Bioethics Public Policy Report: June 10, 2025
STATE By State
In Vermont, following a lawsuit filed by several pro-life pregnancy centers, the state has amended the language of a bill that referred to the centers as “limited services” for their refusal to perform abortions. The law would have fined such centers up to $10,000 for whatever the Vermont attorney general would have considered to be “misleading” advertising. For further information, click here.
In Illinois, a proposed bill to legalize assisted suicide has stalled in the state senate after passing in the house. The state senators spent over an hour on the senate floor debating the bill. Cardinal Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago had issued a statement after the passage of the bill in the house calling for more compassionate palliative care that would not include suicide. To track and read the bill, click here. To read Cardinal Cupich’s statement, click here. For further information, click here.
In Kentucky, a woman represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) voluntarily withdrew a suit in state court that sought to overturn the state’s abortion ban. The ACLU declined to state the reason for the withdrawal, but went on to say that they “are strategizing [their] next steps in this fight.” For further information, click here.
In Missouri, the state supreme court has put abortions to a halt once again, finding that a lower court had used the wrong standard in allowing abortions to continue. The challenge had come after the state passed a law that required abortion providers to meet certain safety and sanitation requirements. For further information, click here.
Federal Courts
The bishops of Washington state have filed suit against the state over the passage of a law that would require them to break the seal of the confessional. Under the law, priests in Washington would be required to report child abuse to the authorities, removing the penitent-clergy privilege. The bishops allege violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and of provisions under the state constitution. For further information, click here.
Two pro-life activists are suing a city in Ohio in federal court for violations of their First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution after a demonstration outside of an abortion clinic. Represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, the married couple are arguing that the city ordinance under which they were arrested unconstitutionally favored those with opposing viewpoints while disfavoring their own. For further information, click here.
national
The Trump administration is probing hospitals that have previously performed transgender treatments and procedures on minors to ensure that they are compliant with the new rules and guidelines of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In a letter sent by Mehmet Oz, the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospitals were asked whether they had changed their protocols. To read the letter, click here. For further information, click here.
Planned Parenthood announced that it would be closing four facilities in Iowa and four in Minnesota, citing threats to federal funding as the reason. The Trump administration’s freeze on $20 million in funds in April combined with the threatened cuts to Medicaid in President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” were the reasons given for the decision. For further information, click here.
The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rescinded the Biden-era regulations requiring emergency rooms to perform abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Idaho had been sued by the Biden administration under the HHS regulations, and, earlier this year, Trump’s Department of Justice had dismissed the Biden administration’s suit against the state. For further information, click here.
Several state attorneys general, led by Attorney General Letitia James of New York, have filed a petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking the FDA “to eliminate unnecessary and outdated restrictions on the abortion medication mifepristone.” They claim in the petition that there is no scientific evidence to back the claim that mifepristone is potentially dangerous to one’s health. For further information, click here.
The U.S. State Department is set to destroy a stockpile of artificial contraception that had been set aside previously for foreign aid purposes. For further information, click here.
international
The French National Assembly passed a bill legalizing assisted suicide by a vote of 305–199. The Catholic bishops of France condemned the bill and called for alternative methods of palliative care. For further information, click here.
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia made a statement at the United Nations reiterating the need to ensure the adherence of combatants to the terms of the Geneva Conventions and other international law in light of the various armed conflicts erupting throughout the world. To read Archbishop Caccia’s statement, click here.
The European Union bishops’ conference (COMECE) has asked for Pope Leo’s assistance as the Court of Justice of the European Union reviews a case brought by a Belgian court. The case concerns the Catholic Church’s refusal to remove names from their baptismal registry after formal apostasy, and the Court of Justice is inquiring into whether the Church is in violation of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. For further information, click here.
Two child protection advocates were arrested in Belgium for holding a sign that said, “Children are never born in the wrong body.” The two were neither fined nor charged with any crime, but violent counter-protestors were not arrested in the ensuing incident. For further information, click here.
of note
Cardinal Willem Eijk of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, Netherlands, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, stated that the Pontifical Academy should give more attention to bioethical issues pertaining to transgenderism. For further information, click here.
Pope Leo called Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in a bid for peace in Ukraine. This marks the highest level of contact between Rome and Russia since Russia began its attacks on Ukraine in February of 2022. For further information, click here.
The Catholic bishops of Maryland issued a letter on the use of artificial intelligence. The bishops warned, “No matter how advanced machines become, they can never replicate the soul, the conscience or the eternal destiny that belongs to each human being.” To read the letter, click here.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute published a study contesting the claim that the chemical abortion drug mifepristone is “safer than Tylenol.” To read the study, click here.
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The National Catholic Bioethics Center website is a significant resource for bioethics information. NCBC bioethicists are also on call for consultation twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, at 215-877-2660.
Justin Corman
Justin Corman is a guest editor at the NCBC, and a student at Ave Maria School of Law.