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Home » News » Pro-Life This Week – May 15, 2026

Pro-Life This Week – May 15, 2026

Week in Review

Update: Supreme Court Restores Mail-Order Abortions Indefinitely

On Thursday, the US Supreme Court issued an indefinite stay on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling from May 1. The court’s decision means that it remains legal to mail abortion pills across the US, leading to more deaths of preborn children and continued harm to their mothers.

The original court case centers on the 2023 changes that the Food and Drug Administration made to the abortion pill’s restrictions. Mifepristone, the first drug in the abortion pill regimen, is restricted and monitored under a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program due to its high risks. Until 2021, REMS rules required mothers to see an abortionist in person to obtain the pills. This allowed the abortionist to confirm the mother’s gestation and check for ectopic pregnancy, both risk factors for severe complications. The FDA first temporarily suspended the in-person requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the drug to be prescribed through telehealth and shipped through the mail. It made this change permanent in 2023.

Louisiana is fighting to restore the in-person requirement and recriminalize mailing the pills. It argues that the current rules allow abortionists in other states to bypass Louisiana’s abortion ban and ship the pills to its residents. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and on May 1 paused the REMS rules that allowed mail-order abortions.

In response, two of the companies that manufacture mifepristone asked the Supreme Court to put a stay on this order. Less than 72 hours later, the Court issued a temporary stay, which allowed mail-order abortions to resume. On Thursday, May 14, it then issued an indefinite stay on the Fifth Circuit’s decision. Murder by mail is again allowed until the case reaches its conclusion.

Justices Alito and Thomas both dissented from the court’s decision. Justice Alito’s response was a powerful rebuke to the court’s decision and the state of mail-order abortion. He wrote:

The Court’s unreasoned order granting stays in this case is remarkable. What is at stake is the perpetration of a scheme to undermine our decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U. S. 215 (2022), which restored the right of each State to decide how to regulate abortions within its borders. Some States responded to Dobbs by making it even easier to obtain an abortion than it was before, and that is their prerogative. Other States, including Louisiana, made abortion illegal except in narrow circumstances. . .  . But Louisiana’s efforts have been thwarted by certain medical providers, private organizations, and States that abhor laws like Louisiana’s and seek to undermine their enforcement.

These medical providers and private organizations have developed an operation enabling women in Louisiana and other States that restrict abortions to place an online order for a pill called mifepristone that induces abortion. . . . After an order is placed, the drug is mailed to women in Louisiana. The manufacturers of the drug, including Danco and GenBioPro, are obviously aware of what is going on yet nevertheless supply the drug and reap profits from its felonious use in Louisiana

One might think that Louisiana could stop or impede this out-of-state interference in its law enforcement by bringing civil actions or criminal charges against the participants in this scheme. But States have effectively blocked these efforts by enacting so-called “shield laws,” which prevent Louisiana from visiting any adverse legal consequences on the perpetrators.

We are disappointed by the court’s decision and heartbroken by the number of lives that will be lost because of it. But we also know that the illegal abortion pill trade (covered in our 2024 report Beneath the Surface: Exposing the Abortion Pill Drug Cartel) will never abide by laws in its pursuit to kill as many babies as possible. Additionally, other means of chemical killing ensure that abortions will continue even if mifepristone is banned.

Still, we do not lose heart. As always, American Life League presses on to save as many babies as we can, regardless of the politics around us. No matter what happens, we will do all that we can and trust that God will do the rest.

The USCCB Responds to Congress’ HOPE with Fertility Services Act

Archbishop Alexander Sample, Bishop Daniel Thomas, and Bishop Edward Burns at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently penned a powerful letter to Congress expressing their firm opposition and disappointment at the proposed HOPE with Fertility Services Act. If passed, this act would federally mandate health insurance to cover assisted reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization.

The bishops opened their letter by reminding Congress of the bishops’ past efforts to encourage legislation that assists couples struggling with infertility by funding and promoting restorative reproductive medicine. This type of medicine seeks to find the root causes of the couple’s infertility, offering help and healing through ethical means without disregarding the marital act or destroying preborn human embryos. Following this reminder, the bishops wrote, “It is regrettable that we are now compelled to write again on account of the ‘Helping to Optimize Patients’ Experience (HOPE) with Fertility Services Act’ (H.R. 8119), a bill that would impose a new federal insurance mandate to cover such life-ending technologies and procedures, which we firmly oppose.”

In this letter, the bishops acknowledged that the desire for married couples to have children is beautiful and natural and that infertility is a difficult reality that many couples endure. However, they strongly condemned the destruction of human embryonic children created in a laboratory through ART and proclaimed that it will never be a licit solution to the problem of infertility. 

The bishops wrote the following regarding IVF:

IVF in contrast [to reproductive restorative medicine], especially as practiced in the United States, represents a relatively unregulated industry that creates hundreds of thousands or even millions of preborn children who will be interminably frozen, expended in attempts to place them within a mother, or discarded and killed (often in a selective, eugenic manner). There is perhaps no more literal example of what the late Pope Francis often decried as a “throwaway culture.” 

However, the bishops emphasized that while IVF and other forms of ART are always evil due to their manipulation of marriage and destruction of human life, any child created from IVF “has immeasurable dignity, which is inherent through every stage and circumstance of life.”

