The Catholic Church in East St. James Parish

Pro-life activists participate in a Celebrate Life Day Rally at the Lincoln Memorial on June 24, 2023, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 11:41 am (CNA).

This weekend six pro-life organizations will host a three-day-long event in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the third anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

After a successful 2024 event, the Celebrate Life Weekend returns June 27–29 for three days of events that mark the anniversary of the June 24, 2022, decision and encourage “the pro-life generation to fight for equal rights for all — born and preborn — through the 14th Amendment,” according to the Students for Life of America (SFLA) website.

“Last year, we mobilized the youth vote to celebrate Life after Roe v. Wade’s demise,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of SFLA, in a press release. “Now, we’re building on our momentum to create even more pro-life victories — calling on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood while also fighting for equal protections for preborn lives.”

The weekend will be hosted by SFLA, Students for Life Action, Vitae Foundation, Sidewalk Advocates for Life, And Then There Were None, and Pro Love Ministries.

The celebration kicks off Friday evening with a gala in downtown Washington, D.C. Athlete and advocate Riley Gaines will be the keynote speaker alongside other pro-life leaders who organizers say will “highlight the help available for mothers and their children, born and preborn.”

Other confirmed speakers at the gala include Hawkins; Dr. Abby Johnson, president of And Then There Were None and ProLove Ministries; Lauren Muzyka, president and CEO of Sidewalk Advocates for Life; and Brandy Meeks, president and CEO of Vitae Foundation.

On Saturday a diaper drive and rally will be held on Capitol Hill. The event will feature the confirmed speakers from the gala as well as additional guests who will speak about the pro-life movement and the push “to defund Planned Parenthood.”

According to Johnson in a Facebook media post, the event will be the “nation’s largest diaper drive.”

An expected 392,715 diapers will be donated to pregnancy care centers and families in the local community. Each diaper represents “a preborn life ended by Planned Parenthood last year.”

In addition to the two events, the National Celebrate Life Conference will hold other gatherings for registered attendees on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to “offer training and strategy to rally and educate the pro-life generation, as well as key legislators.”

The conference’s mission is to “unite pro-life women and men to celebrate, collaborate, and strategize for the protection of preborn children and to make abortion unthinkable in our culture.”

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, speaks during a prayer vigil in 2014. / Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 11:06 am (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Iraqi bishop says imposing Iran regime change ‘can only worsen the situation’

Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, issued a stark criticism of calls for regime change in Iran following the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

“Imposing another regime would only worsen the situation. Change must come from within, if the citizens deem it necessary,” Sako told Agenzia Fides. “Twenty-two years after the fall of the regime in Iraq, there is still no true citizenship, no law, no security, and no stability. Corruption and sectarianism persist.”

Damascus church bombing exposes deepening distrust and rising extremism

Following the deadly bombing at Mar Elias Orthodox Church in Damascus, tensions have grown not just over the attack itself but over who is responsible.

Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X Yazigi condemned the Syrian government in a powerful funeral homily, according to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, for failing to protect its citizens, signaling an unusually bold rebuke.

Although Syrian authorities claimed ISIS was behind the attack and arrested several suspects, many locals remain skeptical, especially since the group has not publicly claimed responsibility. Amid these conflicting narratives, a lesser-known extremist group, “Saraya Ansar al-Sunna,” claimed the attack on Telegram, citing sectarian motivations. Observers suspect ties between the attackers and radical factions once part of larger militant coalitions.

Pakistani Christian convicted of blasphemy 23 years ago is freed

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has freed Anwar Kenneth, a Pakistani Christian man who was arrested in 2001 for writing letters that had allegedly “blasphemous” content about Muhammad and the Quran according to the Islamic country’s stringent laws. 

Despite Kenneth being diagnosed with a mental illness, a lower court sentenced him to death in 2002 and later upheld the sentence in 2014, according to a report from UCA News. His lawyer, Rana Abdul Hameed, said he will be released next week. “Although doctors had declared him insane at the time of the alleged offense, he kept confessing and pleading to be hanged, which complicated the trial,” she said. 

