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Ukrainian Catholic patriarch’s message in U.S.: ‘Please don’t give up Ukraine’

Sviatoslav Shevchuk is Major Archbishop of Kyiv–Galicia and Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN News Nightly

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 7, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

In an exclusive interview with EWTN News in advance of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia and the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, pleaded for the president and U.S. lawmakers to renew needed aid to his war-torn country.

“I would like to convey to the president the voice of the simple people of Ukraine who are crying out to God and to the consciousness of the good people of the earth: Please don’t give up Ukraine,” Shevchuk said during a recent interview at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington, D.C. 

The Ukrainian patriarch is in the U.S. for a week of meetings with public officials and Church leaders to foster renewed support for Ukraine.

Though he underscored that he wanted to convey “first of all” a “message of gratitude” to the American people from Ukraine, Shevchuk voiced his worry that ordinary Ukrainian people are being forgotten as the prolonged U.S. political debate over continued support for Ukraine has delayed necessary action.

According to Shevchuk there are currently 14.6 million Ukrainians “in urgent humanitarian need.” Instead of thinking of the war in political terms, Shevchuk urged the American people to think of Ukraine in terms of its “simple, suffering people.”

In this context, the patriarch said there is no time for delay. “We cannot say, okay, I’ll eat on the next week,” he said, adding that the Ukrainian Catholic Church “is a main actor in this humanitarian action of assistance to the Ukrainian people, and I can testify that aid cannot be delayed.”

“Each day, probably 200 Ukrainians are killed and any delay of the capability to receive the help to protect those people is paid with their blood.”

New criminal justice program in Steubenville ‘rooted in the Catholic tradition’

Dr. Charles P. Nemeth, director of the Center for Criminal Justice, Law, & Ethics engaging with students at Franciscan University of Steubenville / Franciscan University of Steubenville

CNA Staff, Mar 7, 2024 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

A newly launched master’s degree program in criminal justice at Franciscan University of Steubenville is “unapologetically and unreservedly rooted in the Catholic tradition,” the program’s director says, offering an “utterly unique” approach to criminal study that includes natural law and Catholic philosophy.

The Catholic school, founded in 1946 in Steubenville, Ohio, announced the launch of the program in a press release last month, stating that along with the university’s undergraduate program, it would “continue to answer the urgent, growing need for well-formed justice practitioners.”

The school “fully appreciates the necessary synthesis for a true criminal justice profession that blends occupational skill and best practices with a constant, unapologetic moral and ethical critique of criminal justice operations,” Charles Nemeth, a professor of criminal justice and director of the school’s Center for Criminal Justice, Law, and Ethics, said in the release. 

The school launched its criminal justice undergraduate program in the fall of 2021. “By all metrics, it is a fast-growing major on the campus and making a big impact not only on the life of our campus but also amongst the justice community,” he said. 

“Our students have learned to appreciate the natural relationship between faith in action and service in CRJ,” he said. 

The university says on its website that the criminal justice center is “grounded in the natural law.” Nemeth told CNA both the undergraduate and graduate criminal justice programs are “unapologetically and unreservedly rooted in the Catholic tradition, our Judeo-Christian heritage, and just as essentially, the jurisprudence of the natural law.”

A cornerstone of Catholic moral philosophy, natural law, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is “written and engraved in the soul” of every human being and “expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason the good and the evil, the truth and the lie” (No. 1954).

“In both core classes and the series of occupational and professional curricula, students are constantly challenged to weigh and evaluate the moral and ethical dimensions of human action,” Nemeth said. 

“At the same time, each function in justice operations is intellectually scrutinized and assessed in light of natural law reasoning and the moral tradition of the Catholic faith,” he added. 

The core requirements of the new program, Nemeth said, include courses in law, ethics, morality, and “natural law as a foundation for a justice system.”

Nemeth argued that “most of the [criminal justice] discipline has either been captured by pure empiricism or the forces of social justice.” Franciscan’s program, he said, is dedicated to “the task of preserving the common good.”

“I know of no program that makes central the moral and ethical scrutiny we emphasize, and I have yet to encounter any graduate program that puts natural law reasoning as the very foundation of its offering nor unreservedly affirms the wonder and wisdom of Catholic tradition,” he said.