Lastly, the bishops highlighted their concern for the potential infringement this bill could have on religious liberty for organizations, schools, and churches who offer health insurance. The bishops said that if passed, the HOPE with Fertility Services Act could mimic the ongoing battle between the courts and the Little Sisters of the Poor regarding mandated employer coverage of contraceptives.

We are grateful to Archbishop Alexander Sample, Bishop Daniel Thomas, and Bishop Edward Burns for their clarity, urgency, and courageous efforts to appeal to Congress to end support for assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF and instead support true restorative approaches to infertility that respect both life and marriage. 

To read the full letter from the bishops, visit USCCB’s website here. For more information on IVF, explore ALL’s video and additional resources here.

Marty Makary Resigns as FDA Commissioner; Replacement Promises Commitment to Pro-Life Cause

Marty Makary, the controversial Food and Drug Administration commissioner, resigned from his position on Tuesday. His resignation comes after decisions that not only failed to reflect his claimed pro-life stance but also furthered the abortion industry’s deadly interests.

During his confirmation hearing, Makary promised to conduct a review of mifepristone, the first drug in the abortion pill regimen. Pro-lifers hoped that this review would restore stricter regulations for the drug and again criminalize its mailing, at the very least, and fully ban the abortion pill at best. But 13 months after assuming the role, Makary had yet to carry out this review. Worse, in December, news broke that he had directed the FDA to delay the review until after the midterms.

In early April, a federal judge preserved telehealth access to mifepristone but ordered the FDA to speed up its safety review. He also requested an update on the review in six months, a deadline that precedes the midterm elections by several weeks.

Even more egregious than his failure to act, however, was the FDA’s approval of another generic form of mifepristone under Makary’s leadership in November. The Department of Health and Human Services claimed that it had to approve the drug by law, but pro-lifers remained skeptical. The department had announced its plan to review the drug’s safety just weeks earlier, calling the FDA’s decision to expand its access into question.

Soon after Makary resigned, the FDA announced that Kyle Diamantas, the deputy commissioner for food, would take his place. We quickly became concerned by the news, as Diamantas had previously represented Planned Parenthood during a legal case in Florida that sought to prevent the business from committing abortions.

By Thursday, however, he had contacted Lila Rose of Live Action to explain his involvement and share his regret. He told Lila that he had worked on the case after being assigned to it as a junior attorney but had requested his removal because of his pro-life beliefs. Diamantas also said that he is committed to the pro-life cause and that reviewing the abortion pill is a top priority.

We are well used to being disappointed by politicians and government leaders who are pro-life in name only, but there is always hope that we will see life-affirming actions as well as words. We cannot rely on government or politics to end abortion, but we can pray diligently and fervently for those who have the power to effect change. We will certainly be praying for Kyle Diamantas.

ALL in the News

The Spring 2026 edition of Celebrate Life Magazine is out and available for free download. Download and read the latest updates and articles here.

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 how Catholics can grow in their relationship with the Blessed Mother. It was published in Catholic365.

Susan also wrote an article reflecting on St. John Paul II’s words regarding the elderly and on our responsibility to respect and care for them. It was published in Catholic World Report.

Susan’s article about ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program was republished in Today’s Catholic Homeschooling.

The latest Wednesday STOPP Report is out. You can read it here. Articles from our report were also republished in LifeNews.

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

The Developing Baby: This lesson booklet instills in children an understanding of the basic milestones of human development from a person’s first moment of creation and reinforces the fact that life is a miracle to be treasured. It teaches that guardian angels are given to us at the very moment God creates us and discusses the mother/child bond. FLASH SALE! For a limited time, this booklet is now more than half off! ORDER HERE

ALL’s Education Materials

Does IVF Violate Human Dignity? is a shareable brochure about in vitro fertilization. IVF helps infertile couples have biological children, so it is often praised as a pro-life and pro-family form of procreative technology. But IVF success stories hide a devastating reality. This technology murders millions of preborn babies, fractures marital unity, and turns children into objects that can be bought and created on demand. This brochure shares what happens to all the children procreated through IVF and the false hope it offers to suffering couples. Learn what the Church teaches about procreative technologies, as well as the licit fertility treatments Catholics can use instead. SHOP NOW

Pro-Life Social Media

Senator Confuses EPA Admin with ‘Far-Right’ Claim Over ‘Abortion in the Water’

We’ve heard of pharmaceuticals in the water and the pro-life children’s book Angels in the Water, but we’ve never heard of “abortion in the water.” That is, until now. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee this week to answer questions on funding cuts when Senator Pat Murray dropped this doozy of a question:

What is it with politicians quoting media sources rather than their own government records?

The New York Times that covered the “racist” students from Covington Catholic High School? The New York Times that featured a starving Gaza child as evidence of starvation but who was later revealed to have a preexisting condition? The New York Times that tied President Trump with Russia collusion? 

It should be studying The New York Times, apparently.

Image reads: The claims: Anti-abortion organizations, such as Students for Life of America, allege that over 50 tons of “chemically tainted medical waste—including blood, placental tissue, and human remains—are flushed into U.S. water systems each year.” They argue that this constitutes an environmental crisis and a public health risk.

Oh! THOSE abortions in the water.