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Daughter of political prisoner Jimmy Lai speaks out for the first time #Catholic

Claire Lai, daughter of imprisoned Hong Kong activist and Catholic Jimmy Lai, speaks with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN News Nightly” on Dec. 8, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Daughter of imprisoned Catholic activist Jimmy Lai spoke out for the first time ahead of her father’s 78th birthday. “As a daughter, every day I wake up and I hope that today is the day we get my dad home … the day we get to go to Mass together, or to eat dinner around the table, things that years ago I almost took for granted,” Claire Lai said in an interview with EWTN News.Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy entrepreneur and human rights activist, was arrested in 2020 in Hong Kong. He underwent a trial that lasted nearly two years for allegations of colluding with foreign forces under a national security law put in effect by the communist-controlled Chinese government.The trial ended in August, and Lai continues to wait for the verdict in prison where he faces inhumane living conditions, deteriorating health, and is denied the Eucharist, his daughter said. In an interview with Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News, Lai’s daughter Claire said: “We’re still waiting for a verdict, five years after he was charged. He is turning 78. We have waited a very, very long time for his cases to be resolved. We do not believe that they will be through the domestic system. Our only hope is outside, and that’s why I’m here now.”Dec. 8 was Jimmy Lai’s 78th birthday, which falls on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. His daughter highlighted Lai’s deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. She said her family has tried to send him a rosary in prison, but “each attempt failed.” She said he fell down once in the shower, and “because of his waist pain he wasn’t able to get up.”“Even some of the guards came over and tried to help him … but he couldn’t get up. So he pretended as though he had a rosary in his hand and prayed to the Blessed Mother. Then he was able to get up without pain,” Claire Lai said.“When you’re a daughter … and you hear stories like that, you wish you could yourself physically pull him up when he is in pain like that. But you find such great comfort in the fact that Our Lady is protecting him,” she said.Conversion to the faithLai said her father’s conversion to Catholicism has been a stable presence during his time in prison. “My father had quite an unconventional childhood. He came to Hong Kong when he was 12. He had nothing to his name, nothing in his pockets. But he was full of optimism and he had a yearning for freedom,” she said.“It was only later on that he understood that there was something, a higher force, guiding him all along, which was why he was able to go from child laborer to a successful entrepreneur and do so almost without fear. It was later on that he understood that to be God,” she said.Jimmy Lai converted the year of the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China when “people were filled with doubt and with a certain amount of fear,” his daughter said. “As Our Lady has taught us, there is nothing that conquers doubt and fear except for the love of God. And that was a time when he was ready to receive it.”“My father converted one year after I was born. Really, the only memories I have are of growing up in a very loving Catholic family,” she said.Legal sagaClaire Lai studied law and has been involved with her father’s case and lengthy trial. “There’s an equal amount of outrage, but also it’s a privilege to be able to be there and witness it as closely as I have,” she said. “As someone who grew up admiring the Hong Kong legal system … it has been heartbreaking to see the rule of law break down, but even more so to see my father and his case is at the helm of it.”The bench was “not neutral in any sense of the word,” she said. “They just grilled him repeatedly. There were gag orders that were imposed when the evidence just did not suit the narrative … it was just so deeply unfair.”The trial had unexplained delays that were “clearly meant so that people would forget about my father and so that it would crush his spirit,” she said. But “with the good Lord as his guide, his spirit remained just as strong.”Prison conditions Lai has been in prison for five years, but “his incarceration has just deepened his faith,” his daughter said. “I think there isn’t anything quite as much as suffering that opens your heart to God’s love. We are so grateful that Our Lord has accompanied my father. He wakes up around midnight every night to pray,” she said.