A new documentary series warns about the dangers of chemical abortions, as the Biden Administration has recently removed restrictions on the abortion pill regimen during the pandemic.
In an “emergency broadcast” by pro-life organizations on Tuesday evening which introduced the series, the president of the group Students for Life, Kristan Hawkins, warned that deregulating the abortion pill regimen would lead to a “domino effect throughout America.”
Dr. Christina Francis, chairman of the board of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the lifting of the safety regulations would be “an absolute attack on women’s health in this country.”
Dr. Francis said that if the federal regulations on the abortion pill are lifted, the abortion pill could be available over-the-counter or on internet websites. The pro-life movement’s push for abortion regulations across the country would effectively be rendered “moot,” she said.
The documentary series premiered directly after the broadcast on Tuesday evening on thisischemicalabortion.com. The series was produced by Charlotte Pence Bond, daughter of former Vice President Mike Pence, and the groups Students for Life and Heartbeat International both partnered in the production.
The June 22 broadcast featured pro-life speakers, politicians, medical, and legal experts sharing information about the dangers of chemical abortion. They also discussed abortion pill reversal, and the Biden administration’s recent move to deregulate the abortion pill regimen.
Since the year 2000, the regimen has been listed on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program, reserved for higher-risk drugs and procedures. As part of the REMS protocol, the regimen has to be prescribed and dispensed in-person, in a health clinic setting, by a certified prescriber.
In April, however, acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock announced that the administration would “exercise enforcement discretion” on the regimen during the COVID-19 public health emergency, allowing the protocol to be prescribed and dispensed remotely during the pandemic.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, expressed support for allowing the regimen to be prescribed remotely through telemedicine and dispensed through the mail or by mail-order pharmacies, beyond the pandemic, at his Feb. 23 confirmation hearing.
Hosted by the former CEO of 40 Days for Life, David Bereit, the 50-minute webcast on Tuesday focused on the consequences of the removal of the REMS procedures.
“This isn’t a bill that we can stop,” Hawkins said. “This is a mandate that’s coming down from President Biden’s administration.”
Tina Whittington, vice president of Students for Life, encouraged all viewers to sign a petition to the FDA to keep the safety regulations in place for chemical abortions. Signing the petition will hold back some of the “scourge” of mail-order abortions, Whittington said.
Dr. Brent Boles, the medical director at Heartbeat International, said that the abortion industry deceives people with faulty statistics about the abortion pill. He criticized the conclusion of former Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards in her 2018 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, that medication abortion is safer than taking Tylenol.
“If you want to make an accurate conclusion about abortion safety across the board, you have to have comprehensive and accurate statistics,” Boles said. “No such database exists in the United States.”
Boles said that only 28 states are required to report complications and deaths from abortion to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, “and there’s no enforcement mechanism in any of those 28 states that ensures compliance.” The other 22 states do not report deaths or complications from abortion at all, he said.
Denise Harle, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said the abortion industry was hypocritical in pushing to keep abortion clinics open during the pandemic as “essential” businesses, while advocating against the in-person requirements for abortion pill prescriptions.
Harle called out Becerra for his history of pushing for easy access to abortion pills as the former attorney general of California.
President of Heartbeat International, Jor-El Godsey, said the abortion industry has major incentives to promote mail-order abortion. Godsey said that the REMS protocol protected women so that they would be able to see a doctor and get evaluated before putting themselves at risk.
Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) said that he has introduced new legislation which would withhold federal dollars from universities unless they certify they are not providing chemical abortions on campus.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) called the Biden administration’s de-regulation of the abortion pill “political theatre,” in a pre-recorded speech for the webcast.
“Why are doctors required for all other medical prescriptions to inform women about the potential risks but not when they prescribe chemical abortion drugs?” Miller asked.
Bereit advised viewers to call on members of Congress to hold the FDA accountable, and to share the series “with everyone you know.”
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CNA Staff, Jul 14, 2020 / 05:41 pm (CNA).- With coronavirus cases spiking in California, the governor has issued new orders banning indoor events including public Masses in much of the state.
On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom suspended all indoor activities at restaurants, entertainment venues, museums, and zoos throughout the entire state. In 30 counties seeing the bulk of new cases, houses of worship, gyms, and hairdressers will also be forced to halt indoor operations.
These counties, which house 80% of California’s population, also cover several Catholic dioceses.
A July 13 letter from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to local parishes called the development “discouraging.” It instructed priests to discontinue indoor Masses, but noted that outdoor Masses and other prayers services, such as adoration, will be permitted.