Graduate students in the program are “exposed to heavy doses of Aquinas, Augustine, Cicero, Aristotle, and others in the classical and medieval world,” he said. “In this way, Franciscan’s program is utterly unique.”

Stephen Hildebrand, vice president for academic affairs at the university, said in the school’s press release that the program is one of a kind. 

“We’ll use the wisdom of the Catholic intellectual tradition and the best of modern research and practice to help our graduates make a profound difference in our justice system,” he said. 

Biden expected to emphasize his support for abortion in State of the Union address

U.S. President Joe Biden is shown here delivering his 2023 State of the Union address before a joint session of the United States Congress. / Credit: Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 7, 2024 / 06:45 am (CNA).

The guest list from First Lady Jill Biden and Democratic lawmakers suggests that tonight’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden will promote both abortion and in vitro fertilization (IVF) — two campaign priorities for the party.

The president is scheduled to deliver his annual State of the Union address tonight at 8 p.m. One notable attendee will be Kate Cox, who was denied an abortion in Texas but eventually aborted her unborn child in another state.

Cox sought an abortion after her unborn child was diagnosed with trisomy 18. An unborn child diagnosed with this disorder only has about a 5%-10% chance to live past his or her first birthday.

Other attendees will include Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine’s guest Elizabeth Carr, who was the first American child born through IVF, and Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s guest Amanda Adeleye, who is the director of an IVF clinic in the Chicago area.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) vice president of state affairs Stephen Billy anticipates that Biden will use the address to promote falsehoods about pro-life policies in an effort to promote the administration’s pro-abortion agenda.

“The president will use tragic situations, heartbreaking situations, purely to advance a political agenda,” Billy said. 

Billy noted that every state to impose restrictions on abortion has included protections for when the life of the mother is in danger and assurances that women can receive proper treatment to heal from a miscarriage. He said that Democrats and pro-abortion activists have spread misinformation claiming otherwise, which has put women’s health at risk.

“They have put the safety of women on the back burner … all in pursuit of their extreme political position of second- and third-trimester abortion without restrictions,” Billy said.

SBA legislative director Jamie Dangers added that Biden intends to “exploit [a] tragic situation” like the one Cox went through so he can “push abortion on demand, for any reason, at any time, through all nine months of pregnancy.”

“[Biden] wants to go so much further than [Roe] and that’s clear in the policies he is pushing,” Dangers said.

Dangers extolled the work of pro-life pregnancy centers, which help women through their pregnancies, as the exact opposite of the administration’s approach. The pro-life community, she said, is “responding with passion, and with truth, and with hope.”

Biden and other Democrats have made their support for abortion a major part of their 2024 reelection campaign strategy since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Biden and other Democrats have campaigned on codifying the abortion rules imposed by Roe through federal legislation, which would prohibit states from enacting pro-life laws.

The proposed codification language would legalize abortion nationwide until the point of viability, which is when the preborn child can survive outside of the womb. However, the language does not set a week-based limit. Instead, it allows the woman’s physician, who is often the abortionist, to determine whether the preborn child is viable.

Biden has also enacted pro-abortion policies through executive actions. This includes dropping religious freedom protections that ensure that pro-life doctors and health care providers can’t be forced to perform abortions. He has also moved to expand surgical abortion through U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidance and to expand chemical abortion through federal regulation.

Democrats and even many Republicans have vocally embraced IVF after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that human embryos are covered under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. 

IVF is a fertility treatment in which doctors fuse sperm and eggs to create human embryos and implant them in the mother’s womb without a sexual act. Embryos that are intended to be implanted at a later date are frozen. Undesired embryos are routinely destroyed or used for scientific research.

‘Cabrini’ actress Cristiana Dell’Anna shares importance of role: ‘It wasn’t just an acting job’

Cristiana Dell’Anna portrays Mother Cabrini in “Cabrini,” a gripping account of the genesis and early years of the saint’s mission in NewYork City. / Credit: Angel Studios

CNA Staff, Mar 7, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new movie telling the true story of Francesca Cabrini — also known as St. Frances Xavier Cabrini — will be released by Angel Studios on International Women’s Day, March 8. 

