Live Action News' Top 10 of 2025: Defending human life and dignity, beginning to end

In 2025, Live Action News published approximately 2,000 articles discussing politics, intriguing and inspirational human interest stories, people and events in pop culture, the abortion pill landscape, hard-hitting and thorough fact checks on the media and cultural pro-abortion narratives, and much more — including commentaries on bioethical issues like assisted suicide, IVF, and surrogacy.

Our goal is to educate, inspire, equip, and activate readers to make a difference for the cause of life by building a culture of life in their own respective 'mission fields'.

In 2025, half of our "Top 10" most-read articles focused on political issues and legislation, while most of the remainder reported details surrounding cases of shocking and horrific acts perpetrated against both preborn and born babies:

＃🔟: Republican lawmakers ask FBI to investigate the deaths of the ‘D.C. Five’

Live Action News' 10th most-read article of the year focused on an April letter sent by Republican Reps. Chip Roy (Texas) and Andy Biggs (Arizona) to FBI Director Kash Patel. The letter asked for the FBI to "investigate the five nearly full-term babies found in a medical waste bin outside a Washington, D.C., abortion facility in March 2022."

Read approximately 57,000 times, the article noted that the Biden administration failed to investigate the deaths of the "D.C. Five," and to date, no autopsies or known investigations into the deaths of these children have taken place. They were reportedly found in a box obtained from a medical waste truck driver by anti-abortion activists Terrisa Bukovinac and Lauren Handy outside abortionist Cesare Santangelo's Washington Surgi-Center in D.C., beneath the remains of 110 first-trimester aborted children.

Experts believe the babies were aborted at gestational ages old enough to have survived outside the womb, and that one may have been the victim of a federally-illegal D&X ("partial-birth") abortion. D.C. has no gestational limits on abortion.

＃9️⃣: Pediatric nurse arrested after NICU preemies experience ‘unexplained fractures’

Live Action News' ninth most-read article of 2025 was published in January and was read more than 62,000 times. The article reports on the horrific acts of Virginia pediatric nurse Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, who was arrested after hidden cameras captured footage of her breaking infants' legs while on duty at Henrico Children's Hospital in Richmond.

An update to the article notes that prosecutors have filed 20 child-abuse charges against Strotman for inflicting injuries upon nine infants in 2023 and 2024, including felony malicious wounding and felony child neglect. Her license was suspended in May 2025 by the Virginia Board of Nursing, which believes Strotman poses a "substantial danger to public health and safety."

＃8️⃣: Police say woman charged with killing newborn baby shows ‘no remorse’

An article read more than 63,000 times since July 2025 discusses how a case left open for 16 years was finally solved.

In May of 2009, a newborn baby girl's body was found in a dumpster of a California apartment complex. An autopsy revealed she had been born alive and died as a result of drowning.

As Live Action News reported, "DNA evidence led police to Angela Onduto, who had been a person of interest in 2009 and who had relocated to Colorado. She was confirmed as the child’s mother." Onduto had been living in Colorado and reportedly "expressed no remorse," according to law enforcement.

At the time the baby girl was found, police treated her with the dignity she deserved -- but had never received until that point. "Police named her Matea Esperanza, which means 'gift from God' in Hebrew and 'hope' in Spanish." Live Action News reported. "They bought a permanent marker for her and a gravesite at Chapel of the Chimes."

＃7️⃣: COURT RECORDS: KY cheerleader who put baby in closet heard him 'whimper'

An article read 66,000 times recounted the arrest of University of Kentucky cheerleader Laken Snelling, age 21, who was taken into custody after police located the body of a deceased baby in her closet, "wrapped in a towel inside a black trash bag."

Snelling was charged with "abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant" but pleaded not guilty and has remained free on bond.

Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn claimed after a preliminary autopsy in early September that the baby was a boy but his cause of death was inconclusive. Ginn has released no further details since that time, despite stating that "Extensive microscopic analyses are essential to determine the cause and manner of death."

Reports about Snelling's description of what happened do not seem to align; she originally told police she believed the baby to be dead when she wrapped him in a towel and cleaned up (in an apparent attempt to conceal the birth). Yet later, records from the Fayette County District Court noted that Snelling told medical staff that "she guessed the baby was still alive," adding that he displayed some movement and made a "whimper."

Local news has reported no further updates on this case in nearly three months.

＃6️⃣: Teen’s father arrested after Walmart employees find baby’s body in restroom trash

This heartbreaking Live Action News article was read approximately 77,000 times since July. It recounted how Walmart employees in Kingsville, Texas, discovered a deceased baby in the trash can of one of the store's restrooms. As details emerged, it was learned that a 17-year-old girl was the baby's mother, who told authorities she had been raped multiple times by her own father, who was also the father of her baby.

Jerry Lee Martinez reportedly attempted to cause his daughter to miscarry by repeatedly punching her in the stomach. When that failed, he took her to Mexico for an abortion; the baby had been stillborn.

