Posted on 06/13/2025 18:39 PM (CNA Daily News)
Elizabeth Woning of the Changed Movement speaks at a gathering of ex-LGBTQ advocates and other members of the movement on the steps of the California state capitol to rally against counseling restrictions. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Changed Movement
CNA Staff, Jun 13, 2025 / 14:39 pm (CNA).
When Ken Williams was 17 years old, he struggled with suicidal ideation because he was torn — he was a Christian, but he also had same-sex attraction.
“My faith convictions were that God wanted me to live a life not including those letters [LGBTQ],” he said at a press conference on Thursday where he and many others shared their testimonies on the steps of the California state capitol.
When his church and family helped connect him with a Christian psychologist, Williams started his path to healing. He went on to meet with the counselor weekly for five years.
“I was never suicidal after that,” he said. “I got to know God as the one who forgives and has grace for my struggles.”
Williams gathered together with others at the rally to oppose legislation regulating counseling and therapy for youth who struggle with same-sex attraction — a hot-button issue that is currently being deliberated by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Through his relationship with God — and with the support of a good counselor — Williams recovered from the LGBTQ lifestyle after more than a decade of wrestling with same-sex attraction.
“I moved on years later, quite a few years later, fell in love with this beautiful girl,” he said. “We’ve been married for almost 19 years. I have four children — it’s incredible what God has done in my life.”
Williams went on to co-found a ministry known as the Changed Movement, an international community of people who no longer identify as LGBTQ and have been changed through their relationship with Christ.
But under recent legislation that has been pushed in California and other states, Williams’ therapist could have been committing a crime by encouraging him to follow not his sexual desires but his faith.
The phrase “conversion therapy” is a highly politicized term with dark implications. Members of the Changed Movement, along with other like-minded ministries, say it doesn’t represent what they do.
Joe Dallas, an ex-gay activist turned pastoral counselor who works with men and women “who are committed, devout Christians and also are experiencing attractions to the same sex,” described those who seek out such counseling: “There’s a conflict between their sexual desires and their beliefs.”
“They choose to prioritize their beliefs,” he said at the press conference in Sacramento on Thursday morning, which was organized by the Changed Movement and the California Family Council.
Dallas said he supports people being able to “seek out people who share their worldview and will help them pursue their goals,” but he is aware that a growing number of people oppose this for LGBTQ people.
“They would look at what we do as something they call — rather sinisterly — conversion therapy,” Dallas explained.
California is the first state to have implemented laws banning so-called “conversion therapy,” though many other states have since followed suit. In total, 27 states ban or restrict what they call “conversion therapy for minors.”
Jennifer Roback Morse, a Catholic economist and founder of the interfaith pro-family coalition the Ruth Institute, said “counseling freedom” is fundamental because “we’re affirming a truth about what it means to be human in the first place.”
“When you have a thought or a feeling, you have a choice about what meaning to assign that feeling,” Morse said. “You have a choice about what behavior to engage in, and you have a choice about how to understand yourself and what label you do or do not pin upon yourself.”
These laws can limit what therapists can say during therapy, requiring therapists to affirm LGBTQ inclinations or transgender ideology, even if the patient does not want that.
Counseling bans are currently before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Chiles v. Salazar, a landmark case that could make bans on so-called conversion therapy unconstitutional.
Wayne Blakely, a Christian and an advocate for the Changed Movement who formerly identified as gay, said that so-called conversion therapy isn’t what people make it out to be.
He noted that there are “so many people, members of many Christian congregations, who only know the lies as it relates to conversion therapy.”
“But there are actually counselors out there, around the world, wanting to engage you if you desire to engage with Jesus Christ, and they will lead you and help you walk with Jesus,” Blakely said.
The Changed Movement is one of several groups that has ardently opposed “conversion therapy” legislation. They gathered this week to celebrate the June 12 anniversary of the failure of a 2018 California bill that would have deemed their efforts and stories “fraudulent,” according to speakers at the event.
