A New Fight Is Beginning - 08/20/26

America's bishops call for renewed prayer and action against abortion pills. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have launched a multi-month campaign to urge Catholics to pray, educate others, and mobilize against the growing availability of abortion pills. The campaign is a response to the rapid growth of chemical abortions in the last few years. The head of the USCCB, Archbishop Paul Coakley said, every abortion involves the death of a child and harm to the mother. Now, with With easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks.

The bishops called on the FDA to eliminate policies which allow abortion pills to be prescribed through telehealth appointments and for pills to be shipped from nationwide mail-order abortion industries that circumvent state laws protecting unborn children. Catholics are encouraged to seek the intercession of St. Joseph under the title Defender of Life and share information about the dangers of abortion pills. CatholicVote joined other pro-life groups this July in calling on the Trump administration to reverse Biden-era policies expanding mail-order access to Mifepristone.

Meanwhile, over at The Loop, Pope Leo said sacred music composers must know and preserve the musical heritage of the church. Today is the Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, whose writings and preachings were so eloquent, his contemporaries said they were like honey. Centuries later, when he was declared a doctor of the church, the pope actually told him that he was a Christian. I'm Josh Mercer, editor of The Loop, taking you behind the headlines. Go to zeal.co for the rest of today's Loop, and while you're at it, subscribe to get The Loop in your inbox every morning. Again, that's zeal.co.