“Parishes may continue to celebrate Confessions, First Communions, Confirmations, Funerals, and Weddings outdoors on the parish grounds. Parishioners must wear face coverings and practice social distancing, even outdoors,” the letter says.
The governor’s directive will also close parish offices to the public, but it will permit a small number of essential staff to continue employment in the office as long as social distancing requirements are followed.
The Los Angeles archdiocese has encouraged parish offices to communicate with parishioners, answer questions via phone, and “reassure individuals and families that our parishes are still there for them in prayer and to help with any needs they may have.”
Other dioceses in the state issued similar statements.
“I know this feels very discouraging for many of the faithful and I share in that pain,” said Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino. “Please be assured of my prayers and my solidarity with the people at this moment.”
“Let us continue to turn to God to console us in this time of uncertainty and testing. He is always with us and our faith in Him will guide us through this pandemic.”
California is one of a number of states that has begun seeing a rise in coronavirus cases after easing pandemic prevention measures in May.
Since the pandemic began, California has seen over 330,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 7,000 related deaths. There has been a 48% increase in cases in the past two weeks.
On Monday, California reported a 26% increase in COVID-19 related hospitalizations and a 19% increase in ICU patients during the last two weeks. The report stated that 72% of ventilators and 35% of ICU beds are still available.
Governor Newsom said Monday that the recent data is a cause for “caution and concern.” He said it is important that restriction decisions be based on local data and conditions.
“We’re moving back into a modification mode of our original stay-at-home order, but doing so utilizing what is commonly referred to as a ‘dimmer switch,’ not an ‘on and off switch,’” he said, according to NPR.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has also emphasized the dangers of the virus, encouraging parishioners to pray and take efforts to remain healthy.
“This is also a good time to remind all of our parishioners that the risk of coronavirus is real, and it is dangerous. While these Orders are discouraging and disappointing, this is the time to pray for one another, trust in Jesus, and focus on the care and love he has for each one of us,” the statement reads.
“May Jesus, through the intercession of Mary, Queen of the Angels, continue to bless our parishes and loved ones with good health, joy, and peace.”
“What’s the Eucharist?” Kent Shi, a 25-year-old Harvard graduate student, asked that question when he attended eucharistic adoration for the first time. The answer put him on a path to conversion. / Julia Monaco | CNA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Apr 16, 2022 / 09:03 am (CNA).
One convert’s journey to Catholicism began with an invitation to an ice-cream social.
Another says he instantly believed in the Real Presence the moment someone explained what the round object was that everyone was staring at during eucharistic adoration.
For a third, the poems of T.S. Eliot — and a seemingly random encounter with a priest on a public street — led to deeper questions about truth and faith.
Their paths differed but led them to the same destination: St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they are among 31 people set to be fully initiated into the Catholic Church during the Easter vigil Mass on Saturday, April 16.
That number of initiates is a record high for St. Paul’s, a nearly century-old Romanesque-style brick church whose bell tower looms over Harvard Square.
A scheduling backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is partly responsible for the size of this year’s group of catechumens (non-baptized) and candidates (baptized non-Catholics.) But Father Patrick J. Fiorillo, the parochial vicar at St. Paul’s, believes there’s more to it than that.
“There’s definitely a significant segment of people who started thinking more deeply about their lives and faith during COVID-19,” Fiorillo said. “So, coming out of Covid has given them the occasion to take the next step and move forward.”
Fiorillo is the undergraduate chaplain for the Harvard Catholic Center, a chaplaincy based at St. Paul’s for undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard University and other academic institutions in the area. This year, 17 of the 31 initiates are Harvard students.
“Everybody assumes that, because this is the Harvard Catholic Center, that everybody here is very smart and therefore has a very highly intellectual orientation towards their faith,” Fiorillo told CNA.
“That is definitely true of some people. But I would say the majority are not here because of intellectually thinking their way into the faith. Some are. But the majority are just kind of ordinary life circumstances, just seeking, questioning the ways of the world, and just trying to get in touch with this desire on their heart for something more,” he said.
Fiorillo says welcoming converts into the Church at the Easter vigil is one of the highlights of his ministry.
“It’s an honor. It gives me hope just seeing all this new life and new faith here. So much in one place,” he said.
“When I tell other people about it, it gives them hope to hear that many young people are still converting to Catholicism, and they’re doing it in a place as secular as Cambridge.”
Prior to the Easter vigil, CNA spoke with five of St. Paul’s newest converts. Here are their stories:
‘This is what I’ve been looking for’
Katie Cabrera, a 19-year-old Harvard freshman, told CNA that she was excited to experience the “transformative power of Christ through his body and blood” at Mass for the first time at the Easter vigil.