Directed by Alejandro Monteverde, who also directed last summer’s blockbuster “Sound of Freedom,” “Cabrini” takes place in 1889 when hostility toward Italian immigrants ran high in New York.

As an Italian immigrant, Cabrini was greeted by not only hostility but also crime, disease, and dangerous living conditions — especially for orphaned children. She and her religious sisters — the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — set out on the dangerous mission to provide housing and education for society’s most vulnerable.

Cristiana Dell’Anna, an Italian actress, portrays Cabrini in the film. She spoke with CNA about her experience portraying the Catholic saint and what she hopes viewers will take away from the saint’s story.

She shared that while preparing for the role she studied the life of Cabrini and started “from what she represented and what she believed in and then through that I walked my way through to what she was like.”

“Her beliefs and her values defined very much the character before I could actually start thinking about how she talked or how she walked or the little things or mannerisms,” she explained.

“Cabrini” chronicles the early days of the American mission of Mother Cabrini, patroness of immigrants. Credit: Angel Studios
“Cabrini” chronicles the early days of the American mission of Mother Cabrini, patroness of immigrants. Credit: Angel Studios

Dell’Anna shared that she also spent a lot of time listening to opera music and “read the script back and forth listening to Pavarotti.” 

Throughout her time portraying Cabrini, Dell’Anna expressed that she personally took “so much from her story.”

“Her values and what she stood for — I very much believe in those things as well,” she said. “These are some of the reasons why I accepted the role because I truly believe in her story.”

“So, it was important for me to give her a voice because it wasn’t just an acting job,” she added. “It was also a story I wanted to tell.”

As for why she believes the story of Cabrini is so important to tell, Dell’Anna said: “Because it’s contemporary” and immediately calls to mind the situation in the Mediterranean when it comes to the topic of immigration.

“It’s a very truthful representation of our situation in Europe nowadays,” she explained. “We have immigrants coming from all over the Middle Eastern world and the African shores and only inclusion and integration and understanding that diversity is something we can count on to become a better world — these are themes that are addressed in the story.”

Dell’Anna said she hopes viewers will leave the theater with a “sense of responsibility” and shared a line from the movie she hopes will also stick out to the audience: “What have we done? What have we done for the sick, for the poor, for those who have been stripped of their dignity? What have we done?”

“I believe in that line,” she said.

The actress highlighted the fact that Cabrini “was a nun and she had faith and she lived by her Christian beliefs, but the one thing she did — and probably we should take an example from her — she did it. She didn’t just [think about] it. She didn’t just reach it — she did it. She put it into action.”

Dell’Anna called Cabrini “relentless.”

“She always fought for what she believed in and she embodied her values — embodied what she believed in, deeply, profoundly, in every sense she lived by her beliefs and that made her very true to herself and very true to everyone else.”

10 little-known facts about the early visionary St. Perpetua and her companion St. Felicity

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity. / Credit: National Catholic Register files

National Catholic Register, Mar 7, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Many have heard of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity; they are early saints mentioned in Eucharistic Prayer I (the Roman Canon). But most don’t know much more than that, which is a pity. The two have a dramatic story — which St. Perpetua recorded herself in the days before her death. She also recorded the visions she received during that time.

As the Church celebrates the feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity on March 7, here are 10 things to know about these early martyrs.

1. Who was St. Perpetua?

Perpetua was a young Christian woman and martyr who died just after the year 200 in North Africa. When she was still a catechumen, she and several acquaintances were taken into custody.

According to the “Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity”:

“And among them also was Vivia Perpetua, respectably born, liberally educated, a married matron, having a father and mother and two brothers, one of whom, like herself, was a catechumen, and a son an infant at the breast. She herself was about twenty-two years of age.”

No mention is made of her husband, who may have already been dead.

After being baptized, Perpetua received several visions and was eventually martyred. We also learn about her companions and other members of her family, including her father and her younger brother, who had died previously of cancer.

2. What is the ‘Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity’?

It is a document describing what happened to Perpetua and her companions. It is also called “The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity.”

The document is composed of a preface followed by six chapters.

What is particularly special is that about half of the document was written by the martyr herself:

  • Chapters 1–3 were penned by St. Perpetua while she was awaiting execution. 

  • Chapter 4 was written by one of her companions and fellow martyrs, Saturus.

