The Church of St. Luke

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Earlier this week, Cuba completed the release of 553 prisoners despite the collapse of a deal with the United States, Vatican News reported. 

In January, under the Catholic Church’s mediation, former U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to remove Cuba from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in exchange for the early release of hundreds of prisoners. 

The deal was made following years of pressure from the U.S., the European Union, the Catholic Church, and human rights organizations urging Cuba to free anti-government protesters jailed after a 2021 demonstration. 

The Biden administration had initially called Cuba to release “political prisoners,” but Cuba less specifically agreed to gradually release “553 people sanctioned for diverse crimes.” 

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said: “As part of the close and fluid relations with the Vatican State, I informed Pope Francis of [the decision to free the prisoners] in the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee.” 

Just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration overturned the deal. Despite the administration’s reversal, Cuba continued to free prisoners intermittently.

In February, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, called the continued release of the Cuban prisoners “a sign of great hope” at the start of the holy year and said he hoped for more “gestures of clemency.”

The vice president of Cuba‘s top court, Maricela Soza Ravelo, announced on state television on March 10 that the full release was completed, according to Vatican News. 

Cuba has not reported how many of the 553 releases were linked to the 2021 protests or disclosed a full list of the freed prisoners.

National Catholic Register, Mar 14, 2025 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

Democrats worried about what the Trump administration might do to curtail chemical abortions have filed a bill in Congress that would prevent the federal government from stopping the mailing of abortion pills.

The “Stop the Comstock Act” bill, filed Wednesday, would remove language in federal law that prohibits sending items that cause abortion through the mail. It is a re-file of a bill introduced in June 2024, which the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, reported on at the time.

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, one of the bill’s sponsors, said she expects the Trump administration to use the Comstock Act to stop access to abortion.

“With Donald Trump in the White House, the threat to women’s reproductive health and freedom is more urgent than ever,” Smith said in a written statement.

Republicans control both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and it seems unlikely the leadership will schedule a vote on it.

“The bill won’t go anywhere,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee.

“Democrats are hoping this bill will energize a demoralized base, but they are doing so at the cost of women. Mailing abortion pills without an in-person doctor’s appointment can lead to complications such as severe hemorrhaging and, sadly, the possibility that a woman could lose her life,” Tobias told the Register. “Democrats want to make abortion available anywhere, under any circumstances, and at any time in pregnancy, but it’s women and their unborn babies who will suffer.”

Most abortions in the United States now occur not by surgery but through pills. In 2023 about 63% of abortions in the country took place through abortion pills, according to a survey published in March 2024 by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion and tracks it.

Most chemical abortions in the United States use a two-pill regimen. The first, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone, which is needed for a pregnancy to continue. The second is misoprostol, which the National Institutes of Health says “may be employed to induce labor following intrauterine fetal demise.”

Congress passed the Comstock Act in 1873. The federal statute, which is still on the books, prohibits “sending or receiving by mail … means for procuring abortion.” A related 1909 federal statute prohibits sending “any drug … designed … or intended for … producing abortion” by “common carrier.” 

Neither was enforced after 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared a federal right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began allowing abortion pills to be sent through the mail on a temporary basis in April 2021, not long after President Joe Biden took office. In December 2021, the agency made the approval permanent.

But in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion when it issued its Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

That led postal officials to ask the U.S. Department of Justice if abortion pills could still be sent through the mail.

The Biden Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said in December 2022 that mailing abortion pills does not violate federal law “where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully.”

Trump administration officials have not yet announced whether they intend to apply the Comstock Act to stop the mailing of abortion pills. They also haven’t announced how they plan to regulate abortion pills, which supporters say are safe for women who take them but opponents argue are dangerous.

Critics of abortion pills have criticized the FDA for loosening restrictions on them during the last several years and for not tracking certain types of adverse reactions unless they are deemed serious enough.

That question came up during the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“I think it’s immoral to have a policy where patients are not allowed to report adverse events, or doctors are discouraged from doing that,” Kennedy said during a Jan. 29 U.S. Senate confirmation hearing. “President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone. He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies. I will work with this committee to make those policies make sense.”

Last week, Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, declined to take a position on how the agency would deal with the primary abortion drug, mifepristone.

