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by Mailee R. Smith, Staff Counsel, Americans United for Life
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 Most state legislative sessions have ended for 2008, and the results in the area of rights of conscience are fairly depressing. A disturbing 60 percent of all conscience-related bills considered this year were compulsion bills. In other words, these were not bills aimed at protecting the conscientious and moral beliefs of healthcare providers; instead, these were bills aimed at forcing pharmacists and other healthcare providers to provide drugs and treatments contrary to their moral beliefs.
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10/02/2008
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by Coalition Against Assisted Suicide
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Initiative 1000 in Washington State would legalize assisted suicide, permitting a doctor to give a lethal overdose to a
patient if the doctor feels that the patient is likely to die within six months.
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09/22/2008
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by Ioana Ardelean, Americans United for Life
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 In a blind and ideologically-driven quest to impose abortion-on-demand on a reluctant nation, the Supreme Court of Mexico blatantly ignored the country’s Constitution when it recently upheld a law permitting abortion-on-demand during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The Mexican Constitution clearly states that human life must be defended “from conception until its natural end”, but the Supreme Court succumbed to pressures from international pro-abortion groups including the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood who have been aggressively pushing for abortion-on-demand in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
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09/04/2008
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by Denise M. Burke, AUL Vice-President and Legal Director
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 “[T]he first thing I will do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.”
Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama
July 17, 2007, Address to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Just over a year ago, the public debate over abortion was irrevocably altered. In the landmark Gonzales v. Carhart decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortion and, more importantly, abdicated, at least in part, its role as the “National Abortion Control Board.”
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08/08/2008
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by Junior Fellow, Jacinta Latawiec
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 Although I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, I have found that my educational experience has led me all over the map. I am currently attending the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts as a political science major and I have been lucky enough to spend time studying on both their Merrimack and Rome campuses. As I look forward to completing my final year in the Bachelor of Arts program at the College, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to spend my summer as a Junior Fellow at the Culture of Life Foundation. My experience in Washington DC this summer has enabled me to meet new people and face exciting new challenges. My major project has led me to examine the abuse of language in embryonic disposition cases in the United States.
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07/17/2008
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by Maggie Datiles, Esq., Staff Attorney, Americans United for Life
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 It has been nearly fourteen years since the Oregon Death with Dignity Act was approved by a narrow margin in November 1994. This year, state bills and ballot initiatives attempting to legalize and create a state constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide (PAS) have been introduced, and challenges against state criminal homicide laws prohibiting assisted suicide have been filed. Despite national and international data and studies demonstrating the dangers that assisted suicide poses to the sick, disabled and elderly, assisted suicide proponents continue to press forward with efforts to spread the practice beyond the borders of Oregon. The medical community has come out against the PAS, but advocates have ignored its advice and recommendations. Meanwhile, disability groups and civil rights organizations consistently oppose the spread of assisted suicide. Although physician-assisted suicide is currently allowed only in the state of Oregon, legalization of the practice has emerged as an area of renewed interest.
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07/10/2008
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by Mailee R. Smith, Esq. Staff Attorney, Americans United For Life
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 In the last several years, the “usual suspects” in the pro-abortion movement have been infesting other nations with their pro-choice rhetoric. One need only peruse the first page of the Center for Reproductive Rights’ website to see headlines such as “Center for Reproductive Rights Denounces Chilean Constitutional Tribunal’s Decision to Ban Distribution of ‘Morning-After Pill’ in Public Facilities” and “Filipino Women and Men Sue Manila Mayor for Ban on Contraception.”(1) It is clear that the battle lines are now being drawn in countries far from our U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. Thus, it is becoming all the more important for the pro-life movement to shift to a more global focus, and support our pro-life brothers and sisters in other nations as they wage a war which has been litigated in this country for 35 years. We have much to offer from our wins and our losses.
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06/05/2008
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by Denise M. Burke
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Denise M. Burke is the Vice President & Legal Director, Americans United for Life
 Over the last few decades, abortion advocates and others have launched a concerted campaign to force hospitals, healthcare institutions, health insurers, and individual healthcare providers to provide, refer for, or pay for elective abortions, abortifacient drugs, contraceptives, assisted reproductive procedures such as in vitro fertilization, and sterilizations. Their determined effort to eviscerate the concept of individual conscience and the freedom to follow one’s religious, moral or ethical beliefs from the medical profession has resulted in the following:
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05/16/2008
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by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.
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The failure of the 20th century rights revolution is well illustrated in our failure to protect the most vulnerable — the unborn.
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04/18/2006
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by Mark Adams
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Apparently responding to Catholic bishops who spoke out in 2004 about the obligations of Catholics in public life to oppose legal abortion, 55 Catholic Democratic members of Congress have released a "Statement of Principles." Though the letter attempts to declare the signatories strong support for the dignity of life the document refuses to call for outlawing abortion and instead declares that "we acknowledge and accept the tension that comes with being in disagreement with the Church in some areas."
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03/01/2006
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by Mark Adams
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The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will hear a case on the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting partial birth abortion. The high court will likely have to decide whether or not to uphold a previous decision that struck down a Nebraska ban on partial birth abortion because the law did not contain an exception for the health of the mother.
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02/26/2006
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by Culture of Life
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A new report from a South Dakota legislative taskforce may provide a roadmap for challenging and overturning Roe v. Wade. The taskforce's report enumerates six assumptions of fact made by the Supreme Court in their 1973 decision and concludes that "it is clear that the most essential assumptions made by the Roe Court are incorrect . . ."
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01/25/2006
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View Highlights from our Recent Event:
Click Here to View Photos
“William E. May Award for Promoting Ethics and the Human Person”
Presented to
Dr. William E. May
In conjunction with our annual conference:
The Culture of Life vs. The Culture of Death: from Humanae Vitae to Cloning and Assisted Suicide
View Speakers, Bios and Abstracts
Saturday September 20, 2008
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