＃5️⃣: Virginia governor vetoes bill criminalizing free speech outside ‘health care facilities’

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (soon to be replaced by pro-abortion governor-elect Abigail Spanberger) vetoed a law passed by the Virginia Legislature that sought to criminalize speech within a certain distance of an abortion facility.

Nearly 98,000 readers took interest in this March 2025 article about a bill which would have "[c]reate[d] a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person not authorized by the health care facility who knowingly obstructs, detains, hinders, impedes, blocks, or delays another person’s entry to or exit from such health care facility, as defined in the bill."

It also would have created a "Class 3 misdemeanor for any person who knowingly approaches another person within eight feet of such person in the public way or sidewalk area within a radius of 40 feet from any entrance door to a health care facility, unless such other person consents to the approach, for the purpose of giving, tendering, or exhibiting any material to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling with such other person."

Though pro-life activity is not specified, it is clear that the intent of the bill was to chill pro-life speech near abortion businesses. Youngkin called the bill "an unconstitutional time, place, and manner restriction on the God-given, constitutionally protected right to the freedom of speech. It creates new criminal penalties for what one might say or where they stand when they say it."

The governor's veto was the only reason that this bill failed to become law. With a pro-abortion majority in the House, Senate, and governor's seat beginning in 2026, it is likely that a bill like this one (and others far worse for preborn children) will become law.

＃4️⃣: TikTok couple Matt and Abby Howard announce tragic miscarriage at 17 weeks

Matt and Abby Howard, hosts of the podcast Unplanned, shared how they had lost their baby girl in September unexpectedly at 17 weeks of pregnancy.

This article, read more than 98,000 times, told the couple's heartbreaking story of learning at a routine appointment that their daughter no longer had a heartbeat. It was discovered that she had a genetic condition and had not survived.

Abby had to make the difficult decision about how their stillborn daughter would be removed from her womb; instead of a D&E, Abby chose to have labor induced.

The couple has been open about their experience, which is unfortunately not an uncommon one.

"The grief is absolutely devastating," they said, adding that despite this, they have "so much gratitude for the time that we did get to have with her. And we still have hope. Hope has continued to show up for us in so many ways."

＃3️⃣: House Judiciary Committee advances bill to repeal FACE Act

Live Action News visitors read this June article approximately 128,000 times regarding Republican legislators' response to the intense weaponizing of the FACE Act against pro-lifers in retaliation for the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

President Trump pardoned 23 of these pro-life activists after he took office in January.

In June, Rep. Chip Roy (Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) introduced The FACE Act Repeal Act of 2025, and it passed the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 13-10. However, the Act has not yet been introduced on the House floor.

Rep. Roy told the House Judiciary Committee:

“There are many people in this country who believe this legislation is critically important so you can end the abuse of the existing federal statute to be used politically to target American citizens for political purposes, as was evidenced repeatedly over and over and over again under the previous administration,” Roy told the committee.

If you look at the data since the enactment of the FACE Act since 1994, you look at the uptick in attacks on churches, for example — 800% increase in violence against churches. Since 2018, an average of 39 attacks every month. There have been 96 violent attacks on pregnancy centers since the Dobbs opinion was leaked in 2022… The fact of the matter is, it was politicized.” 

＃2️⃣: Massachusetts passes ’emergency amendment’ protecting nurses who commit abortions

Approximately 185,000 Live Action News readers took interest in an article about Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey's decision to kick off 2025 by prioritizing the killing of preborn children.

On January 8, Healey "announced an emergency amendment to protect nurses who commit or assist in abortions," as Live Action News reported. That amendment protects nurses who provide or assist with "reproductive health services" in the state from being disqualified for licensure or disciplined because of it.

Just a few days earlier, Healey announced that the state would direct $1.8M taxpayer dollars to ensure that low-income women get financial assistance to help them kill their preborn children. The money was also earmarked to help "upgrade" abortion facilities in the state.

＃1️⃣: AG Pam Bondi orders investigation into Biden-Harris DOJ’s targeting of pro-lifers

The most popular Live Action News article of 2025 by far — read nearly 580,000 times since February — focused on the Trump administration's response to the targeting of pro-lifers under the Biden administration (similar to our #3 article of the year).

Live Action News noted that one of newly-appointed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's first actions was to "sen[d] a memo announcing the formation of a 'Weaponization Working Group' that will investigate the politicization of the DOJ, and how political bias influenced federal investigations and prosecutions," including "abuses of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act."

Over 90% of FACE Act cases were brought against pro-lifers (despite the FBI's admission that most violence was perpetrated against pro-lifers by pro-abortion individuals), and reported indicated that "the Biden DOJ alone brought more than a quarter of all FACE Act prosecutions in just four years." Individuals have stated that they believe the weaponizing of the FACE Act was intentionally meant to intimidate and frighten pro-lifers to deter them from activism outside abortion businesses.