“I have no preconceived plans on mifepristone policy except to take a solid, hard look at the data and to meet with the professional career scientists who have reviewed the data at the FDA and to build an expert coalition to review the ongoing data, which is required to be collected as a part of the REMS program, the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy,” Makary said March 6 during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). “It is pursuant to the REMS, and so if we’re gonna collect data, I believe we should look at it.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, later in the hearing said that what she called “medication abortion” has “been approved by the FDA for many, many decades based on mountains of high-quality evidence and expert scientific judgment,” and she tried to get Makary to make a commitment in favor of it.

He didn’t.

Makary, whose nomination was moved forward by the Senate’s HELP Committee on Thursday, said: “You have my commitment to come to follow the independent scientific review process at the FDA, which is a tried-and-true process and that has been around, and so that is my commitment to you, Senator.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample condemned what he described as a “celebration of death” after Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a proclamation to make March 10 an “appreciation day” for abortionists.

“There are moments when words fail,” Sample wrote in a March 13 letter that also offered a pastoral teaching about the sanctity of human life.

Kotek’s creation of an “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” is “one of those moments,” the archbishop wrote.

At such times, he said, “the mind stares into the abyss and finds no bottom. When all that’s left is a kind of stunned silence — the kind you feel when you realize just how far a culture can drift from reality.”

“Not just the act of abortion itself, but the celebration of it,” he added. “The idea that those who make a living ending innocent, unborn life should be publicly honored. Thanked. Applauded.” 

“This isn’t just moral confusion. It’s something deeper. A kind of spiritual blindness so thick that what should be self-evident — the sheer wonder and worth of a human life — is obscured entirely.”

Sample’s harsh rebuke came two days after Kotek, a Democrat, signed a proclamation on March 10 establishing the new honor.

The governor said she “appreciated” the work of abortionists. She cited the rising number of abortions in Oregon performed on women from other states. In a statement she told abortionists and women seeking abortion: “I continue to have your back.”

The increased number of out-of-state abortions in Oregon comes as some states, including neighboring Idaho, pass laws to adopt pro-life protections for unborn children that restrict abortions.

‘Deep down, we know’

Sample wrote that pro-abortionist ideology constantly relies on “euphemism.” 

Instead of saying “killing,” he wrote that advocates hail “choice.” Rather than acknowledging that abortionists are “ending a life,” they invoke the phrase “reproductive freedom.” The archbishop said the language is “carefully chosen … not to tell the truth, but to make the truth more palatable.”

“Because deep down, we know,” the archbishop stated. “We know what abortion is. We know what it does. And we know that no amount of slogans or legal jargon can make a wrong thing right. And yet, modern culture insists on turning tragedy into triumph. It demands not just tolerance for abortion, not just legal protection, but celebration. It must be honored, enshrined.”

Within this ideological framework, Sample said human life is treated as “an obstacle, a burden, a problem to be solved,” rather than “a gift.”

“This is what happens when a culture loses its sense of the sacred,” the archbishop warned. “When it stops seeing existence as a miracle, as something given, something to be received with gratitude. Instead, life is reduced to a transaction. A commodity to be managed. And, when necessary, discarded.”

The promotion and celebration of abortion, according to Sample, is “a spiritual issue” and “is not just about politics or law or even ethics.” Rather, the debate around abortion, he said, “is about how we see reality itself” and whether life is “a gift” or “an accident” and whether “a baby is something to be received with awe” or “something to be discarded at will.”

“Is love the foundation of the universe? Or is it simply power?” the archbishop wrote. “Modernity has chosen the latter. It has built an entire system — legal, medical, ideological — on the premise that some lives matter more than others. That some are expendable. That the strong can dictate the terms of existence.”

In spite of the persistence of abortion proponents, Sample said “something feels off” and that “the need to frame it as a social good, as a moral necessity, reveals the guilt just beneath the surface.” 

On a more hopeful note, the archbishop reminded the faithful that darkness “doesn’t get the final word” and that the Gospel “is not about condemnation” but is rather an invitation “even for those who have celebrated abortion [and] even for those who have profited from it.” 

The prelate said that “grace is still available” and “forgiveness is still possible” for all people.

“The truth lingers,” Sample said. “It cannot be fully erased. The unborn child is not just tissue. Not just an inconvenience. But a presence. A reality. A life.”

Lima Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A Peruvian bishop has denounced an attack on the Church’s freedom of speech by LGBTQ+ activists who accuse the Church of the “crime of discrimination.”

