As the University of Notre Dame faces concerns of false advertising, it may be time for Catholic students and tuition-paying parents to ask themselves if they can get a discount on the <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://financialaid.nd.edu/costs-and-affordability/*:*:text=Table_title:*20Average*20Cost*20of*20Attendance*20for*202025*2D2026,Item:*20Personal*20Expenses*20*7C*20Cost:*20$1*2C200*20*7C__;I34lJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2VfAPiiLS$">$90,000</a> per year price tag. While the school&#8217;s website <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.nd.edu/faith/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2VTuaGZjq$">reads,</a> “Notre Dame’s Catholic character informs all it does,” the recent promotion of a pro-abortion professor leaves that statement in doubt.
It’s hard to see how that Catholic character led the school to appoint an outspoken abortion activist to a leadership role. Either the Holy Father, church tradition, and the Bible are all mistaken, and the Catholic faith can in fact coexist with abortion, or Notre Dame is seriously misinformed as to what being Catholic actually means.
Susan Ostermann, the abortion proponent in question, was employed at the university for almost nine years as a professor before the school announced her appointment as the new director of the Keough School of Global Affairs’ Liu Institute of Asia and Asian Studies.
During her tenure, Ostermann used her platform to author and coauthor multiple articles on abortion.
“Forced pregnancy and childbirth is violence,” wrote Ostermann for <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/05/04/forced-pregnancy-and-childbirth-are-violence-against-women-and-also-terrible-health-policy/">Salon.com</a>. “It is sexual abuse. It is trauma.”
“When the state supports forced pregnancy and childbirth, it is complicit in this violence,” she continues.
Attempts to outlaw abortion “have their roots in white supremacy and racism,” Ostermann explains in <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Fwww.salon.com*2F2022*2F07*2F19*2Fabortion-and-guns-how-supremacy-unites-the-right*2F&amp;data=05*7C02*7Ckhamrick*40studentsforlife.org*7C0cf1d02750f443d94e9c08de629fea78*7Cb3f92ab929b141449c57d11e0e7a368a*7C0*7C0*7C639056636131764390*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ*3D*3D*7C0*7C*7C*7C&amp;sdata=TXL*2BrMPjzahb5dpgLcERcEvPkBHoMtHjKg4bomIhPNY*3D&amp;reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSU!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2VSkEFO79$">another article</a> titled, “Abortion, racism, and guns: How white supremacy unites the right.”
Of course, almost all of the claims in Ostermann’s articles are false. It was the early pro-abortion movement, not the pro-life movement, that stemmed from racism and promoted eugenics. Nor, as Ostermann implies in her other article, are a large portion of pregnancies (or abortions) the result of rape.
But even setting aside the accuracy of Ostermann’s claims, her articles highlight a much deeper issue: a lack of belief in the sanctity of life. It’s impossible to believe that life is sacred while also believing that protecting preborn lives is “violence.”
Most would have expected better of Notre Dame. Recently, the top-ranked school did get a “B” in <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.instituteforprolifeadvancement.org/christian-schools-tied-to-big-abortion-2025-research-results/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2VbVu2X9l$">Students for Life’s Christian Schools</a> report that looked at 725 Christian colleges and universities claiming to be faith-based (excluding denominations that support abortion).
We found that fully 114 self-proclaimed Christian colleges have ties to abortion. That’s 114 schools directly violating the faith they proclaim. In Notre Dame’s case, their Gender Studies Program (and that’s a red flag) held an event “<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://genderstudies.nd.edu/events-and-news/events/2023/03/20/trans-care-abortion-care-intersections-and-questions/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2Vcm379w-$">Trans Care &amp; Abortion Care”</a> featuring outspoken abortion advocates. That makes two major strikes against the school, apparently masquerading as a mentor of future Catholic leaders.
The most fundamental Christian principle is the sanctity of life. God created humans in his image, bestowing upon them inherent worth and value starting at the point of conception. Through that creation, humans derive, or are “endowed by their Creator with,” certain rights — including, for example, the right to life.
Abortion directly contradicts that principle, painting life as something meaningless to be destroyed at the convenience of another. In fact, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://catholicvote.org/pope-tells-political-conference-attendees-greatest-destroyer-peace-abortion/__;!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2VWoA4mIk$">Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Mother Teresa</a> recently by noting that “the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.”
By appointing Ostermann, Notre Dame has established — in its leadership, no less — someone who stands against everything it proclaims to believe.
In one of Ostermann’s articles, she writes, “When we stand by… we are complicit as well.” She was referring to states “forcing unwanted pregnancies” by restricting abortion. Ironically, her words ring true for Christians. If we stand silent while “Christian” institutions betray the Savior they confess by supporting the murder of infants in the name of compassion and love, then we are complicit.
What must happen instead?
For students, parents, and donors, the path forward is clear: Pressure Christian schools to either cut ties to abortion or stop falsely claiming Christ.
For other Christians, speaking out can take different forms — volunteering at a pro-life pregnancy center, supporting a pregnant community member and enabling her to choose life, or even taking to a public platform to proclaim the truth that abortion is murder.
For a self-proclaimed Catholic university — one that describes its actions as motivated by its faith — to appoint such a person to a leadership role exposes, at best, a lack of wisdom and, at worst, complete and utter moral decay.
This is a good time to pray a Hail Mary, to pray for us sinners, and those leading the schools where we send the next generation of leaders, that they be taught to uphold the faith and not to ignore it.
* * *
Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, with more than 1,600 groups on middle and high school, college and university, medical and law school campuses in all 50 states. Follow her <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Ftwitter.com*2Fkristanhawkins*3Flang*3Den&amp;data=05*7C02*7Ckhamrick*40studentsforlife.org*7C27bf81b427ed4d25627b08de543f97de*7Cb3f92ab929b141449c57d11e0e7a368a*7C0*7C0*7C639040829270781521*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ*3D*3D*7C0*7C*7C*7C&amp;sdata=C7ZzuOMy7XZf3hb*2BILic3mUgaqZuQh6MDnb0058Hz9Q*3D&amp;reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2VYCUQYHT$">@KristanHawkins</a> or subscribe to her podcast, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https*3A*2F*2Fkristanhawkins.com*2Fpodcast*2F&amp;data=05*7C02*7Ckhamrick*40studentsforlife.org*7C27bf81b427ed4d25627b08de543f97de*7Cb3f92ab929b141449c57d11e0e7a368a*7C0*7C0*7C639040829270800277*7CUnknown*7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ*3D*3D*7C0*7C*7C*7C&amp;sdata=b*2FEcs9UMK8btQOVIQRZOYfijz83AGjLJGPSCY9iS12M*3D&amp;reserved=0__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSU!!PxibshUo2Yr_Ta5B!xeeyTqD64ZFzG_RrEs6Yd0Qaau2zcy6SUEERwZ4F45ZWTmEYrJm7W1nCOGIuVsLO4nor7TKURdD2VZIKwc82$">The Kristan Hawkins Show.</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Notre Dame in Winter

Notre Dame Touts Faith But Elevates Abortion Advocate

Abortion

American Universities

Catholic

catholic university

Leftists

Notre Dame University

Pro-Abortion

Pro-Life Movement

Professors

In 2026, Britain will hit three grim milestones.
First, it will see the number of deaths <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/resolution-foundation-deaths-births-economy-b2894591.html">exceed</a> the number of births for the first time in modern history.
Second, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/15/abortions-at-record-high-in-over-35s-because-babies-are-too/">a third</a> of the babies conceived will be aborted.
Third, the number of migrants in its population (10.9 million) will roughly equate to the total number of children aborted (10.7 million) since the procedure became legalized in 1968.
In other words, by ending unborn lives on an industrial scale, the native British population has created a demographic vacuum it now plugs with immigration, and in doing so, has brought itself to the brink of quiet obliteration.
For Brits, the question of abortion is no longer only an ethical one. A nation that does not reproduce itself must import its future. That is not a moral judgment on immigrants, but a mathematical reality. A critical shortage of young people means a critical shortage of recruits for the armed forces, workers in critical industries, and taxpayers to fund defense, healthcare, pensions, and other social services.
If it cannot “grow our own” workforce, it must import one from elsewhere.
Of course, relying on mass immigration to plug a demographic hole of our own making is not a neutral solution. It carries serious national security implications. As has been clear in recent years, weak, strained border controls, over-used and under pressure, give way to criminal gangs, swept in undetected alongside the key workers we need.
Yet while Right-wing politicians fall over themselves to condemn mass migration, hardly anyone in Westminster will risk breathing a word about the abortion crisis that has brought our nation to the point of requiring large-scale human importation. Meanwhile, Members of Parliament <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/world/europe/uk-abortion-law.html">recently voted</a> to exacerbate abortion culture by decriminalizing the procedure up to birth.
Britain is a prime example of why the abortion debate, though emotive and divisive, is worth having. Though some Americans may roll their eyes at the March for Life or the pro-life rhetoric being championed by Republicans, they’d do well to look overseas at a nation which has let abortion destroy them. 
The consequences of abortion, of course, are not only macro-economic. The loss of life alone is devastating, in the case of every child. Broadly, our collective failure to focus on family has left Brits lonelier and more depressed than ever. And as for those women who have undergone an abortion, physical complications, mental health struggles, and silent grief ripple through our healthcare system and society. &#8220;Pro-choice&#8221; psychology professor David Fergusson <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23553240/">published evidence</a> that women who have abortions are significantly more likely to suffer from anxiety, suicidal ideation, and drug and alcohol abuse. Pretending this is a “cost-free” procedure helps no-one.
What makes Britain’s situation especially tragic is that it was avoidable. Marriage &#8211; one of the greatest proximate predictors for adults to have children &#8211; is punished by the UK tax system, discouraging family formation and making it harder to depend on one salary. In the workplace, motherhood is treated as a liability. Poor maternity leave provision and the constant push of government-sponsored “free childcare” pushes women who do have kids back into taxable desk jobs, rather than encouraging them to invest in time at home with their children. All the while, the culture champions the idea that babies are inconvenient competitors to the luxuries of modern life. Abortion is the far cheaper, easier policy option in many ways. But in the long-term, it leads to a nation collapsing from within.
This is why abortion is no longer just a moral issue, but one of national survival. A society cannot abort a third of its future generation and expect to remain intact. Britain is not simply declining, but aborting itself out of existence. America should take note, and continue to fight for a culture supportive of bringing babies into the world. Once a culture decides children are optional, the future becomes optional too.
* * *
Lois McLatchie Miller (@LoisMcLatch) is a writer and commentator from Great Britain.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

