The Catholic Church in East Saint James Parish

Credit: roibu/Shutterstock

Jan 22, 2026 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

The abortion issue will likely be on the ballot in several states this November.

EWTN News took a look at which states have abortion-related measures in the works or on the ballot. 

Four states might vote to create a right to abortion this November. Only one state has a measure to protect life.

Virginian lawmakers add abortion to the ballot

This November, Virginians will consider an amendment to enshrine a fundamental right to abortion in the state constitution. The amendment, if passed, could jeopardize already-existing laws protecting unborn children as well as Virginia’s parental notification law.

The proposed abortion amendment would create a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one’s own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.”

Virginia lawmakers approved the amendment for a second time earlier this month, guaranteeing that it will be on the ballot. Virginia Catholic bishops promptly condemned the amendment, saying they “will fight” against its passage.

Virginia protects life after 28 weeks of pregnancy, meaning that abortion is legal until the end of the second trimester and after in cases of serious risk to the woman’s health or life.

Nevada looks to confirm abortion amendment

Nevada is close to approving an abortion amendment that would recognize a right to abortion.

The amendment would establish a “fundamental right” to an abortion, “without interference by state or local governments” up to viability, and up to birth for the sake of the health or life of the pregnant mother.

In Nevada, the state constitution can be amended only after two affirmative public votes in consecutive even-year elections. About 64% of Nevadans voted in favor of the amendment in 2024, so a 2026 passage would enshrine the amendment. 

Abortion since the 1990s has been legal until the 24th week of pregnancy in Nevada. In addition to reinforcing pro-abortion laws, the new amendment could block other state laws including the parental notification requirement for minors seeking abortions.

Idaho gathers signatures for abortion ballot measure

In Idaho, a measure to create a right to abortion may appear on the November ballot.

Campaigners are gathering signatures for the measure to legalize abortion until viability, when the baby can survive outside of the womb.

The measure guarantees “a right to make and carry out reproductive decisions, including a right to abortion up to fetus viability.”

Idaho law protects unborn children at all stages of pregnancy, with exceptions if the mother’s life is at risk.

Oregon measure could reinforce pro-abortion laws

A measure to affirm a right to abortion in Oregon may be on the November ballot.

The measure states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged … on account of sex.”

If passed, it would also affirm a right to contraception, in vitro fertilization, medical “gender transition,” and same-sex marriage. The measure would repeal a vestigial code in the constitution that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

Oregon does not protect life at any stage of pregnancy, and the state funds abortion.

Potential ballot measure could repeal Missouri abortion amendment

In November, Missourians will have the opportunity to repeal a 2024 amendment that created a right to abortion in the state constitution. 

If passed, the measure would repeal the state’s constitutional right to abortion and allow for laws to regulate abortion. It would also codify parental consent for minors seeking abortion and prohibit gender transition procedures for minors.

The amendment would not protect unborn children younger than 12 weeks in cases of rape or incest. 

Abortion laws have been in flux in Missouri as the 2024 amendment was enforced amid legal challenges.

Blocked from the ballot: Montana’s push for personhood 

A Montana measure defining unborn children as persons is not on the ballot this year, despite efforts to pass it.

Despite Montana voters’ move to approve a right to abortion in 2024, lawmakers came close to approving the subsequent pro-life measure, which would have stipulated that the word “person” applies “to all members of mankind at any stage of development, beginning at the stage of fertilization or conception, regardless of age, health, level of functioning, or condition of dependency.”

The amendment would have required that “no cause of action may arise as a consequence of harm caused to an unborn baby by an unintentional act of its mother.”

The measure narrowly failed to pass in both the Montana House of Representatives and the state Senate in early 2025, receiving just less than the two-thirds majority needed for a measure to be added to the Montana ballot.

Credit: OlegRi/Shutterstock

Jan 22, 2026 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

As thousands gather for the March for Life — the largest annual pro-life event in the U.S. — supporters at home can “march” by sharing the pro-life message on social media.

