Bioethics Public Policy Report: September 1, 2026
State by State
McKenna West, a surrogate mother from Alaska, is reportedly being sued for $100,000 by the biological parents of the child for refusing to honor a clause in the surrogacy contract that would have required her to abort the child for fetal abnormalities. West gave birth to the child in Texas under the protection of a court order secured by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and the child is currently in critical condition after open heart surgery. For further information, click here and here.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed into law S2260, a law which will grant “reproductive health care services” a sweeping set of legal protections and criminalize “interference” with such “services,” which means anyone who “intimidates, threatens, or coerces” or attempts to do so would be in violation of the law. To read the law, click here. For further information, click here.
Federal Courts
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Indiana’s law prohibiting the sharing of information about out-of-state abortions with minors without parental consent violates the First Amendment. To read the ruling, click here. For further information, click here.
Illinois has agreed to a federal court order enjoining enforcement of its “End of Life Options” Act, which legalized assisted suicide as applied against the plaintiffs as litigation continues. For further information, click here.
National
President Trump has appointed Dr. Heidi Overton, a medical doctor who has previously written against the evils of chemical abortion. While she will need to be confirmed by the Senate, her confirmation is probable given the current Republican majority. For further information, click here.
international
A petition is circulating calling on all countries to adopt in full Article 18 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with endorsement from Archbishop Richard Moth, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. To read the petition, click here. For further information, click here and here.
Ten Catholics in India have been released after spending 104 days in prison for alleged violations of Rajastan’s anti-conversion laws. The Rajasthan Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, which went into effect last year, restricts certain kinds of conversions and places the burden of proof on the accused to demonstrate that the conversion was not unlawful. For further information, click here.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher, O.P., has claimed bias in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) coverage of voluntary assisted dying, arguing that it has broken its own rules on unbiased news coverage. Specifically, Archbishop Fisher has alleged that the ABC has platformed an advocate for voluntary assisted dying to promote loosening existing restrictions on the practice. For further information, click here.
Of Note
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have begun an initiative to pray for an end to the spread of chemical abortion pills, specifically invoking St. Joseph, Defender of Life. To read the bishops’ statement, click here. For further information, click here.
In an address to the International Catholic Legislators Network, Pope Leo XIV has encouraged legislators to promote policies concerning artificial intelligence which encourage scientific and technological creativity while safeguarding fundamental human rights and freedoms, while promoting the good of the family, including the entire human family. To read his address, click here.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, visited Moscow to promote international peace and ecclesial unity. For further information, click here.
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