abortion

Pro-Life Activist Arrested for Peaceful Prayer Appeals to Supreme Court

A pro-life activist is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene take up his case after being arrested for peacefully praying outside an abortion clinic.

Matthew Connolly, a pro-life monk, was arrested along with five other individuals on April 23, 2022, in Southfield, Michigan. The group was in the common area of an office building housing Northland Family Planning Center, an abortion clinic.

Connolly never entered the facility, but was arrested for praying in the common area 500 feet down the hall. According to a July 2025 petition, officers at the scene described his actions as “peaceful,” and Connolly carried nothing but a rosary.

Despite this, Connolly was charged with 3 counts of misdemeanors, including interference with a business and a vague ordinance criminalizing “annoyance” in a public space. He was fined and sentenced to 90 days in jail after refusing a probation condition which would have prevented him from engaging in pro-life speech within 500 feet of any nationwide abortion facility.

Had Connolly accepted his probation, Advocates for Faith & Freedom claims he would have been barred from “seeking routine medical care at any hospital that provides abortions, an impossible condition for any citizen.”

Advocates for Faith and Freedom Attorney Erin Mersino, who is helping represent Connolly, stated,

This case is not just about Mr. Connolly. It is about whether the government can silence pro-life Americans and criminalize public prayer.

If prayer can be prosecuted, preaching can be banned. Silence now will only embolden government suppression of faith-based expression.

We are asking the United States Supreme Court to do what the Constitution already demands — protect the right of Americans, especially those who advocate for the sanctity of life, to speak freely, assemble peacefully, and pray publicly.

While Connolly’s arrest for peaceful prayer was unwarranted, this was not his first encounter with the law. His record includes at least eight arrests and four convictions across multiple states.

One such incident occurred in March 2023, when Connolly participated in a pro-life Red Rose Rescue event outside the Southfield abortion clinic in Michigan. Six people went limp as police attempted to transport then to police cars, and four (including Connolly) served time in Oakland County Jail. Of these four, Conolly and one other were convicted of trespassing, resisting arrest and engaging in disorderly conduct.

On a separate occasion in August 2021, also involving the Red Rose Rescue group, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Connolly for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act at a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood location.

Connolly allegedly barricaded himself in a patient-only bathroom for over three hours, ultimately resulting in the facility’s evacuation, a SWAT team response, and the rescheduling of at least 44 appointments. Prosecutors claimed Connolly was “engaged in conduct calculated to shut down a reproductive health clinic for an entire day.”

Matthew Connolly’s consistent and courageous witness to the value of preborn life deserves praise and commendation. Let us hope the Supreme Court will take up Connolly’s case and uphold all Americans’ First Amendment right to pray peacefully in public.

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Planned Parenthood Cashes In on Medicaid Money Meant for Elderly and Disabled, Report Shows

Abortion providers like Planned Parenthood are cashing in on Medicaid money meant for elderly and disabled Americans, a new report from the American Family Association (AFA) shows.  

States receive tens of billions of dollars from the federal government every year to run Medicaid programs; state taxpayers contribute several billion more.

But according to AFA’s “Displacing the Disabled: How Medicaid funds abortion providers and leaves disabled kids waiting,” thousands of Americans and their families across forty states are languishing on waitlists for Medicaid-funded Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS).

State HCBS programs subsidize in-home care for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill. For parents like Anja and Nate Baker, they are a necessity.

The Bakers are proud parents of three boys — six-year-old Locke, four-year-old Herschel and one-year-old Fulton. Herschel suffers from cerebral palsy, epilepsy and several other conditions related to brain injury.

Baker family photo courtesy of Anja Baker

“[Herschel] requires a wheelchair and g-tube feeding and cannot independently sit, stand, use the bathroom or speak,” Anja tells the Daily Citizen. “As a result, he requires around the clock care for all his needs.”

Without Mississippi Medicaid’s Disabled Child at Home program, Anja says she and Nate would not be able to afford the fifteen different medical providers and therapists Herschel needs to thrive.

“As a family, we have reorganized our lives around Herschel’s medical care,” she explains. “Without his Medicaid coverage, we could never afford to care for him.”

With Medicaid’s help, the Bakers get to watch Herschel grow and impact the people around him.

“Herschel loves time at church, especially music and fellowship time with friends.” Anja tells us. “We know he has impacted the faith of many people and will continue to do so as long as he’s able to share his light with the world.”