Indian police charge 9 Catholic priests with ‘unlawful assembly’ 

Police in India have charged nine Catholic priests for causing public disturbance through “unlawful assembly” for joining a protest in the coastal town of Chellanam in the communist-ruled Kerala state, according to UCA News. 

More than 150 priests and 5,000 mostly lay Catholics joined the protest against the government for “[failing] to protect around 500 homes from possible submergence in the Arabian Sea due to coastal erosion.”

Vice President of the Kerala Region Latin Catholic Council Joseph Jude was also charged. “This is totally a false case and we cannot be silenced with it,” he said, highlighting that the government’s failure to rebuild will impact “several thousand” mostly Catholic fishermen in the area, leaving them homeless.

Catholic bishops urge Kenyan government not to ignore police brutality 

Catholic bishops in Kenya have cautioned the government against denying police brutality and silent killings of innocent Kenyans, including peaceful protesters, ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, reported.

In a statement the bishops read out in turns at a June 24 press conference on the state of the nation, they declared that “the government must acknowledge the fact that there have been mysterious deaths under their watch and at least try to get to the perpetrators.” The bishops’ statement comes nationwide after the murder of Albert Ojwang, a teacher and blogger who was arrested and killed in police custody.

Caritas in Papua New Guinea works to end witchcraft accusations, violence

Caritas Papua New Guinea is working to end the widespread problem of violence provoked by false accusations of witchcraft in the province of Simbu, “one of the most affected provinces,” where hundreds of cases are recorded each year, according to an Agenzia Fides report.  

Bishop Paul Sundu of the Diocese of Kundiawa explained in the report that accusations of witchcraft in the region are a commonplace means “to get rid of enemies, block their success in business, education, or politics.” Witchcraft accusations have also been linked to gender-based violence against women, the report noted. 

Judy Gelua, diocesan coordinator of Caritas in the Diocese of Kundiawa, noted Caritas’ successful efforts to promote change by providing “guidance on human rights, peace-building, and the protection of minors, women, and vulnerable people,” resulting in the level of violence “slowly declining.”

Monsignor Vito Buonanno and Dee Steel pose before the Lego model of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, June 24, 2025. / Credit: Paris Apodaca/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is offering specialized guided tours for deaf and blind visitors, giving immersive and sensory experiences to make the sacred site more accessible.

The Deaf and Blind Tour Initiative, which began holding tours in April, includes American Sign Language (ASL)-interpreted guides for those who are deaf and tactile stations for those who are blind, allowing participants to engage with statues, mosaics, and sacred art through touch and sight. 

These tours mark the first of their kind in the U.S., Monsignor Vito Buonanno, the director of pilgrimages for the shrine, told CNA.

The project idea was created by volunteer docent Marilyn Lasecki, ASL interpreter Katy Betker, and with the support of Monsignor Walter Rossi, the rector of the shrine.

Inspired by Vatican accessibility

The root of the idea took shape in 2021 when Lasecki decided to launch the project in honor of her late father, Leonard, who worked with deaf people when he was alive. In her research, she discovered that the Vatican Museums are recognized for their accommodations for deaf and blind visitors. Motivated by that model, the basilica’s staff began planning their own adaptation.

In March, Dee Steel, the director of the basilica’s Office of Visitor Services, traveled to Rome and met with the Vatican’s tour director to study their tactile systems firsthand.

“Both the Deaf and Blind communities are greatly underserved by museums and church communities,” Lasecki told CNA. “The Vatican Museums are at the top of the list for welcoming both the deaf and the blind, with specialized tours.” 

For deaf visitors, volunteer docents work alongside Betker to guide groups through the church. To improve accessibility, Betker helped adapt the docents’ scripts to better suit ASL grammar.

“There is not a word-for-word translation. It’s because they are two very different languages,” Betker said. Tour guides “have to not only change [the] word order around [but also] change a lot of the way that they speak and with their script for the tours.”

She also advised docents on subtle adjustments that enhance communication, like waiting for a deaf participant to finish observing a site before continuing with spoken commentary.

