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Home » News » Pro-Life This Week – May 1, 2026

Pro-Life This Week – May 1, 2026

Week in Review

Questions Emerge about the Biden Administration’s Handling of Planned Parenthood’s PPP Funding 

A new investigation led by US Senator Joni Ernst alleges that the Biden administration may have concealed communications regarding Planned Parenthood’s eligibility for $90 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Senator Ernst of Iowa announced that she reviewed email communications between officials in former President Biden’s Small Business Administration from 2021. She found that not only did Planned Parenthood affiliates receive $90 million in PPP loans but that the word “Benghazi” was used in these emails when referencing Planned Parenthood and its eligibility for these loans. Senator Ernst even shared copies of such emails on X, with one email from the top lawyer of Biden’s SBA saying “Hello. Can I schedule a meeting so we can [make a] decision [on] Benghazi (Planned Parenthood)?” 

According to a press release, “The use of an unrelated codeword would have effectively hidden information related to these programs from any congressional or public record requests—which, if proven, would be a violation of the Federal Records Act and a federal crime.” Ernst asked the Justice Department to investigate this further.

In 2021 and more recently this past February, American Life League’s STOPP program raised awareness about Planned Parenthood’s eligibility to receive these loans. Under the first Trump administration, the Small Business Administration ruled that Planned Parenthood affiliates were not entitled to the PPP loans they applied for, due to their organizational structure and size of its affiliates. However, these loans were returned to Planned Parenthood affiliates and more loans were granted under the Biden administration.

We certainly are grateful for the efforts of Senator Ernst for looking more into this matter and hope that the Justice Department does investigate this situation thoroughly. This story further shows that taxpaying Americans should never have had their money utilized by the government to further advance Planned Parenthood’s business model of earning money from the murder of preborn babies. 

Judge Dismisses Charges against Pro-Life Grandmother Arrested for Holding a Sign near an Abortion Facility

Rose Docherty, a 75-year-old pro-lifer and grandmother in Scotland, celebrated this week after a judge dismissed two criminal charges against her. Both charges related to the “crime” of standing outside of an abortion facility with a sign inviting conversation, actions that led to her arrest in September 2025. After her case was dismissed, Rose shared her relief at the verdict and concern for free speech rights in Scotland.

“I was arrested, charged and prosecuted for nothing more than peacefully inviting consensual conversation in a public space that I was permitted to be in,” she said. “When I was arrested, I was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police van and placed in a police cell for over two hours, without a chair to sit on. Simply for being available for the lonely, the afraid and the coerced, I have been treated like a violent criminal.”

Last fall, Rose stood outside a hospital that commits abortions in Glasgow. She held a sign that read simply “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” She never approached, harassed, or otherwise bothered anyone entering the hospital, but her actions were still a crime under Scotland’s “safe access zone” or “buffer zone” law.

First passed in 2024, this law prohibits actions that “might stop a person from getting an abortion or make them feel scared or upset about getting an abortion” within 200 meters of a facility that kills preborn babies. Scottish police accused Rose of breaking the safe access zone law but failed to show that her actions affected anyone going to the hospital for an abortion. Since this is a significant part of the law, the judge dismissed the case pro loco et tempore, which means that she can be tried again if prosecutors find stronger evidence and decide that her case is still relevant. 

Rose was the first person charged under this law, though she was also arrested for similar actions in February 2025. In the UK, however, several pro-lifers have faced prosecution for holding signs or silently praying outside abortion facilities. As explained in our recent article in Celebrate Life Magazine, it is illegal to “inform, advise, influence, persuade, pray, hold vigils, offer help, or express an opinion regarding abortion” within 150 meters of abortion facilities in England and Wales. These pro-life activists faced legal battles, fines, and harassment for what can be considered modern-day “thoughtcrime.”

Though we have not faced such vile attacks on free speech in America, we must stay vigilant. The culture of death always seeks to silence truth, but we will never stop our fight for the babies and the vulnerable.

ALL in the News

Susan Ciancio, editor of Celebrate Life Magazine and director of the Culture of Life Studies Program—ALL’s PreK-12 pro-life education program—wrote an article using the words and example of St. Pius V as inspiration for what we can do to avoid spiritual lukewarmness as Catholics. It was published in LifeSiteNews.

Susan also wrote an article reviewing a new children’s book about Our Lady of Knock and what that apparition teaches us about motherhood. It was published in Catholic365.

The Wednesday STOPP Report was released this week. Catch up on the latest Planned Parenthood news 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

Miracle of Life Coloring & Activity Book: Designed as a fun way to learn about the culture of life, the downloadable book is packed with puzzles and information to help children ages three and older understand the beauty and sacredness of preborn life and the necessity to defend it. This is the perfect activity for little ones this summer! Just $2! ORDER HERE

ALL’s Education Materials

ALL has two awesome resources for young people as they begin dating and thinking about marriage. Chastity is something often overlooked or scoffed at in our society. Our hookup culture wants kids to enjoy their youth and do what makes them happy in the moment. But this attitude is unhealthy when it comes to relationships. To combat this mentality, we created two pamphlets to encourage young people to think about what a holy marriage should look like.

A Letter to My Future Husband is a warm, personal letter from a young woman to her potential future spouse that will encourage and inspire young people to remain chaste.  

A Letter to My Future Wife is a warm, personal letter from a young man to his potential future spouse that will encourage and inspire young people to remain chaste. SHOP NOW

Pro-Life Social Media

Abortion-Policy Expert Fearful of Talking about Abortion Reality

Imagine being an advocate for coffee drinkers across the United States, but you’re too embarrassed to talk about the means of creating coffee. You’re glad people drink it, and you’ll defend the right for people to choose their coffee, but you’re too embarrassed to talk about the different methods people use to brew it.

Jessica Waters is an abortion policy advocate who doesn’t want to talk about abortion. She testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the weaponization of the federal FACE Act. Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas asked the abortion policy expert what her favorite method of abortion was.

A legal scholar on abortion who doesn’t want to talk about abortion?

Your profession doesn’t need euphemisms if it isn’t an embarrassing profession. 

That’s how the conversation stays on point. Always talk about the baby.