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Home » News » Pro-Life This Week – January 23, 2026

Pro-Life This Week – January 23, 2026

Week in Review

The Annual March for Life Leaves Us with Some Mixed Feelings

Today is the annual March for Life in Washington, DC. Thousands of pro-life Americans will gather to march and witness for the preborn. Or at least that’s supposed to be the point. 

The March for Life announced that its keynote speaker is Vice President JD Vance, who while personally Catholic, has repeatedly and publicly endorsed abortion exceptions of various kinds and has even supported the abortion pill.  

In fact, in October 2025 ALL reported that when pressed on his support for abortion exceptions at a TPUSA event, the vice president said that he and President Trump are pro-life, yet both he and the president believe there are “edge cases.” Vance went on to defend abortions in cases of rape and mothers’ health, telling the student that “we have to be realistic” about the fact that “tough cases” come up.  

If you ask me, this is not the type of speaker we should have as we work to inspire a new generation of pro-life youth. This leads me to the tough realization that maybe our beloved march in Washington doesn’t quite hold the same value that it once did. If its keynote speaker doesn’t even espouse solidly pro-life values, what exactly are all those people marching for? 

The heart and soul of the pro-life movement is the baby and her mother, but it seems that people have forgotten that sentiment and replaced the baby with politics that never move the needle. 

The March for Life serves as a great time to reflect on the state of our nation and see how far we’ve come. But if we’re being really honest with ourselves, JD Vance as the keynote speaker at the National March for Life serves almost as a symbolic representation of just how far we’ve strayed from the movement’s founding principles. 

To put it simply, the focus on politics has lost the heart and soul of this movement. A baby’s life and value are diminished to a 20-week ban or a rape exception, all in the name of needing to be “realistic.” 

That reality breaks my heart. We need to refocus and remember that we are not part of the pro-life movement to pass laws or get people elected. We are part of the pro-life movement to save babies and show their mothers the love and compassion they so desperately need. We are part of the pro-life movement to change the culture so that abortion is impossible. But most importantly, we are part of the pro-life movement to serve God because we know that He is the one who is capable of ending this and that the Holy Spirit is the one who is capable of changing hardened hearts. 

Let us pray for JD Vance and all who claim “I’m pro-life BUT . . . ” May we continue to work to build a culture of life that respects and protects all human beings, not just the ones deemed convenient. 

Virginia Must Stand against Abortion and Marriage Ballot Measures

Last week, American Life League reported that Virginia’s House voted to place amendments on the ballot in November so voters can decide about making abortion and contraception “constitutional rights” and whether to rewrite Virginia’s current constitutional language that recognizes marriage as only between one man and one woman. Very sadly, Virginia’s Senate made the final call last Friday and voted YES to placing these amendments on its November ballots.

ALL has been monitoring these proposed amendments for two years now and is currently working on our own educational materials to inform Virginians about why they must vote NO on these amendments in November’s election.

In summary, the abortion amendment states that everyone has a “right to reproductive freedom” including “the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care” (emphasis added). 

The language in this amendment truly misleads the voters into believing that if they vote no, they are denying a woman the right to make decisions about prenatal, postpartum, miscarriage, and childbirth care. This is simply untrue and deceptive language. Additionally, abortion is allowed in Virginia up through 26 weeks, 6 days with exceptions for life of the mother or for her physical or mental health in the third trimester. This amendment would allow abortion in the third trimester but adds the caveat that Virginia may restrict abortions in the third trimester, as long as they keep these same exceptions. In other words, this amendment seeks to establish abortion on demand in our state.

The Virginia amendment on marriage would redefine marriage in the state constitution. While so-called “same-sex marriage” has been legal in the   commonwealth since 2014, the current Virginia constitution states that marriage is only between one man and one woman. This amendment, of course, seeks to rewrite marriage as God intended and state that marriage is between two consenting persons of any sex.

Virginia bishops Michael Burbidge (Diocese of Arlington) and Barry Knestout (Diocese of Richmond) made another joint statement condemning these amendments for their deliberate attacks on human life and the family. In their statement, released last Friday, the bishops said in part:

The extreme abortion amendment, which will proceed to a referendum for voters to decide later this year, would go far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed. It would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction. . . . Most tragically of all, the extreme abortion amendment provides no protections whatsoever for preborn children. . . .

So too will a measure [appear on the ballot] we oppose that would repeal the one-man/one-woman marriage provision approved by Virginia voters in 2006. . . . 

We will be deeply engaged in the work of helping to educate voters on these proposed amendments, and will fight the extreme abortion amendment with maximum determination (emphasis added).

We are grateful to Virginia’s bishops for speaking up about these amendments once again, and we support their efforts to educate voters so we can defeat the evil of these amendments. 

ALL hopes that Virginia, as well as every other state in the US, will not simply tolerate restrictions on abortion but will uphold the dignity and sacredness of both life and marriage without exceptions or compromise. Let us pray for our bishops in Virginia as they work to combat the evils in these amendments, and please pray for ALL in our efforts to do the same.

ALL in the News

The bimonthly Wednesday STOPP Report was released last week. Catch the latest Planned Parenthood news here.

Susan Ciancio, editor of Celebrate Life Magazine, wrote an article about a new Lent program by Ascension. It was published by Catholic World Report. She also wrote an article about St. Marianne Cope, in honor of her feast day today. It was published on Catholic365.

Katie Brown Xavios, ALL’s national director, regularly posts updates about American Life League and its important work on social media channels X and LinkedIn. Follow her accounts to stay up to date. 

Twice a week, Judie’s commentaries are distributed to an expansive media list. The list contains over 100 media outlets such as Fox News, The Federalist, Breitbart, and The Daily Caller, among others. Judie’s commentaries are each featured on the front page of ALL.org. 

Pro-Life Education

Culture of Life Studies Program

St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Small Deeds, Big Love: This lesson booklet discusses St. Thérèse’s Little Way and offers concrete examples for how your kids can take action now to stand up for others so they can grow in faith and love. These important concepts help build that pro-life foundation that kids need so that, as they grow, they also grow in understanding about the value of the preborn, those with disabilities, the elderly, and anyone else whom society deems unworthy of life. When children truly understand that we all have worth and dignity, they can better resist the temptations of the culture of death and can become advocates for the vulnerable. ORDER HERE

ALL’s Education Materials

Abortion: Why Should I Care? This eye-opening brochure succinctly explains how abortion directly impacts young people, and it presents a passionate case for youth to take a stand for life. It’s a fantastic way to learn about and to spread the truth that abortion takes the life of a precious human being. SHOP NOW

Pro-Life Social Media

Beautiful Baby Born of Surrogate Sold to Pop Singer

The culture of death wants us to believe that as long as all the parties involved in IVF or surrogacy consent to the creation of the child, it must be an absolute good, especially if it results in a born baby.

But this is far from the truth. The Church teaches in Donum Vitae:

Surrogate motherhood . . . is contrary to the unity of marriage and to the dignity of the procreation of the human person. 

It offends the dignity and the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up by his own parents; it sets up, to the detriment of families, a division between the physical, psychological and moral elements which constitute those families.

Surrogate motherhood is just as much of an abomination as IVF and abortion. Too bad singer Meghan Trainor doesn’t see it that way. She used her wealth to rent another woman’s uterus.

Via surrogate.

Trainor is forcing the baby to bond with a stranger rather than her mother. 

Surrogacy is evil.