British flag burning

Britain Is Aborting Itself To Death

Children

England

Great Britain

mass migration

Pregnancy

Women

In the post-Roe landscape, pro-life advocates can now effectively work to impose tough restrictions on abortions in states across the nation – but it’s not enough. And that has everything to do with the proliferation of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/despite-dobbs-more-babies-are-still-being-aborted-in-the-united-states">abortion pill mifepristone</a>, and how it continues to be prescribed throughout the nation. 
“This is the Wild West, and this is the greatest public health crisis,” Live Action founder Lila Rose told The Daily Wire on Thursday. “The on-demand sale of the abortion pill via our mail system is the biggest public health crisis that we are facing.”
Restrictions on the pill have become wildly lax. During the Biden years, for example, mifepristone was permitted to be sent through the mail. Now, more than 60% of all abortions include abortion pills, a significant increase from past years. 
Pro-lifers want the pill taken off the market, not only for killing unborn humans, but because of how dangerous they say the pill is for women, especially when guardrails are virtually nonexistent. 
“There are thousands of women going to the emergency room with severe health complications, and sometimes life-threatening health complications because of the abortion pill,” Rose said. “There are hundreds of thousands of children being killed in this country annually by the abortion pill. It&#8217;s our biggest public health crisis.”
“The report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center proves that one out of every 24 women are landing in the emergency room, that there are severe health complications for one out of every 10 women,” Rose continued. “<a href="https://www.liveaction.org/news/live-action-investigative-report-video-abortion-pill">Live Action’s investigation</a> that just broke [Thursday] proves that Planned Parenthood is not checking gestational age, they are not providing ultrasounds. They are sending pills across state lines, sending them to the homes of friends of the person who is supposedly purchasing the pill with no follow-up care.”
As The Daily Wire’s Leif Le Mahieu previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/despite-dobbs-more-babies-are-still-being-aborted-in-the-united-states">reported</a>, abortions have continued to rise since 2023. The increase can largely be pinned on abortion-by-mail, even in states with “abortion bans” in place. 
While pro-life advocates like Rose give high praise to the Trump administration for a number of big pro-life victories, they believe the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can do more to address the proliferation of the abortion pill. 
“The FDA can, in a moment, make a rule to ensure that the abortion pill requires at least one doctor&#8217;s visit,” Rose said. “There used to be three required doctor&#8217;s visits, and this was under the Clinton administration, when the pill was illegally under an emergency order fast-tracked in this country and put on the market. So that&#8217;s something the FDA could do tomorrow.”
“The FDA could pull mifepristone used as an abortifacient from the market tomorrow. Approval for that could happen within 24 hours – the administration has everything they need,” she said, adding that state-level data can be reviewed by the FDA. 
Speaking to The Daily Wire on Wednesday, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary stressed that a comprehensive review of the pill is something that will be done, and is currently in the data acquisition phase. However, he said, the science takes time. 
“Some people think that study can be done overnight, but a proper study at any university takes time,” Makary said. “This is, in fact, my background at Johns Hopkins for 22 years. Being on the faculty, we did many of these large studies and sometimes they took a year if we did them right. Now, in the government, there are some delays associated with procurement, acquiring databases – and the government shutdown was definitely a bit of a setback.”
“But we are committed to getting this study done expeditiously, and I can assure you that there are no attempts to delay any such study,” he said. “People deserve to know the answer.”
Hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers are expected in Washington, D.C. Friday for the annual March for Life, where mifepristone will certainly be a topic of discussion. But so will major pro-life wins, which come in large part due to the Trump administration. 
Just one day before the rally, for example, the National Institutes of Health announced that it will end, effective immediately, the use of abortion-derived human fetal tissue in federally-funded research, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-ends-funding-for-research-using-aborted-baby-tissue?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ahead+Of+March+For+Life%2C+Trump+Admin+Ends+Funding+For+Research+Using+Aborted+Baby+Tissue">The Daily Wire</a> first reported. 
“The only ban is on, you have an abortion specifically to terminate the baby, and then the tissue then gets sold, that’s what’s being banned,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya told Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro on Thursday. If someone wants to donate tissue from a miscarriage, the NIH can use that for research, he noted. 
“Now that there is better technology, there’s no scientific harm to this, we’re still going to be able to use the science we need, … while at the same time getting rid of this use of aborted fetal tissue which so many people, including me, find morally abhorrent,” Bhattacharya added. 
Rose also praised the Trump administration for major pro-life victories. 
“Certainly the pardoning of the pro-life prisoners last year was a huge win by President Trump,” she told The Daily Wire. “It was also a huge win for Congress to finally remove federal funding from Planned Parenthood for one year – and that was signed, of course, by President Trump. … There have been dozens of Planned Parenthood facilities that are shut down because of the lack of taxpayer funding. Those are historic wins for the movement.”