The March Online for the Preborn encourages pro-lifers to post videos of an unborn baby as part of a “global statement for life,” according to a press release shared with EWTN News.

The goal? To get unborn babies trending.

“We know that thousands attend the annual March in D.C. but thousands more around the world can’t make it but still wish to make an impact,” Rachelle Mainse, a spokeswoman for the campaign, told EWTN News.

The campaign by Baby Life Begins invites social media users to post a specific video of an unborn baby in the womb.

“Every year there is a new March Online video that shares a strategic, powerful truth about the preborn that the world needs to hear,” Mainse explained.

“When pro-life advocates and organizations from around the world ‘march together,’ sharing this same video to their platforms, it’s effective in making a big statement online for life.”

“We want people to be scrolling their newsfeed and see it flooded with this same video,” she said.

The campaign is also meant to encourage people to speak up for life.

“We hope that this encourages many in their stand for life no matter where they live or what generation [they are],” said Robert Seemuth, founder and director of Baby Life Begins. “Knowing that you can be a voice for life brings encouragement; coaching how to do it shows it’s possible.”

“Part of the mission of Baby Life Begins is to equip the everyday person to be a voice for life,” Mainse said. “Being a part of the online march may be the first time someone is using their social media to be a voice for life.”

“Courage is imparted when you realize you can post to your God-given circle of friends a post about the sanctity of life that is professionally made,” Seemuth continued. “Fear is reduced when you know thousands of others are sharing the same post.”

“Pro-life work can feel lonely at times — so to feel the support of the global community is huge,” Mainse said.

“Through the internet we can march with advocates all around the world making a unified statement for life online,” Mainse said. “We have heard from people in Australia, Northern Ireland, and different parts of the States joining! Everyone can participate!”

One in 4 women have had an abortion, Mainse noted. “Chances are they have someone around them that has been affected by abortion or will face that choice,” she said.

“It is so important that everyone becomes a voice for the preborn — whether their circle of influence is thousands or just a few. Every voice matters and every person matters in the fight for life.”

“We hope this will inspire them to keep using their social media to share about the preborn,” Mainse added. “It is a powerful medium that changes hearts and lives.”

An unborn baby at 20 weeks — well within the second trimester, when dilation and evacuation abortions are commonly performed. | Credit: Steve via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Jan 22, 2026 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

A new poll released one day before the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., found that fewer than 4 in 10 Americans identify as “pro-life” rather than “pro-choice,” but more than two-thirds of Americans still support some limits on abortion.

The survey, released on Jan. 22, was conducted by The Marist Poll at Marist University and was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization. Pollsters surveyed 1,408 adults from Jan. 12–13.

When respondents were asked whether they identified as either “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” only 37% subscribed to the label “pro-life” and 62% called themselves “pro-choice,” with just 1% of respondents saying they are unsure.

According to the poll, 44% of Catholics identified as pro-life and 55% identified as pro-choice, but practicing Catholics were far more likely to be pro-life.

The pollsters found that 58% of Catholics who identified as practicing were pro-life, compared with 41% who said they were pro-choice. Only 31% of nonpracticing Catholics said they were pro-life, compared with 68% who said they were pro-choice.

However, the poll also found that the “pro-choice” label does not normally translate to abortion without any limits. Rather, about one-third of Americans find themselves somewhere in the middle.

According to the poll, only 32% of Americans believe that abortion should be available at any time in pregnancy, up to the moment of birth.

Meanwhile, 37% believe most abortions should be illegal, with 6% saying it should not be legal in any circumstance, 10% saying it should only be allowed to save the mother’s life, and 21% only supporting abortion when the mother’s life is at risk or when the unborn child is conceived through rape or incest.

Twenty percent of those surveyed said abortion should be legal through the first trimester and 10% said it should be legal through the second trimester. Overall, 67% want at least some limits and 57% want restrictions at least by the end of the first trimester.

