California state capitol. / Credit: Christopher Padalinski, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 17:32 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has found the California Department of Education and the state’s Interscholastic Federation to be in violation of Title IX for allowing male athletes who believe themselves to be females to compete in women’s sports. 

Title IX, a landmark federal civil rights law adopted in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Its purpose is to ensure women and girls have equal access in education. The law makes no mention of “gender identity.”

“The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a June 25 press release. 

“The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow,” McMahon said.

She also slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom for allowing men to compete in women’s sports.

“Although Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” McMahon stated. 

Kathleen Domingo, the executive director of the California Catholic Conference, told CNA in an interview that the conference supports the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts to keep male athletes out of women’s sports.

“We obviously believe that girls’ sports should be protected,” she said. “We believed in the original intent of Title IX, that it allows women and girls to have a fair chance for competition, and we absolutely support women being able to do that.” 

“We’re concerned that California is not following the science and not following the recommendations that so many people are talking about today, just in terms of fairness, as our own governor has said, but also just looking at the science behind what is happening,” Domingo said. 

“Obviously males of the similar age will overpower females in many sports competitions, but in some competitions, it can even be dangerous if there’s contact.” 

“I think the bishops of California really want to stand … with parents who are saying we need to protect our kids,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education has issued a resolution to the California education department and the interscholastic federation, which in part requires the government to issue a notice to all federal funding recipients mandating compliance with Title IX by banning males from competing in women’s sports or occupying women’s spaces.

It also requires the adoption of “biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female.’”

Both the state government and the interscholastic federation will also be required to rescind all guidance that permits male athletes in women’s spaces or competitions, “to reflect that Title IX preempts state law when state law conflicts with Title IX.”

In addition, the agreement requires the state government “to restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions.”

“To each female athlete to whom an individual recognition is restored, [California Department of Education] will send a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination,” the agreement states. 

Lastly, the state government and the interscholastic federation must complete an annual certification of compliance with Title IX and propose a monitoring plan to ensure compliance with the U.S. Department of Education.  

The Biden administration in April 2024 issued regulations redefining Title IX to include protection against discrimination based on a person’s “gender identity.” 

At the time, the administration said the revisions were meant to “clarify that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

The Biden administration was initially blocked from enforcing its redefined regulations in three separate rulings across the country in July 2024.

The rule was ultimately blocked nationwide by a federal court in Kentucky in January.

U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

Boston, Mass., Jun 26, 2025 / 14:59 pm (CNA).

Local Planned Parenthood facilities can’t force state governments to give them Medicaid funds through lawsuits because Congress didn’t create an individual right to the benefits, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Thursday.

The 6-3 decision enables states to cut off public funds to abortion providers — including Medicaid funds that come mostly from the federal government.

The court’s decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic resolves a dispute that began in 2018 after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, issued an executive order cutting off funds to the two facilities Planned Parenthood South Atlantic operates in the state, in Charleston and Columbia. The organization sued and won in U.S. District Court level and at the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The high court’s ruling Thursday overturned those lower-court decisions, pleasing pro-life advocates, including Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Daniel Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“South Carolina was right to deny Planned Parenthood taxpayer dollars. A group dedicated to ending children’s lives deserves no public support,” Thomas said in a written statement.

“Abortion is not health care, and lives will be saved because South Carolina has chosen to not fund clinics that pretend it is,” he said. “Publicly funded programs like Medicaid should only support authentic, life-affirming options for mothers and children in need.”

Can’t sue

The court’s conservatives and swing votes formed the majority — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Writing for the majority, Gorsuch said that private parties seeking federal health benefits through a state government can sue for them only when Congress explicitly allows it in legislation by declaring access to the benefits to be a right, which it didn’t do with respect to Medicaid funds.  He said the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services can cut off Medicaid funding to a state that the secretary determines isn’t complying with federal rules but that a private party can’t ask a court to force the state to give it federal funds.

“Congress knows how to give a grantee clear and unambiguous notice that, if it accepts federal funds, it may face private suits asserting an individual right to choose a medical provider,” Gorsuch wrote.