Demonstrators protest and argue outside the U.S. Supreme

The Battle Over The Abortion Pill 

Abortion Drug

Dobbs

Mifepristone

An undercover video released by Live Action ahead of the March for Life appears to show a Planned Parenthood employee telling a woman that ending the life of an unborn child is safer than giving birth.
Investigators with Live Action released an undercover video on Thursday that appears to show Planned Parenthood employees being willing to covertly ship abortion pills, and agreeing to ship pills without confirming the gestational age of the child. The video was released as part of an effort to urge the Trump administration to take action to stop the widespread mailing of the abortion drug across the country.
For the video, Live Action said it made calls to 27 different Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country and asked a number of questions about receiving the abortion drug mifepristone. The video featured recordings of the calls with investigators and Planned Parenthood employees.
In one of the calls, an employee at a Planned Parenthood in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, tells a woman it would be safer for her to end the life of her unborn child through an in-person abortion or abortion pill than to deliver it.
“I mean, I would say like both procedures are really safe and effective, but as with any medical procedure, there are some risks involved,” the employee says in the video, according to Live Action. “Of course, you know, we can talk about that more in detail with, like, a medical care provider just to get more accurate info on that, if that makes sense. But I know they’re like, they’re like, certainly like, safer than, like, you know, carrying to term, I’d say as far as that goes.”  
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
NEW Live Action undercover exposé into Planned Parenthood 🚨
We called Planned Parenthood undercover to expose their reckless distribution of the abortion pill.
Here&#8217;s what we found:<a href="https://twitter.com/FDA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FDA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> <a href="https://t.co/lZUwCU1UCa">pic.twitter.com/lZUwCU1UCa</a>
— Live Action (@LiveAction) <a href="https://twitter.com/LiveAction/status/2014367975554556078?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In another video from St. Cloud, Minnesota, a Planned Parenthood employee said to a woman that she couldn’t quite tell her what she would see after taking abortion pills.
“You’re pregnant, so the abortion, you will be bleeding and cramping and blood clots to get rid of the pregnancy or get rid of the baby, you know, the pregnancy,” the person said on the call.
In other videos, individuals identified as Planned Parenthood employees by Live Action told women they wouldn’t need to get ultrasounds before getting mailed abortion pills or need follow-up appointments after taking the pills.
“Do I have to have an ultrasound?” the Live Action investigator asks a person identified as a Planned Parenthood employee in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“So, if you don’t want an ultrasound, if you’re OK not getting one, we can go ahead and move forward,” the unidentified employee responded, according to the recording published by Live Action.
In Portland, the investigator was told she could get the pills sent to her in a “confidential manner.”
“Can I do this without my parents knowing?” the Live Action investigator asked.
“Yeah, we can set it up to be confidential for you,” the Planned Parenthood employee responded.
Other investigators were told that the pills don’t “have to go right to your house” and that Planned Parenthood could “use a different address, you can put like a friend’s address or something.”
The video was released at a press conference attended by multiple Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Michael Cloud (R-TX), Mark Harris (R-NC), Troy Downing (R-MT), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ).
When reached for comment on the video, Planned Parenthood did not respond to the specific allegations but claimed to comply with all applicable laws.
“Planned Parenthood health centers that offer medication abortion follow all applicable laws and regulations and always ensure care provided reflects the latest credible research and upholds the highest standard of patient care,” Danika Severino of Planned Parenthood told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;In accordance with Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s medical standards and guidelines — which are developed and updated with medical experts across the field of sexual and reproductive health care using rigorous scientific evidence — providers at Planned Parenthood health centers explain the associated risks and benefits to patients seeking medication abortion, just as they do with every health care service provided,” she added.
The video was published in conjunction with the release of a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/LA26-The-State-of-Chemical-Abortion-01.20.26-updated.pdf">report</a> detailing the history and dangers of the abortion pill and a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary.
“Since its approval in 2000, this drug has ended the lives of approximately 7.5 million children in the United States. Live Action’s investigation now publicly documents how those regulatory failures in safety manifest in clinical practice, particularly within Planned Parenthood facilities tasked with administering this drug under federal safeguards,” Live Action President Lila Rose wrote to Kennedy and Makary.
Rose asked the officials to “reevaluate the approval and current regulatory status of mifepristone, strengthen transparency and data collection, and remove this dangerous drug from the market.”
On Thursday, Rose met with Kennedy and said that they <a href="https://x.com/LilaGraceRose/status/2014396553406886052">discussed</a> the “dangers of the abortion pill.”
Ahead of the March for Life, the Trump administration did make multiple pro-life policy moves that were praised by conservative groups. The administration ended the use of human fetal tissue in federally-funded research, expanded the Mexico City policy, cutting funding for abortion abroad, and took actions to protect the rights of doctors in Illinois to not perform abortions.
Those moves were praised by the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America organization, which also demanded that they reverse Biden-era guidelines that allowed the abortion pill to be sent through the mail. These regulations have enabled activists to ship abortion pills into states where medication abortions are technically illegal.
“The abortion rate has gone way up over a million at least as far as we can track,” SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said on a press call attended by The Daily Wire. “They&#8217;re going up in these states because the abortion drugs, of course, through the mail, anyone can order them, they&#8217;re flooding [to] every boyfriend, every trafficker, every woman who orders them.”

Bill Tompkins  Planned Parenthood signage Archive

Planned Parenthood Employee Says Abortion ‘Safer’ Than Birth In Undercover Call

Department of Health and Human Services

Live Action

March For Life

Planned Parenthood

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump Administration

Late Tuesday night, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged that authorities would soon arrest those who stormed Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement&#8217;s presence in the Twin Cities.
“There will be arrests tied to that, and people will be brought to justice for how they violated the law in that situation,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kristi-noem-promises-arrests-in-the-next-several-hours-over-church-stormed-by-anti-ice-activists?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Kristi+Noem+Promises+Arrests+%E2%80%98In+The+Next+Several+Hours%E2%80%99+Over+Church+Stormed+By+Anti-ICE+Activists">Noem said</a>.
To do so, the Trump administration could use a law long weaponized against pro-life protesters to prosecute those who disrupted the church service, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, made it a federal crime for pro-life protesters to block the entrances of abortion facilities. Though the law was also meant to protect crisis pregnancy centers and churches, data obtained by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) <a href="https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roy-reintroduces-legislation-repeal-face-act">shows</a> that 97% of FACE Act prosecutions through 2024 targeted pro-life individuals. 
While conservatives have long warned that the law has been weaponized against pro-lifers, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-ice-activists-storm-minnesota-church-with-don-lemon-doj-launches-probe?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Anti-ICE+Activists+Storm+Minnesota+Church+With+Don+Lemon%3B+DOJ+Launches+Probe">stunt</a> by leftist agitators at the Cities Church in St. Paul creates an opportunity for President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to flip the historical application of FACE on its head. 
The FACE Act penalizes those who “by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
That would appear to apply to the storming of Cities Church by a group of activists organized by the Racial Justice Network and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities. The protesters yelled and chanted slogans at worshipers, causing the service to end early. Lemon filmed the demonstration under the guise of an independent journalist and badgered the pastor of the church with questions while the disruption was taking place. 
Ryan Tucker, the director of the Center for Christian Ministries at Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Wire that the religious component of the FACE Act has rarely been used. He noted that historically, local and state law enforcement have stepped in to address FACE Act violations, but no such help appears to be forthcoming in Minnesota. 
“Here in Minnesota, at least the state attorney general has come out and said that he&#8217;s not going to do anything to assist or to pursue any violations of state law,” Tucker said. “What&#8217;s really disheartening here is that you&#8217;ve got the lead lawyer of the state of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, saying that he&#8217;s not going to do anything to prosecute these individuals under those local laws, and in fact, has attempted to validate their actions, completely forgetting that the FACE Act even exists.”
Tucker added that it was very rare for activists to disrupt church services.
“The idea that one could go into a church, disrupt it, threaten the parishioners, and somehow get away with it, which is just absolutely unheard of,” he said. “Churches certainly have the right to worship freely without fear that protesters are going to invade their space and traumatize the families that are present, but that&#8217;s exactly what happened this past weekend.”
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/don-lemon-could-face-criminal-conspiracy-charges-over-involvement-in-minnesota-church-protest?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Don+Lemon+Could+Face+‘Criminal+Conspiracy’+Charges+Over+Involvement+In+Minnesota+Church+Protest">suggested</a> on Monday that the Justice Department would bring FACE Act-related charges against the protesters. 
“I see various crimes that have occurred,” she told podcaster Benny Johnson. “Exactly what they are I’m not going to flag, but the FACE Act has been mentioned as one of the predicates there. In other cases, the Biden DOJ used the Klan Act conspiracy charges tacked onto the FACE Act in the case of protests outside abortion clinics to bring much longer sentences.”
Dhillon was referring to how President Joe Biden’s Justice Department ramped up FACE Act prosecutions, pairing it with the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act to garner lengthy prison sentences for peaceful pro-life advocates who demonstrated at abortion facilities. 
Biden’s Justice Department successfully prosecuted these cases across the country — from Michigan to Tennessee and Washington, D.C. — and got lengthy prison sentences for multiple defendants. 
 Lauren Handy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-activist-sentenced-to-over-four-years-in-prison-over-protest-at-d-c-abortion-facility">was sentenced</a> to 57 months in prison for her role in an October 20 sit-in at the notorious D.C.-based Washington Surgi-Clinic late-term abortion facility.
In another case, 64-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pardoned-pro-life-activist-says-hes-running-on-adrenaline-and-the-holy-ghost-after-trump-pardon">Calvin Zastrow</a> and 75-year-old Chet Gallagher were sentenced to prison after they participated in a protest at an abortion facility in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, that involved them praying, singing, and speaking to women arriving at the facility. They were convicted under the FACE Act and the KKK Act for conspiracy against rights, a charge that could come with over 10 years of prison time. 
Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-should-not-have-been-prosecuted-trump-pardons-23-pro-lifers-targeted-by-biden-doj?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan+and+Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98They+Should+Not+Have+Been+Prosecuted%E2%80%99%3A+Trump+Pardons+23+Pro-Lifers+Targeted+By+Biden+DOJ">pardoned</a> the two dozen peaceful pro-life protesters during his first week in office. 
Dhillon suggested that Lemon might be subject to the KKK Act conspiracy against rights application if it could be proved that he had knowledge of the protest before it took place. 
“Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He went into the facility, and then he began ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy, it isn’t.&#8221;
As Lemon questioned a pastor during the disruption on Sunday, he asserted that the activists had a First Amendment right to stage a protest in the church. Tucker was unconvinced with this claim, noting that you can’t make a First Amendment claim while infringing on “someone&#8217;s ability to freely worship.”
Trump on Tuesday <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-minnesota-church-protesters-should-be-jailed-or-thrown-out-of-the-country?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump%3A+Minnesota+Church+Protesters+Should+Be+Jailed+Or+%E2%80%98Thrown+Out+Of+The+Country%E2%80%99">called</a> for the agitators who stormed the church to be imprisoned or “thrown out of the country.” His Justice Department appears to be ready to take that action. 
“The FACE Act is just the start. Like I said, you have material support for disruptive activities, you have conspiracy to violate civil rights, you have potentially the use of other instrumentalities to commit crimes,” Dhillon said on Monday. 
The Trump administration has already used the FACE Act to go after left-wing activists who target religious services. In September, the Justice Department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-lawsuit-under-face-act-against-violent-protestors-synagogue-west">filed charges</a> under FACE against a group of protesters who targeted a Jewish synagogue in New Jersey.
Soon after taking office, Trump’s Justice Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-doj-rolls-back-bidens-aggressive-prosecution-of-pro-lifers?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+DOJ+Rolls+Back+Biden%E2%80%99s+Aggressive+Prosecution+Of+Pro-Lifers">issued a memo</a> stipulating that FACE Act cases would only be prosecuted in cases of violence or extreme property damage, a reversal of Biden’s policy.