  • Chapter 5–6 (and the preface) were written by the anonymous editor, who was apparently an eyewitness of the martyrdoms.

3. What does Perpetua’s writing reveal about her father?

Perpetua’s father was a most remarkable and persistent man.

Apparently, he was the only member of her family who did not share the Christian faith. He made repeated attempts to get her to renounce the faith, and he suffered greatly at the thought his daughter would be killed by the authorities. Perpetua was deeply moved to see how much he was suffering because of his love for her.

He comes to her repeatedly throughout the text, trying to find a way to save her life. He doesn’t realize what it would mean for her to abandon the faith, but you can’t help feeling for his persistence, inventiveness, and raw desperation in trying to find a way to save his daughter’s life.

On one occasion, this happened:

“And then my father came to me from the city, worn out with anxiety. He came up to me, that he might cast me down [from my profession of faith], saying,

“‘Have pity my daughter, on my grey hairs. Have pity on your father, if I am worthy to be called a father by you. If with these hands I have brought you up to this flower of your age, if I have preferred you to all your brothers, do not deliver me up to the scorn of men. Have regard to your brothers, have regard to your mother and your aunt, have regard to your son, who will not be able to live after you. ...’

“These things said my father in his affection, kissing my hands, and throwing himself at my feet; and with tears he called me not Daughter, but Lady.

“And I grieved over the grey hairs of my father, that he alone of all my family would not rejoice over my passion.

“And I comforted him, saying, ‘On that scaffold whatever God wills shall happen. For know that we are not placed in our own power, but in that of God.’ And he departed from me in sorrow.”

On another occasion, he tried to get her to renounce the faith using an appeal to her infant son:

“Another day, while we were at dinner, we were suddenly taken away to be heard [by the judicial authorities], and we arrived at the town-hall.

“At once the rumour spread through the neighbourhood of the public place, and an immense number of people were gathered together. We mount the platform. The rest were interrogated, and confessed [the Christian faith].

“Then they came to me, and my father immediately appeared with my boy, and withdrew me from the step, and said in a supplicating tone, ‘Have pity on your babe.’”

The pagan authorities even beat Perpetua’s father with rods in front of her to try to get her to abandon the faith, but she wouldn't.

Ultimately, though, her father’s efforts fail. She stays true to what she told him at the beginning of his efforts:

“‘Father,’ said I, ‘do you see, let us say, this vessel lying here to be a little pitcher, or something else?’

“And he said, ‘I see it to be so.’

“And I replied to him, ‘Can it be called by any other name than what it is?’

“And he said, ‘No.’

“‘Neither can I call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian.’”

4. What visions does Perpetua receive?

Several visions are narrated in the text:

  • The first is a vision of a ladder, and it concerns Perpetua’s martyrdom and arrival in heaven.

  • She also has a pair of visions concerning her deceased brother, Dinocrates, who is trying to drink from a fountain.

  • In another vision, she fights the devil in the form of an Egyptian gladiator.

5. What happens in the vision of the ladder?

One vision concerns the fact that she will be martyred:

“Then my brother said to me, ‘My dear sister, you are already in a position of great dignity, and are such that you may ask for a vision, and that it may be made known to you whether this is to result in a passion [a martyrdom] or an escape.’”

She then receives the following vision:

“I saw a golden ladder of marvellous height, reaching up even to heaven, and very narrow, so that persons could only ascend it one by one; and on the sides of the ladder was fixed every kind of iron weapon. There were there swords, lances, hooks, daggers; so that if any one went up carelessly, or not looking upwards, he would be torn to pieces and his flesh would cleave to the iron weapons. And under the ladder itself was crouching a dragon of wonderful size, who lay in wait for those who ascended, and frightened them from the ascent.

“And [my companion] Saturus went up first, who had subsequently delivered himself up freely on our account, not having been present at the time that we were taken prisoners. And he attained the top of the ladder, and turned towards me, and said to me, ‘Perpetua, I am waiting for you; but be careful that the dragon does not bite you.’

“And I said, ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not hurt me.’ And from under the ladder itself, as if in fear of me, he slowly lifted up his head; and as I trod upon the first step, I trod upon his head.

