Bioethics Public Policy Report: October 8, 2026
State by State
The family of a pregnant woman who died of preeclampsia has sued Texas state officials for wrongful death on the grounds that Texas’s abortion ban was to blame. Pro-life advocates have explained that the abortion ban was not to blame for the woman’s death. For further information, click here and here.
In a case the first of its kind, the estate of an aborted child in New Mexico settled with an abortionist for $200,000 on a wrongful death claim. The complaint had asserted the personhood of the child at 26 weeks at the time of the killing, entitled to equal protection of the laws. For further information, click here.
Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington has called for prayer and fasting in opposition to the ballot questions. One would grant a state constitutional “right” to abortion and another, notwithstanding the Obergefell decision, which invalidated state laws prohibiting same-sex “marriage,” would remove the constitutional ban that still remains on such unions. For further information, click here.
Federal Courts
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the decision of a lower court rejecting a private citizen’s suit against the City of Los Angeles for its cross and Nativity display at El Pueblo, where he had argued that the display violated the First Amendment. For further information, click here.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on a case involving the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, who have been denied a conditional use permit and variance to build a grotto on their property. The case is expected to give clarity to the proper standards for applying the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. For further information, click here.
Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas have sued New York, California, and Massachusetts over their respective abortion “shield laws” protecting cross-state mail order abortions and refusing to cooperate with states restricting abortion. For further information, click here.
National
NCBC joined other Catholic medical groups in supporting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s proposal to clarify in federal policy that there are only two biological sexes, male and female, which the agencies collectively identified as critical in upholding the dignity and truth of the nature of the human person, which is paramount to effective health care, as well as for protecting healthcare professionals from erroneous charges of discrimination. To read the FDA’s proposal, click here. To read the public comment, click here.
Do No Harm, a nonprofit opposing mutilative procedures for sexually confused minors, has written a letter to the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alleging that Planned Parenthood may be engaged in medical-coding fraud with regard to cross-sex hormone prescriptions. Do No Harm has asked HHS to investigate Planned Parenthood and its affiliates. To read the letter, click here. For further information, click here.
A Wisconsin company reached an agreement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on a religious accommodation charge, allowing an employee to use the pronouns of a coworker corresponding to the coworker’s biological sex. For further information, click here.
International
The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union issued an advisory opinion, violating the Church’s right to internal governance, by indicating that the European Union’s data privacy laws may require the Catholic Church to remove names from baptismal registries if they request it, unless it can prove “compelling legitimate grounds” for keeping the names. The advisory opinion is not binding on the court, but it shows what the decision will hinge upon. To read the advisory opinion, click here. For further information, click here.
Victoria, Australia, has seen a 400% surge in assisted-suicide deaths over the past five years, accounting for 1.1% of all deaths in Victoria in 2025-2026. Victoria is expected to expand assisted suicide next year. To read the government report, click here. For further information, click here.
On his visit to France, Pope Leo XIV openly defended the right to life, condemning assisted suicide, abortion, and surrogacy, notwithstanding France’s longstanding strict secularization in the public sphere, called “laïcité.” For further information, click here.
Of Note
The Institute for Family Studies published a report indicating that churchgoing Catholic couples tend to be happier than non-religious counterparts. To read the report, click here.
The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture of Notre Dame University has announced that the 2027 Evangelium Vitae Medal will go to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who provide nursing care to impoverished cancer patients. The Dominican Sisters earlier this year sued New York over a law requiring them to assign rooms according to patients’ “gender identity” rather than biological sex. For further information, click here and here.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has focused attention on the harms of abortion pills as part of its reflections for Respect Life Month, calling for prayer and action on ending the distribution of chemical abortion drugs. For further information, click here.
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The National Catholic Bioethics Center webpage, available at http://www.ncbcenter.org/, is a significant resource for bioethics information. NCBC bioethicists are also on-call for consultation twenty-four hours a day, seven days per week, at 215-877-2660.