Don Lemon, Nekima Levy-Armstrong

How The Law Weaponized Against Pro-Lifers Could Be Used To Prosecute Anti-ICE Agitators

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Bill Clinton

Department of Justice

Don Lemon

Donald Trump

FACE Act

Harmeet Dhillon

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Keith Ellison

Minnesota

Religious Freedom

WASHINGTON—Vice President JD Vance will headline the March for Life next Friday in Washington, D.C., this year, The Daily Wire can first report.
Vance will speak Friday, January 23, at one of the largest human rights demonstrations in the world, which is held every year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade in defense of the hundreds of thousands of unborn babies whose lives are ended through abortion every year in the United States.
“Vice President Vance is grateful to the tens of thousands of Americans who travel to the National Mall each year to speak out in support of life, and looks forward to joining them for the second consecutive year,&#8221; a spokesman for the vice president told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;President Trump has delivered more victories for the pro-life movement than any president in history,&#8221; the spokesman added, &#8220;and the vice president will continue to fight for the right to life alongside the president and his administration.”
This is the second time that Vance will speak at the annual March for Life. Last year, ahead of President Donald Trump&#8217;s inauguration, Vance <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-jd-vances-first-speech-as-vice-president-to-be-at-national-march-for-life">gave his first remarks</a> as vice president to the thousands of pro-life Americans who gathered on the National Mall. He promised the march that &#8220;we will be back next year,&#8221; and he is keeping his word.
&#8220;It is a blessing to know the truth, and the truth is that unborn life is worthy of protection,&#8221; Vance told the thousands of pro-life demonstrators last year. &#8220;So please, go forth, not with frustration, but with joy.&#8221;
&#8220;We are joyful to March for Life,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We are joyful to know that that picture on an ultrasound, that is a picture of baby with hopes and dreams and potential to come. It is a joy and a blessing to fight for the unborn, to work for the unborn, and to March for Life.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1029061" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-vice-president-vance-to-headline-march-for-life/annual-march-for-life-held-in-washington-dc-3" rel="attachment wp-att-1029061"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1029061" class="wp-image-1029061 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2195119729-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2195119729-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2195119729-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2195119729-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2195119729.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Vice President JD Vance speaks at the 2025 March for Life (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)</div>
Vance, who supported the pro-life movement as both a senator and as vice president of the United States, has described himself as &#8220;100% pro-life.&#8221;
&#8220;If you’re not willing to stand up to the left on abortion, you can’t be trusted on anything else,&#8221; Vance said in 2022. &#8220;The pro-life position is the pro-people position and I’m proud to be 100% pro-life.&#8221;
Jennie Bradley Lichter, the new president of the March for Life, told The Daily Wire that the march is &#8220;thrilled&#8221; to have Vance back: &#8220;We are absolutely delighted that he&#8217;s keeping his promise and coming back to spend the day again with our pro-life marchers gathered from across the country to stand up for life.&#8221; 
Lichter believes that Vance&#8217;s presence shows that the Trump administration recognizing the pro-life movement as an important part of its coalition, and an &#8220;important part of a winning conservative coalition.&#8221; She also pointed out that in years past, the Trump administration has pegged &#8220;significant pro-life policy announcements to the March for Life&#8221; or the evening before.
&#8220;I anticipate that we will see something similar,&#8221; she shared. &#8220;I hope that the VP will be coming with some exciting news for the pro-life movement.&#8221;  
Trump himself spoke at the March for Life himself in 2019, several years before the Supreme Court overturned Roe, a massive pro-life win thanks to the president&#8217;s appointments to the Court.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Congressman Chris Smith, and other pro-life figures will also speak at the march, <a href="https://marchforlife.org/2026lifeisagift/">which is themed</a>, &#8220;Life Is A Gift,&#8221; emphasizing &#8220;that life is very good and worthy of protection, no matter the circumstances.&#8221; 
“When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation,” Trump said at the 2019 march. “When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family. When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world.  From my family — and I can tell you, I send love and I send great, great love.”
Trump is the most pro-life president in United States history, holding a strong record of pro-life action since he took office: he reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy during his first week in office in 2017, issued a landmark pro-life rule to govern the use of Title X taxpayer funding, told Congress he would veto any legislation that weakens pro-life policies or encourages the destruction of human life, and warned the United Nations away from attacking the sovereignty of nations that protect innocent life.
&#8220;Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House,&#8221; he told the March for Life in 2019.
<div id="attachment_1029091" style="width: 844px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-vice-president-vance-to-headline-march-for-life/anti-abortion-activists-demonstrate-in-d-c-during-annual-march-for-life-3" rel="attachment wp-att-1029091"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1029091" class="wp-image-1029091 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1201703771-834x576.jpg" alt="" width="834" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1201703771-834x576.jpg 834w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1201703771-300x207.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1201703771-768x530.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-1201703771.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px" /></a>President Donald Trump speaks at the 2019 March For Life (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)</div>
In his second administration, the president has continued to defend life, though he has discussed abortion far less, partially due to the fact that Roe was overturned. The president has reflected frankly on how the issue of abortion plays electorally, and pointed out that the country is not unified on when and where to protect life.
In January 2025, the president <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/enforcing-the-hyde-amendment/">issued an executive order</a> enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of taxpayer funds for abortions, and reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which stops the use of taxpayer funds overseas. He quickly pardoned the pro-life activists imprisoned by President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration, and he has revoked many of the Biden-era executive orders promoting abortion across the country.
Far-left pro-abortion groups regard the administration with fear and condemnation. One such group, the Center for Reproductive Rights, claims that in his first 100 days in office, &#8220;President Trump has taken unprecedented action to restrict access to reproductive health care in the United States and around the world.&#8221;
&#8220;His administration is stacked with extreme opponents of reproductive freedom working day and night to undermine the rule of law we depend on to uphold our fundamental rights,&#8221; the far-left abortion group stated. &#8220;Individually, these officials have great power; together, they will do long-lasting damage to human rights and to our democracy.&#8221;
At the same time, the pro-life movement wants Trump to do much more. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/every-abortion-is-a-violation-of-human-rights-pro-life-advocates-demand-fda-yank-abortion-drug?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan+and+Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98Every+Abortion+Is+A+Violation+Of+Human+Rights%E2%80%99%3A+Pro-Life+Advocates+Demand+FDA+Yank+Abortion+Drug">Many on the right</a>, including top Republicans like Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, have expressed concerns that the Department of Health and Human Services is slow-walking a review of abortion drugs, highlighting the growing body of evidence showing that the drugs are causing severe and underreported harm to women.
Though pro-lifers are afraid that HHS will not pull through and demand that the department reinstate abortion drug safety standards removed under the Biden administration, pro-abortion groups like the Guttmacher Institute warn direly that the administration has &#8220;initiated steps that could culminate in the severe restriction of mifepristone,&#8221; promising that if the Trump administration reinstates safety standards for the drugs, &#8220;it would also have a devastating impact on abortion.&#8221;
Trump also prompted strong concerns from the pro-life movement when he suggested to Republican lawmakers this month that they might need to be &#8220;a little bit flexible&#8221; on Hyde as they negotiated with Democrats on health care.
The remark shocked both his pro-life base and Capitol Hill, prompting strong pushback from pro-life groups like SBA Pro-Life America — pushback that the administration took note of, White House officials said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Daily Signal&#8217;s Elizabeth Troutman at an early January press briefing that Trump did not change the administration&#8217;s policy on Hyde, reminding the public that &#8220;it was President Trump who signed an executive order protecting the Hyde Amendment&#8221; on his fourth day in office.
&#8220;It’s the Trump administration that has taken multiple actions on various fronts to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not funding the practice of abortion,&#8221; she said. “What the president was saying yesterday was Republicans, and frankly Democrats, too, need to show a little bit more flexibility so we can actually get something done with respect to the issue of health care.&#8221;
Lichter sees challenges on several fronts for the pro-life movement. Not only are pro-lifers battling for policy changes, she says, but they are also battling matters of life and death for women and their unborn babies. They are also up against a changing cultural landscape.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;re still shaking off the 50 years of the Roe regime,&#8221; she explained, &#8220;and what [activists] had told young women about their future and their flourishing and how motherhood might be detrimental to them, which of course isn&#8217;t true at all, but it takes a little while to shake off cultural messaging that sunk in that deep.&#8221;
&#8220;The pro life movement has a really great story to tell,&#8221; she shared. &#8220;It&#8217;s increasingly young. It&#8217;s increasingly energized.&#8221;
The March for Life president pointed to <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/most-millennials-gen-z-support-limits-on-abortion-poll.html">polling</a> showing that Gen Z voters want to see limits on abortion, and lean towards identifying as &#8220;pro-life.&#8221; She cited this, as well as rising attendance at state level marches, as encouragement for pro-life movement.
&#8220;We saw record attendance at several of our state level marches for life this fall, she noted, &#8220;in the wake of Charlie Kirk&#8217;s assassination.&#8221;
&#8220;All of those things are great reasons for hope, just to see the usefulness of the movement and the way that young people especially are really willing to buck the ideology of the progressive establishment that they&#8217;ve been raised in and handed,&#8221; she concluded. &#8220;And again, I think we&#8217;ll see that on full display at the March next week. I&#8217;m expecting a really electric, really epic day.

