LifeSiteNews was founded in 1997 by the Canadian political
lobbyist organization
Campaign Life Coalition with the intent to promote anti-abortion views.[1] At a 2013
March for Life Youth Conference in
Ottawa, founder and editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen alleged there was a media conspiracy against the anti-abortion movement, and said that the purpose of LifeSiteNews was to circumvent the
mainstream media.[1]
A Catholic priest and former member of the
Canadian Parliament,
Raymond Gravel, filed a
defamation lawsuit in Quebec against the website in 2011. He claimed that the site's description of his self-described pro-choice views as "pro-abortion" was libelous, and sought CA$500,000 in damages.[2]LifeSiteNews had published 41 articles about Gravel as of February 2013.[3] In 2013, the lawsuit was allowed to advance to trial by a
Quebec court.[3][4] Gravel died of lung cancer on August 11, 2014.[5]
LifeSiteNews claimed in 2018 to have a readership of 20million. Its editor-in-chief is John-Henry Westen, and the president is Steve Jalsevac. The Campaign Life Coalition no longer runs LifeSiteNews, though the two groups share some board members.[6]
On 31 October and 1 November 2023 LifeSiteNews held a conference called Rome Life Forum in Rome, Italy. The conference Web site states:[7]
LifeSiteNews is proud to announce our 2023 Rome Life Forum in Rome, Italy. The two-day strategy conference will be held immediately after the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality which threatens to formalize heretical teachings on the family.
We will focus on confronting the evils of the Deep Church and Deep State and their involvement in the Great Reset agenda. We will learn and work out together how we as Christ’s faithful can combat this diabolical movement under the direction of Our Lady.
Conference attendees will have the opportunity to actively participate in all forum strategy sessions with our guest speakers. The goal of the conference is to provide an interactive experience for all forum participants as we work together to formulate a plan to end corruption in the church, which will ultimately end corruption in the world.
LifeSiteNews was founded for the purpose of opposing legal abortion, and that remains a primary focus.[9] It also regularly publishes articles expressing opposition to
contraception, homosexuality,[10] and
transgender rights,[11][12] and its website names
euthanasia and
cloning among other issues it opposes.[13] A Catholic publication, many of its articles are faith-related.[12][14] It has published many articles critical of
Pope Francis,[15][16][17] and regularly publishes writing by critics of Francis including Italian archbishop, former Vatican diplomat, and conspiracy theorist
Carlo Maria Viganò[16][18][19] and Cardinal
Raymond Burke.[20]
Fact-checking website
Snopes described LifeSiteNews in 2016 as "a known purveyor of misleading information".[25] Paul Moses wrote for Commonweal in 2021 that LifeSiteNews coverage "feigns journalistic accuracy, but misleads through omission".[16] The
Canadian Anti-Hate Network described the website in a 2021 report as a "Christian version of
Breitbart".[6]
Political Research Associates analyst Heron Greenesmith categorized LifeSiteNews to
NBC News in September 2019 as a member of the "
Christian-rightanti-transgender disinformation ecosystem" and stated, "LifeSite platforms the small number of anti-trans researchers, academics, and right-wing professional associations, giving their work a veneer of scientific validity".[12] Brennan Suen of the watchdog group
Media Matters for America said that LifeSite "typically refuses to acknowledge transgender identities and serially misgenders trans folk in its coverage", and that it "refers to the abhorrent practice of
conversion therapy as treating 'unwanted homosexual attraction.'"[11] Moses wrote in Commonweal that the site spread confusion about COVID-19, and that their coverage "is so slanted that anyone relying on it would be terribly misled on what the science shows".[16]
LifeSiteNews'
Twitter accounts have been temporarily suspended at least four times since 2018; once in error, twice for violating rules against "targeted
misgendering or
deadnaming of transgender individuals", and once for violating rules against spreading COVID-19 misinformation.[10][35][36]
LifeSiteNews'
YouTube channel was banned in February 2021 for persistently promoting COVID-19 misinformation. One video claimed that COVID-19 was "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public". Another promoted anti-vaccine sentiment, cast doubt on the efficacy of
COVID-19 vaccines, and stated that COVID-19 "isn't really killing people right and left that weren't probably gonna die within the year anyway". These claims contradicted the scientific consensus and reports from authorities like the
World Health Organization, and violated YouTube policies on promotion of health misinformation.[37]
LifeSiteNews was permanently banned from
Facebook in May 2021 for violations of policies prohibiting COVID-19 misinformation.[14][38] According to LifeSiteNews, Facebook said the ban was related to their policy of removing anti-vaccination accounts, and a Facebook spokesperson allegedly accused LifeSiteNews of disseminating "false information about COVID-19 that could contribute to physical harm".[14] A joint statement signed by
Media Matters for America,
GLAAD, the
Human Rights Campaign, and
NARAL Pro-Choice America said they had collected and reported to Facebook over 100 posts by LifeSiteNews that allegedly spread COVID-19 and vaccine-related misinformation. They added that they believed Facebook should have banned the group "years ago" for using the platform to "push its noxious anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice extremism".[39][40][41]
^Sherman, Carter (11 February 2021).
"YouTube Just Banned a Popular Anti-Abortion Channel for COVID Conspiracies". Vice News.
Archived from the original on 20 February 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2021. "In accordance with our longstanding strikes system, we terminated the channel LifeSiteNews Media for repeatedly violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content that promotes prevention methods that contradict local health authorities or WHO", Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson, told VICE News in an email".