Steel recounted one docent’s realization during a tour: “When somebody is signing what you say, you have to make sure the people are looking at the signer.”

During one of the first tours, Father Michael Depcik — a deaf priest and chaplain from the Archdiocese of Baltimore — concelebrated Mass at the basilica. Depcik emphasized that having direct communication in ASL allowed deaf Catholics to fully experience the liturgy.

“Usually, they would go through an interpreter, but it’s not the same,” the priest told CNA. “The Deaf are finally able to connect directly for the full immersion into the experience with these assets.”

He also highlighted the importance of the sensory experience. “The Deaf are very visual,” he said. 

When asked about smells like incense, Depcik told CNA: “It’s like music for the eyes — the smells and the art, it’s all a very important part of the experience of the Deaf.”

The basilica also created tactile experiences for blind visitors with the help of Father Mike Joly, a blind priest from St. Joan of Arc Parish in Yorktown, Virginia. 

The tour for the blind features 15 hands-on stations, including the Founder’s Chapel, the Our Mother of Africa statue, and the Our Lady of Pompei Chapel.

This tour starts with a scale model of the basilica built from over 10,000 Lego bricks by artist John Davisson. It will be on display on the crypt level to help visitors visualize the structure’s layout and the scale of the building. 

Buonanno described Joly’s visit to the Founder’s Chapel. Staff removed ropes so he could explore the marble sarcophagus of Bishop Thomas Shahan by touch.

“[Joly] realized — he was blind at 7 years old, so he had seven years of seeing — but he never knew the feel of a miter, that it’s two sides,” Buonanno said.

In the Our Mother of Africa chapel, there are faces of the four Evangelists that people can touch as well as the statue of the Blessed Mother and the Christ Child. 

Joly helped staff reinterpret sacred artwork. “We always thought of Jesus as pointing toward another piece of artwork, but [Joly] felt the finger and said, ‘Jesus is giving a blessing,” Steel recalled.

“[Joly] saw more with his hands than we saw with our eyes,” Steel commented.

The priest “taught us things… that is the beautiful interaction with this,” Buonanno added. 

With the tours now underway, the basilica hopes to raise awareness and expand participation.

The facility wants to “expand [the initiative], make it more known,” Buonanno said. “It’s just so that more people can know that it exists.”

Doug Keck hosts an episode of “EWTN Bookmark” on May 8, 2025. After a 29-year career at the network, EWTN announced June 26, 2025, that Keck will retire from his administrative duties as president and chief operating officer of EWTN. Keck will receive the honorary title of president emeritus and will continue to host “EWTN Bookmark” as well as co-host “Father Spitzer’s Universe.” / Credit: “EWTN Bookmark”/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Jun 26, 2025 / 19:11 pm (CNA).

The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) announced June 26 that after a distinguished 29-year career at the network, Doug Keck will retire from his administrative duties as president and chief operating officer. He also will step down as a member of the EWTN board of governors.

Keck joined EWTN in 1996 following a career in cable television, sports, and media in New York City. His tenure saw the network, founded in 1981 by Mother Angelica, evolve into an award-winning global powerhouse, becoming the largest Catholic media organization in the world.

During Keck’s tenure, EWTN (CNA’s parent company) expanded its reach across television, radio, and digital platforms, producing notable initiatives such as “Life on the Rock,” “EWTN Bookmark,” and “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” the pioneering show of the network’s broader news programming.

In 2013, Keck was named president and chief operating officer after serving since 2009 as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“On behalf of the entire EWTN family around the globe, I want to thank Doug for keeping the mission of EWTN our No. 1 priority over the years and never compromising in sharing the truth of the Gospel for views or clicks,” EWTN Board Chairman and CEO Michael Warsaw said in a statement. “EWTN is better off today for his contributions and for his dedication to our mission.”

Keck, who has also served as president and chief operating officer of EWTN Religious Catalogue and EWTN Publishing, was also a member of the board of governors of the various EWTN entities. Keck will receive the honorary title of president emeritus and will continue to host “EWTN Bookmark” as well as co-host “Father Spitzer’s Universe.”