Annual March For Life Held In Washington, DC

EXCLUSIVE: JD Vance To Headline March For Life

J.D. Vance

For nearly a decade, pro-life voters have been the Republican Party’s most dependable force. We show up early, stay late, and keep the faith. We are not fair-weather voters, and we are not driven by trends. We are driven by a conviction that protecting babies in the womb is a moral minimum, and that the Republican Party understands this. We’ve held tight to the knowledge that the protection of unborn life is part of the GOP’s DNA.
But when <a href="https://sbaprolife.org/newsroom/press-releases/leading-pro-life-group-to-trump-gop-hyde-is-non-negotiable">our president tells GOP lawmakers</a> to be “flexible” on taxpayer funding of abortion to kowtow to Democrats, concern becomes unavoidable. And when a Trump-aligned consultant <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5657986-anti-abortion-trump-mifepristone-review/">dismisses pro-life</a> voters as “a cheap date,” it confirms what many of us have heard: that parts of the Republican establishment, especially its consultant class, believe its most loyal voter base is disposable. Why else would the GOP’s top leader push to scrap one of the most fundamental pro-life policies, the Hyde Amendment? An amendment that has had bipartisan support until recently since 1973.
Republicans are signaling that nothing is off the table. That’s not pragmatism. It is a betrayal and political malpractice.
The Hyde Amendment is not some obscure legislative relic. Over its 50-year existence, Hyde has saved an estimated 2.6 million lives by ensuring that Americans are not forced to pay for abortions with their tax dollars. It has long functioned as the bedrock pro-life standard in federal policy — the clear line separating a government that tolerates abortion from one that actively funds it.
For decades, Hyde has also been a minimum requirement for Republican credibility. You could debate strategy or messaging — but you did not cave on Hyde.
Democrats understood Hyde’s power, which is why they worked so hard to undermine it. When Obamacare was drafted in 2010, it was deliberately designed to sidestep Hyde through an accounting gimmick that still forces taxpayers to subsidize elective abortions. Voters noticed. Fifteen House Democrats who supported that scheme lost their seats, and Republicans made major gains in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The lesson was clear: voters do not like being tricked into funding abortion.
Now, astonishingly, some Republicans appear ready to repeat the Democrats’ mistake — this time against their own base.
Trump’s suggestion that Republicans be “flexible” on Hyde represents a sharp departure from his prior commitments. He repeatedly pledged to make Hyde permanent law, including in health care coverage. One of his first actions upon taking office last year was prioritizing the reversal of President Biden’s Hyde violations. And he stated unequivocally, “it is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.”
That clarity mattered. It reassured pro-life voters that their support was not being taken for granted.
Republicans already struggle with turnout in midterms. Democrats show up. Republican voters often do not. And pro-life voters are value-driven, and when they feel demoralized or betrayed, they do not defect — they stay home. The GOP already has an intensity gap. Why slap your most loyal base in the face? If just 1–2 percent of pro-life voters had stayed home in 2024, Donald Trump would not be president. That is not a theory. That is math.
For the 2026 election cycle, we will contact 10.5 million voters across four key Senate battleground states and up to a dozen key House battlegrounds across the country, including 4.5 million visits to voters directly at their doorstep.
Abandoning Hyde now will shatter the trust of these voters. And the electoral consequences could be immediate.
Polling reinforces the danger. Data from PRRI shows that the voters who care most intensely about abortion are pro-life, not pro-choice. And the broader electorate is not clamoring for taxpayer-funded abortion. According to recent polling, six in ten Americans oppose forcing taxpayers to pay for it. The idea that defending Hyde alienates voters is a fiction sustained by consultants who confuse elite opinion with public reality. As a recent <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/conventional-wisdom-donald-trump-republican-rally-lawler-dannenfelser-johnson-11319523">Newsweek article reminded</a>, the Hyde Amendment “is polling better than anyone in Congressional leadership.”
You cannot expect enthusiasm while undermining the issue that animates your base. You cannot insult pro-lifers as a “cheap date” and expect them to mobilize on command. And you cannot abandon the single most important pro-life policy in federal law without paying a price.
The blowback would be far worse than what Democrats experienced in 2010. Then, voters punished a party that tried to evade Hyde. Now, they would punish a party that promised to defend it and then walk away.
Republicans still have a choice. President Trump and congressional leaders can reaffirm Hyde as non-negotiable and follow through on the commitments they made. Or they can learn the hard way that even the most loyal voters will not turn out for a party that no longer turns out for them.
Pro-lifers are not a “cheap date.” We are the backbone of the Republican coalition. We are the beating heart of this party. Ignore that reality, and the GOP will surely lose the midterms — not because we moved Left but because we stayed home.
* * *
Kelsey Pritchard is Communications Director at 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.

Washington-DC-March-for-Life-2025

Pro-Lifers Are Not A ‘Cheap Date.’ We’re The GOP’s Margin Of Victory.

Pro-Lifers Are Not A 'Cheap Date.' We’re The GOP’s Margin Of Victory.

Hyde Amendment

Opinion

Republicans

The Senate is set to hold a hearing next week on the dangers of the abortion pill, as pro-life groups urge the Trump administration to roll back Biden-era rules allowing the drug to be shipped through the mail, The Daily Wire has learned. 
The hearing will be led by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Cassidy has pushed for the Trump administration to end the mail-order abortion policies and release a safety study on the effects of mifepristone, the active drug used in medication abortions. 
“As a doctor and a strong pro-life conservative, I am committed to protecting mothers and the unborn. The medical evidence is clear: chemical abortion drugs not only kill innocent babies, but also put women in serious danger,” Cassidy told The Daily Wire. “As Chairman of the HELP Committee, I look forward to discussing how to uphold a culture of life and prioritize women‘s safety over political ideology.”
The hearing, titled “Protecting Women: Exposing the Dangers of Chemical Abortion Drugs,” will take place at 10:00 am in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. 
Medication abortions, now the most common abortion method, involve the use of two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. After a pregnant woman takes mifepristone, the unborn child is cut off from the vital nutrients it needs to survive and is effectively starved to death. Misoprostol is then used to induce labor and expel the deceased baby from the mother.
The hearing comes as Cassidy has pushed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for answers after it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-lifers-demand-answers-from-trump-admin-after-shocking-abortion-pill-approval">approved</a> another generic form of mifepristone in September, much to the surprise of pro-life advocates, and left in place rules allowing abortion pills to be mailed. In response, more than 51 senators <a href="https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/db3c8d4f-f16b-4393-9005-13461dcde9c2/letter-from-senator-graham-et-al-to-hhs-and-fda-re-mifepristone.pdf">asked</a> for the FDA to reverse course and reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement. 
Earlier this year, Cassidy and 16 other GOP senators wrote a <a href="https://www.help.senate.gov/rep/newsroom/press/chair-cassidy-leads-pro-life-republicans-seeking-answers-on-fda-approving-dangerous-chemical-abortion-drug">letter</a> to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in October asking if the agency was conducting a study into the dangers of the abortion pill and whether it was aware of cases in which women had been coerced into taking the drugs or given them without their knowledge. 
In one recent incident, an Ohio surgeon <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ohio-surgeon-accused-of-forcing-abortion-pill-on-sleeping-girlfriend?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Ohio+Surgeon+Accused+Of+Forcing+Abortion+Pill+On+Sleeping+Girlfriend">was charged</a> after allegedly forcing his girlfriend to take an illegally obtained abortion pill, resulting in the death of her unborn child.
&#8220;The in-person dispensing requirement also helped guard women from being coerced into having chemical abortions against their will,&#8221; the senators wrote.
During his confirmation hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would conduct a study into the abortion pill. That study has yet to be released, and some pro-life groups have accused the FDA of slow-walking it for political reasons. 
Data has shown that allowing abortion pills to be shipped by mail has resulted in tens of thousands of abortions in states like Texas and Tennessee, where medication abortions are technically illegal. This largely happens under &#8220;shield laws&#8221; in states like New York, which bar prosecution of those who ship abortion pills into states with abortion bans.

