Sts. Donatian and Rogatian were brothers who lived in the 3rd century in Nantes, France. Donatian, the younger, was a baptized Christian, while Rogatian, though not yet baptized, believed deeply in Christ and was preparing for the sacrament. During a fierce persecution of Christians under Roman rule, the two were arrested for refusing to renounce […]

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 17:14 pm (CNA).

EWTN officially launched the first authoritative biography of Pope Leo XIV, which is available for purchase now, during an event at the Vatican on May 22.

“Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope,” written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, tells the story of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8.

Bunson, a Church expert and longtime Vatican journalist who has written over 50 books, said at the book launch at the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome that Leo’s diverse experience as a pastor, prior general, missionary and bishop in Peru, and as a cardinal have given him a profound understanding of the global Church.

Pope Leo XIV, in his first weeks as pope, has also proven to be a unifying figure who has brought with him an “uncompromising emphasis on the divine person of Jesus Christ,” Bunson continued. 

“He is a universal person. He is someone in the world, but not of the world. He is somebody who, by his call to the priesthood and to the life of the Augustinians, embarked on an absolutely stunning journey,” Bunson said May 22. 

“And what is so remarkable about it is that as time progressed leading up to the conclave, more and more cardinals came to appreciate exactly who he is and why he was, at this moment in time, the person that they felt they could trust with the keys of Peter.”

The biography paints a picture of Pope Leo XIV as a Christ-centered, Augustinian-influenced, and competent leader who is expected to prioritize unity, clarity, and the application of Catholic social teaching, particularly concerning the dignity of the human person in an era of rapid technological change.

Bunson has previously said that he hopes the book will help inform readers about the importance of Pope Leo’s membership in the venerable Order of St. Augustine, and the fact that he is both a mathematician and canon lawyer will help him address the Vatican’s financial woes.

Additionally, Bunson’s book touches on some of the moral and theological issues currently being debated in the Church and public arena, and also discusses the significance of the choice of the name “Leo” and what that says about the pope’s vision for his pontificate.

Michael Warsaw, EWTN’s CEO and chairman of the board, told CNA that he is “excited that EWTN Publishing is releasing this biography of Pope Leo XIV so soon after his election.”

“As the leading Catholic media platform, our aim is to share the Holy Father’s story with the world, starting with his early life, to help people connect with the man now serving as the vicar of Christ,” Warsaw said.

“EWTN is uniquely positioned to publish this biography of the first pope born in the United States and the second pope from the Americas. Like Pope Leo, the EWTN family is global, but our roots are American.”

The book about Leo’s life is available to order on EWTN Religious Catalogue.

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 17:14 pm (CNA).

EWTN officially launched the first authoritative biography of Pope Leo XIV, which is available for purchase now, during an event at the Vatican on May 22.

“Leo XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope,” written by Matthew Bunson, vice president and editorial director at EWTN News, tells the story of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was elected the new Holy Father on May 8.

Bunson, a Church expert and longtime Vatican journalist who has written over 50 books, said at the book launch at the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome that Leo’s diverse experience as a pastor, prior general, missionary and bishop in Peru, and as a cardinal have given him a profound understanding of the global Church.

Pope Leo XIV, in his first weeks as pope, has also proven to be a unifying figure who has brought with him an “uncompromising emphasis on the divine person of Jesus Christ,” Bunson continued. 

“He is a universal person. He is someone in the world, but not of the world. He is somebody who, by his call to the priesthood and to the life of the Augustinians, embarked on an absolutely stunning journey,” Bunson said May 22. 

“And what is so remarkable about it is that as time progressed leading up to the conclave, more and more cardinals came to appreciate exactly who he is and why he was, at this moment in time, the person that they felt they could trust with the keys of Peter.”

The biography paints a picture of Pope Leo XIV as a Christ-centered, Augustinian-influenced, and competent leader who is expected to prioritize unity, clarity, and the application of Catholic social teaching, particularly concerning the dignity of the human person in an era of rapid technological change.

Bunson has previously said that he hopes the book will help inform readers about the importance of Pope Leo’s membership in the venerable Order of St. Augustine, and the fact that he is both a mathematician and canon lawyer will help him address the Vatican’s financial woes.

Additionally, Bunson’s book touches on some of the moral and theological issues currently being debated in the Church and public arena, and also discusses the significance of the choice of the name “Leo” and what that says about the pope’s vision for his pontificate.

