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Home » News » Pro-Life This Week – March 6, 2026

Pro-Life This Week – March 6, 2026

Week in Review

Archbishop Alexander Sample Affirms the Sanctity of the Preborn Baby 

One year ago, Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, declared March 10 as “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day.” As American Life League reported this time last year, this sickening “celebratory” declaration was supported by Planned Parenthood and others who commit and cheer on the continuous slaughter of the innocent child in the womb through abortion.

However, amid such darkness, Archbishop Alexander Sample of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, urged his flock this week to revisit and share his March 2025 “Pastoral Teaching on the Sanctity of Life.” ALL reviewed Archbishop Sample’s letter and thought it was timely and necessary to share the important points he makes when discussing what abortion really is. 

Archbishop Sample’s opening statement acknowledges the fact that our culture has drifted away from reality entirely when we can support and celebrate the murder of a baby within his/her mother’s womb, at any time or for any reason. The archbishop states:

The idea that those who make a living ending innocent, unborn life should be publicly honored. Thanked. Applauded. This isn’t just moral confusion. It’s something deeper. A kind of spiritual blindness so thick that what should be self-evident—the sheer wonder and worth of a human life—is obscured entirely.

This spiritual blindness he references is what our culture has accepted when it comes to recognizing the dignity and worth of a human being, especially at its earliest stage of life. While we celebrate a pregnant mother who wants to carry her child, we simultaneously disregard and encourage the murder of another child whose mother does not want to carry her child. This hypocrisy is just one of the many examples of the spiritual blindness that the archbishop references.

Archbishop Sample then directs us to the incredible importance of language when discussing the reality of abortion:

The modern world is a master of euphemism. We don’t say “killing.” We say “choice.” We don’t say “ending a life.” We say “reproductive freedom.” The words are carefully chosen, not to reveal, but to obscure. Not to tell the truth, but to make the truth more palatable. . . . Because modernity has exchanged the wonder of life for the pursuit of power. If a baby is inconvenient, it must go. If it interferes with autonomy, it must be sacrificed. A life is no longer a gift. It is an obstacle, a burden, a problem to be solved. 

By utilizing the language mentioned above, the archbishop explains, our culture is using its power to tell society who lives and who dies. It completely ignores the inherent worth and value that each human being has just by their very existence, because every human person is made in the image and likeness of God. This is not something that any government or power of authority can take away from us. But Archbishop Sample reminds us of the fact that abortion “is a spiritual issue . . . [and] always has been.” He explains, “At its core, abortion is not just about politics or law or even ethics. It’s about how we see reality itself.”

Finally, in his closing statement, the archbishop calls those who have murdered the innocent or who support this murder to come back to Christ and His gospel. He explains, “Forgiveness is still possible. The call of Jesus is always the same: Repent. Open your eyes. Step out of the lie and into the light. And most of all—choose life.”

Archbishop Sample’s words are both clear and convicting. This pastoral teaching serves not only as a teaching tool for those engulfed in spiritual blindness when it comes to abortion, but a great reminder and teaching to all the faithful who seek to defend and protect human life. We must accept the following:

  1. Abortion is always the murder of the preborn child.
  2. If we can justify murder of the innocent, we are denying God’s command to love Him and our neighbor. 
  3. Language matters. By using confusing language and “us over them” rhetoric, we are bound to create a destructive path for our society and how it treats its people. 
  4. If we cannot recognize the humanity of the preborn baby, then why would society recognize the dignity and protect the disabled, the infirm, the elderly, or any other group of people?
  5. Anyone can return to God and ask for His mercy.

To read Archbishop Sample’s full letter, visit archdpdx.org/pastoral-teaching-sanctity-of-life.

Infanticide Is the Unsurprising Result of a Culture that Celebrates Feticide

Over the past week, two sickening stories appeared in the news. The first involved a 20-year-old Florida mother who was arrested for the murder of her newborn baby girl. Anne Mae Demegillo claims she didn’t know she was pregnant, but police say they have evidence that suggests otherwise. After going into premature labor, Demegillo gave birth while sitting on the toilet. She then cleaned up the bathroom while her three-pound daughter cried, moved, and eventually drowned in the toilet. 

