What exactly is a pro-life journal? This is more than a practical question for our editors; it bears crucially on our shared identity as prolifers, the strategies used to convince others about the inherent dignity of human life and the dire need for protections, and the unity of our efforts.

It quickly leads to other questions: What issues are truly pro-life concerns? Does the movement share any consensus on strategy? Is the pro-life effort mainly legal and political, or can we embrace care for individuals, religious faith and practice, and literary or artistic expression of human dignity?

We are living in an environment that is putting increasing pressure on the label “pro-life.” One reason is that relevant topics are proliferating with new scientific and technological developments. What, for example, is a pro-life stance regarding experiments that develop early-stage human embryos in laboratories using sperm or eggs that were previously formed out of human skin cells (a process called gameto-genesis)? Considerations of human dignity in its physical, spiritual, and relational dimensions have never been so complex.

We have also recently heard rhetoric, including from the staunchly anti-abortion Pope Leo XIV, that seeks to expand the category of “pro-life.” This is not entirely new; many prolifers recognize the need for a holistic approach to pregnancy care and for a general stance of loving concern in all areas of life. Unfortunately, the conceptual fragmentation of “pro-life” is simultaneously a strategy of pro-abortion extremists who hope to discredit the pro-life movement for being insensitive to a variety of perceived threats to human dignity other than abortion.

As a self-described pro-life journal, there are many ways that the pages of the Human Life Review reflect these questions about pro-life identity and focus. For example, we actively strive to cover a wide variety of issues and topics related to human dignity, reproduction, and the family even as we keep the primary focus on those direct threats to life like abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and fetal and embryonic research. Our commitment to a variety of perspectives as well as literary mediums for expressing them, combined with protecting the core identity of the pro-life effort, is on display in this issue of the Review.

In Patrick Mullaney’s article “God and the New Originalism,” we see an empha-sis on the flagship pro-life concern about abortion as well as a combined legal and religious argument. Mullaney wonders why there has not been sufficient advocacy for a due process protection of unborn life. For Mullaney, the problem is, ironically, the very same constitutional theory of Originalism that was used to overturn Roe v. Wade. You will want to learn why.

The next article, “A Pro-Life Principle: The Right to Migrate,” by the well-known leader and activist John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, makes the case for inclusion of immi-gration policy as a pro-life concern—and not just a peripheral one. He does this not only by appealing to core principles of human dignity but also by linking immigration to abortion and eugenics. While both policy and moral debates over immigration are

raging, the Human Life Review is pleased to publish such a work that is grounded in considerable thought, historically developed philosophy and theology, and prin-ciples that help define the pro-life effort.

Next, Gerard Mundy offers us a hard-hitting piece entitled “Against Suicide—Ex-cept Assisted Suicide? New York’s Contradiction.” Mundy addresses the traditional pro-life concern over the legalized killing of persons under the watchful eyes of doctors, but he adds a twist by highlighting New York Governor Hochul’s (and New York City’s) hypocrisy in her otherwise laudable support of suicide prevention initiatives. Mundy declares, “Regardless of what any ideological rhetoric might claim, a city is known for world-class healthcare when its health services aim for health and life.”

We follow with another article about threats to life in the medical context, a warn-ing from Ed Mechmann. In “A Living Will Is a Pathway to Euthanasia,” Mechmann offers some well-supported, practical advice about our own vulnerability to a tradi-tional concern—euthanasia via medical professionals. This is an important caution and an opportunity for proactive education.

Diversity and depth of artistic expression are on display in the poem “Sojourner” by Richard Hurzeler. In few words, Hurzeler helps us to “scale the mountain” of faith along with the suffering and heroic subject. Human life in its fullest!

Next, Dr. Donald DeMarco explains an important difference in the way we per-ceive life as either bios or zoe: as simply natural life or a life that is freely shared with others. This connection extends to and from the person in the womb. “The zoe aspect of the unborn makes them easier to recognize as human beings and members of the human family.”