They also gathered to bring awareness to the reality that some LGBTQ people leave the lifestyle to follow Christ — but to do so, they often need the support of counseling.
“We just need space to be able to follow our own convictions,” Williams said.
One phrase was repeated by several Changed members as they shared their testimonies: “We exist.”
Posted on 06/13/2025 18:39 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Elizabeth Woning of the Changed Movement speaks at a gathering of ex-LGBTQ advocates and other members of the movement on the steps of the California state capitol to rally against counseling restrictions. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Changed Movement
CNA Staff, Jun 13, 2025 / 14:39 pm (CNA).
When Ken Williams was 17 years old, he struggled with suicidal ideation because he was torn — he was a Christian, but he also had same-sex attraction.
“My faith convictions were that God wanted me to live a life not including those letters [LGBTQ],” he said at a press conference on Thursday where he and many others shared their testimonies on the steps of the California state capitol.
When his church and family helped connect him with a Christian psychologist, Williams started his path to healing. He went on to meet with the counselor weekly for five years.
“I was never suicidal after that,” he said. “I got to know God as the one who forgives and has grace for my struggles.”
Williams gathered together with others at the rally to oppose legislation regulating counseling and therapy for youth who struggle with same-sex attraction — a hot-button issue that is currently being deliberated by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Through his relationship with God — and with the support of a good counselor — Williams recovered from the LGBTQ lifestyle after more than a decade of wrestling with same-sex attraction.
“I moved on years later, quite a few years later, fell in love with this beautiful girl,” he said. “We’ve been married for almost 19 years. I have four children — it’s incredible what God has done in my life.”
Williams went on to co-found a ministry known as the Changed Movement, an international community of people who no longer identify as LGBTQ and have been changed through their relationship with Christ.
But under recent legislation that has been pushed in California and other states, Williams’ therapist could have been committing a crime by encouraging him to follow not his sexual desires but his faith.
The phrase “conversion therapy” is a highly politicized term with dark implications. Members of the Changed Movement, along with other like-minded ministries, say it doesn’t represent what they do.
Joe Dallas, an ex-gay activist turned pastoral counselor who works with men and women “who are committed, devout Christians and also are experiencing attractions to the same sex,” described those who seek out such counseling: “There’s a conflict between their sexual desires and their beliefs.”
“They choose to prioritize their beliefs,” he said at the press conference in Sacramento on Thursday morning, which was organized by the Changed Movement and the California Family Council.
Dallas said he supports people being able to “seek out people who share their worldview and will help them pursue their goals,” but he is aware that a growing number of people oppose this for LGBTQ people.
“They would look at what we do as something they call — rather sinisterly — conversion therapy,” Dallas explained.
California is the first state to have implemented laws banning so-called “conversion therapy,” though many other states have since followed suit. In total, 27 states ban or restrict what they call “conversion therapy for minors.”
Jennifer Roback Morse, a Catholic economist and founder of the interfaith pro-family coalition the Ruth Institute, said “counseling freedom” is fundamental because “we’re affirming a truth about what it means to be human in the first place.”
“When you have a thought or a feeling, you have a choice about what meaning to assign that feeling,” Morse said. “You have a choice about what behavior to engage in, and you have a choice about how to understand yourself and what label you do or do not pin upon yourself.”
These laws can limit what therapists can say during therapy, requiring therapists to affirm LGBTQ inclinations or transgender ideology, even if the patient does not want that.
Counseling bans are currently before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Chiles v. Salazar, a landmark case that could make bans on so-called conversion therapy unconstitutional.
Wayne Blakely, a Christian and an advocate for the Changed Movement who formerly identified as gay, said that so-called conversion therapy isn’t what people make it out to be.
He noted that there are “so many people, members of many Christian congregations, who only know the lies as it relates to conversion therapy.”
“But there are actually counselors out there, around the world, wanting to engage you if you desire to engage with Jesus Christ, and they will lead you and help you walk with Jesus,” Blakely said.