Senate Health Committee Hears Testimony From Fired CDC Director Susan Monarez

EXCLUSIVE: Senate To Zero In On ‘Exposing The Dangers’ Of The Abortion Pill

bill Cassidy

Senate

President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Republicans should be “flexible” when it comes to the Hyde Amendment, a policy that prevents taxpayer funding for abortions. 
Trump made the comments during a speech to congressional lawmakers gathered at the Trump-Kennedy Performing Arts Center for the House GOP Member Retreat. While discussing negotiations over health care policy, Trump said that they may have to reconsider their strong stance on the policy. 
“You have to be a little flexible on Hyde, you know that. You’ve got to be a little flexible,” Trump said. “You’ve got to use ingenuity. You’ve got to work. We’re all big fans of everything.”
The Hyde Amendment has become a focal point in negotiations over proposed extensions of Obamacare subsidies. Most Republicans have said that any extension of health care subsidies is a non-starter if the Hyde Amendment is not applied. 
“Taxpayer $ should never be used to fund abortion &amp; I’m opposed to any plan that doesn’t include strong protections for the Hyde amendment,” Montana GOP Senator Steve Daines <a href="https://x.com/SteveDaines/status/1998421111311331736">said</a> last month on X. 
When passed by Democrats, Obamacare <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/pub-attachments/dae9be74-4af9-428b-8e50-89d7652acc26.pdf">did not</a> include the Hyde Amendment and allowed some taxpayer funding for abortions. Historically, the Hyde Amendment has been attached to the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, banning funding for abortions and health insurance plans that cover abortions in their policies. 
Trump’s suggestion quickly drew criticism from major pro-life groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. 
“For decades, opposition to taxpayer funding of abortion and support for the Hyde Amendment has been an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party. To suggest Republicans should be ‘flexible’ is an abandonment of this decades-long commitment. If Republicans abandon Hyde, they are sure to lose this November,” said SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “President Trump and congressional Republicans must follow through, not abandon, this commitment.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the president’s comments. 
Alabama Republican Rep. Robert Aderholt on Tuesday suggested that he would not compromise on the Hyde Amendment. 
“The Hyde Amendment has saved over 2.6 million innocent lives,” he said. “My commitment to these protections is unchanging.”
Upon taking office, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/enforcing-the-hyde-amendment/">signed</a> an executive order last January to enforce the Hyde Amendment and crack down on taxpayer funding for abortion. 
“The previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs,” Trump wrote. “It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.”
In recent weeks, pro-life groups have pushed for the Trump administration to reverse Biden-era rules at the FDA that allowed abortion pills to be sent through the mail with no in-person doctor visits. The mail-in abortions have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/despite-dobbs-more-babies-are-still-being-aborted-in-the-united-states">fueled</a> a rise in abortions despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-GOP

Trump Says Republicans Should Be ‘Flexible’ On Rule That Bars Taxpayer-Funded Abortions

Trump Says Republicans Should Be 'Flexible' On Rule That Bars Taxpayer Funded Abortion

Obamacare

Unborn babies continue to be aborted at a higher rate across the United States despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the implementation of stronger pro-life laws, according to new data.
Data released in December by the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning <a href="https://societyfp.org/research/wecount/wecount-june-2025-data/">revealed</a> that the number of monthly abortions continued to increase in 2025 from 2024, which was itself an increase from 2023. Much of the increase has been fueled by the widespread mailing of abortion drugs across the country, even in states with “abortion bans” in place. 
The numbers show that the battle for pro-lifers has only begun as the ubiquitous mailing of mifepristone makes ending the life of an unborn child easier than ever before. 
To address the continued increase, many pro-life advocates <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-leaders-urge-trump-to-fight-attacks-on-the-unborn-coming-from-inside-his-administration?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Pro-Life+Leaders+Urge+Trump+To+Fight+%E2%80%98Attacks+On+The+Unborn%E2%80%99+Coming+From+Inside+His+Administration">have urged</a> the Trump administration to roll back Biden-era restrictions that allowed abortion pills to be sent through the mail with no in-person doctor visits. Others have shifted their efforts to changing cultural attitudes toward abortion. Senator Josh Hawley is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/life-is-sacred-josh-hawley-launches-project-to-fight-against-abortion-before-midterms?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98Life+Is+Sacred%E2%80%99%3A+Josh+Hawley+Launches+Project+To+Fight+Against+Abortion+Before+Midterms">launching</a> a new political action committee promoting family. Some elected state Republicans and groups <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/best-of-2025-inside-the-conservative-debate-on-criminalizing-abortion?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Best+Of+2025%3A+Inside+The+Conservative+Debate+On+Criminalizing+Abortion">have pushed</a> for laws to criminalize abortion for both the abortionist and the mother. 
The data produced by the Society for Family Planning <a href="https://societyfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/WeCount-Report-10-June-2025-data.pdf">estimated</a> that through June 2025, there were 98,630 babies aborted every month. That was an increase from the monthly rates of 2024 (95,250), 2023 (88,180), and 2022 (79,620). The group estimated that 27% of the abortions for the available 2025 data were through telehealth, meaning they were facilitated by abortion pills sent through the mail. 
Telehealth abortions were largely taking place in the 13 states with the strongest pro-life laws. In these states, nearly all abortions are illegal with a few very limited exceptions, yet the number of abortions facilitated by mail increased from 2023 to 2024. 
Medication abortions, which are the most common abortion method, are facilitated by a woman taking mifepristone and misoprostol. After a pregnant woman takes mifepristone, the unborn child is cut off from the nutrients it needs to survive and is effectively starved to death. Misoprostol is then taken to induce labor and expel the deceased baby from the mother. 
In Louisiana, for example, there were 7,530 pill abortions in 2024 compared to 2,480 in 2023. In Texas, there were an estimated 35,870 abortions by pill in 2024 compared to 12,420 in 2023. These abortions took place despite both states having laws in place banning medication abortions. 
Both Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill have launched efforts to go after individuals in states like New York who they say have sent abortion pills into their states. Their efforts have been met with limited success as many deep blue states have passed “shield laws” to give immunity to leftist activists who mail pills into red states. 
The shield laws have proven to be a major problem for pro-life states, with about 55% of all telehealth abortions being facilitated under them, according to the data. In June 2025, about 14,770 abortions were being facilitated per month under shield laws. At the same time, medication abortion went up in all the states with bans on medication abortions in 2024. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1022105" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-2.png" alt="" width="1200" height="700" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-2.png 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-2-300x175.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-2-987x576.png 987w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-2-768x448.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></div>
The numbers produced by the Society for Family Planning also don&#8217;t include abortions not facilitated through the “formal health care system,” meaning there are likely many being missed. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-leftist-networks-flood-red-states-with-risky-abortion-pills-with-no-consequences">previously reported</a>, shady websites run by leftist activists have been mailing pills into states with no age verification or prescription requirements. 
Doug Truax, the founder of the conservative organization Restoration of America, told The Daily Wire that he was not surprised to see the numbers put out by the Society of Family Planning. 
“So now you have all these states that have banned abortion, and all these states have these rabid abortionists in them, and these abortionists are making sure they abort babies in the states where it&#8217;s banned,” he said. 
“You got abortionists in California and New York and Massachusetts, and they’re killing babies in Alabama and Texas, and everyplace else where it&#8217;s banned. And that&#8217;s why the number&#8217;s going up right now,” he added, noting that the abortion pill allowed anybody’s bathroom to be turned into an “abortion clinic.” 
Truax said that he believes many pro-lifers don’t know the full scope of the problem with the abortion pills. He is one of those arguing that the Trump administration should reinstate the in-person requirements for the mailing of the abortion pill, saying that this would significantly curb the problem. He believes it could pose a political problem for the administration if pro-lifers become convinced that no action will be taken on the abortion pill. 
The requirements were first lifted by the Biden administration as a COVID-era measure, but have yet to be reversed. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is another organization pushing the Trump administration to take action to end the mail-order abortion guidelines. 
They have called for the firing of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary over the alleged slow-walking of a study on the dangers of the abortion pill. Pro-lifers were also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-lifers-demand-answers-from-trump-admin-after-shocking-abortion-pill-approval">shocked</a> in September after the FDA approved another generic form of mifepristone, making the abortion drug more readily available. 
“I would like to believe that the number of abortions have decreased since the state started enacting pro-life laws, but every data point that we have, essentially, that&#8217;s national in scope or multiple states, is showing that&#8217;s not the case, and that this mail order abortion policy from Joe Biden is responsible for increasing the number of abortions in the U.S,” SBA Pro-Life America Communications Director Kelsey Pritchard told The Daily Wire. 
Pritchard said that the FDA’s failure to reverse the Biden-era regulations was subverting state laws banning medication abortions. 
“Essentially, the Biden rule enables Gavin Newsom, Kathy Hochul, JD Pritzker, all of these blue states, to undermine pro-life laws by allowing their abortionists to mail in these pills that are not only killing the babies, but putting women in hospitals and enabling abusers to poison and coerce women,” she said. 
Already, multiple Republican-led states have sued the FDA over the rule, arguing that it interferes with their efforts to protect the unborn. In December 2025, Florida and Texas filed a suit challenging the FDA, saying that its “approval and deregulation of abortion drugs have placed women and girls in harm&#8217;s way.”
Republicans in Congress have also called for a repeal of the Biden rules, with 175 House Republicans writing a letter to yank the regulations and 51 Senate Republicans urging the FDA to reconsider its approval of the generic abortion drug. 
When asked whether there would be a rollback on the mailing of abortion pills in 2026, the FDA told The Daily Wire it cannot comment on “future or potential policy decisions.” 
At the state level, some Republican lawmakers from Georgia to North Dakota to Missouri introduced “equal protection” bills in 2025 that would criminalize abortion not only for the abortionist, but anyone involved in the abortion, including the mother. They believe that these kinds of bills would be more effective at eliminating abortion and provide equal protection to unborn babies. 
“Many red states with so-called abortion bans are seeing higher abortion levels because their bans are no bans at all,” Bradley Pierce, a constitutional lawyer and president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, told The Daily Wire. “All of these so-called bans have explicit loopholes allowing women to order, possess, and take abortion pills. Because there is no law prohibiting these self-induced abortions, and in fact they are protected by law, we are witnessing the current increase even in states that shut down their abortion facilities.”
Pierce said that unborn babies should receive the same protection that any other human being receives under the law. 
“We need equal protection of the laws for preborn babies, meaning that the same homicide laws protecting the lives of born people are extended to protect preborn people as well,” he said. “Without this standard, preborn image-bearers of God will remain unprotected, even in the most conservative states in our country.”
While a minority position among elected officials, Pierce noted that in 2025, there were 17 equal protection bills across 15 states sponsored by 123 lawmakers across the country, and a record number of hearings and votes on the legislation.
Aside from the problem of mail-order abortions, pro-lifers will also have to grapple with the increasing number of travel abortions. Tens of thousands of women have traveled out of their home state for abortions over the last few years. According to the data, women traveling out of states for abortions declined for the most part across the thirteen states with the strongest pro-life laws from 2023 to 2024, but the number was still significant. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1022107" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-3.png" alt="" width="1200" height="700" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-3.png 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-3-300x175.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-3-987x576.png 987w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Code_Generated_Image-3-768x448.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></div>
The data is clear that many Americans are still able to access abortion with relative ease despite the fall of Roe. To address cultural attitudes toward abortion, Senator Josh Hawley and his wife, Erin, a constitutional lawyer, created a nonprofit called the <a href="https://lovelifeinitiative.org/about/">Love Life Initiative</a>. The group will run pro-family national ad campaigns to encourage Americans to raise families and defend life at all stages of development. The group will also promote pro-life ballot campaigns and fight against pro-abortion ballot petitions.
“We believe there needs to be a strong voice advocating for life and making it easier to start a family,” Senator Hawley said. “That is fundamental to who we are as Americans and the future of our country. And it is how we will be judged as a society. This is a generational project, not just about the next election cycle.”

Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Abortion Drug Mifepristone

Despite Dobbs Decision, Abortions Have Only Increased In The United States

Despite Dobbs, More Babies Are Still Being Aborted In The United States

Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. In this piece, originally published in July, Leif Le Mahieu dives in to a contentious debate dividing the pro-life movement.
***
In 2016, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said during an MSNBC town hall that there should be “some form of punishment” for women who chose to abort their unborn children.
His comments erupted a firestorm of controversy among both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates, prompting a rapid backtrack. March For Life President Jeanne Mancini said Trump’s comments were “out of touch” and that “no pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen abortion,” while National Right to Life released an equally critical statement.
Though Trump quickly softened his position, some Republicans and conservative activists, increasingly emboldened by the end of Roe v. Wade and the rise of so-called “self-managed” abortions, are looking to criminalize abortion for anyone involved — including the woman.
They believe that criminalizing abortion will be an effective deterrent to the onslaught of illegal abortion pills being mailed across the country into states where medication abortion is supposed to be illegal. And despite some efforts by a few Republican attorneys general to target those sending abortion pills across the country, abortion pill activists continue to receive glowing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/health/a-day-with-one-abortion-pill-prescriber.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">profiles</a> in legacy outlets like The New York Times and The Guardian.
While this position is still a minority among elected Republicans, it is gaining increasing national attention from left-leaning media outlets, who portray those who support criminalization as extreme. Advocates of criminalization often clash with traditional pro-life groups, who say that criminalization will drive more women to underground abortions and lead them to stop turning to crisis pregnancy centers for help.
This year, the debate has played out across the country — from North Dakota to Georgia, from Texas to Missouri — where Republican lawmakers have proposed “equal protection” bills that would criminalize abortion. According to the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, 16 criminalization bills have been introduced across 14 states so far this year, with support from 122 Republican lawmakers.
Those bills received four committee hearings, three committee votes, and one floor vote.
In February, a North Dakota proposal that would have expanded the current homicide law to encompass anyone who ends the life of an unborn child was voted down on the Republican-dominated House floor. The bill, <a href="https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/69-2025/regular/documents/25-0415-05000.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HB 1373</a>, would have amended the definition of “human being” in the homicide code to include an “individual living human child before birth from the beginning of biological development at the moment of fertilization upon the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum.”
As could be expected, <a href="https://www.weareplannedparenthoodaction.org/a/reject-hb-1373" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Planned Parenthood</a> and the <a href="https://www.aclund.org/en/legislation/house-bill-1373" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ACLU</a> vigorously lobbied against the bill. But it also divided pro-life groups.
During a committee hearing, Republican Rep. Lori Van Winkle, the author of the legislation, <a href="https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/69-2025/testimony/HHUMSER-1373-20250205-35286-F-VANWINKLE_LORI.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that it would have made it clear in North Dakota law that unborn children are human and would “close a loophole that has allowed murder of innocent lives to continue in this state at will and on demand by any woman who desires to take a pill and kill her preborn child.”
Ultimately, the bill failed as the House Human Services Committee gave the legislation an 11-1 do not pass recommendation, and the full House voted 77-16 against advancing the proposal.
That came after an organization called North Dakota Can circulated a letter signed by a variety of conservative leaders. Amber Vibeto, the executive director of North Dakota Can, told The Daily Wire that the legislation was needed to crack down on the dramatic increase in so-called “self-managed abortions.”
“Abortion remains legal in all 50 states because even in pro-life states, pro-life legislation carves out special legal immunity for women to self-induce their own abortions,” she said. “And so women are self-inducing their own abortions and they have complete legal freedom to do so. And so there are no abortion bans in the United States.”
Vibeto said that the intent was not just to round up women and put them in prison, but to extend protections to the unborn.
“We just need to include the preborn in the homicide laws that we already have on the books. We just believe that the same laws that protect you and me from murder and homicide should protect the preborn as well,” she said. “Our constitution demands equal protection under the law to all persons, and it doesn’t have a qualifier that says ‘well, unless you live in a culture of lies that makes you a victim.’”
On the other side, a number of pro-life groups opposed the bill, saying that it would have done more harm than good. Both the North Dakota Catholic Conference and the North Dakota Family Alliance gave testimony urging lawmakers not to support the bill.
Mark Jorritsma, the executive director of the North Dakota Family Alliance, told The Daily Wire that while he believed the bill was “well-intentioned,” it was “not the right way to end abortion” in North Dakota.
“Fundamentally, you’re punishing the wrong person,” he said. “We do claim and agree that the mother is the second victim here. There is often undo pressure put on her, she’s in a state of mind where she’s not capable of making the right decisions given fear, or whatever else she may be dealing with.”
Jorritsma also said he had practical problems with the bill, saying that it would have led to a dramatic increase in prison population that wouldn’t be possible to maintain.
“Regardless of your ethical, moral, religious, philosophical bent on the issue, it’s just untenable. You cannot do it even if you wanted to,” he said. “You’re going to have law enforcement going out and arresting 18-year-old girls instead of stopping drunk drivers.”
David Tamisiea, the executive director of the North Dakota Catholic Conference, told The Daily Wire that he believed that pro-life lawmakers should focus on building a culture of life in the state instead of making women felons.
“Rather than going after women, supporting women in difficult circumstances so that abortion becomes unthinkable to them,” he said.
He also said that HB 1373 would have been immediately struck down because of a recent North Dakota Supreme Court decision that ruled that women have a “fundamental right” to abortion in certain circumstances.
A similar debate played out in Georgia, where lawmakers considered a similar bill, <a href="https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/70313" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HB 441.</a> That fight pitted groups like the Georgia Life Alliance against Georgia Right to Life.
The legislation, known as the Georgia Prenatal Equal Protection Act, was introduced by Rep. Emory Dunahoo. The proposal would have added protections for unborn babies under state homicide laws.
“Tens of thousands of babies, made in the image of God, continue to be murdered in our state every year, all within the bounds of the current law. That must be changed,” Dunahoo <a href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2025/03/26/bill-that-criminalizes-abortion-undermines-ivf-access-gets-georgia-house-panel-hearing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during a March hearing on his legislation.
His proposal was supported by Georgia Right to Life, a Christian organization that doesn’t support any exceptions for abortion.
“Our homicide code in Georgia does not criminalize people, it criminalizes an act. Just as homicide is an act that is born out under a criminal law, abortion being murder should carry that same punishment,” Georgia Right to Life Executive Director Zemmie Fleck told The Daily Wire. “Our homicide code should apply to both of those because, for Georgia Right to Life, we recognize that a preborn child is a person at its very earliest beginnings, whether that be in the petri dish or whether that is natural conception.”
Fleck added that she understood the enormous impact of abortion on American culture, noting that an estimated 65 million babies have been aborted since 1973.
“Our hearts go out, our prayers go out to men and women who have been impacted by this abortion issue. The numbers are just staggering,” she said. “This has impacted our society to incredible levels.”
On the other side, the Georgia Life Alliance, which describes itself as the largest pro-life group in the state, sent a letter to lawmakers asking them to oppose the legislation. In their letter, they said that they had “grave concerns with the impact, consequences, and outcomes of the bill which conflicts with our organizational mission.”