CNA Staff, Mar 14, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The contribution of nearly 700 Catholic religious sisters to a “groundbreaking” decades-long study on Alzheimer’s and dementia continues to offer important information for maintaining “cognitive health” across the lifespan, researchers say.

Launched in 1986 by neurologist David Snowdon, the “Nun Study” produced “seminal findings” on “cognitive impairment and related neuropathologies,” researchers said in a historical review published at Alzheimer’s & Dementia journal last month.

Kyra Clarke, a doctorate student at UT Health San Antonio and one of the authors of the February review, said Snowdon opted to use Catholic sisters for the monumental study after he “realized that studying nuns came with many advantages for dementia research.” 

“Normally, it’s hard to pinpoint what causes some people to develop dementia while others remain healthy because people can have very different lifestyles, environments, and biology — some smoke, some don’t; some have better access to health care than others; some may be more genetically disposed to disease,” she said.

“But Catholic sisters from the same order share the same environment for most of their adult lives: similar marital histories, housing, nutrition, health care, income, and social networks,” she pointed out. 

“It is difficult to find a community of people with such consistent and comparable lifestyles. This makes it easier to figure out what factors truly increase or decrease the risk of dementia.”

Snowdon launched the pilot study of the program in 1986 in cooperation with the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), with a pool of 678 sisters eventually being drawn out of 1,000 candidates from what were then seven main convents across the country, including in Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas, and elsewhere. 

The age of the sisters at the outset of the study ranged from 75 to 102. All had similar life histories, while the vast majority were at least college graduates, with nearly 90% having been teachers at some point.

Researchers used a variety of methods to gauge progression of cognitive function of the sisters later in their lives, including autobiographies the nuns wrote prior to taking their vows, medical records, academic transcripts, and questionnaires.

The sisters “consented to participate in neuropsychological assessments and permitted researchers access to personal records kept by the convents,” researchers said; they were further required to agree to brain donation upon their deaths for the scientists to study. 

Clarke said the sisters exhibited ”extraordinary dedication and enthusiasm” for the study, particularly as evidenced by the high numbers of them who agreed to participate. 

“A 66% participation rate is a truly impressive amount for a longitudinal study requiring participants to undertake extensive cognitive testing every year for the rest of their lives and agree to brain donation as well,” she noted.

The inclusion of healthy as well as cognitively impaired sisters was a critical factor in the study, the researchers said, as it “allowed for the longitudinal tracking of cognitive changes through annual assessments.”

The high brain donation rate likewise “provided the opportunity to compare neuropathology findings from the autopsied brains of impaired individuals with healthy control brains, which had been historically difficult.”

The findings of the study have “significantly advanced” understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. One key discovery, Clarke said, was that “higher early-life cognitive ability seems to be protective against dementia.”

“Researchers found that sisters with higher educational attainment and academic performance (based on school transcripts stored in convent archival records) had higher scores on cognitive tests in late life and lower risk of dementia,” she said. Religious sisters with better written language skills earlier in life were also at a lower risk for dementia. 

“The Nun Study really emphasized that maintaining cognitive health is a lifelong task and emphasized the importance of education and cognitive stimulation in reducing the risk of dementia,” Clarke said.

All of the sisters in the study have since passed away. In some cases the research has taken on personal significance: multiple family members of Margaret Flanagan, the director of the ongoing Nun Study at UT Health, attended Chicago’s Academy of Our Lady run by SSND sisters. 

Researchers, meanwhile, continue to meet with representatives of the SSND to provide updates on the ongoing data. 

The scientists are “deeply appreciative of their dedication to education and helping the lives of others,” Clarke said. 

“Their kindness and generosity made the Nun Study an iconic and groundbreaking contribution to dementia research and continuously inspires us to keep pushing towards understanding and treating this debilitating disease,” she said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After one full month of being hospitalized and treated for double pneumonia and other respiratory infections, Pope Francis' medical condition has decidedly stabilized, the Vatican press office said.

Despite his "complex" medical situation, there has been no significant change for the past few days so doctors caring for the pope at Rome's Gemelli hospital decided not to release a medical bulletin as scheduled, it said. The brief medical reports will also probably be released every two or three days because recovery in this case "is slow."

No change to his condition is in itself a positive sign, the press office added March 14. 

Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, leads the Lenten retreat for cardinals and senior officials of the Roman Curia in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican March 13, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The pope spent the past week following the Roman Curia's Lenten retreat March 9-14 by video, listening to the daily meditations led in the morning and afternoon by Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household.

Father Pasolini ended the last mediation by thanking the pope, whose absence was "more than justified." He joked that if the pope had planned to be absent to alleviate the pressure and fear of leading his first series of Lenten reflections for the Curia, then "mission accomplished."

The pope suspended all work-related activities to dedicate the week to prayer and reflection, but he did continue to follow his prescribed physical therapies with physiotherapy and respiratory therapy, which often entails breathing exercises, in the mornings and afternoons, the Vatican press office said.

The pope still "is able to move and walk as he always has," a Vatican source said March 14. Sometimes he moves "with more assistance, sometimes with less," but those movements are limited, most often alternating between his bed and a chair.

He continues to use high-flow oxygen through a nasal tube during the day and "noninvasive mechanical ventilation" with a mask overnight. 

Religious sisters pray the rosary for Pope Francis March 10, 2025, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, celebrated a Mass for the pope March 14 with ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. "We gather in prayer this morning with the intention of the health of the Holy Father, that he might recover and return among us soon," the cardinal said at the Mass, celebrated in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.

In the evening, Msgr. Lucio Adrián Ruiz, secretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, led the recitation of the rosary for Pope Francis which has been taking place every night since shortly after his hospitalization. The nightly prayer in St. Peter's Square was moved from 9 p.m. to 7:30 p.m Rome time.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 13, 2025 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

Diocese of Boise Bishop Peter F. Christensen raised concerns about a “culture of death” and threats to human dignity after Idaho made death by firing squad its primary method of execution for death row inmates.

“Whether we live in Idaho or anywhere else in the world, Catholics need to stand firm on the Gospel we preach,” Christensen said. “Therefore, we oppose this means of execution and every other form of capital punishment. We are people who strive to promote redemption and peace.”

The bishop said in a statement provided to CNA Thursday afternoon that “Christians are called to oppose the culture of death” and “a person’s dignity is not lost even after committing grave crimes.” He noted that the government can protect the community by incarcerating the person “while avoiding definitively depriving the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

“In light of the Gospel of mercy and hope, our response to the death penalty is not based on what the condemned have done but who we are in Christ,” Christensen said. “The Catholic Church recognizes that it is the right and duty of every government to maintain law and order. While doing so, the sanctity of life and the dignity of every human being must also be safeguarded.”

Christensen cited the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew, in which Christ said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” He also cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which holds that the death penalty “is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (No. 2267).

Governor defends new law

Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, signed the bill this week to make death by firing squad the default method of execution for every person on death row in the state. Per the legislation, lethal injection will be the backup method of execution if, for any reason, the state cannot carry out an execution using a firing squad.

“I have long made clear my support of capital punishment,” Little said in a statement provided to CNA.

“My signing of [this bill] is consistent with my support of the Idaho Legislature’s actions in setting the policies around methods of execution in the state of Idaho,” Little added. “As governor, my job is to follow the law and ensure that lawful criminal sentences are carried out as ordered by the courts.”

The state has carried out three executions since 1957 with the most recent occurring more than 12 and a half years ago in June 2012. Those three executions were all completed through lethal injection. 

Idaho attempted to execute convicted serial killer Thomas Creech by lethal injection in 2024, but the medical team was unable to establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection after eight attempts over the course of an hour. A federal judge temporarily halted his execution after the botched lethal injection attempt.

Creech is one of nine people currently on death row in Idaho.

Shift from lethal injection to firing squad

Idaho banned executions by firing squad in 2009 but later reversed that ban in 2023 when the state made executions by firing squad the backup method. At the time, lethal injection was the primary method for executions.

Executions by firing squad are permitted in five states, but the new law will make Idaho the only state in which death by firing squad is the primary form of execution. The new law goes into effect on July 1, 2026. 

Only four death row inmates in the United States have been executed by a firing squad since 1977, with the most recent occurring in South Carolina just last week. South Carolina recently brought back this method of execution because of a shortage of drugs for lethal injection.

Many states have had trouble obtaining the drugs for lethal injection over the past two decades because drug manufacturers have refused to sell the products amid public pressure from death penalty opponents and moral qualms about ending human life.