Michael Warsaw, EWTN’s CEO and chairman of the board, told CNA that he is “excited that EWTN Publishing is releasing this biography of Pope Leo XIV so soon after his election.”

“As the leading Catholic media platform, our aim is to share the Holy Father’s story with the world, starting with his early life, to help people connect with the man now serving as the vicar of Christ,” Warsaw said.

“EWTN is uniquely positioned to publish this biography of the first pope born in the United States and the second pope from the Americas. Like Pope Leo, the EWTN family is global, but our roots are American.”

The book about Leo’s life is available to order on EWTN Religious Catalogue.

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Alasdair MacIntyre, a towering figure in moral philosophy and a Catholic convert credited with reviving the discipline of virtue ethics, died on May 21 at age 96. His seminal 1981 work “After Virtue” reshaped contemporary moral and political philosophy, emphasizing virtue over utilitarian or deontological frameworks. 

Known by many as “the most important” modern Catholic philosopher, MacIntyre’s intellectual and spiritual journey spanned atheism, Marxism, Anglicanism, and ultimately Roman Catholicism. 

MacIntyre’s striking intellect, razor-sharp wit, and exacting teaching profoundly influenced generations of students and academics.

“A great light has gone out,” wrote Patrick Deneen, a political philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame, in response to the news of MacIntyre’s death.

“I have never met, nor do I ever expect to meet, a philosopher as fascinating as the author of ‘After Virtue,’” said Christopher Kaczor, one of MacIntyre’s former students and a visiting fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, where MacIntyre was a permanent senior distinguished research fellow until his death. 

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1929 to Eneas and Greta (Chalmers) MacIntyre, he earned master of arts degrees from the University of Manchester and Oxford. His academic career began in 1951 at Manchester, followed by posts at Leeds, Essex, and Oxford. 

In 1969, he moved to the United States, becoming an “intellectual nomad” with appointments as professor of history of ideas at Brandeis University, dean at Boston University, Henry Luce professor at Wellesley, W. Alton Jones professor at Vanderbilt, and McMahon-Hank professor at Notre Dame.

Though he never earned a doctorate, he received 10 honorary doctorates and appointments during his life, quipping at one point: “I won’t go so far as to say that you have a deformed mind if you have a Ph.D., but you will have to work extra hard to remain educated.”

MacIntyre’s wit shone in his claim to have “broken up the Beatles” by lending his upstairs neighbor, Yoko Ono, a ladder in 1966, leading to her meeting John Lennon.

He also taught at Duke, Yale, and Princeton, and is the former president of the American Philosophical Association. His many accolades include the 2010 Aquinas Medal and memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1985), British Academy (1994), Royal Irish Academy (1999), and American Philosophical Society (2005).

MacIntyre’s “After Virtue,” deemed a 20th-century philosophical classic, critiqued modern moral fragmentation, advocating a return to Aristotelian ethics. His other works, including “Marxism and Christianity,” “Whose Justice? Which Rationality?,” and “Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry,” explored moral traditions and rationality. 

His spiritual journey was as dynamic as his intellectual one. Initially considering becoming a Presbyterian minister in the 1940s, he became Anglican in the 1950s, then an atheist in the 1960s, famously calling himself a “Roman Catholic atheist” because the Catholic God was “worth denying.” 

In 1983, at age 55, he embraced Roman Catholicism and Thomism, inspired by his favorite 20th-century theologian, Joseph Ratzinger (the late Pope Benedict XVI), and finally convinced by the Thomist arguments he first encountered as an undergraduate, “not in the form of moral philosophy, but in that of a critique of English culture developed by members of the Dominican order.”

“Widely regarded as the most important philosopher in modern virtue ethics,” Jennifer Newsome Martin, director of the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture (dCEC), said in a statement to CNA, “Alasdair MacIntyre demonstrated scholarly rigor and an alpine clarity of thought. He was also a generous friend of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture as our permanent senior distinguished research fellow in residence; what an honor it was that he chose the dCEC to be the locus of his scholarly work after retiring from the philosophy department at Notre Dame. We are all bereft at his passing. His tremendous legacy, however, will continue to reverberate in the life of the center.”

