AUSTIN, Texas—Forty-year-old software engineer Vanessa MacDougal spends most weekdays behind her desk in an Austin, Texas, office. On Jan. 6, the petite blonde did something different. She played dead on sidewalks skirting the governor’s mansion.

Dressed in a skeleton mask and black sweats, and holding a poster that read “Abortion Restrictions Bury Women,” MacDougal explained what compelled her to participate in “Bury the Women,” her first protest: “If you can’t control your reproduction, you can’t commit to a career, an education, or even a workout program.”

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

A SINGLE PILL in a paper cup upended Rebekah Buell’s life.

In 2013, the 18-year-old college freshman sat in a Planned Parenthood office near Sacramento, Calif., staring at an abortion pill formulated to end the life of the 8-week-old baby in her womb.

Buell already had an infant son from an unplanned pregnancy. Her brief marriage was ending. She couldn’t imagine raising a second child alone. Buell grew up Baptist and knew abortion was wrong but says she thought, “God’s just going to have to forgive me.”

On a clear California morning, golden hills stretch to the east of Interstate Highway 680 as commuters pass by on the way to San Francisco Bay. For many, the Crow Canyon exit in San Ramon is nothing more than an affluent pit stop, with a string of hotels, chain restaurants, and office buildings.

If abortion is to remain “the law of the land” in the United States, legislators can change the law to stop forcing us to pay for the deaths. No exceptions. With a conservative presidential administration and conservative majorities in Congress, it’s time for pro-life lawmakers to starve the beast known as Planned Parenthood.

WASHINGTON—The Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives released its final report today, calling for an overhaul to the abortion and fetal procurement industries, including defunding Planned Parenthood and a federal 20-week abortion ban.

WASHINGTON—Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, didn’t think things could get worse in 2016.

First came the landmark 5-3 decision in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down safety measures adopted by Texas state lawmakers to regulate abortion centers. The decision in late June represented a major blow to pro-lifers who hoped a different outcome would have ramped up safety standards nationwide and reduced the number of abortions.