The Changed Movement is one of several groups that has ardently opposed “conversion therapy” legislation. They gathered this week to celebrate the June 12 anniversary of the failure of a 2018 California bill that would have deemed their efforts and stories “fraudulent,” according to speakers at the event.
They also gathered to bring awareness to the reality that some LGBTQ people leave the lifestyle to follow Christ — but to do so, they often need the support of counseling.
“We just need space to be able to follow our own convictions,” Williams said.
One phrase was repeated by several Changed members as they shared their testimonies: “We exist.”
Posted on 06/13/2025 17:48 PM (CNA Daily News)
Tens of thousands of pro-life advocates march through the streets of Washington, D.C., during the 52nd annual March for Life on Jan. 24, 2025. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno
CNA Staff, Jun 13, 2025 / 13:48 pm (CNA).
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.
Pro-life sentiment has increased slightly from 2024 to 2025, a recent Gallup poll found.
The poll found a slight increase in those who identify as pro-life (41% to 43%) while those who identify as pro-choice fell from 54% to 51%. The survey also saw slight increases in those who say abortion is morally wrong and those who say abortion should be legal in only a few or no circumstances. Both categories were up by 3 percentage points from last year.
The poll found that 57% of women found abortion morally acceptable compared with 40% of men. But for both men and women, support for abortion decreased. Fewer women and fewer men found abortion morally acceptable, with percentage points decreasing by 3 for women and by 7 for men.
Michael New, a senior associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, called the results “good news for the pro-life movement.”
New noted that the results of the poll contradict the “mainstream media narrative” that pro-choice sentiment has shot up since the Dobbs decision leaked in May 2022.
“Since May 2021, the percentage of people identifying as ‘pro-choice’ has only increased by 2 percentage points,” he told CNA. “Other Gallup survey questions also show only a relatively slight increase in support for legal abortion.”
Historically, a majority of respondents have said they believe abortion should be legal only in a few circumstances or not at all, according to Gallup data going back to 1995. In 2022, in the wake of Dobbs, more people said abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. Since 2022, that number has begun to go down.
New said the rising pro-life sentiment is “especially noteworthy because 2024 could have been a difficult year for pro-lifers.”
“Kamala Harris made legal abortion the centerpiece of her presidential campaign,” he said. “Furthermore, Donald Trump did not support federal pro-life legislation. President Trump also did not make a strong case for existing pro-life laws during the 2024 campaign.”
A 38-year-old man faces capital murder charges after allegedly causing an abortion by spiking his girlfriend’s drink.
The alleged victim, an unidentified woman, reported to police in Parker County, Texas, that her boyfriend added the abortion drug to her drink, forcing her to have an abortion without her knowledge or consent.
When the alleged victim told her boyfriend she was pregnant in September 2024, she said she wanted to keep the baby. The suspect, Justin Anthony Banta, disagreed, saying he would pay for the abortion pills, according to a press release by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office.
On Oct. 17, at six weeks pregnant, her ultrasound showed that the baby had a strong heartbeat and good vital signs. That same day, she met Banta at a coffee shop, where she believes he added abortion pills to her drink.
The next day, she went to the emergency room because of heavy bleeding and exhaustion. On Oct. 19, her unborn baby died.
Police have not only charged Banta with capital murder but also with tampering with evidence.
Police arrested Banta on June 6 and confiscated his cellphone for evidence. Banta, who works for the Department of Justice’s IT department, allegedly tampered with the phone from afar, deleting crucial evidence, according to investigators.
Banta posted $500,000 bail and was released, and he and his lawyers have denied the allegations.
The Montana Supreme Court struck down three abortion regulations in a 6-1 ruling this week.
The court on Monday repealed a law prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation as well as two safety regulations surrounding chemical abortions: a measure that required pregnant women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion and a law requiring women to have an in-person visit with a doctor before taking abortion pills.
These laws had been passed in 2021, but a lower court had put the laws on hold that same year. Last November, Montana established a constitutional right to abortion.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill requiring schools to teach grades 5–12 about the humanity of unborn children.
