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CNA Staff, Aug 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news in the United States:

Illinois man faces homicide charge after allegedly poisoning girlfriend, unborn child with abortion pill

A 31-year-old Illinois man has been arrested for homicide of an unborn child after allegedly poisoning his girlfriend with abortion pills.

Police in Bloomington, Illinois, arrested Emerson Evans after police found the girlfriend in a bathroom with what appeared to be a human fetus in the toilet on Aug. 22, according to court documents.

The girlfriend, who was seven weeks pregnant, told police that the boyfriend had told her he wanted her to have an abortion, but she did not want an abortion. Evans has been charged with intentional homicide of an unborn child after allegedly poisoning his girlfriend and their child.

With the rise of the abortion pill, similar cases have been documented across the United States. In Texas this summer, two men are being charged for poisoning the mothers of their children with the abortion pill, leading to the deaths of their unborn children.

Illinois governor mandates that chemical abortion pills be offered on public college campuses

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law mandating that public universities offer chemical abortion and contraceptives this school year.

The new law requires all public colleges to offer abortion pills on their on-campus pharmacies and at student health centers. Pritzker also expanded shield laws protecting abortionists from laws in pro-life states.

On-campus student activism prompted the abortion pill mandate on college campuses, according to a local report. Recent graduates of a local public college testified in support of the bill after a student referendum question brought the issue to their campus.

Local bishop calls allegations that public school-funded student abortions ‘deeply troubling’

A local bishop has voiced concern over a report that a Virginia public school facilitated and funded abortion procedures for students.  

The report, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington said during a recent podcast, is “deeply troubling.”

Staff at Centreville High School, part of the Fairfax County Public Schools system, arranged abortions for two pregnant high school girls in 2021, according to a report by Walter Curt Dispatch Investigations from earlier this month.

According to the investigative report, one of the girls, who was 17 years old at the time, had an abortion after a school official brought her to an abortion facility.

“How terrible that the minors may have been advised or even provided funds to end the life of a child,” Burbidge said. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is investigating the report as state law protects minors from having abortions without parental consent. 

“The governor has rightly called for a full investigation, and we will await the outcome,” Burbidge said. 

Texas ‘Women and Child Protection Act’ closing abortion pill loophole advances

Texas lawmakers are advancing a bill to stop mail-order abortion pills amid the illegal abortion pill crisis.

The bill would enable Texas to shut down abortion pill companies that are sending abortion pills to Texas, where the law protects unborn children from abortion in most cases. 

The bill would also enable women who are harmed by illegal abortions to sue, according to Texas Right to Life.   

The Women and Child Protection Act, which was put forward by state Rep. Jeff Leach and sponsored by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, will head to the House floor next.  

Texas Right to Life said in a statement that abortion businesses “ship lethal pills into Texas illegally from other states and countries — to the tune of at least 19,000 orders of abortion drugs each year.” 

New Jersey pregnancy centers challenge state attorney general investigation 

Five New Jersey pregnancy centers filed an opening brief in the U.S. Supreme Court alleging that their state attorney general targeted them with an “unconstitutional investigation” in which the government demanded personal information of donors and other confidential documents. 

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, the collective of five faith-based pregnancy centers, challenged state Attorney General Matthew Platkin for issuing a subpoena demanding that First Choice disclose names, addresses, places of employment, and phone numbers of donors as well as up to 10 years of internal confidential documents, according to a press release. 

The opening brief also alleges that Platkin made an attempt “to manufacture procedural roadblocks to evade federal court review” and displayed an “undisguised animosity” toward the pregnancy centers.

Aimee Huber, executive director of First Choice, said in a statement that the attorney general has been “pursuing a personal and political vendetta” against them for more than two years.

Senior Counsel Erin Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal nonprofit arguing on behalf of First Choice, added that the attorney general was “targeting” the pregnancy center.

Washington D.C., Aug 29, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The 2025 EWTN Catholic Radio Conference has drawn hundreds of attendees to Washington, D.C., this week to discuss and learn more about Catholic radio as an evangelization tool.

During the conference, attendees have had the opportunity “to network with each other, learn things from each other, and discuss things that have worked, and things that haven’t worked, in Catholic radio,” EWTN Radio General Manager Jack Williams told CNA. 

Among the attendees, Williams said about 65 are associated with affiliate stations who carry the network’s radio programming in different parts of the country. He noted that many of them didn’t necessarily start off their careers in radio but are people who “heeded Mother Angelica’s call.”

On a live EWTN broadcast in 1995, hosted by network foundress Mother Angelica, “she put out the call that if anybody had, or could procure, an AM or FM radio station she would give them the programming for free. And that’s essentially what we’ve been doing since 1996,” Williams said. “By the end of that year, she had six people; now we have over 440 affiliates around the country.”

The conference always starts with a retreat day, and this year the group gathered for their retreat at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The days following the retreat have included workshops and professional development opportunities on various topics.

The topics discussed are tailored to what the attendees want to learn more about based on a sampling of affiliate groups that EWTN calls the “Affiliate Advisory Team.” They “meet on a monthly basis and talk about various issues facing the radio world in general, and Catholic radio in particular,” Williams explained.

“We use feedback from that group to help plan the topics for the workshops and the things that we think will best suit the operators that will help to propel them forward.”

Along with the workshops, the conference welcomed various speakers, including EWTN Chairman of the Board and CEO Michael Warsaw and EWTN News Vice President and Editorial Director Matthew Bunson.

