Students for Life of America launched its fall 2026 'Abortion Victims: Every Abortion Has a Human Cost' tour on 150 college campuses in more than 40 states, continuing the legacy of Charlie Kirk by engaging students with displays about the harms of abortion. Despite opposition and mockery on some campuses, the group reports that nearly 23 percent of students who engaged with their spring 2026 'Chemical Abortion Hurts' tour changed their minds about abortion.
Missouri pastors, led by Wesley Vance and joined by Senator Josh Hawley, unveiled a Declaration for Life at the inaugural Missouri Prayer Breakfast, calling on senators to sign a pledge against chemical abortion pills like mifepristone. Hawley introduced legislation to ban mifepristone, citing high rates of adverse effects, and challenged all senators to take the pledge, while Missouri voters prepare to decide on Amendment 3, which would repeal the 2024 abortion amendment.
Dr. Heidi Overton, Trump's nominee for FDA commissioner, pledged to complete a thorough and transparent safety study of the abortion pill mifepristone, which has been criticized for its adverse effects and mail-order distribution without in-person doctor visits.
In September 2026, a Sixth Circuit panel with judges appointed by Obama and Biden struck down Tennessee's law criminalizing adults recruiting, harboring, or transporting pregnant minors for abortions without parental consent, ruling it violated the First Amendment. The ruling criticized the law for criminalizing speech encouraging abortion while remaining silent on speech encouraging carrying a pregnancy to term, while Tennessee's ban on harboring or transporting minors for abortions remains in effect.
Students for Life of America sent a formal notice to the FDA on September 24, 2026, alleging that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by approving the abortion pill mifepristone without consulting wildlife agencies, and named four endangered freshwater mussels potentially affected by drug pollution. The group demands the FDA remove the drug from the market and conduct an environmental review, citing a peer-reviewed study that found anti-progesterone activity from the drug in drinking water samples from three U.S.
Dr. Heidi Overton, Trump's nominee to run the FDA, testified before Senate Democrats about the abortion pill mifepristone, stating it is currently considered safe and effective according to FDA standards but did not personally vouch for its safety beyond the ongoing review.
Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington instructed priests in all 70 parishes to read his letter opposing Virginia's Question 1 abortion amendment aloud at Masses, urging Catholics to pray, fast, and vote against it. Some Catholics avoided attending Mass in the diocese that weekend to not hear the message, but Burbidge and Bishop Barry Knestout warned the amendment would allow abortion up to birth and urged opposition despite significant financial support for the amendment's proponents.
The LDS Church's U.S. Southwest Area Presidency directed local leaders to read a letter opposing Nevada's Question 6 abortion amendment in sacrament meetings across 339 congregations on September 20 and 27, urging members to oppose the initiative with civility and love.
The 40 Days for Life Fall 2026 campaign began on September 23 in 682 cities, continuing a tradition of peaceful sidewalk prayer vigils aimed at saving unborn babies from abortion. In March, a grandmother outside a Granite City, Illinois abortion facility successfully persuaded her daughter to cancel a late-term abortion of twins after seeing 40 Days for Life volunteers praying, resulting in the twins being saved.
In Hawaii, the use of abortion pills has tripled over the past decade, with more than three out of four abortions now performed chemically rather than surgically, according to 2026 state health data. Despite this trend, Planned Parenthood and other providers have not fully disclosed the risks, as a large study found that about 10.93 percent of women using mifepristone experience serious complications, while the FDA's official adverse reaction rate is under half a percent.
J Hewitt, a 19-year-old apprentice at Elite Hair Lounge in London, was told by her manager to have an abortion because she was too young and was subsequently fired 19 minutes after asking about maternity leave. An employment tribunal ruled that her pregnancy was the principal reason for her dismissal and ordered the salon to pay her £29,489.62 in damages for unfair dismissal and pregnancy discrimination.
On August 12, 2026, Argentine President Javier Milei signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration, making Argentina the 40th member of the international pro-life coalition led by the United States under Donald Trump. Milei has publicly called abortion murder and criticized pro-abortion politicians, while the coalition opposes the notion of an international right to abortion and counters efforts by the WHO to promote abortion decriminalization worldwide.
In June 2026, a Kansas City judge struck down Missouri abortion clinic safety laws, including requirements for clinic inspections, informed consent, and protections for babies with Down syndrome and those able to feel pain. Similar abortion-related ballot measures are pending in Idaho, Nevada, and Virginia, with Missouri voters given a chance to repeal the 2024 abortion amendment in the November 2026 election.
Students for Life Action and nearly 40 pro-life groups sent letters to four of Trump's top officials on September 9, 2026, urging them to investigate Planned Parenthood and, if evidence supports, to debar it from federal contracts, effectively cutting off its federal funding without needing a Senate vote. This move follows reports of Planned Parenthood receiving $832 million in government funding, performing a record 434,450 abortions in one year, and allegations of Medicaid fraud and improper receipt of Paycheck Protection Program loans, with legal actions and investigations ongoing.
