Abortion

On April 20, Wesley J. Smith appeared on Ave Maria in the Afternoon, hosted by Marcus B. Peter, to discuss his recent article, “Bioethicists Argue That an Unborn Baby Is Merely a ‘Gestator’s’ Body Part.” Smith explains how the authors of a recent Journal of Medical Ethics article employed philosophy to redefine human life, defying the established definitions of science. He also explores the political and legislative implications if this changed definition is accepted. “We can make metaphysical claims, we can make moral claims,” Smith told Peter, “but they should not be such that we deny basic biology and, of course, the claim of a soul does nothing of the kind. But the claim that this is a mere body Read More ›

Anyone paying attention knows that the medical establishment does not believe in any restriction on abortion, and moreover, that it should be provided free anytime a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy. For example, a current editorial in The Lancet celebrates the editors’ view that more than 800 million women recently gaining better access to abortion, while decrying “barriers” such as waiting periods (and unstated, ultrasound imaging) that data shows, save the lives of unborn babies: Gains in legal access to abortion are worth celebrating. An analysis between 1994 and 2023 by Katy Mayall and colleagues showed an incredible trend towards the liberalisation of abortion laws across all regions of the world. 825 million women now have access to abortion Read More ›

The push for unlimited abortion access is now advancing beyond the issue of “choice.” A newly published article in Ethics, the University of Chicago Press’s prestigious peer-reviewed journal, argues that pregnant minors must abort — even if that requires coercion and force.

The authors, a University of British Columbia philosophy professor and an aspiring philosopher, emphasize the fact that minors are children. From “Justice for Girls: On Provision of Abortion as Adequate Care” (citations omitted, my emphases):

Both opponents of abortion and liberal defenders of a woman’s right to control her own body make a mistake in relation to impregnated children. They both overlook that an impregnated girl is a child. As such, the adults responsible for her care should never pressure or compel her to continue a pregnancy. Nor should they confront her with the three “options” of abortion, adoption, or mothering, as medical professionals are currently advised to do. Instead, her adult caregivers should view her impregnation as a malady and take steps to terminate it.

On the transgender issue, we are continually told — I don’t know about these particular authors’ views — that a minor girl can decide to have her puberty blocked or breasts removed. Somehow, when it comes to continuing a pregnancy, she can’t?

Do cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in jeopardy justify abortion? These are the hardest questions in the abortion debate: emotionally charged, deeply tragic, and often used to challenge the pro-life position. But how should we think about these cases from a medical, ethical, and human perspective? In this episode of Bioethics Babe, I sit down with Fr. Tad Pacholczyk, priest, neuroscientist, and Senior Ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, to take on these difficult questions head-on. We explore: If you’ve ever wondered how to think clearly and compassionately about the hardest cases, tune in to this discussion. For Episode Resources, please visit the episode page here. For more information, the latest episodes, and additional Read More ›

Planned Parenthood is having a rougher time than it once did. Fifty or so clinics have closed due to financial difficulties associated with defunding from the government. Not to worry! As reported in the New York Times — a California clinic is offering cosmetic procedures to help keep the doors open. First, the Times‘ reporter Alisha Haridasani Gupta, describes the core mission of PP clinics. Notice what she leaves out: Nationwide, Planned Parenthood, which provides birth control, preventive sexual health screenings, prenatal care and primary care for millions of patients, many of them on Medicaid, is facing enormous challenges. These include significant cuts to Medicaid reimbursements, increased costs of treatments and staffing, and a “hostile political environment,” said Angela Vasquez-Giroux, Read More ›

After restricting funding for primate research for ethical reasons, the National Institutes of Health has followed up by banning funding of fetal tissue research. From the NIH press release:

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced a new policy ending the use of human fetal tissue in NIH-supported research, marking a significant milestone in the Trump Administration’s efforts to modernize biomedical science and accelerate innovate.

Effective immediately, NIH funds will no longer be used to support research involving human fetal tissue from elective abortions. The policy applies across the NIH Intramural Research Program and all NIH-supported extramural research, including grants, cooperative agreements, other transaction awards, and research and development contracts.

We have to remember the gruesomeness of some of this research: For example, the experiments in which the scalps of 20-week aborted fetuses were grafted onto rodents.

What is the real human cost of abortion—especially chemical abortion? In this powerful and deeply personal conversation, Toni McFadden shares her abortion story with unflinching honesty. As a teenager facing an unplanned pregnancy, Toni had a chemical abortion believing it was the only way out. What followed wasn’t relief—but years of silence, trauma, emotional grief, and spiritual brokenness. Toni recounts what the abortion pill experience was really like, the isolation she felt, the long road of unhealed pain, and how abortion affected not only her—but also the child’s father, her future marriage, and her family. She also shares how a slow, unexpected encounter with faith led to real post-abortion healing, forgiveness, and redemption. This episode confronts the human cost of Read More ›

What’s really happening to women and girls in China? In this episode, I sit down with Reggie Littlejohn, Yale-trained attorney and founder of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, to expose what many experts call the greatest crime against women in the world. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is a global coalition fighting to end forced abortion, gendercide, and sexual slavery in China. Reggie is widely recognized as an international expert on China’s One-Child Policy—now the Three-Child Policy. Reggie is also the founder and president of the Anti-Globalist Alliance, an international counterforce to the Great Reset, and the co-founder of the Sovereignty Coalition, a non-partisan movement dedicated to defending U.S. national sovereignty and personal medical freedom against threats both foreign and domestic. For Read More ›

When you hear the word feminism, what comes to mind? This episode launches a multi-part series digging into the real history of feminism: what the early feminists actually believed, how modern feminism drifted, and the bioethical fallout in the realms of sex, contraception, abortion, and women’s place in society. In this powerful conversation, legal scholar, mother of seven, and one of the most compelling voices speaking into women’s rights Erika Bachiochi uncovers the forgotten roots of the early feminist movement. These women understood something our culture has lost: that equality is something deeper than sameness, and freedom isn’t about escaping responsibility. They believed in a moral vision rooted in human dignity, virtue, and the profound responsibilities that emerge from sex, Read More ›

What if everything you’ve heard about the abortion pill isn’t the full story? Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions are chemical abortions. Board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Donna Harrison, Director of Research for the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), joins Bioethics Babe to pull back the curtain on chemical abortion — from how mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol actually work in a woman’s body, to the hidden complications women face, to the behind-the-scenes schemes at the upper echelons of power that took place to get the abortion pill to America. Did you know that the Population Council created a Cayman Islands shell company called Danco in order to get mifepristone to the U.S.? Did you know that taxpayer dollars helped Read More ›