These concerns included their belief that deterring abortion “requires compassionate support, not punitive measures,” that the bill could deter women from seeking medical care, and that criminalizing abortion could lead to more “unregulated abortions.”
“Regardless of one’s beliefs on access to abortion, women and girls should not be further traumatized from their abortion by the fear of criminal prosecution,” the group wrote. “We can love them both by pursuing ways to help women and children in desperate situations and take care not to pass laws that unintentionally encourage their further harm and additional trauma to women which is incentivized by HB 441.”
Ultimately, the bill did not get a committee vote. But it could be brought up again by the chair at a later time.
Similar battles have played out this year in states like Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, delegates to the state’s Republican Party convention recently <a href="https://x.com/AbolishAbortOK/status/1918792596433858560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1918792596433858560%7Ctwgr%5Eb3b17918d52c0073a6ab35b286f770b4392e9657%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffaa.life%2Farticles%2Foklahoma-christians-hold-enemies-of-equal-protection-accountable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> to censor Republican lawmakers who opposed a proposal criminalizing abortion in the state.
Most national pro-life organizations oppose bills that would criminalize abortion, arguing that they harm the cause. In the lead up to the overturning of Roe, a coalition of top pro-life groups sent an <a href="https://www.nrlc.org/uploads/communications/051222coalitionlettertostates.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open letter</a> to state legislatures making clear their opposition to criminalizing abortion.
<div class="page" title="Page 2">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
“Women are victims of abortion and require our compassion and support as well as ready access to counseling and social services in the days, weeks, months, and years following an abortion,” the leaders wrote in the letter. “As national and state pro-life organizations, representing tens of millions of pro-life men, women, and children across the country, let us be clear: We state unequivocally that we do not support any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women and we stand firmly opposed to include such penalties in legislation.”
Signatories included the leaders of National Right to Life, Americans United for Life, March for Life Action, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and many more.
</div>
</div>
</div>
Kelsey Pritchard, the political affairs communication director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, pointed out that none of the criminalization bills have been approved affirmatively by any GOP-led committees.
“SBA Pro-Life America does not support legislation to criminalize women and qualify them for the death penalty,” she said. “No state pro-life law criminalizes women, and that’s not changing as not a single one of these bills has passed out of committee.”
Pritchard also pointed to a <a href="https://lozierinstitute.org/study-many-women-who-had-abortions-felt-pressured-by-others/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> that said over 60% of women who had abortions reported experiencing some form of pressure or coercion. 
“In a world where a predatory abortion industry embeds lies about the humanity of unborn children into our culture and enables abortion coercion, women with unplanned pregnancies need more support,” she said.
One prominent national leader who has changed her perspective on the issue is Abby Johnson. A former Planned Parenthood employee, Johnson runs And Then There Were None, an organization that supports people who want to leave the abortion industry, and ProLove Ministries, a group that aids expectant moms in crisis pregnancies.
She told The Daily Wire that she is skeptical of the position that women are victims of abortion, saying that she often sees women boasting and laughing about ending the life of their unborn child outside of abortion facilities.
“Holding people accountable for their actions is the right thing to do. It’s the conservative thing to do. It’s the lawful thing to do. It’s the biblical thing to do,” she said.
She believes that criminalizing abortion would deter women from seeking to terminate their pregnancies. Personally, she said that she would not have had two abortions or worked for Planned Parenthood if she had faced the threat of criminalization.
“What is actually going to effectively reduce the number of abortions?” she said. “It’s not the regulation. It’s not going after the abortion doctors. It’s going after the people who are ordering, who are taking the pills, who are flushing the babies down the toilet, it’s going after the consumer.”
Johnson said that while she disagrees with the approach many of her national pro-life counterparts have taken, she is still able to work well with them on specific issues and causes. Pro-life leaders in North Dakota who opposed the criminalizing bill there echoed that sentiment.
Mark Jorritsma of the North Dakota Family Alliance told The Daily Wire that he would be “more than happy” to talk to the other side, adding that “they’re on our side, they are not the enemy.”

Untitled design (93)

Best Of 2025: Inside The Conservative Debate On Criminalizing Abortion

It’s a sure sign of Christmas when we hear Nat King Cole crooning about chestnuts roasting on an open fire. While few of us have experienced eating such warm roasted chestnuts, we can surely relate to seeing “tiny tots with their eyes all aglow.”
When children experience the bright lights of the Christmas Season, they can hardly open their eyes wide enough to take in all the beauty. From living room Christmas trees to sparkling downtown squares, bright, colorful decorations are everywhere. And, as the lyrics remind us, the bright lights are most exquisite when they are reflected in the eyes and on the faces of children, especially young children. 
What do we really see on these precious little faces? What best describes the look of wonder reflected in the wide eyes of children taking in the lights?
It’s joy.
The innocent expressions of wonder on the face of a child can bring joy to all of us, even when things aren’t stellar for us adults. A child’s perception of this light-filled season can even melt the hearts of all the Scrooges in our midst.
That’s because children don’t just reflect the season; they are represented by the central character in the Christmas story. After all, the Christ Child is the focus of the attention of all the participants in the nativity. The lowly animals, the shepherds, the wise men, and, of course, Mary and Joseph. Our front-yard nativity sets may have all of those frozen figurines at once, even though the story itself plays out over a longer period. Just as the Star of Bethlehem lit that special night more than two millennia ago, the bright lights we see today can brighten even our darkest nights.
Yet the message of joy that still flows from that manger came with its own set of challenges, many of which we still face today. The pregnancy was unexpected. Housing insecurity was real. A government edict forced an ill-timed travel issue. The soon-to-be husband was not the father of the baby. Such challenges have the potential to steal joy, not bring it. And yet, after 2,000 years, we memorialize it on our lawns, over the mantel, or in dioramas that dominate our home décor. No matter the conditions of their conception, babies have a way of bringing joy and smiles.
Carl Sandburg once said, “A baby is God&#8217;s opinion that life should go on.” That is true with every new life, as much as it was with the Christ Child. The next generation is the hope for the future of our families, our communities, and of the world.
The story of Mary and the manger reminds us that every woman should be loved and supported in her pregnancy, despite her immediate circumstances. The spark of life within every child in the womb should be welcomed and nurtured, cherished and treasured. Temporary obstacles should be overcome so that every tiny tot has a chance to be filled with wonder and joy at Christmas. Each of us should do our part to help someone near us, or close by us, or maybe even someone we’ll never get the chance to meet, be able to greet their little one with joy and gratitude.
That is what motivates the life-affirming work of pregnancy help in communities all over the country every day of the year. Whether around the kitchen table in a maternity home or through an ultrasound at a pregnancy medical clinic, or in the placement of a child into an adoptive family, pregnancy help provides real help for real needs to those dealing with temporary challenges.
All pregnancies are temporary, even the unexpected ones. And every life should have a chance to make a positive mark on the world and future generations.
That holy night reminds us of more than the value of just that one child. That “silent night” stands as a powerful proclamation for each of us to welcome the work of God when it comes as a baby. We should make way, or “prepare him room,” for “love’s pure light” to shine into, and through, our hearts at this special time of year and all year long. That’s what empowers each of us to light up with joy and sing, “Joy to the World!”
* * *
Jor-El Godsey is president of Heartbeat International.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25">Christmas Sale &#8211; Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>

Menu