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico claims the Bible never mentions abortion and argues that Mary's consent to the Angel Gabriel in Luke 1 justifies abortion as godly. Approximately 60 pro-life advocates protested outside his Baylor University rally, where Baylor police restricted their free speech rights on university property, leading them to demonstrate on a public sidewalk instead.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced a plan for state health workers to conduct home visits to every newborn's family within days or weeks of birth to make assessments, despite the program currently being voluntary and reaching only about 3,000 of the state's 68,000 annual births. Healey also signed a law removing limits on late-term abortion in Massachusetts, and her Department of Children and Families has been involved in a high-profile case where a Catholic family is fighting to regain custody of their daughter after the state intervened following gender-identity counseling at her public school.
Two Ninth Circuit judges ruled that Cedar Park Assembly of God, a church in Washington, must comply with the state's Reproductive Parity Act, which requires employers offering maternity coverage to also cover abortion and contraception or inform employees how to obtain it elsewhere. The church's challenge, arguing that the mandate burdens their religious exercise and violates strict scrutiny, was rejected by the majority, while a dissenting judge argued the law is neither neutral nor generally applicable and burdens religious exercise.
Democrats need to gain four Senate seats in the November 2026 midterms to have the votes required to eliminate the filibuster and codify abortion into permanent federal law. Pro-life groups are focusing on increasing voter turnout in key states, as the outcome of ten competitive Senate races will determine control of Congress and the future of abortion legislation.
Planned Parenthood continued to bill Medicaid in Texas after being banned in 2015 due to undercover footage showing officials negotiating the sale of aborted baby body parts. A federal appeals court recently rejected Planned Parenthood's appeal, sending the case back to a Texas federal court where the organization must defend approximately 144,411 Medicaid claims worth about $17 million, potentially leading to damages approaching $1.8 billion under the False Claims Act.
The University of Illinois Chicago's School of Law has approved Planned Parenthood of Illinois as a qualified employer for its federal work study program, allowing law students to earn wages working at the abortion provider. Additionally, UIC's School of Nursing runs fellowships that train clinicians to perform abortions, funded in part by a $2 million grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health, with these programs supported by state legislation influenced by a student referendum organized by Planned Parenthood's campus chapter.
The 2024 Republican platform removed its longstanding promise to end abortion by constitutional amendment, replacing it with language that leaves abortion law up to the states. Senator Josh Hawley and over thirty pastors have launched the Declaration for Life, calling for a congressional ban on the abortion drug mifepristone, supported by seven Republican senators co-sponsoring related legislation.
A Dutch government review board concluded that the euthanasia of a two-year-old disabled toddler, who was born prematurely with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and other impairments, was handled well despite initial medical opinions that she still had treatment options. This case marks the first euthanasia of a child aged one to twelve in the Netherlands and has sparked international concern and comparisons to historical euthanasia programs targeting disabled children.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte opened a Botox and filler counter in its Sacramento clinic in March 2026 after Congress cut off its Medicaid funding for one year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Despite receiving $90 million in emergency funding from California, the organization continues to offer cosmetic treatments like Botox, fillers, and vein treatments to generate revenue, prompting Senator Marsha Blackburn to request an IRS investigation into whether this activity violates its tax-exempt status.
Hassan Abbas, a medical resident in Toledo, Ohio, secretly gave his girlfriend abortion pills he ordered online under his estranged wife's identity, resulting in the loss of her unborn baby, and was sentenced to six months in jail with two years probation. In contrast, a similar case in Illinois resulted in a seven-year prison sentence, highlighting discrepancies in legal consequences for unlawful distribution of abortion-inducing drugs across states.
Oregon recorded 10,495 abortions in 2025, the highest number since 2009, with fewer out-of-state residents traveling to Oregon for abortions compared to 2024. The decline in abortion tourism is attributed to the rise of mail-order abortion pills, which allow women to obtain abortions without traveling, while late-term abortions also decreased from 284 in 2024 to 228 in 2025.
A study published in the Journal of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine found that abortion doctors almost never screen women for coercion from partners or family members, which is a significant risk factor for abortion harm. Rosalie Markezich's case, where her boyfriend secretly ordered abortion pills in her name, highlights the lack of such screening and has led to legal actions challenging the FDA's approval of mail-order abortion pills without in-person doctor visits.
Darlene Love revealed in a documentary that her secret three-year interracial romance with Bill Medley ended after she had an abortion, a decision she made despite Medley's pleas to keep the baby. The relationship did not survive the abortion, which led Love into a deep depression, but she eventually found peace through her faith and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Ohio appeals court Judge Matthew R. Byrne was the sole judge opposing the dismissal of a legal challenge to Ohio's six-week abortion ban after voters passed a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights.