The bill incorporates pregnancy and fetal development into the human growth and development and health curricula provided by school districts and charter schools. The law explicitly prohibits materials created by abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood or any abortion-related materials at all.
Similar bills have been proposed in Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Arizona. Tennessee and Idaho recently passed similar laws requiring fetal development to be taught in schools.
A Catholic university in Illinois disbanded a pro-abortion group affiliated with Planned Parenthood, saying it conflicted with Church teaching.
DePaul University in Chicago disbanded the group Planned Parenthood Generation Action at the school. It had formed during the 2022-2023 school year.
The university said in a statement that it does not allow student groups to affiliate with outside organizations “whose core missions are in direct conflict with the values and teachings of the Catholic Church. Planned Parenthood falls into this category.”
A spokesperson noted that the school remains “committed to supporting student-led dialogue on important issues, including reproductive health.”
Posted on 06/13/2025 17:48 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
Tens of thousands of pro-life advocates march through the streets of Washington, D.C., during the 52nd annual March for Life on Jan. 24, 2025. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno
CNA Staff, Jun 13, 2025 / 13:48 pm (CNA).
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.
Pro-life sentiment has increased slightly from 2024 to 2025, a recent Gallup poll found.
The poll found a slight increase in those who identify as pro-life (41% to 43%) while those who identify as pro-choice fell from 54% to 51%. The survey also saw slight increases in those who say abortion is morally wrong and those who say abortion should be legal in only a few or no circumstances. Both categories were up by 3 percentage points from last year.
The poll found that 57% of women found abortion morally acceptable compared with 40% of men. But for both men and women, support for abortion decreased. Fewer women and fewer men found abortion morally acceptable, with percentage points decreasing by 3 for women and by 7 for men.
Michael New, a senior associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, called the results “good news for the pro-life movement.”
New noted that the results of the poll contradict the “mainstream media narrative” that pro-choice sentiment has shot up since the Dobbs decision leaked in May 2022.
“Since May 2021, the percentage of people identifying as ‘pro-choice’ has only increased by 2 percentage points,” he told CNA. “Other Gallup survey questions also show only a relatively slight increase in support for legal abortion.”
Historically, a majority of respondents have said they believe abortion should be legal only in a few circumstances or not at all, according to Gallup data going back to 1995. In 2022, in the wake of Dobbs, more people said abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. Since 2022, that number has begun to go down.
New said the rising pro-life sentiment is “especially noteworthy because 2024 could have been a difficult year for pro-lifers.”
“Kamala Harris made legal abortion the centerpiece of her presidential campaign,” he said. “Furthermore, Donald Trump did not support federal pro-life legislation. President Trump also did not make a strong case for existing pro-life laws during the 2024 campaign.”
A 38-year-old man faces capital murder charges after allegedly causing an abortion by spiking his girlfriend’s drink.
The alleged victim, an unidentified woman, reported to police in Parker County, Texas, that her boyfriend added the abortion drug to her drink, forcing her to have an abortion without her knowledge or consent.
When the alleged victim told her boyfriend she was pregnant in September 2024, she said she wanted to keep the baby. The suspect, Justin Anthony Banta, disagreed, saying he would pay for the abortion pills, according to a press release by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office.
On Oct. 17, at six weeks pregnant, her ultrasound showed that the baby had a strong heartbeat and good vital signs. That same day, she met Banta at a coffee shop, where she believes he added abortion pills to her drink.
The next day, she went to the emergency room because of heavy bleeding and exhaustion. On Oct. 19, her unborn baby died.
Police have not only charged Banta with capital murder but also with tampering with evidence.
Police arrested Banta on June 6 and confiscated his cellphone for evidence. Banta, who works for the Department of Justice’s IT department, allegedly tampered with the phone from afar, deleting crucial evidence, according to investigators.
Banta posted $500,000 bail and was released, and he and his lawyers have denied the allegations.