The poll also found that 59% of Americans believe an in-person visit with a doctor should be required to obtain chemical abortion drugs, which federal law does not currently require. Just 40% said it should not be required.

A small majority, 54%, oppose using taxpayer money to fund abortion in the United States, while 45% support it. About 69% of adults oppose using tax money to fund abortions overseas and 29% support it.

About 63% support conscience protections for health care workers, saying they should not have to participate in an abortion if they oppose it, and 36% do not support them. About 84% said they support the work of pregnancy resource centers, which do not perform abortions, and just 15% said they oppose it.

“Despite the publicly heated debates about abortion, there remains a consensus of opinion on this issue among Americans,” Barbara L. Carvalho, the director of the Marist Poll, said in a statement.

“Americans believe abortion should be limited yet include exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother,” she said. “Despite the changes in practice that have occurred since the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision, public opinion has remained consistent.”

Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said in a statement that the poll shows “a majority of Americans support legal restrictions on abortion” and “a growing majority support pregnancy resource centers, which provide assistance to mothers and their children in their time of greatest need.”

“The Knights have supported vulnerable women and their children since our founding by Blessed Michael McGivney more than 140 years ago, and our commitment has never wavered. And now, we’re guided by the encouraging words of Pope Leo XIV, who recently mentioned in his ‘State of the World’ address, ‘life is a priceless gift’ and that, as Catholics, we have a ‘fundamental ethical imperative’ to ‘welcome and fully care for unborn life,’” he said. “The Knights of Columbus’ mission will continue to be guided by these principles until abortion becomes unthinkable.”

Thousands march through the streets of Washington, D.C., for the 52nd annual March for Life on Jan. 24, 2025. | Credit: Migi Fabara/EWTN News

Jan 22, 2026 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

Thousands of pro-lifers will gather in Washington, D.C., for the 53rd annual March for Life on Friday, Jan. 23. Follow here for live updates on the march.

• Thousands will gather for the 53rd National March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 23.

• Festivities will kick off with a pre-rally concert at 11 a.m. ET on the National Mall. The rally at begins at noon ET and features a lineup of speakers including Vice President JD Vance.

• The crowd will depart from the National Mall at 1 p.m. ET for the march and will make its way to the ending point at the U.S. Supreme Court building.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, speaks with host Abi Galvan during an interview on “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” on Jan. 21, 2026. | Credit: “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly”/Screenshot

Jan 22, 2026 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

In her first year leading the March for Life, the organization’s president is reminding the pro-life movement that they “still have a lot of work to do” in the current political climate, three and a half years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Taking down the Roe regime of abortion-on-demand across the country was incredibly important,” Jennie Bradley Lichter, who became president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund in February 2025, told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.”

“But there are still way too many abortions happening in this country,” she said. “So that’s the No. 1 reason why we’re still marching.”

Tens of thousands of pro-life activists are expected to gather in Washington, D.C., for the 53rd March for Life on Friday, Jan. 23. The march, which drew out about 150,000 people last year, has been held annually since Jan. 22, 1974, one year after Roe v. Wade was decided.

The speakers will include Lichter, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Rep. Chris Smith, among others. President Donald Trump provided a prerecorded message to the marchers, which will be played during the pre-march rally.

Lichter said in the interview that the annual march “accomplishes three really important things for the movement that cannot be accomplished any other way.”

The first, she said, is “forming young people for pro-life mission,” noting that many attendees are “teenagers and with college students and people in their 20s.” Second, she said, it is “also a really important moment of refreshment and being reenergized, and a lot of people have shared that with me this year.”

Third, Lichter said, is “the public witness impact of having this many people gathered in the heart of our nation’s capital.”

“When you stand at the March for Life, you have the Capitol dome behind the stage, and then the Washington Monument behind the marchers,” she said. “You are right in the heart of the most powerful and important city in the world, and the city shuts down every year on the day of the March for Life.”

“The Lord gives us a chance to show the nation what we’re made of, year after year,” she added. “It’s so powerful.”