Robert P. George, Princeton’s University’s McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, remembered MacIntyre’s “pugnacious wit” and recalled that “a striking thing about Professor MacIntyre was that he was impossible to classify ideologically. Was he a progressive? Not really. Was he a conservative? No. A centrist? Not that either. He was ‘sui generis.’ Requiescat in pace.”

He is survived by his daughters Jean and Toni from his first marriage and his wife, Lynn Joy.

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Alasdair MacIntyre, a towering figure in moral philosophy and a Catholic convert credited with reviving the discipline of virtue ethics, died on May 21 at age 96. His seminal 1981 work “After Virtue” reshaped contemporary moral and political philosophy, emphasizing virtue over utilitarian or deontological frameworks. 

Known by many as “the most important” modern Catholic philosopher, MacIntyre’s intellectual and spiritual journey spanned atheism, Marxism, Anglicanism, and ultimately Roman Catholicism. 

MacIntyre’s striking intellect, razor-sharp wit, and exacting teaching profoundly influenced generations of students and academics.

“A great light has gone out,” wrote Patrick Deneen, a political philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame, in response to the news of MacIntyre’s death.

“I have never met, nor do I ever expect to meet, a philosopher as fascinating as the author of ‘After Virtue,’” said Christopher Kaczor, one of MacIntyre’s former students and a visiting fellow at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, where MacIntyre was a permanent senior distinguished research fellow until his death. 

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1929 to Eneas and Greta (Chalmers) MacIntyre, he earned master of arts degrees from the University of Manchester and Oxford. His academic career began in 1951 at Manchester, followed by posts at Leeds, Essex, and Oxford. 

In 1969, he moved to the United States, becoming an “intellectual nomad” with appointments as professor of history of ideas at Brandeis University, dean at Boston University, Henry Luce professor at Wellesley, W. Alton Jones professor at Vanderbilt, and McMahon-Hank professor at Notre Dame.

Though he never earned a doctorate, he received 10 honorary doctorates and appointments during his life, quipping at one point: “I won’t go so far as to say that you have a deformed mind if you have a Ph.D., but you will have to work extra hard to remain educated.”

MacIntyre’s wit shone in his claim to have “broken up the Beatles” by lending his upstairs neighbor, Yoko Ono, a ladder in 1966, leading to her meeting John Lennon.

He also taught at Duke, Yale, and Princeton, and is the former president of the American Philosophical Association. His many accolades include the 2010 Aquinas Medal and memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1985), British Academy (1994), Royal Irish Academy (1999), and American Philosophical Society (2005).

MacIntyre’s “After Virtue,” deemed a 20th-century philosophical classic, critiqued modern moral fragmentation, advocating a return to Aristotelian ethics. His other works, including “Marxism and Christianity,” “Whose Justice? Which Rationality?,” and “Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry,” explored moral traditions and rationality. 

His spiritual journey was as dynamic as his intellectual one. Initially considering becoming a Presbyterian minister in the 1940s, he became Anglican in the 1950s, then an atheist in the 1960s, famously calling himself a “Roman Catholic atheist” because the Catholic God was “worth denying.” 

In 1983, at age 55, he embraced Roman Catholicism and Thomism, inspired by his favorite 20th-century theologian, Joseph Ratzinger (the late Pope Benedict XVI), and finally convinced by the Thomist arguments he first encountered as an undergraduate, “not in the form of moral philosophy, but in that of a critique of English culture developed by members of the Dominican order.”

“Widely regarded as the most important philosopher in modern virtue ethics,” Jennifer Newsome Martin, director of the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture (dCEC), said in a statement to CNA, “Alasdair MacIntyre demonstrated scholarly rigor and an alpine clarity of thought. He was also a generous friend of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture as our permanent senior distinguished research fellow in residence; what an honor it was that he chose the dCEC to be the locus of his scholarly work after retiring from the philosophy department at Notre Dame. We are all bereft at his passing. His tremendous legacy, however, will continue to reverberate in the life of the center.”

Robert P. George, Princeton’s University’s McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, remembered MacIntyre’s “pugnacious wit” and recalled that “a striking thing about Professor MacIntyre was that he was impossible to classify ideologically. Was he a progressive? Not really. Was he a conservative? No. A centrist? Not that either. He was ‘sui generis.’ Requiescat in pace.”

He is survived by his daughters Jean and Toni from his first marriage and his wife, Lynn Joy.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 23, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA).