“Before the crack of dawn, he would read the Gospel,” Lai said. “At first, he would ask the guards if they could turn on the light so that he could read … For about the first six months, they said ‘yes.’ Afterwards, they always said ‘no.’”“The conditions he’s kept in have just gotten worse over time. They aren’t a natural byproduct of prison. In the prison cell, there is a window that leads outside that should give access to sunlight. His is deliberately blocked so that he doesn’t have access,” she said.“He’s been denied holy Communion for over two years and got it only very, very intermittently this year,” she said. “It’s something that costs them nothing … for him to get. It costs them nothing for him to get the rosary, and it costs them nothing to turn on the light so that he can read the Gospel.”Kept in solitary confinement, he faces extreme heat conditions in his small cell. “In summer, the heat can get up to … 111 degrees Fahrenheit,” she said. “To say that it’s sweltering is a massive understatement.”“He gets heat rushes all over his body, and they last until the middle of autumn. It is outrageous, and it is torturous,” she said.“We have typhoon seasons in Hong Kong … and the cells get wet. Almost everything in there gets wet. Once that happened, the first thing he checked was his Bible, and it was the one thing that remained dry. We’re very grateful that Our Lord and Our Lady continue to watch over him,” she said.Lai’s health has declined rapidly while behind bars. “In less than a year, he lost 10 kilos … after already having lost a significant amount of weight the last few years. His nails are rotting … He has infections that last for months in spite of antibiotics. And his limbs get swollen, very red, and they’re agonizingly painful,” she said.“My dad is not someone who complains. He doesn’t even make faces. You know that when he does, it’s very painful,” she said. “There are times when even from a distance, you can tell that he’s pale and he’s shivering.”“Then there’s the less visible signs,” she said. “He’s diabetic, and he’s had heart issues. He had a perfectly healthy heart before he went to prison.” He has said “that every few days he would have heart palpitations and they would be disabling,” his daughter said.Call for international involvement Jimmy Lai is a British citizen and his daughter said that any communication between Britain and the Chinese government should include discussion of her father. “He is in prison for basically standing in defense for the freedoms he first came to know as a child in Hong Kong when it was still a British embassy and for hoping that they would keep the promise made during the sign of the British Joint Declaration,” she said.U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to do “everything” possible to “save” Lai. A White House official told EWTN News in October that Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about his imprisonment. “We are so extremely grateful to President Trump and his administration,” Claire Lai said. “They have a long, proven record of freeing the unjustly detained, and we hope that my father will follow soon.”“We are also very, very grateful for members of the public. My father is sustained by your prayers,” she said.She shared that Pope Leo XIV is also praying for her father during this time. In October, Lai’s wife, Teresa Lai, and his daughter met Pope Leo after a general audience. “It was such a privilege and a blessing to have an audience with our Holy Father,” Claire Lai said. Hope for a release “The government has no case,” she said. “All they’ve proven is that my father is a good man, a man who loves God, a man who loves freedom, who loves truth, and loves his family.”If she could speak with the Chinese government, Lai said she would say to “do the only just and … only honorable thing, which is to release a 78-year-old man, my father, Jimmy Lai, against whom no case has been made.”“Don’t let him die a martyr in these conditions, in this health. It is a stain on your history that you will never be able to wipe off,” she said.She said she does “worry” that her father could die in prison, but she is “hopeful.”When her father “reflected on his earlier years, he said that even before he converted and before he opened his heart to the love of God, he was always guided by him — even before he knew it,” she said. “I think that’s how he wants to be remembered, as a faithful servant of Our Lord.”