He added that Congress has done so in legislation pertaining to nursing homes but not with respect to Medicaid, a federal program administered by the states that provides a mix of federal and state funds to provide health care to poor people.

The three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.

Writing for the minority, Jackson said South Carolina is participating in what she called “the project of stymying one of the country’s great civil rights laws” and that the court majority’s decision allows the state to “evade liability for violating the rights of its Medicaid recipients to choose their own doctors.”

Federal defunding coming?

Abortion supporters decried the court’s decision.

“The Supreme Court overrode what the Medicaid law requires and every patient wants: the ability to choose their trusted health care provider,” said Nancy Northup, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which supports abortion, in a written statement.

“Right now, Congress is seeking to replicate South Carolina’s ban nationwide, putting politics above patients in making health care decisions,” she said.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have sought to cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood in a spending measure known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” It passed the House by one vote, 215-214, on May 22. But its chances in the U.S. Senate are unclear — particularly after the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that portions of the bill violate Senate rules.

Erik Baptist, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy organization that opposes abortion, said during an online press conference Thursday that “17 states in the country have taken action to defund Planned Parenthood.”

He said he hopes more states do so and that Congress follows suit.

“What the Medina case today did from the U.S. Supreme Court was liberate the states and allow them to take action to defund Planned Parenthood. So one shoe dropped today. We hope Congress takes the other action with regards to federal funding,” Baptist said.

The Texas capitol. / Credit: Ricardo Garza/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 26, 2025 / 13:25 pm (CNA).

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

Nearly 100 pro-life advocates ask Texas governor for special session on abortion pills

A chorus of pro-life voices is urging the governor of Texas to call legislators to a special session to pass a bill that will help combat abortion pills flowing into the state. 

In a letter cosigned by almost 100 Texas politicians and pro-life leaders — including state Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — Texas Right to Life President John Seago urged Gov. Greg Abbott to “convene a special session” of the Legislature for lawmakers to pass the state Woman and Child Protection Act.

That measure would allow Texans to sue traffickers and distributors of abortion pills and allow women and their families to bring lawsuits in the event that a woman is injured or killed by those pills. It would also authorize “state-led prosecution for abortion pill trafficking.”

The letter states that nearly 20,000 abortion pills are mailed into the state each year. The bill “targets those who promote, manufacture, and distribute these deadly drugs.”

Activists to hold rally urging U.S. government to defund Planned Parenthood

Activists will rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend in support of defunding Planned Parenthood. 

Figures including Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins and activist Riley Gaines will be present at Capitol Hill on June 28 for a combined “diaper drive and rally” in support of defunding the abortion giant of taxpayer funds. 

Students for Life said on its website that activists will distribute at least 392,715 diapers to pregnancy help centers and local residents; that number represents all the unborn children killed by Planned Parenthood last year, the group said. 

The rally is part of the larger National Celebrate Life Conference taking place in Washington over the weekend. 

Abortion bans drive providers out of pro-life states

Large numbers of abortion providers in states that passed abortion bans fled those states in the wake of those laws, new data shows. 

A study published this month in JAMA Network Open investigated whether “state-level abortion restrictions” in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s repeal “could lead clinicians to leave states that ban abortion.”

The survey found that 42% of surveyed abortion providers in states that enacted bans “relocate[d] primary practice” after such bans.  

Nearly half of all states ban abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy, while a dozen ban the procedure outright. Just nine states and the District of Columbia allow for abortion at any time for any reason.

English Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool speaks with EWTN News via video call about the recent passage of a bill to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales, calling it a turning point in the country’s devaluation of the dignity of life. / Credit: EWTN News

Rome Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

“I think we’ve crossed a watershed, that fundamental line in the sand that a life is always to be protected,” Archbishop John Sherrington told EWTN News.

null / Credit: roibu/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

A new Pew Research Center report reveals that about 22% of those who voted in the 2024 election and cast their ballot for President Donald Trump were Catholic.

The new edition of its validated voter study “Behind Trump’s 2024 Victory,” released on June 26, looks at how Americans — new voters and voters who turned out in previous elections — voted in the 2024 presidential election. It reveals that Trump had support from the majority of voting Catholics, with 55% casting their vote for him.