“And I went up, and I saw an immense extent of garden, and in the midst of the garden a white-haired man sitting in the dress of a shepherd, of a large stature, milking sheep; and standing around were many thousand white-robed ones.

“And he raised his head, and looked upon me, and said to me, ‘You are welcome, daughter.’

“And he called me, and from the cheese as he was milking he gave me as it were a little cake, and I received it with folded hands; and I ate it, and all who stood around said ‘Amen.’

“And at the sound of their voices I was awakened, still tasting a sweetness which I cannot describe. And I immediately related this to my brother, and we understood that it was to be a passion, and we ceased henceforth to have any hope in this world.”

6. What happens in the visions of her little brother?

Perpetua relates the first as follows:

“I saw Dinocrates going out from a gloomy place, where also there were several others, and he was parched and very thirsty, with a filthy countenance and pallid colour, and the wound on his face which he had when he died.

“This Dinocrates had been my brother after the flesh, seven years of age who died miserably with disease — his face being so eaten out with cancer, that his death caused repugnance to all men.

“For him I had made my prayer, and between him and me there was a large interval, so that neither of us could approach to the other.

“And moreover, in the same place where Dinocrates was, there was a pool full of water, having its brink higher than was the stature of the boy; and Dinocrates raised himself up as if to drink. And I was grieved that, although that pool held water, still, on account of the height to its brink, he could not drink. And I was aroused, and knew that my brother was in suffering.”

Perpetua then begins to pray daily for him to ease his suffering, and she eventually receives the following vision:

“I saw that that place which I had formerly observed to be in gloom was now bright; and Dinocrates, with a clean body well clad, was finding refreshment. 

“And where there had been a wound, I saw a scar; and that pool which I had before seen, I saw now with its margin lowered even to the boy’s navel. 

“And one drew water from the pool incessantly, and upon its brink was a goblet filled with water; and Dinocrates drew near and began to drink from it, and the goblet did not fail. 

“And when he was satisfied, he went away from the water to play joyously, after the manner of children, and I awoke.

“Then I understood that he was translated from the place of punishment.”

This pair of visions testify to the belief in the early Christian community of the value of praying for the departed and to what we would now refer to as purgatory.

7. Who was Felicity?

Perpetua is often mentioned together with one of her companions — Felicity — as is the case in Eucharistic Prayer I.

Felicity was another woman who was arrested at a time when she was eight months pregnant. She was eager to go to heaven, however, and did not want to be delayed by being martyred after her friends.

The fact that she was pregnant, however, might have interfered with this, since it was not lawful to put a pregnant woman to death.

She and her companions therefore prayed and, though she was not yet full term, she delivered her baby — a girl — who was given to a “sister” (a fellow Christian woman) to raise as her own daughter.

Felicity thus was able to be martyred with her friends.

8. How did Perpetua and Felicity die?

Perpetua and her companions were martyred by being subjected to wild beasts.

The men were subjected to a leopard, a bear, and a boar.

Perpetua and Felicity were subjected to a fierce cow (or ox).

The account of their martyrdom includes interesting details, such as the fact that when Perpetua’s garment was torn, she drew it over herself to protect her modesty and, when her hair was disheveled, she did it up again, lest she be thought to be mourning in the moment of her glory.

It is also reported that she and her companions experienced the pains of martyrdom in a kind of ecstasy, as if someone else were suffering them.

As they died, they exhorted others to find salvation in the Lord.

At the end, they were dispatched by a gladiator, with Perpetua guiding the gladiator’s sword to her own throat.

The anonymous editor comments:

“Possibly such a woman could not have been slain unless she herself had willed it, because she was feared by the impure spirit [the devil].”

9. Are Perpetua’s visions approved private revelations?

The Church did not have the modern system of approving private revelations in place in her day, nor has it gone back over Church history and applied it to ones in early Church history.

Perpetua is a saint, however, and her visions do not contain anything contrary to the faith. They seem (to me) entirely wholesome, and I see no reason to doubt that they were prompted by motions of God’s grace.

10. Where can we read the full story of Perpetua and her companions?

They can be read here.

This article was originally published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted and edited for CNA.