unitedyam December 9, 2025

Claire Lai, daughter of imprisoned Hong Kong activist and Catholic Jimmy Lai, speaks with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN News Nightly” on Dec. 8, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Daughter of imprisoned Catholic activist Jimmy Lai spoke out for the first time ahead of her father’s 78th birthday.

“As a daughter, every day I wake up and I hope that today is the day we get my dad home … the day we get to go to Mass together, or to eat dinner around the table, things that years ago I almost took for granted,” Claire Lai said in an interview with EWTN News.

Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy entrepreneur and human rights activist, was arrested in 2020 in Hong Kong. He underwent a trial that lasted nearly two years for allegations of colluding with foreign forces under a national security law put in effect by the communist-controlled Chinese government.

The trial ended in August, and Lai continues to wait for the verdict in prison where he faces inhumane living conditions, deteriorating health, and is denied the Eucharist, his daughter said.

In an interview with Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News, Lai’s daughter Claire said: “We’re still waiting for a verdict, five years after he was charged. He is turning 78. We have waited a very, very long time for his cases to be resolved. We do not believe that they will be through the domestic system. Our only hope is outside, and that’s why I’m here now.”

Dec. 8 was Jimmy Lai’s 78th birthday, which falls on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. His daughter highlighted Lai’s deep devotion to the Blessed Mother.

She said her family has tried to send him a rosary in prison, but “each attempt failed.” She said he fell down once in the shower, and “because of his waist pain he wasn’t able to get up.”

“Even some of the guards came over and tried to help him … but he couldn’t get up. So he pretended as though he had a rosary in his hand and prayed to the Blessed Mother. Then he was able to get up without pain,” Claire Lai said.

“When you’re a daughter … and you hear stories like that, you wish you could yourself physically pull him up when he is in pain like that. But you find such great comfort in the fact that Our Lady is protecting him,” she said.

Conversion to the faith

Lai said her father’s conversion to Catholicism has been a stable presence during his time in prison.

“My father had quite an unconventional childhood. He came to Hong Kong when he was 12. He had nothing to his name, nothing in his pockets. But he was full of optimism and he had a yearning for freedom,” she said.

“It was only later on that he understood that there was something, a higher force, guiding him all along, which was why he was able to go from child laborer to a successful entrepreneur and do so almost without fear. It was later on that he understood that to be God,” she said.

Jimmy Lai converted the year of the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China when “people were filled with doubt and with a certain amount of fear,” his daughter said. “As Our Lady has taught us, there is nothing that conquers doubt and fear except for the love of God. And that was a time when he was ready to receive it.”

“My father converted one year after I was born. Really, the only memories I have are of growing up in a very loving Catholic family,” she said.

Legal saga

Claire Lai studied law and has been involved with her father’s case and lengthy trial. “There’s an equal amount of outrage, but also it’s a privilege to be able to be there and witness it as closely as I have,” she said.

“As someone who grew up admiring the Hong Kong legal system … it has been heartbreaking to see the rule of law break down, but even more so to see my father and his case is at the helm of it.”

The bench was “not neutral in any sense of the word,” she said. “They just grilled him repeatedly. There were gag orders that were imposed when the evidence just did not suit the narrative … it was just so deeply unfair.”

The trial had unexplained delays that were “clearly meant so that people would forget about my father and so that it would crush his spirit,” she said. But “with the good Lord as his guide, his spirit remained just as strong.”

Prison conditions

Lai has been in prison for five years, but “his incarceration has just deepened his faith,” his daughter said.

“I think there isn’t anything quite as much as suffering that opens your heart to God’s love. We are so grateful that Our Lord has accompanied my father. He wakes up around midnight every night to pray,” she said.

“Before the crack of dawn, he would read the Gospel,” Lai said. “At first, he would ask the guards if they could turn on the light so that he could read … For about the first six months, they said ‘yes.’ Afterwards, they always said ‘no.’”

“The conditions he’s kept in have just gotten worse over time. They aren’t a natural byproduct of prison. In the prison cell, there is a window that leads outside that should give access to sunlight. His is deliberately blocked so that he doesn’t have access,” she said.

“He’s been denied holy Communion for over two years and got it only very, very intermittently this year,” she said. “It’s something that costs them nothing … for him to get. It costs them nothing for him to get the rosary, and it costs them nothing to turn on the light so that he can read the Gospel.”

Kept in solitary confinement, he faces extreme heat conditions in his small cell. “In summer, the heat can get up to … 111 degrees Fahrenheit,” she said. “To say that it’s sweltering is a massive understatement.”

“He gets heat rushes all over his body, and they last until the middle of autumn. It is outrageous, and it is torturous,” she said.

“We have typhoon seasons in Hong Kong … and the cells get wet. Almost everything in there gets wet. Once that happened, the first thing he checked was his Bible, and it was the one thing that remained dry. We’re very grateful that Our Lord and Our Lady continue to watch over him,” she said.