Political climate

As pro-life advocates gather in Washington, D.C., 30 states and the nation’s capital still permit abortion up to the 22nd week or later, with nine states allowing elective abortion through nine months until the moment of birth.

In 13 states, nearly all abortions are illegal and in four states, most abortions are illegal after six weeks’ gestation. Two states prohibit abortion after 12 weeks, and one prohibits abortion after 18 weeks.

At the federal level, Lichter expressed some concern stemming from the Trump administration, which was mostly focused on his comment that asked Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment during negotiations about extending health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act.

The Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal tax money from being spent on abortion, has been included in spending bills since 1976, shortly after Roe v. Wade was decided.

“The response to the comment about being flexible on Hyde was swift and strong from everyone,” Lichter said, referring to criticism of the comments that came from the pro-life movement.

“The truth is, we’re not going to be flexible on Hyde,” she said. “We can’t be flexible with an issue that implicates human life — the preeminent issue — abortion.”

“The Hyde Amendment is Pro-Life 101,” Lichter said. “It’s a baseline policy that has been in place for 50 years and that every pro-life politician knows is just at the very heart of what it means to be a pro-life lawmaker. So of course, we’re not going to be flexible on Hyde.”

Lichter noted that some people think abortion “might be a losing issue in the midterms” for Republicans in November, but she believes “that’s completely wrong” and “misreads the electorate.”

“There’s no data, no examples to support the idea that pro-life politicians have been losing elections since [the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade],” she said.

“They just haven’t been,” she said. “And there’s a lot of counter examples, of course, of really strong pro-life politicians who have put life at the center of their work, who have continued to win reelection.”

The March for Life rally will be held on the National Mall from 11 a.m. until about 1 p.m., after which attendees will march past the U.S. Capitol and conclude in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building.

Credit: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock

Jan 22, 2026 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced policy actions to “affirm the dignity of life consistent with the Hyde Amendment.”

The enforcement “holds a state accountable for limiting the rights of conscientious objectors in a manner that violates federal law,” said Paula Stannard, director of HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR), in a Jan. 21 press release.

“To receive the benefits of Illinois’ liability shield, Illinois forces providers with conscience objections to refer patients for abortion — compelling them to participate in the very procedure they oppose,” she said.

The actions include a Notice of Violation from OCR to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker; Kwame Raoul, Illinois’ attorney general; and Mario Treto, secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. HHS’ notice said the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act (HCRCA) violates law as it relates to abortion.

According to HHS, the state “engaged in impermissible discrimination when it amended the HCRCA to require providers with a conscience objection to certain services to counsel patients about, refer patients for, and/or make arrangements for, the performance of or referral for, such services.”

OCR reported the state is in violation of the Weldon and Coats-Snowe Amendments, which are federal protection laws prohibiting government entities from discriminating against health care workers, institutions, or insurance plans that refuse to provide, pay for, or refer abortions.

The “enforcement action holds a state accountable for limiting the rights of conscientious objectors in a manner that violates federal law,” Stannard said.

Other ‘comprehensive actions’

OCR also announced other actions the agency said would advance the rights of physicians, facilities, and health care personnel “to live out their professions without compromising their conscience regarding abortion and the dignity of human life.”

To “educate the public” on the matter, OCR released a nationwide “ Dear Colleague Letter” summarizing federal health care protection statutes, including laws specific to abortion, sterilization, and assisted suicide.

The letter highlighted the statutes that prohibit government discrimination against individuals and institutions that decline to participate in services, generally based on religious beliefs or moral convictions.

OCR also released three public notices describing how the actions align with the Trump administration’s presidential action, Enforcing the Hyde Amendment. The notices “describe OCR deregulatory actions that repudiate or rescind Biden-era documents that are outdated or inconsistent with the law.”

The announcement of the policy actions “builds on HHS’ recent efforts to safeguard conscience rights more broadly including investigations to protect health care workers, support whistleblowers, and reinforce adherence to religious and conscience exemptions in the Vaccines for Children Program,” according to the HHS statement.