“She did tell us that she was hoping that the baby would hurry up and die,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly shared at a press conference.

Demegillo hid the baby’s body in a duffel bag in her closet before following her daily schedule. She attended classes and even participated in a theatre performance that evening. She then buried her daughter in a shallow grave in her backyard. The mother texted details of the birth to a friend, who called the police for a welfare check. Demegillo initially denied the story but later confessed to the child’s murder.

In Kentucky on Wednesday, a mother was indicted by a grand jury for the death of her newborn. Laken Snelling was arrested in August after police found the body of her newborn baby boy in a trash bag in her closet. Her roommates contacted the police after hearing strange noises from Snelling’s room and finding blood.

The 21-year-old University of Kentucky cheerleader told police that her son was stillborn but later admitted to hospital staff that the baby whimpered and moved. She claimed she passed out after giving birth and fell on the baby, later waking to find him blue, but the grand jury wrote that Snelling “intentionally abused the infant and thereby caused death to a person twelve (12) years of age or less, or who is physically helpless or mentally helpless.” The autopsy found that he died by “asphyxia by undetermined means.” 

Both murders provoked public outrage and sorrow. When discussing Demegillo, Sheriff Staly expressed disbelief over her actions. “I just can’t imagine any mother doing that. Because, in this case, the suspect wouldn’t be here if her mother did that,” he said. “It just is mind-boggling to me that someone could do that.”

But are these stories so surprising? Our culture has spent decades convincing women that it is normal and even good to kill their babies in the womb. If “any time for any reason” justifies feticide, why shouldn’t it do the same for infanticide? After all, many of the problems a mother faces during pregnancy remain after birth. If she doesn’t want to be a mother, by pro-abortion logic, killing her newborn is just an extension of her reproductive rights.

At American Life League, we understand that building a culture of life requires much more than ending abortion. It means restoring respect for the lives and dignity of every human being, from the day of her creation to the day God chooses as her last. We must help young women and men recognize children as blessings who always deserve love, care, and protection. Only then will the murder of tiny babies—born and preborn—become unthinkable.

ALL in the News

Susan Ciancio, editor of Celebrate Life Magazine and director of the Culture of Life Studies Program—ALL’s pre-K-12 pro-life education program—wrote an article about St. Patrick’s moral courage and forgiveness. It was published on Catholic 365 and on Today’s Catholic Homeschooling. 

CLSP is also offering a free mini lesson on St. Patrick for your children, which can be downloaded here.

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. Patrick: This mini lesson is perfect for teaching your little ones about the real St. Patrick—an amazing saint who lived boldly for Christ, just as we are called to do as pro-lifers. His example will help you and your family build a culture of life in your homes and communities. After reading and discussing the text, simply print out and color the included bookmark to keep as a reminder to live boldly and to defend the vulnerable. Download today for FREE! ORDER HERE

ALL’s Education Materials

Angel of Life Lapel Pin: With this beautiful pin that will enhance the look of every outfit, you can show the world that you believe that angels protect the babies who did not have protection here on earth. And it may even generate some great conversations! SHOP NOW

Pro-Life Social Media

Video Short: Sisters of Life Remind Us What Our Pro-Life Priorities Should Be

It’s tempting for pro-life advocates to sit idle and expect the leaders and politicians in the movement to do all the work of ending the slaughter of preborn human life. The battle, however, isn’t a legal one so much as a spiritual one. Abortion facilities close because people pray. When the weather is near freezing, people pray. When the summer heat raises temperatures into triple digits, people pray. It appears that pro-life advocates have more resilience than the postal service. Take, for example, the Sisters of Life in New York City:

That is why American Life League started the Marian Blue Wave.

They do it, not because they’re free to do it, but because it’s the right thing to do.