Lai’s health has declined rapidly while behind bars.

“In less than a year, he lost 10 kilos … after already having lost a significant amount of weight the last few years. His nails are rotting … He has infections that last for months in spite of antibiotics. And his limbs get swollen, very red, and they’re agonizingly painful,” she said.

“My dad is not someone who complains. He doesn’t even make faces. You know that when he does, it’s very painful,” she said. “There are times when even from a distance, you can tell that he’s pale and he’s shivering.”

“Then there’s the less visible signs,” she said. “He’s diabetic, and he’s had heart issues. He had a perfectly healthy heart before he went to prison.” He has said “that every few days he would have heart palpitations and they would be disabling,” his daughter said.

Call for international involvement

Jimmy Lai is a British citizen and his daughter said that any communication between Britain and the Chinese government should include discussion of her father.

“He is in prison for basically standing in defense for the freedoms he first came to know as a child in Hong Kong when it was still a British embassy and for hoping that they would keep the promise made during the sign of the British Joint Declaration,” she said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to do “everything” possible to “save” Lai. A White House official told EWTN News in October that Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about his imprisonment.

“We are so extremely grateful to President Trump and his administration,” Claire Lai said. “They have a long, proven record of freeing the unjustly detained, and we hope that my father will follow soon.”

“We are also very, very grateful for members of the public. My father is sustained by your prayers,” she said.

She shared that Pope Leo XIV is also praying for her father during this time. In October, Lai’s wife, Teresa Lai, and his daughter met Pope Leo after a general audience. “It was such a privilege and a blessing to have an audience with our Holy Father,” Claire Lai said.

Hope for a release

“The government has no case,” she said. “All they’ve proven is that my father is a good man, a man who loves God, a man who loves freedom, who loves truth, and loves his family.”

If she could speak with the Chinese government, Lai said she would say to “do the only just and … only honorable thing, which is to release a 78-year-old man, my father, Jimmy Lai, against whom no case has been made.”

“Don’t let him die a martyr in these conditions, in this health. It is a stain on your history that you will never be able to wipe off,” she said.

She said she does “worry” that her father could die in prison, but she is “hopeful.”

When her father “reflected on his earlier years, he said that even before he converted and before he opened his heart to the love of God, he was always guided by him — even before he knew it,” she said. “I think that’s how he wants to be remembered, as a faithful servant of Our Lord.”

Trump signs executive order prioritizing faith-based participation in foster care #Catholic

President Donald Trump signs an executive order related to foster care and foster parents on Nov. 13, 2025. / Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that aims to improve the nation’s foster care system, including the modernization of the current child welfare system, the development of partnerships with private sector organizations, and prioritizing the participation of those with sincerely held religious beliefs.The executive order issued Nov. 13 states that the Trump administration is “dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise their children in safe and loving homes.”The order says current problems with the foster care system include overworked caseworkers, antiquated information systems, and policies that “prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has represented Christian families who were barred from serving as foster parents because of their faith, suing on behalf of Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt after the Vermont Department for Children and Families informed the two families that their belief that persons cannot change biological sex and that marriage is only between a man and a woman precluded them from serving as foster parents in the state.Despite describing the Wuotis and the Gantts as “amazing,” “wonderful,” and “welcoming,” state officials revoked the couples’ foster care licenses after they expressed those beliefs. The state said these beliefs made them “unqualified” to parent any child, regardless of the child’s age, beliefs, or identity. ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, who represents the Wuotis, Gantts, and other Christian families who are prohibited from fostering in lawsuits in Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, told CNA that he hopes the executive order will lead to the states “prioritizing the best interests of children rather than ideological agendas.”In the face of shortages of foster families, he said the states should be “pursuing a big tent, welcoming as many loving families as possible. But they’re doing the opposite while children who need foster care are sleeping in unlicensed group homes, police stations, and hospitals.” Trump’s executive order directs the department of Health and Human Services, the White House Faith Office, and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to “take appropriate action to address state and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” It also directs those agencies to “increase partnerships between agencies and faith-based organizations and houses of worship to serve families” involved with the foster care system. Widmalm-Delphonse told CNA it is “difficult to say how the states will respond” to the executive order, indicating that he hopes either the order or the pending lawsuits will lead to changes in their “discriminatory” policies against families of faith. “The path the states should take is obvious: It’s a win-win when you open up foster care to people of faith and put the interests of children first,” he said.