A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, she said she was baptized as a child and comes from a family of Dominican immigrants. Her father, who grew up in an extremely impoverished area, lacked a formal education, but always kept the traditions of the Catholic faith close to him in order to persevere in difficult times.
Her father’s love for her and his Catholic faith deeply inspired Cabrera, and served as an anchor for her faith throughout her life.
Growing up, however, Cabrera attended a non-denominational church with her mother. Because she felt the church’s teachings lacked an emphasis on God’s love and mercy, Cabrera eventually left.
“Even though I Ieft, I always knew that I believed in God,” Cabrera said. “So, I was at a place where I felt kind of lost, because I always had that faith, but I didn’t know what to do with it.”
“There was a void that existed in my heart,” says Katie Cabrera, a Harvard undergraduate student. She discovered what was missing when she started to get involved with the Harvard Catholic Center. Courtesy of Katie Cabrera
After she arrived at Harvard, she accepted a friend’s invitation to attend an ice-cream social at the Harvard Catholic Center — “and that was like, sort of, how it all started,” she told CNA.
Once she was added to the email list for the center’s events, she felt a “calling” that she “really wanted to officially become Catholic” after many difficult years without a faith community.
Catholic doctrine about the sacraments was no hurdle for Cabrera, as she credits Fiorillo with explaining the faith well.
“There was a void that existed in my heart,” she said. “As soon as Father Patrick started teaching about marriage and family, theology of the body, and the sacraments, I was like, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for my whole life.’”
‘What’s the Eucharist?’
“What is that thing on the thing?”
Kent Shi laughs when he recalls how perplexed he was the first time he attended eucharistic adoration at St. Mary’s of the Assumption in Cambridge.
Someone helpfully explained that what Shi was looking at was the Eucharist displayed inside a monstrance.
“What’s the Eucharist?” he wanted to know.
For many non-Catholics considering entering the Catholic Church, the Real Presence can be a major obstacle. But Kent Shi, a Harvard graduate student, says that once the Eucharist was explained to him, he instantly believed. Julia Monaco | CNA
For many non-Catholics considering entering the Catholic Church, the Real Presence can be a major obstacle.
Not Shi. He says that once the Eucharist was explained to him that day, he instantly believed.
Shi, 25, told CNA that he considered himself an agnostic for most of his life, meaning he neither believed nor disbelieved in God.
Between his first and second years as a graduate student in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, however, he accepted Christ and started attending services at a Presbyterian church.
One day in the summer of 2021, a crucifix outside St. Paul’s that Shi says he “must have passed multiple times a week for months and never noticed” caught his eye, and deeply moved him.
Shortly after, he accepted a friend’s invitation to attend eucharistic adoration at St. Mary’s even though he “didn’t know what adoration meant.” Unaware of what he was about to walk into, Shi asked a friend what the dress code was for adoration. His friend replied, “Respectful.”
And so, respectfully dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, Shi sat in the front row with his friend, only a few feet from the monstrance. That’s when the questions began.
It wasn’t long after that encounter that Shi began attending Mass at St. Paul’s and the parish’s RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) program. Shi asked CNA readers to pray for him and his fellow RCIA classmates.
“There’s a lot of prodigal sons and daughters here, so we would very much appreciate that,” he said, “especially me.”
Poetry and art opened the door
For Loren Brown, choosing to attend a secular university like Harvard proved to be “providential.”
The 25-year-old junior from La Center, Washington, said he comes from a “lapsed” Catholic family and wasn’t baptized.
He didn’t think much about the faith until the spring semester of his freshman year, when, he says, Catholic friends of his “began to question my lack of commitment to faith.”
Later, when students were sent home to take classes virtually due to the pandemic, he had time to reflect and began to read some of the books they’d recommended to him. The poetry of T.S. Eliot (his favorite set of poems being “Four Quartets”) and the “Confessions” by St. Augustine, in particular, “pulled me towards the faith,” he said.
Brown describes his conversion as a “gradual process” which backed him into a “logical corner.” But a chance meeting with a priest also played a pivotal role.
One day in the summer of 2021 while walking back to his dormitory he encountered a man wearing a priestly collar outside St. Paul’s Church on busy Mount Auburn Street.
It was Father George Salzmann, O.S.F.S., graduate chaplain of the Harvard Catholic Center.
“He asked me how I was doing, what I was studying, and we immediately found a common interest in St. Augustine,” Brown told CNA.
“You know, there’s this great window of St. Augustine inside St. Paul’s and you should come see it,” Brown remembers the gregarious priest telling him. Salzmann wound up giving Brown a brief tour of the church, which was completed in 1923.
