Advocates for Life

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.

Today’s fifth installment of Americans United for Life’s reflection on the failed twenty-year experiment in legal chemical abortion continues our close scrutiny of the abortion industry’s marketing slogan, “RU-486 is an abortion pill that ends a pregnancy easily and safely.” We’ve seen that it’s not really “a pill”, but an involved process of drug dosages and medical oversight with an uncertain outcome. We’ve also seen that contrary to assurances, it fails to “end a pregnancy” a predictable percentage of the time, and surgical abortion and additional heartache and expense lie ahead for women who undergo it. Today, we’ll focus in on one word in that slogan, a word that slips by so … well, easily … that you’d almost miss it.

Although your abortionist may not tell you this, it’s important to bear in mind this built-in failure rate when considering chemical abortion, and to understand that in a predictable number of cases, it doesn’t avoid surgical abortion; in fact, it only exacerbates the known complications of abortion.

Before we huddle over our defensive strategy going forward, let’s take stock of the strong gains the pro-life movement has made over the last four years. Topping the white board has to be the presence of three new constitutionalist Supreme Court Justices nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate, resulting in a 6-3 pro-life majority. Backing them up will be an increasingly conservative judiciary, with 218 total appointments and counting. President Trump will be the first president in the modern era to fill every available court of appeals seat, a key goal for success in the courts because the federal district courts take their orders from the appeals courts.

Both Georgia Senate races will continue to a January 5th runoff to determine who controls the Senate. If Republicans win one or both Senate seats, they will maintain control of the upper chamber. If Democrats win both, the Senate will be 50-50, making VP-elect Kamala Harris the tiebreaker. If you were hoping for an end to campaign contribution text messages, we’ve got a couple more weeks and two big races coming our way.

On Election Night 2020, Louisiana voters of all party affiliations turned out big time to vote for life. The Bayou State was considering an amendment to their state constitution that would make it clear that it does not guarantee any “right” to abortion. It passed by an overwhelming margin, garnering 62% of the vote statewide – higher than either candidate for President.

The abortion industry would certainly like for you to think it’s an “abortion pill,” since that suggests a “magic pill” one-step process that’s easy and quick. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s not a “pill”, but a difficult and sometimes risky medicalized process that involves two drugs, multiple consultations with medical providers (if they’re doing it as recommended) and inherent risks and potential complications.