unitedyam November 15, 2025

President Donald Trump signs an executive order related to foster care and foster parents on Nov. 13, 2025. / Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that aims to improve the nation’s foster care system, including the modernization of the current child welfare system, the development of partnerships with private sector organizations, and prioritizing the participation of those with sincerely held religious beliefs.

The executive order issued Nov. 13 states that the Trump administration is “dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise their children in safe and loving homes.”

The order says current problems with the foster care system include overworked caseworkers, antiquated information systems, and policies that “prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”

The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has represented Christian families who were barred from serving as foster parents because of their faith, suing on behalf of Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt after the Vermont Department for Children and Families informed the two families that their belief that persons cannot change biological sex and that marriage is only between a man and a woman precluded them from serving as foster parents in the state.

Despite describing the Wuotis and the Gantts as “amazing,” “wonderful,” and “welcoming,” state officials revoked the couples’ foster care licenses after they expressed those beliefs. The state said these beliefs made them “unqualified” to parent any child, regardless of the child’s age, beliefs, or identity.

ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, who represents the Wuotis, Gantts, and other Christian families who are prohibited from fostering in lawsuits in Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, told CNA that he hopes the executive order will lead to the states “prioritizing the best interests of children rather than ideological agendas.”

In the face of shortages of foster families, he said the states should be “pursuing a big tent, welcoming as many loving families as possible. But they’re doing the opposite while children who need foster care are sleeping in unlicensed group homes, police stations, and hospitals.”

Trump’s executive order directs the department of Health and Human Services, the White House Faith Office, and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to “take appropriate action to address state and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

It also directs those agencies to “increase partnerships between agencies and faith-based organizations and houses of worship to serve families” involved with the foster care system.

Widmalm-Delphonse told CNA it is “difficult to say how the states will respond” to the executive order, indicating that he hopes either the order or the pending lawsuits will lead to changes in their “discriminatory” policies against families of faith.

“The path the states should take is obvious: It’s a win-win when you open up foster care to people of faith and put the interests of children first,” he said.

Amid clown protesters, Boston men’s march for life remains ‘prayerful’ #Catholic

Police protect marchers at the fourth annual National Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood in Boston on Nov. 1, 2025. / Credit: Brother Anthony Marie MICM