“We pray that we can keep Herschel’s life as comfortable and joy-filled as possible for as long as the Lord lets us have him.”

Baker boys courtesy of Anja Baker

Families like the Bakers can’t financially, physically or emotionally afford to be waitlisted for Medicaid. But that’s what happens when Medicaid funding is spread across an increasingly broad array of services — including those offered by abortion giants like Planned Parenthood.

AFA’s “Displacing the Disabled” report compiles data on twenty states with HCBS waitlists and abortion providers that accept Medicaid. The findings highlight an unacceptable incongruency: While vulnerable Americans await critical Medicaid support, Planned Parenthood entities and other abortion providers are collecting two streams of government income — federal grants and Medicaid reimbursements.

These funds free up millions of dollars Planned Parenthood and company use not only to perform abortions, but to lobby for pro-abortion policies, indoctrinate children into gender ideology and pay their executives’ six-figure salaries.

“For [HCBS programs] to be deprived of resources while the money instead funds the abortion industry is sickening,” Anja says.

“The abortion lobby sees no value in a child like Herschel; Planned Parenthood would rather see [him] and his school and church friends never born.”

She concludes:

This funding issue highlights a stark reality — the abortion industry neither wants to see disabled children born, nor their lives extended or cared for while they are here.
This contrast [proves] they aren’t just anti-life, they are pro-death.

AFA hopes the “Displacing the Disabled” report and stories like the Baker family’s will hammer home the importance of ensuring welfare programs serve the people who need them most.

“Healthcare resources are not infinite,” Dr. Jameson Taylor, the Director of AFA’s Center for Governmental Renewal explains.  “Medicaid can’t cover everything or everyone.”

He continues:

When you look at the services Medicaid could cover in each state, I believe providing care for vulnerable individuals should be a priority while funneling money to abortion providers shouldn’t be on the list.

The Daily Citizen categorically agrees.

To read AFA’s full report, click here.

Additional Articles and Resources

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Proposed Budget Bill Defunds Abortion Providers Like Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Uses Taxes to Pay for Abortion, Radical Sex Ed

Planned Parenthood Receives Millions of Dollars Through Federal ‘Family Planning’ Grants

Planned Parenthood Earns $2 Billion Killing Over 400,000 Babies, Annual Report Shows

Planned Parenthood Offers ‘Sexual Health Resources’ for All, Aided by Sacramento Libraries

Surprise, Surprise — Planned Parenthood Gave Children Explicit Coloring Books

Woman Nearly Dies from Abortion Pill, Story Reflects Disturbing EPPC Data

In April 2025, the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) released the largest-known study on the dangers of mifepristone – the first drug in a two-drug regimen called the “abortion pill.”

Their data, collected from insurance claims between 2017-2023, analyzes 865,727 cases of prescribed abortion pills in the United States – 28 times as many as were included in the FDA’s clinical trials on the drug combined.

The study explains,

10.93 percent of women experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or another serious adverse event within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion.
The real-world rate of serious adverse events following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times as high as the summary figure of “less than 0.5 percent” in clinical trials reported on the drug label.
Mifepristone abortion, as currently practiced in the U.S., is considered more dangerous to women than is represented on the FDA-approved drug label.

The study also urges the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “further investigate the harm mifepristone causes to women and, based on objective safety criteria, reconsider its approval altogether.”

To some, these disturbing statistics may only appear as numbers on a page. However, each digit represents a real woman who has either narrowly escaped death or tragically lost her life to the abortion pill.

Here is just one of those stories.

Shanyce

When Shanyce went to Planned Parenthood for an abortion pill in early 2025, she reported feeling “no emotion.” “You’re here. Just get it done,” she told herself.

Shanyce took the first pill, mifepristone, at the clinic. This dose of the abortion pill is designed the block progesterone – an essential hormone for a healthy pregnancy. Mifepristone also thins the uterine lining and prevents vital nutrients from getting to the baby, causing the death of the preborn child.

Planned Parenthood sent Shanyce home with instructions to take a second pill, misoprostol, 72 hours later. This second dose causes the uterus to contract, expelling the dead baby from the mother’s body.

Accompanied with misoprostol are typical symptoms of miscarriage: abdominal cramping, bleeding, and discharge of tissue or fluid.

Shortly after Shanyce noticed these symptoms, her pain became excruciating.  She recalls,

The cramp was unbearable, like, it kinda felt like someone was stabbing me in my stomach. … It was really unbearable, I’ve never cramped like that before.