The Montana Supreme Court struck down three abortion regulations in a 6-1 ruling this week.
The court on Monday repealed a law prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation as well as two safety regulations surrounding chemical abortions: a measure that required pregnant women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion and a law requiring women to have an in-person visit with a doctor before taking abortion pills.
These laws had been passed in 2021, but a lower court had put the laws on hold that same year. Last November, Montana established a constitutional right to abortion.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill requiring schools to teach grades 5–12 about the humanity of unborn children.
The bill incorporates pregnancy and fetal development into the human growth and development and health curricula provided by school districts and charter schools. The law explicitly prohibits materials created by abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood or any abortion-related materials at all.
Similar bills have been proposed in Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Arizona. Tennessee and Idaho recently passed similar laws requiring fetal development to be taught in schools.
A Catholic university in Illinois disbanded a pro-abortion group affiliated with Planned Parenthood, saying it conflicted with Church teaching.
DePaul University in Chicago disbanded the group Planned Parenthood Generation Action at the school. It had formed during the 2022-2023 school year.
The university said in a statement that it does not allow student groups to affiliate with outside organizations “whose core missions are in direct conflict with the values and teachings of the Catholic Church. Planned Parenthood falls into this category.”
A spokesperson noted that the school remains “committed to supporting student-led dialogue on important issues, including reproductive health.”
Posted on 06/13/2025 16:32 PM (Catholic News Agency)
St. Anthony of Padua, by El Greco (c. 1580). / Credit: Public domain
Padua, Italy, Jun 13, 2025 / 12:32 pm (CNA).
Today the Church celebrates St. Anthony of Padua, whose widespread popularity can be traced to his efforts at reaching out as a neighbor to all.
Posted on 06/13/2025 16:32 PM (CNA Daily News)
St. Anthony of Padua, by El Greco (c. 1580). / Credit: Public domain
Padua, Italy, Jun 13, 2025 / 12:32 pm (CNA).
The widespread popularity of St. Anthony of Padua, whose feast is celebrated in the Catholic Church on June 13, can be traced to his efforts of reaching out as a neighbor to all peoples, according to the rector of the basilica where the saint’s body rests.
“The devotion to the Saint of the Peoples is truly universal perhaps because he himself desired to consider all the world his as his home,” Father Oliviero Svanera, rector of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, Italy, told CNA.
“He was Portuguese by birth, he went to Morocco to spread the faith, he landed in Sicily by shipwreck, then he went back up the Italian peninsula all the way to Assisi and joined the friars of St. Francis, who sent him all the way to France.”
Once St. Athony returned to Italy he was appointed provincial superior and served in Padua, where he died in 1231.
“It is told that he would speak one language made of a thousand accents but which was understandable to all,” Svanera said. “As such, he was a neighbor to all: to the poor, to people in difficulty, to the sick. In this, his being ‘brother of all,’ is perhaps his universality, something that renders him a friend of all the peoples of the world, beyond nationality, culture, and even religions, given that St. Anthony is respected even by those who do not profess the Catholic faith.”
St. Anthony was born as Fernando Martins in Lisbon around 1195, and when he was 15 he entered the Abbey of St. Vincent with the Canons Regular of St. Augustine and was ordained a priest.
In 1220 he was deeply moved when he encountered the relics of five Franciscan missionaries who had been martyred in Morocco. He was allowed to leave the Augustinians to join the Order of Friars Minor, where he took the name Anthony. He worked as a preacher and laid the foundations of Franciscan theology.
He was canonized in 1232, only a year after his death, by Gregory IX, who had heard him preach and called him the “Ark of the Testament.”
It was also in 1232 that construction of the basilica that houses St. Anthony’s body was begun. It was finished at the beginning of the 14th century.
Svanera explaned the famous “Tredicina” that takes place before St. Anthony’s feast day.