Pew surveyed 8,942 U.S. citizens ages 18 and older who are members of American Trends Panel (ATP) and verified their turnout in the five general elections from 2016 to 2024 using commercial voter files.

In order to validate 2024 election turnout, Pew “attempted to match adult citizens who are part of the ATP to a turnout record in at least one of three commercial voter files: one that serves conservative and Republican organizations and campaigns, one that serves progressive and Democratic organizations and campaigns, and one that is nonpartisan.”

The research found that in 2024, Trump gained voters among multiple religious groups including Catholics, Protestants, and those who reported that they attend religious services on at least a monthly basis.

Trump had a 12-point advantage of Catholic voters over Kamala Harris, who won 43% of the group’s vote. In 2020, the Catholic vote was split almost evenly with 50% voting for Joe Biden and 49% for Trump.

The report noted that Trump benefited from 7% of Catholic voters switching their political party from 2020 to 2024. Only 4% of Catholics who favored Trump in the 2020 election shifted to Harris in the most recent election.

Majority of Trump voters identified as Christians

Trump received the majority of the Christian vote in 2024 — about 80% of his voters identified as Christian, compared with only about half of Harris voters.

Of Protestant voters specifically, 62% favored Trump in 2024. This was an increase from 56% in 2016 and 59% in 2020. There was a particularly large shift in Black Protestant voters with 15% voting for Trump in 2024, which was 6 percentage points higher than 2020.

The study also found that voters who attend some kind of religious service favored Trump more in 2024 than in 2020. In the most recent election, 64% voted for him, which increased from 59%. In 2024, only about a third of this group (34%) supported Harris.

In all three elections, Trump received more votes from people who reported that they attend a religious service “monthly or more often” than voters who said they attend “a few times a year or less.” For each election, the Democratic candidate received more votes from those who attend less frequently than those who attend more often. 

More Hispanic voters went for Trump 

Another notable find from the report was Trump’s steady progress with Hispanic voters over the course of the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections. 

In 2016, 28% of validated Hispanic voters reported they voted for Trump, 36% did in 2020, and 48% did in 2024. While the Hispanic vote for the Republican candidate increased each election, the Hispanic vote for the Democratic candidate decreased each year.

The research found that from 2020 to 2024, Trump made gains among citizens who were born outside the U.S. In 2020, 59% of naturalized citizens who voted cast their ballot for Biden, and in 2024 51% voted for Harris. 

While the Democratic Party received fewer votes from this group, Trump received more in 2024. In 2020, 38% of naturalized citizens voted for Trump, but in 2024 47% did. 

Overall, research found that 85% of Trump’s 2020 voters cast their ballot for him again in 2024. Of the other voters, 3% switched and supported Harris, 1% switched and supported another candidate, and 11% declined to vote again in the 2024 election.

WASHINGTON – “South Carolina was right to deny Planned Parenthood taxpayer dollars. A group dedicated to ending children’s lives deserves no public support,” said Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, in response to the ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. The case, a challenge to the state’s decision to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, turned on a specific question about the legal basis for Planned Parenthood’s claim. “Abortion is not health care,” Bishop Thomas continued, “and lives will be saved because South Carolina has chosen to not fund clinics that pretend it is. Publicly funded programs like Medicaid should only support authentic, life-affirming options for mothers and children in need.”

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ROME (CNS) -- When a priest has experienced the joy of truly believing in Jesus Christ and embracing him as a friend, it shows, Pope Leo XIV told priests.

"The priest's happiness reflects his encounter with Christ, sustaining him in mission and service," he said during a meeting that was part of the Jubilee of Priests.

Hundreds of priests and people involved in priestly formation and vocations took part in a gathering at the Conciliazione Auditorium in Rome June 26, titled, "Happy Priests: 'I have called you friends,'" referring to Jesus' union with his disciples in the Gospel of St. John (15:15).

Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, welcomed the pope, saying, "We are here because we know that a happy priest is the best proclamation of the Gospel."  