CNA Staff, Nov 8, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:Amid clown protesters, Boston men’s march for life remains ‘prayerful’Hundreds gathered in Boston last Saturday for a men’s march for life, which drew a rambunctious crowd of protesters dressed as clowns and inflatable dinosaurs. The fourth annual National Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood began at Boston Planned Parenthood and concluded about three miles away at Boston Common.While counterprotesters — some dressed as clowns or wearing inflatable dinosaur costumes — played instruments and yelled on the sidelines, marchers carried on in a “prayerful and well-composed” manner, said march co-founder and president Jim Havens, who called the event “outstanding.” At the rallying point at Boston Common, an estimated 50 Antifa members also showed up. Another counterprotester wore a pony costume and carried a megaphone. Though the event sees protesters every year, Havens told CNA that the marchers have a good relationship with local law enforcement, so the event is “safe and secure.” “In our current culture of death, when we publicly stand for the least among us and for the abolition of the ongoing daily mass murder of our littlest brothers and sisters, protesters are to be expected,” Havens said. “We strive to incorporate the protesters into those for whom we pray as we march.” A marching band from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property also participated to counterbalance the noise of the counterprotesters. The march invites men “to step forward to protect the women and children,” Havens explained. The idea that abortion is not a men’s issue is “nonsense,” Havens said. “As men, we have a moral responsibility to protect and defend vulnerable women and children, and it’s time we all get off the sidelines and do so,” Havens said. Speakers included Sister Deirdre Byrne, pro-life activist Will Goodman, and Bishop Joseph Strickland, among others.“As we marched, there was a sense among the men that we were simply being true to who we are as men,” Havens said.“Now active in the urgent fight for abolition, these men will not be going back to the sidelines,” he said. “Instead, they are now asking, ‘What more can I do?’”South Carolina man arrested for threatening pro-lifers with grenade A group was gathered outside a South Carolina church on a Sunday morning to protest board members’ involvement with abortion funds when a man threatened them with a grenade. Video footage shows Richard Lovelace, 79, holding up a grenade, saying: “I have a grenade for y’all, a gift for you protesters.” After Lovelace was arrested, police found that the grenade was hollowed out.Lovelace, a member of St. Anne Episcopal Church, is a retired lawyer whose wife is on the church’s board and is a judge in South Carolina. The Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust group was protesting the board’s involvement with the Palmetto State Abortion Fund, a group that partners with Planned Parenthood to bring illegal abortion pills into the state and helps women travel out of state for abortions.Police charged Lovelace with four counts of having a hoax device and threatening to use it. On Monday, he was released from the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on a ,000 bond. Nebraska governor signs order barring abortion providers from state fundingNebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Nov. 6 issued an executive order preventing abortion providers from receiving taxpayer funding in Nebraska. While the federal law and some state laws prevent taxpayer funding from going directly to abortion, state governments often subsidize providers for other services, therefore indirectly funding abortion. In Nebraska in 2025, more than 0,000 went to abortion providers, according to the governor’s office. President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act recently prohibited federal funds from going toward abortion providers for one year. Pillen said he is “proud that we can take this bold step in halting funding to abortion providers that receive Medicaid funding.” “Nebraskans have made clear they support a culture of love and life in our state — one that provides protections for the unborn,” he said in a press release. Attorney General Mike Hilgers said the issue has “been in the background for a long time for a lot of people.”“In fact, the desire of Nebraska taxpayers to not have their funds be used for abortions has been in state statutes for some time,” Hilgers noted.Thousands gather for Michigan March for LifeThousands gathered for the March for Life in Lansing, Michigan, on Thursday, Nov. 6.March for Life president Jennie Bradley Lichter, who spoke at the event, called the march a chance to “send a vital message to our legislators who have the power to support women, children, and families.” “The women of Michigan deserve better than the tragedy of abortion, and we want them to know we are here for them, no matter what they are facing,” Lichter said in a statement shared with CNA.Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing as well as Knights of Columbus State Deputy Barry Borsenik spoke at the event. Michigan state lawmakers including state Rep. Ann Bollin, state Sen. John Damoose, and state Rep. Jennifer Wortz also spoke at the event. President of Right to Life Michigan Amber Roseboom said the pro-life movement in Michigan stands with women facing unplanned pregnancies. “While a woman in Michigan can have an abortion at any point in her pregnancy for any reason, no woman should ever be made to feel that abortion is the best or only option,” she said in a statement shared with CNA. “Pro-lifers from across our state have a powerful message for women facing unplanned pregnancies: You are not alone! We stand with you. We stand for you,” Roseboom said.

unitedyam November 8, 2025

Police protect marchers at the fourth annual National Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood in Boston on Nov. 1, 2025. / Credit: Brother Anthony Marie MICM

CNA Staff, Nov 8, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Amid clown protesters, Boston men’s march for life remains ‘prayerful’

Hundreds gathered in Boston last Saturday for a men’s march for life, which drew a rambunctious crowd of protesters dressed as clowns and inflatable dinosaurs.

The fourth annual National Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood began at Boston Planned Parenthood and concluded about three miles away at Boston Common.

While counterprotesters — some dressed as clowns or wearing inflatable dinosaur costumes — played instruments and yelled on the sidelines, marchers carried on in a “prayerful and well-composed” manner, said march co-founder and president Jim Havens, who called the event “outstanding.”