“The word ‘Tredicina’ [refers to] the 13 days of meditation and spiritual preparation for the solemnity of the saint — that is, from May 31 to June 13. Every day those devoted to St. Anthony invoke the intercession of the saint through a particular prayer ... to entrust themselves to the mercy of God the Father. These are the days in which the basilica becomes the goal of pilgrims, both individuals and those organized in groups, and our sanctuary becomes truly universal, as in these days of veneration and prayer there are tens of thousands of pilgrims who come here from every country of the world.”
The priest also explained the story behind another popular tradition related to the famous saint called the “Bread of St. Anthony.”
“The birth of this tradition of charity has its roots in one of the ‘miracles’ of the saint, that of Tommasino, a baby of 20 months who drowned in a washtub,” Svanera said. “The desperate mother invoked the help of the saint and vowed that if she would obtain this grace, she would give to the poor the child’s weight in bread. And the little one returned miraculously to life.”
This gave rise, he said, to two Antonian works faithful to the spirit of St. Anthony: the Bread Work of the Poor (“l’Opera Pane dei Poveri”) — an organization in Padua that works to bring bread and other necessities to people in difficulty; and also Caritas Sant’Antonio, which supports many development projects in dozens of countries around the world.
Svanera also highlighted the key lessons of St. Anthony’s life.
“St. Anthony’s preaching was always capable of provoking the hearts of everyone,” he said. “And this too is thanks to his exemplary life and his humility, which he learned from Most Holy Mary, to whom he was profoundly devoted.”
He continued: “St. Anthony proclaimed the Gospel which conquers the temptation of power, the temptation of pride, the temptation ... of worldliness ... Through his love, St. Anthony knew to stoop for the other (refugee, migrant, unemployed, alone, sick, imprisoned, marginalized, poor) and to take care of him. We will thus be effective Christians of a Church which goes forth if, like St. Anthony, we manage to go forth from ourselves to preach Christ crucified, following him with a style of humility, of true humility, a humility full of love.”
This story was first published on June 13, 2017, and was updated on June 13, 2025.
Posted on 06/13/2025 14:56 PM (CNA Daily News - US)
null / Credit: Oleksandr Lysenko/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 13, 2025 / 10:56 am (CNA).
Women in America and the United Kingdom are taking legal action against Pfizer and other birth control producers after a study indicated that injectable contraceptives were found to cause brain tumors.
A case management conference regarding the multi-district litigation was held on May 30 in Pensacola, Florida, to discuss the next steps in the lawsuits filed against New York-based Pfizer.
The legal action follows a 2024 French study that found that the use of the contraceptive medication medroxyprogesterone, often known under Pfizer’s brand name Depo-Provera, renders a woman five times more likely to develop a meningioma brain tumor.
Meningiomas are slow-growing tumors that are usually benign but can cause severe injury or death if they become large enough to compress the brain or spinal cord.
The research study conducted by the National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety examined data on 18,061 women. The participants were on average around 57 years old and had all undergone intracranial surgeries for meningiomas between 2009 and 2018.
The observational study found that women who had used progestational hormones including medrogestone, medroxyprogesterone acetate, or promegestone for a year or longer had a heightened risk of suffering from a meningioma that required surgical intervention.
The research showed that the risk of developing a meningioma tumor was 5.6% higher among women who had used Depo-Provera.
After the study was released, Pfizer acknowledged the “potential risk associated with long-term use of progestogens.” The company said it was working to update “product labels and patient information leaflets with appropriate wording,” but as of 2025 the drug still does not have a written warning in the United States.
According to a press release filed on behalf of the roughly 400 plaintiffs, “the lawsuits allege that Pfizer and other generic producers of Depo-Provera were aware of the link between these birth control injections and brain tumors and that they failed to adequately warn of the risk and promote safer alternatives.”
Women in the United Kingdom are also starting to take legal action against pharmaceutical companies that have issued the drug. According to Britain’s National Health Service, in the U.K. about 10,000 women receive an injection of the contraceptive every month.
