Advocates for Life

Written by Carolyn McDonnell, M.A., AUL Spring Extern, 3L, Univ. of St. Thomas School of Law Americans United for Life recently filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of citizen journalist and First Amendment champion David Daleiden. After Daleiden had engaged in undercover journalism to investigate Planned Parenthood’s alleged […]

Written by Rebekah Durham, 2L, Univ. of Cincinnati College of Law Planned Parenthood recently released its 2019-2020 annual report, containing information and statistics about the organization’s work between late 2018 and 2020. Although the report talks at length about the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the data reported is from the previous fiscal year. Here’s what […]

Americans United for Life is proud to release Defending Life 2021, the 16th edition of our flagship legal publication. Defending Life is AUL’s “Pro-Life Playbook,” a resource designed to provide both state legislators and local allies with the information and tools needed to pass laws that will defend human life from conception to natural death. […]

If you’ve ever wanted a handy and readable reference to the best arguments against assisted suicide, pick up Start With What by pro-life speaker and author Stephanie Gray Connors. Connors offers “Ten Principles for Thinking About Assisted Suicide” as the framework for her presentation, but don’t be put off by the overly didactic subtitle. Those […]

In this final installment in Americans United for Life’s series, “(Un)Happy Birthday, Chemical Abortion,” we address the abortion industry’s ultimate argument – that chemical abortion is a one-way process, and “Once started, chemical abortion can’t be stopped.”             We know that some women regret taking mifepristone to end a pregnancy and desire a way to […]

Written by Rebekah Durham, 2L, Univ. of Cincinnati College of Law On January 21, 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) released a report documenting the federal funding received by a number of domestic and international organizations that provide abortion and family planning services. The report was conducted at the request of 120 U.S. House […]

Written by Carolyn McDonnell, M.A., AUL Spring Extern, 3L, Univ. of St. Thomas School of Law On January 25, the Supreme Court issued orders vacating two abortion cases, and remanding the cases with instructions for the lower courts to dismiss the cases as moot. Some pro-abortion advocates have lauded the Supreme Court’s actions as a […]

Americans United for Life continues with its series, “(Un)Happy Birthday, Chemical Abortion,” by asking about additional patient populations the drug may put at risk – minor girls, which the Food & Drug Administration calls a “pediatric population, and women in underdeveloped countries that often lack access to emergency medicine and other aspects of modern health […]

On January 5, 2021, a panel of judges on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld an injunction preventing Arkansas Acts 493 and 619 from taking effect. Act 493 would prohibit abortion after 18 weeks’ gestation, and Act 619 would prohibit abortion on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis.   In its decision, the panel identified both laws as “pre-viability” restrictions that run afoul of the viability […]

As it is often practiced, chemical abortion is dangerous to babies in future pregnancies. If a pregnant woman has Rh negative blood type, her doctor must ensure that she receives an Rh immune globulin injection contemporaneously with the moment that her blood mixes with her baby’s, whether during delivery, miscarriage, or abortion. This shot, called […]

In Washington, as well as elsewhere, it’s “out with the old, in with the new” as the calendar turns a new year. The 116th Congress of the United States has been retired, and the 117th Congress began yesterday, January 3, as the Senate and the House of Representatives were gaveled in. The House Democrat majority wasted no time in re-electing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker and offering a new set of chamber rules designed to tighten its grip on the narrowest party margin in 100 years by limiting opposition amendments to stand-alone legislation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recently released its Abortion Surveillance 2018 report, and the data, while less than fully reliable, suggest that the abortion rate in the country has plateaued in recent years.

Americans United for Life’s series, “(Un)Happy Birthday, Chemical Abortion,” has been taking a close look at the central claims the abortion industry makes for RU-486. Today, we come to a claim that is critically important for women, and central to its asserted legitimacy. Unfortunately, the claim doesn’t hold up on close examination. Here’s why the […]

I don’t have to tell you that 2020 has been an up-and-down year for many reasons, including challenges to Americans United for Life’s fight for the human right to life. This summer brought the Supreme Court’s disappointing decision in June Medical Services v. Russo, but we found a silver lining in the decision that suggested that brighter days were ahead. We’re happy to confirm that in the nearly half a year since June Medical, the Pro-Life Movement has been notching victories.

Widespread neglect in the American nursing home system has been well documented, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is absolutely disgraceful. Simply put, policymakers have made some very bad choices that put residents at assisted living facilities, who were already at the greatest risk of succumbing to the novel virus, at substantially increased risk of contraction and death. The date bears that horrible reality out. Tens of thousands of excess deaths, directly attributable to subpar given to senior Americans in the facilities that exist purely to give adequate and humane care. This recent report from the Associated Press was particularly sobering:

This week, AUL welcomed Dr. James Studnicki, Sc.D., MPH, MBA, who serves as Vice President and Director of Data Analytics for Charlotte Lozier Institute. Dr. Studnicki was most recently the Irwin Belk Endowed Chair in Health Services Research and Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte College of Health and Human Services. Prior to that, he served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and as Chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management and Director of the Center for Health Outcomes Research at the University of South Florida Health Sciences Center. Dr. Studnicki’s research has focused on the use of large scale databases, and associated information technology, in analyzing outcomes at the patient, hospital and community levels.