Chris Smith

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services banned the National Institutes of Health from using human fetal stem cells from electively aborted babies for government funded research June 5.

Republican leaders in the House are calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and other House Democrats "to stop blocking" a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, was joined by more than 100 other members of the House Jan. 24 in introducing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act of 2019, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. 

"PLEASE NOTE: We plan to march even if the government shutdown is not yet resolved," declares the March for Life website, marchforlife.org. "We have marched for 45 years and will march again this year to end the human rights abuse of abortion."

The budget bill passed by the House of Representatives to try to end the partial government shutdown includes a provision to repeal the "Mexico City Policy" that prohibits U.S. funding of foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform or promote abortion.

President Donald Trump has signed into law the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018, which will provide humanitarian relief to genocide victims in Iraq and Syria and hold accountable Islamic State perpetrators of genocide.

Debate continues about whether the Vatican's provisional agreement with China will improve relations between the Chinese state and members of religious groups, which have had a long history of conflict.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, blasted unnamed "career staff" at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development for inaction that he said will lead to further genocide of Christians, Yezidis and other religious minorities in Iraq at the hands of Islamic State militants.