Actor David Henrie in the new series “Seeking Beauty,” which airs on EWTN+. | Credit: EWTN Studios

Jan 22, 2026 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Catholic figures gathered in Los Angeles on Jan. 16 for the premiere of “Seeking Beauty,” the first original series from EWTN Studios airing exclusively on the network’s brand-new streaming platform, EWTN+.

Here are five things to know about the new series and its host, actor David Henrie.

What is ‘Seeking Beauty’?

“Seeking Beauty” is a first-of-its-kind adventure documentary series that explores culture, architecture, food, art, and music, and aims to point viewers to the beautiful — and ultimately to the divine.

The series follows Henrie’s journey into the heart of Italy to explore what makes Italian culture one of the most beautiful in the world. It not only looks at the physical beauty of the country but also its spiritual richness.

Where can I watch it?

“Seeking Beauty” is available to watch exclusively on EWTN+, a free digital streaming platform that offers faith-based content. EWTN+ is available on RokuTV, GoogleTV, AppleTV, AmazonFireTV, and on EWTN.com.

Where does ‘Seeking Beauty’ take place?

The first season of “Seeking Beauty” takes place in several cities across Italy including Vatican City, Rome, Milan, Florence, and Venice.

Who is David Henrie?

Henrie is best known for his breakout role as Justin Russo on Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place.” He grew up in a Catholic household with Italian heritage; however, Henrie’s early adult years were marked by what he has described as a relativistic and agnostic period. He has also spoken about how the successes of early fame left him feeling unfulfilled and searching for deeper meaning.

Henrie’s return to the Catholic faith was a profound personal transformation that he says began around age 21 or 22.

A significant influence came while working on the movie “Little Boy,” where conversations with Catholic cast members Kevin James and Eduardo Verástegui, as well as a visit to St. Michael Abbey in Orange County, California — including his first confession since childhood — played a pivotal role in rediscovering his faith.

Since then, Henrie has embraced his faith publicly and personally, integrating his beliefs into his family life, creative projects, and charity work, including serving as a brand ambassador for Cross Catholic Outreach and participating in mission trips that reflect his commitment to living out his faith. He is married and has three children.

Will there be another season of ‘Seeking Beauty’?

Yes! The second season of the series was filmed in Spain and is scheduled to premiere this fall.

Catholic students attend SEEK in January 2026. | Credit: FOCUS

Jan 22, 2026 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Multiple news reports have said the number of Generation Z Catholics is surging in the United States.

ZENIT, an international Catholic news service, and Magisterium AI, a Catholic artificial intelligence agency, cited data from the 2023 Cooperative Election Study (CES) finding there are more Gen Z adults who identify as Catholic than those who identify as Protestant.

Claim: Among Gen Z, those born roughly between 1997 and 2012, Catholics outnumber Protestants for the first time in the United States.

The CES report found that in 2023 the group was made up of 21% Catholics, compared with 19% Protestants. But other researchers dispute the data based on its sampling methods.

EWTN News finds: There are likely still more Protestant young adults than Catholics, although available quantitative and anecdotal data on the question is not decisive.

“Overall, from looking at the broader context of our surveys, it seems clear that Catholics are more like 14-16% of Gen Z adults rather than 21%,” Brian Schaffner, co-director of CES said.

The breakdown: The Religion and Public Life research team at Pew Research Center told EWTN News that Pew surveys “find that among the youngest adults in the U.S., there are more Protestants than Catholics.”

“In fact, in our recent Religious Landscape Study, we found that among the youngest adults (those born between 2000-06 and who were roughly between the ages of 18 and 24 when the survey was conducted), there are about twice as many Protestants as Catholics,” the researchers said. “Within this age group, 28% are Protestant and 14% are Catholic.”

The team also noted its research found “that Catholics are not more numerous among young adults than among older adults.” Rather, “young adults as a whole are far less religious than older adults.”

