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Pro-Life This Week – May 9, 2025

Action Alert

Pray for the new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV

Join American Life League in celebration and prayer for our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV! The Vatican announced yesterday that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was chosen to lead Christ’s holy Church as the next successor of St. Peter.

Please pray with us as we ask the Holy Spirit to guide our new Holy Father in leading the Church with courage, charity, and clarity, especially in all matters regarding the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of human life.

Week in Review

Lawsuit against the FDA’s Management of Abortion Pills Does Not Receive Support from the Trump Administration’s DOJ

The Department of Justice announced this week that it wants US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Texas to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho against the FDA for its removal of safety restrictions on the abortion pill, mifepristone. Though this lawsuit is seeking to hold the FDA responsible for its intentional removal of “safety standards” on the abortion pill, allowing the abortion pill to be distributed throughout states and across borders easily, the DOJ echoed the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision, which said that these states did not have standing to sue. 

The response from Trump’s DOJ says that these three states “piggyback[ed]” off the original plaintiffs’ case, which was already dismissed by the Supreme Court, thereby indicating that these states have no jurisdiction to file within Kacsmaryk’s Texas court. In its conclusion, members of the DOJ told Judge Kacsmaryk, “Regardless of the merits of the States’ claims, the States cannot proceed in this Court. The States’ Amended Complaint should be dismissed or transferred for lack of venue.”

American Life League is disappointed to hear that another hindrance has been placed on action against the abortion pill, especially as the drug is always used to end the life of an innocent preborn child. We commend Judge Kacsmaryk and the attorneys general in these three states for their continued efforts to fight against the deadly abortion pill. And we will continue to follow this story.

New York State Assembly Passes Pro-Assisted Suicide Bill, with Its Next Stop at the State Senate

The NY State Assembly passed a bill in a final vote of 81-67, which could legalize assisted suicide within the state. Bill A136, also named “Medical Aid in Dying Act” by sponsors of this bill, states its purpose in the following memo:

To provide that a mentally competent, terminally ill adult with a prog-
nosis of six months or less to live may request medication from their
treating physician that they can decide to self-administer to hasten the
patient’s death provided the requirements set forth in the act are met,
and to provide certain protection and immunities to health care providers

and other persons, including a physician who prescribes medication
in compliance with the provisions of the article to the terminally ill
patient to be self-administered by the patient.

This horrendous piece of legislation goes on to justify why New York should permit anyone who is terminally ill and at least 18 years old to end their own life through prescribed medication by their physician. Unsurprisingly, many of the 60 organizations who backed this bill are pro-abortion as well. 

Catholic Courier, a publication of the Rochester diocese, reported the news last week that New York’s Catholic bishops voiced vehement opposition to this bill before the assembly voted. Prior to the passing of this bill, the current and emeritus bishops of New York wrote a letter urging the legislature to vote no on the bill and for New York governor Hochul to “veto” the bill should it come across her desk.

The assembly’s decision to pass this bill shows its desire to become the eleventh US jurisdiction to legalize the killing of sick adults. But the truth remains that we are not God, and therefore do not get to decide when our lives and the lives of others are to end. Whether an innocent child in the womb, a person with a disability, a mentally or physically sick child or adult, a healthy child or adult, or an elderly person, we all have inherent dignity from God. Laws such as these not only perpetuate the lie that we alone are in control of our lives and the lives of others, but they continue the deception that at a certain point, we no longer have dignity or worth. 

The next step is for the NY State Senate to decide if it will pass or vote no to its version of the bill, named S138. ALL joins New York’s Catholic bishops in asking all Christians in the state to contact their senators and urge them to vote NO to S138. Contact your NY state senators here.

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 a blog post about St. Damien of Molokai, whose feast day is May 10. You can read the blog post on our website. She also wrote an op-ed about why people are so angry about the murder of cats but not about the murder of preborn babies. This was published by LifeNews.

The Winter 2025 issue of Celebrate Life Magazine is officially out! Catch up on all the articles online 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

When Heroes Become Saints: Saint Damien de Veuster of Molokai: Celebrate his feast day tomorrow (May 10) with this lesson (now on SALE for just $2) that tells his heroic story. St. Damien volunteered to serve the lepers on the desolate peninsula of Molokai in Hawaii. He showed his flock that even though they suffered from a debilitating disease they deserved to be treated with dignity and respect and honored as adopted sons and daughters of God. This lesson challenges students to think about the outcasts whom they encounter in their own lives—a teased fellow student, a lonely relative, an argumentative sibling—and how they can follow the example of St. Damien by reaching out to them. ORDER HERE

ALL’s Education Materials

This eye-opening and educational brochure presents a powerful argument in support of the Catholic Church’s right and obligation to protect Christ in the Eucharist and the child in the womb. It’s a must read for all Catholics and their families. SHOP NOW

Pro-Life Social Media

We Have a Pope; Marxist Women Devastated

No doubt professional pope critics will spend hours online digging through every comment, homily, and interview Pope Leo XIV ever gave before his election as the new pope. Those critics aren’t the wackiest. Meet the crazed feminists who insist that women be ordained as priests, deacons, and bishops. 

“A male-only conclave is a celebration of patriarchy.”  

Or as sensible Catholics understand it, the conclave is a continuation of Jesus’ selection of men as His apostles, who in turn choose one among them to be the leader of the Church Militant on Earth. 

By their implication, Jesus—the Son of God who elevated His mother to Queen of Heaven and Earth—is the leader of a patriarchy. What do they really have to complain about?

… of Catholic doctrine. They should not be taken seriously–only corrected and prayed for.

True. We never hear of a bishop complain that he has no say in the pope’s election.

We trust in the Holy Spirit who has guided the cardinals in the election. That’s what good Catholics do.

Habemus Papam!