In 2021, a study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care estimated that 42 million reproductive-age women were using injectable contraceptives and reported that the shot was ranked the fourth most prevalent contraceptive worldwide.
The French research was released about a year after a study at the University of Oxford found that use of any progestogen-only hormonal contraceptives is associated with a 20%-30% higher risk of breast cancer.
The Catholic Church has held for centuries that artificial contraception of any kind is immoral and prohibited. That was articulated most famously in Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical by St. Paul VI.
In the encyclical, the pontiff wrote that “each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life.”
The Holy Father said that “similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse is specifically intended to prevent procreation — whether as an end or as a means.”
Posted on 06/13/2025 14:56 PM (CNA Daily News)
null / Credit: Oleksandr Lysenko/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 13, 2025 / 10:56 am (CNA).
Women in America and the United Kingdom are taking legal action against Pfizer and other birth control producers after a study indicated that injectable contraceptives were found to cause brain tumors.
A case management conference regarding the multi-district litigation was held on May 30 in Pensacola, Florida, to discuss the next steps in the lawsuits filed against New York-based Pfizer.
The legal action follows a 2024 French study that found that the use of the contraceptive medication medroxyprogesterone, often known under Pfizer’s brand name Depo-Provera, renders a woman five times more likely to develop a meningioma brain tumor.
Meningiomas are slow-growing tumors that are usually benign but can cause severe injury or death if they become large enough to compress the brain or spinal cord.
The research study conducted by the National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety examined data on 18,061 women. The participants were on average around 57 years old and had all undergone intracranial surgeries for meningiomas between 2009 and 2018.
The observational study found that women who had used progestational hormones including medrogestone, medroxyprogesterone acetate, or promegestone for a year or longer had a heightened risk of suffering from a meningioma that required surgical intervention.
The research showed that the risk of developing a meningioma tumor was 5.6% higher among women who had used Depo-Provera.
After the study was released, Pfizer acknowledged the “potential risk associated with long-term use of progestogens.” The company said it was working to update “product labels and patient information leaflets with appropriate wording,” but as of 2025 the drug still does not have a written warning in the United States.
According to a press release filed on behalf of the roughly 400 plaintiffs, “the lawsuits allege that Pfizer and other generic producers of Depo-Provera were aware of the link between these birth control injections and brain tumors and that they failed to adequately warn of the risk and promote safer alternatives.”
Women in the United Kingdom are also starting to take legal action against pharmaceutical companies that have issued the drug. According to Britain’s National Health Service, in the U.K. about 10,000 women receive an injection of the contraceptive every month.
In 2021, a study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care estimated that 42 million reproductive-age women were using injectable contraceptives and reported that the shot was ranked the fourth most prevalent contraceptive worldwide.
The French research was released about a year after a study at the University of Oxford found that use of any progestogen-only hormonal contraceptives is associated with a 20%-30% higher risk of breast cancer.
The Catholic Church has held for centuries that artificial contraception of any kind is immoral and prohibited. That was articulated most famously in Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical by St. Paul VI.
In the encyclical, the pontiff wrote that “each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life.”
The Holy Father said that “similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse is specifically intended to prevent procreation — whether as an end or as a means.”
Posted on 06/13/2025 14:01 PM (U.S. Catholic)
Imagine this: Your beloved family member says goodbye to go to work. On his way, he is stopped by people who look like civilians but have their faces covered. They push him into a car against his will. Eight hours later, he doesn’t come home. His car is found abandoned. He is nowhere to be […]
The post An immigration attorney on the Los Angeles protests appeared first on U.S. Catholic.
Posted on 06/13/2025 13:53 PM (U.S. Catholic)
In February of 1300, Pope Boniface VIII, in the papal bull Antiquorum Habet Fida Relatio, declared the first-ever Catholic Jubilee Year. Anyone who made a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, and who repented and confessed, would receive “the fullest and broadest pardon for all sins committed,” Boniface proclaimed. […]
The post What is a Jubilee Year? | Dean Dettloff appeared first on U.S. Catholic.