Pro-abortion activists aggressively harass peaceful pro-life prayer vigil in Germany

The small group of Germans peacefully praying for an end to abortion were accosted March 1, 2024, by some 20 assailants wearing hoodies who shouted in their faces, harassing them, mocking them, insulting them, provoking them, and intimidating them with aggressive behavior. / Credit: 40 Days for Life Frankfurt

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 6, 2024 / 18:32 pm (CNA).

A lawyer and executive director of 40 Days for Life International denounced a March 1 attack by abortion activists on a group peacefully praying.

Republican attorneys general threaten YouTube over ‘misleading’ label on pro-life videos

Credit: Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 6, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

Sixteen Republican attorneys general are threatening legal action against YouTube and its parent company, Google, for placing a “misleading” label on pro-life videos.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led the effort to send a letter to Google executive Neal Mohan on Monday regarding labels placed on pro-life videos on the social media platform. 

The letter said the notices violate the First Amendment and spread “false” information about abortion that “minimizes and downplays some of the serious risks of abortion drugs,” potentially endangering women’s lives.

The letter cites an example of a pro-life video on YouTube about chemical abortion posted by Alliance Defending Freedom in February. Under the video a notice appears with the title “Abortion Health Information.” The message says that surgical and chemical abortion are procedures “to end a pregnancy” done “by a licensed health care professional.”

YouTube posts similar notices on videos about abortion posted by pro-abortion accounts. 

“The last sentence of the notice is both false and misleading,” the attorneys general said in their letter. “It suggests that chemical abortions are performed by trained professionals. They are not. Although surgical abortions are still typically ‘done by a licensed health care professional,’ under current FDA protocols chemical abortions are ‘done by’ pregnant women themselves.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told CNA that YouTube’s abortion notice “is the latest troubling instance of Big Tech targeting of conservative viewpoints” and that “worse still,” YouTube is doing so “by spreading false and dangerous statements."

The letter explains that chemical abortions are commonly carried out in a woman’s home without any supervision by a health care professional and that “roughly” 1 in 25 women who take abortion pills end up in the emergency room.

According to the letter, state attorneys general are authorized to take legal action against Google and YouTube because of their “need to exercise our consumer-protection authority to protect pregnant women and other consumers from your falsehoods.”

“By asserting that chemical abortions are performed by licensed health care professionals, YouTube lies to our constituents and the rest of the American public.”

The letter also notes that because the company posted the misleading label itself, YouTube has none of the immunity from legal ramifications typically afforded to social media platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

“We demand that YouTube immediately remove or correct the misleading ‘information panel’ posted on Alliance Defending Freedom’s video and other videos discussing chemical abortion,” the letter said. “Your bias against pro-life and pro-woman messages is un-American; inconsistent with the liberties protected by the First Amendment; and, in this case, illegal. It must stop.”

In a separate statement Bird said that “women deserve to know the truth about the dangers of chemical abortion pills.” 

“YouTube must end its blatant misinformation campaign that puts women at risk and quit targeting pro-life messages,” Bird said.

Pro-life groups urge Alabama governor to veto IVF bill

A bill granting protections for IVF procedures is heading to the desk of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. / Credit: Public Domain

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 6, 2024 / 17:12 pm (CNA).

Thirteen of the country’s leading national pro-life groups are urging Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to veto a recently passed bill that would institute broad protections for in vitro fertilization (IVF) providers in the state.

The bill, already passed by both the Alabama House and Senate, gives blanket immunity to IVF providers for the “damage or death of an embryo” conceived through IVF.

IVF is a fertility treatment opposed by the Catholic Church because it separates the marriage act from procreation and destroys embryonic human life. 

Acknowledging the advances in science available today to those seeking help having children, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warns Catholics on its website of the ethical issues involved.

“The many techniques now used to overcome infertility also have profound moral implications, and couples should be aware of these before making decisions about their use,” the bishops wrote.

The Alabama House and Senate versions of the bill have now been unified into one bill, which is expected to be sent to the governor’s desk to be signed into law this week.

The groups said in a letter sent to Ivey on Monday that “if enacted, this sweeping legislation would slam the door on any protections for the most vulnerable Alabamians, prevent families from seeking justice for the death or harm caused to their children, and leave a trail of destructive, immoral implications in its wake.”

The letter was signed by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, March for Life Action, Live Action, Students for Life Action, Human Coalition Action, and several other prominent pro-life groups.