“This announcement is one of many that will usher in the next generation of talent to EWTN,” Warsaw continued. “While this is a moment of change, I am excited about the future of our global team and how we are building upon the past to carry out our mission for future generations. Doug remains a member of the EWTN family and will continue to mentor the up-and-coming leaders in the Catholic media landscape.”

About EWTN

EWTN, now in its 44th year, is the largest Catholic media organization in the world. Its 11 global TV channels broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in multiple languages, reaching over 435 million households in more than 160 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 600 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; one of the most visited Catholic websites in the U.S.; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division. 

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., EWTN News operates multiple global news services, including Catholic News Agency; The National Catholic Register newspaper and digital platform; ACI Prensa in Spanish; ACI Digital in Portuguese; ACI Stampa in Italian; ACI Africa in English, French, and Portuguese; ACI MENA in Arabic; CNA Deutsch in German; and ChurchPop, a digital platform that creates content in several languages. It also produces numerous television news programs including “EWTN News Nightly,” “EWTN Noticias,” “EWTN News In Depth,” “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” and “Vaticano.”

Marriage supporters rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building during oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, April 28, 2015. / Credit: Addie Mena/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 18:02 pm (CNA).

The United States Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, decided that every state is constitutionally required to perform and recognize same-sex civil marriages — a controversial ruling at the time that was followed by major shifts in cultural norms and public opinion.

When the justices handed down the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in a 5-4 decision, only 16 states had already enacted laws legalizing same-sex civil marriage. The practice, however, had been ongoing in 21 additional states because lower courts had ruled against most state-level bans prior to the Supreme Court ruling.

In the aftermath of the ruling, some Christians have been sued for adhering to biblical teachings on marriage and human sexuality in relation to anti-discrimination laws. Broader movements to normalize both homosexuality and transgenderism have also led to legal battles over parental rights, women’s rights, and religious liberty.

A decade later, public support for same-sex marriage is higher than it was. Yet some polling has shown that the trend might be reversing, potentially due to the subsequent cultural battles that followed.

The United States post-Obergefell

Ever since the ruling, efforts to prevent discrimination have repeatedly been at odds with religious liberty and parental rights.

In Colorado, for example, a baker named Jack Phillips fought and won three multiyear lawsuits filed against him for refusing to bake cakes for same-sex civil weddings and gender transition celebrations. A Christian photographer in New York and a web designer in Colorado, along with others, also fought and won multiyear lawsuits based on their refusals to provide services for same-sex civil weddings.

Many legal battles on similar issues are still ongoing. Foster parents in Vermont and a mother looking to adopt in Oregon are suing their states over policies that require them to embrace gender ideology to participate in foster programs. Parents in California are suing the state over a law that prohibits teachers from informing parents about their children’s “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

The Supreme Court is considering a case in which a Maryland school board is refusing to let parents opt children out of course material that promotes homosexuality and transgenderism. 

There are numerous political and legal battles nationwide over policies that allow biological males who self-identify as transgender women to access women’s locker rooms and other private spaces and allow them to participate in female sporting events.

“Obergefell gave license to the unraveling of social norms and understanding around sexual morality, family structure, and even personal identity,” Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told CNA.

In Hasson’s view, the Supreme Court, equating a same-sex partnership with a marriage, “emboldened activists promoting the transgender agenda, which claims a ‘trans woman’ is just the same as a woman.”

“The same personal autonomy claims that license same-sex sexual relationships are used to license self-defined identity claims,” she said.

When the decision was laid down in 2015, about 60% of the public supported legal recognition of same-sex marriages, according to a Gallup poll at the time. This was a major shift over the previous two decades, as support was only around 37% in 2005 and as low as 27% in 1996.

A May 2025 Gallup poll shows that support increased to about 68% a decade later. Even though that’s an eight-point increase over the decade, the pollsters found that support has gone down for two years straight after hitting a peak of 71% support in 2022 and 2023, with the bulk of the decrease coming from Republican voters and young people.