“As lethal injection drugs become harder to procure, either because pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell their drugs for this purpose or because of rampant botched lethal injections, we have seen states seeking additional methods of execution,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, told CNA. 

“We are witnessing that some states are so hellbent on pursuing executions that they’ll go to distant lengths in order to take these lives,” she said. “Catholic Mobilizing Network will continue to oppose legislation that promotes executions because this is clearly a direct affront to the sanctity of life and the inviolability of human dignity.”

Catholic Mobilizing Network works closely with the United States Conference of Catholic bishops on efforts to oppose the death penalty.

“Whether someone is shot, electrocuted, injected, or gassed, each and every execution extinguishes a God-given life with inherent dignity and worth,” Murphy said. “Each and every execution is a blatant act of state-sanctioned violence.”

Some states have also brought back executions by the electric chair and others have approved different drugs to carry out lethal injections. 

Last year, Alabama became the first state to execute inmates by forcing them to inhale nitrogen gas. Louisiana also intends to execute inmates with nitrogen, but the first scheduled execution with this method was temporarily halted by a judge this week.

CNA Staff, Mar 13, 2025 / 16:55 pm (CNA).

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

FDA chief counsel resigns after outcry over defense of abortion pill

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) chief counsel resigned Thursday following criticism from pro-life advocates for having defended abortion pills for the Biden administration. 

As a trial lawyer with the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, Hilary Perkins defended access to the abortion pill mifepristone during a lawsuit against the FDA.

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri had criticized Perkins’ appointment in a post on X on Wednesday, saying “I can’t imagine anyone who would be more at odds with President Trump’s agenda.” His post followed an Axios story that drew attention to Perkins’ appointment.

Hawley noted that Perkins also opposed conscience rights for vaccines during COVID-19 and argued in favor of vaccine mandates.

Perkins joined the Department of Justice during Trump’s first term as a trial attorney at the Consumer Protection branch beginning in April 2019 and was retained by the Biden administration.

Acting FDA general counsel Sean Keveney appointed Perkins on Tuesday as part of a reorganization effort by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“I’m pleased Makary has reconsidered that position and dismissed this lawyer,” Hawley said in a post on Thursday, referring to FDA commissioner-designate Marty Makary.

During his hearing last week, Makary had pledged to review safety policies surrounding the abortion pill.

Montana judge blocks law barring Medicaid-funded abortion

A Montana judge blocked the enforcement of three pro-life restrictions that limit the public funding of Medicaid-covered abortions. 

The restrictions included two laws passed in 2023 as well as a regulation from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. 

One bill put into effect July 1, 2023, laid out restrictions for abortions covered under Montana’s Medicaid program. It only allowed publicly-funded coverage of abortion when a patient’s physical health was threatened, or if a pregnancy could aggravate severe mental illness or intellectual disability. The bill also required a physical examination before an abortion and instructed that only physicians in the state can perform abortions covered by Medicaid.

Another bill effective the same date prohibited public funding for abortion, including Medicaid. The bill allows exceptions if the patient’s life is in danger or if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.  

The Department of Public Health rule requires that for an abortion to be covered by Medicaid the abortion can only be performed by doctors. It also requires a physical examination and patient records before abortion. 

In the March 11 ruling, Judge Mike Menahan of the Montana District Court for Lewis and Clark County ruled that women seeking abortion were being treated unequally compared with women carrying their pregnancy to term because of these various restrictions on Medicaid-funded abortions. Menahan maintained that poverty should not play into the ability of a woman to have an abortion. 

Child support from moment of conception debated in Kansas

The Kansas Senate debated a bill on Tuesday that could require child support payments beginning at conception.

The child support bill would provide child support payment orders from the date of conception, designed to include medical and pregnancy-related expenses for the mother. The payment orders would not include money for elective abortions.

The bill would also provide an income tax exemption for unborn children. 

Opponents criticized the bill for providing unborn children with a tax ID number and argued that the bill could lead to personhood rights for the unborn. Proponents, however, argued that it would help financially support single mothers who were facing unplanned pregnancies.

The bill defined an unborn child as “a living individual organism of the species homo sapiens, in utero, at any stage of gestation from fertilization to birth.”

