Dear Friends,
We continue to joyfully celebrate Council for Life’s 25th Anniversary this year and remain blessed to be fundraising for our 2026 Beneficiaries. We look forward to you joining us for our Celebrating Life Luncheon: A Legacy of Love and Life on Thursday, October 29.
Along with fundraising for our outstanding Beneficiaries, the CFL Mission includes the important work of Education.
Every day, abortion kills 3,085 babies in the U.S., 137 babies in Texas and 32 babies in Dallas/Fort Worth. That is 1.126 million babies each year. Hundreds of thousands of women are harmed physically and emotionally. Our hearts break.
We feel a profound urgency caused by the darkness surrounding us. But the darkness will never overcome the light.
Yesterday was Part I. Today is Part II.
There is SO much to pray for and to share with you.
Planned Parenthood Receives Hundreds of Millions in Federal Taxpayer Funding
Image on Planned Parenthood’s website landing page that states: “We’re here to provide birth control, abortion and more — at our health centers and through virtual care, wherever you are.”
Last year, as America celebrated its independence on July 4, President Trump signed a historic law to defund Planned Parenthood— the nation’s largest abortion provider. Called the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2025, the new law took effect immediately and blocked hundreds of millions of Federal taxpayer funded Medicaid payments from Planned Parenthood and its affiliates for one year.
On July 4 this year, America’s 250th birthday, our nation’s leaders sadly did not choose to defund Planned Parenthood again. As a result, Planned Parenthood — an organization responsible for the deaths of 1,190 unborn babies a day and 434,450 unborn babies a year — is once again receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal taxpayer funding.
(See Council for Life News HERE and HERE)
President Trump Nominates New FDA Commissioner
Dr. Heidi Overton, Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council,
has been tapped by President Trump to be the next FDA Commissioner
President Trump recently announced the nomination of his Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Dr. Heidi Overton, to be the new Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. President Trump highlighted her credentials from Johns Hopkins University in public health and general preventative medicine.
Dr. Overton is one of several candidates that the White House had been considering for weeks. Her nomination is subject to confirmation by the Senate.
The FDA Commissioner position became vacant after Dr. Marty Makary resigned earlier this year and is currently filled by Acting Commissioner Kyle Diamantas. (See Council for Life News HERE)
National pro-life organizations, including Council for Life Beneficiaries Live Action and Students for Life of America, as well as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, have endorsed Overton’s nomination, hoping that she will strengthen restrictions on abortion drugs.
Before joining the Trump administration, Overton oversaw health policy initiatives at the America First Policy Institute. In 2023 at AFPI, Overton detailed how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration relaxed distribution rules for mifepristone during the COVID-19 pandemic had increased risks for women taking chemical abortion pills without medical supervision. She cited research from the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists about the harms of chemical abortion.
Senate Report Exposes Complicity of U.S. Drug Manufactures of Chemical Abortion Pill Mifepristone
Danco Laboratories chillingly advertises the deadly pills on their website, so lucrative to their bottom line, as a “safe and effective option for ending early pregnancy” and as having “been used by more than 6 million patients in the U.S.”
On August 27, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a new Report following months of investigation: “Mifepristone Without Guardrails: An Investigation Into How Chemical Abortion Drug Makers Are Putting Mothers and Babies At Risk.”
The Report accuses abortion pill manufacturers of failing to properly oversee FDA compliance and distribution regulations applicable to the abortion drug mifepristone.
Key Findings of the Report
- Oversight Gaps: The investigation examined three manufacturers — Danco Laboratories, GenBioPro and Evita Solutions — and concluded they are failing to ensure third-party online sellers and prescribers adhere to federal safety rules and report nonfatal adverse events.
- Telehealth and Online Sales: The Report highlights that the drug manufacturers have links on their website directing consumers to online distributors (such as overseas distributor Aid Access) that (i) permit the mail-order of mifepristone without any medical oversight or in-person patient-provider relationship and (ii) market the drugs to women beyond the FDA-approved 10-weeks of pregnancy limit.
- Undercover Testing: Investigators cited test purchases showing that minors can independently order and receive chemical abortion drugs through online channels with no verification.
Reactions to Report and Next Steps
Senator Cassidy and other Republican leadership are pressing the FDA and the U.S. Department of Justice to reinstate mandatory in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone to get the drugs out of the mail and increase enforcement against unverified online vendors.
Cassidy has been an outspoken critic of the FDA, accusing the agency of “dragging its feet” on the study of the safety of the abortion drug began over one year ago. The FDA’s lack of action and slow-walk of the study have greatly frustrated pro-life leaders. (See Council for Life News HERE, HERE and HERE)
Democrat leadership and the abortion industry maintain that mifepristone has a proven safety record and argue that these are politically motivated regulatory attacks on “reproductive rights” aiming to restrict abortion access rather than address genuine safety concerns.
Texas Surrogacy Case Receives National Attention
Surrogate mother McKenna West after a recent court hearing in Dallas
A legal battle continues to play out in Texas, involving a biological mother and father from California, a surrogate mother from Alaska and a newborn. McKenna West, the surrogate mother, refused the biological parents’ repeated demands to abort the baby after a 20-week scan revealed a fetal abnormality— hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The rare defect leaves one side of the baby’s heart underdeveloped but is totally treatable with surgery.
Because of our excellent children’s hospital and pro-life Texas laws that protect the unborn and give the woman who gives birth the legal status of mother, the surrogate mother flew from Alaska to Dallas to give birth to the baby boy on August 12.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton intervened before the baby’s birth to ensure the baby received the medically necessary care upon birth. The baby has had one surgery and remains in critical condition. Other surgeries are expected.
The biological parents are demanding custody and suing the surrogate mother for $100,000 for breaching her surrogacy contract that required her to have an abortion if requested.
The biological parents have obtained a temporary restraining order that awarded them custody of the baby boy they wanted to abort.
California’s abortion laws are among the most permissive in the country and sadly, many women abort for reasons ranging from fetal defects to simple convenience. Had the biological mom carried this pregnancy herself, she would have most assuredly aborted her little boy because of his heart defect.
(See New York Times article HERE)
Satanic Video Released Depicting Chemical Abortion in Hobby Lobby
A band associated with The Satanic Temple (TST) recently released a highly disturbing music video that depicts a woman walking into a Hobby Lobby bathroom where she enacts TST’s “satanic abortion ritual.” She undergoes a chemical abortion then flushes her baby down the toilet.
Hobby Lobby, a large, national retail chain of arts and crafts stores, is known for its deeply held, unwavering Christian beliefs.
The TST video and website mocks Christianity, the sacredness of life and one of our most pro-life, heroic U.S. Supreme Court Justices, Justice Samuel Alito, and his mother. The moral depravity of these abortion zealots is highly unsettling and shocking.
As Texas Right to Life, a Council for Life Beneficiary, says so well in response to this despicably evil video:
“We should not look at this kind of darkness and become discouraged. We should let it remind us that there is still work to be done. There are hearts to reach, mothers and families to support, and lives to defend. The darkness may be bold, but we know who has already won the victory.”
We Must Not Give Up
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” — Galatians 6:9
Please pray and speak and serve boldly to combat the dark culture of death to transform to a culture of His light, love and life. We must all answer this urgent call to action.
Council for Life