Day: January 10, 2026
Pope Leo calls out ‘inclusive’ language as a painful, ‘Orwellian’ movement in the West
Pope Leo XIV says Western nations need to guarantee the freedom of expression.
The pope gave his “State of the World” speech from the Vatican in Vatican City on Friday and delivered remarks that may agitate some of his more liberal followers.
‘A new Orwellian-style language is developing which, in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding.’
Real name Robert Prevost, the noted Chicago White Sox fan championed free speech when he explained that words need to once again be used to “express distinct and clear realities.”
This is paramount in order to engage in “authentic dialogue,” the Catholic leader continued, noting that truth-telling is necessary for “preventing conflicts.”
This led Pope Leo into pointing out a “paradox” in modern self-expression in the West, which only strengthens his belief in the idea that freedom of speech and expression should be guaranteed.
“It is painful to see how, especially in the West, the space for genuine freedom of expression is rapidly shrinking,” the pope said. “At the same time, a new Orwellian-style language is developing which, in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not conform to the ideologies that are fueling it.”
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The 70-year-old explained that the inclusivity paradox leads to other consequences, such as the restriction of human rights, including “freedom of conscience.”
Those were not the only remarks the pope gave that were seemingly controversial. Rather, he also spoke strongly against the act of surrogacy.
Leo XIV said that surrogacy amounts to transforming gestation into a “negotiable service” that violates the dignity of both the child and the mother. Surrogacy reduces the baby to a “product,” the pope said, and causes a mother to exploit her body and the generative process, which distorts “the original relational calling of the family.”
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Photo by Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images
Observers of the speech, reportedly including 184 ambassadors from states that have diplomatic relations with the Vatican, also heard the pope condemn assisted suicide as a form of “deceptive” compassion.
The leader said that the elderly and isolated — “who at times struggle to find a reason to continue living” — should be offered solutions to their suffering, such as “palliative care … rather than encouraging deceptive forms of compassion such as euthanasia.”
Leo concluded his speech by emphasizing the need for peaceful dialogue and living in truth. He added that a “peaceful world” is built by those who act from humble hearts.
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How a pro-life law in Kentucky lets mothers get away with murder
Melinda Spencer allegedly took abortion pills, ended the life of her unborn son, and buried his remains in a shallow grave in her backyard.
Yet a law in Kentucky exempting women from prosecution after obtaining an abortion — a law supported by the most influential pro-life organization in the state — appears to have prevented prosecutors from holding Spencer accountable for murder.
If a state refuses to make murder illegal for everyone, then some human beings will remain unprotected by design.
According to court documents cited by local media, Spencer, 35, told Kentucky State Police that the child “was not her boyfriend’s, and she did not want him to find out she was pregnant with another man’s baby.”
To conceal the pregnancy, Spencer allegedly ordered abortion pills online, intending to end the life of her unborn child without medical supervision.
Police say Spencer took the pills the day after Christmas, placed her deceased son in a light bulb box, and buried him in a shallow grave in her backyard. An autopsy determined the child was around 20 weeks’ gestation at the time of his death.
Initially Spencer was charged with first-degree fetal homicide, abuse of a corpse, concealing the birth of an infant, and tampering with physical evidence.
This week, however, Kentucky prosecutors dropped the homicide charge — not because they doubt that Spencer intentionally caused the death of her unborn child but because Kentucky law explicitly prohibits prosecuting a pregnant woman who murders her own unborn child.
Miranda King, the prosecutor overseeing the case, acknowledged this limitation directly. In a public statement, she explained that the relevant statute “prohibits the prosecution of a pregnant woman who caused the death of her unborn child.” Spencer still faces the remaining, lesser charges.
King made clear that this frustrating outcome was not her preference.
“I sought this job with the intention of being a pro-life prosecutor but must do so within the boundaries allowed by the Kentucky state law I’m sworn to defend,” she said. “I will prosecute the remaining lawful charges fully and fairly.”
Kentucky is widely regarded as a conservative state with strong pro-life laws. Many Americans assume abortion was effectively banned there after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. This case exposes how incomplete that assumption is.
