(LifeSiteNews) — Kristan Hawkins has joined the growing list of prominent US Catholics who have expressed dismay over recent remarks made by Pope Leo XIV on abortion.

Hawkins, who founded Students for Life of America in 2005, issued a series of X posts this week pushing back against the claim made by Leo that “someone who says I’m against abortion but says I’m in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life.”

“Let me simplify this for our Holy Father,” Hawkins began. “If you vote for allowing babies who are born alive in abortion facilities to die and vote over & over again in favor of more abortions or judges who will allow more abortions and babies to be killed…you deserve ZERO awards from a Catholic ministry.”

“FURTHER, supporting or championing the inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants is not the same sin as supporting the dismemberment of human children in the womb,” she continued. “This is the Pope being a politician and trying to keep his Cardinals and Bishops in check…not a moral leader.”

More: This is the Pope being a politician and trying to keep his Cardinals and Bishops in check…not a moral leader.

— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) September 30, 2025

Leo made international headlines this week when asked by the press to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to honor pro-abortion Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.

 “I think that it is very important to look at the overall work that a senator has done during … 40 years of service in the United States Senate,” Leo said in reply. “I understand the difficulty and the tensions, but I think, as I myself have spoken to in the past, it is important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the Church.”

“Someone who says I’m against abortion but says I’m in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life,” he added. “Someone who says I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Like many Catholics on social media, when news first broke that Cupich was going to be honoring Durbin with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” Hawkins criticized the decision, calling it “disgraceful.”

Right before Leo made his controversial remarks, nine US bishops had courageously spoken up to denounce the award. They included Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco; Bishop Joseph Strickland, bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas; Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin; Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska; Bishop James Wall of Gallup, New Mexico; Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas; Bishop Carl Kemme of Wichita, Kansas; Bishop James Johnston of Kansas City, Missouri; and Archbishop Joseph Naumann, bishop emeritus of Kansas City, Kansas.

On the same day Leo made his remarks, Durbin announced that he would be declining the award. He told NBC News he was surprised by “the level of controversy” it had engendered. He also said he declined it “because the reaction has been so controversial against the cardinal who proposed it, and I see no point in going forward with that.”

Commenting specifically on Leo’s seeming defense of the honor, Durbin said, “It is amazing to me. It’s quite a moment. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t know it was gonna happen.”

In 2004, Durbin – a self-proclaimed Catholic – was prohibited from receiving Holy Communion in his home diocese of Springfield, Illinois as a result of his votes. Bishop Thomas Paprocki, the current bishop of Springfield, recently told The Pillar that he was “shocked” by Cupich’s plans to honor Durbin and said the decision “risks causing grave scandal, confusing the faithful about the Church’s unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of human life.”