They pointed out that “in the past, Alabama has courageously defended the intrinsic equal dignity of every human being, regardless of age, size, location, stage of development, or condition of dependence” and that “Alabama law currently provides commonsense legal protections for human beings created through IVF.”

According to the letter, current Alabama IVF law “simply requires fertility clinics to exercise due care over the lives that they create.” If the new IVF protections are signed into law, however, the letter said, it would “withdraw existing legal protections for Alabama’s most vulnerable persons” and “have catastrophic consequences.”

Alabama set to reverse pro-life protections

The bill’s passage comes in the wake of a controversial February ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that declared unborn babies conceived through IVF are human persons, protected under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The 8-1 ruling said that the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act “applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation” and “regardless of their location.”

The decision set off a national debate on the personhood of unborn IVF babies and the morality of the IVF process. Both Democrats and Republicans have been largely supportive of IVF while Alabama has been widely lambasted over the decision.

In response, the Alabama Legislature fast-tracked a bill to enshrine new IVF protections, passing it in overwhelming votes in both chambers.

Now, with the two legislative bodies reportedly finished reviewing the House and Senate versions of the bill, all that remains is for it to be sent to the governor to be signed into law.

Pro-life groups warn of ‘irreversible damage’

The pro-life groups that signed Monday’s letter warned that the bill could “cause irreversible damage to the thousands of embryos, parents, and women in this state who would be at the mercy of such a monumental decision.”

Addressing Ivey directly, the letter said: “We urge you to veto this legislation as a rash reaction to a troubling situation.”

The letter also urged Alabama elected officials to “slow down and study the ethical implications of this highly complex topic.”

“While we understand and share the legislators’ concern for families struggling with infertility, this unjust measure will ultimately harm these families and jeopardize the lives of precious children,” they said.

Kristi Hamrick, a representative for Students for Life, told CNA her group believes the bill is “an overreaction and an overreach and also provides too much cover for an industry that clearly needs to be monitored, that clearly needs more discussion.” 

“We think people need to slow down and take a look at this business and before they give carte blanche permission to the business to continue as it operates, we need to ask better questions about how it is operating,” Hamrick explained.

Hamrick pointed out that there are numerous examples of negligence and abuse by the IVF industry that warrant more careful consideration by legislators. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a fourth couple just sued the Center for Reproductive Medicine, the IVF clinic at the heart of the controversial Alabama Supreme Court case, for negligence that resulted in the death of their unborn child. 

Hamrick said that many who are in a rush to protect IVF are overlooking the real danger the industry poses to unborn children. 

In a statement obtained by CNA on Wednesday, Jeff Bradford, president of Human Coalition Action, stated that “all children have a right to life and must be protected as persons under the law, regardless of their stage of development.”

“At Human Coalition Action, we believe that human life begins at the moment of fertilization, and we are determined to care for and protect every child at any stage, including the embryonic period,” Bradford said.  

What does the Catholic Church have to say?

During IVF procedures, doctors fuse sperm and eggs to create human embryos and implant them in the mother’s womb. Embryos that are intended to be implanted later are frozen. Undesired embryos are routinely destroyed or used for scientific research, which kills those preborn children.

While the Catholic Church encourages research to help married couples conceive, the Church is firmly opposed to IVF. Donald Carlson, a representative for the Diocese of Birmingham, told CNA last week that the diocese would not condone the legislation because it contrasts with clear Catholic teaching on IVF.

Carlson said that the Catholic position on IVF is very “straightforward.”

“Human life begins at conception and that life has to be protected in all its forms,” Carlson said, adding that Birmingham Bishop Steven Raica “encourages couples to continue in their journey towards fulfilling their dreams to have a family and to seek ethical ways to accomplish that goal.”

Priest battles ‘hate crime’ charges for criticizing Islam

Father Custodio Ballester serves a parish in the Archdiocese of Barcelona, Spain. / Credit: Courtesy of hazteoir.org

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mar 5, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA).

A Spanish priest is facing up to three years in prison on “hate crime” charges for his heated words about Islam.

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A mother and child / Credit: Jordan Whitt / Unsplash

CNA Newsroom, Mar 5, 2024 / 09:25 am (CNA).

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