Oswald Clark, U.S. Correspondent: On May 11, the Trump administration launched the moms.gov website, a resource to help pregnant women bring their babies to term and assist them with their newborns. The website opens with the message, “Addressing the needs of mothers and fathers who face difficult or unexpected pregnancies and ensuring the wellbeing of mothers and the health of American families.” [...]
Tanis Cortens, Feature Writer: Father Paul Sullins, Ph.D., submitted a research article to The International Journal of Women’s Health Care. The study, published September 15, was entitled “Persistent Emotional Distress after Abortion in the United States” and consisted of a retrospective survey of 226 women aged 41-45, whose abortions had happened an average of 20 years earlier (range 0-31 years). Fr. Sullins found [...]
Paul Tuns: The 16-member Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD), comprised of members of Parliament and senators, is currently mulling over whether to recommend that the government further delay extending euthanasia to those suffering solely from mental illness. If Parliament does not act, extending euthanasia will become effective in March 2027. Amidst AMAD’s hearings, which concluded May 5, the [...]
Paul Tuns: Alberta Bill 18, The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act, passed third reading and was signed into law. Bill 18 places numerous restrictions on euthanasia, the first provincial law limiting Medical Assistance in Dying since euthanasia was legalized in 2016. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said “You can tell by its title that the [...]
Paul Tuns: On May 5, Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, addressed the parliamentary Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying examining whether to continue with the March 2027 plan to expand euthanasia to patients suffering solely from mental illness. He argued that not only should Parliament resist the expansion, but that it should conduct a thorough review [...]
Paul Tuns: Toronto Cardinal Frank Leo wrote an open letter dated April 20 to Prime Minister Mark Carney and federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser, encouraging the government to block the expansion of euthanasia to people suffering solely from mental illness. Noting that both he and Carney are Catholics, the Cardinal wrote “our Catholic faith opposes the taking of any human life” and [...]
Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling, Jonathan D. Cohen (Columbia Global Reports, $27.95, 185 pages) Jonathan D. Cohen, senior program officer for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, writes, “There have always been Americans driven to ruin by gambling. But never have so many been driven to ruin so easily, and [...]
Review: Making Sense of Suffering, by Peter Kreeft (Ignatius Press, $17.95 USD, 215 pages) Ignatius Press has re-released Peter Kreeft’s 1986 book Making Sense of Suffering and although the causes of our suffering might have changed, mankind’s reaction to suffering has not. It was, and remains, one of the main arguments against God: how could an all-powerful, all-good being allow innocent people to [...]
Mary Zwicker, European Correspondent: A foreign pro-abortion activist group is interfering in a pro-life country by distributing illegal abortifacient pills to women. On April 15, Women on Waves, a pro-abortion activist group from the Netherlands, announced that it would be helping women in Malta and nearby Gozo to illegally access abortion pills through the use of secret lockboxes placed in various locations across [...]
Oswald Clark, U.S. Correspondent: On May 14, the Supreme Court of the United States permitted the on-going mail distribution of the abortion pill when it stayed a lower court decision that sided with the state of Louisiana in its challenge against the Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 rule that allowed mifepristone to be prescribed and dispensed without an in-person appointment. Danco Laboratories [...]
Oswald Clark, U.S. Correspondent: On May 13, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin told a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that he did not know anything about abortion-related contaminants in the country’s water supply even though he has been personally briefed on the issue by Liberty Council Action. Zeldin was asked by Senator Patty Murray (D, Wash.) during the budget hearings [...]
Selected Letters of John Updike: Edited by James Schiff (Penguin Random House, $73, 912 pages) John Updike is perhaps the preeminent example of what is called a man of letters – the author of short stories, novels, critical essays. A number of his letters are collected in a large volume, Selected Letters of John Updike. At 912 pages, one might remark that [...]
Modern Monsters: Political Ideologues and Their War against the Catholic Church: George Marlin (St. Augustine’s Press, $45.50, 227 pages) Version 1.0.0 George Marlin, chairman of Aid to the Church in Need-USA, has written an accessible examination of a dozen or so intellectuals whose ideas have, in his estimation, greatly harmed society by attacking the Catholic Church and the Christian view [...]
Pornocracy: Jo Bartosch and Robert Jessel (Polity, $36, 183 pages) In their introduction, Jo Bartosch, a journalist, and Robert Jessel, a human rights campaigner, argue that pornography defines our culture, calling our society a “pornocracy” which they define as, “A society in which political power, culture, relationships and identity are shaped or dominated by the purveyors of pornography.” Bartosch and Jessel continue: [...]
Mary Zwicker, European Correspondent: The United Kingdom is planning to expand abortion access by incentivizing abortion providers to offer “lunch hour” or “same day” abortions. In April, the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care published the “Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England.” This strategy includes plans to increase abortion access in England by removing former financial incentivization which stretched out the [...]