During his Aug. 28 keynote address, Bunson, who hosts the network’s weekly “Register Radio” program, reviewed the relationship various popes have had with radio and how their work can serve as a guide for radio professionals.

The popes have “understood that radio had a role to evangelize, to proclaim Christ Jesus, to lead a profound cultural service, a service to truth, to justice, and to human dignity,” Bunson noted.

The popes’ work in radio dates back to Pope Pius X in 1931 when he began his broadcast that allowed him to speak “directly to the faithful across continents.”

Then in 1957, Pope Pius XII continued to “highlight the importance” of religious radio. Bunson said: “He exhorted bishops to increase and enhance programs, deal with Catholic affairs, and emphasize the need for well-trained priests and laity in the fields, seeing radio as a new means to fulfill Christ’s command to preach the Gospel.”

Pius XII “underscored a fundamental principle” that technology, when ethically used, can be “a powerful ally in the service of faith,” Bunson explained. 

“In the Second Vatican Council’s important 1964 document about the means of social communications, the famous document Inter Mirifica, the bishops made sure to include radio in the list of the great forms of expression that have to be put to use by the Church ... [to] reach and influence not only individuals but a whole human society.”

Pope Paul VI “expressed even more vividly the power of radio. He wrote: ‘TV and radio, they have given society new patterns of communication. They have changed ways of life ... broadcasters have access to the minds and the hearts of everyone.’”

Pope John Paul II “further articulated Catholic radio’s mission, stating that it is entrusted with the task of ‘proclaiming the Christian message with freedom, fidelity, and efficacy.’”

Bunson said Catholic radio and other forms of Catholic social communication “have an obligation to understand the real media landscape.” It “requires continuous adaptation, updating, solid human, cultural, professional, and spiritual formation to the community.”

By reflecting on the popes, those working in Catholic radio can learn “to have clarity in self-identity, to be as professional as possible, [and] to follow the call of the Second Vatican Council to utilize all the means of social communications that are before us.”

Bunson added: “Authentic Catholic radio … must be built on from the ground up with a strong Catholic identity.”

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ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 29, 2025 / 05:10 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV expressed his gratitude to receive the Medal of St. Augustine, awarded by the United States Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, and affirmed that the spirituality of the doctor of the Church has marked his life and ministry.

“To be recognized as an Augustinian, it’s an honor held dearly. So much of who I am I owe to the spirit and the teachings of St. Augustine,” he said in a video message shared on St. Augustine’s feast day, Aug. 28.

The Augustinian Province said on Facebook that the Medal of St. Augustine is the highest honor the province can bestow, “given to those who embody the spirit and teachings of St. Augustine, living with deep commitment to truth, unity, and charity.”

The province added: “From his early years in formation to his decades of service in Peru, leadership as prior general, and now as the first Augustinian pope, Pope Leo XIV has witnessed to a life of generosity, faith, and service. In him, we see a true son of Augustine — dedicated to building unity in the Church, teaching with wisdom, and shepherding with a heart rooted in love. We are honored to bestow upon him this award.”

In his video message, recorded from Castel Gandolfo, where he spent a few days of prayer and rest in mid-August, the pope recalled that the life of St. Augustine still inspires the faithful today.

“His life was full of much trial and error, like our own lives. But through God’s grace, through the prayers of his mother, Monica, and the community of good people around him, Augustine was able to find the way to peace for his restless heart,” he said.

Leo emphasized that the example of St. Augustine invites us to put our talents at the service of others: “The life of St. Augustine and his call to servant leadership reminds us that we all have God-given gifts and talents, and our purpose, fulfillment, and joy comes from offering them back in loving service to God and to our neighbor.”

He assured the members of the Augustinian province that they are called to continue the legacy of the first Augustinians in the United States — such as Father Matthew Carr and Father John Rosseter — whose missionary spirit led them to proclaim the Gospel to immigrants in Philadelphia: “Jesus reminds us in the Gospel to love our neighbor, and this challenges us now more than ever to remember to see our neighbors today with the eyes of Christ: that all of us are created in the image and likeness of God through friendship, relationship, dialogue, and respect for one another.”

He also encouraged the U.S. Augustinians to become instruments of reconciliation. “As a community of believers and inspired by the charism of the Augustinians, we are called to go forth to be peacemakers in our families and neighborhoods and truly recognize God’s presence in one another.”

The pope emphasized the importance of listening, following the advice of St. Augustine: “It is within our hearts where God speaks to us.” He added: “The world is full of noise, and our heads and hearts can be flooded with many different kinds of messages. These messages can fuel our restlessness and steal our joy. As a community of faith … may we strive to filter the noise, the divisive voices in our heads and hearts, and open ourselves up to the daily invitations to get to know God and God’s love better.”

The pontiff expressed his confidence that, like Augustine, every believer can find in God the strength to overcome anxiety, darkness, and doubt, and “through God’s grace, we can discover that God’s love is truly healing. Let us strive to build a community where that love is made visible.”

Leo XIV concluded his message by asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, and by offering a prayer for the Church: “May God bless you all and bring peace to your restless hearts, and help you continue to build a community of love, one in mind and heart, intent upon on God.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Pope Leo XIV praised the virtue of listening before speaking as he received an award Thursday from his Augustinian religious order in the United States on the feast day of St. Augustine.