Because of you, we were able to celebrate five years of Faithful at the End of Life in a way that was fun and informative.

Fr. Tad spoke on “The Gift of Dying Well,” touching on some of the basic issues related to end of life bioethics. In Beth's concluding remarks, it was noted that there are complexities in the laws which vary from state-to-state.

One important distinction in Ohio law is that, contrary to frequent opinion, a Living Will in Ohio is not a document that guides family members as they navigate questions related to life support, but distinct instructions to healthcare professionals that can pre-empt family members from carrying out the spirit of their loved-ones’ wishes.

Helping families to navigate the ethical and legal aspects of end of life care while honoring their faith and spiritual needs has been the purpose of Faithful at the End of Life since day one. For that reason, we were honored when Fr. Tad said that that he had reviewed it and found it to be to be “very well done.”

We plan to grow FATEL, including a second expanded edition, a Spanish-language translation, and partnerships with organizations such as the Catholic Foundation, who recently included FATEL in their program, “Your Catholic Retirement.” 

At Greater Columbus Right to Life, every day is respect life day - but we've been especially busy this month. Here's just a peak at what we've been up to in the past couple weeks.

We loved tabling at the Columbus Catholic Young Adult Conference and sharing with over 100 young adults how they could get involved in the pro-life movement right now.

Some of our most dedicated volunteers helped us fold, stuff, and seal our fall newsletter over the course of TWO days! Arriving in your mailbox soon.

Beth presented our Faithful at the End of Life talk at St. Pius X Parish. At the end of September, she gave our FATEL talk at St. Patrick Parish.

• Building on the momentum of our Fall 40DFL Campaign, we have scheduled two Advocacy Trainings in November! Thursday, November 13th and Saturday, November 15th from 9AM-12PM. If you are interested in continuing Sidewalk Ministry or would just like to feel more equipped in advocating for the pro-life cause on a local level, sign up here!

• Our Christmas Open House will take place this year on Giving Tuesday, December 2nd, from 4PM-7PM!Save the date to join us for Cookie Decorating + gifts and cards for moms.

Did you know we have a free pro-life Speaker’s Bureau? We are now scheduling talks for Winter/Spring 2025/2026. Check out our Programming Guide Here. Talk to your pastor/priest, or ministry leader and visit our scheduling page to start the process.

We are officially beginning the search for a new Executive Director. Please pray that we can find the right person to help lead GCRTL into a new era of pro-life work and please share our job posting with your friends and family - or consider if you are being called to lead.

Policy Pulse

From the Statehouse to Your House

September Abortions: 2030 Reported Statewide. 330 in Central Ohio

We recently shared our 2024 Abortion Statistics Report. Historically, information about the number of abortions happening in Ohio was not available until October of the following year. A change in Ohio's law is giving us the opportunity to get some additional data on a monthly basis - with a few caveats. The first is that the information is provided on a preliminary basis, based on the reports that the Ohio Department of Health receives the month prior - not necessarily based on the number of abortions performed the month prior. Nonetheless, we'll be keeping an eye on this information and periodically sharing it. Our first such review comes in the form of the September numbers, which overall seem to track the trends from 2024. With 2030 received abortion reports, about 77% of which were Ohio residents, we saw that the breakdown both statewide and locally for things like surgical vs medical abortions looked pretty consistent. We'll continue to track these numbers and adjust our education and outreach in response.