Euthanasia prevention, other life issues promoted at 2026 March for Life

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, attends the March for Life on Jan. 23, 2026. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Alex SchadenbergJan 23, 2026 / 18:14 pm (CNA).A broad range of life issues from abortion to euthanasia and more were represented at the March for Life 2026 in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, expressed concern about a number of states across the country poised to legalize assisted suicide. "There are many states that the death lobby will be pushing for assisted suicide in 2026," he said. "In 2026 we are very concerned about Virginia, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Connecticut, and other states," he said, adding: "2026 will require a unified effort to stop the expansion of killing by assisted suicide poisoning." Ashley Kollme, a mother of five children from Bethesda, Maryland, shared the story of her pregnancy with her youngest daughter, Sophia, who is 2 years old...

Department of Health and Human Services bars funding research using fetal tissue

Credit: JHVEPhoto/ShutterstockJan 23, 2026 / 18:34 pm (CNA).The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Thursday that it will stop funding research that uses fetal tissue of aborted babies.Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director, said in a Jan. 22 statement that the agency has "reexamined its approach related to the use of human fetal tissue in federally funded research.""This decision is about advancing science by investing in breakthrough technologies more capable of modeling human health and disease," Bhattacharya added. "Under President Trump's leadership, taxpayer-funded research must reflect the best science of today and the values of the American people."HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited ethical and scientific reasons for the change."HHS is ending the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions in agency-funded research and replacing it with gold-standard science," Kennedy said in a Jan. 23 stat...

2026 March for Life: Some of this year's best pro-life signs

Pro-lifers hold their signs up at the March for Life Rally on Jan. 23, 2026. | Credit: Tessa Gervasini/EWTN NewsJan 23, 2026 / 18:54 pm (CNA).Thousands of pro-lifers attended the  53rd annual March for Life on Friday in Washington, D.C. The 2026 event's theme was "Life Is a Gift," to invite "all people to rediscover the beauty, goodness, and joy of life itself," the March For Life reported. As attendees marched on the National Mall, they held signs, prayed, and sang their way toward the U.S. Capitol.Here are some of the best signs that EWTN News spotted at the march.

Sarah Hurm: 'You have that power' to help women

Sarah Hurm speaks at the March for Life on Jan. 23, 2026. | Credit: EWTN News/ScreenshotJan 23, 2026 / 14:23 pm (CNA).Pro-life speaker Sarah Hurm offered her testimony about facing her fourth unplanned pregnancy at a March for Life rally on the National Mall on Jan. 23."I am hear to tell you that abortion pill reversal can work. My life, and the life of my son, is living proof," Hurm, who is a Catholic single mother of four, said at the rally.Hurm described seeking an abortion. "The clinic had felt lifeless," she said. After taking the abortion pill, she changed her mind and found the abortion pill reversal ministry. "I realized ... I could fight for my child's life. And so I did," she said.Abortion pill reversal (APR) is recommended or dispensed by pro-life pregnancy centers to prevent the completion of an abortion shortly after a woman takes mifepristone to achieve a chemical abortion. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) does not recommend the u...

Vance, lawmakers defend Trump's abortion policies at March for Life

U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks at the March for Life rally on Jan. 23, 2026, in Washington, D.C. | Credit: EWTN News/ScreenshotJan 23, 2026 / 15:29 pm (CNA).Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers defended President Donald Trump's abortion-related policies at the 2026 March for Life on Jan. 23."You have an ally in the White House," Vance said in his speech.Vance was the first political speaker at the march, and he was followed by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, the longtime leader of the House pro-life caucus.Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune addressed the marchers in prerecorded video messages.In his speech, Vance said: "One of the things I most wanted in the United States of America is more families and more babies," and touted the recent announcement that he and his wife, Usha, are expecting their fourth child."So let the record show that you have a vice president who practices what he preaches," Vance said.The vice pres...

Will your state vote on abortion in 2026?

Credit: roibu/ShutterstockJan 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 ballotThis 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 fo...

March for Life's Jennie Bradley Lichter: 'A lot of work to do' amid political climate

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"/ScreenshotJan 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 Li...

Pro-life legislative action ramps up ahead of March for Life

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. | Credit: Andrea Izzotti/ShutterstockJan 22, 2026 / 15:05 pm (CNA).Legislation supporting pregnant and parenting college students, as well as pro-life pregnancy centers that serve them, is moving through Congress this week as the 2026 March for Life gets underway.The U.S. House passed legislation that would allow states to use Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other federal grant funds for pregnancy resource centers. The House passed the measure ( HR 6945) by a vote of 215 to 209 on Jan. 21. A Senate vote is possible next week.Bill cosponsor Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, said: "In a pro-abortion culture of denial that dismisses unborn babies and trivializes the harm suffered by women, pregnancy centers affirm the breathtaking miracle of unborn life and the truth that women deserve better than abortion."Another measure scheduled for legislative action includes a bill ( HR 6359) sponsored by Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, th...

Top Islamist leader promises Christians no Sharia ahead of Bangladesh election

Shafiqur Rahman, leader of the largest Islamist politicial party in Bangladesh. | Credit: Delwar Hossain/Wikimedia (CC0)Jan 22, 2026 / 07:00 am (CNA).As Bangladesh heads toward a crucial general election on Feb. 12, the country's largest Islamist party, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, has offered an unusual assurance to religious minorities, pledging that it would not impose Islamic Sharia law if it comes to power.Shafiqur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, made the promise during a meeting on Jan. 14 with Christian leaders in Dhaka, according to participants in the discussion. The statement has sparked debate across the country, where Jamaat's Islamist ideology and past positions appear to stand in tension with the pledge."He promised that they will not run the country under Sharia law," said Martha Das, general secretary of the National Christian Fellowship of Bangladesh, who was part of a 20-member Christian delegation that met Rahman. She told EWTN News that Chri...

First meeting with Pope Leo XIV marks new chapter for Church in Africa

The SECAM delegation, (left to right) Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza, Archbishop José Manuel Imbamba, and Father Rafael Simbine, meets with Pope Leo XIV on Jan. 17, 2026, at the Vatican. | Credit: Vatican MediaJan 22, 2026 / 08:00 am (CNA).The president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has described the first official audience between Pope Leo XIV and the leadership of the Church in Africa as a "very important meeting" that marks a new phase in relations between the African continent and the Holy See.In an interview with Vatican News following the Jan. 17 audience, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo explained that although Pope Leo XIV has previously encountered individual African bishops, the audience represented the first formal engagement with the SECAM leadership under the new pontificate. The meeting, initially scheduled for Dec. 18, 2025, was postponed due to the pope's apostolic trip to Turkey.The SECAM deleg...