"In the heart of the Holy Year, we want to testify together that it is possible to be happy priests," the pope said to applause. Their joy is rooted in Christ calling them and making them his friends: "a grace we want to welcome with gratitude and responsibility."

Jesus' words, "I have called you friends," are the key to understanding priestly ministry, Pope Leo said.

"The priest is a friend of the Lord, called to live with him in a personal and trusting relationship, nourished by the Word, the celebration of the sacraments and daily prayer," he said.

"This friendship with Christ is the spiritual foundation of ordained ministry, the meaning of our celibacy and the energy of the ecclesial service to which we dedicate our lives," he said. "It sustains us in times of trial and enables us to renew each day the 'yes' uttered at the beginning of our vocation."

Pope Leo underlined the importance of Pope Francis' 2024 encyclical, "'Dilexit Nos' ('He Loved Us'): on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ" for the whole church and for their vocation.

It is from this "burning" heart that "our vocation takes its origin; it is from this source of grace that we want to allow ourselves to be transformed," he said. 

"Many seem to have drifted away from faith, yet deep inside many people, especially young people, there is a thirst for the infinite and for salvation," he said.

"Therefore, we want to rediscover missionary momentum together," he said, in a mission that "boldly and lovingly proposes the Gospel of Jesus."

"Through our pastoral action, it is the Lord himself who cares for his flock, gathers those who are scattered, kneels before those who are wounded and supports those who are discouraged," the pope said. "Imitating the master's example, we grow in faith and thus become credible witnesses to the vocation we have received."

"When one believes, it shows," he said.

The pope thanked them "for who you are! For you remind everyone that it is good to be priests, and that every call from the Lord is first and foremost a call to his joy." 

"We are not perfect, but we are Christ's friends, brothers to one another and sons of his gentle Mother Mary, and that is enough for us," he said.

Speaking off-the-cuff before giving his final blessing, Pope Leo encouraged priests to know they are never alone, even if they are ministering in remote places.

Their spiritual life needs nurturing, so "when we need help, look for a good 'companion,' a spiritual director, a good confessor," he said.

"Try to live what Pope Francis so many times called 'closeness': closeness with the Lord, closeness with your bishop, or religious superior, and closeness among yourselves, too, because you really have to be friends, brothers," he said.

"Live this beautiful experience of walking together, knowing that we are called to be disciples of the Lord. We have a great mission, and together we can all do it. Let us always count on God's grace, closeness from me as well, and together we can really be this voice in the world," he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Too often, in the name of security, war is waged against the poor, Pope Leo XIV said.

The Holy Year instead indicates that safety is found in the culture of encounter, he said. The Jubilee "asks of us the restitution and redistribution of unjustly accumulated wealth, as the way to personal and civil reconciliation."

The pope made his comments during a meeting marking the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking June 26. Dozens of guests attended the gathering in the San Damaso Courtyard at the Vatican, including Italian government officials, individuals in recovery for substance abuse and those who assist them. 

"Today, brothers and sisters, we are engaged in a battle that cannot be abandoned as long as, around us, anyone is still imprisoned in the various forms of addiction," Pope Leo said.

"Our fight is against those who make their immense business out of drugs and every other addiction -- think of alcohol or gambling," he said. "There are huge concentrations of interest and extensive criminal organizations that states have a duty to dismantle."

However, he said, "it is easier to fight against their victims." 

"Too often, in the name of security, war is waged against the poor, filling prisons with those who are merely the final link in a chain of death. Those who hold the chain in their hands instead manage to gain influence and impunity," he said. 

"Our cities must not be freed of the marginalized, but of marginalization; they must be cleared not of the desperate, but of desperation," he said.

"The fight against drug trafficking, educational commitment among the poor, the defense of Indigenous communities and migrants, and fidelity to the social doctrine of the church are in many places considered subversive," he said.

"The Jubilee indicates the culture of encounter as the way to safety," he said, and challenges must be tackled together.

"We conquer evil together. Joy is found together. Injustice is fought together. The God who created and knows each one of us -- and is more intimate to me than I am to myself -- made us to be together," he said. 