At the advice of her mother, Shanyce returned to Planned Parenthood. After an examination, a doctor told her there were no fetal remains left in her body:

They kinda like just brushed it off and was like, “hey these are the symptoms, like you’re fine.” And she sent me about my way.

Shanyce showed no improvement after returning home. Her mother noticed she looked “blue, pale … really lethargic and sick.”

Eventually, Shanyce’s mother insisted she go to the emergency room. After an ultrasound, the doctors informed Shanyce that her body still contained the dead remains of her child.

Shanyce was immediately rushed into surgery. She recalls,

I started getting a fever. I was throwing up constantly. I remember the first three surgeries that I had to remove the remains of the child, all my family came. They prayed over me, and that was kind of like the last thing I remember from there.

The abortion pill had given Shanyce an infection behind her uterus, forcing her to undergo a partial hysterectomy.

She later went into septic shock and was put into an induced coma.

Shanyce nearly died.

I wake up in ICU, on a breathing tube. I was on [a] blood transfusion, I had a stent in my neck. … I wasn’t able to talk til’ the next day.

Over the next few weeks, Shanyce relearned basic functions with the help of physical and occupational therapists:

They showed me how to step in and out of the shower, how to brush my teeth. I had to learn how to walk again after. I had to learn how to write, chew, talk a little bit, how to do daily things.

Shanyce was admitted to the hospital at the beginning of January. She was not released until the end of February – a long, traumatic hospital stay caused by both Planned Parenthood’s negligence and the abortion pill.

As reported by the EPPC, countless women like Shanyce have been deceived by the FDA’s false information about the abortion pill:

Danco Laboratories boasts that more than 5 million U.S. women have used its abortion pill since it was approved in 2000.

Even referring to the abortion pill as “medication” is a lie – “medication is intended to treat or cure diseases, and pregnancy is not a disease.”

Stories like Shanyce’s and the EPPC’s data undoubtedly prove the abortion pill is not safe:

Danco Laboratories markets Mifeprex as “the safe and effective abortion pill,” but our research shows that mifepristone abortion, as currently practiced in the U.S., is not safe and effective.
Women deserve better than the abortion pill.

Not only that, but every preborn baby deserves a chance to live.

Thankfully, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has committed to reviewing the abortion pill’s safety profile. Hopefully the FDA will act to restrict the abortion pill’s use in the coming days.

Women, and preborn babies, would be much safer as a result.

To learn more about the abortion pill reversal protocol, visit abortionpillreversal.com or call 1-877-558-0333 to be connected with a medical professional who can guide callers through the process of reversing the pill’s effects.

To connect with a local pregnancy resource center that can discuss all of your pregnancy options with you, click here.  

Additionally, if you’re struggling and need a listening ear, Focus on the Family offers a free, one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. To request a counseling consultation, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) or fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

Related Articles and Resources:

Pro-Life: Focus on the Family

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New Insights on the Dangers of the Abortion Pill

Pro-Life Ohio Man Sues for Unfair Arrest Outside Abortion Clinic

An Ohio man is suing the city of Cuyahoga Falls for violating his First Amendment rights after police arrested him outside a local abortion clinic last December.

Three days after Christmas, Zachary Knotts and his wife peacefully promoted pro-life values on a public sidewalk near Northeast Ohio Women’s Center.

To share his evangelical message, Knotts spoke into a battery-powered megaphone, which had previously been cleared for public use by the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department.

Abortion clinic escorts quickly swarmed Knotts, shoving umbrellas in his face and drowning his words with whistles and kazoos.

Despite the escorts’ repeated noise and harassment, police only arrested Knotts for violation of the Cuyahoga Falls Noise Ordinance.

In their report, The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) states:

Although Mr. Knotts used a megaphone to be heard, his megaphone was not substantially louder than the noise of surrounding traffic.

The audio from Mrs. Knotts’ video recording demonstrates that Mr. Knotts’ megaphone was easily drowned out by the sound of the traffic on the nearby State Road and the escorts’ whistles and kazoos used to drown out his megaphone.

ACLJ attorneys claim Knotts’ arrest clearly compromised his right to free speech, noting:

  • Police can’t prove Knotts’ volume violated local ordinance – the batteries in his megaphone died before their arrival.
  • Although a nearby resident complained about Knotts’ pro-life speech, she never mentioned the escorts’ noise.
  • The only witness questioned was an off-duty, private security officer for the abortion clinic.
  • An officer warned Knotts would be arrested again if he caused further “annoyance,” regardless of whether or not he used amplified speech.  

