WASHINGTON -- In a March 11 ruling, the Texas Supreme Court ended a challenge by abortion clinics to a state law that bans most abortions in Texas.

The landmark  Roe v. Wade decision that struck down American abortion laws turned 49 years old Jan 22, but pro-life activists north of the border are hopeful it won’t hit 50.

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court sent a challenge to the Texas abortion law back to the state's Supreme Court Jan. 17.

VANCOUVER -- Amid the bleakness of the culture of death that debases modern society, Catholics can find hope in the zealous and relentless commitment of pro-life advocates working “to foster in our country a culture of life,” said Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver.

WASHINGTON -- In the Supreme Court's first major abortion case in decades -- which looked at Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy -- the majority of justices Dec. 1 seemed willing to let that ban stay in place.

Pro-life forces in Manitoba scored a victory on Oct. 14 when an NDP bill seeking to create a protest buffer zone around facilities providing abortions was voted down in the provincial legislature.

MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican Supreme Court has invalidated a clause in a state constitution that provided protection of life "from the moment in which an individual is conceived ... until their death," arguing that no state government could determine when life begins; only the federal constitution could determine that.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM SLOVAKIA (CNS) -- The debate about denying Communion to politicians who support abortion must be handled in a pastoral way, not by public condemnations that seek to "excommunicate" Catholics who are not in line with church teaching, Pope Francis said.

Even for pro-lifer Catholics labouring in the political trenches, it must seem a blessing in disguise that abortion has so far failed to get off the ground as a federal election issue.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against blocking a Texas law banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy.

BERLIN -- German bishops are concerned that a decision guaranteeing German health insurers will pay for pregnant women's blood tests to detect Down syndrome will lead to abortion.

As the economic successes of the Industrial Age gave way to grandiose advancements of the modern technological era, society was presumed to be a great beacon of civilization. Humans see ourselves as formidable and intelligent as we learn more and more.

OTTAWA -- Campaign Life Coalition is calling on pro-life Canadians to show support for New Brunswick’s provincial government in a legal fight over funding and access to abortion services in the east coast province.

BRUSSELS -- The bishops of the European Union, while applauding a proposed EU report on expanding the access of all women to adequate health care, take strong issue with the report's characterization of abortion as a human right and its claim that "a total ban on abortion care or denial of abortion care is a form of gender-based violence."

WASHINGTON -- The Women’s Health Protection Act, introduced in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House on June 8, “would invalidate nearly all existing state limitations on abortion,” said Jennifer Popik, director of federal legislation for National Right to Life.