"Of course, there are also bonds that hurt and human groups where freedom is lacking. But these, too, can only be overcome together, trusting those who do not profit from our suffering, those whom we can meet and who meet us with selfless attention," the pope said.

"Drugs and addiction are an invisible prison that you, in different ways, have known and fought, but we are all called to freedom," Pope Leo told his audience.

"St. Augustine confessed that only in Christ did the restlessness of his heart find peace. We seek peace and joy, we thirst for them. And many deceptions can delude and even imprison us in this quest," he said.

"The church needs you. Humanity needs you. Education and politics need you. Together, we will make the infinite dignity imprinted on each person prevail over every degrading addiction," the pope said.

"Let us go forward together, then, multiplying the places of healing, encounter and education: pastoral paths and social policies that start from the street and never give anyone up for lost," he said.

WASHINGTON – While commending the provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that promote the dignity of human life and support parental choice in education, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), implored Congress to be consistent in protecting human life and dignity and make changes to the bill to protect those most in need. 

Archbishop Broglio’s intervention comes as the U.S. Senate considers the budget reconciliation bill:

“The bishops are grateful that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes provisions that promote the dignity of human life and support parental choice in education. These are commendable provisions that are important priorities for the bishops. Still, Congress must be consistent in protecting human life and dignity and make drastic changes to the bill to protect those most in need. As Pope Leo XIV recently stated, it is the responsibility of politicians to promote and protect the common good, including by working to overcome great wealth inequality. This bill does not answer this call. It takes from the poor to give to the wealthy. It provides tax breaks for some while undermining the social safety net for others through major cuts to nutrition assistance and Medicaid. It fails to protect families and children by promoting an enforcement-only approach to immigration and eroding access to legal protections. It harms God’s creation and future generations through cuts to clean energy incentives and environmental programs.

“I underscore what my brother bishops said in their recent letter to find a better way forward and urge Senators to think and act with courage and creativity to protect human dignity for all, to uphold the common good, and to change provisions that undermine these fundamental values.”

The USCCB’s letter on the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” proposed by the Senate may be found here.

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null / Credit: Take Photo/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 25, 2025 / 18:01 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Conference of Ohio has issued a statement expressing confidence that the state’s voucher program allowing parents to send their children to private schools would ultimately prevail after a judge ruled the program unconstitutional.

Franklin County Judge Jaiza Page on June 24 declared the Educational Choice Scholarship (EdChoice) Program, which provides funding for public school students to attend private schools in the state, unconstitutional, claiming it harms public education by channeling funds toward private schools, including Catholic institutions.

Page said in her ruling that the plaintiffs had proved “beyond a reasonable doubt that the EdChoice voucher program violates Article VI Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution,” which bans religious schools from having “any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of [the] state.”

Page also wrote that “the state may not fund private schools at the expense of public schools or in a manner that undermines its obligation to public education.”

The ruling is expected to be appealed. The 10th District Court of Appeals will hear the case next, after which it could go to the Ohio Supreme Court.

“We remain confident the EdChoice program will prevail in the appeals process,” Brian Hickey, executive director for the Catholic Conference of Ohio, said in a June 24 statement. Hickey called support for the program “a matter of social justice.”

The Catholic Conference of Ohio is the official representative of the Catholic Church in public policy matters.

“The Catholic Church will continue to advocate for and defend programs that support parents as the primary educators of their children and enable them to select a school that best suits their child’s needs,” Hickey said. 

“We are proud that Catholic schools in Ohio continue to flourish with ethnic and racial diversity while providing a rich spiritual and intellectual environment,” he continued. “Catholic schools, like other chartered nonpublic schools in Ohio, work closely with the Department of Education and Workforce to adhere to state chartering requirements, including operating standards, teacher licensing, state audits, and approved testing.”

A coalition of public school districts, Vouchers Hurt Ohio, filed a lawsuit in 2022 to end the Educational Choice Scholarship (EdChoice) Program, which provides funding for public school students to attend private schools in the state of Ohio. 

The anti-vouchers group argued that the program unconstitutionally created a second system of schools to be funded by the state, causing harm to its public school system.