so she knows whenever he calls.
“One of the hardest things is I can’t just call and talk to him whenever I want,” she said. “I don’t want to ever miss a call.”
Zastrow is scheduled to be released from prison on April 8, but may be able to qualify for a few days of early release if he takes some classes. His family is eager to see him back, but say they are grateful for the opportunity he’s been given to share his faith.
“I feel very privileged to be his wife and I’m very proud of him for standing,” she said. “I’m excited to see what God does with all this.”

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