A federal court in New York has ordered the state to halt its enforcement of a law against a Christian photographer and blogger that would force her to express ideas on human sexuality that conflict with her religious faith.

U.S. District Judge Frank Geraci wrote in his Thursday decision that a New York law guaranteeing “equal access to publicly available goods and services” in the marketplace regardless of a person’s sexuality cannot be used to force a business to provide services that convey ideas about human sexuality with which the provider disagrees.

Emilee Carpenter, who operates Emilee Carpenter Photography, sued the state over the law, arguing that it would force her to produce photographs and blogs for same-sex civil weddings and polyamorous engagements despite her religious belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Violations of the law could land Carpenter up to one year in jail, with fines of up to $100,000, and a revocation of her business license. 

The judge wrote in his decision that Carpenter provides “a customized, tailored photography service that is guided by her own artistic and moral judgment.” He added that her services “are expressive activity protected by the First Amendment.”

Geraci stated in his ruling that Carpenter “believes that opposite-sex marriage is a gift from God, and she uses her wedding photography business to celebrate such marriages.” He emphasized that the law seeks to compel “an expressive activity” and that “such expressive activity is ‘her own.’”

His ruling is narrow and only prevents the state from enforcing the law against Carpenter for now while the litigation against the law continues.

The May 22 ruling is a reversal of Geraci’s own previous ruling from Dec. 31, 2021, on the same question. He explained in the new ruling that he is reversing his own decision based on the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, which addressed identical concerns about a Colorado law.

In that 2023 ruling, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that Colorado could not force a web designer to create websites that promote same-sex marriage, which was in conflict with her religious beliefs.

Geraci wrote that, contrary to his previous ruling, the Supreme Court “held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment bars states from applying their public accommodations laws to ‘expressive activity to compel speech.’”

Bryan Neihart, who works as senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), praised the decision. ADF and Raymond Dague of Dague Law represent Carpenter in her lawsuit. ADF also represented 303 Creative in the precedent-setting Supreme Court case.

“Free speech is for everyone, and more courts are ruling consistent with that message,” Neihart said in a statement. “As the Supreme Court reaffirmed in 303 Creative, the government can’t force Americans to say things they don’t believe.”

“The U.S. Constitution protects Emilee’s freedom to express her own views as she continues to serve clients of all backgrounds and beliefs,” he added. “The district court rightly upheld this freedom and followed Supreme Court precedent. Emilee can now enjoy the freedom to create and express herself, a freedom that protects all Americans regardless of their views.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office is representing the state in court. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 23, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA).

A federal court in New York has ordered the state to halt its enforcement of a law against a Christian photographer and blogger that would force her to express ideas on human sexuality that conflict with her religious faith.

U.S. District Judge Frank Geraci wrote in his Thursday decision that a New York law guaranteeing “equal access to publicly available goods and services” in the marketplace regardless of a person’s sexuality cannot be used to force a business to provide services that convey ideas about human sexuality with which the provider disagrees.

Emilee Carpenter, who operates Emilee Carpenter Photography, sued the state over the law, arguing that it would force her to produce photographs and blogs for same-sex civil weddings and polyamorous engagements despite her religious belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Violations of the law could land Carpenter up to one year in jail, with fines of up to $100,000, and a revocation of her business license. 

The judge wrote in his decision that Carpenter provides “a customized, tailored photography service that is guided by her own artistic and moral judgment.” He added that her services “are expressive activity protected by the First Amendment.”

Geraci stated in his ruling that Carpenter “believes that opposite-sex marriage is a gift from God, and she uses her wedding photography business to celebrate such marriages.” He emphasized that the law seeks to compel “an expressive activity” and that “such expressive activity is ‘her own.’”

His ruling is narrow and only prevents the state from enforcing the law against Carpenter for now while the litigation against the law continues.

The May 22 ruling is a reversal of Geraci’s own previous ruling from Dec. 31, 2021, on the same question. He explained in the new ruling that he is reversing his own decision based on the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, which addressed identical concerns about a Colorado law.

In that 2023 ruling, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that Colorado could not force a web designer to create websites that promote same-sex marriage, which was in conflict with her religious beliefs.

Geraci wrote that, contrary to his previous ruling, the Supreme Court “held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment bars states from applying their public accommodations laws to ‘expressive activity to compel speech.’”