The Senate passed an amended version of the bill with 30 voting in favor and nine voting against. The House, which passed the original bill, will still need to approve the version with its amendments. 

Study links abortion and attempted suicide

A recent survey found women who have had an abortion are twice as likely to attempt suicide, while women who had successfully delivered their children had the lowest attempt rate. 

The Charlotte Lozier Institute study found that “women who experience pregnancy losses, either induced or natural, are at higher risk of suicidal and self-destructive thoughts and behaviors.” 

Elliot Institute Director and Charlotte Lozier Associate Scholar David Reardon led the study, which was published Jan. 21 in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study surveyed nearly 3,000 American women ages 41-45, including women who had abortions, difficult pregnancies, pregnancy loss, and live births, as well as women who had never been pregnant.

Reardon found that “aborting women were twice as likely to have attempted suicide compared to other women” and that women who had abortions were “significantly more likely to say their pregnancy outcomes directly contributed to suicidal thoughts and behaviors compared to women in all other groups.”

Those who had an abortion had the highest rate of suicide attempts, at nearly 35%, while women with pregnancy loss had the second highest rate at 30%. 

Among women who had abortions, those coerced into abortion had the highest rate of attempted suicide at 46.2%, while women who reported that they had chosen abortion freely had a 29.5% rate of attempted suicide. 

Women who had experienced at least one live birth and had no pregnancy loss or problematic pregnancies had the lowest attempted suicide rate at 13.4%.

“Our findings require rejection of the null hypothesis that pregnancy outcomes, especially abortion, have no effect on suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” the study read. 

The study recommended post-abortion mental health checkups and support as well as screening for patients “who may feel pressured to abort contrary to their own values and preference.” 

The study also recommended that mental health workers “be aware of the elevated risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviors associated with natural and induced pregnancy losses.”

“These findings should be used to improve both pre-abortion screening and counseling and post-abortion care,” the study concluded.

Madrid, Spain, Mar 13, 2025 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

Regnum Christi has announced that it will review the protocols it has in place in Spain following five allegations of abuse against Legionary priest Marcelino de Andrés Núñez.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 13, 2025 / 14:50 pm (CNA).

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is demanding answers from Google over concerns that its YouTube TV streaming service might be discriminating against faith-based channels in its programming decisions. 

The allegations stem from YouTube TV’s refusal to permit faith-based television network Great American Family, which is owned by Great American Media, to stream on its platform. The channel, which seeks to promote family-friendly Christian values in its shows, is available on cable and satellite television providers and many other streaming services. 

“These concerning allegations come at a time when American public discourse has experienced an unprecedented — and unacceptable — surge in censorship,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the agency, said in a post on X. 

“I’m asking Google for answers,” he added. 

Carr’s March 7 letter to Google and its parent company, Alphabet, states that YouTube TV “does not appear to have a public-facing policy against such programs.” But, he wrote, “I want to determine whether your company engages in this form of discrimination in practice.”

“Concerns have been raised alleging that your company has a policy (secret or otherwise) that discriminates against faith-based programming,” the letter adds. “As an example, Great American Media wrote a letter to me in which they claim that YouTube TV deliberately marginalizes faith-based and family-friendly content.” 

Carr wrote that the Great American Family network “is the second-fastest-growing channel in cable television,” yet “YouTube TV refuses to carry them.” He expressed concerns about technology companies “silenc[ing] individuals for doing nothing more than expressing themselves online and in the digital town square.”

“Understanding the nature of carriage policies … can help inform the FCC’s approach to the broader set of regulatory issues that the FCC has been called on to address,” Carr’s letter states.

Carr asked Google to brief the FCC on the role of multichannel video programming distribution in the media marketplace and to inform the agency about YouTube TV’s carriage negotiation process and the potential role of viewpoint-based discrimination.

Great American Media has been trying to make its Great American Family network available on YouTube TV for at least several months. In November 2024, Great American Family President and CEO Bill Abbott told the Washington Examiner that he has tried “every conceivable way” to get a deal with YouTube TV.

“Well, we’ve offered YouTube TV every conceivable way to get carriage on the platform, including free, and that has not been accepted to this point, and we’ll see,” Abbott said at the time. 

“We’re hopeful that they recognize the value of the audience and the strength and quality of content and the premise of being on the pillars of family, faith, and country, but we don’t know where that will go.”

Google did not respond to a request for comment from CNA.