“For too long, pro-life Americans have been told that nothing can be done to address the horrific realities of abortion in America, but AUL is leading the pro-life charge with our innovative Mother-Child strategy, and we are putting our four decades of experience to work in the new edition of Defending Life,” said AUL’s Denise Burke
WASHINGTON, D.C. (03-07-17) – Americans United for Life’s legal team released Defending Life 2017, the newly updated “pro-life playbook” on Tuesday. The volume’s 12th edition is now being distributed to pro-life legislators nationwide.
“This year’s edition focuses on AUL’s innovative Mother-Child strategy which seeks to legally protect and advance the interests of both a mother and her unborn child and to effectively refute the abortion industry’s callous propaganda that a woman’s interests are often opposed to those of her child,” said Americans United for Life’s Vice President of Legal Affairs Denise Burke, the editor of Defending Life and the author of many of the featured pieces of model legislation. “The uniquely successful Mother-Child strategy, which has precipitated the enactment of scores of protective abortion-related laws, is encompassed in AUL’s Women’s Protection Project and Infants’ Protection Project and the 16 pieces of model legislation that compromise them.”
“AUL’s emphasis on these two initiatives is driven, in part, by the Supreme Court’s controversial and anti-woman ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, striking down a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to meet the same health and safety standards as other facilities performing invasive surgical procedures and mandating that individual abortion providers have local hospital admitting privileges to facilitate emergency care and the treatment of abortion complications.
“AUL’s model legislation has been updated and refined to directly address this tragic ruling, while also advancing the goals and objectives of the Women’s Protective Project and Infants’ Protection Project. These two highly effective initiatives are perfectly calibrated to advance the cause for life after Hellerstedt.”
“With new pro-life majorities across the country, pro-life advocates anticipate new protections for both mothers and their unborn infants, both of whom face a predatory, profiteering abortion industry. In 2016, 43 states considered more than 360 abortion-related measures. This year could see even more activity.”
EMERGING TRENDS: Burke noted that two months into the 2017 state legislative sessions, a number of life-affirming bills are at play. Among the most popular legislative proposals are requirements that women be informed that chemical abortions can be reversed, limits on discriminatory sex-selection abortions and dangerous late-term abortions, and requirements that abortion providers comply with medically sound standards for patient care. Infant Dignity laws requiring that infants who do not survive to birth, no matter how they died, are treated humanely and not disposed of as trash, burned for fuel, or dissected and sold for experimentation are also receiving notable attention.
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: “After the Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt decision invalidated Texas health and safety standards for abortion clinics, many abortion advocates proudly proclaimed that these innovative efforts to provide women with safe medical care would never return. But they failed to read the fine print of the Supreme Court ruling,” noted Burke. “The Supreme Court noted that such laws would be constitutional if there was proof of the dangerous conditions inside abortion clinics demonstrating the need for such laws. AUL has risen to that challenge, both in providing evidence of unsafe conditions in abortion clinics, as well as updating our model legislation for the current legal environment.”
PROOF OF THE NEEDS FOR PROTECTIVE LAWS: Following an examination of confirmed reports of dangerous abortion clinic conditions over the last 8 years, AUL released a ground-breaking investigative report in December 2016: Unsafe: How The Public Health Crisis in America’s Abortion Clinics Endangers Women. The groundbreaking investigative report details horrific abortion clinic conditions, documenting that 227 abortion providers in 32 states were cited for more than 1,400 health and safety deficiencies between 2008 and 2016 and detailing hundreds of significant violations of state laws regulating abortion clinics.
“For too long, pro-life Americans have been told that nothing can be done to address the horrific realities of abortion in America, but AUL is leading the pro-life charge with our innovative Mother-Child strategy, and we are putting our four decades of experience to work in the new edition of Defending Life,” said Burke.
To learn more about the pro-life model legislation in Defending Life, click here.
To learn more about the documented, dangerous conditions in America’s abortion clinics, click here.
