Respect Life

On the 51st anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade decision, President Joe Biden called for the restoration of Roe in federal law, and pledged his administration would take new steps to “protect access to safe and legal medication abortion.”

Although most Americans describe themselves as “pro-choice,” a majority also would support some legal limits on abortion, as well as conscience protections for health care workers who do not wish to participate in those procedures, according to a new Marist Poll sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.

“Donum Vitae” is a document that, nearly 40 years ago, made explicit the church’s teaching about in vitro fertilization and related practices, including gestational surrogacy — a teaching that in January 2024 made headlines after Pope Francis called for a worldwide ban on surrogacy while speaking with members of the diplomatic corps assigned to the Holy See.

Against gray skies and falling snow, thousands of people flocked Jan. 19 to the nation’s capital for the national March for Life, gathering them under the theme “for every woman, for every child,” showing their resolve amid the piercing cold to make abortion eventually “unthinkable” in the U.S.

Jesus Christ’s words in the Gospel reading for Jan. 18, “I am with you always until the end of the age,” are critical as “an instruction for how to live in this broken world” and “bring goodness to it,” the U.S. bishops’ pro-life chairman said in his homily at the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life.