“When it comes to Catholicism, far more young people have switched out than in,” according to Pew’s “ Religion Holds Steady in America” report. “Overall, 12% of today’s youngest adults have switched out of Catholicism. Meanwhile, 1% of adults ages 18 to 24 have switched into Catholicism, meaning that they identify as Catholic today after having been raised in another religion or no religion.”

Data variations

If Pew researchers found there are more Protestants than Catholics within young age groups, why is the CES data different?

“It is true that the 2023 CES shows that 21% of Gen Z American adults identify as Catholic compared to 19% who say Protestant,” Schaffner said.

“That said, I would note that once we account for sampling error, we can't be confident that the Catholic figure is actually larger than the Protestant figure. More importantly, it is quite clear that the 2023 figure is an outlier for our data.”

In 2022, 20% of Gen Z respondents identified as Protestant and 14% as Catholic. Based on the data and previous years’ findings, Schaffner said, “It seems pretty clear from looking at that context that the 2023 figure for Catholics is almost certainly too high.”

Ryan Burge, religion and politics researcher and professor at the John C. Danforth Center at Washington University, said there is “reason to doubt” the data due to “aberrations” in the 2023 CES, according to his article “ Is Catholicism Surging Among Younger Folks?”

“If you compare the 2023 data to that collected in 2022 from the oldest three generations (Silent, Boomers, Gen X), there’s not a big difference,” Burge said. “It’s a point or two off, which is just the nature of survey data.”

But, when examining millennials and Gen Z, the data is “definitely beyond the typical variation that exists in this type of work,” he said. “In 2022, 16% of millennials were Catholic — it’s 20% in the 2023 data. Among Gen Z, 15% were Catholic compared to 21% in 2023.”

“The 2023 CES data is a lot more Catholic than it ‘should’ be,” Burge said.

“For instance, about 16% of people born in 1990 were Catholic in 2020, 2021, and 2022. In 2023, that percentage is five points higher. That same gap exists for people born throughout the 1990s and even into the 2000s.”

Burge also noted other aberrations among the 2023 findings. The CES information reported the number of people who “never” or “seldom” attend Mass in 2023 dropped from 41% in 2022 to 38% in 2023, while the weekly attendees rose from 29% to 34%.

“Weekly attendance doesn’t just jump five points in one year,” Burge said.

There was also a large jump in 2023 in the share of Catholics who identify as “born-again” or “evangelical.” From 2008 through 2022 there was a steady increase in the number who identified as such, usually only changing by one or two percent points each year, but from 2022 to 2023 there was a nine-point increase.

Number of young Catholics may still be increasing

While the CES data has been questioned, it does not mean there are not increases in the number of Gen Z adults drawn to the faith.

EWTN News has previously found that several college campuses across the country witnessed a notable rise in baptisms and confirmations among students in 2025. Catholic evangelists told EWTN News that the growth reflects a deepening desire among young adults for certainty, stability, and faith.

The Cardinal Newman Society also found using National Catholic Educational Association and Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) data that there has been an increase in students at Catholic colleges, with an increase of 75%. In 1970, the data showed there were 411,111 students enrolled in Catholic colleges; in 2022 there were 717,197.

In a press release, the Cardinal Newman Society highlighted some of the undergraduate enrollment at Newman Guide Recommended Catholic colleges for the 2025-26 academic year.

At Ave Maria University, there was a record undergraduate enrollment of 1,342 and a record incoming freshman class. Benedictine College has 2,250 undergraduate students, an increase of 22% over the last 10 years. The Cardinal Newman Society also reported that The Catholic University of America has increased undergraduate enrollment by 11% in the last five years.

Update: This story was updated at 10:25 a.m. Jan. 22 to add comments by Brian Schaffner.

An unborn baby at 20 weeks. | Credit: Steve via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Jan 21, 2026 / 15:49 pm (CNA).

A federal health spending bill would impose a long-enforced ban on using taxpayer funds for elective abortion, known as the Hyde Amendment.

