The EWTN News article from January 22, 2026, chronicles abortion-related ballot initiatives in five U.S. states, framing the issue through the lens of political contestation rather than moral imperative. Virginia, Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon consider measures to codify abortion “rights” in state constitutions, while Missouri proposes repealing its 2024 abortion amendment. Montana’s effort to define unborn children as persons failed in early 2025. The Virginia Catholic bishops’ opposition is noted, yet the analysis remains imprisoned within the parameters of secular legalism.
Naturalism Masquerading as Neutral Reporting
The article reduces the slaughter of innocents to a procedural matter, stating without condemnation that four states might create “fundamental right to abortion” while only one considers protecting life. This false equivalence violates the absolute prohibition against treating good and evil as competing political preferences. The Catechism of the Council of Trent declares abortion “nefandum scelus” (unspeakable crime) deserving excommunication (Session XI). By contrast, the report treats Virginia’s 28-week limit as a legitimate compromise rather than an abomination before God.
Virginia’s proposed amendment exemplifies the apostasy of modern jurisprudence, seeking to elevate child murder to constitutional status. The text’s reference to “postpartum care” and “fertility care” adjacent to abortion constitutes linguistic subterfuge – a modernist tactic condemned in Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane (Prop. 58: “Truth changes with man”). Nowhere does the article reference the Lex naturalis or the Fifth Commandment, reducing moral law to legislative wrangling.
The Silence of the Shepherds
While noting Virginia bishops’ opposition, the report omits the canonical obligation to impose latae sententiae excommunication on all who procure abortion (1917 CIC 2350 §1). St. Pius V’s Regnans in Excelsis (1570) provides the model: Elizabeth I was excommunicated for lesser crimes against the Faith than these constitutional amendments. Modern prelates’ tepid declarations – “we will fight” – stand in stark contrast to the anathema sit of Trent and the Syllabus of Errors’ condemnation of religious indifferentism (Prop. 77).
Missouri’s proposed repeal exposes another modernist corruption: permitting abortion until 12 weeks for rape exceptions. This violates Pius XII’s absolute teaching that “the baby, still not born, is a man [homo] in the same degree and for the same reason as the mother” (Allocution to Midwives, 1951). The article’s neutral description of this compromise constitutes tacit approval of child-murder under certain conditions.
Rejection of Christ’s Social Kingship
Every abortion amendment constitutes formal rebellion against Quas Primas‘ declaration that “the empire of our Redeemer embraces all men” (Pius XI, 1925). Nevada’s measure forbids state interference in abortion – a direct violation of the Syllabus of Errors’ condemnation of states that “do not want to have any care for religious matters” (Prop. 77). Oregon’s conflation of abortion with “gender transition” and same-sex marriage demonstrates the satanic synthesis foretold in Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), where all heresies converge.
Montana’s failed personhood amendment reveals the bankruptcy of incrementalist strategies. The measure’s exception for “unintentional harm” by mothers created a fatal moral ambiguity, ignoring St. Thomas Aquinas’ teaching that “one is obliged to suffer any evil rather than commit a sin” (De Malo 2.5). True Catholic action would follow St. Dominic’s example: preaching contra errores without compromise.
Theological Atrophy in Crisis
The report’s structural flaw lies in treating these ballot measures as isolated political events rather than symptoms of the great apostasy foretold in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Nowhere does it reference the Dignitatis Humanae heresy (religious liberty) that enabled this moral chaos. As Leo XIII warned in Immortale Dei (1885), states rejecting Christ’s authority become “rivers that have burst their banks and left their proper bed,” inevitably descending into barbarism.
The Virginia bishops’ anemic response contrasts sharply with St. John Fisher’s martyrdom for defending marriage against Henry VIII. Until prelates rediscover the odium fidei that animated the martyrs, their declarations will remain “a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). The article’s clinical tone about Oregon funding abortions – without noting the blood guilt incurred – exemplifies how far Catholic journalism has fallen from the prophetic voice of Orestes Brownson.
Source:
Will your state vote on abortion in 2026? (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 22.01.2026