Harvard undergraduate student Loren Brown describes his conversion to Catholicism as a “gradual process” which backed him into a “logical corner.” But a chance meeting with a priest also played a pivotal role. Courtesy of Loren Brown
The next week, Brown found himself sitting in a pew for his first Sunday Mass at St. Paul’s. He hasn’t missed a Sunday since, a routine that ultimately led him to join the RCIA program that fall.
Brown says he now realizes that coming to Harvard was about more than majoring in education.
“What I wanted out of Harvard has completely changed,” he said. “Instead of an education that prepares me for a job or a career, I want one that forms me as a moral being and a human.”
‘I can’t do this alone. Please help me.’
Verena Kaynig-Fittkau, 42, is a German immigrant who came to the U.S. 10 years ago with her husband to do her post-doctoral research in biomedical image processing at Harvard’s engineering school.
The couple settled in Cambridge, where they had their first child. Two subsequent pregnancies ended in miscarriage, however. That second loss was overwhelming for Kaynig-Fittkau, who says she was raised as a “secular Lutheran” without any strong faith.
“It broke me and a lot of my pride and made me realize that I can’t do things by myself,” she told CNA.
She found herself on knees one Thanksgiving, pleading with God. “I can’t do this alone,” she said. “Please help me.”
She says God answered her prayer by introducing her to another mother, who she met at a playground. She was a Christian who later invited Kaynig-Fittkau to attend services at a Presbyterian church in Somerville, Massachusetts.
In that church, there was a lot of emphasis on “faith alone,” she said. But Kaynig-Fittkau, who now works for Adobe and is the mother of two girls, kept questioning if her faith was deep enough.
A YouTube video about the Eucharist by Father Mike Schmitz sent Verena Kaynig-Fittkau on a path toward converting to Catholicism. Courtesy of Verena Kaynig-Fittkau
Then one day she stumbled upon a YouTube video titled “The hour that will change your life,” in which Father Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, known for his “Bible in a Year” podcast, speaks about the Eucharist.
Intrigued, she began watching similar videos by other Catholic speakers, including Father Casey Cole, O.F.M., Bishop Robert Barron, Matt Fradd, and Scott Hahn, each of whom drew her closer and closer to the Catholic faith.
Familiar with St. Paul’s from her days as a Harvard researcher and lecturer, she decided to attend Mass there one day, and made an appointment before she left to meet with Fiorillo.
When they met, Fiorillo answered all of her questions from what she calls “a list of Protestant problems with Catholicism.” She entered the RCIA program three weeks later.
Recalling her first experience attending eucharistic adoration, she said it felt “utterly weird” to be worshiping what she describes as “this golden sun.”
A conversation with a local Jesuit priest helped her better understand the Eucharist, however. Now she finds that spending time before the Blessed Sacrament is “amazing.”
“I am really, really, really excited for the Easter vigil,” Kaynig-Fittkau said. “I can’t wait, I have a big smile on my face just thinking about it.”
The rosary brought him peace
Another catechumen at St. Paul’s this year is Kyle Richard, 37, who lives in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston and works in a technology startup company downtown.
Although he grew up in a culturally Catholic hub in Louisiana, his parents left the Catholic faith and joined a Full Gospel church. Richard said he found the church “intimidating,” which led him eventually to leave Christianity altogether.
When Richard was in his mid-twenties, his father battled pancreatic cancer. Before he died, he expressed a wish to rejoin the Catholic Church. He never did confess his sins to a priest or receive the Anointing of the Sick, Richard recalls sadly. But years later, his non-believing son would remember his father’s yearning to return to the Church.
“I kind of filed that away for a while, but I never really let it go,” he said.
While Kyle Richard’s father was dying from pancreatic cancer, he returned to the Catholic faith, which made a lasting impression on his non-believing son. Courtesy of Kyle Richard
Initially, Richard moved even farther away from the Church. He said he became an atheist who thought that Christianity was simply “something that people used to just soothe themselves.”
Years later, while going through a divorce, he had a change of heart.
Feeling he ought to give Christianity “a fair shot,” he began saying the rosary in hopes of settling his anxiety. The prayer brought him peace, and became a gateway to the Catholic faith.
Before long, he was reading the Bible on the Vatican’s website, downloading prayer apps, and meditating on scripture.
A Google search brought him to St. Paul’s. Joining the RCIA program, he feels, was a continuation of his father’s expressed desire on his deathbed more than a decade ago.
“I think he would be proud, especially because he was born on April 16th and that is the date of the Easter vigil,” he said.
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 Ca… […]
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