The U.S. House is set to consider the bill this week, which would fund the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. Lawmakers would need to pass spending bills in both chambers and send them to the White House by Jan. 30 or the government could face another partial shutdown.

Republican President Donald Trump had asked his party to be “flexible” in its approach to the provision in a separate funding bill. According to a Jan. 19 news release from the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill includes the provision “protecting the lives of unborn children” known as the Hyde Amendment.

The Hyde Amendment, which is not permanent law, was first included as a rider in federal spending bills in 1976. It was included consistently since then although some recent legislation and budget proposals have sometimes excluded it. The provision would ban federal funds for abortion except when the unborn child is conceived through rape or incest or if the life of the mother is at risk.

Katie Glenn Daniel, director of legal affairs and policy counsel for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the amendment is “a long-standing federal policy that’s been included for the last five decades and is popular with the American people.”

“Americans don’t want to pay for abortion on demand,” she said.

Many Democratic lawmakers have sought to eliminate the rider in recent years, saying it disproportionately limits abortion access for low-income women. Former President Joe Biden reversed his longtime support of the Hyde Amendment in the lead-up to the 2020 election and refused to include it in his spending proposals, saying: “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s zip code.” But Republicans successfully negotiated the rider’s inclusion into spending bills.

In January 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing the government to enforce the Hyde Amendment. A year later, Trump urged Republicans to be “a little flexible on Hyde” when lawmakers were negotiating the extension of health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act. A White House spokesperson also said the president would work with Congress to ensure the strongest possible pro-life protections.

The House eventually passed the extension without the Hyde Amendment after 17 Republicans joined Democrats to support the bill. The Senate has not yet advanced the measure, where the question of whether to include the Hyde Amendment has been a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats.

In mid-January, Trump announced a plan to change how health care subsidies are disbursed. There was no mention of the Hyde Amendment in the White House’s 827-word memo.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently lobbied for the inclusion of the Hyde Amendment in spending bills. On Jan. 14, the bishops sent a letter to Congress “to stress in the strongest possible terms that Hyde is essential for health care policy that protects human dignity.”

“Authentic health care and the protection of human life go hand in hand,” the letter said. “There can be no compromise on these two combined values.”

Nuns with the Sisterhood of Saint Mary. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

Jan 21, 2026 / 13:33 pm (CNA).

A coalition of religious groups that includes an order of Protestant nuns and two Catholic dioceses scored a major victory after the state of New York backed off trying to force the groups to cover abortion in their health insurance plans.

The state government in a Jan. 16 agreement agreed to drop its efforts to force abortion coverage onto the dioceses of Ogdensburg and Albany, along with two Catholic Charities groups and numerous other religious plaintiffs.

The concession came months after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state court of appeals to review the long-running case in light of a major religious liberty victory at the high court in June 2025.

That victory, Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review, saw the Supreme Court unanimously affirm that the U.S. Constitution “ mandates government neutrality between religions” and that states may not impose unlawful “denominational preferences” between religious organizations.

In the Wisconsin case, the state had attempted to argue that a Catholic charity’s undertakings were not “primarily” religious and that the group thus did not qualify for a tax exemption. The New York government had adopted a similar argument, exempting religious groups from the abortion mandate only if they primarily employ members of their own faith.

In a press release celebrating the New York victory, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — which represented the religious groups in their fight against the mandate — described the state’s effort as a “disgraceful campaign.”

“This victory confirms that the government cannot punish religious ministries for living out their faith by serving everyone,” attorney Lori Windham said.

In addition to the Protestant nuns and the Catholic groups, the plaintiffs included a Lutheran church, a Baptist church, and a Teresian nursing home.

The nuns, a contemplative order called the Sisters of St. Mary, are known for raising Cashmere goats at their cloister in Greenwich, New York.

Their sponsorship of a 4-H club and their leasing of the goats to local youth led the state to deny them the exemption to the abortion mandate, according to Becket. The religious exemption, Becket had argued, was “so narrow” that “Jesus himself would not qualify for it.”