EWTN News portal reports on President Trump’s nomination of Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general, highlighting her decision to keep her baby despite an unplanned teenage pregnancy, alongside legislative developments in Oklahoma and Kentucky concerning abortion and the legal status of unborn children. While the article celebrates these pro-life victories, it operates within a framework that implicitly accepts the legitimacy of secular governance over matters of life and death, failing to acknowledge the absolute sovereignty of Christ the King and the Church’s sole authority to define the moral order.
The Illusion of “Pro-Life” Within a Godless Framework
The article presents Dr. Nicole Saphier as a heroine of the pro-life movement, celebrating her choice to carry her pregnancy to term as a teenager. Her story is framed as a triumph of personal courage against cultural pressures, with organizations like the National Right to Life Committee praising her decision. Yet this celebration is fundamentally flawed, for it accepts the premise that the protection of unborn life is a matter of secular law and individual choice rather than a divine mandate rooted in the natural law and the infallible teaching of the Church.
Dr. Saphier is described as a “practicing Catholic,” yet the article makes no mention of the Church’s absolute condemnation of abortion as a mortal sin demanding excommunication (Canon 2350 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law). Instead, her decision is presented as a personal moral victory, divorced from the sacramental life and the authority of the true Church. This reduction of Catholic morality to secular “pro-life” advocacy is a hallmark of modernist thinking, which seeks to reconcile the faith with the spirit of the world rather than subjecting the world to Christ.
The Tyranny of Secular Law Over Divine Law
The article details Oklahoma’s new law criminalizing the distribution of abortion drugs, with penalties of up to $10 years in prison and $100,000 in fines. While this may appear to be a positive development, it implicitly accepts the legitimacy of the state’s authority to define and punish crimes against human life. This is a direct violation of Catholic teaching, which holds that the state has no authority to legislate on matters of faith and morals independent of the Church.
Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemned the proposition that “the civil power has authority to rescind, declare and render null, solemn conventions, commonly called concordats, entered into with the Apostolic See” (Proposition 43). The Oklahoma law, while nominally protective of unborn life, operates within a secular framework that denies the Church’s primary jurisdiction over moral matters. Furthermore, the law’s exception for cases where “the mother’s life is at risk” introduces a utilitarian calculus that contradicts the absolute inviolability of innocent human life from the moment of conception.
The Kentucky Ruling: A Manifestation of Modernist Apostasy
The article reports that a Kentucky circuit court struck down the state’s definition of unborn children as human beings, specifically in the context of in vitro fertilization (IVF). This ruling is a direct consequence of the modernist revolution that has infected both civil society and the so-called “Catholic” institutions that fail to uphold the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life.
The Catholic Church has always taught that human life begins at conception and that every human being, from the moment of fertilization, possesses an immortal soul and the right to life. Pope St. Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), condemned the modernist errors that denied the fixed and immutable nature of Catholic doctrine. The Kentucky ruling, which denies legal personhood to unborn children, is a direct fruit of the modernist heresy that truth “changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Proposition 58).
The article’s criticism of IVF is limited to its “efficiency” and the “destruction of undesired embryos,” but it fails to condemn the procedure itself as intrinsically evil. The Church teaches that the procreative act must remain within the bounds of marriage and that any separation of the unitive and procreative aspects of marriage is gravely sinful. The creation of “excess” embryos for potential destruction is a form of murder, yet the article treats this as a secondary concern rather than the primary moral issue.
The Silence on the Church’s Sole Authority
Perhaps the most glaring omission in the article is any mention of the Church’s exclusive authority to teach, govern, and sanctify. The entire discussion of abortion, IVF, and the legal status of unborn children is conducted within a secular framework, as if the Church had no definitive teaching on these matters or as if her teaching were merely one opinion among many.
Pope Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas (1925), proclaimed that “Christ reigns over the minds of men… because He Himself is Truth, and men must draw truth from Him and accept it obediently.” The article’s failure to invoke the Church’s teaching authority is a symptom of the modernist disease that has infected even those who claim to defend the faith. The true Church, not the state, is the sole arbiter of moral truth, and any “pro-life” movement that operates outside her authority is building on sand.
The Dangers of “Pro-Life” Secularism
The article’s celebration of Dr. Saphier and the Oklahoma law, while understandable in the context of the current political climate, ultimately serves to reinforce the secularization of the pro-life movement. By framing the defense of unborn life as a matter of secular law and personal choice, the article implicitly denies the supernatural dimension of the struggle against abortion.
The true battle against abortion is not a political campaign but a spiritual warfare that can only be won through prayer, penance, and the restoration of Christ’s social kingdom. Pope Leo XIII, in the encyclical Immortale Dei (1885), taught that “the Almighty, therefore, has given the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, things. Each in its kind is supreme, each has fixed limits within which it is contained, limits which are defined by the special object of its province.” The article’s silence on this teaching is a betrayal of the integral Catholic faith.
Conclusion: The Necessity of Restoring Christ’s Social Kingship
While the nomination of Dr. Saphier and the Oklahoma law may represent incremental victories in the political arena, they are ultimately insufficient without the restoration of Christ’s social kingship. The Kentucky ruling, which denies legal personhood to unborn children, is a stark reminder of the consequences of allowing secular authorities to define the moral order.
The true solution to the abortion crisis lies not in secular legislation but in the conversion of hearts and the restoration of the Church’s authority over all aspects of human life. As Pope Pius XI declared, “If rulers and legitimate superiors will have the conviction that they exercise authority not so much by their own right as by the command and in the place of the Divine King, everyone will notice how religiously and wisely they will use their authority.” Until this restoration occurs, all secular “pro-life” victories will remain fragile and ultimately futile.
Source:
Meet the Trump surgeon general nominee who kept her baby despite an unplanned pregnancy as a teen (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 09.05.2026