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jcphoto via iStock/Getty Images
Kentucky’s leading pro-life advocacy organization, Kentucky Right to Life, has long supported laws that shield women from criminal liability for abortion. In practice, this ensures that abortion remains legal for women, even if clinics are closed.
In 2021, Kentucky Right to Life joined more than 70 other pro-life organizations in signing a national letter declaring opposition to “any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women” who obtain abortions.
Since then, the organization has opposed multiple abolition bills that would have established equal protection under the law for unborn children — specifically because such legislation would allow for the prosecution of mothers who willfully procure abortions.
Addia Wuchner, Kentucky Right to Life’s executive director, opposed an abolition bill in 2023 on the grounds that it might expose mothers to criminal charges. She took the same position last year, arguing that women are victims of coercion by the abortion industry.
That framing has deadly consequences.
Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
Following Spencer’s arrest, Wuchner publicly expressed sympathy for the accused, describing Spencer as likely being “on her own” and calling that “probably the greatest tragedy,” before adding that “of course … a child’s life was lost.”
The ordering is revealing. The alleged murder of a child was treated as secondary to the emotional state of the alleged murderer. Empathy displaced justice and accountability.
There are cases in which women are coerced into abortions under genuine duress. But coercion cannot be presumed as a universal explanation. By all available evidence, Spencer appears to have acted deliberately. Kentucky law nevertheless forecloses full accountability — and ensures that the central act in this case cannot be adjudicated as homicide.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, states like Kentucky have continued to see record abortion levels, largely through self-managed chemical abortions ordered online. Laws that categorically exempt women from prosecution guarantee this outcome.
If a state refuses to make murder illegal for everyone, then some human beings will remain unprotected by design. And when that exemption applies even in cases involving concealment, burial, and admitted intent, justice becomes impossible by statute.
So long as that remains the case, women who willfully kill their unborn children in Kentucky will continue to get away with murder.
Young white Americans want their own identity politics now — and conservatives shouldn’t be surprised
After years of DEI, affirmative action, and replacement-level immigration, some young white Americans are beginning to demand political representation as a group. Conservatives are panicking about this rise in “white identity politics,” but they shouldn’t be surprised at all, says BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre.
“For decades, whites have watched every other group in America successfully demand political action as a block from both the left and the right. Democrats build their entire party around racial grievance, but even conservatives are quick to speak to the needs of minority communities as a collective group,” Auron says.
Even though conservatives are typically anti-identity politics, they nonetheless “cater to them for any group except their core constituency: white Americans.”
Now some of those white Americans are saying, “Enough — we demand the same treatment.”
Massive immigration has brought in large groups of people who naturally stick together ethnically and gain advantages through nepotism and tribalism, Auron explains. This makes pure individual merit, which whites are forced to rely on, a losing strategy, especially when they’re already demonized for their race by universities, corporations, and media outlets.
For years the message has been: “[Whites] aren’t allowed to advocate as a group like everyone else gets to, but they are allowed to be punished as a group.”
The fact that some whites are now calling for ethnic representation is merely “predictable results,” Auron says.
“If conservatives were serious about stopping the rise of collective white identity politics, they would stop lecturing young white people for noticing the obvious. They would instead attack the systemic bias against whites in corporations and academia. … If they were serious, conservatives would initiate an immigration moratorium and would aggressively prosecute ethnic cartels in the United States,” he continues.
“Conservative leaders should be lecturing blacks, Indians, Hispanics, and Jews just as aggressively as they lecture whites about ethnocentrism, if for no other reason than whites, you know, actually vote for the GOP, while all these other groups — outside of Hispanic males in the last election — vote overwhelmingly Democrat.”
“In short, show young white people that they can succeed without ethnocentrism by actually addressing and punishing ethnocentrism that is currently practiced by every other group here in the United States. Gather your courage and talk to the minorities who are already practicing the very behavior you claim to fear.”
To hear more of Auron’s commentary and analysis, watch the video above.
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