When commenting on the decline in support over the past two years, Hasson said that “perhaps the excesses of sexual libertinism, championed by the rainbow groups and on display in pride parades, demonstrate that same-sex sexual relationships are not the same as marriage.”

Arthur Schaper, the field director for the pro-family group MassResistance, told CNA he sees “a growing movement against this,” mostly because “people are starting to see the consequences of it.”

“This kind of stuff is happening all over,” he said, referring to the imposition of gender ideology and homosexuality in public life. “This is just egregious.”

“Everything that we warned everybody about — what would happen if you redefined a fundamental institution and corrupted it — it has come to pass,” Schaper added.

Efforts to overturn Obergefell

The Supreme Court has not revisited Obergefell since the initial ruling, and Hasson expressed some pessimism about the current makeup of the court, saying it’s “unlikely to muster a majority to overturn” the decision.

Yet some groups, including MassResistance, have been encouraging state lawmakers to adopt resolutions urging the Supreme Court to reevaluate the ruling. Lawmakers in at least nine states have introduced such resolutions. The Idaho House and the North Dakota House passed their resolutions, but most efforts have failed to gain steam.

“We see this as a first step and we’re doubling down on our efforts,” Schaper said. “And we’re going to continue fighting this.”

Schaper said some of the arguments against the decision focus on 10th Amendment claims that the regulation of marriage is a state issue and not a federal one. He also referenced some of the dissenting opinions from the court that suggested the ruling “alters the relationship of citizen to government” by asserting “the government [rather than God] gives freedom, the government gives dignity.”

He said Obergefell is also “based on this fraud that people are genetically homosexual” and treats sexuality as though it is an immutable characteristic like race. He criticized Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan for not recusing themselves from the case despite officiating same-sex civil weddings and reiterated the point that “redefining marriage has led to an imposition of values.”

Jennifer Morse, the president of the Ruth Institute, told CNA she believes “removing the gender requirement from marriage was bad public policy” and said Obergefell should be overturned.

In Morse’s view, a legal recognition of same-sex marriage “promotes the idea that the sex of the body is not significant, even for the most gendered thing we do, namely bearing and begetting children and assigning legal parental rights.”

“If the sex of the body doesn’t matter for marriage, it doesn’t matter on the sporting field, or in the locker room or in the prisons,” Morse said. “In this way, Obergefell paved the way for the excesses of the [transgender] movement.” 

Morse also expressed concerns about the effect on children, saying that same-sex marriage distorts “how we see fertility, parenthood, and children” and “it tacitly assumes that biological connections between parents and children are unimportant and in fact negotiable.”

“Rather than seeing each and every child being a gift from God, children are increasingly seen as a lifestyle option for adults, who can acquire children pretty much however they like,” she added, referencing adoption by same-sex couples.

“Redefining marriage redefines parenthood,” Morse said. “Contracts among groups of adults, rather than an act of love between parents, form the basis of parenthood.”

Schaper argued that in the early 2000s, conservative arguments for traditional marriage were mostly weak and simply focused on “tradition or preference or religion.” In reality, he said the support for same-sex marriage is “putting your selfish desires ahead of the needs of children, of public health, and public order.”

“If people just stand their ground and stand for truth, we can win,” he added.

Catholic Church teaching

In spite of consistent Church teaching, American Catholics support the legalization of same-sex civil marriages at about the same rate as the broader population. According to a 2024 Pew poll, about 70% of self-identified Catholics said they support same-sex marriage, which was slightly higher than the population as a whole.

Julia Dezelski, the associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, told CNA these trends are a “downstream effect of cultural distortions of love for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.”

“The Church can address this issue by demonstrating that love for people who experience same-sex attraction is precisely what motivates us to oppose same-sex sexual activity,” she said. “The Church teaches the truth and beauty of human sexuality because it is true and beautiful, and therefore good for every man and woman.”

“Man and woman are created for communion,” Dezelski added. “The natural law inscribes this reality and desire in our very flesh. It finds its fulfillment in the one-flesh union of man and woman in marriage. Only two people of the opposite sex can experience this one-flesh union, from which the miracle of life is born.”

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.

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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.

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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.