Though police seemed eager to shut down Knotts’ pro-life message, officers had previously refused to censor abortion escorts’ threatening speech.

During a previous encounter in the presence of a police officer, Knotts reportedly told escorts his mother-in-law had considered abortion, and that his now-wife “should be dead.” One escort responded, “We can fix that.”

Another spat on Knotts. Police told Mrs. Knotts these alarming threats were not a crime.

The ACLJ writes:

The First Amendment doesn’t guarantee freedom from annoyance or inconvenience – it guarantees freedom of speech, especially for unpopular viewpoints that challenge the status quo.

When government officials start deciding which messages deserve protection based on their own preferences, we’re all at risk.

ACLJ’s lawsuit, filed May 30 seeks the following:

  • A declaration that the charges and arrest were unconstitutional
  • Compensation for alleged violations
  • A bar banning police from arresting protesters outside the abortion clinic
  • The return of Knotts’ microphone

The government does not have authority to censor citizens based on the content of their speech. Unfortunately – and too frequently – pro-life advocates like Zachary Knotts are not always afforded their First Amendment rights.

This case is Knotts v. The City of Cuyahoga Falls

Related Articles and Resources

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Gen Z Women Rejected Pro-Abortion Messaging in 2024, Election Data Shows

Post-election data shows pro-abortion messaging failed to galvanize young women in the 2024 election cycle, suggesting Gen Z women care far less about — or for — pro-abortion policies than political strategists expected.

It’s big news — but pollsters, per usual, are missing the point.

David Shor, head data scientist at a prominent Democrat consulting firm, joined The New York Times’ Ezra Klein last week to break down last year’s decisive presidential election. The two acknowledged young voters became more conservative but, like most analysts, attributed the shift primarily to young men.

It’s true: men aged 18 to 29 moved further right then their female counterparts — about 15 points, according to Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

But Gen Z women also became significantly more conservative. More than 40% of women aged 18 to 29 voted Republican in 2024, compared to just 33% in the 2020 presidential election. The shift spanned races, with white and black women each moving six points to the right and latina women moving 10 points.

This rightward shift is particularly important because, unlike young men, young women were supposed to be a shoo-in for former Vice President Kamala Harris. In a May 2024 piece for The New York Times, two political analysts predicted young women would overwhelmingly support abortion “rights.”

The article, titled “[Abortion] is the Democrats’ Best Shot in 2024. And They’re Spending Like Crazy on It,” reads:

There’s a good chance the [abortion] issue could offset President Biden’s weakness among many young and nonwhite voters, given the strong turnout among women and younger voters in recent years in states where abortion rights were on the ballot.

Pro-abortion candidates leaned hard into this perceived advantage. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and its allies spent $175 million on pro-abortion TV ads in 2024 — more than 30% of their total ad spending.

Just one day before the election, Politico reported Harris’ pro-abortion media campaign was “helping her close the gap with Trump on handling voters’ No. 1 issue: the economy.”

 “Abortion rights and Trump’s history of misogynistic statements is fueling a historic gender gap,” it further assessed, implying that women would vote on abortion and men on the economy.

These predictions did not come true. Abortion was not a mobilizing issue for American voters, particularly compared to the economy. In one of Shor’s surveys asking voters to rank issues by importance, 79% of respondents ranked the “cost of living, inflation” as more important than abortion.

Abortion paled in comparison to the economy even among Gen Z women, who are frequently portrayed as abortion’s biggest advocates. In the CIRCLE survey, 39% of women aged 18 to 29 identified “the economy and jobs” as their top policy priority.

Only 17% listed “abortion.”

The data is clear: the Democrat party spent big on an issue women, particularly young women, didn’t care about nearly as much as it thought. It effectively reduced an entire voting block to a stereotype — a caricature of an activist who cares about nothing more than having sex with no strings attached

This misunderstanding was so foundational that the party poured money into it until the bitter end. Democrats spent more than $2 million in mid-October on last minute pro-abortion messaging in swing states, even after polls showed women valued economic policy more highly.

But pro-abortion messaging clearly isn’t the silver bullet the Democrat party believed it to be.

Additional Articles and Resources

Harris’ Abortion Issue Bid Fails

Young People on the Pro-Life Movement’s Future

Young Person Talks to Young People at National March for Life