The
Failed Social Experiment
Americans United for Life (AUL) defends human life through vigorous legislative, judicial, and educational efforts, state by state.
As a non-profit, public-interest bioethics law firm, AUL attorneys work tirelessly across the country to pass common-sense laws to:
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The
Failed Social Experiment
The social experiment in abortion on demand, imposed by the judiciary in 1973, has disastrously failed by ending the lives of more than 30 million children while damaging the physical and emotional health of millions of women. There is no "silver bullet" that will end the experiment or reverse its damage. A broadly based legal, social and political strategy is necessary.
An important part of that strategy is AUL model legislation. In addition to providing the maximum legal protection to unborn children, the legislative process itself and the accompanying media coverage serves the goal of educating citizens to the reality that abortion hurts women.
Roe v. Wade will not be reversed, nor will a human life amendment be passed, until the cultural consciousness is awakened to the reality that abortion is not an easy, quick-fix solution. Rather, abortion is a violent deception that results in two victims: the child whose life is destroyed, and the woman who suffers devastating physical and psychological harm.
Indeed, this failed experiment has aggravated the problems it promised to solve, with dramatic increases in illegitimacy, teen pregnancy, and child abuse since Roe. Instead of increased personal freedom and privacy for American women, there has been a significant deterioration in their committed relationships, physical health, and moral integrity.
Is Destruction of Life a Humane Solution?
Unfortunately, the Roe v. Wade decision and its progeny have created a cultural ethic that views destruction of innocent human life as an acceptable solution to personal, economic, or social problems. Rather than respecting the dignity of each individual human life and seeking humane and creative solutions to our personal and social problems, Roe has deceived our society into believing that the quick-fix solution of death is an acceptable solution.
And now this cultural ethic of death has spilled over to foster abortion of children in the process of being born (partial-birth abortion), infanticide of children who survive abortion, euthanasia, destructive human embryo experimentation, and eugenic cloning of human beings.
The Role of Law and Public Education in Restoring a Culture of Life
The
role of Americans United for Life is crucial to the goal of restoring a culture that
respects human life, both young and old, born and unborn.
Our mission is to shape American law and culture through strategic legal initiatives and public education.
AUL model legislation is drafted by our legal department to provide reasonable common-ground solutions to an issue that has divided our nation for over three decades. Whether by exposing the risk of abortion-induced breast cancer, or protecting parental rights from being disregarded by an abortion industry that misleads minors, AUL model legislation results in saved lives and increased public opinion in favor of the dignity of human life and the tragic consequences of abortion.
AUL attorneys consult with legislators and grassroots lobbyists in all 50 states on a pro bono basis. We conduct television, radio, and print interviews, and we speak before college and law school students who are just beginning to form their worldviews.
When abortion industry lawyers go to court attempting to block life-protective legislation, AUL attorneys provide strategic consultation to the offices of the state attorneys general who defend the laws. From providing a moot court to preparing state attorneys for hearings, to handling cases themselves by appointment, AUL attorneys use their litigation skills at all levels of the state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, where they've filed briefs in every major abortion case (including Roe v. Wade).
Finally,
AUL lawyers shape public opinion and policy by talking with media and authoring articles
and opinion pieces in major newspapers, magazines, and law review journals. We
are currently working on legislation aimed at increasing airtime of savvy pro-life
television commercials, which result in dramatic shifts in public opinion toward respect
for human life.
In our democratic republic a critical element of creating a broad public consensus that recognizes the sanctity of human life is to appeal to Middle America through law and education. If we are to prevail in our secular culture, we must reach out to address the practical concerns of ambivalent Americans. We must address our culture as it is and not as we would like it to be. With a steady eye toward the mark and the support of the " people of life and for life " we are confident that a renewed culture of life is within our reach.
Our History
The oldest national pro-life organization in our country, Americans United for Life continues as the only non-profit law firm dedicated exclusively to nationwide efforts to reinstate respect for human life in American law and culture.
AUL Is Unique in America
1971: AUL incorporated as first national pro-life organization to counter, through national education, the growing threat of disrespect for human life.
1972: AUL sponsors research and publication of the landmark Abortion and Social Justice.
1973: Roe v. Wade decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1975: Public-interest law established as part of AUL's work.
1975: AUL files briefs in landmark Supreme Court case Poelker v. Doe, which establishes that public hospitals need not perform abortions.
1975: AUL Publishes landmark article in Baylor Law Review on "Euthanasia, Medical Treatment and the Mongoloid Child."