At the rallying point at Boston Common, an estimated 50 Antifa members also showed up. Another counterprotester wore a pony costume and carried a megaphone.

Though the event sees protesters every year, Havens told CNA that the marchers have a good relationship with local law enforcement, so the event is “safe and secure.”

“In our current culture of death, when we publicly stand for the least among us and for the abolition of the ongoing daily mass murder of our littlest brothers and sisters, protesters are to be expected,” Havens said. “We strive to incorporate the protesters into those for whom we pray as we march.”

A marching band from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property also participated to counterbalance the noise of the counterprotesters.

The march invites men “to step forward to protect the women and children,” Havens explained.

The idea that abortion is not a men’s issue is “nonsense,” Havens said.

“As men, we have a moral responsibility to protect and defend vulnerable women and children, and it’s time we all get off the sidelines and do so,” Havens said.

Speakers included Sister Deirdre Byrne, pro-life activist Will Goodman, and Bishop Joseph Strickland, among others.

“As we marched, there was a sense among the men that we were simply being true to who we are as men,” Havens said.

“Now active in the urgent fight for abolition, these men will not be going back to the sidelines,” he said. “Instead, they are now asking, ‘What more can I do?’”

South Carolina man arrested for threatening pro-lifers with grenade

A group was gathered outside a South Carolina church on a Sunday morning to protest board members’ involvement with abortion funds when a man threatened them with a grenade.

Video footage shows Richard Lovelace, 79, holding up a grenade, saying: “I have a grenade for y’all, a gift for you protesters.”

After Lovelace was arrested, police found that the grenade was hollowed out.

Lovelace, a member of St. Anne Episcopal Church, is a retired lawyer whose wife is on the church’s board and is a judge in South Carolina.

The Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust group was protesting the board’s involvement with the Palmetto State Abortion Fund, a group that partners with Planned Parenthood to bring illegal abortion pills into the state and helps women travel out of state for abortions.

Police charged Lovelace with four counts of having a hoax device and threatening to use it. On Monday, he was released from the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on a $60,000 bond.

Nebraska governor signs order barring abortion providers from state funding

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Nov. 6 issued an executive order preventing abortion providers from receiving taxpayer funding in Nebraska.

While the federal law and some state laws prevent taxpayer funding from going directly to abortion, state governments often subsidize providers for other services, therefore indirectly funding abortion.

In Nebraska in 2025, more than $300,000 went to abortion providers, according to the governor’s office. President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act recently prohibited federal funds from going toward abortion providers for one year.

Pillen said he is “proud that we can take this bold step in halting funding to abortion providers that receive Medicaid funding.”

“Nebraskans have made clear they support a culture of love and life in our state — one that provides protections for the unborn,” he said in a press release.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers said the issue has “been in the background for a long time for a lot of people.”

“In fact, the desire of Nebraska taxpayers to not have their funds be used for abortions has been in state statutes for some time,” Hilgers noted.

Thousands gather for Michigan March for Life

Thousands gathered for the March for Life in Lansing, Michigan, on Thursday, Nov. 6.

March for Life president Jennie Bradley Lichter, who spoke at the event, called the march a chance to “send a vital message to our legislators who have the power to support women, children, and families.”

“The women of Michigan deserve better than the tragedy of abortion, and we want them to know we are here for them, no matter what they are facing,” Lichter said in a statement shared with CNA.

Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing as well as Knights of Columbus State Deputy Barry Borsenik spoke at the event. Michigan state lawmakers including state Rep. Ann Bollin, state Sen. John Damoose, and state Rep. Jennifer Wortz also spoke at the event.

President of Right to Life Michigan Amber Roseboom said the pro-life movement in Michigan stands with women facing unplanned pregnancies.

“While a woman in Michigan can have an abortion at any point in her pregnancy for any reason, no woman should ever be made to feel that abortion is the best or only option,” she said in a statement shared with CNA.

“Pro-lifers from across our state have a powerful message for women facing unplanned pregnancies: You are not alone! We stand with you. We stand for you,” Roseboom said.