Bryan Neihart, who works as senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), praised the decision. ADF and Raymond Dague of Dague Law represent Carpenter in her lawsuit. ADF also represented 303 Creative in the precedent-setting Supreme Court case.

“Free speech is for everyone, and more courts are ruling consistent with that message,” Neihart said in a statement. “As the Supreme Court reaffirmed in 303 Creative, the government can’t force Americans to say things they don’t believe.”

“The U.S. Constitution protects Emilee’s freedom to express her own views as she continues to serve clients of all backgrounds and beliefs,” he added. “The district court rightly upheld this freedom and followed Supreme Court precedent. Emilee can now enjoy the freedom to create and express herself, a freedom that protects all Americans regardless of their views.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office is representing the state in court. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 15:03 pm (CNA).

The Dublin-based Iona Institute for Religion and Society has released a comprehensive report that highlights significant shifts in religious attitudes and practices in Ireland.

Updating findings from a similar 2011 survey, Amárach Research conducted the latest study and commissioned it in two stages — a survey of 1,000 adults in February followed by a second survey in March.

A striking finding challenges the narrative of declining religiosity among younger adults.

Among 18- to 24-year-olds (Generation Z), 17% identify as religious, compared with just 5% of 25- to 34-year-olds (millennials). Additionally, 54% of Gen Z describe themselves as religious and/or spiritual, compared with 46% of millennials. This group is also more engaged with spiritual content: 18- to 24-year-olds are more likely to read religious or spiritual books, watch related content, and follow spiritual influencers on social media, including platforms like “FaithTok,” than their slightly older counterparts.

David Quinn, CEO of the Iona Institute, told CNA he thinks “young people are seeing that secularism is coming up short. It has no answers to life’s great questions and nothing to say about meaning and purpose. People will always crave these things. Religion provides them.”

Quinn said the survey’s findings are consistent with a recently published report titled “The Quiet Revival.” Commissioned by the U.K.-based Bible Society, the report finds that religiosity is up among 18- to 24-year-olds in Britain as well, with particular growth in the Roman Catholic and Pentecostal churches.

The Iona survey finds that regular Mass-goers, who make up 16% of respondents, have the most favorable view of the Church, while the 22% who do not identify as Catholic — roughly aligning with Census 2022 data — express the most negative sentiments. “Cultural Catholics,” the 62% of respondents who say they identify as Catholic but rarely attend Mass, fall in between. 

The survey highlights divided public sentiment toward religious figures, with attitudes toward priests and nuns split evenly: 33% view them positively, 33% negatively, and the rest remain neutral. 

Respondents overestimate the number of child sexual abusers among the clergy by nearly 4 to 1, on average, though this number is lower than it was in the 2011 survey. 

While 50% of respondents say they hold a positive view of Christianity and only 20% hold a negative view, the Catholic Church as an institution fares less favorably. Only 27% have a favorable view of the Church, while 40% view it unfavorably, likely influenced by the legacy of clerical abuse scandals. However, 45% agree that Catholic teachings remain beneficial to society, with 32% disagreeing, suggesting that the Church’s moral and theological teachings resonate more deeply than the institution itself.

Notably, 25% of respondents say they would be happy if the Catholic Church vanished from Irish society, though 51% disagree.

“In a way it is not surprising that public attitudes towards the Catholic Church are so divided and that there is considerable negativity, especially in view of all the scandals which are still fresh in the public mind,” Breda O’Brien, a spokesperson for the Iona Institute, said in a press release.

However, she continued: “It’s good to see that many people are less negative about the teachings of the Catholic Church than they are towards the institution.”

Quinn told CNA that he sees this as an opportunity.

“The Church needs to talk less about itself and much more about its teachings and do its best to put those teachings into practice. This is what will attract people,” he said.

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 15:03 pm (CNA).

The Dublin-based Iona Institute for Religion and Society has released a comprehensive report that highlights significant shifts in religious attitudes and practices in Ireland.

CNA Staff, May 23, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Fertility clinic bomber linked to anti-natalist ideology

Authorities say the man who detonated a car bomb outside a California fertility clinic last Saturday appears to have been motivated by anti-natalist ideology — the belief that no one should have children. 

The attack destroyed the office spaces of the American Reproductive Center in Palm Springs, an in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic, but the bombing did not destroy the stored embryos. 

IVF is a fertility treatment opposed by the Catholic Church in which doctors fuse sperm and eggs to create human embryos and implant them in the mother’s womb. To maximize efficiency, doctors create excess human embryos and routinely destroy undesired embryos.