1975: AUL director David Louisell serves on National Commission on the Protection of Human Subjects.
1978: AUL cosponsors conference, "The Psychological Aspects of Abortion," later published in 1979 by University Publications of America and edited by former AUL executive director, David Mall.
1978: AUL begins David Louisell Intern summer program for law students.
1979: AUL represents U.S. Senators Buckley and Helms as intervening defendants in their landmark Hyde Amendment litigation in federal court in New York and Chicago to establish that states do not have to fund abortion.
1980: AUL successfully defends Hyde Amendment at U.S. Supreme Court in Harris v. McRae after a four-year court fight; AUL vice chairman, Victor Rosenblum, argues case before the Court.
1980: AUL files brief in Supreme Court case H.L. v. Matheson, upholding parental notice of abortion.
1980: AUL coordinates publication of Death, Dying and Euthanasia.
1981: AUL sponsors publication of New Perspectives on Human Abortion.
1981-1985: AUL involved in series of landmark medical treatment cases in New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey involving withdrawal of food and fluids.
1982: AUL publishes Infanticide and the Handicapped Newborn (based on AUL 1980 international infanticide conference) through Brigham Young University Press.
1982: AUL files briefs in three landmark Supreme Court cases, Ashcroft, Akron and Simopoulos (decided in 1983, approving significant state regulations on abortion).
1984: AUL sponsors national conference on reversing Roe.
1986-1987: The Supreme Court and Abortion: Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts edited by AUL and published by Georgetown University Press.
1988-1989: AUL organizes briefing program in landmark Supreme Court Webster decision, which cuts back on Roe v. Wade.
1989: AUL sponsors first Legislators Educational Conference (LEC) to educate state legislators nationwide on pro-life public policy.
1990: AUL sponsors Gallup Poll on abortion, the most comprehensive survey ever of American attitudes toward abortion.
1991: AUL quantitative research analyst, James Rogers, Ph.D., publishes landmark article in prestigious American Journal of Public Health, revealing positive impact of Minnesota's parental notice law on teenage pregnancy and abortion rates.
1992: AUL resident scholar, Marvin Olasky, Ph.D., publishes Abortion Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America.
1992: AUL's work in Planned Parenthood v. Casey instrumental in U.S. Supreme Court cutting back on Roe and approving state informed consent laws for first time.
1993: AUL publishes first comprehensive legal critique of Casey decision.
1993-1995. AUL works with more than one-third of state attorneys general nationwide on pro-life litigation.
1994: AUL launches 15-year, post-Casey plan to alter public policy landscape of life issues in America, culminating with human life amendment to U.S. Constitution.
1994: AUL leads briefing strategy in three state and federal cases to defeat constitutional "right" to assisted suicide.
1995: In wake of pro-life victories from November 1994 elections, AUL provides legislative counsel and support to 43 states and Puerto Rico.
1995: AUL works to prevent FDA rubber stamp of abortion pill RU-486 by filing Citizen Petition on behalf of Members of Congress. Petition details likely dangers of RU-486 to women and their subsequent live children.
1995-1996: AUL works to include information on abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link in state laws covering informed consent for abortion, and publishes several editorials on ABC connection in national magazines and newspapers.
1997-2000: AUL works with more than two-thirds of state attorneys general nationwide on state partial-birth abortion litigation.
2000: AUL organizes briefing strategy and files brief in U.S. Supreme Court case Carhart v. Stenberg, in which Court narrowly strikes down ban on partial-birth abortion.
2000-2001: AUL represents state defendant in constitutional challenge to Arizona abortion clinic regulations, enacted in 1999 following a highly publicized abortion-related death of a 32-year-old mother at the hands of an abortionist who was later criminally convicted; works with several legislatures and attorneys general in this developing area of law.
2001: AUL leads nationwide effort in state legislation on health care rights of conscience to protect pro-life doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and medical students from employment discrimination.
2001: AUL develops model legislation for states to ban human cloning and destructive human embryo research.
2002: AUL continues to spearhead international efforts to protect the rights of conscience of pro-life medical professionals against the encroachments of abortion advocates. AUL leads the legal defense of abortion clinic regulations in Arizona, and helps develop a legal strategy for giving states the option of using federal money to fund abortion alternatives.
2003: AUL develops the first-ever "AUL State Report Cards," released early in 2004, which rate each state in terms of safety--or danger--for pregnant mothers and their unborn children.