In the article “No Regrets? Understanding the Reality of Abortion-Wounded Women,” Liam Siegler provides a review of Vitae Foundation research into abor-tion and women’s experiences in making abortion-related decisions as well as pro-ductive pro-life strategies. The insights are both powerful and poignant. Siegler tells us that, “many women aware of their abortion grief are led to believe their pain does not matter. As a result, many end up believing that their lives don’t matter. Injustice perpetuates injustice.” But we can make a difference.

In keeping with our promise to share more positive, life-affirming content, our “Life Stories” contribution is from Avail, a non-profit that is having amazing suc-cess in using online formats and technology to reach and persuade women facing an unintended pregnancy. The account in “Amber: Searching Online for Pregnancy Help Changed My Life” inspires true joy.

Jason Morgan brings us yet another perceptive and extended book review in “Losing Sight of the Person in Personhood.” His critique of the author’s product is more broadly a statement on the history and identity of the pro-life movement itself. The topic is personhood, referring to both the status of inherent dignity of the human being and the legal and philosophical effort for recognition of such dignity. In our “Booknotes” section, John M. Grondelski reviews the book Abortion Pill Reversal: A Second Chance at Choice, written by reversal pioneer George Delgado,

M.D. The book is important for its defense of the life-saving therapy as well as its description of the proponents’ strenuous efforts to gain wider acceptance and promote abortion pill reversal. Grondelski takes doubters to task for their irrational resistance: “One would think this would be a recognized benefit, given that abortion is defended as a matter of ‘choice.’ One would be wrong. The only legitimate choice for the ‘choice’ crowd is abortion.”

Our website HumanLifeReview.com features weekly articles and essays that pack either an emotional punch or deep insights. In “On Rape, Prolifers Should Show Humility as Well as Heroics,” Diane Moriarty tackles the emotionally diffi-cult concern over rape and its association with “the somewhat mildly percolating but ever on the verge of a furious boil ‘battle of the sexes’ element within the pro-life community.”

Rev. Canon Victor Lee Austin provides us with a well-deserved “aww” moment in “Celebrating Babies in Public Spaces.” Jason Morgan also tugs on our heart-strings in “The Goodness of Life, Even Unto Death”; the topic is not entirely what you’d expect! We mark a closing chapter in a monstrous part of history, one that has been covered in the pages of the Review many times, with “Kermit Gosnell, Prolific Abortionist, Dies at 85.” Lastly, Matt Lamb shows us that “Abortion Supporters Focus on Economics, Not Morality” in their arguments.

A recurring treasure in the pages of the Review is the inclusion of a few reprinted arti-cles as appendices. This Spring, we share with you excellent pieces from Kathryn Jean Lopez, Mary Kenny, Lord Nigel Biggar, and Rachel MacNair. Be sure to take a look.

As the works printed in this issue of the Human Life Review illustrate, the domain of a pro-life journal is not only diverse, but it is responsive to the ever-morphing challenges to human life and dignity in contemporary society. The interests and opinions of our readers will range widely, but our passionate attention to lov-ing—and energetically protecting—our vulnerable human neighbors will con-tinue to unite us and distinguish us from those who share our political and legal objectives but lack conviction regarding the plight of the vulnerable.

In a sense, the core of our efforts as a pro-life journal is not in the cerebral analysis of issues and strategies, but in the way that our hearts reach out in loving concern for human lives as well as joyful celebration of the dignity that we all share, if we can only live our lives to their fullest. In every issue of the Human Life Review, our writers are touching the hearts of our readers, in emotional appeals, thought-pro-voking reflections, literary expressions, and stories about the lived experiences of ordinary individuals and heroes.

Please reach out to us with your thoughts and concerns as we navigate the fluid and varied, yet always distinctive terrain of the pro-life effort—for you are the heartbeat of that effort.