The suspect, Guy Edward Bartkus, likely detonated the bomb in what law enforcement is calling an act of domestic terrorism. Bartkus was killed by the detonation, but no one else was killed as the center was empty during the time of the explosion. 

The FBI reportedly found possible links between the suspect and an online forum post in which he contemplated suicide via an explosive device, as well as a YouTube account with a history of videos of homemade explosives. Authorities say they are investigating the suspect’s “manifesto,” which reportedly contained the anti-natalist ideology known as “Efilism.” 

Abortions continue to rise after Dobbs, report confirms 

More than 1.1 million abortions took place from July 2023 to June 2024, according to a recent Charlotte Lozier Institute report compiling available abortion data. 

In a first-of-its-kind report, the analysis compiles abortion totals from various abortionists and other data. Because there is no federal abortion reporting requirement, abortion totals are not definitive, the report noted. The report also found that “thousands upon thousands” of self-managed chemical abortions occur outside the health care system. 

The report found that there are more than 770 abortion centers as well as mail-order abortion drugs being made available through 142 U.S.-based organizations and eight websites operating outside the U.S. health care system. Most abortions happen inside a woman’s home, though out-of-state abortions are on the rise, increasing by 126% from 2020 to 2023, according to the report. 

Hundreds of pro-life Oregonians gather for March for Life

Hundreds of Oregonians gathered outside the state Capitol in Salem, Oregon, on May 17 for the annual Oregon March for Life. 

This year’s theme — “Support Her. Protect Them” — is designed to “emphasize the pro-life movement’s care for both mothers and their babies,” according to organizers. On display at the event was an animated counter depicting the impact of abortion: 63 million lives lost. 

Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, who was one of several pro-life voices speaking at the event, said: “It never ceases to have a deep impact on me when we see, visually, the real impact that the tragedy of abortion has had in our country.” 

Other pro-life leaders and legislators spoke at the event, including Oregon Right to Life President Melody Durrett, Western Seminary theology professor Gerry Breshears, and Oregon Republican Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson. 

Oregon Right to Life executive director Lois Anderson called the gathering “deeply inspiring and encouraging,” noting that the March for Life “always renews my sense of optimism for ending abortion and building a culture of life in our state.”

The event is held in May to mark the month that Oregon legalized abortion statewide in 1969. Abortions are legal during all nine months of pregnancy in Oregon, and taxpayer funding contributes to more than half of abortions performed in the state, according to Oregon Right to Life.

Judge strikes down regulation requiring employers to accommodate abortions 

A Louisiana federal judge struck down a Biden-era regulation on Wednesday that required employers to accommodate employees’ abortions. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regulation in question included abortion under pregnancy-related conditions that employers are required to accommodate under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. U.S. District Judge David Joseph of the Western District of Louisiana ruled that in its enforcement of that law, the EEOC had overstepped its bounds by including abortion in the category of pregnancy-related conditions.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires most employers to accommodate workers’ limitations due to pregnancy and childbirth. In 2024, the EEOC determined that these protections included abortion. In response, the states of Louisiana and Mississippi and four Catholic organizations challenged the rule. 

U.S. House moves to repeal FACE Act 

The U.S. House of Representatives is taking steps to repeal the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a law allegedly weaponized against pro-life activists under the Biden administration. 

The House Judiciary Committee held a markup of a series of bills, including the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025, on Wednesday.

The FACE Act, which has been federal law for 30 years, imposes harsher prison sentences for people who obstruct access to abortion clinics or pro-life pregnancy resource centers. However, under President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, the law was almost exclusively used to convict pro-life demonstrators. Using the FACE Act, dozens of pro-life activists were imprisoned for blocking clinic entrances during protests and other forms of protest. 

Texas Congressman Chip Roy, who has previously worked to repeal the FACE Act, introduced the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025 in January. The FACE Act has also been used against pro-abortion activists who defaced life-affirming clinics.

Florida court strikes down law promoting abortion access for minors 

A Florida appeals court on Wednesday ruled that a law that lets minors get abortions without their parents’ consent was unconstitutional. The court found that the state’s judicial waiver law violated the 14th Amendment right to due process for parents. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal cited parental rights laws as well as a recent ruling by the Florida Supreme Court and the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson U.S. Supreme Court ruling.